Disclaimer This is the Dawn Show starring Dawn Pie, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and me the Disclaimer.
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The moment I stepped outside I realized that this plan had ignored my normal, rational thought process; well okay a mostly rational thought process, I couldn’t say that I always thought things through in a logical manner. In fact I don’t think I even had a plan when I’d rushed out here, I’d just followed that feeling.
The real problem was that I had left Luna behind; I shouldn’t have done that no matter what state she had been in or whatever had been affecting me. What made it worse was that I had left her with ponies that have every reason to dislike her and in her possibly injured state, caused by the unknown effects of a set of power magical artifacts, there is every possibility that they would try and hurt her. Well okay I didn’t really think they would do that, but I couldn’t help feeling worried about it.
What’s even worse is that I have no idea what this feeling actually means; for all I know it could be a normal for ponies to feel this sort of thing now. Perhaps this feeling was caused by changes in magical fields or something. I mean I don’t even know much about what has changed since I was put into stone; I didn’t get news. I should have asked the others before rushing out here, probably even have brought them out here with me. That would have solved two of my problems at once; I would have been able to make sure they couldn’t hurt Luna and I could have explained what was going on at the same time. I mean I Pie Promised to tell them…
This is bad, this is reeeeaaaally bad. If they decide I broke a Pie Promise I’ll be in big trouble. Hopefully they consider this little issue with Celestia to be part of the ‘after it’s all over’ bit of my promise. I still remember the one time I’d seen someone break a Pie Promise.
It was the day of my sister’s birthday party. She was so happy about it, literally bouncing off the walls. Although in this case she was doing it without breaking the laws of physics. Somepony had recently invented the idea of a rubber house filled with air for birthday parties, it was rather fun to bounce in.
I had just finished playing in the rubber house and was trotting over to the food table to get some cake when I saw my mother talking to a pony I had never seen before. He was dark grey in coloration and his flank marking was a picture of two crossed hooves. I was just barely close enough to hear what was being said.
“So cousin Mendax, do you promise not to cause any trouble this time?” My mother looked at Mendax sternly. I had never heard about a cousin Mendax before and I know all of the ponies in our family for at least a few generations back. Maybe he just wasn’t a real cousin?
“Of course auntie, I Pie Promise.” I had heard ponies say the promise so often that I kind of just tuned it out; although I found it odd that I didn’t hear any sound of him poking himself in the eye. I never could get around that problem.
“Good enough for me.” My mother nodded before trotting off; waving at Mendax, “Have fun at the party.”
Once my mother was out of sight Mendax looked in my direction and smirked. I don’t know if he actually saw me or not, but he trotted off after a second or two. Since I didn’t have much else to do, I trotted after him; I wanted to learn more about this cousin I had never met, but I just couldn’t walk up to him and talk. I mean what if he didn’t like me or something.
The way he trotted was rather strange; he kept hiding behind everything he could and sending glances all over the place. I felt that he was trying way too hard to pretend to be inconspicuous; he seemed to be heading for the punch bowl, but why would he need to be surreptitious about it? It didn’t really make much sense.
He glanced backwards in my direction, my tail pulled to the left and I dodged right behind a tree. He didn’t seem bothered by what had just happened. Now that I think about it, hiding didn’t really make any sense; this was a party, hiding like this would just make me seem suspicious.
Well since I was already behind this tree I might as well watch and see what he does. Peaking around the tree, I took a glance toward him. He took a bottle out of his coat pocket and looked about ready to pour it into the punch bowl.
Now I know that I’m one of the shyer ponies around, but even I wasn’t going to let someone break a Pie Promise without trying to stop them. I galloped as fast as I could towards Mendax; I need to stop him, I don’t think he knows the punishment for breaking a Pie Promise. It was rather unfortunate that I didn’t know that trick Pie mares use to pop out of random places because than my action might have actually made a difference.
When I’d reached Mendax, a drop of the liquid from its container had already hit the punch. Even though I knew it was too late, I was moving too fast to stop by this point and ran straight into him; which gave me a front row seat to seeing the punishment.
His flank mark faded out of existence and along with it whatever special ability he may have had. It was cruel punishment, but it was very effective.
“HOW DARE YOU BREAK A PIE PROMISE!” Blueberry popped out the punch bowl wearing the ladle on her head; if it hadn’t been for her flaming eyes she would have appeared rather comical. At the moment it merely inspired fear in me; I knew she could do this, but I’d never actually seen her do it. The few others I’d seen someone nearly break a Pie Promise it had always been my mother who popped out with the flaming eyes. Seeing her like this made me Pie Promise myself that I would never break a Pie Promise without a good reason; I don’t think I could stand seeing her do it again.
That was one of my scariest memories, but there wasn’t much use crying over spilt milk. I’d deal with the consequences of my action when they arrived, but I still hoped that they would be willing to give me this little extension. I do not want what happened to cousin Mendax to happen to me; I like my flank mark.
The sound of hoofsteps brought me out of my thoughts. I could only hope that they were following me because they were curious about why I had run off and not because Pinkie had told them I had broken my Pie Promise; I’ve never been able to figure out how the mares of the family can always tell when someone broke a Pie Promise well before they see them. I really am planning to explain all of it to them as soon as I find out why I am getting this feeling. It wasn’t like there was any reason to hide it from them anymore; the prank had already failed and that had been my only reason to keep them in the dark. I hope they wouldn’t hate me for lying to them; I’d really like them to be my friends.
The sound of pounding hooves was getting louder now, but it was now accompanied by the sound of a spring bouncing. I continued waiting, ignoring the pulling sensation. Even if I had been inclined to follow it I couldn’t have, the pull was coming from almost straight up. In fact it was pointing towards where Celestia was being chased by the Rainbow Boot; far too high for me to reach without flying, which I still lack the capacity to do.
“Hey Dawn!” I blinked once, twice…than jumped into the air and grabbed a nearby candelabrum. I shook my head; even when I know beforehoof about a Pie mare sneaking up on me, certain reactions simply cannot be stopped. It was never my favorite reaction.
Now that I think about it, I’m kind of curious as to where this candelabrum came from; I mean it’s on the ‘outside’ of the keep, but I probably shouldn’t think about. It’s probably just part of my family traits.
“I knew you wouldn’t really run away and break a Pie Promise you just wanted some fresh air right?” Just like every other time this sort of thing occurred, the Pie mares just continued to talk as if the Pie stallion was still sitting on the ground normally. I was glad that Pinkie’s eyes weren’t on fire, it meant I hadn’t broken my Pie Promise.
“I mean it’s such a nice dawn. Hey that matches your name isn’t it lucky that we came out here just in time for the sun to rise! It’s so beautiful!” I suppose at this point she was just trying to waste some time while waiting for the others to arrive; which is fine with me, I can’t do anything else at the moment.
Wait a second, why was the sun rising now? It’s been night for far too long for it to have been natural. Well I suppose since the solar orbit is controlled by a pony that it’s pretty hard to call it natural, but it’s still weird. I mean right after we remove whatever was possessing Luna the sun rises? I can’t help feeling that this is more than just coincidence. Especially since Celestia was still being chased by that Rainbow Boot, she couldn’t have enough time to raise it. So who had done the deed?
I took a glance upwards towards Celestia; yup, she was still was still flying faster than the boot, but only barely. Honestly, I know that I don’t like her much, but I can’t really understand why that energy would be chasing her. I need to make sure that I get my hooves on that manual before we need to use them again; don’t ask me how I know that we’re going to need them again, I just do. They seem like that kind of artifact.
The sound of more hoofsteps approaching brought me out of my thoughts. I’m honestly surprised I can hear them over Pinkie’s running monologue. I suddenly wish that I had been listening to her, a Pie mares monologue can be fun to listen to sometimes.
Since I’d rather not be caught hanging around on this candelabrum when the others arrive, I release it and land on my hooves. That was lucky for me, generally when I drop off of an object like that I land on my flank and hurt myself.
I’m still rather curious where that candelabrum had come from; it had been the only one on the outside of the keep. Looking back towards where I had been hanging, I realized that it was gone… which was actually normal with these things; they always seem to disappear on me when I don’t need them anymore.
“Dawn, what exactly is going on here? Why did you run away right after we defeated Nightmare Moon?” Twilight was the first to arrive, with the others falling in behind her; I suppose I’d missed Twilight arrival while looking at the former spot of the candelabrum. I need to stop being distracted so easily, it’s becoming a rather disastrous issue. Well at least the first question she asked was a rather easy one for me to answer; even if I didn’t really have a good explanation.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. I didn’t really have any real desire to come out here, but it felt like I needed to.”
“What do you mean?” I suppose that’s a fair question really; I still didn’t really understand it myself. Maybe if I tried to explaining the feeling it would make more sense? If I was lucky, I might find out that this was natural for ponies today, but from what I was seeing so far I rather doubted it.
“Uhh… the best way I can explain it is that it feels almost like a..a.. pulling sensation; it feels quite like this other sensation I felt back when I was a foal. It just feels like I needed to be out here to find out what this feeling is.” The looks of confusion didn’t clear up in the least, I suppose I’d need to try and find a better simile, “Have you ever been late to an event and just suddenly realized that you were late,” They all nodded, “well it’s kind of like that, but replace being late with just needing to be somewhere. I know it sounds vague, but this feeling is rather vague and hard to explain.” Hopefully that would be enough to keep them satisfied, I don’t think that I could really explain it any better. I doubt they would know about the summoning ritual and the feeling that comes with it; hopefully I could explain a little better when I could get a few books on my hooves.
“Even if that is the case, which Am a little doubtful about, that still don’t explain how you knew that Nightmare Moon was really called Luna.” Applejack had seemingly decided to take over the questioning from Twilight. I guess it made sense; Twilight hadn’t actually been there when I had called Nightmare Moon Luna. From the look on Twilights face, I think she might also be trying to figure out more about the feeling I had just been explaining about. She never seems to let go of puzzle until she’s solved it.
Hey hold on a second, I don’t remember ever telling them that Nightmare Moon was Luna exactly; I only told them that we needed to rescue Twilight and Luna. Which makes it rather odd that Applejack could know that my teacher was Nightmare Moon. I suppose it’s possible that they made the leap of logic, but I don’t for sure. I may be being paranoid, but considering everything that’s happened to me up to this point; I think I had reason to be suspicious. Well that’s what questions are good for.
“Hold on a second, how did you know that Nightmare Moon was Luna?” I looked pointedly into Applejack, trying to see if she was going to lie to me.
“I ain’t answerin your question until you answer mine.” That was acceptable to me, it didn’t really matter much who answered first; my information wasn’t really that valuable to anyone except me. I suppose I could give it up in order to assuage my paranoia.
“Well I knew Luna before she was sent to the moon, I w-”
“Oh you mean before you were trapped in stone for a thousand years and you had to watch everyone you ever knew die. For some reason everyone seems to think that you should be sad about that, why is that anyway; they all know that Pie ponies are kind of strange in the head oh and maybe it was some kind of magical doohickie or something. I mean I don’t really know what anyone else is thinking, but come on give me a break I like to point out plot holes. I promise that it will be filled in later. Also I’m sorry if anyone feels offended by this line of dialogue, if you don’t like tell me and I’ll take it out.” All the mares looked highly confused about her latest outburst; even I couldn’t catch anything she said past the bit about me being trapped in stone and I’ve had practice with Pie mares. Even she looked a little confused about what had just come out of her mouth. Well it probably wasn’t important anyway; I’d need to deal with the fallout from the earliest bit of her monologue first. Hopefully this wouldn’t come back and bite me in the flank.
“Pinkie you’re a strange one.” Applejack was giving Pinkie a knowing grin, “There ain’t no way that happened.” I know I shouldn’t enjoy this sort of thing, but I couldn’t help feeling that I wouldn’t get such a great opening again for quite a long time to come.
“Oh! So you agree with Pinkie, that’s good because that is what happened. I was trapped in stone for a thousand years waiting to get out; it wasn’t a fun time.” The looks on all the ponies’ faces were absolutely priceless. I should feel really bad about, but I don’t; it was just too funny. It doesn’t hurt anypony and they asked for the answer. Still I hope they don’t ask for specifics; I was not looking forward to relieving those memories.
I heard the sound of air being displaced. That reminds me; what is going on with that chase? I guess since everyone else is distracted by earlier agreement with Pinkie, I could take another glance to see how the chase had progressed.
Somehow Celestia was still speeding a few feat ahead of the boot. Perhaps Celestia could move faster than I thought, but I don’t think that’s likely; the boot should be able to move at the speed of light, it was made of rainbows after all. Even if it could only move at the speed of magic, it would still be faster than her. Magic is the second fastest thing in the world, right after light.
Why in the world am I analyzing this like I actually know something about these artifacts; I don’t know anything about them! For all I know the energy is just really slow moving or something. I wasn’t going to complain about it though, the longer that chase took the more time I had to explain things before the next catastrophe. I’d rather not be stuck without my flank marking.
“Equestria to Dawn, Equestria to Dawn, come in Dawn.” The sound of Pinkie’s voice brought my attention back to the group of mares. From what I could see, the four of them were still in shock. Wait a second…four mares plus Pinkie Pie only equals five mares! That was one too few; who was missing? Let see, there’s Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and… “Where’s Rainbow Dash?”
The question seemed to snap the rest of them out of their shock. Personally I didn’t think it was that amazing of a question, but I guess they disagree with me or maybe just any sound at that particular moment would have woken them up. Hopefully, they would still answer the question.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Strangely, Rarity seemed to be the one taking the initiative; whatever works I suppose. The fact that they ignored my time spent in stone didn’t really bother me, I didn’t want to talk about it right now anyway and apologizing for things that are not your fault doesn’t really make sense anyway.
“I asked where Dash is, I don’t see her here with you.” Rarity took a glance back up towards the tower we had been in before refocusing back on me.
“It was the strangest thing darlin’. As soon as you galloped out of there, Dash took a single look at Nightmare Moon and called her Princess Luna.” She shrugged her shoulders, “Then she simply wouldn’t leave her side; no matter how much we beg and pleaded with her. I thought she was mad.” Well that was odd. I mean I’m glad someone stayed behind with Luna, a pony should not leave his unconscious teacher alone, but it still seems out of character for Dash. She had been the one who was most suspicious of me, why would she want to stay with someone that I was attached to? There wasn’t any good reason for her to stay there all alone with a potentially dangerous pony.
Well, I probably wouldn’t be able to answer this question until I get the chance to talk to her again; I’ll just put it on the slowly overflowing backburner for the moment. This did answer my earlier question, they had known about Nightmare Moon being Luna because somehow Dash had known. That answer didn’t really make me feel any better.
“AAHHHHH” Celestia’s scream drew my attention back to the sky. She was still being chased by the Rainbow Boot, it was even closer now.
“Oh no, oh no, I just attacked the Princess!!” Twilight’s panicked voice brought my sight back to ground level again, I think I might get whiplash if this keeps happening.
Twilight’s mane and tail were pointing out in all directions, “There’s no way I’m going to be getting out of this; I should have listened to her when she warned me that the Elements were unstable. She’s going to send me to back to magic kindergarten for this, I just know it!” I guess she’d finished processing everything that had happened since they used the Elements or maybe she hadn’t seen Celestia when we were looking out the window earlier. In this case either was likely; if I wasn’t who I am I would likely be in shock from all that happened.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter; what did matter was making sure that she didn’t go completely crazy because of guilt. I wish I could say I was doing this as a completely selfless act, but I’m really hoping I can keep them from asking about what it was like to be stone.
“Twilight, you need to calm down, I don’t think she’d do anything to you. How could you have possibly known what the Elements would do? And you’re her student, why would she punish you for something so far out of your control?” Twilight’s mouth fell open; somehow I get the feeling that I have yet to learn that saying things without looking at it from other’s perspective first is not the best of ideas.
“Honestly, I don’t think she will and I should know; I’m her sister’s student.” I probably should have waited to make that revelation until Twilight had gotten over her little episode, because the other mares started gaping at me again. They had only just stopped a minute ago!
“You don’t understand. One time I accidently broke a flower pot and she put me into time out for a week.” Apparently Twilight had either decided to ignore my revelation of my relation with Luna or had completely missed it. I think everpony else had decided that Twilight’s breakdown was more important than learning about me right now. I had to agree, I would be available to answer their questions later, we needed to help Twilight now.
“I’m sure that everything will be fine Twilight...that is if you don’t mind I mean.” The look Twilight gave Fluttershy bordered on absolute pleading with just a tinge of anger. She looked like she was hoping Fluttershy was right, but somehow I felt that she was going to continue anyway.
“You have no idea about the horrors that are involved in one Celestia’s Timeouts. They are the absolute worst punishment you could receive; even worse than Magic Kindergarten.” I saw her eyes widen, “You don’t think she’d send me to it again do you?” I can understand her reluctance to accept that she wouldn’t get in trouble; I felt the same way with Luna and she was generally in more trouble than I was. A student never wants to disappoint their teacher, but the fact that she had experienced one of Celestia’s Time Outs was far worse; I remember when I was put in one myself.
I’d really done it this time, I did something really bad. I needed to confess what I’d done to Luna; I’d rather be known for something I can’t change at this point than deal with the consequences of lying to my teacher.
Unfortunately, it seemed that my teacher was playing hard to get today; I couldn’t seem to find her anywhere. I’d already checked every one of her rooms and even the kitchen, but no matter where I looked she wasn’t there. My head felt it was going to explode from what I had done.
I tried to find somepony else, but everyone in the entire castle seemed to have gone on vacation or something; the castle was entirely empty. I decided that if I couldn’t find anypony else, maybe I could find Celestia; she always seemed to be around somewhere. I felt the need to tell somepony in power anyway; I really needed somepony to know what I had done wrong. I know it’s a rather strange concept, but I know for a fact that I’m rather strange.
Since it was nighttime I at least knew where I could find Celestia. I galloped up towards her room and knocked on her door. I could hear somepony moving around her room, right before the door slammed open.
“WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE SLEEP OF THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN!” Her eyes were incandescent, glowing in the dark. If I didn’t have this overpowering need to turn myself in, I likely would have galloped away at this point.
“Um, it’s me, Dawn.” She looked down at me, staring me in the eye.
“Oh, it’s you.” Her eyes dimmed down back to their normal color of blue, “You wouldn’t believe some of the things that will wake me up.” I had no idea if she had misspoken or was really implying that she was never sure about what type of creature would be waking her up next. I suppose that didn’t matter.
“So what do you want?”
“I just wanted to tell you something.” I was nervous, I’d never really felt all that comfortable being around Celestia by myself; it sometimes felt like something else was watching me.
“Go on…”
“I just needed to tell somepony that I broke that vase in the castle foyer.” I saw her eyes widen and realized that this was a terrible idea; I should have just waited until I could find Luna.
“YOU DID WHAT? THAT WAS INVALUABLE ANTIQUE THAT CAN NEVER BE REPLACED! PREPARE TO BE PUNISHED, IN TIME OUT!” She sent a bolt of magical energy at me and suddenly my entire perception had been altered. The world appeared upside down and inside out; it was almost like everything was wrong.
“I will let you out in an hour.” Even Celestia’s voice sounded muffled and strange, like it was coming over a horribly long distance. I felt that this was an unusual and cruel punishment for what had been a rather small transgression. I know which vase she was talking about, I had destroyed the one next to it; the one she Celestia had given Luna for her birthday last year. Honestly I know that it was near worthless, which was why I had been looking for Luna.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go throw up from all the colors and weird movements that I’m currently seeing.
I never want to deal with one of those again and I’d never let anypony else, especially Twilight, have to go through something like that. That was neither the here nor there at the moment though; right now I’d need to convince Twilight of that fact.
“Tw-”
“Twilight, dear, even if Princess Celestia should try to place all the blame upon you; we will all take at least a part of the blame. If you will be punished, we will be there with you.” Rarity stole my line! I mean come on, I was going to say something like that; well I would only really be talking for me, but it would have been pretty similar. Like I would ever let Twilight take all of the blame for something like this; I don’t even know what is going to happen. I really wish I had that manual at the moment.
“I ag-”
“Ah agree with Rarity,” Applejack eye twitched a little, “I can’t believe I said that, but it’s true. No matter what happens we are your friends and we’ll help you out with your problems no matter the consequences.” Why couldn’t I get my mouth open in time to get one of these lines; they are freaking perfect!
“Really? You’re all my friends?” I guess Twilight still didn’t believe that she wouldn’t be getting in trouble or at the very least that she wouldn’t be going into a time out by herself. I remember how when I had seen Twilight upset while I was a statue that the only one that she ever really seemed comforted by was her brother Shining Armor; I guess I can understand why she doesn’t feel like she can believe them, she’s never had anyone else who would try. I was going to be next in this little procession of positive influence.
“Of cou-”
“Of course we’re your friends Twilight, why else would I have thrown you that party in your library that you didn’t actually attend. That reminds me I need to make you a new party for meeting you and actually have you attend it. Oooohhhh wait a second I also need to give a party to Dawn for getting out of stone, I promised that I’d do that for him so long ago. Hmm…” Now Pinkie is doing it, will I get to make a single line in this conversation? Well at least Twilight looks happier; she’s smiling and not shaking and her hair isn’t popping all over the place anymore. Honestly I think that Pinkie is a really good influence when people seem to be going mad; her madness makes you realize it can be fun.
“Thanks you everypony.” Even if she was feeling better, I still wanted to get a line here.
“I’m gl-”
“You’re welcome…if that’s okay that is.” Really? Even Fluttershy, the shyest one in the group, is getting a line here before me. Okay everyone else has gotten to say something; well it’s my turn now.
I trotted over to Twilight and patted her on the head, “I’m glad that you’re feeling better Twilight, I was worried there.” I realize that it was probably out of line considering she had just met me for the first time a few hours ago, but I really wanted to help and get a line in. I wanted her to know that I also was there for her.
*BOOM*
A loud boom above us drew our attention. The Rainbow Boot had caught up to Celestia and hit her in the flank, I still can’t understand why it took so long, and just like what happened with Luna it seems that she had fallen unconscious.
Strangely the energy did something odd, well odder than what it had been doing before anyway. Instead of either dissipating or flying off somewhere like I had assumed it would, it split into two parts. Half of the energy flew underneath Celestia, in order to keep her supported in midair I suppose, while the other half flew into her mouth.
“What in the world just happened?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from what was going on to look at Twilight or anypony else, but I have the feeling they were all staring at the scene as well.
“I have absolutely no clue.” I have no idea what is going on up there, why would that energy fly into Celestia? It just didn’t fit any of its past actions; then again, I still didn’t know anything about it.
I could see that the energy inside of Celestia seemed to be coming out of her as small particles; forming into some kind of shape, I think an egg. This was making less and less sense the longer I watched, but that feeling I had been ignoring until now began to magnify, almost literally trying to drag me towards it; whatever was in that egg was what I had felt earlier.
Once the egg had fully formed, the rainbow energy began dissipating. I came to the sudden realization that when that energy completely disappeared, Celestia would fall. This was a problem for me; no matter how little I liked Celestia right now I did not want her dead. For the moment I’d need to resist the drag of that egg; I’d have plenty of time to deal with it when this crisis was over.
I began to form a net spell. I heard Twilight gasp, I guess she must have come to the same realization that I had; the feeling of a spell being cast right next to me confirmed my suspicion. Hopefully one of us would be fast enough; spells that could bleed the amount of momentum that Celestia was building up would take a while to cast.
*Boom*
The noise of second explosion of sound broke my concentration, it nearly made the spell I was casting go critical. Luckily I was able to salvage the energy before it did and reform it as a simple light spell. Not useful for the current issue, but at least we wouldn’t be standing in a crater. The appearance of a purple glow to my left made me think that Twilight had the same issue as I had and used the same plan to fix it.
Ignoring that issue for the moment, I looked upward; at the very least Celestia deserved somepony to be watching her death.
I blinked once; I could not believe what I was seeing. There are two trails of energy in the air, energy that is only released when a pony goes supersonic. One of them was the color of the night sky, obviously Luna’s, while the other was the color of a muted rainbow, which I could only assume meant it belonged to Rainbow Dash. This was honestly amazing; there are very few ponies that can perform a feat like this and we just got to watch two of them happen at the same time. I really need to find some way of turning memories into physical representations that anypony could see; I am getting some amazing images today.
Overcoming my amazement, I realized that Celestia was likely still falling. I almost began another spell, knowing that there would be nowhere near enough time to catch her, when I noticed that she was no longer falling towards the ground. She was being held in the air by both Luna and Rainbow Dash. I knew there was a reason that Luna hadn’t planned something that would do more than inconvenience Celestia. Well that made more sense than having the both of them just flying out there for no reason whatsoever. Still a little confused about why Rainbow is working with Luna though.
Now that I didn’t have the crisis to deal with, that feeling that had first dragged me out here was becoming much more insistent. It was literally it was dragging me towards that egg; which I suppose had somehow landed intact. Since I had no reason to resist it anymore, I began trotting towards the egg. Honestly, at this point I was curious about what this feeling dragging me even meant.
“Hey where are you going Dawn?” The sound of Twilight’s voice behind almost made me ground to a halt; I say almost because I stopped trotting, but was still being dragged towards the egg. She was trotting next to me, looking down at my hooves in wonder.
“How are you doing that?” Her eyes had widened, I guess she thought the fact that I was still moving while my legs remained still was rather strange. Honestly, I was getting used to it at this point.
“I have no idea,” She seemed rather annoyed by that answer, “but to answer your first question… do you remember that sensation that I was talking about earlier?”
“I remember, you said that you felt like you needed to be out here…” I could almost see the cogs working in her mind, her eyes widened in surprise, “wait are you saying?”
“Yah, whatever that egg that came from Celestia was, that was what’s been calling me out here.” I looked towards the groove I was leaving in the dirt, “and it’s much stronger now.”
“This is amazing, I have to study it and learn how this works! I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m coming along.” I suppose I didn’t really have a choice or any real reason to stop her. Besides, she just looked so enthused; her eyes were sparkling with interest, she looked so incredibly cute. I think I’m going to call this scientist mode.
“Sure, I could use the company.” An idea almost literally hit me in the head now, this could be fun. “Hey Twilight I have something I want to test, mind helping me?” She blinked her eyes at me; I guess I had broken her train of thought.
“Sorry what did you say?”
“I asked if you would be willing to help me with a little test.” Her eyes lit up at the word test; I don’t really understand how or why she did that, but a lot of mares seemed to be able to make their eyes light up like that. I don’t think I’d ever seen a stallion do it though.
“Of course. What did you want to test?” This was perfect; this was going to fun.
“I just need you to grab my tail.”
“Grab your tail?” One of her eyebrows rose upwards, “What would that test?” Okay, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, what could I say that would make her do this? Oh I know.
“It would test how much weight this energy can pull. Who knows when we’re going to have another chance like this?” Her eyes lit up again.
“You’re right, how often does one get to test a completely unknown force anyway!” She tried to take a bite out into my tail, but right before she did my tail decided it wasn’t going to get bitten and changed into a pair of bicycle handles.
“I don’t understand how that works, but after this is over I’m going to find out.” That could be interesting actually, maybe I would finally know if my tail was haunted or something. Maybe a ghost was haunting Pie tails and its children would live within the tail of the Pie’s child. Maybe the male ghosts were just less knowledgeable about what they could do and that was why we weren’t able to do what the females could. I realized that was an unlikely theory and threw it into the deepest reaches of my mind; I would probably end up using it later anyway.
Twilight reached out with her hooves and grabbed hold of my tail; her weight seemingly making no difference to my momentum; we continued to be pulled forward regardless.
“So where did the egg land anyway?”
“Somewhere in that direction, we’ll find out when we get there.” I couldn’t decide whether I wanted this to last a long time or not; the ground wasn’t the softest thing to slide on, but I was still having a lot of fun.
It took almost half an hour before we reached the eggs landing spot. It was a good thing that the ground had become soft about halfway; it had been starting chafe.
Now that we were here, I took glance around. It was rather strange; it looked like it had been constructed rather than grown. The egg was sitting in a nest surrounded by blue and white flowers. On second thought, maybe it had just landed on a birds nest in a tree and had crash landed in the flowers; wouldn’t be the first time that coincidence had struck.
“A dragon egg? Well that’s odd.” Twilight’s voice drew my attention; I guess while I had been studying the surrounding area she had gone straight for the egg, “I’ve never read about dragon eggs being magically formed from the body of a pony, let alone an Alicorn. I wonder if there’s anything special about it.” That is rather strange really, why would this egg come from Celestia by way of a magic rainbow and why did I feel drawn to it anyway? I mean it didn’t make much sense.
“What do you think is inside of it?” Her eyes were sparkling again, scientist Twilight is still in charge it seems.
“I honestly have no idea, maybe it’s still just a dragon? I mean there isn’t any real reason for it not to be.” She smiled at me; the sparkle was growing brighter, which was beginning to worry me. I really don’t know why that is, it was only a sparkle.
“I guess the only way to know what’s inside of it is to hatch it.” Her smile brightened; I think she was having far too much fun with something that could be potentially dangerous. Of course, I’m not going to say that I didn’t want to see what was inside as well.
“So how do we do it?”
“Like this.” Before I could ask her what she meant, she had already begun to send a straight line of power energy at the egg. What little I could see out of the corner of my eye nearly blinded me; Twilight really held a lot of magic.
Since I could do little to stop her at this point, I just looked at the egg hoping that it would react in some manner. Nothing happened and nothing continued to happen except that Twilight was becoming tired. What had once been an extremely bright beam of energy was starting to dim. I think I better stop her before she drops unconscious from exhaustion.
“Twilight stop! I don’t think this idea is working.” She looked a little downcast, or maybe it just exhaustion, and I felt the need to try and perk her back up, “I have another idea though.” She gave me a curious look, at least she wasn’t frowning anymore; I hadn’t liked how it looked on her.
“What did you have in mind?”
“Just let me have a shot.” I began to build up power into my horn. I had the feeling that the reason why Twilight’s magic hadn’t worked was twofold. First she was a power Unicorn and this egg might want control magic instead. The other reason was a little more obvious, I was the one reacting to it and it might just want my magic.
I fired a short bolt; I would never be able to keep up the kind of stream that Twilight had, but it seemed to work anyway. I could feel the magic resonating within the egg, beating like a heart.
The egg began to crack; a piece of shell flew off, barely missing my eye by an inch. I don’t know exactly why, but I felt elated by that response. I watched as bit by bit more of the egg shell was broken off and the creature inside it became visible. Finally, when the last bit of the egg was broken and the creature was visible it was obvious what it was
“A baby dragon?” I guess she had still expected something grander, which made sense when one thought about it. An egg shaped by mystical forces from one of the most powerful beings on our planet and the thing that comes out of it, is a normal dark blue baby dragon. I could understand how that might feel underwhelming, but this dragon was what had been pulling me here; I wonder why that was. In fact I could still feel the pull towards it; it was a rather strange sensation now.
“DAMN IT, I HAD ALMOST TAKEN COMPLETE CONTROL OF THAT MARE! I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE MOST POWERFUL BEING ON THE PLANET!” Holy crap! The baby dragon could talk! I’d never heard about a baby dragon talking before. Even weirder, even if I’m not an expert of dragon physiology I could tell that this dragon was female, but it had a male voice.
“EVEN WORSE, I LOST THE SECOND ONE AS WELL; BOTH ARE BEYOND MY REACH!” This was rather strange actually, I’d never heard of a baby dragon being able to take over anypony. I looked over at Twilight, who seemed to be lost in thought about something; I have no idea what. This was just too weird to make sense.
I find it rather odd that the baby dragon still hadn’t noticed us; perhaps it was too lost in whatever it was thinking about. I needed to learn more about the dragon before I did anything; there are always problems when ponies decide to take action without all the information and the best way to get information is to ask.
“Hell-” The baby dragon took a glance at me and suddenly I realized I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. Its eyes were piercing black; I could feel the power behind those eyes, far beyond anything so young should be able to muster.
“Hmm… Who are you? No matter, you’ll do perfectly.” The baby dragon opened its mouth and a black mist formed inside of it. I tried to move out of the way, but the only thing I could do was stand there; even my tail remained intert.
“Dawn!” The black mist hit me and the last thing I saw was Twilight using her magic to send up a flare of energy into the sky. I suddenly realized that I should have asked Luna to come with me.
“My, but this one is strong. If I didn’t know better, I would think this one was an Alicorn; they were the toughest nuts to crack that I have ever had the pleasure of trying. Oh, but the fun I had…”
Who was that? For that matter, where was I? Opening my eyes I began to survey my surrounding, expecting perhaps to see a hospital or something, I mean I had just been attacked, but instead I discovered that I’d seemingly gone blind; well it could be worse...
“3…2…1…” Wait what am I thinking? I’m blind, how could it be much worse than this!? For that matter, when did this happen? Where did that countdown come from? What’s going on here!?
Okay calm down; let’s deal with this one question at a time. I have no idea what’s going on right now, but let’s take a look at the facts:
“One.” I’m blind. Which is fairly bad in and of itself, “Two,” I have no idea where I am, which isn’t helping number one any, “and Three,” I really want to fix problem one and two; I wish I could at least see something other than black.
The world suddenly lit up; well that solved my first problem. It seems I hadn’t really gone blind, I had just been in a very dark room. While I was glad that I wasn’t blind, this still left me with my second problem; all I knew was that I was now in an endless room of bright light, rather than one that was black.
I took a second look around; I still could only see the color white throughout the room, but something a little strange appeared in the corner of my eye. I turned towards it, if I looked really hard I could see a very small black spot; I was honestly surprised that I had first seen it out of the corner of my eye, it was just that small. I had no idea what it was, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look at it. Maybe it would be a way out of here.
I began to trot towards it; the closer I got to it, the less likely it seemed that it would get me out of here and the more it seemed like it might become a problem. It looked much less like a dot now and looked much more like some form of animal. It stood on two legs and from this seemed to be near my own height. It appeared to be wearing something similar to a black operatic suit. I personally think that it was a rather odd choice of clothing to wear in a setting like this, perhaps it had been on its way to some kind of event? I couldn’t see what its face looked like because it was facing away from me looking at a diamond that it held in its claw-like hands.
I couldn’t help feeling that it looked familiar to something that I had seen before, but what? Where did I know it from? I racked my brain; I knew I had learned about it somewhere and I was sure that if I thought about it for a bit I’d remember.
Oh right that was where I knew it from! It was from-
A popping sound from behind me startled, breaking my thoughts from reaching their conclusion; I turned around to see what had made the sound, it could be dangerous. However what I saw was far more startling than the sound had been.
“Welcome class to Extinct Creatures that are Still Avoided 102. Once again I am your teacher Dodgem, today we will be learning about Body Snatchers.” It was one of my memories, but I’d never seen one of them like this; they’d always been in my head, not out where anyone could see it.
The familiar green Earth Pony pointed towards a board upon which was a picture of the creature I had just been looking at. You know it was rather strange that the creature was completely ignoring what was happening over here; Dodgem’s voice had never exactly been the softest in the world, actually he was rather loud. Perhaps it was just so engrossed in that diamond? It was a thought anyway, but I wasn’t going to trust it; especially when I now knew what it was, a Body Snatcher.
I turned my attention back towards the memory. It was nice how these memories of my lessons always seemed to come at exactly the right time, giving me the answer I needed to deal with the current problem I was having; they were almost like a plot device. However, I know for a fact that this is not a story and there is no way that it is one of those; it is just my kind of coincidental luck. Dodgem’s lessons had always been invaluable for me; if I ever run into his descendants I owe them one of the biggest thank you I could give them.
“Now does anyone know what these creatures do?” Apparently my memories would pause while I was in thought; that was rather useful.
For once it seemed that I would be the one to know the answer instead of Diamond; although considering that I’m currently several years older than Diamond is in this memory this memory that didn’t mean much.
“It’s a creature that lacks a true body of its own and instead leaps into the bodies of others in order to survive; they require the bioelectric energy of ponies. Due to their parasitic nature it was decided that they were a danger to Ponykind and their extermination was warranted. This led to the eradication act passing through congress and ultimately being signed into law by Luna. Today, as far as ponies know, Body Snatchers have been exterminated from existence.” Of course the fact that my younger self knew the answer makes me feel better about knowing it now. I remember learning all about those creatures because my teacher had been the one to sign that extermination into law; I had been rather curious as to why the law had been needed.
That was before I had seen the pictures of what those parasites did. They forced themselves into their hosts; gestating inside of them until they became fully grown, feeding off the host’s energy. Eventually they would burst free from the pony, leaving them a shell of the pony they had been before. Afterwards, they would begin the process again in a new pony. Their extermination had been required; Ponykind would have been destroyed if they had been left to continue. Still, it hadn’t been a decision made lightly.
“That is absolutely correct,” Dodgem smiled at my younger self, “the only information you failed to mention was how we were able to remove them from a Pony’s body without killing the host.” He looked toward Diamond, “Do you know the answer Diamond?” I don’t think I had ever learned that particular piece of information; I suppose it just hadn’t been in the book I’d read on the subject or maybe I just hadn’t been able to get past the pictures. I had been much younger when I had read that book and much more easily scared by gory imaged.
“Of course, the way to defeat a body snatcher is-” The memory faded from view, Diamond’s voice fading out before I could hear the final piece of vital information. Well that was just great, for the first time my memory had a failed me and right when I could have used it most.
Honestly I couldn’t help feeling a little angry about this; not only did I miss out on what would be very vital information, but I didn’t even have anypony to vent it to.
“Luna, do you think you’ll be able to help him?” I looked up shocked, that was Twilight’s voice. I turned around again to face towards the voice, seemingly while I had been focused on the memory in front of me, a portal had appeared behind me. Its silver surface shined brightly with Luna’s image. What was going on here? This didn’t make much sense. I’ve been saying that too often today.
“C’mon you have to help him; he’s trapped in there!” This voice was new; the only thing I could recognize about it was the gender, female. I wonder what she meant by trapped; I realize that I don’t know where I am, but I can still move around freely. Unless this is really a very large cage and I’m trapped inside of it; which I suppose is technically possible, but it doesn’t feel quite that way. It also doesn’t explain why I can see my memories; I’d never heard of a magic that can project memories like this, just ones that could show other people memories through direct contact.
“What do you mean little one?” Celestia was there too and she wasn’t attacking Luna? Why was she there and why did she sound so much nicer than she usually did? This was starting to get annoying. I’m in a white room listening in on a conversation that is happening somewhere, I don’t even know where I am, and a Body Snatcher is muttering to itself in the corner looking at a sun shaped diamond. Which reminded me that I really needed to get rid of the creature, it was a danger to all ponykind; not to mention myself.
“I don’t know how I know this, but he’s trapped in there!” The new voice snapped me out of my thoughts; I could hear the concern flowing through her voice, whoever it was obviously cared for me. While I enjoyed the feeling; I wish I knew who it was.
“He’s trapped in his own head? Yeah right, that doesn’t make any sense.” I don’t want to contradict Rainbow, but that explanation actually made perfect sense; which was nice because nothing else did. I mean it would explain all the weird phenomena that have been occurring to me since I arrived here. The way my wishing for light brought it into existence, how I could see my own memories in real time, and that countdown from earlier. It was my mind so I could make things happen in it; well unless this turned out to be my unconscious, you can’t really control you’re unconscious. If it was my unconscious, things would be slightly more difficult to deal with.
The first thing I was going to try was simply willing myself out of here. I concentrated on being back in my real world body… Nothing happened…
I heard the sound of a record scratching to a halt. This was not good; I was trapped in my own mind with a being known to kill its host’s when it was done with them. I needed to find out why I couldn’t just will myself out of here; maybe it was because of the Body Snatcher that’s in here with me? That would make the most sense; my unconscious mind wouldn’t be willing to leave such a dangerous creature alone in here, who knows what he could do without oversight.
“Hmm maybe if I just crack this thing I’d be able to take over? Nothing else seems to be working.” I could hear the Body Snatcher muttering, even at this distance I could hear it like it was standing right next to me. Which fits my theory; it is my mind, I would be able to hear anything that was said within it.
This sound revelation was interrupted by a feeling of intense pain; it felt almost like somepony was squeezing a vice on my head; it was unbearable. Whatever that Body Snatcher was squeezing was causing this pain; I don’t know how I knew it, but I did and I needed to stop him from destroying it.
I tried lifting a hoof, aghhhh… I thought the pain had been bad before, but even trying to move increased the pain tenfold. I needed a better plan; maybe magic? I began to push a tiny amount into my horn, but that brought on stronger pain; not as bad as when I’d tried to move, but enough to keep me from actually using it.
“Luna! He’s in pain we have to help him!” I guess that portal was still open; I could hear Twilight yelling through it.
“Well at least I can try to make amends for what happened to him this way.” Celestia was being nice to me? I still don’t understand it; she had never been that nice to me before. Either way I was glad that she decided to help, I could feel the pain beginning to lesson greatly; at the very least I would be able to move. For how long I was unsure; so I’d need to make it count.
The first thing I’d need to do is stop the main source of this agony, the Body Snatcher. I didn’t know how much longer I had before whatever Celestia had done ran out, so I’d need to take advantage of it quickly. For once there would be no planning, just action.
I galloped towards the creature, which still seemed to be ignoring me; I suppose all of its focus was still on that diamond. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it because it let me knock him to the ground and the diamond straight out of his claws.
The gem flew through the air and landed on the ‘ground’ before fading to become part of the white background. It didn’t make much sense, I’m thinking this way too often since I got here, but it was my mind. I suppose it didn’t really need to make sense.
“What is this?!” It seemed surprised by my intrusion, I wonder why that was. I mean this is my mind; of course I’m going to be able to be here.
He looked towards me, his face looked like a white mask with a small black goatee; reminded me of those ponies I used to see in old plays, the ones playing the villians. I’ll never understand how a black goatee indicated evil; my uncle was a philanthropist and had used his magic to grow one.
“Oh my… this is new. An anthormorphic representation of the being that I am trying to take over is actually within its own consciousness. Well now isn’t this interesting.” It rubbed its, for a lack of a better word, chin, “I wonder what it could mean?”
I stared it straight in the eye, “It means that you need to get out.” Unfortunately, it seemed less than intimidated by my statement and instead began to laugh.
“You think that something as insignificant as you can tell me what to do! Me! One who is as ancient as the Alicorns themselves! You DARE TO TRY AND COMMAND ME AFTER IT WAS YOUR FAULT THAT I WAS KICKED OUT OF MY OLD HOST! I ALMOST HAD COMPLETE CONTROL OF HER AND EVEN HER SISTER! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK IT TAKES TO GAIN CONTROL OF ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL BEINGS IN THE WORLD, AN ALICORN NO LESS?! NO I’M SURE YOU DON’T; IT’S HARD! I HAD SPENT ALMOST TWO THOUSAND YEARS TRYING TO CORRUPT HER! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE REVIVAL OF THE BODY SNATCHERS!” Honestly, I’m wondering if I should believe him about his age, his maturity sure doesn’t match up to it. I mean it sounds to me like he was whining about failing due to someone else interfering; someone as old as that would likely just think up a new plan.
Well at least this answers a few questions from quite a long time back, I’m getting the strangest feeling that Celestia wasn’t in complete command of her faculties when she was doing a lot of the things she did, but since he seemed so willing to acquiesce to my questions, I’d use that to gain some time. I wonder if all villains do this sort of thing?
“In other words, you’re the one who sent Luna to the moon.” I had no idea if I was right or not, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Of course, one of my finest moments really. I not only got rid of possibly the only creature that could stop me, but I also managed to infect her! It took quite a while to even gain the partial control I had, but I lost that too! Why am I telling you all this anyway?” He appeared rather surprised that he was still answering; honestly, I think I knew the answer. It was my unconscious mind, the same one that controls my tail; I think. It would make perfect sense that it would be fighting back; buying me time is a pretty good way of doing that. I think I know the best way to use this to my advantage.
“So why are you telling me all this?” The most obvious question that always elicits a long monologue response from the villain in all the storybooks and since this was my mind that was likely where the inspiration for what’s happening came from.
“WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS! Wait, why am I telling you all this?” It moved its claw to his goatee and began to stroke it, “I mean I want to take over your body; it really doesn’t make much sense to tell you all about my past and plans. I need to think about this.” Okay… him have an introspective moment was not what I had in mind, but it’ll work. I may not have long, but this should give me enough time to come up with decent plan.
I really wish that memory had finished playing; I could have found out how to finish this creature off, but there was no use crying over spilt hay. I’d need a way to get it out of here and regain control of my body. The one thing I do remember about the removal of these creatures is that if you can get it out of your body then that particular Body Snatcher can’t get back in; which was the only reason Ponykind could exterminate them. If they could have jumped from body to body, they would have done so.
“An opening.” I heard the creature mutter to itself quietly; my tail pulled out to the left and I jumped to the right. His claw was in the ground where I had been standing; if my tail hadn’t warned me of that I would have been killed right then. This creature was much craftier than I had thought. Had all his speeches before been just an act? Was I fooling myself about my unconsciousness affecting him?
My tail twitched a second time, pulling to the right, I dodged again. I wasn’t going to get any extra time to plan this time was I. Maybe I should try to get it talking again? There wasn’t any real downside to trying.
“So you say that you’re nearly as old as the Alicorns; what exactly was that like?” It paused in its latest attack; I could see him straining to reach me, but it was obvious it couldn’t move. I suppose my gambit had been right, my mind was running on the Villian Monologue Rule. Which essentially meant that if you asked the villain a question they would need to answer you, they simply didn’t have a choice; it was in their contract.
“It was absolutely horrible. Do you know what it’s like to be the very first of your species? To be their king and yet to fail them horribly when it finally came down to it.” I didn’t answer, the longer he took to talk the more time I had to plan. I didn’t really bother to listen to anymore of his speech; it was likely slanted towards his own opinion and would end with some clichéd line about joining him. Just because he had to monologue didn’t mean that it would be useful or interesting. At least this time, it seemed he would actually be at it for a while; he’d take his time to finish answering that question.
Back to forming a plan, I really need a new idea about what I could do. I mean I could just try willing him out; it’s not like I have any better ideas right now. I concentrated on the thought of having it outside my mind, but of course it didn’t work. I didn’t really think it would; if it had been that easy they likely wouldn’t have needed to be exterminated.
So my backup plan, as always, is magic. The only problem is, like I said before, is that I’m not an attack specialists; I simply don’t know that many offensive spells. This means that I probably would be unable to simply kick him out of my body with an attack. Hopefully I can do something…
“Finally I’m done.” I hear the creature mutter to itself. That was far too short; I needed more time to figure out a plan. I once again feel my tail pulling to my right. I dodge to the left, opening my mouth to form a new question for him to monologue about.
“NOT THIS TIME BUCKO!” I feel its claw on my face; it beat my tail, how did it beat my tail? Nopony or creature has ever been able to beat my tail before and with his hand over my mouth I can’t form any questions to force him to monologue.
“mphm mphgmh mphhgh.” Nope, definitely couldn’t form a question with his hand over my mouth.
“NOT GOING TO WORK; I’M GOING TO WIN THIS!” I was right; I really couldn’t form the questions while its claw was covering my mouth. So the next option was magic. I really needed to hurry; I could feel the Body Snatcher’s dark energy trying to infest my mental body, which was actually worse than if it had been my physical body. My mental body was what controlled the physical body and was what made me who I am.
Ok, no more time for thinking; I needed to move into action again. I draw upon my well of magic, only to feel anything I draw drain into the creature’s claw. This could be a problem; I couldn’t do anything at all.
I could feel the Body Snatcher’s dark energy flowing faster into my mental body; it was becoming such a large amount that I could begin to see it as a dark aura surrounding my mental body and turning my mental landscape black. I continued to struggle, I couldn’t do much else; soon he would be in control of my body. I really needed some help; something I could exploit.
“What is that dark aura?” Twilight you’re a lifesaver and I love that candy.
“The Dark Aura is what appears when I’m about to take over the body of a pony; if I win than it completely covers them and they become my dark puppet, but if they win…” While the creature was distracted by his need to monologue I moved away from it. I owe Twilight something huge for that; I would be in a really big bind if she hadn’t spoken.
I was quite far away from the creature now; I was not going to let it grab me again. I could still feel the dark energy roiling inside me, if it grabbed me again it would likely completely fill me up with it and that would be all she wrote.
I tried to force some magic out of my horn again, but I didn’t even get a small spark, that thing had drained more energy from me than I cared to think about; I wouldn’t be able to cast a single spell without some more power. Wait…IDEA! A lit candle appeared hanging over my head; my unconscious mind needs newer gags.
I just needed to ask Twilight for her help; I’d just ask her to lend me some power. Unfortunately, this still left me with the task of somehow getting my real mouth to move; maybe if I concentrated, I could force the words out.
A claw filled my vision again; I guess it had decided to forgo his usual announcement that he had finished his monologue. This was going to make it much harder, not only did I have to concentrate with him holding onto me, but I also had even less time. I could again feel its energy trying to fill up my body; I really needed to hurry.
I ignored the feeling and focused on my mouth; I needed to move my real mouth, not this mental one. This would work; it needed to work.
“Tw..i..light…I...need…” I could hear my own voice coming from the portal; unfortunately it seems that the Body Snatcher could as well, the energy forced into me nearly doubled in intensity.
“Dawn! You’re okay!” I could hear the relief in Twilight’s voice, but couldn’t see her face because of the direction I was being held in, “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m trying to say that I need you to let me take over. I need to rebuild my people; it’s a necessity. Let me take your body for my own and I will let everyone else live…” I have no idea what it’s talking about, but I really don’t care. He was monologuing again, which meant that I could continue my little plan with a little more breathing room.
I back off farther this time; far enough that no matter how fast this creature is, it wouldn’t be able to reach me for at least a minute or so. I concentrated again on moving my real mouth; I needed to finish that request.
“you…to….le..nd…me…po…wer.” I could only hope that it was understandable, because I wasn’t going to get another chance; the Body Snatcher seemed to have learned from its past experiences and had gigantic earplugs in place this time; I guess mental manipulation is part of his abilities. If this hadn’t been such a dangerous moment, I likely would have started laughing at the sight.
Once again his claw was covering my mouth; if Twilight didn’t do what I asked than this was it. Its energy was flowing through me again; honestly it was getting rather annoying how many times this had happened. I could feel it almost completely filling me, only a second or so was left before it won.
“You can feel it can’t you; I’m almost done. I’ll have won and you’ll have lost. You’ll be my puppet for the rest of your life and when you’re gone I’ll just take over another Pony.” I guess Twilight hadn’t understood the message; I still didn’t feel any power coming in; I was really done for… I could feel my mental faculties…sl…ow..in..g… d…o..w…n… m..y... e..y…e…s… c…l…o…s…i…n…g
…
A……b…u…r…s…t……o…f…….l…i…g…h…t…
W…h…a…t…i…s…th..is…f..eel…ing…it… feels amazing. I’ve never felt this much power before in my life, it’s flowing all throughout my body; it’s absolutely incredible. It felt like I would be able to take down even a Dragon with this and those things could resist magic like noponies business.
I opened my eyes to see the most wonderful sight I had ever seen. Twilight was standing right next to me, her horn touching my own; we were so close that if I had moved even an inch we would be kissing; I could feel myself blushing from the proximity. I could only hope that the real me wasn’t also doing that; Luna would never let me live it down and would try to play matchmaker. Hmm… ok change that last thought, I could deal with Luna teasing me if she also played matchmaker.
A second burst of energy flowed through me, it was nothing compared to the sheer amount of power that Twilight was lending me though. I had to wonder where she had gotten such large reserves; they were almost as large as what I had felt from Luna. Even power Unicorns don’t usually have this much.
That was unimportant right now, what was important was taking down the Body Snatcher. I gathered up Twilight’s power and formed it into a cleansing matrix. This spell wasn’t used too often, but it would be just perfect for this situation. The sheer energy radiating off the spell was cleansing the dark energy that surrounded it before it was even cast; I’d never be able to do something like this on my own.
A bright flash went off. The mental landscape, which had been turning black from the dark energy flowing through it, had changed to a whitish-red color that most people call pink. I don’t know why it chose that color, but it didn’t matter; I would be able to kick this creature out now.
“What is this?! I’ve never felt anything like it before! This is nothing like that Alicorn’s trick with the dragon egg!” The creature had been blasted far away from us. I ignored it for the moment, at this point it didn’t matter. I needed to give thanks to Twilight for helping me before we could finish this. I don’t know why I felt that way, but I did.
“Thanks for coming Twilight.” I said looking her in the eyes, not that I would have had much choice anyway.
“You’re welcome,” she smiled at me, “Now how about we finish this creature off?” I gave her my own smile back. I began to charge up one of the few attack spells that I actually knew; an Aura Beam.
“STOP IGNORING ME! I’M THE IMPORTANT ONE HERE; I’M THE VILLIAN, THE HERO IS ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO FACE THE VILLIAN. NOT IGNORE HIM!” I heard what the creature was saying, but I didn’t really care about it. I continued to build up energy in my horn; Twilight’s power and my control combined making it the easiest spell I had ever cast.
The spell was almost blinding, but I kept my eyes open; aiming the spell directly at the creature. Its eyes were wide with fright, I ignored its expression; it had been the one to have my teacher sent to the moon,the one to place me in stone, and tried to take over my body to hurt others; it was going down. I felt a slight jolt of increased energy flowing through my horn at the thought; I ignored it, intense emotions had the chance of releasing extra energy sometimes.
The spell was finished, I fired.
A beam of the brightest pink light was released from Twilight and my horns. It filled my mental landscape, heading straight towards the creature; there was no way it could dodge the spell. It hit it straight on.
“No, nonononono; I will not be forced from a third pony in the same day!” Its face was a mask of anger and horror. The sheer power of the spell was forcing the Body Snatcher into the air, but couldn’t yet seem to force it out. I could see it slipping, its grasp on the ‘ground’ very weak; it probably didn’t help that my mind wanted it out. I felt elation; soon I would be back in the real world.
His eyes glinted and he gave a slight smile, “Fine keep your body, but if I’m going to lose I’m taking you down with me.” In one of its claws it held an hourglass shaped gemstone; where had he gotten that from? The feeling of elation that I was feeling diminished greatly at the sight; I didn’t know what it was, but I knew what it was bad for me.
“My revenge.” He threw the gem towards the ‘ground’, flying into the dark abyss after releasing it, “Mwhaha this is my vengeance, but this will not be the end of me. Believe iittttt.”
I ignored his words, he couldn’t do anymore damage, tracking the gem as it fell to the ground. Intellectually I knew that it would merely become a part of my mind’s room, just as the last one had, but somehow it was worrying me. Its descent seemed to have slowed to a crawl, my heart beat getting faster and faster as it fell. I didn’t even realize that I had begun to gallop towards the gem, but I could hear Twilight following me. I wasn’t fast enough; the gem hit the ground…and shattered.
Memories and emotions, I could feel them flowing through my mind; that was what had been inside the gem, the memories and emotions of my time locked in stone. Somepony or something had locked them all into that little gemstone of my mind; I just wish they had made it harder to break. Now that it had been released I was relieving all those memories and emotions all over again; all in a single instant. All those visits, all those deaths, every single moment, it was all perfectly crystalized. All this time those memories had been dulled, only now did I really feel everything that I had felt before.
I could hear someone yelling at me; asking me if I was alright. I wasn’t all right, I don’t think I’d be alright again for a long time. I can’t handle this...
Author's Notes: Well here it is, the sixth chapter. I hoped you enjoyed or will enjoy, depending if you just skipped the chapter and scrolled down here or not, having read or reading the story. Remember that Stars and Thumbs points up are great, but only feedback makes the story better, so please leave me some.
Finally a quick note, the first chapter has been changed slightly; it won't effect the plot, but you can read it if your interested.