//------------------------------// // Be Careful What You Wish For // Story: The Angel // by Nexas_Valentine //------------------------------// In the center of the crater was the last thing Star Ocean had expected to see, a stallion pony, more specifically a pegasus. She cautiously moved closer, rightfully concerned about what might happen when she reached him. Fortunately nothing happened, everything finally seemed to be normal, until she noticed his wings. The one to the left of his side was white, while the other was jet black, neither of which matched his peach colored coat, which needless to say wasn’t natural for the average pegasus. “Hey, can you hear me? Are you even alive?”, Star then smacked a hoof to her forehead and sighed. Why am I suddenly being so stupid? Anyway I better check to see if he’s okay. She then lowered her ear to his chest, “Well his hearts still beating,”, after that she moved a hoof in front of his slightly parted lips, “and he’s breathing. He just seems to be unconscious.” Star began examining the rest of his body, she didn’t notice any injuries or even simple things like bruises, just his appearance. His coat was a light peach color, complimented by white hooves and his unusual wings, both his mane and tail were white as well and fairly long, for a stallion that is. In particular, Star noticed that his lean pegasus body, masked toned and powerful muscles the kind that could only be forged in constant, intense use. Her eyes then wandered over to his flank, decorated with a strange cutie mark, a crystalline sword with a black wing stretched outward to the left of it and an identical, white one to the right. Her face grew hot as she realized just where she had been staring and immediately ripped her eyes away, she cleared her throat and spoke to herself, “Well... just how am I gonna get this guy back home without hurting myself... or creating an even more awkward situation.” She sat down and thought hard over her years in Celestia’s school, when she took classes in magic. “Oh! I know! Or at least I remember reading about it... but do I have the power to pull that off? I’ve only ever been moderately talented with magic. I guess there’s only one way to find out.” She then adjusted her stance, spreading her legs slightly and digging her hooves into the ground as she lowered her head. At first her horn only sputtered little magical sparks, but soon began to glow with a light violet aura. Tiny specks of light began to appear and disappear around the two, “Just. A. Little. More.”, she grumbled as the lights converged turning into a large flash, then it vanished taking the ponies with it. At the same moment several miles into Canterlot a simultaneous flash of light occurred as Star and the mystery stallion appeared in front of her house. Star was panting heavily with exhaustion, “I can’t believe I actually teleported... I don’t think I’ll be doing that again any time soon.” She looked down at the stallion. I could probably levitate him the rest of the way. But, where will I put him... who am I kidding? I’ll let him have my bed. I just hope the couch doesn’t kill my back. --------------------------------------------------------------- She dropped him lightly onto her bed and moved the covers over him. That should be good enough for now, I’ll call a doctor tomorrow. She then began to head back down the stairs right outside the bedroom door, but took one look back and smiled at the pegasus, “Good night.”, she whispered and then continued down the stairs. Once she reached the couch she moved some cushions around to make makeshift pillows once she settled in she sighed, “I have a bad feeling that all this is going to become a huge headache, and completely crazy... but, he is cute.”, she giggled as she quickly drifted off into sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------- The next morning the stallion slowly opened his eyes, but immediately squinted them as light flooded in from the ceiling. Once his eyes adjusted he looked around to see where he was, the first thing he noticed was the glass dome making the center of the ceiling. Next to catch his attention was the bed and the surrounding room, the bed itself was relatively large, on each side was a small night table, one with an alarm clock, the other with a lamp and small book. The rest of the room was very plain, to the far end was the door and outside it a flight of stairs, to one side of the doorway was a dresser, to the other a mirror. He sat up and prepared to get up out of the bed, but as soon as he placed all his balance on his hind legs he fell flat on his face. “Ow! My nose.”, he groaned as he rubbed his snout with his hoof then suddenly stopped, “A hoof? Damn, I was just starting to like being a biped again.” He sighed heavily, “Oh well, might as well figure out what I’m stuck as now, I coulda sworn I saw a mirror earlier.” He quickly walked over to the mirror and stared into it. A horse? Nah, I’m not big enough, plus I have wings so I’m a pegasus of some kind. A mini horse... no, I knew there was a specific word for it... right! pony! ...With oddly huge eyes. As he examined his reflection he heard some rustling downstairs, acting out of instinct he immediately donned a battle ready pose, expecting the worst. After several minutes nothing happened, he eventually relaxed his body and decided to explore the next floor down. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he heard another noise, this time it was snoring. He immediately sped around the corner to see another pony laying on the floor in front of a couch. He couldn’t help but let out a barely audible chuckle at the scene before him; A female unicorn pony with a mostly violet coat which changed to a black color from the knee down of each leg and her entire flank on both sides, decorated with five different colored four pointed stars, a vibrant blue mane and tail both with a single off center aqua colored stripe through them, laying in a humorous position on her stomach with her legs spread outward and a small string of drool coming out of her open mouth, as the occasional light snore escaped. He finally failed to contain himself as he let out a burst of roaring laughter, this being more than enough to awaken Star. She rubbed her eyes lightly as they slowly focused to the morning light, once they focused she immediately turned to the stallion, a glare burning across her face. “What’s so funny?”, she yelled. “You. How you were sleeping.”, he just barely voiced between gasps for breath and more laughter. Her face suddenly began to burn red, “Didn’t anypony ever teach you any manners?” “Wow, you can blush through all that violet fur? That’s so adorable!”, he said as he pulled her closer for an embrace. As he was pulling her over, her horn glowed brightly casting the teleport spell sending him to the other side of the room, “Try that again. I want to see just how far I can send you.”, she said with a smirk. “Cool trick. So can I know your name? Or, are we just gonna keep arguing, that could be fun too.”, he replied with a huge grin on his face. Is this guy serious? I wonder if he has brain damage, he wakes up in a complete strangers home, irritates her, then acts like were friends? I hope this isn’t ‘the angel’ that one black pegasus was talking about. All I know is that he was cuter before he opened his mouth. “Hey, what do these stars on your butt mean?”, He interrupted her thoughts. “What, hey!”, she yelled just now realizing that he suddenly appeared next to her with his head near her flank. “Huh? Oh right! Sorry, curiosity usually gets the better of me, so what do they mean?”, he apologized as he took a few steps back. She sighed, “ My name is Star Ocean, and the stars and the black around them are my cutie mark.” “Cutie mark?” “You aren’t from here are you?” “Why do you say that?”, he responded suddenly, now acting rather suspicious. “Just a case of amnesia, nothin’ else.”, he continued, beaming again. her only response was a quizzical stare, in light of this his grin became more forced. This cycle went on for a few more minutes before he finally broke down, “All right, no. I’m not from here. In fact I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.” “I knew it! Are you that ‘angel’ that black mare told me about?”, she exclaimed, somewhat proud that she had forced him to confess. “Say what now?”, he answered. “The black pegasus in the weird neon lit city, she was in a night club, turned me into a generator for a bit. You don’t know what I’m talking about?” “I know what your talking about, I just didn’t know anyone else could be there. Ya see... Both of those worlds are kinda like pieces of my subconscious where my powers are stored, one half is my light, the other my darkness.” “Uh huh... I’m sorry, but I don’t understand any of this.”, Star replied. “It might be better if I told you the whole story, take a seat. It’s a long one.”, He then cleared his throat and began, “Ages ago, before what we consider as time there were several... beings I guess is the best word, who more or less enjoyed their power and abilities, but they eventually grew bored of each other and decided to create their own ‘entertainment’ in a sense.” “So multiple gods exist and created us for entertainment?”, Star interrupted. “Essentially yeah, anyway, at first everything was fine, all the worlds ran just as the creators had wanted, but something they didn’t plan came to be. A monster, a vicious creature made up of hatred, malice, greed, basically every dark emotion one could possibly feel, it called itself The Scourge. In it’s primal beginning it was nothing more than a fledgeling monstrosity, feeding on the darkness born on these worlds, growing larger and stronger. At this point no one paid any attention to it, not viewing it as a threat, then it destroyed an entire world, inhabitants and all.” “Why? That plan seems to have no real result.”, Star inquired. “That’s exactly it. The whole goal is to spite the ones who created these places, trying to prove that whatever they made, it could dispose of.” “That’s... kinda twisted.” “Well it was born from the worst emotions possible, it just wants suffering, no other goal means anything to it. Destruction incarnate basically. Anyway, so after it completely destroyed a world one god decided to change this, and it gifted a mortal with powers to rival the deities so that they could combat this evil.” “You?” “Yep, and I did exactly that, I fought it and destroyed it, or so I thought. It couldn’t be stopped so easily and it escaped to another world to rebuild itself, and I thought it would be someone else’s problem and lived out the rest of my life.” “Your dead?”, Star interjected. “Would ya let me finish? After that, next thing I knew I was an infant, in a new world and new body. And, well, that’s been my... ‘life’ since then. Now, I’m permanently stuck in this cycle of rebirth, in fact this is the first time I came to a world as a fully grown anything.” Star stared at him for awhile trying to comprehend everything she had just heard. After a few moments she finally spoke, “So why aren’t you a foal right now?” “Hmm... ah! That jerk, in our last fight, that weird device musta sent me here and jacked up my powers.” “Huh?” “Oh, after the fourth or fifth time I beat The Scourge, it got a champion too, some puppet to do it’s dirty work.”, He then dropped onto his haunches and rubbed his chin, “And, if they sent me here, they must be here too. They wouldn’t pass up the chance to lord their victory over the angel.” “That’s what those pegasi in your head said, in less words though. Something about an ancient evil, and Equestria in danger.” “Wait, you said the dark one turned you into a generator?” “Yes, I started shooting off electricity like several lightning storms in my body at once. Then she said she had unlocked my powers, but I haven’t noticed anything since then, granted it hasn’t been that long.” “Since last night, can you do anything you couldn’t before?” “Well that spell I used on you earlier, last night I did it for the first time with great difficulty, but this morning it was second nature.” The pegasus stallion immediately closed the space between them as he began to walk full circle around her while examining carefully, occasionally poking or prodding certain spots that were still singed from the night before, eliciting sounds of irritation and protest from Star. “You really do have power. Sweet, I needed a sidekick.”, he then beamed widely. Her response was a smack to his head, “I had a bad enough time being a regular pony, now you’re telling me I have superpowers?” He let out a chuckle as he rubbed his head, “Not exactly. Powers are a little more complicated, they are fueled by something inside you, it’s very rare anybody has the potential for them, mine is fueled by the light and darkness I was infused with by the god. Yours must be some darkness inside you.” “First off, if you want to fit in in this world, you need to use familiar words and phrases so you don’t seem far too out of place. Anybody, as far as I know isn’t a word here. Anypony, on the other hoof is. And, secondly...”, Then she stopped as the full extent of what he said sunk in, “Did you say Darkness? Isn’t that how the evil thing gets all it’s power?” “Yeah?” “Does that make me evil?” He burst out into laughter, again infuriating her. After a minute of laughter she lost patience and levitated him up off the ground by his mane, “What’s funny now?”, rage very obvious in her voice and expression. “Heh, well my pretty savior,” He began, shooting her a large grin, “Darkness, like light, is just a power source, what you do with it is the important thing.” Appeased by his response she placed him back down, “You really shouldn’t keep upsetting me. I do have the advantage here”, She added with a smirk. “I noticed that. Follow me outside.”, he then continued to exit the house. What have you gotten yourself into Star? That’ll teach me to wish for something exciting to happen to liven up my life. I meant a boyfriend or a promotion, not the possible end of all ponydom. And, I still don't understand this guy. He’s serious one moment then random the next, I hope to Celestia he doesn’t have a split personality. “So what’s out here?”, she remarked once she was out the door. “I’m going to emphasize my earlier point. Think about the night sky, millions of tiny specks of light in nearly infinite darkness. Each star is a tiny generator of chemical reactions, burning, combusting, and eventually burning out to make way for the next one. Those stars all create light and warmth for another world, planet, civilization. So yes, light is inherently good, but it could be used to destroy, it creates heat which creates drought, creating famine and death. Darkness, is usually treated as evil, used to describe things that are slightly less pleasant, but what nopony seems to think of is that all that darkness more or less holds us in place, every star, planet, satellite, and whatever else is out there all given a place to be in all that darkness. Problem is, most people go with the stereotype, how ‘bout you? Are you going to be another shady corner hiding a monster, or are you going to be the ocean of stars from which your name and cutie mark seemed to be derived?”, He concluded with yet another large grin. Star was dumbfounded by his sudden burst of depth and intellect, she could only stand and stare in surprise. “Pretty cool huh? I am smarter than I look.” “That doesn’t say much, but I have to admit I was kind of impressed. So, how do I work these powers?”, Star replied with a giggle. “Finally! That took longer than it should have,”, he said throwing his forelegs into the air then continued, “and... umm... I have no idea. I don’t even remember how I figured out my own.”, he replied finishing with a shrug. “Finally what?”, She inquired. “You smiled. I’ve been tryin’ to get a genuine one since I sorta made you angry first thing this morning.” She was about to respond when her stomach suddenly grumbled, fairly loudly. Her face red with embarrassment, “How about we go somewhere to eat and figure out what to do next?” “Sure!” ----------------------------------------------------------------- “So you have no clue how you’re going to be able to restore your full power?”, Star questioned over the cafe table. “No, nothing like this has ever happened. I have no idea how to handle it. Didn’t you say the white pegasus had some large gate?” “Yeah, but she seemed to think the only way I could open it was with these powers, which I still can’t call forth at will.” There conversation was momentarily interrupted by a mail carrier, but not a typical one, it was the royal courier dressed in a golden laced white outfit ornamented with Celestia’s crest. He quietly cleared his throat, levitated a single letter from his bag toward Star, once she grabbed it with her own magic he bowed and left as quickly as he’d come. “I wonder what this is.”, Star remarked. “Well open it.”, came the food muffled reply from the pegasus. Before she could open it she heard three voices all call her name, her coworkers and lack for a better term, friends, were coming her way. “Hey Star, Who’s your friend?”, questioned the earth pony in the front. “Just an old school friend. Nopony important.”, she replied nervously. “What’s his name?”, added the second earth pony. “Name? Oh, uuh.. Bladewings! That’s it. Bladewings.”, Star answered with a confirming head nod. “Bladewings?”, The pegasus whispered. “It matches your cutie mark, now shut up and go with it.”, Star whispered a little more loudly. “Heh, yep. That’s me, but you can call me Blade for short.”, he added with a forced grin. “Come on girls, she’s on a date let’s not interrupt.”, interjected the unicorn accompanying the two earth ponies, then the three waved and said there goodbyes. “Wait, that’s not...”, but she gave up and hung her head as she realized they were too far away to hear her. “Great, that’s what I needed. A bunch of stupid rumors.” “Forget them, what’s with the letter? It seemed pretty important.”, Blade remarked. Star perked up as she realized that she had completely forgotten it, “Yeah, let me see.” She opened up the letter and began to read, but stopped half way through to gasp in shock. “I, Princess Celestia request that you, Star Ocean, and your new guest see me as soon as possible in the throne room in the royal palace. It is of the utmost importance.”, Star read aloud. “Whoa, being summoned by name by royalty. Cool!”, he said swinging around behind Star to read the letter. Star was stunned, she had never thought of herself as the kind of pony to receive a letter directly from the princess. For awhile she was stuck in shock, not knowing what to feel first or how to react. She was snapped back into reality when she felt herself being lifted up. “Hey, what are you doing?”, Star yelled realizing that she was now on Blade’s back. “She said it was ‘of the utmost importance’. Better hold on.”, he then spread his wings and shot off like lightning going far faster than even the fastest pegasi. All Star could do was hold onto his neck and hope she didn’t fall. ----------------------------------------------------------- The two walked slowly past several stoic guards each standing at full attention as if the princess herself had entered the hallway to the throne room. Star was visibly nervous, not quite sure what the princess wanted and knowing even less of what to expect and what was expected of her. Blade was very calm, the whole time he merely admired the designs of the stained glass windows, and the armor suits the guards wore proudly. Once they reached the door at the end of the hall, each and every guard walked out in unison, and the doors were opened by two distinct magical auras. “Weird, guards leaving after we get here and doors that open as if by themselves. Kinda creepy, eh Star?”, Blade said, loving the mystery of the whole thing. Star made no reply, she simply looked onward as she noticed both Celestia and Luna standing side by side, looking very serious, and nopony else in the room. “You wished to see us, princess?”, Star said as she bowed lowly, meanwhile grabbing Blade’s ear with her magic, pulling him down into a forced bow. Celestia replaced her serious countenance with her typical warm smile, “There is no need for such formal greeting. We asked you both here because we are aware of your situation and your role in protecting Equestria.” “You do?”, Star perked up, dumbfounded for the second time that day. “Yes, I saw what occurred last night, but before I could react you had already been taken into the beam. So instead I began a search through the royal archives for information.”, Luna answered. “While I watched over the rest of the night, and your progress.”, Celestia added. “And, what did you find?”, Blade inquired. “Stories, each retelling a very similar tale to the one you told to Star this morning, and the conclusion that we came to was that your best chance to fight back this evil, while your powers recuperate, was to seek the aid of the Elements of Harmony.”, Celestia replied. “Also I have this for you Star.”, Luna said as a small midnight blue amulet appeared around Star’s neck. “What’s this?”, She asked, studying it in her hoof. “A portion of the armor that once graced my neck when I, regrettably, was known as Nightmare Moon. My hope is that having a piece of such strong darkness will help you focus your own powers.” “Thank you Princess.”, Star replied with a small smile, with an ever larger one wanting to break out. “Now, there is a chariot outside waiting to take you to Ponyville, I suggest you try the library there first. While you are doing this, we will continue our search and find out all that we can to help.”, Celestia said, then both her and Luna gestured their silent fare wells and disappeared into flashes of light. “Ponyville? Sounds fun!”, Blade grinned again. “Have you any sense of severity?”, Star complained as she left the chamber. “Hmm... nope!”, Blade replied letting a little laugh out as he followed closely behind Star.