//------------------------------// // Act 2 Chapter 1: King of pain // Story: Explorers from Giraffia // by Elchar //------------------------------// Vermishine was amazed. Unicorn magic felt so strange, yet so appealing. It really was unlike any okapi magic he has ever tried. Soon enough, all kinds of objects were levitating around him. He didn't feel like that ever since he was learning how to use okapi magic for the first time. After a while he decided to try to cast the spell he wanted to try ever since he saw it in the book - the teleportation spell. Surprisingly, okapis didn't have any spells like that so this will be a completely new experience for him. And then, everything went wrong. ••• Applejack, and everypony from the whole Ponyville, was suddenly woken up by a giant wave of a strange magical energy running through the whole town. She ran towards the window. “What the hay?” A huge pillar of light was rising up into the sky right next to her farm. It was so bright she had to squint her eyes. At that moment Applebloom burst into her room shouting “Applejack! Applejack! What was that?” “Ah don't know sis, but ah am gonna find out. You stay here.” Said Applejack as she dashed down the stairs and almost ran into Big Mac. They didn't have to say a word, one look was enough, and ran outside together. Their giraffe guests were already outside as well. “What in the name of Celestia is that?” yelled Applejack directly at Sea Sail. “Believe me, I have no idea. But Vermishine is missing. I think we should inform your princesses.” “There's no need for that,” Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just landed right next to them, with Princess Twilight close behind. ••• Princess Twilight suddenly woke up. She felt a very strong unusual magical disturbance somewhere in the town. Spike was sitting in his bed confused too, so this wasn't a dream, he would never be awake at this hour otherwise. “What's going on, Twilight? I fealt something... strange.” But Twilight didn't answer. She was already standing by the window, starring into the distance, where a huge pillar of white light was towering into the sky. It seemed it's somewhere close to the Sweet Apple Acres. Spike came to the window and stared at the phenomenon as well. “Spike, stay here, I am going to wake up the Princesses.” They were, of course, wide awake too and were staring at the pillar as well. “Princess Celestia do you have any idea what's going on?” asked Twilight, who was already starting to panic. “We shall find out soon enough, but first, let us get there to see exactly what hast happened,” said Luna and flew out of the open window. Her sister followed her immediately. Twilight first looked around the library; thinking if she wouldn't find the answer somewhere in there, but this probably wasn't the right time for research. She didn't even know what to look for. So she took a deep breath and flew after the royal sisters. ••• Princess Celestia examined the pillar. It was crackling with electricity, sending small bolts all around. “You said Vermishine went missing?” she asked. “Yes.” “Oh no...” Princess Twilight suddenly looked even more terrified. “He borrowed some of my books about magic, remember? What if he tried to cast it? I don't know how much is our magic even compatible!” “If it is so, we may be in a great danger, for we don't know, what this pillar might do. Applejack, could you gather all the ponies from this town on the other side of it's borders, as far away from this phenomenon as possible? Your other friends will surely help.”¨ “Of course princess,” answered Applejack and ran towards the town. Big Macintosh went back into the barn to gather the rest of the family, then they all rushed after Applejack. “So... what shall we do, sister?” asked Princess Luna. “Let's begin with carefully trying to use some spells against it. We have to learn what it is and if it is dangerous.” ••• Celestia started with a simple identifying spell. It bounced right off, having absolutely no affect. Then she, Luna and Twilight went for more and more complicated spells, from all kinds of exploring and see-through spells to destructive spells. However, no matter what they did, none of their spells seemed to be able to get even close to the pillar. Then, around two hours after it appeared, it led out another great outburst of magical energy which sent all three alicorns flying back. When they recovered, they saw Vermishine crashing very hard into the ground. It seemed he went flying out of the pillar the last magical burst. Everygirrafe quickly ran towards him, with princesses following them close by. Vermishine was badly hurt, but still conscious. He looked back at the pillar, which was now glowing and sending thunders everywhere around. It was apparently very hard for Vermishine to speak, but with problems, he said, “He.... is coming........ “ “Who? Who is coming?” Sea Sail yelled at him with fear in her voice. Then suddenly she realized, what might be getting here from the dimensional void. Sea Sail didn't really know why, but in that moment, she remembered her school years when they were listening to stories, horrible stories about ancient evil lurking in between dimensions where it was once just very barely, and with help of all the nations around Giraffia, banished. And the horror in Vermishine's eyes just added to it. Sea Sail didn't know how, but she somehow knew it. The biggest nightmare of all of giraffekind is inside that pillar, trying to get out. And, as she suddenly realised, they had probably brought it here, into this peaceful pony land. Vermishine's lips moved, confirming her worst fears. “Ninki... Nanka!” Everypony and everygiraffe stopped for a moment. Celestia thought about it. She had no idea, who or what that is, but she could clearly see the absolute horror in all of the giraffes's eyes. It was enough for her to know that this isn't going to be good. The pillar now started sending more and more outbursts every few seconds, causing all the ponies and giraffes to lie on the ground to not get hurt. Thunders were flying everywhere around and Sweet Apple Acres already took fire at several places. Earth itself was shaking and the pillar started to collapse. It glowed brighter than ever before, sent the last outburst and then finally disappeared. ••• In its place, a gigantic creature stood. It was towering high above the tree tops. The huge thunderclouds were spinning right above its head crowning it with lightnings. The head actually looked a bit pony-like, but instead of fur, it was covered in scales, it had very evil looking glowing red eyes, giant wide spreading horns and a very sharp, long teeth. Under the head was long neck full of spots, resembling giraffe neck a bit. However, once again, there was no fur, just scales. Its body looked like from some kind of lizard. It was covered in many and many sharp-edged scales and ridges. It also, unsurprisingly, had very long claws. It would be really horrible sight even if the whole beast didn't laugh maniacally. “What.... is... that?“ asked Celestia the first giraffe she could see, which was Bluewave. Then she realised she might not get very clear answer and fully expected something arrogant to come out of the giraffe. But Bluewave was apparently too shocked and horrified to even answer sarcastically. Instead his voice was just full of fear. “Ni... Ninki Nanka. The king of pain. He... he once ruled over Giraffia and surrounding lands. A very, very long time ago. In the end, he was banished to the void between dimensions. But it took lots and lots of great magicians from many nations to do that! Hundreds of them!“ Ninki Nanka suddenly stopped laughing. He looked down, directly at the group of pony princesses, giraffes and now unconscious okapi. Giraffes knew they have no chance here. Bluewave took Vermishine and they backed away from the creature. “What are we going to do?“ yelled Amber Spot. ”There's no way anything is going to stop him!“ However, princesses apparently wanted to at least try. They all took off the ground and flew towards the creature. ••• All princesses fought as hard as they could, flying all around Ninki Nanka and shooting all kinds of powerful looking laserbeams from their horns. Giraffes just couldn't help to stare in owe. All those ponies looked so peaceful and harmless and now it turns out they have such a great powers inside of them. But no matter how powerful their spells were, Ninki Nanka didn't even take notice of them. Storms over his head continued to spread far and wide. And now, he bagan to walk towards Ponyville. Princess Celestia apparently realised their magic isn't doing that much, “This is no use. We have to warn everypony! Fast!“ “We know how sister!“ yelled Princess Luna. “Give us a moment“ She landed on the ground and closed her eyes. A few moments later, to the shock of everygiraffe, her shadowy head appeared on the full moon. “Amazing!“ said Twilight. “Like this, everypony in whole of Equestria will know of this thread.“ “CITIZENS OF EQUESTRIA!“ yelled the shadow with Luna's voice. “THIS IS YOUR PRINCESS LUNA SPEAKING. WE ARE VERY SORRY TO EVERYPONY THAT WE HAD TO WAKE UP, BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT. A NEW GREAT DANGER FOR ALL OF EQUESTRIA AND PONYKIND HAS APPEARED NEAR PONYVILLE AND IS RIGHT NOW HEADED RIGHT INTO THE TOWN. PONYVILLE SHALL BE EVACUATED RIGHT NOW. TO EVERYPONY IN OTHER CITIES, BEWARE OF A GREAT THUNDERSTORM ON THE SKY, INDICATING THE DANGER IS GETTING CLOSE. IF IT GETS CLOSE TO YOUR HOMETOWN, RUN AWAY AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE RELY ON MAJORS OF TOWNS TO ORGANISE THE EVACUATIONS. WE AND OTHER PRINCESSES ARE WORKING ON SOLLUTION, BUT IT SHALL TAKE SOME TIME. BEWARE!“ The shadow than disappeared and Luna opened her eyes. She seemed very tired. “Great job, sister, now, hopefully, we don't have to fear for anypony to get harmed for a while. We have to think of what to do now.“ Twilight looked at giraffes, which were all standing in a tight small group, looking completely terrified, “I think it might be a good idea to ask our giraffe friends. They said they've met Ninki Nanka before.“ She landed right before them, “So, would any of you care to explain? I don't think it's a coincidence that the great enemy from your history appeared in the Equestria right after you came here!“ “You... you're... right. It's not,“ Vermishine just woke up. He was seemingly still in pain, but also determinated to say what happened, “I... I... made a great mistake. I tried our... pony tele.. portation spell, but... it didn't quite work. I was somehow... teleported into the void, leaving a portal to... this place.... and he.... used it... right after. It's all.... my fault!“ “It certainly is, but you couldn't know what will happen. And it was my fault too, I shouldn't have land you those books. But now we have to learn something about him!“ she looked at the rest of the giraffes. It was Sea Sail who started to talk, “I... don't know that much about him. He appeared in Giraffia thousands of years ago and completely took over it and many natons around the Giraffia. He was known as Ninki Nanka, or also the King of pain, because it was horrible times for any creature who came within his grasp. Constant thunderstorms wiped out all the jungles, earth itself was burninga nd entire land became great desert filled with ashes. It's also said he loved to torture living creatures with great pains. He could make you feel like your entire being is on fire! In the end, with the help of the best magicians from all the lands, he was banished into the void, dsppearing forever. Or, well, until now.“ “Is there anything else? Anything?“ Amber Spot seemed to remember something, “I think it was the zebras who came with the plan, right? The shamans from zebra tribes used their great wisdom and made the spell that banished Ninki Nanka! That's how the teacher in our school said it! It's also said zebras know many things about this world, but do not talk about them too much. At least if you are not another zebra, that is. But it wuld be worth a shot! Well, if there were any zebras in this land...“ “There used to be one zebra tribe deep within Everfree forest very long ago. Me and Luna met with them once. But I don't know if it's still there!“ said Celestia. “But there is still at least one zebra in the forest! Do you remeber, princess? I was writing you about her. We have to go there!“ “There... There are some zebras here?“ asked Acaccia Sprout. “Well, at least one for sure! Let's go!“ “Twilight!“ Everypony and everygiraffe turned around. Five ponies were running towards them. Sea Sail easily identified Applejack and Pinkie Pie, but she didn't know the rest of them. They all dashed towards princesses. “Twilight!“ yelled one of them again. It was horned pony with white coat and elegant purple mane. “We all heard Princess Luna's message and came as quickly as we could! But we had to run far around some horrifying giant creature. Is that what were Luna talking about? We have to use elements inside us again! Just like we used them against the Tirek!“ “But how? Last time, the power went out of the chest! Actually, we were just headed to Zecora, our giraffe friends told us they know zebras from their homeland and that zebras might know something about Ninki Nanka. Then we will go to the Tree of harmony, maybe it will help us again!“ "Great idea, Twilight“ commended her Celestia. "So what are we waitin' for? Move it!“ yelled Applejack. Bluewave putted Vermishine back on his back and the whole group began to move towards the Everfree forest.