Two ponies and a dragon walked into a minotaur bar. Mind you, they didn't enter at the same time.
The first pony to enter was a blue unicorn named Cobalt, who bore a chef's knife cutie mark. Or at least, that was what he wanted the casual observer to think. In actuality, he was a red earth pony by the name of Red Fields, who just so happened to have a hobby of disguising himself, and who bore a throwing knife mark. It was certainly a useful skill for an assassin from a famous family of killers, but his disguise abilities served another purpose as well. Because of the fake horn, nobody considered it odd when he used unicorn-type magic.
The second pony to enter the bar was a little, prepubescent unicorn colt. He was tall for his apparent age, but simultaneously slightly underweight, making him appear like a walking stick figure. His dark gray fur was thick and matted, as if it had never been brushed once in his life. His mane and tail were similarly long and disheveled; the black mass of fluff on his head looked more like a lion's mane than a pony's and the tail dragged on the ground behind him.
The young colt looked around the bar with a ravenous, predatory gaze. His eyes hovered over each of the minotaurs, bulls and cows alike, before moving on to the next one. In a small mining village like this, there wasn't a single minotaur that a pony wouldn't see as a walking wall of muscle.
The colt sat down at the bar next to Cobalt, and waved over the waitress. "Could I get something big and filling? I could eat a mountain right now."
The waitress replied, "Sure thing, sweetie." She tried to give him a friendly smile - keyword: tried - but failed when she made eye contact with the colt. It came out as a malformed grimace-smile hybrid that quickly vanished. The minotaur waitress quickly sped away, knowing in her gut that there was something wrong with that colt.
After a few moments of silence, Cobalt, who was slightly drunk, decided to ask the question on his mind to the young colt. "You're awfully young to be on your own. Where are your parents?" Cobalt's accent clearly places him as a foreigner, one from Equestria, on the other side of the Minos-Equis sea.
"I'm on my own. My mom died in childbirth and my rapist, bastard sire got himself trapped in a hellish place when he pissed off a necromancer. Been on my own for practically my whole life," the colt replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh." Cobalt looked down at his beer. It was a heavy minotaur brew, and at that moment, was far more interesting for Cobalt to stare at than the colt next to him.
The waitress came by with a tray piled high with a large salad and bread rolls. The colt looked at it with mild disappointment, as if he expected something else, but then dug in with great gusto. Cobalt watched in awe as the little colt put away more food than even he, a full grown stallion, could eat, and then promptly ordered seconds.
His old teacher had once told him that unicorns have to eat extra food proportional to their magical strength; the stronger the unicorn, the more they needed to eat.
And before Cobalt knew it, his little companion was on thirds and was showing no signs of slowing. A small crowd had gathered to watch the colt eat, and were starting to cheer him on.
Finally, after the third massive portion had found its way down the colt's throat, he sighed in relief. "That hit the spot." The colt then set the requisite silver pieces on the counter, but made no move to stand.
"Cobalt, just because your teacher is temporarily disembodied doesn't mean that you get to slack off on your essays or project reports."
Cobalt's brain practically tripped over those words. "Wait, what?"
"Cobalt, would you kindly figure it out?" the colt asked.
But to Cobalt's mind, it was not a question; that was an irrefutable order thanks to the geas he was under. And there was only one pony in the world who could control him like that through it. "Sparkle?"
"In the new flesh," he - no, she - replied.
"B-but... You're a colt!"
"I am aware, yes."
"How?" Cobalt asked.
Sparkle shrugged. "When I was disembodied back at the Crystal Empire, I found that I couldn't access my pocket dimension, so I couldn't get to the spare bodies I had in there, Sombra and Tirek. Anyway, I needed a body, and fast, so when a group of ponies came out of the Empire, I latched on to the first mare I could find. Turns out, Ruby had an embryo already that hadn't developed its own soul yet, and my reincarnation spell latched onto that instead of making a new body."
"And the parents?" Cobalt asked.
"It turns out that my mere existence is like poison to the mother's soul. For the first few weeks, she was fine, but by the time I was ready to be born, her personality and memories had been mostly eroded away. Her soul gave out shortly after I was born," Sparkle answered.
"And the father?"
"Raped Ruby, along with countless other mares, repeatedly. The ex-king, ex stallion Sombra is currently enjoying my full hospitality in my pocket dimension."
Meanwhile in a parallel dimension...
"It's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone..."
"I got most of it working while I was in utero thanks to Thorn's help, so now Sombra's facing an endless loop of his personal horrors made very real," Sparkle said with a sadistic gleam in her eyes.
"Well, I'm glad you are healthy and... happy. Where is Thorn, by the way?" Cobalt asked.
The ex-mare said, "He should be here soon. Hey, are you going to eat that?" She pointed to his half-finished pasta.
"You're still hungry?" the shocked stallion asked.
His food was already in her mouth when she started answering. Through mouthfuls of food, she managed to spit out what the assassin understood as, "I'm aging ten times as fast during the day and over a hundred times as fast during the night. I need the calories."
Well, that answered Cobalt's question of how a colt that should logically be only a month old looked like a prepubescent about to enter his first growth spurt. "Hey, Sparkle, which pronoun do I use with you?"
"Either. I don't care," she replied, setting down the fork on the empty pasta plate. "I feel like a mare at heart, but we'll get weird looks if you call me a mare. It doesn't matter to me; it's just a word."
"Right," he said with a nod. The door to the bar opened, drawing Cobalt's attention to it. "Thorn's here."
The dracolich spotted them quickly and strode over. Undisguised as he was, Thornecrovitar made for a fearsome sight. He had long, sharp claws, a bladed tail, wickedly sharp back spines and teeth, eyes that glowed green, and pupils that undulated like black flame. He drew plenty of nervous stares as he walked through the bar.
"Hello, Cobalt. Long time, no see." He stuck out his thumb and smiled. "Hey Mom. I brought you more of the good stuff."
Snatching the bag from his grip, she ripped it open and drew out strips of raw meat. She wolfed them down without hesitation.
Cobalt gagged a little. He knew his teacher liked eating meat, but he couldn't stand the stuff. He'd eaten chicken once and had been sick for hours, while Sparkle, who had eaten the same chicken, had been completely fine. It was his earth pony nature rejecting it, he supposed.
Sparkle looked at him. She slurped up strip of meat and then said, "Don't ask."
"Sparkle, when were you planning on going back to Equestria? When I left, Shining Armor was kind of messed up; I think it would be good for him to see you again... For the first time," Cobalt suggested.
Sparkle paused her voracious eating. "Define 'messed up.'"
"Depressed, mostly. It was like I was talking to a golem, really. He just wasn't all there," Cobalt replied. "I think he took your temporary death much harder than he should have.
"But he knew I'd be back, right?" Sparkle asked, worried for her brother. "Right?"
Neither Thorn nor Cobalt answered. "Did... did we forget to tell him that I could come back?"
"Errr... We've kept so many things secret from uncle Shiny that I can't remember it all. I just don't talk to him about black magic," Thorn replied.
"I literally can't. I'm geas bound, remember?" Cobalt added.
"Buck. Buck it all to the pits." For a brief moment, Sparkle lost control of her magic. Dark energy erupted into the room, causing all the other occupants to freeze in place. "Sorry!" Sparkle called out as she reined her magic back in. Dropping back down to a more normal volume, she asked, "And did we ever send a letter to Twilight about all this?"
She looked at Thorn. He looked away.
"For crying out loud! Now they all think I really am dead!" The little foal necromancer slammed her head against the table, picked it up again, and then began stuffing it with more of her dwindling meat supply.
Her sister, Twilight, was the more neurotic of the two, and far less able to deal with stress. Even though they were technically the same mare, it had been twelve years since the timelines had split. Sparkle, the necromancer, had had a very different life than Twilight, the paladin and bearer of the Element of Magic.
"Hey, cheer up," Thorn said. "You've got me. I can send them a letter and we can get this all cleared up in a heartbeat."
Sparkle smiled and blushed.
At that moment, a defect in her new body decided to show itself. Sparkle's new body had bi-tribalism; it had improperly grown, resulting in it demanding her magic both like a crystal pony and like a unicorn. And while the conflicting demands on her magic hurt her control, it also caused another effect.
Like a crystal pony, Sparkle went transparent when she was happy. Her bones, because of her condition, did not. For a brief moment, Sparkle's entire skeleton was visible.
"Ahh! No! Bad body!" Sparkle said, forcing herself to become fully opaque again. Cobalt asked what just happened, so Sparkle filled him in to the basic details of her condition. She also told him of the heart problems that came with it, though told him she'd already fixed that defect.
After he was satisfied with the short explanation, she turned to her son (who was now technically older than her). "Thorn, take a letter."
He pulled a quill and scroll from his bags. It was always a good idea to keep writing implements handy. "Ready!"
"Dear BBBFF..."
OHHH YEAH THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT FOLKS!
*omg i got first comment on this amasing story... better not say that stupid line then)
Yes, yes it was. Glad you got the first chapter of the sequel up though.
Ah the lengths you are willing to go to for dramatic tension and character building. It warms the dark forgotten corners of my heart....right before the lich's eat the warmth and carry them back to that dreaded waking world of consciousness where they belong. I'm very excited for the next chapter and can't wait for the story to really get going.
Whaaaaaaaaaat
Woot! Thanks for not keeping us waiting! Not sure about the genderbend there, but, I'll trust your judgment you taken us on a great ride so far.
So this has all proceeded about how I expected it to.
Just worried about how Twilight will react to what Sparkle has done.
This continues to be an awesome story, though. Good Job.
i dont like it i want sparkles old body back if she stays like this im just going to think she is a oc an i hate oc's
Yes Sparkle, and so did we.
Also I think it would be pretty interesting to have Celestia and/or Cadence make a national holiday remembering Sparkles achievements (the ones the public is allowed to know about) and then reborn!Sparkle comes back and says something like "aww princess, I didn't know you cared." or "you know, posthumous honors are supposed to be awarded after somepony is really gone."
Huh, so Ruby didn't make it, huh?
A pity, I was curious to learn more about her. You don't see crystal pony OCs that often.
I won't lie, that was extremely mean what you did, especially considering I just started reading Split Second a few days ago.
nice... now we got a male sparkle... WE NEED A NAME OTHER THAN "DUSK SHINE"
I like how badly Death trolled Shiny when he told him he wouldn't have a sister for long...
Oh, and now Sparkle is the son of Sombra... add that to her/he/its long list of evil titles...
Egh. Transvestite Sparkle? Rly?
Part with skeleton was funny, though.
Good old Sparkle! Taking a life and not meaning to, causing evil to go insane, and confusing her student. All in all typical Sparkle.
6240978
Sparkle already said she could (with time) reshape Tirek's body. Why not her current one? Besides, this is quite literally the perfect disguise. This is a fresh body that only two people know about. Hell, if she really has to engage her old contacts, she could claim to be Sparkle's only living descendant (unlife doesn't count Thorn). Or perhaps Cobalt's apprentice who is now passing on what he learned.
I wouldn't mind if Sparkle changed the gender back to female, because this is really messing up my mental pronouns.
(btw wille179 feel free to take any of these and use them)
6240999
I will never call her Dusk Shine (or just "Shine" - too close to "Shining Armor").
On another note...
Is this a Bioshock reference?
On another another note...
Does Sparkle now look like a miniature Sombra?
6241041
A miniature, fluffy Sombra (Because rapid growth makes for rapid fur growth as well).
6240979
Sparkle's reincarnation spell is extremely illegal. I don't think she's going to want to tell the princesses about it.
6241037
Are you going to name Sparkle something different now that she is a he?
If so are you going to accept suggestions? Because that would be a fun contest
6241049
... that actually sounds very adorable... I for one welcome our new adorable evil overlord of death...
On another another another note...
Would you kindly tell me how long it has been since sparkles "Death" because it is not made clear to the readers and I am interested to know how long everyone has assumed she was dead for.
6241070
Next chapter, I promise!
6241058
No. I already have a name picked out, and it will not change.
6241078
Looking forward to hearing it
THANK YOU!
YEEEEY!
6241020
It's probably best to wait until she finishes aging into an adult before making any changes.
I actually did the math, assuming we're going by human years (since horses reach puperty by 12 months of age) and a human sleep schedule:
(17 waking hours * 10) + (7 sleeping hours * 100) = 870 hours aged per day
870 hours * 30 days / 24 hours = 1087.5 days
1087.5 days / 365.25 days in a year = ~2.98 years.
Considering that a human's first growth spurt occurs between the ages of 3 and 4. This is actually checks out.
Although it makes me wonder if you actually did the math yourself or just got really lucky.
6241037
... my god i had the same thoughts about it the moment i read Sparkle in a male form.....
Thank you for continuing this story.
Be safe and Play Well!
Ooh, I can't wait.
This is gonna be good!
Hm, poor Ruby. First raped, then used, then dead.
6241051
And necromancy isn't? Still the comedic value is self evident. I didn't expect colt!Sparkle to just rush in and drop that tidbit but maybe later during a suitably dramatic reveal we could get a one liner.
6241093
Actually, I was more concerned with her not burning her body out by ageing too fast. No, I didn't check my math more than just a cursory glance. Also, Sparkle herself is just guestimating with those number, since she's using a weakened version of a curse designed to kill by rapid ageing. I would put her physically closer to five, to which I note that Sparkle originally got her cutie mark at eight.
6241092
Not to mention the difficulty level of working on a body that she is inhabiting. I'm guessing she would jump into one of her spares and then rework her colt body. Or heck, keep her brand new fake identity (see my previous comments) and then just remold one of her spares.
6241130
I'm just hoping she walks through the front door as an 8 foot tall Tirek.
"Mom? Dad? I'm home! BBBFF?"
Wait. A crystal pony with bi-trbalism who...
I...
Hmm.
I recognize that, and I know exactly where from. Are you pulling a clever? I think you are, aren't you?
Hehe, guess that would answer one of my big questions...
You should use the weird, more complicated cover you posted on the blog as a temporary cover, that way it's distinct.
Please Twilight, please don't tell Shining Armor too much. You know he would be obligated to tell Luna and Celestia (anything else would be OOC) and your new cover would be blown. Just say enough that he might believe you, but don't give him the evidence to prove it (maybe have the letter burn up after it is read). The others might think he is crazy, but he would know the truth and you would still be able to avoid any suspicion.
I AM MOST PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!
Huzzah! The next one is out!
i.imgur.com/mSFXk2a.gif
6241148
This one? The one I used Deep Dream for?
41.media.tumblr.com/474d1990333a38821f4c3f75cae678a3/tumblr_nrjrh01Zc51unr8h2o1_1280.jpg
Actually, I think it would be more fitting.
6241070 I estimate it's been a year, since a horse pregnancy lasts 11 months, and it's mentioned in the chapter that Sparkle would probably be about a month old without the aging spell.
6240999
How about Obsidian Knife/Death?
6241078
Its a good name too... and its been hinted at, but that's all I'll say.
6241226
Yes, exactly. Just plastering a two on the old image seems lazy, but using the deep dream image gives an impression of things advancing, though for better or worse is up to the reader to decide.
Either way, that's just my two cents.
6241226 I too, would like to say that the deep dream picture would be a better fit... Just my two cents worth.
6241271
6241259
Well, I'll run the version with the 2 on it through Deep Dream, so that it takes that into account as well. It'll be up in time for the next update (which is still in the pre-writing stage, but should be done soon).
Heh this should be entertaining.
Hey Twilight! Guess what? I'm not dead after all. Aheheh.
....
Twlilight: FALCON PUNCH!
In the everlasting words of Macho Man Randy Savage:
tshirtvortex.net/wp-content/uploads/Macho-Man-Randy-Savage-Oh-Yea-T-Shirt-Gold-225x225.jpg
Split Second 2: Split Harder!
Also, sucks to be Ruby. I was hoping for something along the lines of "Thanks for the womb, sorry I took so long." Instead Sparkle rezzed herself at the cost of one fully grown mare and one potential colt.
Celestia's not going to be happy.