The High Council
~`(\/)’~
Rarity sat hesitantly at the long wooden table prepared for the impromptu meeting. Maud insisted that the six sit in on the discussion. Pinkie Pie seemed to think it was to have her sister as close to her as possible but Rarity knew a debate tactic when she saw it. Here they were, the long thought lost Elements of Harmony, supposedly back from the dead. Having them here would certainly be a surprise to the monarchy and probably sway any arguments in Maud’s favor, probably about courses of action regarding Spike. Rarity frowned as she thought back to her own Spike. Just what could this poor little dragon be going through with Twilight and the others, his best friends, dead?
Maud sat opposite Rarity with Pinkie on her left and Mare Do-Well on her right. On Rarity’s side of the table Rainbow Dash and Flutterbat sat together next to her. Applejack had declined the offer to join the meeting, saying something about wanting to check out those metal grappling devices most of the ponies around here wore. Maud didn’t seem to mind it as she let the samurai go.
At the head of the table a unicorn in the same brown uniform approached with a large crystal ball, different from the one they’d seen before. This one had several facets like a polished diamond. “Stand by for transmission from Canterlot,” the unicorn said quietly. She pointed her horn to the crystal and a glowing aura erupted from it and into the ball. Each facet came to life with light one by one and then an image of a pony, griffin or dragon appeared from each one. Their holograms floated in the air, several letting out gasps of surprise as they laid eyes on the recognizable members of the Elements of Harmony.
Finally the last hologram appeared, a familiar white unicorn with a blonde mane and a silly looking crown on his head. Rarity groaned and rolled her eyes as King Blueblood saw her. “What the-?!” he shouted. In his surprise the frightened king tripped over himself and fell from the hologram off screen. Several ponies appeared to help him back up and the King reeled on Maud. “Captain Pie! What is the meaning of this?”
“These are several ponies I and my team found wandering the White Tail Woods,” Maud replied completely calm. “Despite their… appearances, I can assure you that these are the ponies you think they are.”
“That’s not… But…” King Blueblood stuttered as he eyed Rarity once more. Rarity took pleasure in giving him a vicious grin, to which the wimpy king gulped nervously. He took a breath and regained his composure. “We would appreciate it if you sent such information about your findings to the Canterlot Court before we enter into a meeting blindly.”
“Understood,” Maud replied dryly. Rarity could swear she saw the mare smirk for a brief moment.
“It is a pleasure to see you ladies once more,” an earth pony in a white and brown striped robe said with a bow. “However I suggest we handle the point that deserves our most immediate attention.”
“Indeed,” a lady griffin with black legs and green feathers agreed. “The Black Wyrm spotted at your encampment.”
“Apologies, ma’am,” Pinkie spoke up, “but that was no Black Wyrm. He was Spike!”
“Spike?” a pale unicorn with red mane and a purple streak spoke up.
“The floor recognizes Moondancer of the Unicorn tribe,” Blueblood announced.
“Thank you, your majesty,” Moondancer replied with a bow then turned back to the Rarity and the others. “I know what dragon you speak of. You say he’s connected to this invasion somehow?”
“It’s not an invasion,” Maud replied rather harshly.
“Though it seems quite damning evidence,” a slender blue girl dragon interrupted. She waved a claw and the scene they had all seen before played out in the middle of the table. “I am not sure of the purpose of the purple scales but this certainly looks like a Black Wyrm. It seems to have even captured one of your own.”
“With all due respect Counselor Ember,” Maud iterated, “the pony that the… target took was designated a dangerous entity. We found her half-starved and she came close to biting one of our cadet’s eyes out.”
“It makes no difference,” the green feathered griffin lady spoke again. “All life is sacred with the Black Wyrms on the loose.”
“Speaking of sacred,” Ember spoke up again. “I do not mean to diverge from the topic but I must congratulate you on finding the Elements of Harmony once more, Captain Pie.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Maud replied with a salute. Rarity noticed the dragon’s face become slightly apprehensive.
“On the note of your recent excursion,” Ember continued. “I read that you suffered a loss.”
Maud became silent for a moment but did not break eye contact. “Cadet Flintlock volunteered for an aerial survey and was attacked. We did not reach him in time.”
Ember’s expression did not change but she could see her hard gaze begin to soften. “I see.”
“Why did you allow a cadet to perform something so dangerous?” a large brown Pegasus with a scar over his eye and a red mohawk spoke up angrily. He wore a similar brown uniform but the insignia on his was different.
“I take full responsibility, Captain West Wind,” Maud replied.
Ember raised a claw to silence her and shook her head sadly. “Do not blame her, captain. Most likely it was the dragon’s own arrogance that made him disobey an order. I have no illusions as to the pride of my kind.”
“Indeed,” King Blueblood spoke. “That’s why you make such a good diplomat, Ember.”
“If we may return to the task at hand,” Moondancer interrupted.
“Yes, yes,” Blueblood replied and turned back to Maud. “It seems to me, captain, that despite the fact that this creature may, and I must stress that, MAY be your companion it doesn’t lessen the fact that what we see here in this recording is in fact a Black Wyrm behind Wall Luna.”
“I must agree with the King,” the griffin representative said. “This is still a large breach in our defenses. One that brings up even more questions about these creatures.” Her eyes drifted to Ember. “Like can any dragon become one of these?”
Ember seemed like a reasonably even tempered dragon, since Rarity saw her, but the look she gave the griffin representative made her heart run cold. “You would do well to remember the devastation those monsters inflicted on my homeland as well, Counselor Brunhilde.”
“Enough squabbling!” Mare Do-Well shouted and slammed her hooves on the table, earning the attention of the whole room. “Are you going to say it or should I?” The room went slightly quiet, except for Blueblood who rubbed his hooves together pensively. Mare Do-Well sighed. “You want to hunt him down and kill him, right?”
“What?!” Rarity shouted. The rest of the members of the meeting all began to argue amongst themselves. Rarity stared disbelievingly at Mare Do-Well who hid her emotions behind her mask.
“That is enough!” Blueblood shouted. The assembly died down once more and Blueblood eyed Mare Do-Well suspiciously. “Just who do you think you are? You don’t look like one of the Elements of Harmony! Who are you?”
Rarity looked back to Mare Do-Well. Actually, she had been wondering that same thing. She had originally thought Mare Do-Well to be Twilight, that all the weird mannerisms were simply due to the alternate universe theory. However, Mare Do-Well had been doing some very odd things. Never taking off her mask even when Pinkie insisted. Also she never let up with the exaggerated deep voice. Plus there was just something… off about her. Mare Do-Well stood still for a few moments as everypony in the room waited for an answer. Rarity wasn’t the only one interested.
Mare Do-Well lifted her hat from her head and reached up to remove the lenses around her eyes. Two violet eyes stared back at the assembly. Mare Do-Well cleared her throat and spoke up, her voice now clear and familiar. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am the Element of Magic.”
<____|=0
Applejack walked around the outside of the encampment, admiring the handiwork. Earth ponies had always had a penchant for industry and invention and from the looks of all the advanced equipment the ponies carried around she assumed this world was no different.
She was admiring a tall crane like machine working on the destroyed wall of the fortress, not paying attention when she ran into another pony carrying a load of tools. Applejack turned back and offered the pony a hoof off the ground. “Ah’m sorry ‘bout that!” she said hastily.
“No, I’m fine,” the orange pony muttered as she tried to gather the tools she dropped.
Applejack leaned down and picked up a wrench. “This is some outfit, you got here,” she mused.
“Yeah, I guess,” the mare replied noncommittally. She turned away from Applejack who looked back at her. She wore the same kind of brown uniform like the others and she appeared to be a Pegasus. The only big difference though was that one of her wings was stripped of feathers, the bone bending in an odd direction. Applejack frowned at the thought of ponies so young having to go through such hardships, then the mare turned around.
“Scootaloo?” Applejack asked in surprise.
Scootaloo looked up from gathering her tools. “Do I know you?” she asked.
Applejack felt a bit taken aback by the question. “I- It’s me, Applejack. Apple Bloom’s sister.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know an Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo replied. “But… you’re one of those ponies that are supposed to be the Elements of Harmony that the captain found, right?”
“You don’t know…” Applejack paused for a moment. Had this Scootaloo never met Apple Bloom? She was hoping that her sister might have been one of the ponies to survive the destruction of Ponyville, but this made her doubt it. “Never mind… Yeah, Ah’m Applejack.” She extended a hoof.
“Scootaloo,” she replied taking the hoof. “Though I guess you already knew that… somehow.” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Don’t worry about it,” Applejack added hastily.
Scootaloo shrugged. “Well, the captain trusts you so I do too.” She gathered the rest of her tools and began to walk over to a bench. Applejack followed.
“You trust her a lot, eh?” she asked.
“Oh yeah!” Scootaloo replied. “The captain was the only squad leader that was willing to take a pony like me in.” She motioned to her crippled wing.
“What do you mean?” Applejack asked.
Scootaloo sighed. “Well, no Pegasus squad was going to accept me. Not that there were many Pegasi left. Most of us are pretty young and inexperienced.” She paused and sat down on the bench, motioning for Applejack to sit with her. “After Wall Cadence fell, the Black Wyrms attacked and hunted down a lot of pegasi. We were already flyers so they must have assumed us the most fun to hunt. After the attack on Ponyville I got hurt pretty bad. There was no way I would be allowed to join a Pegasus squad with this busted wing.” Scootaloo paused for a moment and rubbed her shoulder blade. Applejack could tell the younger mare was hurting pretty bad, both emotionally and physically.
“That’s when I was approached by Captain Pie,” Scootaloo continued. “She was apparently gathering surviving ponies from Ponyville and creating a scouting party that would patrol Wall Cadence. How could I say no?”
She reached to her hip and unlatched the mechanical device with the metal cords. Applejack watched as Scootaloo brought the machine up and began to tinker with it with her tools. “So what is that thing?” Applejack asked.
Scootaloo looked at her in surprise. “This is a 3-D Device,” she stated matter of factly. “It allows anypony, earth pony, unicorn, or even crippled Pegasus to soar through the air like one. Moving in three dimensions.” She gave a melancholy laugh as she went back to work. “Really, we’d all probably be dead long ago without this thing.”
Applejack raised a brow in curiosity and scooted closer. “How does it work?”
{(SxT)}
They had been flying for nearly an hour and the dragon finally ended his flight by landing on a ledge overlooking a tall cliff face. The huge beast finally let her go from its grip, dropping her to the ledge. Suntrix wanted to run but there was nowhere to go and no way to climb up. She kept her back flat against the cliff as the creature which had once been the small dragon set its wings and lowered its head. Suddenly the soft spot on its neck opened up and acrid smoke and steam began to billow out. The large purple beast then went limp and dropped to the ground, it’s hulking frame slipping and beginning to fall from the ledge. Suntrix stared in shock and confusion as the creature turned over and she saw the tiny dragon from before, seemingly unconscious and buried in a nest of goo and tendons in the creature’s back. He was about to fall over the edge with the creature when Suntrix reached out and hastily grabbed the young dragon by the arm, his body ripping free from the fleshy cocoon as the frame fell to the earth below. She stared over the edge as the corpse burst into black flames half way down and tumbled into the forested area beneath. “What the hay is your deal?” she shouted at Spike, her voice echoing slightly. “You… You’re one of those things aren’t you?”
Spike groggily opened his eyes as he finally became conscious again. Spike got up to stretch and cracked his neck, wiping a bit a goo off his shoulder. “I needed to get out of there fast,” he muttered as if she hadn’t just seen him turn into a hulking monstrosity. “If what you said about Ponyville and the library being intact is true then I might just finally get some answers.”
“Answers about what?” Suntrix asked hesitantly.
“About the Black Wyrms. About what happened to Twilight. And about myself.” Spike trailed off as he looked out on the landscape. Suntrix could see his eyes narrow as he spotted a couple of Black Wyrms far out. They didn’t seem to notice them as they soared wistfully and in no particular direction. Spike grit his teeth and clenched his fist as he watched them. “Do you know why they smile?” he asked.
“No,” Suntrix muttered, completely regretting trying to talk to this kid.
“Nopony does,” Spike answered. “But they do it. They have that hideous grin on their faces as they swallow a screaming pony down in one gulp.” His shoulders began to tremble. “Twilight was researching them. Did you know they don’t even need to eat? Those monsters can survive for years with nothing, yet they gobble up any pony in their sight.”
Suntrix looked back at the Black Dragons in the distance and backed closer to the cliff wall nervously. “Their hunting us,” Spike continued. “It’s all just sport to them. Twilight, Rarity, the others. They were all just a game!” Spike shouted angrily, making Suntrix look back to the Black Dragons. Luckily none of them in the distance seemed to take notice. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned on Spike.
“Look I get it,” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “You’re pissed off at an insurmountable and incomprehensible force. Trust me, I know what that’s like.” She grabbed Spike and pulled him up to her muzzle. “But don’t make your problems mine. Now get me off this cliff!”
Spike was silent for a moment and then shook his head. “Alright. But first you show me the way to Ponyville.”
Suntrix sighed in exasperation and rubbed her forehead. She turned to the landscape and scoured it for any recognizable landmarks. A tall castle like structure rose to her left. That must be the castle in the Everfree forest. Which meant that just south west should be…
“That way,” she pointed.
“Great,” Spike smiled and cut his palm with his claw, drawing blood. “Let’s go.” Suddenly his body began to steam once more and the little purple dragon was replaced by the monster from before. Suntrix tried to run as he grabbed her out of the air and began to soar down toward the trees.
“Why me?” she cried out. As she swung through the sky she could swear for a brief moment she saw something shimmer in the forest, like glass reflecting the sun. She blinked and the next moment it was gone. She felt an icy chill run down her spine. Had it always been this cold?
@#$%^&(*)&^%$#@
Mr. 4 followed the leylines of the root with his mind all the way to another cluster. He drew in a sharp breath as he realized that he finally had enough information to complete his map. He smiled wide as he sat before the Tree of Harmony and pulled out his three dimensional map of the multiverse. He added in the new coordinates of that world’s Tree of Harmony, new lines of magic sprouting into place on the map. He looked on in wonder as the lines finally seemed to converge on a single world. “Finally,” he muttered happily.
Now knowing exactly where he wanted to go, he took a step and was there. The world actually looked quite familiar and ordinary looking. He seemed to have arrived just outside the outskirts of Ponyville, on the edge of Everfree. He could see some kind of party going on in town, hosted by Pinkamena Diane Pie. All the other Elements of Harmony seemed to be there as well. For a moment he almost felt wistful. Almost.
His ear twitched again and he felt a pulse of magic a moment later coming from Everfree. He turned from the happy scene in town and walked into the dark forest, letting the magic guide his way.
In truth, he was actually a little disappointed to find out that what he had been searching for for so long was on such a simple and uninteresting world. “What better place to hide a tree than in a forest,” he joked to himself, the irony of his current surroundings not alluding him. His ear twitched once more. “Oh, everypony’s a critic. You just can’t take a joke.”
Finally, he reached a small clearing obscured by long branched willow trees. This was it. He could feel the power emanating from behind the branches. He took a deep breath and walked forward, only to be hurled back by a wave of magic. Mr. 4 got back up in a rush and turned in a fury to the pony that would dare to hurt him. A gray hoof parted the willow branches and a small gray alicorn stepped out, her eyes a piercing gold and her mane the color of sunshine. His eyes widened with recognition.
“It can’t be…”
Her eyes widened as well as she spied the blue mane and coat. She blinked once before smiling broadly and flinging herself at him. “Noteworthy!”
He let her wrap her arms around him, too speechless to fight back as she swung through the air and hugged him tight. “It’s you! I can’t believe it’s really you!” She opened her eyes and pulled back with a look of embarrassment. “It is you, isn’t it?”
He blinked at her. “Ditzy?”
Her smile returned and she squealed with delight as she gave him another hug. He smiled warmly as well just before his ears dropped and he winced painfully, gripping his ears in pain. Ditzy pulled back in surprise. “Oh my gosh! I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
He grunted and shook his head. “N-No. It’s not that. What are you even doing here?”
“This is where I ended up. After what happened, I woke up near the altar,” she pointed behind her at the white trunk in the center of the clearing. “It’s a nexus of magic from all over the multiverse.”
“It’s a lot more than that,” he mumbled to himself. “Still, that explains the horn.”
Ditzy blushed slightly. “Yeah, the longer I stayed here the more I realized the altar was affecting my body.” She did a little twirl to show herself off. “You like?”
He felt his heart skip a beat. “You fixed your eyes.”
Ditzy tried to look at her own eyes, making him laugh. Of course, that was something she’d do. “That kind of happened naturally. Though I see your eyesight kind of deteriorated.” She pointed to his glasses.
He reached for his them and set the bifocals straight. He didn’t want them coming loose and her seeing what had become of him. “It’s… a long story.”
She simply smiled and let it be. “Where have you been? I’ve searched nearly the entire multiverse looking for you!”
“I was… travelling,” he muttered nervously. Those eyes made him anxious. He honestly thought he’d never see them again.
“Where?”
“Places. Meeting ponies and others.” He shook his head to get back on topic. “One of which finally showed me a way to get home.”
Ditzy blinked in confusion. “Like… HOME home?”
“Exactly!” he replied excitedly. “And its perfect because you’ve been sitting on top of it this entire time!” He pointed to the altar behind her.
Ditzy turned to it but didn’t seem to understand. “But Noteworthy… the path home is sealed. It was locked away when we… when we…” Her eyes dropped to the ground sadly. “When we got lost.”
He put a hoof under her chin and looked her in the eye, smiling. “We don’t have to be anymore. All we need to do is destroy the altar.”
Ditzy’s pleasant attitude disappeared and she drew back from him. “What?”
“It’s the link! Don’t you see? Back home he was able to seal it with Harmony. The altar is the source of all Harmony in the multiverse! Take that away and the barrier breaks down! We can finally go home!”
Ditzy’s eyes darted back and forth as she thought. “You’re talking about destroying Harmony. That’s just… How do you know all this?”
His smile faltered. “I… I told you. Somepony told me about it.”
Ditzy frowned deeply as she slowly but surely took steps back to the clearing. “Noteworthy, where have you been all this time?”
He was about to answer when his ears twitched. “I’m handling it,” he muttered off to the side.
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one!” His ears twitched again and his face became enraged. “Of course, I won’t do that!” Ditzy stared at him with wide eyes, there was fear in them. “No, wait! You don’t have to be afraid.”
She hesitantly reached out a hoof to him. “Noteworthy, please, just answer my questions.” He flinched and the ground shook beneath them both. A small crag opened up between them, pulling the two apart.
He looked at her before wincing again, his ears pulled back as he hissed in pain. “Just… don’t come near me right now.” He turned from her and ran.
“Noteworthy!” She teleported to try to catch up to him but he was already gone.
Having just teleported too, he collapsed on the ground and writhed around in the tall grass. He clasped his hooves to his ears as it was almost unbearable. “I’m not going to fight her! I’m not! Not even when I’m that close! Not when I just found her again!”
The pain subsided slightly and he took a few deep heavy breaths. “There’s other ways. She’s just an alicorn. She’s not like me. She can’t be in two places at once. She just needs to be distracted.” He got to his hooves and let a grin spread across his face. “And I think I know just the ponies to do it.”