//------------------------------// // Vier // Story: Lantern // by Imperator Chiashi Zane //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie looked at the board on her wall in the basement of Cupcake Corner. Her bucket was nearly full again, smelling of bile. The wall was covered in pictures and hoof-written notes. If anypony ever saw it, her entire life-style would have to shift. She could NOT reveal to Twilight, or anypony else, the existence of the Wisps. It would ruin everything the creatures had worked so hard for. She placed her hooves against it, drawing lines only she could see, Stone, I need to fix this. It’s like, my job. The wisp seemed to be not there for almost a minute, Only one way to do that. We can save him only by revealing everything to him. But… He needs to know about this. And his own Wisp cannot explain it well enough. He needs you, Pinkamina. More than any pony ever has. I understand. But we don’t speak the language he does. Twilight does. __ Twilight Sparkle levitated a drink to her lips as she looked through three different ancient texts at the same time. Germane, Russian, Prench. Every language that was spoken during the Unification War thousands of years ago. Mostly Germane, since that was what the creature spoke. “Was essen Sie. What do you eat…” Spike stepped past, “Gems, mostly. You know that.” “I’m trying to study here, Spike.” “I know. Pinkie’s here. Wanted to know if you know the language that creature was speaking. Said it’s important.” “I’ve got an idea. I thought she didn’t want to see it again,” Twilight’s muzzle wrinkled, “Didn’t she get sick a few times thinking about him?” “Well, I have a bucket with me this time, Silly.” Twilight, in a testament to her dedication to books, did not spill her drink at the sudden arrival of Pinkie Pie, “Pinks, didn’t you say you didn’t want to feel whatever it was you felt there, ever again?” The pink mare stiffened, then in a slow, suspicious tone, muttered, “Yeeesssss. But this is worth it.” Twilight stared over her book at her friend, “How? It ran away screaming at us. US, the Elements of Harmony!” “It’s not for him…” “Pinkie, I know you need to throw parties for every new pony, but I think missing this one won’t hurt you that much.” “Twilight,” her mane deflated, “It’s not about ME. It’s not even about HIM. This…AGH! STONE, GIMME A HOOF HERE!” Twilight stared, eyes widening as Gummy shimmied out of the deflated cotton-candy head, and opened his mouth disturbingly wide. She still didn’t understand what it was about that alligator that allowed the carnivore to survive without any teeth to chew. Though, as its jaw unfolded revealing a reddish glow, she began to think it wasn’t an alligator at all. Pinkie’s mouth began moving, but it wasn’t her voice coming out. ”Lady Sparkle, Princess of Equestria. You don’t know me. Never will. Pinkamina Diane Pie has been declared my host, for as long as it lasts, anyway.” “What’s your point?” ”HE is the key to survival. Soon. You will need him to save yourselves.” “From what?” ”From him. His kind. He will KILL for you. But you will need him to.” Twilight stared at the two figures in front of her, “I don’t even know what he can do.” ”Look it up, silly filly. You can handle it. I need to go start making the welcoming party.” Gummy sank back into the not-quite puffed up mane, and Pinkie shot away. “SPIKE! What was that number I gave you?” The drake pulled out a length of scroll, his notebook, of a sort, “Nine hundred and First, Ghost Hunters. Sounded cool, can I use it to name my band?” At Twilight’s look, he defended his question, “It’s a better name than Crusaders!” Twilight rolled her eyes, and scooped up another book, flipping through it magically. She stopped at the name, and her face went white as she read the first sentence. Der 901. ist der erste von der unsichtbaren neun , eine Armee von der deutschen Armee für den alleinigen Zweck der Sieg über die Himmels Allianz entwickelt. In Equestrian, she understood that it made this creature, wherever he was from, an ancient project from Germaney, before the Celestial Alliance had effectively erased them from the map. But it wasn’t a pony. What could it be? Some mutation of Minotaur? Like the ones made in Russia around the turn of the century. Those things had been…She stopped. The illustration wasn’t an exact match for the creature, but it was close. The files called it a Hoo-Min. Mensh. What it had called itself, or a close linguistic match. She began reading. __ Fluttershy looked at the creature. It seemed to be holding something in its talon. Something that her instincts told her wasn’t safe. Then it placed the object in it’s mouth. She began galloping, hooves kicking up clods of dirt as fast as she could move. Even her wings joined in, flapping to drag her down the hill. Her voice rose in volume, “HEY! ST…” Her next words were drowned out by a thunderous Crack, and the creature dropped to the ground, the object falling from it’s claws. She took to the sky as fast as she could, making a line for the body as fast as possible. She landed beside it and pressed her head to its chest, listening for a heartbeat, hoping that it would be near the one in bears, or minotaurs. There wasn’t one. Her ear slid up to it’s mouth, and she instinctively tried not to touch the blood, unsure if it was poisonous or not. At the soft outflow of blood filled air, she backed away. It was breathing, but its heart wasn’t beating. She wasn’t particularly strong, but she knew how to restart a heart by bucking it, especially on larger vertebrates. She stood and went to jump onto it, when she saw the claws moving towards her. She yelped as the massive talons embraced her ribcage, forcing her wings closed. Glowing dead eyes looked into hers, and she flinched back as much as the claw would let her. “DON’T EAT ME!” “Essen? Warum ? Nein.” It set her gently on the ground, and she noticed that the blood on its mouth was fading away, and there was a blue glow coming from the cylinder on its hip. Still, there was no evidence of a pulse. Even the blood was no more than would have been initially splattered by the… She gasped, “Oh dear, hold still. I’ll get that hole patched up right away. You’ll probably be on liquids for a few weeks while it heals up,” she dropped into veterinarian mode immediately, pulling a wad of gauze from her saddlebags and calmly pressing it to the outside of the wound. “Don’t bite me, or I WILL tranquilize you. I’ve done it to much larger animals,” her yellow hoof slid into his mouth, and she gently shaped the gauze around the ragged hole. With any luck, Twilight would be able to directly regenerate the torn skin and muscle. If not, it might have to eat with a bowl on its shoulder to catch falling bits of cud. The glow faded away as she finished patching the hole, and she felt a warmth in her hoof as blood began to flow anew. A quick check, and she confirmed the presence of a pulse. Her hoof slid loose from its mouth, and she stared into its eyes, “Now, you’re going to go with me to Twilight’s, and we’ll see if she has any sort of regeneration spell to fix it. If she doesn’t, you’ll just have to live with a HOLE in your CHEEK!” “Es tut mir leid.”