The Call To Action
Princess Celestia paced worriedly in the throne room. The sound of her gold shoes on the cold floor echoed throughout the spacious room, lighted by the early morning sun. Her guards looked to each other in concern. Celestia had not been this concerned since Discord had returned several years ago. And then, they were aware of the danger they were facing.
But now...
Now it was even worse than normal.
The doors of the throne room opened, and Celestia looked up. There, in the doors, were six of the most reliable ponies she had ever known. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, with Spike the dragon tailing them. Twilight looked confused as she came forward. "We got the letter you sent us, Celestia. But I'm still not exactly sure why we were all called here, or why we were called in the first place. Is there something you want to talk to us all about?"
Celestia nodded gravely. "Indeed, Twilight. I have called you here to address something that threatens the safety of free ponies everywhere."
"Oh boy," Rainbow said sarcastically. "I guess that's what we do, huh? We take care of these threats all the time. Just another part of our daily lives."
"Let us talk somewhere not as public," Celestia said to all of them, looking around. "The walls have ears."
"They do?" Fluttershy asked in surprise. "Wow. I guess I've never known that before."
"It's an expression, Dahling," Rarity clarified. "What she means is that there might be ponies listening that aren't meant to hear what she's about to tell us."
They sat around a rectangular table supplied with a multitude of breakfast foods. The girls and Spike ate greedily, for the letter had arrived at 6:00 in the morning and Twilight had hurriedly taken them to Canterlot without any breakfast first. Laid out for them were pancakes and eggs and orange juice, which they all devoured.
Celestia sat at the head of the table, next to her sister Luna. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know you had just arrived from a little village with an absence of Cutie Marks and a pony ruler over all of them with a rule of an iron hoof. We would like to say thank you for that first."
"It's fine, Celestia," Applejack said, taking a bite out of an apple-covered pancake. "We're happy ta help Equestria any way we can. Ah suppose we'd jus' like a bit o' breathin' room in between duties, is all."
"And it would be an easy thing you ask of us, if the danger ever rested," Luna told her, circling her hoof on the table. "But evil doth not sleep, nor doth it flee, simply because the good is tired."
Twilight put down her utensils. "You said there's something that threatens the safety of free ponies everywhere. What is it? Is it Tirek again? Or has Starlight Glimmer come out of the mountains to take away more Cutie Marks?"
"Or has somepony decided to throw a party and forgot the balloons?" Pinkie asked in horror, then dove into her plate of straight whipped cream and chocolate chips.
Celestia shook her head. "I'm afraid the danger is far more evil than any of them--even the balloons." Celestia allowed herself a small chuckle, then took out the newspaper that had arrived that morning from behind her and levitated it over to Twilight. Twilight cleared a space in front of her by removing her plate and utensils, and the paper plopped down in front of her as Celestia cut off her magic.
The headline was the first sign of bad news.
TERROR STRIKES - EIGHT DEAD GRIFFONS FOUND IN WAREHOUSE ON FIFTH AND HAY
Twilight's eyes bulged. "Terror?" she whispered. She looked to the side. Rarity and Rainbow, who were seated next to her, were looking at the newspaper in shock. "Eight dead griffons?"
"D-dead?" Fluttershy asked in horror. "They-" She gulped. "They were killed?"
Rainbow snatched the paper out of Twilight's spot and began to read aloud. "Yesterday at 10:00 at night, a loud explosion in an abandoned warehouse rocked every building in the downtown area of Manehatten. While it is true that no bystanders were harmed, when firefighters forced their way inside, they found the corpses of at least five griffons, all badly mutilated with the wounds of death in their bodies. It is easy to suspect that the explosion was the cause of death for these griffons. But after the fire was extinguished and the bodies were studied by autopsy analysis expert Dr. Brainstem, he concluded that the marks of their death suggested murder instead."
Rarity gasped at the shock. Fluttershy whimpered.
Rainbow cleared her throat and continued reading. " 'The bodies had multiple lacerations, punctures from long metal objects, and had several mysterious inch-deep holes in their bodies in many cases. This is undeniable. This was murder,' claims Dr. Brainstem. An analysis of the crime scene is now underway by forensics expert Case File, who entered the scene with trepidation. And he was right to do so, for he discovered three more griffons that were found hanging from the rafters by their necks with heavy chains." Her voice grew strained by the time she finished, and her face was nauseous. She set the paper down and took a few deep breaths while the rest of the mares listened in horror.
Celestia's face was unreadable.
Finally Rainbow picked up the paper again and shakily finished. "It is unclear of what exactly happened that night, and there are many unresolved questions about the event. Who assassinated these victims, and why? How was it all accomplished? And where will this killer strike next?" Rainbow looked up from the paper. She looked apprehensive.
"This is what I wanted to speak with you about," Celestia addressed all of them. "A new, elusive dark force has arisen that threatens the citizens of Manehatten. We do not know much about him, but we do know he is ruthless and has reason to be feared."
Luna spoke up. "Lord Tirek wanted to steal magic and rule Equestria. King Sombra hath only wanted to enslave his subjects. Queen Chrysalis wanted to steal love. Discord hath only wanted to wreak harmless havoc for his amusement. And even I, when I was Nightmare Moon, wanted only to cover the world in darkness. The outcome of such an event would have eventually caused massive loss of life, but as a secondary intention only. But this faceless figure...he killeth with impunity and at his own will. He careth not about love, or magic, but on the loss of life only. He acteth like a monster. He threateneth the welfare of everypony who hath life in their bodies. It is not just magic, or love at risk, but instead it is life itself. If he is not apprehended..."
The ominous statement hung there.
"And you want us to go to Manehatten to confront him?" Twilight asked numbly.
"Know that if it were up to my desires only, I would refrain from throwing you into such danger," Celestia kindly said. "I do not want to see you in a situation where you could be hurt. But I know that you have saved Equestria time and time again from ruin and extinction. If there is anypony that can do this, it is you, my little ponies."
Twilight smiled.
"Is there anything more we should know about this faceless pony?" Rarity asked. "I do so hate going into situations blind."
Celestia sighed, then lit her horn with magic. A strange device materialized out of thin air with a swirl in the air and a loud pop. It levitated over to Twilight, and the device was taken into Twilight's aura of magic. Twilight looked at the device strangely.
"Do you know what this is, Twilight?" Celestia asked.
Twilight turned the device over to further examine it. "I...can't say, Princess Celestia." It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It looked like a black uppercase L, but had a trigger where the two sides met, and the longer end was hollow. "I...I've never seen anything like this before."
"It is a good thing you have not," Luna told her. "It is an evil object, full of the promise and intent of destruction beyond anything Equestria has hitherto seen. It is called a-" She gulped. "A gun."
"How?" Applejack asked. "Ah don't see what's so dangerous 'bout it."
Celestia motioned her head forward, her horn glowing. A cake that had been on the end of the table lifted into the air. "Let's say that this cake is a pony, or a griffon, or some other living being." She levitated the bowl of chocolate chips over to her. "What do you think would happen if I threw a single chocolate chip at the cake?"
"Nothing?" Applejack guessed.
Celestia put a single chocolate chip on her hoof and lightly tossed it at the cake. It landed, sticking lightly to the frosting on the cake. "You're right, Applejack. Now what if I threw it a little harder?"
"It'd hit the cake with more force?" Twilight said, catching on.
Celestia repeated the toss. The chocolate chip embedded itself a little bit deeper into the cake's frosting.
Celestia then lifted a whole assortment of chips out of the bowl with her magic, each chocolate chip surrounded by a yellow aura. "Now what if they struck the pony at the speed of a mile per second?"
And before anyone could answer, the chocolate chips sped forward, faster than anyone could see, and they passed clean through the cake and struck the wall on the opposite end of the hall with so much force they dented the wall. As they ripped clean through the cake, chunks of cake flew out, splattering the walls and ground with pieces of the dessert. The relentless barrage continued for fifteen seconds, with the cake getting progressively mutilated and destroyed as the barrage went on. When Celestia finally stopped, the only thing holding the cake together was her magic that suspended the cake in the air. Celestia set the battered remains of the destroyed dessert down, and the cake collapsed into a shredded pile of crumbs.
Everypony was looking aghast at the graphic scene before their eyes. Pinkie's eyes watered, and she rushed over to the remains of the cake, splattered on the walls and floor. "NOOOO!" she wailed. "YOU WERE SUCH A GOOD DESSERT!" She began to mourn the fallen dessert, gathering some clumps of frosting into her hooves and starting to bawl over it.
Everyone else's eyes reverted to Celestia. She had a face that suggested reluctance at the demonstration she had laid before their eyes, but she spoke clearly. "That is what that...weapon is capable of. The gun has made it easier than ever to take the life of another in cold blood. This weapon was used in the attack in Manehatten, for the wounds described match that of the weapon's effects."
Twilight couldn't believe her eyes. She rubbed them, then looked down at the suddenly dangerous capital L lying before her. She felt afraid to touch it now. She gulped and said, "Who made this? Why?"
"The weapon was a top secret development by ponies here in Canterlot," Celestia explained. "Nopony outside of the top developers knew of it. Ponies researched for years and years until a pony called Bright Mind discovered the secret of a substance called gunpowder."
"Bright Mind was...not a pony who was popular amongst scientists," Luna added. "When his colleagues found out he was the one who had discovered the substance, they discredited his work and passed off the substance as their own. Bright Mind was enraged, but he couldn't do anything about it. He was low in class, as scientists go. One day, just before the weapons were to be sent to be distributed to the military...an accident in his lab made the entire wing of the study building explode, killing him."
"Wh-why does there have to be so much death?" Fluttershy asked, quivering. She looked depressed and scared.
"After the accident, for a long while, we hesitated. Selling these weapons to the market would have catastrophic results for the welfare of Equestria. And eventually, we decided not to, and keep this land unstained with blood. But when we tried to destroy the prototypes and leave no trace of its existence, we found out that Bright Mind's laboratory had been raided and that all the weapons had been stolen."
The mares gasped.
"The weapon you have in front of you is the only surviving relic that we knew of, " Celestia continued. "We searched and searched for them all, but the weapons and the pony who had stolen them had simply disappeared off the face of the land. And we thought they were gone for good. But now, it appears they have made a resurgence."
Luna grabbed the metal L with her magic and it floated over to her. "And that is another task we must ask of you. If possible, we need to find out what exactly happened to these weapons, and who stole them. It is imperative that the pony who is terrorizing Manehatten be apprehended and captured."
Twilight stood up. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, we'll go to Manehatten to stop him before he attacks again. I hope we won't let you down." Her voice had an edge of determination in it. The rest of her friends also stood, some hesitating a bit more than others.
"I know you won't," Celestia said, in the most reassuring tone she had.
The train pulled out of Canterlot with six ponies and one baby dragon on board. The mares in question all had different feelings about the whole thing.
Applejack was nervous about going to a major city. After all, she was only a country girl, and the fact that there was a faceless killer loose in the city did not help her nerves about it all. If she had to be honest--which was her specialty--she didn't want to go all that much. But Twilight was going, and so that meant that she would stick with her like caramel on a candy apple. She relaxed her head on the side of a window and looked out with boredom.
Rarity was a mixed bag. On the one hoof, she was going to Manehatten! One of the most populous cities in Equestria! But on the other hoof, there was a murderer on the loose that was possessing top-secret weapons that could crumble the city if he really wanted to. She was a little nervous about that, because she had plans to put in a new boutique in both Canterlot and Manehatten, and she couldn't do that if the city was under an iron hoof, could she? She laid down her saddlebags on the train and pulled out a magazine for the journey.
Fluttershy was totally and completely scared. She could barely handle moving to such a scene change as Manehatten, where the ponies were always in a hurry and they bumped into you and didn't say excuse me. But coupled with that they were under pressure from Princess Celestia, and that there was a murderer on the loose, and every feeling she had was screaming at her to just run away home and never bother with such big, important things as saving the world again...or, at least, Manehatten. When she got on the train, she stretched out on a couch and curled into a ball.
Rainbow Dash was confident, as usual. She had faced plenty of worse stuff than a pony acting alone, hadn't she? They all had faced down Lord Tirek only a little bit ago, and had removed Starlight Glimmer from her position as a despot just a few days prior. Taking down one pony, even a pony with terrifying experimental weapons, was going to be nothing. And yet as she thought about this, she still felt just a twinge of doubt nip at her, a small bite of fear of the prospect of facing down a murderer. Granted, she had had to hurt a few ponies before, but she had never before actually killed anyone. When it came down to a confrontation between her and this terrorist, who would have more conviction to kill the other? Trying to get the offending thought out of her head, she began to do wing-ups until her body hurt.
Pinkie was putting on a happy face, as she normally did, but behind it all was a grim realization. The cake had been mutilated! Destroyed before she could even have a bite! It was super unfair. And now they were going to take down a pony who could do that kind of stuff if he really wanted to? He had better not harm any cakes, or pies, or strudels while Pinkie was in Manehatten! And if he- -or she--did, Pinkie would have something to say about it! She wasn't really concerned about her own life- only the welfare of the cakes! Pinkie pulled out a cupcake from her mane and begun to eat, slowly relishing the taste of it. What if it was the last dessert she would ever eat? Not because she would die, of course- though that might happen. What if the pony terrorist destroyed every last dessert in Manehatten? Then what would she eat?
Spike was uncomfortable. All he wanted was a good night of sleep, but with Twilight, that was never an option. It always seemed like there was something to do, somepony to help, some friendship that needed reparations. It was just too much, really. Spike flopped on one of the couches in the train and began to snore as his head hit the sheets.
Twilight was filled with determination. She had never disappointed her mentor before, and she wasn't ready to start now. She was ready to face the danger. She and the rest of her friends. But as she looked around at all her friends, her loyal, honest, kind, generous, funny friends, she knew that what they would be facing would be...different than anything they had ever faced before. But different in what way, she could not say.
She preoccupied herself by relaxing on the couch in the train and started with thinking over what Celestia had told them. The terrorist was using weapons whose capability was far beyond anything Twilight had known previously. He had raided the lab of the scientist who had died in order to use them. But how could he have known about the weapons even existing in the first place? If it was a top secret experiment, then the only way for them to know about it is if...
She gasped.
"What is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, poking her head up.
"Girls, I think I may have already had a breakthrough!" she announced. All the girls stopped their activities and looked at Twilight.
"Girls, the pony who made off with all of the weapons- he had to know about them first! He had to know that there were these guns being made in the first place! So there are only two ways that he could have known about it. He was either spying on the weapons while they were being made and when the lab was destroyed, that was his chance to take them and flee..."
She left a gap in the air, waiting for somepony to piece it together.
Rarity was the first to get it, and she widened her eyes. "Or..." she whispered, "He was one of the fellow scientists that was trying to create them in the first place!"
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This is a REALLY good story. Please read mine
8500098
Which story? And thank you for the comment. It means a lot to me to see people who like my stories. Please consider reading my other story, A Rather Large Adventure. It's good, I can promise you that.
8500111
All of my stories. It’s up to you really on which story, but I just want to know what you think of all of them so far. And I will check it out
That’s some right on the money characterization right there!
Unless Rarity suddenly gained Applejack's accent, I'll venture to say that this is a typo.
9180588
Nah, this is right. She puts emphasis on the Da part of Darling. Stretches it out, you know? Daah-ling. Although now that you pointed the Applejack bit out, I understand why you'd think it would be Applejack saying it.
Man, remember the days when Starlight Glimmer hadn't been reformed yet and the fandom hadn't been split like a peanut shell for the second or third time in the show's history?
I don't, of course. I came into the fandom in the middle of S6. So I saw this new pony and then I was like "What's the big deal about lavender horse here?"
Also, I like how seriously you're treating the presence of a murderer in Equestria, and how he compares to the previous villains of the show. They wanted to steal and enslave, yes, but they never wanted to actually kill anyone as a first objective.