//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen // Story: Biomom // by MythrilMoth //------------------------------// Princess Luna appeared in the valley just as the group was making camp. She looked around and frowned. "My sister is not among you?" "Princess Celestia, Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, and Fluttershy went after Dongnocc, Your Highness," Twilight Velvet reported, kneeling. "He stole something from the tomb...Princess Celestia reacted rather strongly." Luna frowned. "Yes...I suppose she would." She paled. "Wait. It wasn't...it wasn't a crystal prism, was it?" "As a matter of fact, it was." Luna's ears pinned against her skull and her wings drooped. "No..." Rarity cleared her throat. "Your Highness, would you mind answering some questions for us? We've developed some...rather interesting theories after studying the engravings in the tomb..." * * * * * "What is WRONG WITH THESE PONIES?!" Princess Celestia screamed as she rendered dozens of bullets harmless with her magic. "Dongnocc's minions aren't generally known for their intelligence," Daring Do said as she weaved between strafing fire, kicking two henchponies in the muzzles. "Or for their aim, fortunately." She grabbed one of the henchponies' guns, drew back the bolt, and cut down five more henchponies with it. Rainbow Dash paused in mid-tackle, nearly taking a bullet through the wing. "Did...did you just KILL those ponies?" she gasped. Daring ran out of ammo and chucked the gun at the nearest pony, knocking him unconscious. "Yeah," she said. "I do that sometimes." "But...but..." "Look, sometimes, it just happens. Why do you think I'm still alive?" "But...in the books, you never—" "What kind of awesome hero would I be in the books if I wrote that I killed some of my enemies?" Daring asked. She rolled across the ground, grabbing another gun and emptying its magazine into a phalanx of henchponies. Many of them survived, but all fell to the ground bleeding from assorted non-lethal wounds to the legs or flanks. One unfortunate pony lost an ear to a bullet. "Excuse me, Ms. Do?" Fluttershy asked. "If you wouldn't mind...would you please stop shooting the bad ponies? I, umm...I think we can do this without killing them." Even as she said that, she grabbed one henchpony around the neck and suplexed him, then flew up into the air with him, spun him around, and threw him at three more henchponies. Daring stared up at her. "Whoa. Did NOT see that coming." Even Celestia blinked. "Well, this is...unusual behavior for Fluttershy," she commented. "Yeah, pissin' Fluttershy off...usually not a good idea," Rainbow said as she tackled a pony, snatched his gun, and clubbed another pony upside the head with it. "Oh, I'm far more terrified than I am angry," Fluttershy said as she landed back-to-back with Rainbow. "But I'll do whatever it takes to help Twilight." With that, she launched herself at the nearest henchpony, kicking him square between the eyes. "Why...would so many ponies...risk treason charges...attempting to kill their Princess?" Celestia grunted as she fired multiple precision blasts at the mass of ponies, overheating their guns. Sweat started to lather through her coat. "Ugh...I am dreadfully out of shape..." "These ponies aren't Equestrian citizens," Daring said as she dove hooves-first into a pile of ponies, sending bodies flying left and right. "Dongnocc recruits all his henchponies from the barbarian herds of Shitland." "Shetland," Fluttershy corrected as she rearranged a pony's spine. "Have you ever been there?" Daring retorted. "Well...no." "Well I have. Trust me, it's Shitland." "How the hay are there this many ponies coming out of that airship?" Rainbow wondered. "Worry about that later!" Celestia ordered. "For now, we battle!" * * * * * "And that is the entire story," Princess Luna said. Her audience stared at her in awe. "Whoa," Spike said. Twilight Velvet grimaced and massaged her temples. "I really hate paradoxes," she said. "But...wait..." Applejack said. "As crazy as Twilight can git sometimes, how in th' hoof did she go back in time, git caught up in, well...makin' you an' Princess Celestia, plus all that other stuff you jes' told us about, an', well...NOT manage to totally screw up history?" She scratched her head. "Or...did she screw up history, an' we jes' don't know it's screwed up on account of it bein' all...well...screwed up?" She winced. "Dangit! Now AH got a headache!" Luna's ears folded back. "Our mother...was actually quite careful to avoid changing history as she knew it," she said. "She kept us away from the three pony tribes once she saw the signs of the Windigoes' arrival, for starters. Also, she could easily have...well...warned me about my darkest hour, and yet she chose not to. She did not even tell my sister and I what our ultimate roles in Equestria would be. All things considered, Twilight Sparkle was exceptionally careful..." She coughed. "Apart from the events she had no foreknowledge of. Such as being our mother, or Father's importance to pony history." "That doesn't sound much like Twilight at all," Pinkie Pie said. Luna chuckled. "The Twilight Sparkle I knew as my mother...was very different from the Twilight Sparkle you all know. She was far calmer and more mature." She dipped her head. "I suspect true love and motherhood played heavy roles in that change." The assembled ponies looked at one another with worried expressions. "So...if we do manage to get Twilight back..." Spike swallowed. "She may not be our Twilight?" Luna sighed. "I will simply suggest...that you prepare for any eventuality, my little ponies." * * * * * "Happy birthday, Mother!" Twilight Sparkle smiled at the massive cake her daughters had baked. "It looks wonderful!" she said. "We felt perhaps sixty candles would be a bit...hazardous," Celestia said primly. "So we decorated it with sixty hazelnuts instead." "I see that," Twilight said. She shook her head. "It's hard to believe so much time has passed..." "Indeed," Inner Light said as he spread plates out around the cake. "Four decades hence, you entered my life and changed it forever. I cannot fathom life without you." He nuzzled Twilight, who nuzzled him back affectionately. "You will take today off from working on your device, will you not, Mother?" Luna asked. "Of course," Twilight said with a chuckle. She sighed. "After all, I have the next twelve hundred years to complete it..." "I sincerely doubt it will take you quite that long," Inner Light said. "I hope not." Twilight's horn glowed, and five hoof-stitched plush pony dolls floated into the room. She placed them around the table wherever there was room. A tear rolled down her cheek. Celestia and Luna exchanged a sad glance. "Come, Mother, try some cake," Celestia said. * * * * * Four mares stood, heaving and lathering, in the center of a war zone littered with dead, injured, and unconscious henchponies. Hundreds of shell casings covered the forest floor. Guns were scattered all over the place. "Well, well, well," Dongnocc said as he strode toward them, holding a massive silver saber in each hand. "I am impressed." He pointed a sword at Rainbow Dash. "You. You are the one who destroyed my airship. I believe I will skin you alive and adorn my study with your hide." "Give us back the prism, Dong-knock!" Rainbow shouted, pawing the ground with a hoof. "...the name is Dongnocc," Dongnocc said testily. "You heard her, Dong-knock!" Daring Do called with a mocking grin. "You're outnumbered and outclassed!" "You have desecrated a protected historical site!" Princess Celestia yelled, planting her hooves firmly. "You have plundered my father's tomb! I swear to you, I will bury you so deep in Tartarus you'll—" "OH, SHUT UP, YOU PRISSY PRANCING PONY!" Dongnocc bellowed, snorting steam. "Don't you DARE talk to the Princess that way!" Fluttershy said. Dongnocc snorted. "I care nothing for princesses. Your crown means nothing to me!" "Be that as it may, you have committed crimes on Equestrian soil, and you WILL be punished for them!" Celestia said, stamping a hoof. Her horn began to glow. "Uh, Your Highness? You don't wanna do tha—" Daring began. A golden beam shot forth from Celestia's horn. Dongnocc parried it with a saber; it rebounded on Celestia, knocking her back several feet. She shook her head, twitching her ears, and glanced at Daring. "Runic blades?" she asked. "Yep." "So we do this the old-fashioned way!" Rainbow cried, rushing Dongnocc. He readied his sabers, becoming a whirling tower of bladed death as Rainbow flew around him, searching for an opening. Daring joined her; Dongnocc held both of them at bay with his swords. Fluttershy trotted next to Celestia. "Are you alright?" she asked. "Yes," Celestia replied. Lowering her voice, she said, "He doesn't have the prism on him. While he's distracted, I need you to search the airship." "Right!" Fluttershy nodded, then flew off into the wrecked airship. Celestia's horn glowed brightly; in a blinding flash, a full set of gleaming golden battle armor formed on her body. With a grim set to her jaw, she charged into the fray. * * * * * The inside of the airship was hot and stifling. Fluttershy prowled through damaged furniture, jutting rods of jagged metal, twisted instrumentation, and broken glass as she explored the wreck. "Goodness..." She ran into a few ponies who she supposed were Dongnocc's flight crew. They tried to fight her, but she evaded them easily; they were so clumsy on their hooves that they knocked themselves unconscious tripping over the rubble. One weak, stringy pony came at her with a wrench; she dodged, allowing him to strike a metal bulkhead. When the pain from the vibration forced him to drop the wrench, she grabbed him by the neck and gave him the Stare. "Where does Dongnocc keep the things he steals?" she asked. The pony gulped nervously and pointed a trembling hoof down the dark, ruined corridor. "B-back there," he said. "I-in his private c-cabin." "Thank you," Fluttershy said primly, dropping him. It only took her a moment's search to find the cabin: it was opulent, full of gold and plush velvet and rich woods, most of which were thoroughly ruined. As she searched through a pile of ravaged plunder, a faint, pulsing glow caught her eye. She dug through the ruins of a mahogany desk and found it: a crystal prism, roughly the size of a small filly. A faint white light slowly pulsed from within the crystal; its brilliant surface had begun to darken, grey, smoky blotches forming within the prism. It was warm to the touch, but the warmth was ebbing. "Oh my," she whispered. As quickly as her wings would carry her, she fled the airship. * * * * * A swing of Dongnocc's saber nearly took off Princess Celestia's horn; she darted back, teleported behind him, and gored him in the shoulder. As he roared in pain, Daring Do bucked his left hand hard enough to force him to drop a sword. Rainbow Dash flew up and drop-kicked him in the back of the head. Daring reeled and hissed in pain as a slash caught her in the side; Rainbow cried out and grabbed her around the barrel, hauling her away from the path of a follow-up swing. "Hang in there!" "I'm alright," Daring grunted. "I've had worse..." Dongnocc stomped over to them, picking up his other sword. "You have been a thorn in my side for far too long, Doctor Do," he seethed. "And YOU—" He pointed a sword at Rainbow Dash. "—YOU are without question the single most annoying pegasus I have ever had the displeasure to meet." "Go knock a dong, Dong-knock," Rainbow retorted. "GRAAAAAH!" Dongnocc threw back his head and lowed threateningly. "MY NAME IS NOT DONG-KNOCK! IT IS DONGNOCC!!" He raised his swords. "And now, I will CARVE IT INTO YOUR HIDE!" "Hey Dong-knock," a soft voice said from behind him. He turned...just in time to be hit full in the face by an entire uprooted tree surrounded by a golden glow. As Dongnocc crashed to the ground, pinned beneath the tree, Celestia took a step closer. "Got wood?" she asked. Then she looked at Daring. "Did...did I do that right?" she asked. "I've always wanted to try using a one-liner..." Daring blinked. "Uhh...yeah," she said. "Not...not bad..." "PRINCESS CELESTIA!" Fluttershy yelled as she sped toward the group. "I got the prism! Did you...oh. Oh my. Yes...yes, you DID defeat the evil minotaur..." "You retrieved the prism?" Celestia asked, turning to face Fluttershy. She seized it in her magic and pulled it to her. As she saw the state it was in, her eyes widened and her ears wilted. "No..." Dongnocc roared in rage and threw the tree into the air, rising to his hooves. "I WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED BY—" A single gunshot rang out, and Dongnocc fell to the ground, dead from a fresh hole in his skull. Fluttershy and Daring both turned to stare at Rainbow, who held one of the discarded machine guns. Smoke curled from its barrel. She looked at them. "What?" she asked. "I was sick of hearing him moo." Daring shook her head. "Yep. You're my kid alright." She flew over to Celestia. "Uhh, so...are we done here?" "Father," Celestia whimpered. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched the last of the faint white light of the crystal prism pulse weakly one final time. Then the prism turned a dark, smoky grey and grew cold in her hooves. "Father..." Celestia whispered, hugging the cold, dead hunk of crystal to her chest. "No..." * * * * * Twilight Sparkle placed the prism in its setting atop the obelisk, stepped back, and looked around. "Finally," she said with a sigh. "Everything is exactly how I remember it. The sunstones, the embedded runes, the obelisk...even the statues of Luna and Celestia." "Yes, Mother, it is all quite..." Luna chewed her lip, then looked at Celestia. "Help me out here, sister." "Mother...exactly what is the purpose of all this?" "This is the device that brought me here," Twilight said. She laughed shakily. "To think, when I set out with Rainbow Dash all those decades ago, I never imagined I'd be the one who built Ponyhenge...or the tomb..." She turned to smile at her daughters. "Or that...that I'd become the mother of the two most amazing ponies..." "Tomb?" Celestia asked, tilting her head. Twilight ignored her, pacing around the obelisk. "I hope I did everything right," she said. "I only had a few minutes to look around before..." Her brow furrowed as she looked up at the prism. "I'm not even sure how to charge this thing up," she said. She began worrying at her lip. "And the carvings in the Holy Road...I hope they weren't essential to the..." She shook her head. "No. No, they were just engravings. Ponyhenge and the tomb itself were what brought me here, I'm sure of it." "Mother," Celestia said firmly, stepping in front of Twilight. "What do you mean, tomb?" "I know what she means," Inner Light said as he trotted into the tomb, studying the obelisk. "It took me some time to understand, but..." He approached Twilight. "This place...this is my tomb, is it not?" Celestia and Luna gasped. Twilight looked away. "Yes," she said. "When...when your time comes...our daughters will bury you here." "Ah." Inner Light nodded. "That, my love, is the detail you're missing. The one thing your plans did not account for." "Huh?" Twilight asked. Inner Light smiled sadly. "Twilight, my love...I am immeasurably ancient. Until you came along, I was alone for centuries. I have known such love in these last six decades..." He sighed. "But my time is nearer than you think." "Father...?" Celestia asked. "I am not the brilliant mage and scientist you are, my beloved," Inner Light said as he stared up at the prism, "but there are two things of which I am absolutely certain, having studied your plans and diagrams and notes all these years. "The first is that without this device, your destiny will never be fulfilled. You will never have come to this time, we will never have fallen in love, you will not have given me two beautiful, precious daughters, and I will never have realized my own importance in this world. "The second is that..." Inner Light sighed heavily. "For all of that, you do not belong in this time. You must return to your own time...you must return to the friends you love, that you have pined for these many years." "What?" Luna gasped. "Mother...leave us?" Inner Light smiled. "Your mother must leave," he said. "And...and so must I." "Father? What...are you saying?" Celestia asked. "What are you saying?" Twilight echoed, staring at Inner Light. Inner Light nuzzled her, then stepped back. "My love," he said with a sad shake of his head, "your grand device will not function without the full power of an alicorn. And by 'full power', I mean..." He stared at the obelisk, which bore his own Cutie Mark in pearl relief. "ALL of it. Not just magic, but the very life essence." Twilight gasped. "What...?!" "The four of us, exhausting our magic every day for a thousand years, could not fully power your device," Inner Light said. "Because magic alone will not suffice to perform the impossible miracle that brought you to me." He shook his head. "No. For this to work—for us to work—my eternal soul must be a beacon to guide you across time. To guide you to me." "Father, no—" "You're speaking nonsense, Father!" Luna shouted, stamping a hoof. Inner Light smiled. "My beautiful daughters...I will miss you. I am proud of you, in every way a father can be proud." He nuzzled them; they returned his affection, tears gathering in their eyes. He turned to Twilight. "My beloved Twilight Sparkle..." He swallowed heavily. "Your friends are waiting for you. Your destiny is waiting for you. And I...I will be waiting for you." He gently pushed the three mares away with his magic, then faced the obelisk. Taking a deep breath, he planted his hooves. His horn glowed with pure white light. He channeled a beam into the prism. He opened his eyes, which shed a bright, pure glow. The tomb began to shake as the prism glowed more brightly. "Father, you mustn't!" Celestia pleaded. Twilight stared at Inner Light, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "Goodbye, my love," she said. "Mother, you must stop this!" Luna demanded. Her own horn began to glow... Twilight turned and embraced her daughters, erecting a protective magical barrier around them. The light intensified as Inner Light's form began to slowly fade into smoke and shadow. The shaking of the tomb grew stronger...and then stopped as suddenly as it began. The prism pulsed softly, like a steady heartbeat. Inner Light was gone. "Goodbye," Twilight said again. She held her daughters, sharing in their sorrow. * * * * * "I...I guess we were too late," Rainbow Dash said quietly. She looked around. "So...so what now?" Daring Do sighed. "We go back." She hesitantly laid a hoof on Princess Celestia's shoulder. "They're waiting for us." Celestia whimpered, sitting down on the ground and folding her wings protectively around the prism. "We should...probably give her a minute," Fluttershy whispered.