//------------------------------// // I - The Call // Story: Rise // by Puppo530 //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle groggily hopped out of bed. After quickly untangling and retucking the sheets, she walked down the stairs. A floating frying pan softly landed on the stove as it sparked a flame. She placed a small dab of butter in the heated pan while getting out the eggs for breakfast. Spike awoke to the sound of eggs cracking. He couldn’t help himself, it was instinct. Dragons had been designed to react strongly to that sound. It was the sound that was filled with extreme emotion, being either good or bad. Naturally, Spike was usually fooled by this sound whenever cooking with unfertilized chicken eggs. He still was not used to it, and couldn’t help but flinch every time he heard the crack, even when he was the cause. A few minutes later, Twilight called up to her assistant. Spike rubbed his eyes as he rolled out of bed. He slowly made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen below. Twilight spun around and set two steaming plates of eggs on the table as he sat down. They sat there, eating the delicious breakfast in silence. Before settling down to study and other librarian duties, there was a knock at the door. Spike answered it, revealing it to be the local mail carrier. He pulled the letter out from his satchel and handed it to the dragon. The stallion quickly turned and left, with other letters to be delivered. “It’s from Canterlot, maybe from Princess Celestia,” Spike said as he handed the letter to Twilight. She unfurled the parchment. “That’s strange, it is from the Princess, well, the royal court. But why didn’t she send it through you?” Twilight’s eyes grazed the words on the letter. “Oh... oh dear.” “What is it?” “We need to get to Canterlot quickly.” ~~~ “Alright, girls.” Twilight paced in front of the five mares in front of her. They stood in front of a passenger train, bound for Canterlot. In the past two hours they had spent their time furiously packing and preparing for a long journey. They didn’t know what they would need in Canterlot, so they brought everything they could think of that they could possibly need. This led to a large bill in luggage transport. “Hey,” called a voice from beyond the ponies, “don’t forget about me! I’m a part of this group!” “Of course, Spike. I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten about you.” Spike lined up with the others, content. “Now then, Princess Celestia was not exactly clear about what we were going to be doing in Canterlot, but I do know one thing: it’s not good. The stallion that delivered this letter looked quite shaken, and the hoofwriting is hardly legible. We have to be prepared for anything. So let’s move!” “Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow Dash barked back. They all loaded onto the train. The conductor announced its departure, and the train set off for Canterlot. They were ready for anything. They had to be ready. ~~~ “Why is it taking so long?” Rainbow Dash asked annoyingly after two hours. “Aren’t we usually there by now?” She lay down on one of the seats. She stretched her body, but she couldn’t fight back the restlessness. “It is rather odd,” Rarity commented as she glanced out a window. “We’re also moving quite a bit slower. Wasn’t this trip supposed to be urgent?” “Maybe they’re just going this slowly for safety?” Twilight asked doubtfully. They had ridden the trains countless times with no incidents. She couldn’t imagine what could be holding them up now. The door to the train car slid open. In stooped the conductor, in his suit and cap. He addressed the ponies, “Good morning, ladies. I can assure you that we’re almost at Canterlot. Just a few more minutes and you’ll be able to see it out the windows.” “Why are we travelling so slowly?” Twilight asked. “Well, you see, the engineer has been taking precautions. There have been a number of earthquakes surrounding Canterlot, causing large cracks to appear in the landscape. The soil has been unstable at places, and we’re just making sure that we arrive without incident. We’re sorry for the delay.” With that, the conductor backed his way towards the engine, sliding the door closed behind him. The earth rumbled. “Oh dear,” Fluttershy remarked from across the aisle. “Do you think the earthquakes are part of why Princess Celestia asked us to come?” Twilight looked out the window. She could see Canterlot come into view, but it was different. There was a large pink bubble protecting it from outside invasions. No doubt Shining Armor was behind it. The bubble received another burst in magic from her brother as it rejuvenated itself. “Maybe,” Twilight said, “but the protective bubble is back up.” Her friends gathered around the windows on Twilight’s side. Their eyes filled with terror when they saw the pink sphere of protection over the capital city. There had been a threat made against Canterlot. This was now certain. They continued staring at Canterlot when the train lurched forward suddenly. It rocked back and sent the ponies inside to the ground. Applejack looked out one of the windows to discover that the engine car had fallen into a narrow crevice. Though the car could not completely fit in right now, it was only a matter of time before the crack widened, allowing more than just the engine car to fall in. “We have to get everyone off this train!” Twilight yelled over the screaming of ponies in the cars behind them. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, fly towards the engine and rescue the two ponies up there before the car falls in!” Rainbow Dash saluted and quickly dove out of a nearby window. Her wings expanded and she took a sharp turn towards the front of the train. Fluttershy nervously but quickly flew with her. “Applejack, run down the other passenger cars. Tell them to get off the train. Hurry!” Applejack nodded and bolted down the aisle towards the back door. She swung it open and descended into the other cars. “The rest of us need to help the elderly and young deboard the train as quickly as possible! Go, go, go!” Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike followed Applejack into the other cars. They rushed through the cars, helping the elderly off by levitating them off or by giving them a hoof/hand to guide them to the exits. Spike mostly helped get the younger ponies off, they would follow a dragon easily. Babies were crying and parents were scurrying around, searching for their children. It was a new form of chaos in each new car. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy met up with them about a quarter of the way through. They began flying ponies out of there faster than the other ponies could. Applejack finished announcing it to everypony, because it had become quite obvious from the screamings of ponies in the train, and began helping ponies leave. Things were running very smoothly for a mass exodus in a limited time. Then, the train lurched forward again as a loud crash echoed across the area. Rainbow Dash flew back into the train to grab another pony. “The entire engine car is in the crack! The whole train’s going to fall in!” The train was slowly moving forwards now, but not in the way they wanted it to. It was slowly rolling into the crevice, with each end of the car making the crack wider and sending a loud crash throughout the train. It started to pick up speed. “Come on girls!” Twilight shouted over the screams of distraught ponies. “We’re halfway done!” She levitated more elderly ponies off when she turned to Spike. “See if you can unhook this car from the one before it! We should be able to stop it from taking us too!” Spike ran towards the other end of the passenger car. He slid open the door and looked down. The two platforms were connected by a large bolt, cemented in with an advanced form of magic. Spike recognized it from the day before as a locking spell. It could only be removed by saying the spell that bound it in reverse. “No use! It’s a locking spell!” Spike called to Twilight. “Blast! Don’t worry about kindness anymore! Just shove them off!” The ponies and Spike bolted their way through several more cars, shoving ponies through the doors in a matter of moments before moving on to the next one. It increased their pace, but it wasn’t enough. The train picked up speed again. Half of the cars were now in the crevice, with the ponies not yet done with their job. Applejack, who had started from the back end, wasn’t helping much, despite her best efforts. There were too many ponies and not enough time. “We don’t have time for this! Everyone off!” Twilight yelled. “You too,” she said to the rest of the mane six. Reluctantly, but quickly, the deboarded the train along with everyone else in that passenger car. There were still ten left that needed to be unloaded. They couldn’t save them all in ten seconds. “All unicorns,” she screamed loud enough so that they would hear her over the roar of the train falling deeper into the crevice. It was racing in now. “Everypony! Help me!” At once, hundreds of beams of light rocketed towards the train. They surrounded the last remaining cars with a bright aura of magic. The unicorns strained under the immense weight of the train that was already dangling in the crevice, but they held the remaining cars up. Applejack started shoving ponies out of the train now, not caring if she bruises them. She had to get them out as quickly as possible. Even with a hundred of unicorns, it was still a massively heavy train. The last foal was carried by the mane by Applejack, who hopped off the train. She gave a short nod to Twilight, who screamed at the top of her lungs, “Release!” The beams stopped all at once and the aura disappeared. The humming of magic was then replaced by the crashing of the train as if all fell into the crevice. The train cascaded down the crack, and was heard from no more except the distant echoes that followed it. The ponies slowly made their way towards the crack. They looked down into the abyss, seeing only blackness. There was no sign of a train. There was no sign of anything. “How does a whole train fit in there vertically?” a random pony asked. “Yeah, and how come we can’t see it?” another inquired. “This is an incredibly deep crevice,” Twilight stated as she looked up at Canterlot and the bubble surrounding it. “This isn’t good.” “We have to walk now?” Spike said comically, trying to relieve the stress. A few ponies chuckled, but they were still raw from barely escaping with their lives. Many unicorns passed out from overexertion. Even Twilight felt like fainting. This was no joking matter. ~~~ The ponies and Spike finally arrived at Princess Celestia’s throneroom. They burst in without even knocking. The princess looked up, and was immediately joyous. They rushed forwards to greet her by bowing. When they looked up, she addressed them, “My little ponies, and wonderful Spike of course, how glad I am that you have come here this day. But I have troubling news. “Every culture has a creation story, it almost couldn’t be considered one if it didn’t have at least one story about the beginning. It is an inherent part of our beings, to find out what came before us and how we got here. For griffons, it is a tale of an ultimate griffon that defiled Nature and its inhabitants. For this, it was locked away in the north for millennia. For dragons, it is a tale of the First Mother, the lone parent of a single egg that gave birth to the earth and its creatures. However, she rampaged and was locked away in the north. For ponies, it is the tale of the Cosmic Mother, which I’m sure you’ve all heard rumors of her existence. She too was sealed in the earth in the north. Are you noticing a pattern?” “They’re all buried in the north?” Spike guessed. “Yes. No matter how different these stories are, they all have one similarity: the land of Gelidus Septentrio, or Icy North in its native tongue.” “What do you want us to do, Princess?” Twilight stepped forward and asked. “I need you to go to the land of Gelidus Septentrio, find out what is causing all this, and stop it before this situation grows any worse. Are you up for the task?” Princess Celestia looked down upon the subjects before her. “Yes princess,” Twilight bowed once more, “we’ll leave as soon as possible.” They turned around and briskly galloped out of the throne room. Celestia called out while they left, “Good luck! I have faith in you!” When the doors slammed shut, she sighed and slouched in her royal throne. They would need all the luck they could get.