//------------------------------// // I'm (Not) Alone // Story: Cold Scales // by Konatra //------------------------------// The armored Spines flew across the skies like a bullet, slicing through the clouds at supersonic speeds. This was a fantastic feeling beyond anything Spines ever felt in her life. The sensation of flight was also terrifying but the suit did all the work and guided her back to base without risk of falling, at least that’s what the androids told her what would happen. She glided high above the cloud layer over the edge of the Everfree as to be sure no other Void creatures would come out for now. “5V do you see anything?” She asked her companion who flew close behind. “Yes Mam’.” She trusted that the androids advanced sensors would better spot out any anomalies better than she can. It only took a second but she got a reply. “No Void in the near vicinity but I have spotted signs of a previous skirmish.” Without even asking an image appeared over her Head’s Up Display. At first, she was confused at the sight of a burnt patch of land near the edge of the forest but then her heart sunk deep into her chest. That’s where Butterscotch lives. “Oh no, Oh no no nonononononoNO!” If flying took focus then Spines would surely be falling by now. Thoughts spiraled in her head on what could this mean, did more come back, did the force from before razed his house before coming here? Why didn’t Discor-“ Her mind snapped. “DISCOOOORD!!” Despite her worried furry, she heard a quite pleasing tune from a distance, her enhanced audio receptors made this song quite clear to her in the sky. “-A WHOLE NEW WOOORLD! A DAZZLING PLACE I NEVER KNEW!” The confused dragon looked to her bottom right to see the god of Chaos riding through the clouds on a flying carpet wearing some king of royal Arabian clothing. Next to him was an inflated doll dressed in a blue feminine garb similar to his. It had a smile scribbled on its face in crayon. The song continued. “LET ME SHARE THIS WHOLE NEW WORLD WITH YOOU…” Just to add to Spines’ growing hysteria Discord slowly leaned into the dead-eyed doll with his lips puckered, what the hell was this nonsense! “DISCORD!!” She pumped up the volume to high on that shout. The foolish god fumbled at the shock of the unexpected volume and accidentally let the doll out of his grip and drops it to its apparent doom below the clouds. The god cried out in anguish while reaching down to catch the already lost figure. “Rrrgg Spines!” Discord yelled while eying her like the devil itself. “I was just about the seal the deal!” He limped on his back on the carpet and did an overly dramatic pose. “All those wasted years…” He flipped over to sadly peer down at the sea of white clouds. “They don’t just make women like those in a factory you know..?” Spines felt this insanity had gone on long enough. She unlatched her metallic mouth and fired a flurry of flames over the god. The flame cleared quickly which only left behind the slightly burnt god of Chaos. “Okay you made your point, what is it?” “Where is Butterscotch? His whole house was destroyed!” “Well duh of course it is, I’m the one who burned it.” He stated proudly. Spines really couldn’t make up proper responses to that, what came out were sounds of choked-up confusion and anger. 5V hovered over the dumbfounded general. “Lady, is this creature bothering you?” He asked while eyeing down the odd-looking creature. Said creature huffed in annoyance. “Actually she’s bothering me for your information tin can.” Before this could continue Spines forced out the only thing she wanted to know. “Explain yourself!” “Well, it’s quite simple really. I tried scaring Butterscotch by disguising myself as various creatures from the Everfree but he would just ball up under the bed and not move for hours…that was getting upsetting to watch so I decided to simply destroy the problem at the source and forcefully remove him from the house with fire.” For a second Discord actually felt a twinge of fear at the canceled glare he was getting from the masked dragon. “Ah-ha, don’t look at me like that! Everything was under control; I made the flame burn slowly so he had more than enough time to escape with all his precious animal nuisances. He’s living at the castle right now for your information.” Honestly, Spines felt ridiculous for asking Discord to solve the problem but at that point she had no choice, at least no one war harmed. “Alright fine, I guess I’ll have to accept that as it is…did you do anything else while I was gone?” She didn’t want any more unexpected surprises for later. “Ehh, well recently I noticed patrol groups were searching deep into the forest in search for you, I thought nothing of it until you asked me to keep people out so I’ve been enhancing the local creatures with a shield spell and by making them more territorial so they chase anyone out until they are far gone. Don’t worry about anyone getting hurt, I made it so the beast will only intimidate intrudes instead of attacking them.” Spines was quite thankful that if anyone was killed searching for her…well Spines could never forgive herself if such a horrible thing were to happen. Only one more thing remained on her mind. “Did you do anything about Zecoro?” “…Who?” Spines felt as if she were going to blow a blood vessel in her eye, more out of stress than rage this time. “…Oh right, the witch doctor I completely forgot about him, I’ll have my minions chase him out of the forest if he’s still there, I’m sure Dusk won’t let him go back now with things getting all fired up, now may I ask you where did you get that dashing apparel?” In the very least Discord was keeping his word. “It’s a long story Discord, maybe you want to come over to my base inside the mountain so we can catch up?” Internally Spines wanted a familiar face to talk to, these past days she felt quite homesick and lonely. Discord was now doing swimming motions as they flew. “Hm, well that does sound interesting…I’d really not want to be around that Interloper of his wretched stench.” The remainder of Tendrix made her heart well up. “Um…I don’t think he’s coming back any more Discord.” There was a slight quiver in her voice. “What does that…mean?” Discord caught on to the suddenly somber atmosphere and made a few conclusions of his own. “Oh…” He sighed. “Okay Spines, I’ll have to clear my busy schedule but I guess I can make the time early tomorrow perhaps.” This made her feel better. “Ok…and thank you, I was being a bit harsh before but thank you for protecting those people in your own way.” She waved and boosted her speed far beyond his with the android close behind. Now the god was alone. “…Nothing can ever be simple can it?” And with that, he disappeared with a notable lack of fanfare. --- “That is what I saw!” Dusk pounded his hoof down on the Cutie Map. He felt a rising sense of frustration overtake him. All around him were his closest friends that fit up the six of the seven chairs that came with the desk. One chair remained empty and that was the marginally larger seat next to him, this was Spines’, and every time he looked at it he felt like a little part of him die inside. Applejack was being as stubborn as usual and firmly believed the admittedly unbelievable events ever transpired and were the results of some kind of sleep-deprived nightmare. The very notion of that actually made the prince want to hit the apple bucker. Of course, this was still due to the lack of sleep he was suffering. “I’m just saying I find it mighty hard to believe that a never-before-seen swarm of demons comes rushing out from the Everfree without any prior knowledge or reason to invade, get absolutely blasted to bits by some kind of crazy sword using a robot and its laser sword minion?” Well, it did sound somewhat insane when explained like that but it was an absolute fact that it did happen. “I dunno AJ.” Rainbow started. “Just before I got here I did hear the unmistakable sound of a sonic boom. Only a robot could be as fast as me I say!” Illusive was next to point out a fact. “We also have those two fresh craters on the ground.” “Well, I reckon Dusk just went through a breakdown and shot the ground and sky with some kind of new beam magic he learnt through sleeping.” Dusk glared at his friend in disbelief. “Why can’t you just listen to what I’m telling you AJ?” “Well where are all these giant demon bodies then?” He asked demandingly. “I already told you they-“ “Yeah, faded away like mist you said? We have no evidence whatsoever. Now I’m not trying to be an ass with ya Dusk, but I think you screaming to the public and my little brother about demons and robots from space crashing down and having some giant two-minute war that no one saw a bit suspicious, I don’t know much about magic but I suspect some kind of magic spell could easily somehow make you see all that nonsense and create those holes in the ground, it’s just my honest opinion is all.” Dusk gritted his teeth and felt like his head was going to explode. “Well your opinion is bullshit!” The five stallions flinched at the sharp turn of tone. “I am having the worse time of my life Jack! My sister goes missing, no one has even seen her except me and no one believes me and now we get invaded by nightmares unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and you think I’m just making all this up? Yeah, I can be a bit rash when I’m tired but by Solaris’s fat flank I swear to you I saw it.” He got up from his seat and stomped out of the room. “If you’ll excuse me I have to warn the public and build some walls.” The door was slammed shut with magic and left behind an awkward silence in the room. Applejack was the first to speak. “He’s making a huge mistake I say, he’ll plunge this whole town into anarchy if we just let him do what he wants.” He looked around the table, expecting to see confirming nods but was met with only a mixture of disproving and sad looks. “…What?” Blitz was the first to answer. “Man Jack, you sure know when to be the most stubborn, Dusk is in a very dark place right now and instead of belittling him we should maybe take up what he says seriously.” “But there’s no possible way any of that hoopla could be re-“ Illusive was next to speak up. “Now I do believe dear Dusk can be a bit rash when sleep deprived but I highly doubt all of this could possibly be orchestrated by one stallion in a fit of hysteria…something odd has been going on these past few weeks.” He pointed over to the still crouching Butterscotch, looking determined not to be noticed. “Scotch’s house was both harassed by creatures that hardly ever leave the Everfree and burned down the same day, the search teams looking for Spines get chased out by nearly every kind of monster that lives in that forest but they never go for a kill they just double down on the intimidation factor…” He looked around to make sure everyone was still paying attention; Bubble Berry didn’t count who was currently a rather intense game of tic-tac-toe with his pet alligator. “The very concept that monsters are coming out of the forest seems like the next step to some awful plot unfolding right below our noses and I feel like this mysterious black stranger may be the hero trying to save us all.” A grim silence took over the room, all looking down feeling a unique sort of dread that left an ugly feeling in their chests in this time of uncertainty. All except Bubble who was busy drawing up a new grid after his 467 loss in a row.