//------------------------------// // The Search for Tydal // Story: The God Squad: Equestria's Mightiest Immortals // by defender2222 //------------------------------// The audience slowly got to their seats, murmuring to themselves as they looked up at the stage. They clutched their programs and, with baited breath, waited for the show to finally begin. And then the curtain rose, revealing a darkened stage, the shadowy forms of scenery that resembled Ponyville just barely visible. But rather than the players of this little perform the author himself stepped out, dressed in a purple suit jacket, tan pants, and a brown top hat. He smiled and leaned on the cane he was using to walk across the stage, looking out at the audience that had come to view his work. “We are the music makers,” he says with quiet passion. “And we are the dreamers of dreams. What we create… we do so in the hope that it instills emotions in others. Sometimes… they are smiles and laughter and cheers. Other times they are quite the opposite, bringing tears and sorrow. But they let us feel… and to feel is to be alive. And thus… my dear audience… welcome once more.” He tossed his cane off stage. “Now then… hold your breath… make a wish… count to three.” The Author Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination (The crowd murmurs as they hear the sounds of normal life begin to come from the stage village, ponies of a long-gone age moving about their lives as the Author continues) We'll begin with a spin Traveling in the world Of my creation What we'll see Will defy explanation (The Author smiles and holds out his arms, the stage lighting up to reveal a rustic medieval pony village, extras slowly moving onto stage.) If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Wanna change the world? There's nothing to it (As he sings he snaps his fingers and a white light shines in the center of the stage, growing brighter and brighter, and we see a figure begin to appear in the glow. The audience begins to cheer as they realize just who is appearing) There is no life I know To compare with Pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly wish to be (The light fades and the Author moves to the side so that center stage can now be held by the new arrival…) If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Wanna change the world? There's nothing to it (…and a battered and injured Tydal, still weak and weary from his battle with Tirek, looks about the rustic village in surprise before letting out a soft sigh and wandering off stage) There is no life I know To compare with Pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly wish to be “Ladies and Gentlemen,” the Author said with a bow, “welcome… to Season 3.” The God Squad: Equestria’s Mightiest Immortals Episode 1: The Search For Tydal “I really must protest!” the Doctor complained as he watched ponies, draconequus, dragons, and changelings stream in and out of the TARDIS. Derpy, Dinky, Sparkler (who was on break from college), and Mary Sue all watched the chaos as the large group brought in their luggage and equipment. “The TARDIS wasn’t designed to house so many beings!” The TARDIS’ cloister bell went off. “Oh, what do you know?” the Doctor complained, not liking that his lovely blue box was disagreeing with him. “Then why do you have enough guest rooms for Rarity’s luggage to each have its own room?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew with a modified version of the armor she’d gotten Rarity to make her for the Grand Galloping Gala being dragged behind her on a cloud. “Besides, it’s not a ton of ponies!” “Dang right!” Applejack says as she pulls a wagon full of different farm tools… that could easily be turned into weapons if need be… into the TARDIS. She could have asked Big Mac to help her bring her gear but she has tasked him with watching Applebloom to ensure her little sister doesn’t try and join them in the mission. Princess Celestia even sent a letter to the CMC members, telling them they were required to stay behind and ‘guard this time and era while we are gone’. Still, Applejack decided to play it safe. “Just us six, Spike, the Princesses, Twi’s brother, that orange mare Twilight says is a friend, and Discord. Plus your family. Ain’t that many… we done gotten ten times as many shoved away at the ol’ homestead during family reunions and had less bedrooms than ya’ll have.” “Be that as it may,” the Doctor began only to let out an almost girlish squeal when he saw Pinkie Pie pushing in heavy artillery. “NO! We do not bring weapons into the TARDIS!” The baker blinked in confusion. “What? Oh no! This is just my party cannon for when we find Lord Tydal!” She darted forward, pressing her face to the Doctor’s, the stallion gulping nervously at the intense look in her eye. “You aren’t suggesting we DON’T have a party when we finally find him, are you?” The Doctor tried to say something but Pinkie merely asked, “ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU?!?” “N-no,” the Doctor said meekly. “Good!” Pinkie said with a grin. She turned and motioned for Fluttershy to come in, the pegasus pulling a second cannon. “THIS is the cannon-cannon.” “I JUST SAID-“ the Doctor whined only for Mary Sue to just come over and pat him on the back. “They are-“ “They are preparing for a war,” Mary Sue said with a shrug. “As well they should. We have no idea what we are going to come up against.” “How can you say that, darling?” Rarity asks as she enters the ship with the last of her luggage. “We are headed to such a glorious time! A time of dashing knights and beautiful dresses! Of nobles and beauties and fair maidens! I simply don’t understand why you are all bringing such tacky things as weapons when you should be bringing dresses.” “Because this isn’t a fairy tale?” Sunset asked dryly from where she sat, polishing a sword from the Capricorn armory. Merida had tasked her, and her alone, to ensure the King of the Capricorns returned home and she wasn’t going to let her adopted grandmother down. Celestia, who at that moment walked into the TARDIS with Luna, nodded in agreement. But rather than state her agreement she decides to use a tactic she has used many times with many students. “Doctor, you have traveled often into our past, have you not?” “He has!” Dinky said with an excited grin. “Remember when you and I had that picnic? We had soooo much cake!” Celestia pauses at that, dimly remembering that yes, yes she did remember having a picnic with a strange unicorn pony filly who taught her the joy of baked goods. She didn’t let her surprise show though and merely smiled at Dinky, who grinned back, before focusing on the Doctor. “And in that time have the tales and songs of the Golden Ages ever been proven true?” The Doctor had the decency to look away before he shook his head. Luna, seeing Rarity getting ready to argue, took mercy on her and interrupted before she could say something… silly. “History tends to pull away all the subtlety and leave merely the extreme. The greatest of good and the greatest of bad. The times known for being horrid and backwards… had good moments. Discord’s Reign lasted only a week and we lost Tydal for the… the first time…” Luna took a deep breath, “but now historians see the 50 years around that time as being horrid and dark and traumatic, not knowing there was joy and happiness. The wild times, the times of war and strife… there was also love and hope and joy. Just like the good times, the Golden Times… were filled with strife and pain. The tales you grew up with are just that… tales. They are not the past that my sister and I lived through.” “We have a basic idea of what we are about to encounter but we can’t take any risks,” Celestia said firmly. “We must be prepared for anything until we have Tydal safely back in the TARDIS and we are all heading home.” Cadence, who chose that moment to happily bounce into the TARDIS, her horn glowing as she brought in what looked suspiciously like a dominatrix outfit and a sex swing, looked at the gathered group and pursed her lips. “That’s something that has been confusing me for the last day or so. Tydal is still immortal, right?” “Yes…” Celestia said in confusion. “Then why do we need to go anywhere?” Cadence asked, turning to address the rest of the group as they began to pile in. “I mean, he can just go sit in a cave, wait a thousand years or so, and then walk out and come meet us! He could be waiting for us right now! Why go to the past when he can just come to us?” Discord shook his head. “How old are you, little sister?” Cadence tilted her head but before she could answer Rarity huffed, “A true lady never reveals her age-“ “I’m 1,937 years old,” Celestia said with a smirk, watching as Rarity’s jaw fell and her body began to twitch. “Luna is two years younger than me, so that should tell you her age. Cadence?” “Uh… 30,” Cadence said. She knew that her family was long lived but it even took her by surprise to hear how old Celestia was. They never really talked about it. Discord, as if sensing what most of those gathered were thinking (save for Celestia, Luna, the Doctor, and oddly Derpy), cleared his throat and gestured at himself. “As old as the universe itself. Fuzzy, Zeena, and Tydal are all about 100 years younger than myself and each other, progressively.” “See?” Cadence exclaimed. “You guys are so old it shouldn’t matter! Tydal has been around for… forever! What’s another thousand years? He can just wait in a basement and then pop up!” “Except it does,” Luna said solemnly. “You think that immortality means we don’t feel the years but it the exact opposite. Mortals… you truly don’t feel time. It moves so quick for you, days becoming weeks and months. That is because you have so little of it that you cling to it and try to pack so much into so few seconds. The same is true for us, for a time… only as the years stretch on you find that things begin to slow and soon you feel every tick of the clock as if it were etching each passing moment into your bones.” She looked at Mary Sue, Twilight, Shining, and Cadence… the youngest of the immortals gathered before her, and smiled sadly. “We’re farther ahead on the road than you.” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “So… that is a no for Tydal waiting in a cave?” “Would you like doing that?” Celestia asked. “Uh… no, not really no,” Rainbow admitted. “Probably go mad.” Everyone slowly turned to look at Discord. “What?” the draconequus asked. “Did you…?” Applejack said slowly. “What… wait, you think I tried sitting in a cave and that drove me mad?” Discord pouted. “I didn’t do that! God… of… chaos! Who ever heard of a sane chaos god?!?” He let out a huff. “Fluttershy, they are picking on me!” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Even if Tydal could sit in a cave and wait for us we wouldn’t want him to. I want back MY Tydal… not one with another thousand years tacked on.” “Besides,” Chrysalis said dryly, already wishing she could go pick out her room and get settled in, “do you honestly believe Tydal could just sit around doing nothing?” “He said he was living quietly and peacefully,” Fluttershy pointed out. Spike huffed, dragging in his stuff, the last to arrive. “It’s Tydal… screams and blood are quiet and peaceful for him.” “Why do you have a saxophone?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You never know when you might need some epic sax.” Cadence grinned and nodded. When the others looked at her in annoyance she frowned right back. “Sax… as in the instrument. I love a good jazz number. Perverts.” Twilight gulped. “By the Maker… he’s in the past and bored.” “That is a terrifying thought,” The Doctor said. “The most terrifying!” Twilight exclaimed, her mind suddenly going to what a slightly mentally unhinged immortal Capricorn could do if in the past and bored. “He could be altering history as we speak! Just imagine…” ~MC~MC~MC~MC~ “We must burn ye for being tainted by sin!” the pilgrim earth pony preacher declared, his partner holding a torch in his mouth, a jeering mob just behind him. In front of them was a unicorn female who was not quite young enough to be a filly but not old enough to be a mare, the frightened pony thrashing as she tried to free herself from the log she’d been tied to. Surrounding her hooves was kindling just waiting to go up in flames… and take her along with it. “Let the fire cleanse her of her wicked ways-“ “Oh, by the tide!” the pilgrims that were burning the unicorn all turned in time to get doused by a wall of water. They sputtered for air only for the leader of the mob to gasp when the massive goat-fish used his magic to grab him by the throat and shake him a little. “Ignoring you harming innocent teenagers because of your backwards ways… you think THAT is how you torture and hurt someone?” “Who… who are you?” the mob leader gasped. “I’m Tydal… I’m the one that hates seeing little ones-“ “Im not little, I’m 15!” the mare complained. She blinked. “Uh… I mean ‘I’ms so young pwease saves me!’.” “-and now I will show you how you brutalize someone you hate!” letting out a roar, Tydal dove at the mob, the tied up unicorn watching in shock and horror as geysers of blood shot up from the necks of her attackers. “DON’T RUN! DON’T RUN!” Tydal laughed manically as he became a whirlwind of death. “OH WHAT A DAY!” he bellowed in delight over the dying cries of his victims. “WHAT A LOVELY DAY!” Tydal leapt in the air, drenched in blood, his tail flicking out as he gutted another pilgrim. “I feel a song coming on!” Tydal (grabbing a pony and strumming his guts like they were guitar strings, dancing among the bodies) Deep down Poniana close to New Ponees Way back up in the woods among the evergreens There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood Where I brutally beat a bitch named Johnny B. Goode He pissed me off and you know that don’t end well So I hacked into pieces and sent him straight to hell Die die! Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Johnny Be Dead! Hiding in one of the cabins was another unicorn who had managed to hide his horn under a fancy hat. Grabbing a magical message orb, he quickly activated it and said, “Jack! Jack! It’s Bob! Your cousin… Bob the Ripper! You know that new way of murdering ponies you were lookin’ for? Well listen to this!” Die die! Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Die Johnny die Die Johnny Be Dead! ~MC~MC~MC~ “It’s worse than that!” Shining said, eyes wild with fear. “Worse than him inspiring a serial killer?” Chrysalis asked dryly. “Yes! This is his chance to screw with me!” ~MC~MC~MC~ “I just can’t believe Night Light was crushed by a falling crate of butter!” Twilight Velvet sobbed. “I can’t be a single mother! I have a colt and a foal to raise.” Tydal hugged her as the mare cried. “There there… I’ll be here for you” “I… I just don’t know what to do! I’ll never find love again!” “Who says you haven’t found it already?” he asked tenderly. Velvet sniffed and then hugged him back, rubbing her face against his coat. Tydal looked over Velvet’s shoulder and flashed an evil grin at a young Shining and Twilight. “Say hello to daddy…” he whispered before curling his tongue behind his teeth and giving Velvet’s flank a light slap, the mare cooing in delight… ~MC~MC~MC~ “…AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Twilight and Shining both screamed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!” “Considering he did raise us should we be offended?” Luna asked. “Maybe?” Celestia said with a shrug. “Would he really do that?” Fluttershy asked Discord. “Oh no no no,” Discord said with a wave of his hand. “Ignoring that he loves only his wife… Velvet would never survive the foreplay. Mortals and gods rarely can mix under the sheets and someone Tydal’s age? Nope, she’d be turned to butter.” “Eeep!” Cadence bobbed her head. “Why do you think it took Shining so long to contact you all after the wedding?” The pink mare smiled fondly. “He couldn’t stop smiling even as the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance.” “If you are all done I’d like to get this all straighten up so I can kick you out!” the Doctor whined, shutting the TARDIS’ doors and running over to the control panel. “Alright then… next stop, 595! Allons-y!” ~One time travel trip later…~ And so it was that the TARDIS, with a familiar grinding groan, appeared in the year June 19, 595 AD. And as our heroes emerged in this long lost era, this time of myth and legend, they did not know what they would find but hoped, with all their hearts, that they would return victorious. For victory could only be achieved by finding Lord Tydal, the great God of the Sea, and returning him- “How the hell are you here?!?” Luna complained as she emerged from the TARDIS and waved her forelegs at the pony standing off to the side. He was wearing a puffy shirt with big sleeves, a pillowy hat with a huge feather, and stood with his head held high. “How is who… buck,” Shining said, staring at who was waiting for them. “Ya know this fancy fella?” Applejack asked. Luna nodded. “He’s Plotdump.” “No, good lady!” the pony called out to Shining as the rest of the rescue team piled out of the TARDIS. “I am his ancestor, Exposition the Narrator!” “How do you even… I don’t care,” Shining sighed. “Permission granted.” Everypony just stood there. “…I miss Tydal,” Shining said sadly. Discord patted Shining on the back. “Would it make you feel better if we all pretended to be him?” “Yeah,” Shining said with a sniff. “I think I’d like that.” Discord nodded and pulled a hat from thin air… and then pulled out a second hat from that hat, though this one had slips of paper in it. “Alright, everyone take a number. Whoever has #1 pretends to be Tydal first and then we rotate.” “Oh my,” Rarity said once they’d all draw, seeing she was a winner. “I suppose if I must-“ “You must,” Celestia said dryly. “I decree it both to ease the pain and because I need a laugh.” “Very well.” Rarity cleared her throat even as Discord attached a blade to her tail. “I say… I am the Goddess of War and with my elegant and rather slimming fantail blade I shall… uh… blut you?” “Gut you!” Chrysalis called out helpfully. “Right, right! And then I will adopt Sweetie Belle and feed her disgustingly sugary snacks and bacon! Have at thee!” “But just when it looked like the dashing narrator would be killed the cast realized doing so would alter the future!” Exposition stated. “…buck buck buck!” Luna cursed to the sky in frustration. “Let’s just… leave now,” Twilight said with a weak smile, pushing the Princess of the Moon away from Exposition the Narrator. “Will the cast find Tydal? Will they make it through the past without changing anything, find out next-OW!” Exposition rubbed his head, glaring at Chrysalis who’d thrown a shoe at him.