//------------------------------//
// Act I; Scene III: Time Always Catches Up 
// Story: The Beat to My Heart (The Fall of Queen Celestia Book 1) 
// by Sylpheed Dashstep 
//------------------------------//

I had awoke on the 19th expecting a great day, such as the last had been. But what I heard immediately shattered that dream. Screams were coming from everywhere, in the streets, in the surrounding houses. I quickly got out of my bed and ran straight for Spoons room, trying to reach her before anything happened to her.
"Spoon," I yelled as I busted into her room, getting screams in response. 
A pillow hit me in the face and I ignored it, diving straight for her. I pulled her onto my back and made for the door. I made it to the hallway before my entire plan went bad in an instant. There was a crashing downstairs and I heard someone shout before the voice was cut off and replaced by gurgled cries of pain. I recognized the voice as Duncan, Spoons dad. 
I quickly set her down and pushed her into the closet as I said, "Look, just sit there, I'll be back. I promise. Like I said, you'll never be alone again." 
She gave me a shaky smile and kissed my cheek before I shut the  closet door and made for the hallway, waiting for whoever this was to reach me. What rounded the corner wasn't what I expected though. It was Celestias' royal guards on a rampage. A group of four guards stopped as they saw me and gave each other a small smile, knowing that I would be an easy kill. I gave them a smile and prayed to whatever was watching me that my death would be a swift one. 
A shadow next to me shifted and I caught it out of the corner of my left eye. I breathed a small sigh of relief and tried to hold down the anger that began to boil up in me at the sight of Garanth. I stepped forward a few steps and the entire group launched themselves at me. 
The shadow leapt at the same time and the pack collapsed on itself as the shadow grew, covering the entire group in its darkness, making it impossible to see the warriors.Their screams echoed through the air as the shadow shrunk, closing the warriors in an inescapable field. There were cracks and suddenly the screams stopped replaced only by the sound of muffled shouts and pleas for help; and, eventually, that stopped too, leaving only the screams from outside and the silent cries of Spoon.
I walked back to her and said, "Hey, look, we're going to be ok. There's some...pony here to help us."
She glanced up and gave me a smile, allowing me to wipe the tears off of her face and pick her up, putting her on my back as I began to take her out of this mess. I didn't know where, but anywhere was better than here.
"Whatever you do, don't take her to Canterlot," a voice whispered to me before the shadows retreated, waiting for somepony to get close enough to me before striking.


 
It had been a few days since the initial attack. Celestias' guards had gone rampant, killing anypony that moved and anything that breathed. Garanth dissapeared a while ago, not sure where to, but it must have been good. I'm currently heading to Canterlot Castle to see if Celestia will help us. We're nearly dead, but we're close to the castle now and I know we can reach it. We just need to keep going. I know we'll be ok.



We had traveled the wasteland for days, reaching the Castle on the edge of death. I pulled Spoon beside me, using her for support more than she using me for a crutch. We made it into the courtyard before things got horrible. They got horrible really fast needless to say.


 
I kicked a can out of my way, looking around for somepony, hoping that the guards in Canterlot had been able to resist whatever had caused the uproar. An arrow embeded itself in between my hooves, making me and Spoon both hop back, away from the archers line of sight. 
I set her down and said, "You going to be ok while I take care of this guy?"
She gave me a weak smile and shook her head, letting me know that I could go.
I stepped out to see an entire pack of guards instead of just the archer now. another arrow embedded itself in between my legs, but I ignored how close it had gotten to hitting me and pulled it out of the ground determined to use it as a weapon. I counted four guards total. An easy fight after all I had leant over the past few days. I stepped forward, the archer letting another arrow fly, this one destined to hit between my eyes. The arrow came closer. Ten feet, five, one, six inches. I flipped the arrow in my mouth, twisting it skyward, the arrowhead colliding with the shaft of the other, cracking the shaft and sending it flying to my left side.
They all gave me small looks of disbelief before they charged, the first one falling prey to the arrow as I curved it upwards, the blade of it pulling across the rough patch of fur under his chin before striking the bottom of his mouth and breaking into his skull, stopping when it hit the roof of his mouth. I pulled it out swiftly, allowing him to fall back as he screamed. I looked to the others and knew I was going to be in for a hayload of a fight. 
The second guard leapt at me, the blade of his sword coming down with speed rather than force, a new tactic for them, but not good enough to get me. I moved quickly, slipping under him as he went just over me and slipping the arrow in between his ribs, jamming the head into his heart, allowing his momentum to carry him further. He landed on the ground and I gave a slight grimance as he landed and a crack resounded when the arrow pushed through his body and stuck out of his back. His blade fell to the ground and the other two began to swing at me, one right behind the other, forcing me back just like I wanted.
I pretended to be scared untill I reached the sword, quickly swiping it up in the air and then watching as an arrow came by and hit the sword, throwing it out of my reach and blowing away all the hopes I had of winning this fight. 
There was a pink flash and suddenly both of the guards swords were in their throats, dripping profously with blood as they stumbled around. 
I looked around and saw Spoon half leaning out from her hiding place with a slight smile on her lips. Then everything began to slow down, Spoons eyes grew wide with fear and she shouted something, but I heard nothing. She grimanced as her horns aura appeared and I was thrown out of the way as and arrow flashed by close enough to shave off some of the bangs in my right eye. My head slowly followed the arrow and I watched as it began its descent, straight for where Spoon was.
Her horn lit up but it quickly faded away and I realized that she was powerless.
"NO," I shouted, time returning to normal as I leapt to her, knowing even then that it was too late. 
It landed with a sickening thud and her skull caved in, spilling blood onto the cobblestones and onto my hooves as I landed beside her. 
I stood unbelieving, looking at her corpse until I felt something smash into my shoulder. I had lost all sense of feeling by now and I slowly turned to see the archer stanuntill I spun and launched myself into a full-swing kick, connecting with his face and making his neck emit a crack. I landed on his right and he stood for a few seconds untill a gust of wind blew and pushed both me and him over onto our sides, one dead, the other as good as dead. 



I woke to hear explosions and crashes before I fell back under again. I arose to see a white Unicorn with a blue and purple mane at the door shouting to ponies around me in lab coats as he fired energy at the door. The last thing I saw before slipping under again was a pony in armor enter the room only to be destroyed by the Unicorns magic. I crawled my way half out of the lull of sleep one last time to find myself on the Unicorns back again as the charged through a crowd of armored ponies with the scientist right behind us. 
"V-Vinyl," I somehow managed to get out.
"Nope," Shining Armors voice rang out in my ears, "just your friendly neighborhood stallion Shining Armor saving the day." He struggled with his words as the assault on the shield around us continued, "Just go back to sleep, the rest of the poison isn't out of your system yet and you being awake is only going to aggravate the poison."
I gave a slight nod and drew in a shaky breath as my grip on conciousness was released and I fell into the pit of darkness again.



I awoke in a bed and for a few moments I thought that the past few weeks had just been a bad dream untill a filly's face popped into my vison.
"Gran'pa he's awake," the filly shouted, making me wince.
I took in his features, bright green eyes, yellow fur, and a green mane. Suddenly his face was replaced by an older stallion who had red eyes and a grey mane with brown fur.
"Well hello there sonny," he said softly.
I moved to sit up when a sudden pain flared in my left shoulder and my right hoof, forcing me to fall back onto the bed.
"Hello," I said through gritted teeth.
He smiled at me, revealing that he had a few teeth missing as he said, "Me and my grandson saw your fight. I didn't think you would win for a minute there, but your friend saved you."
I quickly shot up, ignoring the fire in my hooves, as I asked, "Did Spoon live?"
He gave me a sad look and said, "You know nopony could live that kid. I'm sorry, but if it's any consolation, me an' my grandson gave her a proper burial and gave you some medicine for the poison running through your system."
I gave a light smile at the comfort that they had treated her to a proper burial and asked, "You wouldn't happen to have some of that medicine for me to take with me, would you?"
"You're not going anywhere, not with those wounds," he said.
"Alright then," I said, "well, since I'm staying here, night I ask who you are?"
"My name is Martin Rodrigez and this is my grandson Eridan Rodrigez what's yours," he asked.
"I'm Alex Pearsons," I said, looking at Martins horn. It looked as though it had been haphazardly cut off. "What happened to your horn?"
He looked a bit hesitant as he answered, "The guards cut off the horns and wings of every Unicorn and Pegasi in Canterlot and is using us as hostages in case anypony tries to come kill Celestia."
I gave a slight nod, indicating that I understood and laid back down, opting to be silent. Martin began to look through a bunch of storage boxes, pulling out a needle filled with a clear fluid and coming over to me.
"I'm going to give you some mophene, ok," he said, "it's going to make you fall asleep, that way, the poison will get out of your system faster."
I nodded and he put the needle in my arm, the lull of sleep coming over me once more as I succumbed to it.


 
The rest of the week went like that, I was allowed up for a while, but was put to sleep again later so I could heal. The physical wounds cleared up quickly but I could still feel the poison burning slightly under my fur. Until I had a dream one night about Garanth, at least I think it was a dream.



"Alex," a voice whispered from the dark. "Alex," it called again and I felt myself slipping further into sleep to find the source. 
My hooves touched the ground and things began to become clear. There was a fight going on inside some sort of machine. There were beasts made of gears and cogs fighting what seemed to be ten ponies and a human in a circular room with a controll center in the middle of it.
A stallion yelled out "Alex," and suddenly I was rushing from one of the doorways with a horn and blasting the beasts with a spell that made them seem to rust on the spot.
One of them pounced and I was sucked from the vison, leaving me standing in the dark again untill the shadows took a shape and there was a shadow in front of me.
And then I was beside myself as Garanth yelled at the other me, "You have to take the deal otherwise the filly will die Alex, now what do you say?"
"Fine," the other me said.
And that too was taken into the darkness. Garanth appeared in front of me again moments later and adressed me directly.
"Alex," he said, "I've shown you two crucial moments in your future, the moment where you choose who lives, and who dies."
"What was the first one about," I asked, "what choices do I make there that determines who lives?"
"You'll know when you get there kid, I'm sorry I can't be much help other than that," he said. He looked up as though he could see what was happening outside my conciousness, which I didn't doubt, and said, "Well, I'm afraid it's time for you to go, and Alex, take the pills, they'll save your life."



I snapped up and just barely dodged a sword that was headed right for me. It smashed into the bed and resounded with a crack as I jumped out and ran for my life. I ran to the living room to find Martin and his grandson lying on the ground in a pool of blood, making me turn around and face the guard.
"You killed these innocent people," I said, "and for that, I'll make sure you don't get out of this house alive."



Hours later I had given them a proper burial next to Spoon.
Days later I had caught wind that there was a resistance in the Northern Draconian Mountains.
Months later I was fighting my way out of those mountains, all the while basically killing myself in the process.
A year later I was resting in a cave barely outside of Canterlot with no way to live.
Or so I thought.



I awoke to find myself on Shining Armors back as him and two remaining scientist made their way through the abandoned city. I shuffled off of his back and stood unsteadily on my hooves much to Shinings suprise and he gaped at me as I smiled and opened my mouth.
"So what's the plan," I said, completely faking that I didn't feel like I was about to die.
He nodded his head and began to go over what we were going to do.