Zodiac Brave Story

by Blankscape

Chapter 5: Way Dreamer

Princess Luna looked down as she approached Ponyville under the cover of night, gliding to the humble, rural town all the way from her home in the high perched castle of Canterlot. The night was silent and uneventful as usual, even in this day and age as most ponies rarely had a reason to remain awake at such an early morning hour.

It almost seemed like nothing had changed in the thousand years the alicorn of the Night was banished to the moon. Ponies would work and play in the warmth of the sun, basking in its rays that filled them with vigor and life, then sleep through the eternal and vast canvas that was the black sky and the gallery of shimmering stars their Princess of the Night had so thoughtfully arranged for them to gaze at in all its splendor and magnificence. Indeed, very little had changed in her absence, and were Luna the same pony she was from back then, the alicorn would have struck at her subjects with vengeful and unbridled fury for still failing to acknowledge the beauty of her night. But that didn’t matter anymore. She had become a more understanding and reasonable pony ever since she had been saved from the malevolent shackles of her alter ego, Nightmare Moon. Luna knew that she was no longer alone in her appreciation of the night. It didn’t worry her they alone were so few in comparison to the great number of ponies that lived in Equestria. What did matter was that there were others that did understand her now.

Tonight, she had set off to pay a certain mare a visit. In addition to being the Ruler of the Night, Princess Luna also had great influence over the realms of dream and slumber. Her beloved sister, Princess Celestia, upon her return from her visit to Ponyville, requested a favor of her: to bring pleasant dreams and restful sleep to the Element of Kindness in preparation for her journey to Dodge City. With a great magickal reservoir inherent to alicorns and her unrivaled knowledge over the realm of dreams and slumber, she could have easily done something like this even from all the way in Canterlot, but she deemed a personal visit would be more deserving of one of the six ponies who bravely ventured forth and risked the unknown to free Luna from herself.

With near-silent wing flaps, the midnight alicorn hovered awhile over her destination, Fluttershy’s verdant and lush cottage, as the other Element bearers left for their own homes, yawning in satisfaction of a job well done.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Luna transformed into a cloud of dark mist and silently entered the sleeping mare’s bedroom, so as not to wake her. Thoughts of gratitude, humility and happiness filled the alicorn’s mind as she looked to the demure pony’s slumbering form, at this unassuming mare of bashful grace and extremely mild temperament who had overcome her own faults and fears to save Equestria, time and time again. There were so many others like her who in all their numbers could scarcely begin to measure up to the potential the midnight alicorn once held as Nightmare Moon. But this unassuming pony along with her friends and through the Elements of Harmony wielded the ability to purge Luna of that arcane abomination. Such was the unrivaled power of the Magic of Friendship, and it humbled the alicorn greatly that even the simplest of ponies could find the courage to stand up against evil.

As Princess Luna channeled magick through her horn into Fluttershy, the pegasus’s body briefly shone a subtle yet brilliant azure blue as a wishful smile formed on her face, a sign the enchantment had been successfully cast.

“Pleasant dreams, my little pony. May the new day favor you in your endeavors,” said the midnight alicorn. She then once again dissipated into a cloud of indigo mist, leaving Ponyville to rejoin her sister in Canterlot, but not before noticing a minute ethereal rasp that tickled her arcane sense.

Midflight, she took a moment to look at the canopy of the night sky and her pale moon that hung amidst the twinkling array of stars before descending to her quarters. She pondered her own plans and preparations for the evening prior to the ‘Raising of the Sun Ceremony’, as an apology to the citizens of Ponyville for disrupting the festivities upon her untimely return that fateful night. Luna almost lost her train of thought, however, when Celestia, who had been waiting for her on the balcony, called out.

“Luna, is something the matter?” spoke the alabaster alicorn in a sisterly tone she usually addressed her sister with.

“No, all is well for tonight, and you needn’t worry about the Element of Kindness. She will find herself most invigorated upon waking up.” Luna responded confidently.

“Thanks again for doing this small favor.”

“Think nothing of it, as I myself have yet to show the due gratitude to your student and her friends for all they have done for me,” the midnight alicorn said sincerely, proceeding to shift to a serious and contemplative tone as she continued, “but we do not think that is all you have sent us to Ponyville for…is it, sister?”

Celestia paused for a moment with a slightly troubled look about her, sighing before she spoke, “Your suspicions prove true. I’m sure that you felt it too. Though as faint as it may have been, there definitely was a surge of energy that briefly radiated from the Everfree forest which continues to linger about, one I was barely able to discern yet proves undetectable to even my most faithful student.” Luna nodded in agreement as she recalled that tiny sliver of magick she had sensed before leaving Ponyville.

“A marginal remnant of Discord’s magick, we assume, for only his energies have such affinities to withstand even the test of time,” the midnight alicorn postulated to which her sister affirmed with a nod herself. Even his magick alone was a force to be reckoned with, as the entirety of the Everfree forest itself stood as a looming testament to the incredible feats it could perform by itself.

“An extremely insignificant amount to the point it may as well be considered negligible,” Celestia said as she crane her head down in thought.

She fully knew what chaos and pandemonium the cunning draconequus was capable of, and even if it was just a tiny residue, it was still his magick. The Princess of the Day could only imagine what might happen if said residue was left to its own machinations, and the lives of the ponies it could potentially derail and spiral into irredeemable madness.

“But this is still Discord’s magick,” Celestia reiterated as she looked to her sister with austerity in her eyes before she finished her sentence, the gravity of what she and Luna would be dealing with setting in, “And I shall see to it that by sunrise, this small remnant of his chaotic will is dispelled and whatever fiend it may have conjured will be cast into stone along with its master.”

“We shall join thee and make for certain that this be dealt with once and for all,” the midnight alicorn added, bringing confidence to her sister. So stoic was their determination to rid Equestria of this age old evil that the air seemed to thicken around them, for they would not let Discord get another chance to plunge their land into chaos once again.

Meanwhile back in Ponyville, Fluttershy lay on her bed fast asleep, still with that wishful smile on her face. She dreamt of herself walking through a dreamscape version of her beloved town, unaware of the sudden clarity with which she envisioned this dream or the alarming lack of ponies therein. She knew it was a dream, and that she should’ve been lying in bed and getting some much needed rest for the day ahead, but at the same time, she didn’t notice she was dreaming at all. It felt like it was as natural as breathing, not a single heed given to the process itself, and it was all thanks to Princess Luna’s spell. With the alicorn’s guarantee, no matter what time she would awake that early Monday morning, the shy pegasus would without a doubt be feeling more chipper and energetic than a foal on the first day of spring. She would need that all that strength in this solitary trip to Dodge City for this one peculiar plant that had piqued her interest in refusing to blossom for nearly nine long months since it first appeared.

The meek mare lost herself in contemplation of aspects concerning her impending journey like train fare, actual travel time, delays, lodgings, and meals as she came to a stop a stone’s throw distance off from Sugar Cube Corner with a solitary yet contently happy Pinkie Pie waving at her. One particular train of thought she seemed to be focused on at the moment was that this trip would be the first one she would embark on alone since leaving Cloudsdale for permanent residence in Ponyville all those years ago. She didn’t give a thought to ask the others, but she was sure that any one of her friends would have accompanied her on this trip. Then again, they also had their own responsibilities the Princess had assigned them in addition to prior engagements that needed their attention, and with the amount of tourists the town would be receiving prior to and during the coming celebration, most of them would definitely have their hooves full with their businesses.

Rarity was in the middle of completing an order of several costumes for a play in Manehatten and Baltimare scheduled to take place the day before the ceremony while simultaneously designing a stunning backdrop for town hall and fabulous decorations that would be strewn all over and about the town for the event.

Applejack’s attention was focused on the production and storage of an ample supply of cider, not only for the Ponyvillians, but for the tourist who would come to visit and join in on the celebration as well. She needed to fill at least two hundred fifty barrels to accommodate both the visitors and the residents themselves, and she greatly appreciated all the help she could get, thinking that now with the newly assigned responsibility of catering for the Summer Sun Banquet to further burden her, she had been served more than she could stomach.

In contrast to the norm, Rainbow Dash would also be busy in the coming week, her hooves full with weather team duties, rescheduling rain showers and cloudy days to make way for flawless skies on the days of the festivities. She had also caught wind of Spitfire and Soarin’ possibly attending the festivities, so the Wonderbolt-to-be wouldn’t want to miss another chance to hang out with and impress her frequently busy-bodied idols.

For all it was worth, Twilight was vaguely intrigued but nonetheless interested in this strange bud herself. Because hardly anypony would want to visit the library during the Summer Sun Celebration, she wanted to find something better to do than just sit in the library all week when there were others who could use her help, and Fluttershy’s need for companionship in her upcoming trip had definitely fit the bill. The purple unicorn would have hooves-down accompanied Fluttershy on this short trip if it weren’t for the fact that the Princess made mention of the mayor, Ivory Scrolls, requesting that Celestia’s protégé personally handle the organization of the whole affair, all in an effort to avoid another Winter Wrap Up scenario.

And lastly, Pinkie Pie had……..had………..hmm……… In all honesty, she didn’t actually know if the party pony had any responsibilities to take care of the week before the celebration, aside from the catering itself.

Pies, cakes, cupcakes, muffin, donuts, crumpets, pretzels, tea, soda, cookies, bean buns, chocolate fountains, and all other manner of confectionaries and baked goods were usually preferred fresh or pipin’ hot, so she surely wouldn’t be busy in the in the foreseeable future. Of course, she’d have to help the Cakes who would be busy with the bakery, and Pumpkin and Pound would be a hoofful to baby sit in the meantime. In spite of all this, Fluttershy thought her friend was so good at baking now that the party pony might as well have had a second cutie mark attesting to her dedication and commitment to the craft. On the other hoof, the twins definitely wouldn’t give her any sort of trouble she couldn’t handle. After all, they loved the party pony and all the hyperactive boundlessness that allowed her to keep up with them and their foalish antics to the point where they practically counted her a big sister. After everything the party pony had done for the Cakes, they wouldn’t deny their best and only employee a little vacation time. After all, they did manage the bakery pretty well by themselves before Pinkie Pie came.

All these factors considered, Pinkie Pie surely wouldn’t be immediately busy before the celebration. All these things Fluttershy pondered on for a good five minutes when she stopped nearby Sugar Cube Corner. Well, it felt like five minutes, but it also seemed that a lot more time had actually passed by.

‘Well, I am nearby, so I might as well ask Pinkie Pie if she can come with me,’ she thought to herself when she realized where she was, but in the deep recesses of her subconscious, she wondered how relevant would this Pinkie Pie’s answer be to the real party pony. ‘After all, this is just a dream.’

Or wasn’t it?

There was no way for her to tell the difference. She didn’t think to do so, nor did anything else matter at the moment. In the end, whether this was just a side effect of Princess Luna’s enchantment or something else entirely, she was none the wiser. The meek mare started to trot over to the party pony to ask her the question she had in mind earlier, her hooves sounding off against the cobblestone with each step.

Again, as she continued to trot her way to Pinkie Pie, the flow of time seemed to bend and curve around Fluttershy’s senses with neither the slightest notice from the meek mare nor permission of natural law. Not only did time seem to pass by much faster, but the short distance she had to cover to get to her rambunctious friend seemed to stretch on infinitely like a conveyer belt, as if something was preventing her from reaching her destination. She wasn’t even twenty meters away from the bakery when she had stopped to ponder her predicament, but it seemed like an eternity had gone by in this ostensibly short stroll to the party pony.

‘This certainly is taking a longer time than usual. I wonder why?’ she demurely thought to herself.

Just then, the sky dimmed to a dull bluish grey as far overhead, at the terminus of the seemingly infinite heavens, she could hear loud and muffled banging noises that seemed to strike at an invisible barrier. The meek mare ignored these noises, not wanting to forget her inquiry for the pink pony, passing the sounds off as thunder rolling in the distance. She then thought the non-existent weather team seemed to turn fickle and inconsistent as they chose to cast upon her a sudden downpour of the strange sort. The water itself seemed to be coming down like hail as it rained cats and dogs all over Ponyville, but what was peculiar about this was that nothing it touched seemed to get even mildly soaked.

Curiosity finally got the better of her as Fluttershy stopped in her tracks and put an observing hoof in front of herself, trying in vain to catch even a single drop of rain. It simply went through without the slightest sense of touch, which perturbed her with slight apprehension. Then, the banging noises intensified into muffled booms as the phantom downpour turned into a darkening storm that circled around the town, but still failed to sweep anything up into its tempest gales as Fluttershy’s curiosity slowly turned into fear with the increasingly darkening day. Expecting to see either the end of the world with the roof of the skies crashing down over her head or a certain draconequus with a sinister grin across his face out for revenge, she trepidly looked up. But she saw neither.

What she did see, however, turned all her anxieties into bewilderment.

It was an immense black mass that stretched endlessly to either side of the sky. The modest mare just stood there, speechless with the most profound sense of awe she had ever felt, her eyes solely on the great behemoth looming over anything and everything like it was the heavens, making the ways off Canterlot and the mountain it was precariously perched upon seem insignificant under its gigas of a shadow. It writhed and coiled restlessly as it lay there suspended on the roof of the world, but what had confused the pegasus even more was when it opened its eyes. They were orbs of colossal size, each seemingly devoid of blemish or imperfection. Mystic auroras danced with peerless grace on its irises of the most brilliant emerald hue as it pierced her very being with its intense stare. But these magnificent eyes did not look upon her with condescendence or malicious intent. They were sorrowful and desperate as if they were pleading to her, beseeching her for aid as tears continued to well up and run down its snout, forming the rain that fell over Ponyville.

‘Its tears are the rain?’ Fluttershy thought. She wondered why in Equestria such a boundless being would be looking to her with such a forlorn gaze unbefitting of its immense visage.

Just as the demure pony began to entertain the thought, the vast being was ripped from the sky and disappeared out of her sights, whisked away into non-existence by forces unseen, along with the peculiar anomaly that came with it.

‘Did all that just happen?’ the meek mare wondered with a dumbfound expression, staring with awe and confusion to the formerly somber and tempest sky, looking for any sign of it that may still be lingering. ‘What in Equestria was that poor creature? It looked so sad and lonely.’ She drowned herself in more thoughts of worry for the weeping colossus, the image of its magnificent, emerald eyes drenched in sorrowful tears starting to etch into her memory and pull on her heartstrings.

“Heya, Flutters! What’cha doooin?” the party pony chimed in inquisitively as she bounced up to the mare in question.

“……………..” The pegasus didn’t respond. She didn’t even notice the pink mare come up to her as she held herself still and silent, lost in complete bewilderment of what had just happened.

“You were kinda just standing there, and I was wondering if you sort of stared yourself stiff! Hahaha,” Pinkie Pie joked as she went over to the side of the meek mare.

“……………..” Again, there was no response.

“Fluttershy, is something wrong?” the party pony worriedly inquired, placing a hoof to the pegasus’ withers which got the meek mare’s attention.

“O-oh, ummm….. hi there, Pinkie. What brings you to the Sugar Cube Corner?” said Fluttershy upon finally noticing the party pony next to her. She was struggling to keep memory of what had just happened clear as darkening clouds loomed over the mental image, forcing it into the deep recesses of her mind.

“Uhh…. I work and live there?” replied the party pony, tilting her head in slight confusion.

“Oh…. Oh! I’m sorry, I was…just… thinking about what…..just happened,” she explained with a worried expression. ‘There?’ the demure pony wondered, thinking that the pink mare’s sense of direction may have been confuzzled in the storm.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh! Were you looking at some Flutter Ponies telling you the secret of how to get to the mystical Dream Valley!? Is that why you were looking up?” the pink mare tried to guess, bouncing in excitement at the thought of tiny equines with magickal powers in their gossamer wings.

“No, Pinkie that’s just an old mare’s tale,” Fluttershy responded with an incredulous look before continuing, “but didn’t you notice that….that………that…………” By now, the whole memory of it was completely obscured, forced down into her subconscious by wills unknown. “Hmm….. What was it again that I noticed exactly?”

“Oh, I get it now. Sometimes, I think about things really, really, really hard and forget about it when I do something else! Like that time we helped Twilight help the Crystal ponies get rid of pointy-smoky-meany-pants, and she told us to gather information, right? I was all covert and sneaky and all stealthy for this big mission!” Pinkie Pie exaggerated with a tense look and a matching striking pose.

“I kept on getting found out by the locals, so I made this less conspicuous disguise in a jiffy!”

She then giddily took out a yellow jump suit with a pink mane from seemingly out of nowhere, stretching its muzzle mask for her friend to see. Fluttershy's reaction however, was more shocked that surprised.

“Th-th-that’s me!”

“Yeppity yuppers, it’s you! Flutterskin mark one!” the party pony proudly stated.

“After I put on this disguise, nopony could tell it was me all along! But the thing was a lot of the Crystal ponies kind of caught on that you and I were looking for information, and they were too frowny-faced and all gloomy-mc’sighing-pants to even start talking! So they avoided me the whole time we went snooping around…. I mean you, hehe,” the pink mare cheekily finished with a hoof pointed to her friend.

“So that’s why everypony avoided me even though I was being polite!” Fluttershy exclaimed in slight indignation.

“And when we all came back to the castle, this was that creepy fur-lined costume I stepped on. I thought it was some poor creature’s skin!” the meek mare added holding up the costume to get a better look. It did sort of look realistic and well made, up close. Pinkie even got the shade of her eyes right.

“Sorry there, Flutters. You know me, right? Always out for a good laugh, eheh,” the party pony sheepishly tried to apologize.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter since the Crystal Empire is safe and everything,” Fluttershy concluded, content with Pinkie Pie’s sort of apology. “Oh, yes! That reminds me, speaking of far off places; this’ll be the first time I’d be going off all by myself since I first came here to Ponyville. It wouldn’t bother you so much to come with me to Dodge City, would it? I’m sure I could handle myself on the train, but I’d feel better if somepony I knew came along with me.”

The party pony scrunched her brows in consideration of the meek mare’s proposition with an audible ‘hmm’ punctuating the start of thoughts blending in her Pinkie Pie brain. Once more it felt like an eternity as the sun and moon repeatedly raced across the sky in a comical fashion. Fluttershy didn’t even notice the bird leaving its crumbling nest that had sprung on her head in the ‘week’ she had been waiting when meek mare finally heard her friend clear her throat to respond. It was visibly high noon now.

“Um..well, you see, I’ll be kind of busy myself this week. When I woke up awhile ago, I felt my teeth get all jittery, my eyelids all itchy and both ears-a-twitchy. After that, I fell to the ceiling.”

“You…. You fell to the ceiling?” the demure Pegasus skeptically asked to clarify as she titled her head in slight confusion. ‘She said ‘awhile ago’ even though I’ve been standing here, waiting on her answer for seven days,’ the meek mare thought with slight annoyance, but chalked it up to another one of Pinkie’s quirks.

“Nearly a dozen times in fact.”

“But then how did y-” Then her friend interrupted her before she could finish.

“Well of course, silly. I didn’t keep on falling to the ceiling for very long. Gravity even won’t let me do that!” she stated matter-of-factly as if it were obvious to every pony that knew Pinkie Pie. “I would if I could!” the party pony confided in a whisper, weary of wandering ears for which statement she might’ve not wanted them to hear. After a few moments of awkward silence, Fluttershy inquisitively continued.

“So what does it mean in Pinkie sense?”

“It means something big is going to happen! Maybe a real doozie even!” she exclaimed in an upright form with raised forelegs, not so sure herself as to what this doozie might even be.

“So, you’ll be busy the whole week watching out for this doozie?” the meek mare wondered.

“No, silly Fluttershy! I’ll also be setting up a welcoming party!!” the party pony giddily countered in all her love for partying. “That’s what the jittery teeth, itchy eyelids and twitchy ears means, duh!” she stated matter-of-factly, again as if it were obvious to everypony that knew her.

“But for whom exactly?” the demure pony replied.

“Oh, that… I’m not really sure who, but my Pinkie Sense told me it’s gonna be somepony real important,” Pinkie Pie responded back.

That was it, Pinkie Sense had cemented it. The meek mare trusted her friend’s sixth sense completely, even if she didn’t religiously keep catalogue of all the Pinkie Sense signs and what every single one and each combination meant. Fluttershy would go about this short journey alone and that was final. It would be quite rude of her to press on a decided issue any further. She then chalked up another concern to the steadily growing list of worries in her mind, namely approaches from strange stallions and fans who would recognize her from her stint as a model.

“Oh…….. I see…. Well then, I guess I better get going myself and start preparing for the trip,” the meek mare despondently declared as she turned to the direction of the route leading to her cottage. But then her friend had stopped her in her tracks with a quick hoof to her shoulder as she began to trot off. The whole of Ponyville…….no, the whole land of Equestria seemed to shake at this sudden act.

Suddenly, there was sharp crashing noise high above. Fluttershy looked up to the cause of the clamor and was shocked by what she saw.

An ominous crack had formed on the sky itself, branching out like arcs of lightning that multiplied in its advance. The echoes in the wind howled tempestuously once more as their zephyrs whirled and twisted violently, uprooting trees and pony-made structures alike from their very foundations. Then the crack extended downwards to the off-distant Canterlot as the heavens gave in and shattered with a resounding and almost deafening blast, revealing a black void that gradually siphoned light from the crumbling reality.

The mountain on which the capital of Equestria was perched couldn’t hope to fare any better. With a mere touch from the impending fissure, the great landmark, which was both the seat of power and home to the Royal Pony Sisters, Princess Celestia, Keeper of the Sun, and Princess Luna, Guardian of the Moon, was torn asunder like a common brick wall. Large chunks of castle and boulders of the former mountain that had remained intact were swept into the uproar of the tumultuous and unforgiving storm, tossed around and about like pebbles.

Then the fissure opened up into a chasm that lead to the same endless dark abyss that pulled the debris in without relenting pause as the cracks of the chasm’s tapering end extended down from where the proud mountain once stood. It stretched out and crossed miles of Equestrian countryside in mere seconds, reaching Ponyville and passing under the now and completely terrified pegasus whose wings were locked in their own bout of intense fright, failing her in this most calamitous of moments. The crack flashed under her and went past her as fast as sound, marking anything and everything misfortunate enough to witness its relentless approach, a target to the absolute destruction it heralded. Not that it would spare anything if it could, as other cracks formed and branched out, proliferating again and again as numerously as it did with the sky, expanding over the landscape like a swarm of parasprites. The terror-stricken pony tried moving away from the apocalypse as it continued to unfurl around her in all its disastrous glory, clinging to the small hope that, somehow, she could escape all this and survive….. but she couldn’t.

A hoof to her shoulder held her down firmly, sapping her of all the trepidated strength she possessed. She slowly and anxiously inched her gaze to the side once again, fearful of what ghastly specter she might see when she did. And much to her expectation and great horror, Pinkie Pie was there.

She was Pinkie Pie, the same party pony who had been standing beside her all along as the catastrophe unfolded around them. But at the same time, she wasn’t. The cracks had spread from the ground onto her hooves, then up her dull, grey body fanning out like cob webs, turning white as they raced across her sinister, ebony-shaded grin and the unworldly black whites of her menacingly piercing amber eyes that glowed brightly behind her completely snow-white and straightened mane in the ever darkening day. She was a frighteningly pale shadow of her former self with no trace of her Element or the love of parties and festivities she was well-renowned for, left in her, or on her harrowing visage. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any more terrifying, the shell of her former friend began to slowly unlock its face from the death grin, cracks forming anew in process.

The sight of it sent a cold spell down her spine, causing what already stiff muscles she could still feel, trying to struggle desperately for movement, to become completely and utterly petrified. But what had set a whole new league of fear far beyond her wildest nightmare was the cold and eerie voice that came from the husk. The chills in her spine intensified into blizzards as the apparition crept ever closer to her, hissing with a raspy, ethereal voice as it went, puffs of its freezing breath feeling numb on her stiff ears. By now, Fluttershy was edging the final eclipse of her sanity, skirting at the brink of falling apart, and about to break at the seams.

Then the cruel reality of it all dawned upon her: there was no chance of her getting away. There was no ray of hope to tell her she could escape. This was the end for her, and the fates would not have it any other way. So she just stood there and simply gave into her fear, eyes closed in anticipation of the final message the deathly ghost of the party pony was about to deliver to her.

“Now that’s just plain silly, Fluttershy. Did you forget? We all helped you pack and everything last night, remember? Now get up, sleepy-mc’flutter-pony! It’s time to go!”

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‘What?’

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