Chapter 9: The Next Morning
Johan groaned as he pulled himself up. He was in bed, and unfortunately for him, he had been rudely awakened by Derek opening the blinds to the room with a content sigh. The alicorn quickly turned around to see his friend pull himself up and rub his eyes.
"Morning!" Derek said with a smile. "Eager to start our first offical day as Equestrians?"
"No," Johan sighed. The deer yawned before kicking off the blankets. "But I might as well get it over with."
"That's the spirit!" Derek laughed, holding out a hoof for Johan to grasp. The deer took it and, with a roll of his eyes, stood up.
"So, what are we doing first?" The deer asked.
"I was hoping you had an idea..." Derek nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof.
"Well, the appropriate thing to do, if you ask me, is going to the library and reading up on this place's history and geography. You know, so we know what we are getting into." Johan said turning to walk towards the door.
Derek let out a long groan. "But that's boring," he whined.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find some magic books for you to read through," The deer replied, walking through the doorway into the crystalline castle hallways of Twilight's tree. He suddenly laughed. "That, or maybe some coloring books for you to draw in."
"Dude..." Derek mumbled after an awkward pause, brow furrowed. "Uncool."
"Yeah..." Johan said, cringing slightly. "That was really uncalled for..."
"Yeah, like, what the heck." Derek laughed, putting a hoof on Johan's shoulder and jostling him slightly. "Ah, it's all good. Just know that I now have the right to throw something back at you."
"Oh? And what is that?"
"Imma hold onto it. You know. Keep it a surprise." Derek deviously cackled. It made Johan shudder slightly.
The two continued their back and forth banter until they finally made it to the castle's library to find that Twilight was already inside, sorting some books.
"Oh, hey guys. I wasn't expecting you two to be up so early." Twilight said as soon as she caught a glimpse of them.
"Oh? Why's that?" Derek replied with a grin, stepping towards her.
"Well, the party did wear on a little late." She laughed putting the books she was holding back into place with her levitation spell.
"Eh, that's no biggie." Derek shrugged with a smile. "I'm used to late nights."
"Well still, I know it can be a little hard adjusting to a new place and a new timezone and all that, I actually have to do that a lot. You know, frequent adventures and all that." Twilight giggled, a hoof to her mouth.
"You're an adventurer?" Derek asked, eyes widening in curiosity.
"Er... sorta." Twilight awkwardly laughed. "You've met all my friends, right? Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow?"
Derek nodded. "Yeah, I met um all while I was waiting for the mirror to boot up." He stopped for a second. "Barring er... Pinkie. I met her at the party, and uh...."
"Yeah, she's pretty intense," Twilight remarked. Then she continued. "Well, the 6 of us are something called the elements of harmony. We are supposed to use these magical necklaces, and our skills, to keep the entire world in balance. You know, solving problems, ending disputes, that sort of thing."
Johan, who was listening in on the conversation suddenly perked up. "Wait..." he started, a slight look of discomfort coming to his face. "Twilight, earlier you mentioned that there are more than just ponies on the planet right?"
"Oh yes, there are changelings, yaks, gryphons, and dragons, just to name the races that neighbor Equestria." Twilight explained with a nod.
"And all these races, they are, like, sapient, right?" Johan asked eyes narrowing ever so slightly in thought. "Like, they have their own cultures and countries and stuff right?"
Twilight nodded again.
Johan's brows furrowed. "Then don't you think it's kinda suspicious or weird that only ponies are responsible for keeping the world in balance? Like, that strikes me as super... er... Imperialistic?"
"Not at all," Twilight responded with a warm smile. "We Equestrians strictly pride ourselves over our abilities to make friends and allies with anyone, which we have done with all of our neighboring nations, and we make sure not to overstep our boundaries when we help them. At most, we attempt to stop wars from occurring, or save them when they are under attack from monsters of any kind."
Johan's brows parted slightly. "Hmmm, I suppose that's... less dire than I thought."
Twilight sat back on her haunches and clapped her hooves together. "Now then, is there anything I can do to help you guys?" She asked with a warm smile.
"Actually yes, there is," Derek replied looking over to the bookcase. "Johan here was wondering if you had any books on history?"
Twilight couldn't help but squeal happily. "As a matter of fact, I do!" She cried, taking to the air and quickly zooming through the library. She landed momentarily in front of Johan, holding a rather tall stack of books, which she quickly dropped onto Johan's back.
The deer struggled to keep himself and the pile upright. He quickly started moving towards a nearby table to quickly drop them off, so he could start reading. With a slight crash, they fell all over the table, before Twilight neatly organized them for him.
"Woah..." He mumbled as he sat down in a chair. "That's a lot of reading material."
"Better get started then, eh Johan?" Derek winked before he turned back to Twilight, the topic quickly changing towards the discussion of magic.
Johan rubbed his head and grit his teeth. He frowned as he set down yet another book. "Why does every history book stop at a thousand years ago?" He suddenly asked.
Spike, who was sitting at the table as well, looked up from the comic book he was reading and raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm?"
"Why doesn't a single history book say anything about what happened before a thousand years ago?" Johan asked as he grabbed yet another book and flipped through it. "Not to mention, why did so many events all happen at once a thousand years ago? The founding of your nation, those alicorn princesses taking over, this whole Crystal Empire thing."
"Well urrr... I dunno, maybe it was just a jampacked year?" Spike asked scratching the side of his head. "Ya know, I never really gave any thought about that."
Johan sat the book down and brought a hoof to his forehead. "A thousand years ago isn't that long ago. Surely you'd still have at least some information about that kind of thing. Human history goes back five thousand years, and we know a lot more about what was going on in 3100 BC compared to what your historians seem to know about just a thousand years ago."
Twilight, who was over with Derek reading up on magical spells, was quick too but in. "Well, the divisions of pony kind back in the days before Equestria made studying history extremely hard to do."
"That's no excuse. We, humans, were divided from the moment the first civilizations were formed." Johan said with a raised eyebrow. "I doubt the Assyrians and the Egyptians would have ever gotten along and united peacefully, but we know plenty about them."
Twilight blinked twice, both of those names sailing directly over her head.
Johan sighed. "I dunno, I guess this place does seem pretty medieval. I suppose we didn't know that much back in those days either."
He was just about to settle down to read when Derek raised his head and blinked.
"Does anyone else hear that?" He asked.
The three of them both stopped. There was a slight buzzing in the air, which seemed to slowly and gradually get louder and louder as time passed.
"No..." Twilight said, both her and Spike's eyes widening in fear. It was a sound they hadn't heard in years. Not since her brother's wedding, in fact.
"It can't be..." Spike asked, nervously biting his lip.
The alicorn turned and started sprinting towards the door, Spike alongside her. Johan and Derek looked at each other for a second, before the two of them quickly sprinted towards the door to follow them.
When they got outside, they saw that the entire town had left their homes and businesses and was frozen in place staring up at the sky in the direction of the Everfree forest. It rapidly became apparent what they were looking like.
Rising above the trees, high into the sky, was a swarm of biblical proportions. All that Johan and Derek could make out from this distance, though, was that they were black in color. And that there were thousands upon thousands of them.
Standing on top of a nearby hill were the one-eyed changeling and his three platinum guards. The changeling's single eye narrowed as a smile came to his face.
"And so it begins." He chucked. He turned to one of the guards and nodded. "Bring me Jelen."
The guard nodded back, drawing a cyan metal rod from a slot near the back of his armor. With a very audible shing the rod extended and a halberd blade emerged from the tip. Then he took to the air flying in the direction of the crystal tree in the center of the town.
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Starting to get vibes of a certain "Justice League" cartoon episode. Won't say which one if I'm right and accidentally spoil what might be happening.
I’m curious to know what it is.
Well, that is a good point.
Maybe because that’s all they know?
A thousand years isn’t long ago?
Biblical?
What happened to the other one?
Jelen?
Ok, that’s pretty cool. Do they have technology or something?
Seems like there oughta be more drama about being a deer instead of alicorn
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A thousand years is a long time to an individual human, yes, but on the scale of civilizations, a thousand years isn't that long at all. The Roman Empire persisted about 500 years, and the English monarchy had lasted for over 1,000.
Johan does raise a good point that in spite of conflicts, humans have managed to track almost 5,000 years of history, but in Equestria's defense, the calamities that happened on Earth weren't sapient balls of hate and darkness hell-bent on actively trying to destroy the world. I feel like that may have complicated record keeping a bit more than he thinks.
10922412
It also might have something to do with how less advanced they are.
10922412
As an author, having people agree with the points you make verbatim is really inspiring lol
10922210
What Episode, if so might ask? PM if you don't want to say in public XD
He should raise the point that Celestia erased, manipulated history about Luna,Nightmare Moon
10922499
Right??
????
Twilight yells out, "Activate the prototype weapon!"
derpicdn.net/img/2014/9/26/729747/full.gif
<shrugs> Eh, worth a try?
The banter at the start with the coloring books is honestly a red flag for me regarding Johan's and Derek's friendship. "Dude, not cool." Ugh, I feel for Johan, but dude. Coloring book jokes are bottom of the barrel when it comes to playfully insulting your friends. Derek should've clapped back at the least, not go all disapproving dad on his buddy.
10922210
Based on the cartoons, cows & sheep are, at best second class citizens. It's unclear if goats are sapient or just clever animals.
Pre S8, you don't see any non ponies in school, for example.
11325011
Man, that Changeling came in real fast.
Still find that very suspicious and imperialistic a bit.
Thank you.
Hell march anyone