//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: Nathan and the Others Investigate // Story: My Zodiac // by xd77 //------------------------------// Hurt me... Angered that he took my son... Vengeful for my son... Detested towards Neighsay... Those were the thoughts that floated through Celestia's mind right now as she stared at the empty bed that Zodiac was sleeping on, covers undone, pillow flattened, she really wanted nothing more now than to execute Neighsay for what he had just done, she had never been this angered in her life. Luna couldn't have been better to hear her nephew had been taken to a place that they don't know where, but they couldn't just stand there. "What are we going to do sister?" Luna asked, "We can't just let that monster torture him." "Ah'll tell ya' what we're gonna do!" Nathan said, "We're gonna locate where he's taken Zodi to, and when we do, we'll send our best of creatures to that location and rescue him." Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor looked very proud at his bravery, he may have been only 7, but he was talking like a future captain should. "Don't you worry Celestia, we will find him, and we will get him back." Shining Armor. "Thank you all, I just can't bare to lose my only child." Celestia said, now even though it was late, they had to waste no time, Zodiac was missing and they needed to find him one way or another. "Be strong Zodi!" Celestia said, "Mommy's coming for you!" Meanwhile.... Zodiac had been put in a deep sleep by Neighsay as a way of getting him to shut up because he didn't want Zodiac to see what he was about to do to him. Zodiac woke up from his deep sleep and saw what appeared to be metal bars, in fact whichever way he turned, he was surrounded by nothing but metal bars, he tried to run only to find that his backhooves had been cuffed in in place. "HELP ME MOMMY, NATHAN, SOMEPONY, ANYPONY!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, he then looked out to see big sharp rock like stalagmites and stairs along with what appeared to be a Cerberus guarding them, he struggled and struggled, only to hear the sound of evil laughter and the same unicorn that took him from his home approach him. "Who are you, what do you want with me?!" Zodiac asked in terror. "Well, if I may introduce myself, I am Chancellor Neighsay of the EEA or the Equestrian Education Association, I had recently closed up Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship since all those filthy creatures nearly killed us ponies and ditched their own classes." "But what does that have to do with me?" Zodiac asked. "Well after she destroyed my seal without approval of me, I told them that I did that because it was for the greater good since it was disorganized and they caused a section of the school to fall and collapse." "But Twilight said that her school would protect Equestria, but it has done nothing to protect it, not only that, but that worthless rat with wings Princess Celestia cut off funds from me because she thinks I'm a racist." "Hey, that's my mother you're talking about!" Zodiac said offended. "She's an alicorn, you're a Pegasus!" Neighsay fought back. "So what!" Zodiac screamed only to be slapped in the face by Neighsay, causing Zodiac to stumble backwards, only to get back up on his hooves. "Maybe my mom was right, maybe you are a racist." he said. "Well it doesn't matter," Neighsay said, "This is part of my revenge on her for cutting funds and basically it's like this: with you as live bait and my hostage, Celestia and her foolish pupil Twilight will have no choice but to give up the school and send the horrible creatures back to where they came from, and one last thing, you are in the pits of Tartarus." Zodiac gasped, this was the same place that Thunder Clash was sentenced to! "Now if you don't mind, I've got a score to settle!" he said jumping through yet another portal leaving Zodiac all alone. "Mommy help me!" he whined. The next morning....... Twilight had struggled to try and undo this new seal that somehow appeared on the doors that led into her school, but had no luck no matter how hard she tried, it would not budge. "Twilight, it's no use!" Starlight said. "There's got to be a way to get in!" Twilight fought back. "For the last time, it is pointless, that there seal is obviously magic proof and we cannot get in!" said Applejack. "Well, how are we going to tutor if the school is closed?!" asked Applebloom. "Yeah, we've got to teach friendship." said Sweetie Belle. "And coach it!" whined Scootaloo. "Who could've done this?!" demanded Rainbow Dash only to be glared at by everypony and Spike. "Who do you think, Neighsay, remember I told him that this school would protect Equestria then turned around and said 'or destroy it', I figure he meant by this." Twilight said looking at the magic proof seal. From the hills atop Ponyville where the School of Friendship could be seen, Nathan and his new friends stood there, he had recently told them what he and Zodiac went through the other day and they were just as flabbergasted at it, but he had to drag them down to the school because they didn't believe him about how he may have re-closed the school permanently plus taken Zodiac as a hostage. "Come on Nathan, I'm pretty sure everything is okay." Smolder said. "Yeah, I mean it's not like Neighsay could've done something bad here." said Sandbar. "Nathan, I don't think anything is wrong." Gallus said. "No, it's a confirmed suspicion, ah've got to know, one way or another!" Nathan said, flapping his wings and floating in the air, as he was about to depart, he looked back at his friends. "Come on y'all, we don't have much time!" he said, even though they doubted him, they followed; Smolder, Gallus, Ocellus, and Silverstream all flapped their wings and flew with Nathan while Sandbar and Yona ran on the ground below them, they were soon all in front of the school as the mane 6 turned to see them. "AUNT TWILIGHT!!!!!!!" Nathan screamed as he landed with the others and ran up to her. "Nathan, thank goodness you're alright." Twilight said in relief to see her nephew still alive because Cadance had written a letter to her and the other as well about what had happened on Nathan's world with the bad storm and the massive tornado that destroyed not only his orphanage, but all of Dallas. "Aunt Twilight, ah' think we're being played." Nathan said, that's when he saw the new and improved magic seal locking the entrance to the doors. "See, what did ah' tell y'all?!" he said, now that he had complete proof of his suspicions. "Okay Nathan, you were right, something weird is going on." said Ocellus. "Hey, where's Zodi?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Pinkie ah......" Nathan then hung his head low, they quickly figured that something bad just happened to him and Neighsay may have had something to do with it. "You don't mean he was......." Ocellus said in a shocking tone. "Yes." said Princess Luna out of nowhere, she had landed in front of the crowd. "We believe Chancellor Neighsay has vowed revenge not only on you for destroying his first seal and rewriting the rule book, but on Celestia for cutting funds off of him because of his racial attitude towards you all." "But why put a new seal on the door?" Twilight asked. "Well if he thinks it's for the greater good like he mentioned before, it isn't." said Applejack. "Why would he just close up shop on us?" Apple Bloom asked. "Because, Apple Bloom, he's nuts." said Applejack. "EVERYPONY!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Celestia out of nowhere, she had managed to re-gather the leaders of the kingdoms once again for help because from the looks of it, this was bad and had to require big time help. Anyway, Celestia had managed to approach the crowd and join in. "What is it Princess Celestia?!" Nathan asked in panic, "We've got a bit of a situation here!" "Yes, that is why I have gathered all the leaders up from the kingdoms because this requires help." "But we still don't know what happened to Zodi!" Ocellus said as she started to weep, but Thorax picked her up and held her soothingly. "Shh, don't worry Ocellus, we'll find him." he said. Suddenly there was a low rumble, followed by the sound of an evil laugh, everyone turned to the front of the school to see a portal opening through the door and out came Chancellor Neighsay looking quite proud yet disappointed to see all the "creatures" he despised seeing there standing in front of him with angered expressions of their own. "This will be the last time I say this, classes will not start at all, you pathetic creatures nearly destroyed all pony kind!!!!!!!" he shouted, that's when Twilight stormed up to him. "All right Neighsay, this has gone far enough!!!!!!!" she yelled, only to have strong magic aura wrapped around her throat, she started to gag and choke as Neighsay growled angrily at her. "IT'S OVER TWILIGHT SPARKLE, YOUR SCHOOL IS CLOSED FOREVER!!!!" Neighsay screamed back, luckily, he was blasted to the wall by yellow aura that came from Celestia. "Chancellor Neighsay, I have had enough!" Celestia said, but instead of accepting what he got, Neighsay got even more aggressive and stormed up to Celestia, then slapped her in the face making her fall to the ground and causing everyone to gasp in shock. "That was for cutting funds off me just because you thought I was a racist!" he scowled, Luna then approached him. YOU ARE A NOT ONLY A RACIST, BUT A MONSTER!!!!!!!!!" Luna said with her RCV. "All right, what have you done with our friend?!" Nathan demanded and being backed up by an angered young six and the CMC's, Neighsay knew who he was talking about and gave an evil grin. "Oh, you mean this friend." He said chuckling evilly and using his horn to show a screen of poor Zodiac shackled up in a cage in Tartarus being tortured by a hypnotized Cerberus, Celestia what really outraged now seeing her only child getting mauled like that. "You release my son immediately!" she ordered. "I will release him, only if Twilight surrenders this whole school to the EEA." Neighsay said under his one conditioning tone. "Never, I wrote the rules and this school stays in place, Neighsay, and if you don't release Zodi this instant, I'll have Celestia banish you from Equestria forever!" Twilight warned. "Hey, I don't take orders from nopony, farewell!!!!!!!!!" he said once again jumping back into the portal. "No!" Nathan said kicking a rock into the lake that surrounded the school, "The School of Friendship is permanently closed, Zodi is locked up in Tartarus, and now that monster gets away again!" Nathan then started to cry out of anger seeing Neighsay going through all that trouble. "It's okay Nathan, we'll get him back." said Scootaloo. Apple Bloom kissed him, "Yeah, it ain't the end of the world." "Whatever goes wrong, we stick together." said Sweetie Belle. "Because we're friends." said Smolder putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling at him, Nathan felt comfort as he knew they were his friends. "As am I." said a voice behind them, they turned to see a changeling. "Merlin?" Ocellus asked as Thorax kept her held in his hoof. "What are you doing here, Merlin?" Thorax asked, "Aren't you supposed to be helping Pharynx with the hive?" "Yes, but I had been having some really bad suspicions taken from another world." Nathan approached him from off the ground, flapping wings, and in his face, "Ya' mean mah' world don't ya', because ah' want to know how a storm would just come outta nowhere and wipe out a whole city just like that." "Well actually kid, it was your world, and I think I know what caused it, I think that Neighsay guy had managed to test your misery and sorrows by magically transporting a storm from the Cloudsdale Weather Factory over to the human world and had this storm targeted to your home city." Nathan was surprised and in shock at the same time,"So ah' was right, somepony did send that storm to Dallas!" "Can you give us proof of this?" asked Luna. "Oh well I'll have to give it later, right now we need to focus on getting your son back and work out a plan to bring Neighsay down." said Merlin and they left to go back to Canterlot, but not before turning back to the young ones. "We need you all to stay here." Celestia said. "But why, he's got Zodi and you want us to do nothing?!" asked Sandbar. "Yeah, you can't just tell us to do nothing." replied Silverstream, "He's got my poor Zodi trapped!" Thorax had managed to put Ocellus back on the ground and she joined in, "Yes, we want to do something too!" "Yak want to help too!" said Yona. "Sorry you all, but this very dangerous for you, stay put until further notice!" Celestia ordered, leaving with the others. As soon as they left, the young seven groaned and wobbled. "Man I can't believe this, our friend is in danger, and Celestia doesn't want us to help with anything with it!" griped Smolder. "Yak hate this!" snarled Yona. "I may never get to see my poor Pegasus again now!" whined Silverstream, only to be nudged by an angered Ocellus. "FYI Silverstream, I'm the one that has the big love for him." she whispered. "ENOUGH Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!" screamed Nathan, "Ah' don't care what Celestia said to us because we are going to be a part of this mission whether she wants it or not!" "What do you know?!" snapped Sandbar, "Neighsay is too powerful for us to handle." "Ah' know he's most likely up to somethin' illegal, and the first clue to me would be the way he used his magic to overpower everyone, unicorns haven't had that kind of power since Starswirl the Bearded banished the Sirens away." "How do you know this?" asked Gallus. "Because Gallus, Headmare Sparkle is mah' aunt, and ever since ah' was adopted, she had taught me everything about magic and how the spells of the books work. Neighsay's magic ain't typical." "Would you know where we can get any proof that he's breaking the law." Nathan sighed because of what he was about to say next, "We're gonna have to get to the bottom of this and that means an unannounced visit to the EEA headquarters. We can use the map in the castle to find it, come on y'all." the young six then followed the seventh to the unlocked castle. "Don't you worry Zodi, we're gonna do whatever it takes to get you outta Tartarus and back to your mother." Nathan thought.