SPRING
Spring had always been Lucien's favorite season. Actually being able to see the ground that he walked on again after Winter always made him smile. He just felt more connected to the earth during the season. Even though he lived in a colder part of Earth, he felt more suited to the warmth.
Spring in Equestria was something else to behold though. It was beautiful in the Fall, when he had first arrived, but Spring just made everything seem so much more than it actually was. Green grass, full trees, blue skies, and blooming flowers. It was all so fantastic, he had even been inspired to knock out most of the walls in his house and replace them with glass. Princess Celestia had been kind enough to hire him as the "Part-Time Ministerial Advocater of Advisers of Magical Relativity." The position itself didn't really mean anything, it was just a cover so Celestia could get him a steady influx of bits.
Winter Wrap-Up had been fun too. A day to clean Ponyville of everything Winter. He tried a little bit of everything, even managing to persuade Twilight to lend him her balloon so he could bust some clouds. But his favorite activity by far was dumping the snow off houses and trees.
And there was the singing. Who would have thought that everyone in the town had a singing voice? And he couldn't get over the fact that everyone also mysteriously knew the lyrics, including him. He decided that he would experiment with the "spontaneous musical numbers" that occur every so often. It would definitely require some testing. For science.
At some point after the new year, Twilight and the rest of the girls took a trip up North at the behest of Princess Celestia. Lucien opted to stay out of the adventure that time, so it's needless to say that he was surprised when he felt the massive surge of energy and light show coming from the newly reformed Crystal Kingdom.
Celestia, for whatever reason, decided to let the one they called Discord out of his petrification so the girls could make friends with him. Lucien knew it had "bad idea" written all over it, but decided to just let them do their own thing. Sure, he was there to say hi initially, but Discord seemed strangely averse to interacting with him. Maybe it was just the way their magic mixed or something, Chaos magic and Earth's magic never really got along well, and Lucien thought Chaos magic was bullshit anyway. Long story short, Discord tried to pull some funny business and Fluttershy wouldn't have any of it so they all basically became friends. Whatever, he wasn't gonna question it.
And then Twilight grew wings shortly after that.
Just after Winter Wrap Up, Ponyville went through a huge magical accident. Cutie marks were swapped, the sky was in checkers, and animals ran loose. Naturally, Lucien slept through everything, having been up for five days straight before the event. He did get up when Rainbow Dash shattered one of his windows and told him that they vaporized Twilight. Luckily she reappeared with Princess Celestia just as he and Dash were running back into town.
So she became a princess. There was a coronation ceremony and everything. Rarity made him a tuxedo for the occasion, something that he took a great liking to. Many tears were shed, or, in Shining Armor's case, liquid pride. Anyway, the whole princess thing didn't change all that much their lives, besides giving Twilight the ability to fly. Even if she was terrible at it.
As for Ironwing, Lucien was taking his own advice and waiting. Skyline Corporation, Ironwing's company, wasn't doing anything. Lucien, on the other hand, was spending all his time at the library, both visiting Twilight and doing research with her. The two held a special friendship, both having so much in common. Lucien, just like Twilight, spent a large amount of his earlier years without companionship besides that found within the covers of books. So, naturally, when they studied together, it was usually dead silent.
So, as per the usual arrangement, the two sat across from each other at the dining table in the kitchen of the library. No noise was heard, besides the occasional rustle of a page turning. It was soothing to Lucien. The noises of a library always calmed him down.
They calmed him down so much, in fact, that he just quietly and quickly drifted off to sleep.
His eyes flicked open. He let out a groan as he took into account the darkness that surrounded him. A lone light shone down overhead. "Alright?! What is it this time?!" he shouted to the sky. "Can't I just have a little peace?!"
The ground sped in from behind him and he floated down to the surface. It was a dark colored cobblestone street. Buildings erupted from the unseen below, followed by several lampposts and street signs that were spaced far apart. The sky above him faded from black to auburn, and clouds swirled furiously around in wide circles, the motions slightly blurring. Off in the far distance two triangular land masses smashed together and formed a massive mountain. As a finishing touch to the landscape, a countless amount of stone chunks flew in from the distance and slammed into place to form a broken castle.
Everything shifted a few feet forward suddenly, causing him to stumble. The edges of the building and the streets became more refined and darker. The color balance shifted to make everything look richer, then tinging it all with red slightly. As he looked down the long street, several buildings blew outward in an explosion of a black substance, then froze and flew back from where they came, albeit in slightly different shapes.
Several archways pressed out of the buildings and formed bridges to nowhere. Arching spires and impossible angles loomed into the sky, twisted markings present on the flags that flapped violently in an unseen wind. Finally, stains of a black, inky substance splattered into existence randomly down the street and on the walls of the buildings.
Lucien felt his sword pressing down on his back and he drew it, surprised that he had it. He began walking forward, in the direction of the castle in the distance. "It hasn't been too long since I was here. A couple months, at best. Why now?" he asked the sky.
As he walked he examined his surroundings more closely. The buildings seemed familiar in a way, and they were very unlike any he had seen on Earth. They were shaped oddly, not conforming to a common shape like those found in a city. The tops of some of them ended in spires that came to a sharp point, where some had flags flying. He looked to his right and noticed a mangled stature. He took a closer look and noticed that it seemed to form a pegasus.
"I'm in Canterlot," he said, the words weighing down on him slightly. Then, with a new sense of purpose, he took off down the street in a light jog. He flinched as a building to his left suddenly shot out a few feet towards him.
He passed a few alleys peacefully. Looking down a couple, he noticed that they were blocked by seemingly locked gates. After walking a few feet past one such alleyway, the ground began to shake. Panicked slightly, he looked down to see that cracks were forming in the street he was walking on. "Shit!" he yelled as the ground started to give way. He stumbled backward before turning and running.
The ground erupted into many separate chunks of street, each part a different size and height. The piece he was standing on flew up into the air a few feet, just a bit higher than the others around him. He looked behind his shoulder to see that other chunks of street, further down, were flying straight into the abyss below him. He quickly snapped his head back around and ran to the end of his floating block.
He jumped off, aiming for a piece of street just near him. He landed hard and kept running. He could hear the ground rapidly disappearing behind him, the sound of stone grinding on stone. He jumped several more small gaps and looked to his left. The alley that he had passed by a minute before was there, the ground stable-looking. Making a snap decision, he changed his direction to run across the street.
The ground that he had leapt off a few seconds before disappeared downward. Desperately, Lucien jumped as far as he could, hoping to land safely. A swirling auburn abyss loomed below him, threatening to swallow him up and spit him out of his dream. Thinking fast, he focused energy to the bottoms of his feet and then released it, squeaking out a second jump to finish bridging the gap.
He felt around on his back to make sure his sword had stayed on. His hand knocked against the handle and he let it drop. Then he checked his shoulder guard to make sure it was still strapped on tightly. It was. He was good to go.
He looked forward. The gate suddenly swung open violently, breaking its top hinge and hanging lopsided. "Nice to see that I'm invited to the party," he remarked.
He walked down the alley at a quick pace, already gearing to leave as soon as possible. It was a good opportunity to see glimpses of possible futures, but they often raised more questions than provided answers. Given the way he spent his last time dreaming, he was expecting quite a fight.
The alley opened up into a courtyard. The grass had shriveled up and died long ago, apparently. The field was slate gray, and the blades crumpled into ashes as he made his way across. His eyes flicked around nervously, expecting an ambush.
Which was why it was no surprise in the slightest when an ambush occurred. Four ink blots appeared on the ground in a loose semi-circle around him. Moments after, twisted monsters sprang up or crawled out of the black depths. Two of them were wearing cerulean china masks with nothing poking through but a mouth filled with jagged teeth. Each wielded a rather large stained and rusty saw-tooth blade that was attached to their arm through a complex series of gears and chains.
The other two had white porcelain masks, both with some cracks that leaked out black blood. Their knees bent inward, towards each other, and they both wielded gleaming straight machetes, like over-sized razor blades, attached to their arms like the saw-toothed blades were on the other monsters.
Lucien pulled out his sword. "Let's dance," he said with a wicked grin.
The monsters charged him. Not one to stand around, he morphed Balance into Harmony and quickly twisted his body to send the chakrams flying from left to right. They swept across the chests of the monsters, leaving slight gashes in their thin armor. He caught them and then spun in a full circle, sending the weapons in an orbit around him. They slashed around his enemies multiple times, battering them like they were caught in a storm.
As soon as they returned to his hands, he morphed them into Chaos. He used his momentum to bring the massive hammer around to knock into the first two monsters on his left, sending them flying backward. He swung Chaos up and then smashed directly down onto the head of the next monster in line, destroying it completely.
He noticed the final one preparing for an attack, but Lucien was faster. He morphed Chaos back into Harmony, then he sent the two chakrams slicing across the monster's sides. When they returned, he changed them into Balance to deliver a final sweeping blow that cut diagonally starting from his bottom right. The monster split into two halves before fading into nothing.
He heard motion behind him and brought his sword up quickly to block the saw-tooth blade that was about to lop off his head. Metal clanged together and sparks flew as the blades ground against each other. To break the lock, Lucien kicked the monster, causing it to stumble backward.
As that one recovered, he spotted the other one he had knocked back with Chaos. It was attempting to limp back to where he was standing. Wishing to speed up the process, he threw one of his chakrams. It stuck firmly in its chest, and Lucien called it back to him, causing the monster to fly along with it.
He caught the chakram in one hand and punched its face with the other. While it was stunned, he put one foot on it to yank out the chakram embedded in its chest. It came loose with a sickening plop, and he slashed Balance through its neck, severing it neatly.
The other monster had gotten back up and was eyeing him cautiously. It was one of the ones with a cerulean mask and creepy gnarled teeth. They gnashed in anticipation, but Lucien would have none of that. He rushed it with Chaos in his hands, readying an attack. The creature saw this and tried to block the incoming assault, but Lucien broke through it like the blade was made of paper.
His first strike broke the block, causing it to stagger back a step. The next blow came as a reverse attack, hammering it back a few steps. As a final move to end the combo, he spun around, using the full power of his momentum to send the monster flying from the end of his hammer.
It dissipated as it flew away, leaving nothing but scraps of darkness that gave evidence to its path through the sky.
He spent the next couple of minutes running through the streets of the fractured Canterlot. More than once did he have to fight a few monsters that crawled out of whatever darkness existed in the nightmare. He was getting close to the castle now, just a few blocks away from the front gate and the courtyard it stood in.
He slowed down to a light jog as the courtyard came into sight. It was in the shape of a semicircle, the tall walls forming the straight edge, but the gate was open. He walked to the center and drew his sword. "Boss fight..." he muttered expectantly. Small spires of shimmering black crystal jutted up haphazardly through the cobblestone ground, effectively cutting off any escape routes. The gates sudden slammed shut and a chain wrapped its way through the bars.
The ground shook directly beneath him. He stumbled, but caught himself, then backpedaled a good few feet. A roar echoed in his ears, and he looked around for the source. His eyes caught motion and they snapped to the source. The street he had been standing on just a few seconds before were cracking and trembling violently. They began to rise into the air in a rounded shape, forming something. Black fluids dripped down from the uppermost stone, spilling through the cracks in the stone and giving the beast shape.
Lucien looked on in horror as he saw what was forming. More and more cobblestones left the ground and joined on to help the creature gain a body. It grew larger and larger, the surrounding buildings contributing their foundation to aid the monstrosity.
Eventually the beast stopped growing. It rumbled for a few moments before turning its head-thing to look directly at Lucien and letting loose an ear-shattering roar.
Lucien's eyes grew wide and his arms went limp. The Behemoth was almost as tall as Canterlot Castle, and built just as thick as well. He had never faced an enemy of this caliber alone, ever.
Cracks ran along its face, making a macabre grin. It raised a club-like fist slowly into the air, then let it drop directly onto the practically catatonic Lucien.
But Lucien wasn't there anymore. He rolled away at the last possible second and sprinted as fast as he could to the left of the Behemoth. He spared a look to the right to see that its fist had raised up to reveal a heavily dented ground. The creature roared in anger and swept its arm across the ground towards Lucien.
Reacting quickly, he jumped straight up into the air, twisting his body backward. The arm rushed by below him, close enough that he could feel the air on his face.
He landed with his boots on the ground firmly. The Behemoth was facing him again, scowling angrily as it prepared for its next attack.
It roared at Lucien.
Lucien roared back.
It reared its other arm back for a punch-like move. Lucien sheathed his sword and got ready to dodge. The club-like hand rushed at him head on, and he jumped again. Its fist slammed into the building behind him and stuck there for a moment. Taking his advantage, Lucien landed on the arm and sprinted up the surface.
He sent Harmony flying at the Behemoth's face several times, but it didn't appear to be doing any damage. Upon reaching the shoulder, already several stories up, he switched to Chaos and hefted it up on his shoulder. The beast freed its arm with a final jerk, just in time for Lucien to slam his hammer directly into its face.
It roared in pain and stumbled backward a bit. Lucien lost his balance but tried to regain it by lowering his body, which is why he never saw the hand coming.
It grabbed him firmly, squeezing the air out off his lungs. He struggled as it brought him close to its face. A deep rumbling noise echoed from within the Behemoth, and the cracks spread into a grin on its face again. There was a smooth surface where its eyes would be, but Lucien knew it could see him.
Lucien stopped his motions and glared into its face fearlessly.
The Behemoth, in response, reared its arm up, then threw Lucien straight into the ground.
He slammed into the surface, sinking a few feet into the rocks and dirt. He coughed once, then tried to roll over. He heard stones grinding on stones and he looked up to see the Behemoth's club-hand hovering above the hole he was in. "Shit," he croaked.
It slammed down and everything was dark.
His vision lightened slowly, turning to a dark gray. His time in the dream was over, and he had failed. He knew that he wouldn't get the full vision that usually came with his awakening.
Static broke in, signaling the beginning of the slideshow.
The first picture was something he recognized after a moment. It was the logo of the Skyline Corporation, Ironwing's company. But as the seconds ticked on, he noticed a very faint image overlaid in the background. It was just an outline, whatever it was. He mentally looked closer to try to make it out. It seemed to him to be an upside-down heart...
A spade, he realized. There was a spade in the background.
Before he had a chance to ponder the connection, the picture faded into static. Flecks of gray and black danced along his vision before beginning to congeal into vague shapes. Whatever the next picture was, it was colored darkly. Moments passed by and the vision cleared up more.
He could see clouds, of that he was certain. But there was also many more sharper shapes outline around them. He guessed that the picture was of something during night. But wait, he could see specks of orange light fading in and out around the image. After another few seconds, he could tell just what it was.
It was Cloudsdale in flames.