Rise of Ponietheus

by twitterdick

17. Pinkie Pie: Ark

Celestia, Luna, Discord and Pinkie Pie all arrived at Sweet Apple Acres and landed with a powerful thud. Soon, another unfamiliar alicorn came out from the farmhouse to investigate the commotion. He had deep purple skin and bright white hair with soft, golden eyes. He peered around outside with his mouth hung open curiously before he spotted them. He smiled and his eyes brightened like a filly getting her birthday presents.

"Why, hello there!" he called out. His voice sounded old a worn. It was a little nasally and shifted around in pitch as he spoke. "You're soldier friend said you'd be along shortly. Come over here! Er, um, I don't bite!"

He came decisively off the porch to greet them. Pinkie Pie could help but smile at him. It was nice to see a stranger so upbeat.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh! How terribly ill-mannered of me. I was so excited to see other beings that I plain forgot to tell you my name!" he said, "Excuse the poor manners. Er, um, I'm Pluto, the scientist. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Likewise! I'm Pinkie Pie!" she said cheerily.

The others were not so chipper. Discord in particular grumbled and rolled his eyes. "What a quack," Pinkie heard him mumble under his breath.

"Are you among the ones my sister sent for?" Celestia asked.

"Why yes!" he said, "Young Miss Luna explained your predicament to us and I volunteered to help. Curious things have been going on down here on old planet Earth, I hear. I was, um… Well, I was quite curious about it. Even more so, I was concerned, you see. Oh, and hello there, Pinkie Pie! I'm Pluto, the, er, um, the scientist. Oh, I do believe I said that already…"

Pinkie Pie smiled. "Hehe, I like him!"

Celestia frowned. "Are you the only one that was sent?"

"Oh, no!" Pluto said. "There are two others with me… er, were with me, I should say. They went off to try and find that Harbinger fellow. Nasty boy, I hear. I remained here to study one of the infected. Er, um, two of the infected technically. One is rather pleasant to talk to, and the other, well, was locked in a closet."

"Oh, that's Protean Joy and Applejack!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "Are they okay!?"

"Why, yes!" Pluto said. "Whatever ailment has beset them is wearing off naturally. Quite anti-climatic, if I say so myself. I must admit I had some young-being-like exuberance at the thought of working under pressure! Uh, oh well. Oh, and they're right inside, if, um, if you'd like to see them."

He gestured with a kind hoof towards the door. Pinkie Pie rushed in and the others, Pluto included, followed. Sure enough, there was Applejack and Protean Joy, both right as rain. Pinkie Pie beamed and squealed.

Applejack was rubbing her nose nervously, but lit up when she saw Pinkie. "Pinkie Pie!" she said, "It's great to see ya!"

Pinkie Pie leaped towards her and hugged her tightly around her shoulders. "Applejack!!" she said, "You're alright! Applejack, you're okay! You're all better now! Oh, Applejack, I was so worried. I was so worried about you!" Gentle tears streamed down Pinkie Pie's face.

Applejack coughed, but smiled. "Not so tightly, now!" she wheezed.

Protean Joy was quiet, but soon stood upright and bowed. "Your Majesties," he said towards Celestia and Luna, "It is good to see you both undamaged."

"Ah, you're a Knight Commander!" Celestia said politely, "I recognize you. You're Protean Joy, are you not?"

"I am, Your Majesty," he said. He frowned then. "Your Majesty, I must apologize. I had tasked myself with protecting young Princess Twilight Sparkle, but I failed. I had planned to stay with her until this was all over, but I was-"

Celestia shook her head. "You've done nothing to apologize for, Knight Commander. The past few days have been trying for all of us."

He smiled at that.

Applejack coughed. "Speakin' of Twilight, where is she, Princess?"

Celestia frowned.

"She was infected," Pinkie Pie said through sniffles, "Applejack, they all got infected but me. But, but, but you're better now and Princess Celestia is better now, so, so Twilight and everypony else should better now too, right?"

"Why, yes, if my hypothesis is correct," Pluto said.

Celestia turned to him. "Your hypothesis? What do you mean?"

Pluto gleamed at such a chance to extrapolate. "You see, I have a theory - based on observation and speculation, and, well, er, admittedly a little guesswork - that whatever took place here was not natural, but magical. Er, well, that might seem obvious on the surface, but if you compare the fundamentals of Magical Theory with the storm's apparent behavior, the implications are drastic indeed."

Pinkie Pie furrowed her brow. "'Magical Theory'? What's that?"

Pluto scratched his chin. "Oh! Um, I beg your pardon, I forget not all creatures posses the same abilities as alicorns. Er, um, let me think - how should I explain this?"

He fidgeted and grumbled to himself for a while.

"Oh, I've got it!" he said at last, "Think of magic as a simple machine, like an oven! Oven's exist for only one purpose - to cook food. It is the same with magical spells! Er, um, well, except without the food. No, scratch that. What was I saying? Oh, yes, never mind the former. Magic is more like baking, you see. It - er, magic, that is, not baking. Well, baking too, but anyway - magic exists to complete a simple directive, like baking cookies. Once the cookies are done, you stop baking. So it is with magical spells; once their directive is complete, they, er, stop. However, the caster decides what the spell's directive will be, like how a baker decides what to bake. So, why is the storm and the, er, 'infection' dissipating? Well, because whatever the spell's directive was has been completed, so its effects are waning."

"Oh, okay," Pinkie Pie said, "So the storm was a magic thing and now its all done? Like, it did what it needed to do?"

"Precisely!" Pluto said, "It's all quite esoteric, I think, but that's the basic concept."

"You are saying this whole storm was just a big magic spell?" Luna asked, "Impossible. It has to be. This storm's been going on for near three days. Nopony could cast a spell that long. It'd be way too exhausting."

Pluto blinked. "Three days, you say? Forgive me, er, um, Miss Luna, I don't have much grasp on how the time lag from here to, um, deep space is, um, well, like. Still, I have heard stories of powerful alicorn wizards casting perpetual spells. Or curses, as they came to be known. Takes lots of talent as well as practice, I hear. One such curse was cast upon an old colleague of mine. Draco was his name! Some fire chap turned him into an awful beast! No idea where he is now. Hmm. I had meant to keep track of him, but I, er, must have forgotten…"

Pinkie Pie was slightly taken aback. 'Draco' was a character from that book, from that story. It… it couldn't have been a coincidence.

Pluto blinked a few times and wiggled his tongue around in his mouth. "Oh!" he said, "Er, um, what was I talking about before?"

Luna blinked as well. "Curses."

Pluto lit up. "Oh, yes, that was it!" he said, "No, even with the uncanny run time, if this, er, 'storm', as you call it, dissipated naturally, then it was a spell. Spells end, but curses can only be over-ridden or cured by other magic. They don't simply go away on their own, and I don't know of anyone casting a countermeasure. In fact - you'll never believe it - but curses can even be passed down through generations! There are creatures here that look, erm, well, strangely like alicorns, actually - but anyway, they're are some creatures here that are direct descendants of alicorns that were cursed to lose their wings and horns. In fact, the curse acted in parley with evolution itself! They're bodies adapted to the curse and to life here on Earth. They actually got smaller, their lifespans shorter and their natural magical abilities became more and more latent with every generation. Fascinating stuff, I tell you! In fact, if you're curious, I've been writing a little book on it, if you'd like to re-"

Celestia shook her head. "Sir!" she said, "That's more than enough information. Thank you."

Pluto frowned. He seemed a little hurt to be interrupted. Pinkie Pie couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. But his words; it was the story again. Pinkie Pie frowned. She couldn't be remembering the story wrong. No, but if the story was true - if that story could be true - and Harbinger started this whole thing by sapping away Ponyville's fire, then that would mean Harbinger might actually be...

Celestia sighed. "The storm and infection dissipating on their own is a miracle, but there's still the question of Harbinger. I don't think he's a facet of whatever spell - if it truly is a spell - that conjured this storm. What of him? If he could summon and maintain a spell for three days without collapse, he must be powerful indeed. It'll take more than latent magic to stop him."

Applejack frowned. "Who the hey is Harbinger?" she whispered to Pinkie Pie.

"He's an evil mummy alicorn," Pinkie Pie said.

"Oh," Applejack said. She frowned like that explanation had been worthless.

Luna shook her head. "I don't think he conjured the storm. He actually seems quite incompetent. But still, he does have combat experience and is a more than adequate magic user. You overestimate him, Big Sister, but it'd be a mistake to underestimate him."

"Oh, you mean Harbinger might not be the caster?" Pluto said with concern. "Well, then. If that were the case, then my hypothesis would be completely wrong, and my extrapolation of Harbinger's raw magical power by such would be severely - exponentially - overestimated."

He frowned in disappointment. But soon he shrugged and chuckled to himself. "Oh well!" he said. "At least I tried. Back to the drawing board, as, um, as they say!"

Discord chuckled and snapped his fingers. A rug near Pluto appeared to come to life and wrapped itself around poor Pluto, startling the old alicorn. About as soon as it had done so, however, the rug loosened and, with another snap, turned into Discord himself nonchalantly leaning up on Pluto his his had amicably on his shoulder.

"Oh, our new alicorn friend, what utter lack of imagination!" he said, "Magic exists outside the ways alicorns use it. Maybe this Harby character is not responsible for the storm, but that doesn't eliminate the fact it might be a spell. It just means an alicorn didn't cast it."

Pluto rubbed his chin. "What a curious beast you are. Er, um, what was your name?"

Discord chuckled. "The name's Discord, Pluto, old chap. Pleasure to meet you."

Pluto smacked his lips together. "Hmm. Maybe you're right. But then what exactly is Harbinger's role in this, anyway?"

Discord shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe he doesn't even matter. From what little I know about this whole mess, the storm's caused more of a ruckus than he has."

Celestia nodded. "True. With both the storm clouds and the infection waning, this take of how's and why's doesn't seem to be all that important. Putting an end to Harbinger is. I'd like to hear his side to things, as well as an answer for his crimes. He's caused more than enough trouble."

Applejack rubbed her head. "What's been goin' on the past while, Pinkie Pie?" she whispered. "I, uh, I don't remember much beyond issuin' a storm warnin' for the folks in town."

"Harbinger's storm turns ponies black and puts them to sleep, like what happened to you," Pinkie Pie whispered back. "We'd have put a stop to him, but with you and Fluttershy out of commission, we couldn't use the Elements of Harmony!"

"Pinkie Pie!" Celestia said.

Pinkie Pie blinked. "Oh. Yes, Princess?"

Celestia smiled. "I think it's time we found your friends, as well as the Elements of Harmony."

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down. "Yeah!"

Celestia smiled and turned to Pluto. "The other two that came with you - who are they?"

"Oh, yes, um, I had forgotten," he said, "Why, it was Jupiter and Saturn. Powerful warriors, I tell you. Why, Gaea must be taking this thing quite seriously be sending them down here. I don't know what she's taken such an interested in this whole, um, predicament. It's quite unlike her."

Celestia looked very worrisome. Luna, too, looked grave. Pinkie Pie blinked. "Princess?" she said.

"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said. "It's time we find Twilight Sparkle."

"Um, yes," Pluto said, "Do what you must. Er, um, we - uh, that is, Jupiter, Saturn and myself - all agreed to meet, um, here before we finalized any kind of action. Gather your friends and we'll wait here for you."

"Good," Discord said, "Can we wrap this up, then? One mummy vs. the Deus Ex jewelry, five alicorns and a powerful and, dare I say, quite handsome draconequus are some pretty good odds, I think. Don't you, Benevolent Sun? I'd really like to kick ol' Harby's teeth through his cheek. This dim storm depressing fear sadness thing is getting really old."

Celestia nodded. "Yes. Save for the violent imagery, I agree that the time to strike is now." Celestia turned to her sister. "Find Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the element bearers for me, sweet sister. As for me, I think it's time to bring the sun back."

---

"How is it that 'Tia gets to meet up with alicorn warriors and I get stuck filly-sitting you three!?" Discord grumbled. "How boring - collecting up the freedom-friendship-friends or whatever it is you six are called…"

"You're just mad cos you're starting to like us!" Pinkie Pie said.

Pinkie Pie felt terrific. Ponyville seemed a whole lot less gloomy, and she relished this little walk. Applejack was beside her, as well as Protean Joy, and Discord slink behind her like a grouchy dog yanking at his chain. The storm clouds were noticeably dissipating, although they were still pretty thick in some areas. The whole Earth around them seemed to just breathe out. Pinkie Pie hummed a little impromptu melody while they walked. It had been ages since she had just hummed.

Applejack seemed uncomfortable. "What happened here?" she asked, "It's… it's so-"

"Lifeless!? Spooky!? Dark!? Uncomfortable!?"

"…Boring?" said Discord.

"Has Ponyville really been like this for three days?" Applejack asked.

"Yup yup!" Pinkie Pie said. "Well, I think it's been three days. We went to bed twice. I had tried to count one-one-thousands-two-one-thousands to keep track but, by the time I reached two-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-four-one-thousands, it didn't seem to really matter anymore."

"It couldn't have been three days," Applejack said, "I'm not hungry or tired or nothin'. How could I have gone three days without eatin', without drinkin' or without rest?"

Pinkie Pie laughed. "I don't know, but who cares!? Everypony is back and soon we'll deal with… um, 'Harbinger'." Pinkie Pie's eyebrow flinched at that. She couldn't help but be a little worried. That thought of the old brown books story maybe being reality festered. Her nosed itched.

"We can ponder the nature of what happened here once we're rid of Harbinger for good, madam," Protean Joy said, "We're not out of this yet - not until we have the Elements…"

"It'll be okay!" Pinkie Pie said, "Twilight will have them then she'll stand that funny little way she does and tell us all what to do! Then, everything will be back to normal! Easy-peasy!"

"I hope so," Applejack said, "This whole here situation has me mighty uncomfortable."

"Say, um, Miss Pinkie," Protean Joy said, "Just where are you going?"

"The library, of course!" Pinkie Pie said, "I'd bet my bottom bit Twilight'll be there. And if not, the elements should be there too!"

Applejack rubbed her nose uneasily. "Hey, if we're all better, should all the townsponies that got - um, was it infected? Yeah, infected, or whatever you said - should they all be out and about too?"

Pinkie Pie snorted. "I have no idea! I don't even know where they went when they were infected!"

"You, uh, you never saw any? Ponyville got a population of near two hundred! There's no way they just up and vanished. Where'd they go!? Where are they now? This don't make a lick of sense."

"Oh, by the stars in the sky, would you all stop talking!" Discord said, "Why don't you just light up a signal flare that says, 'Hey, Harby, we're over here! Come on down and kick our teeth in!' We can ask boring questions later!"

They continued to wander for a bit. Pinkie Pie was all smiles and completely oblivious to the discomfort her companions felt. All she could do was think about the bright looks that'd be on her friends faces when they saw her. It was going to be over soon. Twilight would be at the library with the elements. She'd know what to do. Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash - they'd all be there too.

Pinkie Pie stopped in place, and the others stopped with her. She squinted at a silhouette in the distance. It was definitely pony shaped and slinking around.

"Pinkie Pie, what is it?"

Pinkie Pie started to wiggle. Her back was itchy. "It's a pony!" she said. She started off after it.

"Pinkie, wait!"

She got close, but the other pony hadn't noticed her. She just stood there at an intersection of two roads as the other pony faced the other way and carefully crept around the street in front of her. Pinkie Pie soon recognized that cyan coat.

"Hey! It's Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash's ears perked up and she turned her head to look at them. Her eyes brighten when they met Pinkie's and she turned and ran to hug her.

"Pinkie Pie! It's great to see that you're alright!"

She looked up and noticed the whole entourage approaching. She beamed again at Applejack and went to hug her.

"Hey there, Applejack! It's good to see you on your hooves again!"

"You too, Rainbow Dash," Applejack said, "Or, um, however you've been. I, uh, I don't really know what the hey is goin' on."

Rainbow Dash smiled. "We'll talk about it later. Twilight sent me out to try and find you. I figured you wouldn't have gone far and that I could've out ran Harbinger if I ran across him."

She looked at the others.

"Hey, you were that old guy, right? What was your name again?"

"Protean Joy, miss," he said with a polite bow, "Just happy to included."

Rainbow Dash nodded with her mouth open then looked up and down and Discord. "Oh, hey," she said flatly.

"'Hey'?" Discord said, "What, everypony else got some big hello and I just get a 'hey'?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "What do you want, a parade?"

Discord scoffed and mumbled. "Well, I… er, a 'where have you been all this time' would've been nice, at least. Y'know, at least pretend that you care."

"Huh," Rainbow Dash said. She turned to Pinkie Pie. "So, where have you been all this time."

Discord mumbled curses to himself while Pinkie Pie responded, "Oh, well, first I was really sad and in the desert, then I found Discord and came back, then I found Princess Luna and then we all found Princess Celestia and she was just fine and I didn't get to test my hypo-noose and then Protean Joy shot a flare to signal that Princess Luna's reinforcements had shown up, then we met a scientist named Pluto who babbled on about magic and then we came her and found you!"

Rainbow Dash rubbed her face. "Sounds… um, exciting. What about Harbinger? Did Princess Luna's 'reinforcements' take him out already?"

"I don't know!" said Pinkie Pie, "But the point is we're back together again! Um, hey, where's Twilight?"

"She's at the library - or at least she will be. We found each other almost immediately whenever we woke up. We figured we'd scope out the library first to nab the Elements, then she went to the town hall to find Rarity and them, and I went to find you guys."

"And Fluttershy!? Did you ever find Fluttershy!?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yeah, she was just at the library," Rainbow Dash said, "She woke up, just like that. Like she'd taken a cat nap. She just smiled at us and asked us how we were." Rainbow Dash laughed. "Last thing she remembered was going to check out the storm before all this started. She just slept through this whole. Lucky."

Rainbow Dash looked around at all of them then her eyes broke away. Her brow furrowed as she thought.

"Hey, what about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"

Just then, the blazing sun arose in the east and silently burnt away the night. It's orange outreach shimmered through the decaying clouds and brightened the whole of the town. They all winced and covered their eyes at they adjusted. It was a great and brilliant resurgence, pulsating and riveting like a firework or a great flashbulb going off.

"Ah, I guess that answers that question," Rainbow Dash said.

Discord rubbed his eyes. "'Tia was always one for the self-aggrandizing entrance."

"Hey, let's get to the library!" Pinkie Pie said.