//------------------------------// // The Discovery // Story: We Three Alicorns // by zakueins //------------------------------// The amazing thing for them was this-they were surprised that anypony couldn’t do this. A, B, and C tended to wake up within about a half hour of each other. Almost always, it was A, then C, then B.  Even though they had names these days and all that-at some point in their brain, they still thought of themselves as “A”, “B’, and “C”. So, any big plans for today? A asked. Not really, B replied. It wasn’t magic, it wasn’t telepathy...just that A, B, and C could always “talk” to each other without other ponies noticing.  Even when they were doing other things, they could chat with each other.  Even when one of them was lying on a cloud about half-way between Ponyville and Cloudsdale. Hey, at least I got the paper done, A noted, as she came up to a house. “Hey,” she said up to the house as she was walking up. “Ready to go? “Just a minute!” a small, squeaky voice replied, as Snips came out with his saddle bags on, running right into Apple Bloom and Twist. “Good morning to you!” “Good morning,” both Apple Bloom and Twist said, smiling. Sorry, A commented.  Just meeting up with Snips.  Are you going to… Ugh, B said.  Don’t ask.  I’ve got to be with them… “I don’t know why we’ve got to all meet up to go to class, especially with a blank flank like you,” Diamond Tiara sneered. “Because,” Sweetie Belle said, “this is Ponyville.  You know, walking distance to the Gates of Tartarus?  Where we have a God of Chaos as a next-door neighbor?  The first place that Nightmare Moon came after she was freed?  Better that we all walk to school when we can.” “Why would anypony live in Ponyville?” Silver Spoon asked, curiously. “The good schools?”  Diamond Tiara said, half-sarcastically. “Well, Miss Cheerilee is a good teacher,” Sweetie Belle said, somewhat worryingly. My sympathies, C nodded in their little shared communication.  She came in for a landing and met up with her companion.  Normally pegasui flew into school, but one of them couldn’t fly, so… “Hey, Scootaloo,” Featherweight said, coming in for a landing, “how are you today?” “Pretty good,” Scootaloo said, watching him and Dizzy Twister came in for a landing beside her.  “Got some awesome tricks to do with my scooter today,” she smiled.  “So, get the paper done?” “Yea,” Dizzy Twister replied, shaking her saddle bags.  “So, shall we?” Classes at Ponyville’s school were always interesting for A, B, and C.  They knew most of this stuff.  C was wickedly awesome with math-the students were working on long division, she knew how to do differential calculus and vector equations in her head.  But, they had to be careful and the trick was to stay in the high B/low A grade range-good enough that they were not going to have trouble when they got home (except for C), not so good that they would get put in a gifted program or attract too much notice.  And with enough statistical range so that it didn’t look like they were throwing tests. So, it was mostly trying not to fall asleep.  And internal chatter.  Will have to sneak by the library today, A said.  Need to check on the book that I ordered. How did you sigh in the realm of communications that they shared?  B did that, and asked, Please tell me you didn’t ask for an interlibrary loan of an advanced magic book again?  We were barely able to get it out of there before Twilight Sparkle noticed! Nope, A replied, a touch smug.  New book on post-Discord history.  We’ve got a paper due for it in a few weeks and my cover is good for the concept.  I’ve been working on an idea about the Canterlot Parliamentary Moot and I’m trying to find out what Princess Celestia and Luna were doing during the meetings. It was possible to facehoof in this space, and C did that.  You’re doing your doctoral thesis early, aren’t you?  So you can chase colts with impunity at college, aren’t you? Well, you were the one that did the statistical analysis of college-educated mares and the marriage/divorce rate based upon age and university time, B retorted.  And, if I want to be sure to have the statistically best marriage, I need to really find my special colt by by junior year, before I become a grad student. Miss Cheerlee let the class out to the playground, and they went out as well.  A knew immediately that if they wanted a ball to play with (without some bratty student grabbing all the good ones), she had to be at the ball pen first.  B and C ran interference with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, which gave A enough time to get a good ball. They found a spot on the playground to play with it, bouncing it between their hooves.  Really need to pratice my telekinesis, A said.  She’s starting to get a little suspicious that I’m not as good as I should be. Yea, B said.  I need to practice some more as well.  Tomorrow night?  Sneak out after everypony else is asleep? Sounds like a plan, C replied.  She caught the ball, and suddenly something causes her and her friend’s hairs to raise up.  What is… From the center of Ponyville was an explosion, a massive one.  Everypony at the school looked at the rising cloud of smoke from the explosion, and they heard something. Cheerlee had a special whistle, and the students knew when they heard that, they were to run, not stopping for anything, for the basement.  After the last few incidents, Twilight Sparkle had written up a checklist for just this kind of emergency.  One of her check-off items was reinforcing a number of the largest basements in Ponyville.  Once she’d worked the magic out and tested it completely (and made several very large holes in the middle of the desert near Las Pegasus), nothing short of the combined power of all four princesses were going to breach those walls and ceiling and floor, the basement would always have air and water, and a large stockpile of emergency supplies were left in the basement as well. Cheerlee was blowing the whistle for all she was worth. She didn’t see three of her students running away from the school. What, what is going on? A asked, as she ran towards the center of town. Somepony did a summoning!  Multiple beings! B yelled in their minds.  How many, how many and how powerful… Six! C yelled.  Oh no, oh no, oh no...they’re Liger Diablocus!  And, oh no… C pulled up a map of Ponyville in their minds, and the six red dots radiated out from the town center.  They were making a direct line for six blue dots. They’re going after the Bearers!  A started to panic as they turned the corner into town. Oh no!  But, they can stop them, right?  B said, peering around the corner at the devastation in the center of town. Twilight’s the only one that has enough magic, A replied.  And, she can only be in one place at one time!  She can stop them, but… ...but so many other ponies are going to get hurt, C finished. The three of them huddled in a corner.  A started to cry a bit.  We...can’t stop them, can we? We can...but, if we did, we’d have to reveal ourselves, B replied.  And, that’s when it all goes to Tartarus. We’ll do it, C said.  Because, I’d rather apologize to our friends, than go to their funerals. Silence, and then… Well, if we’re going to do something this stupid, we might as well do it smart, A noted. Rarity was running. She didn’t like running.  Not at all.  Hated it in school, did enough exercise so that she had to avoid doing it as much as she could. Being eaten by a demonic dog/lion hybrid with jaws twice as big as your body?  She liked that idea even less.   So, running away from the very large demon that just exploded out of the town square ranked very high in the category of “A Very Good Idea”.  She had taken a few experimental stabs with her magic at the demon, but clearly this was in the “Twilight Sparkle Alicorn” territory, so she was leading the Liger Diablocus chasing her out of town, where they couldn’t hurt any other ponies. The massive monster stormed behind her, stomping on anything in it’s way.  Drool flew back from jaws filled with obsidian teeth.  Blood foamed from the corner of the creature’s bloodshot eyes, bellowing it’s rage and it’s hunger at Rarity.  She could hear the rippling sound of flesh and bone tearing and healing instantly as the creature ran.  Almost all of Ponyville’s residents had shown their usual good sense and headed away from the ravening monster at top speed. Except for one little blank-flanked filly that was going to get stomped on.  Rarity, with a flick of her horn and her magic, managed to get the filly out of the way of the Liger Diablocus’ massive paw.  But, in doing that, she missed a small number of rocks in the way, and she tripped, falling head over hooves.  She managed to turn it into a skidding tear across a garden plot on her side, but Rarity got up onto her hooves-and her right front hoof gave out from under her.  She could feel the wrenched and sprained hoof, but there was no time to do anything… Just at the instant the massive jaws were about to swallow her whole, they...stopped. Rarity opened her eyes-not realizing that she had even closed them-and realized that a magic shield was keeping the Liger Diablocus from eating her.  But, it wasn’t hers… She looked down a bit, and she saw...legs.  They were like foal legs...but, a big longer.  Something in her head connected the shape and form of the legs to old, old pictures she was of the foal-age Princess Celestia and Luna, but it was a light pink color and she recognized the curl and shape of the tail and… “Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked, half-shocked and half-curious. Sweetie Belle was straddling over Rarity’s head, her horn ablaze with magic, her wings spread out and slightly crackling with raw magical overspill.  Ripples of power ran down her legs into the earth, grounded out from the scale of her power.  Her expression was fixed in a frown of concentration and effort.  “Can’t...talk…,” she said in a voice that was slightly deeper than normal, “one second…” With an audible grunt and crack of magic, the Liger Diablocus exploded in a shower of magic and bits of tissue. Sweetie Belle gasped, and staggered on her hooves, nearly falling down. Rarity caught Sweetie Belle on her shoulders and said, “Sweetie Belle, what...who are you?” With a gasp, Sweetie Belle began to breath again. “Rarity, it’s me, Sweetie Belle,” she said with gasping breaths of air. “But, we’ve got five more Liger Diablocus to deal with, before they eat our friends…” Rainbow Dash knew this wasn’t a game. But, damn, she was good at baiting Liger Diablocus!  This one was on her tail for a while, and it kept trying to get her, but it couldn’t leap up high enough to catch her.  This bit of demon-bating allowed all the other ponies around to escape safely.  And, Rainbow Dash could play keep-away with a ground-based pony or monster for hours on end. Which was why after about the fifteenth attempt, the Liger Diablocus stood stock-still for a second. Then, in a shower of blood and gore, two massive sets of leather wings erupted from the Liger Diablocus’ shoulders, flinging the demon into the air with a massive roar. “Oh, not fair!”  Rainbow Dash yelled, taking off and away from the flying Liger Diablocus.  The creature followed, wings beating with the sound of thunder behind her.  And, it was gaining ground… Rainbow Dash saw off in the corner of her eye something that just might help, and she banked hard and down towards a huge fire-scar in the forest.  The Liger Diablocus made a hard bank, trying to follow as well, it’s jaws nearly snapping on Rainbow Dash’s tail. The fire scar was all new growth-thick with brambles and small trees and brush.  Rainbow Dash knew-with fierce instinct-how to dodge and weave through the scrub and come out under the treeline proper, where there was enough space to fly properly and with a bit of speed.  “Ha,” she whispered, “let’s see it try…” With a tearing roar of wood and scrub, the Liger Diablocus punched through the fire scar and into the forest.  It’s wings shattered the smaller trees, and hunks of greener-some almost as big as Rainbow Dash herself-flew past her.  With an angry bellow, it tore through small trees and bounced off larger trees, tearing them out of the ground with it’s mass, and was making up for good time to catch up with Rainbow Dash. “Oh, so not fair!”  Rainbow Dash yelled, trying to pick up speed.  The Liger Diablocus was catching up, making up for it’s size by sheer strength and tearing out anything in it’s way. And, Rainbow Dash was running out of forest.  Her instinctual “map” of the area around Ponyville meant that she knew that for options to keep the Liger Diablocus busy, she was running short on all but one. Pure speed. She began to build up a good bit of acceleration.  Once she got out of the treeline, she could really show the demon her flank and let it try and catch her then! She was nearly at the end of the forest, when she felt something clamp down on her tail.  No! she thought, as the Liger Diablocus gave a good swing and flung her into a tree. And, suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-air, as if she was floating.  Somepony was using magic to catch her, but who… The Liger Diablocus looked around angrily, and before it even knew what hit it, four hooves and a lot of attitude clocked the demon across the back of the head.  This knocked the demon down, looking angrily for what hit it. Rainbow Dash landed a bit rough, but on her hooves, and rolled up to look around.  Who was using magic?  Only pony that could have even caught me was Twilight, and she’s on the other side of town… An orange/brown blur snapped across the sky, and nailed the Liger Diablocus in one of it’s legs, causing it to buckle.  It bellowed angrily, and tried to catch whatever hit it, but the same blur hit the demon so hard across the side of the head that Rainbow Dash could hear it’s jaw crack.  A fourth hit took another one of the demon’s legs, causing it to stagger. Then, landing off to Rainbow Dash’s right was a pegasus...no, it couldn’t be! The young orange/brown alicorn foal looked at the demon and said, “Hey, over here, ugly!  Yea, I was the one that bucked you!  And, I’m going to do it again!” The Liger Diablocus bellowed through a broken jaw, and lept, as the alicorn’s horn flashed with magic.  Rainbow Dash could feel in her wings and each and every one of her feathers that magical discharge, and the Liger Diablocus more-or-less exploded from it.  A rain of gore and bits flew from the exploding monster, and Rainbow Dash almost expected to be covered by the spill.  But, the alicorn had put up a shield over both of them, and the gore merely hit the shield and slid off slowly. Rainbow Dash looked over at the alicorn.  She looked oddly familiar, but Rainbow Dash didn’t know of any alicorn foals that were out there.  “Hey,” she asked, getting to her feet.  “Thanks for the help, but who are you?” When she had gotten to the “you”, Rainbow Dash had put two and two together.  It was the wings that fooled her, of course.  “Scootaloo, is that you?” she asked, looking at the alicorn in amazement. “Yea, it is,” the alicorn said, looking very, very sheepish with her wings fully extended in impressive glory.  “I’m sorry, but we’ve got to help our friends.  Can you fly?” Rainbow Dash checked her wings, and gave an experimental twitch. “Yea, I can.” “Good,” and Scootaloo smiled happily at Rainbow Dash. “I want to see if you can keep up with me!” Pinkie Pie and Applejack were in serious trouble. The two Liger Diablocus that were tailing them were working as a team-every time they tried to split up and give the other a chance to escape, they would do something to keep them together. Applejack knew exactly what they were doing-the demons were herding them somewhere.  And, considering what Liger Diablocus did to ponies, that was not a good thing.  As they were running, Pinkie Pie was giving a stream of thought, going along the lines of, “Custard, no, no, too thin...applesauce, even thinner!  What can I do, what can I do…” “Pinkie Pie!” Applejack gasped. “Y’got any ideas!” “Only this!” Pinkie Pie smiled, and tossed something behind them.  It exploded in something that sounded like a mixture of a huge firecracker and a very large bubble in a pot full of stew popping, and the Liger Diablocus made a very angry sound as they tumbled into something. “Caramel and taffy!”  Pinkie Pie said, “that’ll keep them busy for a while!” They turned a corner, and saw Fluttershy flying for all she was worth, barely keeping ahead of the Liger Diablocus that was after her.  Applejack gave it a very impressive buck to the legs, and smiled as she heard the demon make it’s own massive tumble.  “Fluttershy!  We’ve gotta get to the library!” “I’m flying there now,” Fluttershy said, looking at her friends.  “Are you being…” There was a roaring sound, as trees flew away from the shapes knocking holes in the forest.  Trees wider around than the length of Fluttershy’s wings were shattered like rotten twigs, thrown like shrapnel all over the place.  Covered in whatever caramel and taffy wasn’t needed to be removed to make their escape work, the first two of the Liger Diablocus came up behind them.  The third followed, limping but starting to pick up speed. “Yea, we are!”  Applejack yelled up to Fluttershy and tried to pick up the pace some more.  She had slowed down a bit when she thought Pinkie Pie’s snare worked, so he had rested a bit.  But, she could feel the fatigue in her legs, and was wondering how well her friends were keeping up.  Something that worried-and scared her immensely-when she saw Fluttershy start to stagger a bit in the air. “I can make it,” Fluttershy said, just about out of breath.  “I can make it,” she repeated, and flew a bit harder. And, with a sudden and terrifying lurch, her wings gave out and she fell to the ground.  Applejack was able to catch her, but it knocked the wind out of her with a staggering “ooof!” and Applejack looked back at how close her pursuers were. Which was why she had ring-side seats when the Liger Diablocus opened up it’s jaws and was about to eat the two of them in a single swallow.  The only thing that went through Applejack’s mind was Damn it, I won’t be able to see what Apple Bloom gets as her cutie mark! Then, the Liger Diablocus exploded.  A bit of the creature-probably part of the jaw-hit Applejack and dazed her for a second, causing her to fall over and almost drop Fluttershy.  From the sky, Princess Twilight Sparkle was flying, her magic casting out for targets. “Are you okay?”  Twilight Sparkle said, landing beside her friends. “Yea,” Applejack said, “but what happened to the other two?” They all looked back to see Apple Bloom, covered in blood and gore.  Her horn, her wings were dripping with the remains of the Liger Diablocus, and she panted as she got her magic back under control.  She tried to take a step forward, and staggered.  Then, she tried again, and fell down onto her belly. “Apple Bloom!”  Applejack yelled, starting to run up to her.  “What happened to you?!?” “Stay...back…,” she groaned out through clenched teeth, then with a massive bellow, she tilted her head to the sky and released the wild magic she had called.  It screamed from her mouth, and erupted from her horn, every color and no color at once and beautifully terrifying to look at.  The geyser of energy ripped into the sky and tore open the clouds, revealing the blue sky of Equestria. It seemed like hours, but it only took a minute, and then Apple Bloom collapsed into a boneless fall onto the ground, soaking in what remained of the Liger Diablocus.  Applejack ran up to her, and lifted her out of the gore, carrying her away on her shoulders.  A few seconds later, Apple Bloom started to awaken.   “Applejack…,” Apple Bloom started to say. “Hush now,” Applejack replied.  “Save your strength.  Twilight’s here and we’ll get you all fixed up.” Apple Bloom started to chuckle, which surprised Applejack slightly.  But, as she heard it, it mutated into a sort of laughing hiccup.  It was the sort of laughing that you did when you didn’t want to cry-or scream. Applejack knew that kind of laughter well.  She’d done it quite a few times when she was a foal, remembering her parents. “Applejack, I’ve got something I’ve got to tell you, all of you.  And, you’re gonna hate me when I’m done, I promise,” Apple Bloom said, starting to laugh through her tears.