Spheres

by Neon Icy Wings

Millennia Past - Prologue

Rain plastered the trees of a dark forest. A forest that would not appear to be all that unpleasant if it were not for the rhythmic tap of steps on stone coming from within a small cave. The entrance of said cave was rather small, so small a rudimentary wooden door was placed as the sole guardian of the cave against the water from outside, allowing the creature to pace in relative peace.

The bipedal creature paced in front of a half length, eerie and ornate mirror, its brow furrowed on its impossibly smooth onyx and marble skin; a frown upon its thin lips as its pure, red, pupil-less eyes glowered at everything, between the mirror or the simple walls of the cave as it muttered to what could only be itself.

"It's not my fault that guard raised the alarm! Pah. At least we 'poisoned' her."

The creatures lips did not move, but a response was given by a different, deeper voice. "As that may be, not only will it take forever for the 'poison' to take effect, it was also quite valuable! We could have easily found a better use for it."

It turned, flaring the black and white cape it wore slightly as it glared at the pure black biped in the mirror. "When and where, may I ask? We had that useless thing forever and we would never find a better target than her! Besides. I am the brains that says 'oh, why don't we go through the tunnel net work and surface in the kitchens', you're the brawn that says 'let's burn down the door, steal a cake and blind our enemies with its frosted goodness!"

The twin in the mirror shifted and looked away as it crossed its arms. "That was once and we both know it K."

K shook his head and snickered a little. "Twice C. You forgot the time with the bachelor party where you-"

C seemed to grab the mirror from his side with his teeth bared in sharp, straight rows, as he growled menacingly at K through the pristine teeth, "I get it K."

K shifted a little and stopped snickering. "Well, what are we going to do now? If I know them, which I do, then they will be coming here to use the elements on us. Just like they did Discord." He took a few steps towards the mirror a scowl adorning his face, cape flowing lightly. "I do not, emphasize not, want to be turned to stone, blown up or whatever it is those things do."

C let go of his side of the mirror and nodded, "Yeah, well, you did do a Discord and cause the chain of events that's gonna get us stoned." As he said the last part K snickered again, causing C to give him a very un-amused look, "It's not funny. Discord had the same stuff we do, he didn't even need it, it didn't even help him and he had power over chaos beforehand. He just... sat there. Guess he thought it made him immune. But if we're not careful we'll also be the Princesses garden gnomes."

K sighed as he turned to the side and leaned against the wall, putting a hand against his face, scrunching it slightly. "Where did we go so wrong?"

C crossed his arms, shrugged and gave a chuckle, "I think it went wrong the moment they found out our little secret causing you to act brashly, 'poison' her and hurt her favorite guard to boot." He lent forward, face almost brushing the mirror surface.

K turned back to the mirror with a small frown and mirrored his counter part's stance, "You're right. But that is in the past, doesn't pertain to what we need to do and, speaking of which, what do we do?"

C gave a small grin that belay the twisted ideas inevitably churning within his mind, "We set a trap for them. Like you said, they will be coming to turn us to stone or whatever it is the elements do. And when they do come, we'll be ready."

Even K gave a dark smile to that, "Good. All in favor of setting a trap?" Both of them raised their hand and looked around before lowering them again. "Oh, right Discord's not here." K turned from the mirror and walked towards the door as glowing tendrils of blue and green magic wrapped around each of his arms. He lifted his arms and let some of the magic fly to the door as they started making strange intertwining patterns on the floor in front of the door.

Once the rune was finished and his arms stopped glowing he turned back to the mirror, "When they get here they will be trapped by the magic in the rune and then we can have a nice chat with them."

C scowled a little before giving a contemplative look, "Don't you know it's bad to monologue in front of your enemies?" He placed both of his arms on the stone stand of the mirror, shaking his head, "Discord monologued and became a pigeon playhouse, better to just kill them, teleport them or something."

K frowned again as he put his back to a cave wall and slid down it into a sitting position. "I never get to have any fun."

C gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure the princesses will crash through that door any day now."

Right after he finished that sentence the door shattered into splinters, forcing K to raise his cape as a makeshift shield from the debris. Once the dust cleared away he let his cape drop and gaped dumbly at what stood before him, the Princesses Celestia and Luna wearing the Elements of Harmony in all their glory.

His eyes darted to the floor, the sisters were mere hoofsteps from the rune, its dark blue overpowering the green, blending into the floor of the dim cave. His eyes darted from the floor back to the Princesses, so quickly they did not even have the inclination to follow his gaze. "What a surprise this is! And what an honor! My dear Princesses." He said, getting up to do a mocking bow.

Luna stepped forward, a few precious steps closer to the rune, an angry scowl adorned her face. "We have come to stop thee K! You have done too much in these recent days! You helped Discord, slipped something into our soup and harmed our favorite guard! For these crimes we cannot forgive thee!"

K straightened from the bow, a cocky grin adorning his lips, chuckles passing through his teeth. "Who's asking for forgiveness? Certainly not me." He sauntered in a circle, giving a light hum as he peered at the sisters, watching their body language."You're paying for the door by the way."

Celestia ignored his joke and stepped up to the side of her sister wearing a look of calm tempered by chilling fury. "We just want to know K. Why did you do all of this?"

K once again flared his cape and laughed, "A magician never reveals his secrets! If all secrets were told due to the audience's curiosity, what fun would the world be?"

Luna started to tremble, her angry scowl becoming saddened. "We considered thee our friend K. Considered thee practically family."

K's cocky smile vanished. For but a single moment his eyes held more than just schemes, malice or laughter. They held the slightest amount of uncertainty, of pain, of loss and even regret. If only for a moment. "I did too." He then let loose a maniacal laugh that rang through the small cave, as his smile returned with manic glee. "But, things change! The world cares little for wants and desires, and we are forced into our destiny!"

Luna glared at K, taking a few steps closer until she stood a mere hoof length from the small rune. "What does destiny have to do with any of this K? Answer us! We can help thee!"

K returned the glare with a gleeful smile, "Sorry, but my plans require no such thing to happen, though, you could try and make me!" He lifted his hand which was covered in a spiral of dark blue tendrils of magic and shot a searing bolt of blue at Celestia. She ducked as fast as gravity would allow, her wings flaring on instinct as the bolt whizzed barely past her mane. Despite the dodge the bolt lanced through the open entrance, and with a 'ping' rebounded through the entrance, striking one of Celestia's flared wings. Pain lanced up her wing into and her barrel, as she heard the clank and scrape metal on the stone floor before she even realized she had knelt to it.

Luna let out a scream of fury, her horn charged and flaring with magic as she jumped at K, her sister leaping as well from her kneel. As they neared him, though, a flash of light hit their eyes as the hidden rune's inner symbol shattered. Blue and green chains leapt from the rune, gripping the sisters midair and tethering them to the floor, as well as bringing them down with a crash of flesh and metal.

Celestia glanced at her sister who struggled, cursing and shooting spells upon spells that were swallowed by a blue bubble that phased into existence whenever a spell crossed the runic threshold.

Pain shot through her wing as the chains slithered and tightened, upon closer inspection it had started to bleed lightly. Ignoring the pain she started to examine the symbol the snaking chains had erupted from and spoke above her sister's cursing, "Not only is this beyond your magic K, but we have never seen such a rune before. Who helped you?"

K's cocky smile only seemed to grow even cockier as he gestured to the mirror, where C was waving from. "Besides myself?"

Luna didn't take her eyes off K or the chains but Celestia gaped at the mirror twin. "What manner of mirror is this?"

K started moving the mirror closer as C started to explain, "Well, this mirror is enchanted to let one see their true or hidden side. Me being K's opposite." He put a thumb to his chin and adopted a thoughtful look. "Odd that we agree so much though, isn't it?"

As K finished moving the mirror Celestia shook her head. "Never mind that, answer our last question K, who is helping you?"

K sighed as he leaned against the mirror. "Can't say, Discord set everything up. We never saw his mysterious business partner- least we think he had one. But, who cares about that? Don't you want to know how I trapped you?" He bent down beside the sisters and raised his hands, lights of various, darker colors shone to the ceiling before settling upon three as K lowered his arms, showing his palms as three glowing spheres solidified. One a dark green, another dark blue while the last one was bright teal. "Discord gave us these. And these gave us enough power to trap you here. Beyond that! Let us fool you at every turn! Allowed us to machinate and scheme, all the while so near..." A dark smile flashed across his face. "What do you have to say to that?"

C groaned in frustration, clenching a fist and placing it against the mirror. "K... You're monologue-ing."

This even caught Luna's attention, at least her curses stopped, so Celestia thought it did. Celestia stared, wide eyed at the spheres, drawing K's attention away from C, "What are they?"

K shrugged, "Discord said that they're concentrated magical somethings or others, forget exactly what he said they are."

Celestia tilted her head to the ground and chuckled which confused K. "Well, it does not matter what they are, so long as they fly!"

C's eyes widened as he screamed out to K, but it was too late. Celestia lifted her head with great speed, her horn crashing and borderline slashing his out stretched hands, sending the spheres flying. K was knocked flying as well - never underestimate the strength of a pissed off alicorn - hitting a wall, he slumped there, stunned.

C's eyes only seemed to grow wider at the sight of K's slumped form, and let out a growl of panic, "Time for me to step in!" He vanished from the mirror as K's body started to stand again. With C in control he ran and grabbed the green and blue orbs which had started to rebound off the walls, absorbing them back into their skin. He glanced around frantically for the last one only to be shot by a magical beam sending him flying into his wall once more.

Looking up from his crumpled form he saw Luna had resumed her magic blasting. Angered he returned the hit with one of his own. He threw out his arm that lanced with green energy that gathered at his palm before rocketing towards Luna. The green magic struck Luna, breaking the chains and sending her flying into the rain that seemed to have felt the conflict and risen to a storm.

He looked around once more to see the Teal orb floating gently through the air. He let out a sigh of relief and reached for the sphere, but before he touched it, a blast of pink magic sent it crashing through the roof of the cave and out into the night.

He stood there, arm outstretched and mouth agape at the sight of a small teal light slowly growing dim from beyond a jagged stone hole. He started to regain himself enough to turn, but not enough to wipe his expression away. He saw Celestia, wing bleeding and eyes searing white.

Panicking, he lifted his arms just in time to parry the pink blast with the mirror, sending the blast out the door. By the loud crash the followed he thought it safe to assume a poor tree had been caught in its way. Only to be proven wrong, as the no longer poor tree came hurtling through the door and hit him roots first. As he flew, the mirror fell hitting the floor, shattering, only to float back into place and mend a moment later.

C returned to the now sideways mirror. Clutching his ribs, he groaned, "What do you have to say for yourself K?"

K crawled out from under the tree, blood beginning to trickle down his lips. "Ow?" He stood up, clutching his now torn cape and lifted his arms to return fire. But he never got the chance, as another blast hit him in the stomach, winding him and bringing him to his knees. He glanced at the door to see Princess Luna standing there eyes white as well as the magic of the Elements began to form. "Maybe you were right."

C opened one of his eyes glaring at K from his sideways position as he snarled, "Damn right."

The rainbow fired and twirled around K, individual strands of rainbow color coiling and latching onto him, burning and digging into him as the magic turned him into a marble and onyx statue. "Aah! Those orbs were useless!" Over the sound of burning marble, K swore he heard Discord's distant laugh.

His legs transfigured. "Discord said they were foalproof! Discord said-!"

Beyond the sound of searing onyx, Discord's voice rang from a time past, 'Now remember my bi-colored buddy, these orbs of mine are very particular! Whatever you do, do remember-'

His torso transfigured. His eyes softened from their rage as the memories flowed and colors burned. The stiffening onyx and marble creeping up his neck like the numbness of his failure.

"I'm an idiot..." His head transfigured, leaving him pointing his hand to the sky, his cape snapping off his shoulders and flowing gently away on the magic winds that began to disperse. His enchanted mirror untouched, other than the fact its stand was now of stone.

Luna stood panting, tears slowly rolling do her cheeks, the memories she had repressed the entire night seeping into her mind. Memories of a better, gone time. "We should move him to the gardens."

Celestia glanced at her sister to see how she fared in the fight, searching for the slightest injury. Tangled mane aside, she seemed untouched. "To keep our eyes on him?"

Luna walked towards his statue. "Yes, dear sister and... he always did like nature... did he not?"

Celestia nodded again and lifted his statue with her magic. "We must also be on the look out for that teal orb. Such a magical object could prove harmful to our little ponies." With that said, she floated K out the caves entrance, taking care to guide his petrified form out without harm.

Luna turned to the affected mirror. "Surely such an enchanted object would prove useful." She lifted the mirror only to drop it a moment later.

Celestia appeared in the broken door frame, worry etched into her face and voice alike, "Everything alright sister?"

Luna looked away from the mirror and smiled at Celestia. "Yes, dear sister, everything is perfectly fine," Celestia nodded, ducking out the door once more.

Luna carefully glanced outside making sure Celestia was truly on her way. Once assured she picked the mirror up once more and gazed at the image held within. The image showed what any normal mirror would, Princess Luna standing in a cave, but, what any normal mirror would not show, were the cyan reptilian eyes she had never seen before in her life.

She shook her head. "Merely a trick. Surely." She levitated the mirror behind her and left the cave, stepping into the storm that appeared to have calmed slightly, as if feeling the confrontation had come to an end.

Author's Note:

Heavy Re-edit 7/23/2018

Comments

[Pennington Inkwell]

There were a few bits that I couldn't quite understand, but not too bad! Good to see you're getting started, and your characters are interesting!

My recommendation: work a bit on your descriptive writing skills. You can check out "My Little Ponybots" for what I would hope are good examples of this... It's been a heavily descriptive story for me, and will hopefully provide some guidance. Or just read "The Scarlet Letter" (A bit more boring, though. Skip the first 42 pages, you won't miss much.)

[Pennington Inkwell]

Well K was standing in front of a mirror talking to himself, "What do you mean my plan won't work?"
Let me guess 'Nopony would answer right?'

I don't know if the quotation marks got messed up here, but I couldn't understand it...

"It's not poisoning per say. It is... uh..." He stumbles to find the right words as the sarcastic voice said "What? 'Making her see the light'? We should lure them here into a trap before they find us!"

You stumbled into present tense in what seems to be a past-tense part of the story...

I think that one thing that you're having trouble with is not talking TO the audience when you're narrating. For instance, the final paragraph is all written as if you were speaking to someone who isn't there. As the narrator, you have to remain aloof when you're not going to be face to face with your audience.

And, as you said to me before, you do seem to struggle with commas.

[PYROontheAIR]

Can you unlock all others chapters for me. i need material for my riffs

[Neon Icy Wings]

1893440 I'll PM the links to them.

[PYROontheAIR]

1893477
k

[PYROontheAIR]

you should probably republish all the other chapters and then just write (rewritten) once you rewrite each chapter.

[Neon Icy Wings]

1900770 It's just simpler for me this way. Since I'm changing things that would confuse people if they read an old chapter then the next chapter is rewritten. Luckily I'm working on chapter two right now! I'll try to rewrite one each day.

[PYROontheAIR]

1900793
Ok. i'm glad you kept in the "He always did like nature" line. And I love the addition of the 'poisoning' of Luna was the cause of nightmare moon.

[Neon Icy Wings]

1900855 I thought some things weren't obvious enough. And I needed to say how the mirror worked.