(Arc 1) What She Means To Me
Present...
I stood there, staring at the pinnacle of all my inventions. What man had deemed impossible I built for the sake of passion. Nine years ago I wouldn't have had the determination nor the motivation to create something that only existed in works of fiction or in the imagination of great scientists around the world. However, it all changed when I had that chance encounter with Twilight. I finally found something that I was willing to sacrifice everything I had in order to get— something that had kept me going these past nine years in building a machine which was the first of its kind. A device which could change not just the world, but the essence of reality itself.
I had built the first inter-dimensional travelling device.
My eyes examined every part of my invention, making sure that all was in place before I activated it. I ran my hand through the different sets of wires that were neatly set apart from each other. The steel door, which served as the area where a rip in the fabric of the universe would be forcefully generated, glistened with sweat as my fingers dragged themselves through its surface. I carefully eyed the red button on top of the master control system before heading over there and pressing it once I had made sure the preparations were done.
Suddenly, a blue field of energy started forming in the middle of the steel door, its area grew until it had completely covered the corners of the door. I instinctively evaded the sparks of plasma which jumped from the generated rift. The field shimmered as waves of energy continuously rippled inside its surface.
"Finally, it's finished!" I began to laugh, all my sacrifices have not been in vain. Everything that I've let go, everything that I've thrown away for the sake of this day, it was all accounted for the moment the first particle of the rift appeared at the center of the door.
In my hand was a golden pendant which shone as the light projected by the plasma field was reflected on its metallic layer. I twirled the laces of the jewel before opening it and holding up a lock of purple and pink hair neatly clipped with a high-quality hairpin. I stared at the strands of violet for a few seconds before looking back at the rift. Memories of Twilight raced through my head: her lavender coat, her overprotective personality, this certain scent she carried, and the taste of her lips. Yes, those memories along with a few others gave the the determination to finish what I had started. The scenery I was experiencing now was only the product of my efforts.
"Twilight, I'm coming back. I made a promise didn't I?" I stared into the depths of the energy field, it was shaping up perfectly. Once it has reached its natural form, it will soon transform into a portal which would lead into the exact coordinates that I set beforehand. The only coordinates that my GPS had recorded since my coming to Equestria— the oak tree.
The field was accelerating its rate of formation, it would now only be a matter of time before I'll be able to go through it.
"Just a little bit more..." I muttered.
While the generator whirred to support the enormous power amount of power that the machine consumed, a couple footsteps approached from the door which led from the basement to the living room. I could hear a loud BANG! as someone slammed the door at solid concrete.
"August!" Chloe shouted, "What the hell is that?!" She ran up to me and stared at the magnificence of my creation.
Chloe, a co-worker I had met while I was working part-time at NASA (because government money wasn't enough to fund my project), was a person who had the connections to gather the materials I needed for my device. I told her that I was planning to build a machine which would finally allow man to travel at light-speed in so inter-planetary travel would actually be feasible. Of course, I lied, but it was in order to gather sufficient amount of rare material such as radium, gallium, uranium, and a few other crystals. She was about three years older than me, probably a "child genius" as well, but did that mean anything to me?
Of course not. Only Twilight mattered as of the moment, and as long as my goal to reunite with her is achieved, it didn't matter what process I used to make it happen.
"It's a portal," I summarized. "It leads to an alternate dimension in the universe." I might as well tell her now what it was. She won't be able to activate it anyway once I pass through. I had set up a self-destruct mechanism which would destroy all of the essential parts which I never weaved a blueprint for and simply built with a self-generated "mental" blueprint.
"I thought it was a machine to travel at light speed?!" Chloe shouted, the crackling of the energy field became louder such that verbal communication would be impossible without increasing the volume. "Wait, forget that, what are you doing with a portal like that?!"
"Isn't it simple?" I chuckled, "I'm leaving Earth!" I laughed hysterically like a mad scientist. After all, I was abandoning my home planet to live in another one.
"B-but why?" She stuttered, "what about your other projects? what about the people you can save from diseases? What about the other discoveries just waiting to be uncovered by you? August, you're the smartest man in the world, you can help make the world a better place. A mind like yours doesn't deserve to rot somewhere far away from Earth." Chloe clenched her fist in frustration. I guess she was always annoyed by my antics, but she was only given the pleasure of expressing it now that the situation was dire.
I looked at her straight in the eyes and blatantly said, "Earth doesn't matter to me, it never did. I did what I did because I could do it. Up until nine years ago, I worked like a machine—giving whatever I could to appease the scientific community but only getting enough to be able to function normally. All that time, I simply gave what I could because I never wanted anything in the first place. Now, this here, this is my future." I pointed towards the shimmering field of plasma, which was now ninety-five percent completed in generating the image of the oak tree. "What lies past that door is the one thing— no, one pony that I care about."
Chloe stood there, silenced by my bold revelation. Her body started to wobble as she lost some balance from the force of my words and the meaning they held. She knew I was serious, I always was ever since that day.
While Chloe was busy contemplating on what I had just said, I grabbed my bag from the sides and hurriedly ran to the portal. The rift was now completely covered with the undying image of an oak tree that Twilight and I spent a day together with, except this time, it was nine years older. I stopped on my tracks one feet away from the shimmering image, taking the time to examine the contents of my bag before zipping it and preparing my mind for what was going to happen next.
I couldn't help but feel a sense of worry crawl up my brain. What if it doesn't work—
"No, it has to." I sternly said, "I can't take no for an answer."
I place my hand inside the rift and instantly feel a soft blanket of energy wrap around it. As I slowly brought my whole body past the portal, the layer extended to accommodate the sheer size of my body. Unlike my previous encounters with rifts, I had designed this one to be safe and pain-free.
When my whole body had gone past the door, the blanket formed into a white sphere which surrounded me and seemed to be taking me far away from the entrance of the portal. I observed the "window to Earth" shrink as my machine activated its self-destruction sequence and began disintegrating every essential part that I had uniquely designed. I had the choice of staying awake during the time of travel because there would be no pebble to sucker punch me at the forehead or rock to hit me square at the belly, but ironically, the soft, feathery blanket was coaxing me to sleep.
I tried to fight the urge to fall into a light slumber, but my tense muscles couldn't help but relax at the smoothness of the layered sphere. Soon, I realized that fighting to keep my eyes open was pointless, the more I prevented my eyelids from falling, the heavier they got. I probably forgot how tired I was from all the work I've done in nine years. Come to think of it, I've never given myself a day's rest since that day, all I've ever done was work towards completing this machine. I guess all the built-up stress from creating this machine came back at me with full force.
Unable to hold off the urge to just let go, I finally surrendered to the relaxation that the blanket of energy provided and slept.
A particular scene unfolded before me as I drifted off to "dreamland." My mother and father were arguing at the dinner table while I stood hidden behind the staircase. In my father's hands were a couple of papers which were crumpled due to the sheer force of his grip. My mother, who was staring in disbelief as my father slowly read the contents of the paper, sobbed uncontrollably while using a napkin to wipe off the stream of tears on her face.
"He what?!" My mother shouted, "Why would August drop all of his future projects?!'
"I don't know, but it says right here in the papers that he himself asked to be removed from the particular assignment," my father eyed the words carefully, making sure he didn't misread them.
"Right after winning the Nobel Prize..." my mother trailed off, "what is that boy thinking, throwing away his future like that. Doesn't he know that the most powerful companies in the world are willing to give him money for just about anything as long as it involved science?"
"It's very unusual, I agree," my father said, "I just hope he knows what he's doing."
The scene suddenly shifted to another event in the past. This time, it was at a company building at California. A man in blazers approached me while I sat down in a reclining chair, he had a mug on his left hand and a phone on his right. He sat opposite to me and placed both of his elbows on the table, keeping track of every movement I made and probably tried to guess what was running in my mind.
"So, August Winters right?" He asked,
I nod.
"Well then, I'm a straightforward man, so let's skip all the introductions and get right to the point," he said, lowering his hands and inching closer to me. "I want you to help me develop—"
"I'm not interested," I stood up from my chair and went towards the exit. If I remember correctly, what ran through my mind at that time was the time I could have been using in constructing the machine wasted in conversing with this money launderer.
"W-wait! I can help you, you want money? This company has it. You want fame? We'll make you famous!" He stood up and ran to me, placing his hands at my shoulders. "C'mon, what do you say huh? You and me, making the world a better place."
I chuckled a bit, I remembered exactly what I thought at that moment. Huh, money and fame, two of failure's greatest lures. You won't be making the world a better place for everyone in this world, you'll be making it a better place for you. If you want to make other people suffer for your own profit, go ahead, but don't include me in any of your worthless shenanigans.
"I have all the money I need and I really don't give a damn whether I'm famous or not. If you want someone who will aid you in your path to 'success' get someone who consistently shows off all of his creations. Maybe the similar traits between you two would help in increasing the rate of your downfall." I blatantly said before shaking off his hands from my shoulders and exiting the room.
The scene faded into total darkness after that, and my mind resumed its undisturbed slumber as I lay down asleep on the sphere.
I suddenly wake up to the sound of a weak explosion surrounding me. The layer of energy which surrounded me had capsized and hadproduced an outward burst which could probably be heard over a few miles away. However, the direction of the explosion was opposite to me and away from its interior so everything that lay inside the white sphere before it collapsed remained intact, thankfully including me.
I could smell the scent of burning grass below me, it was singed due to the high-energy release of the blanket or particles.
Wait, grass?
I immediately stood up and looked around at the environment around me. It was dark because only the moon was active in what seemed like a one mile radius. However, despite the low intensity of illumination that the area received, I was able to construct an overview of the land around me.
It was a grass field, and not just any grass field that existed anywhere on Earth, it was the grass field where Twilight and I first conversed about the essence of magic and other Equestrian topics. Beside me was the oak tree which Twilight had uprooted nine years ago with her new found skill in magic, and lying on its side was a collection of hard wood which had the rough form of a pony. The same pony which Twilight had shaped before lying down from exhaustion.
The air was still as fresh as ever and the rustling sound that originated from the leaves of the oak never sounded more beautiful as the breeze ran past them. When I looked up, stars were covering every inch of the sky, it reminded me of the time I realized that pollution was non-existent in this dimension.
Tears started forming at the base of my eyes as I relished the beautiful scenery and my undoubted success. It worked, I was back, all the opportunities I threw away and the unbelievable sacrifices I'd made for the sake of this day had suddenly become all worth it as I stretched up my arms to feel the stream of wind that passed by the field. The scent of this land, the aura that surrounded it, this place was without a doubt the very location that had been running endlessly around my mind for the past nine years.
Equestria.
"Beautiful..." I whispered to the wind.
I would have stared much longer at the wonderful view, but I had my priorities the moment I decided to travel between dimensions. I needed to find Twilight as soon as possible, and although my trip to Equestria was successful, who knows how long it would take to locate one mare in this large continent. Traveling here was the least of my worries, looking for Twilight seemed to be harder than finding an actually needle in a haystack.
I grabbed my bag and pulled out a small chart. On the small piece of paper was a list of cities arranged in the order that I would search. Beside each name was a compilation of methods I believed would help me in efficiently finding clues about Twilight's whereabouts.
Of course, I didn't blindly enter the portal in desperation to reunite with her. When I went through the rift, I came in with a bag, a couple of gadgets, and a plan.
"Canterlot," I said, pointing at the top of the paper. Written in black ink was the city's name and beside it lay a couple of instructions. "Look for Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns" I read from the chart. That seemed like a good start, with the "formula" I gave Twilight, she definitely would have passed whatever test they let her take. Which meant viewing the list of students who had graduated from the school would be my first step in finding her.
As I worked through the list, a couple of thoughts went through my head. How long would it take to find her? Based on her descriptions when she gave me the lecture about Equestria, each city was extremely large and filled with busy ponies who couldn't spare a single second to chat with a stranger— no, an alien like me. Even if I did find Twilight's name in the list of alumni, it wasn't like I could just ask anypony where she could be staying. Nine years is a really long time, and there were a lot of possibilities that could have actually happened during my absence.
What if she transferred cities? What if she had failed to pass the test? What if she died? I cringed at the thought, then would that mean that my whole trip was pointless? All the things I've done to accomplish this would have been for nothing. Not only that, what if in the end, Twilight's feelings for me had changed? It shouldn't be a surprise because she was just a child at that time. What she had for me could have simply been "puppy love."
No, I'll cross the bridge when I get there. Right now I have to find out where Twilight's—
"Halt!" I heard a shout behind me, in a matter of seconds, I felt a sharp object pressed towaards my back. "Stop what you're doing and face us slowly"
Bandits? No, their manner of speech was too formal. If bandits were the ones "holding me up" they would have asked for the money right then and there without having to ask me to turn around.
"Thank goodness it's not Discord again," I heard another voice, "Imagine what the princess would do if he showed up again for the thousandth time."
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I did gather some information based on the few lines the other one said. First, they were sent here, they didn't go here on their own volition. Second, it seemed like finding me was counted as a success on their part. Lastly, they were connected to royalty— unless the word "princess" referred to a noble's female child and not one of the sun or moon princesses Twilight had spoken about.
"Hey! We ordered you to stop what you're doing and slowly face us with your hooves up!" I felt the pressure of the sharp object on my back increase.
I thought about the situation for little while and realized that if my guess was right and these ponies behind me were related to royalty, I could probably present myself as a peaceful "alien" that posed no threat to the land of Equestria. If I could get the favors of the princesses by promoting peace instead of war, they might actually help in my search for Twilight. It was perfect, hypothetically, it could reduce over a couple more years of search to a few months, even weeks depending on how hospitable these ponies are to extraterrestrial life forms.
I only had a few seconds to think about my decision. I could either submit to them and be delivered and see where I can go from there or resist and follow my pattern of search. The clock was ticking inside my head, in my hand was a small device which could teleport me a few hundred meters away once activated. I invented it as my method of escape from any "unwanted" encounters such as this one. In case I decided to run away, my thumb was firmly pressed on a button in the small machine.
"Do you not hear us?!" one of the voices boomed, my grip on the teleportation device strengthened as I weighed the consequences of both my actions.
Finally, I made my decision.
I sighed and slowly turned around, I let go of the device and set aside in my bag as I faced the guards. Raising my hands up high, I gave the guards a blank stare. Well, you got me.
As light from a unicorn's horn was projected onto my eyes, I squinted and tried to determine who were the ponies interrupting my search.
There were three of them, each wearing golden plates of armor with helmets that looked like the ones Spartans wore. One of them had a spear attached to their sides and was using that very weapon to threaten me to submitting. The other two were carrying shields that probably served as protection from this "discord" thing they were talking about awhile ago. If I'm not mistaken, these outfits were meant to be worn by guards belonging to some sort of castle or royal shelter.
Relief flooded my body, thank goodness I gambled right. They looked like they were connected to some very rich and popular lord or vassal. If things go right, I'll be able to find Twilight in less than a year.
Two pegasi and one unicorn, I confirmed their race. Behind them was a large chariot which was extremely similar to the ones found on Earth. I wonder what they're after— or what the pony who sent them is after. Wait, how did they even know where to find me?
I shook the idea off my head when I realized that the guards were shocked and maybe a little bit disgusted at my appearance. Their disgust was probably aimed at my physical form and not the clothes I wore or my sense of fashion.
"Think this is it?" One of the guards whispered to the other, "Do you think this creature here is what the princess is looking for?"
"That's impossible," the other guard grunted, "I don't remember Celestia asking for something like...this." He pointed one of is hooves at me.
"Quiet you two!" the other one exclaimed, "The longer the two of you talk over there the more time it would take us to return to the castle."
Both guards suddenly shut their mouths and stood firm on their positions. "Right," one of them said, "I still want to eat dinner with my family."
"We all do," the third guard said, "now let's get this creature over to the palace and call it a day."
The two others agreed. The unicorn-guard levitated a rope from the chariot and wrapped it around me, tightly binding my whole body. After that, the other two pegasi continued to haul me to the carriage. I wanted to ask questions, but I didn't think the guards would entertain them.
The two pegasi guards, now connected to the chariot's harness, flapped their wings and lifted the chariot above the sky. I couldn't see much of my surroundings because I was positioned at the chariot's floor right below the unicorn. After a few failed attempts at moving to get a better view of the land below me, I gave up and accepted my fate as a prisoner.
I chuckled a bit because I hadn't the slightest clue at what this was all about. Many parts of this event didn't even make sense or allow time for a formal analysis. A few of the major questions I wanted answered was how they found me just minutes after I had landed on the oak tree, why they seemed to be expecting my presence in that area, and who in the world would be looking for an alien in these lands.
I looked at the guard on top of me, but he gave me a solid stare which seemed like a solid "No" to any sort of question I was going to ask,
I guess he's not talking, I squirmed until I had found a comfortable position. I can only wait now before I make my next move. In my pocket was the teleportation device that I hid inside my bag a few moments ago. Once I sense any form of danger, I'll activate the thing and escape through the forest— if there is one.
Once we arrived at the castle, the guards hurriedly got me out of the chariot and started dragging me across the hallways of the large building. The friction of my clothes with the floor felt uncomfortable due to the large amount of heat building up at my back or beneath me. Without even giving attention to my pained grunts, they continued to pull me along the red carpet until we had arrived at the end of the hall where a ten-meter door stood tall.
"We're here," the unicorn guard said, "I think we can leave him here until the princess decides to pick him up."
"Sounds good," one of the pegasi guards confirmed, "then we can all have— " he stops abruptly and points to an orange stallion that wore the same golden armor as the three guards but had blue bristles on top of his helmet instead of red ones,"—look, it's Flash Sentry!"
The other two looked at the stallion who had just arrived and saluted him, "sir!" they shouted.
The orange stallion nods at them before opening his mouth, "Well, what do we have here?" he asked, inching closer to me.
"Its a creature we found at the outskirts of Canterlot city, in the grass field." The other guard answered. "And, uh, it was the princess's orders, she told us to search in that area for any abnormalities."
The stallion eyed me carefully, I could see from his eyes that he was both disgusted and at the same time interested at my physical appearance. I could see him examine the patterns of my clothes, the pale color of my skin, and the uniqueness of having fingers on my hands. However, his only solid reaction came from seeing the pendant that hung around my neck.
"What's this?" he asked, then in a flash, he grabbed the object before I could stop him and opened it, revealing the lock of hair Twilight had given me. His eyes went wide at the sight, "how did you get..." he muttered.
A few seconds later, he glared at me and openly announced, "This creature here is stalking princess Twilight, take him away into the dungeons. There, we will give it the proper punishment."
As he said those things, I remained steady at my place. The only thing that entered my mind was the fact that someone had just taken away one of the most important things in my life. Forget escaping from this place, I refused to leave until I had retrieved what was mine and punished the one who did me wrong.
With the teleportation device still in my hand, I pressed a button and teleported myself a few feet away from my original spot. The ropes that were binding me were left there while I stood away, free from it.
The flash of bright light that came from the activation of the machine made most of the guards around the hall cover their eyes at the blinding sight. I used that moment to run straight up the the orange stallion and give him a sucker punch right at the nose. He fell straight to the ground where he covered his now bleeding nose with two of his hooves. While he lay there, stunned, I grab the pendant from the spot where he dropped it and quick-stepped a few meters away from him into the center of the hall.
I heard more footsteps approaching from the other end of the hall, more guards were streaming in to surround me after the bright flash of my teleportation had attracted their attention. One by one they each positioned themselves at my sides to prevent any means of escaping. The only exit now was blocked by over ten guards with wings equipped with what seemed like razor blades.
"You can't escape now," Flash laughed, he looked over at the guards and shouted, "unicorns, bind him with your magic while the earth ponies subdue him!"
Huh, I had no intention of escaping. After what he had done, there was no way that I would let that incident go unnoticed. I will get you back even if it meant fighting all of these other ponies.
I pulled out a small circular object from my pocket and raised it high using one hand.
"What's that—" the unicorn who spoke suddenly put his hooves to his chest and fell down to the ground. He wasn't unconscious, but was fiercely grasping onto his chest, like something was constricting him from the inside.
The other unicorns soon followed, one by one they collapsed to the ground, each holding their chests with two hooves. The glow in their horns faded as they suddenly lost control of their legs.
"W-what?" Flash stuttered in surprise, he stared at the round object I was holding up on my hand, "w-what did you do?!"
Without answering his question, I further twisted the bottom half of the device on my hands. The intensity of its color increased the more I spun its other parts around.
The device in my hand was something I invented to counter any magic-user in this land. When I returned to Earth nine years ago, the memories of my conversation with Twilight about magic stayed fresh in my mind. The different formulas, concepts, and principles of "magic" that Twilight had taught me did not disappear through the passing years. With that knowledge, I created this small gadget which could instantly cut off a pony form the "mana pool" inside its body. The main reason why only the unicorns were affected was due to their magical capabilities.
I left the device turned on and placed it back at my pocket. Seeing from Flash's face that it won't be long before he orders the earth-pony and pegasus guards to attack me, I pulled out small oval bean from pocket and extended it to a baton over one and a half feet long.
During my time back at Earth, I realized how incompetent I was with regards to physical capability. It was true that I could conjure ideas which could revolutionize the world, but there was no way I could protect myself if someone had tried to attack me using physical means. To solve that problem, I had joined a school which taught mixed martial arts. Two hours a day, six days a week for five years, I enlisted myself under the care of an experienced master who only took in one student at a time. It was only during that time that I was able to realize the importance of physical fitness as well as the major advantages it had when you're in a very unfamiliar location.
Of course, all of that was for the sake of finding Twilight. Only my memories of her could have given me the strength to go through the extremes.
"What are you waiting for!" Flash shouted, "arrest the thing!"
The earth ponies and pegasi gathered themselves in a small group and charged at me, probably hoping to gain an advantage with their large number.
I heard a pair of wings flapping behind me, a guard was diving towards me with a spear pointed straight at my heart. I quickly dodged him right before he landed and brought my baton right behind his head. It made a loud CLANG! with the metal plate protecting the guard's head, however, despite it reducing the force of impact, the damage was still enough to knock the stallion unconscious. He fell to the floor with a thud the moment my baton connected with the helmet.
The group of ponies suddenly charged at me with blinding speed and proceeded to surround me. Together, they attempted to stick their spears into my body but failed. I deflected a few other spears that could have grazed me and used my baton to knock the them out of their owner's sides.
With my hands, I grabbed a spear attached to a guard and gave it a really strong pull. The spear immediately detached from the armor and ended up in my hands. I whirled the wooden part around and made sure to hit as many heads as I could before I throwing it down to the ground and switching to my baton.
The fight lasted over half an hour with the royal guards being mercilessly beaten (but not killed) with the baton I had in my hand and a few spears that I salvaged from them. One guard at my left, then side-step to my right and hit the one at the back, and then follow up with an upward strike to hit the pegasus diving towards me directly at the chin. The magic negater in my pocket served its purpose by incapacitating the unicorns whose magic I couldn't counter with physical skill.
Soon, heaps of guards who were either unconscious or were groveling in pain were scattered across the great hall. Reinforcements had run out, and the only pony who remained capable in the room was the one who had started all this mess.
"Flash Sentry..." I muttered, I myself couldn't tell whether the "kill intent" I had were expressed in uttering that pony's name, or whether my murderous eyes gave it away. Either way, it didn't matter, I was going to give him what he deserved. "You shouldn't have taken that pendant," I said.
His whole body shriveled in fear as I approached him with my baton. At that moment, I had lost majority of my ability to think logically and act based on what my mind predicted. Only my "animal" instinct was reflected on my actions.
Every step I took towards him, the stronger I gripped the baton. I for one knew that stealing isn't something that should incur anger of this level, and I would have been fine had he taken any of my other gadgets I had with me, but it was Twilight's pendant that he stole. There was absolutely no way I could forgive something like that.
Flash was slowly walking backwards towards the ten meter tall door. He kept his eyes on me to make sure that I wouldn't suddenly lunge at him with my weapon.
BOOM!, a deafening sound came from above me. An explosion had taken place at the roof of the castle, what once was occupied with stone ceiling was now filled with the winds of the night sky. Fragments of shattered rocks rained from the roof as a dark-bluish aura started to surround the top area. I was knocked a bit backwards by the bare strength of the burst of magic that had demolished the ceiling.
"Princess Luna!" Flash shouted. I looked at the site of the blast and noticed a black mare standing tall on the remains of the roof. The glow on her horn signaled that my magic negater was far too weak to prevent her from accessing her magic source. However, what surprised me was the pair of wings that extended from her sides.
So she's one of the alicorns that Twilight had mentioned, which means that she's a princess. No wonder she can surpass the strength of my device, she simply overcame it with brute force. Instead of seeing this as my chance to ask her about Twilight, I saw it as a threat to my existence. I could sense the hostility that this mare had towards me. I'm not sure if she had some sort of grudge at humans or just misinterpreted the situation, but either way, she looks like she's willing to fight me head on.
The sight of the guards around the hall probably initiated her intent to subdue me. I could only imagine what went on her head as she glared at me with those violet eyes.
"It's Princess Luna!" a guard shouted,
"Now we're saved!" another one chimed in, "with her abilities, there's no way any creature can stand against her!"
A blanket of magic suddenly escaped from the body of Luna and began to form five separate snake-like creatures. I could see in her eyes the anger that came from harming her own kin. I doubt logic would have had much more effect on her than it did on me.
She opened her mouth, "Submit!" her voice echoed in the hallways. The sound that came from her mouth boomed as it reverberated across the area. If it was any other day I would be intimidated by the sheer volume of hr shout, but not today. I had a mission I needed to accomplish.
"No reply? Has thou parents not taught you how to speak? Very well then, if I must resort to using force, then I will not hesitate in doing so!" She shouted again, this time however, it was louder and contained more power than the previous one.
She launched the snake-like auras orbiting around her at me with blinding speed. In an effort to evade them, I dove left and right and sometimes used the unconscious bodies of the other ponies to shield myself from their attack.
If it keeps going on like this— I jumped to my side to evade a diving snake and ducked to escape the grasp of another one —this will just end up being a game of cat and mouse.
Luna retracted all of her magical "whips" and stared at me. She noticed how tired I was from continuously evading the five weapons and proceeded in attempting to force me into unconditional surrender. "I see, thou hast skill with thy body, but it will not last long!" The five snakes soon split into two and ended up with a total count of ten. The sheer aura that they carried around them made me want to vomit out my breakfast to the ground.
She was right about one thing, there was no way I could beat her with just my physical strength. I needed something that could match up to her limitless power.
"I guess I don't have a choice do I?" I chuckled.
Luna probably misinterpreted my laugh as a sign of disrespect, "you laugh at the face of your own doom?! Very well then, I will grant this world a favor and rid it of your very existence." Her horn glowed brighter and the aura surrounding it expands to the base of her horn, until the horn itself was covered with shimmering, raw magic. The blanket of ether surrounding her grows larger until it reached the size of a school bus.
Without as much as a flinch from Luna, the energy automatically shapes itself to a couple more snakes which were pointed towards my heart. After a few seconds, she launched the massive army of dark-purple magic at me.
I raise up my right hand and a large red barrier suddenly appears in front of me and deflects the oncoming dark magic. Sparks flew from the contact of two extremely powerful magic forces. The ground beneath me shook as the waves produced by the collision bounced around the hall.
When Luna saw the red barrier I had put up and the way it deflected her magic, her jaw suddenly fell open, "w-what?!" she stuttered. She wasn't sure what she would prefer to believe more, that there was magic powerful enough to completely repel hers, or that something that initially had no control over a magic source was holding up a barrier which needed mountains of mana to execute.
A red glow started emanating from the middle of my collar bones while I held up my hand. At that very spot, I could feel the levels of pain rise as the orb inside started to glow brighter.
"No... that can't be, this aura," Luna pointer at the red spot at my chest, "the Alicorn Amulet!"
I gave her a pained smile, "I guess you really are one of the princesses," I chuckled and spit out a few drops of blood. With modern-day technology combined with my creative thinking, I managed to reprogram the gray amulet that I had confiscated from Twilight and implant it right between my collarbone I removed most of the harmful side effects of the jewel and harnessed the raw energy of the accessory.
"B-but the jewel that the amulet possesses only serves as a pool of magic for any user, how hast thou controlled it?!" Luna shouts at me, the volume of her voice had increased once again and the sound coming from her mouth echoed in the hallways.
"That's why I have this," I said, revealing the pendant Twilight gave me, "traces of her remained in the pendant that she had carried her whole life, with that, I was able to harness the energy of the amulet and force it to follow my will."
Luna was silenced by what I had just said. Her eyes went wide as I started to perform some sort of ritual-like dance to use a spell.
With this, I can subdue even the strongest being on this land. I waved my hands around and weaved a large blanket of red energy. I continuously channeled whatever magic I could into the layer until it had become so dense that it had turned opaque.
Without hesitating for a second, I launched the red blanket at Luna. She tried to counter it by summoning a seemingly larger aura and directing it towards the oncoming projectile but instead, gets "eaten up" by it. Her face finally showed fear as the large dense magic envelopes the whole of her body except for her head, binding her.
From the rooftop, Luna fells to the ground with a large THUD! along with a couple of rocks. She grunted at the force of the impact but didn't seem to realize that the fall was cushioned by the density of the soft energy around her
I walked up to the bound mare and knelt down to face her, "I never wanted any of this," I shake my head at the thought of all the guards I'd physically injured and the unicorns that were separated from their magic cores. "All I wanted was to see Twilight again."
Suddenly, the jewel in my collarbones glowed brighter until I felt a sharp pain coming from my heart.
No, its trying to take over my consciousness.
Its true that I had "purified" the contents of the jewel, but I had failed to remove the worst side effect that the amulet contained— corruption.
I fall to my knees as my vision starts going red with the amulet's magic. It was losing control, if that continued, then I could unintentionally kill everypony in this building.
I can't— I bring both of hands up to my chest and try to grasp the amulet, hoping to dig my fingers deep into my own flesh and claw the jewel out.
I was about to begin the "surgery" when my hands suddenly stopped on their tracks. My pupils shrunk in fear as I realized what had just happened. I lost control of my body, the amulet had completely taken over every part of me except for my brain.
Run everyone, run
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Sorry for the unpublish, I realized a major flaw in the second chapter, allow me to fix it for a moment
GRAW!!! When''s the next one coming out? It's so good!
7064250 What was the flaw, because i read it before you unpublished it and i don't want to go and reread it
Edit: PM if you don't wanna say it in the comments.
For someone so smart our mc sure is a dumbass.
7066637
-I'm assuming you meant the event that occurred in the second chapter.
If it is, then.
Yes he definitely is XD, but I guess love is something you can't just diagram in an excel worksheet or find some absolute formula to. It makes you...do things you don't normally do. (I'm speaking from personal experience here
)
Well, I don't know what to say really. First thing first: I really like this story. Reasons? Good things which I prefer to see is in there and they are: Nice and long chapters, the main characters presentation is awesome and those pictures in the storyline that makes it flow even better. That really makes it unique.
I felt a bit disappointed after this second chapter (was it that?). Well maybe it isn't really disappointed feeling, maybe another thing and that probably is the word unexpected. Yeah, to me maybe that is what describe it the best.
I really expected a nice, surprising and sweet reunion at the end of this second chapter, or maybe in two part and in the third chapter but the thing is that that stupid Alicorn amulet just spoiled it all.- at the moment
It is not a negative point or anything like that, just the fact that in the middle of the second chapter I wanted to see a different ending as I said.
BUT I think you TimesX can make a better thing out of it, what I can't really see at this point. ;)
Please keep up the excellent work. This one definitely deserves more attention.
7088385 I appreciate the feedback, probably more than I usually do (which is I bothered to reply even if it was just to say that)
and the reason why I didn't place the reunion at the second chapter was because it would have over 10k words, which others seem to have a problem with (But its a good thing you don't, that's rather my style).
So when's the next bit coming out?
7108021 Haha, it's Hell Month(that's what we call it in our college) right now so I can't find the time to finish the thing. But I'm halfway through, and in maybe one or two days it'll be out.
7109247 Sweet!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/10/2/111697__rarity_suggestive_glasses_blood_nosebleed_artist-colon-nyoncat.jpg
Me while writing the third chapter.
I don´t exactly like it that I didn´t noticed this chapter and have to read it right now, but I like it and.....kill him, kill Flash Senty
Wait... how are there GPS coordinates without orbiting satellites to provide reference? And is NASA privately owned in this setting?
I'm disappointed with this chapter. Not the writing, it was pretty good. I like his motivation since his encounter with Twilight, and I'm impressed with his develops. Very impressed. With little else to go on than the conclusions he got from a few hour long discussion with a filly, even if it was an admittedly brilliant one. Technically those are all prototypes. He's never really had a subject to test it on. Though I'm surprised he held out half a hour against multiple guards.
The conflict between the guards seemed... contrived. Strange critter appears? Tie it up? Why start hostilities with what could likely be a neutral party? Not to mention you were told to monitor it for abnormalities, not hostile... not to mention that jump to 'stalking the princess'. Her colours aren't exactly unique. Final issue, 'it'? Why? Equestria has about twelve different sapient species. One with a single member know, one with only four members known. Feels like forced conflict.
Luna makes a rather... impressive entry though. I mean, blowing off the roof? Really? She must really like stimulating the local construction economy. And really? Implanted the alicorn amulet? Not put it in a device to draw the magic out? Granted, I'm also wonder how he could figure out how to drain the corrupting elements with the limited knowledge of magic he had working with.
Of course, most of this could have been avoid if he started with 'I'd like to see Twilight' rather than keeping silent and deciding to start fighting...
Same here, needs a proofread, have a bunch of typos and minor errors.
Princess Luna has an eye color similar to Fluttershy
Pretty Gary Stu-ish, but entertaining so far.
Absolutely braindead.