The Eternal Storm 2 - Eternally Devoid

by TDarkchylde

Three - Quicksand Effect

Eternally Devoid - Chapter 3 - Quicksand Effect
"...I can feel it slipping away, my precious grasp on reality
My little world and all I see is fading rapidly..."

"There's no way it could have been that easy. This mare is egotistical, yes... but she's also blind. She wanted to see a spell for what I've been doing all along.

"What I instead gave her was a spell that would make her controllable... and she went along all on her own. It's a pity that will be the last decision she'll ever make for herself..."

..:://=||=\\::..

Scootaloo was spiraling out of control as her momentum began to arc towards the ground.

Well, she was actually arcing towards the ground. The spiraling was all in Rainbow Dash's head as her vertigo began to flare up. It didn't stop her.

"Now's not the time for this," she thought as she continued accelerating. As her velocity climbed, it became more difficult for her to keep herself flying in a straight line. The effort required to constantly correct her trajectory was affecting her speed.

Yes, she was going faster than she had any business going. It still wasn't enough as Scootaloo continued to fall faster.

Dash knew she had to risk it. "Eyes shut, Rainbow," she thought to herself as she elected to let instinct take over. It was a terrible risk. There was a chance she could spiral out of control herself if she took her eyes off of Scootaloo, but trying to focus was only slowing her down.

She truly had no other options.

Those down in Cloudsdayle could see a rainbow-colored streak erratically flying towards a pony hurtling through the air out of control.

As Rainbow felt her speed increase toward where she felt it needed to be, the sound barrier itself began to resist.

"You're... not... helping!" she struggled to silently protest as she continued to push herself forward. If her eyes were open, she would have seen the ground rapidly approaching. Still, somehow, she knew.

She knew time was short.

She knew it was now or never...

..:://=||=\\::..

In a vault in the Royal Castle, the six Elements of Harmony were stored safely.

The Element of Loyalty began to glow with a warm magic.

In an instant, it was gone...

..:://=||=\\::..

The sound barrier was trying to resist Rainbow Dash with everything it had, even after she had broken through countless times in the past. It was almost as though it could sense just how infirm Dash was at that point in time.

She pushed back harder as her concentration began to wane. She could feel her path deviating.

It was then that she felt a warm magic around her neck - one she had not felt in five years but knew intimately. A missing part of her had come to lend her its power in a moment of dire need.

Filled with newfound resolve, she flew straight and true. As she charged through the sound barrier, she opened her eyes.

Scootaloo looked back as she heard the Sonic Rainboom behind her, and saw the holder of the Element of Loyalty coming to rescue her one last time.

Rainbow Dash's eyes were open, and glowing as brightly as the sun. "I told you that I'd save you," she said as she plucked her protege out of her fall. Attempting a violent turn, she tried to ascend back towards Cloudsdayle.

It didn't work. All it did was send her and Scootaloo uncontrollably hurtling toward a familiar forest. Even the Element of Loyalty's magic was waning, and Rainbow Dash had burned through all of it.

"Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo asked, concerned.

"I'm sorry, kid," Rainbow said as she twisted her body. "You're going to be okay, though. I promise."

Just as Scootaloo tried to reply, the two pegasi collided with a small cottage at the speed of sound...

..:://=||=\\::..

On a winding mountain road leading to New Harmony, Rarity was sipping tea within her coach. She looked out the side window to check out some of the scenery. "Driver, how much longer until we reach New Harmony?" she asked.

The sturdy old earth pony pulling the coach sighed. "Ten minutes less than when you asked last time, Miss Rarity. I'm sorry, but it is a long trip."

Rarity sighed as well as she went back to looking out of the window. Along the way, she saw a bright pink coach pulled over on the side of the road. One of its wheels was broken and one of its occupants was out front drinking an energy drink. She would have recognized that hairstyle anywhere... "Stop the coach," she ordered.

"Ma'am?" one of the bodyguards asked.

"That's an old friend of mine," Rarity said. "I mean it. Stop. She's in distress."

The driver pulled Rarity's coach over on the side of the road. She didn't even wait for it to come to a full stop before leaping out and running back toward the disabled pink coach.

The pink pony was leaning against the front of the coach in an unconventional manner. She looked up from her drink as she heard Rarity's approach. "Heya!" she shouted, waving.

"Pinkie Pie? I knew it was you, but..." Rarity began.

"But what? And it's been forever since someone's called me that!" the pink pony said, smiling.

"...But what are you doing all the way out here?" Rarity continued as she trotted up and hugged her old friend. "There's almost nothing out this way!"

"My next gig, silly!" Pinkie said. "Didn't you get the autographed copy of my debut album last year that I mailed you?"

Rarity thought for a second. There was a package from a "Hyperaktiv" that did show up at her offices a year previous. She put it away and didn't think about it. "Album? Wait..." Rarity started. She recalled a couple of her employees coming into work talking about Hyperaktiv, and the fandom had spread like wildfire. For a while she couldn't come into work without seeing everypony she ran into either listening to Hyperaktiv or wearing one of her shirts. She finally buckled and bought the rights to make official Hyperaktiv merchandise. Her profits doubled in a month.

It suddenly made sense. "...You're Hyperaktiv?" Rarity asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeppers!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "I'm actually pretty good, too... at least that's what the guys running the venues say when they see sellout after sellout when I perform.

Rarity looked as though she was about to faint.

Thinking quickly, Pinkie grabbed Rarity and poured the rest of her energy drink down her throat. "None of that, silly..." she said.

Rarity choked as the disgusting concoction slid down her throat. "What the..." she asked, incredulously. "Are you trying to poison me, Pinkie?"

"I know you too well, Rarity... and I didn't need you fainting on me," Pinkie said apologetically. "Actually... we need your help."

"We?" Rarity asked between spits as she tried to clear the last of the vile liquid from her system.

"Yeah," Pinkie said. "Hey Sweetie Belle, come on out a second!"

The door to Pinkie's coach opened and a beautiful young white unicorn mare came out. Her cutie mark was almost glowing against her coat, distinctive in its design being a musical note made from blue gems. "What is it, Hyperaktiv? You knew I didn't want to come out into the... cold..." Sweetie Belle said as she saw her sister. "Sister? What are you doing out here?"

"Sweetie Belle?" Rarity said softly. She hadn't seen her sister in a year, not after their last big fight. Somehow, upon earning her cutie mark, Sweetie Belle became too much of a diva for even Rarity to handle. "How... how have you been?"

"Fine, I guess..." Sweetie Belle said. "Hyperaktiv, I thought this might be something important. It's brutally cold out here."

"It is, Sweetie!" Pinkie said. "Rarity was just going to give us a lift so we could get to our shows in New Harmony... right, Rarity?"

"Huh... wha..." Rarity tried to say as her brain began to shut down.

"I doubt she's going that way, Hyperaktiv..." Sweetie Belle said.

"She is too!" Pinkie protested. "Nopony goes out this way unless they're heading to New Harmony or to Zebra or Griffin lands, and even then they've gotta pass through New Harmony, so we're all going the same way regardless!"

"Yes... yes... I think I could help you out..." Rarity stammered as her brain continued to short-circuit. "I needed... thread..."

"I'll grab our stuff, then... we don't have a whole lot, I like to travel light and Sweetie doesn't take much with her," Pinkie rapidly explained as she went back to the coach to grab her turntables and boxes of records. "I'm sure Vinyl can spare some speakers too... this is going to be wicked great!"

"Vinyl," Rarity said, still in shock. "You're opening for Vinyl Scratch, as in DJ PON-3?"

"No, silly! Vinyl's opening for me!" Pinkie said, smiling.

Rarity's poor brain finally gave out. Without any dramatics, she simply fainted on the side of the road.

..:://=||=\\::..

As Trixie continued to focus on her spell, she heard a voice in her head again.

"There are two bearers of the Elements of Harmony near here..."

"What?" Trixie asked to no one in particular. "What are these Elements of Harmony? The Great and Powerful Trixie has never heard of them..."

"They are what oppose The Great and Powerful Trixie. They must be neutralized..."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is not concerned with some things that may or may not be nearby," she replied, starting to lose patience. "There is no force on Equestria that can stop the Great and Powerful Trixie's goal of being the single most powerful magical force in the world!"

The force pulling the strings was tiring of Trixie's ego. She was starting to go from being a boon to a hindrance. Fortunately, the spell Trixie herself had cast would take care of that problem soon enough. She would give herself to the force granting her its power... and by the time she was aware anything was amiss, it would already be too late.

Indeed, it was already too late, as Trixie's own body was beginning to undergo some changes...

..:://=||=\\::..

Fluttershy was walking back home after going into town to pick up a new romance novel from the library. She had also grabbed a children's book to read to Applewood later on.

"But I want you to read that one to me," Applewood whined, indicating the novel.

"Oh, no, little one... That book isn't for little colts," Fluttershy responded. "You'll understand when you get older."

As Fluttershy rounded the last turn before her cottage, she saw a pile of debris in the distance.

It was her cottage... or rather, its remains.

"Oh no..." Fluttershy said quietly. "Applewood, stay here!"

"What's wrong?" Applewood asked.

"My house..." Fluttershy screamed silently as she ran towards the pile of rubble.

It was a complete disaster, yet incredibly localized. By some twist of fate, the rubble was strewn outward from the cottage's foundation, but away from all the animal pens. They were all unharmed.

"What... what could have done this?" Fluttershy sobbed.

She began to hear a voice from the rubble. It was badly muffled.

"Is somepony... in there?" she asked.

She could clearly make out the word "help."

Working quickly, Fluttershy began to toss away the few pieces of rubble she was capable of moving by herself.

"Help us!" the voice from the rubble called.

Fluttershy realized that there may be more than one pony trapped underneath the pile of rubble.

Bravely, Applewood trotted up to the pile and started moving what he could as well. It wasn't a lot but it still sped up the process.

It took several minutes, but eventually they were able to move enough debris to find two familiar pegasi. One was hurt but conscious. The other was battered, bloody, broken and barely clinging to life.

"Fluttershy?" Scootaloo asked, looking up at her rescuer. "Rainbow Dash needs your help... she took the worst of it! She's dying!"

Fluttershy's heart sunk. "Applewood, go run to the hospital quick," she said, not thinking clearly. The whole reason Fluttershy was watching over Applewood was that Applejack didn't want him seeing Big Macintosh hurt. That no longer mattered.

"Where is it?" Applewood asked. Despite his bravery and desire to help out, he was still a very young colt. He knew where home was and he knew where the cottage was. Everywhere else, he still needed to be taken to.

Fluttershy sighed, realizing her mistake. "Children..." she said softly. "Scootaloo, can you fly?"

"No... I don't know what happened," Scootaloo said sadly. "I can't fly right now and I don't know why. I can still walk, though."

"Everything I've learned is saying we shouldn't move her, but we don't have a lot of options," Fluttershy said, sighing sadly. "Put Rainbow Dash on my back. I'll fly her to the hospital. You and Applewood follow me."

With a plan decided on, the three ponies took their hurt friend to the Ponyville Clinic...

..:://=||=\\::..

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were meeting with Princess Celestia's best minds. They had heard the three options, and were only realistically able to discount one.

Their accelerated research was going nowhere fast.

"Break time, Twilight," Spike sternly said as Twilight was struggling to turn a page with her waning magic.

"No, Spike..." Twilight protested. "We've got to figure out what the cause is for this..."

"Twilight..." Spike sighed. "I've been asking you every ten minutes for the last hour to take a break. You're draining what little magical reserve you have left. You've got to rest! Recharge!"

"That's easy for you to say..." Twilight said sorrowfully. "You still have your magic."

"Whatever's doing this obviously doesn't affect dragons," he said, "but it is affecting ponies. Specifically you. I get it. Your special talent is magic. Without it you might as well be a blank-flank. Obsessing over it isn't the answer, though. You've been doing so well lately. You can't let this problem cause you to slip."

"Obsessing?" Twilight said as her face twitched. Her rage with her assistant was growing. "I'm not obsessing! This isn't affecting just me, I know it! It's affecting a lot of ponies, but if I don't do something..."

"You'll still be doing something if you take a break!" the headstrong dragon shouted.

Twilight's rage reached a critical point, and she responded by backhoofing Spike in the face. He was knocked over by the impact.

He simply stared at her.

She looked back at him and didn't see her assistant. She saw the dragon that she herself had hatched as a filly. Her rage melted away as quickly as it had built up. "Spike... I..." she started to say, remorsefully. "I don't know what came over me..."

"It's... it's my fault, Twilight," Spike said as he got back up. "I was pushing you too hard..."

"No, Spike," she said. "It's my fault. You were right. I am obsessing over this. We should go back to the throne room and let Princess Celestia know what we've found out."

"You go ahead, Twilight," Spike said as he walked toward a different exit. "I need to get this looked at." He was lying - even in Twilight's rage states, she simply didn't have the physical strength to hurt him like that. His feelings, however, were a different story. He turned toward the private chambers of the Princess of the Moon.

Twilight walked into Princess Celestia's throne room a few minutes later. Celestia had not moved since discovering the sunspots were missing.

"Did you discover anything yet?" Celestia asked.

"Nothing so far, Princess..." Twilight said sadly.

Celestia turned to look back at her longtime student. "Something is troubling you, Twilight," she said. It was not a question. She simply knew.

"I... I snapped at Spike," Twilight said as she began shedding tears. "I... struck him, Princess. I don't know what came over me..."

"Frustration," the Princess said knowingly. "I know what you're going through right now, my faithful student... if this continues, I don't know if I will be able to put the sun away at the end of the day. It's disappointing... it's annoying... and right now, there's nothing I can do about it."

"I feel horrible, Princess," Twilight said.

"That's actually a good thing, Twilight," Celestia said. "It means you're truly sorry for doing that, and that you still care about his well-being."

"I still feel like a horrible friend, though..." Twilight sighed as she sat next to the Princess.

..:://=||=\\::..

Rarity started to come to. She wasn't in her coach, though. She didn't know where she was. Looking around, she saw an unconscious Pinkie Pie chained to a wall next to her. As she tried to move to assist her friend, she found that she was also restrained by similar chains.

"Welcome to New Harmony, Element of Generosity," a vaguely familiar voice said. "Looks like the teleportation spell did quite a number on your friend there..."

"You're kidding, right?" Rarity asked, annoyed. "Do you honestly think simple chains can hold a unicorn?"

"Break them, then," the voice said, nonplussed.

As Rarity tried to focus on the locks, she found something odd. Her magic was completely gone. "...What..." she replied in shock.

"There's no magic here for you," the voice said, smugly. "Now just stay there and try to look pretty. You're on..."

..:://=||=\\::..

"Is this thing on?" a voice called out within Celestia's throne room.

Celestia and Twilight Sparkle both turned around. What they saw was a ghostly image of a unicorn mare who appeared to be in the middle of some sort of physical transformation. While parts of her coat were sky blue, the remainder was jet black, and the black portions appeared to be encroaching on the sky blue portions. Her pale mane was nearly unmistakable, as was her cutie mark - a magic wand over what looked like a curtain.

"Guards!" Celestia called.

"Don't bother," the apparition said. "Nopony can hear anything that's being said in this room."

"What are you?" Celestia asked.

"Shut up," the apparition replied. "Twilight Sparkle is there."

"What of it?" Twilight asked, annoyed. Something about the ghostly mare looked familiar, but she couldn't quite put a hoof on it. "Who are you?"

"Surely you recognize the pony whose life and reputation you destroyed," the ghostly mare replied.

"Considering I've never done such a thing, I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Twilight replied.

The ghostly pony looked annoyed. No... she looked more than annoyed. She was pissed. "You mean to tell me that you do not remember showing up The Great and Powerful Trixie in Ponyville five years ago?!" she spat.

"Trixie?" Twilight said in shock. "But... I didn't..."

"You did," Trixie replied. "And because of that, The Dread and Omnipotent Trixie has decided to revoke the use of all magic in Equestria. She will be the most powerful magical entity that lives now and forevermore!"

"You're insane!" Celestia shouted. "We'll find you and put a stop to this!"

"Doubtful, Princess, but you are welcome to fail all you like," Trixie said smugly. "That said, The Dread and Omnipotent Trixie did not make this image to speak to you. She wishes to let Twilight Sparkle know that two of her friends are currently captive and that she is willing to release them on one condition."

The image soon changed to one of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, both chained to a wall. Rarity appeared to be yelling, but there was no sound. Pinkie Pie was out like a light.

"What have you done to them?!" Twilight shouted.

"Nothing yet - and if you turn yourself over to me by sunset tomorrow, nothing will happen to them," Trixie stated as the image changed back to one of her. "If, however, you refuse to turn yourself over to The Dread and Omnipotent Trixie, then they will be hurt. Badly. They might not survive my tender mercies."

Twilight felt a magical sensation as the image of a map was being pushed into her memory.

"You know where you must go," Trixie said. "Don't bother to try to tell anyone where you are going - any attempt to do so will turn out unintelligible, be it verbal, written, whatever. Remember, sunset tomorrow. Don't keep The Dread and Omnipotent Trixie waiting!"

With that, Trixie's image spell disappeared.

"...This is bad," Twilight said. "If I don't leave now, there's no way I'll make it to Fhrryt Eckspleghah in time!" She sighed. "Looks like she wasn't gloating... I can't say Fhrryt Eckspleghah..."

"There's more than one way to get around that," Princess Celestia said. "Go get your friends. I'll have what Royal Guards I can spare shadow you."

"Spare? Why?" Twilight asked, puzzled.

"Because while you were studying, the ponies of Canterlot began rioting..." Princess Luna said as she entered the throne room. "We have much bigger problems here. They're panicking because the magic here is dying."

Comments

[mbpony 512]

Okay, now is a good time to panic.

I mean maybe Spike was a bit wrong about the importance of this problem....

Still, I wonder why he is going to visit Luna at this time...unless they are a secret couple in this story...

Also it seems that once again Rainbow Dash's life is in danger as she tries to rescue Scootaloo. It's only lucky for them to have landed in FLuttershy's house.

I was surprised to see Sweetie Belle in this chapter, as I was surprised to see her and Rarity not speaking to each other. I do wonder if she and Vinny are okay with Pinkie and Rarity captured by the "New and Improved" Trixie ...

So now Trixie reveals herself to Twilight and the Princess, but can the Elements of Harmony be gathered in time to stop her ?

Especially when they are down 3 Elements...

Please do keep up the good work upon such a great storyline like this one as I cannot wait to see what happens next in this tale of yours.

[Starcat5]

As big of a Spike x Rarity fan as I am, even ~I~ have to admit that it is a bit of a Mayfly/December romance. Spike x Luna is acceptable. ...but what would a dragon/alicorn foal look like?

Now to the serious stuff. Trixie is being played for a chump, Loyalty is down for the count, Loyalty 2.0 is wounded, Generosity and Laughter are captured, and apparently Friendship/Magic is starting to feel the effects of her Element slipping.

[TDarkchylde]

I'm not shipping them... Spike was feeling emotionally hurt, and figured Celestia would be too close to Twilight to have an impartial opinion on the matter. (He was wrong.) Luna, on the other hand, isn't quite as close with Twilight, and in his view, would lend him a less biased ear.