Fragments of Fanzith

by Viscera

Chapter 6

"Hey!" shouted another supposed Shadow Bolt. "What the hell was that?" He became angry at the pegasus that had just recently broke the bridge. "Why the hell aren't you following orders?"

"Uhh.. my bad I didn't know that they were.. you know... them.."

"I call BS. Anyway.." He turned toward the 6 mares that were watching them argue just moments ago. "Look, dudes. That guy TOTALLY was NOT following orders alright? You guys can come on in." The ponies watching were a bit confused. The Shadow Bolt then repaired the dark rainbow bridge and the ponies crossed.

"Halt Trespassers, nopony allowed in here." Started one of the guards.

"Wait, dudes." the other Shadow Bolt interrupted. He began to whisper into the guard's ear.

"Ooooohh... Ok. I'm so sincerely sorry ma'ams, you can all come inside." The two guards began to heave the door open and let the mares inside the completely blackened castle. "Here." the guard flipped the switch and the lights all came on for them. "Since you're gonna need to get to the top floor, I might as well take you ladies to the elevator I assume, yes?" The mares nodded, still confused of the current situation. "Follow me." He began to walk through the eastern-most hallway, with the ponies following closely. After arriving at the elevator door he picked a key out of his black, metallic pocket and put it inside the keyhole and the door opened. "Ladies first." He nodded slightly, letting the mares in. Inside of the elevator was a screen showing multiple different buttons with unreadable text on them, although the text seemed quite familiar to most of the ponies. As the elevator rose higher and higher and higher he reached into his left-flank pocket and pulled out a long distance communication device. *Bzzt* "Yes, hello Lord Darkness Dash?" He began to speak into the device. "Yeah.. we have them. We're coming up the elevator as we speak." He had to raise his voice a bit to talk over the overly loud rock music playing from within the elevator, serving as a replacement for elevator music.

The elevator had finally reached the top floor after a good half of a minute. The doors slid open and all of the ponies left the elevator. The guard slowly approached the over exaggeratingly large door and pulled out another key and twisted it inside. He pushed the left door open slightly, but didn't look inside. "There you are, ladies. Go on in." He pointed to the inside of the door, still not looking inside. The 6 mares slowly walked inside the door, nervous of what was on the other side.

"My, my, my" started Darkness Dash, sitting on her throne adorned with skulls. "Why if it isn't Twilight Sparkle, Rarity,
Applebloom, Scootaloo, Photo Finish and..." Darkness Dash looked a bit puzzlingly at the black spider-tank standing
next to Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"..Sweetie Belle.." The black machine said a bit nervously, lowering her torso/head down a bit.

"Right!" Darkness Dash pretended she knew all along. "Look, guys. I'm totally sorry for doing what I did, alright?" The 6 ponies didn't believe her. "Look, we only have roughly 142 hours left, roughly 6 days, before the mists come in and our God, Fqua'th, comes and takes over Equestria forever."

"Vhy ze hell are you suddenly so nice to us?!" Photo Finish yelled to the dark blue pony.

"Chillax, Hitzkopf. You didn't even let me finish explaining. Now, as I was saying, Once our all-powerful God, Fqua'th comes there's gonna be a huuuuge mist coming all over Equestria. When that happens, all of ponykind will be dead. All of the one's that don't have the virus that is. That and the ponies kept inside of their underground holding cells, forced to mate in order to make more slaves to inject the viruses into, regulating the virus for slavery of course. Now, due to popular request, I'm now going to tell you WHY exactly I'm telling you all this." She started sarcastically, looking at Photo Finish. "Look, You guys are still my friends and all that jazz, right?" The 6 ponies looked a bit uncaring, thinking it was nothing more than a lie. "Well, since you all love me sooooo much, I decided that if you all joined The Shadow Bolts, a group of ponies working for Fqua'th, instead of you all dying after the mists come, you all can be spared and sent onto the alien homeworld, Fanzith, where you all would be living among royalty, much as I and the other Shadow Bolts will be. What do ya say, friends?" Darkness Dash said with a possibly fake smile on her face. The 6 ponies were looking at eachother for a bit, thinking of the outcomes.

"I'll think I'll pass..." Twilight said in a low, monotonous voice.

"Wh-wha..?" Darkness Dash was in shock. The other 5 ponies nodded their heads in agreement to Twilight's idea.

"We-well if any of you change your minds, you can.. uhh find me to the far south... of uhh.. Jail Sector B.." Darkness Dash flew to them, handing them directions to Jail Sector B, despite the fact that most of them already knew where it was. "And uhh, here's the job applications..." Darkness Dash made another fly-around to the ponies, handing them the papers. She began to cry a little bit. The 6 ponies weren't sure if they were truely real, full fledged tears, or she was faking it all. "You all can... go.. I guess.. I'll be here still if you change your minds..." Darkness Dash sat on her throne with a sad look on her face. The 6 ponies left the dark, skull adorned castle and left the eye of the hurricane. The hurricane seemed to have died down from since they went inside it. It was nolonger that violent anymore. It was spinning. Quite slowly at that. It was also far enough from Canterlot to not be making any possible damage to the bubble.

After climbing up Canterlot mountain, the ponies went inside Canterlot castle to explain everything to the princesses.

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"I just don't get it. How could they say no to their best friend.." Darkness Dash slammed her hoof on the table and wiped a tear from her face. She was at a long table with Twist and Discord sitting there, discussing their plans with eachother.

"Geeth, quit the fake tearth bullcrap already." Twist said in an angry tone.

"Oh, yes of course. Heh heh." Darkness Dash lifted her head up, wiping another tear from her face.

"Look, guyth. We NEED at leatht one pony with an Element of Harmony." started Twist.

"Not to mention we can't let anypony get any of our fragments." Discord added. Twist began to laugh.

"Oh trutht me, nopony will be able to find ALL of the fragmentth. Hell, I'd be thuprithed if they could find even one!" Twist began to pull out a map pointing at all the locations of the fragments. "Thinthe we obviouthly can't jutht recruit them, we're gonna have to uthe forthe. Darkneth Dath do you have any idea where they're at right now?"

"Canterlot. Although they were missing Fluttershy and Applejack. Meaning they're most likely heading for Manehattan soon.

"Hmm... we're going to have to be very careful." Twist began to think out loud.
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"Don't trust her, she's lying. I know it." said Celestia.

"Don't give into her lies, thats what they want." Luna added.

"A bit off topic but may I ask a question, dear?" Rarity began to Celestia."Do you perhaps happen to know a 'Spencer' by chance?"

"...Oh my..." Celestia was a bit shocked. "Where did you hear of this 'Spencer' fellow?"

"We saw a yellow pegasus with the virus earlier in Cloudsdale. She mentioned somepony named Spencer."

"Yellow pegasus.. hmm.. what colour mane?"

"Orange."

"Hmm.. what was her cutie mark?"

"I'm not so sure.. All I know is that its yellow and orange at the top."

"Sp-Spitfire? Spitfire knows Spencer..?" Celestia began to ask Luna.

"Look, we'll look into this later, okay? You 6 just get back to the hotel and tomorrow you can all go save Fluttershy and Applejack." Celestia acted as though they shouldn't know about it.

"Scootaloo!" Cheerilee was angry at her daughter. "Where were you? I was worried sick!"

"S-sorry mom.. I was out with my friends." Scootaloo was dissapointed in herself.

"I-In that hurricane?! You could've been killed!" Cheerilee began to raise her voice. The purple pony sighed. "Come here.."

Cheerilee began to hug her daughter to cheer her up.

It was early morning. And yet, the clouds were so dense it felt as though it was night. There was a light rain. "Vake up everypony!"

Photo Finish exlcaimed to Twilight Sparkle, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Rarity. "Ve don't have much time. Ve need to rescue Fluttershy und Applejack immediately!" The 4 ponies began to get out of their beds.

"We're gonna bring Scootaloo with us, right?" Applebloom questioned the blue pony with the tattered dress.

"Vell, of course. Ve could use all ze help ve could get, yes?" Applebloom began to gallop to the room Scootaloo and Cheerilee resided. Sweetie Belle followed.

"Miss Cheerilee can we please bring Scootaloo with us?" Applebloom questioned the former teacher.

"NO! No way in hell!" Applebloom lowered her head. Sweetie Belle lowered her torso. Scootaloo began to rub up against
Cheerilee's leg. "I-I mean yes of course, how silly of me! You three have fun in Manehattan!" said Cheerilee sheepishly. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were off-put by her odd demeanor.

The 6 ponies began to leave Canterlot and travel to Manehattan. Not before picking up Photo Finish's new car of course. The 6 ponies stopped by Celestia's to speak to Celestia about the newly fixed car. "Celestia!" Twilight said knocking upon Celestia's door.

"Celestiaaa!!" she began to pound on the door.

"Yes..?" Celestia answered, peaking out of the crack in the door.

"Can we have that car now?"

"Oh yes, yes of course haha. Can you talk to Luna about that? I'm kind of busy right now." the white mare seemed to be hiding something.

"Doing what?" the purple mare questioned her.

"Oh nothing. Just, uhhh, watching a TV show. hehe.." Twilight looked at her for a moment before leaving to talk to Luna.

"Luna can we please have Photo Finish's car back now?" Twilight seemed a bit annoyed.

"Why of course." Luna took them down to the underground military base they were in just yesterday. She guided them to a heavily reinforced vehicle. "There she is!" Luna said, pointing at the vehicle. The 6 ponies were in shock. "Well..?" Luna said, handing Photo Finish the keys. Luna took out a device and pressed a button. The doors on the wall opened to reveal a secret street that connected to the main highway leading to Manehattan. The 6 ponies got inside, put on their seat belts, and drove off.

The entire trip was devoid of any odd occurances. Nopony trying to stop them. No one trying to stop them. No thing trying to stop them. The only thing the ponies could hear was the loud noise of explosions from the far distance. This filled the ponies with uneasiness.

After finally arriving at Manehattan is was not what they had in mind. It was unlike most of the abandoned cities they've been to before, it wasn't abandoned. There were war machines, explosions, and tons of aliens. Half of the city was, for the most part, intact. While the other half was brown and the sky was musky, much like Fillydelphia had been. It even had the black alien skyscrapers.

"V-Vere do ve go?" Photo Finish was a bit nervous when saying that.

"Uhh.. How about over there?" Twilight said pointing at the biggest skyscraper on the intact side of the city. It was shaped like a large T, with yellow, glowing windows.

"Wait." Rarity began. "Sweetie Belle come here, deary." She held her sister's hoof and Sweetie Belle then turned into a pony via her gem disguise. "There." Rarity was somewhat pleased with herself. The ponies then took the back entrance into the building, to avoid any fire from the soldiers.

"Who is this?" the guards said, raising their guns.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, do you know where I could find an Applejack or a Fluttershy?" The guards paused for a moment and looked at each other.

"We don't have your Applejack, however we do have a Fluttershy. Why do you need her?"

"We were sent from Canterlot to speak with Fluttershy." The guard pulled out a long distance communication device.

*Bzzt* "Yes is Fluttershy there? Alright. We have a bunch of ponies here to see you." The guards opened the door and followed them closely, while taking them into the room Fluttershy resided in. They went up at least twelve floors via elevator before reaching Fluttershy's room. The room was huge, and had lots of yellow tinted windows, with plenty of computer screens holding valuable information about the war happening in this city. Fluttershy was in a green army jacket and hat. She had a cigar in her mouth. Right beside her was a dark purple insect. "Fluttershy! These ponies are here to see you." The guard said to her, while she stood atop a platform raised above the floor, not even looking behind herself.

"Tell them I'm busy." Fluttershy said in a somewhat deeper, raspier voice than what the ponies were used to.

"But ma'am they say they're from Canterlot."

"Send them in then." Twilight rushed over to Fluttershy.

"Oh Fluttershy, I've missed you so much!" Twilight began to jump around her. Fluttershy was not amused.

"Follow me." said the yellow pony, somewhat uninterested. The 7 ponies went down a far hallway, and down 2 flights of stairs into her room. Right as she closed the door she threw her cigar away and became excited. "Ohmygoshomygoshohmygosh! Twilight! Rarity! Applebloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!.. Photo Finish..? I've missed you all sooo much. " She said, possibly overreacting while at the same time a bit confused at Photo Finish's presence. "What are you all doing here?" she said in a less excited tone.

"Well-" Twilight began before getting interrupted by a somewhat loud noise. Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle as she began to glow. The disguise wore off.

"Eeek!" Fluttershy began to panic and back into the wall, knocking over a table. "Y-you snuck in alien technology!?"

"No! No its not like that at all!" Twilight began.

"Let me explain." Rarity interrupted the two. Rarity began to explain Sweetie Belle's disposition.

"Oh alright, Let me notify the soldiers that we have a non-hostile alien tank with us." She began to pull out a communication device.

"But what if they dont believe you!?" Twilight attempted to interrupt her but she was too late. Fluttershy had already told them.

"Don't worry." Fluttershy began. "They HAVE to believe me. I'm the highest rung, the leader if you will." The other 6 ponies were in shock for a while before Scootaloo broke the silence.

"Well can somepony tell me, what is that cool thing?" she said, pointing to the purple insect that had been following Fluttershy.

"This, is Sandy, a silithid. She's from Appleloosa. I named her that because she likes digging in the sand, as do all silithids." She said in a serious tone.

"Wait." Applebloom started. "So you're saying, that Appleloosa is filled with those things?" Fluttershy nodded.

"Its uninhabitable at Appleloosa ever since the invasion because of them."

"B-but Granny Smith... Big Mac... Braeburn... They all went to Appleloosa over the summer before the invasion while Applejack was foalsitting me! D-does that mean they're..." Applebloom began to cry.

"Don't worry Applebloom. There were plenty of reports of people escaping and making it into Canterlot." said Fluttershy.

Applebloom continued to cry, but it was pretty obvious that she was trying to remain hopeful. There was a moment of silence.

"So vhere's ze Applejack?" Photo Finish broke the silence.

"Hmm.." Fluttershy began search on her computer. "Well she's not in the vicinity of the intact part of the city. So that must mean she's being held prisoner." Fluttershy quickly came to the realization. "We're going to have to go to Jail Sector A." All of the ponies' eyes had widened, other than Fluttershy's. "Don't worry, I know of a safe route via the sewers." Fluttershy
handed Twilight a map through the sewers.

"Wait you're not coming with us?" Twilight quickly realized.

"I can't. I have an entire army to be guiding. I'm so terribly sorry." Fluttershy reached into her pocket, pulled out a cigar, lit it, and left the room.

The 6 ponies looked for the manehole into the sewers.