//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - The_Ind1e_Us3r // Story: 40 Years // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// It was only a matter of time before our heroes could find all the pieces of the bell across Equestria and stop the evil Grogar for good. For Twilights One and Two, Sunny, Misty, and Bright Eyes, Griffonstone was a big challenge, mainly for its wide variety of griffons. One must not know if they were aware of such an object falling from the sky, nor were they aware of what was happening at the time. “Twilight!” exclaimed Sunny. “I’ve got some good news!” Twilight turned her head to Sunny. “What’s up?” “Hitch just told me that he and his crew managed to get one of the crystals.” “Great! So that’s one down, five to go.” She took out a piece of paper that consisted of a list and crossed out the first crystal from the list. “I just hope they get back safe. Where they were headed is perilous to begin with.” “He hadn’t texted me back yet.” Sunny looked at her phone a second time before she put it away. “But that shouldn’t be a problem! Knowing Hitch, I bet he knows what to do in a jiffy, regardless of where he is!” As the five approached the kingdom, they saw Gilda, one of the griffons of the kingdom. Gilda roamed the rocky paths of Griffonstone, kicking the pebbles as she strolled by. “Gilda!” Twilight yelled. “Oh,” she muttered. “Ponies. And rather strange ones too. What are you doing here this time?” “We just want to know if you noticed anything… weird fall out of the sky?” Bright Eyes asked. “Something weird?” Gilda was immensely confused. “Can you describe what it looks like?” “Really?” an annoyed Twilight said. “You’re still calling us that? Whatever, I believe the object appeared to have been a red diamond-shaped shard that flew off in this direction, and we assume that since Griffonstone was that way, we followed it and look where we are now. You know Grogar?” Then, with a sudden jolt, Gilda’s eyes widened. “Grogar? That thing? Ha! What makes you think of this Grogar coming back to life?” “You still got proof, Sunny?” Twilight turned to Sunny to show her. “Say no more!” Sunny took out her phone and showed Gilda the video that Pipp took earlier involving Grogar and Sprout, having sent it to Sunny beforehand when they all reached Canterlot. “Looks fake,” Gilda said. “What?” exclaimed Sunny. “What do you mean this ‘looks fake?’ We are showing you one-hundred percent physical evidence of Grogar in this very world, coming to destroy us all! And the clock to doomsday is ticking, so lead us to the direction of the shard, or so help me!” “I think that’s enough talking, Sunny.” Twilight quickly covered Sunny’s mouth to shut her up. “So is there anything you, at the very least, remember?” Gilda took a moment to respond. “Actually… I think I saw something land on the other side of that mountain over there.” “Is it one of the shards?” Twilight Two asked. “I think it is,” replied Gilda. “I did see a streak of light following it. So maybe that answers your question? I don’t know.” “Did you even attend my speech earlier today?” asked Twilight. “Nope. I wasn’t interested, so I shook it off.” “Then that must explain why you’re answering your answers right now.” “Whatever,” said Gilda. “Go do whatever you want to do. I won’t stand here and let you interrogate me. I have things to do, you know.” “Like what?” Misty questioned. “Well… uh…” Gilda tried to think of an excuse to get out of their conversation, until… “Ah! Alright, fine! You caught me! I have nothing to do other than wander around the kingdom, so I guess spending time with you dweebs shouldn’t be bad, I guess.” “Excuse me?!” yelled Twilight. “Are you still calling us ‘dweebs,’ even now?” “Well,” Gilda answered back, “I may be on good terms with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash now, but for you? Maybe not so much.” Twilight’s anger had gotten the better of her until Sunny grabbed her by her head. “You know,” Sunny suggested, “let’s put this thing behind us and start the hunt for the shard!” Gilda rolled her eyes. “Maybe I should’ve attended the speech so that I wouldn’t have to deal with this.” Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, Sunburst, Starlight, and Spike grabbed a projector and placed it on the floor. The former also placed the phone next to the projector and stared at them. “How the heck does this thing work?” Spike said. “This shouldn’t be too hard,” said Starlight. “I think that Pipp mare gave me instructions on how to convert this into the projector.” “And how exactly would you do it?” asked Sunburst. “This is something we’ve never discovered before. We best be dead if we continue.” “Don’t be hopeless, Sunburst,” replied Starlight. “I’m sure that as long as we’re optimistic, we’re sure to get this thing up and running in no time! Plus, you don’t know what would happen next.” “Be my guest then.” “Okay. ‘Step one: Look for film frames.’ Film frames…” Starlight looked for some more tools that could help them convert the video into film. “Now I’m sure they had it somewhere…” “Had what?” asked Spike. “I think there were some film frames Celestia had at the time before she and Luna retired.” “Did they?” asked Sunburst. “How do you know?” “Something one of the new ponies told me when they rummaged through the rooms.” Then, after a minute of searching, she found a large roll of frames inside one of the cabinets. “A-ha! Here they are!” Starlight placed the frames next to the projector. “Okay, so now what?” said Spike. “We’ve got those, so what’s the next thing to do?” Starlight read aloud from the instructions. “Step two: print out the frames into the tape.” “Printers,” said Sunburst. “Do we have one?” “Beats me,” replied Starlight. “Wait!” Spike snapped his fingers. “I think there’s one in the library!” “The library?” replied Sunburst. “Yeah. All the good stuff is there, especially books.” “Well, what are we waiting for?” said Starlight. “Let’s go!” The three managed to reach the library, carrying all the things they needed inside a large box. They arrived at an old but functioning printer. “So what’s the plan here, Starlight?” asked Sunburst. “You’ve got the instructions, right?” “The instructions did say to print them,” replied Starlight. “But how?” “Oh, well. We tried.” Spike was about to leave the library when Starlight captured him with her magic. “No one is leaving this room until we can find a way to get this onto this,” Starlight said sternly. Sunburst looked through both the phone and the printer to see what and how converting the video into the roll could be done. He then remembered that Pipp had a cord connected to her phone at the time of her arrival. “Ah! Guys, I’ll be right back!” And he stormed off. “What was that all about?” said Spike. “Oh, I have no idea,” replied Starlight. Sunburst came back using teleportation, startling Starlight and Spike. “Whoa!” they both cried. “Sorry about that, you two,” Sunburst apologized, “but I think they’ve had something that could help us at the time of their arrival.” “And that is…?” Spike questioned. “This.” Sunburst took out what resembled a USB cable. He connected it to both the phone and the printer. “Oh, ho, ho,” Starlight chuckled. “When did you get so smart, Sunburst?” “What are you talking about?” Sunburst laughed. “I’ve always been smart.” The phone then displayed a message about the video file, which showed about printing it onto the frames. “Ah, this must be it,” said Starlight. “Click ‘confirm’, and let it do the rest.”  Starlight pressed the “confirm” button with her hoof and then the printer showed the progress of the printing of the video onto the roll. The printer began to shake and vibrate, as it had never endured a file from the distant future. But neither Starlight, Sunburst, nor Spike lost hope and placed their bets on the finished product. Come on… Starlight said to herself. Ding! The final product of the film slid out from inside the printer and out into the table. The three took a glance at it. “Okay, good,” muttered Starlight as she looked through the frames; all of which were complete with the video file. “Alright! We did it! Hoof-bumps, everyone!” The three took the hoof bumps simultaneously.  “Now with this finished,” Sunburst added, “we’ve gotta take it out and show everyone in Equestria that Grogar is real! Along with that other assistant of his.” “Oh, yeah, I forgot about him!” Starlight groaned in frustration. “Whatever, we’ve also got him on the video, so that should help us at the very least then.” “Speaking of whom, what is he doing right now?” Not too far away from Ponyville, Sprout was wrapping up his cranking of a machine that resembled the vehicle he used to operate back in his world. “And now, to show Grogar and the ponies how powerful I really am.” Then he began cackling before closing the hatch leading to the vehicle.