Chapter 5
After the battle of Ponyville had ended and the Diamond Dogs had retreated, the royal guards had seen to cleaning up the mess left behind by the battle before leading the citizens back to their homes. Twilight had also volunteered to help them clean things up. Many of the guards protested this action, mostly the higher ups, saying that her safety was a top priority and that they should get her out of the area just in case there were any stragglers left behind, planning an ambush. The arguing kept going back and forth between Princess Twilight and General Wedge, with the alicorn becoming increasingly annoyed with the General’s stubbornness, which rivalled that of an earth pony.
After several minutes of back and forth, she finally decided to just end the discussion with a Princess’ Order. And that was it. As much as the General didn’t like so easily being beaten down by the purple pony, his hooves were tied; and besides, he certainly wasn’t going to publically argue with a Princess, so he relented.
With an annoyed look on his face, which he expertly managed to hide in the alicorn’s presence, using his years of experience in the royal guard for maintaining a stoic expression, General Wedge simply turned back around and continued tending to the needs of the town and his soldiers.
With the argument finally over, Twilight couldn’t help but smile in triumph for her little victory. Sure, she did kind of cheat by using royal authority to overrule a high ranking military leader, but a win was still a win.
Of course, the mere thought of the word ‘victory’ brought her mind back to the battle that they had just fought, and her subsequent thoughts and feelings on the matter.
As she continued doing her best to restore any damage done to her home town, her triumphant smile started to fade as she thought back to the battle, specifically the end of the battle and that mysterious entity in the mask and cloak. Based on his size and build, he obviously wasn’t a Diamond Dog. She found this strange, since so far, in any of the rebellions that had popped up, the different species had kept to themselves and worried only for their own interests, not even sparring thoughts about the other races well-being. Twilight suspected this was because the other races didn’t actually trust each other enough to work together. This had worked to the ponies advantage during the battles, since they had the magic of friendship, and every other species was fighting alone, and she knew from her own experiences – with her and her friends working together, as well as when Discord and Tirek teamed up – that that advantage always lead to victory.
Of course, this was perhaps why the Princesses had decided on their course of action that led into the battles in the first place. Celestia had seen how much the other races were greedy and only cared for themselves, and sought to help improve relations between everyone, uniting them all together.
Twilight didn’t really like the idea of fighting a war, as she had always tried to use diplomacy to sort out issues, and the amount that they had to fight back against them did worry her, not to mention that fighting a war to bring unity and peace did seem counterproductive, but if Celestia thought that this was the right course of action, then she did too. After all, the Princess always knew the best course of action to take. That, and she would never dare speak out against her former teacher – her outburst over her first bringing Discord’s statue to Ponyville prior to his reformation not withstanding – though the thoughts did linger in the back of her mind.
Shrugging it off for now, Twilight returned her focus to repairing the town.
---
After the battle had ended, Lelouch had retreated with the Diamond Dog’s to their base of operations: a series of underground tunnels, which lay just outside of Equestrian territory. The area hadn’t been annexed into the country yet, so they were managing to hold out for now, though that was only because the Equestrian forces were more focused with other territories at the moment. As soon as they were finished there, and they came for them, the way they are now, they didn’t stand much of a chance of successfully fighting them off.
Lelouch’s identity was still hidden behind his mask and cape. Standing before him right now were three Diamond Dogs. Rover was in the middle, to his left was a tall Diamond Dog with blue fur and abnormally long arms, and to his right, in contrast to the one on the left, was a short diamond dog, with brown fur, who only came up to the former human’s chin. He had learned upon arriving that these three were the Diamond Dog’s commanders.
Once they were all gathered, Rover was the first one to speak up. “Alright Zero,” he began, addressing Lelouch, with a slight snarl in his voice, showing his disdain. “We did as you said and pulled our forces back.” He then crossed his arms and glared down at him. “And now the invasion that we’ve been planning for months has all been for nothing.” He hardened his glare. “So, was it worth it?”
“Of course it was.” Lelouch responded immediately, in a completely calm tone of voice. “Had you stayed and fought, you would have been overwhelmed. You placed too much faith in your magical pulse bombs, and once your enemies worked around that, you quickly fell to the superior numbers and tactics. You can’t just put all your hopes on one saving grace, or else you’ll have nothing left when the enemy finds a way around it. Case in point: what happened tonight.”
“We still could have won.” The tall Diamond Dog interjected.
“And gotten yourselves killed in the process.” Lelouch retorted. “What’s the point of fighting back if you die doing it. Choosing to die is something only an idiot does.”
This made the tall Diamond Dog step back.
“Calm down, Fido,” Rover said to the Diamond dog at his side, though still with his arms crossed and his gaze locked on the masked figure in front of him.
Lelouch took a moment to compose himself before speaking again. “As I said before, my name is Zero. I am working to bring down Equestria and restore the lands of everybody that was taken. To accomplish this, everyone will need to stand together and fight back against a common enemy. If you remain divided, you’ll only make it easier for the ponies to pick you all off one by one. I can help you with that.”
“And how do we know we can trust you?!” Rover barked back at him. “You’re obviously not a Diamond Dog. For all we know, you could be a pony trying to deceive us. Before we proceed, how about you give us a reason to trust you.”
“Very well, I shall.” Lelouch responded immediately, with a wave of his hoof, really hamming it up. “However, instead of showing you my identity, instead bear witness to my power. I will successfully capture Ponyville for you.” With that, he then turned around and started walking out of the room.
Seeing him leave, Fido straightened up in his stance. While he did find it a bit arrogant for him to just turn around on them like that, instead of reacting to that, he instead inquired about the last thing that the masked figure said. “And just how are you going to do that?” He wondered, with an eyebrow raised.
As Lelouch was walking along, he suddenly stopped when he heard their question. “Simple,” he started. “I’m going to give you the one thing that you desperately need right now.” He then turned his head to the side so that he was facing them. “Friends.” With that final word, he turned back around again and walked away.
As Lelouch left, he grinned devilishly to himself beneath his helmet. “Let’s just see how these ponies react when the Magic of Friendship is used against them.” He then turned a corner up ahead, leading out of the room, into an adjacent tunnel.
Once Lelouch had turned the corner of the vast underground base, had walked far enough away from the main chamber, and was confident that there was no one else around, he lifted his hoof up to his face, touching his mask as the piece of headgear disengaged, pulling it off. Placing his helmet down on the ground, he then reach back under his cloak and pulled out the headset that he got from Gryphallia. Putting the headset around his head, he then started twisting the controls, trying to find the griffon’s radio frequency.
As he was turning the dials on the side of his headset, he suddenly heard a whirring sound, signalling that he had found the right frequency. Putting a strong expression on his face, Lelouch then got ready to speak. “Hey, Gilda,” he started, in a quiet tone of voice. “It’s Zero. Are you there?”
When he had stopped speaking, he didn’t hear a reply right away, and the underground tunnels were completely silent. Several seconds ticked on, but to Lelouch, they seemed like hours. After what was only ten seconds, his expression started to dip.
“I’m here.” He suddenly heard a response from a familiar voice. Gilda then seemed to stop for a moment to think about something. “Are you in Equestria, right now?” She asked.
Lelouch guessed that Gilda still suspected that the pony she met might be Zero. Lelouch, however, just smirked to himself because he could now throw her off his tail even more. “No, I’m not. I’m with the Diamond Dogs right now.” There was another pause from Gilda’s end, though this one was clearly from surprise, rather than mistrust. After a moment, he continued speaking. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. First off, how are things going on your end to convince the other griffons to fight back openly against Equestria?”
Lelouch could practically hear the grin form on her face as she spoke. “Well, Black Hawk is all for it and he’s got a lot of pull with the rest of the Talons. Between the two of us, we’ve got almost all of the Talons on board, and with our latest victory, we’ve even got more griffons signing up with us.” There was again another short pause before the griffon continued. “Why do you ask? What are you planning?”
Lelouch grinned before responding. “I’ve already got a new plan in the making. If it works, we’ll not only show these ponies that we mean business, but we’ll also be able to capture land inside of Equestria.”
“Wh-what?” Gilda stuttered, barely believing what he said. “Zero, I know that I said I was on board and all, and that last victory was pretty sweet, but we’re still only holding out and barely at that. Capturing land inside Equestria seems a little too hopeful right now, don’t you think?”
“Not at all,” Lelouch replied without missing a beat. “With my plan, it should be simple once you have just one thing.”
“…and what’s that?”
Lelouch grinned. “Friends.”
---
Hours later in Ponyville, after the guards had cleaned up the town – at least removing enough of the rubble to prevent any accidents to its inhabitants – the citizens of Ponyville were lead back to their homes. After an eventful day like this, everypony just wanted to go to bed and forget what happened and relax.
Everypony that is… except for one.
It was the middle of the night, and the Moon shone high in the sky, the light shining from it poured down on the sleeping town below. Due to the news of the battle in Ponyville, and all of the damage caused, Princess Luna had been too busy dealing with any nightmares that the ponies had after that last attack to bring out the stars that night. However, the full moon still provided more than enough light to illuminate the night sky.
Streaks of moonlight passed through the window pane of the Sugarcube Corner lobby. There, Pinkie Pie sat on a stool beside the counter, facing outwards, towards the main area of the lobby. The light from the moon, passing through and distorted slightly by the window ended right in front of her. The pink party pony sat in darkness, with a sorrowful look on her face, and in complete silence.
As Pinkie sat on the stool, staring at the beams of light on the floor in front of here, she suddenly put on a stronger expression and lifted her head up. “I can do this.” She thought to herself. She then opened her mouth to speak. “My name is Pinkie.” “Fydhfjkmtreydshfjfkryetursydfhgjreurd.”
Pulling her head back, looking sad for a moment, she then put on her strong expression again, though it was obvious that she was struggling to do so. “I can do this. My name is Pinkie.” She then opened her mouth to speak again. “Vjkhjhfvjmdfdnmgtfrdsgxhdngx.”
She was now starting to get upset, and despair was beginning to seep in. Somehow she couldn’t talk anymore, all of her friends thought that it was just a prank, and she was unable to tell them the truth. She was now losing her friends and she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t even giggle at the ‘cursie’ to make it go away. Getting angry at this thought, Pinkie Pie furrowed her eyebrows, puffed up her face, and resolved to just try harder to try and beat whatever happened to her.
“My name is Pinkie!” She thought hard in her mind. “Hkjdfjdsfghdjsdxhndfhdjfdkjsxhfd.” Not letting her failure get to her, she just continued. “My name is Pinkie.” “Cfkhjchnmvgkfdsgxcvnfmjdsxgcvnf.” “My name is Pinkie.” “Uyturydgfxhnfkjresydfhjfkridsyxfh.” She was now getting more irritated. “My name is Pinkie!” “Hjdfhgfngtkfdgszcxbvnmghfkdsgzxc!” She then squeezed her eyes shut tightly, faced her head down at the ground and screamed as loud as she could, forgetting about the Cake’s, who were asleep upstairs. “Tydtsfdgfnktjdrsdtgxhfjrsdgfxjusdtg!” “Jkhuydgsbfngmkhtydfgxfjrdf!”
A few seconds later, after her anger had subsided a little, now all that was left was despair. She was now panting hard, having run out of breath after all her shouting, and with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Being out of ideas of what she could do, she simply hung her head low, squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and cried freely.
“I can sense the residual energy from this place.”
Pinkie’s eyes suddenly widened and her head shot up in surprise as she heard a voice from nearby. With a look of confusion on her face, and her tears having stopped from the surprise, she turned her head to the side, and she was able to spot another pony in the room with here, in the corner, half visible, half concealed by the shadows. The light pouring into the room only showed half of their body, revealing their features. It was a mare, around her own size, with a pure white coat, and a long, silky, lime green mane. Her cutie mark Pinkie found confusing, but also familiar. It was a red, bird-shaped symbol, which she recognised as the one that also belonged to that ‘Lelouch’ pony she met earlier. However, unlike the male earth pony, this female pony had two of the symbols on either side of her flank, overlapping each other. Another thing Pinkie found strange was that this pony was also an alicorn; however, the thing which Pinkie found most confusing was that she was somepony that she had never met before and failed to notice that she was there. The first thought that came to her was, “I really have lost my touch.” She slumped slightly at this thought, however, she then quickly returned her attention to the alicorn in the room with her.
“The Geass has been used here,” the alicorn mare finished as she stepped out of the shadows, towards the pink earth pony, revealing herself completely. She spoke in a monotone, almost emotionless tone of voice, with a matching expression on her face.
As the strange alicorn continued to approach the pink party pony, she then stopped a few feet in front of her. Neither pony said anything for several seconds as they both simply stared back at each other. The alicorn was waiting for some – any – response from this pony, while Pinkie Pie was still confused as to who exactly this pony was and what was going on.
As the two mares continued to simply stare back at each other in silence, the alicorn suddenly shifted her expression slightly, showing that she was running out of patience. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything? I can’t imagine that someone suddenly appearing in their home is normal in any world.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened just a little bit for just a second at that remark. She then looked down at the ground again, dejected. The alicorn tilted her head to the side a bit and raised her eyebrow in response to this. After another moment of silence, Pinkie slowly raised her head again and gently said, “Hgfgnmgkfdghgmhdfgxcfgcxcvg,” with a solemn look on her face. She then looked away again.
The alicorn’s expression suddenly shifted to real surprise when she heard the sound Pinkie made when she tried to speak, as if it was familiar to her. Pinkie noticed this and looked up at her again, but the alicorn simply turned to the side and raised her hoof up to her mouth in thought. “Hmmm, I didn’t think he’d use that one again.” She then turned her head back towards Pinkie Pie and smiled strangely at her. “You must have really annoyed him to make him go that far,” she added, with a slight smirk.
Pinkie Pie didn’t know how to respond to that statement, but she certainly felt angry, and she glared back at the alicorn in response.
Either not noticing or not caring about the look that the pink pony was shooting her, the alicorn mare continued. “Listen, I’ll just get right to it; I need your help. You see, I’m trying to find someone. I was able to track him to this world, but somehow, I am unable to pinpoint his exact location. I cannot find him on my own, but if you help me, then I can help you as well.”
Pinkie gave the alicorn a strange look, not understanding what she was talking about, the irony lost on her. “Hjfgkfghngjedsgbnbjfdxjgfgdh.” She said, but quickly shut her mouth again. Realising quickly that she wouldn’t be able to understand anything that she said, Pinkie instead simply gave her a look as if to say, ‘What do you mean?’
Seeing this look and guessing what she meant by it, she elaborated. “Let’s just say that I had a contract with him, and now that’s over, it’s time that he returned what I gave him.” Their contract was only supposed to last until one of them died. Since Lelouch had died, yet somehow come to another world, it was only right that she take back the power she gave him. She had already seen what happened when she just forgot about those whom she had given Geass powers to. Ironic, that Lelouch was the one who had pointed that out to her.
Turning back towards Pinkie again, she then held her hoof out towards her. “Will you accept my contract?”
Staring back at the alicorn’s outstretched hoof, thinking over everything that she had said to her, there was still a lot about it that she didn’t understand. However, she also said that she could help her with her speech problems. Pinkie had never heard of this pony, but if she was an alicorn like Twilight, then she must be really powerful, and when she spoke, she sounded so certain that she could help her. Right now, Pinkie was going through one of the roughest moments of her life, and if this pony really could help her, then she would take it. Besides, Pinkie always saw the good in everypony, and if she didn’t now, then she really would be losing herself.
Righting herself into a strong look of determination, she held out her own hoof to meet the alicorns. As soon as she did and grabbed hold of her, she suddenly felt as if a powerful force was rushing from her hoof all throughout her body. The feeling wasn’t so much painful as unexpected, which made Pinkie shut her eyes tightly in response. A moment later, she opened her eyes again, and when she did, she noticed a strange moving symbol taking up most of her vision.
For Pinkie Pie, there was only one response to something like this.
“Haha, look at the birdie.” She thought as the bird-shaped Geass symbol flashed in her right eye briefly before disappearing, her eye returning to normal. She then smiled her first real smile ever since Lelouch had used his Geass on her.
“This power will allow you to speak telepathically with those around you,” the alicorn spoke up again. “It will also allow to whisper thoughts into their subconscious to discreetly edge them towards doing what you want. Of course, the latter won’t work on me, but it will allow us to communicate more effectively. Your range is five hundred metres.” She finished explaining.
Turning back to face the alicorn again, now with a happy smile on her face, her right eye then suddenly flashed with the Geass symbol again. “Can you hear me now?” She thought at the alicorn.
“Yes, I can,” the white alicorn responded, nodding her head in affirmation.
Pinkie then closed her eyes and beamed. “Oh, this is so cool!” She mentally squeed. Opening her eyes again, she then thought, “Hey, what number am I thinking of?”
The alicorn mare didn’t say anything in response this time; she simply stood there in silence. After a moment, Pinkie then dropped her smile and looked confused again. “What’s wrong?” She thought at her.
After another five seconds of awkward silence, the alicorn suddenly spoke up again, to clarify something. “If you wish to speak with me, you have to activate your Geass every time.” She said, while pointing to her eye. Lowering her hoof again, she then added, “And make sure to turn it off when you’re not using it and only use when you have to. If you overuse your Geass…” She paused, as if she were thinking something over. “Well, let’s just say that that would be bad.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened at this revelation. She then mentally made a note to only use her Geass when she absolutely had to. Then she double checked that she hadn’t had her Geass active when she thought that. She slumped a little when she realised that this meant that she wouldn’t be able to use her power to speak to her friends whenever she wanted to, but she then perked up again. She was still grateful towards this alicorn mare for the gift, and was happy that she would be able to help her new friend.
She then suddenly thought of something. Activating her Geass, she looked at the alicorn mare again and thought, “That reminds me, what’s your name?”
“My name is C.C.” She responded simply.
Pinkie Pie thought for a moment about how strange that name sounded, making sure that her Geass was off when she did. She then quickly brushed it off when she realised that she was from another world, and that in her world, Pinkie Pie would probably be a strange name.
Returning her attention to C.C., smiling as she did, she activated her Geass again, deciding that this was important enough. “So, now that we’re friends, can I throw you a welcoming party before we go look for your other friend?”
“No.” C.C. said immediately, raising her hoof up to stop her from continuing. “I need to make sure not to bring any unnecessary attention to myself while I’m here. I have you to help me. That will be enough.” After a moment of silence, but before Pinkie could interject, C.C. then added, “Also, don’t tell anyone else about your Geass. The less who know about it, the better.” She then turned her head to the side. “I’ve seen the kind of harm it can do in the long run, so I need to keep it contained as much as possible from now on.” She then thought to herself about how she may have to either kill Pinkie or take her power back after all this is over.
Turning back to face the pink pony again, she saw that she had an understanding smile on her face, and nodded in affirmation. Seeing this, caused the witch-turned-pony to smile as well, slightly.
After yet another moment of silence, but not an awkward one this time, Pinkie activated her Geass and asked, “So, you said that you need my help to find somepony. What’s his name?”
With a straight look on her face, C.C. simply responded with, “Lelouch Vi Britannia.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened immediately.
To be continued…