The Silent War

by Dead_Account_0

Beginnings and Endings

Ponyville was preparing for a storm. Earth ponies and unicorns had toiled all day to clear away loose branches while Pegasi prepared the clouds for the coming storm. The once blue sky was rapidly replaced by seething seas of grey clouds.

Applejack passed a hoof across her forehead as she wiped off a thick sheen of sweat. It had been hard work securing some of the weaker trees in the orchard for the storm, but it was secure them or lose them. In the distance loomed the red wooden panelling of the barn.

"Phewee, that there was a lot of hard work," Applejack said to nopony in particular, "Ah'll be glad to finally get home and get some grub in me." Images of freshly baked apple pie bombarded her mind, but Granny Smith had taken Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom to Manehattan to see the Oranges. They’d asked Applejack to come too of course, but Applejack had had enough of Manehattan to last a lifetime. Oh well, she thought to herself, a nice glass of apple juice and a homemade apple fritter should just about cover it.

It was a long trot across the sea of grass that stood between her and the farm house. Her mind still full of the delicious texture and taste of apple fritters, so much so that she didn’t notice a sudden spark briefly breach the beclouded breadths of the sky. There was no reason to worry anyway; she was feeling good. Nothin’ compares to a day of hard work. The orange earth pony had a spring in her step and a song in her heart, a song that just had to escape. She broke into a whistle to accompany her stride. The upbeat tune propelled her hooves a little faster as she broke into a carefree skip. A second bright light in the sky caught the corner of her eye this time. The whistling instantly stopped as she turned her gaze skywards.

Applejack screwed up her eyes as she focused on where she’d seen the spark."Typical pegasi! Ain’t got the patience to wait til’ everypony’s home!" She shouted angrily at the flashing sky. Another flicker of light broke the cloud cover and barrelled towards the stationary pony. Apple pie forced its way out of her mind as Applejack saw death shooting towards her. With a grunt, she threw herself to the side at the last second as a small metal object smashed into the ground right where she had been stood, throwing up huge clumps of mud. This ain’t no storm! Is it a meteor shower? She thought to herself, Nah, that there object looks hoofmade.

Yet another glint of light broke through the cloud barrier, followed by an assortment of small metal objects trailing red flames. “Oh horseapples.” Applejack’s eyes went wide as the objects powered through the sky towards the farm. "Ah’ve gotta get to the cellar!" Applejack broke into a gallop as she made a beeline for the distant farm house. A loud bang from her left told her that the objects had started crashing. She threw her weight left and barely avoided a metal plate sent spinning from the clouds above. A speeding wheel forced her to dodge right, while a shower of small metal objects pounded the ground behind her. A giant black propeller filled her vision as it fell from the sky ahead of her. She stuck her front hooves into the ground in a desperate gamble to stop. Her rear hooves lifted up and threatened to throw her off balance, but she managed to just force them back down to the ground. The propeller smashed into the ground right in front of her; large plumes of dirt were sent shooting upwards as each heavy object collided with the soft earth.

The heavens themselves started to shake as a colossal bang reverberated throughout the sky. Applejack cast a worried gaze back up towards the sky. Tearing through the clouds was a strange large metallic contraption that belched huge black clouds of smoke as it lurched through the atmosphere. The machine was shedding huge pieces of metal as it slowly twisted onto its side. Every lost chunk was accompanied by a brief burst of bright light. “What the hay is this thing!” Applejack shouted in disbelief. It looked nothing like Pinkie Pie's flying machine, but it somehow managed to fly by itself. Huge wings made it almost look like a colossal bird, but made entirely out of metal. As she watched a large piece on the side burst outwards, and flew straight through the roof of her barn. “Hay!” Applejack bellowed angrily at the beast that roared overhead. Behind the removed panel, two figures, ponies by the look of it, scrambled to hurriedly put on what looked like saddlebags. Once they had the saddlebags securely clipped onto their back, the two ponies jumped out of the door; as they leapt the saddlebags erupted into huge cloth balloons, allowing the two ponies to float off. Applejack watched as the balloons floated towards the thick foliage of the Everfree forest. The metallic bird, however, continued downwards. It barely missed her house before crashing into one of the many hills that dotted Sweet Apple Acres, and started sliding down through the apple trees. In its wake trailed a huge line, carved into the mud deeper than any prow. With another almighty crash, the thing hit the bottom of the hill and came to a stop.

Now what the hay do Ah do? Applejack thought to herself, Ah could get Twilight, she might know what the hay that large metal thingamajig Is, but it’s still on fire; what if it explodes again? Think, Applejack think. Applejack rapped her hoof on her forehead as she tried to wrap her head around what was happening. Maybe Ah should put it out first but there's a storm coming soon that should sort it out... Ah think... hmm. Applejack began to pace as she nervously eyed the flaming bird-thing. A cough suddenly punctuated the crackling of the flames. Applejack didn’t hesitate. She galloped as fast as she could towards the crash site and charged the burning wreckage. Consarn it! It’s gonna take me a heck of a long time to replant all those there trees. No, wait a cotton picking minute. Ah've gotta stay focused; Ah’ve gotta be in and out before the storm starts up. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind when a loud grumble came from overhead, and rain began to pour from the sky. The ferocity of the rain quickly drenched her mane, plastering it to her face. Despite now being partially blinded by her own blond hair, Applejack charged on undeterred. There's the hole those ponies made. Ah can enter through here. Applejack had to duck to get through the partially crushed portal.

Split wires cascaded electricity dangerously close to her face as she crawled along the narrow space. Applejack held her mane to her face with a hoof in an attempt to filter out the thick smoke that filled inside. She dragged herself out of the crawlspace and into an area where the ceiling hadn’t caved in. Up ahead was a large metal door, coughing could be heard on the other side. She pulled the handle, but the door stuck fast. Thunder rumbled overhead again; it sounded dangerously close. She gulped. If there's one thing Twi’s taught me about them thunderstorms: it's to not stand near anything made of metal, but Ah can’t just leave any pony to die. She turned around and performed her patented Apple-buck which sent the door burst flying open. Choking clouds of thick smoke billowed through the open door. The smoke was everywhere.

Applejack couldn't see through the black clouds, but she could still hear the weak coughing.

"Ah'm here to help! Are you alone?" Applejack shouted at the top of her voice.

A voice replied amidst a coughing fit, "No... in the other chair..." Applejack turned and squinted through the smoke, only just managing to make out the outline of a pony in the second seat sat worryingly still.

"Ah can't get 'em out through here! The smoke's too darn thick!”

"Press… blue… on the console." The pony wheezed. Applejack turned to see a load of coloured buttons on a large console, and pressed the blue one as told. The seat carrying the other pony shot out through a hatch that opened up in the ceiling.

"Now get out of here, go!" The injured pony insisted.

The smoke took the opportunity to clear out of the hatch, and quickly cleared enough for Applejack to see the pony's outline, but he was still too obscured to make out any fine details. The pony was a dark blue pegasus, but there were shocks of scarlet all throughout his fur which she quickly realised was blood. The pony was clutching a huge gash along his throat which wouldn't stop bleeding. Applejack panicked; there must be something she could do.

"It's too late for me, run!" The pony tried to shout but ended up just gurgling. A flash of lightning illuminated his face briefly and Applejack instantly recognised it. One of the greatest heroes of the Adventurer Academy, the pegasus who saved Celestia herself from a rabid Ursa Major: Voltage. He saw her clearly too and called out, "The Element of Honesty! This must be fate." Every time he spoke, blood flecked with saliva dribbled down his mouth. "I need you to get my friend, Crosswind, to Princess Celestia! He knows exactly what to do." His voice grew gradually quieter as he spoke, concluding with a whisper. "Only Celestia must know... about him... please... tell... her." His head drooped and his hoof dropped, causing more blood to run down his chest from his throat matting his beautiful fur.

Applejack was speechless. She had just met one of the greatest heroes in Equestria, and watched him die. A niggling thought reminded her that she needed to get out of there, but she still took a few minutes to honour Voltage’s passing. With a solemn nod, she turned around and clambered through the hatch. She took a lungful of the clear night air along with a bounty of rain from the skies, but she didn’t care. After cooling her strained throat, she turned to see the chair that she had sent through the hatch. A grey pegasus with a frazzled black mane lounged unconscious in the chair. Scratches and cuts covered his body, but the wounds seemed mostly superficial, other than the massive bruise on his head which was a nasty purple colour. She grabbed him from his chair and balanced him on her back. A bolt of lightning shot wildly to the ground and hit an apple tree just in front of her. Applejack took that as a sign to start a mad dash back to the farmhouse as fast as she could. Every bolt of lightning made her wince as her hooves pushed her onwards. With a sigh of relief she leapt into the building and pulled the door behind her. As she closed the door, a bolt of lightning hit the metallic monstrosity that marked the grave of a great hero. The thing exploded in a brilliant blast of orange light, leaving only a massive crater as evidence of it having ever existed.

Unseen to Applejack, a pair of black equines emerged from the forest just in time to see the lightning take out the wreckage.

"There’s no way that anything survived that," One of them said to the other.

"Yes, I think we can chalk this mission up as a success.” The other beamed a wide smile, showing its sharp fangs, before taking to the air on a pair of green wings. “Race you to the Academy."

"Bring it!" The two equines buzzed off into the distance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jasmine had been waiting for this moment for her entire life. After writing a constant stream of letters, she finally got approved for a meeting with the administrator of the Adventurer Academy. This is it, she thought anxiously, my one shot, my one chance to fulfil my dream and become a mighty adventurer. At least I hope they asked to see me for my adventurous flair and enthusiasm, and not just because I'm a zebra. Her mind cast back to the playground where she was mocked constantly; she shivered at the memories. No, this is my chance to be a hero! She trotted across the threshold and into the marble hallways of the academy. It looked exactly as she had pictured it during those trying schooldays: huge marble corridors lined with statues of famous ponies. She noticed a sultry looking female statue with a single red rose on its head. There's Rosé who charmed the evil unicorn Bezel into releasing control of the hamlet of Ponyton Plough. Twisting around, she saw a large earth pony with a sword on its waist. And there's “The Blade”, he defeated the necromancer Hagitha. Her excitement exploded when she saw a statue of a pegasi wearing a pair of thick black goggles. And there's Voltage! The pony who saved Celestia herself from a rabid Ursa Major, a living legend.

Jasmine hopped from statue to statue, doting on each one briefly as she recalled their adventures from the stories she had read. Each one of them had saved pony lives and Equestrian soil from all matters of monstrosities. She lingered briefly on six small statues that represented the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony, before finally arriving at the administrator’s office. As Jasmine reached towards the door with her hoof to knock, she was hit by a pang of guilt. Normally her father would place a hoof on her shoulder and reassure her that everything was all right, but she feared she had broken his heart. He had always disapproved of her adventuring dreams.

"They're just stories," he used to say. "Do you know how many ponies survive their first year? 1 in 4 ponies either drop out or fall in action!" Just that morning she had stormed out after another of such arguments. He had seen the letter with the two golden A’s. He knew what it had meant. There had been begging, there had been screaming, and it had all ended in tears. “You don’t have to prove yourself to everypony else, Jasmine, you’ve already proven yourself to me.”

"I'm sorry, dad," she whispered to herself, "Sometimes you just have to follow your dreams." She reached out with her hoof to knock.

Suddenly the door burst open throwing her backwards onto the floor. In the doorway a red unicorn the size of Celestia stood proud and tall with her back to her. "This is of the utmost importance Quillius, I want to mobilise tomorrow."

A voice from inside the office replied in a slightly irritated tone, "Fine, I'll appoint three teams of our most trusted ponies, but we still don't know enough about the enemy to commit to any serious action." He sighed deeply. "But I trust you Blaze, your instincts have saved my life on enough occasions to know to stick with them."

"Thank you Quillius, these rumours are too pervasive to be mere chance. One big hit and maybe we can end this blasted war.”

"Yes, yes. I’m sure that we’ve got this. Now out off with you, shoo!" Quillius motioned towards the door with his hooves before sighing deeply and sitting back down.

Blaze stepped out of the doorway and almost tripped over the prone form of Jasmine. "Whoa!" She attempted to steady herself. "Umm... excuse me, but why exactly are you lying on the floor?" Blaze crouched down to examine the pony in detail.

Jasmine's tongue felt like paper as she strained to speak. After a few seconds, she managed to say just two words, "The door."

"The door?" Blaze looked quizzically at her and then it dawned on her. "Oh my apologies, I didn't realise, here." Blaze's horn glowed a bright red and Jasmine felt herself begin to float in the air as she was placed back in a standing position.

"Oh.. uh... thanks," Jasmine murmured, suddenly gaining great interest in her hooves.

"If you need any help in the future just remember; you can call on Blaze." Blaze announced and started to trot away.

When Jasmine finally got over the shock of meeting one of her heroes, she tapped lightly on the office door.

"Yes, yes, please come in." The voice from earlier called out. Jasmine carefully opened the door with her hoof and entered the large office. Despite how large the room was, it seemed almost claustrophobic. All the walls were lined with bookcases and filing cabinets. Small tables were dotted throughout the room, and every available surface was covered in open books and pieces of paper.

Sat at the largest desk in the middle of the room was a short but rather rotund yellow pony. He was wearing a pair of small half-moon spectacles on the edge of his nose, and had a quill tucked behind his ear. A short horn protruded through his even shorter light blue mane. His cutie mark was an open ledger with an inkpot and quill. The pony beamed a smile and offered a hoof. Jasmine placed took the hoof and gave it a tentative shake. "You must be the letter writer, Jasmine Dhula. My name is Quillius Scrib, and I am the current administrator of the Adventurer Academy, but I'm sure you already knew that," He boomed in a loud and rather impressive voice. "I read your application and, frankly, I’m quite impressed. You would be a welcome addition to the Academy despite your lack of cutie mark. We have had zebras in the Academy before, but not in decades; not since the great zebra hero, Grey Stripe, who saved Canterlot from a rampaging dragon, and that's only because of my bigoted predecessor, Big Bucks. He wouldn't admit to being saved by a zebra, instead blaming her for summoning the dragon rather than his inept son. She was forced to live in exile as a result.”

Quillius sighed and stood up from his chair. "But you should find it most welcome here, we try to teach a message of tolerance now that I'm in charge." Quillius announced as he trotted over to another large book. His horn lit up with an orange aura and the book opened on a certain page. He briefly lifted it to its face and scanned the contents with a nod; he then twisted it around and laid it in front of the zebra. "I'll need you to sign here please, and here and here." He said levitating the quill towards her and pointing to three blank spots in the ledger.

Jasmine took the quill with her teeth and penned her name as neat as she could. "Is that neat enough?" She asked.

The administrator peered intently at the scribbled words, before breaking into a smile. "That's very impressive calligraphy from a non-unicorn." He nodded appreciatively before continuing, "Your mentor will be Crosswind, a pegasus who is quickly gaining a name for himself throughout Equestria. You'll probably find him in the storeroom with the Quartermaster. Give him this." Quillius handed her a scroll sealed with a large golden Q. "Good luck, Jasmine." He waved her off with his hoof, opening the door with a spark from his horn.

"I can't believe those clowns fell for the old copycat manoeuvre, I mean I thought that pegasus took out the Wormvale Sect.” A pegasus that looked exactly like Crosswind laughed crudely.

"Yeah, all it took was getting them onboard the Academy jet with that chaff about a chimera in Hoofdale." The Quartermaster laughed back. A knock on the door silenced them both. The Quartermaster cautiously opened the door seeing Jasmine standing there sheepishly.

"What do you want?" He growled in a slightly menacing tone. Jasmine's tongue twisted into a knot at the sight of this huge Brown Earth Pony with a cutie mark of a stack of boxes on his flank.

Manners, Merch!" Crosswind chided as he trotted over to the doorway and saw the young zebra.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed having never seen a zebra before. "What's with the stripes?" He eyed her suspiciously.

"Don't you remember me, Crosswind?" Jasmine felt hurt, was she really so insignificant to the hero who saved her father's life.

"Uhh..." Crosswind had a reputation for never forgetting a face, and he couldn't blow his cover. "Is that scroll for me?" He pointed to the scroll she was holding in her mouth. "One of Quillius's by the look of it." He said as she handed him the scroll. He unfurled it and read through. Another apprentice? Now? Crosswind began to panic. This can't happen now! Not when our plans are so close to fruition! But Quillius has signed it. There’s no way that I can't reject her without revealing myself.

"Is something wrong?" Merch boomed in a deep voice as he noticed his friend's discomfort.

"No, No... everything's fine." Crosswind quickly memorised the name on the scroll. "Jasmine here is to be my apprentice," He said, attempting a smile "Welcome to the team, Jaz." He held out a hoof. She took his hoof and they shook somewhat awkwardly.

"You'll be bunking with the kid... uhh... Rhubarb Whirl, she's the third member of our team.” Crosswind stopped in the hallway and pointed towards a door. "I'll be just in here if you need me," he said as he entered the door opposite. Jasmine entered her room, and was immediately stunned by how bright it was. Vivid red paint coated the walls and a brilliant blue ceiling mirrored the sky. The large room was obviously once a bunk room for many, but only two beds remained. There was junk everywhere. Toys lay sprawled across the floor as well as screwed up bits of paper. To Jasmine, it looked a lot like her own bedroom back home. She sighed loudly as memories of her dad began to resurface again.

A small Pony suddenly appeared in front of her with a poof of smoke. "Pick a card, any card!" She practically screamed. Jasmine flinched backwards, almost tripping up as theatrical smoke filled her eyes.

"Wha..." she spluttered but was quickly cut off.

"Pick a card." said the Pony again. The smoke cleared and Jasmine saw a red and blue unicorn filly magically holding out a deck of cards with her eyes closed. Jasmine shrugged and picked a card at random with her mouth. She transferred it to her hoof and looked at it. The seven of Diamonds.

"Okay I've got one." Jasmine stated humouring the filly. The unicorn shuffled the deck with the magic from her horn and pulled out a card at random. Without looking she held out the card to Jasmine. "Was it the four of Spades?"

Jasmine looked at her card and saw the four of Spades, but she was sure she had picked out the seven of Diamonds. "Did you just magically alter my card?"

"I swapped them!" The filly beamed at her.

"Doesn't that ruin the point of guessing?"

"I'm trying to work it into a bigger trick, I just needed to test that it worked."

Jasmine noticed underneath her pink cloak was a cutie mark of three playing cards side by side facing away from her. "I see you do a lot of tricks." Jasmine pointed at her cutie mark.

"Guilty as charged; Rhubarb Whirl is the name and tricking opponents is my game." Rhubarb bowed low before rising with an outstretched hoof. Jasmine went to shake it when electricity coursed through her veins. Rhubarb Whirl burst out laughing as she held out a joy buzzer. Jasmine sighed from her position on the floor. This is going to be a long night.

Comments

[Bloodpool]

*Sigh*
Yet another Chrysalis/changeling fic. Excuse me while I smash my head against the desk.

[JustAnAveragePony]

Good story so far! Cant wait to see where this goes!

[Dead_Account_0]

544344 This is actually a remake of my very first fic. Originally the enemies were cultists, but due to the success of "Past Sins" at the time it was shot down for being "unoriginal." The Changelings actually make considerably more sense than cultists so it's better this way anyway. Thanks for not down voting regardless.

544397 Great, I was worried that it'd suck compared to what I'm writing at now, but I think I managed to revamp it enough so that's not an issue.

[Charles Rocketboy]

More fun and boys-own adventure than I was expecting from the synopsis - I'm interested, especially since we know what Jasmine doesn't know. (Minor quibble: how could Equestria create semi-real world planes and then use them for secret missions? They're big and noisy, everyone pegasus would go "what's that?")

[Dead_Account_0]

544435 Yeah, all the synopsises (synopsi?) I came up with sucked, bad. Then I came up with this gem and although it doesn't quite fit the story yet, it should do at some point. The Adventurer Academy were originally planned as a sort of "X-Men" of Equestria. Although that idea has been majorly edited, I wrote the plane scene and loved it too much to scrap it. The Adventurer Academy do have access to top-grade equipment, and that plane was an example of that.

[Wilhelm]

544344
img.ponibooru.org/_images/133534ef51e4a094d1e32b75108be2d8/173083%20-%20Cadence%20macro%20OP_is_a_pony.png

[Bloodpool]

544421 I think cultists sounds alot better than changelings, for one reason: They could be Cthulhu cultists!
google.co.uk/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://www.andysowards.com/blog/assets/CTHULHU_by_reau.jpg&sa=X&ei=okGlT_ntHqO_0QXH9JCRBA&ved=0CAoQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNELBYFSaeHpByBZzWB0bjBs1QEejQ

[Dead_Account_0]

547560 Nightmare Moon Cultists was the original plan. They were set on causing a second Lunar war by indoctrinating officials and worming their way into all positions of the government. It makes more sense to have Changelings killing off officials and replacing them with their own. Indoctrination is normally a timely and untrustworthy process. Cthulu cultists would have been funny, so people would've taken it less seriously... this is a pony fic though, so that might have been more appropriate.

[Bloodpool]

547816 Cthulhu is 1000x better than changelings.

Overall, the story's not that bad. It's just that I've seen alot of chyrisalis/changeling fics lateley.
It's getting a tad repetative.