My Arcadian Pony

by Ecthelion_Yuda

Chapter Two

Luna awoke several hours later in a small metal room, completely grey and dull, devoid of any grandeur. If not for her impressive ability to see in minimal light (thanks to her life as guardian of the night) nothing would be at all visible. Luna got to her feet, only to find that something about her was different. Her front legs now seemed much shorter than her hind legs, and there seemed to be bizarre appendages sprouting from her hooves. Luna was terrified; she reared back in a most undignified manner, only to find that she felt more comfortable standing only on her back legs. Letting this body begin to feel itself, Luna registered a peculiar joint where her shoulder was. Experimenting with this new body, Luna extended her front legs out in front of her and then out to the sides. Naturally she should never have been able to do this, but for some reason she now could. But what was even stranger was the slight shimmer she felt on her brow. She stretched up her now seemingly omnidirectional front leg and patted her forehead with her masticated hoof. Luna wailed for about ten seconds before recomposing herself. Her horn was gone. Checking that everything else was in full working order, Luna extended her wings. They were still there, thankfully, but due to the cramped nature of the room she was in her wings stopped after moving about six inches out to the sides.

Luna was terrified. Nothing made sense to her anymore: her body was not her own, this room was alien to her and she felt so very alone. Suddenly, a loud noise the likes of which Luna had never heard before broke through her stunned silence and brought her attention back inside the room. There were loud bangs and explosions not too far off. In the darkness, Luna could just make out the shape of a door vibrating as a particularly loud explosion erupted relatively close to her. There were shouts and bizarre metallic buzzes and whirrs but more than anything was the semi constant hammering noise, like carriage wheels traveling very quickly over cobbles. Ratatat, ratatat, ratatat. The noise was drawing closer every second and Luna backed as far into the corner behind her as she could go. She heard hoof-steps just beyond the door and a male’s voice, muted by the thickness of the door could be heard.

“Yootah! Can you give me a little fire power over here?”

A blinding flash of purple light was soon followed by a crash of metal striking metal. Light poured into the dingy cell where Luna had been kept and a shadow stood in the doorway. It was bipedal, quite tall with what seemed to be a very shaggy mane perched on the top of its head. It extended a hoof to Luna and she took it, wrapping the weird new limbs around this creature’s hoof. Using only her hind legs, Luna sprinted with the new creature out of the cell.
The corridor in which Luna found herself was also made out of a dark grey metal. Square panels of different sizes made up the walls and ceiling. Buzzing lights stretched out all along the ceiling, running right down the centre of the corridor. The new creature still held on to Luna’s hoof tightly as he turned to her.

“Do your wings work?”

Luna was slightly shaken by the creature. There could be no doubt that this was the same voice that she had heard through the cell door, but she had expected some kind of stallion. The look of pure confusion on Luna’s face prompted the creature to ask a second time.

“Can you fly.”

Still not fully in control of her faculties, Luna nodded ascent. She spread her wings to their full length and took off. Her body pitched forward and she began to fly ahead of the new creature with her belly facing the ground. She heard the creatures hoof beats stop and soon he was in the air next to her, flying unaided by wings. Then, out of nowhere a second one appeared flying backwards and launching beams of purple light into the corridor behind Luna and her flying companion. From a turn-off up ahead Luna heard the crackling of lightning, followed by more of the strange rattling noise (ratatat ratatat ratatat). A third creature stepped backwards into the corridor and lightning flew from his hands as it did from a storm cloud. The creature that was flying behind Luna began to shout at the creature flying beside her.

“Caterwaul, you go on ahead. We found another eight people here, but it doesn’t look like there are anymore. The other eight hostages are in the QuickSilver. We’ll finish up here, you get them out.”

The creature flying with Luna (was he Caterwaul?) grunted and flew faster, almost dragging Luna with him. After a few turns, Luna and Caterwaul were in a huge metal box. The room was perfectly cube shaped except for three large objects in the centre. One was black and red, with bizarre metal protrusions all over it. Another was blue and white, smaller than the first but equally as peculiar. But the one towards which Caterwaul was heading was green and sliver. It looked somewhat more majestic than its sisters and it had an air of grace about it. One of the walls on the green object slid down so that it lay in the floor and Caterwaul pulled Luna inside. The wall shifted back up into position as Caterwaul let go of Luna’s hoof.
Around Luna sat a strange array of creatures. All of them looked highly similar, except the colours of their manes were different. One had white, another had purple, another pink, another rainbow, another had a mix of purple and pink, another was blonde, and the final one had a long flowing mane made of many different pastel colours. It reminded Luna of her sister’s mane. The one with Celestia’s mane smiled broadly and hobbled towards Luna.

“Oh, my dear Luna. I’m so glad that you’re safe!”

Luna took a step back. The voice was familiar, more than familiar, but there was no way that this monstrosity before her could be Celestia. It wasn’t possible! And yet…Luna glanced down at her own body. It was out of proportion, with strange curves near her breast and plot that were totally foreign to her. Her legs were completely misshapen and she resembled one of the creatures that had rescued her.

“Ce..Celestia?”

Her sister wrapped her front legs around Luna and hugged her tightly. Luna copied her sister and the two stood in silence for a few seconds before the ground began to shake.
All nine ponies were knocked to the ground by the sheer force of the earthquake. They were screaming and holding each other, just waiting for it to end. A crackly metallic voice filled the chamber in which the ponies now lay. It was Caterwaul.

“Sorry ladies. I should have warned you to buckle up before take-off. This is not going to be a smooth ride, so please, grab onto something.”

With incredible G-force the vessel in which the ponies lay shot forward out of the place made of metal and into the night sky. Without slowing, the vessel turned to the left and a strange buzzing noise came periodically. Then, without warning the vessel began to rock as though a bull were ramming the side repeatedly. Luna looked out through a window and saw the two other vessels that had been stationary moments ago flying towards them. Caterwauls voice came into the room again.

“Ladies, time for the fireworks display.”

A small asteroid behind them began to twinkle slightly. Luna stared long and hard at it before realising that mere moments ago, she had been trapped in a cell on that asteroid. Suddenly, the twinkling became brighter and brighter, until the entire asteroid was covered by a huge ball of flame. The asteroid had been engulfed in fire and there was no doubt that all that would remain would be a small cloud of ash floating in space. A different voice came into the room: Metallic like Caterwauls, and male still, but with a different tone and accent.

“See you in Hell Discord, you bastard!”

Luna stared at the raging inferno behind them. Everything began to slide into place. Discord had captured them, brought them to that asteroid and locked them away. And now that asteroid had been destroyed it could only mean one thing.

Discord was dead.

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