Chapter 10: God Slayer
I sat on a lonely balcony staring out across Equestria. It was a beautiful place, rolling green hills dotted with farms and azure skies filled with puffy white clouds shepherded by pegasi. Canterlot below teemed with multicoloured blotches of ponies, winding their way through the streets, coming and going with no care that a world was going to end. After all, why should they care? It wasn’t their world under threat. It wasn’t their families living under a fallout cloud. It wasn’t their friends in danger.
“So,” Star Charge began, leaning over the rail next to me. “What are you going to do?”
I shot him a nasty look. “Well, I’m considering jumping,” I said, bitterly, doing my very best to scare him off.
“You have wings, Alex,” he pointed out.
“I don’t have to open them,” I muttered, shrugging the inconvenient limbs.
Star Charge just rolled his eyes at me. “Seriously though, what are you going to do?” he pressed.
I sighed, dropping my head into my hooves. “Nothing. That’s what Celestia told me to do. So I’m going to do nothing.”
“Really? Because I heard she told you to ‘fuck off’.” Star Charge frowned, tapping his chin. “Or did you say that?”
Grunting, I glared at the horizon. “You heard about that?” I murmured.
“Alexis, the west wing of the Palace heard that.” Star Charge smirked. “Hell, if the rumour mill has their hooves under it, half of Canterlot will know by now.”
“Urgh...” I slumped, resting my chin on the cool marble. “I am so getting banished to the moon”
“I think you’re probably safe; the Princess has a lot of other things on her plate.” He shrugged. “However, you still haven’t answered my question. What are you going to do?”
My eyes flicked towards Ponyville, a tiny dot of colour amidst the sea of green fields. “Well, I’m thinking... If I set off now, there should be some good thermals to get me to Ponyville. I can grab that bag of bits I’ve been hiding and be in Las Pegasus before anyone comes looking for me.”
Star tapped his hooves on the rail, and huffed. “I read your letter,” he blurted out.
“Whatever,” I muttered, shrugging as I suppressed a flash of anger. “I kind of delivered my resignation in person.”
“That’s not what I meant. What I meant was, a lot of ponies have been telling you want they want you to do. I get that. I’ve been one of them, if we’re being honest. So I’m going to ask you, what do you want to do?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Still considering Las Pegasus, to be honest.”
“Might want to take off now, then,” Star said, with a little shrug. Then, as I stared at him, “you know, otherwise you’ll be landing in the dark.”
I stumbled a moment, trying to match my mental image of the serious, duty bound Star Charge to the one before me. “Oh!” I said, realisation striking. “Because if I go, you get the Club?”
Star laughed. “Alex, you quit, spectacularly.The Club’s mine already. If you want to go to Las Pegasus, that’s fine by me. Nopony’s stopping you. Jump.” He made a shooing motion. “Go.”
I eyed him suspiciously, but the unicorn’s cheery grin didn’t fade. “I can’t,” I said, turning away. “I have to do something.”
“Have to?” Star continued. “Alex, all of Equestria is trying to beat Chrysalis. All of Earth is trying beat Chrysalis. The Mane Six are right there, right now, working to save the day. You don’t have to do anything.”
“So you just want me to sit here?” I exclaimed, flaring my wings. “While Pinkie fights that psychopath? While our home burns?”
He shrugged. “I don’t care what you do. What I want to know is, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know!” I threw up my hooves. “There’s nothing I can do. I’m a telemarketer in way over her head and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to help. Okay? Happy now?”
He smirked. “So, you do want to help?”
“Yes!” I snarled, dropping my head into my hooves. “But, unless you have any great ideas, you can just shut the hell up.” I dearly wished he would.
“Oh, I don’t have a clue,” Star Charge said, shrugging. “But you seem to have a gift for being in the right place at the right time.”
I huffed. “You make out being cursed by Discord to be a good thing. If I... I...” Words fled as realisation struck. Discord. The bastard had wrecked by life, stolen my form and then mocked me to my face; I still owed him a kick in the nuts. Amidst all the jokes, needling and insults though, he had promised me one thing.
My jaw dropped. “Oh god.”
“Yes?”
I spun around, grabbing Star by his shoulders. “You’re wrong,” I said, near bouncing in excitement. “I don’t have a gift. But I still have a boon. Come on!”
Dragging Star by his foreleg, I took the stairs down the tower three at a time, wings spread wide for balance. Star descended like a sack of potatoes, spurts of magic keeping him from any serious injury, and crashed into the landing. I rolled my eyes, picking him up, and then set off at a run down the wide corridors of the Palace.
“Okay. Boon?” Star Charge gasped, struggling to keep up. “What?”
“Discord owes me a boon,” I snapped. “Don’t ask me why, I--” I skidded to a stop, Star Charge managing to avoid running into me by inches. “--I have no idea where to find Discord,” I announced. The fatal flaw in my plan suddenly apparent.
Star Charge grumbled, dusting himself off. “Well, we aren’t going to find him by running screaming through the corridors.”
I set off at a gallop. “Discord!” I bellowed.
“Alex!” Star hurried after me, stumbling over his hooves in his struggle to keep up. “I just said that wasn’t going to work.”
“Well, I don’t have any better ideas,” I shot over my shoulder. “Fluttershy’s not here to wrangle him. Discord!”
“Look, we should just ask the Princesses...”
I rolled my eyes, flicking my wings to slide around a tight corner. “Yeah, that bridge has burned. Discord! Get your fat, scaly tail out of--”
A door sprung into existence about five feet in front of me. It was a solid thing, made of aged oak and bound with iron, and it didn’t move an inch when I ran into it face first.
“Son of a--!” I wailed, clutching my muzzle as I rolled on the floor in agony.
The door swung open and Discord leaned out, for some reason he was wearing a velvet dressing gown. “You knocked?” he inquired.
My string of expletives did not bear repeating.
“Oh my.” Discord pulled a couple of blue words out of his ear, I think one of them was ‘cribbage’. “Do you talk to Celestia with that mouth?”
I scowled at him as Star Charge helped me up. “You know I do.”
“Yes, that was very entertaining to watch,” he chortled. “But don’t just stand here on my doorstep, come into my parlor.”
“Said the spi--” Star Charge began, I clapped my hoof over his mouth.
“No straight lines!” I exclaimed, shooting a suspicious look at Discord. The chaos god whistled, the picture of innocence, as he shooed a spider the size of a bull back through his imposible door.
Star pushed my hoof away, frowning at Discord. “If I had a bit for every time somepony said that,” he said, deliberately. Discord handed him a bit, the kind to bridle horses. Star Charge realised he’d taken it between his teeth, went scarlet with embarrassment, and hurled it away.
“Some ponies,” Discord sighed, shaking his head. “No thanks, despite my flagrant generosity. Now come in, come in. I might have something not unlike tea.”
He swept back through the door, and, trying to figure out that double negative, I followed, Star a half pace behind. Discord hurried us through a series of rooms that really shouldn’t have connected: a dark and spooky dungeon, a swimming pool, a stretch of Hogwarts, part of what I think was The Crystal Maze, a garden party, and, finally, Time Turner’s kitchen. The stallion regarded us with such weary indifference that I feared Discord using his house as a hallway was a daily event.
Discord threw open a cupboard door and squeezed through. Rolling my eyes I followed into the inky blackness. After a moment’s walking I stopped, straining my eyes to see anything.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” I observed in a deadpan, casting my head around. It didn’t make the slightest bit of difference; there was more light at the bottom of a coal mine.
The floor began to move just as the lights came on. My brain failed to process the scene, we stood at the base of a great wheel, at least two stories high, which was constructed out of bookshelves. The entire rim was one continuous run of spines, with the occasional gap, softcover or picture book, creating a mishmash of misplaced footings. Twilight would have either considered it heaven or hell, I’m not sure which.
“Hey, these are blank,” Star exclaimed, holding one of the books free with his magic. The wheel began to gather speed.
Ah, so hell it was, then.
“Why would anyone have blank books?”
I rolled my eyes and took to the air. “Because stories are the most chaotic before they’re written,” I pointed out. A slow clap greeted me.
“Oh, very well done, Alice,” Discord crowed. He sat in a high backed armchair, a porcelain cup clasped between his thumb and forefinger, and was stirring the liquid with a golf-tee. “Do you teach? Fluttershy is such a darling, but sometimes I feel she just doesn’t get the point of chaos.”
“No, I just assume you’re going to go with the worst joke I can think of,” I grumbled, hovering next to Discord. It was probably a bad sign that I was beginning to wrap my head around Discord’s twisted logic. “Now, if we’re done wasting time--”
“Actually,” Star Charge cut in, now moving at a trot. “This thing seems to be getting faster.”
I cocked an eyebrow at Discord, who justed shrugged. “He seemed to be struggling to keep up. I thought he could use the exercise.”
Pressing a hoof against my forehead, I continued on regardless. “Look, I’m in a hurry. I want to cash in my boon, and I need you to fix things.” I held up a hoof, before Discord could get a word in. “And by that I mean specifically the whole mess about Chrysalis being on Earth, and the girls being in trouble. Though, if there’s anything else you feel like fixing up while you’re at it, I’m not going to stop you.”
“Hmm...” Discord stroked his little beard and puffed on his tee. “No.”
My ear twitched. I tried to fight the urge to yell at chaos incarnate.
“What do you mean, no?” I snarled.
“Well, usually no is a way of expressing a negative response to a ques--”
“I know what ‘no’ means!” I roared, throwing up my hooves. “Will you please be serious for once in your life!” I hovered right next to his face. “An entire world could die and it’s all your fault! I’m playing by your idiotic rules; I’m using your stupid boon; get off your fat arse and fix your own damn mess!”
A loud bing interrupted me. I glanced over at a floating scoreboard, just as ‘Number of gods Alexis has called fat’ rolled over from one to two. Discord began to smirk, even as my scowl deepened.
“Don’t say it,” I growled.
His lips parted in a mishmash smile.
“Don’t say it!”
He opened his mouth.
“Don’t--”
“Somepony say something already!” Star Charge yelled up at us. He was now at a canter, and losing ground... books... whatever, as the wheel accelerated.
“No,” Discord said simply, and stuck his tongue out at me.
I shot him a flat look. “I really, really hate you. You know that, right?”
Discord shrugged, flipping through a notebook. “I think it came up. Somewhere between the nut shot and the boon.”
“Okay, this is getting beyond a joke now,” Star Charge interjected, galloping over the books as the wheel spun faster and faster. “Somepony help!”
I pressed a hoof against my forehead. “Just stop,” I snapped. “Stop playing along. Stop running.”
Star tripped and fell, hitting the books with a bang, and plowing a furrow through the anthropology section. The library wheel squealed to a stop, not fast enough to prevent Star from ending up on the notional ceiling, though. I just shook my head and turned back to Discord.
“This is why you don’t get invited to parties,” I told him, my voice flat.
Discord laughed, pulling out his wallet and unfolding a roll of photos. “Oh contraire, Fluttershy and I held a tea-party on the ceiling just the other week.” He proffered one of the photos, a picture of him in an extremely low cut dress. Before I could react, Discord snatched the photo away and replaced it was a less nightmare inducing image, a comparatively normal shot of Fluttershy and Discord enjoying a cup of tea sat next to a chandelier. Rainbow Dash and Angel Bunny were also there, but, judging by their scowls, neither was enjoying the experience that much.
“Whose ceiling is that?” I inquired, thinking about poor Time Turner.
Discord just rolled his eyes. “Really, Alice. All the wonderful, interesting questions you could have chosen from, and you have to pick that one?”
“Well, forgive me for thinking that practicality isn’t a di--”
“Alex!” Star called out suddenly, holding on the bookshelves with all four hooves. I don’t know why, it didn’t seem like gravity was paying any particular attention to him. “The boon!”
I shot another glare at Discord, who had donned a halo and held up a neon sign pointing to himself that read ‘The Picture of Innocence’ . Once again he’d managed to outsmart me, dragging the conversation away from the most critical point, saving Earth.
“Okay, I’ve asked you twice, and I’ll ask you a third time, save--”
Discord moved like a striking snake, clapping his hands over my mouth.
“Are you really going to make me say this, Alex?” he said, all humour gone from his voice. “I thought we were friends.”
I wrenched his hands away. “Discord, I have met cobras that I’d prefer to spend more time with,” I snapped. That was not hyperbole. In the end, Fluttershy’s pet drive had been met with mixed results by the Club. The pegasus’ view on what made a cute pet was... unique to say the least. “What is your problem?”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh, fine, if you’re going to be your stuffy self.” He snapped his fingers and the world changed.
The bookshelves vanished, along with all the furniture and walls, though, not the books for some reason. My wings caught nothing but vacuum and I dropped amidst the falling tomes, straining to catch the non-existent aether. The impacts of the books were soundless, each kicking up a tiny puff of dust as they hit the rocks below us and tracing ballistic arcs across the surface of the dead world.
I landed hard, stumbling, then ducked and weaved my way through the silent rain of empty books. I found sanctuary on a rocky bluff. The world beyond the fallen library was empty and dark. Above my head was the eternal expanse of night, dim with only the occasional smear of a red star or ancient galaxy. No sign of settlement marked the surface of the world; it was just blasted rock, after blasted rock, preserved perfectly in the vacuum of space.
I felt cold. Unbearably cold, as if heat were a distant memory, and I was intruding by bringing such alien concepts as life and warmth to a dead world. There was no sign of Star Charge, nor any other thinking being, in fact, I doubted the world had seen a warm body in millenia.
“Welcome home, Alex,” Discord said, standing next to me. “Welcome to the end.”
“Heh, the end of what?” I asked, shaking my head. “Earth? The Sun? Humanity?”
He just smiled. “Why, of the story, of course. This is what will happen when all the books have been written, when all the covers have been closed, when the last hero lays down their sword and fades away. This is the destined end of your tale.”
My eyes narrowed. “This is after Chrysalis wins, isn’t it?” I demanded. “This is what happens when we lose.”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “But, it is also what happens if she loses. That’s the funny thing about destiny, it tends to win, regardless.”
I stamped my hooves, my wings shuddering as shivers overtook me. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” I pointed out. “It doesn’t have to end. They can beat Chrysalis, but they need your help.”
Discord snapped his fingers, I leapt in surprise and cast around for what changed.
“Do you know what I just did?” he asked. I shook my head. “Nothing. I did absolutely nothing. Because that is all the power I hold here.”
I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. “No...” I murmured, my wings drooping as the full implications hit me. Earth didn’t have the chaos that marked Discord’s brand of lunacy. There would be no deus ex machina, because Earth didn’t have gods from the machine to solve its problems.
Chrysalis would win. The sun would die, as fusion ceased to function, and this blasted wasteland would be my home.
“No,” I repeated, louder. “I refuse to believe that.” I turned to Discord, rising up to my full height before the towering draconequus. “You are the rule breaker. You are chaos. If anyone can stop this, you can.”
He sighed, shaking his head. “I cannot.”
“You are chaos!” I snapped, my eyes beginning to mist with tears. “The destroyer of worlds. Terror of Equestria. Fix this! Please.”
He shrugged. “I can not.”
I smashed my forehooves down on the ground and flared my wings. “I am not playing your game!” I bellowed. “You are chaos. For once in your misbegotten life, DO SOMETHING!”
Discord smiled, as if he were looking down on a particularly persistent kitten. “I can not.”
“Fuck you then!” I roared, whirling around and cuffing him with a wing. “I don’t need you,” I spat, tensing to take off. “I’ll... I’ll...” I had no way of finishing that sentence. “Oh god...” I dropped onto my haunches, tears beginning to flow in earnest, freezing in mid fall as they tumbled off of my muzzle.
There was nothing left. No clever plan. No last moment of inspiration. Wild hope had carried me to Discord’s side, but... but I should have gone with the Las Pegasus option. Sure, my friends and family would still be hours away from annihilation, but at least I’d be too drunk to care. At least without Star Charge, I wouldn’t have had the wild moment of excitement where I so foolishly thought I knew how to save the day.
I dropped to my haunches, wings wrapped around me. They say it is better to love and lose, than never love at all. I’ll tell you now, having no hope at all is so much better than having your last hope extinguished.
I cursed the world in that eternity. Cursed Discord for his powerlessness. Celestia, for her indifference. Pinkie, for wasting herself on me. Equestria, for giving up on humanity. Twilight, for betraying me, and so many others I couldn’t count them all. I cursed the cruelty of fate that had dragged me away from everything that I had ever loved. A fate that set me on a course to watch a tragedy unfurl, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, I could do to stop it.
There was no one left to snap their fingers and fix the world. No prophesy to complete and save the day. No magic spell to uncover and banish evil once more.
Equestria had failed, and Earth would pay the price.
“Alexis, what is chaos?” Discord interjected. The draconequus sat next to me. No floating chairs, no imposible dimensions, he simply sat. In a way, that was more disturbing than anything else.
“Bad puns and sight gags, as far as I can tell,” I grumbled.
“Well, I do pride myself on my sense of humour,” Discord said, buffing his talons on his puffed out chest. “But there’s so much more.”
I shot him a dirty look. “What, like cotton candy clouds, flying houses and blue flu?”
“Oh, that one made it through, did it?” Discord grinned. “I had such fun with that song. I do feel it needed a reprise, though.”
I didn’t have the energy to stop him. “Whatever.”
“Spoil sport. Chrysalis got a reprise,” he pointed out, sticking out his tongue. “Another time then. Alexis, what is chaos?”
My glare intensified. “You already asked that,” I snapped. He just wiggled his eyebrows at me, leaning dangerously close. “Oh fine!” I pushed him away. “Chaos is destruction, disharmony. Entropy.”
“Entropy? Oh no,” he bared his fangs in a hunters smirk. “I have many titles, but entropy is not one of them. I have never been a slave to destiny.”
I wanted to turn away then. There was no hope. There was no plan. I couldn’t bear to believe and fail yet again.
Yet...
“Slave to destiny,” I echoed, as the wheels began to turn. Discord was the spirit of chaos, but chaos in Equestria, like so many things, was not the same as chaos on Earth. In my universe, under the laws of physics, chaos is bound by entropy, to a single destination, to a single destiny.
Equestria had destiny. Six mares had found themselves thrown together by fate to fulfill an ancient prophesy a thousand years in the making. They would always become friends. Destiny had borne down on them their entire lives, driving them to be the mares fate wanted them to be. The mares who would save the world. Their bonds had been through trials of fire, but only one had ever given them a chance not to be friends.
Discord was the only villain that had ever given them them option to jump the tracks.
“Alexis, what is chaos?” he repeated, the only sound in the entire universe.
“Choice,” I said, simply. “The power to do what you chose to do.”
He grinned. “And your boon?”
I turned to him, fanning my wings. “I want to save Earth.”
“Done.” He snapped his fingers, and my flank flared with light.
I found myself standing in the sun soaked halls of the Palace, with no clear idea how I got there. Warmth flowed into me, and I began shivering, my teeth rattling from the intensity, as my body caught up with just how cold I was.
“Hey, Alex!”
I stamped my hooves, my wings and coat steaming as frozen air sublimed off of me, and turned to face Star Charge.
“There you are,” he continued, then frowned as he looked me up and down. “Did Discord take you to the arctic, or something?”
I shuddered, more frost falling from me. “No, much worse. He took me...” I petered out as I realised that he was staring at my flank. “Do you mind?” I snapped.
“You have a cutie mark,” Star gasped. “How did you get a cutie mark from Discord?”
I twisted around myself, trying to get a good look. It was a simple mark in the end, an unbroken rainbow ring, the colours looping around on themselves in an eternal cycle. Some small part of me, my inner filly I guess, was jumping up and down with excitement, and a warm glow seemed to fill me.
I had a cutie mark. And I’d earned it too. It was a nice feeling.
“We must never tell the CMC about this,” I told Star, deadly serious.
He nodded. “Agreed. What does it mean, though?”
The knowledge was like ice, cold, slippery and alien in my mind. I could not fault it’s effectiveness, though. Discord hadn’t dropped a plan, or even a solution, in my mind, but the crumbs certainly sparked ideas.
I drew a deep breath of aether, and spread my wings wide. There was a crack, and a sudden reek of ozone as my magic rebounded off the barrier.
“Ah, damn it,” I swore, folding my wings closed again. They ached like I’d just done a kilometer sprint. “Okay, so we need more power than that.” I flexed my primaries. “A lot more power.”
“What?” Star demanded, his horn lit. “What did you just do?”
“No time,” I told him, grinning from ear to ear. “I actually have plan, Star. A real, honest to goodness plan, one that was all my idea and might just work.” I punched the air. “And you have no idea how good that makes me feel. Come on, I’ve got to go yell at the Princesses!”
I set off at a gallop. Star Charge groaned and followed along in my wake, again.
It took just a few minutes to find the Princesses. One of the duties of the Royal Guard is to act as guides to the Palace, and it’s surprising how much information you can get out of someone if you ask the question at full sprint. The war room was in an understated part of the Palace, with ceilings just two stories high, and a pair of guards crossed their pikes before the door.
“Viceroy of Human Affairs,” I lied, sliding to a stop along the polished marble. “I’m late.”
The pair glanced at each other. One shrugged, and they raised their pikes. I hurried past.
“Thanks, guys.”
The doors glided open, their size belying the ease with which they could be moved, and I was fortunate they didn’t slam. Even so, a dozen ponies turned as I entered the room, looking up from a great round table littered in notes, maps and arcane devices. Half were in armour, or fatigues, or some kind of uniform. The rest were a spattering of high ranking political types, and, of course, Celestia and Luna, radiant in their regalia.
“I know what to do,” I announced, raising my voice and silencing any voice of protest. “I know how to save Earth.”
“Viceroy Alexis,” Celestia said, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she regarded me. “You were not invited to this meeting.”
I ignored her. “The barrier is an aether based spell,” I pressed, hurrying up to table. “That’s why it took so many unicorns to punch a hole between realities. A pegasus could do it. Rainbow Dash did do it with the sonic-boom/rainbow combination.”
Celestia shot me a flat look. “That hole has been sealed, Viceroy,” the ice on her final world sent shivers running down my spine. “And Princess Twilight is not available to open it again.”
I fought down the urge to run screaming and set my forehooves on the table. Leaning closer I continued. “But that seal could be broken. If a pegasus knew it existed, if she knew how to strike it, if she could muster enough aether, it could be shattered. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about anypony being trapped across the barrier.”
“That would solve much, sister,” Luna pointed out, looking up at Celestia.
Celestia’s look was completely neutral. “If it were possible,” she pointed out. “But it is not. Channeling that much aether without a focus would exhaust even an alicorn, and there is no pegasus who can fly between worlds.”
I shot her a vicious little grin. Petty? Maybe, but it felt great. “You’re wrong. I can.” I shifted my hips to make sure she could see my new cutie mark. “It’s my special talent.”
A flare of golden magic lit the room as Celestia’s horn flared. “Where did you get that?” she asked, her eyes creeping fractionally wider in what might have been shock.
“It was a gift,” I told her, without a hint of irony. “I can do this, Princess. I can save them.”
A weary sigh escaped Celestia. “No, I wish it were otherwise, but you can not. No matter your ‘talent’--” You could hear the air quotes. “--you do not have the strength to breach the barrier. The power required would be enough to cause a rainboom and, in ten generations, only Rainbow Dash, has been able to marshal that kind of strength.”
I stared at her for a moment, my wings twitching in agitation. There was no deception on that ancient face, though.
“The only one to survive it,” somepony cut in.
Spitfire was wearing a bomber jacket, her sunglasses folded in one pocket, and leaned forwards against the table. She reminded me a lot of Rainbow Dash, all the muscle and athleticism, though tempered by the easy confidence of a born leader. My instincts clashed for a moment, as they tried to figure out whether I was supposed to be sucking up to her, or trying to show her up.
“There are other ways of going that fast, beyond skill. Something like the God Slayer formation,” Spitfire continued, addressing the table. “It was invented by the gryphons during the third invasion. That could get us the aether we’d need to breach the barrier.”
Celestia’s face darkened momentarily. “I am, intimately, familiar with the God Slayer,” she said. I winced as the tension in the room seemed to double, again. No prizes for guessing which ‘god’ the gryphons had planned to kill.
Luna shot another glance at her sister. “I am not, familiar with this technique. What is it?”
Spitfire answered. “It was a trick the gryphons used to level the playing field when Princess Celestia joined the war,” she explained, a slight smirk on her face. “No single flier is able to amass that much aether, certainly not enough to stop an alicorn, but they can all catch a little extra. Get enough gryphons, or pegasi, together and we can focus all the power onto a point. Once it’s there then...” She spread her hooves. “Well, boom, I believe is the general idea.”
“This was effective?” Luna asked, Celestia.
The Sun Princess shrugged. “Two thousand gryphon storm-tamers created a lighting bolt that turned night into day, and leveled the old Canterlot Keep,” Celestia replied, tersely. “It was memorable. However, the technique has not been taught in a century. It was insanely dangerous, to both the casters and those who stood on the same battlefield as the target.”
“Insanity is the Wonderbolts watchword,” Spitfire continued, a smarmy grin on her face. “We dusted off the technique a few years ago, trying to do our own Wonderboom. It never worked out. In the end, a Sonic Rainboom really is unique. But if you only need to get near that power level, then the Wonderbolts can get you there.”
Celestia pursed her lips. Her sister glanced over at her. “Tis a better plan than any so far,” she added.
“Alexis,” Celestia said, fixing me with her gaze. “This is not a minor task, nor is it a safe one. Why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to,” I said, glaring black. “Because I want to save the world.”
She sighed. For a moment I felt that she was looking past me, into a memory, but then it passed. “Captain Spitfire,” she announced. The pegasus sat up straighter. “All our fliers are at your disposal for this mission, we will attempt the breach in two hours.” She fixed me with an inscrutable expression. “And Alexis, good luck.”
A whirlwind of military expediency hurried me through the streets of Canterlot and onto a requisitioned train. The God Slayer required a forty mile run up, and Spitfire had wanted us to be as fresh as possible, at least that was what she’d told me. Spitfire had dropped me off into someone else’s fantasy -- Swiftwing’s at a guess -- the carriage did hold two dozen Wonderbolts halfway into their uniforms, after all. I kind of wondered just where that fantasy was going. I wouldn’t have complained too much if...
A shrill whistle sounded, the jolt of the train knocking me out of my reprieve. Spitfire sat down on the bench across from me. She’d changed into her flightsuit already. “So kid,” she began, “we need to talk.”
I shook myself. “Right, yes, an hour and thirty to go. I guess we’d better get working.”
Spitfire smiled, holding up her hooves. “Yeah, let’s ease up a little there. I want to know a bit about who I’m flying with before anything else.”
“Do we really have the time?” I asked, rubbing my head with a hoof. “There--”
“Yes. Yes we do,” Spitfire interjected, in a tone that brooked no argument. “So, tell me about yourself, kid.”
“I’m almost thirty,” I grunted. Or was, my age as a pony was somewhere in the nebulous young adult band. Spitfire just looked at me as if I were a particularly petulant four-year-old. I huffed and continued. “Fine. I’m Alexis. Viceroy of Human Affairs, at least until this mess is over with, then I’m going to resign so fast Rainbow Dash won’t be able to keep up.”
Spitfire’s easy grin didn’t fade, but her ears twitched in surprise. “Really? Usually, ponies try and run before the life or death adventure.”
I rolled my eyes. “No one ever accused me of being smart.” I shook myself. “But yes, I want to do this.”
“I want to know you’re sure about that,” Spitfire continued, lounging back in her chair. “You heard in the meeting that this plan is insane, right?”
“I thought insanity was the Wonderbolts watch word?” I teased, with a nervous chuckle.
She spread her forehooves and shrugged. “Guilty. No offence, though. Kid, you aren’t a Wonderbolt.” There was no malice or bragging in her tone, just a simple statement of fact. “And this particular stunt has almost killed two ponies, and one of them still isn’t back in the air. Do you know why the Sonic Rainboom is legendary?”
I shook my head.
“Because it’s a killer,” she continued. “Every five years some punk comes along claiming they can break the sound barrier. If they’re lucky they can’t even get close. The unlucky ones, though, they can die in all sorts of messy ways. Hitting their own shock wave, losing the aether stream and ripping their wings off, burning out their primaries and plummeting. You name a way it can go wrong, and somepony has died like that.” I opened my mouth to interrupt, but she forestalled me with a raised hoof. “Even then...” She shook her head, sadly. “Even then, if you can survive to reach the speeds for a Rainboom, you still have the most deadly part of the maneuver left. You have to ignite your own aether stream, which is damn good way of setting your entire body on fire, and ride a controlled explosion of aether magic at insane speeds. This final part is, with one notable exception, fatal. Deadly.” She reached over and prodded me in the chest as punctuation. “As in: Will. Kill. You.”
I pushed her away. “And Rainbow Dash fits into this, how?” I enquired.
“By surviving, despite a two hundred bit pool in the Wonderbolt office on when she’ll finally manage to blow her tail off,” Spitfire sighed, rolling her eyes.
“I’m not trying to do a Sonic Rainboom, though,” I pointed out.
“You’re trying to get damn close,” Spitfire shot right back. “I just want to make this clear. This is not safe. If this goes wrong, it will kill you. If you ignite your aether stream, it will kill you. If any part of this goes wrong, it will kill you, and you will fail. Got that?”
I scowled at her. “I was trying not to think about it.” My eyes widened as I realised I’d said that aloud.
“Think about it.” She fixed me with an iron stare. “Alexis Kingston, are you willing to die trying?”
For a moment, I froze. I guess you never really question what will happen if it all goes wrong. This could kill me. Or rather, it probably would kill me. Was I willing to die for Pinkie Pie? For the Club? For Earth?
“Yes,” I said, softly. Spitfire raised her eyebrows at me. “Yes,” I repeated, louder. “I’ve spent too long being baggage, or the damsel in distress. I’m going to save the world, or die trying.”
Spitfire said nothing, staring at me before suddenly clapping her hooves together. “Great. We can work with that.” She rubbed her fetlocks, a worrying smile on her face. Somehow I feared it was the same look she wore just before giving out hundred-lap punishments. “Now, how are you at flying?”
I shrugged. “Well, I’ve had wings for five months now. So, not bad considering...”
“Not bad as in, ‘you don’t fall out of the sky much’, or, ‘you hold your own’?”
“Second one,” I said, smiling. “I can keep up with the weekend wings. Once, when the chips were down, I managed to break the Wall.”
“Heh, not bad for a rookie, then,” Spitfire continued, jumping off the bench. I wondered when I’d upgraded from ‘kid’ to ‘rookie’. “Right, we’ve got an hour or so for practice, follow me.”
“Practice?” I echoed, blinking. “We’re on a train.”
“And ninety percent of what you’ll be doing is about managing airflow,” Spitfire shot back, her recruit-breaking smile back on her lips. “Come on, I had them hook up a flatbed car and it’s downhill all the way.”
When the train finally screeched to a stop, my wings were aching, my lungs were burning and I’d discovered that true terror was not a mind reading, reality destroying, Changeling Queen. It was a golden pegasus who, despite my near death by falling off a speeding train on a dozen occasions, had managed to teach me more about flying in an hour than I had learned in my life.
“Okay, take five, rookie,” Spitfire called out.
I collapsed into a quivering mess of fur and feathers, hugging the rough boards like they were a long lost friend.
“We’re getting some equipment for you, so you’re free ‘till it arrives,” Spitfire continued. “Go get some fluids.” I grunted, and Spitfire prodded me in the shoulder. “And don’t just lie there. You’ll seize up.”
She leapt down from the carriage without another word. Groaning, I managed to drag myself up onto my hooves, my wings fanned. The train had stopped by a water tower in the foothills of Canterhorn Mountain, and a veritable flock of pegasi were disembarking. The Wonderbolts were dotted amongst them, their gold and blue uniforms easy to pick out from the crowd. They were just a fraction of the crush, though: soldiers, guardsponies and more than a few weathermares, filled out the ranks.
I could feel the rumble of power that mismatched flock represented, a haze of aether hanging like a storm cloud over the field. The unicorns may have had their fancy university, but this was where the pegasi held their power. Not in ancient halls or dusty tomes, but in the muscle and sinew of their bodies. Set against them, I felt no small amount of stage fright. I was tired and thirsty, though, and a couple of guardsponies were rolling out some barrels of water.
I was on my fourth mug when Swiftwing arrived, along with two dozen Club and Ponyville pegasi.
“Alex!” she called, launching herself over the crowd, landing hard next to me and sweeping me into a hug. “You get around. I thought you were just getting out of the hospital today, then I hear you’ve been to Earth and they’re yelling down the telegraph at us about another aether rig. Now though, I find you hanging out with the Wonderbolts.” She disengaged from the hug and prodded me in the chest. “You’ve been holding out on me, girl.”
“Hanging out might be a little strong,” I said, unable to keep a straight face. “Wait, aether rig?”
“Yeah, which seeing Princess Twilight and Co. already took seven, was hard to scrounge up,” Swift continued, dragging me through the crowd. “What happened to the one you got before?”
I shrugged. “It turns out leaving the regulator wide melts a couple critical bits.” In my defence, I had been in shock at the time.
“Urgh, I told Cog he should write a manual. Ah well, here we go.”
A small clearing had formed around the Club pegasi, at the centre, Cog was half inside a pony-sized crate. Swiftwing cleared her throat, and he glanced up, a leather strap in his mouth.
“Cog,” I said, icily.
He spat out the strap. “Hi Alex, I hear we’re saving the world.”
I rolled my eyes, but before I could fit in a clever comeback, Swiftwing cut in. “What is going on anyway? Last I heard was something about Chrysalis invading Earth and Princess Twilight galloping to the rescue.”
“Chrysalis trapped the girls on Earth,” I explained, with a sigh. “Now, to rescue them, I’m getting accelerated up to ludicrous speeds to gather enough aether to punch a hole in the barrier for a rescue mission to get through.” Swiftwing stared at me, opened mouthed. “Oh, and I got a cutie mark.”
She smacked herself on the forehead. “Damn it, Alex! Why can’t I have your life?”
For a moment I wanted to snap at her. My life had an expectancy of about twelve minutes, but Swiftwing wasn’t seeing that. She was seeing the Wonderbolt flightsuits, Sonic Rainbooms, and saving the world, like Rainbow Dash. Her wings didn’t ache from Spitfire’s slipstream practice. She hadn’t had to scream at her monarch just to get anything done. She didn’t have friends trapped in the clutches of a capital ‘V’ Villain who’d promised to kill her.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t want it,” I sighed. Swiftwing didn’t look like she believed me. “Now can you give me a hand getting into this thing?”
“Nah, but I can give you a hoof.”
On that long running joke we began to squeeze me into a spare aether rig. Swift with her usual enthusiasm, and Cog without a word. Neither he nor I seemed willing to bring up our last, disastrous meeting. Earth was on the line, after all.
“Swift, can you--” I began, vainly reaching for a strap. “Swift, what are you looking at?”
“Oh my gosh, she’s coming this way,” Swiftwing gushed, holding her hooves to mouth. “Spitfire. Spitfire’s looking at us. Quick, everypony look awesome... no, radical.”
I must have skipped the part of the pegasus handbook that described how to tell those two apart. Swift did her very best to make herself look confident, poised and ready to take wing at any moment. Overall the effect was to make her look like she’d just stuck her hoof in something slimy.
“Hey, Alex,” Spitfire called, ambling over. “I see you found the special equipment.” She glanced over my shoulder at Cog. “Oh, and you must be Crystal Cog. You know, I didn’t think setting the War Ministry on fire would have caused as much of an upset as you’ve managed.”
“I try my best,” he said with a smirk.
“And...” Spitfire continued, glancing Swiftwing’s way. Swift let out a little squeak, folded her wings flat, opened her mouth and completely failed to say anything.
“Swifting,” I cut in, before Swift managed to put her hoof any further in it. I put a wing across her shoulders. “The Club’s flying instructor, she taught me all I know.”
“Ah, good work there, kid,” Spitfire said, grinning, and held out a hoof. Like a robot, Swift bumped it back. “I’ve taught new flyers myself, and it’s never easy. You’ve done a great job with Alex here.” Swift stood frozen, looking like she didn’t know whether to cheer, or faint, but with the practiced ease of a celebrity, Spitfire continued. “Seems all the good flyers come out of Ponyville these days. You looking to be a Wonderbolt yourself?”
Swift let out a strangled groan, and shrank back.. “I... I’m not fast enough.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, kid,” Spitfire said, with an easy smile. “I have a hundred applications sitting on my desk saying they’re the fastest thing in Equestria, but you need to know flying inside and out if you want to be a precision flyer. Teaching got me closer to being Wonderbolt material than any race.” She turned back to me. “Anyway, Alex, if you’ve got your fancy suit on straight, come with me. We’re about to start.”
I took a deep breath. “Wish me luck, all,” I sighed.
“Knock’em dead, girl,” Cog said, waving.
Swift seemed to be in a world of her own and just mumbled incoherently., Spitfire began to make her way back towards the train, and I broke into a trot to keep up. Behind me, I heard Swift yell. “Cog, I need you to teach me everything you know about flying!”
Spitfire chuckled and shook her head. “Oh, Celestia, was I ever that young?”
“I really hope you weren’t just pulling her leg,” I said, shooting her a pointed look.
“Relax, rookie. I just lit a fire under her,” Spitfire said, shrugging. “Fillies like her need to remember that not everypony in the Wonderbolts was a prodigy. Most of us got there by working our tails off.”
I cocked an eyebrow. Most of my Wonderbolt knowledge was second hand, but I was pretty sure Spitfire had a world record by the time she was Swift’s age. Shaking my head, I said nothing. I couldn’t bring myself to care about Spitfire’s hero complex.
“So, everything working with the suit?” Spitfire continued.
I nodded, taking a short gulp of aether from the breather. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t need the rig. If something went wrong, and I ended up alone in Mexico, well then I’d be glad of the bulky suit.
Spitfire leapt up onto the flatbed carriage. “Alright everypony, and Soarin, listen up!” she yelled at the crowd. A couple of laughs rippled through the crowd. “You all know what you need to do, or at least you should have had it drummed in by now, so I’ll keep this short. This is the big one, ponies.” She fixed the assembled pegasi with a steely glare. “There’s a world we’ve got to save, an evil overlord for us to beat and there’s no fallback plan. I’ll be honest, this is the long shot, the final play. The unicorns have already given all they’ve got and it wasn’t enough.” A ghost of a smirk graced her lips. “But then, you know what everypony always says. If you want it done right, ask the earth ponies. If you want the impossible, then ask the unicorns. If you want the impossible, fast, then you ask the pegasi!” She punched the air. “Now are you ready to save the day?”
The crowd roared in agreement.
“Then let’s get in the air, and get this done!”
The sun was setting with alarming speed as we rode the updrafts into the sky. Equestria lay below me like a map, but I had no time nor inclination to admire it. Instead, I fought to stay as close to Spitfire, and the two dozen or so Wonderbolts, as possible. I wondered just what the general populace was making of the sun setting at three in the afternoon, but really, knew the answer. The message was simple, Celestia was marshaling her power for war.
About bloody time.
A series of cloud markers had been thrown together by the local weather ponies. They traced a hazy line between us and the capital, each a couple of kilometers apart. Waiting at the very end of the trail, if everything had gone to plan, was an airship carrying Celestia and a hundred elite soldiers.
“You’re going to die.”
For a moment, I forgot to flap, and dropped a dozen paces. The pegasi mare was nondescript, with a hazy blue coat that made hard to make out against the sky. I recognised her by the Tudor rose cutie-mark on her flank.
“Good to see you too,” I said, grumbling as I fought to regain altitude.
“This is insane,” Rose continued, her face devoid of emotion. “Even if you don’t die here, Chrysalis will kill you.”
I just shrugged. “I need to do this, Rose. I--”
“No, you don’t,” she snapped, glaring at me. “You don’t have to do anything. You can give up now. No one will care. You can live, Alex. Please, don’t do this.”
“Rose,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve made my choice. I’m going to this.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I could stop you,” she murmured, voice barely audible above the wind. “I could replace you with a drone and spirit you away. It would save your life, and I’d take all the blame.”
I took a deep, shuddering, breath. Rose’s casual mind control references terrified me sometimes, but, right then, I felt sorry for her more than anything else. “I don’t need you to save me,” I said, meeting her tear filled eyes. “I want to do this.”
Rose’s face fell.
“Ready, rookie?” Spitfire called out, dipping her wings to fly alongside me and I glanced her way. By the time I looked back for Rose the sky was empty.
Sighing, I turned to Spitfire. “Yeah, let’s go.”
I fixed my eyes on the distant spires of Canterlot and took a deep breath, letting the aether flow through me. A little magic brushed against the barrier, and I shuddered as all my feathers tried to stand on end. It felt rather like bouncing a ball of lightning off a wall, and then having it near take your head off on the rebound.
“You sure?”
I just nodded. Despite the icy grip of fear twisting my guts, I had the power to help. I could save the world and, in the end, if I just shaved one minute off Chrysalis’ inevitable defeat, then it would have been worth it. Rose would forgive me, someday.
The formation had crept away from me, and I pumped my wings to catch up, dropping into step behind a cone of Wonderbolts. The first section was the easy bit, a warm-up jaunt at a hair under a hundred miles an hour. On a more normal day, that would have been my upper limit but, flying in the magic-rich wakes of the Wonderbolts, it was comfortable, if not easy. To my left and right were the guardsponies and weatherponies, each a bright spot of colour in the twilight sky. They seemed to be straining to keep up.
“FIRST GATE!” Spitfire roared, her aether boosted voice cutting through the roar of the wind in my ears. The flock was too large to pass through the red ring, but the central core, the Wonderbolts and I, slipped through the gap with just a few extra flaps to vector us in on the next marker.
The rest of the formation shifted on its axis as pegasi hurled themselves forwards, the flock going from a loose cloud to a mushroom shape. I sat almost at the back in the ‘stalk’, behind the Wonderbolts, who themselves sat behind a platoon of guardsponies at the centre. A visible shockwave began to form around the head of the formation as we picked up speed. It was hazy at first, but the aether wake was forming fast.
“Holding up okay there, rookie?” Spitfire called out, ducking back.
“More or less,” I said, through gritted teeth. An ache was building in my upper-wing and reaching its way down through my shoulders and across my chest. Airspeed was up to about one twenty and I was feeling the burn.
“Going to need to pick things up a bit, or you’re going to lose the slipstream.”
I took a deep gulp of refined aether, pushing the magic out through my wing, and surged forwards. Spitfire kept pace with a flick of her wings, she seemed to have no problems at all keeping up the breakneck speed.
“You’re going to need a little more than that,” Spitfire pointed out. “Ready to break the Wall?”
Gritting my teeth, I nodded. The shift to high speed had almost killed me the last time I’d tried it. I was flying in a stream of pure aether, though, there wasn’t going to be a better chance to try. Reaching deep I tried to remember that shift between flying with my wings, and using my wings to fly. It was an alien way of looking at flight. Replacing my familiar birdlike flappings with the equivalent of a magical jet engine.
I skipped a beat, throwing my hooves forward into the, now tortuously practiced, aether spike pose. In an instant I began to plummet, losing ground as the air resistance threatened to tear me out of formation. My wings burned with power as I sucked aether out of the air, and I threw out the familiar air shell. For a moment, my wings bit only the still air, until I caught the magic and hurled myself forwards.
“How,” I gasped, accelerating back up to Spitfire. “Was. That?”
She shrugged. “Four out of ten,” she said. My heart, if it hadn’t been about to explode, would have plummeted. “But good enough, I suppose. I need to make a few adjustments.” Spitfire hung a left and slipped in through my airshell, ponyhandling me into a better position. She only gave up with the minute tweaks as we hit the second coloured gate.
“SECOND GATE!” she roared, almost knocking me from the sky from the sheer volume.
A hundred flyers flared out their wings and dropped away, dumping aether into the formation as they shed velocity. A wave of white hot aether swept over and, as one, the formation accelerated, reaching an airspeed of about one fifty. I pumped more power through my wings, as I strained to keep up. My previous flight record lay shattered about a mile back, along with my sanity, and a couple of major bones if the strain from my back was anything to go by.
Spitfire had rejoined the Wonderbolts in formation. Once again I’d drifted out of position, and pushed harder to catch up, dropping into an empty space a dozen meters behind the main flock. I tried to focus on anything but the creak on my wings. Canterlot was growing with alarming speed, and I fancied I could make out the purple envelope of the airship already. That, or I was succumbing to wishful thinking due to a lack of blood to the brain.
“THIRD GATE; KEEP IT TIGHT EVERYPONY!”
The head of the formation disintegrated, eighty ponies dropping out of step and vanishing into our wake. For a moment the shockwave seemed to hang in the air before us. A vast dome of raw power, which collapsed, thundering down on us like water breaching a dam.
The Wonderbolts caught it. Their flight spiraling into a new formation like they were dancers on the stage, the wake wrapping around them like a shawl. My stomach did backflips as the aether in the air doubled, and then doubled again. I had to force myself to slow down as the sudden burst of power almost catapulted me straight through the Wonderbolts. I was even leaving a contrail, slate grey, as I struggled to control the aether flowing through me.
Spitfire and a couple Wonderbolts dropped back, forming a tight cone around me, two in front, four behind. Spitfire was at my right hoof and yelled over the defending roar. “ARE YOU READY, ALEX?”
Forget trusting myself to speak, I thought the wind was going to force my tongue down my throat if I opened my mouth. I just nodded.
“FORTH GATE, BREAK!”
The ring of cloud disintegrated as we screamed through. Most of the Wonderbolts banked hard away from the formation, dumping the strength of two hundred pegasi onto the wings of just seven. Spitfire staggered as she caught the aether, a huge shock cone forming before us, flecks of rainbow light dancing along the fringes. All of us were trailing contrails as we tore through the air, clocking two hundred miles per hour. Canterlot loomed large ahead, the airship standing out like a pimple against the white marble.
“YOU GOT THIS, ROOKIE,” Spitfire bellowed, her limbs trembling. The last gate was just a mile from the airship, a distance we covered about every twenty seconds. There was no room left for panic or fear. I swallowed my gall and we hit the final ring.
“NOW!” The Wonderbolts peeled away and the shockwave hit me like a hammer blow. My forehooves strained against the roar of aether tearing through me.
It was like trying to stand beneath Niagara Falls. The power shook me like a ragdoll, setting my wings ablaze with St. Elmo’s fire, as my forelegs strained against the weight of acceleration. My air shell folded backwards under the pressure, going bullet shaped and a taking on a rainbow hue.
A small, smug part of my brain pointed out that, with Dash away, I was the fastest thing in Equestria. The rest was gibbering in terror, far more worried about the whole 'exploding and dying' thing. Death seemed so much more immediate a worry in the maelstrom of energy, than back in a nice safe train carriage. I could see Celestia before me, standing proud at the prow of the ship, radiant in golden armour, and approaching at terrifying speed.
Black lightning exploded around me as, using an instinct I didn’t know I had, I dumped aether into the barrier. For a moment, the world vanished. I hung in the air, wings frozen in mid beat. Celestia was maybe ten meters from my nose, her expression as inscrutable as ever. It was like universe had shrunk down to just myself and the airship; a hundred meter sphere in a sea of elemental emptiness.
It lasted less than a heartbeat.
The world returned, but it was a very different one. Instead of blue skies of Equestria, the familiar slate grey English haze greeted me.
We arrived maybe a half mile above the ground and, with my momentum sapped by the transit, I began to plummet like a horse-shaped brick. Below us was a major battle. The roar of a high explosive shell split the air, along with the rapidfire chatter of machine guns and the eerie keening of the Changeling’s magic.
My wings beat against the air but, well, there was nothing to bite into. The airship was falling alongside me, the balloon doing little more than providing extra drag, and Celestia was... smiling?
Her horn kindled. Magic roared through my primaries, and then a second sun rose over the horizon.
Whoo! That was fun 
. Seriously though, I don't know how other people like to write, but I tend to build my stories around a couple of core scenes, which then expand out to fill the novel. This chapter I have been looking forward to writing since October. A lot has changed on the way, and the Alex who I thought would be here for the final stretch is unrecognisable compared to the Alex I wrote. She was supposed to be a lot more martial (fun fact, in my original character design Alex would get a cutie-mark of a buckler), and indeed Crystal Cog was supposed to be on that balcony instead of Star Charge. It's funny how things work out in the end, though it was definitely a change for the best.
Now, as I should say every chapter, thank you to Luna-tic Scientist, Thornwing and Lord of Dorkness for their excellent help editing and helping making this story what it is today. For those of you who don't follow my blog, I have three reasons to celebrate this chapter. HiEC got featured last update, and hit a thousand views, and passed the two hundred comment mark! This is awesome for me, I am so happy that people are enjoying reading the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it. This week on the blog for you, I have post on The Dread Mary Sue, which may or may not be controversial 
Oh, and before I go. Answer honestly, how many of you spotted that Alex had her cutie-mark in the cover image?
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Was Celestia using Old Spice for the double sun power?
Fricken' awesome!! That last line!! This was a great chapter.
I know it's an odd thing to fixate on, but I really like the image of Discord hustling them through the Crystal Maze with the manic energy of Richard O'Brien...
I missed it at first and only noticed it when you mentioned a while back that there was an Easter Egg in the picture and took a closer look. I definitely liked the reasoning behind getting her mark, and I think this "reluctant hero" version of Alex is more interesting than the more martial could-have-been version.
I would like to quote myself from the moment I reached the end of the chapter.
You, sir (or madam?), hands down, win the award for the Awesomest Thing I've Ever Seen Celestia Do.
Now I hope that Alexis gets a chance to land one good blow on Chrysalis' smug mug. (Not that she beats her, but that she gets the all important nose-breaking punch.)
The hour of the wolf as come, Alexia fond her self confidence ones again and on the offensive
. I did expect that her ability to break the threshold was going to come up again, but I was not expecting her to consult Discord, but rather from the club it self and go on mission on there own, with out Celestia's help. I was expecting rather that Celestia was too piste to lessen to her suggestion, ho well, all the better to move on to the story I suppose. I'm hoping for a great and epic showdown in the next chapters
.
I saw the cutie mark on the cover art, but I didn't understand what it meant (and at the time I thought it was an Easter Egg of the artist since Alex didn't have one). I really, really should have guessed that her special talent was breaking through barriers. It was foreshadowed to hell, I can think of at least two times she does this (riding the plane to Earth, breaking through the barrier around Twilight's Castle) and it never once occurred to me to be her talent. I thought it would be related to speed.
I guess technically it is.
I've never thought of Discord this way. I always liked the theory that he basically lost on purpose by giving the M6 a chance to win, because if he was at full power it would be guaranteed that he would win and that wouldn't be chaotic enough. I never thought about the corollary that he also gave them a chance to lose, or that it was perhaps the only genuine chance at that since destiny magic was such a major part of ponies' lives. Thank you for that thought.
And thank you for having Alex climb out of her depression, even if she did have to hit rock bottom here. If Alex ends up surviving in this story and doesn't die a sacrificial death (still on the table as the story is written), she definitely will have earned her happy ending.
Though I guess the question will be, what will she do since she will resign? I fully expect at least THAT to stick. Based on what Twilight told her that there is absolutely no way to go back to being human, Star and his outlook is a better fit as leader.
I had, but I didn't think anything of it until you said something.
. . .She got her Cutie Mark, YAY!!!!!
5687325
I agree with everything you've said except that. Star Charge has harassed ponies, he wanted to run the club's changelings out of town, and he wanted to change the club's name to "The New Chances" which is just terrible. Star Charge is a jerk who is all too happy to alienate those who don't agree with his views, more recent actions notwithstanding.
(Reading the Prologue again really brings in view how much stuff's happened since the beginning.)
5688982
img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110914015432/mlp/images/0/0c/Cutie_Mark_Crusaders_yay_S1E17.png
Fantastic
...I still have no idea what-so-ever how I feel about that ending.
Don't get me wrong, I reqognized the fore-shadowing and it made sense, but damn.
Sol freaking Invictus freaking indeed.
Hey all, sorry for being so slow to reply, had a busy few days. Not that I'm going to complain as to why... *cough*
5686243 Well, moving Earth's sun is just silly
5686506 Thanks, I'm so glad to finally write it.
5686508
Ah, I was a Ed Tudor-Pole fan myself, good times. I miss that show still.
Yeah, there are so many wonderful scenes that would have been missed if she'd subscribed to Cog's philosphy, rather than striking out on her own.
5686555 I believe it has been said by Celestia in many stories. "I AM the sun!"
She needs more badass moments in this fandom.
5687041 Yeah, the Club would have been part of this solution (even using the Thunderchild) in my martial Alex draft. In the end though, Alex will always seak to protect people, not lean on them for support. Epic showdown is inbound
5687325
My personal headcanon has Discord always fighting against destiny. It's not a bad way of limmiting his powers either, if you imagine that he can get away with all sorts of zanyness when it doesn't matter, but the more he tries to affect events the less ability he has. It helps match a character that can juggle houses, but can't do more than play a shell game with the Elements.
Star's going to get the Club, there's no way he's letting go now. Alex may stay in her old role as therapist, though, depending on how things go she may still make a break for Las Peagsus and never been heard from again.
5688410 Thanks, though I hope Alex's actions speak louder than her words when it comes to being self centred.
5688982 Cutie Mark Cursaders Interdimensional Travelers YAY!
5689202 Star is an interesting character, more so than I really intended. He's technically grown, but in many ways I think he's become more cunning than a better person. In the early chapters he's very much a mudslinger without much tact, but he's starting to wrap his head around what it means to be a real politician.
5692329 Whoo
There is a cover image?
Well, that's not an ominous chapter title.
5686243
Oh, man. What a way to wrap up a chapter.
During her rant at Celestia, I was surprised that Alexis never demanded to know "if it was true!? Is she your daughter!?
"
True or not, I think asking that question would have momentarily frozen Celestia's heart with shock.
...And then the sun would go supernova...