//------------------------------// // Council // Story: My Little Pony: Lands of Time // by Lolsternater //------------------------------// My Little Pony: Lands of Time, Chapter three: Council Written by LOLSTERDarkmoon, with the help of Master of chaos and evil: Spell Bound, Proof-reader: Bookworm, and The love doctor: Flutterpie-Sparkle “You know what this means! If we let them escape by themselves, then they will destroy us! If we free them, then they might reward us.” “Are you mad? If they escape at all we are all doomed! This is just a strange event that has nothing to do with them.” “I agree. What if we release them and they have nothing to do with this, then what? We have two problems.” The great council of Dayflow never had truly agreed upon anything, but with something like chaos magic showing up out of nowhere, a decision had to be made. A blue unicorn with red and blue hair stood above the others. “If you damn idiots keep up with these useless bucking comments, then we won’t need the Time Turners to cause chaos! Now all of you sit the buck down!” No one argued with the emerald eyed chemist, so they all fell silent and took their seats. Rubidium Nitro was a proud pony when it came to his position and power, and he would have it no other way. “Now, does somepony have a real idea?” No pony raised their hooves or whispered a breath. Except for Swirly Puddle, who stood next to Nitro. “Well Ruby, there are a few ponies that were there when the chaos attacked. They seemed to deal with it quite well, maybe we could recruit these ponies and send them after whoever is causing this?” Nitro scolded, he hated his nick-name that ponies had put together from his first name. But Swirly had a point, if these ponies he spoke of really did combat the chaos and were successful, then they might be able to stop the source. “That... might work. Where are these said ponies, Puddle?” Nitro grunted, hating to agree with his rival. Swirly kept his poker face and answered. “They should be on their way here already. I doubt we will have to wait long.” Nitro was pleased with that. It seems they were going to get somewhere today after all. ========================================= It seemed I was going to get a tour of the capital earlier than I thought. The tall glass buildings spread on the valley floor were more impressive from the ground, but trying to view them was combated with the hundreds of ponies moving from point A to point B down in the street. Flame, Cadence, and I kept up with the two guards leading us to the central building of the city. It sat in the middle of a large park, and looked rather like a grey bee hive. We were lead down a path with statues of powerful and meaningful ponies on each side, watching us as we made our way to the doors. At the entrance, there was at least thirty Imperial guards standing around or doing their rounds. We had to go through five check points before we even got to the main doors. On the inside the floor was spotless to a point where you could see our faces, banners hung over every stone pillar which reached to the roof; all the way down a vast hallway. Ponies pressed in the average work suits were running back and froward, carrying stacks of folders and paper. Waiting inside for us were String Lyrics, Clean Beam, and Free leaf. String and Beam looked like they had lived through the afterlife, while Leaf looked as fresh as a daisy; smelt like one too. “Hello friends!” Leaf cried as she came and gave us each in turn huge hugs. “How nice to see you all; all of you awake at least,” she added with a friendly smile at Cadence. “Nice to see you guys too! But, why are you here?” “We aren’t too sure. They said everypony involved with what happened to my beautiful garden had to be here. I assume they said the same to you?” I nodded. We looked around the marble building we were in, and found that no one else was around. “Hey, where did everypony go?” Her question was answered by some massive doors at the end of the vast hallway creaking open. “Come closer, ponies!” A powerful and cocky voice called from the large room behind the doors. We trotted at a steady down the hallway, slowly getting a better view of the room we were being called into. A group of about eight ponies sat at a high set, semi-circle table; lowest on both ends and raising as it got to the center. At the highest point sat two ponies, one a unicorn and the other an earth pony. “Welcome! We have summoned you to discuss the events that transpired yesterday,” the earth pony spoke said. “You were all there when the chaos magic took hold of the garden, and proved more than capable of disposing of it. So we have a proposal for you.” The unicorn stood here and the earth pony took his seat. “Since you have the most experience with this chaos magic, we would like you to find the source and put a stop to it.” Cadence flinched and tensed up under her cloak at these words. “We are yet unsure what has caused this, but have faith you will be strong willed and solve this mystery.” The unicorn left it at that, the next move on us. Our small group looked at each other, none sure how to take this offer. We would be diving into something we had hardly anything to do with, and no experience except from yesterday. It was String who spoke next. "So what if we accept? What could you offer us in turn for this service?" The unicorn and earth pony turned away for a moment, discussing what they had to offer. When they returned it was the earth pony who spoke. “I’m sure there is something each of you wants. If you do this deed for us and the kingdom, we will do what we can with our power to help you reach your goals.” A smirk appeared on his face, I didn’t trust him at all. The others, however, were riveted about this offer. Whatever they wanted, these ponies could help them get there. It was only Flame, Cadence, and I who kept our straight faces while the others beamed. String once again took it upon himself to speak for us all. “Well, I guess we may have an agreement. As long as you promise to hold up your end of the bargain, we will hold up ours.” The whole eight council members grinned devilishly, tearing my gut up with bad feelings. “Excellent! We will give you all the supplies you need, as well as all the knowledge on the matter. We wish you luck ponies. May time turn slower with your steps!” With those parting words, more guards appeared behind us. They lead us away from each other and to different parts of the building. They took Flame and I, also Cadence who refused to be parted, to a training room. Hoops and objects hung in the air as well as the ground. Dummies were also scattered in different places. The big earth pony from the park came from behind a large pile up of broken materials. “Ahh, Dream! Nice to see you again lad!” Bull Force came up and shook my hoof quite tightly, my hoof pulsing from pain afterward. “And who might this be? I can’t say I’ve seen you around here before.” He stood before Cadence and tried to peek under her hood, but she just pulled it lower. “Are you a mystery mare, eh? Well I guess that’s fine. Just don’t make me regret leaving you alone.” Bull turned back to the objects all over the space. “This, Dream, is where we will be training you. We can’t be sure what to expect when you go off to find the source of this ‘chaos magic’, but be sure that I will have you trained for it. Today, we’ll see what you can do, and then you can go home while we decide what to put you through tomorrow. Any questions before we begin?” We remained silent and that brought a smile to Bull’s face. “Good. Now let’s see what you can do,” He lunged at me out of nowhere, and tackled me to the ground before I could even let out the air knocked out of me from the blow. “Well that was pathetic! Always to ready for an attack! Who knows when you are being watched?” Well I was getting shouted at by the massive stallion, Flame quickly darted into the air and her herself alight. “Well you should be careful of your enemy’s friends, brute!” And then, before Bull could even turn around, Flame had struck the back of his head with a swoop and a blast of flame. Bull Force was knocked out easily and I pushed his dead weight off me. It was then that the blue unicorn from before stepped out of a side door. “Well, I guess training will have to wait for tomorrow. We will have more tests and basic training waiting for you when you get here. Oh, and don’t worry about jobs and rent, we will be more than happy to cover all of that. Just, try not to make such a mess of my forces next time. It leaves a bad mark for me.” He turned back to the doorway and left. “Well, he’s charming,” quoted Flame. With ‘training’ done for today we headed home, leaving back through the large marble entrance way. All the ponies who had seemed to have disappeared were now back in full swing; carrying notes and papers from one end of the hall to the other. After the five check points, which were faster on the way out, we walked back through the city and up the hill to home. A couple of cups of tea later and it was off to bed. I was sleeping on the couch again, much to the joy of my back, and with final good nights to Flame and Cadence, I fell asleep. It was going to be bloody hard in the morning.