//------------------------------// // Holder's Boulder // Story: This is what we do // by Foxgear //------------------------------// This is what we do ch 9 By Foxgear Applejack stood on the crest of the hill that overlooked the crater below. She and her friends have traveled through the dark dense words of Hop’s Valley by only the light of their flashlights and phones for the past several hours. Now they stood at their destination, Holder’s Boulder, which lay at the bottom of the crater. No one knew how it got there. The giant smooth stone has been around since the discovery of the valley back in the 1800’s, by Hop and Holder, hence the name, Holder’s Boulder and Hop’s valley. It has been the subject of mystery and myth for years. “My sister Lime Stone really wants to bring Holder’s Boulder home,” Pinkie said breaking the silence of the night. Earning a chuckle from the group as they looked nervously down to the stone. The monster tracking app showed this was the area where the portal was to appear. “Let’s go take a closer look,” Applejack suggested carefully stepping down the small ledge and onto the crater’s slope. She helped Sunset down and then the others one by one. Together they skidded down the gravelly hillside, the only sound was the rocks crumbling beneath their shoes, no other creatures stirred, not even a cricket. Making for an eerily descent. Once they reached the bottom the group approached the giant rock, which loomed over them in the moonlight. “So, when’s the portal supposed to open up?” Rainbow asked impatiently, checking her phone. The timer at reached zero and there was nothing else around. “This better not be a false alarm.” Applejack felt the rainbow haired girl’s eyes on her. If this turned out to be a goose chance, she would be the one to blame. Though she would be irritated too if they come out here for nothing. It was an hour and a half drive out here, with a two-hour hike in the dark, on a Monday no less. Probably Tuesday by now. On top of that, they still had to hike and drive back in time to get to school. “Hey Twilight, not to put you on the spot, but do you have some answers for us?” The most recent addition of their little group looked like a deer in head lights as all eyes turned to her. Nervously Twilight fiddled with her phone, trying to find the answer. “I… can’t say for sure. I just downloaded Maggie’s program and copied it. I only got to figure out the basics of it before applying it to the phones. Sizing it down to fit on the phones might have hindered the program’s accuracy, plus you don’t get very good service in the woods.” Twilight took a breath, her cheeks rosy from a lack of air and embarrassment. “Sorry, I might have wasted all of your time.” “If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine,” Applejack said, ruffling her hair in frustration. She went off half-cocked, it really shouldn’t take being stranded out in the woods at the latest hours of the night to know you dun screwed up. “It was my idea to come out here. You may have all volunteered, but I was one that led the charge. But before we start assigning blame, let’s wait for a spell before we pack up for the night. If nothing happens in thirty minutes or so, we’ll call it a night and go home. Agreed?” A varying degree of agreements was voiced. Some like Rainbow Dash were a bit irritated, Rarity was strangely neutral, Fluttershy was grateful and Pinkie was disappointed, while Twilight looked more relieved than she should be. Applejack put a note in her head to try and interact with their new friend more. She shouldn’t be so nervous around them over something so minor. With the decision made Applejack sat down in the grass to wait, only to realize one person didn’t speak. Craning her neck, she spotted Sunset over by the base of Holder’s Boulder with her back turned to them. Wordlessly she got up and stood next to the bacon hair girl trying to see what she was looking at. Shining her flashlight, Applejack saw what caught the fiery hair girl attention. There were symbols on the side of the boulder. Random pictures of horse heads and other strange things, like something in native tongue or something. Judging by Sunset’s curious stare, it probably wasn’t from earth. “Seeing something familiar?” She asked the equestrian. Sunset nodded, a sly grin playing on her lips as she ran her hand over the carved symbols, “I think so, but it’s old, like older than my grandma old.” “Isn’t your grandma the pony version of Principle Celestia?” “Yep,” Sunset beamed with pride, “Princess Celestia, the only thing older than her is dirt and maybe this. I can’t even read it and I learned ancient Equestrian! This is amazing! This rock is over a thousand years old in Equestria!” “Ok… so what are the chances this is something you guys dropped on earth because you couldn’t handle it back home? This boulder looks like a giant egg, a dragon or something just as monstrous like that isn’t going to hatch from this, is it?” Sunset opens her mouth to speak only to close it again and strike up a thinking pose. After several hums and other noises, she grinned nervously well scratching her head, “I’ll…I’ll get back to you on that.” Applejack didn’t say anything. Choosing instead to stare at rock and wonder what problems it might cause in the future or maybe even tonight? With their luck, she wouldn’t be surprised if Cthulhu came out of it. “How long as it been? We should probably get going if nothing’s going appear tonight.” “It’s been about thirty minutes,” Twilight checking her phone. A puzzled looked crossed the lavender girl’s face as she shifted through her phone again. Checking her monster hunting app for something. “I’ve been thinking.” She held up her screen of them all to see, the big red dot was still pulsing over their location. Warning them to be careful. “What if we missed the monster arrival?” “That is certainly possible,” Applejack conceded, “But where are they then? I don’t see any tracks or nothing.” “There wouldn’t be tracks if the monster could fly, right?” Suggested Fluttershy, causing everyone to immediately look up and sigh as there were no signs of anything in the moonlight sky. Moving her flashlight around Applejack took another look for any tracks she could have missed. Still seeing nothing she began to walk around Holder’s boulder when something cracked beneath her foot. Pointing the light down she found a bone beneath her foot. Nothing to worry about. Until she stepped on another and another and then another. Raising her light ahead of her she found the ground behind Holder’s boulder surrounded by bones like it was some kind of massive graveyard. A chill ran up her spine, reminding Applejack of the time the ice girl attacked her and black timber wolf had helped her. Her heart began to pound as she looked over the sea of bones. Finding the familiar canine shape of the skulls. “Um girls, you might want to come see this! And then we might want to run.” The girls came around the boulder, with Sunset leading the pack, “What do you mean… oh no...” Sunset spread her arms out, holding the others back. “Don’t get any closer! Applejack you need to get away from those! Those are Knochen!” A chilly wind blew through the crater nearly freezing the girls to their cores. The bones began to rattle and pull themselves together creating the misshapen shapes of the creatures they had once been Wolves. Wolves made of bone and held together by silver magic. The Knochen Wolves all turned to the girls and began to paw towards them. Their bone bodies scattering and rolling into a new shape, changing into something that resembled a wolfman. The girls’ phones beeped and spoke, “Knochen, deadlier versions of Timber Wolves made of bone. They have a quad pedal and bipedal form.” “Thanks, Athena, two minutes too late,” Twilight mumbled as the Knochen drew closer. “So… do we need silver bullets or… what?” Every looked at Pinkie in disbelief. “What it’s a valid question! We’re fighting werewolves! Made of bones… so do we need a silver bone saw?” Rarity gave a sour look, “This is how we die, isn’t it? Well, hopefully, they find my funeral designs. As long as we aren’t mangled to the point we’ll need a closed casket service.” “Can we not do this now! We need to get to cover!” Applejack yelled pulling her gun up. She fired off a clip of magic infused rounds, the orange tinted bullets hit the Knochen scattering their bones with each shot. The Knochen looked at its dismembered limbs before simply reforming them. “Let’s go! Head for the trees!” “I don’t think that’s an option!” Rainbow yelled, pointing behind them, the Knochen already had them surrounded. “Up the rock!” Applejack growled, looking at the smooth surface of the rock. They could never climb it. “Fluttershy grab Twilight and carry her up! Twilight use your levitation to carry us all up! Everyone else, cover fire!” Fluttershy sprang into action. Transforming into her pony form and hosting Twilight up by the shoulders. Her wings flapping hard to support the weight of the other girl. “Why are you so heavy! You look so small!” Fluttershy grit her teeth and flapped harder, her face turning red from the effort. “I’m sorry! Pinkie keeps feeding me cupcakes!” Twilight grasp her geode, calling on her levitation powers. A soft purple aura covered all her friends on the ground. She struggled to lift them, barely even getting their feet off the ground. The Knochen grew closer, the bullets barely slowing down the horde. “Twilight focus!” Sunset yelled from below, “Remember that time at the rock quarry! You can do it!” Twilight nodded firmly, suddenly lifting them all up at once and carrying them to the top of Holder’s boulder. She and Fluttershy landed alongside them, panting for breath. “How much time will this buy us?” Carefully Applejack stepped to the edge of the egg-shaped rock, Rainbow Dash and Sunset making a human chain to keep her from falling. Down below the Knochen clawed at the surface of the boulder, their claws failing to find purchase in the smooth surface. Some of the monsters seemed to catch on and started dogpiling on top of one another to climb higher. “Not long by the look of things.” Applejack said as she was pulled back from the edge, racking her brain about what to do. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash could probably carry them out of the crater, but then that would leave the army of monsters to roam around unchecked. If the beasts scattered now, they might never find them all again. At least not without creating many innocent victims. “If we pick them off as they climb up we might stand a chance. How much ammo do you all have left? We can save our energy till the bullets run out or at least till we have a better plan. I have a clip and a half.” “I have a clip,” Said Rainbow Dash. “Same,” seconded Pinkie. “Two,” Rarity said. “I only have one,” said Sunset. “I have three clips, but I dropped my gun when I picked up Twilight. Sorry AJ.” Said Fluttershy. “I have two, the third one is in the gun. I dropped it too,” said Twilight. AJ sighed, too tired to be mad at them for dropping their weapons. “Alright, let’s divide up the ammo and Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie and I will hold the line. Sunset, Twilight, and Fluttershy, you sit back and think of a plan.” The three nodded as the other four spread out to cover all directions and begin to rain down hot lead on the Knochen. “So, what can we do?” Twilight shouted over the roar of gunfire. “We can’t just run. These things will follow us or worse they won’t and they’ll hurt the campers in the woods. These woods are so vast we would be hunting them down for weeks!” “Um I know this might be a strange question, but do Knochen hunt animals? I know people are more important, but I was wondering since they’re made of bones, does that mean they can make more of themselves when they eat living creatures? Or do they even eat?” Sunset and Twilight looked beside themselves, “That’s… a good question. Let me look that up quick.” Said Twilight. Rubbing her temple, Sunset let out a growl in frustration, “This just keeps getting worse. We can use our magic to fight them off, but we never fought against so many opponents before. We have no idea how long we can maintain our magic. We could fight for an hour or five minutes.” “What if you turn into Daydream Shimmer? You would have the power wipe them all out at once, right?” Suggested Twilight between scrolling through the Knochen data file. “And yes, they can make more Knochen after killing a victim. But if only they embed the bones of the corpse with magic.” “Great, so we really have to kill them here and now.” Sunset groaned, trying to think. Daydream might be their only hope, but she wasn’t sure if she could do it without Twilight’s magic capture thing. “We could try a rainbow blast?” “This is going to sound strange coming from me, but we never killed anything with that Sunset,” Fluttershy said with surprising brutal honestly. “And not to sound even more off kilter, but those things shouldn’t be allowed to roam. They’re not people, nor are they animals, they’re monsters!” Putting aside Fluttershy’s aggressive tone. She was right. There weren’t any other options, they needed to fight! They needed to… what was that? Breaking away from their little war party Sunset crawled the very tip of Holder’s Boulder, where there, in the moonlight. Something silver glimmered. Getting on her knees Sunset shined her flashlight on the strange object, a dull silver crystal, embedded in the stone. Around the gem were seven slots. There was a tug around her neck. Reaching into her shirt Sunset pulled the geode crystal that hung from her neck. The geode glowed red and broke free from the chain that held it and flew into one of the slots. Flabbergasted Sunset touched the gem. An image of gray horns appeared in her head. Something reached into her mind and began pulling information from her brain. Feeling dizzy Sunset staggered away from the gem and fell on her back. Her eyes glazing over as an invisible force pulled the magic from her body. As the world went mute around her, she could hear her friend screaming her name. Applejack fired her last round at the pile of Knochen. Calling on her enhanced strength she chucked the now useless rifle down at the tower of monsters, sending them falling over themselves to the ground. More were on the way, giving her no time to rest as she now only had her fists. Shifting awkwardly on the rounded surface of Holder’s Boulder, Applejack stood in the stance her father had taught her and Mac when they were young. Nothing real fancy, but it would get the job done. Bouncing on her toes she socks the first Knochen to charge right in the face. And then another and another! Each blowing their skulls to pieces! A smile danced on Applejack’s lips. Despite the danger, there was a certain thrill to all this. However, the fun quickly came to an end. Screams from both Fluttershy and Twilight caught Applejack’s attention. Whipping her head around to see what was wrong. To her horror Sunset laying on the ground unmoving. “Tighten up!” She ordered the others, rushing to the fallen Sunset. Kneeling beside the former bully Applejack watched with dismay as Sunset’s red colored magic moved from her body to her geode, now embedded beside a large silver gem. “What happened?” She asked Twilight and Fluttershy. “We don’t know. She walked over here and then she fell over.” Explained Twilight. Wanting a closer look Applejack followed the trail of magic to the silver gem and Sunset’s geode, which had reverted to its crystal form. A bright orange light comes from under her shirt and Applejack lifted her geode from between her chest. The gem shining like never before pulled away from her wanting to go towards the slots. All her strength left her at once and Applejack fell face first against the hard stone. Her gem floating into the slot beside Sunsets. “Applejack!” Twilight and Fluttershy yelled in unison, rushing toward her. “Don’t come near!” She warned, but it was too late. Their geodes shined and flew away from them. Landing inside the slots with the others. Gray smoke began to pour out of the silver crystal, taking the form of a smoky equine like creature with a single long horn and antlers atop its head. The creature’s nonexistent eyes burned red as it placed its nonexistent hoof/claw on Applejack’s head. She felt it probe her head, reading her mind like Sunset had done at camp. Only it wasn’t as gentle. She screamed as the creature pulled her memories to the surface, demanding to see all she had to offer before seemingly becoming bored and releasing her. Applejack’s head fell against the hard stone as her body shivered, feeling completely violated. The creature turned its attention to Twilight and Fluttershy, and then to Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie, who looked uncertain who be fighting. Raising its left foreleg, the creature pointed to a group of Knochen, it’s horn burning purple, ripping the boney creatures to pieces. The former Knochen flew into the smokeless void of the creature, their bones twisting and breaking to his whim. Slowly the smokeless void became solid. Applejack let out a scream as the creature stomped on her shoulder, grinding its hoof deep into her body. The creature snorted hot fumes from its hallowed snout, its eyes shifting between colors every second. “Return my remaining auras,” It’s said, it’s voice booming like thunder, “We, Grau, the Lesser King of Bones! Demand it!” “What if we refuse?” Rainbow Dash shot back. Standing boldly before the towering equine creature. The brash girl backed off as Grau dug his hoof deeper into Applejack’s shoulder. Making the farm girl cry out in agony, to the point that tears were running down her freckled face. “Then your friends, nay, your family will suffer for your foolishness Rainbow Daring Dash. And you Pinkamena Diane Pie, what of your family? Should your family die for your friend’s foolish bravado? Or you Rarity Wiess Belle? It would be a shame for your sister to suffer unneeded right? Surely as a doting older sister, you could never let that happen? Why must so many suffer over something so small?” The three stood a gasp. Fear clear as the moon on their faces. “How do you know all that?” Rarity demanded, her hand clutching the geode dangling around her neck, as well as the heart-shaped locket that held Sweetie Belle’s picture. Grau chuckled, a deep thunderous chuckle that shook the very boulder they stood on, “My auras are my power, the power you so foolishly believed to be your own! The power to read minds that once belonged to your friend is now mine, and I used it to its full effect. I know everything there is to know about you, what you love and what it will take to break you. Now return my geodes as you call them, I do not take kindly to thieves. Even unwitting ones.” Rarity’s hand shook as she held out her amulet, her fear, and concern for her little sister driving her actions. “Don’t do it! He’s a fallen Alicorn! Princess Celestia and Luna imprisoned him here two thousand years ago!” Sunset coughed, her voice raw and broken. Grau’s whip-like tail fell on her in a heartbeat. The bony appendage breaking skin with a single strike, leaving a long bloody wound on Sunset’s belly. “Thou should be quiet, Scion of Celestia, I will be dealing with you momentary. Bringing your mangled body to your grandmother would be a most delicious revenge or maybe I’ll awaken that darkness in you again and have you kill her instead? Wouldn’t that be a treat!” “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash screamed. In the blink of an eye she disappeared using her super speed to get behind Grau, a spear of lightning in her hand. Grau didn’t even turn his head as he caught Rainbow in his telekinesis. Suspending her in midair. “You shouldn’t use powers that you don’t understand, nor belong to you,” He said bringing Rainbow in front of him. Her arm trembled as he forced her spear of lightning away from him and towards her friends. “Now, who do you love most?” He said placing the tip of his horn to her forehead. Let’s see… her.” Rainbow Dash felt her grip on the lightning spear loosen and watched in horror as it flew from her hand and into Fluttershy’s stomach! The poor shy girl let out screams of pure agony as thousands of volts coursed through her body. Rainbow’s tears fell like rain as she dropped to the ground. She crawled in a complete daze to her friend and held her in her arms. “I’m sorry Fluttershy, I’m sorry…” She sobbed as her geode flew away from her. “This need not be so hard,” Grau said, finally stepping off Applejack and began walking towards Rarity and Pinkie. “You merely need to bow to your new king.” A blue barrier flew up in his path and several glowing pink stones came flying at him. With a mere flick of his head, Grau caught the stones in his magic and threw them back at the barrier, destroying it. He reached for the crystals with his telekinesis, ripping Rarity’s away from her. Pinkie’s did not come. “Interesting. You have powers similar to an old acquaintance of mine. Tell me are perhaps Disciple of Discord? Or perhaps you are a scion of his? That would be a rather funny joke.” Pinkie grinned and pony up. The geode around her neck glowed and changed her clothes. She gave a come-hither gesture and jumped away. “Come get me you, big meanie!” She screamed as she jumped off the side of Holder’s Boulder. Grau flew after her and got an exploding Knochen to the face! “You are a surprising one,” He chuckled as Pinkie hurled his minions at him, each one becoming a living bomb with a mere touch. Combustion was truly one of his favorite powers. Still, it was sad to see it wielded by an amateur. Catching one of the explosive Knochen, he threw it back down at the pink girl, trapping her beneath it and two others she had been preparing to throw. Grau let out a hearty laugh, waiting for the smoke to clear. He was not disappointed to see the defiant pink girl still standing. Her clothes tattered and her hair flat? That’s strange. He was expecting it to be fringed or sizzled. Not flat. That was kind of weird. Also, the air was feeling heavy. Pinkie looked up with an angry snarl, “GET DOWN HERE!” She raised her hands and then threw them down. Grau suddenly come flying down to the ground HARD! The earth splitting open upon impact. The flying rubble sparkled with sinister pink magic, the maniac pink girl stood on the edges of the crater with a devious smile. The rubble exploded. Creating a change of explosions so powerful it rocked the trees and created a second crater the size of a city block! “Having a fun party?” Pinkie asked, her tone dreary and dull. Grau appeared in a flash, unharmed, and sporting a skeletal grin. “Your king is amused.” Pinkie’s smiled widened to insane proportions, “Good. Then you’ll love this!” She grabbed hold of him. Pink sparkles covering his entire body. “The coup de grace, a Party bomb!” Grau exploded! His body of bones scattering like shrapnel in every direction. Pinkie stood loopily on wobbly legs with an insane grin on her face, her body burned and bones piercing her shoulder, stomach, and thigh, yet she still laughed. She laughed so hard that she fell to the ground. She laughed until she heard the disembodied laughter of Grau. The king of bones stood over her, not on four, but two legs. His body that of a man with a crown of bones atop his head. He knelt beside her. His hand reaching for the geode around her neck. She reached out and grabbed his arm. “Isn’t this when you kiss the Princess? When she’s prone and unable to move?” He laughed as he gently removed her hand from his, “A King needs not a princess when there is a Queen beside him. I happen to be in the market for one. Interested? You flow between the vestiges of light and dark, much as I do. All of you maidens do. I find that very interesting.” “The darkness isn’t inside us by choice. It was put there by someone and it stays there. The roots run deep inside us. Deeper in some more than others.” Pinkie said as her hand slipped away from his. Grau took the gem that rested on her chest. Placing it with the rest of the geodes that hung from his neck. He began to walk away. To look upon this new world when a column of pink light rose from Pinkie’s body. He looked at the top of the rock that had been his prison. A rainbow of lights shot into the sky and cumulated into one golden light. From that light came Sunset Shimmer, overflowing with power and donned in a pink dress and golden armor. She glared at him, creating a lance and shield from light. “Celestia used axes. I myself prefer a good sword, but I found a rather interesting weapon idea in your pink friend’s mind.” He said creating two skulls atop his hands, one of a wolf and one of a dragon. A blade of steel come out of the dragon’s mouth, while a cannon came from the wolf’s. Wings of bone spread from his back as he took to the sky to meet his opponent. “Come, Scion of Celestia! Show the King of Bones your power! Show me what a little sun can do!” Sunset thrust her lance forward and charged, a blinding aura of light following in her wake. Grau charged ahead as well, sword aimed ahead in a thrust and with a cloud of gray following in his wake. They met and the sky exploded in a blend of gold and gray. Back on the Apple Farm Maddie said in her chair. Her broken leg levitated by a tall stack of books while she types fiercely on her keyboard. A cigarette burning between her lips as her tired eyes read across the computer screen. She found them. She found them! She found the ones that broke into her home! A mad laugh escapes her lips as she follows the link to the computer that housed her stolen data. To her mild surprise, the IP address was of one Twilight Athena Sparkle. The new nerdy girl in Applejack’s little click. Pulling up Twilight’s files Maddie was impressed. “If I still had my professing job I would have loved to have her in my class. Then I could bring her around like I did with Moondancer and then I would get into her…” Taking a drag of her cigarette Maddie settled herself down. She wasn’t evil anymore. Well, she was trying not to be. Old habits and all that. Also, this girl and Moondancer looked weirdly alike, safe for hair styles and color tones. “Well it’s a big world, there are bound to be a few doubles of people.” Remote controlling Twilight’s computer. Maddie scrolled through Twilight’s most recent files. Most of them being hers. Seems the nerdy girl was fairly good at programming, Twilight managed to compress her entire monster finding system into a phone app. That was some noble peace prize stuff right there. “Hmm, what to do in revenge? Flood her files with porn for her parents to see? No, need something more original.” Maddie looked at her photo of Moondancer and hatched a devious idea as she opened Photoshop. “This will be a fun surprise. I should keep a feed of her webcam. I’m going to want to watch this over and over.” Maddie laughed deviously as she sent her little ‘surprise’ to Twilight’s Email. Kicking back, she glanced at the clock to see it was about five thirty in the morning. The need for sleep suddenly hitting her. Pushing away from her desk, Maddie’s chair rolled across the floor to her bed, where she rolls onto it in a single fluid motion. All without irritating her wounded leg. Pleased with herself she snuffs out the cigarette in the ashtray next to the bed. Cozying up for some sleep. Then she felt it. A massive surge of magic made her senses tingle and her body spring up in bed. Her machines whine and beep, reading the magic spike. Hopping onto her chair Maddie rolls over to her desk again. Watching the magic levels rise. The levels were on par with the three previous times this happened. The first being when Sunset Shimmer turned evil, the second when the sirens were defeated, and the third when Sunset Shimmer did battle with Midnight Sparkle. The energy being record matched the third to a T. Meaning Sunset Shimmer went goddess mode. Except where last time the amount of light magic overwhelmed the dark. This time the darkness overwhelmed the light. Maddie fell back in her chair, mouth agape. Sunset Shimmer has been defeated. “I need to tell Adagio and the others!” Maddie looked around for her phone and then cursed when she realized she left it in the truck. She also didn’t have a landline and none of the sirens would be up in time to check an email. Grabbing her crutches Maddie began the long hobble to the yard.