//------------------------------// // Chapter 08: Perspective of Destiny // Story: Flight of Destiny // by Pink_Flash //------------------------------// May 25th. Signature Arcane Magic. My brother Arcane Power and I have been assigned to Ponyville. I'm not exactly sure why. Briefing says we're to keep an eye on a colt from Manehatten. 5 years old. His parents lost him to a magical anomoly a week ago. At first, we thought it was a stray teleport spell or something of the like. The Manehatten Royal Guard combed the city for the child. The colt popped up in Ponyville. Several hundred miles away. How'd he get there? Not to mention, the child's personality doesn't match the profile of the missing colt. Medical evaluation states that he definitely is the colt. His DNA matches with his parents. The doctor who examined him believes he's suffered psychologically as well. They were going to do a psyche evaluation next, but the foal actually broke out and ran away. I guess that's why we're here. To keep an eye on him. May 26th. Signature Arcane Magic He was found today at the library. Celestia knows why he went there. I suppose I could understand wanting some books if he were an egghead or something, but a book about the Princesses of all things? Something is strange about this colt. They had a party for him too. A good old fashioned Pinkie Pie welcome. He seemed like any other foal at the party, at least for a while. He eventually exited Sugarcube Corner. He seemed very sad or at least upset about something. Rainbow Dash asserted that she had found his parents... I figured it'd cheer the foal right up... however, it only seemed to exacerbate his delimma. What're you hiding kid? May 27th. Signature Arcane Magic He did it again! I can't believe it! He did it again! During the night, Pink Flash ran from his temporary home. I was contacted by Princess Twilight Sparkle to go into Everfree Forest to retrieve the foal. What kind of foal goes into the Everfree Forest WILLINGLY?! Every foal I know of steers clear of the forest. Except the Cutie Mark Crusader incident. Read the incident report for that. Apparently all the crazy foals live in Ponyville. Addendum. We later caught up with the foal's parents. They had found him. We took an incident report. Praise Celestia the foal wasn't harmed despite reports that both a cockatrice and a Manticore were in the area. Everfree Forest. Dusk. Dusklight stands on the path inside Everfree Forest. The tall grey stallion seems to be searching for something. His spiky dark brown mane and tail swishing about as he peers into the tree tops and the bushes. The violet stripe in his mane seems to change shape as his mane flutters in the wind and from movement. His light blue eyes scanning his environment for the object of his desire. He begins trotting down the path. Scanning for said object. He's looking for something bright and beautiful. Something he can memorize. Dusk has eyes for a beautiful mare in Ponyville. She and him have been dating for a little while... and her birthday is coming up. He wants to find something within this dark and dreadful forest that remains bright and beautiful despite it's surroundings. Then, he's going to paint his mare's portrait with this object to show that the object reminds him of her. She's the bright and beautiful object in his dark dreadful forest. Hours later. The sky is dark. The forest darker. Dusk is using a spell to light the area around him so he can look. He's about to give up when he notices a glint of pink. "Hm?" His light shines off a flower... Dusk trots to it. "A... Nitingale...?" It's a beautiful pink rose. Dusk sits next to the little pink rose. "How... did you manage to survive out here?" He smiles. Dusk decides he's going to pick the flower and give it to his sweetheart. As the stallion embraces the flower with his magic. A thought occurs to him. 'A flower... surviving out here on it's own... against this hostile environment with vegetation growing all around it and taking up any nutrients... but still prospers? Picking this flower... would just kill it... it'd wither away in a few days and that'd be it...' Dusk's horn stops glowing. Deciding not to pick it after all. "Keep on keeping on little flower." Dusk grins a little. Then transfers some of his magic to the little flower to give it a boost. "Our little secret." Besides, all Dusk needed was some inspiration. Now he knows what he's going to paint. A portrait of his marefriend with the nitingale in her mane. That would definitely work. Dusklight begins making his way out of the forest. Glancing back once as he trots. Stealing one more glance at the beautiful nitingale. Sun shining down on it from the parted leaves above it. Somehow the seed of the rose finding the perfect spot within this dark place. The perfect spot to bloom and create envy of all the plants around it. Assuming of course plants are capable of feeling envy. Dusk knows he'd be envious of the rose if he were a dirty weed growing near it. As Dusklight nears the exit of the forest, he begins hearing voices. From the stories he's heard about the mane 6, it doesn't surprise Dusklight to hear voices. He's heard about a zebra living in the Everfree Forest. He's also heard about foals who visit her now and again. However, what he hears next isn't so welcoming. A loud and terrifying roar. "A manticore!" Dusklight tenses up. A spark of magic emits from his horn. Spreading across his body. A thin layer of magic covering his body as he breaks into a sprint. Trees whip by his face as he gallops through the wooded area. The tall gray stallion bursts through the brush. Finding a zebra mare chasing after a large manticore which is attacking a small pink foal. Dusklight's eyes narrow in determination. His horn glows as he jumps over a boulder. In mid-air, Dusklight casts teleport. With a loud snap and flash of light, Dusklight disappears into thin air. Reappearing no more than a second later touching ground next to the pink foal. Dusklight scoops the foal up and allows his momentum from his sprinting to carry them both out of the manticore's attack range. Dusklight turns to face the manticore. Studying the manticore for a second. Then he looks down to the pink foal. "Hide or run away. I don't care which." After which, he looks back to the manticore. "You! Attack a defenseless child?! Flee or die! Please pick the latter!" The manticore roars at the unicorn, then begins charging at him. The unicorn frowns. Then scoffs as light blue magic envelops his horn. Dusklight breaks into a sprint, kicking up dust with each step. With every step he takes, the magic elongates into a long thin rectangle. Forming a blade upon his horn. As the two draw close to each other, the blade detaches from his horn and begins to hover next to him as he sprints. "RAAAAAAAH!" The two meet at last, only to leave a bewildered Dusklight as the manticore ignores him. Running past Dusklight towards the pink foal. 'Did I just get ignored?!' The sword immediately reforms into a long thin rope-esque shape. Dusklight then spins and cracks the newly formed energy weapon at the manticore. Snagging it's foot. Causing the giant creature to face plant into the ground. "KID! Why the hell are you still here?!" This seems to finally get across to the foal. The foal spins around and gallops off. Dusklight watches the little colt for a second or two before turning to the manticore. The disgruntled manticore is approaching Dusklight. Angry with the stallion for having lost it's prey. Dusk begins approaching the manticore. His eyes beginning to change color. His sclera turning green. His irises turning red. Purple mist beginning to emit from his eyes. Dusklight's expression turns to anger as he stands tall and confident. "FLEE!" He screams at the manticore. His voice booming. The ground shaking from the manticore's perspective. Causing sheer terror to spread across the manticore's face. Forcing it to turn and flee from Dusklight. With the manticore fleeing from Dusklight, Dusk takes a deep breath. Closing his eyes. Mere seconds later, the purple mist flowing from his eyes fades away. He then opens his eyes to find they've returned to normal. "Now... to catch up with that foal. Figure out what the tyke is doing out here." He begins trotting along. Deciding quickly to break into a light jog. Who knows how far the kid got. Dusk is too focused with where he's going, looking for the foal. He doesn't notice the manticore tracking him. Still angry at him for losing it's pray and unsure why it ran away in fear. It's found it's courage and wants revenge... Several hundred feet later. A little pink feather is found. Dusk grasps it in his magic. Bringing it to his face to examine it. It's only one feather. It's a little bloody... Dusk doubts the foal was attacked, otherwise there'd be more feathers. A branch probably caused this feather to fall out. Got snagged or something. Which probably means he went into the denser part of the forest to avoid the manticore. Just as Dusklight lets go of the feather, Dusklight hears a noise behind him. Brush movement. Not thinking much of it, he casually turns to look. Finding the manticore in mid-attack! Making a split second decision to defend himself, Dusklight's body changes color. Becoming light blue and transparent. However, his spell isn't complete by the time the manticore's claws collide with him. Knocking out of the spell casting stance. The hit sends Dusklight spiraling through the air, due to the magical armor he placed upon himself earlier, he takes minimal damage. His horn glows again and with a bright flash of white and blue light, wings made of pure blue energy form at his sides. The wings unfurl, allowing him to regain an upright position. Thinking quickly, the stallion goes straight up into the air. Traveling 88 feet per second. Once in the air. He takes a second to organize his thoughts before plummeting back towards the ground. However, he actively avoids the manticore to prevent the manticore from hitting him. Within 10 feet of the ground, the stallion uses teleport. Carrying his momentum with him, he teleports over the manticore's head. With no drop in momentum, the stallion slams hooves first into the manticore's head. The crack of the collision could be heard for a mile, a small pressure wave emitting upon impact, dropping the giant beast instantly. The gigantic beast hits the ground and rolls away. It's eyes wide in shock while staring at Dusk. The beast is completely baffled by the unicorn. Dusk frowns. The manticore is still standing. The manticore looks crazed. "Fine. I'll have to put you down!" Dusk's eyes narrow as he focuses his magic. Light blue magic forming at his horn. Dusk sits onto his haunches, then brings his hooves up in front of him. He puts his hooves together. "Here goes." He then moves both hooves to his right side. The blue magic transferring from his horn to his hooves. "Kaaaaaaaaa..." The magic doubles in size within his hooves. The magic glowing even brighter. "Meeeeeeeeee..." It's at this point, the manticore seems to 'nope' it out of there. It flees in terror from the stallion. Running off in the direction of wence the little pink colt went. Dusk blinks in surprise. 'H-hey! Wait! Where are you going?!" The unicorn stallion grunts in frustration. Dispelling his magic and giving chase to the manticore. Dusklight loses sight of the beast, the beast too fast for Dusklight. "I've got to move faster! He's obviously chasing the foal again... damn it..." The stallion begins to huff and puff. "I gotta teleport... but... I don't know where he's going.. I could end up teleporting into a tree..."Mere seconds after, there's a loud bang sound. As if a a gun was fired. The manticore appears from the brush running away from the direction the foal went, bleeding profusely. "Huh?" Dusklight stops and watches the manticore, confused as to what it's doing. There's a large wound upon it's abdomen. "I didn't do that..." Dusklight looks in the direction of the foal as the manticore flees. "Kid's got spunk..." He watches the forest for a moment before turning to head back. "I'll get Zecora, she knows this forest too well..." Earlier... 'Clack-clack clack-clack clack-clack clack-clack' The Manehatten Express travels to Ponyville. Urgent news of her son having been found had this pink pegasus mare on the first train she could get. The mare is smiling happily, wearing a light pink business attire. White blouse, light pink long tailed blazer. Her mane and tail are wavy pink, bright emerald green eyes. She received word that her son is staying with a mare named Elaina in Ponyville. The train is due to arrive in a couple of hours, which she is very thankful for. She begins to ponder, should she wake her colt when she gets there? Should she rent a room and see him in the morning? Can she even wait that long? She hasn't seen her sweet little colt in a whole week... far too long for a worried mother. "Grace." The pink mare blinks and looks around. "Princess Celestia?" Calls the pink mare to nopony else in the train car. "Yes Grace Flash. I am speaking to you telepathically. You must hurry. Your foal is in grave danger." Grace's emerald green eyes widen. "He is in Everfree forest. A mysterious creature is stalking him..." Grace looks at her luggage, then looks around. Unsure for a moment of what to do. "Princess... I... I can't lose him again..." Her eyes well up. Celestia responds. "Then you know what to do." Grace stands up from her seat, she lets her blazer drop to the seat. Being a racer on the professional circuit, she moves to the door of the train car and opens it. The sudden burst of air rushing past her making her blouse and mane flutter wildly in the wind. Adrenaline rushes through her as she steps out onto the entry way of the car and looks up. A loud bang erupts from the entryway as the Pink mare takes off, the force of her take off leaving dents in the entryway, breaking the sound barrier as she does. Traveling at 767 miles per hour over the distance of 200 miles, she arrives in Ponyville in 16 minutes. Due to her fitness and stamina, she's not even tired. As Grace nears the Everfree Forest, a voice speaks to her. A deep confident masculine voice. "Hun. There are others in the forest looking for Pink." Grace smiles. "We can always count on others, can't we?" She speaks to nopony in general, it seems the voice will hear her somehow. "There's a hut on the eastern treeline. It belongs to a resident of the area named Zecora. There's a trail near that hut that Pink traversed. You can meet up with several others who are already looking. One of the elements of Harmony are currently on the scene. If what I've found out is correct, she saved our son's life and is looking to do it again." Grace smiles. "I get the chance to meet Rainbow Dash, huh?" She swoops down to the hut, spotting the cyan colored mare mere seconds later, and it seems Rainbow Dash isn't alone. Grace lands down next to Rainbow Dash and her accomplice, Dark Wind. Rainbow looks to Grace. "Grace! I'm so glad you got here! We need stronger flyers. No offense Dark." Dark Wind shrugs and smirks. "Upgrades are being tested." Rainbow continues. "Dark picked up a telepathic message from an individual named Dusklight about Pink's location. We need to sweep towards the north as quickly as we can. Dark, try to keep up as much as you can and keep us informed by any messages you pick up." Dark Wind is about to speak but both Grace and Rainbow take off into the sky. He sighs and adjusts his glasses. "Fine." He then flies after them. Several minutes later, Dark Wind calls out. "Hang on! I'm picking up something!" Grace and Rainbow both slow down to allow Dark Wind to catch up. Grace looks to Dark Wind. "Anything? Something about my sweet little foal?" Dark Wind shakes his head. 'No. It's... garbled mess. It's like... static with generated noise mixed in but it's also a pattern. Possibly an encrypted message... but I've never heard of encrypted telepathic messages before." He pauses. "It's not very far though." He begins scanning the trees, looking for where the signal is coming from. A shimmering blur emerges from the branches of one of the trees and takes flight through the forest. "There!" Dark Wind points it out. The three of them take flight, pursuing the shimmering object. The shimmering object isn't moving particularly fast, and seems to take the shape of a large bird. Grace ponders if the bird is just a bird hit with a stray magical spell. However, things become a little more ominous as little Pink Flash comes into view. Catching a glimpse of the little foal between trees. Luckily, he's a bright color, easier to spot in the darkness. The flying object gives a loud screech. It clearly sounds hostile, it's call reverberating with an odd 'twang'. Pink is looking around, clearly scared. Grace's eyes flick back to the flying creature which dives down towards Pink. Rainbow Dash is the first to act. She calls out "Kid! RUN!" Just as the creature flies past a very large tree with a clear 'SHUNK'. The tree begins to topple over. Pink's eyes widen as his mouth gapes open as he sizes the tree up. He connects the dots and spins around to flee, but the flying creature reveals itself. Towering over the little pink foal, blocking his route of escape. Black body and clear avian features. The moonlight shining off it's metallic body. The strange metallic bird steps closer to pink as it's wings spread out into brilliant shining plummage. It's beak shaped like a toucan's with sharp teeth, clearly visible as it screeches in the poor foal's face making him panic and scream. The little foal turns away from the metallic avian to flee only to come face to face with the giant tree falling straight onto him. There's a cyan colored blur followed by a strong gust of wind. Rainbow Dash appears under the tree, stopping it from crushing the poor foal. She grunts as she struggles to hold the giant tree. "PINK! RUN NOW!" The little foal turns to the bird, his wings flaring. The raven-esque monster raises a claw, Grace loses it. Grace takes off, instantly breaking the sound barrier. As she reaches her foal and the bird monster, Pink also takes off. Grace slams her hoof into the side of the monster's head, transferring all the kinetic energy from her to the avian creature. The creature is sent straight through a tree, hits the ground, and keeps going for another solid 100 feet. Grace then steps onto the ground and takes a deep breath. Looking into the direction the creature disappeared into. "Wrong foal. Definitely the wrong mother." Dark Wind stares. "What... was that?!" Rainbow smirks. "Grace has the unique ability to transfer her kinetic energy to another pony or object. Effectively forcing anything she wants to shatter the sound barrier." She looks into the direction Pink ran in. "Is that what you did with Pink? So he could get away?" Grace looks at Rainbow, then smiles big. "Nope!" She laughs and begins jumping around. "My baby foal did that on his own! My baby's first sound barrier break! I'm so proud!" Dark Wind deadpans. "That's all fine and dandy... but... where did he go?" Grace suddenly stops her song and dance. "Oh..." Meanwhile... A dark blue stallion is walking through the forest. Wearing a white dress shirt and black tie with a brown trenchcoat. His eyes are sapphire blue, his mane and tail white as snow. His cutie mark is a yellow question mark outlined in red. The question mark broken in half with the top piece perpendicular with the lower. He's trotting through the forest with purpose, seeming to know exactly where he's going. He looks down at a pink feather he found earlier. "I've found you this time..." He shakes his head. "I won't let you down again... son." He trots past a set of hoofprints, almost not even needing to look at them to know who they belong to and where they're going. With his special talents leading him exactly where he needs to go... he comes across a cave. With a very young pink foal sleeping on a makeshift bed. The stallion relaxes for a moment, smiling. He trots to the young foal, slipping his jacket off. He removes the leaves the foal was using as a blanket, then picks the foal up, wrapping the foal in his jacket and holding him to his chest. "I'll never let anything happen to you again." The little foal nuzzles his chest within his slumber. The stallion's horn glows gently as he sends a telepathic message. 10 minutes later, 3 ponies arrive. Grace Flash, Dark Wind and Rainbow Dash. Touching down from the sky. Merely a minute later, Dusklight and Zecora arrive followed by a whole battalion of guards. One by one, ponies arrive. Octavia and Vinyl. Bon Bon and Lyra. Fluttershy. Applejack and Big Macintosh. Twilight Sparkle, Thunderlane, Bulk Biceps, Caramel, Dr. Whooves and Derpy, and more. Grace moves to the white stallion holding the foal. Nuzzling and kissing him. "Good job hun." The stallions kisses her back and looks to the everypony else. "You all came to search the forest for my son?" He smiles. "Never met such a caring bunch."