//------------------------------// // Chapter Forty: Children of the Cloud // Story: Heart of Magic // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Magic Part Four Chapter Forty: Children of the Cloud Written by TheCrimsonDM Twilight stared out the top of the watchtower. The miniature sun that Sunset had created with her sacrifice was still there, strong, bright, and as present as ever. The purple sludge around it had burned into black obsidian, and the purple sea itself was retracting every day, growing smaller if only by a few feet. Of course going near it was still a death sentence as the undead monsters seemed to live inside and around the sludge. Twilight closed her eyes and went back down the stairs into the Royal Guard Tower. Some cleaning had been done, the dust had been swept away and the top two or three levels were more or less habitable. The store room had been searched for food, water, and medical supplies, more than enough to last them for months, maybe even years. Not much in the way of weapons though. The next floor down was the dorm where the beds lay. Queen Chrysalis was far too large to lay in only one so they’d shoved two of the cots together to make a bed for her. Her leg and wing were still bandaged and healing up but the healing was slow. Sunset had caused some real damage to her, not life threatening, but costly in time. Blackout was lying on another cot and reading one of the books they’d found littered here. Much to Twilight’s Surprise it was the Daring Doo anthology. Guess some guard really liked them, well now Blackout could too. As for Cozy she was another floor down. One more floor down and Twilight was in a kitchen/dining area. Cozy was organizing some of the supplies. She’d already had three piles going, and was sorting those into even more piles. It had only been a couple of days, Luna had sworn she would be on her way, but how much longer before they could expect rescue was beyond Twilight. Cozy’s voice rang out to Twilight as Twilight was just about to go down yet another floor. “Twilight, you okay?” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine…” She was lying. She was not fine, no one here was fine. Blackout was crying herself to sleep at night and crying out for her mom to save her. Chrysalis was sleeping most of the time. Twilight was out of alicorn magic and even though she was happy to have two eyes again, she felt powerless to stop anything should it come knocking on their door. Finally there was Discord who was still stuck being her scarf and virtually powerless himself. It was just the five of them, five misfit ponies and monsters trying to survive long enough to get rescued by the real heroes. Yet Twilight was confident that she would succeed at this one single task. She just had to hold out… even she could do that. She had to. *** Amber walked alongside Fluttershy, Maud, Valiant Heart and her two cousins. It was decided to go back to town to pick up a few things and haul them back to the castle. If they were going to be staying until this whole mess was over then they’d really need to prepare. Sure, Twilight’s efforts had created a safe and sustainable safe haven at the Castle of the Two Sisters, but there were personal artifacts as well as modern pleasures that were missing from the castle. This was decidedly one of the last trips they might get to come back to Ponyville for awhile, so they were making this one count. There was a path through the woods back to Ponyville and much to Amber’s surprise much of the darkness was not found on it. Almost as if the forest had created this path especially for safe travel. Perhaps the tree of harmony had kept this path safe for them? Sophie spoke in a bright cheerful tone. “I’m getting the rest of my stuffed friends. I only brought Miss Daisy Bunbun, I need her sister Cutie, and there other furry friends if we’re all going to be living in a castle, otherwise they’ll be lonely.” Amber rolled her eyes. “I’m sure they’ve been fine.” “What if the monsters get them though?” Amber let out a sigh. “Monster’s don’t want your stuffed animals.” Sophie huffed. “Well then there dumb, cus I want them so they must be special.” Hushpuppy chimed in. “Well someone is ‘special’.” Fluttershy snapped. “Hushpuppy, that’s not polite. Say sorry to your sister.” Hushpuppy grumbled. “Fine. I’m sorry you’re so special, Sophie.” Fluttershy snapped again. “Hushpuppy, you need to be nice.” Sophie smiled. “He is being nice. He thinks I’m special. Or… is it not nice to compliment me?” Pinkie Pie added. “Of course it’s nice. It’s Hushy’s tone that’s not friendly.” Sophie’s eyes widened. “Ooooohhh, okay. But… he’s kinda always grumpy. I don’t think he can help it.” Hushpuppy grumbled. “I’ll stop being grumpy when the world stops ending.” Amber let out a sigh herself. “Geeze, did you have to deal with this when you were our age?” Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, but it was usually just AJ and Rainbow arguing who was the best.” Pinkie giggled. “Well they were both wrong, because obviously you are the best.” Fluttershy smiled. “Pinkie… You’re the best too.” It was nice seeing them be happy for a moment. In fact it was almost like all the darkness from the past several days were finally going away. Maybe things were looking up. Some happiness could only be asked for during times like this after all. Also it could be noted that the new scarf Fluttershy was wearing was quite fetching. It was pink and had several yellow and blue balloons on it. Pinkie seemed pleased by it as well. They finally exited the woods and found themselves back in the large open space of rolling green hills, flowers, and in the distant the town of Ponyville. To their right they could see Fluttershy’s cottage. Spike, Rarity, their daughter Jade and five young colts and fillies were all waiting in front of Fluttershy’s house. Rarity was knocking on the door with extreme prejudice. Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew over to her house. Amber used a teleport spell to join her there. Once there Amber heard Rarity complaining, “If that mare doesn’t open this door this instant I’m going to freak out!” Fluttershy’s voice came in gentle. “I-I could open the door, but I’d have to g-go back inside first.” Rarity spun around to face Fluttershy. “You! Where have you been? Rainbow Dash dumped her kids on me and expected me to take care of five pegasus kids! How am I supposed to do that, and keep my business running at the same time?” Fluttershy replied, “Um… maybe take a break from work?” Rarity growled. “I did that and guess what, ponies aren’t buying dresses now. So unless I figure out how to fix that, my shops in Manehatten and Talltale are going to close.” “Why aren’t ponies buying dresses?” Fluttershy asked. Rarity threw her hooves in the air. “War, sickness, paranoia, take you pick! All I know is that I need to fix this otherwise the Rarity Boutique Empire will fall!” Spike added. “She’s really stressed out about this, she’s had to lay off some of her staff this month alone.” Rarity glared at him. “We don’t speak of that! They are not fired, they are on… unpaid vacation until we get this business back on track.” Amber wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with Rarity’s business, but if she had to fire ponies… honestly Amber couldn’t imagine Rarity ever firing somepony, no matter how bad they were at their job. So if things were bad enough for that, they were really bad. Now it was time for Amber to start worrying, this war hadn’t even started, not really but with two villages gone off the map, countless dead, and some scary stuff happening in the Everfree Forest… she couldn’t blame ponies for not spending money on attire. Rainbow’s kids were having a blast though. She realized half of them were chasing each other around like crazy, the other half were chasing random animals around. Yep, Rainbow’s kids. Unruly and crazy just like their mom. How had Rarity been watching them all this time. Rarity spoke again. “Fluttershy, darling, please take care of them, as well as Jade for just a few days until I get a battle plan for this. I can’t afford to lose my business.” Fluttershy nodded. “I agree you need to work on your business. I can’t promise I can take care of them that long though… um, what about Applejack?” Spike answered. “She was our second plan. You just seem better with kids.” Fluttershy smiled. “Oh my, I… thank you. I’m glad you think so. But… why do you have Rainbow’s kids for a few days? Where is she?” Rarity threw her head back. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” “W-what?” Rarity clarified. “Twilight Sparkle is still making our lives a living tartarus. She along with Wind Rider took off with Blackout. Now Rainbow has to go and find them and get her kid back. Honestly, what is wrong with that mare?” Spike interrupted. “Now hold on, we don’t know if Twilight had anything to do with that.” Rarity took in a deep breath and exhaled. “You’re right, Spikey Wikey. I’m sorry. We do know that Wind Rider did, but Twilight might not be involved… maybe.” Fluttershy lowered her eyes a bit. “Unless she thought it would be in our best interest.” Rarity nodded. “Exactly my thoughts.” Amber didn’t want to think about Twilight. She’d messed up too much already but… still she wanted to see her again. To know with her own two eyes that she was okay. After all was said and done, Twilight was there for most of her life. Now she was the villain everypony hated, she was the cause for Amber to get strong and protect her family, she was the one who caused endless amounts of pain and hurt… but Amber just wanted Twilight to be okay. Rarity must have picked up on Amber’s feelings because her next words were, “I’m sure that Twilight didn’t plan this… um, maybe she was foalnapped like Blackout was?” Amber stuck her head up, she could feel magic going into her horn. “What?” Rarity stammered. “Um, well uh, what I mean is, um… Fluttershy?” Fluttershy spoke calmly. “Twilight’s fine, Amber. She isn’t in any danger. I also don’t think Blackout was foalnapped. She probably ran away against her mother’s wishes, much like a young unicorn I know.” Amber felt her heart beat slow down and the magic start to leave her horn. “R-right… actually that makes sense. Still…” Fluttershy spoke. “Rarity, we are on a time table here, so unfortunately I can’t babysit right now. Go to Applejack, I’m sure she’ll help out, she’s good with kids too, I mean she has a farm.” Rarity’s eyes widened. “Yes, you’re right. A farm, and a farm means they have space to fly and play and be out of my mane for five seconds!” She looked at Spike and then Jade. “Spike, Jade, grab a kid or two, we’re going to Applejacks.” *** Trixie found herself yet again sitting in a room at a table with Celestia at the opposite end, Luna in the middle, and much to her surprise, Rainbow Dash on the other side of Luna. Rainbow Dash’s eyes were bloodshot, her forelegs crossed over her chest, and her breathing was a bit shallow. Luna was speaking, “So there you have it. Sunset may have dealt a serious blow to the enemy, but we now have a rescue mission on our hooves.” Rainbow Dash growled. “Why don’t you just teleport us there and get this done with. My kid is behind enemy lines for crying out loud!” Luna spoke again. “Because, as I’ve mentioned a dozen times, we don’t have a safe LZ yet. If I teleport me, or a group into Southern Equestria now, we’d likely end up in an ambush before we know it, or worse yet, inside that toxic Smooze. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we’re trying to save your daughter, not kill her only living parent.” Rainbow Dash growled. “Whatever, just make the plan and let’s do this already or I’m flying there myself.” “Flying there yourself and what? Going to make every living and unliving thing there know where Twilight’s group is hiding? And what, carry them all back one by one?” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Who said I’m carrying anyone else back? Just Blackout.” Luna swallowed. “The worst part is that something is interfering with my ability to contact Twilight’s team. I’ve made contact for only brief moments with Twilight, and she gave me all the information she could but I haven’t been able to contact her again since.” Trixie rose on her hind legs and placed her forelegs on the table. “This isn’t even the worst news.” Trixie’s horn lit up and a map of Equestria grew out of the table. Dark spots were placed in a few different cities across Equestria. “These dots represent places where the Shadow Sickness has appeared. Now we’ve done our best to keep the sickness down and secret, but we don’t know how contagious it is yet, if it spread quickly, it could devour Equestria in months, maybe weeks.” Celestia nodded. “The Solar Knights have done a fantastic job in rounding up and capturing those infected before they can cause too much chaos. Yet there are only so many of them that can do this job, and the cases are spreading faster than they can move.” Trixie nodded. “So we have the external threat from Southern Equestria, a horde of undead monsters just waiting to attack our borders. We have a disease inside our boarders causing more undead. And we have two missing corrupted alicorns who are goddess knows where, doing goddess knows what. We have our plates full.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “So, what are you saying?” Trixie sat down and looked at the map she’d created. “That we’re about to be hit hard, harder than anything we’ve ever faced and we will need powerful allies to get through this.” Trixie glanced at the door behind them and said, “You can enter now.” A tall alicorn wearing a crimson cloak walked in. Her yellow wings and horn were almost all that could be seen aside from the long red main trailing to the floor from underneath the hood. She walked up to Trixie’s side and withdrew her hood. Rainbow Dash gasped, Celestia narrowed her eyes, and Luna curled her hooves. Red Velvet smiled revealing several fangs. “As is our natural born duty, The Alicorn Empire is here to save the day.”