Chapter 2
A Chance Meeting
The previous day...
The day after Discord's downfall, the Elements of Harmony stood at an award ceremony. "We are gathered here today to, once again, honor the heroism of these six friends, who stood up to face great perils, and once again saved Equestria, this time from eternal chaos!" Princess Celestia announced in a soft but strong voice.
As the crowd started cheering, the Princess pulled back the curtains, revealing a stained-glass window that depicted the Elements of Harmony defeating the draconequus. After plenty of cheering and praising, the guests finally began to leave, leaving only the elements and the Princess.
Princess Celestia was in a fairly good mood. After all, one of the greatest enemies of Equestria had been defeated with little collateral damage, and it was all thanks once again to her faithful student and her friends. There was only one thing that slightly confused her, and stopped her from feeling great.
Almost immediately after Discord had been defeated by the massive ray of rainbow colored light, Princess Celestia had felt an oddity of sorts, a strange magical fissure that left thoughts spinning through her head. More frustratingly, as quickly as the rift had appeared, it dissapeared without a trace.
'Perhaps it was just my imagination,' She thought to herself. 'Yes, that was probably it.'
Celestia, being deep in thought, didn't notice Twilight speaking to her. "...with us?"
The Princess shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry, what was that, Twilght?"
"I said we are going to Sugar Cube Corner. Would you like to come with us?" Twilight repeated.
"I would love to," she replied with a gentle smile, "but unfortunately I'm going to be very busy today. Discord scrambled all of the files in the document room, and I have to rearrange them again.”
"Well, we would be glad to help you, wouldn't we girls?" Twilight asked, recieving a series of nods from her friends, and to her surprise, a head shake from her mentor.
"No, thank you, I can handle it myself. You six go back to Ponyville and have fun, everyone knows you've earned it."
After a few more minutes of fruitless insisting, the six friends finally left, leaving Princess Celestia to her own devices. With a sigh, she trotted off to her personal document room to face the complete dissaray. With another, heavier, final sigh, she began working to rearrange everything. This was going to take quite a while...
Hours later...
"Luna has raised the moon already? That took longer than I expected."
With a yawn, the white princess trotted off to her room. Ash she wandered the mostly empty corridors, she felt it once again. 'No, there's no mistaking it. Some sort of magical rupture...' Princess Celestia thought to herself.
Being deep in thought for the second time today, she failed to notice her sister approaching. "Tia, what are thou still doing awake? Thou must get to sleep so that the sun can be raised."
"I know that Luna, but something has caught my attention."
"Art thou talking of the magical rupture?"
"So you felt it too?"
Luna nodded. "Indeed."
"What do you think we should do? There's no way to tell where this actually happened, and the Elements of Harmony are too drained to fight another great foe."
"We will simply have to keep our guard up," the smaller princess said with a shrug.
Celestia sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right."
After a few minutes, finally on her bed, Princess Celestia fell asleep without a wasted second.
The next day...
Waking up and raising the sun was always part of Celestia's morning schedule, and today was no exception. Even though she didn't get much sleep, she still had to do it. Besides, she could always put the sun on its course and go back to sleep, because she currently wasn't holding court today. 'What did I even stay up for again anyway?' she wondered as she brushed her teeth.
The brush clattered to the floor. "The magical rupture!" In her morning daze, she had completely forgotten about the cause of her fatigue!
Aware that Twilight and her friends would be awake, she quickly teleported to the library to warn her student.
As soon as she had arrived at her destination, she realized. The magical rupture had happened near Ponyville.
"Twilight, are you in there?"
In less than half a minute, Twilight was in front of the balcony window. "Princess Celestia! What are you doing here?"
"Did you feel it, Twilight?"
"What are you talking about, Princess?" Twilight asked with a questioning look.
"There were a series of magical ruptures yesterday, and I think they may be linked to Discord."
Twilight's irises shrunk. "Oh no! Did he escape?”
"No, Discord is thankfully still in stone. The ruptures are just remnants of his magic, but they are still dangerous, which is why I was coming to warn you: normally one cannot find these magical ruptures unless they are close by, which is how I found them.
"Where are they?"
"They are resonating from the Everfree Forest. I need you to prepare your friends. I will bring the Elements of Harmony."
"Okay, you can count on us, Princess."
Wearing a gentle smile, the princess replied "I know I can" and teleported back to the castle.
15 minutes later...
Primed and ready to go, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were all at the forest entrance, wearing their respective elements. "So why are we going into the Everfree again, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I told you, the Princess thinks that remnants of Discords magic caused something to happen in the forest, and we need to investigate it."
Rainbow Dash, ever the brash one, shouted "Well if there's only pieces of his magic left, this is gonna be easy!"
"Let's just get this over with,” Rarity pouted. “I want to be in and out of that dreadful forest as quickly as possible, I just got a hooficure and I don't want to spoil it!"
Fluttershy was near the back, literally flinching at the sight of the dark forest. "Do we...really have to go in there?"
"Ah come on sugarcube, we visit Zecora all the time! T'aint that scary anymore..."
"I... I still find it scary," the pegasus squeaked out in her usual quiet voice.
"Speaking of Zecora..." Twilight chimed in. "Since she lives in the forest, she might have seen something. We should head to her hut first."
It went unnoticed by her friends how Pinkie Pie remained unnaturaly quiet. After a few more minutes of reassuring Fluttershy,they entered the forest.
Trotting along the path and taking in the scenery, they quickly lost track of time. Twilight began feeling the magical residue from Discord's magic, just as the Princess had said, approaching fast.
A blue figure emerged from a thicket of vines hanging down over the path.
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Vergil had been walking down the path for a couple of minutes, and had only found trees. Hungry and beginning to get impatient , he quickened his pace. The sooner he got to this... Ponyville, the sooner he would get some food.
A tree branch hung over the path. A thicket of vines hung down from the branch and covered the other side, and the swordsman was certain he heard the sound of hooves beyond it. He perked his ears up.
"The residue is getting close. What ever came from Discords magical rupture is a living creature." A female voice announced.
"What kind a' critter?" he heard a voice with an accent he couldn't exactly identify speak up.
"I can't tell for sure without at least seeing it..."
"Well, whatever it is I can take it," a very arrogant sounding voice piped up. Vergil reflexively thought of Dante.
A high pitched voice was next. "I wonder if he likes parties?"
"Pinkie, we don't even know if it's a he, let alone intelligent enough to enjoy parties!"
"I think he's a he," the now dubbed Pinkie replied.
"Darling, what makes you think that? A refined female voice questioned.
" I don't know!" the happy Pinkie chimed up. Vergil could almost see the shrug behind those words.
"I just hope it's not... scary," an incredibly quiet and soft voice, so soft the half-devil had to focus even through his boosted hearing to hear it, squeaked out.
"Don't worry Fluttershy, with all six of us here we should be able to defeat whatever it is if it's hostile."
Judging from what he heard, Vergil guessed that the magical residue from this 'rupture' was resonating within him, and whoever this Discord character was, it was an enemy to these six females. Deciding to play the friendly card, Vergil emerged from the underbrush, deliberately leaving himself apparently defenseless with Yamato strapped to his midsection.
Tension brewed quickly as the six ponies locked their eyes on him. Two of the six had a pair of wings, two had spiraled, blunt horns, and the final two had neither, reminding him of Zecora. He took careful note of the anatomical differences; they could have some meaning. "I believe you were speaking of me?" Vergil offered.
Reacting without thinking, Rainbow Dash charged at the new figure. Out of instinct, Vergil rolled to the side, leaving the blue pony to soar right past him and collide headfirst with a tree trunk behind him. "Well, that's one way to be greeted, I suppose," Vergil remarked neutrally as he turned to keep his eyes on his aggressor, not showing a drop of the irritation he felt.
Shaking her head and flaring her nostrils, Rainbow Dash replied, "Oh yeah? Try that again!" She got to her hooves and charged one more time.
Vergil was losing patience fast. This pony was obviously itching for a brawl, and he wouldn't frustrate her request for long if she kept this up. His fingers slowly covered Yamato's hilt menacingly.
"STOP!"
Quickly slowing to a screeching halt, the cyan pegasus stopped right in front of the yellow one.
"Rainbow Dash, he didn't do anything! We can't just attack him like that!"
"But Fluttershy-"
"No buts!"
"Fluttershy's right, this has gotten way out of hoof," the purple unicorn spoke up. More carefully, she began walking towards Vergil, who released the katana's hilt and relaxed his stance fully. "I'm sorry about Rainbow Dash's actions, she sometimes acts without thinking..." the unicorn said with an embarrassed smile. "I'm Twilight Sparkle," she continued, raising her hoof in greeting.
The spiky-haired human answered the gesture by kneeling to her level and lightly taking her hoof in his fingers. “Vergil."
The show of civilization prompted the others to approach, each in their own way. The excitable Pinkie Pie went first. "Hi my name's Pinkie Pie and it's super nice to meet you!"
Vergil quirked an eyebrow at the pink party pony. 'I think I found out how Dante would be after too man sundaes...' "Yes, it's nice to meet you too."
"Sorry about our Pinkie Pie here, she's just excited to meet new ponies," the orange one said, drawing his attention. She grabbed his hand and tried to shake it, with notable force, as Vergil noticed. Holding back a chuckle, he steeled his muscles, resulting in the hat-wearing equine dropping it with a blend of confusion and frustration after her forelegs wobbled vainly. "Nice to meet you, pardner, name's Applejack."
Vergil remained stoic. "Likewise."
The white unicorn approached. "Well, it's nice to meet somepony who has such a refined taste in clothing, darling! You may call me Rarity." She gingerly took his hand with both hooves and lightly shook it.
"... likewise, miss Rarity," Vergil replied, even more neutrally. He did not like the way she was eyeing his coat.
Suddenly getting a friendly demeanor, the rainbow maned pegasus introduced herself. "Name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!" she announced, no small amount of pride leaking from her voice. "And uh... sorry about attacking you, I do kinda think with my hooves sometimes." She rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile.
At this, Vergil couldn't suppress a demeaning snort, which he quickly covered up with a nostalgic sigh. "I'm used to it. No hard feelings."
The yellow pegasus now cowered in the back. Vergil thought it strange how she could suddenly change from the determined being he saw before into the trembling wreck before him. "I'm fluttershy..."
"A pleasure."
Rainbow Dash cleared her ear with a hoof. “... did he really hear her without her having to repeat herself?”
Vergil shrugged. “In any case, I imagine we both have questions. I just ask for a meal before answering yours; it's been some time since I last ate."
"Of course, Vergil,” Twilight smiled. “Follow us."
"Lead the way."
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A wild update appears!
Once again, big thanks to Jack Kellar, whom without, this fanfic would be a craptastic adventure of spelling errors and bad punctuation galore.
but seriously, I had a lot of schoolwork to do, finals and everything coming up.
anyway, here's your chapter, leave your thoughts in the comments below
~Greet the new day