• Published 21st Dec 2021
  • 7,038 Views, 301 Comments

Starting Over As A Friendship Bomb - Carmine Craft



Peter Westmoore was a responsible college student, and for his efforts, he is rewarded with a one way trip to Equis! If only he knew what that was. It will be quite the experience, as soon as she can get her hooves under herself.

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Prologue: Trick Candle

Author's Note:

Hello all, and welcome to the rewrite of Frindship bomb!

I know this is basically the last possible moment for me to post this but, y'see, I finally got a decent amount of this thing written!

So! For now, I'll leave you with this simple rewrite of the prologue, now labeled as such, that the magnificent Gerandakis made coherant and awsome!

Im gonna jump ahead to writing the current chapter.

Yes, I do have some of thus story backlogged. Yay!

So, here's hoping my muse holds out!

Nightmare Moon was cackling with laughter as a second particularly annoying thorn in her side was removed. First Celestia, who had gone soft over the years – in more ways than one – and now, those traitorous little trinkets that had locked her away within her own glorious moon!

The foal who thought she could somehow beat her, the rightful ruler of Equestria, shrank in on herself, no doubt over what she must have assumed to be a guaranteed victory, being snatched away at the last moment. Given she’d just removed the only artifacts powerful enough to stop her, she felt like celebrating. Her triumph was wholly assured, after all.

But before Nightmare moon could really relish in the moment, a spark ignited in the lavender mares soul.

"You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that?" Nightmare looked down at the unicorn, who's eyes were once more filled with that irritating fire she thought to have extinguished. "Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here."

Five mares filed in behind her, each one of them wearing similar looks of determination, apparently thinking themselves ready to fight the Alicorn head-on, despite their only chance having been reduced to rubble.

Even the timid one!

Nightmare was almost impressed by the sight, almost.

It was laughable really, since not one among their rank could hold a candle to herself, she was sure she would be resting upon her rightful throne in a few hours, wherever that was now. She would have to find out where her dear sister had deigned to move the capital after leaving their home to rot.

Nightmare's confidence in that prediction fell drastically, when the shards of those stones glowed faintly with harmonic power, revealing themselves to not be as dead as she thought.

^

< ◇ >

v

Twilight let out a silent sigh of relief as the fragments of crystal began to twitch on the stone floor, faintly glowing with power. 'Please let this work, please let this work, please let this work!' "Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... Honesty!" Shards of broken stone suddenly lit up a faint orange, the cloudiness within the gems giving way to fine polish as they came to surround the farm mare, glowing brighter.

'Oh, thank Celestia, I was right!' Now assured of her rapidly assembled hypothesis, she continued, a newfound confidence in her words. "Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... Kindness!" Pink crystal shards drew closer to the pegasus, the thrum of magic in the atmosphere doubling.

"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... Laughter!" Blue stones swirled around the pink pony, who struck a pose that… well, Twilight wasn't sure what it was, but the party planner seemed equal parts happy and ready for whatever came next, so she let it slip her immediate focus and continued, her speech still formulating in her mind moments before she spoke the words.

^

< ◇ >

v

'Oh you have got to be kidding me.' Nightmare thought.

"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of... Generosity!" The white mare was surrounded by the deep purple remains of the shattered element, though she had a slightly sad look in her eyes. Nightmare took little comfort in that fact.

"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... Loyalty!" Red shards encircled the pegasus, bringing the magical pressure of the room to a level even Nightmare was beginning to worry about.

It wasn’t yet enough to banish her, no not yet, but it would take a considerable amount of her power to counter what was to be thrown at her, and nearly all of her concentration.

She might not be able to keep Celestia contained if things came to pass.

'You can't be serious!' Nightmare screamed internally, but the purple pony pressed on, undeterred by the half strength glare being directed at her.

"The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."

'No no no, NO! this can't be happening, this IS NOT HAPPENING! I had won! I refuse to be bested by half a dozen magical rocks! Wait…' "You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!" Perhaps her efforts weren't for nought?

Nightmare's hopes were swiftly dashed. "But it did!" The unicorn's mouth curved into a smile. "A different kind of spark." Apparently, she felt safe turning her back on Nightmare as she continued, "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends!" Nightmare could feel the harmonic energies increasing, the space above the group glowing with magic long before it became visible.

"You see, Nightmare Moon," the wordy mare continued, but Nightmare was no longer listening. Instead she was reaching out with her magic into the shadows, for something, a quick escape, a hapless creature wicked enough to take the blow for her, anything, but it was too late, the area was too rich with magic, even levitation would be taxing.

The sixth element appeared over the group, alighting down upon the only mare left unadorned, the presence of all six elements seemed to actively shut Nightmare out of the shadows, practically sealing her fate.

'No! no no no no! Nothing on Equis can save me now!' Nightmare thought as she shielded her eyes with a wing. Wait... nothing on Equis... it's worth a shot! Nightmare moon reached further, much further than she had before. The spell was old, and she remembered it poorly, so it took a great deal more magic than it should have, forcing her to drain herself deeply and even tap into her moon's reserve. It would leave her… reduced, by an annoyingly large amount, but it was her last chance!

Reaching into the shadows of the night on another world, she searched with a claw of solid darkness to grasp something to defend herself with. The unlucky creature would probably die, but she didn't care. She would escape in the confusion and make a new plan. Celestia wouldn't be held for long, and with both the full set of the Elements of Harmony and her sister, placing her back on the moon would prove an easy feat, and she would be stuck there, alone...

^

< ◇ >

v

Peter flopped down onto his bed, stretching slightly before simply falling limp with a sigh. his red-headed dorm-mate was at his computer watching a show, from what the young adult could tell, it entailed magical horses, fighting some demon-horse. He, Dillon, that is, had tried to get Peter to watch it, but, despite its apparent wild popularity, it simply wasn't his cup of tea. There was also the fact that the animation style was so simple that there wasn't anything to learn from it.

The two shared a minute of small talk, where Dillon again tried to convince Peter to watch the show. "C'mon man, I'm even starting the show over tonight! I swear, you'll love it, might even change your life! It'll at least put a smile on that face of yours."

"Are you implying that I don't smile enough?" Peter said, half joking.

The red-head rolled his eyes at the younger man, and turned back to the screen. "No, no, of course not."

The conversation died after that, and soon Peter felt sleep pulling at the edge of his consciousness. He quickly fought off the feeling, opening his eyes to make one last check of the room. Dillon had a bad habit of not locking the door before he turned in.

The first thing he noticed was that, indeed, the door was unlocked. Peter internally sighed and moved to get out of bed. The second thing he noticed was that his arm didn't listen to him, and so remained snugly under the covers. There was an attempt to force his other arm to move, with no luck.

'Huh, well that's odd,' the teen thought, trying to wiggle his toes, they didn't listen. ’Is this that sleep paralysis thing I read about on the internet? Huh, cool. Never experienced it myself.’ He mentally smiled at the novelty, although his face failed to mirror the expression, but hey, that was to be expected.

Fortunately, his eyes seemed to be in working order, and he could look around the room, the low light of the computer screen providing enough illumination to get a decent look at his surroundings. He could hear the sounds of everything so vividly, the dialogue of the show on the laptop – Something along the lines of someone giving a speech before finishing off the big bad – to the party-going students outside. 'I really thought art school would have less parties than the college stereotype, boy was I wrong.' Peter felt like laughing at his poor naive past self. Other than that, it was peaceful.

'And the article said it was supposed to be some horrifying experience, this is nice!' He chuckled in his head. It was then that Peter saw something move in the corner of the room. A pitch black claw, it's digits twitching along the carpeted floor. It slithered across the room, in a very rigid, but at the same time boneless manner. 'Oh, shit! I just had to… I jinxed it, didn't I?'

Peter was no longer enjoying himself, and was now frantically trying to move, but not a single muscle would listen, except for his eyes, so he could blink, and watch, but that didn't exactly help. The wandering claw was heading for Dillon, still sitting at the computer.

'Good god that's freaky...at least it's not reeaaaa…' That assumption was revealed to be incorrect before the thought even finished forming, as it crawled up onto the desk and the older boy’s laptop screen. The claw then proved that it was not your average brand of sleep paralysis demon. This thing had mass. Its apparent real weight was enough to force the laptop shut. Dillon looked surprised at this, but not nearly as much as one would think he would be at a shadow hand cutting off his video viewing. Dillon simply opened it back up and clicked on the play button, muttering about how it was "weird" and how he will "have to fix the hinges on the thing."

The hand didn't seem pleased with being ignored, and seemed to shake with rage. Peter tried to scream, to warn him, but all he got was the feeling of his lungs burning for no good reason, it's not like his breathing had even changed from the restful rhythm it was in.

Peter watched helplessly as the hand came to rest on Dillon's shoulder, drumming it's clawed fingers. The red-head seemed unaware of the appendage, despite it being in actual contact with him, aside from scratching at the offending shoulder. After a moment it slid off him, shaking in a way that almost seemed to say 'Not this one' to Peter’s immense relief, he did kinda like the guy after all, and he didn't want to watch this … thing, rip his lungs out, or whatever.

Peter’s relief was short-lived, as the claw twirled around to "face" him. It clenched it's twisted digits a couple times, moving like a serpent as it stretched across the floor. His vision started to blur, 'Hey, tear ducts are working, good to know!' some errant part of his mind shouted.

Peter closed his eyes, hoping that this was all just some terrifying dream.

He felt a number of attention-getting taps on his forehead. The teen was sure he felt his heart stop as it scratched its cold claws along his temples.

Peter opened one eye just a crack. Upon realizing it had his attention, the lines of its palm all swirled together before splitting open, into a grainy vertical slit, kinda like what a two year old with issues would draw, just endless scratch marks forming a facsimile that just happens to be recognizable as an eye.

The thing peered into Peter’s own eyes, and shivered with what can only be described as wicked delight, although given that it was a hand, and he didn't spy a mouth on its surface, he wasn't sure if the evil, whisper-quiet cackling was imaginary or not. The monster hand released its grip on his skull, his head hitting the pillow with a light thump as it centered itself above his chest.

The demented thing then dove into Peter's chest as if it was passing through water, somehow painless, but a creeping chill slowly spreading from its entry point made the surreal and terrifying experience uncomfortable as well.

'What the f-?'

It suddenly reared back, a wierd, wispy blueish white thing ensnared in its talons.
'What in the he-!?!-

Suddenly the boy’s vision snapped to black, then white, and then, something else… but it was everywhere, like he could see in literally every direction. It was disorienting, but the majority of Peter’s vision was encompassed in darkness from the now massive looking claw that he was firmly in the grasp of. Said claw was rapidly sinking back to the corner it came from. The corner that had a number of similar claws holding open a black tear in reality, a deep purple fog, roiling out of its depths--

'What's happening! Is that a portal?! Did it just rip out my SOUL!?!?' He screamed soundlessly, struggling with all his ethereal might to break free. The possibly-disembodied-soul cast his focus away from the corner, it hurt to look at anyway, and saw, himself?

Just lying there.

Staring up at the ceiling with expressionless eyes.

That was the last thing Peter saw before the assumed portal closed with a pop.

^

< ◇ >

v

Nightmare Moon was pulling with every scrap of magic she had left, hoping that whatever she had managed to grab would keep her from being tossed back into orbit. 'It has to, that was the one requirement I put into the spell!'

As the rainbow beam arced into the air, the claw came into Equis before her. Releasing her prize; a small white, amorphous ball of energy, Nightmare waited for the other horseshoe to drop. Instead, the dark magic construct evaporated, unable to maintain its form in the harmonic environment with its power spent.

Nightmare gave the ghostly ball a scrutinizing look. 'This is it? This is all of it? Will it be enough to save me? He got something much bigger than this measly little blob of--'

Nightmare wasn't left much time to ponder the strange ethereal object's effectiveness as the rainbow had reached the peak of its ark and was now falling down upon her. Grasping the wisp in her magic she held it before her in a warding manor.

^

< ◇ >

v

'... Where am I?' the ball wondered. Standing in front of it was a pitch black horse-thing, the window into the cosmos which seemed to rest over its head, akin to hair, taking most of its attention. 'That... that can't be right, that sounds insane.' the soul thought, and judging by how slowly the vampire horse-thing, 'Oh, it's got a horn? Vampire unicorn-thing then?'

Regardless, judging by how slowly it was moving, whatever that claw thing did to Peter must have had some interesting side effects on how he perceived the world, since everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, on top of his odd new ability to see in 360°. But because the human mind was never meant to see in all directions at the same time, it felt more like he was able to turn his "head" in any and all directions, effortlessly. Peter could sense light at what was currently the rear of his perception, so focusing on it he beheld something that was both humorous and slightly terrifying.

A rainbow was slowly descending upon him. The rainbow was coming from, and possibly being generated by, a group of six more, smaller, brightly coloured horse-things. Upon closer inspection, facilitated by the beam inching closer, Peter was able to see that it was, fortunately, not actually heading for him, but the giant vampire unicorn-thing behind. Said dark demon horse's horn suddenly glowed weakly, tinting his vision and giving him the feeling of being squeezed like a stress ball from all sides. The cat-eyed horse tilted its head towards the rainbow, dragging Peter’s gently glowing form between it and the descending prismatic light beam.

The light passed right by the ball, removing the feeling of pressure as it went, so Peter certainly wasn't complaining.

The beam touched down at the horse-things feet, hooves? And began swirling around the thing. But much to his chagrin, upon its third spiral upward, the would-be tornado changed paths, and began funneling into Peter’s ghostly form, much to the surprise of all present in the room.

'Why do I keep getting targeted by all the weird things today!?' the ball mentally bemoaned its fate as the light in the room faded. The floating equines on the far side of the room stared in horror in its direction, while the larger one gave a relieved sigh.

'What the hell was that rainbow!?' the ball wondered "aloud," annoyed at being denied the cathartic experience of shouting. The larger entity began laughing softly, but was slowly ramping up towards more insane volume.

Its laughter trailed off when the light started to fade back into the room. Peter turned his perception back to the group of floating equines to see if they had fired off a second blast, only to find them standing around awkwardly, the purple one staring at him in disbelief and despair.

The light grew brighter, and Peter looked around to find the source. The brighter the light got, the more, all encompassing it became. As in, not only could he see it glowing from somewhere, but he could feel it, featherlight touches that left a pervasive, mildly pleasant warmth radiating out. A steady thrum of something, distant but growing closer and louder as the light pulsed unsteadily. Hell, he could even taste… something. 'Why does everything taste li-' his thoughts ended there, because apparently his incorporeal form was unable to contain the entirety of the rainbow-death-laser-thing for very long.

The ethereal ball swelled, both in size slightly, and with colour, before it exploded in a rainbow nova.

The last thing they remember before succumbing to the darkness, was the feeling of cold stone on their stomach.

^

< ◇ >

v

The group of mares slowly came back to their senses, none of them having expected something called the 'Elements of Harmony' to be so exhausting.

"Ugh, my head" Rainbow was the first to speak, followed by Applejack.

"Everypony okay?" she asked her friends, rapidly finding and placing her beloved stetson back in its proper place.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Rarity exclaimed, drawing everyponies attention.

"Why Rarity, it's lovely." Fluttershy complimented in a half-whisper.

"I know! And I'll never part with it again!" Rarity said, jubilant as she hugged her fully regrown tail to her side carefully, so as to not undo it's beautiful curls.

"No, your necklace, it looks just like your cutie mark." Fluttershy clarified.

"What?" Rarity looked down at the gilded accessory that she was certain she had not taken into the forest with her. The purple diamond centerpiece complimented her mane rather splendidly. And it was part of a set it seemed! "Ooh. So does yours." Fluttershy gasped, looking down at her complimentary pink butterfly charm.

Pinkie Pie pronked into view, chanting "Look at mine! Look at mine!" Clearly proud of her own balloon shaped gem, before her eyes settled on something else and she bounced off toward the far wall.

"Aw yeah." Rainbow Dash exclaimed, with her ruby-esque lightning bolt on display.

Applejack, sporting her own, ironically orange, apple shaped jewelry, looked to the final member of the group of friends, who was looking up at the crown on her brow. "Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship."

Before anypony could respond, a voice came into the room, followed by the light of dawn. "Indeed you do." The words were warm and comforting, and for one among them, very familiar. The sun rose quickly, and then, in a flash of light, appeared Princess Celestia.

Everyone bowed before her, save for Twilight, who trotted over to her teacher to give her a nuzzling hug, which the alicorn happily returned. "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it."

Twilight looked up at Celestia with mild confusion. "But... you told me it was all an old pony tale."

The Solar Princess tittered at her student's lack of faith. "I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more." Celestia countered, omitting most of the details of her actual reply to Twilight's perfectly timed letter. "I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well... Princess Luna."

All eyes turned to the blue alicorn mare, lying surrounded by shattered armor before the dais. The now named mare – that nopony had noticed before now, somehow – gasped, not meeting the princess's eyes. "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. It is time to put our differences behind us." Princess Celestia lay down beside Luna, who still couldn't find the strength to meet her gaze. "We were meant to rule together, little sister."

"Sister?" Rainbow Dash and Twilight said in unison, the latter finally connecting the dots from the book that had started her entire adventure.

Celestia stood back up. "Will you accept my friendship?" She asked, her voice filled with trepidation and hope.

The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony all leaned forward as far as they could in anticipation, causing Pinkie and her new procurement to tip over.

Luna gave only a moment's pause before jumping up to embrace her sister. "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"

The royals embraced with happy tears in their eyes.

"I've missed you, too." Celestia said, a quaver in her usually perfectly measured voice.

Pinkie blew her nose, followed by an impossible volume of tears cascading from her closed eyes. A split second later and you could no longer tell she had even been crying. As if a switch had been flipped, she was back to her usual chipper self. "Hey, you know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked with a bounce in her step, garnering everypony's focus. "A Party!!" she cheered, jumping up into the air, "for our two new arrivals! Let's go!" She said before landing and heading out the door.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the bundle on her back. Twilight was the first to ask. "Uhh, Pinkie?" She called to the party pony who just stepped out the door and around the corner.

"Yes Twilight?" Pinkie replied, craning her head back into the room from the opposite side of the doorframe.

Twilight managed to contain her confusion, for the moment. "Wh-what do you have there?" She asked, pointing a hoof to the blanket on her back, a lock of pale blue hair poking out of it.

"Oh! Well they're sleeping, but I figured we should take them back to Ponyville!" Pinkie said, as if that explained everything and continued.

"Uh, who?" Rainbow asked Pinkie with a raised eyebrow and a pointed hoof.

"Oh you guys haven't met them yet, right!" Pinkie Pie put the bundle down in front of Twilight, whisking away the blanket dramatically to reveal a light purple coloured foal.

They had a pale blue mane, striped with red, yellow, and pink, while their tail was accented by two seperate stripes of purple, and a darker blue. Their cutie mark appeared to be six gray bit-sized circles, spaced evenly around their flank. The oddest part of their appearance were the patches of colour on their coat.

Not too odd when compared to a vibrantly coloured pony like Rainbow Dash, but coat colour was usually more uniform, the foal before them looked like she had planted all four hooves in four different paint pans.

"Allow me to introduce you to Ar-! Oh wait, I should let them introduce themself, hehe~" Pinkie rubbed the back of her head.

"How did a foal even get out here?" Fluttershy asked in normal volume, slightly surprising those who knew her.

Rarity scooped up the strange foal in her magic, clicking her tongue. "This mane is atrocious! It's like it has never even been brushed! and their tail!" She ably demonstrated that even a pony with so fair a coat could somehow manage to pale. "I-I-I simply must correct this!" With that she nestled the foal down on her back and led the way back towards Ponyville.

^

< ◇ >

v

The Elements of Harmony, sans one pronking pink party planner, were accompanying the princesses back to town, Twilight was busy inspecting their unknown tag-along, an "R"-something, according to Pinkie.

The vibrant splashes on their hooves had dulled to a degree, along with their stripes. Save for two shades of purple, both in their tail, and coat, which were as bright as ever. It quickly became apparent that the odd colours weren’t natural. That alone was worrying, but what was truly concerning was the slowly growing crystal embedded in their forehead.

Twilight was unsure as to how they could have gained such an anomaly, but it was growing by the minute. At first, it had seemed to be nothing more than another odd splash of colour, but it had now progressed to a few quarter inch crystals that were fusing together and growing in thickness. No spell she used seemed to dampen their growth, if anything it expedited the process further.

Once the group made it back to Ponyville, they were greeted by Pinkie Pie, bouncing up in the air and shouting in a manner identical to the way she had back at the castle.

Apparently, she had organized and converted the entire summer sun celebration into a "Welcome Back Long Lost Princess" party in the time it took them to get back. While Princess Luna and Twilight gaped like landed fish, Fluttershy picked the foal up off Rarity and informed the group that she was going to take the child to Ponyville General.

Fluttershy handed the foal over to Nurse Redheart, and, after a brief explanation of where they found them, and how their condition had progressed, she left the foal in her care and returned to her friends.

Nurse Redheart had the foal admitted, and had the protrusion on their head magically scanned, but the results were inconclusive. From what the other tests showed, they were just an earth-pony with a severely underdeveloped Gaean duct. "Where did you come from?" she asked the unconscious pony.

Redheart sighed and walked out of the room. "I hope she's gonna be ok." With a final glance at the new patient, she closed the door, rushing down to pediatrics, and after that, to Arcane maladies to consult with somepony hopefully more knowledgeable on whatever was currently ailing the filly.