Kesho Saga

by ScapeDragon

VII: The Visions

This was not a time to fail. Not when everypony is at risk of a horrible fate.

Glare was going to blast everyone and they didn’t even know it. They were too busy arguing with one another. I have to stop it before it’s too late.

I could feel time slow down as I quickly ran through the group of mares getting ready to go through with my plan. As soon as I got through the confused girls I quickly raised my front hooves up and focused as hard I could to create a wall to protect everyone from the incoming magical blast.

The last thing I saw was Glare’s intense face and her brightly glowing crystal horn. Her hooves were still tied up but not her horn. That’s when I suddenly saw a huge crystal wall pop up from the ground blocking the huge blast of magic. I could feel myself hold the wall up and steady as the magical blast was trying to destroy it. The burning sensation on my forehead was quite unbearable but now was not the time to whine.

The large magical blast created a large cloud of smoke from the aftermath as it covered the whole area. As soon as I no longer felt any pressure on the wall, I released it causing the wall to fall apart into large chunks of crystal before dissolving into dust.

Once the smoke was cleared, the girls gasped seeing that Glare has suddenly vanished. I couldn’t believe that she was able to escape considering the fact that she was kind of hogtied.

Rainbow Dash quickly flew over to where Glare was only seeing the ripped fake snakes was all that was left. “Where did she go,” she growled.

“Darn it,” Starlight cursed. “She got away.”

“We have to find her and fast,” Rainbow Dash was about to take off but not before the cowgirl stopped her by grabbing the rainbow tail.

“Hold it right there Dash,” Applejack started with tail in her mouth. “Don’t go running off without a plan.”

Just then, I fell down to my knees feeling really exhausted.

Fluttershy noticed this and hurried to my side. “Kesho,” she called out. “Are you alright?”

I tried to keep my focus, at least long enough for me to reply back to her.

Starlight came over too, worried as well. “Did that take a lot out of you Kesho,” she asked me.

“I,” the words tried to get out. “I’m really exhausted….head kind of hurts….I think I wanna take a nap….” That’s when I just fell down to ground, closed my eyes, and felt myself lose consciousness.

I couldn’t remember dreaming anything during my sleep. Instead it just felt like I was alone with my thoughts. And there were quite a lot going on with it at the time. I was so confused as to who that mare was that attacked Ponyville. And why she wanted me. Not to mention those weird powers she had. I didn’t think anypony else had magic that could summon crystals like that. Able to summon henchponies and create entire walls that can surround and trap a whole town.

C-Can I do that too?

“You can do that. And so much more.”

That voice….what was that?

Suddenly, I began to see something. As my vision was slowly returning to me, I could see something I didn’t expect. I saw myself walking through a forest, having no real control over where I was going. The forest seemed much darker and ominous than the one I got lost in when I first came here. My sight looked over to the left and right and saw that walking beside me were two of those orange crystalized ponies. Seemed like they were acting like my guards.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. Last time I was with these things they tried to kill me. And now they’re just casually strolling by me. What gives? Wait, could I have been captured by them? But how, and why can’t I move? This doesn’t make any sense. This must be some kind of nightmare. If so, I’m so mad at Princess Luna right now.

I continued to trot ahead till I got to what appeared to be a cave. I could hear drips of water echoing from inside and as I reached the entrance, the entire cave lit up. The walls were aligned with what appeared to be shiny white crystals. Each one separated specifically from each other.

Before anymore can happen however, my vision was starting to become clouded in nothing but darkness. I lost sight of the brightened cave and saw nothing but black again.

But it didn’t last long. My vision came back only this time I was somewhere else. I appeared to be surrounded by a ton of apple trees. Like before, I wasn’t in any control over what I was doing. I appear to be rushing over to an apple tree blasting off a branch from it with a purple magical blast. I quickly hurried over to the branch and ripped off one of the apples from it. Then munched on it eagerly. Once the core revealed itself, I tossed it away and got another apple and began to eat that one as well.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. I didn’t feel like eating anything nor felt my mouth taste any apples. This all felt so weird. Could this be a dream? If so, does that mean Luna is here?

Luna! You in here?!

The scene of me eating apples in an apple field vanished in a cloud of darkness. And soon I found myself in another setting.

This one appeared to have me moving quite quickly. I took notice of the moving plains passing by me and saw that there was something odd about how it was viewed. It looked like I was seeing through a panel of glass. It was confirmed when I moved my sight to see what was in front of me. It looked like a pair of seats facing towards me. I then was forced to look to the right and saw somepony wearing a uniform pushing a cart full of desserts.

I watched the pony trot by with his cart of sweets and immediately took notice of the pony sitting in the next booth of seats. I couldn’t believe who I was looking at but there was no doubt it was her. That size, the wings, and the horn. It was her.

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

No idea what I was doing on a train with her but just seeing her so close to me made my heart tighten. I thought for sure she was going to do something to me, whether it be violent or not but she couldn’t. Not when she was sleeping like that sitting next to some kind of small creature I couldn’t make out.

I had no idea what was going on, or why I was looking at this? Was this some kind of insight into the future? A nightmare fueled by my paranoia? Some kind of test?!

The vision slowly faded away again and soon I was back again in the darkness of my thoughts.

“Wake up!”

My eyes shot open from the violent shout. I quickly sat up panting from the sudden loud noise and from what I saw. For a second there, it almost looked like a pair of glowing green eyes were staring right at me in anger. But it happened so quickly it was hard to tell.

I felt uncomfortable with my coat all sweaty now, and with everyone in the room looking at me with a panicked or worried look.

I woke up immediately seeing Fluttershy, Starlight, and a couple of the girls that were there when Glare tried to kill us all. There was the one with the fancy purple mane and the one with the cowgirl hat.

“Kesho,” Fluttershy quickly rushed to my side. “Are you okay?!”

“What happened,” Starlight asked. “Is something wrong?”

“You gave us a quick scare there sir,” the purple maned unicorn commented.

“I don’t think he meant it Rarity,” the cowgirl said.

I looked around wiping the sweat off my forehead and neck. “Wh-Where,” I began. “Where am I?”

“You’re at the Princess’s castle,” Starlight answered.

“Wait what?!” I looked around noticing the crystalized walls and large amounts of décor in the room. “Wh-Why would you bring me here?!”

“You needed rest,” Fluttershy answered that one. “And the castle was the closet place to us that had a comfortable bed.”

“You all carried me over here?”

“Actually, it was just Applejack,” Starlight giggled pointing at the cowgirl.

“Your mighty welcome,” she smiles tipping her hat.

“O-Oh!” I blush embarrassed. Didn’t think a mare could be that strong. Then again, she did wrestle down and tie up one of those crystalized ponies so she must have quite the strength.

“Um, Kesho was it,” I think her name was Rarity, asked.

“Yeah?”

“May I ask what was it that caused you to wake up in such a panic? Your head is covered in,” she cringed, “sweat.”

I sighed remembering what I saw right before waking up in this room. “Something….bad.”

“Bad,” Fluttershy repeated a bit scared.

“Y-Yeah.” That’s when I remembered something. “Wait! Are you all alright?! Glare, she attacked all of us with that magical blast of hers!” I quickly looked around. “Where are the other two girls? The one with the rainbow mane and the pink one?”

“Kesho, relax,” Starlight assured. “All of us are okay thanks to you. You made some kind of crystal wall to block the blast and protect us.”

“Thank you for that,” Applejack said smiling.

“I will admit that was unexpected,” Rarity stated, “but truly, thank you.”

“N-No problem girls.” I felt a bit flustered getting slight praise like that. Especially from mares. “But what about the other two?”

“They went to go ease up the town,” Starlight answered. “No doubt a lot of ponies are shaken up from that attack.”

“Y-Yeah. I’ll bet….”

“Don’t worry though!” Starlight looked a bit nervous. “I’m sure everything will be alright and everypony will be calm. This isn't the first time the town has been attacked.”

“I hope so….” I frowned at the thought of how much total damage she caused on the town and on the residents.

“I hate to bring this up,” Rarity started as all the girls and myself focused on her, “but is it true? Are you, Sombra’s son?”

The girls looked a tad nervous at first hearing that, but then they all looked back at me. I knew they wanted to hear the truth, and I’ve already said it once before. Now I just got to confirm it.

“Yes,” I told them. “I am Kesho, the son of King Sombra. That, is the truth.”

The girls stayed silent taking in what I just admitted. They all looked kind of…worried, or scarred, or nervous, or basically anything negative right now.

“And you attacked the Crystal Empire,” Starlight asked in the silence.

“Th-That was an accident…..” I replied weakly. “I swear I didn’t want to hurt anypony. I was just, scared. I used to be just some pony in the Crystal Empire that stood out all the time. I would wake up, go to work, then come home and barely do anything. I didn’t expect my life to turn out like this. And I didn’t want to get locked up for something that just happened out of nowhere….

“I’m truly sorry for all the damage I caused, but I can tell you right now. I’m not a monster. And I never meant to hurt anyone….”

The girls stayed quiet hearing everything I said. Till two of them spoke up at once:

“I believe you.” It was Fluttershy and Starlight. I was surprised to hear them both say that.

“I believe you too sugarcube,” Applejack said taking her hat off and holding it to her chest.

“As do I,” Rarity also threw in. “I don’t think somepony related to someone like King Sombra would do all those heroic deeds that you did. But you proved me wrong.” She smiled.

“Heroic deeds,” I asked confused.

“Well shoot, yeah!” Applejack gave me a smile as well. “You did save all of us from Glare’s blast.”

“And me,” Starlight began. “When you got Glare away from me before she could use that spell on my horn.”

“And,” Fluttershy stated smiling, “I’m guessing you got us into the town in the first place by making part of the wall go down.”

I blushed rubbing the back of my head. “Y-Yeah, Yeah I um, did do that. Not perfectly but…” I chuckled a bit embarrassed.

The girls only giggled seeing my reaction making me feel more embarrassed.

“You’ll still probably need to talk things over with Twilight though,” Starlight added.

“Y-Yeah, yeah I know.” I said feeling slightly unconfident.

“Don’t feel too worried Kesho. I’m sure things will be okay. Twilight’s not one to hold grudges.” That made me feel a little more confident. I guess.

At that moment, we heard something loud. Like a giant door opening.

“Sounds like Pinkie and Dash are back,” Applejack said.

“Lets go see how things went with the townsponies,” Starlight said as her, Applejack, and Rarity got up and were heading out. “Do you think you need more rest Kesho?”

“I-I think I’ll be alright,” I assured her. Starlight nodded her head and then headed out with the other two.

I climbed out of the bed and staggered a bit touching the ground. Fluttershy stood by me and helped keep me straight.

“Please take it easy Kesho,” she worried. “You might still be exhausted.”

“Don’t worry about me too much Fluttershy. I can manage.” I pulled out a smile to tell her I’ll be fine but I don’t think she completely believed me.

Suddenly, someone popped up at the doorway.

“Fluttershy!” It was Rainbow Dash. “Hurry! Something’s going on with the map!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked rather confused. “What is it? Is it a friendship problem?”

“Just hurry! I can’t explain!” Rainbow Dash quickly flew off leaving both me and Fluttershy a little confused and worried.

“What’s going on,” I asked.

“I don’t know,” her tone definitely told me she really didn’t know.

“Here, go see what it is. Don’t worry about me I’ll catch up.”

“Are you sure Kesho?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine. Go. It sounds really important.”

She looked a little unsure, then she nodded her head. “Okay. But don’t rush! Please take it slow. And don’t worry if you don’t know where we’ll be. We’re in the room with the biggest door right down the hall on your left.”

“Got it. Thank you.” I smile as she goes off and I slowly try to follow after her. It took me a while to figure out what room they’re all in, but soon I saw a single large door was opened. Seeing as how all the other doors were closed, I knew exactly where they were. As I got closer to the door, I could hear them talking over one another.

I entered the room seeing this huge amazing place. There were all these large glass stained windows surrounding the room. In the center of the room hanging from the ceiling looked like some kind of chandelier. But it looked to be made of wood and had these lights on it. I couldn’t precisely tell what they were supposed to be though. Underneath it were seven chairs surrounding a large circular table. On top of the table looked like some kind of playset. But it looked, odd.

The girls didn’t notice that I was in the room now as I walked closer to the table. I looked over it and saw that there was a whole layout of Equestria set up on their table. The whole thing seemed to be some kind of magical hologram. Looks like a map layout that ponies would buy when they’re playing that confusing tabletop game. Only this is no mat.

There was something else that stood out about the map. Above a part of the map, there were four crystals hovering over. One was green, one was purple, one was orange, and one was black. The area they were over appeared to be Ponyville.

“Oh hi Kesho!” I jumped a bit hearing the sudden greeting from that pink pony from before. I looked to my right and saw her sitting right there. “Happy to see you’re awake!”

“Th-Thank you,” was all I could think of saying. Then I remembered I wanted to ask them something. “What is all this?”

“This is the Cutie Map! We use it to find out where in Equestria are there friendship problems and then we swoop in and help save the day!”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that Pinkie,” Rarity added in.

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Pinkie replied back casually.

“Okay, so then those crystals,” I pointed at them. “Does that mean they’re friendship problems there?” The girls all looked at each other unsure.

“That’s just it,” Starlight said. “We don’t really know what’s going on with the map. These crystal markings have never showed up before.”

Applejack spoke up now. “Yeah. Usually when the map’s calling on us, our cutie marks flash and they show up on here instead of those crystal things.”

“What are the crystals hovering over,” Fluttershy asked. “They’re all so close to each other.”

Pinkie leaned in and looked at them closely. “Ooh! I got it! We got one over the Everfree Forest, one over Sweet Apple Acres, one that’s really really close to the train station in Ponyville, and one right over this castle!”

A forest? Apple, acres? A train station? Those three locations…..something feels like it should be ringing a bell.

Wait, and one over the castle?! The one we’re in?!

“This is starting to get weird y’all,” Applejack commented.

“I agree with Applejack,” Rarity put in. “Something doesn’t seem right.”

“The four crystals….” Starlight let the idea wander a bit, then she looked at me and her eyes went big. Then she went on: “Could that black crystal be because of Kesho?”

“Wha? Me?” I was a bit taken aback.

“Yeah that would make sense,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “A black crystal right above the castle? It only makes the most sense that Sombra’s kid would be causing that. Especially with him standing right there.”

“Hey!”

“It’s alright Kesho,” Applejack assured. “She’s not saying that cause you’re gonna cause trouble, right Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash just looked away casually and whistled which made Applejack sigh. “We’re saying that this could maybe give us a hint on what in tarnation is going on.”

“I think I might have an idea,” Starlight spoke up again.

“What is it,” Rarity asked.

“That mare, Glare. She’s like Kesho. She has crystal magic just like him, just like Sombra. And if the map is telling us where Kesho is, then maybe it’s telling us where Glare is!” The girls all looked at each other pondering on the idea. “She couldn’t have gotten that far after her failed attack. She could still be near here. We can stop her before she gets away!”

“But then why do we have three other crystals on the map here,” Rainbow mentioned. “Which one is supposed to tell us where Glare is?”

“Hmm, I’m not quite sure. But I think to find that out, we need to split up.”

“You sure that’s a good idea,” Fluttershy asked a little scared.

“It’s the only way we can save time.”

If what Starlight said is true, then that could mean that Glare is being marked by this map and we can really catch her this time. Question is, which crystal is supposed to represent her location?

GO TO THE EVERFREE FOREST: Even looking at it from this map I can tell that this forest has some serious eerie aura on it. She’d be taking a risk hiding there. But then again, she has crystal magic.

GO TO SWEET APPLE ACRES: That is one huge piece of land! And it’s all apple trees! It would make for the perfect place to hide!

GO TO THE TRAIN STATION: The train station huh? Could she be making her escape? If so, we got to stop her fast!

Author's Note:

Voting ends November 23rd at 7PM PST.

In the event of a two way tie, the third choice will automatically be selected. In the event of a three way tie, the next vote no matter who submits it will be the chosen choice.

Comments

[roxa]

Sweet apples

[Deadmetal]

Go to the Everfree Forest.

[Sindorei Pony]

I vote Sweet Apple Acres.