Chapter 10
Gotta say, the last week with these two has been, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most boring weeks I have ever truly experienced. I expected more than just questions from Mystic, even the occasional death stare from knight in shining tinfoil, but I guess that was too much to ask.
The second day on the trip was filled with beautiful scenery and the sweet silence of the open road.
“So is it true Thestral’s eat insects?”
“Everyone does, you just don’t know it.”
“Is your species nocturnal?”
“Yes.”
“Are certain members of your species immortal?”
“Only if they contracted Vampirism, but the dark disease died out nearly five hundred years ago.”
And by silence I mean questions flying left and right from our resident smart pony, a notebook and quill floating alongside her as we walked with Silver only a few feet behind us, no doubt keeping his eye out for any dark magic’s or what have you.
Least he didn’t try and kill me in my sleep, but that’s probably just because he didn’t want to upset his boss.
This carried on into the second day, then the third. The fourth was actually quite interesting because we saw a squirrel.
This is why I never liked open world games.
You could never really tell where you were either, what with the land of Equestria being built specifically for ponies, meaning it was miles upon miles of plains and forests with the occasional mountain range near the middle. This rendered the map basically useless because ponies suck at cartography even when there were landmarks.
It wasn’t until the eighth day on the road that the mountain the Unicorn Capital was situated on came into view, the sprawling city of Olympus, or I guess it’s called the Gleaming city now, sitting on the wide tip of the spire.
“We should be coming up to the base of the mountain early in the morning.” Mystic shouted, her eyes trained on me as I lazily flew circles around the pair. I hummed and trained my eyes on the city, looking across the city and lingering on the larger and more important looking buildings.
“Think they’ll let me in without a fuss?” I shouted back, watching a few carts go back and forth from the main gate.
“Doubtful, the order would never let in a son of the dark spawn.” Silver retorted, making it the very first thing he’s actually said we started this trip. I chuckled and looked down at him with a half smirk.
“Doubt they’d even be able to stop me, even if they tried.” I muttered before closing my wings and falling to the ground, landing right next to the silver stallion, much to his obvious displeasure. “Besides, I’m sure my natural charisma will have them eating out of my hooves.”
The stallion simply snorted before he pulled ahead, leaving me alone with the academic again, and I could already hear the quill on paper.
“You know what, you two can keep walking, think I’m going to fly the rest of the way there.” I stated quickly and shot into the air, eager to escape from the inane questioning on the most mundane aspects of Thestral life.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy her company, especially when she focused on her questions about history, but that girl was question after question for the entire week.
I was impressed she could actually keep the questions pumping out.
Still though, I did like a chance to rest my voice, haven’t used it much for a good few centuries after all. Plus I’d like to get there sooner rather than later because I get bored far too easily.
“Don’t take too long, I might get lonely!” I shouted, flapping my wings and shooting forward towards the city.
“Halt stranger, what business do you have in the city?” I could feel the horns pointed at me before I even got within shouting distance of the gate. Most would have seen this as a bad sign, but I was just glad I wasn’t dealing with magic blasts yet.
I said nothing, still a good distance from the gate; they didn’t like that, a warning shot attested to that. I stopped real quick after that, didn’t want to cause a race war on my first day.
“I will ask again bat, what business do you have in the Capital?” The same guard asked, his spear leaning down to point towards me.
“Relax, just wanted to explore the city.” I told him, flapping my wing and knocking off the dirt the blast knocked up. He huffed and looked to his partner, gesturing with his head for the guard to go towards me.
“I need to see you passport please.” The colt said, holding out a hoof towards me. I just raised a brow before shrugging and reaching into my bag and pulling out a fake passport, enchanted to be plenty authentic in his eyes.
“Any reason you need a passport to enter a city that likely receives plenty of hoof traffic?” I asked, retrieving the pass after he confirmed he thought it was genuine.
“Don’t rightly know sir, all I know is that the queen wanted the city on lockdown ever since the Princesses birthday.” He answered with a shrug, “You would need to talk to the captain for any more details.”
“Any idea where I can find the captain?” I got a headshake in response.
“I’m just a rookie sir, they don’t tell me anything yet.”
“Fair enough, have a pleasant day.”
“You as well sir.” With that, he turned around and resumed his position at the gate while the pressure of several spells left the air. I didn’t receive much more trouble after that, not that I had any reason to since Equestrians were actually pretty tolerant of other species as long as they weren’t of the tribes.
‘Still easier than I thought it would be’ I told myself, traveling down the cobblestone road towards the main road, several houses lining the streets with plenty of Unicorns going about their day. Kind of strange to see all of the ponies out and about during a lockdown, but not out of the ordinary, after all, have to work if you want to eat.
I continued down the road, watching the locals and guards mill about, giving me the occasional glance, but more or less ignoring me while shopkeepers advertized their wares, a jeweler and a slightly disheveled mare argued over the price of a necklace, and a small herd of foals ran down the road, chasing a small ball.
All in all, it seemed to be business as usual for the city, making me wonder just what could have happened to get the local royalty scared.
“Okay, now I need to find the research institute.” And see what else the mortals have been up to, don’t trust they’d keep themselves to trying to mess with the space-time continuum. For all I knew, they were researching black magic to try and get a leg up on the other tribes...again.
‘God knows what happened last time.’ I thought with a small chuckle, looking up and taking a breath, tasting the smell of flowers and baked goods in the air, alongside the heat of a forge and the pounding of a hammer from the blacksmith.
That’s when my ears perked, hearing a faint background noise slowly getting louder the closer I got to the town square.
Then I smelled the smoke.
“Please, for the love of me, don’t let this be another rally.” I sighed and sped up, now noticing the smoke on the horizon.
Knowing the way these ponies worked, it was likely going to be a repeat of the fire worshippers back in the Minotaur country, back when they burned the widows of their warriors as sacrifice to their Queen.
A plague put a stop to that real quick.
Course it also made their entire country collapse but you can’t really blame the disease for that one, was actually the fault of the civil war that followed after the little power vacuum I left.
They’ll recover though...maybe.
Anyway, now the smell of smoke was almost overpowering as I walked from the street and into a wide open courtyard, seeing a small crowd of ponies shouting as one, showing the most unity I have seen from the pony race.
“What the bloody hell.” I muttered, looking around at the burning pyres surrounding the circle, alongside a small podium in the middle, where a hooded pony was standing to the side while a Unicorn guard stood by the front with a small scroll in his magic.
That was probably the captain of the guard here, seeing as how his armor was actually made out of steel instead of bronze like the others that walked the streets.
“To all citizens of the illustrious capital of the true pony race” he started while I flew up onto a nearby wall to get a better view. “We have gathered here today to render punishment upon the one known as Lilith Amsel.”
He raised a hoof towards the black furred Pegasus pony currently chained to the floor of the podium, a burlap sack covering her face and a strap literally locked around her wings.
‘Oh this ought to be interesting.’
“The charges listed here are long, and all are quite severe, but they all pale in comparison to the attempted regicide of our beloved Princess, Princess Platinum the third.”
That set the crowd off, their taunts and jeers escalating as my brow raised while I watched the guard move over and yank the sack from the mare’s head, revealing her soft green eyes to her adoring audience, her face the very definition of stoic.
Even as hundreds of insults sailed her way, along with a piece of fruit or two, she remained silent and unmoving.
“Lilith Amsel, for charges of attempted regicide, as well as a dozen additional crimes that I will not bother to list; you are sentenced to death by hanging!” He shouted, quick and to the point. “Your sentence shall be carried out at dawn tomorrow, until that time; you shall remain here so that all may see you and the results of your failure.”
And just like that, he was off, making his way past the hooded pony who took one last look at the captive before following. The only ones left were two guards who kept the crowd from exacting their own form of justice, not for lack of trying of course.
“Well, this just got interesting” I whispered, tilting my head in curiosity before settling in to watch the ponies come and go throughout the market, watching the accused mare stand stoic through the insults, never once breaking her posture, even after getting hit in the face by a rotten apple.
For hours she stood there, not moving, barely blinking, and never uttering a single word.
‘Pegasus Special Forces, only possibility.’
No Pegasus other than the Bolt Strikers could remain this stoic under this amount of pressure. They were specifically trained since birth to be the best the sub-species had to offer.
This begs the question though, what were Pegasus Special Forces doing in the Unicorn capital?
There was no way the flyers would risk a civil war with the ones controlling the sun and moon, and there’s not a Pegasus alive that would attempt regicide outside of direct battle, their honor wouldn’t allow it.
This required investigating, which is what led to me meditating on this post till the sun had set, waiting for the crowds thin out until the witching hour had hit, leaving the streets mostly empty, save for the glow the guards torches as they patrolled the streets.
My eyes focused on the two guards as they stood there, one leaning on his spear, obviously already asleep, and the other struggling not to follow his partner into the dream realm.
“Pathetic.” I sighed, waiting for the patrol to exit the main square before slipping into the shadows and sneaking my way towards the podium, watching both the guards and the still standing mare. My hooves silent in my approach before the guard still awake was suddenly yanked under the podium, which for some reason had sheets hiding the bottom from view.
The mares head snapped towards that direction before she looked to the other guard, but saw that he was already gone.
“What in Primus’ name?” she whispered watching the torches go out and plunging the square into darkness, save for two glowing yellow eyes staring directly at her.
“Well hello there” I said with a grin, my fangs on full display.
Then she screamed.
“By the maker you got some lungs on you girl.” I chuckled, placing her still restrained form beside one of the raised podiums dotting the roof I now found myself at. “You didn’t so much as flinch for nearly six hours and you scream right when I show up.”
“Well I apologize, I wasn’t expecting a bat pony of all things to show up and drag me off to parts unknown.”
“Would you have preferred to hang?” I asked, smashing the lock of her chains, not eliciting even a flinch from the mare that just witnessed me smash pure steel.
She rolled her eyes and wiggled out of her binding, ripping off the rope and stretching her wings to their fullest, letting out a few pops and a relieved sigh.
“Whatever, I guess I owe you one huh?”
“I would say so” I nodded, walking to the side and looking back at the square. “You can start by explaining what Pegasi Special Forces are doing in the Unicorn capital.”
“What?” She asked in what sounded like genuine confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb with me child.” I turned back to her with narrowed eyes. “You have the look of a soldier, and not a regular hoofpony either, if the way you were standing during that little mob meeting back there was any indication, and we both know that no regular Pegasi would have any reason to be anywhere within a ten mile radius of this mountain.”
“So I will ask again, what are you doing here?” She didn’t answer me after that, her eyes shifting left to right until they focused on me.
And then her hoof flew at me.
“Motherfucker!” I yelled and threw my hoof back at her, launching her into the pillar while nursing my now throbbing eye. “My one freaking weak point, son of a whore!”
Definitely confirmed, I can very much feel pain, and I apparently left my eye out of the upgrade list. How in the hell do I manage to forget the freaking things, they only take up about half my face.
“I’ll fix it later” I growled and turned back the mare, watching her struggling to get back onto her hooves with her wing hanging limply on the ground beside her. I growled again and grabbed her by the neck, picking her up and pinning her against the wall, making sure those hooves didn’t find any other weak points I might have forgotten about.
“You got five seconds, start talking!”
“Go plow yourself.” She coughed, staring me directly in my good eye with a look of pure determination. I snorted and smashed her into the pillar again, seeing a few cracks forming from the impact.
“Your very presence here gives the Unicorns grounds for starting a war, and I highly doubt any of your leaders want one when the three tribes are so reliant on each other, so your either a rogue agent or the commander or your little faction has gone full fanatical, which is it?”
“Lieutenant Lilith Amsel one one seven ni-”
“You’re not a POW, quit with that rank and file shit.”
“Fine then, sod off”
“Just answer me you stupid mare, why are you here and why are they charging you with attempted regicide?”
“Cause their speciest flankholes that tried to kill me for doing my job” she shouted, making my ears perk up for any attention that may have drawn. Hearing nothing, I returned my attention to the panting mare.
“And your job was?”
“Courier.” Now she had my attention, not often you get highly trained soldiers delivering your mail.
“Bolt Striker I presume?”
“Retired.”
I nodded and released her, taking a few steps back while she regained her balance, her right foreleg never touching the floor and her left wings still hanging loosely to her side. I sighed and closed in on her again; taking her wing in my hooves before she could react and popping it back into its socket, covering her mouth to silence the scream of pain she released.
“By Primus, the buck is wrong with you?” she growled, stepping away from me and slowly flexing her wing. I shrugged and sat back down, pulling a bottle of decent rum from my saddlebag and offering it to her.
“Here it’ll ease the pain.” She stared at the bottle for a moment before snorting and turning her head away from it. I rolled my eyes and took a swig before returning it to its place. “Whatever, now start explaining to me how you got a regicide charge put on your head.”
“Simple, politics at its finest.” She sighed with a shake of her head. “Somepony attempts to kill the Princess and I just so happened to be in the city at the time.”
“Because no loyal Unicorn citizen would ever attempt to kill the daughter of their beloved leader.”
“Exactly, so that’s why they instantly jumped that conclusion and slapped the chains on me without a shred of evidence.”
Yeah, ponies do tend to do that, part of the herd mentality. Get a group of them together and make one believe the sky is green, and every single one of them will eventually believe the same thing.
From the sound of things, someone else knew that to, so they likely waited for the opportunity to kill a member of the royal family and start a war that’s decades in the making. Worse thing is that she didn’t have any evidence to back her story up, and I would still take her word over Platinum’s.
“Well shit, I wanna say I feel bad about threatening you know, but you did kind of sock me in the eye.”
“Sorry, I’m still not thinking straight, haven’t slept for the last few hours and its starting to get to me.” I nodded and turned away and looked back to the square again, having noticed a sudden increase in lighting.
“Looks like your new friends know you escaped now.” I chuckled, looking back to see she was already gone, making me laugh more. “Should have called you lot the Shadow Bolts, always did have a knack for pulling that ninja vanish crap.”
My smile vanished almost instantly afterwards, hearing the guards shouting orders to their ponies.
“If the city wasn’t on lockdown before, it sure as hell is now.” I muttered and watched them run out of the square and down the streets to start their sweep. “Seems to me that things just got a lot more interesting.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.037 seconds
Total duration
639 users online
946,528 hits today, 2,724,632 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Good good
God really love to stick his muzzle into every conflicts he came across.
Thank god this is continuing
😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻OOOH GOD I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!
Yay, more Primus!
Gotta say, I really like God's character here: he could just commence with the smiting but that would be too easy, no story that way. Instead he takes it slow and we get to see the world through the eyes of an omnipotent super bieng.
God getting involved in politics. This is certain to get messy real fast.
A paradise and they're still at each other's throats.
Oh those little ponies are at it again.
It must be quite amusing to have to keep referring to yourself as a separate entity. It'd be interesting to see him in a theologian's or layman's religious debate.
WWPD? What would Primus do?
Just pull out console commands and get that thing fixed real fast. Pretty sure you'll regret not doing that if things get a little stabby later on.
I can understand him trying not to use his divine powers, but lie detecting was one he probably shouldn't have left behind.
He's certainly in it for the entertainment value as much as he is for saving the ponies.
...oops.
That awkward moment when you get worshipped as a god when you didn’t want to be seen as one. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2F1d4chan.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_God-Emperor_of_Mankind&psig=AOvVaw03lz-t9n9y-ZDiqK3IkBDb&ust=1591716083595000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCICMztXC8ukCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAa
Ohoho, I’m going to need more popcorn!
Loved this, and really happy to see more of it.
PS: gonna need more popcorn
This story leaves me wanting, but only for more.
Why do I feel this is related to a comment on this story from awhile ago?
A few moments later...
10246664
oh...
Question, how long do you plan to have this story go? Or do you not have an end goal in mind? If you do have an end in mind how far along do you think it is? Just wanted to know before I started to really get attached to this story before it's too late and I'm stuck on a story I like and slowly going crazy for not getting to know what happens in the next chapter.
I'm not at all not asking because I was sorely disappointed in some other story. Nope, no sir
alot thats already been said, but loving the direction so far, though dislike the timefuckery plot due to how dumb time travel is usually handled.
also like the contentious addition of fun side plots like the bar, or pegasi spec-ops in this chapter, its lovely worldbuilding and quite a bit of fun in its own right
10277961
I do have an end goal in mind, but at the same time I don't, if that makes any sense. I can't really decide on where it should go and where it should end. Not really even sure how long its going to be.
Me and my proofreader have been talking and were both pretty much stumped. So we're doing what we were back when I wrote on Fanfiction.net.
Were winging it and seeing where it takes us.
10278047
Don't worry, I never really wanted to make a whole time-travel paradox situation happen in the story, its just something I used to move the story along.
10278061
Hmm... I guess I understand, kind of. I'd imagine with a story like this there are so many options that you can't choose. You have something in mind but there are so many ways to go about that way.
For example, if you wanted the story to end... let's say after Ash stabilizes the pony population. That could be done in so many ways such as the creation of Celestia and Luna to do it or it could be done after stabilizing the ponies, as a way to keep the ponies in check after Ash leaves. That's just two ways it could go out of hundreds of different options you could choose...
Really with a story you're creating it has limitless options as to how you want it to be because there are no limits. If you want Ash to die, then he can die however you want whenever you want for whatever reason you want.. If you want Ash to destroy the world, then why not?
I think you see my point now. Really, with so many options and only one story, it can be hard to choose how you want it. Though if I were to say anything, I'd say just have fun.
I see no reason you wasted so much time to make this chapter, it got barely any plot movement whatsoever. Two hours at it's finest would be enough to write it.
10279414
I have mentioned that this was a hobby right. I do have a life outside of writing, and I don't always have the time and or motivation to write.
The chapters will come, but they will come at my pace.
I'm sorry if that comes off as rude, but that's just how it is.
Also, do you know how hard it is write this when I have a job and a million other things to worry about, not to mention I'm doing this for free?
10276766
Well, this is odd... I've seen your comment in three different stories. This story, Welcome home soldier, and SCP: Breakout.
Edit: I went through the first few pages of your favorites list and I've seen quite a few of the same stories. There was Timeless, Coldfire, MLAABQ, Just a Bartender, I'm not Sombra, Welcome Home Soldier, New Beginnings + All Sequels, Johnny Never Knew What Hit Him, A Love Bug's Life.... oh wow I guess we like the same stories. Well mostly I saw some stories that I didn't particularly like but those were few and far between. I'll probably take a look at the ones I haven't seen.
10279884
Yeah sorry about that, I tend to comment on a new chapter of a story or comment in a series
10279898
on certain stories. 
It's fine, not like it's bad or anything. If anything I also tend to comment... a lot. like A LOT
I just found it funny we read/like similar stories
10279906
Yeah that is kinda funny, similar likes I guess? Lol
10279876
No, i perfectly know that it's hard, as i am writer myself, just not here.
I also know that it was a rude question. I expected you to be angry.
But here's the thing: for such a small amount of text, even considering all that your said, i feel like you not exactly motivated to continue this story.
When inspiration is here, your sit and write stuff until it's gone. And if it's not gone, you can't wait for free time to continue and have hundreds of ideas popping up all day.
Hoverer, if you not inspired, all that moves you, is, perhaps, feedback and expectations of the readers.
So, what is it? Was this fic an inspired creation, or is it a sudden idea you tried out, and can't throw away?
Yes, the question is rude, but the answer can show me, whether this fic lasts or will be abandoned halfway. Or became boring in the future.
No, I'm bullshitting you, got ya.
But seriously, one of the least annoying god complex fics on the site, good job man
So, cool story love it.
Sad I hit the end so fast but when I get into
a story I keep on reading until I fall asleep or
said story runs out of words.
Hope you don't lose your mojo here, keep on
keeping on.
10279414
Errm, barely any plot movement? What I see is cannon fodder for the future that could be used. Such as if so needed Ash could use this event to create a rebellion to stop being specist or even just to use as evidence for something in the future.
Still, I'd like to see a Steam Bath reveal to at least one or two ponies. Hmmmm?
Wait, what happened to chapter 11? It was up a couple days ago. Are you reworking it, having it retconned or what?
10484192
I don't know what happened, honestly haven't touched my writing in a good while so I have no idea.
It should be back up now.