> My Little Scoobies
> by AntonioCC
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY LITTLE SCOOBIES
Prologue
Earth. Third Year of the End of Days
A hot wind ran through the devastated, landscape, reeking of brimstone, and illuminated, not by Sun, Moon or stars, but by the blood red skies themselves. The only sounds that could be heard were the scream of the Damned. Hell had come to Earth.
Under what had been Mount Cheyenne, there was a great deal of activity, as the Last Army, the last organized fighting force of Mankind against the demonic invasion, was preparing for the decisive battle of tomorrow. But in a room of one of the levels, Buffy Summers, leader of the Last Army, was sighing.
"Something to the matter, Buffy?" asked Dawn, her sister, who was sitting besides her.
"This night will probably be our last night, do you realize that?" said Buffy, turning toward Dawn "Win or lose, we'll probably die tomorrow."
Dawn snorted in answer, before another of her friends answered.
"Buffy, we all know that, and we agreed that we won't be talking shop tonight." Said Xander who was putting the snacks on the table. "This is the first night that we have spent together simply as friends, since... well, since before the First, actually."
"And we need this, Buffy. How much time have we been planning tomorrow?" said Willow, who was sitting in an armchair to their right. "We need to unwind a bit."
"All right." Said Buffy and looked to the fidgeting man setting the DVD player and the VCR, connected to the TV "So, tell me, Andrew, what we are going to see tonight? And, don't tell me that it's another Star Trek marathon."
The little man straightened out and tried to muster some dignity, something a bit difficult when you looked and sounded like Andrew did.
"No, it's a fine piece of animation of..."started to say Andrew.
"I hope that it's not My Little Pony or Transformers, again." quipped Faith. She had to 'babysit' Andrew many times while their desperate plan was being developed, and had come to know the geeky tastes of the excitable little man.
"No. It's something that, I saw it with my brother..." his voice broke for a moment."...s-sorry. I-It was the l-last thing we d-did tog-ge-gether."
Willow went, shortly followed by the others and hugged the young man while he sobbed quietly. It was quite unexpected how they had grown close over the years, as they become teacher and student. They had suffered so many losses over the years, Jesse, Kendra, Joyce, Tara, Anya, Fred, Gunn, Spike, Kennedy, Angel...
"Better, Andrew?" asked Willow
"T-thank you, Mistress." Said Andrew, an answer that made Willow roll up her eyes.
"Dork" she said, affectionately, letting him go"Come on, let's see the movie."
Many miles to the West of Mount Cheyenne, a fortress built in dark stone presided over the ruins of a great city. Demons of every kind scurried about to their work, boasted in their free time, and occupied themselves in perverted pursuits of pleasure. And in the higher level of teh Dark Tower, where the personal rooms of the Overlord were placed, one of the higher placed minions, was talking with his Master.
"Our sssspy in the human army have ssssent their plan." Said the demon, who could have been mistaken by human if it wasn't by the slitted yellow eyes and the forked tongue "The Sssslayers and their alliesssss are going to attack the Circle tomorrow."
"Good." Said his master. "They had swallowed it, hook, line and sinker."
Once, the Overlord had been a man, but now, after the agreement that the Senior partners signed with the First Evil, he was the incarnation of the Senior Partners, the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart in Earth. He looked the part, as only the torso and the arms remained more or less human, if covered by a thick grey fur. Below the waist, he had the body of a Hart, his head was of a wolf with ram's horns. He snarled and ordered to his minion. He looked through one of the windows, to the East.
"Tomorrow, Slayers, your pathetic Last Army will crumble before our forces, and you Buffy Summers will see the completion of the Spell that will allow us to hold this realm FOREVER!"
Equestria. Canterlot.Personal study of Princess Celestia. Two and half years ago.
"There, stay quiet for a moment" said Celestia as magic shot from her horn into the one of Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight felt like a door opened inside her, allowing herself access to power that she hadn't have before, at least since she got her Cutie Mark.
"Twilight, my faithful student" she said, smiling "I placed blocks in your magic, so you wouldn't be a danger if you lost control like you did before. "
"Thank you for your trust, Princess." Said Twilight, bowing to her teacher "I hope to be worthy of that." She Twilight, shivering for a moment remembering how she had transformed her parents into potted plants. The perspective of losing control again like that, terrified her.
"Not only that. Tomorrow I'm going to show you the spell to unlock the remaining blocks in your magic. You can't cast it in yourself, but any unicorn with enough power can cast it in you, when you think that you are ready." Said Celestia, and she closed her eyes for a moment 'It's time. In six months... Nightmare Moon will be back. My scheme must work' "Now, my faithful student, you'll start the study of a tricky and particularly arcane field of magic, Divination, the magic to see the future."
"But, Princess, all what I have learned say that seeing the future is impossible..."
"It is for normal Ponies, Twilight. To date, only a handful of Ponies have shown any talent in Divination." Started to explain Celestia "And the greatest of all was the Oracle. Before her disappearance she left seventeen prophecies, several of them had come to pass."
"But how...?"
"It's a long story, Twilight. And I don't have much time." She said looking at the wall clock, and got a book from a shelf "This book, 'Predictions and Prophecies' , is a collection of prophecies from the Oracle, Star Swirl and others." She smiled and then said "A number of them are not actually prophecies, of course, but random nonsense."
"How can it be random nonsense, if they are prophecies?" wondered Twilight
"Because unless you have a perfect command of that gift, like the Oracle, you end being a bit... weird, specially if the gift for prophecy is minor. And sometimes, there no way to tell the difference." Seeing the baffled expression in Twilight face, she sighed and added "Read the book, and then get the full copy of the Lore Book of Star Swirl, from the School Library. It will help you to understand the magic of Divination. And now, my faithful student, I must go. Matter of state reclaim me" and thought 'As well as that cinnamon cake'
Celestia teleported away and Twilight got her saddlebags and put the book there. She went to the Library, as the School was adjacent to the Palace. She was so involved in her own thoughts that she collided with a fellow student that was also lost in thought.
"S-Sorry, I wasn't looking" said Twilight, and looked to see a mint green Unicorn with a Lyre as a cutie mark.
"N-Neither was I." Said the green unicorn, getting up and looking at her. "Do I know you?"
"Err, the School, I think," said Twilight vaguely remembering seeing her in a couple classes "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"Oh, yes, now I remember." Said the other Unicorn "You were the filly who hatched the dragon egg, years ago."
"Were you there?" said Twilight, she didn't remember her, well, that day was mostly a blur for her.
"I had to take the entry test another day." Said the green Unicorn, who facehoofed, remembering something "Sorry, you have presented yourself, but I haven't done that myself. I'm Lyra Heartstrings."
"Charmed." Said Twilight "I'm curious, why were you so lost in thought?"
"I was thinking about a monograph that I have to write about Pre-Equestrian civilizations..."
"Aren't you a musician? With a lyre as a Cutie Mark..."
"Oh, I am, but Archeology is a hobby for me..."
"Archeology, like Daring Do?" blurted out Twilight
"Fun novels, but real Archeology is nothing like that." Said Lyra. "And you?"
"I have homework about an arcane field of Magic. Divination and Prophecies, I have to study the Lore Book of Star Swirl and the Prophecies of the Oracle" Said Twilight
"Oh" said Lyra, who then looked at the clock tower "Sorry, I have to go, see you around." And she galloped toward the main building of the School.
Twilight smiled, shook her head and went to the library looking forward to studying an arcane field of magic, her favorite way to spend an evening. In the Library, while she waited for teh librarian to get a copy of the Lore Book, she started to skim the book of Predictions and Prophecies. She stopped in a page with an stylized representation of a black Alicorn. It read:
The Eleventh Prophecy. The Mare on the Moon...
Ponyville. The present
Two weeks after the wedding of Princess Cadence, everything had gone back to normal in Ponyville. As dawn started to creep into the sky the inhabitants of the little town started to get into their daily lives. Lyra, now working in the Ponyville Music Academy, left the house that she shared with Bon-Bon after kissing her.
BonBon was getting ready to go to her own work when she heard somepony knocking on the door.
"Mail for Lyra and BonBon!" said the voice of Ditzy Doo, or Derpy Hooves as most of the people in Ponyville called her.
"One moment, Derpy!" said BonBon as she trotted to the door.
When she opened she saw the blonde mailmare waiting, with her good eye looking at her, and the other pointing to the end of the street. The wall-eyed mailmare didn't looked it, but she was one of the more dependable ponies in the little town, even if she was a little clumsy.
"So, what do you have for me?" said Bon-Bon
"A letter for you, from Hayvana and a package for Lyra from Canterlot." she said, producing both items with her wings from her saddlebags, and after she got it a clipboard and a pen. "I need your signature"
Bonbon signed the slip ith the pen in her mouth.
"How are Dinky and Sparkler?" asked Bon-Bon, giving back both objects to the Pegasus.
"Pretty well, they had just started the Summer Camp yesterday. Next weekend, I'm gonna visit them." She said, putting back teh things in her saddles and taking off "See you, BonBon!"
"See you!" answered the pink and blue-maned mare, before getting back into the house.
She put the letter and the package in her purse; she'll look the letter later in the radio station, and wrap the package for Lyra as a gift. After all, tomorrow was their anniversary.
She got out from the house mentally reviewing her roles in the radio-novel episode of the day, a Rich and Obnoxious Coltonian mare, a Zebra Chieftainess and her favorite, the intrepid Braytish female adventurer Quick Wit. Then she realized something.
'Oh, Celestia, I forgot that bucking Caliponian Valley Filly, and the Manehattanite Battleaxe, and I haven't prepared them in weeks' She thought, cringing . 'This is gonna be a loooong day'
She caught her saddlebags, put them on and ran toward teh radio station. If she got lucky she would have some minutes of preparation this time.
Far, far, far away.
In the limits of Equestria, near the Western range, a mountain stood a bit apart from the rest of the Range. In the centuries since Ponies had settled in that zone, a lot of small miner towns had flourished in the zone, extracting the minerals from the underground, often in company of friendly packs of Diamond Dogs. But the Mountain had always been avoided as an omen of destruction. An old legend talked of the last battle of an ancient war between the Forces of Good and the Forces of Evil being fought in the Mountain, and that sometimes, after nightfall, the spirits of the dead could be seen reenacting the battle.
So nobody knew of the tunnels excavated in the mountains, long ago. And in one of them, light-pink Alicorn with a blue-striped dark mane, had been sleeping for many centuries. But in the last years, her sleep had grown fitful and troubled, until the date came. While Lyra was coming home from ehr work to preapare teh anniversary dining, in the tunnels the Alicorn awakened from her long slumber.
"NOOOOOOOOOO...." screamed the Alicorn as she got her bearings. She needed a moment to get her bearings.
"Oh, Goddess, it was only a dream... " she said to herself as she stood on her four legs.
She looked around as she used her magical senses to get a grip on how much time she had been sleeping
'Damn, so long? When Star Swirl said that it would be a long sleep, he wasn't joking around. I hope that the fillies still remember me!' she thought jokingly, but she grew serious 'If I'm awake, then THEY must be close to awaken also. I need to get to the Castle as soon as possible, and get in contact with my kids.'
She went toward her saddlebags and was satisfied to see that the stasis spell had endured all that time
'But first things first.' she thought, levitating a mirror and a brush, and brushing her mane until the blue stripe in it was clearly visible. 'Acceptable.'
She out her saddlebags and walked through the tunnels until she found what she was looking, the disguised balcony that they had carved ago. She saw a few villages scattered through teh valley, and what was more interesting, a railroad track.
'So they have steam technology already?' she thought 'Good, because I want to go unnoticed, so better cast a illusion to appear a simple Earth Pony... ah, and better hide the cutie mark, is too distinctive. I hope that the line go near the Castle, or at least the Everfree Glade..' she thought ' What am I thinking? Of course that it's go to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters... if they haven't moved the capital while I have been sleeping.'
She cast the necessary spells, including a glamour to make her cutie mark to appear different, and dispelled the illusion that hid the entry of the cave, starting to go down the mountain.
Attuned as she was to the magic of the world, she, the same as her daughters, felt the spell broke before the pulse was unleashed, and as the pulse ran through the countryside she started to curse.
'Star Swirl, you dolt! You timed it wrong, godamned geek!' she started to gallop down the mountain to the town nearer the railroad 'If there is no train, I'm teleporting, stealth be damned!'
Ponyville
"BonBon?" said Lyra as she entered the house with her saddlebags full of groceries. Not receiving an answer, she smiled. She went to the kitchen and started to prepare BonBon favorite meals. It was their Anniversary, after all
'Daffodils... daisies... lettuce... tomato... and a touch of oil and spices. Now, the main course... ' she was thinking as the magical pulse knocked her out for a moment.
'What the hay was that?' she thought as she started to get up. Their supper, momentarily forgotten, she ran out of the house toward the Library, not before leaving a note to BonBon 'If there is somebody who knows what is happening, that's Twilight'
She hadn't been the only affected, as she saw when she started to get near the Library, as Pinkie Pie, still with an apron stained with cookie dough and cocoa, and from the other side, she could see Rarity, carrying Twilight dragon aide, Spike in her back. She probably had been working in a dress as she still has a small pincushion, tied to one of her foreleg and the baby dragon was carrying a measuring tape in her hands.
Pinkie was the first to arrive and started to call for her friend.
"Twilight! Twilight! I felt a cramp in my hind legs, an itch in my ear, a rumble in my tummy, I did two somersaults, and jumped out of the window! I neeever had a combo like that before! It must be something big! And related to AJ, Fluttleshy, Rainbow, Rarity, me and you! I had never had something so big since the day before Discord, and then I thought that it had been the last batch of cupcakes that I thought that were a bit iffy..."
"STOP!" said Twilight coming down from the upper floor, wincing, as Lyra entered the main hall of the library. "Whatever it was, I felt it too. I have just awakened, Pinkie, and I have the mother of all headaches...."
"What happened, Twi? Did you fall? Or did you drink too much this morning? I drank too much hard cider once, and next day I couldn't even endure hearing Gummi eat..."
"Pinkie! I didn't drink too much! I was knocked out by a magical pulse. When I awakened I heard you rambling on. Why are you here?" she said a bit more acidly that she pretended.
"I had a new combo of my Pinkie Sense..." started to explain the pink Earth Pony.
"And I felt that same magical pulse, Twilight. Given that you are a real expert in magic." Started to say Lyra when the door opened again with a slam, and Spike and Rarity stepped inside. "I had forgotten that they were coming too."
“Did you feel that, Twilight?” asked the white unicorn, almost out of breath as Spike got out from her back.
“If by that you mean the magic pulse, of course that I did! And I have the headache to prove it!” said Twilight, slightly exasperated.
“So- sorry. It’s that…”
"No, I'm sorry, Rarity. This headache is killing me." Said Twilight
"Take an infusion of willow tree bark. I use that for when I have a headache from practices going overtime" interjected Lyra.
Suddenly Spike burped an scroll
"Ah, good, the Princess must have felt the pulse..."
"Twilight, this is not the seal of Princess Celestia..." said Spike.
"What?" said Twilight as she looked at the crescent-adorned seal in the scroll. She opened the scroll, and read it, her face went from worry to a frown, to a very audible gulp.
“Horseapples…” she said with an strangled voice.
Near Canterlot
The Great and Powerful Trixie felt it. Being farther away than Lyra she wasn't knocked out, but the power of the pulse left her uneasy. That wasn't an ordinary spell dissipating...
'But it is far away, near that damned little town.' She thought. The town where her promising career had gone to dust. She had needed nearly all the bits that she had painfully saved over the years to buy a new caravan, as well as new stage clothes, way less showy than the ones that the showmare had owned before. She had been lucky to have been hired in Hayford, and now she was going to Canterlot to catch the train. Fortunately when she had bought the caravan, she had shown forethought enough that it could be carried in a flat car wagon.
If she was lucky she would made to Canterlot and board the train to Hayford, so she wouldn't need to get nearer than the train station to the thrice accursed town of Ponyville, where that lavender bookworm had had the nerve to... to show how big a fraud she was. Really, what had she been thinking? Claiming to have defeated an Ursa Major? Especially in a town that was so near the Everfree Forest, home of many monsters and beasts.
'No, you weren't thinking, as usual.' She thought. 'It is so easy to fall back in the old vices...'
Memories of an unfeeling father, and a missing mother came back to her, unbidden and for a moment, before being shoved to the back of her mind. 'Decorum, young Lulamoon' she thought, remembering what, Prim Proper, the old family servant who had been more of a father to her, than her own father, said to her when she behaved childishly. The old pony had died when she was teenager and her father had been so miser that he haven't had a decent burial, even after more than twenty years of faithful service.
'No use' she thought 'What's past is past'
Ruins of the Castle of the Royal Sisters
'What the Hell was that?' thought the leader of the Dark Wolves, who answered to the name Loup-Garou. 'It doesn't matter, not when we are so near.'
"Do you have everything?" asked to the other, smaller wolves, which were heaving some curious looking dark crystals around.
"Yes, boss." said another wolf, his second in command, actually.
"Good" he said smiling, and then added in a loud enough voice to be heard all over the ruins. "Collect the equipment, people! You have done well. As a reward, this night you can treat yourselves to some ponies!"
The roar of agreement from the pack allowed to the Old Wolf to locate them. He had seen a number of Dark Wolves in the forest but hadn't been able to discover where they had gone until now. He then noticed that the crystals, who had been clear when he had seen the wolves before, were now dark. That didn't bode well...
'I must warn the Princesses' he thought 'Dark Wolves on the prowl, the seal breaking... the Prophecy is happening'
TO BE CONTINUED…
> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY LITTLE SCOOBIES
Chapter 1
Ponyville
BonBon came home, worried. Today's recording had been hastily wrapped up when all the unicorns on staff had fallen unconscious at the same moment. She hurried home, worried that something could have happened to Lyra, who wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
"Lyra! Lyra! Are you home!" she shouted as she crossed the door. There was no answer and she frantically started to look for the mint-green unicorn in the house. She looked in her study where all her archeology books where, then she went to the bedroom, to the bathroom and then finally she went to the kitchen. When she saw the half-finished meal, she repressed a cry of anguish, a hundred of mad scenarios running through her head... until she saw the note.
BonBon, I have gone to the library, to ask Twilight about a magical pulse that I felt earlier. See you later
XOXOXO
Lyra
She sighed in relief. And immediately started to worry again. So she got out to reach the library. As she neared the building, she could see that she wasn't the only one that had come here. Pinkie was somehow carrying Applejack on her back at an insane pace while Rainbow Dash was waiting for her at the door, and Fluttershy was flying behind the pink party pony trying to not be left behind.
She managed to enter just behind the yellow Pegasus to find a scene of chaos, as Twilight was looking frantically looking for a book in the shelves while her assistant and her friends tried to get he to tell them what she was looking for.
"No time, no time! I have to find it!" she said, a note of hysteria on her voice, teleporting to another shelf and starting to look at all the books.
"What the hay has happened?" asked BonBon to Lyra, after finding her retrieving a piece of paper from under a small mountain of books.
"Did you see the note?" asked Lyra. When BonBon nodded, she continued. "I was getting here when I saw Rarity and Pinkie Pie coming. Apparently they had also felt it."
"Pinkie? But she is not..." said BonBon, stopping herself when she realized who they were talking about "Forgot. Pinkie, of course. Carry on, then"
"And then Spike received a letter of Princess Luna, not from Princess Celestia." Said Lyra
"This letter?" said BonBon, gesturing to the piece of paper that Lyra was telekinetically holding
"Eeyup" said Lyra, badly imitating the Apples accent "Twilight then went hysterical and started to look for a book. We have not been able to make her tell us what book it is."
"Maybe the letter gives us a clue?" said BonBon
"Why do you think I was picking it?" said Lyra
They both started to read it.
Dear Twilight Sparkle:
You probably felt the magical pulse, and are recovering from unconsciousness by now. I was away from Canterlot at that moment, but dear Celestia took the full brunt of the pulse, and it's still unconscious. The healers estimate that she'll recover early in the morning, but by then it'll be too late. So it has fallen upon me to tell you of this.
In the course of your studies you'll probably had heard of the Seventeen Prophecies of the Oracle. This event is the Awakening mentioned in the Thirteenth prophecy. Send me a letter when the six of you are together, and I'll send you the Elements. The Awakened must be protected, or there would be dire consequences
Princess Luna Serenity Artemis
"Buck!" cursed Lyra, who looked for the draconian assistant "Spike! Do you have a copy of Predictions and Prophecies or the full version of the Lore Book of Star Swirl the Bearded in the library?." BonBon looked to her lover a bit shocked when she mentioned the second book.
Spike thought for a moment before answering.
"Twilight had on loan the Princess' personal copy of Predictions and Prophecies, but she returned it before the wedding. The Lore Book... let me check it." He went to look into the mound of books that Twilight had left on her wake.
"I'll come back in a moment." Said BonBon, galloping back to their home, leaving a confused Lyra in her wake.
"Ah, here it is!" said Spike getting a book with a strange symbol in the cover, like a whirlpool full of stars.
"Damn!" said Lyra "It's the abridged version. The Prophecies only come in the full version"
"How do you know?" asked Spike, a bit shocked that Lyra knew about the different editions of a book so rare.
"It's exactly like the one that I have home." Said Lyra, smiling sheepishly "I have looked for the full version for the last two years, for the info that it has on ancient history. I managed to track one last week, but somebody bought it before I even..."
She was interrupted by the sudden return of BonBon, who stopped very short of crashing into Lyra.
"Sorry." Said BonBon sheepishly "I had got home for you anniversary gift..." said, producing a thick book with a similar symbol to the one that Spike had in his hands from her saddlebags. "The full edition of 'The Lore Book of Star Swirl the Bearded, as compiled by his student Clover the Clever'"
"How did you get it...?" started to say Lyra when she realized the truth "You bought the copy that I was after, didn't you?"
"Guilty as charged." Said BonBon. "Now, how to get it to Twilight?"
"Leave it to me." said Spike with a crooked smile "Twilight! You have scheduled sending a message to Canterlot right now!"
"WHAT?" said a very disheveled Twilight teleporting just besides the baby Dragon "What do I have to...? Oh, very clever Spike. But I have to..."
"Were you looking for Prediction and Prophecies?" asked Spike
"Yes, I can swear that I had it..." started to say Twilight.
"You gave the Princess back her copy before the wedding, don't you remember?" interrupted Spike in a resigned tone.
Twilight stood there for a moment, not moving a muscle before facehoofing so hard that she had the signal of her horseshoe in her face for the rest of the day.
"Oh, Celestia, I forgot" said Twilight.
"I gathered as much." Said BonBon, smirking "Fortunately, I bought this book, for the mare of my heart for our anniversary." She then took the book and gave it to Twilight.
"My... Princess." Said Twilight "Where did you get this? I have only seen a copy in the Princess personal library and other in the School's library."
"A cousin of Prince Blueblood, Duke Bookends, died a month ago and his heirs had to auction his entire library to pay his debts. I know somepony, who knows somepony..." started to say BonBon before Rainbow Dash barged and interrupted her
"You found the book? Tell us, what does the Prophecy say?." Said the prismatic pegasus
"Yeah, sugarcube, what was so important 'bout that Prophecy." said Applejack who had come toward them, with the others.
"Yes, darling, we think that need an explanation." Said Rarity
Twilight made a sign to ask them to be quiet, before reading the Prophecy and nodding.
"Wait a moment while I gather my thoughts... Summarizing, it was a Prophecy from the Oracle, a legendary Seer, that according to legend left seventeen prophecies pertaining future events. The eleventh dealt with the return of Nightmare Moon, and the twelfth with the Corruptor..."
"Discord..." said Fluttershy, barely heard even in the silence of the library.
"The thirteenth talks about the return of lost heroes from a bygone era, and that their return is a sign of the return of the Darkness." Said Twilight.
"The Darkness..." said Rarity, puzzled "What does that mean?"
"I don't know what does that mean either" said Twilight shrugging "But given the precedents, probably something bad. Now that I think about it, have you send the letter, Spike?"
"Not yet, Twilight." Said the green dragon.
"What are you waiting for, then?" said Twilight, taking a written piece of parchment from a nearby desk.
Deep into the Everfree Forest
The Dark Wolves pack arrived to their lair, a cave in the deepest and darkest part of the Everfree Forest. As soon as they arrived Loup-Garou took command of the Wolves waiting for them.
"You, fleabags! Take the crystals to the holy place! And don't think of dilly-dallying, because I'm going with you, sons of bitches!" shouted at the height of his voice to the cowered Wolves while his pack went to the feast hall to make good on his promise.
He followed the bunch of weaklings unworthy to be on his, or any pack to be precise to the holy place, where, surrounded by a circle of fire stood a colossal crystal with a barely visible humanoid figure inside. The underlings left the black crystals as carefully as their haste of getting from out the nose of Loup Garou allowed, and scurried out.
Ignoring for the moment the psychic call from the Crystal, and their Dark Mistress he examined the black crystals and noted that a couple of slivers had broken from one of the crystals. He smiled and hid those slivers in the pocket hidden in the rag that he always wore around his neck. And then he descended to the Holy Place of the Dark Wolves, where the clan-chiefs could receive the instructions of their Dark Mistress, speaking from the Crystal where she had been imprisoned before the world ever existed. He, Loup-Garou, the last surviving clan-chief, stood in all fours before the crystal, where the figure made itself more distinct.
"It is done, then?" asked the figure in the crystal, with a distorted, although still clearly female, voice.
"Yes, my Lord. We charged all the crystals, and are now stored for when we need them." reported the wolf.
"Good. I made well in selecting you between those fools, even before knowing who you really are" said the figure "Now, did you take measures to investigate the magical pulse?"
"Of course!" said the wolf, concealing her anger at being asked something so obvious "I'm leading a pack toward the point of origin, Old One."
"I commend your forethought, my furry servant." Always the sting "Now be off."
The Wolf bowed and got out of the place, thinking 'No, Mistress, you don't know the length of my forethought.'
Far, Far Away
The small town of Bithany was only a dinky little border town whose only claim to fame was having the only train station in many miles. So Golden Ticket, the pony attending the ticket office was taking a nap, and dreaming of frolicking in the hay with Sweet Tooth, the cute town doctor, when somebody knocking in the crystal that separated him from the clients awakened him.
"Ah... Welcome to Bithany Station, what can I do for you." Asked in his best professional voice, looking at an earth Pony with a haughty expression in her face.
"When does the next train pass?" she said
"Errr.. one moment." He said as he checked the timetable "At nine tomorrow."
"There is no train today"· said the mare in a slightly hysterical tone
"No, miss, sorry. The train service this far from the capital is..." he started to say, stopping when he noticed that the mare had run out. "Oh, well. Maybe I can dream again with Sweet Tooth."
The mare ran until she was well out of town to...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH" she screamed in frustration "I should have known! There is no way that things could be so simple! Damned Powers, damned Star Swirl, and damned me for listening to the little creep!"
She cursed for a few minutes until she had calmed. It seems that I'll have to teleport there, anyway.
Canterlot Station, late evening
Trixie got into her wagon, already loaded in a flatcar, and started to prepare a cup of tea. She always took a cup of tea to steady her nerves before riding a train. It wasn't exactly that she disliked trains... okay, it was exactly that, but she had good reasons for that. It had been so many years ago
She pushed the old, sad memories away. Tomorrow, she had to prepare her act for tomorrow. And if it didn't involve bragging about defeating giant monsters or mocking the friends of overpowered bookworms, better. So, if she started with basic fireworks and the apparition from a cloud of smoke, kept the audience awed with a lightning, and followed the act with a sleight of hooves, and juggling...
Whitetail Forest, under a mound
Buffy Summers stirred half, asleep. She felt that something was wrong, and as she was awakening she started to notice things. The place was dark, smelling of stale air and mold, and her body felt wrong….
What has happened to me?...
Then as Celestia's Sun neared the horizon, it illuminated the passage that entered the chamber under the mound, and finally the chamber itself. So she could see part of her body
Fur…I'm furry… and naked!...
She instinctively tried to cover herself, allowing her to give a good look to her hands
HOOVES!?
She frantically looked at herself and around, confirming what she had just seen.
Horses, we have become...
Then her mind kicked in,
No, not horses too small. Ponies, we are ponies.
And not normal ponies either. She had toys that looked like them when she a child. They looked like them, right to the mark on their…
What's the name of a horse's ass?
She shook her head
Not important. I have to wake the others, and then learn how we have ended looking like we got out straight from My Little Pony. Although I have some slight suspicions, about that little creep.
TO BE CONTINUED…
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 2
Far, far away
The Alicorn disguised as an Earth Pony waited until she was well out of sight of the village to shed her disguised appearance. Besides, if she wanted to teleport, she needed to do it in her "real" form. The thought brought a smirk to her lips, so long ago and she still hadn't really accepted that the Change had been irreversible. Oh, she knew it intellectually, but deep inside she still hoped against all hope that there would have been a way to turn back.
She sighed and made those thoughts go back to the recesses of her mind. This was not the time to dwell in lost chances and things that couldn't be helped. She closed her eyes and focused her mind in her inner sight, flying through the landscape until she found her destination, the castle in the midst of the Everfree Glade. She really didn't pay much attention to it beyond confirming that there not had been great changes into the lay of the land, so she teleported, appearing in the old throne room, and immediately collapsed, panting by the effort.
"Damn it! I'm too exhausted to do it again" she said once that she recovered her breath, and tried to get up in shaky legs.
Once she was up she looked around, and saw the sorry state that the castle had fallen. Outside the night was starting to fall.
'What has happened here? Why is everything in ruins?' she wondered, looking around while trying to stifle the panic that was starting to rise in her. 'Quiet, missy, the capital was probably moved while you were asleep.'
"Celly? Lulu? Anybody?" she shouted, not caring if anybody heard her.
Nobody answered. She went to a half-fallen wall, to what once had been a glade of trees, and saw the dark and foreboding forest that lay beyond the horizon. She was really too exhausted to teleport again, or to disguise her appearance beyond shrinking to normal pony size. She closed her eyes and focused her mind, in finding the familiar aura of her daughters.
'Yes! I found them!' she thought jubilantly as she found the auras of her daughters, and snorted when she noted the location. 'Typical, the old Fortress of Canterlot. Lulu always liked that old castle, and Celly found the pun quite funny.' She sighed 'I wonder if Star Swirl's tomb is still there. I still miss you, my old friend, even if you were an infuriating little creep at times '
She closed her eyes and focused her mind into shrinking her size, despite her exhaustion. She managed to do so, with less effort that she thought and used the spare power to cloud her cutie mark. Now she picked a hat from one of her saddlebags and put her on her head to cover her horn.
'No way that I'm going to walk through that damned forest. Knowing my luck, I would run into a basilisk.' She thought as she took flight in the direction of Canterlot.
Canterlot
Luna had just ended the talk with the Griffin ambassador, assuring her that Celestia would be recovered in a few hours, and finding her a refreshing change from the honor-obsessed Griffin warriors that had warred with Equestria in the wake of Discord stoning more than a millennia ago. They were still quite a bunch of jerks, but not so annoying as in the old times.
"Your Highness" said a guard interrupting her train of thought
"Yes, Sunburst?" said Luna, commending herself in remembering the name of the guard.
"The flying carriage sent to retrieve Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and her husband, Captain... err, Prince Shining Armor Sparkle have been sighted coming back, Your Highness."
"Finally!" said the Princess of the Night. "Get the honor guard for Cadence and Shining Armor orga..."
"Already done, Your Highness. They are waiting for you." Said the guard taking care on not sounding smug.
Luna harrumphed and without saying a word she trotted toward the guard and teleported both of them to the roof where the honor guard was already in formation, just in time as it happened, because the carriage was already approaching the castle, and with nary a sound, it landed. Its passengers, a pink Alicorn and a white Unicorn, stepped down a moment afterwards.
"Your Highness" said the Guard bowing to the pink Alicorn, then he turned and saluted to her husband "Captain." He then continued, discreetly pointing to the dark blue Alicorn in the other side of the courtyard "Princess Luna is waiting for you."
"And Celestia?" asked Cadence.
"Princess Celestia is... indisposed." Said the Guard "Princess Luna can give you more details."
"What happened, Sunburst?" asked Shining Armor to his former subordinate, sotto voce, as they neared the Princess of the Night.
"A strong magical pulse, it knocked down most of the unicorns in the Guard for a few minutes. Apparently the Princess was more strongly affected." Said Sunburst, equally in a low voice
"So that was what we felt." Said Cadence, who had been hearing them, also in a low voice, and barely moving her lips "We felt it all the way to Prance. Come on, Shiney, don't make Auntie Luna wait."
They trotted toward the dark blue Alicorn, who was waiting for them at the end of the line of guards.
"Your Majesty" said Cadence, bowing to Princess Luna.
"Your Highness" said Luna.
They looked to each other, all prim and proper, looking like a scene in a tapestry until it was ruined by Cadence's giggle, which prompted a glare from Luna, which provoked even more giggles.
"Can't you ever behave as befit your condition, Cadence?" said Luna, mildly miffed at the merry mare.
"Aunt Luna, protocol is quite more relaxed than a millennia ago." Said Cadence, having finally got a control over her giggles. 'All prim and proper, you'll never change, Lulu.' "So, what..." started to say Cadence when every magic-user present in the city felt the gentle tug of the magical alarm.
"It never rains, but it pours, damn it." mumbled Shining Armor, before starting to give orders to the Guard.
Old Wolf reached the trapdoor that gave him access to one of the pantries in Canterlot. An old one, barely used anymore, and the one that he like to use to enter the Castle to report to the Princesses. He chuckled. No matter how the world had changed, it was unavoidable to find this kind of dark, narrow places. He stepped out and saw that dust and cobwebs covered the pantry. Suddenly the door opened and he got into attack position.
"Be calm, Old Friend. It's only me, Luna... and half of Canterlot Guard" Said the Princess of the Night. "After the incident with the Changelings we put alarms in all those secret passages under the Castle, and you tripped one. You gave us a scare"
He arched an eyebrow, and rolled up his eyes 'Figures' he thought, as Luna looked back and said in the Royal Canterlot Voice
"EVERYPONY, OUT!" and then added in a more normal tone "Cadence, Captain Sparkle, stay here."
When he judged that every guard was gone, he got out, and saw a pink Alicorn and a white Unicorn that he assumed were Cadence and Shining Armor. A better look at Cadence confirmed her identity. She had a great resemblance to her ancestor, the daughter of her old friend.
"Cadence, Armor, this is Old Wolf, one of the last Grey Wolves and an old family friend."
"Charmed." Said Cadence, with a radiant smile.
"The same." Said Shining Armor with a neutral expression.
"Now that we have made the presentations, what was so important, that you risked abandoning your post?" said Luna "Although given that pulse, I think that you won't come back, anyway."
"Dark Wolves in the old castle." Said Old Wolf "Using crystals that went from clear to black."
Luna looked at him for a moment, as if not believing what she had just heard.
"Those... those... bloody curs! They have no idea of the kind of forces that they are playing with!" finally shouted Luna. "It can be a disaster, exactly what the thirteenth prophecy told... damn it, the Darkness, maybe is the Overlord returning, or even worse, no, that can't be, he was banished forever from this realm." She rambled for a moment before regaining her composure. "Come with me to my quarters, a corridor is not the proper place to discuss so grave matters."
Inside a dark cave in the Whitetail forest
By now the five Sleepers had awakened and were examining their transformed bodies. After a few minutes of silence, Faith, now a white, black-haired Pegasus with the Scythe over a moon and stars cutie mark, screamed what was in the mind of every one of them.
"Why the fuck have we become fucking living My Little Pony dolls?"
"Err, actually we have become Ponies who resemble My Little Pony dolls" tried to correct Willow, now a cream-colored, red maned unicorn with a rose and thorns cutie mark.
"I don't fucking care!" said the Dark Slayer "How in Hell could Andrew screw the spell so much?"
"Well, remember that one of the things that he had to abandon when we had to escape from Cleveland was his collection of My Little Pony dolls." said Willow "And he always complained about that."
"So, you think that we have become ponies, because Andrew collected dolls?" said Xander, now a coffee-colored, dark maned Earth Pony with a hammer and gear cutie mark. "That's lame, even for our standards"
"Said the guy who got duplicated in a junkyard, possessed by a hyena spirit, his almost-wife was a thousand-years-old ex-vengeance demon, his other ex ascended and later descended to warn us, dated a mummy... shall I continue" said Faith, now a bit more like herself
"It's not that, Xander" said Willow, ignoring the antics of the Dark Slayer "The spell that the demons were casting, and he had to redirect, was tricky. If his attention wandered in the critical moment..."
"As he was prone to do..." interjected Xander "Ok, ok, I get the point"
"Just when I thought that he couldn't screw it worse" groaned Dawn, now a light green, brown maned unicorn with a key over a sun cutie mark "And why are you smirking Faith?" said noticing that Faith had stopped scowling and was smirking, looking at Xander with undisguised interest.
"Oh, nothing, just looking at Xander here" said a smirking Faith "What can I say? He is even more a stallion than before, if you catch my drift." Dawn groaned for the lame pun
"Faith, always with the head in the gutter." Said Buffy, resigned to her light-yellow blonde-maned current appearance, and a Scythe over a sun Cutie Mark. "And what we do now? Look for the nearest ponies and ask them 'take me to your leader'?"
Whitetail Forest
As the moon was starting to rise over the horizon, the small pack of Dark Wolves, which had been sent to investigate the magical pulse, was entering the forest. Loup-Garou's number two, Wolfgang, had been hearing the mutters of the other wolves, and finally built up the courage of bringing it up to their leader.
"Boss, the boys are talking between themselves, and not precisely to sing praises about you." Said Wolfgang
"Oh?" said Loup-Garou, not surprised, Dark Wolves were a quite fractious lot, and pack-leaders had been often killed for an argument about absolute nonsense "And what are they saying?"
"They are mostly complaining that we got out before we could eat and that we are hungry." Answered Wolfgang, "I'll follow you through the Wastelands if necessary, but most of the boys greatest loyalty is to their stomach."
"Hmmm... Well, we got out a bit too quick, certainly." Said Loup-Garou, thoughtfully. He looked around and saw the railroad tracks, causing him to smile viciously. "Remember that little trick that we did, a decade ago, in the road to Baltimare?"
"Of course, boss." He then noticed where his boss was looking and his smile nearly matched Loup-Garou's in viciousness "Oooooh, I like it."
Loup Garou chuckled and then turned toward the rest of the pack and shouted to them.
"Hey, boys! I know that you are hungry! Well, there is train full of tasty ponies coming here. And they'll be all ours if we block the tracks!"
The wolves howled in delight hearing the news and started to work.
Trixie looked through the window as they crossed the forest, without really seeing anything. She really needed the money from her shows, but these months had made her realize that something was missing in her life. The life of a travelling showmare was by necessity a lonely one. At first she had loved it, no overbearing father looking ready to criticize her every act, no vapid would-be-noblemares forcing her to conform to what society expected through peer pressure, only the road ahead and the wind on her mane. But now... she shook her head, no, this is the life that I have chosen... but it doesn't have to be a lonely one, she should take an assistant to help her with the more complex tricks, and to rein in her when she got a bit too carried away in the persona of the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Suddenly the train stopped, throwing her toward the front wall of her caravan. 'What the hay?' she thought, a she got up, and looked through the window...
...Only to see the shapes of several wolves against the night sky. She muffled her scream by putting her hooves in her mouth. 'Dark Wolves, just like what happened with mom'
She felt her fear receding and a cold, dangerous anger, taking its place. 'No, I can't allow it to happen again. Those Dark Wolves are going to fear the day that they angered the Great and Powerful Trixie!'
TO BE CONTINUED...