//------------------------------// // The King Runs, The Princess Reveals // Story: Cronus is King // by fanficlover 1 //------------------------------// Ch3 Kimewaza: Critical Sacrifice The blade of purple and green energy sliced through the trees like butter before dissipating leaving only me, the unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle and the leftover stumps from my improvised logging technique. “Amazing, when you said you could cut through all those trees, I didn’t know you meant all at one time.” Twilight astonishment wasn’t surprising but it did feel nice to surprise the book worm. “Hey, cutting trees is no sweat, besides, It’s the least I could do for not coming to help.” “Trust me, when you and your friends mess with a sleeping Ursa Major’s baby, don’t think you can get away with it even if it did take a year to happen.” “I still feel bad.” That was the truth, even though I just showed up in town right after the destruction of the town, not a single one of the Pegasi, unicorns, or “earth” ponies paid me any mind and instead just focused on their work to rebuild. That act of dismissal, while somewhat rude if you ask me, showed just what kind of people- I mean ponies the residents of the town were. Hardy, practical, and not afraid to do what was needed (seeing such a connected community as they worked together only redoubled my resolve to help). “Don’t be, Ursa Majors, especially female ones, are extremely powerful creatures that only one of the princesses could handle. There was nothing you could do even if you did try to fight it.” I nodded in acceptance while using the blade of the bugvisor II to cut of stray limbs from the downed trees. With nothing left to say, the field next to the forest where we worked was filled with only the sound of the nearby construction. This silence left both me and Twilight to think to ourselves while we worked but for me, all I could think about were the two weird mix of the three different pony types. “Hey Twilight.” “Yes Cronus?” It still sounded weird to be called that but I didn’t want to use my real name just yet so I ignored the feeling to press on with my question. “ Is your village run by two queens or are you some kind of democratic society?” “That’s a strange question to ask out of the blue but if I had to answer, I would say that we are mostly democratic though we do have royal bloodlines, no queens though.” “That’s a relief I thought I-” “We do have princesses though, Luna and Celestia, in fact, Celestia is my personal teacher though she hasn’t taught me anything in awhile.” “-was in trouble… well that’s just great.” sighing to myself, I stood from my work and surprising Twilight. “Huh, Cronus, what are you doing, we still have the rest of the logs to cut.” her confusion was plain on her face while she started to use her magic to bring some of the cut down trees closer. “I know that but I need to tell you something.” “Really, what is it, is something wrong?” Wrong was one way to put it but how do you explain that your royalty was hunting me down with no real reason, or at least one you know of. Standing still, I continued to think of a way to explain. While I did so, I vaguely noticed that Twilight was looking to the sky now. Finally I had it. “You see Twilight, i’m-” I was stopped mid sentence by the feeling of a magic missile hitting me dead center in the back and launching myself over head Twilight to land on my back in even more pain. “Celestia, what are you doing he-” “Hush Twilight, this creature is a dangerous being who needs to be captured. Go get the elements to contain him and I will explain after. Slowly getting up, I turned to see a cowering Twilight standing before the two princesses with a look of uncertainty as she switched her sight between me and the larger ponies. Not knowing what else to do, I quickly flipped the bugvisor II to its blaster mode and pressed the button. Kimewaza: Critical Judgment I already knew the blast wouldn’t kill them but I didn’t want to hurt Twilight so I aimed to the ground eighth in front of them, making them fly backwards from the shock wave  and giving me the distraction I needed to run back to the town in hopes that the following princesses wouldn’t attack while I was among their people. As expected, they didn’t take long to follow after me as I ran through the working crowds who began ducking in cover. I felt bad about doing it but I couldn’t think of anyway to get away without having time to put on the bugvisor and activating “Time out”. “If I could just teleport on command, I could probably get away.” Nothing happened which meant I wasn’t getting any dues ex machina to save me this time. “God I wish this were a book or something because that would have just saved me. Looks like I’m going to have to do it the hard way.” just five seconds was all I needed and I could pause time to get away scot free. The edge of town was beginning to come into view now and I was running out of ponies to protect me meaning it was now or never. Quickly scanning the upcoming road, I saw a pile of discarded beams and other broken pieces of wood. Seeing that had my plan and the only thing I needed was a little bit of hope. Passing the large pile, I jumped to the side which hopefully confused my flying pursuers long enough to put the bugvisor back into to place and pressing A twice. Kimewaza: Critical Chronicle Punch × 1000 Hearing that, I started punching the wood and was both shocked and grateful to see my arms moving at blurring speeds and punching the wood in the direction of the the flying princesses. The Princesses began dodging as best they could but the sheer volume was just too much causing them to lose altitude and crashing to the ground below under their own piles of heavy wood. Wasting no time now, I pressed the A and B button. Time Out. in an instant, everything lost motion, stopping right where they were. The Princesses were in the midst of getting out from under their piles, Twilight could be seen just off in the distance having followed myself and the two princesses, and random bits of my makeshift attack were still in the midst of falling. Turning tail, I began running, running outside the ruined town, into the expansive plains to who knows where, not stopping until I was sure they couldn’t follow. Eventually my running led me to leave the grassy plains and come upon a very mountainous region with steep cliffs that towered above me. These mountains were the same that were only vaguely seen in the distance from Ponyville meaning I was hundreds of miles away now. “If the can somehow still track me, even this far away, at least I have a head start.” I pressed the A and B again. Time In. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Celestia POV) The displaced was gone again, probably well beyond were we could follow him now if he’s realized we’re following him. Sighing, I began to wipe some of the leftover wood off my coat while Luna did the same. “Princess Celestia.” Turning in surprise, I saw my faithful student Twilight running towards. When she reached us both, she was left gasping for breath which meant she hadn’t taken my advice to keep up with her exercises when she left, not that she did much to begin with while she read in her library. Smiling lightly, I turned to face her while Luna simply lowered her flank to sit and stew in her anger. “Twilight, it is good to see you again.” “It’s good to see you to Celestia but what was all that chasing and blasting about.” She didn’t understand, even knowing she wouldn’t I couldn’t help but frown the tiniest degree before sighing again. “I’m sorry Twilight but that creature you faced is a danger to our society and I can not simply let him walk our lands.” “Danger? But he was helping us rebuild after an Ursa attack, an Ursa Major to be exact.” “I don’t expect you to understand this Twilight but this is not something you can involve yourself in, not yet, if history is to repeat itself.” “Repeat itself, what are you talking about?” “She is talking about the displaced, Twilight.” I hadn’t noticed Line move from her position as she was now standing and facing my student. “Luna, what are you doing?” “What I have to dear sister. For her to truly understand our motives, she will need to know the truth.” “But we made a pact to never speak of them to another pony.” “That may be true but with our hunt going the way it is, we may need to break that pact.” “What are you two talking about over, what pact, and what’s a displaced?” The voice came from above from an injured Rainbow dash who was lounging on a cloud. If she had already heard as much as she did then we might as well reveal the truth to all the Elements of Harmony. “We will answer you questions Rainbow dash but not now, we need somewhere private to speak with both you and Twilight as well as the rest of the Elements of Harmony.” 10 minutes later I sat before the 6 elements and their confused gazes alone in a loaned shack as Luna had already flown back to the castle to prepare for the next and check that the lower chambers were still closed. “So, um, princess, why are we here?” Ah Fluttershy, the least vocal and shyest of the group but also the one who will gladly speak first to break any unwanted silence. “Forgive me, I am simply trying to think of the best way to explain everything to you all.” “Then jus’ do it the old fashion way and get straight to the details.” Applejack, honest and blunt. Not afraid to get to the point and dance around the details. “Very well. Many thousands of years ago, when I was but a foal and the land was still divided, there existed the many factions and species you know that are taught in your everyday schooling, that is except one. The displaced are a group of people, humans in most cases as they called themselves, who did not originate from our world. Somehow, through the hands of some being known as the Merchant, they had been delivered to our world in bodies that were not their own but rather of ones with great power, some even rivaling my sister in I. Every year they came and grew in numbers, conquering or helping as they saw fit but nothing truly changed, that is until one day in my youth, I met displaced that went by the name of Natsu. His power was immense but he chose to only use it when he wished to defend what he cared for. Because of that, we became friends, this friendship allowed me to grow into the ruler you see today and unite our lands and welcome the many displaced who came in harmony.” Their confusion took form in varying degrees but I pressed on. “This piece would not last though. Less than 200 hundred years later, a new displaced arrived, one filled with only hate and contempt. At first, we believed we could stop his terror but nothing we did worked to stop him and his hate soon spread to others, corrupting the displaced, both old and new, one by one until he had an army that matched my own. For years we fought, watching as those we cared for die or turn against us. All seemed lost, that is until I found the Element of Harmony and with them, I encased the all of them in stone bodies locking them underground. It seemed like all would become peaceful again and I and my sister could welcome the coming generation of displaced but that was not to be. Among the many displaced who had run and hidden from us during the final battle, one had plagued my sister with a curse, the curse that would eventually turn her into the demon she would become, Nightmare Moon and making me seal her away. That one act was the final straw, if displaced were willing to turn my sister into demon to hate me then I would hate all displaced and trap them in stone with the rest of them. And that was what I did, I searched for the remains of the army, gathered the few who had stayed with me, and confronted the few who continued to arrive and encased them in stone in both fear and anger for who they might be and what they could do.” None of my little ponies said anything, instead as they simply stared at the floor, at a loss on what to say.