Chapter 12
Chapter 12
64 POV
I stayed at that dusty old Clock Tower for about a week. I was surprised that no one came near the place, not even any maintenance ponies came to check up on the Tower, the only ponies who even came close to the Tower were tourists who got a bit lost and made a wrong turn. And in my time here, I realized that every day, when the Clock hits noon, nothing happened.
Nothing happened. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but there was just an old Clock Tower sitting here, and it wasn’t ringing! It had a bell, gears on the inside, and the Clock worked just fine, but the bell never rang.
“Vi, can you take a quick look at the bell? Is it connected to anything that’s messed up on the inside?” I asked, looking at some gears within the Clock.
“Umm… it seems that the bell is supposed to ring every 12 Hours, but the mechanism which pulls the bells seems to be malfunctioning. It resets at about 11 AM and 11PM, before the bell can actually ring. It needs new parts, and unless you plan to waltz out into Ponyville to grab some new parts, it’s going to stay broken.” Vi said with a sigh.
“Oh well, guess we have to do this the old fashioned way.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I looked at my watch, and saw it was 11:59PM. I climbed the ladder to the Bell floor and braced myself.
“I mean,” I said as I pulled out Peacemaker and made a decent Sledgehammer, “The old fashioned way!”
I took a heavy swing at the bell, and it rang with the force of 10 Earthquakes.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG
I held my hands to my ears as the Carillon Bell rang, nearly deafening me.
"OW! I SHOULDA THOUGHT THAT THROUGH!!” I yelled, barely able to hear myself. I shook my head a few times to get the ringing out of my ears.
I quickly rushed inside of the Tower, and opened the window I had just a crack, and looked to see if anyone noticed the Bell ringing.
Almost immediately, two ponies walked up over the hill the Clock Tower was on, and looked with wide eyes as they saw the Bell tolling. I noticed one of the mares was the same mare I questioned when Nightmare Moon attacked Town Hall, and she had a companion with her, a cream coated mare with a mix of Pink and Dark Blue mane.
They ran away for a few seconds before coming back with two more friends, and then those friends came back with more and more ponies, until a good sized crowd was finally gathered outside of the Clock tower, simply watching and listening to the large bell tolling.
I don’t know why did this, in fact know that I think about it was a bad idea, someone could come snooping around now, and might find me in my sleep or something.
Eventually the bell’s ringing began to slow down, until it finally stopped, leaving a pregnant pause to fill the air. Nopony moved for a while, until one Pony decided to start clapping and cheering. More and more decided to follow suit, until almost the entire city was jumping up and cheering in joy for the ringing Clock Tower.
“Hm. I wonder what they are so happy about. All I did was ring the bell, was there something more to it?” I wondered.
I saw a Tan mare with a White mane walk to the front of the crowd, and clear her throat before she began to speak.
“Ponies of Ponyville! For 20 years this Clock Tower has been left unattended! But Now it once again rings! I say this call for the Grandest of Celebrations!” She yelled with extreme excitement.
Almost immediately, that same Pink Mare who harassed me in Ponyville and helped defeat Nightmare Moon sprang to the front of the crowd, yelling something too quickly for me to understand, before she pulled some sort of Cannon out of nowhere, and fired it 10 times in succession.
One blast came a bit too close for comfort towards the window, and I ducked down to avoid getting hit. When I peeked back through the window, I saw the entire Clock Tower and hill were decorated with streamers, balloons, picnic tables, and even a DJ Booth with a White mare with an Electric Blue spinning the tracks. The ponies wasted no time in celebrating and dancing, but as I looked at everyone, I saw that somepony was missing from the celebration.
Twilight Sparkle.
“Vi, can you scan and see if Twilight Sparkle is anywhere out there? I don’t see her anywhere.” I said, still peeking around the hill.
“I can’t sense her anywhere near the party, but I can detect her magic signature within Ponyville, in some sort of Tree...House…” Vi said, trying to find the right words for the last part of the sentence.
“Give me a Locator Line; I’m heading there right now. This party is the perfect distraction to get her alone. I have some questions I want her to answer.”
I picked up my brown dusty cloak, and draped it over my shoulders. I slid down the ladder and walked to the exit, making sure I was on all fours before I left, and opened the door. I shut the door quickly before I was spotted, and quickly crawled towards the city. I managed to avoid being spotted by that crazy pink mare, but I did have a few other ponies try to strike up a conversation with me to find out “Who was the new guy?”
I simply shoved away these conversations, not having time to dabble in other matter for now. The city seemed nearly deserted as I walked around, with all of the other ponies at the Party it was kind of a guarantee. I followed the Red Line along the floor, when suddenly I saw the Secondary Blue line paint the floor.
“Vi? What’s going on?” I said, confused.
“64, you need to hide, NOW!” Vi yelled in my ear.
I quickly took her advice, and dived into an alley and hid behind a few crates. As I peeked over them I saw the same Crazy Pink mare running through the streets.
“Yoo-Hoo! Mister Stranger! Where did you go?!?!” She yelled as she continued to run through the streets.
“Oh dear Luna…” I muttered, “Vi, I need back routes, and fast.”
“Right away.”
The secondary blue line shone a bit brighter, and I was began to take my first steps forward.
“HELLO?!?!” The Mare yelled, sounding close.
I immediately picked up the pace and continued through the alleys. Due to this being more of a Village that a town, there weren’t as many alley paths, and that meant that I spent my time having to do quick bursts of speed through the main road and into another alleyway.
“This is getting me nowhere quickly… I have to get to Twilight and soon.” I said, from behind some sort of Confectionary shop. I looked around, and saw that I was clear for now, but I felt that could change in an instant.
“Vi, any sign of her?” I said, moving to my crouched form.
“Nope, the way I’m reading her is through the amount of sugar molecules in the air, and besides this Sweets Shop here, I can’t get a reading.” Vi answered.
“Perfect, let’s hope this works—“
“HEY, THERE YOU ARE!”
I nearly jumped into the air screaming when that freaking mare appeared out of nowhere. She was smiling with a huge grin which seemed to cover at least 1/3 of her face. She really did smell like sugar, and her mane looked as if it were made of cotton candy from this angle.
“Well say something Mister Stranger!” She said with a smile.
“Ummm, hi.” I barely said, trying to whisper.
“Hi there! What’s your name?”
“Umm…. I…. can’t really say….”
Shit, I needed to leave now, but I don’t think using magic right now would be too good on my body right now.
“Look, it was nice meeting you but I have to get going, you know? I have to… uh… check out a book! At the…umm… library! Yeah, that’s it!” I said nervously. Honestly, this mare scared me half to death. I had dealt with one maniac in the past who smiles too much, and he was already bad enough news.
“Oh! The Library! That’s where my friend Twilight lives! Wanna meet her? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya?”
Wait, Twilight? Perfect, I could just get an escort there!
“Uh sure! Thank you very much miss….” I said, not having a name.
“My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but my friends just call me Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie said with a large smile.
After the introductions, and me successfully dodging mine, we made our way to somewhere called the Golden Oaks Library. I could see why Vi had trouble trying to distinguish what it was, it was literally an actual house made out of a tree.
“Well we’re here! Want me to introduce you? I can see you’re kind of shy, I mean, why wouldn’t you be shy if you just kept on avoid me back there like you didn’t want to talk to me because you are so new in town and *GASP* I haven’t thrown you a welcome to town party like have everypony else Oh My Celestia I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings its just—“
“Pinkie.” I snapped, “It’s fine, I just need to check out a book. You can go back to your Clock Tower Celebration now, I’ll be just fine.”
“Well, ok Mister Stranger! Bye!” She said, bouncing along the road back to the Clock Tower.
“Vi, you ok?” I said, not hearing her for a while.
“S-She… d-d-didn’t…even …m-move…” I heard Vi pant and mumble.
Oh Vi…
I steeled myself for what I was about to do. I had no idea what Twilight Sparkle was doing alive, and that’s what I intend to find out myself.
“Vi, get your head together, I need you for this.”
“I’m good here, for now…” She whispered.
“Whatever. I need you to use Lie Detection and Map an Escape Route out of there once I’m in. I have no idea what Twilight Sparkle’s affiliation with Celestia is, but I think it’s more than friendly.”
“Ok, I’m on it.”
I sighed, taking what could have been my craziest risk ever.
I brought my hand up, and knocked on the door three times. I quickly put my hand back under my cloak, shrouding it in the darkness.
I heard a quick pitter-patter of feet coming towards the door, and someone turning a door knob from the inside. What I wasn’t expecting to find was a small 3 foot dragon that looked as if it couldn’t hurt a butterfly answering the door.
“Yes? Can I help you?” He asked, surprising me that he could talk.
“Yes, I’m looking for a mare known as Twilight Sparkle, is she here right now?” I said, trying not to sound too suspicious.
“Well, yea. But she’s doing one of her, in the zone studying sessions, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to distract her.”
I was shocked to find that the Dragon was telling the truth. How could it have been a bad idea?
“Well,” I said, ignoring that last statement, “I need to see her anyway, it’s something really important.”
“It’s your funeral.” The dragon said, stepping aside to let me in.
I walked in, and saw the flurry of books, magic, quills, paper, and coffee flying every which way.
In the fur there she was, Twilight Sparkle. Although her Mane wasn’t in the best condition, she still looked like she could provide some useful information I was hoping to gather.
I cleared my throat in declaration I was there, but she didn’t turn around.
I tried once again, a bit louder this time, still no response.
“Umm… Excuse me Miss Twilight?” I called out, to no avail.
“Ahem… Miss Twilight!” I yelled behind her.
She jumped straight into the air, sending paper and books everywhere.
“AH! Who? What, when?” She looked around frantically, as if she was looking for something, before her eyes met an open window with sunlight beaming through it, and she shielded her eyes in pain.
“Ah… sorry about that…” She started, “I guess I was a little too enthusiastic about studying friendship for a while there, did you need help with finding a book?” she said, still squinting her eyes to shield from the sunlight.
“Actually, no Ms. Sparkle, I came here because I need to talk to you.” I said as a matter of factly, “I have some questions I need answered, and you are the best equipped I know to answer them.”
She suddenly looked a bit strangely at me, as if she was sizing me up, especially with my Cloak on.
“Umm… Ok? What questions did you need answers to?”
If only you knew Twilight, if only you knew…
Shining Armor POV
A week later and no signs of Project 64 were found anywhere. After waking up in that strange tree house I fired a magical flare to get the attention of any Royal Guard escorts in the area, because I had no idea where I was.
Flashback 1 Week
Shortly after firing the flare I noticed a note pinned to the wall.
“What the…” I moaned, rubbing the side of my head.
“Shining, you know who this is from. Look, I need to stop whatever the hell Celestia is planning to do right now, and expose her for what she really is. I’m not sure if even you know what she’s planning, but if you do… I’m gonna end it. Hey, think about this, I might save your sister in the process, whoever she is. Good luck Shining, hopefully everything is over by the time you wake up.”
Flashback End
The note made almost no sense to me. Celestia had no plan, well…… not anymore. After becoming Captain I was more “informed” about what had happened to 64 in the past. At first I had been infuriated that Princess Celestia even condoned that kind of testing, but after about a week of explanation from Princess Celestia I began to finally turn around. I still felt wary of the Princess when she had any "private" lessons for Twilight, especially after learning about her past intentions, but I learned to see past it after her change of heart.
But in both the letter and my latest confrontation with 64 he had not mentioned Twilight at all, and in fact didn't know she was my sister. If he knew my Rank in the Royal Guard wouldn't he know about Twilight as well?
“Captain, a word.” Silent Knight said, walking into my Headquarters, or more like rolling.
Knight was in a wheelchair, his right forehoof in a cast, and bandages over the left side of his face. Apparently getting thrown like a ragdoll through the air wasn’t a very healthy pastime.
“Yes sir? What is it?” I replied, wondering what his question was ‘
“It has come to my attention that your… loyalties… have been more than questionable in both of your encounters with the fugitive known as Project 64.”
“What do you mean sir? To be perfectly honest, you weren’t there for most of our confrontation…”
“Don’t talk to me like that!” He yelled, grabbing the table I was at, and flipping it over with his one good hoof.
“You have twice been less than capable in capturing a wanted fugitive! In fact during the starting encounter you chuckled at his simple greeting! This is making me question where your loyalties would lie in another encounter.”
Knight stared at me with such hatred that I felt he was trying to melt me from the inside out. I wondered where this sudden outburst had come from, but I could tell it was mostly from his anger at not being able to capture Project 64.
“Sir, I would like to ask you to leave.” I said angrily.
“NO! NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW!”
At that I simply grabbed his Wheelchair in a magic grasp, and threw him out of the room myself.
“Dear Celestia… what is wrong with that guy?” I muttered, once again focusing on the report I needed to write about the Summer Sunset Celebration.
A much softer knock rapped on the door.
“Want to apologize eh? Let’s see how pathetic you are…” I growled walking to the door.
I opened and was about to let yell at Knight, until a pink blur quickly closed the gap between us and planted a kiss right on my lips. After about a minute passed, she broke the kiss, and simply pointed at me, then the couch in the room, and slammed the door shut.
Looks like chewing out Knight was going to have to wait.
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YES YES YES YES
Please update fast
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Cadence I presume?
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It was Cadence right?
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At the End there.
3255404 Sure, let's go with that.........
3255407
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.......oh.....ok
Yes
3255420 It was. If you didn't pick up on my sarcasm...
3255454 I know, who else would it be? Oh and love the story so
Far keep going!!! Have a
3255567 I'm thinking about stealing this...
We need to have Shining try and explain that Celestia's changed.
...
Emphasis on 'try'.
I really wanna see what happens after Twilight finds out about Celestia's previous students.
This pleases me, continue
3256115 You have no worries about that.
3255700
Change?
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HA! Not in 1000 years.
BA DUM TSS
3259653
} It was close enough to 1000 years to be a relevant argument.
I reject your realities and substitute my own!
3256295
Yo dude if you want to Play Halo 4 campiagn, Spartan ops or war games with me my account name is Bladethefox117. I also have ODST, halo 3, Reach and Combat evolved anniversary. (On Xbox 360 only) and dont worry about the spoilers for the ending because you are not the only one, some half brain student shouted out the ending at the bus stop the day after it was released.
So Shining is just 'OK' with the fact that Celestia authorized 1000 years worth of torture, experimenting, and ultimately murder, of foals? And he's 'ok' with the fact that Twilight would have been next if one of her victims hadn't managed to get a chance to look her in the eye and call her a monster?
And they really are not going to question who is responsible for that? Actually I can see that happening.
On a side note, what about the murder of the guards? It doesn't seem like anyone mentions it. I mean this kind of was a dark day, since a lot of guards probably died.
6827361
Remember, NMM, blood, corpses and all, she ate them!
6225221
He was probably informed on the most recent projects, not the earliest, plus, seeing it first hand of what Nightmare could do would scare the shit out of anybody, even her sister perhaps? So that helped him ease down into, understanding, but also staying in the realm of disgust. But still, I think Celestia was still a bitch, even if i thought she had a PARTIALY, good reason, seriously, Nightmare ABSORBED THE BLOOD, AND BODIES OF HER VICTIMS, and personally, i would develop weapons if i had to, but i would not go off the deep end into complete stupidity, like stupid old Sun-fucker.
"... and that's how I met your mother" said shining finally ending a side series to the main show
8278625
So? Witnesses are there. A lot of guards fled in terror. And even if there were no witnesses, the family of the guards would draw the connection seeing as they disappeared in Ponyville when Nightmare Moon returned.
Killing the guards seemed kind of unnecessary if it gets completely ignored now. If she just knocked them out this no consequences behavior would make a lot more sense since no one was harmed. 64 had consequences for killing one guard and that was a rather interesting twist to the situation. In comparison to that it is a bit unfitting now if it's not getting used.