Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 2
By TDR
The Return of Har-meow-ny,
Episode 2
Epilogue
[Canterlot Castle, two days later]
Princess Celestia sat at the table in her meeting room, sipping a cup of tea. It was a nice peach tea, some what sweet and not that difficult to make. Given what was coming she thought it best not to be drinking anything too fancy. She had also broken out her mithril tea set. It changed the flavor a little, though the sets durability was why she had it out.
The three others in the room with her remained silent as well, but they also remained out of the way of the door and made sure to not get between it and the solar diarch.
A Guard had briefly come in and alerted her that the ones she was waiting for had gotten away from the press and nobles and were now in the castle proper. Nearly all the castle staff and Guards had all taken the rest of the day off with reasons ranging from, 'an old hoof ball injury acting up' to ' buck this, it's above my pay grade'.
At least the last one was honest.
She heard them well before they came close to her door, the hoof falls on the tile floor outside and the varied shouts and ranting.
It wasn't long after hearing that, that the door to her chambers was flung,being knocked off it's hinges and crashing to the floor with a loud bang.
Celestia sighed, she expected Twilight to be mad at her but this was a bit excessive..... wait…........ Celestia blinked..... that wasn't Twilight at the door.
The pink earth pony stormed over the door to Celestia's tea table hopping up onto it, and stomping over to get directly in Celestia's face crushing several pieces of her tea set under hoof like they were tin cans.
“Pinkie Pie?” Celestia stammered.
“I forgave the prank with your bird. But you just made two of my friends go through a massive crowd for a stupid ceremony and I want reasons to not do what I really wanna do for making them freak out right after we got done dealing with your ex.” Pinkie Pie growled poking Celestia's chest with her hoof splattering some of the tea she had stomped through onto Celestia white coat.
“Ummm.” Celestia blinked.
“Talk. Fast.” Pinkie Pie snarled.
“Damage control Pinkie. It was damage control.” Cadence placated from where she had stepped back away from the door. ”Please get off the table and we'll explain.”
The pink earth pony narrowed her eyes at the pretender to pinkness, before she glared back at Celestia and slowly walked backwards off the table, stomping flat a few more tea cups before she sat down on the other side of the table with her form limbs crossed as she continued her glare at Celestia.
Celestia glanced past Pinkie to the others in the doorway. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked ready to ignore anything they saw in here up to and including Pinkie Pie going postal.
Rarity was fretting over the hem of her rain coat. It was a very 'red' raincoat, with matching boots and hood. The sort of red rain coat that wouldn't show certain colored stains.
Rahs was glaring at her and Luna, but he was also hunched over with a rather large quivering lump on his back under his new maroon coat. He had been carrying Twilight, though he had set her down and Spike was holding up a paper bag for Twilight to hyperventilate into. Celestia was keenly aware that two Sparkle males had not been swept along in the pre-misson speech like the others had.
“I agree with Pinkie Pie, start explaining. Twi had a level two break down the second that ceremony ended and she's been hyperventilating since.” Spike snapped.
“So's Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash stated patting the lump on Rahs' back.
“Not to change the subject, but who is this?” Rarity asked looking up at the fourth figure in the room with the three Princesses.
“First things first.” Princess Luna stated, her horn lighting up to yank Fluttershy from under Rahs' coat before she gave the flailing pegasus to Cadence. Once that was done she then pulled Rahs into the air before her and held him there as she examined him.
Princess Celestia did the same for the now shrieking Twilight, and Spike found himself picked up by a unfamiliar blue dragon who was a little larger than Celestia.
“GAH!! Watch it with those claws lady, at least buy me dinner first!” Spike grumbled.
“Well?” Cadence asked, giving Fluttershy to Pinkie Pie. She paused a moment looking down at the pair before smiling and backing away from the death glare the pink pony gave her.
“The link is permeated with it. Though like you found with Shining it seems to be more faded that it should be.” Princess Celestia frowned looking over Twilight with out seeming to see her. “That will cause a few problems if it isn't purged from the link. But it isn't as bad as I thought.”
“Agreed.” The Dragoness, Bleu Scale, Goddess of the Storms, nodded turning Spike around in her claws gently as the little drake flailed. “He has some of the same build up and that will cause issues with how he grows, but it's as unpredictable as anything else Discord does. He should be fine.”
“This was as expected, while the traces are there, most of it has already cycled through his system. “ Luna offered.” We believed that were it not for the link the issue would have cleared itself from his system by now. So it is the link itself that is affected. Still most of it seems drawn down his connections, by design he is eating the chaotic energy.”
“Great so the one thing you do right, you do super right, despite the practice being banned.” Bleu rolled her eyes.
“THIS IS NOT EXPLAINING!! WHY IS THERE NO EXPLAINING!?!?!” Pinkie Pie bellowed lifting a hoof and pointing at Celestia and Luna. “Black list one month!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow noting the other Ponyville residents flinch. Luna simply seemed confused.
“Pinkie ah hate tah say it but ah don't think tha Princesses need to come to Ponyville fer their treats.” Applejack stated.
“Oh I know that silly, but recently I got most of Canterlot to agree with the idea. And all those caters at the Gala thought it was a great plan. So did the castle staff I talked to.” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully before turning her doom gaze back to Celestia. The effect was slightly lessened given that Fluttershy was clinging to the pink ponies back.
“Well.... Princesses might ah suggest you start explaining a'fore yah git it worse?” Applejack nodded. “ Tha Black list is not a joke.”
“Start with this.” Spike stated pointing at the Dragon holding him.
“Yes, well, now that I've checked you out I suppose introductions are in order. My Name is Bleu Scale, Goddess of the Dragons and the Storm. I'm here as sort of a back up plan in case you all failed against Discord as well as to check up on you little Prince.”
“Little what?!!” Rarity stammered.
“Hmm? Oh, by right of birth Spike here is pretty much a Prince of Dragons. Granted there's about thirty of those running around and Princesses too, so there's not much to it.” Bleu shrugged. “ But Celestia seemed to think it was important for some reason. Dragons don't care about status, heck even I have to kick the waiters flank before I get a good seat at a restaurant. And I'm their flipping god.”
“ Wait! You're the Dragon god! “ Spike waved his arms excitedly.” Do you actually know who my parents are?”
“I do in this case. Though I will save you the disappointment of further questioning. You are much better off with your pony parents. Dragons tend to be very very claws off when it comes to raising their young. We often have Clutch mothers who watch over a large batch of mixed eggs. Most dragons never meet their parents, nor do many really care. There are of course exceptions, usually when one has a powerful linage.” Bleu explained. “ You were sent here as an egg as you were a stubborn egg that would not hatch. It was thought that perhaps the god of ponies might be able to help you. Hatch... not become a paperweight.”
Bleu glared at Celestia who whistled innocently and Spike simply looked confused.
“In any case if you have any questions that arise about being a dragon I will tell you what is relevant. Just send them to Celestia, she knows how to contact me. Though don't do it too often as I am rather busy.” Bleu claimed getting a glare from both Celestia and Applejack at the obvious lie.
“As to what we are looking for, the Sparkles were touched by chaos, that tends to leave a lingering effects. Ones we can barely detect and that is intertwined with thine link.” Luna offered frowning as she noticed that Rahs was glaring angrily at her. “We do not expect there will be much trouble from this. The taint we can sense in the link is all being drawn to Rahs along with the excess magic he feeds upon. At best we think it will be gone in a month or so.”
“We probably wouldn't have noticed at all if that letter you sent Celestia hadn't exploded in her face when she finished reading it.” Cadence offered.
“Yeaaaaah chaos magic, that's it... we'll go with that.” Twilight muttered. “ All Discord's fault.....”
“That still doesn't explain the ceremony.” Rainbow Dash snapped.
“Agreed, while I am quite thrilled to be recognized for my part in this I am well aware the others are not.” Rarity frowned. ”We managed to come to an agreement that you were correct about Discord so while we are very annoyed that you sent us after your ex, we are not holding that against you Princess.......”
“Speak for yourself.” Spike growled.
“Most of us are not holding it against you. Provided of course that the crown aides in the repair of Ponyville. While much of the chaos went back to normal, having a river dropped in the middle of town washed a number of buildings off their foundations, caused a great deal of damage and flooded every pony's basements. Jynx is also requesting aid as her packs tunnels were flooded from the river. Thankfully most of the farms were outside the 'splash zone' as it were, but all of the business in town are at best in disarray and at worst, washed away. Including mine Princess.” Rarity finished coldly.
“Done.” Celestia stated simply setting Twilight down next to Pinkie Pie. She floated a pile of newspapers up from behind her and dropped them on the table. The papers seemed to come from all over Equestria and there were some from as far as Saddle Arabia, and the Minotaur islands. “This is why we had the ceremony.”
The group gathered around the Table, save Spike who continued to flail and try to get away from the Dragoness holding him and Rahs, who while back on his paws had not left from glaring at a now worried Luna.
“How in tha heck?” Applejack demanded looking over one of the papers.
The groups faces were plastered front page of every single paper. With captions declaring them as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Some of the papers went on about how they defeated Nightmare Moon, with several side issues connecting the Nightmare to the long lost Princess Luna. And all of them had photos of the defeat of Discord. All of the pictures were clearly taken either by Discord himself or something near him judging by the point of view shown in them.
“Oh dear. I thought I saw a shutterbug in that clearing, but I was too busy to look.” Fluttershy muttered.
“As a last ditch joke it seems Discord outed the Elements of Harmony.... as well as a large number of my personal journals, to the press across Equss.” Celestia sighed. “Hiding you is no longer an option. However I did plan ahead for something like this. First off the ceremony was to blind side every one who might potentially try to deny or seek to work these claims into their favor. With the crown openly accepting you so quickly it makes it significantly harder for any one else to try and claim a connection. Second the pay that I've been forced to mask in other things can now be brought out into the open and can easily be increased to match your status as heroes.”
“Princess I didn't even do anything this time my friends did all the work and I spent the whole event almost in an artificially created fugue.” Twilight sighed.
“Are you trying for hazard pay?” Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“What no.. it's just.... I didn't do anything...” Twilight pointed out.
“You wielded an Element of Harmony against a threat.“ Bleu chimed in.”We can hardly call that nothing.”
“ Honestly Darling relax, it was not as if we all didn't make some sort of mistake with this.....” Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all winced.
[ Yesterday, Ponyville.]
“Hello? Is any one out there? This dumpster seems to be locked and it really, really stinks in here.”
There was banging on one of the lids of the dumpsters that had been washed up against the school house on the other side of Ponyville from where they started.
“Hello?” Fireball called out again, glad there was at least some cloud stuff in the dumpster with her so she wouldn't have to stand in the smelly mess.
“Why is all I can taste jelly foals? What's going on? MOOOOOOM!!!” Button Mash hollered from another dumpster.
“WAIT TIL MY DADDY HEARS ABOUT THIS!!!” Diamond Tiara screeched from the last dumpster.
[ Canterlot Castle]
“Yeah..... really glad Cheerilee went to check on the school, cause I completely forgot about them.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head.
“Moving on past that I have contingencies for all this. The Ponyville Guard Post will be getting more funding and become a larger post. The new building will be placed on the edge of town in order to be a buffer from the forest and the town itself. The Guard increase in town shall also necessitate the upgrading of a number of town facilities including a hospital and other government funded aide as need be. I will be speaking to the Mayor at a later time for a full list of what is needed.” Celestia listed.
“We have these to present to thee as well.” Luna smirked a little as she gave Applejack, Rahs, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and oddly Fluttershy, each a rolled scroll.
“What's this?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
“That one is actually for Angel Bunny. They are hunting permits for paparazzi, nobles, and other ner-do -wells that might seek to cause trouble for thee now that thine presence is known. You cannot simply send the problems to Tartarus of course, but we expect that some property damage, equipment destruction, and mild injury to the offending parties will be easily accepted.” Luna explained. That these permits exist have been spread along with the information that the crown would prefer thou to be left alone.”
“I cannot believe I let you talk me into that.” Celestia sighed.
“Woof.” Rahs demanded simply. Luna's eyes widened and the others who could understand him whirled to look at the Moon Princess.
“We told you there are no such things as Witch....” Luna began.
“BORK!” Rahs snapped slapping his chest with a paw.
“Thou became one.......” Luna's eyes seemed to get even bigger.” That should not be possible..........”
“BARK.” Rahs explained.
“It would be kind of hard to miss all the teeth and claw marks on that statue we sent back.” Twilight frowned. “Discord turned Rahs into the very image of how the old legends described a Witch Wolf.”
“Given all the information we gathered before you came back, we know Witch Wolves existed. We've got hard evidence and even another name. Sik Imitaa.” Spike explained watching Luna wince at the name.
“With what we already know, in time we can probably find the whole story. Even if we have to track down another god and ask them.” Twilight threatened. “If you want to continue claiming to be Rahs' grand mother, we want answers before something else happens.”
Rahs simply glared at Luna an nodded.
The room was quite silent as all eyes fell on Luna. The night princess seemingly wilting in on herself.
“Ease up for now Sparkles.” Bleu Scale stated with a sigh, suddenly breaking the silence as she finally put Spike down. “It's not easy for one to explain their biggest failures in life. Doubly so for gods. Give her time and I'm sure she'll let you know.”
“We.....we.... thank you for that Bleu.” Luna muttered.
“Don't thank me yet, if you don't tell them what happened, I will. And my version of things does not paint you in a favorable light, Vulon Vol.” Bleu frowned as Luna winced again at a name.
Rahs frowned adding another name to the list of names he had heard Luna refereed to. He honestly didn't care what Luna had done, at least not without hearing about it first, but he wanted to know some way to be changed back to normal if he ever went that far again.
Unlike Spike, who was too dumb to recall what happened, and Twilight who was to apathetic to bother to pay attention to anything going on, he recalled his time as a Witch Wolf completely.
It was nothing but rage and hate. Overpoweringly so.
No. That wasn't quite it.
There was no real rage, there was no real hate either. Certainly he felt anger at discord, but it was secondary.
All he felt was joy.
Joy at wanton destruction. Joy at making some one suffer. Joy for causing pain and at trying to kill. Thankfully the Chaos god remained intact and active enough to hold his attention.
If he hadn't, and Rahs had gone into town in that state......
Rahs shuddered.
Things would have been much much worse than just a river washing through the town, had Discord managed to get away from him earlier. He almost wanted to thank the annoying god for that, whether he knew what he was doing or not.
Rahs glared at Luna again, the Goddess of the Night not meeting his gaze. He needed to know what might change him into that so he could avoid it at all costs, or destroy it so there would be no risk.
This made two things he had to hide from his siblings and friends. Rarity knew about what happened in the tunnels and the others seemed to have some idea of what he became. Spike and Twilight didn't and he wanted to keep it that way.
“Hey Cadence, what happened to my big brother? “ Twilight asked suddenly. “ Did he get changed by Discord due to the link too?”
The pink mare paled as the logic of it slapped her across the face.
“Gottagobye” Cadence stated tearing out of the room at a speed that made some of them think she finally learned to teleport.
“What was that about?” Spike asked.
[Canterlot Hospital]
Shining Armor shifted a bit in the body cast he was currently in. His nose itched something fierce and even with the pain killers the doctors gave him , he hurt all over.
He still had no clue what the heck had happened either.
[Canterlot Castle]
“As much as I would like to let you all go to rest there is something else that has come up that I wish to pass onto you.” Celestia sighed.
“So help me if it's another ex.” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
“It may be.. I'm not sure yet.” Celestia offered.
“THAT WAS A JOKE!” Dash screamed beating her head against a wall.
“Madness, Envy, Lust, Magic, Greed, and Pride, all with a fiery purple blue center.” Celestia stated the words drawing everyone's attention.
“ What's that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked.
“ It's a prophecy. And annoying one, but one that's starting to come to pass.” Bleu Scale offered.
Twilight considered.” The madness means Discord doesn't it?”
“That was what we concluded.” Celestia stated. “ Though that was the easy part. Envy, Lust, Magic, Greed, and Pride are all mysteries still. And aside from magic, they all seem like threats.”
“What about the last bit?” Spike asked.
“That I think we have figured out.” Bleu commented pointing a claw at Spike. “ Firey.” Then to Twilight.” Purple.” Then to Rahs.” Blue.”
“It means that you three are going to be at the center of this, and likely the other Element Bearers as well. Given who gave this prophecy, it will come to pass whether we fight it or not.” Celestia sighed. “ I really hate this cryptic nonsense.”
“Bork.” Rahs growled.
“She's not black Rahs... and neither is the kettle I smushed , that's more silvery.... though given her size I can see the kettle.” Pinkie Pie offered getting a glare from Celestia one that was countered with a rather creepy smile from Pinkie.
“At any rate that is all we have. All my cards are on the table with this now Twilight.” Celestia sighed. “ So what are you going to do?”