Chapter 5: Star Swirl
Princess Celestia had put the scroll Twilight had sent her to one side just for an hour or two as she slogged through the paperwork that came with slowly, slowly, piecing together better relations with the griffons, that came with slowly, slowly improving the state of the system of education in Equestria, that came with slowly, slowly authorising more and more aid - not to mention pegasi - to be sent to the zebra nations that had fallen into turmoil as the drought plaguing their nations ravaged food and water supplies.
However, now she finally had time for it. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, she slowly began to let go of the stress of the day insofar. A weary smile adorning her face, she lit up her horn and levitated the scroll in front of her, unfurling it and beginning to read. Most of the time, Twilight’s scrolls had a way of cheering her up - Twilight’s social naivety and struggles coupled with all of her successes gave Celestia a heartwarming feeling, like watching a daughter grow up. She was still waiting for the scroll telling her that Twilight had a special somepony, finally.
This time around, the words on the scroll were scientific, flaunting Twilight’s high-brow education under Princess Celestia. She furrowed her brow as she read it. “Xenomorph…” She mumbled to herself, having finished and rolling the scroll back up, gazing to the left at a sun near setting. Mindlessly, she levitated the scroll over to a drawer and opened it, sliding it inside with the other reports from Twilight. The word was vaguely recognisable to the Sun Princess, though why she could not tell.
A thought struck her; ‘Star Swirl. It was thousands of years ago, and I might be remembering incorrectly, but in one of his journals…’
Celestia stood from her chair, blushing slightly as it creaked. With a bright flash of her horn and a swish of her head, she teleported into the Star Swirl section of the Canterlot Library. She began searching through book upon book with a frown adorned across her face. Instinct told her that xenomorphs were bad - no, horrible news for Equestria. That Twilight seemed to be requesting help in finding out what they were rather than begging for help or just notifying her of the problem told her otherwise.
The thought popped into her head, and she found it impossible to get rid of. ‘Your instincts have only been wrong once, Celestia. Do not take the risk.’
She reigned herself in and studied book after book, mind focused completely on the task.
Twilight’s mind was entirely unfocused - she found it hard to think of anything but how to comfort her new, strange friend.
She was trying her very best not to cry as Strange Form hugged her tightly, now half way up her horn in height, making broken noises somewhere in between screaming, hissing, sobbing, and wailing. Ponies were naturally very emotional creatures, and as much as Twilight prided herself as not being as emotional as most others, there was still a limit and Twilight was still a pony. She only hoped Strange wouldn’t notice the tears rolling over his exoskeleton.
Strange, meanwhile, was lost in emotion; he was almost drowning in it. Misery filled his entire being - sadness that his mother was dead. However, a substantial amount of fear also filled him. That voice in his head was telling him to ‘FEAST. FEAST. FEAST. FEAST.’ on his mother’s body, and that frankly terrified him. Not only that, but he was fairly sure that he had been the cause of his mother’s death. Him tearing his way out of her. It made too much sense. Now, the question was whether or not he’d tell Twilight.
Twilight ran a hoof down the ridges of his exoskeleton softly, whispering sweet nothings to him; ‘It’s okay, Strange,’ and ‘We’ll catch whoever did this, and we’ll make them pay,’ and ‘I’m here for you’ and so on and so forth. A small part of Strange that wasn’t subsumed by the emotion flooding through his mind decided then that he certainly wouldn’t be telling Twilight - he had friends, and he didn’t want to lose them. He’d keep himself in check and make sure, somehow, they didn’t find out. She - they - wouldn’t understand if they knew. He didn’t mean to. He really wished he didn’t. He wished he had never come to be.
The world seemed to rumble to Strange, and he clutched Twilight closer to himself, making those same horrible noises. He felt a door in his mind get pushed forward just slightly, the same that had been nearly shut during his ‘birth’ if he could even call it that, and it gave him a blinding headache for a second before everything settled into normality. After nearly an hour of Strange clutching Twilight and doing his equivalent of crying, he began to quieten down, and after another few minutes he was just quietly whimpering as he stayed desperately attached to her.
Twilight pried him off of her slightly, pulling back and looking at his head, where she would presume his eyes if he had any. She sighed, fur matted with tears shed for Strange’s mother and Strange himself. “Strange - do you… want to go b-back to the library?”
He looked down at the clouds holding them up. He looked back at Twilight. “I… o-okay…” He whimpered out. She detached Strange from her and lit up her horn, levitating him beside her and getting into the hot air balloon, putting him down next to her. He simply buried his head into the wooden floor, whimpering. She gave him a look of pity before turning to Spike, who was lying in a corner with eyes red from crying just as, probably more than, Twilight had been. He nodded and blew a bit of fire into the burners, manipulating the flame.
It began to fly. Twilight was not looking forward to reporting this to the local guard.
Celestia restrained herself from growling in frustration, eyes narrowed. She began to trot towards the restricted section and the Star Swirl subsection there, books she had pulled out all sliding into place with barely a thought from Celestia. Currently the Canterlot Library was all but empty, since school was out and people tended not to read any of the books kept there other than in small intervals. That effectively meant that Celestia didn’t have to keep up appearances.
She unlocked the door with her magic, the only way it could be unlocked, and made her way into the restricted section. Her golden magic flared up and books shot towards her, opening and rapidly flipping through the pages to see if she could catch a glimpse of the word ‘xenomorph’. Books around her, enchanted with curses to woo ponies into reading them with promises of infinite knowledge, riches, or fame, possessed with demonic souls, or claiming to be sentient, wailed and cursed at her. She shut them out. She had locked them in here for a reason, and that reason was that they were evil and no pony but her should ever have to read them and their horrible contents.
Her eyes nervously glanced at a silent book at the far end of the bookshelves upon bookshelves, gathering dust. ‘Especially the Sannrskaethibók. None shall ever view the contents of that accursed book.’
Looking back at the books flying around her, she went back to flipping through the pages. Her instincts were screaming at her. A thought popped into her head, and she found it impossible to get rid of. ‘Your instincts have only been wrong once, Celestia. Do not take the risk.’
Twilight had gone to report a murder, the first of the year, to the Equestrian Guard stationed at Ponyville. She knew Spotless Badge, the head of the Ponyville Guard, personally, and she knew he took his job very seriously. He would be horrified by the news she was to deliver. Meanwhile, at the Golden Oaks Library, Spike had retreated upstairs, telling Strange Form he was going to sleep for a bit but if he needed to talk about anything then Spike was there and it was no trouble. Strange Form did not respond, instead curling up near the base of the stairs and whimpering quietly to himself.
Minutes passed - to Strange, hours. His entire world had been shattered. He felt perhaps it was illogical; he had never known his mother. He had only been alive for hours, and yet he felt this strongly about her death. Whether or not it was illogical, however, he still felt horrible about it. He probably could’ve been there to protect her. He was strong. Stronger than the ponies around you, an apex predator among prey - if only he had been there.
A knock at the door. A quiet voice spoke up as if it was taking all of their confidence. “Twilight…? I’m here to return the book on, um… the animals of the Everfree…” She muttered. Strange shifted his head slightly so that he was facing the door. Twilight wasn’t here, so he assumed she would just leave.
The door creaked open slowly.
Strange remembered this was actually a public library and she could just leave it on the ‘Returns’ desk.
A butter-yellow pony peeked out from behind the door. As soon as her eyes settled on him, her eyes widened, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Strange remembered that most ponies were terrified of him. He opened his mouth and began to slowly form words, exposing his endlessly sharp teeth and thick tongue covered in some sort of slime or other liquid. “Twilight i-isn’t here…” He muttered, voice still grating and horrible to listen to.
The pony screamed and ran away, the door shutting behind her. Strange shifted his head back and whimpered; the realisation that ponies were scared and disgusted by his form and voice hit him all of a sudden, and he was sobbing - or his version of it at least - again.
Celestia scanned the same page over and over again. A frustrated nicker saw her tearing the page out of the book and shoving the books back into their places. She teleported back into her study, pacing back and forth and reading the page more carefully.
‘In my excitement after the first mirror, I created a second. A hellscape laid in wait; another Equus - or Earth as it appears to be called in most universes - but purple and rotting. Screaming was the only sound from around the landscape apart from a gentle breeze that itself seemed corrupted, poisoned. In the distance, I could see one of the few buildings that hadn’t completely collapsed and the writing on the side; ‘The xenomorphs are our new God’ it said. I spent a week in that realm before making my way back through the mirror, and I hope to Faust that nothing followed me through somehow. The ponies of Equestria should not be exposed to what I was. Therefore, I leave the entries detailing my exploration into that Equus to Princess Luna. She was always good with monsters.’
She silently put the page down on her desk. It combusted. Celestia knew she would come to regret that, but it felt kind of good in the moment. A deep sigh saw her putting on the mask she wore around her little ponies, that same motherly smile that reached her eyes, and she opened the door of her study and began to trot to her sisters room. Clearly, it would have to be Luna that helped her here.
Again, it had only been a few minutes, but those minutes were stretching into more than hours - days of torturous emotions drowning him. It felt as if there was a void in his center, gnawing at his insides. He felt hungry, but somehow he knew he wasn’t. He wanted to be sick, but he knew he wouldn’t be. Instinct felt more and more welcoming as his emotions felt like they were crippling him.
He adjusted his head to face the door again. He could hear whispers from outside of it. Strange strained his hearing to try and figure out what they were saying, uncurling and standing on all fours, flexing his tail behind him for a moment before letting it go limp on the ground.
“So we-” Spoke a high-pitched, bubbly voice.
“Yeah, just burst in there and show ‘em what’s what!” Exclaimed a tomboy-ish, raspy voice.
“Alright, on three?” A voice with a southern twang put forth.
“Indeed. One,” Said a voice that sounded as if it was from high society.
Strange Form was confused. He had no idea what was happening.
“two,”
Wait. ‘Show ‘em what’s what’?
“three!”
Strange had only just realised what was happening as ponies burst through the door, heading straight for him. His weakened mental state provided the perfect opportunity for his instincts to take over. A rainbow blur shot towards his head, but he could react faster than she could change course. Sliding to the left and grabbing the mane of the pegasus with his right foreleg, he stood on two feet and threw her to the right, screeching at the other four.
One pink earth pony, one white unicorn, that same butter-yellow pegasus, and… Applejack?
Applejack stared at him in shock.
He stared at the four in general with obvious killing intent.
The pink one, to the left!
Shooting a claw out and grabbing the pink one by the muzzle, he pulled her to his head and began preparing to murder her, opening his mouth and watching the horror in her eyes with satisfaction as his second mouth sprung from the top and prepared to shoot forth.
The white one, now!
With one swift movement he shut his mouth and threw the pink pony at the white one, watching with satisfaction as they collided with each other. The pink one stood up shakily, but the white one did not. She was out for the count. He realised that on two feet he was much taller than them all.
The rainbow one, right!
He simply took a step back and watched with mild amusement as she crashed into some bookshelves, falling onto the floor and getting covered by books that had fallen on her. He turned his attention to the three remaining ponies.
Slice them into flesh ribbons.
Jumping forward, he collided with the pink one, rolling over a few times before banging into the wall of the library. Hopping up, he smashed her body into the wall a few times before dropping it. He turned to the two left. Applejack watched him with a delicious mix of fear and rage in her eyes, and the butter-yellow pegasus watched him with… just anger?
The yellow one!
She flew up to his face, eyes opening to an incredible extent. “You! You - you bully! You should feel ashamed for what you did!” She screamed at him, tears pricking at the edges of her eyes. “You ate Twilight and now you’re doing this?! And for what! What, Mr Predator-Creature-Thing!”
The voice retreated immediately. Strange Form stared at her for a few seconds before collapsing onto the floor, whimpering.
Fluttershy and Applejack both turned to Twilight as she walked in. Strange simply curled up tighter. “Alright guys, I’m ba-” She began, before pausing. She gazed upon the chaos that had become of her library.
Twilight blinked. “I… I was gone for like half an hour. What the buck?”
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Again I reiterate poor Strange
Also I feel like it was a mistake for him not to tell Twilight he now remembered killing his mother by accident because well... a creature dying while giving birth isn't that alien (pun intended) of a concept so Twilight would understand, moreover when Celestia and Luna reveal this fact to Twilight it's probably gonna cause some trouble for everyone involved
Regardless another great chapter and, as always, eager for the next one
9799608 Thanks man! Also, trouble?
...pfffft... there's totally no more trouble for Strange...
...ahem...
Nice change of pace for Fluttershy to jump to conclusions instead of Rainbow Dash.
9799617 Always lookin' to subvert the stereotype!
A funny way of ending a fight.
9799662 Thanks! Was aiming for a bit of comedy there.
So... is White Lightning this background pony, or an OC?
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/2/2f/White_Lightning_ID_S5E5.png/revision/latest?cb=20150616172642
9799669 That background pony!
It's official Twilight, Spike, Applejack and Maybe sunbutt maybe the only sane people or non "it's new KILL IT" I shall keep reading this was really good, also good way to end an chapter and fight lol
9800016 Thanks a lot man! Tried my best!
9800079
Your welcome and please keep going and, Please don't rush that's how good fanfictions die, one way atleast
Good chapter, Reader
9800591 ...clever, clever man...
9799611
*Silently ignores the SR99 series Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle barrel pointed at head*
9809210 *Notices basically nothing all the time and so does not see it*
9810586
*which is what I meant*
9811996 *Oh shit*
*Is dumb*
9812133
*More spartans, unseen, begin pointing SR99 series Anti-materiel Sniper Rifles at Reader's head*
9812585 *Sips glass of water*
9812687
*Spartans stay dead still*
9814101 *Leans forward to keyboard. Thinks. Grabs half-empty glass of vodka and leans back*
9814319
*Spartans tense, before relenting*
9814980
*Spartans reluctantly pull back and allow writer to write for the good of the story*
Fluttershy, WHAT THE FUCK!?
HIS INSTINCTS HAD TAKEN OVER!
YOU DIDN'T SEE HIM CURLED UP!?
HOW UNOBSERVANT ARE YOU PONIES!?
9836585 Considering the size of their eyes? Strangely unobservant in like... EVERY story!
...ha. STRANGEly!
9843746
"Oh no"
screengeek.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/avengers-4-mcu-marvel-cinematic-universe.jpg
Shoot, someone else also had the idea for aliens. I am writing a story now with them. Mine is different than yours, but it is still along the same lines. I will let you know now I might take a few ideas from you, but I will write my own words. However, when I post it, please take a look, and tell me what you think.
9982961 Alright, sure. Shoot me a DM when you've posted it.
Uh... when’s the next update?
10001431 Oh God! It has been WAYYYY too long! This is why I need a co-author to encourage me, dammit!
Don't worry, I'll get on that! By the end of the year, hopefully?
10005014
Hopefully.
Hey. Question. That profreader position still open?
10495655 Indeed it is! Drop me a message!
10776045 Alright, alright, if you say so! Give it an hour or two!
10776824 No need to apologise; I appreciate it a lot!