//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 // Story: 64 vs. Equestria // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 22 64 POV I saw both messages come into the realm of unconsciousness. First Vi’s message came through first, telling me the obvious. I had spent about 40 minutes walking through the now destroyed Underground Transit before the explosives went off. After that I ran the entire other usual 9 hour travel in about 20 minutes, so the time thing was pretty obvious, I just wished it didn’t hurt so goddamn much to expel that much energy. I mean, I remember the day of the Summer Sun Celebration where I ran the usual 3 hour journey from Canterlot to Manehatten in under a minute, and that pain was bad, so a 9 hour journey in 20 minutes? Unfuckingbearable. Secondly there was Princess Luna’s message. I was wondering if she actually visited me in my “dream”, or if that was my mind just trying to cope with the massive amount of pain ripping my psyche apart. Apparently it was real, because I received a message from her saying that she had placed a slow healing spell on my legs, and she had got me inside of Twilight Sparkle’s house. By the time I would wake up, it would be about 8 PM, so I hopefully was able to wake up when Twilight Sparkle was at home, preparing for bed. If I needed to hold her down in order to get the questions I need answers to then dammit I will do it. Things needed to change around here; I was starting to get tired of running, tired of watching my back, tired of wondering if something was going to change in this miserable excuse for a life. I wanted to travel, but not with Celestia’s eyes trying to find me every other minute. I know for a fact there had to be somepony who saw me in Dodge Junction and ratted me out to some Guards, no bandit excelled in enough magic to pull off a complicated spell like that. Now I had to stay away from Dodge Junction, somepony knew I was there now, so they could easily rat out the entire city. I had 2 choice questions which needed answering. 1, Celestia. Do you know what she had been doing for the last 1000 years in Canterlot? She’s been using her so called students for her Projects, siphoning their magic out and putting them into a device. The device I had in my possession which had the power to show anypony I wanted enough direct proof to change their mind for good. Did Twilight know anything? What lies had they fed to her over the years, and who told her about them? I bet my left foot it was Knight, the bastard would stop at nothing to get inside everyponies mind and twist them from the inside out. 2, did Celestia ever try and do anything to Twilight? I mean, did it ever seem like Celestia ever had wanted to continue the Underground Testing? I’m not even sure if the testing ever stopped, there could be Project 124 for all I knew at this point, so did Celestia try and continue the testing? Even if she knew nothing, I would show her all of the things her “precious teacher” really was. What had been done to me, what I had to go through in all my years of running. I floated through the nothingness, still feeling the fatigue of the long run. I’ve only been in this place about twice before, once when I was being crushed by a fallen rock and needed to use Vi’s magic to get it off me, and another time when I was actually impaled a Guard’s Spear and also used Magic to repair the lethal damage to my body. This place actually sucked more than somepony would think. It was cold, you couldn’t tell time, and you never knew what was going on outside in the real world, unless you had someone like Vi, or an Alicorn Princess giving you updates. It seemed like I closed my eyes for a second, and when I reopened them, I felt the pain in my legs disappear. So that means…. About 7 hours had passed? See? I can’t stand when I can’t tell what time it is, it makes me feel as if I’m not in control of my situation. I’m a major control freak when it comes to taking care of business, and right now another hour could be flying by and I wouldn’t be able to tell. I only prayed my time in this personal hell of mine was going to end soon, and hopefully as me as the victor. Knight POV The plan was set. The breakthrough with Cherry Jubilee in Dodge Junction was a goldmine. His Underground passages were now obliterated, but I knew better than to think 64 was killed in something as simple as that. He was too crafty, he moved to quick to be simply crushed to death, and I wasn’t going to believe he was dead until I saw a body. Cherry Jubilee informed my guards that 64 often returned to Dodge Junction after a major event happened, the latest being our encounter in the Whitefire Woods, to recover. She had told me his newest objective was to get to Ponyville, but for what she didn’t know. My only guess was that he thought I was still in Ponyville, and he was coming to finish me off. Either that or we was going to try and get more information from Twilight Sparkle. I wasn’t in Ponyville, but I had a Scout Bird spell which could tell me what was going on. It was 9PM already, and the plan was to be initiated at about 9:30PM. A little bit of overkill was in order, but it was necessary for what needed to happen. It would all lead up to 64’s capture, and hopefully, the “death” of Twilight Sparkle. “Sir, we have report that you requested a Chariot at this time. Would you like an escort sir?” A Royal Unicorn Guard asked me. I in fact did request a Chariot, but that was for something else. “No, In fact, go ahead and send the Chariot to Ponyville, without anyone on board.” I said, gaining a strange look from the Guard. I glowered at him, “Did I stutter?!” “N-No sir! I will put through your request!” The Guard said before running off. The Chariot contained what the plan needed to succeed, about 20 Pounds of Magical Explosives, which were going to be used to completely and utterly decimate the Clock Tower. I had sent fake notices to the Mayor of Ponyville about an appearance by the Royal Princesses to christen the newly “repaired” Clock Tower, so there was to be a gathering at the Clock Tower at 9:30PM. This Chariot was set to be parked directly behind the Tower, and will explode shortly after Twilight Sparkle gives an introduction from the top of the structure. With the magical augmentation of the blast, Twilight would be protected from being crushed to death, but would be put into a comatose state due to the magical shock wave. I would report her dead, then secretly teleport her to the Underground Labs, where I would keep her captive until I can successfully rebuild a magical Absorbing Apparatus. Project 64 though…… He would definitely be there, why wouldn’t he be? He was traveling to Ponyville when we destroyed his Underground Tunnels, so that’s the most logical area we would be in. I had no idea what 64 would do when he saw the commotion, but it would definitely be something drastic. The second my Scout bird tells me 64 had revealed himself, I would alert Celestia, telling her that 64 had just set explosives off in the Ponyville Clock Tower, killing Twilight Sparkle. Celestia no doubt would immediately go and investigate in a rage, giving me time to teleport Twilight Sparkle here. The plan was slightly flawed, but I wouldn’t have a more perfect time to get both Twilight Sparkle and Project 64 captured. The bell struck 9:15PM. “Soon Project 64. Soon you will be in my grasp once again…” 64 POV I felt a tingling sensation in my legs start to form, slowly from my hips down to the tips of my toes. At first it was a tingle, then a horrible burning coursing through my legs. Worst part, I was conscious, but I couldn’t move! It’s like I was being held down, but I wasn’t able to struggle. The burning spread throughout my body, like a million fire ants biting at me. And suddenly, it all stopped, like going from boiling hot to shivering cold. I could finally move my arms, and pushed out of the shroud that surrounded my body. It was freezing down here, so I needed to get out of this basement as soon as possible. “Vi, I’m awake. It’s about 8:20 right now right?” I asked, pulling Peacemaker out of my waistband. “Wrong, it’s about 9:20. You were asleep longer than expected. I can’t sense Twilight Sparkle in the house, only her dragon pet.” Vi said, making me frustrated that I had slept longer than I hoped. I rushed up the stairs and slowly opened the door. I looked around and saw that Dragon sleeping in a small basket bed. Where could Twilight have gone? I needed to start searching for anything that could tell me where she went. Starting with her bedroom, I searched the drawers. They were a multitude of notes, scrolls, and quills, but no sign of where she could have gone. Her bed had a small indentation in it though, telling me she was here a short while ago. I decided to continue to the kitchen, making sure that I didn’t wake up that dragon. When I entered, I saw that there was a small paper on the sink counter with a bunch of scrabbling on it. It read, “9:30PM/The Top of the Clock Tower for Announcement, 9:40-12PM/ Celebrations, 12-1AM Clean Up.” I looked at my Watch, 9:27PM. “Shit, Vi we need to get to the Clock Tower, Twilight is there right now. There’s some type of announcement going on, so we gotta stick around to get Twilight alone afterwards.” I said, picking up the paper and stuffing it in my Satchel. “Ok, since you can’t use your Cloak here anymore, you’ll need a rooftop path. Luckily some of these buildings are fairly tall, so you’ll have plenty of breathing room from the Unicorns and Earth Ponies, but you’ll have to watch your head for any Pegasi.” Vi said, giving me a Locator line towards the Celebration. I ran out the door towards the Clock Tower, and then climbed up the side of a two story building to safely move through Ponyville without being seen. Even from here I could see there was some sort of gathering near the Clock Tower, but I couldn’t see anything specific. Stopping to see where my next building jump should be, I heard that sound again. Snoring. I looked down into the alley, but couldn’t see anypony down there. There were a few cardboard boxes, but nothing I could make out. “64? You were going somewhere?” Vi said, getting me back on track. I shook my head and jumped across the alley. After crossing the final building I saw that there was no cover for me to use if I wanted to get any closer. I crouched on the edge of the last building and grabbed my Satchel. I fished the Scope out of it, and focused it towards the Clock Tower. I saw that there were a crowd of Ponies around the Tower, awaiting for whatever announcement was going to be made. I looked at my watch once again, 9:30. Showtime. Whatever was so important was going to be made clear. Twilight Sparkle walked out onto the Bell platform with a stack of papers in a magical grasp, obviously assigned to be the keynote speaker of whatever the announcement was going to be. She spoke, but I couldn’t hear the words she was saying. “Vi, I need an Audio Tracker to see what she’s going to say, I’m not sure if she has any type of amplification on her voice” I said. I saw Vi’s HUD coming up, and I could clearly hear what she was saying. I focused on the words she was going to say, but I didn’t need to for long. An explosion went off, knocking everypony off of their hooves. I looked in shock as the Clock Tower was coming down from the blast, sending Twilight into the destruction. "Holy Shit! I gotta get down there Vi!" I yelled, jumping down the side of the building I was on and rolling once I hit the ground. I rushed forward, not caring who was seeing me at this point. I saw the frightened faces of ponies that recognized me, but I wasn’t caring about them, I was caring about the mare which was now trapped underneath the ton of rubble that had the only solid information I needed about Celestia. I saw the Rainbow Mare and Orange Cow Mare trying to get the rubble off of Twilight, but I knew they wouldn’t be strong enough. So I pushed them out of the way, and they instantly recognized me. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! We’re trying to save our friend!” The Rainbow mare yelled in my ear. “SHUT UP! JUST LET ME DO THIS!” I yelled back, scaring her. I pulled out Peacemaker, and made a Crowbar. I started to lift pieces off one by one as I desperately tried to clear the rubble. Everyone was so shocked that “the monster” they saw a week ago was actually trying to help save the resident celebrity, but they were also shocked enough to where they wouldn’t move. I saw a tinge of Purple behind the rubble and worked faster and faster to get Twilight out of there. When I pulled a bigger part of rubble I saw that Twilight was unconscious, but was relatively unharmed. I grabbed her body and pulled her out, and immediately called Vi for a vital scan. “Vi! I need a reading on her Heart rate, and any other vital information!” I yelled while feeling for a pulse. “She has no fatal injuries, but she is in a comatose state. Its magically induced, which will kill her if she’s not taken out of it soon.” Vi said, giving me readings in a HUD. “Ok, we need to get rid of the Magical blockage which is keeping her unconscious. Follow the instructions I’m giving you!” I saw the instructions came up in the HUD, and the first was to place the Peacemaker onto her chest. I did so, and followed the instructions to inject small bursts of magic through Twilight’s body. “What in the hay are ya doin’ to Twilight!?” The orange Mare yelled, attempting to pull me off Twilight. I shoved her off of me. “SHUT UP AND LET ME SAVE HER!” I yelled in her face. I continued to shoot small bursts f magic into her heart, and so her brain waves become more and more active, showing she was slowly coming out of unconsciousness. All of a sudden it felt hot. Sweltering heat permeated through the air. I looked up and saw a small ball of light lighting up the sky. It looked far away, but it was coming closer. I looked down at Twilight, and saw her eyes slowly flutter open, but she also felt the sweltering heat, and looked at me in shock, before looking at the strange anomaly flying through the air. It was getting closer, and the heat was getting hotter. The sun was down, so it made no sense why it was now getting hotter. The fire ball flew closer and closer, heading directly towards us. “RUN! EVERYPONY RUN!” I yelled, picking up Twilight in her dazed state and running from the hill. Once we got a safe distance from the hill, I turned and saw that the fireball was now about to hit the ground. I set Twilight down, who was still in shock and had to lie down on the floor, and pulled out Peacemaker to make my favorite Katana, and then stood over Twilight. The fireball finally hit the ground, destroying the hill we just stood on, still radiating an incredible heat and shaking the earth below us. I kept my balance, and fought through the heat to stand my ground. The flames were still burning from the fireball, now burning within the pit which bore itself into the hill. A figure was burning within the flames, and I was scared that somepony didn’t run away in time. But I became startled when it slowly started to advance towards us, being silhouetted by the burning flames. The figure became taller, still advancing towards me. The crowd surrounding us had enough and ran back to their homes, locking the doors and shutting their windows. As the figure came closer, I saw that its hoofsteps were burning the ground it walked on, and plants which were near it were burning, not even making contact with it. The only ponies still in the crowd were the group of friends which helped Twilight defeat Nightmare Moon and Twilight herself, who was still lying on the ground in shock. The figure became clearer as it walked forward, as it passed a water puddle on the ground, making it burst in flames. I stared wide eyed, realizing what was going on. Finally, as the flames simmered down, we saw who was standing across from us, with a face which could make me burst into flames if the fire didn’t first. Her now blackened, charred wings spread for intimidation, and her mane was burning hotter than the sun in the middle of July. Standing before us, was Princess Celestia, in an anger which made me see my own death happen over and over in my head. But she was no longer Princess Celestia. Standing before us, was Super Nova.