//------------------------------// // The Stranger // Story: They're Comfy and Easy to Wear // by Friendly Uncle //------------------------------// The Stranger “Did you feel something?” Twilight Sparkle looked around curiously, her ears twitching, eyes wide in confusion. A moment later they narrowed in annoyance as Rainbow Dash draped herself over the purple unicorn, lightly nibbling one of her ears. “Oh yeah,” muttered the sky blue pegasus, “I’m feeling something alright.” “No,” sighed Twilight, shifting her weight in a half-hearted attempt to dislodge Rainbow. “I’m serious, my horn’s tingling.” Dash perked up even more, a wide grin splitting her face and her wings slowly unfurling to their full span. Twilight stared at her, an expression of confusion slowly giving way to disgust. Rainbow blinked and hopped off of Twilight’s back so she could nudge the unicorn’s haunch with her nose. “So we doing this or what?” she asked, still grinning. Twilight’s expression grew more incredulous by the second. “What?” “The thing with your horn,” said Rainbow, her smile starting to falter just a little. “That’s unicorn code, right? You gettin’ all riled up? You ready to go, Sparkles? You want some of the Dash?” Twilight stared at Dash for another couple of seconds before she rolled her eyes and trotted away. Rainbow watched her go, wings slowly drooping. “...so that’s like, a rain check, right? We gonna do it later? ...Twilight?” Lyra and Bonbon were sitting at a table outside a small cafe, drinking hay smoothies and chatting about whatever happened to cross their minds. Like how one actually made a smoothie out of hay. Bonbon suspected magic, but Lyra was pretty sure that couldn’t be all there was to it. The mint-colored unicorn was about to expound on her theory about extra Equestian lifeforms when she abruptly paused and held a hoof to her forehead, grimacing. “Wagh,” she muttered, “what was that?” “What was what?” asked Bonbon, blinking in confusion, “are you okay?” “Is your horn vibrating?” asked Twilight Sparkle. Lyra and Bonbon jumped slightly in their seats, not having seen the purple unicorn’s approach. Lyra quickly nodded, however “Yeah, did you feel it too?” “A couple of times,” said Twilight, frowning a little, “it feels like it’s getting worse.” “What in the wide world of Equestria are you two going on about?” asked Bonbon, brows crinkling in confusion. Rainbow Dash landed beside her and threw a hoof around the earth pony’s cream-colored shoulders. “Don’t bother,” said the pegasus, “it’s some kind of weird unicorn thing. Twilight’s kind of being a jerk about it.” “Our horns are resonating,” said Lyra, glaring at Rainbow Dash until she stopped touching Bonbon. “It means there’s some really powerful magic going on somewhere nearby.” “Really?” Rainbow perked up, “that sounds pretty cool. What kind of magic?” “It could be a lot of things,” answered Twilight, looking around as if she expected to see the source in Ponyville’s streets somewhere. “Anything powerful enough to affect Equestria’s background magic in some way.” “So like... a giant glowy rift in the sky maybe?” hazarded Bonbon. “Yeah,” said Twilight, eyes widening, “that could definitely do it. ...that seems... oddly specific though, why do you...?” Bonbon wordlessly raised her hoof towards the sky. The other ponies turned to follow her gaze and found themselves staring at an enormous multicolored swirl of energy high in the sky above them, pulsing with magic. The unicorn’s horns started to visibly twitch. “Oh,” said Twilight, wincing, “yeah that’s probably it.” “That is so metal,” breathed Rainbow Dash. The rift convulsed suddenly, flexing like a living thing, and then vomited out a burst of light and color. Something, a great struggling mass that screamed as it fell, shot out of the rift and flailed towards the ground like a meteor. With one final pulse of magic that drew a strained cry from Lyra and a sharp gasp from Twilight the portal folded in on itself and disappeared from sight. “What in the name of Celestia’s sweet sun-spotted rump was that!?” Bonbon wailed. “I don’t have any idea,” said Twilight, “but I’m gonna check it out!” Without any warning, the unicorn vaulted onto Rainbow Dash’s back, drawing a strangled yelp from the pegasus as she instinctively shot up into the air. Twilight gripped with her knees and pointed forwards dramatically with one hoof as Rainbow bucked and twisted underneath her. “Quickly Dash! Fly! It’s the only thing you’re good at!” “I’m going to scrape you off with a low-hanging branch, bookworm!” “Sure, whatever, just use your wings! I know you’re at least as curious as I am.” “Rrrrrgh... fine! But you owe me!” The shot off into the sky, Twilight’s brief shriek of surprise producing an unusual doppler effect as they traveled. Lyra and Bonbon watched them go, blinking, and then slowly turned to look at each other. They noted that they were wearing identical expressions of utter bafflement, and nodded in unspoken consensus before heading back into the cafe to trade their hay smoothies for something a little stronger. Rainbow Dash’s multicolored contrail described a shallow parabola across the sky between the Ponyville cafe and the enormous crater that had been punched in the ground in a large clearing on the town’s outskirts. Rainbow landed a few pony lengths away from the wreckage, alighting on all four hooves before bucking upwards powerfully with her hips and dumping Twilight Sparkle into a nearby bush. The unicorn flailed for a moment before rolling out of the plant with leaves in her mane. “What the hay Dash!? I was trying to be quiet! We don’t know what that thing is!” “What, you mean whatever got spat out of that giant magic hole in the sky?” asked Rainbow. “Pretty sure it’s not in much shape to mess with us after that. I know I wouldn’t be.” “I hope it’s still alive, if it was in the first place,” said Twilight, sneaking up to the rim of the crater. “Can you see if it’s moving or not?” Whatever it was, it moved. Rising out of the crater on great wings of polished black, it threw back a horned, skull-like helmet and released an earth-shaking bellow of what could only be described as inarticulate rage. Twilight and Rainbow let out twin shrieks of bladder-emptying terror and leaped back into the bushes. If the thing noticed them it gave no sign, rising further into the air with great sweeps of its terrible wings. “What is that?” gasped Rainbow, staring at the newcomer as it flew heavily upwards. “It looks like some kind of monster! Look, I think it’s wings are made of metal! How is that possible!?” “I don’t have any idea,” said Twilight, swallowing nervously, “maybe some kind of magically animated construct? It moves really smoothly though, I think it must be alive.” Rainbow Dash grinned, tail twitching, as curiosity overcame her trepidation. “Let’s get a closer look!” “Wait wha- agh!” Twilight yelped as the pegasus slithered underneath her legs and jumped back into the air, holding on as tightly as she could with all four limbs as Dash rose up to match the bizarre thing’s altitude. It was remaining more or less still now, twisting its head around as if to look around itself in every direction, clearly confused by its surroundings. They could see now that the thing was entirely cloaked in jointed metal, great steel talons emerging from all four of its limbs. The tattered remains of a long blue cloak was wrapped around its body, held by an assortment of lengths of chain. Rearing up as if on its hind legs, wings pumping slowly to keep it stationary, the beast raised one foreclaw and traced a circle in the air. To both ponies’ surprise, the gesture left a circle of golden light behind, which coalesced into a shimmering disk rimmed by a ribbon of bizarre glowing symbols. The thing began sweeping it slowly across the sky, looking through it as if it were some kind of giant magnifying lens. “What is it doing?” asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight could only shake her head. “I’m not sure. It’s some kind of magic, I know that, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever heard of before. It’s using runes, but why would it channel the energy through its claws instead of its horns? It doesn’t make any sense.” The thing turned towards them in its sweep, passing the disc of magic in front of its face. Twilight gasped. When she looked through the circle the beast changed its appearance, as if its armor was stripped away and she could see what it looked like inside. It was only for a moment, but she could make out a short, mean-looking face, streaked with blood and half-obscured by a long dark mane. Its teeth, strangely sharp, were gritted as if in rage, and she found herself looking into its furiously glaring bloodshot eyes. Then the disc swept upwards, and the creature startled, immediately rising further upwards into the air. Twilight gasped in shock, and almost fell off of Rainbow Dash. “It’s a true seeing spell!” she cried, “it’s looking for something! Something that can’t be seen with ordinary vision!” “Well I think it found it,” said Rainbow, pointing. The monster had come to a halt and was hovering in mid-air again, holding the magic circle in front of itself. As the ponies watched the ring of magic began to expand, sprouting more circles around its edge, manipulated by sweeping gestures of the creature’s claws. Frowning, Twilight cast a spell of her own, a light purple glow surrounding her eyes as she concentrated on what the beast was doing. Her mouth fell open as she realized what she was looking at. “There’s a hole in the magical field!” she almost screamed. This time she did fall off of Rainbow Dash, who quickly swooped underneath the unicorn to catch her. “Woah there egghead,” she soothed, “what does that even mean? What’s a magic field? Corn that picks itself?” “Oh my gosh how do you ponies live with your ignorance!?” snapped Twilight, temporarily distracted by Rainbow’s obliviousness. “Equestria’s magical field is the background energy that makes magic possible! There is a hole in it! Bonbon was even more right than she thought she was, that big glowy thing was a tear in the fabric of reality itself!” Twilight’s head snapped back around to look at the creature, who had finished placing an intricate web of rune-encrusted magic circles around the edges of the rift. Now it reared back, apparently gathering magical power in one outstretched claw. A visible ball of raw energy appeared in its hand, throbbing with power. Twilight’s horn began to tingle. “... and it’s going to try and open it back up!” Rainbow Dash took in Twilight’s panicked expression and gulped. “That’s bad, right?” “If it succeeds it could make the rift bigger! Do you know where the biggest identified rift in Equestria’s magical field is!?” “Uh, no?” Twilight grabbed Rainbow and pulled her closer until their noses were almost touching, her wide purple eyes boring into the unicorn’s magenta ones. “The middle of the Everfree Forest!” For perhaps the first time in history, Rainbow Dash was entirely speechless. Above them, the beast gathered all of its collected energy into one fist, and slammed it into the rift. Twilight let out a panicked scream as her horn began to vibrate. The air around them rang like a gong, sending them tumbling. Unable to move her wings properly anymore, Rainbow Dash dropped. The bushes once again accepted the two ponies with leafy hands. Their landing wasn’t soft by any means, but it was better than the broken bones they might have suffered otherwise. As it was, Rainbow was barely coherent enough to realize that the cacophony of color and noise above them had died down almost as quickly as it started. Twilight sat upright, rubbing her aching horn, just in time to see the monster with the metal wings impact with the ground for the second time in so many minutes. “...does that mean it didn’t work?” asked Rainbow. Twilight looked upwards and breathed a sigh of relief. “No, the rift doesn’t look any bigger. I wonder why it wasn’t able to...” A low throbbing snarl escaped the thing as it rose onto its hind legs. Its right arm hung limp and bloody at its side and its left clenched into a trembling fist as it glared upwards at the sky. Wings spread wide, it made a screaming noise that would have frightened a dragon. Rainbow’s ears flattened against her head as she watched the monster yell. “Dang that thing is ticked off,” she said, “and it makes a lot of really weird noises.” “I think that’s a language,” said Twilight, eyes wide, “if we could figure out what it speaks, maybe we can communicate with it!” “Why the hay would we want to do that!?” asked Rainbow, “you just said this thing tried to turn Ponyville into the Everfree Forest! I say we Elements of Harmony its metal butt back to wherever it came from!” “We don’t know for sure what it was trying to do,” said Twilight urgently, “and we don’t have any idea where it came from. It was just shot through a rift in the fabric of spacetime! It could be from anywhere, any when, any world at all! This is our chance to actually interact with an extra Equestrian life form! … why is it so quiet all of a sudden?” Rainbow Dash swallowed and took a few nervous steps backwards. Twilight turned slowly, eyeing the strange metal beast. It had stopped yelling, and now stood very still. Only its head was moving, and it was slowly turning to look right at them. The unicorn attempted to smile as nonthreateningly as she could. “Okay Dash,” she whispered, “this is it. First contact! Try not to screw up too badly.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” grumped Rainbow, walking forward just enough to throw a protective wing across Twilight’s withers. “Why am I the one who has to worry about screwing up?” “Because it’s you.” “I’m going to hurt you after this is over, Sparkle.” It moved. In the time it took Twilight to blink the thing was suddenly there within arm’s reach of her, hunched over the ponies as if it was studying them with the hollow eye sockets in its mask. Rainbow let out a strangled cry of surprise and scooted backwards, wings spread in an instinctive flight or fight response. Twilight managed to hold her ground through sheer force of will, grimacing up at the stranger in a way that she hoped was vaguely welcoming. Slowly, she raised one hoof and waved. “Hello!” Twilight said brightly. Behind her, she could hear Rainbow Dash’s facehoof. The beast crouched low so that its horns were hovering on either side of Twilight’s, and from somewhere within the depths of its mask’s eye sockets came a red glow. Twilight tried to swallow, but found her throat suddenly dry as she remembered the glimpse she’d gotten of the thing’s face. She could remember its eyes, filled with anger. She imagined she could see them now, behind that crimson light, glaring down at her. “Twilight?” asked Rainbow nervously, “you okay over there? What’s it doing?” Twilight didn’t answer, her tongue was too heavy to move. All she could do was stare upwards into the red lights of the thing’s eyes. The eyes stared back at her, boring into her skull and seeking further inside of her. She could feel her mind laid out like a book against the back of her skull and the beast reading it, paging through her soul in search of information. Panic began to rise in the back of her throat as the monster chuckled softly to itself. A deep, hollow, unmistakably masculine voice, like metal scrap falling into the bottom of an old well, spoke for the first time in a way that the unicorn could understand. “Tell me your secrets, you tiny purple... thing...” “GET AWAY FROM HER!” A wall of lavender magic hit the ground immediately in front of Twilight’s nose, and the monster jerked backwards, startled. The purple unicorn reared back with a whinny of surprise, her eyes rolling in terror as she backed away. Rainbow Dash was beside her an instant later, trying to calm her down. Panting, Twilight blinked as a new figure stepped in front of her, a broad white pony clad in purple barding, blue streaked tail lashing his flanks in anger. “... Shining Armor...?” Shining turned to her with a strained smile. “Hey Twily. The princess thought you could use some help. Relax, I got this.” “What the fu...” muttered the beast, backing away further from Shining Armor’s shield as a team of royal unicorn guards began to close in around him, hemming him in with their brightly glowing horns. Laughter, low and mocking, began to rise up from the depths of his skull mask as Shining Armor raised one hoof to signal the guards. “Prepare suppressing fire!” he commanded, “on my mark!” Twilight’s eyes almost popped out of her skull in surprise. The unicorn guards lowered their heads as magic built up along the shimmering lengths of their horns. “Wait! Shining, don’t-” The monster with the metal wings rose into the air. He didn’t stop laughing, pauldron-covered shoulders shaking with joyless mirth. Flashes of golden magic twisted around his left arm to gather in a clawed hand. Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed. “Fire!” As one, blasts of stunning magical force erupted from the guard’s horns. In the same instant the beast raised his hand and conjured another circle. This time the runes marked the edge of a vast shield, protecting the monster behind a round plane of coherent light. The unicorns’ spells impacted against the barrier with a noise like thunder, and then rebounded, hammering into the ground and sending up plumes of smoke. When it cleared, Shining Armor’s guards lay stunned and groaning on the cratered earth, and the metal monstrosity alighted once more on his hind legs, still chuckling quietly, eyes burning crimson. “How strange that even animals forget their place,” he mused, “and so I must remind them.” Shining Armor bellowed wordlessly in rage as he charged, hot magic rising up from his horn and bursting outwards in front of him. The power flowed like water pouring into a mold before hardening into a solid shape, a great blade of raw magic that he brought down with a swing of his head. The thing with the metal wings raised his right arm to block the attack, and the magic sword made a great metallic ringing noise as it dented the gauntlet. Snarling, the armored creature smacked Shining Armor’s magic aside with a sweep of his arm, scattering drops of blood and splinters of metal. The metal thing hissed, red and gold magic crackling like lightning over his claws. Shining Armor snorted and pounded his forehooves on the ground, magic flaring out of his horn as he conjured another sword. They started for each other, but before the pony and the monster could butt heads they were intercepted by a streak of rainbow colors and a loud, scratchy voice. “That’s enough!” yelled Rainbow Dash at the top of her lungs, “cut it out, both of you!” Shining Armor paused out of sheer confusion, his sword spell tilting slightly downwards as he came to a halt. The steel beast also paused, his helmet tilting slightly to one side. The red glow in his eye sockets dimmed just slightly. “What do you want, little winged blue horse mutant?” Rainbow gaped at him for a moment, then shook her head and pointed an only slightly trembling hoof. “What did you do to Twilight!?” The thing tilted his head to look past Rainbow Dash to where Twilight Sparkle was sitting and staring back at him. She jumped slightly as the creature’s eyeless gaze settled on her, then narrowed her eyes just slightly in defiance. The beast nodded once and then turned back to Rainbow. “I needed some information,” he said, “she’ll be fine.” Shining Armor snarled and his sword rose again. Rainbow glanced at him and then back to the thing, pointing again. “Alright, then just... who are you? What are you!?” “I have often been called ‘Destroyer’,” he answered, stretching his right arm. Rainbow winced as she heard metal crackling and bones crunching back into place. “As for what... well, no, that covers both questions quite well, actually.” “Rainbow Dash,” said Shining Armor curtly, “stand back.” “Um, dude, have you been paying attention?” asked Rainbow, gesturing to the other guards, who were only just now starting to shake off the effects of their own spells. “This guy’s twice your size, and he almost ripped a hole in the universe. He’s gonna kick your haunches.” Destroyer didn’t feel the need to add anything to that. “I anticipated that line of reasoning,” said Shining Armor, quite calmly for a pony hefting an eight foot blade made of raw magic, “and I have prepared a counterpoint.” He raised his hoof. Rainbow Dash and Destroyer looked upwards to see an entire battalion of pegasus guards hovering in the air above them. Most of the winged ponies hovered in a domed formation around the clearing while others were forming a perimeter around Ponyville itself. One saluted at Shining Armor. “Ponyville has been secured, sir!” “Good!” answered Shining, a satisfied smile forming on his face. “Prepare for containment procedure! Maximum threat level!” Destroyer spread his steel pinions. “That’s not going to happen.” With a roar of displaced air the metal monster blasted into the sky, scattering pegasus ponies like ninepins. They gave chase immediately, the dome collapsing and reforming to follow and surround the speeding steel monstrosity. Destroyer zigzagged like a mad thing, juking and spinning through the air, but it wasn’t enough to lose the ever constricting sphere of armored pegasi. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rainbow asked skeptically. “They don’t have any spells for him to bounce,” said Shining, “They just need to keep him... what is he doing now?” “Did he catch fire?” Rainbow said even more skeptically. Destroyer’s outline blurred. Thick clouds of smoke were billowing out of his armor and spreading through the air, propelled by flaps of his massive wings. The pegasus guards continued to surround him but stopped moving in closer as the beast’s form became entirely obscured. Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What does he think he’s...” The mass of smoke exploded outwards, sending the pegasi fleeing, choking and coughing. They reformed quickly, but by then it was too late. Destroyer was gone, and the smoke had split into innumerable individual clouds that were already streaking towards the ground. Towards Ponyville. If the guards had been able to organize the chase there might have been enough of them to follow each stream of smoke. Shocked and off-balance, they could only watch as the clouds landed in a hundred places within the small town, touching down in alleys and behind trees, invading every scrap of shadow. And leaving not a trace of the steel-armored stranger behind. Shining Armor picked his jaw off the ground and turned to one of the unicorns who had finally managed to get their manure together. “Organize a search!” he shouted, “I want you to go over every inch of the town with a curry comb!” “Sir, yes sir!” Shining armor watched him go. Then he did a short, angry dance, pounding his hooves on the ground while he swore at himself for a few moments. Once he’d gotten that out of his system he ran to his sister. “Twily?” he asked as he nuzzled her carefully. “Are you alright? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” “I... don’t think so,” Twilight said carefully as Rainbow nuzzled her from the other side. “It felt... weird... kind of overwhelming, but... he was just... looking for something? I want to say it felt like our minds touched. It didn’t actually feel like that at all, but it’s the only way I can describe it. He just looked inside me for a second... and I got a glimpse of him, too.” “Really?” asked Rainbow, interested despite herself. “What did you see?” “I can’t remember,” said Twilight, shaking her head, “but it made me want to cry.” - Buster stared upwards in awe as the royal guards chased what looked like a giant monster across the sky. The pegasus hopped up and down in excitement as he watched the display. He’d heard that all kinds of crazy things happened in Ponyville, but he’d never imagined he’d get to see anything like this! Then he let out a gasp as the monster the guards were chasing turned itself into a cloud and exploded. Well that was weird, what kind of monster turned itself into clouds and blew up? And why were the little bits of cloud all falling downwards? In fact, one of them was headed... right... for... Buster screamed like a filly as a blast of black cloud hit him with all the force of a poorly stuffed pillow. Sobbing hysterically, he flew away as quickly as he could. He had to get out of this town. As a result, Buster wasn’t there to see the cloud slowly settle to the ground and then collapse into itself, solidifying into a shape. In fact, nopony was there to see the smoke assume the shape of a large, powerfully built pegasus, flapping his wings experimentally as he looked around to get his bearings. The new pegasus had a navy blue coat, so dark it was almost black. A long, unkempt auburn mane shadowed his dark eyes, and a tail of the same color snapped agitatedly behind him. “... So... ponies, hm?” He stretched his wings and glanced behind himself with a smirk. The image of a circle of chain, broken in several places, adorned his haunch. Snorting, the new pony took one last look around to make sure he was alone, and then set off down the road, heedless of the spots of blood left behind by his right forehoof. -Currently The End