Friendship is Magic Ch 7: The Search
By Rlogic1994
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)
Twilight walked softly towards a slate grey tent, light spilling from its edges. She took a breath to calm herself and went inside, followed by a cyan pegasus and an orange earth pony who had fallen in step with her unnoticeably. It was blindingly bright inside, a blazing smokeless fire placed in the center of a group of a few ponies who were arguing with the general. The second the trio entered the tent, the seemingly heated discussion went cold fast and the group dispersed. In a few moments the only ponies in the tent were Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, the general, and a few guards.
“Yes?” he asked, visibly annoyed by the intrusion.
“Well I-we were wondering…sir, when you were going to send out a search party for the Alpha pegasus squad.”
“Search? After that haystorm? It would be a waste of time! By now their bodies have washed up on the shore of some river. We just have to move past it and try to take back the land we lost,” he replied, not even phased by the possible death of 3 special recruits.
“Waste of time? Permission to speak freely, sir!” the flustered Rainbow pegasus almost yelled.
“…Permission granted…” replied the enormous pegasus, unperturbed by the outright anger from the cyan pony.
“Waste of time?! How is searching for 3 pegasi who I spent months training specially a waste of time?! And not only that but they are almost kids! If they’re alive, you basically just decided to leave them for dead! And what’s more I don’t doubt that their alive because one, Aurora was wearing the strongest armor they make, two, Scootaloo is a real tough cookie, and three, Frigid has better stamina than most experienced soldiers here,” she burst out, walking a dangerous path with her argument, “I would expect that as her father you would want her to be alive! I mean do you even lo-”
“Too far Rainbow,” thought Twilight, bracing herself for what was to come.
“ENOUGH,” he bellowed, shaking the tent with his bombarding voice, “Enough. You dare question my feelings for my only child? A child who I have wished to take after me and join the armed forces for years? A child who finally did it? Love her? I ALWAYS LOVED HER YOU BUCKING IDIOT! I always loved her and just hoped that one day she would respect me for what I did. I know I left them, but I had to support my family! Celestia be damned, I was so proud of her that she finally got the guts to follow through. You feel bad about her being out there? How the buck do you think I feel?! I know I should go after her myself, but we just don’t have the damn time or numbers to spare on it.”
Applejack nudged Twilight, who turned to what the orange mare was pointing at. Visible at the entrance to the tent, there were a huddling group of young mares and stallions all fearing for their lives. Applejack trotted up to them and ushered them in. It pertained to them too.
“Look, ah know that you maght not like it, but losin two members a’ the squad who know a lot about this camp will be worth savin. If we don’t, somepony, or moreover, somegriffin maght get to ‘em first,” said Applejack calmly, trying to calm everyone down as she always had in tense situations.
“I know but what evidence do we have of them being alive?” he inquired, still annoyed.
“I think I can help in that matter, my dear gargantuan friend,” said a low voice behind them.
At the entrance stood a stallion who at first was almost invisible against the light background of the tent and the mist outside. What unnerved everyone wasn’t just that he did not even blink, staring distantly towards the general, but that he looked the part of death itself. He had a snowy coat, a colorless mane, and even ghastly light gray irises, barely distinguishable from the whites of his eyes. He carried himself as if he was tired and had lived for far too long, but at the same time had a liveliness about him that contradicted his weariness. He looked frail, as if his body weight would be enough to break his legs, but he trotted forward freely with ease. His unicorn horn was longer than most and the end was a broken stub. His gaunt face made him look as though his head was a skull, stressing his “deathly” look.
“What the buck do you think you are doing here you son of a-” he started, only to be cut off by his own rage.
“Well by ‘what’ do you mean in what condition do I exist or for what purpose am I present in this little outpost?” the white unicorn answered relaxingly.
“Small outpost?! Why this is one of the-” he yelled, cut off again not by his anger but by the unicorn.
“Yes it is small. But only when compared to what I’ve seen, which is much more than you could possibly imagine with that limited intellect you so highly value,” he replied again nonchalantly insulting the general.
“THAT’S IT,” declared the enraged pegasus.
He dove with suck frightening speed toward the unicorn that he not only upturned two desks but sent a blast of wind outwards from his vigorously beating wings. His hand was outstretched in his famous “touch of death”, which was basically an unstoppable punch with his iron appendages. Everyone looked away, expecting a sickening crunch or a scream, but neither was heard. When the cloud of dust created by the collision subsided, an extremely surprising outcome presented itself. The general had his fist forward in a punching formation, but his entire arm was locked in a field of white glowing energy. At the end of his hoof was the unicorn’s own hoof up against the general’s, as if to block it. The look on the general’s face was still one of anger, but a look mingled with the signs of fear. The worst part was that the unicorn’s horn was not even glowing brightly, the feat he had just accomplished taking a fraction of the energy it should have.
“DO NOT FORGET YOUR PLACE, WIND,” the unicorn uttered, his voice seeming to boom from every direction, dimming the flame in the center to a flicker of blue, “You seem to have forgotten what and who I am. Moreover you have forgotten what I can do.”
“My place? You left us there! You didn’t even give any damn help!”
“Did I not warn you I cannot intervene in events of which I already have previous knowledge? They absolutely must play out the way that fate deals the cards!”
“…So you’re a…Praetorian, a keeper of the balance with the ability of foresight? Dear Celestia I thought you were just myths…” blurted Twilight.
“Well we might as well be. I am one of the last of my kind. Our race was stricken with an inescapable illness some time ago. We were weakened. The ignorance and hate of that which is different which the ponies of that age wielded so aptly did the rest. I am lucky for who I was at the time. It was only my identity that saved me…”
“Yes yes, we all know you’re special. Now what were you saying about finding those two kids?” asked the now only annoyed Icy Wind.
“Well because of my…ahem…abilities, I think I can find the general area they will be in, the key word being ‘will’. I can only use my foresight to see what will happen. What is happening now to them is unknown to me. But I do know they are alive. Because when I heard of what happened, I looked into the timestream and saw that two pegasi survived, one orange and one white. The third did not make it.”
“Aurora…died?” asked a teary eyed blue earth pony stallion.
“Yes I am afraid so. Although by the look of it, it was voluntary. She sacrificed herself for something or, more likely, someone.”
“So…what? We just follow you where you lead us and hope you’re not wrong? How can we trust you?” asked the rainbow maned mare.
“Truthfully you can’t. You want a character reference? Well anyone who really knew me is dead, so that may pose a problem. But if you want to save your friends you will follow me, because I’m your only chance. And plus, even if I wanted to do something to you or for you, I cannot intervene with the timestream, the flow of events in this world. It is the first rule of the praetorians,” he explained, “If you are meant to get hurt, I cannot do anything to stop or accelerate its occurrence. Well, I can, but in doing so, I will have created a new universe to replace this one in which possibilities and events will deviate from original course by an almost exponential rate as time goes on. In result, if I help where I’m not supposed to, instead of another 1000 years of peaceful rule under Celestia and Luna, we’ll have the fall of the entire Equestrian government and a 1000 years of war.”
“Okay say that again and start at ‘and plus’…” asked a very confused cyan pegasus.
“So ya can see inta tha future? That’s pretty nifty,” remarked an accepting orange earth pony.
“WOW! The timestream is only something I’ve read in research studies. It’s one of the most sought for concepts in all the magical world,” said a very excited purple unicorn.
“Alright then, it seems that we have an arrangement. Anyone who wants to come on this venture, meet me at the edge of this camp at 0500 hours. You have a few more hours to rest and I advise you to do so, because we will be travelling at one pace: mine. I must retire to my resting place as well, so I bid you a good night,” the white unicorn said quickly, turning to leave.
“Wait! You didn’t tell us your name,” inquired Twilight.
“I have been known by more names than I care to remember. But you may call me Nero,” he answered.
“Where do you think you’re going anyway? I will not allow any soldier to give you a tent,” said the general grumpily.
“Oh I just need to find a spot to knock on the sky and listen to the noises…” he trailed off, a mysterious smile on his face as he left the tent.
“That guy was really weird,” observed one of the unicorn, voicing everybody’s impression of the strange visitor.
After a few moments of trying to digest what had just happened and failing, the group scattered and returned to their tents, trying desperately to go to sleep. Rainbow Dash stumbled into her tent tiredly and collapsed onto her rickety bed. She rolled into a comfortable position before entering into a very vivid dream.
She was standing…no…she was flying with her wings. “Hmm I like flying” she said loudly. She swooped around before landing on the ground which was made from some shiny looking crystal. When her hoofs touched it, she felt the chill of ice. Something was inside the ice. She bent down to see what it was…a pony. It was 3 ponies, 3 pegasi. “She’s so pretty. Why can’t I see her face…?” Dash asked childishly. Then the 3 face-down pegasi slowly turned face up, revealing to Rainbow the mangled bodies of Aurora, Frigid, and Scootaloo. “NO! Get away from me! It wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t my fault!” she yelled at the approaching ghastly figures. She tried to run, she tried to run as fast as possible, but her legs were dragged down by invisible hands and her wings would not move at all. She could feel a cold breath down her neck. “Aaaah! What are you doing! I tried to help! I was stuck! They-they ambushed us! Please don’t hurt me…” she whimpered.
When the 3 figures’ faces were inches away from her, they started whispering in cruel voices. “Because of you, we are now hurt and dead. Because of your reluctance to see the flaws in things that you have made, we lay here awaiting death, one of us already taken by it. You let us die. You had a chance to save us…you know you did. But for some reason you did not take it. Why did you not take it? Why did you not save us!?” they hissed in unison. Then other soldiers who had died under her command and in her missions started crawling out of the ice. They clawed at her with their pale hoofs. “Please!” sobbed Rainbow Dash, in a rare show of emotion, “Stop! I never wanted to hurt you! Please! PLEAS-”
She awoke suddenly, sitting up in bed with a jolt and smashing into a very concerned looking Applejack.
“Are ya alright, sugarcube? Ya had me mighty worried with all that yellin,” asked the farm pony, her drained eyes trying to find the problem.
“Yeah I’m fine. Just a bad dream is all…”she replied, her eyes devoid of any of her usual determination.
“Who was it this time?”
“…everyone…”
“Ya can’t keep blamin yerself Rainbow. These things happ’n an’ we can’t stop ‘em. You just gotta accept it an’ move on. Like my old grand pap used to say ‘No point in cryin over spilled cider.’”
Applejack shuffled out of the tent, eying her friend one last time before disappearing into her own sleeping quarters. “This is gonna be one hell of a trip…” thought Dash. It was near dawn and she needed to prepare, so she went about her usual protocols for a mission like this; she polished her armor, cleaned her guns, and sharpened her knifes. She did everything to prepare except one thing, something that every pony else was doing at this point before the ordeal before them.
They each had their own thing; some paced back and forth in their tents, some simply sat on their beds with a frightened look on their face, and some, like Twilight Sparkle, were checking and rechecking that they had everything packed in their saddle bags. At around ten minutes before five, they all gathered at the edge of the camp near the entrance. There was only the soft rumble of a breeze running through the cave and the dead silence of the camp to console their anxiety. Then distinct hoofsteps were heard and the white unicorn emerged from the mist. He did not have armor on or even a saddle bag, but simple had a mystic wooden cane slung over his shoulder.
“Well, as it seems all who wish to embark are present, I think we should begin our journey right now. I only have three rules: follow me, don’t ask stupid questions, if you must ask any at all, and don’t die. That last one is quite important as if you do, it may have a chance of altering the course of things and I wish to see what happens at the end of this, so please refrain from ruining a good ending by dying on me.”
“Start right now? No instructions or mission or anything?” asked a puzzled pegasus.
“Well I gave you my rules and you already have your mission. I am your guide and no more than that. As I have explained before I cannot intervene if someone attacks unless I am meant too, so don’t expect me to jump in if you are attacked which I know we will be.”
“Ah’m guessin that’s part a the whole foresight mumbo jumbo? Well that’s fine with me, I think Kicks McGee has been wantin some action recently.”
“Alright then let me lead you out of this dismal outpost and towards the future.”
And with that they were off. They crossed over the magical protection threshold of the base and made their way to the wilderness beyond. They were all tense, but soon, with the calm surroundings, some of the young recruits chattered among themselves. The unicorn and the 3 war mares trotted along silently, brooding on what was to come. Twilight looked up and noticed something strange.
“Um…Mr.Nero? You don’t have a Cutie Mark.”
“Your observatory skills amaze me. I did not notice that before…” he replied grumpily, mumbling about stupid questions, “But if you must know, Praetorians never get their Cutie Marks because we have something else. It is something that I hope you do not see.”
“Why?”
“…Because it is only visibly when we take a certain form that is quite…formidable.”
“Oh…”
The awkward silence lasted for a few minutes and soon the other ponies stopped chattering and were looking around at their surroundings. They were all wondering why they were not using an airship, but decided not to inquire an answer by one look at the unicorn’s grumpy face. They were flanked left and right by tall pines sprinkled with fresh snow. They were following the Windigo River, visible through the impending tree line as a plane of white rapids. They were going upstream though, as one of the earth ponies had noticed things floating the opposite way of their direction.
“Look! There’s something in the water over there caught on that branch!” the blue earth pony shouted.
Almost instantaneously a white aura surrounded it and dragged a sopping shapeless cloth bag. The strap was broken, the other bag lost, but the blue crystal shaped clasp and grayish color were enough to identify it as one of Frigid’s saddlebags. They all huddled up against each other to see what was left of the contents of the bag. There was nothing except a soggy blanket and some unused medical supplies, disappointing the grim expectation of something much worse, say, bones. Suddenly the white unicorn was nowhere to be found. He was not behind them down the slope they had been climbing and he wasn’t behind any of the trees either; the vegetation was too dense to just walk through. After a panicky rush to find where he was, they spotted him several hundred meters ahead already at the top of the next ridge.
“WAIT UP! WE’RE STILL COMING!” Rainbow yelled at the persistent unicorn.
“If you think I am going to stop, then you are poorly informed. As I said in the beginning, there will be one pace: mine,” he said normally, his voice magically coming out of the air in front of them.
When they had finally caught up to him, a few of the ponies gave him a bit of attitude about his one pace idea. He calmly disregarded that they were in existence next to him let alone speaking and did not even hint to budging on his rule. The situation once again returned to the awkward silence that had dominated the trip so far. Rainbow Dash, being the least interested in silence, took off into the air lazily. She was about to do a couple tricks and just fly around. But suddenly, her movements were restricted as if the air around her had turned to thick syrup. Her wings became harder to beat and then she was not able to beat them at all. She was strictly held in the air by some oppressive force, which presented itself in a thin white outline around her body.
“Get me down from here!”
“But I was under the impression that was where you wanted to be. Oh silly me! Well if you want to stay up there, I can make it so you don’t have to do a thing. Just lay there and don’t get us into trouble by giving away our position with your extravagant mane in the light sky!”
“Damnit just let me down. I won’t fly above the trees again…”
At those words the force vanished and Rainbow fell into a pile of ruffled feathers. She got up, shaking and glaring at the unicorn, who once again paid no attention to the emotions displayed at him. She was about to pounce on him with her usual anger invoked brashness, but Applejack caught her rainbow tail in her mouth before she was even close to the white unicorn, who watched the scene unfold with an amused look.
“Hold yer horses there, RD, he could stop ya mid air an’ throw ya back like an apple core inta a trash can.”
“Fine, I won’t do anything, but don’t expect me to be nice,” replied the frustrated pegasus, arms crossed.
“I do not care if you are nice to me or not. I have experienced so much in my life I am rarely affected by anything, let alone impetuous shows of rage. And your friend was almost right about what I would have done. You see, I would have stopped you before you had even left the ground completely.”
“Maybe letting this guy lead us wasn’t such a good idea. We’re not a team…we’re a time bomb. And I think I know who that spark is going to be…” Twilight thought, looking at Rainbow Dash from the corner of her eye.
After a few moments of everyone exchanging both impressed and fearful glances, Azurus, the pony who dealt with reaction magic, trotted ahead of everyone towards the white pony.
“So um…where are you from?”
“Hmm...interesting. If you wish to ascertain the tale of my exploits, then I may be of some more use on this voyage. As I can see and feel that every pony here is quite bored, I may be able to offer somewhat of an entertaining yarn of my life. Which in retrospect was not all that boring,” he said tonelessly, “Well to your first question of my location of origin I must say that the answer in of itself is quite a story. It started some time ago in a land that is no longer in existence and goes un-noted in history books. It was a land on the border of Draconis, Gryffhalla and Equestria. A land saturated by a myriad of ponies, griffins, dragons, and all manner of intelligent creatures. At the time I was young and thought it was a very prospective idea to try and…well…take, without permission, a couple gems from a cart in the market place. Little did I know the storm that I had set into motion…”