Equestria on the Brink

by G-Money

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rainbow Dash awoke from a restless sleep with images of Rarity lingering on her mind. She wiped her eyes and looked out into the distance; she saw several skyscrapers lit up on the horizon, providing a sharp contrast to the deep blue night sky. Best of all, there was no smoke to be seen.

“We made it! We’ve reached Fillydelphia!”

Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie woke up, and smiles quickly came to their faces as they saw the free city.

“Whoo-who! Fillydelphia!!!” shouted Pinkie.

Twilight parked the chariot on a rooftop parking lot, and she closed her eyes as soon as she was finished.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy.

“Ah reckon she’d be mighty tired after flying that there chariot all night. She musta used a hay of a lotta magic to get us all the way here from Ponyville. We need to get her rested up so she can find that map for us,” answered Applejack.

“Oh no, Applejack,” started Rainbow Dash. “We don’t have any time to nap around. Who knows when the trolls will reach Fillydelphia? We have to find that map before they conquer here, too.”

“Twilight taught me quite a lesson ‘while back, partner. If a pony too tired to do a task, she gotta get a lil’ help.”

“Ooh, ooh, we get to do another mission! Super-secret map-finding mission time!” Pinkie exclaimed as she put her hoof in the air to salute.

“Might ah ask what it is yer salutin’, Sugarcube?”

“Captain Applejack!! Who’s going to stay with the chariot this time? Where’s Twilight going to sleep? We should get her a nice hotel. I bet they have all kinds of fancy-schmancy hotels all over Fillydelphia. We could get her a 3-star, or a 4-star, or maybe even a 5-star! I bet she’d really like a 5-star, but I don’t know how much any of those cost. Did any of you ponies bring any money with you?”

“Calm down there, Sugarcube. We ain’t leavin’ nopony behind. We stick together, no matter what. Can’t risk leavin’ someponies alone out here to face them nasty critters. Rainbow, you carry Twilight. We’re a-leavin’ this chariot right here, an’ if it ain’t here when we get back, it ain’t here when we get back.”

Rainbow Dash grabbed the sleeping Twilight and flung her on her back. Fluttershy stayed close, watching to see if Twilight would fall off.

“C’mon, everypony!” called Applejack as she led the others into the elevator. She pressed her hoof onto the button that said “Lobby,” remembering elevators from her days in Manehattan. The elevator doors shut and the contraption slowly began to descend. When the marker above the door read “14,” the elevator suddenly stopped moving.

“Uh oh!” cried Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy closed her eyes in anticipation of the horrors to come.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a colt dressed up in a suit and tie. His face was adorned with large glasses and a top hat. He stood stoically for a moment, watching four ponies cower in fear while another slept. He stepped in, bemused by this unusual sight.

Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief. I guess I’m too jumpy after battling all those trolls in Canterlot, she thought.

The doors closed and the elevator continued its normal motion.

“Hi there! My name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Why are you wearing a suit?” asked Pinkie as she smiled at the colt.

“You can call me Sir, in the interests of confidentiality. If you don’t mind, I’m currently working on a corporate merger and would prefer if my identity remained hidden. What are you bunch doing in my office building, anyways?”

“You see, we just landed on the roof and this is our first time in Fillydelphia, and we’re looking for Princess Celestia’s super-secret archives so we can find a map she made that’ll show us where troll land is.”

The colt glanced at Pinkie Pie before redirecting his gaze back towards the elevator doors, which opened to reveal a large lobby filled with sofas, tables, and busy ponies. Applejack noticed the colt walking towards tough-looking guards.

“I reckon we better get outta here,” she said as she led the ponies towards the exit.

When they got outside, they took a second to gain their bearings. Fillydelphia was huge – there were hundreds of ponies on this street alone, and all of the buildings reached further into the sky than they could see.

“I’m surprised so many ponies would be outside at this time of night,” Rainbow Dash commented after looking at the still-dark sky.

“It isn’t nighttime, Rainbow,” said Fluttershy from behind. “With Princess Celestia gone, the sun will never rise.”

Rainbow blushed. “Oh, right.”

Pinkie Pie was watching all of the ponies pass by. “Imagine throwing a party here!” she exclaimed, before turning her attention to a passerby filly in particular.

“Excuse me, do you know where we can find The Archives? We’re looking for some secret works written by Princess Celestia herself!”

The filly pointed eastward. “It’s about 10 blocks that way.”

“Thank you!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she jumped into the air.

“Here we are,” announced Applejack as she opened the door of the archives. She walked over to the receptionist’s desk, unsure of how to begin.

“We’re, uh, here to look into the hidden archives. Princess Luna told us that there was a map somewhere in here written by Princess Celestia herself, and we need that map to go and find the Princess.”

“I’m sorry, but nopony is allowed into Celestia’s Archives. Those are for the goddess herself, and nopony else. No exceptions.”

“But-“

“No buts. Now view the normal archives open to the public or leave.”

“AH SAID I NEEDED TO SEE CELESTIA’S ARCHIVES, AND Y’ALL ARE A-GONNA SHOW ME!”

“Leave now or I’ll call security.”

“NO YA AIN’T!” hollered Applejack, just before she jumped over the desk and toppled the receptionist over.

She called back to her friends, “Go now! Ya ain’t got much time before they’ll come a-lookin’ for ya!”

Rainbow Dash put Twilight down on the ground and darted into the Archives. Pinkie Pie followed close behind before veering off and assaulting a guard, grabbing him by the next and screaming, “WHERE ARE CELESTIA’S ARCHIVES??”

“I don’t know, I’m just a guard! Put me down!!”

Pinkie’s scowl faded away. “Okay,” she said, letting the guard go and resuming her skipping behind Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash was conducting similar investigations, but to no avail. One guard told her that the only person who knew where Celestia’s Archives were was the Manager, but even she had never entered.

Before long, the sound of sirens filled the building. The building flooded with police ponies, armed with stun guns and hoofcuffs.

Rainbow Dash began taunting the police ponies. “You won’t catch me,” she quipped as she began flying through the Archives.

She returned to the lobby only to find her friends Applejack and Fluttershy already captured. “I’ll save you!” Rainbow dashed towards the police ponies, but even she wasn’t fast enough to evade their advanced weaponry.

---

Twilight woke up completely unaware of her surroundings. Where am I? How did I get here?

She found herself in a bustling building with at least 25 ponies in the room, but none of them were her friends. She spotted what looked like an information desk and headed over.

“Hi there. I was wondering if you’ve seen a group of-“

“Twilight!”

Twilight turned around and was thrilled to see a familiar face – it was Pinkie Pie, although she was wearing a thick mustache and a pair of glasses.

“Pinkie, why are you-“

“Shh! I’ll explain outside.”

Twilight followed Pinkie out of the building and onto the busy city street, hoping for an explanation.

“Alright, so you fell asleep after we landed in Fillydelphia and Rainbow carried you on her back and we went down this elevator but then the elevator stopped and we all thought that it was broken or attacked by trolls but really some guy just wanted to get on the elevator so we let him get on the elevator and he didn’t really talk much but he seemed pretty busy I’m not sure why he was busy but he said something about-“

“Pinkie!! Just tell me where we are and where the others went!”

“Oh, them? Well, we raided the Archives looking for Celestia’s Archives, but the police ponies came in and arrested the others,” explained Pinkie.

“Why weren’t you arrested?”

“I hid in a ventilation shaft. Dashie found out that the manager knows where Celestia’s Archives are, so we should really ask him. Maybe you can explain something and get us in?”

Twilight looked down and took in this flurry of new information. My friends are in trouble…but I’m already at the Archives. I can’t waste any time, and the trolls could arrive here any minute. We better get that map while we still can.

“Pinkie, take me to the manager of the Archives. We need to get that map. We can save our friends later.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!”

---

“I’m sorry, but nopony is allowed into Celestia’s Archives. She’s the only one allowed in. They’ve been sealed for nearly 1000 years, and I’m not about to change that.”

“But please, manager! Without that map, we can’t find Celestia. And without Celestia, the sun will never rise again!”

The manager turned and looked out her window. Maybe these ponies really are telling the truth. It’s been nearly 48 hours of darkness. But if this is another one of Nightmare Moon’s schemes, I could be handing over the fate of Equestria to villains.

She glanced back at the ponies, and the pink one was now bouncing on her sofa. They sure don’t seem harmful…

“Trolls are going to invade Fillydelphia,” Twilight continued, “and Princess Celestia is the only one who can defeat them. Without that map, Fillydelphia will have no hope of survival.”

“How do I know that you’re telling the truth?”

Twilight pulled out her letter from the Princess, which was still damp from her teardrops. The letter bore the official seal of Canterlot on the center of the scroll.

The manager sighed. If I refuse, I could be prolonging the Princess’s imprisonment. But she specifically told my ancestors 1000 years ago that the vault is never to be opened. Perhaps the Princess hadn’t envisioned being captured by enemy forces...

“Alright, have it your way. It is with great reluctance that I open the vault, but I fear that it must be done.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you so much, Miss Manager!! You wouldn’t believe how grateful we are! I promise you won’t regret it!” Twilight was surprised to see herself showing more emotion than Pinkie, but this was Celestia’s rescue, after all. She probably knew Celestia better than anyone else, being her favorite student for all these years.

The manager led Twilight and Pinkie into a dungeon far beneath the Archives. After a labyrinth of elevators, stairs, winding corridors, and dead ends, the three ponies finally reached a gargantuan steel door. The manager removed an orb that had been hanging on her neck and placed it on the pedestal before the vault. Twilight and Pinkie watched in wonder as the manager recited some poem from an ancient language, prompting the massive steel door to brightly glow and eventually become translucent.

“Woah,” Pinkie remarked, “the door is still there!”

“Yes, it never can be opened,” the manager replied, “but we can walk through it. Now, hold on to me.”

Twilight and Pinkie each placed a hoof on the manager as she stepped into Celestia’s Archives. The door behind them suddenly turned opaque and was once again a menacing obstacle.

The room was cavernous and adorned with several bookshelves and tables, as well as some relics and artifacts scattered throughout. Pinkie ran to one of the bookshelves and quickly grabbed one of the books.

“HERE IT IS!!! HERE IT IS!!! I FOUND IT!!!!! I FINALLY FOUND IT!!!”

Pinkie Pie couldn’t explain it, but she was experiencing a joy more powerful than anything she had ever imagined. While she was always happy, this was something different; she felt as though she had found something long lost, something that was more dear and precious to her than everything else combined. Her inexplicable euphoria was nearly overwhelming, as if she’d discovered the secret to everything. It was accompanied by major déjà vu, like the book had slipped out of her grasp long ago.

“THIS IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS!!!”

Twilight took a look at the book, but it wasn’t the map they were looking for. It was an ancient book entitled The Five Goddesses, and ostensibly just an old mare’s tale.

“Pinkie, this isn’t the map. I’m surprised at you; you’re usually better than me at finding books!”

The visibly upset manager grabbed the book out of Pinkie’s hand. “You’re not even supposed to be in here, let alone touching things that don’t apply to you! You said you needed the map, and that’s it. There is very sensitive information in here, and Princess Celestia’s going to kill me just for letting you two in!”

“I found it!” called Twilight, summoning them over. The map was spread out over a table, and it seemed to have been used for planning or strategy, as there were pins and markers placed on several points of the map.

Twilight surveyed the map thoroughly before announcing where they would be heading. There was an ocean above Equestria; in fact, Equestria looked like an island that covered most of the planet. There was a much smaller island far to the north labeled “Fortch-An.” A handwritten note was scribbled underneath: “troll pit.” There was a city on the northern edge of Equestria called “Los Pegasus,” and it was located right along the ocean.

“Perfect! Now we know exactly where to go!” Twilight remarked ecstatically. “If we can find Los Pegasus, we’ll only have to head north and we’ll be in Fortch-An, where they’re holding Celestia!”

“Very well then, you have what you need. Now you can be on your way. Do not take anything with you!” ordered the manager.

Pinkie Pie was lost deep in thought and seemed to hear nothing of the conversation. She absentmindedly followed Twilight and the manager out of the dungeon and back into Fillydelphia.

Comments

Image by johnjoseco.
http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Friendship-is-Magic-202183906

[G-Money]

15021

Yes, it is. I just looked through ponychan and Googled for images I thought went well with the story; if you'd like me to take it down and find another one, I would have no problem doing so. Full credit to the artist.