Changing Odds

by Melody Brush

Ch. 1-4: Sunrise

Part One
Summer Nightmares

Chapter Four
Sunrise

What was supposed to be a beautiful clear blue sky for the longest day of the thousandth year since the first celebration was a bitter, cold, menacing night with no moon. Zuro, Jet, and Angel gave up on trying to fly through the thick trees, vines and leaves of the dangerous forest and settled with walking on the ground until they came across areas clear, and open enough to use their wings.

Soon they came up to a cliff on the side of a mountain that collapsed just recently.

"Well, we can't go any farther." Jet said. "Back to Ponyville?"

"Not so fast, scardy pony." Zuro stated as he looked down the cliff side.

"Don't tell me..." Jet replied. Zuro looked back at them with a smile on his face. "C'mon, Guard!"

"We have to keep going." Zuro stated. "It's not like we'll get stuck down there, anyway."

"Guard, not that I don't think you can save my life and all, but I think going into the heart of the most dangerous place in Equestria is to much, even for you."

"There are worse places to be then a deep, dark forest." Zuro countered.

"I find that hard to believe." Jet said.

"Jet, Twilight is down there. We have to help her."

"How do you know she's gone this way?"

"Oh, for Celestia's sake!" Angel cried as she bolted between the two stallions and ran for the cliff. As she approached she flapped her wings to add to her jump and dove off the edge.

"Angel!!" The two stallions cried in unison as they took off after her. They stopped at the edge, knocking a few loose pebbles from their resting places and sending them down the side of the mountain. At the bottom of the canyon was Angel staring up at them with a smirk on her face.

"You boys coming, or what?" She asked.

Zuro could not help but let out a laugh as he shook his head before turning to his best friend, who smirked back at him.

"That's my cousin for ya." Jet said.

"Yeah, and I like her." Zuro chuckled.

"I knew you would." Jet replied.

"I'm waiting!" Angel sing-songed from down the canyon. The two let out another chuckle before jumping down after the mare.

~~)oOo(~~

Vitam flew at top speed with his mind locked on one thing, and one thing alone. He never stopped, or took the time to absorb any love energy from any creature that he came across. There was only one thing that mattered to him now. He had to get to his sun. He had to make sure his oldest child was alive and well.

It did not take him too long to reach the forest and follow a familiar path he had been using at least once every week for the last to years to see his son. Any wild animals he flew by he ignored and did what he could to loose them without going to far out of his way. He found the best way to loose these beasts was to fly above the trees where they could not follow him. Eventually he decided to just stay above the trees so he had a clear shot to that pony town.

He finally reached his destination at the small town were he found the townsponies panicking in the streets, screaming about the missing princess and a new alicorn. He landed in the middle of the street and tried in vain to get at least one of the ponies attention. Eventually out of frustration, he snatched a random pony in their panic and held him in place.

"Calm down and talk to me!" Vitam ordered. The pony looked at Vitam with fear present in his eyes. "What happened here?"

"Are you crazy?!" The pony asked.

"I'm from out of town and just now came in." Vitam explained, a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Princess Celestia was supposed to show up to raise the sun, but that 'Nightmare Moon' appeared in her place saying it would be night time forever!" The pony explained. Upon hearing the name Nightmare Moon Vitam blinked. When he regained himself he found the pony had slipped out of his hold and ran off.

Nightmare Moon? He asked himself. That's not possible. She was destroyed a thousand years ago! His mind explored the name for a moment before his son appeared in his vision again and he remembered the reason he came he to town in the first place.

He looked for another pony to question about where he could find his son, knowing he would not be at his home for something like this, even if Vitam and his wife begged, pleaded, and tied their son to a thick stone pillar with chains after sending him a week without love.

Vitam found a couple of random ponies locked in each others forelegs, a yellow unicorn stallion and a green earth pony mare, the levels of love between them strong, pure, and true, especially with this being what possibly could be their last moments. He ran up to them and stopped short to make sure he did not frighten them any more then they already were.

"Excuse me." Vitam called. The stallion looked up at the new pegasus with a look of frightened sadness. "I'm from out of town, and I'm looking for my son who lives here. He's a blue pegasus, have you seen him?" The stallion looked as though he needed more information before he could answer.

"That description could fit any number of the pegasi in Ponyville." He said.

"He told me that the townsponies call him, Guardian...?" Vitam stated, hoping that would spark something. It worked. The mare in the stallion's forelegs poked her head from her lovers chest and looked up at Vitam.

"Guardian?" She asked. Vitam nodded. "I've heard some ponies saying they saw him and two other pegasi running into the forest."

"The Everfree Forest?" Vitam asked. The mare nodded her head in response. Without another word, Vitam turned around and flew towards the trees of the Everfree Forest.

~~)oOo(~~

Zuro and his friends were now on a trail that had fresh pony tracks and surrounded by trees that Zuro could swear had snarling faces. Jet was more on edge surrounded by these trees then he was before the cliff side. He had his gaze off in the distance until he turned forward and let out a yelp. Zuro, and Angel looked back to find the red stallion standing frozen in place, staring at a random tree with his jaw to his chest. Jet's eye darted between the tree and his friends and shook himself back to a semi-calm state.

"I, uh... ehem, thought it was a monster." He said. Zuro, and Angel both shook their heads and laughed. "What?!"

"Oh, nothing." Angel answered.

"Then, why are you laughing?" Jet asked.

"Jet, a rough and tough, hot headed pegasus stallion," Zuro described, "is afraid of a little old tree!" He and Angel both burst into laughter at this. After a while of laughing and complaining between the three pegasi before they continued on through the forest.

The three traversed through the forest for several minutes before coming up to a wide river stream along the way. They stood at the edge of the river, staring down into the water as if puzzling if it was safe to even try and fly over. Angel kicked a pebble in the stream. Soon she regretted the action.

The water began to stir and come to life and they backed away, keeping their eyes locked on the river until a large, purple sea serpent with stylish orange hair and a mustache that was curly and purple on one side stretched out of the water. The three pegasi let out a scream at the site of the serpent, who turned to face them and let out a scream himself.

"Oh, you three scared me!" The serpent said after they all stopped.

"We scared you?!" Jet asked.

"Jet!" Zuro hissed. He turned to face the serpent with a smile. "I do apologies, my good sir. You gave us a bit of a scare as well."

"Well, aren't you the nice one." The serpent said with a smile.

"Excuse us," Zuro called, "but some friends of ours came in this forest not too long ago. Did they happen to come through here? One was a lavender unicorn."

"Oh, yes they did. That wonderful alabaster mare with the fabulous purple mane sacrificed her tail to save my beloved mustache." He pointed a claw to the purple half of his mustache.

"That would explain why his mustache is two colors." Angel said. "Very stylish." She added when she noticed the serpent's reaction to her words.

"Oh, thank you very much, miss." The serpent replied.

"Well, c'mon guys." Zuro said as he started to fly over the river. "We gotta keep going."

"You're not giving up on this, are ya?" Jet asked.

"You know him better then most, Jet." Angel stated. Jet let out a groan and the two took off after Zuro over the river.

"Best of luck you three." The serpent said as he waved to them. They all thanked him and continued on.

~~)oOo(~~

Vitam ran on the ground where he could not fly and followed a fresh trail of hoofprints in the ground. He followed the trail to a cliff, and when he saw no more hoofprints he dove off the edge where he found more tracks at the canyon floor and followed them on through a brush of trees. After a several minutes of traversing the thick trees he came up to a river and started to fly over it until he saw a purple sea serpent admiring his mustache. The serpent looked up to see the new brown pegasus coming up and smiled.

"Wow, so many ponies coming through here tonight." he said.

"Others came through here?" Vitam asked.

"Oh yes. First there was that lovely alabaster mare who saved my mustache with her five friends, then there was the three pegasi."

"Was one of the three pegasi blue with black mane and tail?" Vitam asked.

"Oh yes. He had good manners, that young gentlecolt." The serpent replied.

"Where'd he go? He's my son and I need to find him." Zuro said.

"That young stallion was your son? Oh, you raised him well!" The serpent mused. "He and his friends went by here only minutes ago."

"Thank you very much sir." Vitam said as he took off over the river.

"My pleasure." The serpent replied.

Vitam continued on through a fog that gradually increased as he went on. Soon the fog cleared and he came up to a canyon with on old bridge connecting this side with the other. In the distance he could see a large castle that was hundreds of years old and falling apart. The windows were all shattered and there were cracks visible all over the walls and statues.

Vitam looked and thought he saw the last of a fading light in one of the towers and bolted for the castle doors. Inside he found three pegasi, one blue stallion, a red stallion, and a bright blue mare. They all turned to see him barging in and Zuro smiled at him.

"Dad!" He called as the two bolted for each other and wrapped their forelegs around the other's neck.

"Zuro, are you okay?" Vitam asked.

"I'm fine, dad." Zuro replied.

"Zuro, aren't you going to introduce me to your father?" Angel asked.

"Dad, this is Angel. Angel, dad," Zuro briefly and quickly said as he gestured to on and the other. "Now we need to get going."

"Whoa, whoa, slow done son." Vitam called.

"We don't have time dad. We need to help Twilight!" Zuro said.

"Who's Twilight?" Vitam asked. Zuro was about to answer when the room was filled with a warm and welcoming light.

"The sun!" Jet exclaimed.

Zuro was already on the move. He bolted to a hallway, the others followed after him. They all ran and flew through the corridors of the ruins until they heard a familiar voice. "Hey! Y'know what this calls for?" The four pegasi came running into an old chamber where they found Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all standing together with two other ponies Zuro had never seen, but he knew one of them. Princess Celestia was hugging another alicorn who was a shade of blue.

"A party!" Pinkie Pie cried. "Oh, I gotta bake cupcakes, get streamers and balloons..."

"... invite everypony to join in on all the fun?" Zuro asked. All the mares turned to look at the four pegasi.

"Oh yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We can't forget the invitations!"

"Well, we have to get back to Ponyville first." Jet said as he looked the castle ruins over nervously. "This place gives me the creeps."

Everypony, even Vitam laughed at Jet's comment before Princess Celestia lead them all out of the ruins where they would wait for the princess' carriage to arrive and take them back to town.

~~)oOo(~~

Dear diary.

Today was the longest day of my life! First, I haven't slept since eleven in the morning yesterday, an ancient evil alicorn showed up, the sun was three hours late rising up, my friends and I ventured through the Everfree Forest and found an old, abandoned castle, my dad showed up, and Pinkie Pie wouldn't let me go until I participated in her party, which was a 'lot' more crazy then usual since the lunar princess, Princess Luna has been released from Nightmare Moon.

Dad was worried about me when the sun never rose. He said Dili had a nightmare about me, and that's when I suggested he should bring her over for a while. He liked the idea and agreed to it after he got some rest and regained some energy. He ran all the way over here, none stop for hours just to make sure I was safe.

Anyway, I am 'really' tired, so I'm going to get some sleep. Dad is gonna be up for a while and will come in to sleep after feeding on love for a while. I prepared a room for him so he can just come in and rest when his done.

Good night.

Comments

[Gdenofa]

Nice twist how you included your own OC's into the first two shows

[Melody Brush]

2595162 I kinda did the same thing with the very first fanfic I tried to right, but that story was an alternate universe and a total bust. Everypony bashed and hated it 'harshly'

[Spryzler]

2595352 that's terrible! Even if something's not that good (I don't know I haven't read it), you shouldn't hate on it!

[Melody Brush]

2595821 You won't get a chance to read it, I deleted the story long ago.

[Spryzler]

2596467 I see. Ah well, at least I got this awesome story!

[Melody Brush]

2599354It must be awesome since everpony likes it!

[TheObserver]

This is still great but i keep seeing grammer issues
Keep it up

[Melody Brush]

2601094 I need to get a laptop with spellcheck and stop using my PSVita.

[The Changeling Spy]

Great story so far!
Keep up the good work.

All I ask is that you get an editor ;)

[Melody Brush]

2602773 Just wait until I get a real laptop with spellcheck and most all those mistakes will be gone.

[kingthe13]

2603984 and then new ones will pop up cause spell check will correct you on some words even though there right

[Melody Brush]

2609875 One can only try.

[Starcat5]

2609875

and then new ones will pop up cause spell check will correct you on some words even though there right

Case in point. The word you want is the contraction they're, as in "they are". *Shrug*

[BurningBright]

2601617 if you need somebody to edit I'd be happy to. This is a story with good potential, can't have a few errors souring the experience now can we?

[Scribblesheet The Scribe]

5715475 YES SO MUCH YES!!!

[Light Ascend]

"Where'd he go? He's my son and I need to find him." Zuro said.

Hmm... I think it's Vitam here?

[Melody Brush]

10963647
I do need to go through this whole thing now that I have a grammar program, but the only father character I can think of in this story is Vitam, so unless I made a hug mistake, yes.