Young Gods
Ch. 4: Same Old Fight, Brand New Beginning
Key:
Mat
John
Diane
Aurora
All of the above
Here you all go, the next chapter. And not just that, it's a loooooooong chapter, considering a fair number of you asked for it.
Hope you enjoy!
'Today's going to be a good day.' Twilight thought, and so far she was right. Asides from the strange sleepwalking episode, which she had promptly forgot about while reading A General History Of Equestria, the day was going absolutely perfect. After Twilight had finished reading, she headed downstairs to make herself some breakfast. After eating, Twilight had headed over to Sugar Cube Corner to talk to Pinkie Pie about the congratulations-Fluttershy-for-helping-your-ten-thousandth-animal party, she had been planning. After a few hours of organizing the party, and eating (Pinkie called it "testing") cupcakes, Twilight headed back to the Library. On the way she bumped into Rarity, who asked if Twilight could let her borrow Spike tomorrow, so she could go gem hunting. After telling Rarity she would think about it, Twilight continued back home,simply overjoyed, and not about Spike.
She was excited because of a letter she had gotten from Princess Celestia a few days ago:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
My sister Luna will be heading to the old castle, in the Everfree Forest, in a few days. She will be looking for anything which may still remain there and possible be useful. I was hoping that you could accompany Luna, as I believe that you would enjoy exploring the castle, and it would make Luna happy as well. Who knows, you might find an old tome, or lost artifact there.
Your teacher,
Princess Celestia.
Of course Twilight had accepted, it wasn't every day that you got to explore one of the most famous ruins around. She was simply giddy with the thought of discovering some long lost history, or relic. Well, there was no time to waste, Princess Luna had informed her that they would meet on the edges of the Everfree, then head in.
'Today is going...'
'... to be a good day.' Luna thought, as she lighted down in the ancient courtyard. She could almost picture it, the way it used to look. 'Great majestic halls, grand statues, and...'
Luna shook her head, reminding herself that this wasn't her home anymore, time and the forest had seen to that. But still she had to come back here, she knew that her sister had planned to get her out, instead of just moping about all night, Luna also knew that Celestia had set up the excursion with Twilight Sparkle, to help her become more friendly. 'It will be nice, when I can make friends without Celestia's help.'
Friends? Why would you need those.
"WHO HAST SPOKEN, WE DEMAND THAT THEE SHOW THYSELF"
Oh, Luna ... don't you remember me, we spent so much time together.
Luna shook slightly as she remembered that voice, that cold, vicious voice. The voice that had convinced her to attack Celestia all those years ago.
"You aren't here, you aren't real," Luna whimpered.
Of course I am, the ponies still fear you, they sill hate you, why not come back to me, everything was so much easier then.
The voice seamed so sincere, so compassionate, Luna took a step forward, then stopped.
"N-no, I'm n-not going to go back to you. Ever."
The voice turned cold, So be it.
A dark cloud leaped at Luna, engulfing her. Luna struggled, and got out. Turning around she launched herself into the air, only to fall back down, a glance revealed that her wings were much smaller now, unable to hold herself aloft. So she ran, and everything seemed so much larger, more imposing, more sinister. Luna continued running, driven by a fear she had never felt before. She just had to make it out of the forest, then everything would be fine.
"Now are ya sure, that ya don't need us ta come with you?" Asked Applejack for the tenth time.
"I'm sure, Applejack. I am perfectly capable of looking after myself, and besides Princess Luna will be there, so we'll be completely safe." Twilight was touched by her friends' concern. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash had all shown up to wish their friend good luck, and asked if she wanted them to come. Twilight knew that none of them really wanted to go but still, it was nice that they were showing an interest.
"Well, if you need to, just call for help, and I'll be there in ten seconds fla - oof." Said Rainbow dash, as a small filly ran out of the Everyfree, and right into her.
"What the hay!? Who do you think yo..."
Dash trialled off as she saw that what she had first assumed to be a Unicorn filly, in fact had wings, and a cutie mark, a crescent moon cutie mark.
"Princess Luna? What happened?"
A familiar voice drifted out of the forest.
"Hmph, nothing to worry about why do you ask?"
The mane 6 looked on in shock, as a familiar form stepped out of the forest.
"B-but how? We defeated you..."
"Did you now? Well it seems you didn't do as good of a job as you thought you did." Nightmare Moon threw back her head laughing.
"This is perfect, all the bearers, but none of the Elements."
Nightmare Moon sent a blast of magic that sent them all flying back. Nightmare Moon walked towards the now prone Luna. Twilight, having been able to shield herself at the last second, flung herself in front of the Princess.
"Don't come any closer."
"Oh my, how terrifying, what are you going to do, make me grow a mustache? With out the elements of harmony you can do nothing to stop me."
Well this isn't good.
We have to help.
This is an incredibly delicate situation and we ca...
No, she's right, if Twilight dies we will cease to exist, that's the price for hiding in her head I guess.
It's alright, I'll cover things here, and you three go and help out.
Keeping complete control over this process by yourself? It's practically impossible.
Well that does make him the best candidate.
Alright, we'll go, just try to keep everything under control.
Got it, now hurry up.
"What could you possibly hope to do to defeat me, Nightmare Moon, when I have the powers of a go..."
"Fear." said the voice of a stallion. Nightmare Moon glanced around.
"No, with that much power it probably a Phobia."
"But, it seems that it has been able to absorb a Guilt, how interesting."
Nightmare Moon looked back at Twilight as she realized that the voices were coming from the lavender unicorn.
"What did you say?"
Nightmare Moon was startled as she saw Twilight's eyes, because they weren't hers. Instead they were filled with a dark purple, almost black. Then they changed, radiating a golden light.
"Well I suppose that we are going to have to get rid of you. With one thousand years of fear, hate, and memories to feed you, you are quite bloated."
All present were shocked, for several reasons. First Twilight had a stallions voice, second her eyes changing different colors, third she had just insulted one of the greatest threats Equestria had ever faced.
"W-what are you?"
"Twi? What's going on?"
Twilight smiled, then she was gone. Nightmare Moon cried out as a large silver blade sliced through her. She fell to the ground, and vines grew up around her, holding her in place. Nightmare Moon looked up in terror as Twilight approached with a great blade floating beside her.
"When you see Vice, tell him the Children of Thought say hello."
Nightmare Moon shrieked as the blade rended her to wisps, which faded away in the breeze.
Twilight's friends slowly approached her. The blade faded away, and Twilight turned back to her friends, her eyes back to normal.
"Wha..." was all she was able to get out before she collapsed to the ground, her friends rushing to help her.
Well that went well.
It's been a long time since we had a decent fight.
That fight wasn't decent, it was pathetic.
Now I know you all are enjoying this, but I could use a bit of help here.
The strain pulsing out from the rapidly shifting light caused some small waves of embarrassment from the three others.
Sorry. We'll help now.
So whats the bad news?
Well, I managed to prevent any huge things, but there is one small problem
Which would be what?
Well, we're going to be split in our new bodies.
How split?
Two perfect halves.
Well that's not that ba...
One half will contain all our memories and our current personalities will be the dominant ones. The other half will hold all our powers, and have brand new personalities, befitting their appearance.
So, were going to play "dream teacher" with a bunch of toddlers?
Not completely, if any of us are in serious trouble we'll be able to temporary take over, but not permanently.
Ugh, how long until we meld together again?
That is an excellent question.
Well we might as well make the best of it, you all realize that we are going to teach them right?
And?
Ahhh, I see where this is going, this could be rather enjoyable actually.
Well I hate to interrupt, but we have a scheduled to keep. So let's get back to work.
Twilight woke up in the Ponyville Hospital. 'What happened, there was Nightmare Moon and... Nightmare Moon!' Twilight opened her eyes and glanced to the window, relief flooding through her as she saw the sun shining in. She turned her head to see a very large, pink face.
"She's awake!"
Twilight looked around and saw that all of her friends were there.
"Twi, don't go scaring us like that!"
"Yeah, but that was sooo awesome, how did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Ya mean, ya don't remember?"
"Only that Nightmare Moon was there, then ... nothing."
"Well you beat that meanie good! Though it was a bit freaky with the giant blade thingy, and the crazy glowing eyes, oh, oh, tell me how you did those strange voices, I didn't know you could talk that deep!"
"Calm down Pinkie, what blade, glowing eyes, and voices?"
"Well after Nightmare Moon had sent us flying with that horrid attack, you stood between her and Luna..."
"Luna! How is she, is everything alright?
"Yes, yes, Luna is fine, in fact she left a few hours ago to speak with Princess Celestia. Now where was I ..."
"Ah got this part Rarity. Well you were standin' up to Nightmare Moon when suddenly you started talking in these weird voices. You sounded like a stallion, and when you spoke like that yer eyes would glow gold. There were also two other voices, these ones were mares. One made yer eyes glow really dark, the other had yer eyes glowing a pale green."
"Then you were so awesome. You started dissing Nightmare Moon, and she was all like "Ahhh" and then you were all like "Attack!" then you had this giant blade! Then you went poof, and vanished, then appeared next to Nightmare Moon, then you ripped her apart with the blade, it was sooo cool!"
"You also said something about the "Children of Thought and Vice" any idea of what that was all about?"
'Sorry girls, not a clue."
"Well, we can worry about that later, right now we have to prepare for a Yay-Twilight-Beat-Nightmare-Moon-Again-And-Is-Completely-Fine party!!"
With that the over-exuberant pink pony hopped out of the room.
"We'll let you rest up for the party, alright?"
"Thanks," Twilight yawned, before falling back asleep.
'Pinkie had really outdone herself.' Twilight thought. It was the day after she had gotten out of the Hospital, and last night's party had been huge! Twilight still couldn't believe that Pinkie had made a life-sized cake of them all. Twilight stretched, and got out of bed. A moment later Spike came barreling into the room.
"Uh, Twi, we have a problem."
"What's wrong, Spike?"
"Well, you should see for yourself."
Twilight let herself be led downstairs by Spike. What she saw made her jaw drop. There in the middle of the library were four castles made of books, but that wasn't what shocked Twilight. Running around in-between the castles were hundreds of tiny ponies. Grabbing one with her telekinesis, she looked at it. It was an exact likeness of a guard stallion, made of clay. It had stopped moving when she picked it up. When she put it down it ran off to join the battle. That was what Twilight was seeing, a miniature war in her library. Looking closely she could see that the different teams were doing different things.
Every time one of the clay ponies died it would get up and all the clay would fall off, revealing a eerie skeleton made of stone. These skeletons would gather with one of the armies before returning to battle.
And every so often when one of the clay ponies died there would be a glow around it then it would rise up again, completely fine.
The two other sides were very strange. One had a very small army which would appear around the battlefield and ambush the other armies before disappearing once again. And the last army would just run any which way, attacking far larger groups and somehow winning with very little damage.
Twilight looked at this display of powerful magics for what seemed like an eternity. Then she cautiously took a step into the battleground. At once all the clay ponies stopped and turned to her, Twilight regretted her decision almost immediately. Then they all bowed. The book castle fell apart, revealing four very young ponies. Two female, one a unicorn, the other a pegasus, and two males, both earth-ponies.
The pegasus was a very dark purple, almost a cross between Luna's coat and Twilight's. Her mane and tail were both completely black. On her flank Twilight could see a cutie mark.
'Wait, a cutie mark? Clearly they are all far to young to have cutie marks.'
Looking closer, Twilight saw the pegasus's cutie mark, and shuddered. It was a sideways skull superimposed over a silver blade.
The unicorn was a bright white, with a pale green mane. Her cutie mark was a blooming flower wrapped around a golden tiara.
The first of the two males had a golden coat, as in it was literally metallic, with a slightly duller mane. His cutie mark was very interesting. It was an hourglass partially burred in sand. Around it were Romane numerals from one to twelve.
The last colt had a light brown coat, with a dark orange mane. His cutie mark puzzled Twilight, it was a group of six cubes with dots on them, connected at the corners making a ring.
Twilight cleared her throat, then said, very gently, "Hello there, do you know where your parents are?"
The four young ponies looked around puzzled then all pointed at Twilight and shouted,
"MOMMY!"