//------------------------------// // “Now my disbelief, lay smashed at my hooves... “ // Story: Stories in Stone, Memories of Twilight // by TDR //------------------------------// Stories in Stone Memories of Twilight By TDR “Now my disbelief, lay smashed at my hooves... “ Jer'rahd flailed about, struggling violently. A loud series of rips filled the air as his flailing deposited him off the bed and onto the floor with a loud crash. He flailed a bit more as he woke, turning the sheets into rags before he finally got his hooves under him enough to stand. His gaze ran over the place, a sigh escaping his lips at the far too familiar sight of a hospital room. “I am glad to see you have once again avoided death, Kaisur,” a voice quipped, “though I am sure you still consider that bad luck when it happens.” Jer'rahd raised an eyebrow at the voice, and more importantly at the white alicorn princess sitting patiently in the corner of the room. How the heck had he missed her? “Celestia? What the buck are you doing here? What's going on? Where am I?” “You are back in Canterlot. You are recovering from that last expedition you went on, and quite frankly, I do what I wish, Kaisur. Besides, I have need to, oh how was it put, debrief you on the results of your last fiasco.” “Fiasco? We found a base of operations that they had been using, and that was far more than any of your guards did.” “Do not even attempt to start with that, Kaisur; I am in no mood to hear you complain. The enemy got away, you nearly drowned, Starfall broke her wing, and Twilight Sparkle is still missing. Fiasco. Lord Talon informed me of how you lost it in the conflict and did not simply kill Nocturne.” “I heard the books; they were there somewhere.” “Then you should have killed the clone and then found them.” “Rather odd for you to be telling me to kill something.” “If killing something would mean that my favorite student was still here, I would quite happily do it myself. As it stands, we do not even have a body to bury and the underground waterways stretch for leagues. She was already knocked out when she was lost, so I do not have any real hope of her being recovered alive.” Jer'rahd blinked, feeling the heat rise rapidly in the room as the Princess spoke. “It is bad enough I was going to outlive her, Kaisur, but to have the time we could have had together cut short…” “Shit...” “You see my dilemma at the moment. I would like nothing more than to simply give you your wish and burn you to ash where you stand, but despite that, you still have a task to do. So I shall simply pass on another form of punishment for you to deal with while you find the escapees.” Jer'rahds eyes narrowed at the threat, wondering what the hell she was talking about. The white princess rose to her hooves, the heat visibly flowing off her in waves. “I am going to tell you the real reason why Luna cannot seem to come to grips with you, Jer'rahd. Why she has no issue with your friends, yet cannot speak to you without becoming angry or morose.” “And why exactly is that, Celestia?” Jer'rahd snapped. Celestia pulled the door open with her magic, trotting out and pausing on the other side of the door, looking back at him. “Nightmare Moon was pregnant when she was sent to the moon, Kaisur. She gave birth to a foal on a ball of rock devoid of life and air. She no longer even sees her moon when she raises it, just the tiny grave that exists there.” Celestia spat out the last and slammed the door, leaving Jer'rahd alone. Jer'rahd's eyes widened at the words, then they narrowed rapidly as he glared at the walls of the room “Nice try. You are getting shittier at this dream stuff, Entropy.” Jer'rahd snaps. There was no sound for a moment, then the world around Jer'rahd started to melt away to the sound of dark laughter. ***************************************************** Twilight gasped loudly for breath, coughing violently against the sandy shore in the darkness. She whimpered, curling into a shuddering ball, her body feeling bruised and battered. It was almost as bad as the time she had tried to find the source of Pinkie's Pinkie sense... almost. Pushing herself shakily to her hooves, she ran her gaze over the dark cavern. Water rushed wildly over the rocks behind her, drowning out any other noise as she moved further up the sandy slope. She yelped as she tripped over a rock, crashing to the damp sand in a sprawl. She cursed lightly, her horn flickering as it lit up, casting a soft purple glow over the area. Twilight glared back at the rock she tripped over and her eyes widened; it was not a rock. The large, dark purple scale-covered length shifted before slithering out of her globe of light with a small hiss of scales over the sand. Something that big, living in a cave, slithering... “SNAKE!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!” Twilight screamed out, galloping away and colliding with a wall, knocking herself out again. ========================================= Spike yawned, looking down at the page as the words in the book started to blur. He glanced up at the massive bookshelves and to the rather unstable stairway of books that Silver Claw had made for him to reach the higher shelves before the large dragon left. Useful, unless he needed a book that made up the staircase. Spike picked up the old lantern on the table and trundled over to the cave mouth before dousing the light and looking down at the lights of Ponyville far below, shining in the darkness like stars on the earth. He briefly wondered what everypony was doing before he whipped his head side to side, trying to clear those thoughts away. He had work to do and couldn't dwell on how he got to this point, or it would just slow him down. Still... He turned, heading back into the cave, figuring it was time to get to sleep himself. The moon was already high in the sky. If he kept going, at this rate, he really was going to end up pulling all nighters like Twilight did... Spike sighed, rubbing his eyes and relit the lantern, heading back into the depths of the cave towards the gem pile. Something about that seemed comforting, even downright inviting to sleep on. He trundled past the stack of books he had already gone through with a yawn. This was going to be a lot of work still to rebuild an empire, but hopefully, it would keep him too occupied to think about how he left Ponyville. ======================================================== Velkorn twitched, looking out from the balcony of the library at the state of the town, and more importantly, at the vast armada of bouncing pink ponies that filled said town's streets. The flood of Pinkie Pies was trying to do something. From what Velkorn figured, they seemed to be trying to protect everypony from themselves, and it was causing more harm than good in many cases. So much so that she had needed to move most of the training guards to protect the hospital as new cases flooded in due to the overzealous nature of the Pinkie Pie protection ponies. With luck, Rhede would be done with surgery and awake again soon. She could use his input on this situation. The surgery for his leg had gone rather well last night and he was expected to wake sometime this morning. That was something else that had bothered her; the sun had been late this morning, and had risen somewhat shakily, as if it was unsure what it was doing. It reminded Velkorn of when Princess Luna needed to lift the sun after her sister was nearly killed last time. At that thought, a tinge of worry crept over her and she wished to go back to Canterlot herself to check, but with the Pinkie Pie army, she was somewhat stuck here. She had yet to be able to find Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. Applejack was at her farm attempting to stop the bouncing ponies there from ruining her crops. Rarity was in little better shape in regards to the Pinkie invasion. She was currently downstairs in the library lamenting the disaster that was left of her shop to anyone who would listen, which at the moment was a Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle, and a large rock that had showed up from somewhere with the small filly. Something needed to be done soon, and Velkorn had no idea what; she could not even tell if any of them were the real Pinkie Pie or if this was a swarm of changelings. With both Twilight and Jer'rahd gone, she did not even have any star metal with which to check. Not long after the sun rose, all the Pinkie clones suddenly left the town, rushing off into the forest, rapidly leaving whatever they were doing behind. While she was thankful for their sudden removal, she was leery as to the why. ==================================================== “Bleu, what did you do?” “Don't yell at me; the crazy mare screamed and plowed into my side, yelling something about a snake.” Bleu retorts looking down at the darkness where Starfall likely was. “Great, we had some light for all of three seconds. I don't suppose you can see in the dark?” “What do I look like, an owl?” “Well, when you shrink down and squish your head just right...” “Shut up; seriously, leave the jokes to me, chicken wings,” Bleu grumbled. “Speaking of which, how's your wing?” “Likely just sprained. I doubt anything’s busted. I can still fly without too much pain. Any sign of the griffon?” “Nah, you find Boss?” “No, I lost my grip on his fat ass when we were swept over that waterfall. That pony has put on a great deal of weight since the last time I had to carry his sorry flank.” “Pfft, how do you think I feel? Though he'd quickly point out it's all muscle.” “‘Cept what’s between his ears,” Starfall chuckled. “He should be fine; he's harder to kill than a cockroach.” “Not worried about him this time; that thing inside him wouldn't let him die here. We just need some light to check on this one and find the idiot before he gets into more trouble,” Bleu grumbles. “Perhaps I might be of some assistance in that regard,” a voice cooed from the darkness. Bleu and Starfall whirled to face the sound of the voice as a flash of light blinded them. ========================================================= “So this is where he is?” Nocturne muttered, glancing back at Silver Claw and Scarlet as they looked over the river bank as the sun startsed to cast its glow over the forest. --------------------------------------------------------------- “Yes, both of them are still alive, though Loyalty’s curse is still in the mountain.” “Damnit, I want to see them both bleed!” “Now now, red, that will happen in time. Personally, I would like to know that one better, anyway; I am somewhat depressed I missed out on his creation, and he killed the two I altered as well.” “He killed one. Magic got the other” ----------------------------------------------------------- Nocturne flattened her ears as the books started to ramble and argue again about some sea pony princess and her pet. This was not the time. “Silence. Where is he? We came here to kill the god you wished dead, now where is he?” Nocturne snarled. “She finally lose it, dragon?” Scarlet questioned under her breath. “Likely, the books are speaking with her as I have heard they sometimes do.” Silver Claw yawned. “I am not sure why or how, but I doubt she is any crazier than she has always been.” “You two shut up as well, and look for that griffon! The books claim he is a hindrance to the plan. We need to find him and kill him.” Nocturne shouts. Silver Claw was about to retort when a blast of lightning struck him in the chest, flinging the massive dragon back over his own tail to crash into a strand of trees. A whirlwind kicked to life before them as a waterlogged griffon climbed out of the river, his fur and feathers rapidly being dried by the sudden tempest. Electricity and sparks of fire and ice danced among the whirlwind and the griffon’s fur and wings. Arcs of lightning lashed out from the slowly growing storm, turning the sand and ground where they struck to glass. “Looking for me, I take? Well then, my little pony, you have found me,” Talon stated, the rumble of thunder punctuating his words. “So you wish to kill a god? Let us see if you can.” ================================================================= Luna looked over the rubble curiously, wondering what exactly happened here. She had a number of ideas, though the magnitude of the explosion was far larger than she had seen before. Even the spell cannons did not wreck a building so thoroughly in only one blast. Perhaps this was some new sort of weapon that had been developed, though why had there been an attack on the treasury? The structure barely even contained anything of value, save a few items too large to fit in the Royal Vaults, and even that was nearly bare. Celestia had moved most of the country’s wealth into a banking system here at the capital to collect something called interest. It all seemed rather dull to Luna, so she had not bothered to find out much about it. Her sister was better with figures, anyway. Luna sighed, kicking a bit of marble with her forehoof and watching the Guards and some servants run about the rubble. An out-of-breath cream-colored pegasus mare fluttered over to her, a rather panic stricken look on her face. “Princess. haaaa, I have ahhh news...” The mare panted out. “Please catch your breath, then tell us your news.” Luna said, looking over the mare curiously. She wondered what might be so important to have the mare running around so out of breath. Odd for a pegasus; perhaps Tia had sent her to tone down the noise? That would be very like her. “Your sister... Princess Celestia...” “Ahh yes, tell her we shall endeavor to keep this to a dull roar next time a building explodes. She needs to get out of bed and see this.” “She's gone, Princess.” “Gone?” “She was not in her chambers.” “What about the kitchen?” “Not their either, Princess; we also checked the library, the solarium, the game room and everywhere else in the palace. Princess Celestia is not anywhere.” Luna regarded the rubble of the building again. Could she have been the cause of this? Why had she been in the treasury? “Please step back.” Luna commanded. Luna closed her eyes, her horn glowing dark purple. The shadows surrounding the area started lengthening before bursting, sending a myriad of tiny spiders of shadow scuttling over the rubble and into every nook and cranny of the collapsed building. She ignored the yelps of surprise and a number of screams at the sight of the spiders as she urged them deeper into the debris until she found what she was looking for. She opend her eyes, letting the spell fade as she strode over to a large pile of rubble. “This pile here. Focus your efforts here!” Luna ordered, lifting a few of the larger chunks of marble off the pile and tossing them aside. A number of unicorns rushed over to do the same, clearing away what debris they could lift and pulling it aside. After a few tons of rock had been tossed aside, the pile shifted on its own. The last large section of wall was flung away, only to be caught again by a golden glow and set aside gently before it hurt anypony. Luna looked down into the hole at Celestia. The large white pony was half crouching in the hole, her wings spread wide, holding up a number of loose rocks. Her white fur and feathers where covered in ash and soot, and the melted and fragmented remains of her crown and necklace were stuck in her fur. The Princess of the Sun stood up fully, flinging the rocks loose from her wings and revealing a pair of rather battered, but still alive, Guards who had been posted at the treasury's entrance. “Ahh, good morning, Lulu. What kept you?” Celestia beamed. “Do be a dear and get someone to look after these two. Also, I didn't manage to get that much sleep last night, so would you mind raising the sun for me while I freshen up a bit? Also send notice to Ponyville that I wish to see both sets of Element Bearers as soon as possible.” “Sister, is this the time? What happened here?” “I will get into that when everyone is here. After I get some sleep, and after you get some sleep as well.” “What...? Why?” “Because I am now forced to admit Kaisur was correct in his statement about the state of things, and I doubt either of us will be sleeping well once this goes into full swing.” Celestia sighed, looking back as the two injured ponies were pulled free and flown off to the hospital. The Princess of the sun sighed, looking down at the gold melted to her fur. “This is going to take forever to get out...” ======================================================== Fluttershy and Zecora glanced warily at each other, and then at the group of three Pinkie Pies bouncing around Zecroa's hut, making sure everything was safe for the pair. Though they were also making a rather large mess of the zebra's home... Zecora's ears twitched as something else was broken, though she was getting used to that happening with these ponies by now. She really needed to invest in a vault somewhere on the other side of Equestria for some of her things. Fluttershy was certain they were not changelings, as she had never seen changelings mimic a pony so perfectly, particularly Pinkie Pie. That simply made Zecora even more wary. “Look, loooook, look!” one of the Pinkies shouted, pointing at the open fire pit that was still burning from when the zebra had made tea. How they had missed something in the center of her home for this long baffled Zecora. “This is dangerous right here!” a second Pinkie shouted. “It is not a danger, so quell your fears. I have been using that to cook for years,” Zecora grumbled, wondering what the deal was with those Pinkie Pies’ attempts to foal-proof everything. “It is so!” The Pinkie speaking zipped off, exchanging her opossum costume for a Fire Marshall Pie outfit as she zippped back. Zecora blinked, looking at Fluttershy, who just shrugged at the random act of Pinkie. “Lemme show you somethin'. Let's just say here, it's late at night and you're coming back from a long day frolicking in the field, or whatever it is you do in the fields. Don't worry; I don't judge. You come back home to your cozy cottage, ready to brew some nice tea or you had some stew going and the fire’s all warmed up, burning happily. Now let’s just say as you come in, your hooves decided they are not quite done frolicking and decided they have a few more in them...” Zecora and Fluttershy watched as the Pinkie in the fire marshal outfit acted out everything as she said it. Zecora did not like where this was going. “…they decide to give you a couple extra frolics that you're not ready for, and...” the Pinkie stated, starting to skip, then suddenly losing her balance and tumbling directly into the fire. The pony screamed out a moment as the fire burned a bright blue. Fluttershy fainted and even Zecora was made quite ill by the sight of a burning Pinkie Pie, but that only lasted a moment before the fire was suddenly doused as the burning pony turned into a large puddle of water that rapidly evaporated. Zecora glanced down at Fluttershy before rising to her hooves and trotting towards the huddled group of Pinkies that remain. “Now that was something I have never seen Pinkie Pie do, so out with it now. What are all of you?” Zecora questioned as she seemed to loom over the remaining Pinkies. ================================================= Bleu growled, whirling in the sand and changing to her largest size as she stood over Twilight. Lightning crackled across her fanged maw as the flare of light died down to little more than a glowing lantern. A rather large purple serpent stared at the pair and the unconscious unicorn with a look of mild annoyance. He had on a rather large hair net of some sort that seemed to be filled with curlers. A pillowed bit of cloth sat on his forehead that looked to be used to cover his eyes for sleep. What drew Bleu's attention and brought a small chuckle from Starfall was the handle bar-styled mustache done up in curlers on his face. “Now that is just rude… planning to attack a man in his own bedroom. How crass. I am quite tired of you drunken louts finding your way in here... Is that Twilight Sparkle?” the serpent remarked, glaring at them. Bleu blinked, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the serpent, sniffing the air lightly. “It is, and we were not planning to attack you. We sort of washed down river and wound up here,” Starfall said. “Geez, more of you? How am I ever going to get enough beauty sleep with all this barging into my bedroom?” “What do you mean ‘more of us’?” “Yes, a gray unicorn; I just came back fromdrop dropping him off outside. Still breathing, though he was flailing about something awful. Frankly, I'm too tired to deal with some drunk on a bender like that, though he did look frighteningly familiar.” “Seamore,” Bleu stated. The serpent froze, staring at the blue dragon. He lifted the lantern up, lighting the room a bit more to show a massive pile of waterproof pillows in the corner of the cavern, as well as some decorative items hanging on the rock walls. “It's been ages since I was called that. How do you know that name?” the serpent questioned. “A thousand years later, and you are still fawning over that fuzzy caterpillar on your face, huh?” Bleu smirked, shrinking back down to her pony-sized form with a chuckle. “Unbelievable. Lily's spell must have really taken hold on that ugly mug of yours.” The serpent seemed confused, though realization finally dawned on him as Bleu continued with a bevy of insults directed at everything from the dragon’s mustache to its parentage, though Bleu at least dodged about anything to do with Lily. “Bleu Scale?... That's not possible; I heard you were killed at the end of the civil war...” “I got better. Now show us where you dumped the drunk.” ======================================================= Pinkie Pie looked down at the mirror pond with a small smirk on her face. A dozen of her mirror clones stood around her getting ready to step into the pond again. Everything had to be working properly; her hoof had not itched at all since she started doing this. Her plan had to be working. Every pony would be safe. She looked down at the pond curiously; the water had dipped considerably since she started. Maybe she should have the clones wring out their hair as they came out of the pond? A crash of thunder sent the group of them to the cave floor. The crackle of lightning echoed loudly in the cave before another boom of thunder and the howl of wind drowned it out. Pinkie blinked, darting up along with a mass of clones to the entrance of the cavern to look out. It wasn't supposed to be storming today. Did Dashie fall asleep on the job again? A number of the brambles were burning, and even more were blasted away. In the clearing on the other side she could see two ponies and a dragon fighting a griffon... wait… was that Fred? =================================================== Lord Talon smirked as the dragon’s breath washed over him, drying out his feathers further. He was somewhat annoyed that his favorite flight bags were destroyed by the flame, but he could buy a new pair after these three issues were dealt with. The moment the blaze stopped, he moved, kicking off the ground with a fan of his wings, his claws ripping into the dragon’s scales as he flew up the beast’s front towards its throat. The dragon was fairly quick, and its arms were up lashing at the bird before Talon managed to carve a furrow through the creature’s scales all the way up its body. A whip from the creature’s tail was dodged, along with a swipe from the red wyrm’s claws. Talon flipped back in the air, covering his face with a wing as a blast of magic struck it and splintered off. A weak spell— what had this alicorn been doing before that made Kaisur think she was a threat? Perhaps the pony had overestimated the mare? No matter. His arm whipped up, blocking three daggers that were aimed at his head. He felt the bite of the steel and winced a little as they exploded. As the smoke cleared, he flicked his undamaged arm free of the soot and metal fragments, his gaze turning to the red earth pony mare who threw them. He glanced up briefly as the dragon leaped up, looking to come down on him like a cat on a mouse. Another bolt of lightning from the griffon god sent the dragon flying back, taking out another row of thorny hedge growths in the process. He kicked off the ground on the red mare before she could react and sank his claws into her foreleg as she tried to throw another set of explosive daggers. The mare yelpd as his claws sank into his leg. Her eyes widened as the griffon glared at her. “Kaisur considered you a high threat. Best to remove you now, then,” Talon stated. Scarlet's eyes widened as the griffon god stepped back, yanking the mare along with him by her foreleg. He turned quickly, yanking her foreleg across his chest with his left claw and bringing his right down hard on her shoulders, shoving her to the ground while still clutching her leg. Scarlet screamed as she hit the ground, the bones cracking and snapping in her fore leg as her leg was bent at an unnatural angle, nearly up behind her back. He dropped the mare’s leg and lashed out with his wing, sending the still-screaming pony bouncing across the clearing to crash into the river. He barely spared her another glance aside from to see she was still moving before he was back in the air dodging another blast from the dragon’s breath weapon. The dragon was indeed powerful— more so than most of its kind he had fought before. If it was allowed to become a god, it truly would have been a threat, particularly as it moved like a soldier. That was rare in dragons of this age, and Bleu Scale was the only other dragon he had seen with any training. The other two clearly had no real combat training. The alicorn was fumbling her spells and the mare had expected her toys to save her. The dragon was still relying too much on its size and brute strength to defeat the griffon. If he was a normal griffon, that may have worked. None of those tricks would help them. His rear paws slammed hard into the alicorn’s back as he landed atop her, his fore claw balling up and punching the back of the mare’s head hard, sending her face first into the mud as her legs collapsed under her from the additional weight of the griffon. His claws extended on his rear paws, digging deep into the mare’s back before he kicked off of her again to dodge a claw swipe from the dragon. The alicorn screamed as the griffon’s claws ripped into her back, shredding into her flesh and tearing the tendons of her wings, nearly ripping one from her back enough that only a flap of skin and a bit of sinew kept it from being completely severed. Two down, though he didn't count either of them out until their throats were removed. The dragon was too much a threat to spend time on making sure the pair was dead just yet. Silver Claw growled, lashing out at the flying griffon, who simply dodged his attacks before landing on the beast’s snout, his fore claw rushing towards the beast was the last thing its left eye would ever see before the Griffon God of Storms tore the orb from the creature’s red scaled head. Silver Claw roared, lashing out at the griffon and throwing him from his muzzle, only to be sent crashing back into the trees by another blast of lightning that further shattered the scales on his side, sending the fragments falling about, along with the beast’s blood like red rain. Lord Talon landed in the middle of the clearing, his gaze shifting over the three still-moving targets. He snapped his wings tight to his side and flicked his claws free of blood. “I do not understand why Kaisur or Princess Celestia would want you alive, but I must at least ask for your surrender before I finish you off,” Lord Talon stated loudly. ================================= The Pinkies’ jaws all dropped as they stared at Fred in awe. The whole fight had taken, at most, around thirty seconds from start to finish and aside from the charred remains of a pair of flight bags around his waist, the griffon did not have a feather out of place. Pinkie was about to go out and congratulate him when a familiar itch made itself known with a vengeance. ================================== “This was far more complicated than I anticipated.” “HOLY SHIT! Did you see that?” “There is a reason he is one of the targets. Lazy, get up. This is your show now; you are the only one of us here who knows the spell. Give it to the mare or it's over.” “What a pain...” ---------------------------------------------- Nocturne groaned, feeling the hot blood run down her back. Her breathing was rather labored, and she was sure she had several cracked ribs from that attack. She coughed, spitting out a number of teeth from where her head hit the ground. This wasn't supposed to happen this way. ------------------------------------------- “Just figuring that out now? Fool!” “Ehh, least I got to see some death before I get locked away again.” “Are you listening to me Teal? DO IT!” “Fine...” ------------------------------- Nocturne blinked in surprise as a spell drifted into her mind from out of nowhere. No, not nowhere… The books were aiding her again; they had as much to lose from this as she did. Celestia would surely find a way to destroy them this time if they were caught. Nocturne slowly rose to her hooves, wincing and drawing the griffon god’s attention. By the stars, she hoped they were still as noble and stupid as they were in the past. “Fine, you win... no more. I give... GAAAAAAK!!” Nocturne was cut off as a blast of lightning caught her in the chest, sending her tumbling back over herself to land on her back, a scream leaving her mouth again as she hit. The remains of one of her wings lay on the ground behind her, fully severed from her body. “I said I would ask. I never stated I would accept your surrender,” Talon stated, moving towards the spasming alicorn. “As the God of the Griffon lands, it is my duty to judge you for your crimes, and you have been found guilty. The sentence is death, to be carried out immediately.” The whisk of the air being cut drew his attention as a number of steel blades were sent towards him and knocked aside with a wing swipe to explode on the ground around him as his attention focused again on Scarlet. The mare cursed, flinging a number of daggers at him with her tail and good legs. Nocturne winced. Her horn glowed brightly, a ray of sickly yellow energy firing from her horn. The griffon tried to leap out of the way but was caught in half of it. Nocturne grinned, though that quickly faded as the griffon simply looked down at himself, standing there untouched. “Was that supposed to do something?” Talon questioned, flicking a wing out to knock aside another flight of daggers. The griffon’s eyes widened as the blades sliced through his wings, embedding in his chest and side. He managed a wide-eyed stare down at the blades sunk into his flesh before they explode. ********************************************************** <“Personally, I thought that was a good one.”> The voice growled. <”What gave it away this time?”> “She was trapped in the moon, not on it.” Jer'rahd muttered, looking around the void of black surrounding him. “Plus, Celestia was too nice to me. Considering she rushed out to see Twilight after Silver Claw attacked, she would probably have killed me in my sleep, not waited ‘til I woke up to talk shit.” <“What a clever pony.”> The beast stated cackling at Jer'rahd's wince. <”Feel free to keep fighting me; it will just make me all that much more powerful when you finally succumb.”> “I plan to die before that happens. I won't let you rampage.” <”Like you will have a choice in that?”> The Beast chuckled, a set of six red glowing eyes forming in the darkness far above Jer'rahd. <”How many times have you tried to end your life and failed? Your friendship is so strong that even if you tried, they would not let you. None of you are even aware of the game you have been brought into.”> “Game? What game?” <”The only game. Everyone is a pawn in it, save those like you and I, bearer of Loyalty. We may not be kings, but we can at least be knights. Fight me; struggle and thrash, little worm. Bring low our enemies so none may remain before us.”> “That speech didn't work with me before. Why would it now?” <”Because the world was not in such high stakes before, little pony. What will come shall make your master's fight with the sea witch look like a summer storm. When that happens, you will have no choice but to free me, or all you care for will burn.”> **************************************************** Pinkie Pie's eyes went wide as the itch in her hoof suddenly stopped at the explosion. Her hair rapidly uncurled, as did all the clones’ of her’s as all of them stared in shock as the scorched and bloodied body of Fred fell to the ground. Pinkie twitched, rushing back down into the tunnel to the mirror pool, shouting at the gathered pool clones. “Fred! Fred! Fred won't get up, for Celestia's sake! They've killed Fred! They've killed Fred! Those lousy, stinking, yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Those despicable animal warmongers! They've killed Fred! Those green slime! Those black hearted, short, bow-legged...” Pinkie Pie swore, looking into the half-full pond. She paused, looking at the clones around her from under the bangs of her straight hair. “Get them.” =============================================== “I tossed him out over there so he could sleep it off. Honestly, I am not sure how these wastrels keep finding my lair, but it is not like his is the first, screaming and carrying on before passing out in the sand and muttering and talking to himself in his sleep.” Seamore bemoaned as Starfall rushed over to the gray unicorn stretched out on the sandy river bank. Bleu glanced back at Twilight as the unicorn stirred. The serpent peered over at the unicorn on Bleu's back as they stepped out into the morning light. “I say, that really is Twilight Sparkle.” “We said that it's her; not like she's done much good this time. How's Boss, Starfall?” Bleu shouted. “Wet, unconscious, and angry,” the pegasus shouted back. “Well, he's matched us in one of those, and the other’s normal, so let’s wake his sorry flank up,” Bleu grumbles looking up at the serpent. And the wide grin on his face. “What is it?” “It seems I am finally bigger than you, Scale.” “Oh, for buck’s sake...” ============================== “Silver Claw, are you alive?” Nocturne called out with a curse, looking back at the remains of her wing laying on the ground where she had landed, the few tendons finally having pulled free. “That fucker took my EYE!!” the dragon bellowed, ripping himself out of the trees. The dragon’s crimson scales were scorched black and cracked and shattered over most of his chest and torso. His left forearm hung limply at his side as he stomped out of the brush. looking down at the charged griffon corpse. Scarlet hobbled over, her right leg looking much the same as Silver Claw's arm. Nocturne snorted in annoyance. At least they didn't lose a limb like she did. ------------------------------------------------------- “Oh waaaaah, by the stars I have never met a bigger complainer than you. Even the moon goddess was less of a whiny bitch.” “Ooooh shit, that fight was great. DO IT AGAIN!” “Calm down, both of you. That is one of eight that needed to be dealt with. We are just getting started. Don't worry, dear; I am sure we can grow that back when the ceremony is preformed. Likely, the dragon’s eye, too. “Not eight” “Teal has a point. The love cursed pair are not an issue as they are. They are far too weak to be a threat at this juncture.” “Two of them are locked away, as well. Not like that's ever stopped them before, though.” “Hmm, that leaves three. Of course, they will cause the most problems. Though if we play this right, we can have all of them subdued or cleared before the time comes.” “Waiting is a pain” ---------------------------------------------------- Nocturne groaned, her horn glowing softly as she used the tiny bit of healing magic she knew to close the gaping wounds on her back. “So what now?” Scarlet asked. “Same plan as before: find some place to stay out of sight until the others return.” Nocturne sighed, looking up as a cry of some sort sounded from a section of brush at the end of the clearing. “What is that?” “Looks like a hole in the ground,” Silver Claw snorted, his one eye going wide as a veritable flood of pink ponies rushed out of the hole, carrying rocks, sticks, or rather vicious looking party favors as they rushed towards the group, screaming something about Fred. “What the buck?” Scarlet muttered before the tide of ponies swarmed over them. ================================================ "And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!" the group of flat haired pinkie pies stated, stepping towards the pool, prompting another group to step out of the pool and race upwards and out the hole towards the fray. "And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!" Pinkie Pie shouted creating another group as tears ran down her face. "And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!" the group shouted again, triggering the magic effect, none of them noticing the water getting lower with every batch of Pinkies coming out of it . ======================================== Scarlet yelped, doing her best to dodge the uncoordinated attacks of the gaggle of pink ponies. For every one her dagger hit and popped into a puddle of water, five more seemed to take its place. They seemed to be rushing from the trees now, some carrying real weapons or other objects from town. Nocturne was firing off spells, destroying them just as fast, though she was clearly tiring, and even Silver Claw seemed to have trouble with the swarm of pink ponies. A blast of fire cleared a line of them, though more rushed from the hole, pouring up from the depths like ants from a disturbed nest. Nocturne cast a shield spell and hid inside the dome, though the constant pounding of the pink-hooved attackers was forming cracks in the magic, and it was taking all she had to simply remain conscious after all the blood she lost. Scarlet was faring much worse; as she hid in a tree, the Pinkie swarm was scrambling up the sides and piling atop of one another to get at her. Even Silver Claw was quickly overwhelmed. The rumbling echoes of explosions from the mass of cannons that were firing everything from pastries to rocks, while not hurting him unduly, were causing him issue as he did his best to protect his remaining eye from the flying debris. “ENOUGH!” Silver Claw roared, firing a gout of flame at his feet and clearing a circle around him He rusheed towards Nocturne, scooping up the alicorn, shield and all. His tail whipped, popping another swath of Pie clones and turning them to puddles. Another blast cleared a path to Scarlet, who hopped out of the tree onto the dragon’s back, still launching daggers as best she could. The dragon ignored the cannon shots and launched into the air carrying the two. Scarlet looked over at the hole, seeing no more of the ponies coming out of it. Silver Claw cursed, as a number of the Pinkies were starting to follow them into the air, carried aloft by balloons or strange contraptions. “The power of the Element of Laughter is much greater than your report, Scarlet,” Nocturne said with a wince. “Which fits her perfectly, because if we hadn’t already gotten our flanks kicked, this shit would be a joke,” Scarlet snapped back. “I suggest you do something, Nocturne, as I do not have the energy to play keep-away with these things all day.” Silver Claw snarled. “Getting lazy on us, dragon?” Scarlet quipped. “Unlike you, I have not had the chance to simply lounge around for the past two days,” Silver Claw snapped back, glancing down as Nocturne's horn glowed. “Take us to the new location, Silver Claw. I will deal with this, but I will require sleep,” Nocturne muttered. “Fly high!” A ball of white light left the alicorn's horn and fell downward as if a drop of water. The dark alicorn collapsed in the dragon’s claw, and Silver Claw's wings flapped franticly, sending his mass higher into the air. ==================================================== “NononoNONONO!!!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed out, her hooves slamming down, splashing muck and mud about as she tried to summon more clones from the soft sand at the bottom of the mirror pond. “That can't be it!! They're still out there!!!” Pinkie screamed out to the empty cavern. ================================================== “Boss, wake the hell up already,” Bleu cursed, her wing slapping the crap out of the gray unicorn’s face. “I’m awake...” Jer'rahd muttered. “What?” “I AM AWAKE!” he shouted as Bleu smacked him a few more times to be sure. Jer'rahd growled, pushing himself to his hooves and looking around at the others, then up at the purple serpent, who was partially hiding behind a tree, having finally recognized the 'drunkard'. “What's going on? What happened?” the gray unicorn demanded. “Talon threw you into an underground river after Twilight was knocked out, and we all washed up in Seamore's house...” Starfall started. “Excuse me, miss, but I go by Steven now... Steven Magnet.” the serpent pointed out. Starfall, Bleu, and Jer'rahd both glared at him, and he shut up. “Anyway, we washed up here he had already taken you outside. Twilight woke up, screamed, and ran into Bleu and knocked herself out again...” Starfall continued. “There was a snake,” Twilight muttered mostly to herself. Starfall rolled her eyes and pressed on. “Anyway, we have no idea where we are in relation to the castle, nor do we know what happened to Talon.” “The underwater river does fork in a number of locations before coming back to the surface.” Steven pointed out. “Great, so we don't know if he's still down there or has made it out yet. I'm not going back into that water.” Jer'rahd shuddered. “Well, I have heard you can call upon the sea ponies when you are in distress...” Steven began when a glare from all four of them sent him back behind the tree. “Just a suggestion... no need to look at me like that.” “So where do we start, Boss?” Bleu asked . A flash of brilliant white light erupted from above the trees in the distance, the glow seeming brighter than the sun and was rapidly followed by a roar louder than thunder. It lasted only a few seconds before flashing back out of existence, leaving only the echoes of the thunder behind reverberating off the cliffs around the river. “Over there,” Jer'rahd responded. ============================================================= Pinkie Pie staggered out of the cavern, her hooves crunching on the baked dry ground as she looked over the battlefield. There was nothing left, save a few mangled contraptions and streamers. There were no clone bodies, and most of the trees were wilted. There was no fire or anything thrown about; it was just like a flash of heat that evaporated all the water and popped all the clones. She trotted though the mess, looking down at the shattered crimson scales and bits of daggers dotting the landscape. A pile of black feathers still mostly attached to a severed wing lay pressed against a tree, though it was the mangled body of the griffon that drew her attention. “Nooo... Fred... I'm sorry I couldn't do anything...” Pinkie whimpered. Her ears perked up at the sound of galloping and the flap of wings behind her. She turned suddenly as a blue dragon landed in the clearing, along with a gray pegasus, two unicorns, and a sea serpent who pushed through the trees behind them. “Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked, cautiously walking over to her, but Jer'rahd stopped her, walking up himself and tapping the sobbing pink pony on the head with the edge of the Waning Moon. Twilight glared at him, though he didn’t seem to notice as he looked over Talon's corpse with a wince. “Pinkie, what happened here?” Twilight began, but was suddenly glomped by the sobbing pony. “They killed him... I tried to help, but they killed Fred...” Pinkie bawled. “Who did? Who killed him?” Jer'rahd questioned. “Judging from the scales and the daggers, I would say Scarlet and Silver Claw. Though if that wing is any indication, Nocturne was here, too.” Starfall commented, and Pinkie nodded. “Silver Claw? Silver Claw is still alive!? SCALE, YOU BITCH! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT?” Steven screamed out, glaring down at the Bleu dragonling, who simply shrugged. “Guard Business. Didn't think you'd still be pissed after all this time, anyway,” Bleu muttered. “Like you're not still pissed about Platinum?” Seymore countered. “I bet someone brings her up in the wrong light, and you’re ready to murder them still.” “What of it, snake...?” Bleu turned her head, looking up at the serpent, completely unimpressed with his anger. “It's not like you were ever any kind of fighter. He just helped kill a god. There's next to nothing you could do against him if you wanted revenge, anyway. Just accept that he's going to pay for everything he's done and leave it at that.” The pair might have continued bickering if Pinkie Pie had not screamed out again, falling away from Twilight and grabbing her rear hoof. “Pinkie, what...?” Twilight started to ask.” “ITCHY HOOF! I STILL HAVE AN ITCHY HOOF! WHY WON'T IT STOP!?” the pink pony screamed.