I am the Avatar of the Sun in this world, and you will not harm my subjects!
-Celestia, confrontation with NightShade
Chapter 9
Inconsiderate Incentives
Rarity
"-and so then I said, Order, what the hay are you on?! Why don't you drop the book and give me a smile? But then he didn't say anything so I gave him a cupcake and left."
The four mares sitting at around the table with the hyperactive pink pony stopped their conversations just long enough to catch the last part. Applejack shook her head and mumbled something to herself. The others looked at her as if she was insane. Pinkie just stared back with a massive grin plastered, neigh, cemented on he-
"That wasn't a very good pun you know..."
"Uhhh, Pinkie? Who are you talkin' to?"
Pinkie whipped her head around to face Dash, her mane whiplashing around to knock a muffin off the table, rolling around in the dirt.
On an unrelated note, a small grey pegasus nearby fainted.
"Who, me?"
"Pinkie, are you feeling alright?"
"Pinkie? You mean me? Or maybe I might have a secret sister called Pinkie Pie too! OHMYGOSHIMIGHTHAVEASECRETSISTERCALLEDPINKIEANDSHEMIGHTBEAROUNDHERESOMEWHERE! OHWOWNOWINEEDYOUALLTOHELPMEFINDHER!
Fluttershy leapt down underneath the table, startled by Pinkie’s wave of babble, with a speed that would have made a pegasus proud. A filly pegasus. That had yet to learn to fly. The wind was whipped through the trees, sending Pinkie's mane into a whirlwind of activity, giving her an almost menacing, insane look.
Well, more insane that is.
Rarity sighed and returned to her daisy sandwich, trying to focus on the less panic inducing side of the day. Celestia's Sun shone brightly down over Ponyville, giving everything a bright new look. The colors stood out more so than usual, which was saying something. The small parasol overhead, courtesy of the cafe where they were eating, gave the group some modicum of protection from the heat, while giving them an unrestricted view of the small town.
Rarity turned back to the group to see Applejack trying to calm Pinkie down while Rainbow coaxed Fluttershy out from under the table. Pinkie was slightly less crazy by this point and was only babbling to herself quietly.
The farmer pony faced Rarity. "I haven't seen her this bad since that thing with the- Oh, what did she call it? -Troll? I think it was that."
Rarity nodded in agreement. "She does go on about her imagination and things that we can't see. Although, I didn't think that her imagination was that inconsiderate. Or so rude. But she still made quite a scene about that. I'm just glad that I haven't done anything like that."
AJ smirked. "Well, as I recall, there was that thing a while back with Tom..."
Rarity gave a small dangerous laugh, her eyes narrowing to slits while her mouth transformed into a half smile half snarl. "Oh my dear Applejack," She paused, "If you ever mention that again there will be consequences." She changed back to her normal self suddenly. "Now, let us return to our pleasant meal, shall we?"
Applejack sat back, unsettled by the sudden mood swing, and let out a nervous chuckle while her eyes darted from side to side. Sweat looked to be dripping from her brow. She looked to say something when she was interrupted by a small pink freight train that slammed into her at full force.
Pinkie hopped off of her orange friend and pointed at the other girls. Fluttershy, who had just resurfaced from her happy place, gave a small squeak and retreated back to her shelter. Rainbow Dash gave a small glare before chasing her down. Pinkie continued unaware.
"Girls! We need to go to Canterlot right now! There's a really bid doozy about to happen there and Twilight needs our help!"
Rarity looked at Applejack, but the farmer had no idea what her friend was talking about. "Pinkie, iffin' ya don' mind me askin', what exactly is gonna happen? And why would Twi need our help? She's got the Princesses there, remember?"
Pinkie shook her head violently, the sound of rattling machinery somehow coming from her. "No, we need to go there RIGHT NOW! She reeeeeeeeeally needs our help."
"Pinkie, did you just listen to Applejack? She said that our dear friend will be perfectly safe. And I will absolutely not risk my beautiful mane getting ruined by a wild goose chase. Especially if it involves running through-" She gave a small shudder. "-dirt." Rarity spat the word from her mouth like a rotten apple. "anyway, I'm sure that Twilight is perfectly safe and is having a great time down there. Why can't we just enjoy an amazing Summer Sun Festival day without worrying about threats against Equestria for once. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"
Pinkie gasped, her body expanding to a completely irrational size, eyes bulging. "RARITY! How could you say that! Nopony ever says that! Do you know what this means?!"
Pinkie started to talk again, but stopped, eyes focusing somewhere behind Rarity's right shoulder, towards the distant city of Canterlot. The sound of a siren could be heard faintly, drifting on the wind as it lazily made its way down to the small town below. All of the ponies near the cafe stopped and looked towards the city, wondering what could have caused the commotion.
As they continued to watch a small orange haze faded into existence around the city, the lights of the city. The mares wondered why this happened before realizing that it wasn't the haze getting brighter, the sun was getting duller. The huge burning orb had dulled in the sky, causing the land to go darker to the point of twilight. And then all of a sudden the sun popped back to normal. The five friends looked at each other, confused.
Applejack hazarded an opinion. "Well, Ah think that that's th-"
The pressure suddenly dropped in their ears as the air started rushing past them towards the city. The trees, the grass, practically anything that wasn’t fastened down or stiff as a board leaned towards the distant city on the mountain. The rushing noise stopped, and an eerie silence settled down, nothing daring to move in the calm, waiting for something to happen...
???
"Physics, shouldn't you be watching?"
"..."
"Physics..."
"Mphhhhh."
Force sighed gently, before leaning over the small floating bed and capsizing it. A dull thud echoed around the dingy room, filled with incense and candles, a haze in the air. A small groaning sound came from the other side of the bed, a simple wooden thing that somehow levitated for no particular reason. But then again, thinking about to whom it belonged too...
Force sighed again and walked around to the other side of the bed to look at the pathetic heap that was Physics. He was huddled up on the floor in a ball, wrapped in a towel with an icepack on his head. "Come on, get up ya' big pussy."
"Go away."
"No."
"..."
"..."
"Please?"
"P, just get the hell up, you really need to get back to work. We really need you. There are some things that can't be sorted out by the rest of us."
"Like what?"
"Like what's happening right now."
Physics lifted his head up from the floor slightly. "What? What's happening?"
"Just come and see for yourself."
Physics resigned himself to his fate and lifted himself up from the floor with great reluctance. Force walked over to another side of the room and tapped on the wall. A large screen popped open. She picked up a small device from a table nearby. "Which one is Equestria again P?"
Physics blanched at the mention of Equestria and broke out into a fit of shivering. "This has nothing to do with her, does it?"
"..."
"DOES IT?"
"...A little..."
Physics looked as if he was going to refuse Force's request, but then thought better of it, knowing what the consequences would be. He sighed again and rubbed his tired eyes. "Number 45."
"Thanks..."
"Whatever."
Force looked at the small device in her hand and pressed something on it. Physics walked over and stood beside his friend to see what would happen. The blank screen in front of her flickered into life, showing a view of Equestria, specifically Ponyville. The entire town looked as if a giant had come overboard with hair gel and slicked the entire place down. Physics instinctively knew what the actual cause was, and he knew what had to happen next. There had to be whiplash. A lot of it. Possibly enough to destroy the town, if not a vast majority of Equestria if the state of this one area was to go by. He cracked his knuckles and looked at the world in front of him, ready to deliver destruction as was his duty. He stretched one hand out towards the screen and-
-froze, his pupils shrinking to the size of a pinhead. He turned and bolted away, leaving only a small dust cloud in his wake. Force scanned the room and saw a small lump huddled next to the bed, happy to have been reunited with the group. She looked back at the screen, curious to see what the cause of this sudden behavioral shift was. She only needed to look for a few seconds before she saw the cause.
"Hmmm, knew she had something to do with this." She looked back at her friend. "He really needs to sort out his priorities..."
Rarity
Nothing happened.
The wind gradually flowed back towards Ponyville, the trees losing their tension. The air and atmosphere itself losing its tension. Everything relaxed. Rarity looked at the quivering ball of pink fur that was her friend. "Really now Pinkie, I think that was a bit uncalled for. Nothing bad happened."
Pinkie stared at her friend, her deep cerulean eyes wide with worry. "But Rarity, that wasn't the doozy! Well, at least I think it wasn't the doozy. It would have been pretty cool anyways though cause did you see that?! I mean, I've seen some pretty cool things but that takes the cake..."
She paused before taking a ridiculously deep breath. "There's cake?! OHMYGOSHIFTHERE'SCAKEINEEDSOMEBECAUSEIJUSTLOVECAKESOMUCH! Maybe I should get some for Gummy... I know! I'll make some cake for all of us! How does th-"
Pinkie stopped. Her rear right hoof shot up into the air while her left eye started doing donuts around her socket. She jumped over onto her back and started giggling hysterically. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the 'seizure' stopped. She got up silently and turned to look back up at the city. "Oh oh, this is bad..."
Before Rarity could say anything, a huge shockwave blasted from the distant city accompanied by a wave of bass that would have made Vinyl die from exposure to awesome...ness... It knocked the girls over instantly from sheer force, before snatching anything that wasn't secured firmly away. The whole town was shocked. Applejack recovered first and sat up dazed, before running over to her friends to check on them. Rarity was pulled up from the ground by a shocked Fluttershy. She looked up at the city and gasped.
A huge dome of glowing orange and navy light surrounded the city. As they continued to watch, the dome darkened and brighten at the same time, to the confusion of the watchers. An impossibly bright streak shot up from the ground and slammed into the dome, causing it to pulse brightly and return to its previous state. The streak bounced off, but quickly shot back, brightening as it did so, shattering the dome instantly into a thousand motes of glowing light. The streak moved further into the air before stopping, spinning and looping, a lightning bolt rotating in place. It remained like this for a few seconds before shooting away from the city on an erratic course.
Rarity's eyes widened as she realized that it was heading directly for them.
The streak covered the distance from Canterlot in barely any time at all. It became more unstable and looked like it was about to dissipate by the time it reached the outskirts. The darkness contained inside rolled and churned as the streak darted wildly. The streak was lost from sight for a moment as it breached the roofline and disappeared between the houses.
And then it impacted.
Luna
Light looked pissed. And the guards in front of him looked frightened. Very frightened. He leaped towards the unfortunate soul that happened to be at the front of the pack. Luna had trouble deciphering what exactly happened next. To an observer, Light looked to be teleporting between the guards, knocking each and every one of them completely senseless while not gaining a single injury in return. Every time a guard approached, he would flicker out of sight for a moment, and in a display of unnatural speed, he would reappear next to the guard and beat him into submission.
And he was just playing with them.
A few of the guards were more clever and sent ponies to alert the Armory. About half a minute later, the ponies had come running back, burdened with bows and hoof-mounted swords. Any guard that wasn't currently involved in the fight equipped one and proceeded to attack. Luna watched as a pony with a spear of all things managed a glancing attack on Light’s leg. Light instantly flipped around the pony responsible and beat him down. Then he saw the archers...
Light
Oh come on! Archers?! This is getting a little bit unfair...
Then again, I could have some fun...
IT'S FRIENDLY FIRE TIME!
Light stopped for a moment to analyze his predicament, before coming up with the perfect solution. He faded out of the visible spectrum amidst a spider web of light tendrils. Creeping slowly so as to not disturb his cloak, he approached the Princess nearby, cackling to himself gleefully all the while. When he was close enough, he put his plan into action.
He bent the light around him to mirror that of the dark Princess, while changing the Princess to look like him, to an extent. Once he had done this he removed his cloak quietly, before shouting out in a falsetto voice... Not so quietly.
All of the guards looked around for the source of the noise.
"Guards, quickly! He is here! Attack before he can escape!"
The guards turned desperately, before spotting the source. Princess Luna, with the creature nearby. The creature looked stunned and confused while Luna looked at it with an expression of anger on her face.
Meanwhile I looked at Luna with the biggest grin I could manage. I winked at her once and her eyes widened as she took in what I looked like. I coughed quietly so that the nearby guards wouldn't hear and pointed a hand, now a hoof at this point, at Luna. She looked at me confused then looked at herself. Her expression turned to one of shock.
Wow, I don't look that bad... do I?
By this time, the guards had overcome their confusion and drew their weapons at Luna, thinking that she was me. I just relaxed and watched the show. The remaining infantry sprinted towards her, retribution for their fallen colleagues their one goal. I giggled a bit and watched. And then Celestia had to interrupt.
The Sun Princess shot a concentrated beam at me, knocking me backwards and causing me to lose my focus and drop the illusion. Every single pony stopped. Again. The infantry about to attack the Princess looked especially dumbfounded by the turn of events.
Dammit! She must have seen me tampering with the illusions...
Well this sucks.
I staggered to my feet, smoking slightly after taking a blow that probably could've vaporized a normal person. Celestia had risen unsteadily to her feet... hooves... I dunno. And she looked pretty ticked off at me. She barked out an order at the guards and they backed away cautiously. I didn't manage to catch what she said, but the look of fear and apprehension that was plastered over every guard's face made me pretty worried. The Princess' horn started to glow again, and for a moment I considered just doing my illusion/cloak combo again, but scrapped the idea, knowing that she wouldn't fall for it again.
The horn glowed brighter and brighter, before letting out a massive focused concussion wave that only went directly at me, knocking me senseless to the ground, the impact stealing my breath away. The wave continued on its path, destroying and disrupting anything in its path before streaking out of the city and into the distance, expanding on it journey into a dome of force.
I moaned and rolled over onto my stomach and barely made it to my feet. Both of the Princess' horns were glowing. I was confused momentarily as to what they were doing, but noticed a huge glowing dome above my head, easily encompassing the Gardens.
Hmmmm, what is this for...
My question was answered a moment later as I looked around and noticed that the Princesses and the guards had both managed to be outside the shield. Which then proceeded to heat up. I froze in shock, realizing that they were going to cook me to death. In an instant, I phased and shot towards the top of the dome, hoping to break free. Noone... Nopony... Ah fuck it I can't be fucked anymore!
Slipstream Nexus
Order stopped reading for a moment as he felt something disturb him slightly. The other in the room didn't seem to notice. Annoyance and Surprise were too busy playing Twister while Fate watched, a knowing look in his eye. Order sighed and placed the novel on the table gently. The others immediately looked up in shock, knowing that Order never, ever, stopped reading except for absolute emergencies.
Order took no notice of the sudden attention and proceeded to reach his arm forward, looking for something. Seemingly finding it, he reached forward even further until his arm disappeared from the elbow down. He pulled his arm away, and a section of shirt collar materialized. Order leaned towards the collar.
"Hey, what did I say about bad language." He whispered menacingly.
"Ummm, that it's bad?"
"Yes. I did." Order's voice was practically dead from the amount of venom that was contained in it. "Now, keep going with the chapter, and no. More. Language."
"Y-y-yes O-order."
Order's expression softened slightly. "Good, now let us not have this talk again. Ever. Understood?"
"A-absolutely!"
"Good, good. Now get back to work." As he said this, he let go of the collar, letting it slip out of existence again. He settled back to read his book, but noticed the looks he was getting from the onlookers. "What?"
Fate shook his head. "Nothing, nothing."
At this moment Annoyance took the opportunity to kick Surprises' leg out from under her, causing her to fall over. The game descended into a brawl in an instant.
Order sighed.
"He really needs to come up with new material..."
Luna
The Princess of the Night watched as Light came to his sudden realization of his impending destruction. She watched, unfazed, as he changed into his Other form and took off towards the top of the dome, knowing that he wouldn't be able to break through.
She became a lot more worried however when he hit the barrier.
As he impacted, the dome flashed brightly before settling down to its normal state. Luna's expression turned to one of worry as she felt the impact. Light had been on the verge of smashing through a barrier created by the power of the two most powerful beings alive. A wave of mental fatigue hit as the impact swept through her.
She watched as Light bounced around inside his prison, and watched as he shot towards the same point of impact again, to a much different effect.
Light had focused his entire impact into an area about the size of a bowling ball. He shattered the dome into a rain of brightly colored fragments that fell towards the gathered ponies. The shards dissolved within moments of losing their form. The guards looked shocked. Celestia looked shocked. Everypony looked shocked. This thing had broken an unbreakable barrier. Even Discord would've had a hard time escaping.
Luna became extremely worried as she thought about the implications of a being that possibly had more power than Discord. That was extremely pissed off at both of the Princesses. That was on the loose, heading right. Towards. Ponyville.
The Princess saw Light sweep over the edge of the city in an erratic bolt of light. It sped down at a tremendous rate, shrinking into the distance. It then proceeded to smash into the outskirts of possibly the most protected, and most vulnerable, place in all of Equestria
Luna looked at her hooves.
"Aww, ponyfeathers..."
Understatement of the century right there...
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, and again, slow update is made of fail so...
...
Right, anyway.
Stay tuned!
And remember, its number 45 for Equestria...