//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: My little angel: Archangel Chronicles // by Hydreigon_Omega //------------------------------// Celestia and Luna flew to Ponyville with magical disguises to hide themselves. It was an idea Luna came up with to take a small vacation. While Celestia was opposed to it at the beginning, eventually decided to finally take a break from her princess duties and relax a little in Ponyville. The two of them had a fail safe even if somepony found out about their disguise, they could just say that they were running a social experiment of sorts. Their disguises used illusion and auditory magic to give them the appearance of a normal sized pony. Eventually the two of them found the somewhat recently crowned Princess Twilight, talking with her five friends. Celestia, in her disguise, walked up to her former student with an idea in mind. Her idea wasn’t malicious, some could even call it a prank, but Celestia knew that it would help increase Twilight's self image about being a princess. “Excuse me,” Celestia said while being disguised, “are you princess twilight?” “Why yes I am,” Twilight replied being a little confused after not knowing who that young mare is, “is there something you need?” “Could I have an autograph?” Celestia asked in a mildly timid act “Sure, I wouldn’t mind” Twilight said as she grabbed a piece of paper in her magic. Rainbow Dash teased Twilight, congratulating her for finally gaining her first fan. As Twilight was writing her name on a piece of paper a powerful magic surge flooded the area, making her drop her quil midway through writing the “g” in her name.  Calling this magic powerful would’ve been an understatement but she couldn’t think of any other words to describe it. It was so powerful that everypony felt it, not just unicorns that specialized in sensory magic but also earth ponies and pegasi as well, who had almost no connection to magic compared to the unicorn. “Twilight, did you feel that just now?” Rainbow dash asked in a slightly worried tone “I did,” Twilight’s breathing became uneasy Celestia and Luna looked towards each before they removed themselves from the area to find somewhere to safely take off their disguise. When they returned to the area they had left, Celestia and Luna saw that everypony was transfixed at the everfree forest, the place where the magic was spilling out from. Celestia couldn’t shake the feeling that she had felt this magic somewhere before, but where? Mael and the other archangels groaned as their trip here was as smooth as they planned. Normally teleportation wouldn’t be such a difficult feat, but Mael wasn’t surprised that his brother had such a hard time teleporting all four of them to a different dimension. Looking around he saw that his body had returned its pony form. For a few moments Mael was happy, until he realized that neither Sariel or Tarmiel knew what was going on. “AH!” Tarmiel screamed, “Why am I a horse!?” Mael looked at the three headed pony, if the voice wasn't more than enought those three heads were to prove that he is Tarmiel. While he maintained his original hair colors and eye colors for each head, his fur was a golden brown color. What Mael found surprising was that Tarmiel’s center head was a unicorn, while the ones to his left and right had no horns were closer in shape to earth ponies and pegasi respectively. “Pony.” Mael corrected, “While calling you a horse wouldn’t be wrong in our language, it is a rather… insulting term for the inhabitants here.” “And how would you know this?” Sairel said as he tried getting used to walking on 4 legs, Sariel's fur was a minty green and his wings where like the rest of the archangels, a bright white. Too bad he maintain his short stature which was a little shorter than the average equestrian stallion. “I’ve been here before,” Mael said, “It has been a long time but I still remember some things about this place.” “But why am I a Hor-” Tarmiel cut himself off, “a pony” “I could bore you with many hours explaining the theory of interdimensional travel,” Ludociel said, “but all you need to know is that our body’s adapted to look more like the majority of the population here, while retaining most of our original features.” “That actually makes sense.” Tarmiel said Mael began to look around realizing that no one, or rather nopony, was around. The only thing that surrounded them was tar black trees with thorny vines growing off of them. Mael remembered that Celestia, his adopted mother, once told him that this area was known as the everfree forest, a very dangerous place for ponies to go. While it probably wasn’t much of any threat to him now, it still felt very off putting. “Nerobasta,” Ludociel said,“Can you hear me?” “Loud and clear sir.” She replied, confirming that the telepathy link was stable. “Good.” Ludociel said, “Keep watch in case the demons do decide to attack the celestial realm while we’re out.” “Yes sir,” Nerobasta said, “But may I ask you something, Sir Ludociel.” “What is it?” “Why did you decide to do interdimensional travels instead of something a little more... normal” Nerobasta asked,  “Classified information.” Ludociel said before abruptly, and temporarily, severing the communication link. Suddenly a slight glimmer of light caught Mael’s eye through the heavy woods. It was still about mid day, so it couldn’t have been sun setting. Possibly there was a town or something in that direction. “We should go this way,” Mael said, “I think I saw something over there.” “Wait, Mael,” Sariel said, “I agree with Nerobasta on this. Just why exactly are we here?” Mael looked towards his brother, wanting to figure out if he should answer this. “Why are you looking at me?” Ludociel asked, “It was your decision, so you can answer it if you want to.” Mael turned his attention back towards Sariel and Tarmiel, who were waiting for a proper answer. “Do you remember all those years ago when you banished me to an alternate realm to protect me from the Holy War?” Mael asked “Yes,” Tarmiel replied, Mael’s question accidentally struck a nerve, “I’m still sorry about that, okay.” “Don’t be,” Mael said, “While I was here, I actually made some... connections, and I believe she should still be alive.” “She?” Sariel said, “Do you have a pony girlfriend here?” “No, it's nothing like that.” Mael said, “She was like a mother to me. So it would be weird if I had feelings like that for her. Now come on, I don’t want to be too terribly late seeing her again.” Making their way through the forest, they had taken a standard diamond-like formation. Ludociel led the group at the front, Sariel and Tarmiel stood at the sides while Mael walked behind them to prevent anyone from flanking. Even though they didn’t need to do it, the four Archangels did it so much in the Holy war that it has become second nature to them. Eventually the trees began to thin out, allowing them to see a small town ahead of them. A large number of ponies looked at them, their expression ranged from confusion to fear at the archangels' presence. Out of fear the ponies stepped out of the way of the four archangels. “Look at all these little ponies,” Tarmiel remarked, “It’s almost cute how weak they are compared to us.” “What did you say about us?” A cyan pegasus said as she dash off towards Tarmiel with malicious intent “Rainbow Dash stop!” A purple pony said trying to prevent the mare from doing something she’d regret But it was already too late. Rainbow Dash’s hoof had already collided with the face of the Ocean Grace. There was so much force behind her punch that it actually left a pretty nasty looking imprint on his face. When the rainbow haired pegasus had thought that she had won, Tarmiel’s regenerative abilities activated, returning his face to normal. (Or at least normal for his pony form) “Now what was that?” Tarmiel mocked, “You couldn’t even kill a fly with a punch like that!” Rainbow growled at this mockery of her, while Tarmiel just cackled at the pony’s attempt to be intimidating. “How about this, I’ll let you have one more attack against me before I decide to retaliate.” Tarmiel said, “If you manage to actually hurt me this time I will spare you.” “I’ll make you regret that!” Rainbow Dash said as she punched with all of her might, causing the front half of Tarmiel’s muzzle to collapse. Just as quickly as he regenerated the first time, his body returned to normal. “Hey Sariel, I think I may have actually felt something this time.” “Really, is that so?” Sariel questioned incredulously “No.” Tarmiel said as he slapped the cyan pegasus to the ground. Rainbow Dash starred in utter horror as Tarmiel began charging up a large sphere of magical plasma overhead. Everypony there felt the tremendous amount of magic Tarmiel was putting into his attack. Mael to note how several began quivering in fear, especially one yellow pegasus with a pink mane covering her head with her hooves. She was too scared to even open her eyes. “Tarmiel, that’s enough.” Mael said as he grabbed his friend by the arm, or rather front leg, “We haven’t even been here three hours yet and you're already planning on killing someone?” “Aw come on.” Tarmiel complained, as his sphere dissolved into the air, “You're no fun, I was planning on healing her afterwards.” “I do apologize for my friend’s rather… ruthless behavior.” Mael apologized to the mare, “But where we come from, punching some pony in the face is very rude.” “Yeah… uh…” Rainbow stammered over her words, unsure of what to say before Celestia made her presence known among them. “Who are you four, and what do you want with my ponies?” Celestia demanded in a stern voice, she flared her wings in an attempt to intimidate them. “You don’t remember me?” Ludociel said with a mild sadness in his voice, “But then again, I don’t blame you. You didn’t get to know me for more than half a day.” Celestia stayed silent as she continued to stare at Ludociel, attempting to frighten him into talking. While Celestia got the results she wanted, she saw not even the tiniest of fractures in Ludociel’s composure. “Anyways, allow me to introduce ourselves, we are the four archangels, elite warriors of the Goddess Race, second only to the Supreme Deity herself. I am Ludociel of the Grace Flash, I am the leader of the Four Archangels.” Ludociel said as he noticed a subtle change in Celestia’s posture as she seemed to remember him, “Next we have the dynamic duo of the Four Archangels. Sariel of the Grace Tornado and Tarmiel of the Grace Ocean.” Ludociel gestures to the two individuals respectively, “And finally, the fourth and most powerful of us four,” Ludociel stepped aside, revealing to Celestia his younger brother, “Mael.” “Long time no see.” Mael said as he made his way to the front of the group, “mother.” Celestia couldn’t believe her eyes, was this pony standing before her really her son? He wore gleaming gold armor that shone with the brilliance of many suns, and his expression on his face was calm, yet, happy. Has he really changed this much? Even though it had been over 300 years, Celestia was still only familiar with the little colt Mael. But all she needed was only one look at his eyes, those precious blue eyes that couldn’t bear any hatred towards anything, that this was in fact her long lost son. “Ma- Mael, my son. You’re alive.” Celestia couldn’t keep the tears back as she walked up to him for a hug, but her pace quickened into a run.  Mael ran into his mother’s loving embrace, tears of joy began rolling down his face as he broke out of his own stoic demeanor. “I’m so happy to see you again mom.” Celestia shared an intimate moment with her son, she didn’t care that everypony saw her like this. Even after all those years of being apart, Mael loved his mother possibly even more than his own brother. Celestia pulled her head back to make sure that this was really her son before she pulled him back in for an even tighter hug. Everypony stood there in shock. Aside from a very select few ponies, Twilight among them, no pony knew that Celestia had adopted a son a few hundred years ago. Though not much was known about him because of how short of a time he spent in this world. While many historical scholars all agreed that Mael had existed, anything else than that was believed to be only long forgotten legends among their communities. “Hey, do you know what this calls for?” A pink earth pony said, “A party!” Mael was a little surprised when he heard the party pony speak with such enthusiasm. When he gave an inquisitive look at his mother as he looked for answers, she just whispered “Don’t question the pink one.” under her breath, barely loud enough for him to hear. “A party?” Ludociel said as he certainly wasn’t expecting anything special upon their arrival, “Do either of you two have any objections to this?” “No! Of course not.” Sariel said, “We’ve been fighting a stupid war for the past who knows how long. And you think we don’t want to party?” “Fair point.” Time passed, but Mael was unsure by just how much. Mael was introduced to Princess Luna, his aunt, and Princess Twilight and her five friends. Mael was surprised to see another alicorn that wasn’t his mother or his aunt, but he was even more surprised when he heard that had a cousin who was an alicorn, she was also Twilight’s sister in law. As time passed, the young fillies and colts had to be sent home because they had school tomorrow. After all of the little ones were sent home, Applejack brought out the adult ciders. Mael remembered how he had always wanted to try one, but his mother wouldn’t let him, and probably for a good reason. So he managed to convince the other Archangels to try some with him. “I don’t really understand you ponies,” Ludociel said, obviously drunk off his flanks, “drinking all this poison and partying it all up like this. You all are just as foolish as the humans.” “Yeah, but back in the Celestial Realm they never made poison as tasty as this.” Tarmiel interjected “This is not poison, you two,” Sariel reminded them, “It’s called cider.” Almost as if it were on queue, the three archangels passed out on after the other. “You are all a bunch of lightweights.” Mael remarked before downing his final mug and passing out. At a nearby table Celestia watched the entire thing unfold. “Wow Luna, I think you now might have competition for the biggest lightweight of the family.” Celestia teased before realizing that Luna was far too gone to even understand what Celestia was saying even if she was still awake. “But then again, I think you still easily take the cake.” Celestia noticed Mael was starting to wake up and he began to look around. Applying a hoof to the temples of his head, a pink glow emitted from his hoof, which was more than likely some sort of healing spell. Silently, Mael got up from the table and walked out the door. While Celestia didn't want to be overbearing, her motherly instincts told her something was wrong, so she followed him outside. By the time she got there, Mael was sitting on the side of the road watching the sun set. “Mael, is everything alright?” Celestia asked her son, “Why aren’t you inside with the rest of us?” “I just wanted some fresh air is all.” Mael said, “It’s been nearly 400 years, and I still know when something is bothering you.” Celestia said, “So tell me, what’s wrong?” Mael stayed silent for a moment to think of a way to explain this without raising too much suspicion. “Is she still alive?” It took Celestia a moment to run through her archive of memories to know who she was. When she realized it, Celestia felt stupid for not knowing it instantly. While Celestia wanted to give her son comfort, she also knew that her answer would more than likely fill him with despair. “Yes, she is still alive.” Celestia said,” but she is no longer the little ‘ling you once knew. She has become very much like her mother without you by her side.” “I see.” Mael said, “I’m glad that she is safe, but I knew that this would’ve happened. I will make it up to her. Somehow.”