Nightmare
Equestria had been a peaceful nation, once. For most, it still is.
But not for Agent Golden Notes.
She and the Agency of which she is part have been fighting a secret war for the last several years, against a secret enemy. The only problem is, that kind of secrecy only holds for as long as they don’t lose.
Like now. A few enemy troopers have managed to break past their defenses.
She hadn’t been on the perimeter guard. Not even on the reserve guard. She shouldn’t have to deal with these things- she should still be participating in training missions, dealing with the less dangerous Equestrian underground, catching crooks and maintaining the nation’s extremely peaceful population.
But this is an emergency. This party is the largest that’s ever broken through.
At least, it had been, when it broke through. They’d managed to dodge the perimeter guard altogether. The reserve guards that had moved to stop them lay slewn on Equestrian soil.
But they had failed to stop them completely. Enough of the enemies were defeated that she should be able to win in a stand-up fight against them. There’d be a good chance she’d be injured- or even lose a limb- in that battle, and a significant chance she’d lose, but she might actually win.
She thinks. She has difficulty believing those numbers.
But now isn’t the time to dwell on numbers. She’s the only Agent close enough to stop them short of civilization. What’s more, she’s just caught onto their trail. They’re…
Oh no. Their path will take them straight through the campsite she’d been enjoying her weekend at when she received the call.
The campsite where a couple from Canterlot are enjoying their weekend with their foal.
It is critical, above all else, that the Enemy never acquire a foal. Their evil magics… Are terrible. She refuses to go any further than that; not only is it absolutely horrifying, but she might distract herself from the situation at hand- and be unable to stop them in time.
Ahah! There’s… One of the four. The other three must be running ahead; while this reduces her chances of stopping them short of the campsite, it also improves her chances of surviving the encounter without any major injuries- and makes it virtually certain she can take them on in battle. Especially if the last three separate as well.
She fights a quick battle. Her goal is to take it down; her colleagues can come clean up the body later. Though, unlike everypony on the perimeter or reserve guards, she doesn’t know where its weak points are.
Not that she lets that pose a problem.
It takes her several tries, but she eventually penetrates its armor. It’s an exhausting battle- but it so happens she’s practiced with shields, so just one of these thugs can’t deal quite enough damage to penetrate her defenses. Her final blasting spell shatters its breastplate and empties its chest cavity.
She dodges aside and resumes her chase. She’ll be hard-pressed to stop them short of the camp- and civilians like the ones in the camp won’t be able to fight near as well as she. She’s their only hope.
While she runs, she makes a quick mental check of who was at the camp. The camp administrators will probably just hide in the basement when they show up; that elderly couple from Trottingham might fight, but as long as they don’t bring attention to themselves, they should be able to hide in the surrounding woods quite easily.
Her only worry, then, is that family from Canterlot. They aren’t skilled soldiers- but they’ll be clearly visible to these monsters. Their son is probably too old for these things’ magic to work on; she can’t be certain, though, as he hasn’t gotten his cutie mark yet.
Their daughter, however, only just started walking last week. She’s a prime target for these thugs… But she should be the only one. So long as they hide the filly, she should be able to wipe these thugs out before they can compromise Equestrian security.
“Question?” The instructor asks, picking out a raised hoof.
“Yes, Sir,” the young mare in question answers. “Why is she so worried about the filly?”
“The Alcari’ spell only works on the very young- and she was the only one young enough.”
“Huh.”
She galloped after them. She heard the screams of the campers before she reached the place herself- and accelerated her chase. They must not get the foal.
By the time she reached the camp, two of the remaining monsters had fled already. The last one remained, terrorizing the locals; she attacked it from behind, discovering a weak point and stopping it in its tracks. Finally, she took off after the two fleeing Alcari, chased them down, and eliminated them as well.
“Any more questions?” The instructor asks, the story finally finished.
The two young stallions and one mare in attendance all shake their heads no. It’s time for him to start asking them questions about it.
“Ahh. So, what’s the important part about Golden Notes’ encounter?”
The mare raises her hoof again and, when the instructor finally points a hoof to her, drops hers as she speaks up. “She demonstrated the bravery and selflessness expected of any Agent in any position.”
He nods. “Very good.”
One of the stallions raises a hoof- and only barely waits for his turn before speaking. “What happened to the story?”
The instructor sighs. “I summarized the rest of it for you restless ponies.” He issues the two stallions a glare.
The two stallions look at each other. “Well…”
“Fine, then,” he retorts, stomping a hoof. “You’re dismissed.” He scribbles something on a page from his desk, then hands the note to the two stallions. “Take this to the office.” He keeps up his glare until the door slams behind them, before he lets out a huff of breath. “The nerve,” he grumbles. “So many disappointing ponies come through here it’s… Well, disappointing.” He looks up at the mare remaining in the room. “Are you going to be a disappointment too, or no?”
She issues a shrug. “I certainly hope not, Sir.”
He responds with a sigh. “Any questions?”
“Um… Yes?”
He raises an eyebrow. “And?”
“Didn’t the Alcari actually acquire the filly?”
His other eyebrow joins the first. “You must’ve read the textbook?”
She nods.
“Ahh… Yes, they did. They have to get their subject back to their base to cast their spell, though, so Golden Notes still had time. I heard that Canterlot family’s colt gained his cutie mark during the battle at the camp- something related to the shield he cast. Anyways, Golden Notes spent a few seconds checking over the camp, and found the filly missing. Before she resumed her chase, she promised the parents- and the colt, apparently that was important- that she would bring the filly back.
“She was never able to. The Alcari split again; she ripped the third apart faster than either of the other two. Very fast learner, she was- It was she, in this action, that discovered a weakness in their armor, vastly improving our combat effectiveness, for a time.
“Anyways. She chased the last one, the one with the foal, back into Alcari territory. She faced off against not just that one survivor but a few other parties of Alcari; she was able to surprise many of them and, with her new exploit attack, came out on top in each fight. Eventually…
“Eventually, I heard, she was able to get the monster carrying the foal to drop it- and the foal fled itself. She fought as hard as she could, but wasn’t able to reach the filly’s position and was forced to retreat. She returned to our territory and made her report.
“Within the hour, she participated in an offensive to that same location, in an attempt to reacquire the filly. They weren’t able to get her back, and…” He blinks tears out of his eyes.
“She was the only survivor,” the mare finishes.
He nods. “That was only the beginning of her short career.”
She gallops determinedly through the woods.
It’s a familiar nightmare. A fimiliar, atypical nightmare. A true story- a true memory. It takes her less than a second to recognize where it’s started this time. She’d just left the camp, after promising that couple she’d rescue their daughter.
At the camp, their son had earned his cutie mark in protecting his parents before she had gotten there. He hadn’t been fast enough- or in the right spot- to protect his sister.
So she had been taken.
She’s galloping through the woods. The Alcari’s trail is growing faint, but she’s faster than they. She should be able to catch up to them before they regain their own territory- and recapture the filly. Restore young Twilight Sparkle to her parents.
She’s galloping through the woods. Her only worry had been that the two monsters might split up again; such could allow the one carrying the filly to regain its own territory, where it would be exponentially harder to track- or reach. Only, while nothing has happened to suggest such, she knows she’s going to run into one or the other of them in about thirty seconds. She’s had this nightmare far too many times to be surprised.
It had been a complete surprise at the time. The thing had struck from behind a tree- and she’d only barely dodged in time. Her battle with this one had been shorter than with the others. She’d discovered a weakness to their armor- the joint right at the bottom of their breastplate, if struck upwards, will shatter almost effortlessly, allowing her to shove their belly armor up into their chest cavity. Once she downs this one, she takes off after the last one: The one with the filly.
She had figured she’d catch up and overtake it just shy of the line, just barely inside Equestrian territory. She knows that’s not exactly what happened.
She gallops through the woods. The thing is up ahead; the trail is growing stronger. As expected, the filly is slowing it down, though not by much.
Heh. As she had expected at the time. Very little of it had gone according to plan, but she’d been adaptive. She still is, she likes to think- though some of the awards and ranks they’d piled onto her since, she feels she never truly earned. That armor exploit had been an accidental discovery.
She gallops through the woods. She’s approaching the defensive line. When she thinks about it, that day, she had done something worth recognition. But they had later rewarded her further for smaller feats. All those extra ranks and awards are left feeling cheap after…
She spots the Alcari up ahead. The one carrying the foal. Another party is surging forwards, into Equestrian territory, to protect it; however, she has that armor-buckling trick now.
After this only got her a low level award for valor and bravery in the face of the enemy, and no promotions.
She throws several Alcari armor plates up into their vitals, and they collapse in short order. They’ve slowed her down- but not by much. She charges after the filly-toting one, straight into enemy territory alone.
During her training, one of the examples they had used was one particular stallion that had snuck into enemy territory alone, stuck to the shadows like a coward, and killed all of six hostiles. He’d been awarded a high-level award for bravery. Why hadn’t they bothered to give her any of those awards for this? Seriously, they’d finally given her that same high-level award when she led an assault into enemy territory some three years later!
That had been the last assault she had ever led. Frustrated by her superior’s ignorance, she had left. She had asked to go inactive; they had agreed, with a time limit. Then an enemy incursion had begun, and she had gotten caught up in it.
She wipes out the next attack wave, charging after the foal-toting Alcari.
She had wiped out half the attackers herself, even before the regular guards ever got there, and faked her own defeat. She didn’t want them dragging her back. She’d already been dealing with this nightmare for three years.
A third row of hostiles chokes on their own armor.
All the other nightmares her mind has conjured up, she has been able to disperse with her magic.
She’s followed it far into the enemy’s territory. The beast hasn’t been able to stop, for fear of her catching up; neither have its allies been able to stop her. She sees a large army of its allies up ahead. She knew she wouldn’t be able to defeat them. She knows she wasn’t.
But she survived this encounter. They did not.
The one carrying the filly stumbles suddenly when something on the metal ground they’re running across shifts. The filly tumbles free and runs straight away from the thing regaining its feet.
It never regains its feet. She got close enough first. She choked it on its own armor.
More hostiles are closing in around them. She calls out to the filly, by name.
But little Twilight is too young, and does not understand her words. She does not heed her call.
The Alcari manage to push her back. Their army is arriving, closing against her. More and more of her energy is forced to play into their demise.
A party is closing around the filly.
She calls out one last time, praying that the filly hears and turns towards her. Her only hope.
At least, what she’d thought was her only hope.
A circular hole had suddenly formed in the metal ground, and the filly had dropped in. She’d made her charge towards that hole. Defeated Alcari lay around her by the hundreds, even thousands. She never counted- didn’t have time.
One of the beasts had dove into the hole after the filly. Or, it had tried to. The hole had closed right before it managed it, resulting in the monster’s defeat.
A voice had come out of the ground around her as the Alcari pushed her back.
A definitively masculine voice, speaking in clean Equestrian.
“I will protect her while you get help.”
Though sometimes it’s “She’s safe here, get backup.”
Even once, it’s been “They cannot beat me, bring more troops.”
That’s the only part of this dream that’s been fluid. She doesn’t know exactly what it said- only that it had promised they could not reach the filly.
Who, presumably, is still alive someplace. Unless she’s starved to death.
They hadn’t been able to reach that metal ground in any of their offensives since. They don’t know if it’s still there.
They do know the Alcari never reached the filly. Not alive, at least; had they done so, Equestria would be in ruins.
Whatever it had said, it had been convincing about it. She turns tail almost instantly, now fleeing for her life. She smashes any Alcari that gets in her path- and again, she’s faster than they. Escape is almost easy.
Finally, she pauses at the top of a distant hill to look back. The end of the dream.
A long, metal spear rises slowly out of the ground on a rapidly expanding column of black smoke. It makes it almost a hundred pony-lengths above the ground before the smoke seems to stop working and it plummets back to the ground.
When it strikes, the entire area- including that entire army of Alcari- becomes an enormous fireball. She ducks behind the hill to avoid the blast, throwing up a shield to be certain.
It nearly wipes her out anyways.
She continues her flight back to Equestria, not looking back even once.
She gallops through the woods.
Tears stream from her eyes.
She falls on the floor.
The dream is over.
She sheds a few more tears for young Twilight Sparkle.
She’s been doing that every morning for longer than she can remember. Ever since it happened, probably.
Her horn probes at the soundproofing on her bedroom. The anti-scrying spells.
They’re all holding solid.
Not that there should be anypony anywhere near close enough to hear or see, even without those spells.
She has a big house. Three floors, dozens of rooms she’ll never use.
Her bedroom is at its very heart.
Yet she left hers with young Twilight Sparkle.
Her parents had not taken the news well.
The Agency had made dozens of attempts to reclaim their daughter over the following weeks, months. None had been successful. Young Twilight Sparkle had eventually been assumed dead.
But every time she takes up her lyre, she feels it in the instrument. In her heart.
The filly is not dead.
She must be a young adult by now. Right about the same age as the young mares she’s sent in the Agency’s direction.
The young mares that might follow in her hoofsteps. That might, with proper training, be the party that reclaims the missing filly.
Or confirms her dead.
Or wins the war.
The one she sent their way last month was quite promising. On the surface, the mare is a simple candy shop owner.
But deeper down, it turns out she’s an alchemist, an adventurer. She’s developed various kinds of candies. Many of her concoctions require some more exotic ingredients, from the Everfree Forest itself.
She’s developed a candy that makes her enormously strong. Stronger than an earth pony- or, more accurately, than any other earth pony.
She’s developed a ‘candy’ that explodes when she throws it.
She’s developed a ‘candy’ that boosts her senses.
She’s developed candies for almost every occasion. Even sleep deprivation.
She hasn’t been able to develop a candy to stave off that nightmare.
Every other nightmare, every other dream, she can chase away with a candy.
Or a spell. She knows several.
But not that one.
So she’d sent her in the Agency’s direction.
She’s fairly sure the Agency doesn’t know who referred her. Or the one before her, the pegasus with the wonderfully shy front to her powerful core.
Or the one before her, the unicorn that had successfully worked battle tactics into a dress design.
Or the one before that, the earth pony with a determined heart and a mean hind hoof.
Or the one before her, the earth pony with the energy of a battalion and the mane to fit enough supplies to sink a ship.
Or the one just yesterday, the mare with the mind of a soldier, the wings of a racer, and the ambition to drive her forward.
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A wonderful start of what is going to be a great story. I hope to see more soon!
8956110
And an excellent comment from somepony other than my editor, thank you!
... I look forward to continuing to produce content worthy of such.
I was hoping that you'd leave the characters a BIT more subtle, but you named one of the protagonists in the first chapter! Blasphemy!
Sure, I'd figured out who the filly was, but still.
About the first part of the chapter -- I am guessing that was Bons talking to the instructor? Or was it Lyra again, in disguise?
I can't quite tell the timeline on this one. I am guessing it'll be addressed in future, but it is something to "note". Snicker.
Also, did you steal my name? I know I haven't gotten past four chapters of mine, and I need to really redo my timeline (if I ever even continue it), but that was my name! :D
This sounds like a really fun story, but please don't forget the others (Search, your collab, and Fire are really good, and make me want updates)!
8956684
Named one of the protagonists... You referring to Twi or Agent Golden Notes?
I have this chapter laid out in a possibly confusing manner, yes. The first and the last sections tell the story of the past; all the rest (including half of the last section) tell of what's happening at about the same time. I have the first section being told as the instructor telling the story; the last one, it's told as Agent Golden Notes' nightmare.
I rather suspect you've got your identities a little mixed up here. Say, who is Golden Notes actually? Who is likely to be in training right now, given story information?
Your name? NOPE!
Your name was Alicori. All-i-COR-ie. Mine is Alcari. All-CAR-ie. Your name was for a friend. Mine is for an enemy.
... I originally spelled mine with a T, but the C sounds better.
Seems really interesting so far, looking forward to the next chapter. I always love Bolo stories.
8956972
I don't know who is in training. For that matter, I am not certain who Notes is, since she both makes candy AND plays the lyre.
I am assuming the one in training is the other one, however.
And it is TOO my name. There's enough similarity that I am sure my lawyers can prove it! :D
I'll have to steal one of yours now. :P
8958475
Those should tell you exactly who is who.
8958551
So, it should be Lyra, then, right? But she owns the candy shop, and I thought that was Bon Bon, for obvious reasons. Or is it actually talking about two different people, and there's no obvious POV change?
8958651
The POV has not changed on those two. This is Golden Notes referring to Bonbon as another mare.
Referring to how she sent Bonbon in the Agency’s direction.
... Seriously. I know I’m getting good at subtle, but I thought this one was clear. Failing all else, the story tags also carry an answer!
Come to think of it, it’s struck my mind that said subtle is ... not something you do very well. Sorry, but it’s true; every time I hide clues, even clear ones like the lyre (How many other mares do you know with one of those?) or the name (was used for one of Lyra’s alibis in Secret Search), you miss ‘em reliably. Perhaps we could convert your story into a collab work, rather than the current writer/editor setup? If anything, I can probably get it to read a lot smoother.
8959002
That might be wise. I am just not clear on how I want it to go, yet, so there's that. But I do need a lot of subtle.
I'm a bit snowed in with schoolwork atm, though.
8959405
Eh, no prob. You’ve got all that wonderful outline XD I’ll have to see what I can’t do to it.
8959436
Oh dear. There's a lot I have modified and have not written down yet!
No touchy!
8959546
Ahh. Lemme know when ready, then.