Apple of My Eye- Ch. 24
Emotional Storm Pt. II
AKA- Thar She Blows! (Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter…)
Why the HAY did she think she could handle this on her own?!
As she soared through the night sky, buffeted by howling winds and rain that threatened to freeze the skin form her bones, Luna couldn’t help but fantasize about how much easier this would be if she still had a connection to the Elements. What she had thought was a simple bit of nature magic gone awry had turned out to be something that made even an Equestrian Princess worry…
“Does it not have any weaknesses at all?!” She said, talking to herself while taking a breath in the shelter of a cave at the bottom of the ravine.
“It’s bad enough you apparently needed to RUIN my old home… but you just haaaad to go and spawn in the Everfree of all places… honestly, part of me wants to teleport you to Egryph and let the Sphinxes have at you… but that seems a bit overboard.” Luna muttered, glancing up at the top of the ravine that she had taken a chunk out of when she was thrown down from the sky by that thing. “You’ve got to have some kind of weakness though…. But what?”
From overhead, the clouds let loose another cacophony of lightning and thunder, as if mocking her, daring the younger Alicorn to test her luck with another blind charge.
“Fine, you want some, THEN I’LL GIVE YOU SOME!!!” she cried, taking to the air once more, managing to dodge the small cyclones forming in midair, silently thanking her lucky stars for the burst of agility as she watched out of the corner of her eye as one of the cyclones tore a hole straight through a block of marble that had once been a palace wall.
“Look at you child… so helpless… so weak…” a voice called from the storm clouds above, shocking Luna to the point that she got her wing caught in one of the smaller cyclones and shrieked in pain at the tearing sensation that she was sure had been a tendon or two. The only thing that kept her in the air after wrenching herself free of the malignant wind funnel was a quick healing spell she’d learned a thousand years ago from a field medic.
“Y-you can speak?” She asked incredulously, an edge of pain in her voice amidst the shock and anger.
“But of course. Then again, I’m not surprised you can’t remember me… after all, the last time I spoke, it was through your lips… Do you remember how powerful I made you? How happy we were together?” It answered, its laughter turning into a deep, bone shaking roll of thunder.
“You can’t be real…” Luna said, her voice now practically dripping with fear and rage. “You were destroyed! You tricked me! For a thousand years I was your prisoner! You ruined my life!!!”
“Hmmm… well, I guess the phrase ‘happy’ is a bit subjective… I was happy to have such a powerful host at any rate… now, since the reveal is gone, why not let us get down to business? You know, the part where you try and heroically defeat me, but end your miserable existence in a vain attempt to slow me down. Or, we can skip to the best part, where I kill you and begin my march on those that SHREDDED ME TO PIECES!” The voice said, its anger boiling over in a flash of lightning and a torrent of rain that froze against Luna’s wings and coat, weighing her down and chilling her to the bone.
“You’ll never hurt anypony ever again…” Luna said, gritting her teeth and pumping her wings deftly, shooting her upwards at speeds that would make a Wonderbolt blush. “You won’t be able to! I’ll tear you apart this time MYSELF!”
A titanic roar sounded through the sky as the Princess of the Night punched through the lower level of clouds, her magic flashing across the sky as bright and intense as any bolt of lightning, and just as quick…
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“Whoa Doggy… That last one was a roof shaker…” Applejack noted, looking out the window at the cloudy night sky, the trees in the orchard shaking with the force of the thunder rolling over the hills. “Rainbow, you ever see somethin’ lahk this when yer on the job?”
“No way… when my team puts on a storm, we keep that thing under control.” Dash replied, glancing up from her job of slicing vents in the crust of their third attempt at an apple pie. The previous two had been either eaten by Pinkie Pie before it made it to the oven, or Fluttershy had dropped it when she was carrying it to the oven and a particularly loud clap of thunder shook the house.
“It’s probably just a little storm that blew in from somewhere else…” Aurora said nonchalantly, nursing a cup of hot tea with Rarity and Fluttershy.
“That’s impossible.” Twilight said frankly, “The only places in Equestria that have storms that are capable of moving on their own are in the far north near the Crystal Empire. And even then, they have magic that keeps them at bay. If there’s a storm this close to a settled area, there’s at least one pony behind it.”
“You’re telling me you girls have never seen a storm that moved on its own?”
Everypony present just shook their head and regarded Aurora like she had suddenly grown another head.
“Come on girls, let’s cut her a break. She’s not from Equestria right? Maybe they have some kind of crazy magic that works the weather for them, rather than the hands on stuff Pegasi do… I mean, she doesn’t have her cutie mark yet and she’s the same age as us, it’s not too farfetched… is it?” Rainbow said, coming to the grey mare’s defense.
“Well, I mean, the weather changed on its own, but there wasn’t any magic about it… it just did its own thing and everyone adjusted to deal with it.”
“Oh my, that sounds horrible darling!” Rarity exclaimed dramatically, “You’re telling me that you didn’t know in advance if it would be sunny or rainy? How did you know what to wear?”
“Well, we kind of had these folks who had the job of predicting the weather… they used a lot of science stuff for that job, and they got pretty close most of the time… but it’s not like the weather was changing whole seasons in a day or anything.”
“What do you mean? The seasons are supposed to change in a day.” Dash noted, “If they didn’t, then you’d have a bunch of confusion, crops wouldn’t grow like normal… not to mention the headache that it would cause dealing with out of season clouds. Next, you’re gonna tell us that the animals take care of themselves.”
“Rainbow Dash, that’s not very nice… teasing Aurora like that.” Fluttershy said disapprovingly, coming to her friend’s defense. “Besides, it’s not like we don’t have sections of Equestria that have a life of their own… or is everypony forgetting about the Everfree that’s right next door.”
“Ain’t nopony forgettin’ about that place Shy. Dash is just sayin’ it’d be weird if everything just seemed ta grow and live on its own… there ain’t no rhyme or reason fer it.” Applejack interjected diplomatically.
“Well… I mean, aside from things like houses and businesses, things tended to grow on their own pretty well.”
Aurora said, looking around at the stunned faces. “I know things are different here, but where I come from, the weather shifts, the seasons change, animals care for themselves, and crops grow without any interference at all… in fact, the only reason I can think of that anyone DID try and change things were because it was just easier to live with… not that it was always necessary…”
“If it ain’t necessary, then why’d y’all do it?” Applejack asked curiously, the only one f the group that wasn’t still trying to process a land ruled solely by natural forces outside their control.
“I… I don’t really know…” Aurora admitted bashfully, the rest of the group holding their breath and waiting for her to continue. “I guess everyone just got used to it and stopped questioning things... but I mean, it wasn’t really ‘home’ for me either… it was more like a place I lived whether I wanted to or not… So I guess in the end, it doesn’t matter if I understood it or not. I’m here now… and it’s nice…”
“Well if you didn’t want to live there dear, why in Equestria did you stay for so long?” Rarity asked, taking a sip from her tea and dispelling the uncomfortable silence that permeated the room. “It certainly doesn’t sound like you enjoyed living there.”
“Well, you know how things are a bit, or rather, a LOT different than they are here?” Aurora said, chuckling to herself and looking around. “Well, one of the big things about living there was that you could move away just about whenever you wanted… but even if you moved to some far off place, you were still stuck in this huge web of things that there was no escape from… not all of it was good either…”
“Well how bad could it have been really?” Twilight asked, “I mean, aside from the whole crazy weather, how bad could it really have been for someone as nice as you to come from there?”
“It’s hard to describe really… I know that here in Equestria, you girls are used to dealing with things like Manticores, a Hydra or two, maybe a power hungry king or a spirit of chaos… but for the most part, Equestria is peaceful right?”
Everypony in the room nodded.
“Well, that’s something of a novelty for me… here, I can go out at night, no matter how late or dark, and I can go by myself and not worry about anything bad happening.” Aurora began, really wracking her brain to describe Earth without giving too much away.
“Well, as long as your cute flank stays away from the bars, yeah.” Rainbow joked, earning her a couple of appreciative giggles and one death glare from a certain orange Earth Pony.
“Well, back where I used to live… there was always this sense of danger…. No matter where you lived, there was always a chance that someone was going to attack you for some reason or another… usually they just wanted money, or maybe something you had… sometimes they just attacked folks for no reason though… and that was just something that everyone accepted as normal… it’s not something I like to talk about with folks here, because you’re all so happy… I don’t want to take that away from you…” Aurora said, looking around at the circle of stunned faces.
“Don’t take this the wrong way Aurora…” Pinkie said, breaking the uneasy quiet in the room, “But that’s the silliest thing I ever heard!”
“But it’s true!” Aurora shot back, “How is living in constant fear, to the point that you don’t even realize you’re afraid, even remotely silly Pinkie?”
“Not that part silly filly, I mean the fact that you’re trying to keep all that bad stuff bottled up!” Pinkie answered, smiling kindly at her friend, the small crowd of mares nodding their heads knowingly, much to Aurora’s confusion.
“………Huh?”
“What Pinkie’s trying to say,” Twilight said, stepping forward, “Is that we’re your friends. And good or bad, friends are there for each other… even if you think you’re doing a good thing by keeping those bad memories to yourself, all you’re doing is keeping all those bad feelings inside where they’ll just grow and hurt you more… if you share those emotions with a friend, and let them know what happened, then you open yourself up to get all the bad emotions out, and you fill the gaps in with the good emotions that friendship provides.”
“She’s right Aurora… I’m scared of a lot of things, but because I talk to others that I care about, and who care about me, I don’t feel so scared… I feel like I have all those ponies standing behind me no matter what, and that means a lot…” Fluttershy interjected, getting nods of approval form the rest of the group.
“Yeah, I mean, I know I’m awesome, obviously.” Dash said, stepping forward to give her two bits, “But every now and then, it’s good to know that if I’m not feeling a hundred and twenty percent awesome, I’ve got friends that can back me up.”
“Even you darling, who clearly didn’t come here from a very harmonious place, are cared about. You have friends in all of us, and just about everypony that you interact with. I’ve yet to hear anypony say a bad thing about you. You needn’t bottle up all those bad feelings and memories just because you’re worried that we’ll reject you, or you’ll scare us off… I’m the Element of Generosity after all, what kind of mare would I be if I wasn’t willing to sit down and talk to my friend about what’s bothering them.”
“And Ah ain’t gonna lie sugarcube, yer real special ta me an’ mah family. So Ah ain’t gonna leave ya out in tha cold if ya got somethin’ buggin’ ya.” Applejack said, walking up and nuzzling the grey Pegasus.
“Oh we all know how much you care about her Applejack.” Pinkie Pie said, winking suggestively, making everypony laugh except for AJ, Dash, and Aurora; all of whom simply sat there blushing and suddenly finding various parts of the kitchen fascinating.
“Well… I mean… if you’re all okay with it… I guess I could talk about my old home…” Aurora said, “Just not yet… There’s still a few more things I need to do before I’m ready to open up about all that.”
“And that’s perfectly fine.” Twilight said, smiling warmly, “Just as long as you remember that we’re always here for you.”
“Agreed. We’re not your friends without reason dear, never forget that.” Rarity seconded, smiling.
“And don’t forget about me.” Dash said, wrapping a wing around her, “After all, someone’s gotta beat off some of those mares when you turn back into a stallion. May as well be me.”
“Ah don’t think Aurora’s gonna have ta worry about that.” Applejack said, glaring at Rainbow Dash with a competitive smirk, “Cuz Ah’ll be there too.”
“Umm… I can’t really beat anypony up… but you can always come talk to me if you need anything…” Fluttershy volunteered.
“OOOH! Don’t forget about me!” Pinkie said bouncing around. “I totally know what it’s like to have mixed feelings about where you come from! Aurora, you have to promise me that when you’re ready to open up, that you let me know so I can throw you an Aurora’s Finally Found A Place To Call Home party!”
Aurora looked around the room at the smiling mares, all of whom had just told her in no uncertain terms that they were there for her no matter what… and she felt a deep sense of joy welling up inside.
“Y-you girls…” she said, smiling even as a couple tears streaked their way down her face, “Heh… I don’t know what I ever did to deserve this… but I don’t care… thank you, everypony…” she said, the group crowding around her for a group hug, Pinkie Pie somehow managing to wrap her forelegs around the entire group.
As the group hugged it out in the kitchen, Applebloom wandered into the room, glaring at them all in that righteously-angry way that is normally mastered only by experienced monks and parents of small children.
“Do any of you have a clue what tahm it is?!” she asked, huffing and stamping a hoof on the ground. “Ah don’t care what kinda sleepover y’all are havin’ yer too loud! Between you girls and that storm, Ah can’t sleep! And Ah got school in the morning’!”
“Heheheh… Sorry Sugarcube, we’ll try and keep it down now, y’all just go on back ta bed ya hear? Ah’ll even let ya sleep in a bit and Ah’ll write a note ta Cheerilee ta tell her why.” Applejack said, trying to appease the young filly.
“Alright then… but Ah don’t wanna have ta come down here again… almost lost it with those guards tellin’ me Ah couldn’t chew out mah own sister in our own house… by the way, AJ, Ah think whatever’s in tha oven is burnin’…” Applebloom said, walking out of the kitchen and glancing backwards nonchalantly.
“Ah Ponyfeathers!” Applejack swore, rushing to the oven and opening the door to reveal a puff of black smoke and a seriously burnt apple pie. “Well…looks lahk we ain’t gonna have any pie in the morning girls…” She said sadly, fanning the smoke away from her face as Rarity pulled the pie out of the oven with her magic and dropped it into the compost bucket near the door leading outside.
“Oh don’t worry about a thing Applejack.” Rarity said sweetly, “Besides, I’m on a bit of a diet, so pie really isn’t something
I’m supposed to eat right now anyway.”
“Well then what the hay was the point of us making the dang thing in tha first place?!” Applejack asked, frustration and lack of sleep finally showing their effects on the Earth Pony.
“Well… it gave us all a chance to talk and hang out… and besides, it was a nice distraction form that storm.” Aurora offered, smiling at AJ.
“Speaking of which, is that still going on?” Pinkie asked, peeking outside just as a bolt of lightning cracked down in the middle of the road outside, scorching the ground and letting out an ear splitting crack of thunder that shook the house to its foundations more so than any wind had ever managed. As the ringing in their ears started to dissipate, everypony became aware of a deep, malicious laugh rolling over the hills from the edge of the forest…
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“Why do you fight when you know that you cannot win?” the dark spirit asked, laughing as it watched Luna twitching on the ground where a lightning bolt had managed to find it’s mark. Even Goddesses have their limits, after all…
With labored breathing and shaking legs, Luna managed to stand up, glaring at the heavens that should have been decorated with her brilliant stars…. Instead of being covered by the sickeningly black clouds that dared besmirch her night…
“How dare you…” Luna said quietly, her magic pushed to the limit just to heal the damage being dealt to her, forget trying to on the offensive. “How dare you threaten my precious subjects, whom I have sworn to protect… Even if I look past the harm you did myself and my sister in the past, these actions alone are inexcusable… No, I may not be able to win, but I’ll see myself in Tartarus before I give up on trying to strike you down…”
“Well then… if that is how you feel, I’ll happily oblige!” the disembodied voice called down, ripping the clouds apart and tossing out a gale force wind that tore limbs from the surrounding trees and tossed them through the air, shredding anything that was unlucky enough to be in its path as it descended from the clouds and assumed it’s corporeal form. The darkness itself fused with the wind and the rain and the very lightning itself, the forces of nature creating a monster that stood towering over the Princess with eyes as black as the dark abyss of the deepest seas.
As the beast came more and more into focus, a part of Luna had to admit to being impressed… for the first time in her many centuries of exploring dreams and nightmares alike, here was a creature of such malice that it transcended any horror ever imagined by Ponykind. It was almost as large as an Ursa Minor, with a serpentine body made of storm clouds tinged an eerie green. Its head snaked upwards like a Hydra’s, with fangs as tall as most Earth Pony stallions, and made of ice from freezing rain. Equally large spines emerged along it’s back in an armor of frigid spikes that could easily impale any that dared to stand up to it. As if the creature weren’t already repugnant, it had fashioned a pair of draconic wings out of lightning that burnt the very air around the monster. Wherever its wings touched the earth, the ground was burnt to a cinder, scarring
the land.
“At last… I will see you destroyed… a pity really, you were such a good host once, long ago… oh well, you’ve far outlived your usefulness…” the horror said, speaking in a low rumble that was almost certainly the thunder itself given form and purpose…
“You say that you were part of me once… but I wonder about that.” Luna said defiantly, her words giving pause to the abomination’s onslaught as it listened, so sure of its victory that it was willing to afford her one last boast.
“If you were truly one with me, then you should know better than to insult me, threaten those I care about, and even worse… giving me a target…” She said, gritting her teeth and lunging at the creature, her horn lighting up with an ancient battle spell, every fiber of her being intent on shredding the creature to pieces and dispelling it to the wind.
“Awwww… so desperate… and so helpless…” the creature said, mocking her as it absorbed the spells and showed no change at all. “But I’m afraid that you bore me now… goodbye.”
She had no time to react, between the shock of seeing her foe absorb some of her most intense and focused magical blasts, and the tail of the creature whipping around in a burst of light and slamming her to the ground… All she could do was brace herself as best she could… Still, it wasn’t enough.
With a sickening crunch, she felt her wings break, the feathers ripped from her limbs limbs by the howling winds making up its tail. Luna found herself struck flat to the ground beneath her hooves, pain like nothing she had ever experienced before overwhelming her as her vision began to grow dark.
“I-I’m sorry everyone…” she choked out weakly, her eyes closing for what was likely the last time. “…I should have tried harder.”
As she lay on the ground in a broken heap, she noticed that the sound of the creature had grown quieter, and even with her eyes closed, things seemed to be brighter…
“Oh…” was all she could say, cracking an eyelid and seeing a field of purplish light in front of her. “So this is what an immortal sees when it ceases to be… It’s simpler than I thought it would be…”
“Well shield spells aren’t exactly known for being elaborate Princess…” a familiar voice said from behind Luna, the surprise actually motivating her to use what energy he had left to turn her head and look back at the source of the sound.
“Twilight Sparkle…” Luna said, stunned. “How… why… what are you doing here?!”
“Teleportation spell and Pinkie Sense, because you’re a Princess and a friend, and I’m here to help.” She answered
curtly, all of her energy focused on the shield standing between the abomination and the two of them.
“I’m afraid that even with your magic prowess, we will soon be overwhelmed.” Luna noted dryly, taking a moment to try and gather any residual magic she could find in the area to replenish her health and heal her wounds. She wouldn’t be doing anything beyond levitation for the next week, but at least Twilight had bought her the time needed to ease her pain. “And by the way, am I correct in assuming that you left the rest of the group behind to come here?”
“Nope, dead wrong Princess.” Twilight responded, “Pinkie’s bringing the rest of them. But she said there was something huge going down over here, and I was the fastest. Luckily, Pinkie was pretty accurate and it looks like I got here just in time.”
“The rest of them? I understand bringing the other Element Bearers, but surely you left Aurora behind…” Luna questioned, finally having gathered enough to begin setting the bones in her wings and standing up long enough to sit back down.
“I wish I could say that Princess… but you should know that Aurora’s not going to just sit back while you’re in danger…” she replied.
“NO! You cannot let her near this creature! It feeds off of any negative emotion, any fears, doubts, regrets… this thing is a fusion of the natural magic that saturates the Everfree Forest and the dark spirit that tempted me so long ago to become Nightmare Moon. You six may stand a chance, but somepony like her would only feed it and be consumed by its hatred and malice…”
“With all due respect Princess,” Twilight said, gritting her teeth with the effort needed to maintain the shield as the creature slammed down onto it in an attempt to break the spell, “You really need to learn to trust others every once in a while…”
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“DODGE!” Pinkie cried out, leaping to the side, the rest of the group following suit in a heartbeat. A split second later, the air was rended by another flash of lightning and a cacophonous clap of thunder.
“RUN!” the pink leader of the group hollered, hauling flank across the road and into the edge of the Everfree Forest, the others trailing behind. If it hadn’t been for her Pinkie Sense, the entire group would have blasted a dozen different ways by flying debris, lightning, and in one instance, an airborne pack of Timberwolves.
“How the hay are we going to be able to help Luna?!” Rainbow shouted, looking to Applejack for counsel, “I mean, if she’s in as much trouble as Pinkie says, then it’s because something happened that could take out a freaking Princess!”
“We simply will have to do whatever we can to save her and possibly all of Equestria… again…” Rarity chimed in, keeping pace with the group surprisingly well.
“But what could possibly have put her in so much danger?” Aurora asked, voicing the nagging doubt in everypony’s mind, “And if you girls don’t have the Elements with you, then how are we going to help?”
“Aurora, I love ya, but that’s just stinkin’ thinkin’. We’ve taken on Discord, Nightmare Moon, and who knows how many other crazy things, and we’re still here and fine. We’re gonna do whatever we gotta ta set everything right, ya hear?” Applejack replied, smiling confidently and hiding her own worry deep beneath a mask of calm.
“QUIT TALKING AND JUMP!” Pinkie shouted from the front, her order immediately obeyed, and just in time. A fog had crept over the ground, and as everyone jumped full force, they managed to make it over a felled tree that had been rolling towards them through the dark. They heard the ear splitting crunch as it shattered against a group of boulders they had just passed, nopony wanting to even try and think about what would have happened if they had been hit by it rather than the rocks…
“Are we almost there?” Rainbow asked, flying up until she was alongside Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah! She’s right over this ridge, I can feel it!” Pinkie answered. “EVERYPONY, WHEN YOU GET OVER THIS HILL, MAKE A HARD RIGHT AND HEAD FOR TWILIGHT!”
“Why a hard right?! It’s not like there’s gonna be any-MOTHERBUCKER!” Aurora asked, shouting over the noise the wind created as they reached the top of the hill and a veritable Leviathan made up of what looked like the very storm raging around them came flying up through the air. As it landed just a yard or so from the group, sending dirt and rocks and rubble flying up as the young mares hauled flank towards the glowing purple dome at the bottom of the valley.
“TOLDJA SO!” Pinkie shouted, giggling despite the circumstances, “NOW LET’S GET IN THAT BUBBLE!”
“Way ahead of you Pinkie!” Dash shouted, zooming forward at full speed, alerting Twilight to the groups presence just in time for her to open a hole in the shield for them to slip in as the monster let out a howl and shot a barrage of debris at the group, whipped up by the cyclone on its tail.
“The hay is that thing?!” Applejack asked, looking through the shield at the abomination in front of them. “And how the hay are ya holding it back with this tiny shield Twi?”
“Long story short, Shining Armor taught me a few tricks. Now we need to come up with something and fast!” Twilight answered seriously, “We’ve got an injured Princess, a pony that doesn’t have an Element to help protect them, and to top it
off, this shield is only going to last another ten minutes at most…”
“Twilight, is there any way that I could put up a barrier to prolong that time?” Rarity asked, “You can leave the shield up with a residual charge, my barrier underneath could actively extend the time, and you could focus on teleporting everypony out of here.”
“That wouldn’t work Rarity. I used up a good chunk of my magic on that long range teleportation, and the rest of it went into making this to keep Luna from being more seriously injured. Besides, from what Luna told me, that thing is after us as well as her… the rest of Equestria is just a bonus… Whatever we do, it’s got to be done here and now.” Twilight explained, bracing herself mentally as the creature shot a wave of icicles at the shield, each one shattering, but leaving minute fractures in the magical bubble that began to repair themselves slower with each successive hit.
“He’s worse than a dragon…” Fluttershy muttered, her fear finally catching up to her and causing her eyes to bug out as she stared at the creature.
“He’s also technically an IT, Fluttershy.” Luna said calmly, still focusing on replenishing her own magic from the surrounding area. “And its not even a real creature… this is just the form that it assumed this time…”
“What are you talking about Luna?” Rainbow asked, hovering in front of her face, “You mean you know what this thing is?!”
“Of course… It’s the same creature that you all rescued me from when you first harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony.” Luna answered, unperturbed at the cerulean mare invading her personal space.
“But I thought that we just helped you remember all the good things that you’d forgotten when you were jealous of Princess Celestia…” Fluttershy said, doing her best not to collapse from terror. “Are you saying that that was inside you the whole time?”
“Indeed… it is a creature that feeds off of the darkest, most poisonous emotions one can feel… Jealousy and anger are just two of what that thing loves. The reason that I became Nightmare Moon is simple, at the time, I was the strongest source of all those empty feelings. In my moment of weakness, I agreed to let it merge it’s magic with my own, but it overpowered me, and it was only by the power of the Elements, and a thousand years in isolation, that I was able to weaken it’s hold enough for the next Bearers to free me completely and hopefully destroy it… unfortunately, it seems that it survived.”
“So what do we do now?!” Rainbow asked, looking around at the rest of the group, each of them just as worried as the next.
“……We beat it.” Aurora said simply, her words catching everyone by surprise. “I know I’m new, and I’m not an Alicorn or an Element Bearer, but Equestria is as much a home to me as I’ve ever known, and I’m not going to let some big bag of wind call the shots… But uh, it would be nice if you all could help…”
Luna was the first to speak up after the grey Pegasus, chuckling softly, “I have to admit Aurora, when I brought you here, I did not think that you would be the one to give ME a pep talk… you are right my student, this creature must be stopped here and now, and with all of us, there is no doubt in my mind that we can defeat it for good!”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! You truly think you can defeat ME?! Oh Luna… poor, naïve, stupid little Luna… You and I both know that none of you stand a chance of destroying me…No, I am a force of nature. I am the darkness that resides in EVERY heart in EVERY land. You cannot defeat me anymore than you can hope to stop the rain from falling, the sun from rising, and the mortals from dying.”
“Oh yeah! Well that shows what you know! I’m a weather Pegasus, and that means the rain and the storms happen when I SAY THEY DO!” Dash said boldly, her nose pressing into the shield, glaring at the malicious creature.
“Then by all means Rainbow Dash, COME OUT AND TAME ME!” it shouted back as loud as thunder, it’s tail swiping in from the side, tearing up the ground beneath the dome and causing the barrier to collapse, the cyclone rending the very air and scattering the group across the valley. The last thing Twilight saw before blacking out from the shock of magical backlash, was her friends tossed around like ragdolls, Luna falling amidst a cluster of jagged rocks and landing with a sickening crunch that could be heard even over the howling wind and the beasts horrible laugh…
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TO BE CONTINUED EVEN MORE……