The Pieces Lie Where They Fell

by Evilhumour

Chapter Forty Two: Page Turner, Xvital, ???

Chapter Forty-Two

Page Turner

An hour later, a small army of students and staff were standing just outside the Wondercolts statue. Sunset Shimmer was not among them; she had been taken to the nurse’s office to lay down, and Flash had eschewed attending the rest of the dance in favor of sitting with her.

“So you promise you’ll watch after her?” Page asked Fluttershy and the other girls.

Fluttershy nodded. “We will.”

Nearby, Vix-Lei, who (along with the rest of the group) had changed back into her normal clothing, was clapping Bulk Biceps on the back. “Gonna miss you, big guy.”

“YEAH! I-I mean, I’ll miss you too.” The husky boy laughed sheepishly.

“Don’t worry! Maud an’ me will help make sure he never forgets you!” Pinkie exclaimed. Maud, who was standing next to her, nodded silently.

“Rarity, it has been an honor to meet you,” Rex said nearby. “And your little sister too.” He pulled the smaller girl, who was standing by them, into a hug that she happily accepted.

“Ah’ll miss ya too, ya big kitty-cat,” Applejack said teasingly to Wind Breaker, who let out something that sounded like a combination of a snort and a cough at her words. “Don’t forget, you’ll always be welcome at our farm.”

“I’ll remember,” he told her. “And if we can ever come back here… well, I’ll make sure to drop by.”

Applejack beamed at that.

In a different part of the courtyard, Night Blade was saying his goodbyes to Rainbow Dash and Derpy. “It has been an honor to get to know you both,” he said.

“And it was nice to meet you too!” Derpy said with a smile.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash put in. “Just wish I could keep these wings...”

“Somehow, I don’t think that will be a problem for you,” Night Blade replied. “As fast as you run, you already fly.”

“Heh!” Rainbow Dash smiled. “Sure do.”

“Then I guess this is goodbye,” Xvital said, letting out a sad half-sigh. “Annoying as it was having to deal with several hormone-driven teenagers who were ogling me all the time… this place has really grown on me.”

“It does that,” Principal Celestia said. “And now, I believe this is yours.” She handed Xvital the box containing her crown, which the older woman had picked up in the aftermath of the battle with Sunset Shimmer. Opening it to see the crown, its gem still broken but somehow… less so than before, Xvital smiled.

“Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”

Reluctantly, the six stepped away from the people they had grown attached to, and after one final look around they stepped, one by one, into the portal. Page was the last to go, but before she left, she turned to Principal Celestia. “By the way,” she added. “If you ever run into a man named Shining Armor… tell him that Page Turner says hello, and wishes he and Mi Amore Cadenza all the best.”

Then she was gone, and with them the ears, wings and tails, to the dismay of the five.

Standing further back, Principal Celestia looked to her sister. “Do you know who she’s talking about?”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” Luna said thoughtfully. “But how did she know about Dean Cadance and her boyfriend?”

Celestia just shrugged.

Xvital

Taking a step forwards, Xvital let out a yelp as her footing suddenly gave way and the box holding her crown almost slipped from her hands. With a snarl, she dove after it with her ears flicking as she heard the rest of her the crew come in after her.

“Whoa boy, we’re back and I’ve got my hammer back!” Vix-Lei shouted from behind her and slapped her hard on the back just as Xvital started to get up, sending her sprawling to the wooden floor.

“And we are all back to normal,” Rex said as he walked up past her. “I do believe you should move, Xvital.”

“Nah, you don’t sa-GAH!” her snarking was cut off as someone fuzzy slammed into her back with a high pitched squeak that either belonged to Wind or Night.

“Whoa there, Windy,” Vix-Lei said from her other side. “Get a room before you two start at the very least, unless you are into that kind of thing.”

“Oh har har,” Wind sniped from her back, pushing onto her back with his talons. “Very funny, I forgot to lau-whoa watch it Night!” the griffon shouted as the bat pony pushed him back into her with Night’s own high pitched squeaks coming out now.

“Something very soft and fluffy,” Night said from above her. “Must be Wind Breaker.”

“Yeah, very cute but can you all get off of me now!” Xvital shouted as she struggled to get out from under them.

“Oh my, am I interrupting something here?” Page asked cooly and Xvital could hear her snickering at her.

With a snarl, Xvital used her tailhand to shove them off her, then rolled onto her back and grabbed a wooden object to hoist herself upwards. Looking around, Xvital could see beyond the fact they were on a moving room that they were in a cluttered room with just enough space for them to move around in. “Okay, why are we on a ship all of a sudden?”

“That is a good question,” Rex said, tilting his head before looking at the door. “Shall we go investigate?”

Nodding her head and tucking the box holding her crown under her arm, Xvital walked unsteadily towards the door and opened it find herself blasted by wind, to her great shock. Looking around with an arm to create a windshield in front of her face, Xvital let the others step around her, she saw that they were on a fast moving airship and-

“Thank the Goddesses you are back,” a female voice called out from behind and above her, with Xvital turning around to see an unicorn mare at the controls glaring down at them. “Have you retrieved your Element, ahuizotless?”

“Uh, who are yo-”

“It does not matter who I am,” the mare snapped, holding the wheel tightly with her hooves. “It just matters if that the Order I gave my life to’s sacrifice was worth it.”

“What sacrifice?” Page asked only for the mare to spit at her.

“Like you care, changeling,” the mare said hotly, ignoring the angry face that Night was giving her. “The Order knew of the mare on the other side and her purpose, and that your foe was gathering its strength to attack you. We could not allow that to pass so we decided that the best way to distract the foe was to present it with one that it could not ignore.”

“What are you talking about?” Wind Breaker asked, frowning as he moved to climb the staircase.

“Your foe took over the Equestrian government to stop you and the Order forced its hoof by starting the Crystal Dominance Rebellion.”

“Crystal Dominance Rebellion?” Rex asked slowly before he turned his head to see smoke in the distance. Considering how fast they were going and that they were nearly out of the frozen landscape, it had to mean the fire was massive. “What have you people done?”

“As I said, Diamond Dog,” the mare said just as acidly as before. “We forced the military arm of the government to focus on the fifth’s tribe cry for freedom and their independence as a separate nation once more. We facilitated this by having the entire Order attack the Royal Guard to halt their attempts to bring peace and order at the cost of having the Order torn apart by the Captain General and her Guards.”

“Did you kill any nox ponies?”

“Your clan still lives, Blade,” the mare kept her attention on guiding her airship, adjusting the wheel ever so slightly. “The Captain General does not trust Crooked Blade or Striking Blade as you are the enemy to them and those two could be compromised due to having sympathies for somepony like you.”

“Hey, you don’t need to be a bitch about all this,” Vix-Lei said hotly, waking up the steps while swinging Señor Hardhead around in small circles. “And don’t think you can scare me so easily-my family knows I’m nuts.”

“Your false bravado is annoying, minotaur,” the mare said shortly before turning her head back towards Xvital. “Did you get your Element, yes or no?”

“I got it right here,” Xvital snapped, holding out the box that held her crown.

“Good; now put it on, talk to the Magi of Stars and learn how we can defeat our foe,” the mare snapped.

With a snort, Xvital opened the box and took out the still broken looking Element of Magic. Without so much a second thought, she closed her eyes as she put the crown on her head.

---

Xvital opened her eyes and found herself in a library, in all things, with books of all sizes on rows of bookshelves.

This is it, Xvital thought to herself as she looked around, my turn.

The Magi of Stars hadn’t shown up yet but according to the rest of the crew, the Elements had all taken their time to show up.

Although… something felt off. She couldn’t place her finger on it, something very important. Whatever it was caused her fur to arch upwards, her tail swishing uneasily as she slowly looked around for whatever was setting her of-

The books were wrong.

The Magi of Stars was reported to have been the wisest mare of her time and kept her records in perfect order.

If that were the case, then why were all the books seemingly out of order, the sizes not matching its neighbour?

Without knowing why, she reached out for one book and pulled it out.

Trying to steel herself, she opened the book.

The white winged unicorn was glaring at her Why wouldn’t she She had failed horrifically Terrible Terrible TERRIBLE TERRIBLETERRIBLE

With a yelp, Xvital dropped the book with her hand burning as if the book was made of fire.

With a shudder she saw that the book hadn’t reached the floor but instead vanished, back in the shelf.

Something was really wrong he-

Snapping her head off to the side, she saw that a door opened up on its own. With little to nothing better to do, she slowly walked over to the doorway.

Looking down the doorway, she saw it led to the basement and it was pitch black. The darkest black she had ever seen, pure darkness with no light ever reaching it, beyond darkness itself. She had never been scared of the dark when she was little, but she was doing all she could not to shake looking down those steps.

She knew, without doubt, if she went down there, she would never come back up again, that she would be worse than dead, that-

The blackness moved and Xvital let out a cry of fear, bolting up the staircase from childhood instincts telling her that a monster was behind her.

She ran up the stairs as fast as she could with thud thud thud thud thud thud behind her, slow and methodical in the chase, knowing it had all the time in the world.

Xvital dared not look backwards because she knew that it would be all the monster needed to get her. But something was wrong, it was getting harder and harder, the steps getting bigger and bigger-

No, she was getting smaller and smaller, younger and younger.

She heard the monster cackle behind her, the thud thud thud getting louder and deeper. She let out a squeak of terror, the stairs never ending, she would be here until she tripped and the monster would have her and then-

With a cry of surprise, she fell over onto the landing and saw an open doorway.

Safety.

Scrambling on her small hands and feet, she barreled into the room, pushing the door shut behind her.

Just before she did so, she could see the top of the monster, the strands of its fur causing her to flinch in soul terror.

With her heart screaming in her chest, she turned to look in the room she had fled into.

It was a mishmash; half a child’s bedroom and half… she didn’t even know what to call it. MIxed with toys, wooden blocks and a simple bed were tainted photographs over every inch of the walls. Tainted in the way that the pictures of the ponies were totally warped and distorted to the point she couldn’t even tell a thing about the pony, and they were painful to look at, her head starting to pound as she gazed at a group shot of six ponies yet had all six ponies features burned and blurred to an unrecognizable horror.

“Hi there,” she jumped in surprise as a donkey filly waved to her from a small building made from books. “It’s been a long time since I have seen another pony here.” The filly then winced in pain, holding a hoof to her head, whimpering in pain that no creature had any right to be in, especially not one as young as this kid. And like a switch, she was back to smiling at her as if nothing had happened. “I’m Smarty Pants and what’s your name?”

“Xvital,” she responded without thinking. “What are you doing here alone?”

“I.I..I,” she whimpered in the same agonizing pain as before, smacking her head hard as she tried to answer Xvital.

The ahuizotless wanted to comfort her, wanted to protect her but she had to figure out what was going on, where the Magi of Stars w-

“You have to hide!” Smarty Pants cried, eyes wide in fright. Before Xvital could respond, she felt her entire body go numb, unable to move a single part of herself, unable to blink or anything.

Not even breathe.

She was thrown, thrown to the other toys and stuffed creatures with Smarty Pants cowering in fear.

The door exploded a second later as the monster filled the room. The bed ripped itself apart from the inside out, the toys rotted and let out something foul smelling, and books burned themselves in an instant in a hideous burst of fire.

Smarty Pants was left the center of a horrid mess, with Xvital just out of sight of the monster but able to see everything.

“Hello worm,” the monster sneered, smashing the back of its limb into Smarty Pant’s face, sending the filly into the wall with an ugly crack of bone, both from the smack and the crash into the wall. “How are we today?”

Sobbing in pain and terror, the donkey lifted its bloody head upright, the jaw covered in blood, teeth falling to the ground, and bones sticking out of purple fur.

Wait, purple fur?

Suddenly, the monster snapped its head towards Xvital and growled in fury before chortling with glee.

“Oh what luck I have to have you here, all helpless and prime to be destroyed,” it spat acid onto the floor, stalking closer to Xvital.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Balance shouted, breaking everything before Xvital’s eyes.

She closed them for an instant and got a brief look into the locked mind of Smarty Pants. What she saw stole her breath away, it had changed everything they thought they knew, this would upend their plans completely.

She said the two words of what she had learned peaking into that mind, over and over again as to keep herself from forgetting this revelation that would dwarf everything they had gone through, even seeing the alternative world.

“She’s alive.”

???

It stumbled as Balance threw it from the prisoner’s mind, seeking to reestablish its control over its host.

A smile broke across its face and laughter spilled out of its mouth. “Oh Balance, that will cost you dearly. Now tell me where they are.”

Balance was furious but it was forced to comply, the Rules and Powers that governed its current state binding it to give aid after it had sided with the last Element so bluntly.

Grinning beyond the host as not to arouse suspicions with those watching its host, it directed the host’s body to inform the others in this government to know the new scale.

The prince-king would be forced to comply; it didn’t care about the war that was to come if the prince-king choose to allow the armies of these ponies into his precious lands or not to find those-

No, it had a far better plan. It would continue the plan to have the prince-king visit the ponies’ land and then force the matter, with the prince-king having no idea or way to prepare himself for the war that was to come for harbouring those accursed Elements in his lands, knowingly or unknowingly. It would force the issue with the threat of war, and it would make this land’s king and captains destroy the world over if it would bring the Elements to heel even if they were no true threat with the prisoner being contained under enough spells that Tartarus himself would have deemed fit only for those of the greatest of crimes, the crimes that tainted the soul beyond measurement, a shade before those in the First Pit.

Yet, it had not attained and maintained its mantle, Role and Purpose throughout these years by leaving matters unattended. As soon as it had one of these blasted Elements under its control, then it would be able to rest.

Victory was so close and soon this would be all over.

Comments

[nickle241]

of all of them of course twilight is in a bad situation, it couldnt possibly be easy for them. guess were probably going to find out who the big bad is soon after this, good suspense building at work.

[Evilhumour]

8309510

Now you know why the big bad didn't just swoop in after them, eh?

Any idea who the big bad is?

[nickle241]

8309734
Whatever variation of the nightmare force was present seems like the closest candidate im aware of , but it wouldn't be the first surprise you have tossed in if it turns out to be something from the comics or a previous generation

[Evilhumour]

8310284

Hmmmm..

DId you like Fluffle Puff's cameo in the last chapter, by the way?

[nickle241]

8311614
i thought the pink unicorn thing sounded familiar, but i wasn't aware that it was intelligent, wait hold on, now im mixing stories again... i follow too many at once
found it, huh not sure how i overlooked something that obvious, but im pretty sure its still not very intelligent

[Evilhumour]

8311617

I suggest looking at the TV Trope page-you can find a lot of stuff you might have missed.

Also, it makes sense to why Fluffle Puff went after Page, though?

[nickle241]

8311636
im not a big fan of that pink freak, but even i know about her apparent preference for chrysalis, though i dont know a whole lot more
edit: that might have come off more harsh than intended, but i never have been able to understand what is even going on in those videos which puts a real damper interest

[AnoneMouseJr]

8311667
Honestly, I wasn't familiar with the character myself until I did some research. But she looked cute and relatively harmless, so I went with that when I wrote her scene.

Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.

[Copper Springs]

There are three possibilities I see for the she in "she's alive": Celestia, Twilight, or Luna. Twilight makes the most sense. It would explain why the others weren't able to talk about what she looks like. Also, who is this prince-king that it is referring too? Has it been mentioned before? My gues would be the yaks given their proximity to the Crystal Empire. Though it could be the dragons.
Also guys come on. That mare just saw her entire life go up in flames. Most of her colleagues, friends and possible family are dead or captured and probably being tortured for information. I think she has a right to be a little bitchy.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

Chapter 42
JAY-ZUS KEERIST ON HIS CROSS!
You just used an obviously broken magic item. An item which you're not sure of what it's supposed to do even if it wasn't broken.
One question "How have you lived this long?!"

If you've ever played "Ogres & Oubliettes", then you've never had a mean DM. My group, the DM's motto was "Kill them all & let the trashcan sort them out"

[Evilhumour]

9272429
Never thought of it like that, and you're right it was pretty foolish.