//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Bonds of Eternity // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chronology notes: Stop! You are reading the twelfth story in the Bonds of Eternity Series. The first story in the series is Family found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1307/ The second story in the series is Nihil Novi Sub Sole found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1444/ The third story in the series is Friends in High Places found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1716/ The fourth story in the series is Trust found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1973/ The fifth story in the series is Domino Effect found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2151/ The sixth story in the series is To Whom It May Concern found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2465/ The seventh story in the series is Bridge Over River Rijn found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2726/ The eighth story in the series is The Way of the Maneaanite found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2931/ The ninth story in the series is Diamond in the Rough found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3062/ The tenth story in the series is Old World Blues found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3265/ The eleventh story in the series is Archimedes Constant found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/3672/ The twelfth story in the series is Midday in the Heart of Equestria found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/4103/ The Bonds of Eternity Chapter 1 The moon had risen over New Maneaan. Ditzy Doo worked in the late night hours scrubbing the thick grease off of the church’s cooking pans. Despite the Nephite’s advanced technology, there were some things that still needed to be done by hoof. This was one of them. Ditzy Doo did not particularly enjoy the work that she was doing, but then again, this wasn’t exactly meant to be enjoyed. She was doing penance for her actions at Old Appleoosa by picking up some of the odd jobs that needed done around the church. Bishop Hoof had given her a list of tasks that needed to be done by moonrise, and this was the last thing that needed doing. Scrubbing pots and pans was the most intensive of all of them, and logically, the one that it would be all right to run a little behind upon. Ditzy Doo had taken it upon herself to make sure that a good job had been done to get the pots nice and clean, and they wouldn’t be needed until six in the morning when the church started making breakfast. Ditzy Doo set down her scrub brush, the pot that she had been working on had been the last one. She gathered them all up and brought them back into the church’s kitchen and trotted on home. Ditzy Doo pushed open her front door, and to her delight, saw that Dinky Doo was sitting quietly on the sofa reading the Book of Nephi. Ditzy Doo had been worried that Dinky wasn’t going to be very receptive to the way of the New Maneaanites. She hadn’t wanted to force the Maneaanite’s faith upon her daughter if she didn’t want to believe in it... though she also knew it would make life in New Maneaan easier if she did. Much to Ditzy Doo’s pleasure, Dinky had been rather receptive to the New Maneaanite’s faith, and seemed to enjoy reading from the Book of Nephi whenever she got the chance. To Ditzy Doo’s even greater delight, Dinky was eligible for baptism, and had agreed to undergo the process. Dinky insisted that she wanted to be baptised Graham Cracker and Bishop Hoof couldn’t have helped but chuckle after her declaration. ‘She knows what she wants, that’s for sure’, Graham Cracker had said. Bishop Hoof had remarked to Ditzy Doo that most children were nervous about becoming baptised, at that statement; Ditzy Doo wondered if maybe Dinky Doo’s enthusiasm about nephitism had just been to make her happy. ‘Hi mummy!’ Dinky said with a smile as she looked up from the Book of Nephi. Ditzy Doo smiled brightly at her adoptive daughter and went over to the unicorn filly and gave her a tight hug. ‘Hello animula’, Ditzy said. Dinky smiled up at her, she really seemed to like her mother’s nickname for her. ‘Animula’ was a word that meant ‘little soul’ in Modern Equestrian. ‘How was school today?’ Ditzy asked as she sat down on the sofa next to her daughter. ‘It was really fun! We talked about Nephi today in history class!’ Dinky said with a bright smile on her face. ‘Oh? Tell me what you learned!’ Ditzy said, returning the smile. ‘Well, three hundred years ago, Nephi was an earth pony called Silversmith! One day, one of God’s angels appeared to him and told him about this thing called the silver plates! He asked Silversmith to find them and bring them to him... it was probably because he worked as a silversmith, because that was his name!’ Dinky proclaimed proudly with her line of thought. ‘And...? Go on! Don’t keep me in suspense’, Ditzy said. ‘Well, Silversmith found the plates where the angel told him they would be... Teacher said something about that the angel wasn’t able to get them himself, but I don’t remember exactly what... something about... OH! Princess Celestia stolen them from God a long time ago had locked them up in her castle and Silversmith had to steal them back’, Dinky said. ‘So he did, and he showed the plates to the other ponies in his town before bringing them back to the angel. The angel thanked him and told him what was written on them’. Dinky had, casually forgotten about the writing on the plates, she was young and had skipped over mention of it before, but Ditzy said nothing and let her continue. ‘He copied everything the angel said down, and that writing is the book of Nephi!’ Dinky said. ‘... then Princess Celestia got mad and destroyed his town, so Silversmith changed his name to Nephi and lead his town south, to the Divide, where they founded Ashville, and lived there till it blew up!’ Sounded about right to Ditzy Doo, pretty much that was exactly what Graham Cracker and Bishop Hoof had told her, though a little more drawn out and detailed. ‘Well sounds like you had fun today animula, come on now, It’s time for bed!’ Ditzy said. ‘You and I both have a long day ahead of us tomorrow’. ‘Aww’, Dinky said with a frown, but nevertheless, closed the Book of Nephi and enveloped it in magic to carry it over to her room. She didn’t get very far before the magic broke and the book dropped to the floor. ‘You’ve been practicing?’ Ditzy asked. ‘Oh yeah! And Mister Marening has been teaching me in his spare time!’ Dinky said. ‘That was nice of him! I do hope you’re letting him know how much you appreciate it’, Ditzy said. ‘I am! He was glad to help... since he’s kind of the only one who really can; I think he felt like he had too’, Dinky said. ‘Well we’ll be sure to do something nice for him’, Ditzy said. ‘Now come on, off to bed!’ Dinky nodded and picked the book back up with her magic, only to drop it a few more times before finally getting to bed. Ditzy was about to turn in as well, when she noticed something strange out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked out her window; there was this strange light from just outside, a golden, glowing light. She was curious; she went over to her front door and pushed it open to take a look. Sure enough, the light was there... however, the source of the light was seemingly absent. The light was just there, there was nothing that indicated where it was coming from. She quickly dashed back inside and donned her old CPS CO19 riot barding and grabbed her gun, she didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t about to be caught unprepared. Just then, the light darted around the corner and was out of sight. Ditzy followed it around the corner and discovered that it was there. It darted again, once again, Ditzy followed and it was there. The light clearly wanted her to follow it... if light had will and was able to indicate it as such anyway. Ditzy followed. The light picked up the pace and as such, Ditzy had to move faster to keep up with it. She rounded another corner and ran headlong into Graham Cracker. ‘Oh! Graham! I’m so sorry!’ Ditzy said. She looked up and saw that the light was now darting about in the air behind him. She needed to follow. ‘Graham? I need a favour!’ Graham Cracker said nothing, but smiled with his deep blue eyes from behind the bandages that covered the earth pony’s face. ‘Yes?’ he asked eventually. ‘Could you keep an eye on Dinky? She should be at home asleep, and there’s something I need to do... call it taking a leap of faith’, Ditzy said. ‘In that case, I certainly will’, Graham Cracker said. ‘Just be careful, Ditzy Doo, may God grant you strength and wisdom’. ‘Thank you Graham!’ Ditzy cried out, and leapt into the air. The light began to dart around through the sky, heading north by northeast. Just as well, there wasn’t much to the south of New Maneaan except the Divide, the sprawls of the Mohoofie Desert. Ditzy Doo flew north by northeast for several hours not exactly keeping track of whereabouts she was she figured that she’d figure it out when she got to wherever she was going when she got there. That was, after all, what faith was about. ... Bon Bon felt her eyes burning, it forced the crème coloured earth pony awake, and she opened her eyes and looked around... odd, there was nothing around. ‘Lyra? Are you messing with me while I’m asleep?’ Bon Bon asked. Lyra responded with a loud snore. She was fast asleep. That was when Bon Bon noticed something out of the corner of her eye dart past the window. She looked to it, and discovered that there was nothing there. She got up from bed, accidentally waking up Lyra in the process and looked out the window. ‘Bon Bon?’ Lyra asked sleepily. ‘What are you doing? It’s past two! Come back to bed!’ Bon Bon said nothing, and continued to look out the window, there was this odd light that was outside. ‘Lyra! Get up!’ ‘What? Bon Bon... no let me sleep!’ Lyra said as she pulled the covers over her head. Bon Bon’s nostrils flared, she went over to Lyra and prodded her hard with her hoof. ‘Get up!’ she cried out. ‘Ow!’ Lyra called out, she pulled the covers off her head and got out of bed. ‘Fine! This had better be good, I was sleeping!’ Lyra and Bon Bon trotted down the stairs and out their front door. There was a glowing golden light that seemed to be the source of itself. It darted around the corner as if begging for it to be followed. Bon Bon took off after it; she had to know what was going on. Lyra, seeing no choice in the matter took off after her. They would be getting to the bottom of this. ... Trixie too, was fast asleep; however, a muffled voice from next door shook her awake. Trixie sat up in bed. Lyra and Bon Bon seemed to be having a late night argument or something, and Trixie had half a mind to yell back to tell them to keep it down. Though she eventually decided against it, she would just be contributing to the problem, and then she would be the one waking up the rest of the neighbours. The other reason that she had decided to keep quiet, is because her gaze was preoccupied by something else. There was a golden, glowing light that was hovering before her. ‘What?’ Trixie asked. The light darted out of the room, Trixie leapt from her bed, drawn to it; she needed to find out what was going on. The light darted out her front door, and Trixie went after it. ... Big McIntosh and Braeburn were already awake. It was early, but it was also the planting season, and they had a lot of work that they needed to get done. Now was just as good a time as any. Braeburn was pulling a cart full of seeds out from the barn when he stopped dead in his tracks. Before him was a strange light that seemed to be generating itself. Braeburn wasn’t exactly the smartest pony on the planet, but he was pretty sure that couldn’t happen. ‘Hey Big Mac! Come here and take a look at this!’ Braeburn called out. Big McIntosh round the corner and took a look at the light with a raised eyebrow. ‘Ya ever seen anythin’ like this befer?’ Braeburn asked. ‘Eenope’. ‘Huh’, Braeburn said as he took a closer look at it. The light began to dart away. ‘Hey!’ he cried out and quickly unhitched himself from the cart and went after it. Big McIntosh watched it as it darted away; it was heading west towards the Everfree forest. Big McIntosh knew that Braeburn didn’t know what to expect from the forest, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist... whatever that was, to realise that this couldn’t end well. He charged off after his cousin before he got himself hurt. ... Ditzy Doo watched as the light began to descend. She’d been flying for a few hours at this point and she was getting tired. She looked down and noticed that she was over a forest; she hadn’t been paying attention to anything but the light since her flight began. She hadn’t the faintest idea where she was. As the light descended, she descended after it. She had to know what was going on, she touched down and continued to follow the light. She heard a twig snap behind her, and was immediately thankful that she had taken the time to go back for her riot barding and gun. She spun around and the Schäferhund Storm Harness quickly popped her 12.7mm pistol into the ‘drawn’ position. Ditzy Doo looked up in surprise, she knew who it was and lowered her gun. ‘Derpy?’ It was Lyra and Bon Bon. ‘It’s... Ditzy Doo now... but yes’, Ditzy said. This had to be the Everfree forest, but what were Lyra and Bon Bon doing here? There was a rustling in the bushes and they turned to look, through the thick foliage came an azure unicorn, Ditzy recognised her as ‘The Great and Powerful’ Trixie, the show mare that she had last seen in Ashville, and at least this time, she at least looked sober. ‘You?’ Trixie asked, looking directly at Ditzy. They were interrupted again by others; Ditzy Doo recognised one as Big McIntosh, Applejack’s brother, and Braeburn, who she had last encountered in Appleoosa. ‘You?’ Braeburn asked looking at Ditzy, clearly, he recognised her as the mare that had burned her town. ‘Listen... about Appleoosa!’ Ditzy said quickly, fearing anger from the earth pony. ‘I just wanted you to know I’m sorry it came to that!’ Braeburn had not the chance to respond, for they were interrupted by another visitor, this one, however, was not one they recognised. A bright light began to shine and the group looked towards its source, now properly illuminated, they could see where they were. They were definitely in the Everfree forest, on the banks of a lake, a small sign that was labelled ‘Lake of Origin’ sat planted in the ground not far from where they stood. The light was coming from a figure coming up out of the water. It was an earth pony, though not one they had seen before. This earth pony was golden in colour and light identical to the one each of them had seen radiated from him. But what stuck out most about this pony were his or her eyes. (They couldn’t tell because of the light radiating from the creature). This creature’s eyes were a deep red. ‘What?’ Ditzy Doo asked. The light began to shine even brighter, and they each found themselves unable to move. Energy began to course throughout all of them, lifting them into the air. And that was when they remembered. Old World Memories began to flood back to them. They all remembered the friendship that they had shared, they remembered going to Manehattan with Vinyl Scratch and Trooper Willoughby. Ditzy Doo and Trixie remembered travelling through time with the Doctor in his mad, impossible blue box. Lyra and Bon Bon remembered finding dismembered bodies in Fluttershy’s cellar after her brutal killing spree. Big McIntosh and Braeburn remembered the eerie feelings that pulling the mailcart with the big package gave them just by being near it. Most important of all, they remembered Overdrive, the Siblings Nightmare, and they remembered how they had destroyed them alongside of Princess Celestia. Suddenly, they all fell, the light released them, and the golden glowing pony retreated into the Lake of Origin out of sight. They all slowly got up and looked around at each other. What had just happened? And more importantly, what was all this?