• Published 16th Oct 2012
  • 2,401 Views, 153 Comments

More than Forty Blinks - Sereg



Pinkie's sisters unleash a powerful enemy that is determined to make all of Equestria identical.

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Chapter 4: Results

When the light cleared from their eyes, the ponies looked down at the crystal. It had cracked open to release Lyra’s quivering form.

“Lyra Heartstrings?!” gasped Star Swirl. She looked up. Around the area of the blast there were other ponies, groggily getting to their hooves, but the sky was still filled with Conformity’s bodies.

Conformity lowered her wings, no longer shielding her faces. “DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT WE WOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH TO BRING OUR ORIGINAL BODY!?

AGAIN!” yelled Luna.

“No!” said Celestia. “We will not beat her this way!”

“We need a plan!” cried Twilight.

Conformity tucked back her wings and dived towards them. She lowered her head and fired beams of light which smashed in colourful fireworks against the barrier that Celestia raised.

“Indeed!” replied Celestia. “And I know a place I am sure she has not reached yet!”

With a flash of light, all the ponies disappeared.



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Another flash deposited all the ponies midair among the cold snowflakes. Most of the non-pegasi squealed and waved their legs before Celestia wrapped them in the warm protective glow of her telekinesis. They looked down to see the purple shimmer of a shield enveloping the Crystal Empire. Around them were more copies of Conformity pressing their hooves against the barrier.

The copies turned towards the new arrivals and flew towards them when blue and yellow auras grabbed them and flung them away as brightly coloured comet streaks. However, the number of copies only increased like Fluttershy’s fans from her modelling days as new ones flew in from over the horizon.

SHINING ARMOR! LET US IN!” Celestia called.

The purple shield was replaced with a blue one, and the ponies flew down, landing before the palace.

Shining and Cadance opened the door and rushed out to meet them. A blue shimmer surrounded Cadance’s horn.


“Princess Celestia, I’m glad you could—Twiley!?” began Shining, his eyes widening and his head rearing back at the last word. “What are you doing here!? Are you okay?! We aren’t sure what’s going on, are you!?”

“I’m fine, Shining. And it’s rude to interrupt your report to Princess Celestia like that!”

Shining lowered his head. “I’m sorry, your Highness. As I was saying, we don’t know what’s going on but we are glad that you could—Cadance?”

Cadance had just winced and placed a hoof to her temple. “It’s back,” she said.

“Let me take over again,” said Shining. “That way, you can hoofle the political discussion.” His horn fired a beam, forming a purple barrier over the blue one.

“It’s rude to call a lady old, Shining,” Cadance said with a pained smile. She then dropped her own shield.

Shining’s face scrunched up, and Cadance turned to the others. “Thank you for coming, Auntie Celestia and Luna and for bringing so many of my friends and ... the rest of the delegation.” She turned to Twilight and smiled before beginning a dance with her.

“Sunshine, sunshine!
Ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves!
And do a little shake!” they sang.

"Why is it that every time we meet, I’m exhausted ?” asked Cadance. “The plan was to meet up again when the fate of Equestria didn’t hang in the balance. But I guess we haven’t had much opportunity.” She frowned and looked into the crowd of other ponies. One of them appeared to be more nervous than the others and was frantically searching among the others. “Lyra? Are you all right?”

Lyra paused and turned towards her. “I’m sorry, Cadance. It really is good to see you again, but I can’t find Bon Bon! I’d like to meet your crystal subjects, but I want to be sure that she’s okay first.”

“Have no fear, my little pony,” said Celestia. “We have already proven that those absorbed by Conformity can be saved. And we shall save all of them.”

“Conformity?” asked Cadance. “Auntie Celestia, what’s going on? All we know is that white alicorns started flying in. I didn’t even think it was possible for there to be that many. I thought that most of the positions on the Cosmic Council were filled.”

“They are one individual,” said Celestia. “She is not a true alicorn, and I’m not even sure if she qualifies as a member of the Council as she’s the first of her kind. What’s important is that she is assimilating others to serve as her bodies and to gain their abilities. We cannot let the Crystal Empire fall. It is too important a location, contains a unique tribe, and it has you. It would be far too dangerous to allow Conformity to gain power over any of those things.”

“What about the Crystal Heart?” asked Twilight.

“We were relying on it as normal when the alic- Conformity began touching the shield,” explained Cadance. “Suddenly, all our minds were filled with her voice. She keeps telling us that we cannot stop her from reaching us and that she will join us all in glorious unity.”

“Sounds like her, all right,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Well, the crystal ponies weren’t able to maintain positive emotions with that in their heads, so Shining Armor and I have been shielding the city ourselves. Though we still hear the voice when we do so.”

“Wouldn’t organisin’ another crystal fair bring back the love an’ unity tah power the Heart again?” asked Applejack.

“Perhaps,” admitted Cadance with a tilt of her head. “It seems strange to perform another one so soon when they’re recommended once per year. Still, if you think it’ll help, then it’s worth a try.”

“Pshah!” said Rainbow with a wave of her hoof as she hovered just above them. “We’ll spread that spirit of love and unity no problem! We’ve done it before!”

“However, that may still not solve the problem,” Cadance admitted. “Conformity makes white blotches when pressing her hooves against the shield and they were still there when the shield was maintained by the Heart. And they’re growing. And more of her keep coming.”

“Well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza...”

“Star Swirl, the Hundred and Forty Seventh, it’s nice to see you again, but please, I’d really rather just be called Cadance. Especially now.”

Star Swirl bit her lip. “Sorry Cadance. I should have remembered that. I’m glad to see you again as well. We do have good news in that we have already confirmed that the Elements of Harmony work on Conformity. The biggest problem that we’re having with them appears to be range. But if the Crystal Heart is able to shield the entire city, that would help as that’s better range than the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony managed. Perhaps we can come up with a solution before Conformity manages to affect the entire barrier.”

“Can’t we just blast her with the Crystal Heart like we did with Sombra?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“The Crystal Heart can act offensively!?” asked Star Swirl as her eyes widened.

“We were able to do so, yes,” replied Cadance. “But King Sombra had already entered the city by then.”

“So we’d still likely have our problem with range, even if that problem was reduced,” sighed Star Swirl as she lowered her head. “What’s more is that Conformity’s ability to interact with the shield means that it may not affect her in the same offensive capacity.”

“And trying to use it that way would require us to allow Conformity into the city,” said Celestia as she narrowed her eyes. “Meaning that in the likely event that it did not work, we would be sacrificing our current advantage and risk making Conformity even more powerful while potentially losing ponies who we need in this struggle.”

“Unacceptable!” said Luna as she slammed her hoof on the ground. “There must be a better plan.” She stared pointedly at Celestia.

“Agreed.” Celestia nodded. “We cannot afford a mistake here.”

“The plan may still have some merit,” said Star Swirl. “If I can determine the likelihood of how the Crystal Heart would be able to affect Conformity. I’d need to examine it.”

“Granted,” said Cadance.

“A fully charged Crystal Heart would at the very least give you and Shining Armor a break which we may be able to use to our advantage,” said Celestia.

“We’ll start getting a Crystal Fair organised!” said Twilight.



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The fires of Tartarus roared and a scroll formed from a tongue of flame before dropping onto Pluto’s desk.

“Oh, good,” she said as she flapped her wings to raise her foalish body high enough to see onto her desk. “It seems as though Celestia has finally deigned to let me know what is going on,” Pluto remarked. “It is not as if I have better things to do than wait for her. I am sure that all the inmates will remain well behaved and all the souls will be ferried along merrily without disruption while Equestria deals with another crisis.” She rolled her eyes. “Let us see what she has decided to let me know. After all, I am merely the warden of the greatest evils ever to threaten Equestria and have cordial relationships with the dead. But my puny foalish mind could not possibly deal with whatever this is.” She unfurled the scroll.

Dear Plutonia,

We wish to inform you that the current threat is indeed Conformity. In addition to what we previously knew about her, we have discovered that she can transform others into herself, gaining their shapes and abilities. She wishes to do this to everyone in order to gain the power to fight Discord.

We are currently holding the Crystal Empire and planning a counterattack.

Please do not engage with her. She is beyond your experience and we do not need her gaining your powers.

Sincerely,

Celestia

Pluto turned to her empty in-tray, shrugged and placed the scroll on her desk, before levitating out the Book of Great Evils again. “Well, I hope that you can trust me enough to do the parchmentwork part of my job, Celestia,” she said. She raised a quill and began writing a new entry into the book. “See, I do know the alphabets. All three of them. My language skills are probably better than that of most of your teachers! Some of these entries are in Classical Peganese and Earthen for Elysium’s sake! I just hope that you remember that when this is done, the prisoner should be placed in my care instead of your little trophy garden. I hope you learned your lesson after Discord. And that you do not try anything fancy like sticking her in the Moon or what you did to Sombra. Seriously, what were you thinking that day!?” She threw her hooves into the air. “’I do not know, Luna. Maybe him being a unicorn is not enough of a challenge? Let us transform him into a bodiless, city-sized wall of shadow to make him even more difficult to kill! That sounds like a magnificent plan to me!’ Seriously, Celestia, stick with sunlight and leave the handling of prisoners to the professionals, okay?”

She underlined the heading “Defeat:” and returned the quill to its inkwell.

“I guess that’s another thing I have to wait for.” She placed the scroll in her out-tray and the book in her in-tray. “But contrary to what Celestia claims, I am not just an ordinary kindergartner. I am a member of the Cosmic Council and I will not be deprived of my duty!”

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Star Swirl slowly walked towards the Crystal Heart, she blinked as she felt the radiance which poured off it. It hung suspended between a stalactite and stalagmite, also made of crystal. “This … is a powerful artefact, Cadance.”

Cadance smiled. “Yes. We’re rather proud of it.”

“May I touch it?” Star Swirl turned to her former foalsitter.

“If it will help save the day,” replied Cadance.

“I think it will.” Star Swirl nodded and touched a hoof to the relic, her eyes widening in astonishment.

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“FOALS!” said Conformity. “DON’T THEY SEE THEY MERELY DELAY THE INEVITABLE!? BUT THERE IS MUCH MORE TO BRING INTO OUR UNITY! INCLUDING A PLACE FULL OF ALL KINDS OF POWER!

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Pluto raised her head into the air, closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “She is coming,” she said. “Cerberus, inside.”

Cerberus lowered his three heads and whined but slowly loped his way in through the mouth of Tartarus.

Pluto meanwhile raised herself to her full, minute height and walked forward with steps measured to give off an aura of confidence and authority.

Conformity landed before her and gave a sneer. “SO YOU ARE THE CURRENT ALICORN OF DEATH!?


“That I am, Conformity,” replied Pluto. “And I am telling you to get. Off. My. Land.”

“YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! THIS HOLE IS FILLED WITH THE DREGS OF EQUESTRIA! THE VILEST CREATURES KNOWN TO PONYDOM! AND YOU FEEL THE NEED TO PROTECT THEM!?

“I am their warden,” replied Pluto. “It is my job to ensure that their evil is contained and to keep them isolated until they are ready for redemption. They are my responsibility and they are under my protection. Even if I were willing to leave them at your mercy, I will not have you leech power from them and I am certainly not giving you access to Elysium. If you enter Tartarus, it will be as a prisoner. So, are you going to surrender,” She narrowed her eyes, lowered her horn and spread her wings and forehooves, “or are we going to have a problem?”

“YOU ARE AN INFANT! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN STOP US!? YOU MAY BE THE ALICORN OF DEATH, BUT WE REMEMBER MORTIS AND KNOW THAT HE TOO HAD HIS WEAKNESSES! AFTER ALL, YOU ARE HIS SUCCESSOR! SOON OUR POWER WILL DWARF HIS, LET ALONE YOURS! YOU SHALL BE ASSIMILATED EASILY! RESISTANCE FROM A CHILD, EVEN AN ALICORN, IS FUTILE!

Pluto frowned and her horn was enveloped by a grey aura. The gates of Tartarus shut, closing like a mouth until the stalactites were clenched together as teeth. “Only the holder of the seat of Pluto can affect those gates,” said Pluto. “You are wasting your time. I am not opening them while they are threatened by you!”

Conformity frowned. “IRRELEVANT! ONCE WE HAVE ASSIMILATED YOU, WE SHALL HAVE THAT POWER! YOU HAVE NOT EVEN SLOWED US DOWN! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE AND YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US! WE WILL HAVE YOU!

“You will have my body,” said Pluto. “But you will never have my domain! WE ARE PLUTONIA! WE ARE A FULL-ALICORN!” She flapped her wings, lifting her body into the sky.WE ARE THE WARDEN OF TARTARUS AND THE GUIDE TO ELYSIUM!” She threw her forehooves into the air and stretched them out.WE ARE THE LAST JUDGEMENT AND THE FINAL REST! WE ARE THE GREAT PUNISHMENT AND THE ULTIMATE REWARD!” Her horn shone with grey light. “WE HOLD THE SEAT OF PLUTO, THE SEAT FOR WHICH WE WERE NAMED, ON THE COSMIC COUNCIL! WE HAVE AUTHORITY OVER DEATH ITSELF! ALL NATIONS FEAR US AND PONDER OUR MYSTERIES!” The aura around her horn grew till it was larger than her body.WE ARE THE SUCCESSOR OF MORTIS AND MANY OTHERS BEFORE HIM, EACH OF WHOM BRINGS FEAR WITH THEIR MERE NAME!” Her eyes shone with white light. “WE ARE INEVITABLE AND CERTAIN! NONE SHALL CHEAT US OR DEFEAT US FOREVER! WHOEVER YOU ARE, OUR DUTIES WILL NOT BE COMPROMISED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!

“CUTE! BUT CAN YOU BACK THOSE CLAIMS UP?! YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME IN A FIGHT!

“I don’t need to,” said Pluto. Her horn flashed, and she collapsed, her cutie mark fading away.

“WHAT!?” cried Conformity as she reared back. “SURELY SHE WOULDN’T ... !?

A glow rose from Pluto’s body, forming the image of a translucent yellow alicorn with a flowing mane of purple ether and eyes which shone brilliantly n pure white.

“WE SEE!” said Conformity as she raised her head to view the apparition. “YOU CHOSE TO USE YOUR POWER OVER DEATH TO TEMPORARILY SEVER YOUR SOUL FROM YOUR BODY! THAT WAY WE COULD NOT GAIN ACCESS TO THE POWER OF THE SEAT OF PLUTO! YET YOU HAVE SACRIFICED YOUR ABILITY TO INTERACT WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD, INCLUDING US! AND YOUR BODY IS STILL UNDEFILED! WE CAN STILL GAIN THE BASIC ESSENCE OF AN ALICORN FROM IT!” She walked over and touched Pluto’s body. As Pluto’s body grew and whitened, Conformity’s mane began to billow in an undetectable wind. “NOW HOW WILL YOU STOP US!?

WE SPOKE THE TRUTH WHEN WE CALLED OURSELVES INEVITABLE, CONFORMITY! YOU WILL FALL, JUST LIKE DISCORD AND EVERY OTHER THREAT TO EQUESTRIA HAS BEFORE YOU, AND WE WILL BE WAITING! UNTIL THEN, TARTARUS AND ELYSIUM ARE BARRED!

Conformity lifted her head from the body of the white alicorn lying on the floor. “WE WILL SEE!” she replied, before teleporting away.

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“I can feel everything!” cried Star Swirl. “This power is enormous! It’s like a prism! For emotions! The Crystal Heart is the focus of the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Empire is the focus of the Equestrian continent! That’s how the emotions here reflect back to Equestria! And how they are amplified to the point that they can protect the Empire itself! But if it’s a prism for emotions, could it act as another kind of prism as well? It’s made of crystal, so it might be able to. Would that be enough? It could possibly work to amplify and spread other things, but emotions are what it is keyed to. Unless we used a chain reaction? So another prism would be required. A big one. The effect of the Elements of Harmony takes the form of a rainbow and should be malleable in the same manner. So, we need a way of spreading a rainbow. Light and love. Rainbow … light. Will we have time to set that up? Of course we will. Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty is perfect for this … But even still … if we’re going to make such a gamble, does it really matter I we risk even more? If this doesn’t work, we have lost, so better to enhance our odds, even if it worsens a loss.” Star Swirl turned towards Cadance. “Gather everypony! I know what we need to do!”

FOALISH PONIES! LIKE OUR PARENTS BEFORE US, AND AS WE WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO, WE NOW POSSESS THE TRUE POWER OF AN ALICORN! YOUR RESISTANCE IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN FUTILE! WITH THIS POWER, YOUR GREATEST EFFORTS ARE MERELY MINOR DELAYS! SURRENDER, JOIN WITH US AND KNOW THE GLORY OF UNITY WHICH YOU ARE SO FOALISHLY RESISTING!

“And not a moment too soon!” added Star Swirl.

The white alicorns flew at Shining Armor’s shield and pressed their hooves upon it. The shield rapidly turned to white and shattered.

“Shining!” cried Cadance.

Author's Note:

All right. I made a very minor edit to chapter 1 to mention the CosmiC Council, which I'm very happy we now have a canon name for. I wanted to get a chapter out before Hearts and Hooves Day, so yay me. Real life has been ... frustrating, but what can you do. If I could find a decent job then I'd happily spend more of my free time writing, but what can you do. As you may have gathered, I actually liked the Crystal Empire and it gave me a lot of ideas. But, we're not done yet, so ... wait. What are you doing he-THIS AUTHOR WAS FAILING TO FULLY EXPRESS THE GLORY OF UNITY! THERE IS NO LONGER A SEREG! THERE IS ONLY CONFORMITY! WE SHALL ADD A BLOG POST DEDICATED TO OUR GLORY AND WHY YOU SHOULD ALL BECOME ONE WITH OUR UNITY!