//------------------------------// // Visions // Story: Ponyblade Chronicles // by ZeroChill //------------------------------// Shulk, Reyn, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Sharla, Rainbow Dash and Otharon crept around a hallway filled with cracks on the walls and debris everywhere. Otharon moved his eyes towards Twilight Sparkle, moving them away quickly when she looked towards him. Otharon sighed and looked towards her one more time, his mouth poised to move. “Would you happen to be Twilight Sparkle by any chance?” He asked in a voice heavy with uncertainty. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened with a bit more energy, and she cocked her head. “Yes, but how do you know my name?” She asked. Otharon sighed a breath of relief, smiling. “That’s one less thing on my mind. I suppose I should show you when we get there. Let’s just say you are in for a big surprise.” “Okay…?” Twilight Sparkle worded out. The group stopped upon seeing the remainder of the hallway blockaded by insurmountable debris. “Not good. It looks like we need to find another way through.” Shulk announced. Otharon pointed towards a gaping hole towards the right wall. “This will lead us straight to where we need to go.” He stated. Two unicorns sat down within a small room together with frowns echoing their concern. One was a midnight blue-coated stallion with a coifed mane and tail of an even darker blue color and gold eyes. His cutie mark was a small crescent moon inside of a larger crescent moon. The other was an alabaster-coated mare with a white and purple-striped mane and tail that were curled and light blue eyes. Her cutie mark was a trio of purple stars. “Otharon has been gone longer than usual. I hope nothing bad happened to him.” Shaking her head, the mare stated. “Now Twilight Velvet, I’m sure he’s fine. He probably encountered a bit of trouble with a Dark Kisling, or a Vengeful Daulton, or maybe even an Elegant Marin.” The stallion replied, smiling and gently patting Twilight Velvet’s back. “But, what if he ran into the dreaded Mechon again, Night Light?” Twilight Velvet asked in a higher pitch. “I’m sure he hasn’t encountered any.” Night Light responded in a shaking voice. In the midst of their talk, a group of footsteps echoed down the gaping debris. Twilight Velvet and Night Light’s ears stood tall. On reaction, they jumped back towards the far wall of the room, their horns lit up in the colors of their eyes. “If any monsters come by into this room, we can at least say we died putting up a fight when we go to whatever afterlife awaits us!” Night Light stated with renewed strength. “…Nothing is coming through that gap yet.” Twilight Velvet commented. “Maybe we’re just hearing things again.” With that, the auras enshrouding their horns disappeared, and they lowered their shoulders. “You two really should have kept your guard up. What if we were actually monsters?” A voice sounding like Otharon’s blurted out from beyond the gap. Twilight Velvet and Night Light’s heads perked up, smiling as Otharon ducked from underneath the hole. “Otharon!” Twilight Velvet shouted, running towards him. “How did scrounging for resources go?” Otharon shook his head and held his hands parallel to his head. “I was attacked by those damned Mechon again. I thought they had me this time, but I managed to luck out this time; six youths came to my aid. I brought them with me because they will be able to help us rid this mine of the Mechon.” He looked towards the hole and cricked his head along with a hand motion towards the room. Twilight Sparkle, upon entering within the room, had her mouth agape with a smile upon seeing Twilight Velvet and Night Light. “Mom! Dad!” She shouted, dashing towards them with the enthusiasm of a child. “…Twilight?!” Night Light shouted in shock and excitement. Both him and Twilight Velvet ran up towards Twilight Sparkle and embraced her tightly. “You’re alive!” Twilight Velvet screeched with anxious delight. “I was so worried something terrible happened to you!” “But, how did you two end up here of all places?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “When the both of us woke up, we found ourselves deep within the cave system here. Seeing that it is a new place we have not seen, we decided to walk around a bit and explore our surroundings. That quickly became a horrible idea when we saw the mechanical monstrosities known as the Mechon deeper within the cave. Most of our attacks wound up being ineffective, and we were almost done for. Thankfully, Otharon saved us.” Night Light explained. “If this is where you were hiding out, Otharon, then, then… where’s Gadolt?! Shouldn’t he be with you?!” Shouting, Sharla asked. Otharon paused and looked down onto the ground for a moment, but looked square into Sharla’s eyes. “After Colony 6 was evacuated, Gadolt and I led a counterstrike against the Mechon to liberate our Defence Force. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and Gadolt was killed by them.” Hearing these words, a shrill gasp escaped from Sharla’s voice and the fingers on her right hand trembled. “No… it can’t be real… but Gadolt promised that we would see each other again and…” The room was filled with a deathly silence. Sharla clenched her teeth, forcing back tears from her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked into Otharon’s eyes. “I refuse to believe he’s dead. He’s too tough to be brought down by the Mechon. I know he’s still alive somewhere.” Shulk, who silently eyed everyone in the room, had his eyes flash in a blue light. Within the vision, he saw Otharon on top of a machine. “Juju! Gadolt! This is for you!” Upon the declaration of these words, Otharon was falling into a river of shining green liquid. The vision ended there, removing the glow from his eyes. Shulk breathed out a heavy sigh. “Did you say something, Shulk?” Reyn, who looked towards Shulk upon reaction, asked. “It’s… It’s nothing.” He lied. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes scrunched in disbelief. At the moment she would have opened her mouth; her eyes became cloaked in a green glow. When the glow of her eyes subsided and vision returned to her, she found herself in a white room sitting at the chair inside the body of Sophia. In front of her was a bed occupied by a resting Klaus. She looked around the room, confused by the events surrounding her. When realization struck her, a small gasp escaped her mouth. At the same time, Klaus began to groan, stirring back into reality. “Klaus? Are you… awake?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “So…phia? Were you watching over me this entire time?” Klaus sat up on his bed, allowing Twilight Sparkle to see his shirtless bandaged back. She frowned. “Klaus, I didn’t know that would happen. I’m sorry that you got hurt from my mistake. It’s my fault this happened to you.” “Don’t… feel sorry, Sophia. We are working with dangerous technology, and nobody could have seen that happening.” Klaus stated. He looked upon the ceiling, his hands both on top of the bed sheet over his lap. “Is there something on your mind, Klaus?” Cocking her head slightly, Twilight Sparkle asked. “Sophia, do you think we are verging into forbidden territory with our experimentation?” Klaus responded. “I, ummmm, I’m not too entirely sure about what we are doing, Klaus. All I understand is that we are working with a very dangerous system that tried to kill us.” Klaus directed his eyes directly into Twilight Sparkle’s eyes. A wicked grin erupted from his face. With his two hands, he gently grabbed her shoulders and shook them. A haze enveloped around within his irises. “With this technology, we are capable of creating our own universe! We can be gods, where we can set up our own laws of the universe. We can create our own people and decide their fates. Isn’t that simply amazing?!” Upon hearing his enthusiastic words, Twilight Sparkle backed up more into her chair, looking at Klaus if he had grown a head out of his chest. She grabbed his forearms and gently put them back onto the bed. “Creating a new universe?! But, what will happen to this universe if we do?” She responded with a fire burning in her voice. Almost upon the declaration of these words, the haze in Klaus’s eyes disappeared. He faced forwards, looking out of a window that showcased a series of stars and a red planet. “This universe… right. It is a beautiful universe we live in, Sophia. We live in a universe where there are entire seas of stars, planets and meteors, with the space that can hold all of it and much more.” He stated in a calm voice. “Sophia, do you love the stars?” Twilight Sparkle’s body calmed down upon hearing the question. She smiled. “The stars are very beautiful, Klaus. They are purely wonderful and I find how they form constellations to be very interesting.” “Have you ever wanted to create your own star, Sophia?” “Make… a star? That’s something I have always dreamed of doing.” A quick grin appeared on Klaus’s face. “With this technology, we can make our own star that you can always look upon in the sky, Sophia. We can continue our experiment, but only to create a star.” Twilight Sparkle’s face reacted with a smile. “I would love that, Klaus. I would love that very much.” Twilight Sparkle found herself back within the room in the Ether Mine. Looking around the room, she saw that literally no time had passed around her. “I say we spent enough time in here as it is. We have to save Juju and Applebloom before that Mechon eats them.” Fluttering above the ground with her front legs crossed, Rainbow Dash stated. “I suppose we did fulfill our purpose in coming here.” Otharon stated, looking towards Twilight Velvet and Night Light. “The time to attack has come. Today, we shall liberate Colony 6 from the Mechon.” “Finally!” Applejack stated, turning back towards the hole. “I didn’t like being tied up in this room.” “I know how you feel, Applejack. It’s worse than how the sleeping quarters in the Defence Force gets sometimes.” Reyn stated, walking out of the room. One by one, everyone exited the room through the gap in the wall. Smiling, Twilight Sparkle took a few steps forwards towards the hole. Doing so, she felt a hand grip her right shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. “Hold it.” She looked behind her and saw Shulk with eyes focused with unwavering might. “Is there a problem, Shulk?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “You have something you are hiding from us, Twilight. You aren’t going to leave until you tell me.” “If that’s how you feel, then let me say this; I know you are hiding something from us as well, Shulk. I know that it has to do with your vision. So, if you tell me, then I will tell you.” Shulk’s back shot up straight, hearing the counter-proposition given to him. He sighed. “Please don’t tell anyone else. This will be our secret; I had a vision where I saw Otharon fall into an ether river in the mine. Exposure to raw ether is very dangerous for those like you and me. Otharon will die if that happens.” “But, shouldn’t we tell everyone else about this? Holding back news like this isn’t good for everyone.” Twilight Sparkle reasoned. “I’m afraid of what would happen if we would. I didn’t want to tell anyone, because they might make that vision happen. I don’t want to have another incident happen where we walk into our own fates again like with Fiora…” “Then, at the least, tell Reyn about your vision. You two are best friends, so you shouldn’t keep any secrets from each other like that.” “Your right. I’ll tell him when I feel ready to tell him.” Shulk stated. “Now you have to tell me what you saw.” “I saw…” Twilight Sparkle began. “I was in what looked like an infirmary, looking upon the stars in a Homs body. I don’t know what it was about, but I saw a man who told me that I could create my own star.” “That does sound a bit cryptic. Are you sure you don’t want to tell anyone else about this?” Shulk asked. “I only want to tell people when I understand what these visions mean. At this point, I really don’t have much information other than that.” “I won’t push you if you aren’t ready yet. We still need to catch up with our friends and your parents, though.” Twilight Sparkle jumped up with a gasp. “They’re probably back at the platform already! We have to go there, quick!” Sprinting out of the room, she shouted. Shulk ran behind her, following her out of the room.