//------------------------------// // 2: Fault // Story: God Mode: The Greatest Possession // by ZeroInfinity //------------------------------// The Greatest Possession Chapter 2: Fault *~~~~~* “To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” - Plutarch *~~~~~* Twilight Sparkle stood stock-still, eyes wide and mouth open. A creature from Hades, possibly even Tartarus had escaped! This meant several things. One: It meant that Cerberus had failed. Whatever creature had escaped was strong enough, sneaky enough, tricky enough or smart enough to get past Cerberus, but alarm Celestia. Two: Ponyville was directly in the rampage path. Getting the villagers out of the way was the number one priority, however that happened to manifest. She had to, single-hoofedly, organize the town, provide the news, evacuate the town in a timely manner and try to do something about it that would -- hopefully -- eliminate the problem. That brought her nicely to three: She had to gather her friends and the Elements of Harmony to try to stop the escapee from Hades. She, and her friends, had to stop an escapee from Hades, in what was probably an elaborate test. No big pressure, right? It was about now, however, that she noticed Spike waving at her and trying to get through her mental checklisting. She shook her head and looked at him expectantly. “She also says she’s sending over the Elements, and that they should only be used if the occasion becomes necessary. She explicitly said to tell you that she does not want you tracking down the escapee.” Twilight sighed in relief. That was one rather big item off the list. That did, however, bring up questions. Who had escaped from Hades? More importantly, how? And, perhaps most importantly, who actually was going to capture it again if not them? It was all a confusing jumble to Twilight Sparkle, but there was still a clear objective: evacuate the town. She grabbed Spike and put him on her back before trotting outside, looking carefully around for her friends. *~~~~~* “Hell opens up into a bright, sunny meadow? Wow, the gods sure do love irony, don’t they?” Michael said, looking around. “Where else would it open, the ocean?” replied his Spirit Guide. “Yes, actually, that would prevent escapees rather than reward them.” “But I bet you nobody expects a gate to Hades in the middle of a sunny meadow,” the Guide countered. “Point conceded,” said Michael as he finished his scan. It looked like he was in a temperate climate, and he could see a large, purple mountain, a rather large forest and a small town in the distance. Michael had to admit, Greece may have been a bad guess. He was relatively sure Greece did not have actually purple mountains. “As a quick question, though... Do you know where we are?” “Actually, no,” said the Guide. “I’ve heard much about the Earth as a Guide, but I’ve never heard of a place like this.” “Wow, a helpful Spirit Guide. Now I’ve seen everything.” “I can be curious too!” Michael, however, seemed to be done with talking, and set off towards the town. Maybe there he could figure out where he was. *~~~~~* It was pure chaos in Ponyville. As Twilight was gathering her friends, Pinkie Pie screamed about the escapee and, for some reason, throwing a party, a couple ponies outside had overheard and started panicking, and that set everypony off. “Calm down everypony!” shouted Applejack into the midst of the stampede of ponies. The stampede continued unabated, and a dust cloud slowly began to form. It engulfed the ponies, rising up higher and obscuring vision, making everypony panic even more. “Twilight, dear, can you clear this dust cloud?” said Rarity. Twilight looked at the cloud and a look of comprehension dawned on her face. Her horn began to glow, and wind blew the dust towards the center and up into a pillar. The ponies followed the wind, and all ended up grouped tightly together in the town square, and slowly began to calm down with everypony around them. “Everypony quiet down!” she began. “Now, the Royal Guard is on their way, but we need to get out of their way. They’ll keep the town safe from the monster and drive it back into Tartarus, and then everything will be just fine. Now” -- she pointed off towards Canterlot -- “all we have to do is move!” By this time, everypony was calmed and began to trot or cruise over towards Canterlot. The panic, however, had wasted enough time that they had just started on the journey when Michael crested a hill to overlook the town. “EVERYPONY RUN!” yelled somepony, and they all galloped or flew towards Canterlot. Fearing that the escapee may be fast enough to catch them, Twilight Sparkle and her friends donned the Elements before standing in formation to face him. *~~~~~* “What the hell kind of ranch is this?” asked Michael, seeing a horde of ponies galloping off into the distance and what looked almost like a small, rural town scaled down to 80% or so. It was a surreal and unsettling experience. “The genetic engineering kind, I would assume,” replied the Spirit Guide. “Probably a good guess. Hey, those bejeweled ones are looking at us.” Indeed, there were 6 bejeweled ponies looking at him. He walked down towards them, looking around for who could possibly own such exotic and decorated creatures. He heard a voice say “Stay back” and he looked over towards the group of ponies where it came from, only to realize some of them were pegasi or unicorns. He looked at them. Their heads came up to his collarbone, and he saw that they were not built like any equine he had seen before, but it was quite apparant that they were equines. “Guide, are those actually unicorns and pegasi?” asked Michael, a look of confusion on his face. They appeared surprised that he spoke to the air, but the pink one in particular looked even more surprised when the air responded. “Yes, I believe they are. Oh, it’s been so long since those were around! Of course, they never looked quite like this. How stupid, bringing back a dead species without even using the closest approximation. Look, they even made a new baseline!” He looked and, indeed, not all were pegasi or unicorns. The purple one opened her muzzle, but the pink one popped in front of him and spoke with a determined look on her face. “Where did that voice come from? Did you summon him? Is he a dead companion!?” Michael stepped back, momentarily taken by surprise. His hand reached for his revolver, but his instincts, honed in Tartarus through long hours of battle, told him this one neither wished him harm nor would be capable of causing him harm. “Guide, I thought you said nobody else could hear you,” said Michael, a worried grimace appearing. “Nobody else should be able to,” responded the ever-present spirit, “but maybe she’s spiritually attuned or something. Of course, it’s been so long since I’ve been out that I’m just throwing darts at the wall.” As he spoke, the pink one swiveled her ears around to determine the source. Try as she might, however, it seemed as if she would not find him. The purple one pulled the pink one back by the tail, a look of frustration evident on her face. “Pinkie, you don’t know if he might be dangerous!” she whispered quite loudly. “But Twi, if he was an evil escapee he would have just attacked us!” The purple one, ‘Twi’ as she was called, opened and closed her mouth for a couple moments before sighing and bringing a hoof to her head. Done with that, she turned her attention to the escapee. “Be that as it may, he still has to go back.” “Oh no, I didn’t fight my way out of Tartarus just to go back in. Point me to the nearest international airport and I’ll be out of your way, however,” he responded. A blue one with a rainbow mane poked her head out of the group at this. “International airport?” “Oh, you know, LAX, Boston, Houston, Las Vegas...” he said. “Places where I can get on the first plane back to the States.” “Do you mean Las Pegasus?” asked the purple one. “And which States?” “Oh... Did the Olympians...?” said Michael, anger and dizziness beginning to overcome him. “Yes... Yes they might have. They have doomed you to a world with bad puns, technicolor ‘ponies’ and what looks like an extreme lack of technology.” “Those arrogant utter bastards.”