//------------------------------// // Plans in Action // Story: Mighty Morphin' Power Ponies: Origin Story // by FelixTheBrony //------------------------------// Twilight sat in her throne in the main chamber of her crystal palace, reading a letter she had received from Princess Celestia. The main chamber is the first area you'd find yourself in if you were to enter from the front gate and the amount of space it had seemed ridiculous! It was a large, crystallised hallway which led up to her large throne. Light seemed to seam through the stained glass window of her cutie mark, allowing the place to shimmer in the light. Twilight, at first, was quite embarressed about the window, but she had grown attached to it over time, as she had to the entire palace itself. She would always miss her old house, the library, but this place was a decent replacement. She sighed and read the letter again, taking her eyes away from the box next to her. Dear Twilight, I have felt a great disturbance in the force... ...Okay but seriously, I've got a feeling something is going to go wrong. Which is why I have worked on a new defence for Equestria in the extremely rare case that you and your friends would be unable to help. With Rainbow Dash pregnant and Fluttershy still on her honeymoon for the week, it just increases my worry. These coins will bestow enhanced abilities to those who wield them. But, and this is very important Twilight, they have to be given to young ponies. Teenagers ideally. If a more mature pony were to try and wield this power, the magic used to increase their attributes are more likely to strain their mind. It would be pure torture for them. Believe me because I had already had my five best Royal Guard test them. However, a teenager's mind seems to be able to take the strain. As if the magical properties can fit itself perfectly into their minds. Unfortunately, I could not find any...worthy candidates in Canterlot. So I need you to select five ponies from Ponyville to become a new force against evil. A new line of defence. Thank you and good luck. Yours sincerely, Princess Celestia P.S. I will be stopping by at Pinkie's birthday party to drop off her present from me and my sister, she will not be able to make it and sends her congratulations to her. Twilight looked back to the coins, each one with a picture of a different creature on the front. The one in the centre had a picture of a tyrannosauruses head, it's jaw open slightly to reveal a set of razor sharp teeth. The one to the far left had a picture of a mastodon with it's tusks slightly protruding from the coin itself. The one between them depicted a sabre-toothed tiger with two large canines that stuck out of its jaw leaving a slight bump on the base of the coin. The one to the right of the centre coin was of a triceratops that looked to have charged at the coin surface, it's head slightly raised up. The final coin was of a mid flight pterodactyl whose head had raised into the sky . This seems ridiculous! I mean, I've never let anyone down! And I don't plan on starting now! Twilight thought to herself, confident in her abilities as both a sorcerer and a Princess of Equestria... ...and it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that she doesn't really know many of the teenagers in town! She sighed again, poking at a couple of the coins before flinching back as she felt an obscene amount of power flow out of them. How am I suppose to pick them without really knowing them?! I'm not nearly as well acquainted with the younger population of Ponyville as Spike is! I always go to him whenever I need to know how to help them out with their problems... That's when an idea clicked in her mind and her face lit up. That's it! Spike! I'll get him to pick five ponies! “Spike!” Twilight called out. In reply she heard a bit of shuffling and then glanced above herself to find Spike resting on one of the crystal beams supporting the roof of the building. He glanced over the edge of the beam, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. “I have a job for you!” His eyes lit up as he leapt off of the beam and spread his wings out wide, both having a green inner membrane while on the outside of the wing, purple scales cover them to protect them from the outside elements such as rain, sleet or hail. He descended to the ground until he stood on all four legs, having started to do so both to remain at eye level with the average sized pony and the fact that it started to feel more comfortable and balanced then standing on the two. He stood about two inches taller then the Princess herself as he gave her a salute. “Of course Twi, what can your number one assistant do for you today!” Her horn ignited as the box with the five coins levitated up to meet him at eye level. “Princess Celestia has given me the responsibility of selecting five teenage ponies to become the next line of defence for Equestria if our friends and I are unavailable,” She explained, before levitating the box away and hiding it behind her throne. “And since I only really know the former Cutie Mark Crusaders, I need you to select five worthy candidates to be Equestria's protectors.” Spike rose his eyebrow. “Then why don't you just give them to the former Cutie Mark Crusaders?” “Because I only really got to know Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. But you're right, they would be appropriate choices given who their role models are and how well they can handle themselves these days,” Twilight mused upon herself. “That's three down, two to go!” Spike blinked and thought to himself. “I definitely wouldn't trust them to Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon. They'd be more likely to flaunt those coins in other ponies faces then try to keep them a secret and with the way they are I'm sure they wouldn't really care if anyone else is in danger...” Spike paced in front of Twilight, now oblivious to her presence. “Snips and Snails would have their hearts in the right place, but Snips is a bit pushy at times and Snails has some really slow reflexes. Button Mash...Well with his ADD I'm not sure he'd be able to focus on a plan of action. Plus if we're picking Sweetie Belle for the team then they'd be mumbling and blushing around each other non-stop...” Spike started to flap his wings and fly around in a circle high towards the ceiling. Twilight sighed and shook her head. He seemed to pick up her trait of not really noticing anything else around the world while she was in deep thought. “Dinky is getting more adept in her magical abilities but she hasn't got much in the way of stamina and endurance. Plus I'm not sure how her vision impairment would effect the team...” Twilight heard that sentence and looked down. Dinky was her own, personal student just as she had been to Princess Celestia. She was a very powerful Unicorn! Unfortunately she had found poor Dinky trying to find something to help her mothers eyesight and had miscalculated a spell and had ended up giving herself the same medical condition. Luckily, they had all managed to move past it and Dinky was able to navigate around without too much difficulty, but it didn't escape the eyes of a certain two bullies. She shook the thought from her head as she noticed Spike had sat down in her throne, much to her chagrin. “Rumble has everything going for him except his attitude as of late. I don't know why he started acting like he does now, but I know it wouldn't help out in a team.” He then got up and crawled his way up on top of the throne and arched his back so that he was lying in a semicircle as if he were part of the throne. “I guess that just leaves Pipsqueak and Featherweight. They're the only other two I know personally. Pipsqueak is short, sure, but he more then makes up for it with his friendly nature and the fact that he's on the karate team with Applebloom, so those two would already know how to work together...” He then jumped down in front of Twilight just as she had sat back down in her throne. “...and Featherweight has stealth on his side. He's a photographer after all. He once spent four days lurking outside Sapphire Shore's home to get a picture for JJJ, plus he may look spindly and weak but I've hoof-wrestled him before and all I can say is that looks can be deceiving.” Spike stood, beaming up at the Princess. “So there you go! Your five ponies should be AB, Scoots, Sweetie Belle, Pip and Feathers!” Twilight giggled at his enthusiasm. “Great work Spike. Now I just have one more job for you. I need you to gather them up and bring them here so I can brief them on the plan and what their roles should be...” She concluded, about to write back to the Princess before a thought occurred. “Hang on! Who should lead their group?!” Spike looked back, then placed a claw to his chin. “I think Applebloom. I mean she was the leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so it only makes sense,” Twilight rose an eyebrow at him. “How did they decide that she should be the leader?” “I believe it was because she built their clubhouse and the clubhouse itself was on the farm,” Spike finished, walking out the door to collect the five ponies. Twilight nodded and started to write everything down. Once Spike had left, the transformed Changeling Queen smirked to herself. Now that that's out of the way she should be all alone... She stood out tall and walked through the streets of Ponyville, nopony even taking a second glance at the pony. After all, they've all seen Prince Shining Armour before. Once she had reached the open gate to the castle she smirked to herself. And this is why you shouldn't have an open door policy... She walked straight through the gate, the enchantments around the castle all letting her through as they recognised her as a friendly. Good to see my cloaking spell still works perfectly... She thought to herself as her green aura died from her horn. She opened the door to the throne room, only to be enveloped in a hug by an excited looking Twilight. “Shiny! It's so good to see you!” She squealed happily, letting her go to look up at him. She shook her head from the...strange warm feeling she had felt, and smiled back down as convincingly as she could. “Good to see you too, Twily!” Twilight continued to smile as she closed the door behind them and she led them towards her throne... ...that was when something struck. “Hang on...You don't have green eyes!” She suddenly yelped, as her horn was hit by a bolt of green magic. “You were always too smart for your own good, Twily,” Queen Chrysalis mocked as she returned back to her normal form, standing over the prone Princess. “Though I was impressed by how quickly you figured it out.” “It's easy when you try to copNEAAAAAGH!” She screamed as she felt her magic disperse out of her horn and leak from her injured horn. Chrysalis grinned, evilly at her. “You like it? It's a magic killing bolt,” She grinned as Twilight's eyes widened in horror. “I guess by that look that you know exactly what it is. But I feel like taunting you, so I'll explain it to you anyway.” Chrysalis started to stroke Twilight's damaged horn, causing her to flinch back. “You see, usually, I would drain someone's magic or love to feed on it myself and grow stronger. However you, my dear Twilight, have far more than I could possibly consume. So, with this spell, I punctured a small hole in your horn, towards your magic pool, and now your magical essence is leaking. And you know what happens to a pony once they run out of magic, don't you?” Twilight, with great effort, looked up to glare at the Changling Queen. She smiled back. “I thought so. Don't worry, it'll only be torture for about, say, an hour or so...Enough time for the ponies of the world to come and see their saviour DIE!” As she said that last word, she teleported herself away. Twilight cursed herself for putting the castle's defences up with her own magic rather than the castle's own magical stores, meaning the teleport blocking barriers had shut down, and thought of her options. A magic killing bolt leaves a hole in a Unicorns horn for, about, four to six months. It was made that way so that a Unicorn couldn't just maintain a spell to contain the essence as, eventually, they would need to sleep. She could use some of her remaining essence to send Princess Celestia a message, but even then Princess Celestia has no counter spell for a magic killing bolt. One was never created since it was outlawed across the entire world and one would be disgraced by everyone if they had used it. Queen Chrysalis doesn't care about that though... She thought to herself. She just wanted revenge... She could send a message to her friends and tell them what's going on. But, if she was dead how were they supposed to do anything?! As Princess Celestia had mentioned in her letter, Fluttershy was on her honeymoon in Vanhoover and Rainbow Dash was pregnant! It started to become more and more hopeless as she felt every second of agony as her magic continued to drip away. I can't let Chrysalis win... She thought, trying to get a message to the Crystal Empire with what little remained in of her magic... ...however she felt a mental block override her once she felt her consciousness hit the outskirts of the city. DAMMIT! Twilight cried out in her mind. Chrysalis set up a communication block barrier! I can't contact my brother or Cadence...and I just wasted half an hour of my magic trying... Twilight felt her tears started to roll down her cheeks at the inevitable defeat in her wake...and she wouldn't even be alive to see it. She, using the last of what remained in her horn, sent out a goodbye message to each of her friends. Her consciousness spread out to her seven closest pals. To Fluttershy snuggling with her new husband, Braeburn, in Vanhoover, to Applejack baking pies with her son at Sweet Apple Acres, to Rainbow Dash decorating with her family in Sugarcube Corner, to Rarity talking about current affairs with her husband and siblings in the Carousal Boutique, to Pinkie who was on a Picnic with Caramel in the park... ...to Spike... She was so caught up in her grief and depression, that she didn't notice her leaked magic start to interact with the castle itself. Suddenly a column of crystal shot out around her and she was sealed in the surrounding, transparent crystal. She panicked slightly, wondering what was happening now, before the vast amount of magic she leaked stated to fill the tube in a liquid form. She noticed that the tube was erected in the centre of her throne room and all of her leaked magical essence move itself to the tube and fill it up rapidly, up to the point where she was completely submerged in it. She let out her breath, using her horn to set up the castles defences once more, and then felt herself lose consciousness...