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// Story: Sins of the Past
// Chapter 4: The reason why I fight
// Author: Star Seeker
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Only the end never came.
Twilight opened one of her eyes and scanned the room; everything in the room was frozen. Including the bolt of light, which was frozen mere inches in front of her face.
“Sorry I’m late,” came a voice from above her. “But after recently getting my powers back, I felt like a bit of dramatic timing.”
Twilight looked up. Standing above her was a light brown stallion. She looked at his cutie-mark.
It was an hourglass. And it was burning bright.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked, standing back up. Her legs shook as she rose and she almost fell again.
“Careful, your body is not use to acting within a stasis field.” He walked over to the others, who were frozen in positions of terror as they tried to shield their bodies from the oncoming bolt. “Let me just fix this up.”
He waked up to the girls and touched each one. When he touched them, they glowed for a second, and them collapsed onto the ground.
Applejack was the first to stand up. She looked around. She noticed the bolt of light and the frozen human. ‘What in tarnation is going on here?”
“I created a stasis field around this area. Outside, time has stopped, abet temporarily.” He helped Fluttershy up.
“Now back to the introductions.” He bowed to them. “I’m Doctor Whooves, but everyone calls me the doctor. Celestia sent me to help you girls out.”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle. This here is Applejack. The girls over there are Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie” She walked up an examined the humans face. There was rage in his eyes, and, strangely, a little bit of sadness as well. “What exactly are you doing here?”
“When Celestia fell, the magic she had been keeping from me, my magic, came rushing back to me.” He started pacing around the room. “Celestia, having the foresight to know this would happen one day, placed a message in my magic, which would imprint on my mind as soon as I used my magic. She wants me too take you back to the beginning, to where all this began.”
“What about Nightshade? He’s still frozen” She could see the pain on his face.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot take him. Creating the stasis field and bringing your friends into sync with it has pushed my magic to the limit. He will have to stay here.” He walked up to Nightshade a put a hoof on his shoulder. He whispered to his frozen form. “Don’t worry, my old friend. This is not where your story ends.”
He turned back to the girls. Twilight and Applejack were making sure that the girls were all right. “Sorry to rush you, but we must be leaving now. The stasis field will only last a little while longer.”
He walked up to them. “I must warn you, time travel can give some ponies a sort of motion sickness. It will pass, but it doesn’t feel too good.”
He stood beside Twilight and placed his left hoof above her shoulder. “Can I get all of you to place your left hoof on the person next to you, so that we can all travel together.” They did this.
“All good? Brilliant! Lets go!” His mark shone brightly and they vanished.
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To the human, it seem as if they had just vanished. He could taste a metallic tang on his tongue. Time travel.
He punched the wall next to him. “NO, that did not just happen!” He looked at the space where they had just been. “I thought that having his magic stripped off him would have made him mortal.”
He turned back to the Genesis Heart. The glow had intensified so much that it was almost too bright to look at. Suddenly, the glowing stopped.
BANG! A huge wave of magic exploded out of the Heart. As it passed over him, he could feel the tingle if it. The magic was full of life.
Some of the magic stopped in front of him. Before his eyes, the magic formed bones and joined together. The magic then grew flesh around the bones and other things.
Before his eyes, 2 two humans appeared, a boy and a woman created and sustained by magic.
The magic was forming 3 others, but he didn’t care about them right now. His attention was focused only on the boy as the magic weaved the clothes he had last been wearing.
All the anger he had just been harboring left his body as he recognized who they boy was. The boy recognized him too. They ran towards each other and embraced, tears flowing from mans eyes.
“Daddy!” screamed the boy as they hugged each other.
‘It’s so good to see you again! How I have missed you!” He said, squeezing the boy tighter.
The woman walked over to him. Through tear filled eyes, it took the man a moment to recognize who it was. “Julia? Is that you?”
She nodded and he shot up and hugged her, tears flowing freely from both of them now. “I told you I would go to the ends of the world to bring you back to me, didn’t I?”
They embraced until the figures behind them coughed, getting his attention.
He released her and turned to them, his tears dried up now. There were two men and a woman, all adult. One of the men and the woman were dressed in armor, and the colors of the rank they represented. The other man wore black robes, much like his own, just those ones looked brand-new. He embraced each one in turn.
“My friends, it is good to meet you once more. How was death?” he asked when he had finished embracing them.
“I honestly can’t remember.” Said the man in armor. “Can you Yuma?”
“Me neither Aerro,” replied the woman in armor. ‘But if I can’t remember, it probably wasn’t worth remembering”. They both laughed. “What about you Zerith?”
“Blank slate.” He looked behind him. “Is that Alicorn meant to running?”
He turned to see Nightshade running towards the hallway.
“Not so fast!” He reached out with his hand. Tendrils of darkness shot out and wrapped around Nightshade, bringing him crashing to the floor.
Zerith raised an eyebrow. “That’s new, when did you learn to do that?”
The darkness moved away from Nightshade, revealing Celestial Bonds. “It is the result of stealing the night princesses magic. I took her sisters as well.”
Zerith looked shocked. “You took THAT much magic! Do you have any idea what that could do to you!”
He shrugged. “I’ll worry about that when the time comes.” He held out his hand. His son ran over and grabbed it. “It’s time to leave. When the rest have regenerated, post a regiment here. The entire existence of the human race now depends on the survival of the spell the Heart is generating.”
He looked at Aerro. “Pick up the Alicorn for me, it’s time to return home”.
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Celestia could hear the sound of Luna’s steady breathing. It calmed her, since she could not see her through the unnatural darkness. She had not been able to get any form of rest since her draining. She just lay there, suspended above the circle of magic that kept her imprisoned. Most of her magic had returned already, and Luna’s had returned completely, but they could do nothing about it as long as they were still bound by the Celestial bonds.
“How long have we been laying here, in the dark?” came Luna’s voice from the darkness.
“A day, maybe more. I can still feel the sun moving, but I feel… disconnected…from it, like it’s no longer a part of me.” She closed her eyes, trying to reach out to the sun, but something was blocking her, taking control of the sun instead of her.
“I feel the same. Maybe when the human drained us of our magic, he also took our ability to control night and day”.
Celestia pondered that. It was a real possibility. Suddenly, a loud banging sound came from the darkness. It continued for a couple of seconds before…
CRASH! The sound of the broken door hitting the ground rang out through the darkness. There was silence before a slight humming sound came from the same direction. “Princesses? Are you there?”
Celestia recognized the voice. “Shining Armor! We’re over here! The darkness is not normal, do you think you can dispel it?”
“I can try, just hold on a sec.” the humming grew louder, until a flash of purple energy washed through the room. It was still dark, but at least the darkness felt normal.
A bright light came from directly next to Celestia. She shielded her eyes from the sudden light.
“Sorry about that.” The light dimmed. “Is that better?”
Celestia uncovered her eyes. Standing next to where she floated was Shining Armor, clad in his reflective purple armor.
He looked confused as he examined the magic circle that she floated in. “What is this thing?”
“It is a device which allows someone to drain the magic out of a magic being, like myself and Luna.” She looked towards one side of the room.
‘The human could activate and deactivate it from a console over there. Find it and turn these things off.”
He nodded and walked in the direction Celestia had indicated. As he approached, a blue console suddenly appeared in front of him, responding to the presence of his magic. One of the buttons was flashing.
“This looks promising.” He said as he pressed the button.
The circles that Celestia and Luna were floating in disappeared. They hit the floor with a thud, the Celestial Bonds disintegrating as they stood up. Celestia noticed that she could stand easily, even though she hadn’t used her legs in so long. The magic circles must have stimulated her muscles as she lay there, so that they didn’t degrade.
Luna spoke first. “What's going on outside?”
“It’s chaos out there.” He said. “When you lost your power, the runes that were binding Chrysalis disappeared, so she fled. When everyone discovered that she was impersonating Luna, and that you disappeared, combined with the weather that has been causing destruction throughout Equestria, it all went to shit. Candence is in Canterlot trying to restore order, but without you there, I don’t think we could do much.”
“I guess we should get moving then”. Celestia started walking towards the door when suddenly, a loud humming noise came from the doorway.
“What's going on out there?” asked Luna as they started hurrying towards the elevator.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good”. Said Shining
The elevator reached ground level and they rushed out, to meet a spectacular sight.
“Oh no” breathed Celestia as she saw what was going on.
As they watched, a soft glow washed over the ruins of the castle. As the glow passed over it, the stone underneath reformed and the wood that had disintegrated centuries ago reappeared brand new.
“It appears that the human has achieved his goal. We must flee quickly, before the rest of the humans regenerate as well.” They rushed towards the exit to the city as the rest of it reformed around them.
By the time they had made it out, the castle had almost finished rebuilding itself, and the magic was now focusing on its main goal.
As she watched, the humans that had perished all those years ago we rebuilt with magic. Tens of thousands of human warriors, along with thousands of women and children reappeared before her eyes.
“This is bad. We have to hurry”.
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The cloud shot across the sky, carrying the human and his new companions back to his home. Yuma, Aerro and his son sat at the front of the cloud, playing around and having a laugh. Zerith was snoozing at the back, occasionally checking on Nightshades’ unconscious form.
He was sitting on the side, with his feet dangling over the edge with Julia leaning on his shoulder, asleep. He looked over and saw Aerro signaling for him to come over. He lay Julia in the middle of the cloud and walked over to him. His son ran over to him.
“He little dude. Can you go over and have a nap with mommy, the grown ups need to talk”. He nodded and walked over to Julia, snuggling up beside her.
“So, what has happened during the years we had our dirt nap?” asked Yuma, as she lay on her back and looked up at the sky.
“Where do I start?” He pondered for a moment. “Well, about a century after us, Luna went wild and was banished to the moon after trying to create eternal night in Equestria. A thousand years later, Luna escaped and Celestia found 6 new champions to wield the Elements of Harmony. Together, they defeated Nightmare Moon, who was Luna’s’ manifestation of her anger and magic and Discord, who managed to break out a couple of year before me. About 3 years ago, the changeling Queen Chrysalis attempted to take over Canterlot. During this, Celestia was defeated and I was able to break out of her prison.”
“Eventful” said Aerro. “But what are we going to do now that we are back?”
“We are going to take Equestria back”
Aerro smiled. “I was hoping you would do that. What's the plan of attack?”
He put his arm around Aerro. “First, we send a regiment to guard the Genesis Heart.”
“And then?”
“And then my friend,” He smiled. “Then we march on Canterlot.”