The New Night Sky, Bandaid! (Part II of III)
The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon
Part 19: The New Night Sky, Bandaid (Part II of III)
Despite the howling September cold of the tundra, nights in the palace of the Crystal Empire were warm ones. After being shut out by Lord Sombra, Bandaid returned to the main library, plucked a few books and then retired to the chambers prepared for Nightmare Moon and himself. He smiled bashfully when servants made way for him, one maid even stopping to bow to him. A little flustered, he scuttled away and made for the privacy of the royal apartments. The guard’s only briefly checked his face before stepping aside.
It was many hours later by the time Nightmare Moon arrived. A little flushed with wine, she grinned tiredly at him, “Hail, handsome creature,” she said, flicking her tail at him as she came in. He smiled at her as she swept across the room to kiss his face. “My sister sends her regards. Tomorrow night, I shall arraaaaaaange the cosmos!” she gestured grandly. Bandaid shook his head as she merrily made her way to bed. More than a little wine-touched, it seemed. She slunk into bed and laid her head on a lumpy mountain of pillows with a happy sigh.
He shook his head a bit, returning to his book, Crystal Pony Physiology. Apparently, crystal ponies weren’t crystal all the time, but just most of the time. In ancient eras they were a herd that learned to turn themselves to living crystal to avoid being prey to yetis, ice dragons and other massive creatures. After civilization had modernized the use of magic, it was more akin to dressing up, looking one’s best, and showing one’s good health. Whether earth pony, Pegasus, or unicorn, anypony with the proper bloodlines could harness a crystalline form. Topics like sex and eating were explained as well, which fascinated Bandaid. He flipped the pages eagerly. Crystal ponies took on their normal, flesh and fur forms when a proper mate was found, or sometimes in the privacy of their own homes. What had begun as a defense mechanism, switched off, could often be seen as ‘putting yourself out there’ or being romantically forward. Why, during certain decades walking around in the flesh announced that you were single and looking! “Neat…” Bandaid said, grinning wide as he studied the medical charts. “How do their pregnancies work, I wonder…? Do they stay flesh for eleven months?” he flipped back and forth, trying to find the proper section. Until today, he’d never seen a crystal pony in real life, much less had one as a patient.
=-=-=-=-=-=
Sombra’s eyes snapped open when somepony knocked timidly on his chamber doors. “Who dares?” he grumbled, slowly sitting up. Lemon-Lime lay curled up in a ball on the other side of the bed, and did not stir. Rising slowly as not to wake him, the black stallion donned his circlet to tame his mane and went to the door. Huffing at the obscene hour the clock told him, he cracked the door open and peered out with red eyes. “Who dares?” he repeated, growling.
A frightened looking maid stood in the hallway, ears splayed to either side. “F-fogive my intrusion, Lord Sombra. You left instructions to be sought when this arrived, no matter the day nor hour!” she was a young, trembly thing, bearing a small package. It was stamped with a dozen different customs, shipping marks, and country seals.
“So I did,” the black stallion widened the door, eyes ablaze with interest. She flinched when he snatched it from her. “At last…” he whispered, turning it over and over carefully. He seemed to forget she was there, then slowly turned from the doorway and closed it quietly in her face. She stood there, wilting. After a short silence the door opened again. “Forgive me,” he growled, licking one of his fangs as he spoke. He gave her ten bits, an outrageous tip for a mere package delivery.
She brightened, “Oh, thank you Lord Som-!” He shut the door again and didn’t return. She scratched the back of her head and was away.
Sombra went to his desk, checking that Lemon-Lime still slept. When the green stallion did not move, he got his letter opener to carefully open it. He didn’t even rip the brown paper, for that would have made noise. Setting aside the iron-twine, he had a wooden box. Sliding the top off, he found packing material. And inside that, a rolled ball of cotton. And inside that, bubble-wrap. And inside that… there it was, at long last. “Across darkest Zafrica, the frozen north, to me.” He whispered in awe, for it glowed in his hoof. “Monies, science and magic well spent.” He held it up, a crystalline blue bottle no bigger than a shot-glass, stoppered with cork and tied with copper wire. “Anti-Weather,” he husked, flushed with excitement. Donning his cloak and little else, he left the apartment for his lab. “I must conduct a field test…” he walked quickly and quietly through the dead, firelit hallways. Warm like home, but empty as the grave. He still wasn’t sure he liked the palace itself, but rank certainly gave him the right to live there—and why not?
Stuffing the little bottle away and out of sight so its glow wouldn’t attract attention, he walked quickly as he could without galloping. He rented a tower, a rather expensive one, with an impressive view of both the city and the sky. Emerging amongst his tools and charts, he went out onto the balcony. Assembling an unassuming apparatus with a plain-looking series of gears and tiny lights, he pushed it to the edge until it rested on the railing. He really did need to build a sleeker, better design than this once he was sure it worked. A great engineer and scientist knew his work was done not when there was nothing left to add to a device, but when there was nothing left to take away. Simpler was better. Grunting at the devices weight and cursing himself for not oiling the wheels, he locked it in place so it wouldn’t roll away. Checking the read-outs and pressure gauges for a bit, he poured the heated water into the waiting kettle and sealed the valve. Tinkering here and there, flicking a loose gear off of a heat gauge, he opened the panel on the machine’s side. Taking out the Anti-Weather, he stopped a moment. He looked down at the city below, then the rolling clouds above. The past came rushing up the meet him.
Sombra! Run! Run before it caves!
Daddy! Daddy help me I’m stuck!
The roof is going to cave, the ice is too thick!
Use the escape tunnels, I can only hold it for a few more moments!
Then whiteness. The sounds of screams and shattering crystal bodies.
A small black foal watching his family get swallowed up by pure winter’s fury.
“Coward, just standing there beside the escape hatch. Coward,” Sombra’s hoof trembled. Coughing loudly to steady himself, he shook his head. “No more shall suffer like I,” he looked forlornly down at the angled, sparkling city. “I’ll save you. All of you,” he whispered.
“Sombra…?” A soft voice made his head turn. Lemon-Lime, flesh and fur, was standing in the doorway of the balcony. He looked sleepy-eyed and wilted, having followed him from bed to there. “Sommy it’s like 3am, what’re you doing…?” he trailed off sleepily, shivering in the cold September wind.
“You’re just in time,” Sombra said, unstoppering the Anti-Weather and dripping one drop onto the lens. One would be enough to push away anything in the sky right then. Clouds, vapor, smog, fog… it was perfect for a small field test. Surely the city would rather have a starry night? It would be better to practice on a calm night anyway. No need to waste his first test on a full-on blizzard. there would need to be adjustments for more severe weather. He needed a benchmark first. Shoving the cork back in and vanishing the rest of the vail into his cloak, he shoved the lens into place and closed the panel. “Tonight, Lemon-Lime, I make history! Watch as I banish the clouds!” Reaching with both hooves, he threw the lever with all his might. The machine whirred to life.
The ponies that happened to see the event when it happened would recall it for the rest of their lives. A strange, scarlet spotlight sprouted from a tower in the palace, lancing out into the curling grey clouds of September winter. As soon as it struck the sky everything seemed to boil, then all the clouds rushed away like animals whose tails had been set on fire! Black, abyssal space and twinkling stars were visible all across the city. Luna stared down at the city, unsure, casting her moonlight upon it to peer around and see what had happened.
Then something went wrong. The red spotlight flickered, flickered, then shut down. Like a powerful vacuum, suddenly all the clouds and thick haze rushed back over the Crystal Empire like a clap of thunder. Clouds smashed into each other, dropping snow and ice in a sudden frosty cataclysm.
Sombra stared down in horror as houses started rapidly vanishing under white powder. “No,” he said, wide-eyed. Fountains froze over, exploding from cold expansion. “No no no…” Bonfires along the outer walls began to explode to life. The emergency beacons were being lit! The Crystal Guard was scrambling! “No!” Sombra rushed to the machine, pulling wildly at wires and peering in. Crystaline residue was crawling over the intricate alignment arrays! “NO!” he roared, bashing his hooves to the sides of the machine.
“Sombra, what have you done…?” Lemon-Lime whispered fearfully, watching the sky as his crystalline form rushed over his fur to protect him from the cold. Hundreds of miles away in Equestria, Discord's statue cracked badly.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Shining Armor was awakened, and both he and his wife rushed to the aid of the people. He threw his Captain’s helm and regalia on. The purple accents would help other ponies know who to look to for orders. “Scramble the crystal guard! Stoke the furnaces under the palace! Send out the salt squads!” he shouted as ponies stampeded back and forth.
Cadance, mane bannering, rushed to the throne room. They had protocol for sudden violent weather. The frozen tundra could throw catastrophic storms, so they had to be quick. A small group of ponies waited. “Muster the squires! I want an ever-burning log in EVERY home within the hour! Use the emergency tunnels!” A mini-map of the city rushed up out of the floor, sharp and crystalline. “Evacuate the elderly to the safe houses and send the weather patrol to try break up the clouds!” She pointed to specific places and little dots that represented guards-ponies rushed back and forth in the streets.
As though on cue a trio of pegasi exploded through a stained-glass window, crashing across the floor in a pile of bodies. Snow screamed in after them, pellets of ice rushing in. One of their fellows had completely iced over wings. “Category FIVE, Princess!” one of them shouted, throwing her goggles off. Her face was touched with a spot of black from frostbite. “We can’t touch it!” Her companion screamed when they tried to move him, for his icy wings threatened to shatter into fleshy pieces.
Cadance cursed aloud, turning. “Get Shining Armor!” she shouted. Three guards took off to fetch her husband.
It was pandemonium outside as ponies panicked in the streets. Pegasi flew in flying-V’s, streaming salt everywhere they went. Storm drains were super-heated by unicorns, orange like cooking coils. The ice around them would melt and stream away into the earth if it worked correctly. Earth Ponies pushed massive plows while groups of mares and children followed fearfully in their wake. Whimpering and shouting could be heard in the streets. The royal guard went from corner to corner, throwing ever-burning logs onto massive woks. There was a bonfire on every street intersection.
“DO NOT LET MY CITY FREEZE OVER!” Cadance concussed the sky with her voice like a bolt of thunder. Stirred into a frenzy by their goddess, the crystal ponies redoubled their efforts. For anything that froze on the tundra would be slow to thaw, if ever. The city itself was no exception.
After a few heart-pounding minutes Shining Armor appeared in the throne room. “I’m here! I’m here!” he gasped. Cadance ran with him, rushing to the balcony. Snow and howling wind screamed around them on all sides as he threw off his helmet. “Hang on!” he shouted to her. Cadance threw her arms around him, rushing her body heat and love into him. Super-charged with her aid, his horn lit like a beacon. Ponies turned, all across the city, as a supernova of magical light dashed into the sky. A sphere began to take shape, gridded with threads of magic. Snow began to accumulate on its top and sides, then slid off with its own weight. “Almost… got it…!” The stallion clenched his teeth so hard his cheeks were vibrating. “There!” The shield closed around the entire city-state, shutting out the fury of the storm. He collapsed into Cadance’s arms, panting with exhaustion. “Guh…. Got it…” he husked, then fainted. She embraced him, rocking him back and forth.
=-=-=-=-=-=
“DO NOT LET MY CITY FREEZE OVER!”
Bandaid awoke with a yelp, and Nightmare Moon jerked upright. He went to the window to see the most horrific winter storm he’d ever seen. “Oh my gosh!” he shouted, for the glass was bending inward. It whined and crackled, and he stepped back. “N-nightie! The window!” he said.
Nightmare lifted her head with authority, and the glass glowed black. Reinforced, it would not shatter and skewer them. “We must find my sister, come!” The black alicorn threw on her regalia and crown, mane bannering behind her. They galloped down the halls of the palace, side by side. Servants and rescue ponies pushed and shoved this way and that.
They arrived in the throne room just in time to see Prince-Consort Shining Armor collapse into his wife’s arms. There was intense quiet. The wind had stopped. The plain brown stallion looked out into the city beyond, seeing the protective bubble-shield that had been cast over the entire empire City-State. Incredible! Finally snapping out of it, Bandaid rushed forward, “Let me take him,” the brown stallion said. “I’mma nurse, I can take him.” Cadance slowly put Shining Armor once Bandaid’s back, and he quickly waddled away towards the throne. Depositing the unconscious stallion there, he began to slowly check him over. The top of his horn was burnt from over-use. Probably far higher magijules than he was used to.
“Sister, what’s happened?” Nightmare asked. “How may I aid such catastrophe?” she gestured to the flailing city below.
“Sudden blizzard. I’ve never seen anything like it. We usually have a few hours’ notice from our weather ponies if something this big comes rushing towards the city,” Cadance said, going and standing on the balcony again. She peered out to the streets below. Ponies were still rushing back and forth, stoking fires and aiding each other so nopony froze to death. Steaming food carts were slowly rolling out as the elderly were herded along by groups of young stallions carrying fire sticks to keep them warm.
“What can I do?” Nightmare asked again.
“This is my home, Nightie. The best you can do for now is stay out of the way and let ponies do their jobs,” Cadance said, sweeping past her. “I have to check on the crystal heart at the base of the palace and a few other things. Please stay here until I get back.”
Nightmare stood there, looking rather hurt. There was nothing, nothing at all she could do? She grumbled a little, frustrated. She watched the citizens below, rushing about like little colored ants. Going back inside and shutting the balcony doors, she decided she sort of understood. There was protocol for disasters in Equestria too. She could hardly imagine Cadence aiding after a tornado or a flash flood with the power of love. She glanced over to watch Bandaid instead.
“Oh jeez,” Bandaid said as he finished unbuckling and throwing off Shining Armor’s regalia. There was a fine coat of little crystals forming in his fur. “Is Shining Armor a crystal pony?!” he demanded of the nearest servant. She quickly shook her head no. “Oh jeez, oh jeez,” He quickly stopped, closing his eyes and furrowing his brow. He had to think straight. He was a professional. There was no time to rush across the palace. Teleporting him could make it worse. “Nightmare!” He turned, jabbing his hoof at her. She startled at his sudden authority. “Teleport to the medical wing! I need supplies!”
“Can we not just-!”
“Go! Now!”
The black alicorn obeyed, popping out of existence in a spray of black sparks. She peered around when she’d arrived in the offices of the palace medical staff. There were ponies, all with various cold injuries and frozen limbs, being rushed back and forth on rolling bed and stretchers. Looking about in a panic, she found the supply room and magicked the door open. Crystal Empire medi-bags looked no different than Bandaid’s standard Equestrian one, thank Faust. She grabbed three and threw them around her neck. Then she cracked the parted air as she returned to the throne room.
“Good!” Bandaid had already laid the Prince out on his back. There were strange, shimmering little red dots in his fur. Nightmare squinted and saw they shone like crystal. Bandaid seized a Petri dish, unscrewing the top. “Nightie you’re gonna be my nurse, stand here,” he said quickly. “We don’t have time to move him, I hafta operate!”
“Operate?!” Nightmare said, leaning back and lifting a hoof in worry. “He is the Prince-Consort of the Crystal Empire! I don’t think you’re qualified t-!”
“SHUT UP, NURSE!” Bandaid shouted at her face, a fleck of spittle flying. “I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!” Nightmare yelped a little, leaning back. “Brush!” He said, leaning over the Prince’s prone body and reaching at her. Nightmare flailed for a minute, getting the medical bags open and pawing around in them.
“Brush!” she said, passing it to him. Bandaid furiously scrubbed at Shining Armor’s fur. Red crystals fell out of the white stallion’s fur like pine-needles from a Hearth’s Warming tree.
“Scissors!” he reached at her again. There were some bigger pieces around his neck. Not bothering to play the barber, Bandaid cut swaths of fur from his body. Nightmare glanced at the pieces on the floor. Some of them were… growing? She watched a piece half-an-inch long slowly grow to three inches. And it was as sharp as a spearhead. Her eyes slowly drifted back up to the Prince, pupils shrinking. “Whatever caused the storm must’ve come down the beam he used to make the shield around the city. He absorbed a lot of something bad, and its crystallizing on his body. Sweat!” He turned slightly and Nightmare touched his face a few times with a cloth.
So this was Nurse Bandaid. Serious-face Nurse Bandaid. Nightmare felt her heart flutter a little every time he barked an order at her. The pile of crystal shards he harvested from the Shining Armor’s body grew and grew. “What next?” Nightmare heard herself ask.
“Hold him here,” he patted down his inner thighs, checked his privates and armpits. Combing through his tail and mane he found more on his horn. Bandaid hissed a swear word, hooves rushing back and forth. Shards rained about the throne, tinkling like so much glass. “He’s bleeding a little. Tweezers!” he deposited three or four pieces into the petri dish. “Bandages! Tape!” Nightmare did her best to keep up. Was he battle-trained? Had he been drilled at the palace for situations like this? The black alicorn felt her respect for her beloved rising and rising. “Brush! Again!”
After almost half an hour, Cadance returned and Bandaid was finished. “What’s all this…?” She whispered, picking up a few pieces with her magic for a closer look.
Bandaid, sweaty all over and looking frazzled, lifted a hoof for a attention. “They were growing all over the Prince’s body after he shielded the city. Something in the clouds rushed down the beam of his spell and into him. Overclocking his magic pulled all his bodily defenses down, like running a marathon in a snowstorm with no protection.”
Cadance turned the shards over at over. They were crimson, dripping with Shining Armor’s blood. “What could’ve caused this?” she whispered worriedly.
“I only know an out-magick’d unicorn when I see one. Crystalization of a defenseless magic user’s horn is common, but not on a full-body scale like this,” Bandaid said, wiping his brow and leaning on the throne. Nightmare put a concerned wing around him. “But what did that, I dunno, your Highness.” He said to her. “Unless you have a pony that likes to put spells on clouds, it’s a mystery. That storm could’ve come from anywhere.”
The pink alicorn lay her head over her husband’s limp, fragile body. There was silence as she coddled him and listened to him breathe. “Thank you, for saving him,” she said softly, looking over into Bandaid’s eyes. “I don’t know of anypony who would be so foolish as to disrupt the entire sky so sudden-!” she stopped for a moment. Her eyes flicked towards a tower, seen out the throne room window that had been shattered. Her mouth slowly opened into an awed expression… then slowly morphed into one of anger. “Wait… I do,” she said, rising with authority. “Summon my honor guards,” she bade her nearest servant. The scrappy stallion scuttled away, then broke into a gallop. “All of them!” she shouted to his back.
End of Part 19
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Silly Sombra, meddling in things you don't understand.
Better hope nopony died or you're boned.
6388822
What if I told you homosexuality on its own... doesn't affect personality?
6391935 "Royal" is usually understood to be a shade of purple.
This may not have worked out to what your wanted Sombra. Good intentions could pave a road to he'll ; I hope ponies will have forgiveness in their hearts as well for hours lover
Well, ah, that's not good. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
...........................I see your a markiplier fan
https://youtu.be/pNfDUUMGRCo
If not best coincidence ever
6392063 I was taught that was imperial. Royal being a deep blue. But am loving this story far too much
6392206 Ohhh. I was raised under the european produce stuff. Carrots used to be purple, and royalty didn't like peasants eating the "royal color", so they bred them to be orange instead.
I really love what you have done with Sombra. He does the entire villain shtick like he's going down a checklist, like he just can't help himself - and then he gives the maid a nice tip and goes back to bed to kiss his boyfriend goodnight. It's both adorable and utterly hilarious.
orig10.deviantart.net/f2c6/f/2013/272/d/6/shut_up_nurse__by_thedevaiant-d6ohthj.jpg Whats next "Behold Bandaid, I've found this Tiny Box, Tim fetch me a knife to open it."
6392214 I hadn't heard that hypothesis on why carrots were bred to be orange. The prevailing theory that I've heard was that the mutation was fostered to honor the House of Orange, the ruling family of the Netherlands at the time.
6392891 I've always heard it's just a side effect of the increase in Vitamin A.
Someone's a fan of Markiplier I see.
Oh dear Sombra, you fucked up big time. Well, like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
WOW I LOVE THIS STORY ITS SO AWESOME
I can't wait for more
Lets just hope that Lord Sombra doesn't go full EVIL MODE
Oh Sombra, you are so gonna get it now.
Well, that escalated quickly. It's not often that a plan backfires on that level of magnitude.
Now you Bucked up. Now, you Bucked up. Now. You. Have. Bucked. Up.
6397578 Damn right he did. We should break that rabbit's legs and leave him in a deserted parking lot. Then maybe he'll stop trying to steal our cereal every goddamn morning.
...wait, we're talking about someone else? Sorry, nevermind then.
What's the difference between a brilliant scientist and a mad scientist?
Whether or not the experiment is successful.
Had Sombra's plan worked, he would've been hailed as a hero; Cadence couldn't have done anything to him aside from express her displeasure. And you know what? Under different circumstances, it would have worked. Maybe someone will come along later and perfect the device.
But someone has to be the first to try, and oftentimes, that first try is a failure. And when that failure is big enough....
Really, Sombra should be imprisoned for safety; I have no doubts that right now, the single greatest danger to Sombra, is Sombra.
Oh, Sombra. You played with fire and got burned. Or in this case, with clouds and almost everything got frozen over. That what you wanted to prevent happened on an unprecedented scale.
You better have an incredibly good explanation, or learn to turn to smoke and get the hell out of dodge NOW.
Also frantic health-saving Bandaid is epic.
I recall hearing about scientists developing theories post-WWII for trying to lessen or steer potential hurricanes before they made landfall by cloud seeding them at certain points of their development, in hopes of making them expend energy out over the ocean. However, the US government didn't want to start doing actual experiments to that end on the idea that, once you sufficiently messed with a weather system, you essentially took responsibility for it... So if the storm that you tried to alter built up into a category 5 hurricane and steered directly into another nation, can you ever prove that its path and destruction were totally due to an "act of God" and not your own interference?
I feel there was a lesson in there for Sombra. Still, I have to hand it to him... It takes extreme effort to reach the kind of"playing God" hubris he does here when living in a world where ponies already routinely mess with nature to such a degree.
Eh boy. I mean, on one hoof I feel sorry for Sombra. He meant well. On the other, control groups motherbucker. You don't get new doodads and rush out for a field test you nincompoop! There needs to be a reckoning, but I hope they don't overdo it. Be the voice of reason Bandaid, you're about to have to deal with 2 angry mares.
Please keep writing, I'll keep reading!
Some 'battle music' for Bandaid:
[youtube=SU8A5f218Y4]
I have a feeling that Sombra is going to get his flank kicked to Mars in the next chapter. He screwed up big time.
Lol. Sombra's in some deep crap now boys!
SOMBRA. Dude. This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tested the Anti-Weather OVER THE DAMN CITY. Why would you test something like that over the very place you want to protect? Was it really so hard to travel to a deserted place in case something went wrong and you didn't put lives in danger?
MARKIPLIER REFERENCE
Even the purest intend and brightest mind can cause horrible mistakes.