//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: My Little Countries: Magic of the Stars // by BlondeSky //------------------------------// Chapter 2 The six ponies had reached the beach after stopping to drop off the trophy. The sand gleamed under the sun beating down on them and it was a beautiful day to be out. The ponies were more than ready to enjoy a blissful afternoon of relaxation on the beach. However their vacation from the world around them was interrupted by the sound of shouting coming from down the coast. They paused their own conversation and exchanged confused glances before trying to make out what was being said. “You know what!? I bet this is your fault with your stupid magic!” a stallion’s voice shouted. “My fault!? How could you be sure it’s not yours!? You certainly are stupid enough!” another stallion retorted with a proper sounding accent. “How about the both of you shut up until we figure out what the hell is going on!” interrupted a deeper voice with a rougher sounding accent. There was a short silence as the ponies all exchanged slightly worried expressions. Looking down the beach they saw a quartet of ponies arguing with each other. “Um… you guys think we should head down that way a bit?” Zone asked the group pointing in the opposite direction of the shouting ponies. They didn’t get a chance however as one of the stallions noticed their group and called out to them. “Hey! Over there! Wait up!” the first one yelled over to them. They watched cautiously as a red coated pegasus cantered clumsily in their direction across the sand. He stopped and smiled as he reached them. His mane and tail were both rather messy and white and blue. “Guys! C’mon!” he called back at the other three trailing after him before turning again to the ponies before him. “Hi, name’s America.” he told them holding out a hoof and nearly falling over. “Sorry, this is still pretty weird. So, um, where exactly is this?” he asked the group. Nopony took his hoof or answered the question as they were all taken a little aback. As he finished the three other pegasi came up next to him. One that looked rather alike to him except for the fact that he was slightly smaller, and two others that were slightly more contrasting. The first of these two had a black coat, a rather sturdy build, and a well-kept yellow and red mane and tail. Then the last of the quartet of pegasi had a white coat, and a tidy red mane and tail. They were slightly concerned about the demeanor of the ponies before them. The first stallion who had said his name was America had a sort of absent minded grin on his face, the one with the similar appearance to his own was glaring at him, the black pegasus had a thoroughly annoyed look on his face, and the final pegasus stallion betrayed no emotion in his expression. Spot was the first to recover from the awkward and slightly tense atmosphere. “This is Pegasus Beach.” he answered simply. “Right, uh, Pegasus Beach.” America answered uncertainly. “I’m afraid we’re a little lost. Pegasus Beach where exactly?” the other red pegasus queried. “Pegasus Beach, Unisus Isle.” Astro offered. “Unfortunately we need even more information than that.” the black pegasus replied begrudgingly. “Unisus Isle, Unisus. It is sort of the capitol of the country.” Kara answered giving the mysterious group questioning looks. “Actually we sorta didn’t know.” America responded smiling awkwardly. “Oh great, now we look like complete idiots. You know they didn’t need to know that!” the second red pegasus retorted. He shrugged, “It’s true.” The still unnamed red pegasus just glared as the black one rolled his eyes in frustration. “Do you even know what planet you’re on?” Zone questioned concerned. “Sadly, no.” the red pegasus admitted with a sigh. “Now who’s making us look stupid.” America muttered just loud enough for him to hear. “I wouldn’t have said it if you hadn’t already ruined it!” he retorted. “I didn’t ruin anything!” he argued. “Why don’t the both of you shut up?” the black pegasus interjected. The two red pegasi fell silent, but continued to glare at each other. “Now,” he began turning to the group of the six rather concerned ponies, “I’m afraid we just woke up on this beach and are suffering from a slight memory lapse. If you could inform us that would be great.” he told them never breaking from the serious tone of voice. “I’m Germany, that’s England,” he gestured to the previously unnamed red pegasus, “and that’s Japan.” he finished pointing to the still expressionless white pegasus. “Right, well the planet you’re on is Equis and this is the country Unisus. This is Pegasus Beach which is on the coast of Unisus Island, or Unisus Isle. It’s an island city, and the country it’s a part of is a small group of islands is just off the coast of Equestria.” Astro offered cautiously. They nodded, but nothing seemed to quite click. She had opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted by a loud zing noise. It came from behind the quartet of amnesiac ponies and she craned her neck to see behind them. A sterile white coated earth pony stallion stood behind them who wasn’t there before. He had an electric blue mane, tail, eyes, and five pointed star on either shoulder. His expression was blank and completely bare of having ever held any form of emotion. Two more zing noises rang out as two more ponies of almost the exact same appearance came into existence on either side of him. The only distinguishing factor was that one was a mare, but you’d be hard pressed to tell the two stallions apart. When the one in the middle spoke his voice was almost scarily monotone and robotic. “Targets located. Targets will remain in place. Targets will not resist capture.” he commanded. His ears started to twitch about as he finished speaking. There was a moment of tense silence between the ponies before Astro broke it crying, “Run.” Her own group of six wasted no time taking off down the beach and the group of four weighed their own options only for a split second before following after them. The trio of captors then took off in hot pursuit. “Follow us!” Zone called out taking the lead of the group as more zings were heard signaling the arrival of more of the ponies. It wasn’t long before they all saw what they were being led towards. There was an entrance to a cavern cut into the sheer Cliffside surrounding the beach. They all picked up the pace in that direction as their steadily multiplying pursuers gained. Still they weren’t far from it and held the lead. As they dashed inside Kara skidded to a halt and made an about face as the friendly ponies streaked past her. As soon as they were all past her she fired a beam of magic up at the ceiling of the cavern entrance causing it to start to fall. Rocks soon covered the entrance keeping their pursuers out, but locking them in. The group of ten ponies was breathing heavily in the darkness of the now sealed cave. “How long do we have before they teleport in here?” Diplo asked still out of breath from the mad dash. “Can’t.” Astro replied in the same state, “They can only teleport somewhere if there’s enough natural light around. Magical light doesn’t count.” With that the three unicorns that they had with them illuminated their horns. “Fantastic, but who the bloody hell were they!?” England exclaimed. “Star ponies. I’ve… uh… done a good bit of research on them.” she answered. “That ear twitching you saw, that’s what happens when they send telepathic messages to each other.” “What does that have to do with us? I mean what’s with the ‘targets located’ business?” America asked them. “You aren’t amnesiacs are you?” she questioned concerned. The four exchanged glances before shaking their heads. “The star ponies have been looking for something for quite a while. It was only a matter of time before they started to go to more extreme measures. You’re not even from this world are you?” she inquired. Again they shook their heads. “They probably decided to start looking in other worlds and you all fell through. They were trying to round you up before you could cause trouble would be my guess.” “What do we do now?” Japan queried speaking for the first time. “Well, if we just follow this tunnel we’ll make it back to the city. That’s why it’s here after all. Since the beach is at the bottom of the Cliffside originally only pegasi could get down there. That’s how it got the name. There’s a whole system of tunnels leading from different points in the city to the beach. You can see the lights from the torches not too far that way.” Ink answered. “Does fire count as natural light?” Zone asked nervously. “Yes, it does.” Astro affirmed voice cracking slightly.