Chapter 13: Reminiscing before the Storm
Chapter 13: Reminiscing before the Storm
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from Goopmonster!
Nopony could bring themselves to say a single word, not even the usually talkative pair of Soarin and Pinkie Pie, instead like everypony else they stood perfectly and utterly quiet. The bright pink mare’s seemingly constant happy and bubbly personality, which was often loved and enjoyed by everypony who had ever known her, was for now nowhere to be seen; the blue pegasus stallion in turn, for once in his life, apparently wasn’t going to try and find a humorous angle to the situation before him either.
If he did, Zack was sure he would’ve very quickly ended up on the moon.
The cluster of ponies, plus one black haired SOLDIER, were standing solemnly in a circle around a bed in the palace medical wing, all eyes focused on the patient it contained, who was by the looks of things currently lying unconscious and barely breathing; around them, the medical staff were giving each other instructions as they hurried up and down the wing, scurrying between their other patients as quickly as possible, most of which were palace servants or royal guards, including both Lance Point and Double Edge.
The pony they were looking at, though, was neither a servant nor a royal guard, it was Prince Blueblood.
“From what I can tell... he’s suffered a case of near fatal magical exhaustion, Princess, in my opinion, probably brought on by the performing of magic far beyond his level of ability,” the dark grey coated doctor sighed as he looked over his clipboard, his eyes flicking between the silent prince and his patient report.
“Given he is a member of the royal family, and a fairly adept unicorn at that, may I ask… what exactly you mean by that?” Princess Celestia asked from beside Zack, speaking without taking her eyes off of her nephew, and an obvious edge of worry in her words.
“To put it basically, Princess, the knowledge of how to perform the magic was there, but the strength wasn’t; like a young school-colt trying to levitate a carriage all on his own,” the coal colored unicorn sighed with a shake of his muzzle. “I hate to say this Princess, but this is probably the worst case I’ve ever seen to be honest... but, I guess that comes with releasing Discord all on your o...”
“That... is yet to be established, doctor,” the white alicorn cut in both sharply and coldly, the hard tone in her voice causing everypony else, including the normally stern SOLDIER, to flinch. “And I’d very much appreciate it if you would not voice such claims against my family, or at least until it has been proven as fact anyway.”
The grey unicorn lowered his floating board, and stared at his ruler with a raised eyebrow. “Princess, with all due respect, he was found unconscious, and alone, beside the remains of Discord’s statue...”
“Although our nephew has never been the easiest pony to get along with...” Luna snorted as she loudly stamped a hoof, her statement causing both Rarity and Spike to mutter a few choice words under their breaths. “He has always disdained Discord just as much as my sister and I have, and I simply cannot see him betraying us like this; I agree with Celestia on this matter, something is very much amiss here… now please, leave us before you insult my sister or I any further.”
“But…”
“If you have any sense of honor,” Zack growled, blue eyes silencing the stallion as they fell on him. “You’ll respect your rulers’ wishes.”
The stallion gave a small bow and hastily departed Blueblood’s bedside, the sound of his hooves on the marble floor echoing in Zack’s ear. The SOLDIER didn’t like Blueblood in the slightest, and he doubted he ever would, but he hated what had been done to him even more. It reminded him too much of his last experiences with Cloud, of how he had supported his friend as they headed back towards Midgar, with Cloud barely able to move and unable to speak in the slightest, thanks to what Hojo had done to them both.
He couldn’t help but ball his fists in frustration as the memories crawled to the front of his mind, an action which didn’t go unnoticed by the ever vigilant princess of the night.
“This sight seems to anger you, Zack Fair, despite our nephew having only ever caused you grief since you both met.” Luna said quietly from beside him, her words drawing everypony else’s eyes to the two of them. “May we ask why that is?”
Celestia’s eyes hardened as she stared at her darker sister. “Luna, it is impolite to...”
Zack shook his head, and couldn’t help but clench his jaw. “A best friend of mine, Cloud... ended up like this at one stage when we were together, and I couldn’t do anything to really help him... I’d rather not talk about rest.”
The group of ponies fell dead silent as his words sank in with each of them, bar Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who both let out a sympathetic whimper and sniffled; Zack knew they were no longer part of his life, whether he liked that fact or not, but the memories of both the good times and bad times spent with Cloud, Tseng, and his other friends were still there, and they still hurt.
“Forgive me, Zack, it was not right of me to ask.” Luna said as she chewed her lip.
“Don’t worry about,” he replied with a slight smirk, running a gloved hand through his messy locks of untamed black hair. “It’s all... history… and I’ve got you guys now,”
With the last words he smiled down affectionately at Spitfire, who was presently standing pressed against his left side, and ran a gloved hand down her back, much to the golden mare’s mirth.
“So… you and this ‘Cloud’ guy were pretty close then huh?” Rainbow Dash cut in curiously, sharply beating her wings as she hovered just about her personal idol, and just in front of Zack. “Was he a member of SOLDIER too? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Zack shook his head. “No, Cloud was a great fighter, but he was just a Shinra infantryman… like a regular guard for you guys… although he did always want to be a member of SOLDIER. Heh, in a way though, I’m glad he wasn’t… otherwise he would’ve ended up like the rest of us.”
“What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked. “Ended up like the rest of us?”
Her words, unintentionally of course, caused a memory to spark in the dark depths of Zack’s mind, and for him to fall silent as it began to play; it was a memory of a moment in time when everything had changed for him, including his views on two of his long-time friends, fellow SOLDIER’s, and idols.
“Is this… is this your idea of honour?!” he yelled in fury as he glared down at Angeal, his mentor’s mother lying dead right behind him.
“My mother… could not continue to live,” the old SOLDIER groaned, slowly but surely rising to his feet. “And now neither… can the son.”
“What are you talking about?! What’s going on here?”
“I told you…” an all too familiar voice answered, the source revealed to him as Genesis appeared in the doorway, dark red locks obscuring one eye. “You can’t live on that side anymore.”
………………
“Summons aren’t supposed to be used like this! What happened to dreams… and honour?”
“We are… monsters...” Genesis sighed heavily with turning around, a massive black wing suddenly tearing a hole in his coat as it emerged from his back. “We have neither dreams, nor honor.” He muttered almost sadly, jumping into the air, and leaving behind a rain of dark feathers as he disappeared into the sky.
“SOLDIER… doesn’t mean monster,” Zack murmured, gripping one of the black feathers of his former friend.
“That’s… a long story,” He answered at last in a bare whisper, his words resulting in the unicorn’s face going into a pout.
For a few very long and slightly awkward moments, silence took its reign over the small group of friends, a silence Zack figured he was the cause of; they’d all suddenly found themselves at a sort of crossroads, no doubt half wanting to know more about his past and this ‘Cloud’, and half not daring to ask, given that they knew it was a touchy subject for him.
Quietly, he was glad they didn’t ask for further details.
Though he couldn’t help but smirk slightly when his glowing blue eyes passed over Twilight specifically, who looked to mentally be just about pulling her mane out in wanting of answers, though physically she was doing nothing more than biting her tongue.
“Look, Twilight, as much I admire you’re need to learn, there are some things that you’re better off not knowing about,” he smiled as he gave the unicorn a rub between the ears, causing her to blush in embarrassment, and causing both Spitfire and Shining Armor to snort in amusement. “Anyway, I reckon we should let Blueblood get some rest for now, hopefully he’ll give his own account when he wakes up”
“A good plan if I have ever heard one,” Celestia smiled warmly, the ruler of the day turning to her royal guard captain. “Shining Armor, since my nephew is unable to attend to his duties, would you please make sure the palace reconstructions are continuing as scheduled? My sister and I will join you shortly, but there is something I wish to check on… with the elements of harmony.”
“Of course Princess,” the stallion smiled with a swift bow of his head.
“And Princess,” Stormwing put in. “If you don’t mind, I’d also like to get my team back to training if possible, I’m afraid that if they keep missing sessions and eating like they do… well, some members might actually become even lazier then they already are.”
He smirked as he cast a grin towards Soarin, who in return snorted and looked away, and mumbled something under his breath about pie while his teammates laughed.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Wow… I must’ve really done some damage,” Zack chuckled aloud, his arms folded across his chest as he descended a flight of marble palace stairs, and looked over the crowd of laboring engineers and workers that were rebuilding the ruins of the hall.
“That? You call that damage?” Shining Armor snickered from beside the SOLDIER, the purple dragon on his back joining in with his own bought of laughter. “Zack, may I remind you that about an hour ago, you nearly levelled this entire city with that summon of yours.”
“Yeah, but that dragon he summoned was awesome, so it was totally worth it.”
Both the SOLDIER and white stallion stopped walking, turned their heads, and looked back at Spike with raised eyebrows, the young dragon’s cheeks immediately flaring red under their combined gazes; a second passed when nothing happened, and then both warrior’s went into bouts of near hysterical laughter, which echoed of the walls, and just about filled the entire palace foyer, their actions drawing odd looks and mutterings from the gather trades-ponies, and supervising royal guards.
“Wow, after all this hell that’s been going on lately, I really needed that,” Zack sighed happily as he regained himself. “Thanks Spike, and just a heads up, that dragon is far more than just awesome… that was Bahamut, the king of dragons.”
As soon as the words ‘king of dragons’ left his mouth, both the royal guard captain, and his adopted purple scaled younger brother fell dead silent and once again stopped walking; despite his best attempts, the buster swordsman couldn’t help but smirk when he saw them both staring slack jawed at him, with their eyes just about bludging out of their sockets.
“T-the king of dragons?” Spike managed to choke out at last, looking like he was about to slide over and fall off of Shining Armor’s back. “I… got to see… the king of dragons?”
The SOLDIER chuckled to himself as he descended the stairs, a hand resting on the hilt of his Buster Sword. “Yeah, you did Spike, and since you’re a dragon like him, he’s basically your king too.”
“R-really?”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Shining Armor snorted playfully, the stallion finally shaking his head free of his former shock. “Spike may be a dragon, but as a citizen of Equestria and my little brother, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are his rulers.”
“Ah, you’re no fun Shining,” The purple dragon groaned.
“Spike, being fun isn’t part of my job description,” Shining laughed as he rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Zack, can I just ask… how exactly are you able to summon something like that?” the royal guard captain asked, the three of them now reaching the bottom of the staircase. “And that Ifrit… whatever it was… for that matter?”
Zack blushed slightly as he crossed the foyer beside the pair, his boots making unusually loud clacks on the marble floor, his unusual form making him the centre of attention for the present builders and engineers. “Well… you’re probably not going to believe me here, but I gained each of my summons predominantly through beating them in one on one combat. Admittedly I didn’t exactly ask for some of those fights…” he shrugged, remembering the various situations and fights Genesis had basically thrown him into. “But I won each of them.”
Shining Armor just looked over at him, with an expression that basically screamed ‘you’re actually kidding me right?’ across his face.
“Hey, you asked,” Zack grinned smugly.
Spike, on the other hand, couldn’t help but gape in amazement. “Wow, you actually beat the king of dragons one on one? That’s awesome! Is there anything that’s ever beaten you?”
Zack flinched, stopped walking, and silently wished Spike hadn’t gone and asked that particular question; he wasn’t ashamed of having been beaten by Sephiroth all those years ago, no, that wasn’t the issue, his issue was that he hated having to spill such dark memories, especially on minds that didn’t need to be tainted.
“Well… in terms of beasts and monsters, no, but… I… had a friend at one stage, he was SOLDIER first class like I was, but even more powerful than I’ve ever been. For the longest time he was kind of the pinnacle of the unit, and in a way SOLDIER’s reputation, the one who inspired the new recruits to come and join up… the one the people of Shinra always saw as a hero. But… one day he discovered something about himself, something he shouldn’t have, and it drove him into a state of madness.”
“So… he beat you?” Shining Armor asked tentatively.
“Beat me?” Zack spat through clenched teeth, glowing blue eyes falling on the stallion, and burning so brightly with anger the guard captain actually backed. “He went insane, then he slaughtered an entire town of innocent people, then he beat me, and then finally he nearly killed my best friend.”
Despite his coat already being as white as a piece of polished marble, Zack swore Shining Armor’s face paled even further at his words, Spike’s, on the other hand, seemed to instead quickly go a sickly shade of green.
“I’m… sorry, Zack,” the stallion said at last, wincing as the words left his muzzle. “We shouldn’t have as-GAH! Spike!”
Both the royal guard captain and the former member of SOLDIER ducked just in time to avoid a sudden tongue of bright dragon fire, said fire being a green flame which had abruptly erupted from Spike’s maw. As he regained his former composure, Zack watched curiously as the flame twisted around itself mid-air, and materialized into a piece of rolled up yellow parchment bearing a golden seal, which Spike hurriedly snatched from the air and unrolled.
“Shining Armor, please see to it that yourself, Zack, and Spike, make your way to the palace vault at once; we will be waiting there for you, and will explain everything upon your arrival. Princess Celestia.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
“You know, it wouldn’t hurt to try and liven this place up a bit.” Discord remarked dryly as he floated about, mismatched eyes running over the black stone walls of Chrysalis’s ‘throne room’. “It’s ever so dull and dreary in here.”
Chrysalis groaned and rolled her eyes. “Do you actually wish for me to drag you back to Canterlot, throw before Celestia and Luna, and have the elements turn you into statue again?” she hissed venomously as she looked up from a dusty tome, the vein in her forehead looking like it was about to rupture. “Ugh, now I understand why those two alicorns imprisoned you in the first place.”
“You mean because they were jealous of my looks?” the spirit smirked playfully, using his magic to turn a stray chunk of stone into a small mirror. “I can’t help being…”
“BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BIGGEST PAIN IN THE FLANK I’VE EVER MET!”
“Ouch,” Discord pouted as he folded his forelegs and looked down at her. “A little harsh, don’t you think?”
Chrysalis didn’t do anything to openly respond, but rather just hissed quietly to herself, and returned her attention to the ancient book that lay across her hooves; it’s pages were old to say the least, even by her age and standards, and contained spell layouts and incantations that she doubted many alive would be able to understand, especially in the current day and age.
But to her, the pages were two very definitive things; the first was power, for where others couldn’t interpret even one part of the numerous bygone age spell scripts, she understood every black ink character and symbol with ease, and hence in them she found a weapon no other could possibly possess.
The second was opportunity, opportunity to finally succeed in her goals, to finally take the throne of Equestria she had sort for so long, and had failed at gaining twice before. Soon, it would all come together at last, and all would be hers, and hers alone.
Or so she thought.
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I'd say have him start out as wingless, but have the wing grow in gradually.
Oh god.... I wasn't ready for this.... that game hit me hard right in my feels, man. His death was so sad
I would say wingless, because he will be brought out thanks to Zack's memories and that would mean he likely wouldn't have his wing yet. (Emphasis on likely
)
You could use both, like how Dissidia did it.
Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis...you have no idea what you're going to be summoning.
Also, since it was pointed out a couple of chapters ago that if Discord dies, the balance of harmony is destroyed, who else thinks he'll team up with Zack and the Equestrians after Sephiroth kills Chrysalis?
1861236 I agree. Have him start out without the wing, but later on, have him bring it out, and then just beat the crap out of Zack.
1861253 So, we meet, yet again.
1861426 DAGNABBIT!!!
1861440 yeah, seems we can't stop running into each other.
1861444 I thought you wouldn't notice…
1861450 It seems I only notice things other people don't want me to notice... I'm always oblivious to the stuff they want me to see.
1861236 <--- What this guy said.
1861456 Welp, it was a pleasure seeing you again!
1861467 Same to you!
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/223/2/4/saluting_luna_by_felix_kot-d4686tt.png
I just finished your fic and I must say that I'm impressed, you do a good job of handling the characters personalities and the story itself is very fast paced and exciting. As far as errors go, I don't see hardly any grammar, punctuation, or spelling problems. Though you do seem to sort of 'miss' words here and there, mostly connecting words like: to, in, of, and the.
But all in all a very good read, here have a like, a fav, and a stache
.....Mmmm, the mares love the stache
Wingless, I always thought the single wing was lame.
Oh no! She's going to summon an eldrich abomination!
1863799
Thank you dear sir
one winged angle duh
No, make him wingless but as another said have it grow in during the fight.
I don't know how to explain it, but I feel more intimidated by Sephiroth when he's wingless. Maybe it's because he looks like less of a monster, therefore giving a feeling of uneasiness to him. As I said, I'm not quite sure how to explain it.
id go with the one winged angle myself
but did you know that everyone, I MEAN everyone is fucked when sephiroth comes back for the third to one hundredth time 
keep up the good work
doesn't matter it's gonna be epic chaos anyway.
Have him wingless but have the wings grow out gradually.
Or, you could make him have three, like in Kingdom Hearts 2... He had a shoulder wing, and then two hip wings. I'd like to think he was super charged on J.E.N.O.V.A. cells in that game, making him REALLY FUCKING HARD TO BEAT!
...
As far as entrances go, his KH1 entrance was the best.
Because there was no more 'Oh shit!' involved with Sephiroth then that scene... if you weren't prepared for it, anyway.
have him start from advent childrem
please tell me you are eventually going to finnish this right?
2087045
Yes I am, but life and uni (as it seems to happen with many authors) does get in the way
2087176 ok I understand I am having the same issues as well. My fear was that you had just simply given up like some of these other great authors on here and I really want to see waht happens next instead of the author leaving it alone. It is even worst when they leave it with a cliff hanger like Amongst the Ruins. Glad to know that you are still working on it.
2087328
Haha, na, I enjoy writing this fic to much to let it die.
I'll be honest with you though, when I say 'life', I actually mean recently getting kicked in the gut by a horse (somewhat ironic), so I'm in a bit of a bad way right now.
2087363 I know what that feels like, I had a similer experiance but thankfuly it was only a filly. Still hurt alot but nothing compared to an adult I am sure.
Hope you feel better.
1880467 i tried 20 somthin times and when I won I was like keychain keychain c'mon keychain
........nothing