//------------------------------// // Don't Stop Believing [22] // Story: Stories in Stone, Lost Empire // by TDR //------------------------------// Stories in Stone Lost Empire By TDR Don't Stop Believing [Crystal Empire Saturday, 600 hours] “Darling! You're alright I was so...HURRRK!” Blueblood starts to say as the cream colored mare approaches him. The resounding crack following her wind up as she slammed her fore hoof to his jaw made every pony in the hospital waiting room wince. A number of teeth flew from the white stallions mouth clattering across the floor as his whole jaw swung at an odd angle and he collapsed like a sack of potatoes dropped off a cliff. “Damn Orange......Feel better now?” questions the Guard that had been hobbling along with her. “Quite a bit, Hunter. Thank you for escorting me to the hospital. Now I've got a lot of work to do and you need to get off your leg.” Orange Danish grins, shaking her hoof a little and glares at the green earth pony.” Doctors orders....” “Yes Ma'am.” Hunter states dropping into an open seat as if her father had ordered her to sit. Orange smirks stepping over the collapsed form of Blueblood as if he was discarded trash. There were a lot of injured ponies, though it was what she had heard of one pony in particular that had brought her to Empire Hospital and away from the medic tents set up in the field by the palace. One zebra in fact. ============================================== Princess Luna woke with a start. She had been having some rather horrific nightmares involving her friends dying and a pair of Starswirl the Beardeds screaming at each other, one on fire, the other seemingly cold and much darker. As she woke she realized that this was not her quarters, it was far too... pink. It didn't take her long to wish she was still asleep. At least a night mare could be disbelieved. She rose finally her hooves clicking on the floor, her head still hurt and she could feel the swirl of power an anger in her still. She yanked back a curtain on the window, her magic pulling too hard and ripping the dark pink cloth from the window. She winces at the sudden blast of sunshine hitting her face. The sun was in the same position it had been in the day before, the late afternoon light of the sun still lay on the horizon as if it was ready to dip down for the night. She panicked briefly, thinking she had been asleep for the entire day after an attack before her own internal magical timekeeping informed her that the sun should have just risen. Moving the sun was not an odd thing for her, but having the power of her sister along with it made things a little odd. The sun wiggled and squirmed as she reached out to guide it, the solar orb seeming to have issue with her attempt to move it, though it slowly gave in and Luna moved the sun to where is was supposed to be this early in the morning. She couldn't imagine what some ponies might have thought about the sun being stuck in one position for so long, though with it back where it was supposed to be perhaps some of them would be comforted by the normalcy. “I see you're up Princess.” comments a voice behind her. Luna glances back to see the familiar, and rather haggered face of Starfall, the mare looked tired, and the small blue dragon perched on her back didn't seem in much better shape. It wasn't the small dragon that held Luna's attention though. It was the sword she was carrying. Luna's gaze fell on that blade and she sat down hard. He wouldn't leave that behind, that Bleu had it and the looks on their faces. They already knew about Rhede... she had felt that when she teleported. But Jer'rahd.... there was always the hope he was just distracted by something.... but now with his sword here. Princess Luna, Goddess of War, Nightmare Moon, and countless other titles, collapsed sobbing at the sight of the dull blade of the Waning Moon. ============================================================= [ Foal Mountains Saturday, 800 hours ] “Grabble are you sure about this? I mean we just got our tails kicked by Bleu and Spike a couple of days ago. What if they catch us again?” Spines whines, the dark purple dragon with yellow belly scales was still showing bruises from their encounter with Bleu. “Of course. Those two will be so busy with what ever emergency is going on in the Empire that they won't even think to look for us for days. “ Grabble smirks, the red dragon though himself clever for coming up with the plan, even though Spines had been the one to tell him about the emergency. “I don't even care as long as we get something to eat this time.” Bulk grumbles. The purple and blue spotted drake glides along slower than the other ones his small wings flapping twice as hard to keep up with his larger size. “You always want to eat, and I'm still not sure why you two are fixated on ponies. Do we really want to mess with a pony who can do what happened last night to the sun? There's plenty of gems around to feed on.” Spines comments dodging a kick from Grabble. “That's not the point idiot. And we aren't going for the pony Princess any way. We used to eat ponies when ever we wanted before the shrimp and the bitch came along. Now we're not allowed, well forget that!” Grabble growls. “I don't ever really remember wanting to before we were told not to though.” Bulk mutters. “Any way if you're gonna keep complaining, you don't get any when we find one. “ Grabble snaps at Spines who sighs. “More for me!” Bulk chimes in. “That's not what I.....” Spines begins only to be cut off by Bulk. “Look there! There's a pony, lets get him!” Bulk yelps. Spines looked down, blinking a little at the rather large looking figure wearing what appeared to be the tattered remains of a tarp covering its body like a cloak. Something about it just seemed odd to Spines, the figure was wandering around the base of the mountain, seemingly lost and alone and he looked and smelled like a pony... or at least it smelled of pony blood. A LOT of pony blood. “Guys I don't think that's a pony....” Spines begins only for the other two to ignore him and dive for the figure screaming about an easy meal and hooting and hollering. Spines sighs following the others down, he needed new friends. =================================================== [ Edge of White Tail Woods, Saturday , 900 hours. ] Pip stares up at the sky noting the sun hadn't altered it's usual course across the sky since it had done that weird thing that morning. Pip had thought he was imagining things yesterday when the sun didn't seem to go down. For a few hours he was starting to wonder if Sweetiebelle's theories about the road taking forever because of a temporal displacement spell were true. Granted he had little clue what that meant, but it sounded bad. He even bit his leg to make sure it wasn't a dream, though the sharp pain told him he was indeed awake. In any event when the others started to notice as well, to the point of every one starting to doze off, Pip realized it was much later than it looked with the sun up and had every one pause to make camp for the day, night, whatever. Applebloom protested saying she wanted to go on until sun down, though after arguing with her a bit they had found a place to set up camp, and the mare was out cold the moment her head touched the bed roll. Pip had picked up a good bit of camping gear to load into the cart at the shop, something he was glad he had done now. Despite Applebloom growing up on a farm, and Sweetiebelle's plethora of random information, neither of them were very good at camping. Scootaloo was a little better due to some training in survival with the Wonderbolts and constant camping trips with Rainbow Dash, but she wasn't that sure what to do if the camping gear wasn't available either. Da would take care of that part of the training, or uncle Rhede. He had been camping once with both of them and uncle Rhede was a wealth of survival knowledge. Pip had taken to it with great gusto and Rhede was willing to teach him everything he knew. He called it preparation to take his own sons out camping, by answering all of Pip's questions. Because of his uncle, Pip was certain he could survive in a desert, with nothing more than a spoon, a tarp, and a play colt magazine for a few weeks easy, and the last thing in that list was optional. Right now though he was rather concerned about what was going on at home. He had taken morning watch, waking Sweetiebelle, who had fallen asleep on her watch despite her protests of resting her eyes, before sending her to bed. Scootaloo had taken the first watch simply due to her lazing about all day on her cloud left her feeling awake enough to take the first, he expected she had taken much of the second watch as well. Pip had not dreamed, no nightmares or anything. He expected his Ma to have questions about that short note, and he doubted having a foal would have stopped her from sleeping long enough to talk to him. Then there was the weird way the sun had been acting. It was up all night in one spot and the moon never rose, then a few hours ago it had wiggled a bit, then shot across the sky to where it was supposed to be this early in the morning. Since then he had tracked it and it's slow movement across the sky was back to normal. Did something happen? Did Ma die in foal birth? Did she not care about him any more since the new foal was born? Had some ancient awoken evil attacked New Canterlot and eaten every pony and forced the rest to evacuate? Had she turned back into Nightmare Moon and gobbled up everyone else? Wait no the sun had stayed up. Did aunt Celestia turn into Daymare Sun and over throw every pony? Pip slaps his face with his hoof. He was sounding like Sweetiebelle with her tin foil hat theories. Likely the stupid crystal died before the message went through, and auntie Celestia had gotten distracted by Twilight or Ma's new foal and forgotten to lower the sun and raise the moon. Da was going to have a field day taunting her about that. It wouldn't be the first time Celestia had slipped up in his memory. Still he felt stupid for letting his imagination get away from him. “Morning Pip.... I think” Applebloom greets from behind him with a yawn. “It is. The sun fixed it's timing finally.” Pip grumbles. “Any idea why it was up there all night?” “Nah, seems to be working fine now. Auntie Celestia probably just forgot.” “Heck of a thing tah ferget.” Applebloom mutters sitting down next to him. “Her sister just had a foal and a new god was born. “ Pip smirks.”Besides it's not like it's the first time she forgot. How'd ya sleep?” “Same as ever. Fire dream, all blurry and stuff like normal, but ah think ah was more annoyed then scared this time. It wasn't clear or explaining anything, jus tha same blurry, dread crap it used tah be. You and Scootaloo talk any?” Pip winces. “Nah, ah'm just gonna let her be. Dun need her mad at me any more'n she is.” “Yeah but she's mad for the wrong reason. She's mad cause she thinks it was a set up, not cause yah were interested.” Applebloom hisses. “Ah know. S'why ah'm gonna give her time tah cool off an try again. There is that end of that year dance coming up.” “You dance?” “Nope.” “Ah ken believe that, with all tha training you do. I hate tah say it, but she does dance though, an she's pretty good.” “I'll get auntie Bleu to teach me, she claims she taught Da.” “Now that ah don't believe.” ======================================================= [900 hours Crystal Empire] A loud resounding crack filled the room. Twilight Velvet staggers from the hit, stumbling before crashing to the ground, felled by a blow dealt to her by the Princess of the Night. Cadence had brought Luna to the room where Celestia, Twilight and a few others were being kept and cared for while they were in the odd coma. She had barely walked in the door before Twilight's mother started fussing at her. Blaming Luna for the monster and the attacks and her daughters condition and dozens of other things. Her husband was not having any luck calming her down neither was her son. Luna could tell she was simply freaking out over her daughters condition, but she was not in the mood to humor the mare. She briefly considered muting the mare with magic, though with how her powers continued to fight each other she would just as likely burn her to a crisp as silence her. A simple slap across the face with her hoof did the job well enough. Luna glares down at the mare her own fur flickering between white, dark blue, and black, her mane was little better. Her cutie mark shifted and changed from her normal one, to her sisters to an odd mixture of the two. The only constant was the straps holding the Waning Moon to her side. “Be glad you daughter is even alive Mrs Sparkle. There are precious few who can say the same of their loved ones and friends. Now you will calm yourself or the next time I hit you will ensure that I am left in peace until your return from the hospital, and they are already over worked as it is.” Luna glares at her. “ I did not send your daughter, out to Gallopagos, nor did I tell her to fight. If the reports are correct she did all that on her own and many more would have died if she had not. I did not create this creature nor do I know what it is fully. Now is there a specific reason you are blaming me for this or need I have you imprisoned for false accusations against royalty bordering on treason in a time of war?” “That is a bit harsh auntie....” Cadence begins before Luna cuts her off. “Several of my friends are dead, my sister is in a coma, one of my children is missing, my kingdom is lost, and my husband is dead. I am going light compared to what I will do to any nobles who think to try and take advantage of this situation. Now explain yourself Mrs Sparkle.” “We read Twilight's book. The one about you.” Night Light speaks up. Luna looks up at him expressionless. “And?” “The chapter about Rhede Pelt... Cadence dear help your mother in law a moment, take her out and get some tea or something.” Night Light noting Luna's flinch at the name. The Princess of Night watches as Night Light moves to dig through the saddle bags. She glances over at Shinning Armor as he approaches. “Hit my mother again, and I don't care if you are Princess or not I will beat the stupid out of you.”the white unicorn growls. “You are welcome to try Shining Armor. It may be enough of a distraction to keep me from slamming the sun into Equestria just to make sure Tirek dies.” Luna responds. “Right now Pip being in Equestria is the only thing stopping me from that course of action.” Shining's eyes widen at that as he takes a step back from the flickering mare. “No I don't think I'll be letting you do that Princess.” comments a voice from the door way. Luna looks back as a pony sized purple dragon steps in the door with a slightly smaller blue dragon right behind him. “You think you would be able to stop me?” Luna snaps. “Yup, easily, now calm yer teats.” Bleu responds glaring at the moon princess. “You're being stupid, and focusing on the wrong target same as Mrs Sparkle was.” “Spike I can't find the book on the third age, the one with the tree... do you think you can?” Night Light asks. “ It was in my bag..” “Yeah, not a problem dad....” Spike responds shoving his hand suddenly into Luna's mane and pulling out a book. “What in Equss?” Luna stammers, her anger derailed. “Ooh, good one Spiky... “ Bleu chuckles. “Don't call me that. It's the main aspect of my power. I can get any book I want from any when so long as I know generally what it's about or what the title is. It also sometimes works if I just have a question that a particular book can answer. Thing is it doesn't just appear in my hand, I have to be pulling it from some place. Either where there a lot of other books, or some place that I can't see into that a book might fit into.” Spike explains. “ I usually have a bag for that, but I left it in Cindervale in the rush to get here.” Night Light took the book and flipped through the pages. “ Ahh here we are. Third age. This book starts out with the creation of a warrior race to deal with a pair of monstrous threats after everything else had been tried. There is little viable in the pages to the current situation. Mostly a bunch of names of those killed and such and such begat such and such. This is the part that caught both my wife and my interest, particularly after reading your history Luna. There are a number of references to a tree that sealed a great evil that nearly destroyed the Equss. There is only a vague description of the monster as a black horned devil with a mane of snow. The tree itself however is named. Yggdrasil, the world tree, because the fate of the world depended on it's life. In my daughters book it was the name of the tree that Mr. Pelt destroyed.” “So you blame Rhede then?” “In a sense yes.” Night Light states. “My wife is just not a emotionally grounded as I am in this situation.” “If it were not for him we would not have managed to evacuate New Canterlot.” Luna snaps. “If it were not for him we would not have needed to.” Night Light states. “I am not one for meddling in politics, but the lot of you got off far too light for all the damage you have caused.” “Rhede Pelt gave his life so we could even be having this conversation now Mr. Sparkle. My now late husband has done everything in his power to make amends for what was done in the past. I was made a widow before I was even allowed to wed and less than three days after the birth of my foal. I have lost two of my only friends and my love AGAIN in the course of this week alone. If you speak ill of the dead one more time Mr. Sparkle I will remove your tongue.” Luna whirls at the sound of a blade being drawn. She narrows her eyes, the button holding the clasp of the Waning Moon closed tearing free to fly off hitting the wall. “KNOCK IT OFF ALL OF YOU!” Bleu roars shoving Spike out of the way and walloping Shining off his hooves with her tail. She spits a bit of lightning towards Night Light singeing the wall over his head and making him duck. One large claw grabs Luna by the muzzle yanking the alicorn to eye level with the dragon. “Sparkle, shut the buck up, Shining, sit your ass down, Luna you calm the buck down before I have to slap the stupid out of you.” Bleu growls her fangs bared lightning dancing along them. “Release me at once Bleu or else...” Luna growls only to be headbutted by the dragon. “Or you'll what? Yank out my tongue? Slap me? Kill me? Running a little low on those who like you to get rid of another, aren't you?” Bleu snarls. “You and Boss just love these pity me parties like you are the only ones who have ever suffered. I thought you might have gotten it out of your system after the little break down this morning, but I'm glad we tracked you down again. You need to calm down, think rationally and fix this. A thousand years of peace followed by two massive shit storms in ten years time since you came back? It's small wonder most every one is either afraid of you or ready to blame you for this shit. Stop whining and work on fixing it.” Bleu turns her head glaring at Shining. “You pull your blade on her again and I will be forced to apologize to Princess Cadence for your losing the ability to sire another foal with her.” She turns her head to Night Light. “And you, quit placing blame and help us think of a solution. If you and Mrs Sparkle each gave half of your smarts into what made Twilight, you're both pretty bright. Use that find out how to get rid of this thing, or at least think of what might have made it in the first place.” Bleu snarls. “Also think for a moment about what would happen if you tell any one Rhede might have let this thing loose. Do you want riots? Cause that's how you get riots.” Bleu whips her gaze over to Spike. “And you!” “What did I Do?” Spike yelps. “Nothing, just sit there and keep looking cute.” Bleu grins before looking back at Luna with a frown her free claw sweeping out to the comatose forms of Twilight, Celestia, and the others. “Now do I have to wipe the floor with the lot of you, or are you all finally calm enough to be civil? This is a med bay after all.” ============================================================ [ White Tail Woods 1200 hours ] Pip looks over the river not able to help but smile a little at the massive rushing thing running before him. The water was dark and deep in the middle, and slightly shallower and sandy closer to the bank ripe with geodes. It was a raging river that ran down from Ever Rest and flowed west towards the sea. The Wild Thorn river that came down the Maneterhorn, around New Canterlot and through the Everfree forest split into large river that continued south all the way to the Zebralands and a smaller stream that crossed the path they were taking until it joined this river. The map had no name for this massive waterway and Pip was practically dancing in excitement over what to name it. Sweetiebelle had offered her two bits, but they all shot down her idea to name it after herself. Of course Pip wasn't even sure that the river was nameless, if there were Elk in the area they likely had a name for it. The map had showed that the smaller stream went into the woods, but past that there was nothing show for White Tail Woods. The forest ran almost to the coastline tucked away behind the mountain chain Ever Rest was a part of. All of it on the map was a green blob, completely unknown. “Yah done staring at the water now?” Applebloom mutters. “ Well considering we haven't found a way to cross this thing yet unless we go back.” Pip calls back. “Not much else to do but press on and hope it get's shallower, or go back a couple hours until it gets thinner.” Pip glances back to the cart where Applebloom had already taken the wheels off and was sealing the seams of the cart with some mix she had put together from tree sap. “Still not sure it's a good idea to try and float it across. The waters going pretty swift out there in the middle.” Pip states. “Hey Scootaloo, you mind getting an look from the air see if there might be something further down?” “Was wondering when some pony was gonna ask. Scootaloo yawns kicking off her little floating cloud and launching herself into the air, wings flaring green as she spirals up past the canopy of trees. “We shoulda asked her first.” Pip sighs. “Seems she's still mad as she's not helping unless we ask.” “She'll get over it. This isn't the first time I've pissed her off, just the first time I've done it and been legit.” Sweetiebelle shrugs moving around on the inside of the cart looking for any more holes for Applebloom to patch. “How long's that stuff take to set?” Pip asks. “Instant when it comes in contact with water, Zecora used tah spit on it and it hardened right up. Takes forever to get off though which is why I'm using this stick.” Applebloom states dipping a wide tree branch she had found into a wooden bucket Pip had grabbed at the store. “ Still can't believe you bought a bucket, 50 paces of rope and a rowing oar.” “I like being prepared. Though Sweetiebelle bought the rope.” Pip admits. “You can never have enough rope.” Sweetiebelle chimes. “You and your stupid rope.” Applebloom mutters with a grin. Suddenly the young mare froze in place lifting her head, the stick gripped tight in her teeth. The end of the stick dripped the sap mix to the ground as she didn't move anything but her eyes and ears. Her ears perk up shifting as she looks around finally focusing on a spot across the river. “Huh? What's wrong Applebloom?” Sweetiebelle asks hopping over the side of the cart to see what her friend was looking at. The unicorn mare stops her own ears perking as she hears a whistling in the air before a loud thunk draws her attention to where she had been standing inside the cart and the large arrow embedded in the wood. “We're under attack! Get to cover!” Pip shouts darting to the side as the girls drop behind the cart. A series of arrows hits the sand where Pip had been standing. The patchwork colt snarls, looking across the river, not seeing anything at first until another arrow launches from the tree line striking his shoulder as he tries to dodge, sending him tumbling across the sand from the force of the hit. “PIP!” Applebloom shouts. The colt snarls pushing himself up on three hooves finally spotting several pairs of antlers in the treeline with vines strung across them. There was a barely precivable glow as another arrow was notched and the vine cord was pulled taught. Pip curses as another three arrows launch towards him. He throws himself flat to the ground trying to protect his vital spots when a blast of heat washes over him. Lifting his head finally, three smoking stone arrow heads fall to the ground before, him a brilliant green glow lighting the small beach. Looking up Pip sees Scootaloo in the air above him her wings burning brightly as she knocks another arrow out of the air, the wood and vine shaft turning to ash before her wing even fully touches it. The pegasus mare growls launching herself across the river in a beeline for the attackers. “Scootaloo, don't!!” Pip yells as the mare races across the river. One of the creatures finally steps from the treeline the figure was tall and draped with moss and plants in some sort of ghillie suit that hid everything but it's horns. The figures fore leg snaps forward flinging something into the air before Scootaloo. The mare dodges to the side as if it was nothing, though an arrow followed the thrown object from another, shattering the thrown jar and causing it to explode in a white burst of powder that envelops the flying mare. Scootaloo yelps as one of her burning wings is nearly doused by the powder causing her to careen out of control and splash down into the river. Pip growls shoving himself to his hooves and ignoring the pain of the arrow with every step as he dives into the river after Scootaloo. The exposed creature watches a moment before notching an arrow to shoot Pip, when a bucket smashes against the side of it's head covering it and the area around it in sticky sap. “Sweetiebelle get tha cart in tha water, and git after them, ah got this.” Applebloom growls standing up on her back legs. Her fore hooves grip a river rock twice the size of the cart out of the river bank. She stands there a moment with sand and water falling off the rock before she takes a step forward on her back legs and hurls the massive bolder across the river at the figures. Four of them dive out of cover as the massive bolder slams down in their midst, the one soaked in sap barely able to duck under the massive stone. The bolder explodes showing the area with crystal shrapnel as the geode shatters flattening several trees and forcing the group of attackers back away from the impact point, one of them getting clipped by a piece of the rock and falling to the ground. The cart glows dropping into the water, Sweetiebelle leaps into it as it starts to get caught in the same current that swept Scootaloo and Pip away. “Come on AppleBloom!” Applebloom glares at the panicked figures on the other side of the river. One of them was staring at the remains of the bolder and the other two were looking wide eyed at the mare across the river. >” If any of mai friends die from your actions, I'm going to make what mai uncle did to your people seem like a weekend cookout!”< Applebloom snaps dashing off down the bank after the floating cart. The Elk stand there in silence a moment more. >”Did that pony just speak our tongue?”< one questions. >”Impossible.”< another responds. =================================================== [Crystal Empire 1400 hours. ] Luna was not calm, she was not rational at the moment either. Despite Bleu's interference and attempt to calm or cow her, it only worked a little. Still she had excused herself soon after, letting Spike, Bleu and Night Light try to figure something out. They had already ruled out her simply giving the power back to Celestia. Tirek had taken her core cutie mark thus making her little more than an earth pony again. Even if she put the power back into Celestia, her sister would remain asleep. Luna briefly debated giving the power of the Sun to Cadence though upon reflection, she did not want to give up the power. She would likely need it to destroy the monster that had run rampant though her life ruining the scant years of peace she had been given. Shining and Rose both were following her around now, she didn't really care, but she felt less inclined to hurt Rose than she did Shining right now. She had finally stopped her pacing and moved herself to a balcony sitting down finally as she stared across the Crystal Empire. Tents and festival canopies were being raised and moved around to provide shelter for the refugees. Nearly all of the Crystal Empire's residents had opened their homes to the ponies and Half Dragons that had come here for shelter, but there were still those who were forced to remain in the tents. Luna's gaze was drawn to a building on the far side of the open field, one that some Crystal Guards were keeping ponies away from. “I take that is where the Changelings are?” Luna asks quietly. “At least the ones who are still comatose. The others are milling about in the crowds helping out. Pretty much any pony with a Ladybug cutiemark here is a Changeling. “ Rose states. “You feeling better? Your coat and cutie mark stopped changing.” Luna blinks glancing back noting her coat was a pale bluish gray now and her cutie mark had stopped flickering and was a radiant golden sun with a black crescent moon in the middle of it. Her wings were spotted with black and white feathers seeming to overlay each other almost like a chess board. Her mane and tail had taken on the ethereal swirling that Celestia's had had, though the color of it shifted and changed as the day went on, being brighter at noon. She felt it would change to match the night when it finally came. She couldn't see her horn, but it felt longer, heavier on her head. “The sun is full of fury. I do not know how my sister maintained her composure with it's rage.” “Practice most likely.” Rose shrugs. “I am sure you are correct Rose. Have any of you seen Discord or Pinkie Pie. I wish to speak with them.” Luna asks. “Miss Pie has been running around making baked goods and trying to cheer every one up since she woke this morning. It is working a little as she is still considered a national hero here since helping with the driving off of Sombra. No one has seen Discord.” Shining finally says. There was still anger in his voice, but at least he was talking. “No one's seen me because I didn't want to be seen.” A voice above them states. Looking up there was nothing at first, until one of the crystal gargoyles above the balcony moved and looked down with a grin before it dropped down between the three of them, the crystals falling off of it, leaving Discord in a white suit covered in rhinestones that had made up his gargoyle disguise. “Thankya, thankya very much.....” The draquonus comments in a strange accent before the suit and the remnants of his disguise poof away. “To be honest Little Loony I do not want to be having the conversation that we are about to start, but if I put it off too long I'm sure bad things are bound to happen.“ Discord frowns. “There has been enough of that already.” “Indeed.” Luna states. “If you know what I want then get on with it.” “Mmmm no, this is super secretive information. The rock head and the Pink Princess Pet Pony need to step away for a bit.” Discord gestures. “I'm not going any....” Shining begins before both he and Rose vanish as Discord snaps his fingers. “Not like you could do much to her any way if she did get pissed.” Discord scoffs a recliner appearing out of no where as he sits down in it. “Where did you send them?” Luna questions. “The Hospital, with the crowds it will take them some time to get back, that's even if Pinkie doesn't manage to slow them down even further. And she will. Now lets get this over with.” “Fine, I want you to tell me how you brought Pinkie Pie back to life.” “Why? So you can bring back Pelt and Kaisur?” “Yes” “No then.” “Discord....” “Hold on, hold on, I expect you think I am just being difficult? Well of course I am, but there is a bit more to it than that.” Discord placates waving his hands. “And what might that be? I do not have time for these games.” “Actually, you have plenty of time for games and anything else, you are the last pony that needs to confront Tirek right now, he'd suck you up like he was drinking from a crazy straw. Then we would have the Cycle crisis all over again. This time with something much stronger than a mad griffon god.” “What are you talking about?” “Just a little of my history, but we are getting off topic. Have you noticed anything about me lately? Anything special? I figured you would, even Kaisur noticed, of course he hung out with me a bit more than you do.” “Discord get to the point!” Luna snarls. “I am at the point, it's not my fault you can't see it.” Discord snaps back. “Fine. Let's talk about the harpies a moment shall we.” “I don't need politics and I am having a hard time not wanting to murder you right now....” “Have you noticed that despite being on the council of races, zebra and the harpies have no gods of their own? Something that the council practically requires? Well we know the zebra's kill their gods, or used to when they knew about them. The harpies however have another little thing. See they used to have gods, being as prolific as they are, one would expect to. Well it was a little before yours and Sun butts time but the Harpy gods came across a book. A rather tragic and dark book that they shouldn't have had access to. The book taught them some spells including one that brought the dead back to life. Now in that time the Harpies had close to fifteen or twenty gods ruling various roosts across the mountains they fought the griffons over. Pretty much all of them were natural born gods and for a while every thing was fine. Then their loved ones started growing old and dying, their mates passed before them, or they had children who were killed in the constant war with the griffons. Until that point the spell to bring the dead back had been ignored forgotten, because the cost was too great. Then in their grief some of them did something dumb. They decided to use the spell to bring the ones they loved back.” “Discord I understand you are leading to something, but this is wearing on my patents.” “I didn't know you were a doctor? Any way to make a short story even shorter, the harpies cast the spell and now there are no more harpy gods.” “What?” “By the stars I thought you were the smart one of the pair of the Butt sisters.” Discord sighs tossing the chair off the balcony and leaning forward poking Luna in the nose with a claw. “Ponies have two gods Luna, that is all they every had or will have no matter how big their race gets. They are the only race with this limitation, with all the others it's about how many of their kind exist. It's part of the blessing and the curse brought about from the beginning of all things. There will always be two. If you use the spell bring back two who have died then the ponies will have no gods any more. The last time they had no gods they split into three warring tribes. Alicorns being a joining off all three of the tribes keeps some of the more speciest of your kind in line. With out that chaos will reign, and I don't mean me. You probably won't live to see it because you would only be alive as long as the one you brought back lives, bringing back two would mean that when one dies all of you would. And forever after there would never be another pony god unless the Books made a corrupted one.” Luna blinks, her ears flattening. “That means that you....” “What does it matter? I am the last Draconequus, even if I boinked every female from here to the zebra lands all I would do is make hybrids. There never will be another of my kind Luna. My race is dead, and who wants to be a god of a dead race?” Discord snaps, the expression on his mismatched face approaching terrifying even for Luna. “And Pinkie Pie?” Discord's expression softens back to his usual dopey grin. “I've always been a bit of a hopeless romantic. It's why I fell for Avianna as hard as I did. She was nice to me when no one else was. Well we all saw how that turned out.” “And the three that you claimed as your children? The ones who stole the Sun and Moon from Griffon King?” “Never should have given the power back to the Griffons, I don't care what Ruin said...” Discord grumbles. “ They were constructs. My attempt to make life, something only the insanely powerful, or corrupted could manage. I fit both back then. Now a days, after a few cleansing blasts of Harmony, I'm lucky I can affect the local area around me with chaos. Two of them are dead mind you and the third is quite happy with her life right now. Though she sent me a fathers day card last year.” Discord shrugs. “Any way, as for Pinkie Pie. Well after I was turned to stone by the Elements led by Sparkle Butt, the towns folk wanted to smash my statue to bits, they drug me into the Everfree to do just that. Wouldn't have killed me mind you, would have just been very uncomfortable. Pinkie Pie didn't know that it wouldn't have, and replaced the statue with a pinata. I would have loved to see the face of those ponies who smashed what they thought was my statue and candy came out. They probably thought it was supposed to happen, Chaos and all.” Luna rolls her eyes as the Draconequus cackles to himself. “ Now, I was rather annoyed with her at first mind you, getting stuck in a corner and buried under party favors was almost as dull as being in the garden. It didn't help after all that she was one of the mares who put me back in stone any way. But she talked to me... tried to entertain me and generally was just Pinkie. And like before... hopeless romantic. This time however it won't end with me being in stone, it'll end with me being gone for good. Only so much I can give of myself, you know?” Discord sighs then smiles wide. “But at the same time, given the nature of our relationship now? Totally worth it.” Discord shrugs hopping off the balcony to float in the air. “But you, you've got a multitude of ponies who need you to stay a god. I won't tell you the spell and I will say don't seek it out. You will cause far more grief than you will alleviate. That said your eldest daughter wants you at the hospital.” “Orange? What would she need?” “Stay strong Princess. The living still need you.” Discord mutters before he poofs into nothing. ========================================================== [ White Tail Woods. 1210 hours ] Applebloom leaps off a rock near the waters edge, landing hard in the wagon turned boat. Sweetiebelle was paddling furiously with the oar trying to steer the craft around the rocks as the current pulled the wagon down the river. “Where are they?!” Applebloom shouts. “I don't know I've been trying to hard to not sink to look much!” Sweetie shouts back as Applebloom rushes up to the front of the wagon looking over the edge of the wagon and over the the water frantically. The farm pony winces uttering something in a language Sweetie didn't under stand. “What did you say!!?” Sweetie yells. “RAPIDS!” Applebloom shouts as the cart suddenly dips sending Sweetiebelle tumbling across the wagon floor to be caught by Applebloom before she falls into the water. “Okay, okay this is bad this bad, no wait... I got this, I got this!” Sweetiebelle rants, her horn lighting up and enveloping the wagon. “Keep looking for them!” Sweetie's magic tugs the cart around dodging a number of the rocks and keeping the cart from over turning as they are spun and flung along the water way. Normally Sweetiebelle would be having a great deal of fun with this, though with her friend in danger, and the strain holding the cart was putting on her horn, it was much less fun. She never had a very deep reserve of magical power and this was taking what she had. “Ah see um! Pip's got Scootaloo, but they're way ahead of us.... where'd they go?” Applebloom shouts, her shout turning into a scream of panic as they get closer to where the others vanished. There was nothing before them but air. The river ran to and fell over the massive lip of a huge crater. Applebloom couldn't even see the bottom from the amount of mist that the falling water was kicking up. The crater was so deep and wide Applebloom couldn't even see the far edge, and clouds floated in the air below them raining on some part of the massive sink hole. Just as the cart reached the edge despite Sweetiebelle's magic and her own frantic rowing, Applebloom saw the remains of what looked like a massive tree that had fallen on it's side and collapsed against one side of the crater. “I know that tree.” the earth pony mutters before shrieking as the cart topples over the falls. ================================================ [ Crystal Empire, Empire Hospital 1430] Luna shivers looking down at Orange. The unicorn mare had a impassive look on her face, but Luna could tell that was because she had been forced to give out news like this since they all arrived here. The mare wore a blood splattered smock and surgical gear that she was currently stripping off to replace with clean gear. “How... how could you ask me that sort of question.” Luna stammers. “It was not a question. We've already made the decision to do so, there are ponies we can save who need the life support she's on. Miss Applejack is her closest living and awake relative and she deferred to you. I already knew your answer, so we are going ahead with it.” Orange states. “You are asking me to choose between my friend and an unborn foal Orange........” Luna stammers. “As I said Luna. It's not a question. We are already setting up to save the foal. Even if Velkorn recovers somehow, which would take a miracle far beyond what even you can do, she will not be able to walk, see, hear or speak ever again. To be honest none of us are sure how she managed to survive this long, she should be dead. Every scan and machine we have says she is dead, but her heart is still beating and she's still breathing. We have a theory on why she is still alive, but we won't know for sure until we remove the foal. It's going to be two or three months early so it's going to require a lot of care on it's own.” “If you knew my answer why did you ask me to come here Orange?” Luna stares at her adopted daughter. Orange falters a moment at that. “So you could say goodbye to Velkorn. It's something you weren't allowed to do with Jer'rahd or Rhede. It's the best I can do for you at the moment.” “........ take me to her....” Luna mutters. “This way then.” Orange exhales leading Luna into the operating room. ================================================================= [Whitetail Woods. 1220 hours] Applebloom gasps loudly clawing her way to the surface struggling against the current and trying to make her way to what she thought was the shore. Everything around her was pitch black, if not for the light steaming down from a hole far, far above her, where the water fall came down , she would have thought she had been blinded. “Applebloom over here!” Sweetiebelle yells her horn lighting up, illumination the mare and the surrounding area. The unicorn mare was perfectly dry and standing atop of one of the massive luggage trunks that she had brought with her, two of the others floated nearby in the debris of the cart. “Ah have got to get me one of these suitcases.” Applebloom mutters climbing up onto one of them. “Where are we?” “How would I know that?” Sweetiebelle mutters rubbing her head. “ I've got a head ache like you wouldn't believe and it's only getting worse keeping this light going.” “Hey ah see something over there on tha shore.” Applebloom hops onto the trunk Sweetiebelle was on scooping a bit of wood from the water and paddling towards what looked like the shore and a something on the sandy bank. Getting closer Applebloom saw the orange form of her friend. Forgetting the paddle she leapt off the trunk crashing down in the shallower water and rushing over to the prone pegasus. She heard Sweetiebelle run up behind her, still without a drop of water on her somehow. Applebloom dropped down putting her ear to Scootaloo's chest. “She ain't breathing! Ah can't hear her breathing!” Applebloom panics. “I got this” Sweetiebelle states dramatically. “I took a CPR class once. I must do the kiss of life!” The unicorn mare darts forward tilting Scootaloo's head back, taking a deep breath, and puckering up her own lips before leaning down to meet Scootaloo's. Before she managed to connect however an orange hoof shot up shoving into Sweetiebelle's face causing the white unicorn's exhale to puff up her own cheeks around the orange hoof. “”I'll take the drowning over Sweetiebelle kissing me, any day.” Scootaloo grumbles with a coughing fit. She yanks her hoof from Sweetiebelle's mouth, shaking off the drool as she sits up. “ Where's Pip?” “Ah dunno, we saw you an kinda panicked.” Applebloom admits. “Your sure you're alright?” “Yeah... I'm fine. What ever those jerks hit me with doused one of my wings. I've flown though rain storms that you could swim though and my wings stayed lit. I dunno what that crap was.“ Scootaloo grumbles rising to her hooves and snapping her wings open, one lights up as normal, though the other barely sputters it's fire past her feather tips. “Well I'm not flying out of here any time soon until I figure out what they did to me.” “Hey is that him?” Sweetiebelle questions pointing to a figure further up along the shore. The trio rush over skidding to a stop in the sand as the colt's form was illuminated by the green fire of Scootaloo's wings. The arrow in the brown and white colts side had snapped off, though the wound was bleeding heavily the arrow head having been worked in deeper from the impacts with the rocks. The fur on the colts back was torn and ripped in places soaking his back in red. Evidently when saving Scootaloo he had taken the brunt of the impacts of the rocks the river tossed him into rather than let her get hit. “Dun look that bad does it?” Pip groans a little trying to chuckle. “Uncle Rhede said mares dig tha scars.” “Most of us prefer that a stallion that is skilled enough not to get himself cut up or nearly killed. “ Scootaloo mutters. “Well buck.” Pip coughs stifling a laugh. “Every pony okay?” “Yeah except fer you. Come on we got tah git him up away from tha river and set up a camp. Sweetiebelle grab what yah can of our stuff, Scootaloo, help me git him up from that water then go see if yah ken find some fire wood. I just hope there's enough plants down here that ah ken whip up something tah stop infection.” “Where's my sword?” Pip mutters, “Gonna need that to teach those guys a lesson.” “It's still on your side Pipsqueak.” Scootaloo grumbles trying to lift him by her self. “Holy crap for such a little pony you're freaking heavy.” ============================================== [ Crystal Empire, Castle Nursery.1600 hours] Luna sits quietly looking down in the cradle at the wiggling form of her youngest daughter. Elusive, Shin and Glimmer were already asleep on the other side of the room. Dawn had some how figured out her mother had come in and was also upset and she was now doing her best to match Luna's mood with her whimpering and fidgeting. Luna wasn't sure if she should let Dawn feed from her, she wasn't sure what the flood of power she had in her would affect her milk. Granted she had been doing her best to switch the little fanged foal to formula nearly from day one. Dawn had fought back of course refusing the mix and Luna had caved in each time. Now she couldn't, not even five days old and her first born was already suffering from something. She had cast a small silence spell between Dawn and the other infants in order not to wake them. Since her power had settled down a little she felt confident she wouldn't blow anything up, but she still cast it on a chair in another room before carrying the spelled object into the room with her, just to be safe. Her feathered wings ran slowly down along the little orange half dragons belly. The visit to the hospital had been horrific for her, particularly the end and the sight of what remained of one of her friends. If not for her cutie mark Luna would not even have recognized Velkorn. She had broken down a second time there in trying to say goodbye. Orange had helped her out to the waiting room before going back into assist with the surgery. With Velkorn dead Orange was possibly the most skilled doctor on Equss now. A title the unicorn mare was not proud of inheriting this way. She had seen Applejack and some of the others on the way out, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything to them and she had taken to the air as soon as she was outside soaring back to the palace. She hadn't paused in coming to the nursery, she needed something positive to watch for a while and her daughter was the only thing she knew. Cadence had found her here a while ago, though the pink mare had let her be. She wasn't sure how long she had been there simply watching Dawn fidget and try to eat her wing. The little fillies front claws had quite a grip, Luna still wasn't entirely certain how Jer'rahd had sired a half dragon, though given his odd linage that included both Rose and Sombra, she didn't doubt that perhaps little Dawn was a throw back in his genetics. Like how the Cake's had a pegasus and a unicorn foal rather than a earth pony, granted their third foal had been an earth pony and looked just like his older brother minus the wings. Like the twins Bunt Cake was adorable. Luna sighed softly letting the silence spell fall away as Dawn drifted back to sleep. Luna remained looking down at her daughter for a while. She had no where else to be and nothing else to do but this right now. Even though she had canceled the spell herself she was still surprised when the door lightly creaked open and soft hoof steps started moving over the carpet towards the foals. Looking up she caught the eyes of a green maned blue earth pony mare, who jumped some at seeing her and quickly bowed. “Oh I am sorry Princess. I didn't think any one was in here. I just came to check on the foals.” the mare stammers. Luna smiles a little noting the lady bug cutie mark that Rose had told her was the mark of a Changeling. From what she knew there was only one of them that would allowed in here. “ You are Locust correct?” Luna asks. “Yes your highness.” Locust stammers. “Don't worry about titles....right now I'm just a rather depressed widow with few friends left. One trying hard to keep calm by focusing on her foal....” Luna sighs. “ I understand that Princess. I do understand what it' like to lose a husband and those you care about.” Locust mummers. “Oh ? Did something happen?” Luna asks trying to remain calm. “A lot of us died in the war and in the aftermath, Princess. Far more than the number of ponies who were killed. In the Queen's anger she saw no problem breaking up families to have us fight. She saw her error in the end, but by that time it was too late.” Locust sighs. “I was unaware of that.” “Few are, and fewer still even care. After all we did attack Equestria twice, three times if you count Sombra's attack here in the Empire.” Locust flattens her ears. “He could have lived on you know, but he chose to die along with his wife. Stupid really. There was no purpose for him to die, he had a son that needed him, but he couldn't let go of her. I suppose a love like that, created falsely or not couldn't end in anything but tragedy hmm?” “So it seems.” Luna sighs. I have had enough tragedy however to last even my lifetime.” “Pardon me for asking Princess, but shouldn't you be preparing to go fight this thing and take back your kingdom?” “That was my plan, though it seems that those with cooler heads think it's a bad idea. Evidently the monster Tirek can take power from anything with a cutie mark. We are not sure why however, or how, and even that is a theory as he simply kills anything without a cutie mark.” Locust is quiet a moment as if she's considering something or hesitant to say it. “Something on your mind?” “Oh sorry Princess it's just. Well it reminds me of something that the Sparkle's asked me about during their research. They found something that seemed similar to what this thing did in a few of the older books. I think I recall the titles, maybe I could bring them to you and you might be able to figure something out?” Luna glances at her foal a moment. “Yes. Thank you Locust. That would be nice. I can't sulk forever.” ==================================================== [ Foal Mountains, Saturday, 830 hours ] Spines pushed himself back against the rock, his eyes wide as he stares at the cloaked figure before him. The only reason the dragon had not pissed himself was because he had already done it after what happened to Grabble, and there wasn't anything left in his bladder. The trio had dove down on the 'pony' they saw. Grabble and Bulk had opened up with blasts of fire shot towards the figure before they even landed. The creature had dodged the cones of flame and shouted something at the pair of them that Spines couldn't make out as he landed away from the fight, not wanting any part in this. Neither Grabble nor Bulk seemed to care what was said as the pair rushed him as soon as landed. The creature shouted something again as Grabble took a swipe at him. The figure moved and dodged the pairs clumsy attacks before it became clear he had had enough. Spines watched as a white glow flickered under the creatures hood and a blast of fire so white it blinded Spines briefly even from where he was, for a few seconds. Though he could hear Grabble's scream, it took him a moment to clear his eyes to look. Spines watched as the white fire burned the red dragon like he was made of paper, the red scales blackening as the white flames flickered, eating though the scale, muscle, and fat burning the dragon all the way to the bone and starting to set those on fire as it spread over his flailing friend. It was only heartbeats before Grabble was not anything more than a pile of smoldering ash on the ground. Bulk did not fare much better. Another claw swipe from the fat dragon had been caught by the smaller figure. Spines winced as the figure yanked, tearing the arm out of it's socket with a sickening pop and ripping it free of the larger dragon. The creature held it for a moment, before shoving the severed arm back up and impaling Bulk in the throat with bone of his own arm. Before the fat dragon even managed to fall properly the figure was advancing on Spines. From what he could see of the creature under the tattered cloak it looked like a large pony. It's rear legs had hooves and were covered in blue gray fur, it's forelegs however ended in clawed hands like a dragons, both of them were covered in Cobalt blue scales. A thick tail swung from under the back of the massive hooded cloak covered with the same scales, though ending in a tuft of fur that looked to be amber colored. > “Are you going to attack me as well whelp?”< Spines blinked, what the creature said was gibberish, but he understood it some how. He rapidly shook his head no, hard enough for his spines to clack together and rattle. >”Good, then you have nothing to fear from me. I need to find a Twilight Sparkle. Do you know her?”< “No.. no I don't... is is that a pony name?” Spines stammers. >”Hmmm, yes it is... I suppose you would not know of her. Ahh the whelp... Do you know a Spike Sparkle then?”< “Spike? Big purple dragon? Kinda a nerd hangs around with a dragon named Bleu Scale?” Spines gushes out. >”Bleu Scale? Of course I should have asked about her first. Yes those two, where are they?”< “I think the Crystal Empire right now. There's something going on with the ponies.” >” You have no idea, whelp. Take me to them I am unused to this era, even the land has changed. You will fly me there.”< Spines wanted to protest, but something about this thing prevented him from doing anything but nod in agreement. Even as close as the creature had gotten he couldn't see what it's face was like under the hood. As the creature climbed up onto his back the only thing Spines could see under that hood was six glowing red eyes.