//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Plan of Action // Story: Ghosts from the Future // by Pix //------------------------------// Chapter 3 – Plan of Action It was a clear night, and the moon and stars were shining brightly down onto the quiet streets of Canterlot. The city was deserted, save for a few ponies making their way to or from their late night jobs, a few ponies stumbling home after a little too much to drink, and, facing each other in an otherwise deserted street in the south side of the city, two old rivals. They locked eyes for a few seconds before the azure unicorn let out a harsh laugh. “Ha, it figures! Trixie is sent on a journey through time and space, and even then she cannot escape from you, Twilight Sparkle.” “You’re one of the ponies who came from the future, aren’t you?” “I suppose this was your plan all along? Why else would you be standing here waiting for me?” “What do you mean?” “Oh don’t play coy, Twilight Sparkle. You never really explained what you were doing, now I see you must have been planning this from the start. Was it just to mess with Trixie? Surely even you would not be that petty.” “Hold on Trixie, what exactly are you accusing me of?” “Trixie is saying…” There was a short pause as Trixie lowered the hoof she had just been pointing accusingly at Twilight. “Well, Trixie is not sure exactly what she is saying. But something strange is happening. How did you know I’d be here?” Twilight sat back on her haunches. “I just created a spell to detect time travel magic.” Trixie mirrored Twilight and slumped to the ground in frustration. “You know it really isn’t fair that you became an alicorn. Now Trixie cannot prove she is better at spellcasting than you, because you have fancy magic the Great and Powerful Trixie has no access to.” “Well that’s not exactly how it works,” Twilight began, but then she realised she was getting off topic and changed track. “Listen Trixie, I really have no clue what is going on, I only know ponies are coming back from the future at all because one of my friends already met somepony who had.” “Oh.” Trixie tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Trixie supposes that makes sense.” There was a crunch as she let her foreleg fall back to the ground, and she picked it back up and eyed the newly formed crystals on the base of her hoof with a dispassionate expression. “You’ve got that strange infection too! That’s what Applejack was telling me about.” “Yes yes, everypony has caught the Infection by now.” Trixie waved her hoof in the air dismissively. “But not now they haven’t! You’ve come back to the past remember? What exactly is that infection anyway? There must be something I can do to stop the effects.” Trixie scrambled backwards at this. “Oh no Twilight Sparkle, Trixie is not going to spend her last moments being your guinea pig.” Twilight blinked at this, mouth agape. “You’re saying you know you’re going to die, and you don’t want me to try and help?” Trixie sighed, and the usual haughtiness left her voice. “It’s inevitable Twilight. It’s been a long time coming really. For all of us.” “But there must be something I can do!” “As soon as we caught the Infection we were effectively already dead Twilight, we’re little more than ghosts of ponies at this point. There’s really nothing anypony can do, you said so yourself.” “I did?” “Yes, you in the future. A lot of ponies were not very happy about that. I think most ponies thought the spell you were working on was going to fix everything, not do this.” She waved her hooves at the quiet streets around her. “Trixie never really got her hopes up however. Sending everypony to the past is just the sort of convoluted plan Princess Twilight Sparkle loves.” “Hold on, are you saying that I am the one who created the spell to send ponies back in time?” Trixie looked at the alicorn in front of her with a blank expression. “Well, yes. You really don’t know anything, do you?” “No, that’s what I’ve been trying to say!” “Well who else would have created the spell? The love princess? Your alicorn friends did all help you cast it though. I suppose the four of you are all sitting there by yourselves in the future doing whatever it is princesses do.” “I don’t know if time travel works like that. Believe me, it’s complicated.” Twilight started trotting backwards and forwards to try and clear her head. At the sound of a harsh cough from the immobile unicorn however, she remembered that there was likely not much time and turned back to face Trixie. “So why exactly is the future so bad that I apparently decided to send everypony back in time? Is it because of this infection thing?” “Mostly, yes, although it’s also because of the Shards. I’m sure the two things are related.” Trixie glared at Twilight. “If a certain princess had been more upfront about things, maybe I could tell you more.” “Well it’s not my fault,” Twilight began, although she knew it was likely a pointless argument. “It wasn’t me who kept things from you. Or I haven’t done it yet. Or won’t do it at all. Or something…” Trixie snorted and looked down at her slowly darkening body. “The worst thing about the Infection is what it does to your magic. It takes all of my power to cast even a simple spell.” Trixie looked back up at Twilight. “Watch!” Twilight did as she was told and eyed Trixie’s horn as it started glowing. The young alicorn could see immediately that something was wrong. The usual light magenta hue of Trixie’s magic had been replaced with a darker more ominous tone, and the aura itself was flickering wildly. There was also evident strain on Trixie’s face, and, as she concentrated, more and more sparks started bursting from the tip of her horn. Twilight was just about to say that she had the idea and Trixie could stop, when there was a sudden pop, a burst of flame that enveloped the unicorn mare, and then there was nothing in front of Twilight except for a cloud of ash, gently floating to the ground. Twilight stared in horror for close to a minute. She was really gone. There was no indication a unicorn had just been lying in the crater. Even the cape Trixie had been wearing was mostly burnt away, a few charred pieces of fabric remaining. Twilight had known she was likely about to witness a pony dying, but this was not what she had expected, and seemed somehow far worse. “Trixie?” There was, of course, no response. Twilight looked suddenly around her. The streets were still deserted. Only now did she realise how suspicious it might look if a Princess of Equestria was seen talking to a pony in a darkened street in the middle of the night, only for that pony to die in front of her. It wouldn’t exactly be an easy situation to explain. Twilight was shocked out of her thoughts by the sound of snickering. Shocked, she gave another quick glance around her. Maybe there was somepony watching that she had missed. This new sweep of the street gave away nothing however, the city was just as quiet and deserted as it had been, the twinkling light from the stars showing nothing hiding in any of the doorframes or alleyways around her. She was just about to chalk it up to her imagination when she heard it again, this time loud enough that she could identify the direction it was coming from. With a wary caution Twilight took a step towards the pile of ashes in the centre of the street and slowly lit her horn, aiming to dismiss any lingering magic. As soon as the illusion was dispelled, Trixie could hold it in no longer and rolled about on the floor laughing riotously, in one piece and completely unburnt. Twilight scowled and waited impatiently for Trixie to calm down. It was only when Trixie’s laughs transformed into chokes and wheezes that the unicorn pulled herself back to her haunches, her lower body now completely coloured black and beginning to gain the crystalline appearance Applejack had described. After gasping for air, Trixie looked back up at Twilight and immediately burst into another laugh. “Ha! There is nopony better at illusory magic than the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Twilight groaned. “So you were lying to me? You can use magic just fine?” “What? No, that took me far more effort than it should. And I didn’t get it quite right either, the flames were supposed to be a vibrant green, but no matter.” “But, arrgh, you’re supposed to be telling me about the future, why did you do that?” “Trixie thought it was funny! And besides, you’ve always been so rude and insulting to me.” “What? When?” “Oh not yet.” Trixie waved a now crystalline hoof dismissively. “But you will be.” “I would never-” “Oh shut up Twilight Sparkle, you should really listen to the pony who’s actually lived in the future and who knows what you’re like. At least it’s not all bad, Trixie has worked a lot on her illusions and has been achieving great success with her stage show.” Twilight was still not happy that she was being accused of being unkind in a future she had not even lived, but she let that slide. “I did wonder why you still had that ridiculous hat and cape. I wish Rarity were with us, she’d be tearing you to shreds for it.” “I’m sure she’s spinning in her grave.” “What? No that’s not what I meant by ‘not with us’, I just…” Twilight stopped and shook her head. She was getting side-tracked again, and it didn’t look like Trixie would last much longer. Part of her wondered if the unicorn was being intentionally awkward. “Trixie, you need to tell me more about the future. You said something about ‘shards’. What did you mean by that?” “Oh fine Twilight, I’ve had my fun now, I’ll answer your questions.” Trixie lay closer to the ground, resting her head in her hooves, although it wasn’t clear to Twilight whether this was just to get more comfortable or because she had lost the strength to keep herself upright. “Shards are horrific abominations shaped like ponies,” Trixie explained. “They can take the shape of any host that’s been infected, and, unlike us, they have no problem using magic or flying.” “What do they look like?” Twilight asked, her suspicions rising as she thought of the creature Spike had described in his letter. “Like ponies made out of a jagged black crystal with horrible glowing eyes.” Trixie shuddered, and then looked over her shoulder towards her rump. “Kind of like what I’m becoming actually.” “Wait, so you’re turning into a Shard?” “No, I’m dying. The Infection would have been able to create a Shard from my imprint, but the Princess found a way to stop that from happening. I don’t think any new Shards have been formed in the last year, but the problem is they can duplicate at will. The EDF have been doing their best to keep them away from any major cities, but it just hasn’t been enough.” “The EDF? What’s that?” “The Equestrian Defence Force. Each city has a regiment mostly made up of volunteers. Their main purpose is to fight Shards.” “That sounds fascinating, who formed it? How do the regiments operate?” Twilight found herself wishing she had brought a quill and some paper with her. “How are the ponies in the EDF trained? What roles are there? What does-” “Whoa Twilight, I wasn’t a part of it and I’m no encyclopaedia.” Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I got a little carried away.” Trixie snorted, and then coughed throatily. Almost her entire body was jagged and translucent now, and Twilight could see the churning black mist within, just as Applejack had described it to her. Trixie almost didn’t seem to care, resigned to her fate as she was. “I think your brother set it up. The EDF I mean.” “Hmm?” “He’s the commander anyway.” Trixie let out another hacking cough and then, to Twilight’s great surprise, her face contorted into a cheeky grin. “I’ve met him a few times now. You never told me just how hot he was Twilight! Very pleasing to Trixie’s eyes.” Twilight gaped. “What!? We’re not talking about that, we don’t have time-” “Oh nonsense, you can find someone else to talk to about the boring stuff, Trixie wants to talk more about your hunk of a brother.” Twilight could feel the heat rising in her cheeks to reflect her embarrassment. “Trixie, this is not a good time for this. There is no good time for this.” Trixie ignored her. “Trixie thinks it is a shame your precious love princess got their first, or we could have been sisters, you and I! Just imagine! Although, to be honest it wasn’t really marriage Trixie was interested in, if you get my drift.” “Arghh,” Twilight raised her hooves to her ears. “Not listening, not listening.” Trixie looked with satisfaction at the highly embarrassed alicorn in front of her and let out a deep, pained breath. “Worth it.” Then there was an almighty fracturing sound and the illusionist was gone. --- A couple of days later, Twilight and her fellow Elements of Harmony were all sat around the table in the same study Twilight had used a few days prior to talk with Celestia and Luna. It was a useful area, adjacent to the throne room for easy access, and containing a few desks, a bookshelf with a collection of general purpose books, and a highly decorated hearth that would be blazing with a warm fire in a colder season. After her encounter with Trixie, Twilight had immediately flown to the castle to update Celestia and Luna on the situation. Twilight had not realised just how shaken she was until she was recounting her meeting to the princesses. Witnessing a pony's death had affected her deeply, despite how resigned Trixie had seemed to be about it, and Celestia had taken a great amount of time comforting her afterwards. Twilight barely remembered the words the sun princess had said, but she had felt much better for having heard them. Luna had also pointed out that the Trixie of this time wasn’t truly dead, and was still out there somewhere, completely unaware that she had been in two places at once for a few moments. It was their aim now to make sure that the future that lead to that death would not happen. Celestia had been particularly pleased with the scanning spell Twilight had developed, and suggested a few methods of refining it that should allow her to detect the time-magic even further in advance before the ponies themselves appeared, which would be invaluable when the pony in question was further afield. It had been nice working together with her former mentor once more, and that more than anything had helped Twilight slip into a more relaxed state. And so, after testing her newly refined scanning spell, Twilight had sent a message to Spike inviting her friends up to Canterlot so that she could explain her plan of action, with Spike remaining behind in Ponyville to hold down the fort. “So, you met a future version of Trixie, huh?” “That’s right,” Twilight said wearily. “She really wasn’t very cooperative, in all honesty.” “Ha, I’m not surprised,” snorted Rainbow Dash. “I don’t think she’ll ever forgive you for showing her up both those times she came to Ponyville.” “Maybe not, but I would have hoped the severity of the situation would have encouraged her to be more helpful. Instead she spent most of the time pretending to set herself on fire and making me uncomfortable by talking about how attractive she thought Shining Armor was.” Applejack snorted, and then spotted Rainbow’s reddening cheeks and guffawed louder. “Well darling, to be fair to Trixie, he really is a most handsome stallion.” “Yeah, well, that Trixie’s dead now, so let’s not waste time on nonsense.” As the room fell into a shocked silence Twilight wondered if perhaps she had been a bit harsh. Her temper had been shorter than usual ever since that encounter, and it wasn’t fair to let it out on her friends. “Sorry girls, I’ve just been really stressed lately.” “Oh don’t worry about it Twilight, we understand.” Fluttershy leaned over from her seat at Twilight’s right to pat the alicorn’s shoulder comfortingly. “It sounds like you’ve been working really hard, so it’s not surprising that you’re feeling tired.” She definitely was tired. She still hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since she had got to Canterlot. All the better reason to explain her plan now, so that she could go and get some rest. It had been Luna who had suggested that she make use of her friends and take a break herself, and although Twilight did not have quite the same attitude towards the moon princess as she did towards her sister, Twilight had still found herself unable to disagree. “So what’s this plan you’ve come up with then?” Rainbow pounded her hooves together. “We gonna get to fight to any more of those evil crystal ponies?” “Ah, yes, that reminds me. Trixie said that in the future Equestria is under attack from creatures called Shards, and from her description I think that was what you fought in Zecora’s hut.” Twilight scrunched her face up in thought. “I wish I had found out where they originated, but I didn’t think to ask her. It was something to do with ponies that had been overwhelmed by the infection, but the only ponies I know of that have this infection are the ones from the future, and apparently they’re not a danger anymore.” “I still think it must be to do with the Crystal Empire,” Pinkie said, matter-of-factly. “Even if it isn’t magic left over from that big meanie-pants Sombra, I just know we’ll find the answers there!” “You might be right Pinkie, and actually, if you follow my plan there’s a chance one of you could check it out.” Twilight levitated a map of Equestria off of one of the desks at the edge of the room and over to the table in front of them, spreading it out so they could all see. “I’ve been fine-tuning my scanning spell, and I think I’ve developed it enough that I can detect where ponies are going to appear long before they do so. You’re all going to split up and spread across Equestria so that we can talk to as many ponies as we can in as little time as possible.” Twilight pulled out a quill and started making specific locations on the map. “Applejack, somepony’s going to appear in Appleloosa. Since your cousin Braeburn lives there I thought you would be the best pony for the job.” “Sure thing, Twi.” “Excellent.” She made another mark on the map. “Another pony is going to appear on the shore near Manehattan.” Twilight stopped and smiled as a squealing sound came from the unicorn to her left. “And I thought you would probably like to go and check that one out Rarity.” Rarity stopped her foalish squeal of excitement and drew herself up into a ladylike pose. “Of course darling, it would be my pleasure.” “I think there’s also going to be somepony arriving in the Crystal Empire.” “Ooh, me, pick me, pick me!” Pinkie bounced up and down on her seat waving her foreleg in the air. “Just why are you so keen to see the Crystal Empire Pinkie?” Rarity asked, confused. “Oh it’s not so much the Crystal Empire itself, it’s more because that's where Maud went on her research trip, so if I get any spare time I could go and visit her!” “Well okay Pinkie,” Twilight began, “but remember this isn’t a vacation. I need you to focus on finding this pony first.” After seeing Pinkie nod vigorously in response, Twilight turned once more to the map and made another mark in Cloudsdale. “Ah, that’ll be mine!” Rainbow leaned forward eagerly. “Actually Rainbow, I was thinking that Fluttershy could take this one.” “Oh I don’t mind, if Rainbow really wants to go I wouldn’t want to stop her.” “No, it’s just that I’ve got a special mission for Rainbow,” Twilight said, winking at Rarity and Applejack as they witnessed the cyan pegasus’ predictable smug reaction. “A special mission huh? I guess it’s only fair that I’m the one to take that. Where am I going then? Vanhoover? The Griffin Kingdoms? The depths of Tartarus?” “I don’t know yet. But I need somepony fast on standby so that if I detect any other disturbances I can send you out to race after them. I'm sure you could catch them in time.” “Eh, I can do that, no sweat.” Rainbow leant back in her chair with a satisfied expression on her face. Twilight smiled and rolled the map back up. “I’ll get you all copies of this before you leave so that you don’t forget exactly where to go, but for now we have to discuss what you’re going to talk about if you do meet these ponies.” Twilight pulled a quill and paper over towards her. “It’s clear that you will not have much time to speak with anypony before the infection, err, overwhelms them. Based on my experience with Trixie I think it would be helpful if you each had a topic you asked specific questions about.” Twilight started to list the names of her friends down the side of the paper. “Pinkie, since you’ll be in the Crystal Empire and we think they might have originated there, I want you to try and learn more about Shards. What exactly are they? Are they completely mindless? How do they fight? Questions like that.” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” “Fluttershy, you know the most about diseases so I want you to try and learn as much as you can about the infection. How does it spread? What are its symptoms? Anything you can think of that would be useful to know.” “Um, okay.” “Excellent. And now Rarity, Trixie mentioned a few things that the other princesses and I had done in the future. I think it would be helpful to know as much as possible about what we were up to, or are going to be up to, or… arrgh, tenses are so confusing when time travel is involved!” “Don’t worry dear, I know what you mean.” “Okay. Applejack.” Twilight turned to the earth pony mare. “I want you to ask questions about the Equestrian Defence Force, or EDF.” “The what now?” “The EDF. It sounds like some sort of special guard that’s been set up to deal with Shards in the future. I want to know how it’s structured, why it was deemed necessary, how it is run… as much detail as possible really.” “Sure thing.” “Good, and that just leaves Rainbow,” Twilight turned to the athletic pegasus sitting opposite her. “Rainbow, I want timeframes. When exactly do things get bad? At what point does the Infection start to spread? Hopefully you can work out just what we need to do and when to avoid this bleak future.” “Yes ma’am!” Twilight slumped into her seat. “Brilliant. And meanwhile, I’m going to be having the longest nap of my life.” There were appreciative smiles from around the table. “You do that, sugarcube.”