Chapter 13
64 POV
“Ok… Twilight, first just a simple question, how was your foalhood?” I asked nonchalantly.
Twilight gave me a questionable look, “It was… alright… Why do you need to ask this?”
I couldn’t let her change the subject; this might be the only time I can ever talk to her one-on-one.
“Please just answer the question; the quicker you do the quicker I can leave. Can you give me a better description than just alright?” I said, starting to get a bit nervous.
Twilight looked around for a moment before she finally looked back at me.
“Umm… Well I grew up with my Mom, Dad, Brother, and Foalsitter. I applied to Princess Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns at age 14, and actually have been Princess Celestia’s personal Student for the past 6 years.” Twilight beamed proudly.
It seemed that Twilight was actually very happy with Celestia, and has no knowledge of her “intentions.” I don’t know whether to call them intentions anymore due to the fact that it seems that Celestia either didn’t go through with Project 65, or something simply went wrong and they were waiting for a better moment to go through with anything.
“Well, that sounds very nice, and to be Princess Celestia’s personal student? One can only dream of that.”
“Umm, I couldn’t help but notice you’re still wearing that cloak. You can take it off you know, it’s like 89 degrees in here.”
“Uhh… no, I think I’ll be just fine with my cloak on.” I said, dodging the question, “Anyway, what is your relationship with
Celestia like?”
“Ok, I’m going to be really careful scanning for lies here.” Vi said, focusing on monitoring facial expressions and eye movements on Twilight.
“Umm…” Twilight said, “I… I don’t think I should be answering a question like that…”
“Twilight, please answer the question.”
“I think that’s enough with the personal questions, I would like to ask you to leave now.”
“Twilight, please. I need these questions answered.”
I began to sweat a bit as Twilight went from looking a bit nervous, to a bit suspicious.
“I think maybe I should go then, and I don’t think you should stay. From what I’ve heard there is a celebration for the Clock Tower ringing once again after 20 years.”
Twilight began to walk out the door.
“Twilight!” I yelled, trying to get her attention once again. She simply ignored me. Then I did one of the stupidest things I have ever done in desperation.
I reached out and grabbed her hoof.
Immediately she was shocked at the warm fingered appendage which was grabbing her, and it was enough where it elicited a scream from her, as she grabbed my cloak in a magical grasp, and flung it off me, revealing myself to her.
“Fuck.” I said, as I stood up and she screamed once again and ran out the door, taking my cloak with her.
“Well that could have gone better!” Vi yelled, “64 you have to move now! Get to the Everfree Forest! You need to lay low forever now!”
“Vi, calm down.” I said, “Yes we need to lay low for now, but not forever. Let’s just get back to the Clock Tower, and wait things out.”
“How can you be so calm about this? We need to leave now! Twilight has communications with Princess Celestia, and she could contact her at any time to come back to Ponyville and capture us!”
“Twilight! What… happened……?” The baby dragon yelled, and then whispered as he saw my actual standing stature and the strange item in my hand, Peacemaker.
“Uh… hey there…” I simply said.
Poor guy seemed to be paralyzed in fear, so I decided it would be better if I skedaddled. I made for the front door, and was about to take a mad dash for the Forest line, but I heard a multitude of hoofsteps outside the door.
“HELP! THERE'S A MONSTER IN HERE!” The dragon yelled. I quickly ran over and grabbed him by the mouth, making sure he didn’t yell anymore.
“SHH! I’m not here to hurt anyone! I just need to talk to Twilight!” I said in a hush.
The dragon simply squirmed and struggled trying to call out again, but he didn’t need to. A few seconds later, the door was broken down by the Orange Mare with Blonde Mane, and the other Cyan Rainbow maned Mare which helped defeated Nightmare Moon.
I simply stood there, blank look on my face, and set down the Dragon carefully.
“Umm… I was just leaving…” I said, before slowly backing away, then shooting up the stairs and jumping off of a Balcony.
“COME BACK HERE YA VARMINT!” A voice yelled behind me, sounding like it was quickly catching up to me. At this point I had thrown caution to the wind, and bolted through the main street. Some ponies saw me and immediately cowered in fear, grabbing their children and pulling them close.
I looked around to find an escape route, but couldn’t find any.
“I need to get to high ground, Vi? I need a route!” I thought quickly, looking if there was a suitable alley I could run through.
“Make a left here into the alley, and then wall hop to the roof! You can traverse from rooftop to rooftop from there!” Vi commanded, giving me her Trademark red line.
I quickly did as I was told, and managed to pull myself onto the roof of a home before that Orange mare was able to get to me. I took a few deep breaths before I continued to run, still hearing the mare shout obscenities from below.
“GET’M RAINBOW!” I heard the mare yell. Rainbow? I heard a whoosh coming from behind me, and quickly turned to look. There was the Roy G. Biv of Pegasi coming right at me, and fast.
Time seemed to slow as I turned my head forward and saw the decisions that I had.
I could hop to the next house which was in front of me, but still be a target for Rainbow, I could make a right and hop onto another roof and buy myself a few more seconds, but still be in range for the pegasus to grab me, or I could simply hop down back onto the ground level and hopefully lose my two pursuers.
“Last one sounds best!” I yelled as I slid onto my back right before Rainbow came sailing over me, surprised at my move. I fell down into an alley, and rolled to keep my momentum going forward.
“Vi! You were right! I need to head for the Everfree! That’s the only place those Ponies won’t go! Extraction please!” I thought.
“What have you gotten yourself into 64……?” Vi moaned, before the Red line appeared before me.
I silently thank her before running through more and more alleys, until the Pony I recognized as Rarity blocked my path towards the main road, standing at the exit at the end of the alley. I sped up, and ran onto the wall, using it to go up and around her.
“Get back here you fiend!” She yelled as she too started to chase me.
Back on the main road, I began to pump my body into overdrive, using energy that I didn’t know I naturally had, and run as fast as I could towards the Everfree. I was starting to get away from the main parts of town, now only seeing a shack or two when running.
I started to huff and puff as I felt myself start to slow down, but the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that I had 3 angry mares after me and I was not about to let myself get captured. As I kept running I saw a small cottage off the the side of the road, and behind it was the Everfree Forest.
“F-finally!” I yelled, putting the last of my energy off to turn towards the cottage and run into the Forest. As I was running I caught the sight of at the Yellow Pegasus who also helped defeat Nightmare Moon, she looked frightened at the sight of me, but I couldn’t blame her. I simply continued to run, and eventually broke the Border between the forest and the town.
I looked behind me as I saw the 3 pursuers finally stop chasing me, and simply stared at my retreating figure.
“HA! SERVES YOU RIGHT YOU LITTLE—“
“64 LOOK OUT!”
I turned around quickly, and saw I was about to run off of a cliff. I tried to stop myself, but I had too much forward momentum and failed to stop myself. It resulted in the obvious.
“Ah! Ow! Fuck!” I yelled as I tumbled down. I was getting pretty bad cuts and bumps from the tumble, until I finally stopped when both the back of my head and actual back slammed into a tree, disorienting me and nearly making me vomit.
“Ugh… V-Vi… I…”
That was all I was able to get out before the world started to spin around, and darkness started to fill the air.
“Well that went well…”
Twilight Sparkle POV
“So that is why I request you come to Ponyville to help assist with anything you can. The creature was asking questions about my personal life, and in fact asked of my relationship with you. I await your response, Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Umm… O-ok… is t-that it?” Spike asked me, shaking like a leaf in a storm.
“Oh Spike, did that thing scare you that bad?” I asked him, seeing his scared face and dried tears on his face.
“W-what? I’m not s-scared of that thing. I just h-have bad allergies…” Spike stuttered, still shivering from the recent experience. Apparently Spike had a small encounter with that thing, and was still scared from when the thing put his… hoof, if you can call it that, over Spike’s mouth to try and stop him from yelling for help.
I heard the door open, and saw Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack walk into the Library.
“Seems that darn varmint got away by runnin’ into the Everfree Forest. He ran in through the entrance by Fluttershy’s house, and that’s the last time we saw him.” Applejack said, looking over at Spike.
“That miscreant was apparently seen before too! In Town Hall when that dreadful fire started! Ponies are starting to say he did it, but others say he ran towards the fire when it started to burn.” Rarity said, now taking Spike and cradling him in her hooves.
“He was fast too! Faster than anything I’ve seen run before!” Rainbow yelled, only caring about her speed.
“Well I just wrote a letter to go to Princess Celestia, telling her about the recent event. But I don’t want to put anymore unnecessary stress on Spike right now."
“What did he say to you that got ya so worked over Sugarcube?”
“He… just p-put his… hands… kind of like mine… over m-my mouth and told me n-not to yell, t-that he only wanted t-to talk to T-Twilight…” Spike said, clutching to Rarity as if she was a life support.
All eyes turned on me as I also looked up in surprise. Spike didn’t tell me that last part, and it piqued my curiosity.
“He wanted to keep talking to me?” I asked, putting a hoof to my chest.
“Y-yeah, he d-didn’t say w-why though…”
“Why would something so monstrous ever want to talk to you Twilight?” Rarity asked me.
“I’m not sure… but he was asking some pretty sketchy questions, stuff about my foalhood and Princess Celestia. I tried to kick him out but when he refused I was going to leave myself, but he grabbed my with his… hooves… and I got scared. I managed to get this off of him though.”
I grabbed the strange piece of clothing off of one of the chairs, and showed it to everypony.
“He managed to disguise himself as a Pony by draping this over himself, and crouching onto all fours. As you probably saw he stood on two legs, and was very tall compared to us. He also had this… strange thing with him. It looked like a metal bar, maybe some sort of pipe he picked up to use as a weapon just in case.”
“Well, it seems that whatever that thing was won’t be coming back anytime soon, we chased his behind right out of Ponyville!” Rainbow said cockily.
“Ah wouldn’t be so sure ‘bout that RD, whatever that thing was it looked pretty determined to get a word here with Twilight, and ah don’t think he would give up so easily.” Applejack said, making a valid point.
“Well I think was should wait a day or two for Spike to feel a bit better before I send this, but in the meantime, ask around about that creature. I think a few ponies might know a thing or two…” I said, wondering if anypony would actually want to know about that thing.
64 POV
Head splitting pain was all I felt.
Every time my heart beat it sent another wave of pain through my head, and my heart beat was pretty fast.
“Vi….” I groaned, although it sounded more like “Vaa….”
I tried to get up, but I couldn’t move most of my body due the fact that I endured a heavy impact like that. All I had was feeling in my hands, which were to my sides as I was lying down.
Wait.
Lying down? Last thing I remembered was being propped up on a tree, but now I was lying on my back. If I were to be toppled over I would be on my side, not my back.
I had some feeling back in my arms, and moved them a bit. First thing I noticed was my black long-sleeved shirt was off, and I had a bandage wrapped around my left shoulder and part of my arm. I was also lying on a bed of some sort, if the soft cushion my back was on was any indication.
“H-Hello?” I heard a meek voice whisper.
I still couldn’t open my eyes or talk very much, so all I did was groan to tell the voice that I heard her.
“Oh! You’re waking up!” The voice said, still sounding quiet but slightly more chipper.
At last I was finally able to open my eyes, and saw the environment I was in. I was inside someone’s room, on a bed which was a bit too small for me, because my feet were slightly hanging off. I saw movement in the door way, and saw the same mare I saw when I ran into the Everfree Forest.
“Oh, hello Mr. Creature, My name is Fluttershy. I saw you run into the Everfree Forest, and you looked scared of my friends who were chasing you. I followed you to talk to you, but when I went to go look, I saw that you were hurt at the bottom of a cliff, and went to get some of my friends to help me get you out.” She said, sounding much more confident than she did a few seconds ago.
“H-hello……” I groaned, voice still sounding dry and raspy.
“Oh my goodness! You can talk! That’s amazing!”
“Y-yes… I can talk… But can I get water or something? I can barely swallow…”
Fluttershy had a look of shock on her face from that statement, and ran out of the room to get me water.
I looked at my bare chest, and saw various scars and markings from my time in the Underground Labs. The scars reminded me of a very important matter.
“Vi!” I rasped, looking around the room to see if she was placed on drawer or something. I didn’t see her anywhere, and I started to panic. It was at this point Fluttershy returned to the room with a glass of water.
I quickly took the glass, startling her, and drank it as quick as I could. I cleared my throat, and took a deep breath.
“Thank you Fluttershy, now if you could please tell me, where is that Metal bar that I had with me when you found me unconscious?” I asked quickly, scaring Fluttershy a bit.
“Umm… I have it in my Shed right now… but… let me go get it. I don’t think you should go inside my Shed for now…” Fluttershy said, “Would you like me to go get it for you?”
“Yes please. I think I can get up right now.”
I swung my legs over the bed, and managed to stand myself up. Fluttershy tried to urge me to lie back down, but I assured her I could walk.
I walked with Fluttershy all the way to the living room of her cottage, and saw her amazing amount of animals she had. I opened my mouth in amazement, and Fluttershy looked at me, before yelping a bit before cowering into her own mane.
“Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” I asked, wondering if I did something to scare her.
“Y-your teeth…” She whispered, “T-they’re Omnivore teeth…”
I nodded in agreement. I saw how that could have been a problem with all of these little animals running around.
“Oh… well… I can promise you that I won’t eat any of your pets here ok?”
She looked up at me before she whispered, “R-really?”
“I promise.”
“Well… ok, let’s go get your metal bar now.” She said opening the door.
I went to go behind a hallway in the house before someone saw me from the outside.
“Actually, I can jut wait here. You go ahead and take your time.” I said with a nervous smile.
“Oh, ok. It’ll just be a moment.” She said before she walked out of the door and closed it.
I slid down the wall to the floor and took a very deep breath.
Oh man, if I had Vi she would say something like, “Well it looks like you need to learn to work well with others.”