New Friends and Old Relations
{(SxT)}
“Let me go!”
Suntrix pulled her head up from her knees and looked around curiously as she heard a new voice approach. Suddenly the door to the holding cells opened and two large dragons in those brown uniforms walked inside. In their arms was a small struggling purple baby dragon in the same uniform. Suntrix couldn’t quite make it out but she swore she saw fear in the large dragons’ eyes.
They quickly threw the tiny dragon in the adjoining cell next to her. The dragon smacked his head against the other end of the cell and fell to his knees. Suntrix saw him cast a vicious glare in the big dragons’ direction that made them both take a step back. “Don’t even think it, freak!” the larger dragon on the right gulped.
“Yeah,” the other one said hesitantly. “I don’t know what the hell you did back there, but it’s unnatural. You’re unnatural.” With that they locked his cell and backed out of the room slowly, the baby dragon glaring at them the entire way. Unnatural? Unnatural could mean Fourth Wall stuff. Perhaps this was Mr. 4 in disguise. She tentatively stepped toward the other cell.
“Mr. 4?” she whispered. The tiny dragon didn’t turn his head to her but his eyes did register her and then rolled in their sockets. He went over to his bench and sat down with a grim expression. Nope, definitely not Mr. 4.
“You’re that crazy mare they found out near Wall Cadence, right?” the dragon asked.
Suntrix frowned a little at being called a crazy mare but she couldn’t quite blame him considering the way she acted and the state of her mane. Instead she just muttered a “what’s it to ya?”
The little dragon grit his teeth and stared at the floor. “Nothing,” he muttered. A long awkward silence followed.
Suntrix simply had to break the tension. “So what were they saying about you being all ‘unnatural’ out there?” she asked. “You look like a pretty normal baby dragon.”
“I’m thirteen!” the dragon shouted back grumpily. “And I… I’m not normal.” He stared at his upturned claws with wide confused eyes. “I don’t know what I am. I tried to move a crate that was bigger than me. Some jerks started pestering me about how I was weak. So I got mad. Then my claw slipped and I cut myself…” He stopped as he just realized he was admitting things to a stranger. “What am I even talking to you for?”
Suntrix could see the fear and uncertainty in his eyes. For a brief moment she felt for the little guy. Then another part of her mind kicked in and started to think of a way to use the dragon’s insecurities to her advantage. “So what’s your name?” she asked in as sincere a voice as she could muster.
The tiny dragon shifted his eyes to her and narrowed them before his shoulders sank and he sighed. “Spike.”
“Okay, Spike,” Suntrix replied and reached through the bars, extending a hoof. “My name’s Suntrix.”
Spike eyed the hoof wearily but took it and shook. He now seemed a little more relaxed. “So where are you from anyway?” he asked. “Scouting Party says they found you hiding out near Everfree. Just how long were you there?”
Suntrix grimaced as she recalled the half a month of hell she had been through out there. “Two weeks,” she grunted. “Lucky I was able to find a cellar in Ponyville to hide in.”
Suntrix jumped back as Spike ran up and slammed the bars between their cells. His eyes were wide and pleading. “You were in Ponyville? Is it still there?”
“Is what still there?” Suntrix asked hesitantly, not exactly enjoying Spike’s new attitude.
“The Library!” Spike shouted. “Tell me is the library still there?”
“Yes!” Suntrix shouted back, slightly frightened. “Their flames don’t hurt plant life so it was pretty much the only structure still standing.”
Spike let go of the cell bars and backed away stunned. He couldn’t decide on just where to look as his eyes darted all around. “It’s still there. Twilight’s lab is still there!” He turned to the wall of the cell and narrowed his eyes. “I need to get out of here.” Suntrix saw him clench his fist, his claws digging into his soft scales, blood beginning to drip down. The baby dragon turned to Suntrix with a slightly crazed smile and Suntrix backed away to the other end of her cell. His eyes were now white. “And you’re coming with me.”
===E8DB
Rainbow breathed an inward sigh of relief as she walked along with the ponies that had taken down that creature. Not that she wasn’t strong enough to fight something like that but… No, she was absolutely sure she wasn’t strong enough to fight that. All she could think of were those eyes and that horrifying smile, then the mare throwing that dagger. It all was happening so fast it was hard to keep up.
Apparently Fili-Second knew this pony because the moment after the two locked eyes and confirmed who they were they started hugging and bawling. Rainbow found it kind of funny that those other ponies in the gray mare’s group were as confused as she was.
The gray mare, whom Fili-Second identified as Maud, seemed to scan the forest while also engaging in a conversation with the six. “So let me get this straight,” Maud said with a voice that had little to no emotion, “You’re not Pinkie, but you are?”
“That’s sorta the case,” Fili-Second replied cheerfully. “You see, there are literally billions of worlds in the multiverse that-”
“I understand you’re need for information, Maud,” Mare Do-well interrupted. “And I respect the fact that you need to know as much about us as you can. But we’re in the dark here too. If you really understand who and what we are then could you please explain to us what that thing was?”
Maud stopped walking and the ponies behind her did as well. Rainbow could see several of them going for those diamond blades on their hips. Maud’s face seemed to give a dark expression of apathy towards Mare Do-Well for just a brief moment, then her eyes returned to their normally disinterested position. “I’d know my sister anywhere,” Maud said and gave Pinkie a small smile. “The only way she could possibly be here was if your story was true.”
“I’m just glad to finally be spending some time with my sister after so long,” Pinkie said happily.
Rainbow frowned. “What do you mean, darling? You don’t get to see her that often with those powers of yours?”
Pinkie stumbled slightly. “Well, I mean, um, you’d think.” She laughed nervously as she tried to catch back up with Maud. Rainbow shrugged and flew to catch up as well.
Maud looked up at the sky. “Let’s keep moving. We don’t want to be left outside Wall Luna when the sun sets.”
The uniformed ponies all seemed to relax as the group began to progress through the woods once more. Maud took a moment to center her thoughts before beginning her story. “It all started five years ago. Twilight, Pinkie and the others had refounded the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon.” Rainbow gave a hesitant look over her shoulder to Rarity but the black unicorn seemed to be focused on other things. “It seemed like the good times would never end after that. But then they came.”
Maud turned her head to the canopy of trees above. “We had no name for them before. They appeared too fast and too numerous to even consider naming them. Eventually we settled on Black Wyrms, due to their appearance. One thing was certain though, they would attack and devour anypony. Ponies, griffons, and even dragons. In fact, we thought they were dragons at first, but a little later the dragons themselves came to Celestia and begged for her help in defeating them.” She looked back to Rainbow Dash and the others. “The dragon kingdoms were the first to fall.”
“Then the griffons. Their king didn’t survive to ask for help but the last of them ended up fleeing to Canterlot. After these races fell, Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadence formed a specialized group of soldiers made up of unicorns and pegasi to patrol the border and protect the ponies from any threats from the Black Wyrms.” Maud went silent once more in a sign of respect. “They didn’t last a day.”
“After that Celestia, Luna and Cadence decided that they themselves were the only ones strong enough to defeat them. So in a last ditch effort they erected the three walls around Canterlot and the surrounding provinces and then left to find the source of the Black Dragons. We haven’t seen them since.” Maud stopped walking and pointed up through the canopy. Rainbow squinted but she could swear that she saw a large shimmering dome off in the distant sky. “They left three magical domed layers around us for protection. However, the outermost wall, Wall Cadence, fell three years ago.”
“Everypony was in Ponyville at the time. Since the princesses’ disappearance, Twilight had been obsessed with finding a way to bring them back. She’d lock herself up in her basement for days on end. Celestia only knows what she was working on in there. We were all there when the dome shattered above us and Black Wyrms came down. There was no way for any of us to fight. Except you six.”
Rainbow frowned. Once again she was part of a story she had never been a part of. “The bearers of the Elements of Harmony all stayed behind to provide help for all of us to escape. I don’t know if Twilight thought she could defeat them with the Elements or if she knew that they would just be a distraction.” Maud turned to Pinkie again, her expressionless eyes beginning to fill with tears. “I should have… I should have been the one to protect you…”
Pinkie threw her arm around Maud and pulled her into a hug. Maud took a deep shuttering breath and embraced Pinkie as well. After a moment she pulled away and composed herself once more.
They finally came across the gates to Wall Luna. Rainbow looked up at the enormous magical door sitting in the middle of the forest. Maud knocked three times and waited a few moments before knocking twice more. The gates began to open slowly.
As they did Rainbow struggled with a question she wanted to ask. “So how many made it out?”
Maud stood still as she waited for the door to open, “In a town of close to three hundred ponies, only seventy five made it out alive. In the ensuing chaos lots of ponies got separated from their families. Spike and I ended up here as the vanguard for Wall Luna.”
“Spike?” Fili-Second, Mare Do-Well and Rarity all shouted in unison.
“My little Spikey Wikey is doing something so dangerous?” Rarity asked in a cute voice. Everypony turned to stare at the tall black unicorn in confusion. Rarity cleared her throat and stood up straight with a blush.
“Miss Pie!” Maud turned around as the gates finished closing behind them and a young stallion skidded to a halt in front of her. “Miss Pie! Thank Celestia your back!”
“What’s wrong?” Maud asked.
“Prisoner! Escape!” the young stallion struggled to say.
“That half feral mare we found out near Everfree?” Maud asked.
“No! The dragon! Spike was thrown into the cell too!”
“What?!” Maud shouted with alarm and began to race towards the encampment. Everypony followed suit trailing behind her, but the gray mare was just too fast for all of them. When they finally came into view of the camp Rainbow was amazed at the sight of a slightly old ruined fortress that had been retrofitted to hold a platoon of the same brown uniform wearing ponies like Maud. They could hear Maud shouting on the steps of the base. “Who threw Spike in a jail cell?”
Rainbow saw the mare burst through a door into the fortress above. Rainbow flew up along with the others as they filed into the room Maud had entered. “Mother of Faust,” Rarity breathed. The room had been ripped apart with the brick walls of the cells having been torn away and toppled to the ground. Maud stood there dumbfounded as she saw the remains of the cell bars swing lifelessly on the breeze, somehow ripped from their sockets. The open sky greeted them just outside the hideous gash in the structure.
The same stallion from before ran into the room and panted. Maud turned to him. “What did this?” she asked in a serious tone.
“Spike,” the pony struggled to get out through his labored breathing.
“That’s impossible,” Maud replied sternly. The stallion shrunk away before another pony entered, this one with a crystal ball.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” she said. “But it’s true. The event was magically recorded.” She held out the crystal and rubbed a hoof on it to play back the previous images. The six and Maud all gathered around as the image of the outside of the fortress came into view. Suddenly the wall burst outward from the inside and two large dark purple claws came out followed by a long purple neck. This one looked eerily like the rest of the Black Wyrms before except for the purple scales and slightly thicker build.
However Maud seemed to recoil as the beast in the picture let loose a large high pitched roar and pushed itself out. Mare Do-Well shot her hoof out and paused the image as the beast slithered out. “Hold on,” she muttered. She rubbed the ball a little and played back the previous second before pausing again. “You guys see that?”
Rainbow squinted into the ball. The image was fuzzy but it looked like a blue unicorn with a gold and silver streaked mane clutched in the dragon’s claw. “That’s the mare we found yesterday,” Maud whispered.
“That’s also our target,” Mare Do-Well replied. “Think that thing will do anything to her?”
Maud reared on Mare Do-Well. “That ‘thing’ is Spike! And I know he wouldn’t hurt a pony.” She returned her attention to the ball. “But how? How can that be Spike?”
“Um, ma’am?” the pony holding the crystal ball muttered. “Just so you know, this footage has already been sent to the King. He’s asked you to join a conference he’ll be hosting with the tribal leaders and Squad Commanders.” Maud sighed and gritted her teeth.
“The king?” Rainbow asked. “Who’s the king?”
@#$%^&(*)&^%$#@
Mr. 4 stood on a mountain top as he closed his eyes in concentration. He could feel the flow of magic in this world running through him. There was definitely a root in this world.
His ears twitched and he opened one eye to roll it. “Something like this takes time.” His ear twitched again. “If you were capable of doing it I’m sure you would but for now you have me. So you’ll just have to be patient.” His ear didn’t twitch anymore.
He suddenly felt a large concentration somewhere in the center of Everfree forest. Mr. 4 smirked and rolled his eyes. “Of course, it’s always in Everfree.”
Mr. 4 took a step off the mountain and set his next hoof down on a canyon floor. The scenery around him had changed to that of a crystal gorge. A nefarious smile spread across his face as he laid eyes on the prize before him. “There you are,” he chuckled. The Tree of Harmony stood tall and proud in the canyon below the Castle of the Two Sisters.