//------------------------------// // Distorted Beginnings: Chapter Seven // Story: Distorted Resonance // by Tangent //------------------------------// “Alright, alright, I’m coming!” Lyra called out as she trotted up to the door of the cottage she and Bon Bon shared, wondering who was pounding on the door so insistently. She opened the door as soon as she reached it, about to have a sharp word, when her voice caught in her throat. "Special orders from on high, Candy-butt," a nondescript collection of generally pony-like features handed an official looking scroll to Lyra. "Yer being reactivated for the emergency, luv. Oh, wait... that's a lute on your ass. Looks like I got the wrong pony again. Um... Are you sure you're a lady? Last gal I asked turned out to be a big red stallion with a mean right hook. Too bad too, she was a real looker, that one." "It's a lyre..." Lyra Heartstrings corrected, her right eye twitching as her mind tried to wrap itself around what this… pony thing… was saying. "Oh thank Sun-butt! I thought I had gone all fancy like that Jet Set chap! I'll have to ask Big Red again - I'm sure she was just playing hard to get with that love-tap..." 'Bon Bon' hooved her face and wondered how she was going to explain this one to her “best friend”… *O o O o O* Big Mac shuddered, then wondered briefly why he was feeling a sense of foreboding doom. Well, more so than what he was already feeling from the excessively prolonged midsummer night. He really hoped that… whatever it was in the EUP uniform happened to be… didn’t come back to make another attempt to flirt with him. Maybe it was just more worry for his sister, who had (as far as anypony could tell) ran off with a group of mares following that Summer Sun Celebration overseer from Canterlot as she chased after that dark alicorn that had done something with Princess Celestia? Eyup, that was probably it. He’d have to have words with Applejack about that when she got back. Satisfied with his conclusion, the large red stallion went back to setting up poles for the pegasi to set sun crystals on. *O o O o O* Nightmare Moon woke up, feeling a bit disappointed that her reserves were recovering more slowly than she had hoped. The strain of keeping her sister trapped in the etherial plane was really hampering the rate of her power recovery. That was it. She was going to banish Celestia to the moon as soon as she felt that she had enough of her reserves built up to ensure that the Sun Princess wouldn’t be able to escape in the process. Nightmare Moon idly wondered what adventures the little party of heroes were having during their trek through the forest that had grown up around the ruins of her castle. Celestia had obviously moved the seat of the government somewhere else ii the past thousand years. Probably to that city that had sprung up around that old mining town on Mount Canterhorn. Wandering over to where she could look out a westward facing window, Nightmare Moon… Was… Was that pre-dawn light!? No, Nightmare Moon concluded after getting over her brief shock. The light of pre-dawn would have covered much more of the horizon than just that little bit. The ponies back in that little village were up to something. She’d have to have words with them after she gave the heroes their epic encounter. There simply was no way that the villagers would be able to see her beautiful night sky through all that light pollution. Speaking of which, where were the heroes? They should have been in the castle by now, but the alarm wards she had set up around the petrified Elements hadn’t awakened her. Ah, that glowing shield across the ravine was probably them! Assuming her dark mist form once again, Nightmare Moon flowed out the window and approached the shield cautiously. Yes, that was them. Their gear had gone missing, and one of the white ones looked like she had been rather thoroughly soaked at some point, but all seven of them were resting inside the odd looking shield spell. Why was one of the smaller side domes purple? And why were the domes apparently made up of hexagons and pentagons? And what under the stars was the purpose of that glowing ring in the center of the camp? No matter. The Party was almost to the castle. Nightmare Moon flowed back towards the castle and into one of the windows before assuming her more solid alicorn form. At which time she clapped her hooves gleefully before prancing further into the castle to seek out a suitable room to have the main confrontation in. Oh, this was going to be so epic! *O o O o O* Once again hearing insistent knocking at the cottage door, Lyra broke off her argument with Bon Bon, stomped over, and opened it. “Look, you little troll, I… Minuette? Moondancer? Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts? What are you all doing in Ponyville? Oh, hey Spike! Didn’t see you there! Is Twilight here too?” “Twilight went off with another group of ponies to find something called the Elements of Harmony,” Spike replied, somewhat aggrieved that he had to be left behind because he had fallen asleep just as Twilight had been getting ready to leave the library. Couldn’t one of them have carried him or something? *O o O o O* Well rested, if slightly hungry, the party finally approached the gates of the Castle of the Two Sisters. The rope bridge, while a bit shaky, had still been in remarkably good condition for its age and lack of maintenance, but Twilight had reinforced it with some small force platforms anyway, stating that it was good practice for the variant force spell she had copied off of Crystal. Crystal, for her part, was wondering if she had been misremembering the cannon challenges, because as far as she could tell, none of the ones she thought she remembered had actually occurred. Instead, several incidents that bore little, if any, relation to the themes of Harmony had happened. Hopefully, Twilight had managed to gain enough insight into the characters of the other five ponies destined to bear the Elements. Just as the seven mares had reached the gate, with Applejack just about to place a hoof on it to push it open, Pinkie Pie shouted, "WAIT!" Crystal quickly raised a shield around the party as Twilight lit her horn in preparation to cast whatever spell might be called for, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash took aggressive postures, ready to attack whatever pinkie had spotted. "What is it?" Crystal asked as she looked about. "We still have to clear ten rats out of the cellar of an inn,” Pinkie Pie pointed out, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Not to mention completing seven item-chain collection missions so we can unlock each of our first special attacks, and wander around aimlessly so we can grind out at least five more levels!" Every other pony in the party just stared at Pinkie for a moment before placing a hoof to their faces. And then Crystal snickered as she dropped her shield. “I think we’ve already done enough aimless wandering, Pinkie, and the whole point of collecting the Elements is to get those special attacks you’re talking about.” “And, um, Hearthstone asked me to have Mr. and Mrs. Rat and their family move out of his inn last month,” Fluttershy mentioned hesitantly. “Where’d you move them to?” Crystal asked as Applejack opened the gate. “Oh, I put them up for a while before asking Swift and Kite if it was okay to move them into the vacant field near where they lived,” Fluttershy explained. “They were more than happy to have the Rat family relocated there, and even helped me relocate them!” “Doesn’t Kite run a falcon rookery?” Rainbow Dash asked. “And I’m pretty sure that Swift raises ferrets,” Applejack added. “Oh, yes, I’m sure that Mr. and Mrs. Rat will have plenty of good neighbors!” Fluttershy concluded happily. “All they have to do is learn how to be more polite, less selfish, and not pee on ponies that are trying to help them.” “Riiiiiight,” Crystal eyed Fluttershy warily. Perhaps there was a limit to the gentle yellow pegasus’ patience with animals after all. She was pretty sure that Fluttershy couldn’t possibly be that clueless about was would have been the most likely end result of a family of rats moving into that particular field. “If they really wanted to stay at my place, then they should have let themselves be house trained like my other animal friends. They used my sugar bowl as a litter box twice after I caught them peeing in the flour. I had to go out for fresh groceries nearly every day that week because they refused to behave! That’s just rude!” “That might explain why the rats around the farm have become a might more tidy an’ helpful than usual lately,” Applejack commented. “Um… You do know what ferrets and falcons eat, right?” Rainbow Dash wondered. “Yes,” Fluttershy nodded. “And they’ve been eating very well for the past month. So polite and helpful too!” “Uh-huh,” Rainbow Dash stared at her foal hood friend through half-lidded eyes. “New topic!” Crystal announced suddenly. “Agreed,” Rarity added enthusiastically. “How did you come up with those shield variants?” Twilight asked Crystal. “New topic!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said together. *O o O o O* The interior of the Castle of the Two Sisters was, oddly enough, actually much cleaner than a thousand year old ruin had any right to be. Not that it was completely clean by any means, but other than some dust, a few fallen stones here and there, a scattering invasive plant life, and the occasional spider web, the interior was in remarkably good shape. Most of the wall hangings were intact, barely showing any signs of wear or fading. Even the wall sconces and candelabras still had functional torches and candles, all emitting an admittedly eerie pale light from flickering blue flames that were probably magical in nature. “Interesting ambiance,” Crystal observed. “Keep an eye out for any ten horn by ten horn rooms with a chests in them,” Pinkie advised. “They may or may not have anything good in them, but they are almost always guarded.” “This isn’t Ogres & Oubliettes, Pinkie,” Crystal replied dryly. “And we aren’t LARPing.” “Um, Crystal?” Rainbow Dash called down from where she was hovering near one of the balconies that dotted the upper levels of the rather large hall they were currently moving through. “Yes?” “There’s a chest sitting in the middle of the room that’s connected to this balcony. And before you ask, I’d say that the room looks to be about ten by ten, just like Pinkie said.” “Is it guarded by any thing?” Crystal asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Doesn’t look like it,” Rainbow responded. “There’s a sign that says ‘not a trap’ propped up against the chest though.” “Why would Nightmare Moon set up such an obvious trap?” Twilight wondered. “Eh, I’m pretty sure that one was set up by Celestia,” Crystal commented. “It’s probably harmless.” “Well, in that case, I’m going to go for it!” Rainbow Dash called out as she put deed to action. “No! Wait!” the others called out in near unison, just before they heard a snap, a sproing, a thud, a rattle, several thumps, a clank, and another sproing. “What just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked in a dazed tone from right behind the others, startling everypony as they spun to look at her. For some reason, she was now dressed in red and green motley, complete with little brass bells on the three horned hat. And then everypony suddenly looked back up at the balcony as the same exact sequence of sounds repeated once more. “That was fun!” Pinkie announced from behind Rainbow Dash, surprising everypony again. “Aww… I wanted a jester’s costume too! This ones for a rogue!” Crystal’s left eye twitched counterpoint to a nearly identical twitch in Twilight’s right eye. Everypony jumped as the trap in the room above sounded off once again. Cautiously, they all looked back, and sure enough, there was Fluttershy. Now wearing chain mail and a horned helmet, bearing a spear tucked under her right wing. “But… but… I didn’t go anywhere!” the pale yellow pegasus insisted quietly. *O o O o O* After ditching the costumes, because costumes were exactly what they were (as opposed to actually functional outfits or armor), it didn’t take too much longer to find their goal: the chamber that the Elements of Harmony were stored in. Five of the Elements, in the form of bowling ball sized spheres of stone, were sitting on five arms branching out of a central stone pedestal at odd angles to each other. “Okay,” Twilight explained as the others brought the Elements over to her, “according to my research, I should be able to use these to find the missing sixth Element. All I need is some sort of spark.” “Alright, y’all,” Applejack addressed everypony else from the door of the room, “let’s give Twilight some space so she can figure this out.” “Really,” Crystal countered in a dry tone as the others turned to head for the door as well. “After all we’ve been through, we’re going to split the party again? As opposed to setting up a defensive parameter?” “Fair point,” Applejack conceded, coming back into the room. She still stood apart from Twilight, but this time she took a position by the door to guard it rather than head through it. Rainbow Dash took it upon herself to patrol the perimeter of the room, mostly watching the windows for any signs of activity, while Fluttershy did much the same thing while otherwise sitting quietly near the center of the room. Rarity and Crystal looked at each other. “Shield Generator?” Rarity asked. “Shield Generator,” Crystal confirmed as she formed a Thaumic Flywheel. “I’ll feed the ring,” Rarity stated as she took over her foster-sister’s spell. “You just worry about setting everything up.” “Got it,” Crystal replied with a nod, first forming a geodesic force dome over Rarity and the Thaumic Flywheel before sending out little force hexagons to form a similarly segmented barrier across all four walls, the floor, and the ceiling. “You doing alright, Sis?” “I’m fine, Darling. Keep going.” With that encouragement, Crystal continued to set up honeycombed structures of magical force in the form of short walls and barricades of various shapes and sizes so that the group could have bits of cover to duck behind in case Nightmare Moon broke through the outer barrier. With that done, Crystal nodded with a huff, then turned to start heading for her sister to help feed the Thaumic Flywheel that was sustaining all of the tiny shields that made everything. “Most impressive.” a familiar voice remarked from behind and slightly above Crystal. “Tell me, how would it keep out somepony who was already in the room you shielded so diligently?” Startled, Crystal immediately blasted Nightmare Moon in the muzzle. “YOU DARE!?” The dark alicorn’s retaliatory kick sent Crystal clear across the room, where she collided with the wall and fell to the floor in pain. “CRYSTAL!” she heard the others call out as she struggled to get up, coughing blood. Her ribs hurt. Tartarus, her everything hurt! But her sister and her friends were in danger, so she stood all the same. Only to collapse once again as the room blurred and darkened. And then Crystal Synergy knew no more…