//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: News and Studies // Story: Worlds Intertwined // by Wannabe Scholar //------------------------------// “Your highness, your highness!” From her throne, Celestia gazed at one of her royal guards running into the chamber. “Have they found it?” she asked. “Yes… they have,” the guard answered after breathing for a moment. “Two of Princess Luna’s guards arrived to find the disturbance. According to their reports, it was some kind of… carriage, to best describe.” “And the Elements?” Celestia continued as she stored that bit of information away. “The guards reported to have met them at the scene,” “They arrived before the guards did and were sent back to Ponyville to rest. There was no sign of any harm on them.” Celestia did not show it, but she was relieved to know the Elements were safe. Now, to worry about the task at hand… “Send another squadron of guards,” the alicorn princess ordered. “They’re to set up a perimeter around the area and have another to will be sent to retrieve this ‘carriage.’” “Yes your highness,” the guard bowed and took his leave. Just as the guard exited and doors closed behind him, Celestia saw a small green trail of dragon fire entered the throne room. It swirled towards the sun princess and with a flash, a scroll popped in front of her. The yellow magic grabbed the scroll and unrolled it to reveal Spike’s handwriting, which Celestia quickly read. "Dear Princess Celestia, I am to report that my friends and I have discovered the disturbance. Apparently, some kind of craft crashed in the Everfree Forest. We also found some things near the craft. Among the things we found, one was strange garments that were badly torn up. We also found a metal limb with the strange garments. It looks like a minotaur’s arm, but it has five fingers instead of four. I can’t be sure for what creature has such an arm. We found something as well. There was a strange cylinder with the garments. We soon found it was some kind of weapon when Pinkie accidentally turned it on. A yellow blade came out and it can burn whatever it touches. Nopony was hurt, fortunately. Rainbow Dash calls it a laser sword. It’s completely incorrect, but I don’t know what else to call it." “Laser sword?” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Could she mean…” Cold realization halted the princess’ sentence in its place. What she just read sounded too familiar to not recognize it. But there was no way it could be that? Could it? Celestia looked down and continued reading. "There is one final thing. Spike and I found some kind of object not too far from the clothes. It’s a small object shaped like a pyramid with strange symbols on it, and there’s a crystal in the center. I’m afraid I can’t figure out what it is or what it does. That’s all I have to report. I will update you as soon as I learn more. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." The yellow magic around the letter dissipated, letting it loftily drop to the floor. Celestia’s face was pure surprise, eyes widen and mouth slightly open as she whispered, “It just can’t be. It just can’t…” Recent events told the princess otherwise. First, there was that presence she and Luna sensed some hours ago. Then, there was that strange craft found in the Everfree Forest. Twilight’s letter only added on the princess’ suspicions. Now, Celestia had to find out. She needed to know if her suspicions were true. “Guard!” the sun princess called and a guard entered. “Prepare my chariot and get my sister! We’re leaving!” Rainbow Dash let out an impatient sigh and slumped on the floor of Twilight’s library. She turned to the other Elements of Harmony sitting with her and asked, “So how much longer do you think it will take?” None of them said anything, save for Spike who was walking with a tray of drinks. “Well, it is Twilight, so it’s going to go on for a while. Maybe even hours.” He set the tray down in front of the five mares. “Here you go.” “Thank you Spike,” said Rarity as she took her cup of tea. Applejack took her own cup and then looked to Twilight. “She’d been like this ever since we got back,” she agreed. “And all of Ponyville’s gone back to sleep by now.” All eyes went to the unicorn at her desk, where she had been since they returned from the Everfree Forest. They could not see her face as Twilight buried it in a journal, where she jotted notes on the strange objects they found, which were placed on front of her. As Twilight continued to jot notes in her journal, Fluttershy worried, “I hope she doesn't go on for too long. She might exhaust herself.” “It’s Twilight,” Rainbow said with much confidence. “She’ll be fine.” Rarity thought otherwise. “I don’t know. Ever since we got back, she seems to be more…” she paused to find the appropriate word, “…well, studious than usual.” “Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in. “It’s almost like that time she met her future self.” Spike inwardly winced, remembering the dilemma caused Twilight to worry over nothing and left him with an aching stomach full of ice cream. Applejack glanced back to Twilight. “Uh Twilight?” It went unheard as Twilight continued writing in her journal. “Twi'?” Again, nothing. An impatient Dash flew up and called out, “Hey, Twilight!” causing Twilight to almost jump and drop her book. Twilight whirled her glaring eyes to the pegasus. “Rainbow…” Before Twilight could say anything, Pinkie asked, “Did you find anything?” “Nothing,” she sighed, more out of frustration than anger. “I’ve been looking at that thing for half an hour now, and I still haven’t come up with anything!” “We’ve only just found them, dear,” said Rarity. “You can’t expect to find everything, immediately.” “I guess,” Twilight reluctantly relented, turning back around. Scattered all over Twilight’s desk were the four objects. The metal cylinder was on the left and beside it was the strange garment. The metal limb, removed from the sleeve, was placed on the far right and now it showed entire metal components that acted as flesh. In the center rested the pyramid, the spectacle of Twilight’s curiosity. “I need to find out more,” Twilight murmured, loud enough for everypony to hear. “Whatever,” Rainbow said off to the side, “just keep that laser sword away from me.” Twilight rolled her eyes at that. “It’s not a laser sword, Rainbow. Lasers are just beams of light. They can’t really burn anything.” “Then, what do you think we should call it?” “Ooh, I know! How about beam saber or a light sword?” Pinkie jumped, but it went ignored. “Well, I…” Twilight paused. “I really don’t know.” “Laser sword it is, then!” Rainbow nodded. Shaking her head, Twilight turned back to the pyramid and the red glow fell on her face. Out of all the objects, the pyramid was the most important. Twilight was not sure how she knew it, but she did. “There had to be some way of working all of this,” Twilight thought aloud. Applejack let out a hmm and suggested, “Maybe there’s a button somewhere? There was on that tube.” “Cylinder, Applejack,” she corrected. “And I've already studied them. I didn't find any button.” “Um…” Fluttershy squeaked, “maybe you can use your magic on it?” Twilight’s head perked up. “What?” Finding eyes on her, Fluttershy almost hid behind her pink mane. “Well, you see… maybe it reacts to magic… and since you use magic, maybe you could give it some juice…” Twilight blinked, surprised she did not think of that. “That actually might work. Thanks, Fluttershy.” There was a small mutter of a “Your welcome” from the timid mare. The lavender mare looked at the pyramid. “Alright, here it goes,” and closing her eyes, Twilight channeled her magic into her horn. The others gathered around her, watching with amazement and curiosity to see what would happen. The purple aura of Twilight’s magic covered her horn and soon surrounded the pyramid. It remained still as Twilight poured more magic out of her horn. The field around the pyramid grew stronger and stronger with every passing second. The red glow dimmed a little, but it was barely noticeable by everypony. Spike heard chattering bones and he found it came from Pinkie. Instead of being the usual ball of energy, Pinkie just stood there, her knees slightly twitching. Her eyes were wide with fear and her face looked like it was in a trance. “Pinkie, are you alright?” Spike asked with concern. Pinkie came out of her trance and said with widen eyes, “Knees are pinchy! Something scary is about to happen!” Spike did not question it. Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense let her predict near-future events via twitches. “If Pinkie’s a-twitchin’, you’d better listen,” Applejack once said something along those lines. He found it to be true, and after much deliberation, even Twilight. The others heard Pinkie and they were already having their own concerns. “Maybe we should stay away,” Rarity said cautiously and Fluttershy nodded. “You can’t be serious!” exclaimed Rainbow. “This is just a, a… what this thing is! It’s not going to do anything!” Applejack shot a glare to her. “Rainbow, this is Pinkie’s sense we’re talking about!” “Uh girls,” Twilight said through her concentration, “can you please be a little quiet? I need to concentrate.” Unfortunately, she was not heard. “But what’s it going to do? Jump out and bonk us on the head?” Rainbow taunted. “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” refuted Applejack. “Girls, can you please be quiet?” Twilight repeated as she felt her control slowly slipping away. “But how can a pyramid be any scary?” Rainbow asked. “Maybe Pinkie’s wrong this time.” “Never question the Pinkie Sense!” came from Pinkie this time. Then, said Fluttershy, “Girls, maybe we should…” Twilight’s eyes shot open. “I said be quiet!” Her horn glowed brighter than before, pouring more magic into the pyramid. The magic build up in the pyramid until it was released in a flash of red light. Everypony gasped, even Twilight, and backed away from the desk. The flash had dissipated, but the red light from inside the pyramid glowed. The glow only became brighter and brighter with every passing second while everypony was left standing there, afraid of what may happen. It did not help that a few of them thought the library’s lights flickered a little. “Oh my goodness!” Rarity nearly cried out. “Dear Celestia!” That was Applejack, whom Fluttershy currently hid behind. “I take it back, Pinkie! You were right!” Rainbow said with fear in her voice. Spike looked to Twilight for answers. “Twilight, what’s going on?!” Twilight shook her head. “I… I don’t know.” How could she know? This was unlike anything she had ever seen in her entire life. Yes, Twilight had seen plenty with Nightmare Moon, Discord, and King Sombra, but this was nothing like them. This was completely new. This was completely new and not of this world. Maybe Pinkie was right about it being aliens, Twilight thought. Twilight brought her gaze back to the glowing pyramid. The energy continued to build up until a blue light emerged from the pyramid. Gasps filled the library as everypony saw the blue light spread out and coalesced into the form of a creature. The creature itself was strange. It was bipedal with two arms and two legs, and the bulky figure would have mistaken the creature for a Minotaur if not for the lack of fur. The folds of its dark-colored clothing covered much as well as the armor on its arms and chest. The small circular plates comprising the armor gleamed, making them look like they were alive. The six ponies and the lone baby dragon just stood there, unsure at what they were seeing. This thing was no mere apparition or an illusion of their mind. It was real and it made them both frightened and curious of the being. Mustering enough courage, Twilight took a brave trot forwards. “H-hello?” she said through her fear, though it came off more as a stutter. The creature raised its head to Twilight and she almost shivered. The helmet was like a cage, jagged pieces of metal crawling all over the pale flesh. A pair of eyes coldly gazed at her and the pair of visible lips turned into a thin line. “Why have you summoned me?” said the being, a male from its deep and ancient voice. “E-excuse me?” Twilight said, taken back. “You were the one who activated the holocron, were you not?” he inquired. “If so, then why? You are obviously not a Sith. There it barely a hint of the Dark Side around you. Are you a Jedi?” Twilight could barely comprehend what she just heard. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what a holocron or a Jedi is.” The being was silent for a moment. “I see,” he finally spoke. “You must not know then. Surprising, considering your strength in the Force.” Now, Twilight was not sure if she was being complemented or insulted. Behind her, Rainbow muttered to the others, “What’s this guy talking about? Is he crazy?” “Rainbow Dash, shush!” Rarity scolded. “It isn’t nice to interrupt a pony–er, thing when they’re speaking.” Twilight’s friends gave her a nice distraction as she turned to them. “Uh girls? A little help,” she called out to them. “Here, let me,” Applejack offered, trotting forward. “My name’s Applejack. Now, we’ve got some misunderstanding. Maybe it’d help if you explain a few things for us.” The strange being finally took notice of the others, but he did not answer Applejack’s question. Instead, his lips curled into a snarl. “The Light Side permeates around you. All of you,” the being said with contempt as he gazed at each one of them. “Has the Order of the Sith fallen so far that my knowledge has fallen into the hands of a bunch of animals? And those with the Light Side, no less?” All stared at the being, insulted at his words. All save for Rainbow Dash who shouted, “Hey, who’re you calling animals?!” “Hold it, Rainbow!” Applejack held out her foreleg to stop the speedster. Twilight mentally sighed, knowing she had to do something. Being called animals did not leave her and her friends a good impression of this strange creature, but they need to learn more. “Maybe we’ve got off the wrong hoof,” Twilight spoke to break the awkward silence. “How about we introduce each other? My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?" The creature’s hardened gaze fell on Twilight and he said, “I am Darth Bane. Dark Lord of the Sith.”