Autumn

by canonkiller

Resonance

"How much further?"

"As far as we can. The second anypony can't go on, we rest."

Sunrise kept her eyes closed, feeling the warmth radiating from the fur around her. She didn't want it to end, but she had seen... it had to be a dream. She didn't want to wake up.

"Most of us are strong enough to walk on our own... should we carry the others who can't?"

"Your strength needs rest as well. We will be safe for the time being. Use your judgement."

There was the sound of wings spreading, and a soft gust blew over Sunrise as the Pegasus flew off.

She opened her eyes, seeing Rainbow Dark gliding back towards the front of the group. Even more shocking than the fact that the Pegasus seemed uninjured, the dragonness realized she was still being held by a draconequus.

About to snarl at him - some sad part of her mind resigning to the fact that this had to be Discord - his paw moved so that he was petting the spikes along the back of her neck. She looked up, and instead of seeing Discord's teasing smirk, she saw a gentle smile.

"Did you have a good sleep?"

Not even wanting to answer, she rolled over, pressing her side into his warm fur.

"I'll take that as a yes."

I can't tell her what I have to do. Not now.

Somewhere in the underground of Equestria, something crawled. It was not crawling by choice, it enjoyed stalking much more, but the tunnel it was currently in restricted movement down to almost nothing. If this creature had been anything else, this would have been unpassable, but this was not any other creature.

Fulmen snarled, her pupils turning momentarily yellow as she turned her head to look back down the way she had come. The light cast from her eyes at least told her she had made progress - the dark stone had paled to a natural gray. She was nearing the surface.

And this time, if Faenum dared oppose her, then the sparkly wolf would get her ears sliced.

Needless to say, the goddess of lightning was not in a good mood.

Would you be, after trekking through solid darkness for three days and being unable to turn around to move backwards? I didn't think so.

So, despite the sound of the stone overhead moaning under the weight of some body of water, the tigress plodded on

The time had come. The Seventh Element, the Turning Point, had entered his dimensional form. The fabric of time and space was now under extreme pressure, which would only be removed by the Turning Point's death or a tear opening. And Fulmen, after being surrounded by darkness eternal, had trained herself to see without light, to shroud herself in complete shadow and see through it, and with time, could create wisps of ghoulish light, and one of these was floating in front of her at the moment, colours shifting between red and green.

The Turning Point.

This final being wasn't new, or known in legend. It had existed before Chaos and Void, the two first Objects, and was said to be their creator. The body of the Turning Point made no difference, other than the fact it had to be a grandchild of the Firstborn, in turn the great-grandchild of something and nothing, and before that, the great-great-grandchild of Chaos and Void. So, in four generations after being destroyed, Turning Point would return.

He was the maker of time. Before him, if there was even a before, there was no Void, no such thing as something or nothing, and somehow Turning Point had come to be. His true name was cursed, but Fulmen enjoyed saying it anyway. She could not be killed.

Kha'dighreel.

The language was only used by the named himself. It was simply too complicated for any mortal or immortal mouth to grasp.

Kha, however, was beyond immortal. If the land died and something and nothing along with it, and Chaos and Void fell under some massive onslaught, Kha would simply return, in his solid, insubstantial greatness, and blanket the damaged lands in the absence of both types of matter, until the unemptiness spawned new lands.

He had seen many species, in this way. Giant lizards, with spikes of bone and jaws of daggers. Strange, two-legged creatures who built massive cities, before being eliminated in one fell swoop. And now, among thousands of other eras, there were four-legged mammals as sentenients. Ponies, to be exact.

And this was also the era of something, nothing and the Firstborn. The era in which Kha would take form in order to realign time.

This was Fulmen's chance to break free from her sister's powerful hold. If she made it out before Kha reverted time, she would be able to see the sun and feel the wind, and that would be enough.

With this single, pathetic hope, Fulmen surged forward, breaking through a layer of dirt and sending it tumbling down the passage behind her, before narrowing her eyes as the bright light and struggling onto the surface, her little ghostlight wavering before going out completely.

The tigress almost wished she was back underground as another presence entered her senses.

"Well, you make this so much harder than it needs to be, sister." The golden wolf hissed. "Why can't you just stay in your grave?"

"Why must you keep pushing me back in?" Fulmen sighed, rolling her eyes before sidestepping away from the hole. "And Fae, I know you felt it."

"What? Oh, yes, Kha. His power hasn't improved yet. Her form is still weak." The wolf sighed and looked out towards the sunset. "And if you're going to call me Fae, I'm going to call you Fufu."

"I hate that name." She snarled, sitting down and curling her tail around her paws. "And I felt the power surge. You said she. I though it was Obsidian."

"How did you know he existed?"

"News travels fast in the underground." She smirked,

"Anyway, I checked him when he was born. Nothing but the regular draconequus powers."

Fulmen had to bite her tongue to keep from blurting out something she would regret. Normal draconequus powers. Nothing's powers. Draconequus were powerless without that brief possesion. None of the others knew that Discord's powers came from his grandfather. They weren't supposed to. So... regular draconequus powers... did that mean he was heading down the same dark road as his father?

"When you said she... there is another? I know of Crimsonleaf and Obsidian, and Crimsonleaf is disqualified for not having two godly parents. Ali and I were the only ones to have children... unless..." She trailed off, before smiling demonically and prancing in a circle around her sister. "Oooh you had a kiiiiidddd! Who's the daddy?"

Faenum blushed heavily and looked around, trying to find anything she could focus on that wasn't her sister. "C'mon Fulmen, be a little mature about this..."

"I'm the one not being mature? You never told anyone." She rolled onto her back and looked up at Faenum. "Tellmetellmetellme! Or I'll tell Mommy~"

"You tell her and I'll kill you. No hesitation." Faenum glared down at her obnoxious sibling.

"So who's daddy? Does he know?"

"It wasn't as long ago as either of you, and she doesn't have powers or a powerful form... she's just a Pegasus. She was easy to hide in Equestria. I brainwashed her... you know, mildly... and told her her name and sent her off to do whatever she wished."

"Don't those memory spells have side effects?"

Faenum laughed. "Yes, they do. But when I say later than the others, I mean one-hundred years, tops. She's the same age as the surviving Element Bearers."

Fulmen let out a low whistle. "She doesn't know who her mom is? Or dad? Speaking of which, you seem to be avoiding answering my question? Was it Maaaris?"

Faenum blushed and looked away again. "Come on, Fulmen, you know he's not bound like Corona..."

"Aw, Cori's such a spoilsport. Up until he got viciously dulled, he would have been great."

"Don't think like that! Alititudo married him, so he's beyond you!"

"You're a spoilsport too." Fulmen crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. After Fae's distasteful reaction, the tigress bounced to her paws and sauntered off. "So, what's the name you gave her? And her daughter?"

"The child's original name was Grayscale. She was born when her mother still remembered me. She was an Alicorn... and like all of them, she was resistant to aging. I wouldn't be surprised if she still looks the same as she did a hundred years ago..." The wolf sighed, waving a paw dismissively. "The daughter still knows her name, so if you go to see her, use that. Her mother told me to hide her under a spell blanket when she was born... you see, she knew about my plan to hide her... so I did. I made her look like a normal Pegasus filly..."

Fulmen had been planning to hear the new Kha's name as she vanished into the shadows, but Faenum's rant had failed that illusion and left her standing grumpily out of the Firstborn's vision, tail flicking. "Get on with it! I'd like to leave."

Faenum sighed. She really wished that her sibling hadn't been a twin. "My daughter's name is Ditzy Doo."

Comments

thats not what i expected at all...

[Warmaster Pinkie]

DERPY HOOVES TO THE RESSCCUUUUEEEE!!!!!