Chapter 3: Equestria on the Line
Ponyville
Oct. 27, 12:00 A.M.
"You, I knew you were here all this time!" Nicolas was getting ready to strike at him right now, he stops himself however just for him to not get himself on edge, "What are you doing here, you planning to bring destruction like what you always do from all the 98 battles we had?"
"Ah, how good is it to see you, and yes as always." He looks around the world, this world was so peaceful, it made him sick just looking at it, "So this is the peaceful Equestria huh, well it won't be so-peaceful anymore now that I am here. I have to thank you Nicolas, had you not use your magic on my own, I would had not find a good world to destroy."
"Why you, you are the one reason why everywhere I go, the world we face in ends up almost being destroyed." Nicolas couldn't hold out his anger and went berserk, "I am going to make you suffer, I swear it, you good-for-nothing demon!"
Oni noticing that Nicolas just yelled at him, went a little happy from hearing that from someone who was always calm even in dire situations, "Oh, did I hit a nerve right there? I haven't heard you scream at someone like me in a long time."
Celestia came in to see what was going on until he sees his uncle and an unknown enemy staring down at each other, "Nicolas, who is this pony and what is he doing?!?"
He looks at Celestia, "Celestia, get out of here. Run for your life, head back to the Canterlot, create a barrier around it as fast as possible before Oni gets you!"
In Ponyville, the ponies were panicking from the sudden eruption. Everyone was trying to get away from the eruption, but with little success. Twilight was trying to calm the panicking people, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't calm the people, "People, listen to me." The ponies are running around in a frenzy and weren't able to hear Twilight when the volcano erupted again all of a sudden.
Pinkie Pie pulls out her big megaphone and screams at her loudest, "Hey all of you ponies!!!" The ponies stopped to listen to Pinkie Pie but are still scared from it, "Thank you, Twilight wishes to speak right now, take it away Twilight."
"Thanks Pinkie, people, all of you head to Canterlot so you can be protected by the barrier that the princesses made. GO, GO, GO!" All ponies ran all the way to Canterlot and as fast as their tired legs can go and into the protective barrier. "Finally, where is Nicolas, Applejack?"
"He's right there looking at... Who is that fella?" Applejack points at Oni.
"Who is that?" Rainbow was utterly confused to see someone on top of an erupting volcano, "Whoever he is, I'm going to rescue him. It's not good to be near that volcano."
Nicolas heard him from where he's at, "No Rainbow Dash, don't get near him!" Nicolas stops Rainbow from getting too close to Oni before he got burned.
"What are you doing Nicolas, we got to save him!"
"No, you don't want to, he is my nemesis, the one enemy that I've been keeping secret from all of you." Nicolas tells them all of Oni.
"Why how thoughtful of you Nicolas, you haven't told them about me because you were worried that they would kill themselves if they tried to defy me." Oni knew he hit his soft spot there.
Celestia was almost shocked that he has been a secret from them all this time, "Is that true uncle? Have you been keeping a secret from us?"
"Yes, Celestia, that is true. If I had told you about him, you would have gone against him without a second thought, I'm sorry that I kept this secret from you." Nicolas was saddened that he kept a big secret from them.
All of the ponies were shocked about that, but despite that, they forgave him for it, "It's all right pardner, you were right about it. If you did tell us that, we wouldn't have thought about it and went straight for him." Applejack was happy about something that wasn't going to hurt them.
"Yes, I agree with her for once, had you tell us that, we would have faced against him without a second thought." Rarity came in after Appejack.
"It's all right Nicolas, I can understand you keeping a secret like that. Right now though, we got to take care of him, uh, what was his name again?" Twilight was a little embarrassed about asking that question.
"Well, if it isn't the bumbling six "Elements", how do you little pathetic one ever defeated villains that planned to bring chaos with those stupid trinkets?" Oni was a little amazed that six ponies could defeat two villains with those things.
"Hey, these 'things' are what's gonna bring you a lot of pain, you big meanie." Fluttershy went assertive there because he was killing all of her beloved friends though she was a little surprised that she went assertive there.
"That's right, the Elements of Harmony will surely bring you down." Twilight gets ready to cast the spell. All of her friends get in their positions and grants her the power to cast it. By the time the spell was complete, she shoots the magic at Oni.
"*Yawns* pathetic." Oni shrugs it off like it was nothing although it did hurt somewhat.
"What in tarnation?!? Are my eyes just playing tricks on me?!?"
"He just shrugged off the Elements there like there were nothing!?!" Twilight was utterly shocked to see that someone for the first time in Equestrian history, would be unaffected by the Elements of Harmony.
"Is that it, is that what the "Elements" are capable of? Honestly that was weak compared to Nicolas and he has much more power than those trinkets all together." Oni looks at Nicolas with some joy from all of this, "Now, are you ready to take down this army I resurrected from the past?"
"What resurrected army?" Nicolas was baffled by what he meant but after much thought, he was beginning to dread the idea, "Wait, don't tell me." Nicolas was starting to not like this situation at hand.
"Yes, I resurrected the one race that took down the alicorn race in that war. GO NOW, bring this world the destruction it deserves!"
Chaosbringers pop out from the top of the volcano and were coming heading towards Canterlot as their first target of their pain and insurrection.
Nicolas teleported to the six from the hill overlooking the city, "All of you, get all of the citizens to safety. The sooner we get this done the less casualties we'll have." Nicolas leaves the six and planned to head straight into the charging army.
"Nicolas, what are you doing!?! You can't beat all of them alone, that's suicide!" Twilight tried to stop him but no avail. There was no way of stopping him from doing his duty.
"She's right, get away from there!!!"
"Get everyone to safety, worry about me later. Just go!!!" Nicolas calls his sword hoping that it would respond despite how far way he is from it, The Heaven's Light responded and magically appeared right in front of him, "Ah, how long has it been since I last held you?" Nicolas grabs hold of the sword telekinetically and began to charge at them not thinking of the dangers of doing this alone, "All right you chaosbringers, come at me you good-for-nothing son-of-a-mother bucking ditches!!! *screams loudly*" Nicolas charges and strikes on the first one and the others behind it and went on a rampage against these killers.
All of the others did what Nicolas asked and took all of the citizens to Canterlot as fast as they could. They manage to calm the people down and taken them all the way to Canterlot where Princess Celestia was creating a barrier that protected the citizens from harm. As they were going into the barrier, all of the six look back at Nicolas and are met with mixed results, "Hoowee, look at Nicolas go." They see him mowing the whole army alone which so much speed, strength, and magic combined, it made almost every one of them jealous.
"How is it possible for him to do this?" Twilight was trying to process all of what was happening at the battlefield. Nicolas was defeating each and every one of those things single-handedly.
"That is my uncle there." Princess Celestia came to them and told them what was the cause of his immense strength, "This is why me and Luna admired him so much. He fights with so much honor, he is willing to go beyond his limits to protect those he cares about, even at the cost of his life. That's why the whole alicorn race gave him the title, 'Guardian of the Universe', because not is he only intelligent, he is also fast, strong, and otherworldly. That was why he came to us, he thought that we can leave off where he left off once he either left or died. This is why friendship is magic." Celestia finishes the barrier and enters inside to calm the citizens down.
All of them are wondering what to do that may benefit from this fight then Rainbow Dash responded with something that they did not had in mind, "Well, we can't just stay behind and let him do that all alone." Rainbow was the most jealous of Nicolas. He never thought that his absence in Equestria would allow him to have this much strength in him.
"He's right y'all, we should help him."
"I don't know, it seems dangerous. I think it would be best if we stayed behind. Twilight what do you think?" Fluttershy did not want to go into the battlefield with those chaosbringers out there.
All of them were looking at Twilight who was still processing all of this going on with Nicolas, "We have to help, I know we may be weak compared to his nemesis, Oni. But we can still do our best to protect Equestria. I think that is what Nicolas is teaching us right now while he is battling those." Twilight was waiting for the responses for the others if they agree with her or not.
"Well, Ah'm coming with ya Twilight. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for our friendship."
"I'll come along as well, I could do something else for once that had a little fighting shall I say."
"Count me in, I can't wait to bash some chaos heads."
"Oh, count me in. It's not fun if I was left out of this."
"Fluttershy, are you in or not?" Twilight and the others are looking at her.
Within her conscious mind, she was arguing whether or not she wants to be a part of the fight. Her opposite, Fluttercruel, who was made after what Discord did to her, was trying to persuade her to join in the fight, "Come on Fluttershy, imagine what you are doing right now. You are fighting with him and protecting Equestria at the same time. Do you want this world to die by him? I don't like to be the bystander you know."
"I know, but I'm just not strong enough to help them. I'm too weak to even help them. What can I do to help them, please tell me?" Fluttershy was really perplexed at what to do. She was a burden before when she tried to take in all of the negative emotions from everyone. She got yelled at from the two princesses who had good reasons to yell at her and she didn't want to be a burden again.
"Fight with them. Even if you are weak, even if you are a burden. You are doing something that only a few can dream of. I mean, you manage to give me a purpose when I first came to life by Discord. Do you get where I'm going Fluttershy?" Fluttercruel couldn't believe that she was doing something that would affect Equestria.
"Yes," Fluttershy began to brighten up from the conversation with her opposite, "I think I do, thank you."
"Eh it was no problem, now get out there and help them out." Fluttercruel disappeared for now and went to rest leaving Fluttershy to tell her answer to the others.
When Fluttershy went back into reality, she sees the others eyeing her noticing that they were waiting for her answer, "Twilight, I am going to help. I may be weak, but at least I can try do something for Equestria."
Twilight was a little shocked to find out her answer was a yes, but nonetheless was very proud of her, "Thank you Fluttershy, now we don't have a lot of time. Let's go help Nicolas!"
All of the five yelled, "Yeah!!" and off they went into the battlefield.
Celestia and Luna see that the six are heading towards the battle zone and are pondering what they should do, "What shall we do sister?"
"We stay behind, we have to calm the citizens down while they are helping Nicolas. Once we are done with our duty, then we can help them out. Is that good enough for you?"
"Yes, Tia, I think it would be good. I just hope that they can do it."
"I know they can, we just have to believe in them." Celestia and Luna head out again and try to calm the citizens down again.
While at the battlefield, Nicolas was beating every one of these back to where to their graves. Over time, he is getting himself more tired and it may cost him. He wished that he had some of his friends with him at the time of that explosion so that he wouldn't have to this alone. Then he sees some magic going on around him and thought that his friends arrived only to find the six there, "What are you doing!?! You are gonna get yourself killed!"
"We know that, and we don't care about that right now. We're here to help and we'll this together. Is that a good enough answer for you Nicolas?" Twilight was putting her serious attitude on the battle.
"Well, can't say I can argue with that. Thank you, all of you. You truly are the best ponies that a stallion like me can have. Enough chitchatting, let's get this going." He has been wanting to say this ever since the war, "For Equestria!!!" It felt good to Nicolas to finally say that so that he can put the memory of the war into the past.
All of them charged straight for the army and went all-out. Nicolas strikes at them with an energy wave emitted from his sword, hitting all within its range.
Twilight was charging up a spell that might take care of all of them but it needed some time to be ready to cast, "Hey girls and guy, can you hold them off away from me? I'm gonna try to cast the spell but I need time."
"We got your back Twilight." Rainbow Dash punched each one on their heads as she was flying at fast speeds making her hard to get. After all of that, she went high above the sky and went down at full speed. She did a Sonic Rainboom on the army and it managed to get a chunk of them blown sky high.
Applejack was bucking all of these chaosbringers down one by one. With each kill, she was keeping track of the kill count as Rainbow Dash had made a bet on her that she would get the most kills, guess even when the world is at stake, you can have your fun still, "Hey Rainbow Dash, how many beat downs did you get?"
"I got 100 and counting, how about you?"
"101, bet you can't beat me?"
"Oh you are so on Applejack." Rainbow Dash and Applejack putted more effort into the beat downs along the rest of the others.
Rarity was fighting them all karate style and isn't holding back making Nicolas a little surprised to see that. Rarity was a little excited to do all of this but at the same time tried to make herself still look nice.
Pinkie was doing what she does best, doing random things that either hurt them or just made them run away. Pinkie had been at her crazy side multiple times when they started to get to her though not to the point where she goes bonkers. She was breaking logic more often than Discord did making Nicolas wonder if she is always like this whenever she was around.
Fluttershy also wasn't holding back either and was being assertive. This is probably the only time she might do this ever in her life but it was worth it for she was doing everything to protect her friends like what Fluttercruel said.
Twilight was almost finished charging her spell when almost all of the chaos bringers were coming at her. She can't do anything at this state, if she tried to anything, the spell will falter and it would leave her vulnerable. As she was about to move out of the way. Nicolas came in and did a spell that pushed them back from Twilight, "Thanks for coming in, if you hadn't done that. Well, I don't want to think about it."
"No worries, are you done with that spell of yours?" Nicolas was really tired from all of the fighting with these chaosbringers and the others weren't faring so good as well.
"Almost, just give me a few more minutes."
"All right, just please hurry. I don't know how long we can keep this up." Nicolas returns his attention back into the army and goes in. As she was almost complete with her spell, the others were getting more and more tired with passing second. Nicolas noticed everyone was getting tired and really wished that his friends came. As more were coming on the way, he was beginning to notice that this attempt at killing all of them was close to being futile.
As all were beginning to get extremely tired, a portal come out of nowhere in the middle of the battlefield.
"What is that?!" Twilight almost lost her concentration upon seeing the portal pop out of nowhere. When she regained her concentration, she see other ponies come out of the portal all looking a little odd looking making her if they were good or bad.
The portal disappears from behind them, "We're here Nicolas and what the buck?! Wait, did I just say buck?" One of the mysterious people takes notices of all the chaosbringers and that they are ponies alongside Nicolas. He creates a barrier around them for now so that they don't attack them.
Nicolas was relieved to see his friends here though he wasn't expecting them to come at this time, "Hey guys, come to me guys. You guys look hilarious as ponies."
They all go to where Nicolas was and the six went into the barrier for now so they can get a breather from the fight.
"Nicolas, what in blazes in going on here?!"
"As much as I like to talk about this, right now, action speak louder than words Quintin."
Quintin is a necromancer. He was once a very talented magician in his home, and was very praised by the townspeople. Unfortunately, these things did not last long for him. He discovers some ancient books within the restricted area of his academy and decided to learn them. However, these kind of spell corrupted him preventing him from going on ahead of his studies as they were dark magics. That did not stop him. Somehow the spells wasn't able to corrupt him. He is able to cast powerful dark magics of all kinds though he uses these only if it is absolutely needed, "Guess that is true, but after this, you have a lot of explaining to do." All of Nicolas's friends was agreeing to this.
"All right, don't put pressure on me now. Twilight, how far are you from completing that spell?"
"Almost ready, just hold them off for just a few more minutes."
"All right then, let's do this!" Nicolas casts a healing spell on himself and all of his allies. He looks at the chaosbringers coming at them, "Come at me you idiots!" Nicolas charges at them with his friends and begins their onslaught.
Oni was not expecting Nicolas's friends to come to this world, but even that was futile. His spell was resurrecting the chaosbringers faster then they could defeat them. All he had to do was watch this battle and see how this will go now that he has his friends with him now.
While fighting them, he needed someone to protect Twilight, then Rosette came up to mind, "Rosette, can you protect Twilight for me? I want someone to protect her while she is preparing her spell."
"Which one is Twilight?" She casts around herself a shield made out of thorns, that way, she would be protected and hurting the army at the same time. Rosette is a shaman and brother to Quintin. She recently discovered about what happened to Quintin and was trying to find an antidote to his corruption, with no success. His brother said that he is fine and Rosette begins to believe what he said. She still continues to find a cure for him so that he can finally graduate from his favorite academy.
"The purple pony at the back." She is charging up a spell and I need someone to protect her."
"All right then." Rosette runs towards where Twilight is at, along the way beating up multiple chaosbringers down. She manages to get to Twilight before anymore of them came to her, "Hey need some protecting or can you handle yourself?"
"I can handle myself fine, but I can't do anything with me charging this spell."
She smacks one of them away with her staff from her as Twilight was talking, "I see, I got your back then."
"Thank you, uh your name is Rosette right?"
"Yes, it is, let's talk later until this whole ordeal is done okay?"
"Agreed."
While Rosette was protecting Twilight from them, at the battlefield, more were coming at a very fast rate trying to get to Canterlot. Dova was helping Fluttershy out with the best of her efforts, Shine was casting fire magics to keep the enemies at bay while Rainbow Dash performed more Sonic Rainbooms, and Eagle with Applejack were mowing each one of them.
Shine, Eagle, and Dova were known to Nicolas as the Bird Triplets because their specialty and personality represent the birds they love. Dova represented the dove, a symbol of peace to most people. She normally doesn't fight. Instead, she likes to talk it out, but under certain conditions, she either calls in her brother or sister to stop the conflict or she goes into the fight which is extremely rare of her to do. Eagle was a fighter using skill before sheer power, alongside him he has a very loyal hawk he just calls Hawk, and Shine is the most unique among them. She carries within her soul a full-grown phoenix, this allows her to cast powerful fire magics even though she never learned them herself and pull off miracles though she doesn't show them off to the public.
"How are you holding off Dova, I'm a little surprised that you would actually fight like that," Shine casted a fire spell that caused a somewhat small eruption below them burning them to ashes.
"I am fine Shine, thank you for the concern," Dova punches one of the chaosbringers so hard that it literally became a rocket to the moon, "Never knew I could do that, how is Eagle doing?"
"I'm fine here, worry about yourselves first," Eagle flew above the enemies and delivered a powerful punch to the ground that created multiple stone pillars around him causing others caught by them to be launched in the air. Hawk took care of the enemies that were suspended in the air.
"Twilight, please tell me you have enough energy now."
Twilight was able to finally gain enough of her magic to cast the spell, "All right, I got enough energy to cast it!"
"Finally, then I can do this then." Nicolas teleports everyone that was in the battlefield behind her and also begins casting a spell though his way was a little otherworldly. He was chanting unusual words that made no sense to the six except for his friends which they recognize the spell from hearing his chanting.
"Are you sure that is a good idea to use that spell especially at the state you are in? It might drain away all of the magic you have."
"I know it is risky using this spell Dova, but we need to kill them fast."
"I see, all right then."
Twilight and the others were confused what he was doing but they were running out of options at the moment and decided to let him do it.
Nicolas rose up into the air flapping his wings gathering ethereal energies to his horn. With each passing second, the army was drawing closer to them making everyone worried how long this was taking. When they were getting themselves ready for the army, Nicolas gained enough of it to blast the whole army away. He casted the spell and for the moment nothing happened.
"Uh, Nicolas, nothing's happening."
"Look up and you will see."
All of them look up to see above the sky was what looked like a beam flying through the sky. That beam of pure energy passed through the battlefield. The moment all of it passed through, an explosion of almost gargantuan size overwhelmed all of the battlefield destroying all the chaosbringers that got caught in the blast.
"That, is so COOL!" Rainbow Dash was taking in the explosion at the moment, in fact everyone was taking what just happened.
Twilight was the most shocked out of all of them, she never thought to see a spell that would have so much destructive power while at the same time, not cause any massive collateral damage to Equestria. She regained her composure and casted her spell directly at Oni while the explosion was still going.
Oni created a dark barrier around himself when the beam made first contact to the ground, by the times spell was almost done, he notices one coming towards him and dodges it swiftly, "Nice try, but you are going to have to try something better than that."
"Did you really think the spell was meant for you?" Twilight almost fainted from all of that due to that spell using up almost all of her magic to cast it.
"What?" Oni turns around and notices that Twilight's spell had interrupted his ritual preventing anymore resurrection of them.
"Phew, never knew that took a lot out of me." She was really wobbly from using all of her magic up after that.
"It's all right, you manage to stop the revival process, but that still leaves one pony left." He looks directly at Oni, his eyes filled with rage, "You got nothing up on your sleeve? All that's left is you Oni. What else do you got?" Nicolas was breathing heavily from all of the fighting.
He turns around and sees his eyes, that satisfied him enough as of today, "Oh nothing at all, if you want to face me I suggest you get back into good condition. It's not fair to fight you if you are tired. I may be a demon, but at least I still have a shred of mercy for you. Have fun with the victory you received for now." Oni disappeared into the smoke that the volcano spewed and was gone without a trace.
"Wow, I can't believe we won this fight." Twilight was utterly shocked that they won what seemed to be an impossible fight. She almost fell to her knees from being exhausted after the ordeal.
"Come on, we should tell everyone the news and head over to the hospital. We are going to need it."
"Agreed."
Nicolas was trying to carry all of them with a levitation spell and try to teleport all of them to the Canterlot hospital, unfortunately he was close to fainting after that last spell.
"Here, let me help you, I'll take them all back."
"Thank you Quintin, where is my son?"
"He is fine, we left him back at our world just for safety. We might bring him to this world if we ever got the time. That okay with you good Nicolas?"
"Yeah, thanks." Nicolas succumbs to his injuries and goes unconscious right in the middle of the battlefield.
Canterlot Hospital
Oct. 28, 6:00 A.M.
When he wakes up from his sleep, he finds himself in the hospital on a bed. He wonders where his friends are while he was here but had to put it on hold for now so that he can recover for the next fight against Oni. Alongside him was his son, "Why hello there, surprised to see me banged up like this?"
"A little bit, I feel weird dad, being a pony now."
"No worries Brave, you'll get use to it over time." Brave was a son that he adopted from his world. He found him at his front door as a little infant, he looked around if his parents lost him or something. He couldn't leave him behind and decided to take care of him until he can find his parents. When he went to the hospital to see if they know of this infant's parents, his answer was something he did not expect. His parents died of old age, they left a death note telling anyone about the little infant. Nicolas red the letter and was saddened over this little baby's loss. He decided to take care of him as a father. Over time, when he was around a toddler's age, he decided to give him a name. He pondered for a bit as there were not a lot of unique names, then one came up for him. He named him Brave and he responded back by saying, "I love you, dad," Nicolas has not had any children before him. He never felt what it felt like to actually have a family of his own until Brave came. He smiled upon the idea and was happy to call Brave his son.
"Okay, dad, I was catching up with my sword training you taught me."
"Really? I'd like to see the result of your training when I'm out of this hospital bed."
"Great!"
At Canterlot Castle, all of Nicolas's friends are there seeing and talking to the two princesses. Alongside them, Twilight and her friends are also there as well.
"I thank you for protecting Equestria, had you not appear at our most dire moment, the battle would have ended differently." Celestia was still a little baffled from their sudden appearance after what Twilight told her everything, but nonetheless, she was a little glad that they came in time.
"Hey, it is all right, we did what we do a lot nowadays. By the way, we never got your names, who are you eight, and where are we?"
"Ah, it seems we forgot to introduce ourselves. Very well, Twilight, do you wish to start things off?"
"Sure, my name's Twilight Sparkle. I am adept at unicorn magic and I am a student to Princess Celestia."
"The name's Rainbow Dash if you guys are wondering. I love to fly fast and I have a dream to be a part of the Wonderbolts, the best flying group known to ever exist!"
"Howdy there, My name's Applejack and Ah love to buck apples. It's my families's lifestyle."
"Why hello there, I am Rarity, and I love to makes dresses for my clients, perhaps I could make fine dresses for you ponies if you wouldn't mind that is."
They were not expecting her to ask straight away but at the same time it might be worthwhile to let her do it, "Sure, we don't mind."
Rarity was getting a little jittery from their answer, she couldn't wait to do their dresses right after their introductions are done.
"Hello all fillies and colts, Pinkie Pie here. Hey, I have a lot of questions for you. Where did you come from? Did you know Nicolas before when he was here? Did you know that Rainbow Dash became a little filly when she..."
"Pinkie! Now is not a good time to bring it up!" Fluttershy screamed back at her though it was still quiet to some people. She almost welled-up in tears after Pinkie Pie almost accidently bought up that incident. "I'm sorry, I'm Fluttershy and I love to take care of animals."
Celestia did not notice Fluttershy getting welled-up in tears before hand until Pinkie almost accidently bought that up, she was a little happy that she was able to hold back the tears there, "Thank you my subjects, now to us, I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister Princess Luna, we both rule Equestria before at a fillies age."
"By fillies age? You mean you ruled this at an infant or teenager age?"
"Here, let me help brother, I looked into the history of this place before we got here anyway." She was recalling how old was a filly when she red that history book that Twilight gave to them, "By fillies age, they meant that ruled this world or country between infant and teenager age. Does that answer your question Quintin?"
"Yeah it does, and wow I am impressed."
"Well, of course, you can be easy to please sometimes."
Quintin heard that from Rosette and can tell that was a pun there making him a little mad there, "Sometimes I wonder if you are trying to troll me or something sister."
"Well, you can't tell can you? *squee*"
"Can we get back to our introductions you two? Sometimes I wonder how come you two are siblings."
"True, back to who we are, I am Quintin. I am a necromancer, a mage that studies in the dark arts of magic though I use these spells only if needed, and this is my sister Rosette."
"Thank you brother, as he said before, I am Rosette. I am a shaman, I control nature around me and I am a supporter for allies that are in the frontlines as I can also heal too. Now to the Bird Triplets. You good with the forms you are in?"
"Yes I guess, I am Dova. I don't really like to fight at times unless it is absolutely needed. I like to talk things out instead at times, but if it doesn't work out that way, I either call my sister Shine or my brother Eagle to help me out or I stop the fight myself though me stopping a fight is rare for anyone to see."
"Right, it sure is rare to see her stop it herself, but any of you saw how she can handle herself, right? Anyway, I'm Eagle. I like to hunt things though I don't kill them. Whenever I manage to get my hunt, I always let them go, depending on who or what it is."
"Well that is very nice of you Eagle, well, guess that just leaves me. I'm Shine and I'm the eldest of the three of us. We may not look alike, but we love each other to no end. Due to the fact that we love birds, I came up with the idea of calling ourselves the Bird Triplets as we love to represent the birds we adore the most. I'm a little unique from the two because within my soul, a soul of a phoenix is in me.
Hearing that made every pony go excited and a little baffled especially Twilight, "Correct me if I am wrong, but did you say that you have a soul of a phoenix within your body of yours?"
"Yes, I did Twilight, what does it not surprise you there. I see a phoenix there so I expected that it wouldn't surprise all of you."
"Well, maybe it wouldn't be if we didn't know that you actually had a soul of one inside you. That's what surprised us." Twilight answered why it surprised all of them, even the princesses were a little confused as to how that is even possible to have a soul of a phoenix within a ponies body.
"May we ask as to how do you have a soul of a phoenix within your body?" Celestia got Twilight there as she was about to ask that question to Shine.
"That's a long story, I'll see if I can make it simple enough for you to understand." None of her friends has ever asked her about it before. She never knew how she got it before, she just guessed that this kind of soul was like a sort of of a bloodline thing. Pondering on what to say about this, she had absolutely no idea on how to answer this question, "I am sorry, but I have no idea how to answer that question. Even I have no idea how I got it in the first place."
"You... don't? How long have you not known the origins of that magic of yours?" Celestia was a little surprised that Shine has not known its origins for a long time, "Perhaps we should look into that once this is all over."
"I'd like that actually, well now that introductions are aside, can any of you take us on a tour. I know that this place is in dire trouble, but we need to get use to the land here."
"Agreed, can any of you take them so that they can get accustomed to Equestria?"
They look at each other wondering who would be willing to do it, then suddenly...
"Oh pick me, pick me, I want to tour them! Please narrator, oh please?"
"Pinkie, what in tarnation are you talking about?"
"The author was about to say who was going to tour them, then I rose my hoof up high into the air hoping to get called on."
"Pinkie, what are you talking about?" Twilight was utterly baffled by what Pinkie Pie was talking about.
"You girls wouldn't understand it anyway, only I can, whee!"
"Pinkie, you are so RANDOM at times you know that?"
"Teehee, I know silly, I'll show you guys and girls on a tour." Pinkie then bounced off out of the Canterlot Castle, what the heck Pinkie Pie, you had to break the fourth wall just to interrupt me?
"What was that all about? She went a little crazy there like she can see something that we can't. Am I right or am I wrong?"
"Yeah, that's Pinkie Pie for you. You might want to follow her if I were you."
"Okay then. Don't worry about him, he'll be fine. He's been through tougher situation then this before." All of Nicolas's friends leave the castle to follow Pinkie Pie on their probably crazy tour.
As I was saying before Pinkie interrupted me there, she waits for the other at the front doors before she left the castle. As she waited for what seemed like hours, they finally came out of the castle doors, "Finally, what took you guys so long? You guys should have been out like hours ago!"
Looking at each other baffled by trying to understand what she was talking about, they were more concerned whether she was like this all the time or she was getting on her crazy side, "Uh, it was one minute Pinkie, are you going to take us on the tour or what?" Noticing that Pinkie was reading something unusual, all looked at each other first wondering what she was reading, then one of them asked, "Pinkie, what are you reading?"
Pinkie was a little distracted from reading the thing, but she heard the question during her skimming through it, "Huh, oh this? It's a script."
"A script? You mean those papers that tell you the next scene or something like that?" All again looked at each other wondering why she has one in her hoof.
"Yep-a-roo, I was reading it wondering what to do next. It says that I am suppose to hop all the way to Ponyville while all of you are following me. Oh, and one of you asks, 'Should we follow her' and the other says, 'Yes, we should'. All right then, catch me if you can!" Pinkie hops off fast again to Ponyville.
All wondered what to do with her, Dova was the first to break the confusion "Should we follow her?"
"Yes, we should." All agreed to follow her. At first they don't realize about the script, but at that time the information was in their heads, it just came to them that they did exactly what that script was written for them, Quintin being the most confused of them all, "What the bucking hay? How does she do that?" They follow her regardless of what just happened in a gallop.
Canterlot Castle
Oct, 28, 6:45 A.M.
Back at Canterlot Castle, the others that stayed behind had begun to have doubts in their minds especially of those concerning the Elements of Harmony. When they have used them on Oni, what they got was something that they did not expect. Twilight wondered what to do now, if the Elements can not harm him, then what else can they do? Without them, Equestria was surely doomed to meet an inevitable fate. Then something got to Twilight, she wondered if Nicolas knows of a way that they can do to actually beat him. With him resting however, the only other ponies that might know about him would be the Royal Sisters, "Princess Celestia, I have a question."
Celestia was drifting off with Luna pondering what to do with the situation at hand, she only heard the question when Luna stopped their chat, "Oh, sorry about that, what was the question you asked again Twilight?"
"I was wondering if you two know anything about your 'uncle' you said." One of Twilight's doubts was if Nicolas was actually their uncle, she can at least trust him after what happened.
"Yes we do, why? Are you beginning to doubt that he is our uncle?" Celestia heard when she said 'uncle' meaning that she has something that is bothering her presumably about her uncle.
"Sorry if you think that way, it's just that you haven't told about him yet. Can you please tell us about him?" Noticing that both Celestia and Luna cringed a little made her think if they really knew about him or they were just making it up.
"She is right, perhaps you can tell his whole life if you can that is." All the others help out Twilight and try to pry the information out of the princesses even though that this is going against what they do.
Both princesses begun to notice that they can not keep what they were hiding from them, "I am sorry, but we can not."
"WHAT?! Why not?" said Twilight from fuming a little bit from their answer.
Noticing that Twilight was getting a little enraged, she decided to take off where Celestia was, "I'll take over this conversation. Why won't you check on our uncle Tia?"
Celestia, sighing a breath of relief, decided to do as what Luna asked, "Yes, thank you sister." Celestia leaves the royal hall and heads to the Canterlot Hospital leaving her behind to finish where she left off. Hoping that she can fare better than herself, she spreads her wings and flies off.
Luna sees her fly off and returns her attention back towards the five, "Now, about our uncle." Luna was holding back her rage when Twilight asked about him, but she can understand her doubts as they have never delved into his personal life before, "Now, back to where we left off. Twilight, that was highly disrespectful of you, I should have seen better coming from the student of Tia."
Twilight knew she was going to regret doing what she did, but she wanted to know about him. Apparently, so do the others, "I'm sorry about it Princess Luna, it's just that we haven't heard of his personal life that badIy, sorry if we disrespected the both of you."
"It is all right, unfortunately, we still can not answer your question Twilight Sparkle."
"Sorry if Ah am interrupting, but why not sugarcube?"
"Because we do not know of his personal life."
"What? How come you don't know of his life, he should have told you about his life when you were fillies, right?" Said Twilight in utter disbelief.
"True, but he didn't because he himself said that bringing it up brings back bad memories of his past."
Twilight was in utter disbelief, but she needed to know about his life. If he doesn't tell them anything about his personal life, they may never know how to beat Oni. Luna did bring up a good argument against doing what she was planning to do, bringing his past up may hurt him spiritually. She was not so sure on what to do now, should she ask him about or just stay silent about it? Her head was hurting from too much thinking.
While Twilight was thinking about what to do, the others have begun to notice that the Sun was going down meaning that Celestia was getting ready to go to sleep, Luna flies upward to the tallest tower and begins to rise the moon to its position after the sun has emitted a wonderful sunset and goes to its slumber. Luna flies back into the throne room and sees Celestia back a little tired from whatever she was doing, "Hello sister, how was the time with uncle going?" Luna wondered if he was doing fine despite that she couldn't have gone herself to check it out.
"Fine sister *yawns* just sleepy I guess, he fully recovered from all of his injuries even the one that are considered fatal to us. Apparently he is training with his son at the moment"
Hearing that made Luna wonder how was he able to recover very fast. Sure he was an alicorn, but no alicorn was able to heal fast and in a single day at that. She did not want to forget that now it was nighttime, "Perhaps all of you should head back home and get some sleep?"
The others nodded and waved bye to Luna leaving all but Twilight still pondering on what to do when she gets the chance to finally speak with him.
Luna walks up to Twilight and shakes her a little bit to snap her back into reality. After she snaps back, she can concur that she was still thinking on what to do with her question, "Are you still pondering about his personal life?"
Twilight was put in a situation where what she says may affect her, "Yes I still am. Princess Luna tell me, is it okay that I can ask Nicolas about his personal life?"
Luna never expected this kind of question coming from her. She was thinking how to answer this kind of question, after all, she too wondered about it but not too deeply compared to Twilight, "I do not know how to answer this, but as time passes, it is up to you to decide whether or not to ask him." Luna knows all too well what happens when you ask someone of their life and they do not want to bring it up. When doing something like that, results would either be good or bad depending on the situation and most of the time, it goes bad. In this case, if she were to ask Nicolas about it, what could come to be would be either him going to a state of anger and depression or in her case, him becoming corrupted and that was the worst part that no one wants. She had to tell her what would happen if she would do this, "Be warned, however Twilight Sparkle, the answer you get may be grizzly even for you and you may cause a psychological break within his heart."
Twilight understood every word of Luna and nodded at her. She begins to cast her teleport spell on herself as she gets a mental image of the library. As she was in full concentration, she casts the spell and she is in the library within a moments notice. She goes upstairs to her bed when she sees Nyx sleeping with Spike on the bed. She was happy to see her okay, but the weight of that one question continued to get her, should she ask him of his personal life or just stay absolutely silent? Pondering on it too much, she just decides to get some sleep and think about it later. She looks out her window and sees the bright stars on the night sky. Seeing them made her relax and helped her lull into a deep sleep.
Library
Oct. 29, 6:00 A.M.
"Twilight? Come on its me Spike." Spike shook Twilight gently, but was content in her sleep.
"Come on. Hey Pinkie, do you have that megaphone of yours?"
"Yep-a-roo." Pinkie Pie pulls out her megaphone from thin air and gives it to Spike who was wondering how she was able to pull it out of thin air.
"Thanks." Spike takes a deep breath and screams at his loudest, "TWILIGHT!"
Twilight woke up and jumped from that loud scream. When she opens her eyes and sees both Spike and Pinkie, she was a little agitated that they woke her from such a good sleep, "What was that for!?"
Spike got a little scared from that. He regained his composure and told her everything at the moment, "You were asleep for a long time. Nyx was worried about you and came to me and told me about you. So I came to check on you. Princess Luna also sent a letter personally for you." Spike hands her Luna's letter.
Twilight takes the letter from Spike and reads it,
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
My sister Celestia went on a meeting and decided to put me in charge of keeping an eye on Canterlot Castle. My uncle, Nicolas and his friends are helping me out and are training the guards at the moment. I was thinking that perhaps you and your friends might come to the castle and come train with us too if you don't mind that is. We have not forgotten the threat looming over us and decided to go train. I might also need more help to keep an eye on the people. If you have the time, please do come.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
After Twilight was done reading Luna's letter, she put the letter down gently and looked at Spike with a burning intention in her eyes, "Spike, Pinkie, get everyone. We are going to Canterlot Castle."
Spike and Pinkie salute Twilight and runs off to get the others though Pinkie returned back to ask something, "Oh, why are we returning to Canterlot?"
Twilight told Pinkie everything from what was red from Princess Luna's letter. After that Pinkie left in a hurry to get the others.
Train Station
Oct. 29, 6:30 A.M.
Twilight was waiting at the train station hoping that Pinkie and Spike manage to get the others. When she sees them coming with the others, she runs up to them and asks them if they know why they are going to the castle. All nodded yes, but some were confused why though leaving Twilight to tell them everything, "All right then, but lets do it in the train. We don't want to be late." At the time she said that, a crystal train came to the station. Twilight recognizes the train that just came and was almost in a jittery mode when both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence came out of the train, "Cadence!"
Both run to each other and did their thing, "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake *laughs* Twilight, its good to see you."
"Its good to see you too, what are you two doing here?" asked Twilight who couldn't put the question aside.
"We were called by Princess Luna and we were planning to go when she also mentioned that you were coming too." Shining Armor answered.
"Well what do you know, looks like yer going to talk with her too Ah presume?"
"Of course, come on get in the train."
All of them go into the train and they leave for Canterlot. While they were getting there, Twilight decide to tell her everything about this visit. By the time she was done with the speech, all her friends look at each other in concern then they look at her nodding yes. They pass the gates and enter the Canterlot station. When they are out of the train, they see Nicolas and friends waiting for them.
"Welcome everyone, ready to start training or do you need to do some preparing?"
"We are all good here and are ready to go right girls?"
All nodded yes and followed Nicolas to the castle grounds. Along the way, every guard that was training were taking it seriously with Nicolas's friends almost to the point of fainting. When they reach the throne room, Luna greeted them with a serious attitude that suddenly went into a happy mood, "Greetings, you all know why we are here right?" All nodded making it easy on Luna, "Good, the guards are taking their training seriously after what happened not too long ago and I decided that it'd be best if we train as well. My uncle will be helping me with my training and your training as well. Be warned that his training is very strict, so do not hold back on him."
All agreed to this idea and were getting a little excited. Twilight was probably the most excited to finally learn all the spells from Nicolas himself.
Nicolas was pleased with their determination and gets ready a teleport spell. As he gets the image of his location, he casts the spell on everypony and goes to his spot of training, one that was known only to Nicolas, "Everyone, welcome to my training zone, Gaia Falls."
When they open their eyes from the teleport, what they see was something of unnatural beauty. The training spot was beautiful from the rivers that were running, to the wonderful scenery shown here, and finally to the roaring falls. All, even Luna, were in awe at its glorious sight, "This area was secluded from everything and was never found by anypony. Only I know of its location and it has become my favorite spot to train physically and mentally. Good to see that the place hasn't lost its beauty." He pulls out his sword and looks sternly at the others who they notice it, "Get ready, here comes the first part of my training where I check your physical strength including you unicorns." Nicolas charges at them and begins the training.
The others also charge at him meeting him head on. The impact from him made them all knock back and they get ready their battle stance. Applejack takes first shot at Nicolas and tries to hit him.
Nicolas dodges it with fast agility and hits Applejack full force on the stomach knocking her back. Nicolas then gets ready to jump up into the air and goes down like a meteor.
The others dodge the initial hit and the stone pillars barely. Applejack gets back from the punch and charges at him again. Rainbow Dash does the same idea and follows her lead. Twilight and Rarity were about to get ready their spells until Nicolas come at them.
Nicolas grabs the two unicorns and tosses them at Applejack and Rainbow Dash, No magic you two, you are going to have to adapt to this." Nicolas casts a spell that disables both the unicorn and the pegasi's special abilities canceling out Twilight and Rarity's magics to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's flight.
When all tried to either fly or cast their magics, theNicolas casts a spell that disables both the unicorn and the pegasi's special abilities canceling out Twilight and Rarity's magics to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's flight.
When the four tried to either fly or cast their magics, their horns or wings were not responding making them wonder how was he able to do this, "Nicolas, how did you to this?"
"I'll talk about it later." Nicolas noticing that Fluttershy was hiding from all of this, uses a levitation spell to pull her out of her hiding spot, bringing her out in the opening, "Come on, I know that you are shy and all, but if you don't do this, it's going be a lot harder for you to defend yourself."
Fluttershy understood what he meant, but as always she was scared to face him head on. She wanted to be a part of this, but her gentle side was preventing her from actually fighting him. Her cruel side was trying again to help boost her morality, but compared to last time, she was failing to do this.
Nicolas was having trouble trying to convince her to actually fight, even pointing out the obvious of her friends being killed wasn't enough to put her in her serious mode. Luna and the others tried their best as well to convince her, but it wasn't enough to get up on her own. Nicolas was wondering if she can even do this. Deciding to stop the training for now, he told everyone to return back home for now.
Nicolas casts a teleport spell on each one of them returning them back to their homes.
At this moment everyone except Twilight was back at their homes, Twilight was still pondering whether to ask him the question or not. Shaking it off, she decided to ask him the question though she may end up regretting asking it, "Hey Nicolas, I have a question for you."
"Hmm? What is it?" He noticed that Twilight sounded a little scared, he was betting that she was waiting for the right moment to ask this one question when no one else was around making him a little worried about what it is.
"I was wondering, what was your life like when you were just a colt?"
Nicolas almost was put into a 'rigor mortis' state upon hearing that question, one that he dreaded to answer, "Twilight, please don't ask me that question. I don't want to answer it at the moment."
Twilight expected this to happen like what happened when she ran into Trixie during what was supposedly a murder crime against Rainbow Dash. She ran into her when she was trying to get a part of a letter from Sonata within Fluttershy's cottage. When she ran into Trixie, she did not know she had the otherworldly magic that allowed her to see these weird "psyche locks". She saw only red locks at times, but when it was on Trixie, instead of red locks, they were black locks. Upon seeing them made Twilight all of a sudden sad and depressed even though she wasn't thinking of anything that was tragic at all. What was different from that one was that she doesn't know if those black locks would surround him like with Trixie due to the fact that the magic wore off. From the tone of the voice, however, she can tell that even without that magic ability, black locks are surrounding him meaning that once she breaks all of them, what will happen next, she did not know, "Please, tell me. What happened at that time of your life? I need to know."
"You don't need to know about it. Why do you need to know it?" Nicolas was trying to not snap at this moment. He knew that Twilight will keep on asking until she gets the answer and it was affecting Nicolas like a raging tempest. The last time someone asked him that question multiple times, the person was nothing but a blood splatter on a wall and he did not want the same thing to happen to Twilight.
"Please Nicolas, we need, I need to know about it. Please?"
"Twilight, shut up. Don't ask me this again."
Twilight was getting very scared from that statement said to her, but she's already at the point of no return, "I'm going to keep on asking it until I get the answer. Please Nicolas."
"I am not going to repeat myself, don't ask me that question."
"I'm sorry, but no. I need to know it now."
"Shut up and leave me be. There are some things that even a powerful unicorn like you would not want to know." Nicolas's patience was getting thin and his hatred was starting to grow rapidly. Trying to hold it back was getting more futile with her asking the same question still.
"I can handle it, even if it's to the point where it goes to an apocalyptic world. Please answer my question."
"SHUT UP."
Those two words sent chills down Twilight's spine, she was starting to ponder now. Should she stop it here or ask that question one last time. She decided to ask it one last time and braces herself for the worst, "I'm asking this one last time, what happened in your personal life?"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Nicolas couldn't hold that anger back anymore and charged at Twilight with all of his force bashing her at a nearby rock slab.
At that moment, she was trying to cast a spell to freeze, but he moved so fast, she couldn't get a second of preparing it. When she made impact on the rock, the force almost broke all of her bones and organs within her body. She began to cough up blood out of her mouth staining the pleasant grass of Gaia Falls. She was dazed, nearly losing all of her strength to continue. When she looked at Nicolas, what she saw was seared into her memories forever. A dark aura was surrounding Nicolas making her feel sick just being around is, his wings have gotten a drastic change making the impression of a fallen angel with feathers made literally out of blood, his horn looked like that of an unusual cactus, his mane and tail are a deep blood-red even bearing a halo that was blood-red, his fur color changed from an elegant light blue to a ghastly white, and his cutie mark was different. When she first saw his cutie mark, the cutie mark was a cross with three wings protruding on each side, around it were lots of what looked like stars. Now it appeared to be that of a halo that looks likes it is bleeding that is also emitting a dark aura. What scared her the most were his eyes. The pupils were black and the color red replaced the white surrounding the pupil, staring at her very soul with nothing but rage, sorrow, and many other negative emotions. She tried her best to get out of the death grip of his, but it was useless, everything inside her body was broken and she lost all hope of escaping it. She managed to utter her last words before going unconscious, "Nicolas, please forgive me for what I did to you."
Those last words manage to get to Nicolas and he snapped back into reality. When he saw Twilight all broken and he himself in his current state, all of his memories of his past life were coming back to him from the brutal murder of his parents, to him mercilessly killing all who killed his parents, and finally to his suicide. He looks at his hooves and sees blood on them making him trying to forget everything that happened now. He reverted back into his original form and looked at Twilight again. He checked if there was a pulse. There was and he carried Twilight on his back. He casted a teleport spell to the hospital and screamed with all of his strength, "Someone help Twilight!"
Doctors notices the mauled Twilight and carry her to the emergency room as fast they can. At this time, Twilight regained consciousness and saw Nicolas with the doctors, she poked him to try to get his attention.
Nicolas felt the poke and sees Twilight alive at the very least, "You are going to be okay, the doctors will get you fixed in no time." Nicolas began to doubt his promise there to Twilight.
Twilight heard his vague promise and smiled a little bit from that. After that she went into a coma and nothing else happened.
Nicolas was panicking at this moment as the doctors take her to the emergency room. They begun the surgical process and were met with almost unimaginable damage to every single body part. They were beginning to doubt they can save her in time, but at the very least, tried to do the best they can. Nicolas looks through the window watching the surgery take place. He decided to call for them so that they can have a meeting inside the Canterlot Castle throne room. He writes a letter and does a duplication spell to make enough for everyone. He sends them to everyone leaving him to wonder how is he going to tell them what happened.
Canterlot Castle Throne Room
Oct. 29 8:30 A.M.
Nicolas was walking in circles while waiting for the others to come. He wasn't so sure how to put this lightly on them considering that he almost caused her death. When the others arrive into the throne, he stopped dead in his tracks. He noticed that two ponies he never seen came through alongside the princesses making him wonder if they are who he thinks they are, "Hello there, are you by any chance, Twilight's mother and father? Both nod at Nicolas making him much more worried now then ever.
With everyone here, Celestia, who came back from the meeting, decided to starts things off with a question, "Uncle, what is the reason for this unexpected meeting?"
"This meeting here, *deep breathes* it involves Twilight. She is at the hospital at the moment."
"Why is she at the hospital darling?"
Nicolas was afraid to answer the question especially that quickly. In the end, he couldn't bear to think about and told them why she was there, "She is on the hospital taking surgery at the moment." When all of them heard it, there was mixed emotions going on the room. Her parents were the one thing Nicolas did not wish to see, he turned around to not look at them as they were crying about their daughter.
Celestia could not fathom as to who was stupid enough to brutally murder her own star pupil, she was trying to contain her rage and was doing it well. She asks Nicolas on who was responsible for this, "Uncle, who was responsible for this!?"
Nicolas was hoping that no one would ask that one question. He was beginning to well up in tears, he held back the tears in his eyes and regretfully told her the answer, "It... was... me... Celestia."