~Raze's Journey Chapter 19~
Celestia had sat in the room for most of the night and far into the morning when she had moved her sun into the sky. All had been quiet for a while, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was happening. That’s when she heard hoofsteps coming from down the hall.
Celestia immediately stood onto her own hoofs and went for the door only for it to open on it’s own. A few guards clad in armor stood in front of her with very serious faces.
“Princess! There has been a massive amount of emergency letters being sent by magic just this morning! The mail room had went through them all and they seem to be reporting massive attacks on guard outposts all over Equestria leading in a straight line toward Canterlot!” The First Guard exclaimed to her.
Celestia nodded and quickly assumed her leadership role, “Okay, enough panicking. Get the Elements of Harmony bearers and tell them to meet me in the main hall! I’ll have somepony else get my student to come back! Also, get Luna up and prepare the castle’s defensive line!”
The guards nodded and ran off leaving one behind. He walked to reveal himself as being Vladimir.
Celestia noted his presence and immediately walked over to him, “I need you to rally a slightly smaller force of guards! Evacuate the city of Canterlot and then meet all of us back here!”
Vladimir smiled, “Of course, Princess!”
He opened his wings and flapped hard into the air. He then sped off down the hall to gather his fellow guardsponies. Celestia teleported out of the room with a flash of light.
Octavia slept all too well, she snuggled her teddy bear and was dreaming of several dangerous missions that she had done over the past few weeks. All was quiet until a bright light woke her up.
There are several ways to react, but Octavia was different. She reached under her pillow and got the bow on quickly and activated her powers to face down this new foe only for her to see Celestia staring at her with a small frown on her face.
“Princess, pardon me for asking, but why are you here?” Octavia asked hesitantly.
Princess Celestia didn’t drop her frown as she went over to the window and looked outside, “There have been many attacks on all of the guard posts outside of the canterlot area and the line the attacks are going will lead to Canterlot soon enough.”
Octavia gasped, “Really? Well, what do you need, Princess? I’m here for you!”
Celestia turned to Octavia, “I need you to bring Twilight back, we’re going to need her for this fight and I’m sure that she’s gotten ahold of her latent abilities within the short time given to her. Can you get her here?”
Octavia nodded with determination, “Of course, Princess!”
Celestia smiled, “Thank-you, Octavia.”
Octavia turned to leave, but then she was stopped by Celestia clearing her throat. She turned back to see Celestia holding her teddy bear in golden magic. She blushed in embarrassment as Celestia giggled.
“I can see that you hold onto mementos just as I do, I remmber when I got this for you when you were just a little filly. I’m glad to see it in such good shape.” Celestia said to Octavia who smiled.
“I will always hold onto the past, but I must go forward with my future. You always told me to keep going in the face of adversity and I hope to carry out that till the end.” Octavia finished as she closed the door behind her leaving Celestia to hold the teddy bear all on her lonesome.
Twilight panted in exhaustion and collapsed on the ground, ‘That’s it, my magic is as strong as it can be for now… I need to try and get up...’
Twilight tried to roll over, but failed to move even that much, 'I guess I know how Applejack feels when she's done apple bucking...'
Twilight laid under the sunlight of the early morning and she wondered, ‘Will I even make it back?’
That’s when some hoofsteps were heard coming from her left. Twilight managed to turn her head and saw a gray mare she had known since her fillyhood.
“Octavia! Le-! Owww!” Twilight felt her body ache while trying to move and immediately stopped herself.
“Please don’t move, it seems like you’re in pain. What have you been doing out here, Twilight?” Octavia asked her colleague.
“Training my new ascended magic, it’s been really tough… But I do have something that I got from a friend of mine and it should heal me. It’s in my saddlebags over there.” Twilight said while nudging in the item’s direction.
Octavia nodded and went for the bag. She started rummaging through it, but didn’t find anything, but a green bean, books, and a pack of daisy sandwiches.
“Ummm… Twilight?” Octavia questioned her.
“Yes, Octavia?” Twilight said to her.
“I don’t see any healing items in this bag.” Octavia said to Twilight.
“It’s a green bean!” Twilight exclaimed as she jerked from the pain her body was going through at the moment.
“Oh, alright! Got it!” Octavia immediately went over to Twilight and dropped it into her mouth.
‘Actually, I probably should have asked her before doing that...’ Octavia saw Twilight chew it and swallow before she could say anything.
Suddenly, her body seemed to pump up and Twilight rolled over to stand tall once again, “Thanks, Octavia! I just needed that boost!”
“You’re welcome, Twilight.” Octavia said as Twilight mved to get her saddlebags.
“Has anything happened in Canterlot while I’ve been here?” Twilight asked all of a sudden.
Octavia nodded, “Celestia sent me to find and tell you of the current situation. A mysterious creature has attacked every guard post and upon closer inspection, the attacked areas are leading straight to Canterlot.”
Twilight gasped, “Then we need to hurry back now!” She slung her saddlebags onto her back and quickly looked over at Octavia.
“Put a hoof on my shoulder.” Twilight said as Octavia did just that.
They disappeared in a flash of light and the forest was quiet once more.
An explosion sounded off as fire and smoke spread throughout the area. The bodies of guards littered the ground as a lone figure stepped out of the fire. He was carrying a dead body in one hand and a golden sword in the other.
Mythic looked up at the Foal Mountains ahead and he smiled with glee, “Oh Celestia, I could have taken a higher route, but this is the fun way.”
Mythic dropped the body and opened his wings only to have multiple magical auras surround them all at once, “This is new.”
Guards began charging and stood all around the mysterious creature.
One stepped forward, “We got word that you’d be heading this way! So we’ve set up an ambush just for you… Whatever you are! Now surrender, or we’ll be forced to execute you!”
Mythic frowned, “Really? You’ll keep me alive if I “give up”? The guards in this time are PATHETIC!”
Mythic broke the spells with his own magical might and charged the one who had dared speak to him in such a feeble tone. He grabbed the guard by his throat and slammed him into the ground.
“In my time, we killed those who stood against us! Celestia has been growing soft since that time, to think that only three centuries would be all it took…” Mythic trailed off while simultaneously crushing the guard’s throat inward.
“I’ll have to show her the error of her ways.” Mythic said as the guards started retreating.
The guards began to gallop away as Mythic’s eyes started glowing. Earth began to rise up and pile together as trees joined the rubble. Then he sent it at the force like a gigantic wave that swallowed whatever happened to be beneath it.
Guards were caught up to easily and crushed underneath the rocky flowing tomb. Shattering bones and yells for help sounded out, but nopony would gallop back despite them being brothers in arms. The ones who didn’t come back were killed off by the attack anyway.
Once Mythic felt he had satisfied himself, he lifted the now titanic landmass into the sky and crushed it down into a tiny, but very dense ball. He then dropped it. When the ball hit the ground, a loud explosion of dust and earth blasted into the air.
Mythic smiled, ‘I seem to be even stronger than I had been when she betrayed me, this is more than I could ever ask for!’
He spread his wings and flapped them. One flap sent him far into the sky as he continued his speedy arrival towards the castle in the distance.
‘Fate can only be prolonged for so long...’
~Inside the Royal Hall~
Celestia and Luna sat upon their respective thrones while a small group of ponies sat gathered in the hall.
The few elements in the room were Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, but Twilight hadn’t showed up yet. Celestia had told them she would arrive soon and not to worry for their safety as she would be there to protect them.
Fluttershy despite hearing that was now panicking a bit, but nopony seemed to hear her due to the quietness of her panicky state. Rarity was slightly better off than Fluttershy, but her thoughts conitnued to turn to the worst when hearing of the crimes that were being committed by the creature getting closer to their location.
Pinkie was trying to make everyone feel better, but was not getting any of the responses she wanted so desperately. Everypony was far too serious and while that is an appropriate response, she wanted to at least make them feel like they were going to win this fight.
“Hey! Come on everypony! We need to keep up our spirits! All this gloom and doom isn’t going to help us when we have to fight!” Pinkie said in her most manageable happy and serious voice.
“As much as I’d love to agree, Darling. I can’t say that what I’ve heard about this creature is the best thing to keep my spirits up.” Rarity said to Pinkie who frowned.
Fluttershy whimpered and hid her face behind her mane.
Celestia and Luna conversed quietly while waiting for either Twilight to arrive or for the alternative.
Celestia looked around, ‘It feels odd, I know that I was warned, but I never thought that it could be this horrible…’ He mind flashed back the memories that of what the dragon had said to her.
“You must find the six Dragon Balls that remain in your world! Be warned though, I sense danger ahead for whomever you send on this journey.”
“What do you mean? What danger?!” Celestia asked Shenron in deep worry.
“I cannot tell you! But I will inform you that it is a mistake that you made in the past!” Shenron exclaimed deeply.
Celestia tried to go through her memories, but an odd haze stopped her from going through memories from at least three hundred years back.
‘What’s wrong with my mind?’ Celestia questioned herself while feeling something tap her right front shoulder.
“Tia? What dost thou think of?” Luna asked the seemingly distraught sun bringer.
Celestia’s eyes widened at that and she shook her head, “Err… Nothing is wrong, Luna. Just some bad tea from earlier, I’m sure of it.”
Luna arched an eye at that, “Art thou truly sure? Dost thou lie to hide something?” She questioned her sister who continued to try and avoid looking at her directly.
“I’m not sure what I’m hiding, but it’s not important. We need to focus on the present situation." Celestia said to her sister.
The doors at the beginning of the hall opened and everypony inside the room turned to look only to see Rainbow Dash with lots of bandages covering her body. Applejack stood beside her with a few bandages covering her torso.
“Rainbow Dash?! Why is your plot out of bed?!” Pinkie asked while galloping toward the rainbow maned pegasus.
Rainbow smiled, “Hey! you know we wouldn’t let everyone face a monster without us!”
Applejack nodded, “We want to help, so we had to knock out the nurse, but she should be jus fine! Well… after she rests fer a few days an all…”
“You know, honesty might be what you are, but there’s a time and a place for all this to come out.” Rainbow deadpanned as Applejack blushed a bit.
“Heheh, Sorry bout that.” Applejack said while turning away slightly.
Rainbow Dash smirked, “It’s alright, Ma.”
Applejack frowned, “Should I get mah rope?”
Rainbow Dash could have said sure, but she decided against it, “Nah, besides, we have more important things to deal with. Has that evil thing the nurses kept talking about showed up yet?”
Celestia shook her head, “No, be we have reason to believe that it’s not far off from us. Our castle walls have defenses set up all around it’s perimeters, so we should be relatively safe here.”
Luna nodded and got up, “We will see if there have been any new developments outside.” Luna began to charge magic in her horn, but turned to her sister before she made the final jump.
“Be careful, Tia…” Luna was gone in a flash and all was silent for a second.
Celestia ruffled her wings at the sudden chill that had just passed through her bones, ‘Twilight, where are you?’
Twilight galloped through the streets of Canterlot while following Octavia. Their hooves kicked up dust as they ran through the deserted mountainside city.
“You’d think we would have gotten to the castle by now since the streets aren’t filled up by any ponies!” Twilight said to Octavia.
Octavia smiled, “This city is much bigger when you’re in a hurry! Nopony knows whether it’s an enchantment by Celestia or if it’s their own minds, but we should be there in fifteen minutes or so! Just keep up with me!” She finished while making herself go a bit faster.
Twilight sped up while watching the the sky for any sign of danger, “That’s different! I’ve never really heard of that befo-” A loud explosion was heard which shook the ground around them.
Octavia stopped in front of her causing Twilight to crash into her. They hit the ground subsequently in a small pile up.
Mythic walked through the rubble of the now destroyed wall, “That didn’t last long…”
Small areas were lit up with fire as he continued past corpses of troops who hadn’t made it. Each step accentuated a crunch as wood and stone would break underneath him. Mythic stopped and looked around for a second.
‘What’s that sou-’
Luna landed before him, “WHAT HAVE THOU DONE?!”
Mythic’s eyes widened, “Nightmare Moon? I thought you were serving a sentence on the Moon...”
Luna stepped forward, “We ar-”
“But if you aren’t serving your sentence, then you must be here for revenge! Well, why not join me, Nightmare Moon?! We will kill your sister together! What do you say?!” Mythic exclaimed to the confused Luna.
“What dost thou speak of? We are not Nightmare Moon!” Luna said to the creature.
“You aren’t Nightmare Moon? But how are you an alicorn?!” Mythic questioned back.
“Wel- Wait! THAT DOST MATTER! WE ARE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT AND YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR INTRUSION ON OUR CASTLE!” Luna bellowed as Mythic raised his eyebrow.
“But wasn’t Nightm-” A large blast of magic shot from Luna’s horn and hit Mythic causing him to fly off the side of the cliff.
Electricity crackled off Luna’s horn as raised her head to see that her attack had taken the rubble along with the corpses and thrown them off the side with the creature.
‘He dost not seem as strong as they said he would be...’ Luna thought to herself.
Despite that lingering thought, she opened her wings and shot into the sky.
Mythic fell through the air while still being slightly confused until he remembered that he did have wings. A brief golden light glowed around him and wings spread out from his special armor. With a flap of these angelic wings, he blasted back into the sky.
‘So she’s not looking for revenge after all and I never caught her name… Oh well, I guess it’s time to do this all over again…’ Mythic thought while flying back to his target only to be interrupted yet again by the “Princess of the Night”.
“We are surprised that you actually survived our attack!” Luna said to the slightly annoyed creature.
“Don’t be surprised, I’ve not started truly fighting yet! Your guards found that out the hard way, just ike every othe-” A blast of powerful magic zapped by him as he moved away from said attack.
“Ah, Feisty. That works too! I will enjoy making you see the error of your ways!” Mythic said while flying at her.
Just as he was to collide with her, she vanished in a pop of blue light. Luna appeared on his other side and fired off several magical attacks which bounced off a golden force field. Mythic made several balls of magical energy sent them at Luna.
Luna activated her magic while preparing a teleportation spell, but then electricity hit her horn. The spell broke to pieces instantly as the lightning transferred from her horn to her body in seconds. The balls of electricity continued holding her body while the lightning grew in strength.
Mythic drew his sword, “I suppose that this will be it then. I hope that you enjoy your afterli- AGGGGHHHH!”
Mythic felt charred slightly, but his ego was bruised far more than that, ‘What was that?!”
Mythic turned around only to see a massive thundercloud perched above him. He also saw multiple members of the night guard flying around and adding smaller clouds to it.
Suddenly, He felt a power magical force encompass his body. He tried escaping, but the force kept his body snapped together.
“So, you escaped after all!” Mythic said while not able to face his enemy.
“What did thou think wouldst happen? We are not inept in magic and thou shall soon see the errors of thou’s ways! Art thou capable of living through this storm of our guards making?! We shall see.” Luna laughed to herself while increasing her efforts of holding Mythic.
She felt more magic begin to bolster her powers and saw several unicorns standing on a unbroken part of the wall. All of them were holding Mythic.
He tried struggling once again, “Damn! Once I get out of this, you will pay!”
The entirety of the bat pony and pegasi guards flew atop the cloud. The cloud seemed to be floating downward because of the great mass of all the pegasi on top of the gigantic monstrosity.
Mythic looked upward one last while gathering magic into all the parts of his body as the entire troop made one jump into the sky and then crashed down onto the cloud. Mythic felt his entire body light up with an intense searing pain.
The entire area was alight with a massive thunderbolt that crashed into the ground below causing a massive upheaval of earth to blast into the sky as the entire area became magnetized. Smoke rose into the air around Luna and the guards.
All was quiet after the attack. Blue light shimmered off every stone with sparks of blue electricity making a large light show for all of the guard to see.
Luna decided that she’d had enough and flapped her wings to move out all the smoke. Finally with the whole area cleared out and the lights from the stones shining bright. They had a clear view of the area.
Luna couldn’t feel any signs of magic in any parts of the large chasm below, but then she saw a yellow light appearing beside her body. She turned to her side and saw Mythic very much alive.
“Nice trick!” He said while smashing his hand into the side of her neck.
The magic powering his attack knocked Luna out instantly which made her body slump and begin to descend into the pit of thunderbolts below them. Mythic was tempted to go after her, but knew that he should stick to his original plan.
"Time for a few revelations!” Mythic moved his arm in a sweeping motion at the cloud blasted apart from up underneath the pegasi.
They recovered quickly and flew at him with mini blades held in their jaws, but Mythic took out his own blade. With a glow of golden power and a swing to boot, they’re weapons disappeared from their mouths.
Confused and bewildered by the spectacle, the pegasi were captured inside of a golden bubble of magic, “Well, I suppose that I’ll make quick work of yo-”
Another force of magic entangled itself with his own causing the golden bubble to break apart with a greater force than Mythic had thought that she was capable of.
“You certainly took your time, Celestia!” Mythic yelled out to the alabaster alicorn that flapped her wings in midair behind him.
“I’m not sure how you know me, but I’d had enough of watching you make quick work of my guards and my Sister…” Celestia said with a slight degree of anger tinting her voice.
Mythic turned to her with a small frown upon his face, “And you’re even denying my existence…”
Celestia frowned a little bit more than she already was, “What do you mean by that?!”
“You’re going to find out exactly what I mean!” Mythic leapt at her while brandishing his blade as Celestia powered up a shield to surround herself.
His sword sliced into the barrier and even broke through a part of it. The sword was stuck, but Celestia couldn’t seem to take it away with her magic.
“You were always fast on the draw, but can you keep going like that, Tia?!” Mythic exclaimed while ripping his sword out of the barrier and returning to his spot in the air.
Celestia’s horn flared up and a arcane blade appeared with a powerful crackle she swung it to the right with fire seemingly burning off the weapon before pointing it in Mythic’s direction. Mythic returned it by pointing his golden blade right back at her.
“I’ll defeat you!” Celestia yelled at the charging Mythic.
They clashed with blinding results! The air seemed to turn into billions of razors picking up the debris around the area.
~Inside the Castle~
Rainbow Dash was quite angry at the fact that her friends and herself had been ordered to stay inside the castle, “We should be out there! Me and Applejack can handle the situation just fine!”
Fluttershy frowned, “B- but… Ummm… It’s dangerous out there, Rainbow.”
“Dangerous? I’m Rainbow Danger Dash! Nothing scares me!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed to her friend.
Applejack nodded, “Even though Ah can understand where yer coming from Sugarcube, ah still think that we could help Celestia!”
Pinkie jumped up with a quick nod, “YEAH! Rainbow Dash and Applejack both have those really awesome powers now! There’s no way they couldn’t help her out!”
“Darling, I think you’re forgetting something. Didn’t Applejack go a little over the top when she got these new abilities?” Rarity asked Pinkie.
“Oh… Right. Applejack did unscrew her cap a bit…” Pinkie finished while wearing a small frown.
Applejack was about to argue when the doors were blasted open to the room they were in. Walking from out of the dust cloud formed from the doors hitting the ground was Twilight Sparkle and Octavia.
Pinkie immediately shot toward Octavia and wrapped her into a crushing hug, “Tavi! How have you been sis?!”
Octavia gasped, “Please! Pinkie, let go!”
Pinkie immediately let go of her, “Sorry…”
“It’s alright, but I have missed you too, Pinkie.” Octavia finished with a small smile.
Pinkie reached in for another hug, but was stopped by Octavia, “Let’s wait for the next one, Pinkie?”
“Okay!” Pinkie said as the other part of the mane six along with Octavia and Pinkie gathered with Twilight.
Twilight looked around, “Okay, we’re all here! I just saw Celestia, but she seems to be handling that thing just fine! We need to come up with a plan to help her out though!”
Rainbow Dash smirked, “Aw yeah! This is just what we’ve been needing! Another alicorn to turn the tide!”
Applejack was definitely interested now, “Yeehaw! What’s the plan, Sugarcube?!”
Twilight smiled, “Alright, this is the plan…” She trailed off while bringing them all closer into a smaller circle.
~End of the Part Three~