Apocrypha

by Somepony New

Chapter 1

“C’mon girl, not now,” Alex pleaded to the car.

Keeping in theme with the rest of the week, his metallic green, rust laden Civic threw in the towel as he was on his way to work. An attention demanding bang came from underneath the hood of the car and the roar of the engine sputtered out, quickly degrading to a still silence.

Alex had woken to the pillow-muffled sound of his alarm clock. At some point during the night he had somehow managed to cover it; probably while he was having that dream with the strange ponies.

He wasn’t normally prone to such misfortunes, but this had just been one of those weeks. Co-workers coming down with the flu caused his workload to double, which in turn had his boss breathing down his neck for results. As if the stress at work wasn’t enough, someone had decided that he was no longer in need of his wallet and removed it for him. Alex had seriously contemplated finding this Murphy character and demanding for him to keep his laws to himself.

That was almost all behind him now. All he had to do was make it through the day and he would have had the entire weekend to unwind. Or at least that is what he thought, until his car had decided to break down.

Alex struggled with the remainder of the vehicle’s forward momentum, but finally managed to steer the car onto the side of the road. Removing his seatbelt, he stepped from the car and approached the hood. The overwhelming scent of burning motor oil flooded over him. Thick clouds of grey smoke billowed from the engine compartment as he pried open the hood. Fanning the smoke away, he could see dark black splatters strewn across the top of the engine. Upon closer inspection, he noticed matching spots across the bottom of the hood.

“Great! Just fan-fucking-tastic!” He kicked a tire in a fit of frustration. As if accepting the implied challenge to defy him, the tire promptly deflated in retaliation. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

Alex ran his fingers back through his thick hair and let out a groan. He didn’t have time for this. Without a single doubt, he was now going to be late. Dropping the support rod, he closed the hood and grabbed his briefcase from the passenger seat. He was going to have to walk the rest of the way to work, which was now not more than a mile away. He didn’t even bother locking the car; there was nothing of value inside and it wasn’t going anywhere in the condition it was currently in.

As he trekked his way down the semi-suburban street, he couldn’t help but admire the bright maroon leaves garbing the dogwood trees that were sentineled every few hundred paces along the sides of the road. Soon winter would bear down, and those leaves would succumb to its bitter cold, but for now they stood, stoically bearing their autumn regalia.

Alex began to think on the dream as he walked. It seemed strange that he would imagine up two ponies with such distinct personalities, and in such an awkward situation. He couldn’t imagine what the green one could have done to deserve to be banished from her home. Moreover, she’d had her horn removed with magic. Could that even be done? Since it was all just a dream anyway, he had to ask himself: why did it even matter?

The sound of a distant car horn broke him from his thoughts. Not wanting to delay any further, he redoubled his efforts, and widened his stride as he made his way toward the office.

---

“What in the name of Equestria is that?” Luna asked, staring at the strange figure reflected in the pool.

With her focus shattered, the image in the waters vanished and was replaced with the reflections of the cloud-filled azure sky. Celestia had been deep in concentration, not hearing Luna’s approach. Nopony had dared to enter her private sanctuary before, so naturally she hadn’t expected a visitor. Of course, the garden was no longer just hers; it belonged to Luna as well, now that she had returned. It would still take her some time for her to overcome little surprises like these.

“Oh, it’s nothing, Luna. Just a little hobby of mine.”

“Just a hobby?" Her brow furrowed as she looked up at her sister. "That strange creature was... a hobby?”

Celestia just smiled at her sister. She had grown quite accustomed to smiling over the past millennia in Luna’s absence—she found that ponies asked less questions when she smiled. They simply assumed if their ruler was smiling, then everything was alright. It had been as much a shield for her as it had been for them.

“A species from the past, that’s all. You needn’t worry, Luna. They have long since disappeared.”

Luna did not look relieved. “And just what is your interest in this ‘disappeared’ species, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Just me watching, as I am wont to do.”

“Sister, please. It is me you are talking to. I know when you are up to something.”

Celestia maintained her smile. She was right. Luna was the one pony who knew her more than anypony else. Even more so than Twilight. Her long exile had not seemed to diminish her ability at all, in that respect. She had missed having her sibling to talk to; having somepony that she could truly be herself with. Still, things had been put into motion. She had her secrets now, and she dared not let anypony that wasn't already involved in on them.

“What brings you out to see me so early this morning? I’d have thought you would be resting from your long night’s work.”

Luna let out a sigh of defeat, and decided to drop the matter. “I came to ask you a question.” Her face wielded a frown that attempted to cover her worry.

“What is it?”

“Why was our copy of Transmutation and Tribulations checked out by Twilight Sparkle?”

If Celestia was surprised by this, she didn’t show it. Nothing seemed to make it past the watchful eye of her sister. “Oh, that. That was just a small mix up.”

“A small mix up? With such a valuable and dangerous book?”

She nodded her head. “I believe she was seeking a translation spell book, but somehow the transmutation book was sent instead.”

“And you trust Twilight enough to let her read such a book? You of all ponies should know all too well just how dangerous transmutation magic is. Do you not recall the events that transpired just a few months ago? We nearly lost everything.”

“My pupil would not make use of such a dangerous spell outside her studies without just cause. As I recall, she alone is the reason why we did not lose everything to the changelings. I have as much trust in her as I have in you, Luna.”

Luna felt her face flush. She would forever be haunted by the demons of her past—there was no escaping that—yet here was her sister, who had not only forgiven her for her actions but was constantly imparting further faith in her. That alone was enough for her to drop the matter.

“Besides, once Twilight gets her hooves on a book, it is nearly impossible to retrieve it before she is finished.”

“I see.” Luna rolled her eyes before relinquishing a smile. She knew that when Celestia was scheming, it was impossible to get her to be forthright with anything that might be related. “Well then, when you are done with whomever your latest victim is, your breakfast is getting cold.”

Celestia blinked in confusion. “Breakfast? I didn’t order any breakfast.”

“Yet there is breakfast awaiting you, and it is growing colder by the minute.” Luna’s smile widened. “You were so busy with—whatever it is you are doing—that We decided to order breakfast for you, lest you try and skip it in favor of meddling. Princess’ prerogative.”

Celestia could only return the smile. “Princess’ prerogative indeed.”

---

Alex twisted the Rubik’s cube in his hands a few more times as he waited for the computer scripts to finish their work. Other than his car troubles, the day had been fairly normal. He imagined that the day might drag on forever with the way it started, but six o’clock had come around without too much coaxing. Everyone else had already left, leaving him to finish his routine maintenance. He had discovered that by just spending a little extra time in the office on Friday evening had almost completely eliminated the need for him to be called in over the weekend. After the way this week had been, Alex did not want to come back in for anything.

When the screen finally faded to black, he gave one last twist to the cube, then set it down with a sigh and started to leave. Alex adored puzzles. He would sit for hours with anything that he could get his hands on that stimulated his mind until he figured it out. The Rubik’s cube was one of those things that he just could not conquer. He had solved it several times, but it took hours of effort. There were people that could solve them in mere seconds. There had to be some sort of pattern to it, and he had been determined to figure it out.

Alex decided he would walk home, partially because he lived only a few miles from the office, but mostly because he had spent the last of his money on having his vehicle towed. He didn’t really mind though; he loved to walk. The only reason he even used the car at all was to save time. When he was just about a mile into his trek, near the location where his car had died, several dark clouds began to loom overhead. He just laughed to himself. Now even the weather was deciding to get a few jabs in. The week was determined to set some kind of record for irritability. Shortly thereafter, the first crack of thunder roared, trumpeting a fanfare of the approaching downpour.

Right on cue a torrent of rain descended, drenching both the ground and Alex in the process. He had a long way to go before he made it home, so he didn’t even bother trying to run. After the week he’d had, something as simple as getting wet wouldn’t come close to dampening his spirits. He had the weekend ahead of him and he had nothing to do but relax. He just enjoyed the rain for what it was, and kept walking.

The clouds overhead thickened, doubling their frivolous efforts to drown the Earth below. Bolts of lightning leapt from cloud to cloud, as if they were performing some sort of coordinated dance. Alex had never witnessed anything like it. He had been through storms before, but nothing came close to the intensity and speed at which this one had built. He found it rather odd, but tried to ignore it as he trudged his way down the street.

Alex half expected someone to stop and ask if he needed a ride, but for some reason the streets were unusually empty. He could only reason that people just didn’t like to drive in weather like this, so most of them stayed indoors. The street he was walking down was hardly the busiest in town, but even so he would have thought he would see at least one vehicle on the road.

There had been none.

His house had just come into sight when he felt it. Something was definitely off about this rain. Goosebumps swept down his arms, and another bolt of lightning ran across the cloud canvas. He stood still, expectantly waiting for the sound of thunder. It never came. Other than the faint noise of rain beating down on the pavement and the wind rushing back and forth, there was no sound.

“That’s strange,” he thought aloud.

Alex knew that where there was lightning there was supposed to be thunder immediately afterwards, especially when it was this close. He looked around as if to ask some bystander if they had heard the thunder, but he was alone. Of course he was alone. Only a madman would be standing out in the middle of a thunderstorm like he was.

Bolts of lightning continued their dance through the clouds, slowly changing hue. From their normal whitish-blue they adopted a reddish tinge. The lightning, becoming more and more frequent, began to traverse a circular pattern. Alex shook his head. His mind raced as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. He knew lightning should not be red, and it most certainly did not travel in this kind of manner. Above all that though, he knew that where lightning struck, thunder crashed. Here, there was none.

No crash. No boom. No sound.

Alex felt the urge to panic as the realization came to him: he could no longer hear. The rain continued to pour, the lightning continued to circle, the wind persisted, but not a single sound was made; pure, lifeless silence surrounded him. He could feel the hair on his arms trying to rise as they fought against the weight of the rainwater. Suddenly, six magenta bolts leapt from symmetrical spots on their circular path, meeting each other in the center of the circle. The bolts flung themselves as one gigantic bolt to the ground, not ten steps away from him in a blinding flash.

Alex couldn’t hear and now he couldn’t see. If it weren’t for the feeling of the rain, he would have thought that he had just been killed by his streak of bad luck.

The deafening silence was shattered by a ringing in his ears. He could feel his heart beating in his head. The flash of light dimmed into several spots before completely fading away as his eyes adjusted. Everything was blurred, almost as if he were looking through a pool of water. The world slowly began to come into focus around him. When his vision finally cleared, standing before him at the site of the lightning strike was a lavender colored horse.

No, not a horse; a unicorn.

Author's Note:

Pre-read by: NotSoSubtle
Proofread by: NejinOniwa

Comments

[Dusty Sage]

I do hope Alex explains Murphy and his damnable law to Twilight.