• Published 6th Jul 2015
  • 2,303 Views, 99 Comments

The Reject Chronicles - Darth Pestilence



All Mason, Robert, and John wanted to do was have fun at a convention. That's all they wanted! But when they purchased items from a mysterious being they are sent to a foreign world. And thus, the adventure of a lifetime began. (Now cancelled)

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The Monsters of Everfree (EDITED)

Princess Celestia frowned as she read the Canterlot newspaper, The Equestria Daily.

Proof that Monsters of Everfree summoned by Nightmare Moon!

After the personal student of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and five other mares were attacked by previously unknown sentient creatures, now commonly referred to as ‘The Monsters of Everfree’ in the infamous forest of the same name, the aforementioned Princess sent a total of 150 guards into the dank, dark woods to apprehend them. Since the group of mares that were attacked became the bearers of the legendary Elements of Harmony, the creatures have become an even greater focus for public concern, leaving many ponies speculating. Among one of the more frequently floated about queries is, ‘Could they have been summoned by Nightmare Moon to kill the Element bearers?’ Recent findings of the guards supports an affirmative answer.


Private Flash Sentry, a rookie amongst the guardsponies combing through the Everfree Forest, was found unconscious and high up in a tree after he mysteriously disappeared from his patrol unit of seven. Upon thorough questioning by his superiors after he was sent to Ponyville Hospital for examination, he revealed that the creatures dragged him away and interrogated him before knocking him out and placing him in said tree.


However, though he couldn’t get in a good hit for Equestria upon their hideous, diamond-dog like forms, the good private was able to uncover a crucial piece of information in support of the theory that all three of the Monsters of Everfree were spawned pawns of Princess Luna’s evil half.


One of the creatures asked him if Ms. Sparkle was alright.


Now, while this factoid may seem a bit innocuous to the average reader, consider the context. Given the violent, dangerous nature of the beast, it might as well have asked if it had finished the job it had started by forever impairing Ms. Sparkle’s eyesight and had successfully completed its task to dispose of her. After all, if it was not summoned here for murderous purposes, why would it care enough as to Ms. Sparkle’s condition as to risk the wrath of the guard?


Now, many of you are no doubt wondering why, considering its vile, evil nature, it left Private Sentry alive upon discovering its failure.


To that, dear readers, I say that we can only speculate, at present.


What can no longer be mere speculation, however, is the now undeniable truth that Nightmare Moon was responsible for these creatures and the proceeding logic that the Monsters of Everfree must be either captured or put down before they can wreak further havoc upon our fair nation.

"Sister?"

Celestia looked up at Luna, who was sitting across from her. "Yes, Lulu?"

"Is everything alright? Thou hast hardly touched thy breakfast," Luna asked.

"I'm fine, Luna. It's just that I have a lot on my plate."

"We are guessing that your frustrations have something to do with that newspaper?"

"You'd be correct. Here, take a look." Celestia levitated the newspaper over to Luna, who pulled it out of her sister's magical grasp and started reading. By the time she had finished, she had a similar frown adorned on her muzzle.

"We assume that this article is referring to the beasts that harmed the six mares that purified us?" Luna asked.

"Yes. Now, not only have they harmed my student, but they have managed to evade some of my best guards. Day Court is going to be a nightmare. I’ll have to contend with the nobles pestering me about petty matters as well as many of my subjects coming to ask me about these mysterious creatures," Celestia answered.

"We do not remember summoning them, but we would not doubt it if our evil self did such a thing. If you wish, we can enter their dreams and find out where and what they are."

"Luna, you and I both know that you aren't strong enough for that yet. Even so, that won't be necessary. We ourselves do not need to get involved unless these three prove to be a threat to our nation, no matter what the press thinks of them. Unless that happens, let the guards perform their duties in Everfree."

"Of course. We will respect thy judgment." Luna let out a loud yawn.

Celestia giggled. "It sounds like you're ready for bed, Lulu. You should go on and get some rest."

"Alright, Celly. See you at dinner." Luna stood up and exited the dining hall.

Once Luna was gone, Celestia stood up and teleported to her personal study. She levitated a quill and parchment over and wrote a letter to Twilight. She sent the letter to her and walked out. 'It's time to get ready for Day Court. Oh joy.'


Twilight opened her one eye and let out a yawn. She got out of bed and looked at herself in her bedside mirror. She saw that her mane and tail were a bit messy and quickly brushed them into her normal style. Once she was done, she put the brush down and examined herself one more time. Even though her appearance was mostly normal, her eye was inevitably drawn to the one abnormality gracing her features: the eyepatch.

After the Mane Six returned from the battle against Nightmare Moon, Twilight was rushed to the hospital to have her eye treated. The doctors did all they could, but they were unable to save it and had to remove it from its socket. So, they gave her a purple eyepatch to match the color of her coat until they found a more permanent solution. IF, they could find one.

When the doctors had announced that she would never see out of that eye again, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had immediately offered to go into the forest and beat the living daylights out of their assailants, and Spike, ever her number assistant, had offered to burn the forest down. Twilight had been touched to know that her new friends and her old one cared about her so much.

But, as she continued looking at the mirror, Twilight could only scowl as her now single eye rested upon the eyepatch. Everytime she saw it, she was reminded of the three humans they encountered in the forest. Especially the one that gave her the injury.

“I can't wait until he and his friends are caught. Once that happens, we'll pay them back for what they've done. Oh, will we pay them back. And, after they've served their terrible, terrible sentence, maybe the Princess will let me study them, painfully! Maybe even through dissection! Yay!'” Twilight smiled at the thought of all the information she could gather from them, her spirits suddenly rising like a phoenix from the ashes of its former body.

She walked downstairs and looked around at her library. "I haven't been here since Pinkie's party. I better fix this place up! The books need to be rearranged and breakfast needs to be made. And I also need to cram in as much studies on magic as possible during my free time. Hmm... Spike can help me!"

"SPIKE! WAKE UP!" Twilight shouted.

"*Yawn* I'm coming, Twilight!" Spike answered. Twilight smiled at the sight of her number one assistant waddling down the stairs.

"Yes, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"I need you to cook breakfast, and once you've finished with that, I need you to rearrange all of the books. Can you do it?"

Spike groaned and said, "Yes, Twilight."

Twilight grinned and pulled one of her books about spellcasting off one of the shelves. She faintly heard Spike walk into the kitchen to make breakfast while she practiced some of the beginner spells in said voluminous tome, ‘A guide to Offensive Spell Casting.’ She was reading up on piercing spells when Spike ran back into the main room with breakfast in his claws.

"Here you go, Twilight," Spike said.

"Thanks," Twilight responded, not looking up at the young drake. She quickly ate the pancakes that Spike made for her and dove back into the book. "Let's see… the key to casting a proper piercing spell is-"

"Twilight!" Spike shouted.

Twilight looked up from her book. "Yes?"

"You stayed up to read off the spells in that book since you came back from the hospital yesterday! You need to take a break! You haven't been involved with your friends since we had to sort out that the incident with the Gala tickets yesterday, and that wasn't a pleasant visit. You’ve barely just got here, so don't go right back to reading books, go out and make some friends!" Spike said, concerned for his caretaker/sister.

"*Sigh* You're right, Spike. I'll finish learning this piercing spell later." Twilight slowly closed the spell book.

"That's another thing: why are you always trying to learn offensive spells now? It doesn't have anything to do with that creature that took your eye out, does it?"

"Pretty observant today, aren't we?" she joked. "But yes, that's exactly why I've been studying so hard lately. I just want to be ready in case we encounter them again." Her expression turned distant, and then steely. “I want to be really, REALLY ready.”

"C'mon, Twilight! Princess Celestia sent a bunch of her best guards into the Everfree forest to get them. You yourself said that the only reason they beat you was because one of them got the party cannon and then cheated by hitting your eye. These guys won't have a cannon this time, so they'll be locked up soon enough."

"I don't know, Spike. It's been a full day since they went in there."

"Oh, stop worrying. I'm sure it's just because they had a hard time finding them. I'm willing to bet that we'll hear news of them today and then you can stop worrying about studying offensive spells."

As if on cue to Spike's words, a loud knocking was heard at the door.

"I'll get it,” Twilight said, walking over and opening the front door. Standing there was a familiar grey mailmare. "Good morning Derpy," Twilight greeted.

"Good morning to you too miss Twilight! Here's your mail!" Derpy said cheerfully.

"Thank you, Derpy," she said, taking the day’s mail from her.

"Sorry about your eye. Here, have a muffin." The grey Pegasus pulled a chocolate chip muffin out of nowhere and handed it to Twilight.

"Thank you, Derpy. I appreciate it." Twilight took the muffin from her and shut the door. She walked over to the couch and examined what had come. "Just some junk mail and today's edition of The Equestria Daily."

She threw away the junk mail and sat down to read the paper. As she read on, a frown slowly worked its way onto her face. "Hey Spike?"

"Yes?" he answered, putting down some of the books he was getting ready to rearrange.

"You were right. News about the guards Celestia sent is in this morning's paper." She levitated the newspaper over to him.

"Heh. See, Twilight? No need to worry about..." Spike trailed off as he got to reading. "Oh. Forget I said anything."

"See, Spike? These things are a threat and they need to be treated with as much extreme prejudice as is ponyly possible. Spike, take a letter.” Twilight stopped to clear her throat before saying. “Dear Princess Celestia-"

However, Twilight was interrupted by Spike letting out a loud belch, signaling that the Princess had just sent a letter.

"It's a letter from the Princess!" Spike exclaimed.

Twilight took the scroll from him with her magic and read it aloud:


My faithful student,


As you probably already know, the guards I sent to apprehend the Monsters of Everfree have had a rather difficult time and the creatures appear to have strange powers at their disposal.


But fear not: those "monsters" will soon be dealt with. Keep up with your studies on the magic of friendship.


Your mentor, Princess Celestia.

"See? Princess Celestia herself said those monsters don't stand a chance!" Spike said.

"Alright, alright! I'll take a day or two off! But I think I'm going to go visit the guard that was attacked, at the hospital first," Twilight said.

"Alright, but remember what the princess said about the magic of friendship. Go make some friends once you've finished with that."

"Yes, I remember," Twilight said in a slightly exasperated voice. "Oh! You can go do whatever you like when you finish your chores."

"Could I go visit Rarity?" Spike asked with wide eyes.

Twilight frowned a tiny bit. "Of course you can, but why don't you spend time with somepony other than Rarity?"

Spike looked at Twilight as if she had gone insane. "Who else would I rather spend time with than the prettiest unicorn in the world?"

"Ummm… maybe you should hang out with someone your age? You're only thirteen after all. I remember that Applejack has a little sister that looks to be around your age. Applebloom, I think? I also remember hearing from Rarity that she had a sister around Applebloom's age. You could go play with one of them. You know, make new friends?" Twilight hoped that he would listen to her. While she found the whole 'crush on Rarity' thing cute, she realized that her number one assistant/little brother might end up having his heart broken if he continued going after Rarity.

"...Fine. I'll hang out with one of them, but I'm still going to hang out with Rarity first!" Spike said.

"Alright, Casanova. Just don't make her swoon too hard while you're there. She might faint in the middle of making a dress," Twilight joked as she attempted to wink, only to remember with immense frustration that she could not wink with one eye and recall the immense fury she had reserved for the creatures.

Spike smirked, joining in on the joke. "It'll be a little difficult to reign in my swagger, but I'll try not to make Rarity swoon too much."

Twilight chuckled. "Alright, Spike. See you later!"

"Bye, Twilight!" Spike said as the lavender unicorn walked out of the library. Once the door was shut, Spike went over to the ladder so that he could begin rearranging, but then he felt a familiar burning sensation coming up his throat.

He turned his head away from the books and belched a green flame which turned into a rolled up piece of parchment. He opened up the letter and read it.


Dear Spike,



We haven't been able to talk with all of this monster business happening, so I will task you with a friendship report every week like Twilight. So tell me, how has my favorite little dragon been doing?


From, Celestia.

Spike smiled softly. The books could wait. He had a letter to reply to.


"Well, I'm sure Sweetie Belle would be thrilled to play with Spike! I'll be sure to arrange some time for them to bond. It would certainly save me the trouble of finding something for Sweetie Belle to do," Rarity replied, eager to help her new friend out.

"Thank you, Rarity. I just want Spike to make friends with fillies and colts his age," Twilight said.

"I completely understand, darling. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have lots of work to make up."

Rarity shut the door and Twilight went on her way.

It was a beautiful day. Celestia's sun shone brightly, Rainbow Dash was clearing up the clouds, and many of the town's residents were out and about. But there was also a certain change in Ponyville's atmosphere. Many of the residents were reading today's newspaper, occasionally eyeing the Everfree Forest out of the corners of their eyes. The normally happy atmosphere had been replaced by one of tension and fear.

"Everyone knows that there are monsters in Everfree. It's practically a given in this town, like grass being green or the sky being blue, but everypony has been even more afraid of the forest, lately. First Nightmare Moon, and now this? I can't wait for this whole ordeal to be over," Twilight thought as she walked down the path to the hospital.

After a ten minute walk, she arrived at said hospital and went inside.

"Hello," she said to the stallion at the front desk. "I believe that a member of the royal guard was brought here last night to be examined?"

"Of course. He's in room number 256 if you'd like to meet him."

Twilight nodded. "Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome," he mumbled.

Twilight walked down the main hallway until she reached the door that led to the stairs. She walked up to the second floor and began searching for the correct room.

“Let's see. 254, 255, 256!” She entered the room, lightly knocking on the door to announce her presence. "Hello?"

Flash Sentry perked up at the sound of her voice. "Twilight Sparkle? Heh. I'm guessing you want to know about the Monsters of Everfree?"

She smiled. "Yes, sir. I would like to know all the information you have about them."

"Did you read this morning's issue of the Equestria Daily?" Flash asked.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"Well then, I don’t have much to add. The monsters are nimble and fast, all of their moves are planned, and they work perfectly together. I heard nothing but malice in the voice of the one that questioned me. And if any of that wasn't bad enough, they're also intelligent like us. After the little encounter I had with them, I kinda wonder who's hunting who." Flash sighed, laying back down on his pillow.

Twilight nodded grimly, taking the information to heart. "I hate to think of what they could possibly be doing right now."


Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest...


John sat on Zecora's pony sized bed, waiting for her to return.

John looked around at the other two, seeing Mason looking at the masks that adorned the house's walls and Robert reading a book.

"Hey Robert, what're you reading?" John asked, breaking the silence.

"It's a book called 'Supernaturals.' Despite what the title implies, this book is actually about herbs and medicine," Robert replied, showing John the book's cover.

"I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff," John said.

"I'm not. The only reason I'm reading this is because I'm bored. But this book does give me several ideas."

"Ideas? What ideas do you have?" Mason asked, turning to face Robert.

Robert walked closer to them. "Well the idea is- WOAH!" *splash*

Right before Robert could explain what he had come up with, he had tripped on a crack in the floor, tipping over the cauldron as he tumbled to the floor.

"Crap! There was still some soup in there!" Robert said as he got back to his feet. When the cauldron tipped over, the remaining soup had spilled out onto the ground.

"We should probably clean this mess up," Mason said, standing up to help.

"Yeah, let's get this up. Are there any paper towels around here?" John asked.


Back in Ponyville...


A chill ran down Twilight's spine at the thought of all the horrific things they could be up to.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Flash asked.

"No, sir."

"In that case, I'd like to get a nap in before they release me. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Okay, well, thank you for your time. Get well soon!" Twilight said as she exited the room. "Well, that was certainly informative. I now have a better idea of what we're up against. I hope the guards the princess sent succeed. If not, then we might have to use the Elements on them, and I won’t be able to study them!"

Twilight walked out of the hospital and onto the streets of Ponyville. "Now, I think I'll see what Fluttershy is up to."

Author's Note:

And that's it for this chapter. While this one was pony-centric, the next couple chapters will involve: The humans avoiding the guards, new gear for the humans, a new reject to join their little group, and a certain human obsessed unicorn.

Leave a comment if you liked the chapter, and tell me what you think might happen next.