Parallel

by Zombie Penguins

A New World

Firebolt somehow managed to scale the Chief's tree and was now sitting in the uppermost branches with her journal, watching the flame-ponies set up. She was unable to chronicle her journal in the dark burrow, even with the red flame giving off some light. She began writing things down in an effort to catch up:
I don't know how long it has been. I escaped those fools, but I've ended up somewhere strange. I took off running as fast as I could for the hell of it and I've crashed into a tepui. The ponies are very hospitable here, but they are as strange as the place and give off a very warrior like air. They seem to be devoted to this tepui, but it is their last and only home.
The tepui rises far above the desert and is covered with the most exotic trees. Their trunks are a rich dark chocolate colour and seem to be almost melting where they stand. The leaves are a dark purple, almost black, kind of like the night sky. The trees flower at night; they slowly open and they glow orange like fire and the pollen spills into the air like sparks. If a flower gets pollinated, it produces a fruit with a hard shell that is blacker than any darkness that could reign down in this strange land. The fruit seems to be the main source of nourishment here. Cracking one of the fruits open allows you to consume a rich, orange, glowing substance that almost looks like lava, but tastes like custard and warms the belly.
The ponies here are not like regular ponies. They call themselves the Flame-Ponies and the name suits them well. Their manes and fur are almost as dark as the fruit and their flanks are devoid of any cutie marks, but their eyes are magnificent. Their eyes suit their nocturnal lifestyle as the glow orange in the dark and appear as orbs. It gives them a source of light no matter where they go. The Flame-Ponies are unlike any ponies that I have come across before. They live in burrows underneath the trees and their hearts can only rest at their beloved tepui.
Firebolt stopped writing, it was all she could describe. She could see the flame-ponies preparing for a battle, sharpening wooden stakes, creating booby traps and filling up on the flame-fruit. Maybe the invasion force won't come. Maybe the flame-ponies were preparing for nothing. Besides they just assumed that there was going to be an invasion based on her presence and she was just one pony. They were just overreacting.
The sky began to grow lighter. It would be sunrise and bedtime soon. Firebolt glanced at her bag that was hanging on a nearby branch. She should pack up her journal soon and turn in. “INVASION FORCE SPOTTED ON THE SOUTH SIDE! POSITIONS!” a voice yelled, stopping Firebolt's train of thought in its tracks. There is an invasion. They weren't overreacting; it's all true. Firebolt hastily packed up her journal and was about to find somewhere out of the way to hide, when Lightning's voice shouted something quickly to her, “Stay in the tree! Be a smart coward at least!”
She watched the ponies artfully place themselves, making a concentrated force to the south, but still covering the borders. Some ducked down into burrows around the edge, clearly planning to pounce when least expected, whilst a few others lit the trench with the red flame that she had conjured up and checked on the traps, before joining their comrades.
Chief Blaze walked along the ranks and once the stars began to fade, he gave a short speech. “This is it! What could very be the final battle!” he boomed, “Do not fear death, but fight for survival! We may die out, but I'd rather we go down with our dignity! We fight 'til the end!” As the sun broke the night, a low humming sound emerged from the flame-ponies. Then, above the humming sound, Chief Blaze spoke:

Once Chief Blaze finished, he joined in with the low humming. The humming slowly grew louder and louder, until it was a deafening battle-cry.
Looking to the south, Firebolt spotted thousands of Inamoenus ponies that outnumbered the tribe's few hundred. Once the sun had finally fully risen, a horn was barely heard underneath the battle-cry, then silence: the battle had just begun.
The fire blocked the paths of unicorns and earth ponies, but the pegasi picked them up, one by one, flew them over the flames and into the centre of the tepui. Big mistake. As the unicorns and earth ponies went to attack the flame-ponies from underground, more flame ponies burst from the burrows, thrusting their stakes into the nearest Inamoenusians' chests, before pulling them out and acquiring their next targets.
Firebolt watched in horror as Inamoenusian after Inamoenusian blindly charged into the blood bath. Some died instantly, if the strike was accurate enough, but often they would fall and lie on the ground gasping for air and watching the blood pool around their dying bodies. A few tried to leap over the inner-ring of flame-ponies, but none of them made it past. The flame-ponies simply lifted their stakes in the air, slicing open the stomachs of the Inamoenusians' stomachs, so that when they hit the ground, their bowels spilt out, like seppuku without the honour.
Firebolt couldn't distinguish the screams from the ones she actually heard to the ones that just existed in her head. Maybe things were less bloody in the outer-ring... Firebolt shifted her eyes. Things were less bloody; the flame-ponies just stood watch, waiting for an outer attack. And within minutes it came. The pegasi finished moving the other ponies to the centre and began attacking from the outside. The happenings in the outer-ring contrasted the inner-ring: the pegasi dive-bombed the flame-ponies, swiftly decapitating many with swords clutched in their mouths. Some of the more powerful pegasi cut entire flame-ponies in half, scattering entrails with viscous laughs.
Hours past and the fighting continued. The flame-ponies were doing remarkably well, but their small numbers put them on the losing side. The yells and screams got louder with every kill and every loss. The battle-cries drowned out the screams that took place in Firebolt's mind. She cried and whimpered in the tree, stroking the scar that disfigured her face. She took a second to check on the battle. Some of the Inamoenusians found their way into the booby traps and became burning corpses or were struggling for breath, impaled on stakes in pits. The Inamoenusian force dwindled to what looked like half a hundred, but the flame-ponies only numbered about a dozen. The injured fell on mounds of bodies and blood dripped from the leaves of the trees. Some areas had entire puddles of blood with entrails floating in them like boats.
The disturbing site paired with the cries pushed Firebolt's mind to he edge. “STOP IT! STOP FIGHTING...I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” she shrieked from the tree, revealing her presence. The fighting halted for a moment.
“We don't abandon our homes...” growled a flame-pony by the name of Spark.
“We only stop if Queen Blanca commands us so.” said a proud pegasus who appeared to be leading the invasion force. And thus the fighting continued.
Queen Blanca commands us so...The statement caused Firebolt burst into tears, but then she did something unimaginable on pure impulse. She grabbed the amplifier from her bag and placed it on her horn. She leaped down from the tree and began galloping to the southern edge of the tepui. She climbed down and only briefly took off the amplifier to levitate herself over the flames. She ran south as fast as she could, her hooves skimming the sand and the flames that burst around her went from blue to purple to the ultraviolet spectrum: she had never run this fast before. The invisible flames allowed her to see even if it was all a blur and she was able to slow before she crashed into the city of Inamoenus. Firebolt galloped through the streets, finding her way to the palace. She swiftly entered and ran through the halls, trying to get to the throne room.
Firebolt eventually found it and once she entered, the pompous queen on the throne spoke smugly, “Come to surrender?”
“I'm closing this...” Firebolt said with an almost victorious sneer. What she was about to do was insane, but it felt so right. She could finally escape the screams. Her insides shook with a combination of fear and anticipation, but she kept her head held high as the tears streamed down her face, washing away the sorrow.
Firebolt's voice wavered, yet was strong as she let out one last word, “Goodbye.”
Firebolt cast the spell.

Celestia was stood at the top of the basement steps as Detective Glass gave her his report, “I had teams of pegasi take photos of the evidence in the basement and I constructed an image in the family room here,” Detective Glass led her to a musty room and each hoofstep caused dust to fly into the air, just to rain back down on the ponies. Both Celestia and Detective Glass coughed a bit, before he continued, “As you can see here,” he pointed his hoof at the pictures of hoofprints, “there are only two sets of hoofprints: Stanley's and Blossom's. But the door locks from the inside,” he pointed at another picture, but his one had a door with the lock broken, “and Stanley had to break it down. This gives us a very perplexing mystery...who locked the door from the inside?”
Celestia considered the answer quite clear, “Magic.” she said.
“Nope, I already had a unicorn inspect it. According to him the basement reeks of magic, but the door is clean.”
“Teleportation.”
“OH! That is the answer...being an earth pony makes me less in tune with magic. I am so glad to have someone of your expertise here because that is a smaller mystery than...” Detective glass glanced ominously at the picture of an orange ring that floated in mid-air.
“I shall go see it.” Celestia said before walking back to the basement and stirring up more dust.
The basement was rather dark: the overhead light had burnt out and the investigative team had to bring in jars filled with fireflies. Shavings of quartz was scattered on the floor and on the table there were many carving tools and a set of lonely goggles. This...Crystal Comet..but once known as Firebolt, had made something with the quartz and given her past, it was not good. In the centre of the room, there was the orange ring, but it looked more like embers and the magic flowing off it hit her hard in the chest. The thing was unimaginable and its power was stronger than anything Celestia knew, even the Elements of Harmony... “Get Discord immediately! I want this...thing to be shut down as soon as possible!” she barked a frantic order at the nearest pony. She didn't know what it was, but it made her shiver. It was almost as if some law of nature was broken.
Discord came quickly, but it wasn't quick enough to Celestia. “What seems to be the matter, my dear Princess?” Discord said as he made serpentine movements around her.
“That.” she said, pointing at the the orange ring.
“Oooooo...” Discord said as he wiggled his fingers in excitement, “Lets have a looksie, shall we?”
Discord began circling around it, stroking the beard on his chin. He sniffed the air and a smile spread across his face, “That magic is quite spicy, isn't it? I think I know what this delightful thing is, dear Celestia.” After saying that, Discord stuck his head through the centre of the ring and it disappeared. “DISCORD!!!” Celestia cried out loud. Discord moved back and his head reappeared. “You can be really uptight sometimes, you know? I was just having some fun with this rift.” he said.
“Rift?” Celestia said, confused.
“Quite exciting, isn't it? I just love that blue sand in that parallel universe. I think I'll take a vacation there sometime.” Discord said as he batted his eyes at her.
“I want it shut down.” she commanded.
“Why? Don't you want to explore new worlds? To seek out new life and new civilizations? Too boldly go where no pony has gone before?” Discord huffed.
“It's a threat to the security of Equestria.”
“Then do what you do to the other threats of Equestria. Lock 'em away, just to have your beloved Twilight handle them. I mean that's what the oh great and powerful Princess Celestia does, doesn't she?” he mocked.
“After my sister lost her way, I needed someone else to wield the elements of harmony, okay? Besides you and Luna got rehabilitated eventually...would you rather be shut down?” Celestia threatened.
“King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis,” he said with a sneer, “Fiiiiiiine I'll shut it down. It doesn't have a brain to mind anyway and I can always make my own blue desert in my backyard.” Discord snapped his fingers and blue flames burst from the ring, then the ring shrank until is was just one, tiny flame. Discord snapped his fingers again and it died. Discord yawned, “Quite helpless aren't we? It was just a matter of making the flames burn backwards. Well I've got to get going. I've promised to go ice-skating with my dear friend, Fluttershy. See ya toots!” and with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared, leaving Celestia and the other ponies gaping.

Stanley stood sat at the kitchen table staring into space. He had decided to take a break from work that day in order to cope with his anger issues and discovery. Since they needed money to live, Blossom had left for work...on the condition that Stanley would stay at home and NOT read the newspaper. He agreed, but he felt like he was broken. Truth was that he hated this life, but he loved Blossom and he would give up everything just to make her happy...right?
A knock on the door. Stanley trudged over to it and opened it. “P-P-Princess Luna?” he stuttered.
“Yes, Lightning Sting. We have used our temporary privileges of being in complete power to gain information about many things that has confused us. My sister speaks to thee as if thou were a secret and this...quartz...situation has caused us to question how our sister handles her rule, once again.” Luna declared and Stanley stared at her confused for a few minutes.
“Erm...”
“Did thou knowst what thou hast found in thine enemy's basement?” she asked
“Something bad?” Stanley answered.
“No. Tis something different. Unseen by any pony before. A gateway t'another realm.”
“...is that good?” Stanley was terribly confused.
“No...we think tis neutral and its use is what determines whether tis good or bad.”
“Erm...why are you here?
“10 years ago, thou was involved in an incident with an expedition that cost a great amount of lives and that Celestia hast chosen to cover up. How does thou feel about Celestia's actions?” Luna questioned.
“Ohhhh....ummm...I really don't know....I don't understand why she did it...but I think she had a good reason...I mean it has to be worth all these changes that is associated with changing identities right?” Stanley stuttered a very shocked response.
“We see...” Luna said thoughtfully, “We shalt notify thee that the portal incident is also to be kept quiet. We wish thee luck. Farewell.” And with that Luna left Stanley to question life even more.

Lightning growled at the pegasus that held a steel sword to his throat. “Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile.” the pegasus sneered.
“I will never surrender! I know what awaits me!” Lightning cried.
“You are an imperfect being, created by an imperfect being. Why do you resist?” the pegasus said with a laugh.
“I am the last and I wish to join my brothers and sisters with dignity.” Lightning spat, trying to hold his head high, but the cold blade brushing against his neck prevented him from doing so. Lightning was the last. Everyone around him had died, including Chief Blaze. Lightning somehow made it to that point by pure luck. And now he lay with his back in the bloody dirt, a hoof pressed down on his chest and a blade caressing his neck. The half a dozen ponies were what was left of the invasion force though. The thought gave Lightning a smirk: at least his kind went out with a bang.
The pegasus snickered and malice flitted through her eyes. She would kill him now. “Goodbye...” Lightning said with a sad smile. He didn't want to die, but this was the end and he was glad that he would go down fighting. Then there was a white flash that seared the sky and halted everything.
The blade slid off his neck and Lightning momentarily thought he was dead, but he heard a gasp from the pegasus. This was still reality. Her hoof was still on his chest though and Lighting kicked his back legs upward, sending her flying into a nearby trap. She let out a gargled scream and then nothing: she was dead.
The other ponies seemed to be too distracted to notice: they were moaning strange things, “Inamoenus...mighty Queen Blanca...save us from this treachary...” Lightning looked around bewildered. He soon discovered that the light originated from the south...from...Inamoenus...
“I believe your home is destroyed...if you halt this invasion...I will gladly accept you...” Lightning spoke and hope began to flare inside him.
“No...we can't...Queen Blanca commands us so...” they all cried simultaneously.
“I'll have to kill you then...” Lightning's newly found hope dropped like a stone and ceased to be. With a sad look on his face, Lightning grabbed a nearby stake and began fighting the now homeless ponies. They jabbed at him, but he kicked and he stabbed, letting blood spurt into the air in a shower of sorrow. By the end of the massacre, Lightning was all that was left standing. Tears fell from his face: he was the last...

He was the last... “Until...the last...one roams...” he whispered. Lightning looked around him. Bodies and entrails were strewn everywhere and blood fed the ground. This was no longer a place to live. Lightning began to shake, tears spilling from his eyes and he fell onto the ground, crying into the bloodied soil. Everypony that he had ever loved was dead. He was alone. He rolled onto his back and gazed upwards, letting the tears to continue to form.
The sun had set and the stars had blazed into existence again. A single falling star flew across the sky. “I...I...will follow it...I will roam on the whim of a fallen star...” he said to himself. Lightning got up and said “Goodbye and rest in peace...all of you...”
Lightning looked up to the new horizon and took his first steps into a new world.

One second Queen Blanca was mocking the wretched mare, next she was waiting in a line behind said wretched mare. She stood there, dazed and confused for a moment, until a stallion came up to her, after talking to said wretched mare, “Excuse me, miss, I would-” he started.
“THAT'S QUEEN BLANCA !!!” she yelled back at him.
“Haha...that means nothing here...” he chuckled.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!?!?!?” Blanca screeched, obviously disgruntled by his lack of devotion towards her.
He responded with another giggle, “You...JUST Blanca... are dead. No status whatsoever. My job is just to make sure that all ponies know that they are on their way to the afterlife to avoid any confusion-induced incidents. Enjoy the afterlife, miss!” he said before moving on to the next pony in line.