Pro Temerarus es Fautor

by Kromulus Regulus

Prologue

Pro Temerarus es Fautor

Before the Bold are Favored

---

Written By:

Travis Shane Johnson

(Kromulus Regulus)

Edited By:

Avorin

-and-

Petro!

Written Partially For:

blawrg

“Your idea inspired me to rewrite my story. I thank you for that. Now, here’s the idea you suggested coming to fruition in the guise of my story rewrite. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing it.”

---

Prologue

Twilight Sparkle flipped the pages of the tome before her, her eyes quickly darting from left to right as she indulged herself in the new information. Princess Luna had personally handed her the material, requesting that she decipher some cryptic information within it. Through a few days of searching her library, she had found a similar tome that assisted in her efforts of understanding the one before her. Using it (and quickly assimilating the information provided) she now scanned the pages, trying her best to grasp an understanding of just what the author was trying to convey.

Originally, Twilight had been confused about why Luna would be coming to her to inquire about its content. After all, Luna was one of the regal Princesses and she was far older and wiser than Twilight. However, the more she scanned the pages of the large book, the more she understood why. The author, who went by the surname “Quadrivium”, had not written the tome in a manner fitting the time of its creation. According to the author, the book had been finished around the time of the Three Pony Kingdoms. This, at first, had indicated to her that perhaps Starswirl the Bearded had something to do with it. Alas, this was not the case as she later found out.

According to the much later published tome she had previously read, Quadrivium had some interaction with Starswirl the Bearded, but the book itself was not influenced by him directly. Instead, the later book had stated, it was a tome more fitting for teaching advanced methods of magic. As to what methods they were Twilight was still trying to find out. The only things she knew for sure was the names of the two tomes and their purposes. The first tome, by Quadrivium himself, was named Ultra Universitas. The second, written by an unknown author, was titled “An Explanation of Universitas and Quadrivium’s Involvement”. One served as the code while the other seemed to served as a way to crack it.

“Spike,” Twilight called as she rubbed a hoof on her head. “Can you get me some tea please?” She heard a few footsteps coming down the stairs to her position on the library floor. “On it!” acknowledged Spike, the footsteps making their way to the kitchen. Twilight resumed her reading, only to be interrupted a few moments later by Spike as he handed her the requested tea. She politely thanked him, smiling his way as her field of magic grasped the tea cup and brought it to her lips. With a gentle sip, and her setting the cup on the table beside her study, she resumed reading. Spike returned up the stairs shortly after.

Her horn continued to glow as she magically flipped another page, then her eyes widened as they read over a few lines. “This is it!” she squealed happily. After many hours of searching, she had found a paragraph detailing an actual spell that could be conducted. Spike, mistaking her shout for his call, came rushing to her.

“Yes Twilight?”

The unicorn mare blinked, having to stare at Spike for a moment before she giggled softly in understanding. “Oh, no, I didn’t call you, sorry about that.” She then levitated the book so Spike could see the page of interest, “I was actually excited at finding this! See! It matches perfectly with the text described in An Explanation of Universitas and Quadrivium’s Involvement!”

Spike, to his credit, managed to smile and nod slowly. “Oh, yeah, that’s cool.” He then shifted uncomfortably before Twilight, before clearing his throat. “Can I go now?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, sighing as she replaced the tome before her. “Yes Spike, but make sure you finish cleaning the bathroom for me, okay?”

Spike groaned, “I already cleaned it twice today, Twilight!”

She blinked. “Oh, well...um...what time is it?” That was actually a good question, because Twilight had entirely lost track of time. She looked towards the window, surprise in her gaze as she realized night had fallen. When she looked back to Spike, he rolled his eyes. “Almost after nine in the evening, Twilight. You’ve been reading all day.”

“I have?”

“Yes,” he grumbled, “Again. You should really find something else to do.”

She smiled, “Alright spike. I’ll just finish my tea and I’ll probably visit Rarity. I’ve been meaning to talk about something with her anyway.”

At the mention of the mare of his infatuation, Spike beamed. “Can I go too?!”

Twilight giggled, “Of course. Just go and...” She trailed off, looking around at the library. The books were neatly organized, her study was clean and kept and as far as she could see in the kitchen it was still well maintained. “Well, how about you go ahead to Rarity’s and tell her I’ll be right over?”

“Alright!” Spike nearly jumped in excitement, then with a nervous blush as he cleared his throat, he nodded. “I mean,sure thing Twilight..”

With that taken care of, Twilight took another sip of her tea as Spike headed out the door. She started to close the tome and prepare to leave her stool, but soon stopped as she read over something else on the page. She blinked, reading it over again. Was she imagining things or did the words just....jumble around into a picture? Twilight brought her head closer to the page, examine it closer as she read the line again. The words on the page clearly reorganized themselves, suddenly forming a picture of a circle. Twilight gasped, eyes widening in shock as she tried to grip the book with her magic, wanting to raise it to the light source on her stand to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Just as the magic field enveloped the tome, however, sparks erupted and shocked Twilight.

“Ow!” Twilight cried in pain, raising from her stool and taking a few hoof steps backward. She rubbed her nose where the spark had hit, looking mortified towards the tome. “What in the name of Celest- OH!”

The book rose on its own as Twilight watched, beyond shocked at this point. Sparks erupted from the pages as they flipped in a fast motion. “What is going on?!” Twilight shrieked in fear, looking around her, then back at the book. Another few hoof steps backward and the tome was consumed in the brightest light she had ever witnessed, her forehoof shielding her eyes as she looked away. Then, with a resounding explosion that rocked the library tree, she lost her footing and was thrust backward towards the wall by a powerful shockwave. She lost consciousness as her head hit a table.

* * *

“Twilight, are you okay?!”

“Sweetie, please wake up!”

“Twilight! Twi’!”

“Ohmygoshwhathappened?!”

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, gazing towards the faces of her friends. Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie looked down at her with eyes full of concern. Off to the side she noticed Spike holding Fluttershy as she sniffled silently, only to look up and see Twilight’s eyes open and shoot towards her, wrapping her in a tight hug. Her friends joined suit, all letting go as Twilight groaned. “What happened?”

“That’s actually what we wanted to know from you, darling.” Rarity said. “I heard a dreadful noise from the library and goodness knows what could have happened!” She then nuzzled down towards Spike who, despite his concerned expression, managed to blush. “Poor spikey wikey here was almost in tears when he saw you on the ground!”

He felt somepony grab her sides. A wing flap and moment later she was on all four hooves again. She politely thanked Rainbow Dash, whom smiled with a nod, before looking towards her study table. To her surprise, the tome was still there. As her friends watched, she headed for the table, seeing the exact page opened. This time, as she read it, no words jumbled. “I don’t understand,” she said silently.

“Understan’ what Twi’?” Applejack asked as she came up beside her, “What happened?”

“Yea, what happened?!” Asked Pinkie Pie rather excitedly as she pounced over to Twilight. “Did you try to mix cupcakes and rainbows? Oh my gosh, I did, and let me tell you it was the biggest most messiest mess ever!”

Twilight could only chuckle at the pink earth pony. “No pinkie, I didn’t try to bake rainbow cup-”

“Cupcakes and rainbows,” Pinkie quickly corrected her.

“-Alright, cupcakes and rainbows. Nothing to do with cooking.”

She then turned to face all her friends, looking to each one. “Thank you for coming to my aid, but I promise, I’m fine. I’m just slightly confused, is all.”

Her friends expressions softened as each one nodded, Applejack putting a hoof around Twilight as she spoke. “Well, tell us wha’ happened then surgacube. You jus’ about woke up tha entire town with whatever happened here.”

“I don’t really know,” Twilight admitted. “One moment I was reading Quadrivium and the next it....it levitated and exploded in light. I don’t remember what happened next, just that I woke up with all yo-”

The door to the library suddenly burst open. Luna appeared, a expression of pure shock on her face. Everypony there quickly looked to the Lunar Princess.

“Tell me thou just did not do that,” Luna said, horror filling her voice. All Twilights friends looked from Luna to Twilight, mouths agape. Twilight looked to them, then to Luna, making sure she wasn’t talking to her specifically. Instead, as she slowly realized, she was looking directly at Twilight.

Twilight felt herself shrink back, her eyes wide in confusion and fear.

***

Somewhere far from Equestria....

“I repeat, Nightmare presence confirmed.” Tiberius lowered his com device slowly, his hands shaking both in fear and anger. His five-man squad was to either side of him, watching the same event play out before them from the hill they laid prone. Fire erupted lighting up the night sky where once a town of five thousand had lived. All around, as they continued to observe through their binocs, the black colored beasts attacked and massacred anything and everyone in sight. Screams of pain and horror filled the surrounding area, echoing for what seemed like miles.

“This isn’t a war, it’s a extermination.”

Tiberius could only grunt in the affirmative to Lieutenant Ester by his side, slowly scanning the visual range. After witnessing too many civilians being either split in half or outright eaten alive, he lowered his binocs and looked to the heavens. Normally, when an invasion occurred, one would expect the skies to be filled with jet fighters and bombers. They would expect the ground to be littered with tanks and soldiers fighting to defend the sovereignty of existence and continuity. This was, sadly, too much of a risk. The Nightmares had every advantage over their technology. That had already been proven in the first major offensive against them.

Hardly anyone made it out alive then. Those that did were never seen from again.

The Confederate States Special Forces had, instead, sent Tiberius and his team to “observe”. It was the only thing they could do, next to nuking the town. Tiberius would have preferred it seeing the carnage before him. It would give everyone a quick and painless death, instead of this hell on earth. His radio crackled to life then, Tiberius touching his ear piece out of habit.

“Team Zulu, prep for extraction. Coordinates will be fed to your MGPS. There’s nothing more we can do.”

“Affirmative Joint Command, did you receive the feed from the binocs?”

“It’s not pretty, but we did. Get you and your men out of there before you become part of that picture.”

“Copy.” Tiberius said, gazing at his MGPS unit before he looked to his men, silently using a hand signal and motioning backward. They nodded, gathering their gear quickly and going into a crouch as they headed into the line of trees behind them. They approached a side road, Tiberius giving the signal to stop. With a quick glance to either side, they continued. Just as they reached the middle of the road, they heard the gut wrenching sound of someone in excruciating pain. The shouts came out clear at first, then gurgled. The next sound was that of bone breaking and an unearthly growl.

“Fuck,” Sergeant Wilkus whispered, “We got to do something.”

“Whomever it was is already de-”

“DADDY NO! DADDY HELP ME!”

The sudden cry of a child in danger caught Tiberius attention. “Move!” he shouted, signaling towards the direction of the sound. His squad quickly rose with weapons raised, going as fast as they could towards the source of the cry. Tiberius could clearly make out a vehicle just ahead, rocking back in forth as a small figure jumped out from the back of its bed and ran towards them. “Double time!” Tiberius shouted again. This time they all ran.

“Melkos Damnit!” the Sergeant cried as he saw the two, huge green slitted eyes of the Nightmare look towards the girl, then them. It quickly lunged forth, it’s buglike wings humming to life. Thinking quickly, Tiberius aimed his S/A AdkM75 towards the flying abomination and fired a quick three round burst of its 7.62 rounds. The satisfying GURK of the beast, and the subsequent PLUNK of it hitting the ground was the end result. Tiberius and his men reached the girl after that, quickly surrounding her as she tightly held onto the Sergeants leg.

“It’s alright,” Sergeant Wilkus said softly, “We’re here now.”

“Good,” the girl sniffled, “Because so are we.”

“Wha-” was all Wilkus got out before the girl was engulfed in a green flame. A Nightmare took its place and without hesitation it bit down on Wilkus’ leg and tore it off. Blood spewed across the pavement as Wilkus shouted in agonizing pain, the Nightmare quickly jumping on him and starting to chew through his kevlar vest and into his chest.

All at once the team turned, firing rounds into the Nightmare before it, too, sank to the ground. Lieutenant Ester quickly crouched before the still twitching body of Wilkus, quickly dying after having his heart and half of his internal organs consumed. A final gurgle and Wilkus joined the towns ranks of deaths, Tiberius cursing under his breath as he looked around him. The four man team then came closer together as the eerie sound of buzzing caught their attention. Slowly, on both forested sides of the road, green eyes lit up the darkness. They heard a soft hissing noise emanating all around them.

“It’s been an honor,” Ester said.

“We’re not dead yet,” Tiberius said sternly. “We go into fortress formation. Williams and Jackson, you take north and south. Ester and I will take east and west. We’re damn close to extraction, so let’s start moving!”

“Sir!” they all shouted in unison, going into position and forming the standard positions. They kept their guns aimed towards the eyes, noting how they seemed to be staying back for the moment. Tiberius looked to the west where Ester was, seeing the road clear of Nightmares for the moment. He motioned in that direction, the group following his lead as they maintained their directions. In the distance they heard the loud rotor blades of their extraction vehicle.

“Why aren't they attacking?” Williams asked to his side.

“I don’t know,” Tiberius said, “but I don’t like it. Don’t waste yourselves in a firefight. If we can make it to the LZ, we’ll come back to fight another day.”

“Roger that,” Williams said, keeping his eyes towards the forest.

For what felt like several long, punishing minutes they kept pace. The eyes still followed them, but seemed to be distancing slowly. Normally the Nightmares would never miss a chance for a quick meal, at least in Tiberius’ experience in encountering them. This was, by all definitions, totally against what he knew. He gave one quick sweep before turning and patting his men on their shoulder once. They took the command and faced towards the west, each one keeping close and jogging at a fast pace. Eventually, further down the road, the eyes were gone completely.

The forested side cleared and revealed several houses and yards, all of which had previously been vacated. Lights could still be seen on, but not a single vehicle was in sight. Tiberius hoped that these people had at least heeded the early warning and made it out. He gave a quick glance to his MGPS, noting the direction it wanted them to take and quickly turning on a side road. Farmland could be seen in the distance, the quaint homes behind them as the scenery changed. “There she is,” Ester said from Tiberius side. “Good ol’ Iroquois”.

The heavy thumping of the UH-1D was definitely reassuring to Tiberius. They ran into the field, jumping over a wooden fence as they closed the gap between them and the now descending helicopter. Tiberius took one more look behind him, making sure the Nightmares were truly gone, then ordered his men to double time it. He kept up behind them, covering the rear as the UH-1D landed. Gusts from the blades threatened to knock the four over, but they kept on and eventually Tiberius gave the order to mount. He once again held the rear, watching as Williams got on, then turned to double check his rear. A green fireball headed his way and he gave one frightened look towards Williams who, with eyes on the fireball, could do little but hold on.

“Nooooo!” Tiberius cried, “Take off!”

The pilot didn’t have to be told twice. The engines roared to life as the blades of the Iroquois beat faster against the wind. However it was not enough and, as Tiberius watched, the fireball zoomed past him, and straight into Williams and the rest of his squad. The resulting explosion sent sent Tiberius flying backward as he tried to cover his face. He felt heat unlike anything he’d ever experience, almost like his entire body had been dropped into molten lava. He felt himself smash into the ground, rolling many times, and eventually stopping against what felt like a metal pole.

“Is the poor human sad his wittle fwiends died?”

Tiberius opened his eyes, the extremely menacing and feminine voice above him causing him nearly to go into a state of shock. He observed a Nightmare unlike any before recorded. It was taller, much taller, and had larger wings. It’s snout was elongated and it had a horn on its head. The horn zigged and zagged at places, providing more of a twisted appearance to the beast. He tried to reach for his holstered pistol, his rifle lost during the blast, but his hand was stuck in place by a sudden, painful jab of the creatures hoofed feet. He cried in pain, hearing the Nightmare laugh once more.

“Why?!” Tiberius cried, more out of desperation.

“Because,” said the larger Nightmare with a twisted grin, “you are food. Food that shall make us stronger. Food that gives us a source of magic beyond anything imaginable. Food that, once consumed, will provide us enough power to kill all who oppose us. Now-” The Nightmares horn lowered to nearly touch Tiberius’ head, “prepare to die.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Then, just as he felt the horn start to pierce the flesh on his forehead, his body didn’t much feel like a body anymore. In fact, as he stared into the eyes of the Nightmare, he could swear she seemed more colorful. Like rainbows, almost. Was this what death was like? If so, why was the Nightmare suddenly looking at him with a shocked expression? Why did he feel like he was being electrocuted? Wh-

With a burst of light, Tiberius was gone.

Queen Chrysalis blinked, anger in her eyes as she glared at the empty spot in the ground before her. “Wher-,” she started, looking around with a growl.

“Where did my food go?!”

=Author Notes=
Seriously, facehoofing at the spacing issues between google docs and here. Ugh.

Comments

[Cystenian Remir Rhys]

No idea, I was just watching it at the time. Great premise, mate.

[Kromulus Regulus]

1313341

That is hilarious.

Also thank you for the compliment!

[Petro]

Kromulus, I will always love your work. This has raised the bar. Gratulation-cons.

[Kromulus Regulus]

1315681

Thank you very much Petro!

This means a lot coming from you. You've been a fantastic watcher of mine and I appreciate it, like I appreciate and respect all of my watchers.

[Kromulus Regulus]

Dem downvoters, so jelly.

I wub you anyway. :)