//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Cause and Effect Part 2 // Story: A New World, And A Better Way // by Recteik Shade //------------------------------// Day 1 "Hey!" a small voice called. "Hey, wake up please!" "Uhg. Come on Allen, you know I hate mornings. Let me sleep." "Please! I'm scared and I don't know what's going on!" the little voice pleaded. With a bitter groan the Pokemon cracked an eye open and took in the panicked face of a little Vulpix. "Who are you?" As her vision cleared she looked passed the fire-type and saw the alleyway stretch out behind it, the streets were brightly lit in the early morning light and passing the gap between building were... Ponytas? "What the… ?" She groaned as she rolled onto her paws and began to stretch out her lithe form in the dingy but still quite clean alleyway. She paused a moment to lick a bit of dirt that was on her left foreleg, ignoring all else until she was satisfied that her ebony fur had been restored to a presentable state. It wouldn't do if she looked like some mangy stray Meowth; she did have an image to preserve. She once again turned her turned her crimson eyes to the sunlit cobblestone street, watching as a small herd of the Ponytas passed her and the little Vulpix, whom was cowering behind a trash bin. She had no real concern about being spotted by unfriendly eyes, the only variant in the dark colour of her coat were the yellow rings on her forehead, ears, shoulders, hips and, tail. The Ponytas were baffling to watch; they came in all manner of colours and some had wings while others had a stunted spiral horn, and a few lacked either. "What are they?" the small Fire-type asked daring to peek around the can that served as her cover. "I don't know." Tilting her head back she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of the area. She was immediately confused, as there was no scent of car exhaust or concrete; all she could smell were stones, grass, trees and, these multi-coloured creatures which had a diverse number of scents. "They are not Pokemon." 'And this doesn't smell like Celadon City' she added silently. She then turned her attention to the little Vulpix, "Do you have a Human, little one?" The younger Pokemon shook her head, "Mama always told me Humans were mean." After a moment she looked up at the Dark-type skeptically, "Do you have a human?" At the this she smiled softly as thoughts of the many years she had spent with Allen came back to her. "Yes I do. His name is Allen and he's my best friend." She blushed a little as she noted the wistful tone of her voice that was fortunately lost on the younger Pokemon. "Er, anyway my name is Dawn." Vulpix still determined to keep the can between her and the street smiled, "Hi Dawn. Do you know where we are?" "I'm afraid not. This definitely does not smell like Celadon City" Dawn said as she turned to look at the street again. Vulpix sniffled a little, "It doesn't smell like Ecruteak City either. I could always smell the Burnt Tower." "Stay here." Dawn stood and slowly stalked towards the open street. Most of the ponies had vanished but she could see two of them in armour standing opposite the alley, both had wings and were talking among themselves rather animatedly. "I'm telling you, they looked like pigeons but they weren't" one armoured pony said. The other looked very skeptical, "Your eyes were playing trick on you, rookie. I have been all over Canterlot today and I haven't seen any of the monsters you all keep going on about." "That's cause you don't bother to pay attention." the other and, now that Dawn was getting a good look at him, younger armoured pony huffed. "Watch it rookie!" The other pony snapped, but he dropped the angry edge in his voice. "You would do well to remember that I outrank you!" The younger stallion ducked his head, "Sorry sir." "I'll let it slide this time." The rest of their conversation faded out as Dawn crept back to Vulpix, she had what she wanted, "So this place is called Canterlot? Never heard of it." She looked down at the little Fire-type and gave a gentle motherly smile, "We should go Vulpix, there's nothing to gain by staying here. Maybe my human can help you get home." Everfree 1000 years ago Sound was the first thing to return, just as an almighty roar shook the air and stone floors. It was like standing right next to a siege cannon as it fired, the thunderous sound blotting out everything else in her still-limited perception. As the vibrations subsided, she became aware of the steady throbbing pain that seemed to come from every part of her body at once, unpleasant but ignored easily enough. 'She held nothing back.' That thought made her heart ache more than the whole of her body, nearly muting out the pain with the sorrow it instilled. Slowly she drew her hooves under her and rose to her full height, flinching as a fresh spike of pain shot through her limbs and up her spine. Choosing to ignore it for now she turned to inspect her wings, the damage was mostly superficial, the singed feathers could still carry her and would be regrown in a short time once she preened them. Taking a moment to take stock of herself she crouched low, shifting her weight from one leg to another trying to divine the source of her discomfort. 'Nothing seems to be broken.' The pain was already starting to subside and seemed to be more about her body protesting being sent through a shale roof then from any true injury. A voice crying out pulled her away from her self inspection and back to to the world at large, just in time for her to hear and feel a smaller explosion. Then she heard Luna's- no, Nightmare Moon's voice, something about a familiar, she sounded pleased with herself. "YOU BITCH!" Celestia snapped her head and ears towards the far wall, it was a voice she did not know, one steeped in rage and hatred. 'No! Is somepony trying to confront Nightmare Moon?' She heard a strange crackling sound, but she chose to ignore it, somepony was trying to fight Nightmare Moon! Celestia doubted that she was strong enough to defeat her, anypony else trying would just be suicide. She had to think quickly. There had to be something she could do. She couldn't stand it if somepony was hurt because of her and despite the shroud of madness and shadow, Nightmare was still Luna at her core. Desperately, she started racking her brain, trying to think of anything that could end this conflict without somepony dying. "FLARE BLITZ!" There was the voice again, distorted by the odd crackling sound, but clearly in motion. She was out of time, whomever was trying to fight Nightmare had already started. "How do I stop this!?" She fanned her wings and crouched low ready to take flight and confront Nightmare herself when a thought struck her, one that seemed ridiculous. "Would they even work without Luna?" Outside, she heard another blast. "You've left me no choice sister. I must use them." Lighting her horn, she pulled at the tiles of the floor and raised a hidden podium. She looked at each stone sphere before sighing, "I can only hope this works." Nightmare flared her wings and leaped to the side as the sapphire cloaked mass of the unicorn shot passed her, her wings were still mangled and regenerating so she wasn't able to escape without several fresh burns. Despite the crackling plasma not actually touching her, the air around her enemy was so superheated that simply being too close to him was hazardous. Hissing through clenched teeth, she turned to examine her right side. The layer of blisters was quite painful and she noticed that it was not mending as quickly as before, most likely because the spells meant to heal her were working in other places to mend her ruined wings and numbing the pain in her burnt limbs. Thinking quickly, she light her horn and added another layer of healing magic to the active spells that had been inlaid in her armour. 'We must mend our wings! T'is unwise to linger on the ground!' As she channeled more of her mana into the spells working on her wings she became more aware of the rise in temperature, "DON'T YOU IGNORE ME, BITCH!" Nightmare snapped her gaze up to see and hear the sapphire-cloaked unicorn rushing towards her; while she doubted that he could truly harm her, she also had no intention to stand still and let herself become his punching bag while the magic she had set to healing herself was still working. Crouching, she jumped to the left and rolled, trying to put as much distance between herself and her enemy. He sailed passed her, only managing to singe the ebony fur that was growing back. Nightmare quickly pulled herself back up to her hooves and turned to see her foe, watching as he dug in his hooves, skidding to a halt. She blinked in surprise as the plasma cloaked unicorn's forelegs buckled, dropping him down onto his knees and haunches with a pained expression. "What is this? Have you reached the limit of your power already? How disappointing. " The sapphire cloak flashed and crackled as he jumped back to his hooves, "Don't count me out yet, bitch" Allen hissed at her. "I just wasn't ready for the recoil." (1) He crouched down, suppressing the urge to flinch as his joints screamed in protest, and charged at Nightmare again. Just as before, she dodged to to one side without even getting burned this time; he turned without slowing and jumped over the trench that had been carved into the courtyard by Nova so that he was facing the dark mare again. Allen kicked off and charged at Nightmare determined to hit her, to make her pay for what she had done to Nova. However, time was not his ally. Every moment he spent missing and barely grazing the psychotic mare was another that she was healing. He could already see that her wings had returned and she would likely take to the air and be out of reach. Most of her burns were gone and her lustrous ebony coat was patchy but filling in quickly. Again she evaded with only a small burn. 'I'm running out of time. If she gets in the air I'll never hit her.' He spend off, keeping his momentum and turning to make another pass but it was too late, the last of her feathers returned and she winged her way into the night air," Get back here!" Nightmare only laughed, that haughty confident kind of laugh that was meant to taunt others, "We think not. This has been... educational. We did not believe anypony capable of pushing us so far." While it was no secret that Alicorns possessed a vast amount of mana, recovering from the Blast Burn had consumed more than she would ever admit to. "However, we grow bored with this game. So now, you shall have the honor of being first to perish. Then it shall be Celestia's-" "Sorry to interrupt," sounded a voice behind Nightmare that bore a disturbing resemblance to a Draconequus she had known. Nightmare spun around in midair to come face to overly-large face with a shadowy imp-like figure. "What manner of abomination is this!?" It grinned at her, which was extremely unnerving, "Name’s Loki. And as much as they may burn me up sometimes, (2) Nova and Allen are both my friends." The Ghost-type raised his hands to the dark mare, "Dazzling Gleam!" A brilliant flash of light pierced through the unnatural night, blinding any who was looking directly at it, and driving Nightmare Moon back to the ground. Allen was on her before the Fairy move faded out, the plasma cloak of his Flare Blitz dissipated as he reached the mare and reared back on his hind legs, "Stomp!" His hard black hooves began to glow as he drove them down with the force of pneumatic pistons, striking the burnt ground hard enough to form a shallow crater. He snorted and fixed a death glare onto the blurred form of Nightmare as she rolled away from the attack, Loki phased into sight behind her with a large orb of miasma held in his hands. "Shadow Ball!" In an indigo flash Nightmare vanished and reappeared in the air above the two Pokemon, as the eerie blob of shadow impacted the ground causing the sparse grass to wither instantly. The dark mare caught herself on her wings and fired a blast at Loki, only to have the ghost phase out of harms way. "VILE MONSTER!" she cursed, twisting her head from one side to another in search of her opponent. "Sticks and stones!" Loki sang while still invisible. "SHOW YOURSELF COWARD!" Loki laughed an eerie sound that seemed to come from everywhere and echo off of nothing, "You don't know much about Ghost-types do you?" Loki phased into sight only inches in front of the madmare and drew his fist back and caught her with a nasty left hook. The Sucker Punch sent her reeling back, more in shock than pain. "We Ghosts only show ourselves when we strike." To prove his point, he once again faded into the darkness just as she was preparing to counter attack. Allen stood on the ground glaring up at Nightmare Moon, hating that he could do nothing but watch as the two fought in the air, Loki becoming visible just long enough to lob a Shadow Ball and phase out again. In an ironic twist, Nightmare was now twisting, ducking, bobbing, and weaving to evade Loki’s attacks just as Celestia had against her’s. The amusing notion was cut short as the the roof to the palace was blasted outward and all eyes turned to the source. Celestia winged her way out of the confines of what had once been the throne room she shared with her sister and took in the scene in the ruined courtyard. Hovering on her ebony wings was Nightmare Moon, glowering at her with a look of absolute rage. Celestia had to do a double take when she saw the pony whom had been so foolish as to try fighting Nightmare; he was tall and quite muscular, but what had the princess staring was his fiery azure-blue mane and tail. 'Rage Shifted?' she puzzled silently. The more of him she took in the more she realized that he was in a bad way, the joints in his forelegs were swollen and discoloured with large purplish bruises. The fact that he was still alive was, in her book, nothing short of a miracle. "FOOLS!" Nightmare bellowed down to the unicorn. "Your goal was not to defeat us but to stall us! We shall make you suffer for this!" "I will not let you harm anypony else!" Celestia declared as she placed herself between Nightmare and Allen. "Sister, please. It does not need to be this way" she pleaded, still daring to hope that she could reach Luna wherever she was inside the dark mare. "I swear to you, I shall be better. We can fix this, please!" Allen's jaw dropped as he saw Nightmare seem to change, it was nothing physical though her turquoise draconian eyes changed and the haughty nature of her voice vanished, "Sister... I am sorry. I cannot hold the nightmares back. You must stop us." Then, just as quickly as Luna had appeared, her will shining through the dark, Nightmare once again enveloped the mare, her dragon-like eyes burning with fury, "DIE!" Celestia could be heard choking back a sob as the dark alicorn dove at her, horn flashing. The ivory alicorn reached out and pulled six small gems from under her wings, the gems seemed to move of their own accord as five formed a circle while the sixth centered itself at the forefront of the formation. Tears poured freely from Celestia's eyes as she poured her own power into the center gem, the other five gems flashed and shot coloured beams of their own into the core stone, which unleashed a brilliant rainbow corona of power that caught Nightmare and launched her skyward until she was gone from sight. When the magic faded, Allen could see that the surface of the moon had been altered; new craters on its surface had appeared arranged in the shape of the madmare, glaring down at the world below. (3) Allen looked back to see the Princess drop to the dirt as she curled into a ball and wept, her form shuddering as she cried out her sorrows and sent skyward coked apologies.