Chapter 1
The day the old age died...
I OWN AND REGRET NOTHING!
...III...
Sunset Shimmer kicked down her door and jumped outside, "BOOM BABY!" She shouted, excited for the prospect of a new day! She just had to sing about it!
Morning in Canterlot shimmers
Morning in Canterlot shines
And I know for absolute certain
That everything is certainly fine!
She danced down the street, quickly joined by all her friends-
There's Celestia en route to her office-
Principal celestia waved at them as they went by
There's the sofa clerk selling some quills
My Canterlot is so gentle and still
Can things ever go wrong?
I don't think that they will!
They walk to the center of Canterlot and are joined by most of the residence in a random, musical flash-mob.
Morning in Canterlot shimmers
Morning in Canterlot shines
And I know for absolute certain
That everything is certainly—
FINE!
Finishes everyone in Sunset's place, and they couldn't agree more!
Everyone had a good laugh over how wonderful the day was.
For indeed, everyone in Canterlot LOVED their lives...
Well...
Except one...
...
Not too far away Clouse Noddles grumbled at the sight of this spectacle from the 'comfort' of his family's auto-shop garage. "Again? Seriously? That's the fifth time this week! Okay, your happy and love each other! We get it already!" He snapped irritably.
He turned away from the window in a huff, and looked over his...'kingdom'.
Indeed it was a sad state of affairs that he was reduced to THIS, that the once great Noodle family Empire was whittled down to a second-hand auto-repair shop- which didn't even see much business really, they got most of their income from Jungle Bob's dangerous animal emporium located in the annex!
Oh, Clouse could still remember his early years having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth...then his idiot father had ruined it. The Noodle family were a rich, aristocratic family. Who had been in town just as long as the Apples(if not more so).
However recent years had put a dent in their wealth a bit. The emergence of nouveau riche family's such as the Rich's, the Silver's, the Hoity Toitie's, the Photo Finishes, and the Microchips took a large part of the Noodle's market away from them.
This in addition to their merger with the Pear family falling through after their patriarch Grand Pear forced his family to suddenly leave town in a fit of rage after his daughter married into their rival family(The Apples). This also hurt their profits a bit, as it hurt investor confidence after being assured that the merger was a done deal.
Now despite these setbacks, The Noodle family was still one of the wealthiest family's around...They just weren't the top dog anymore.
However, to his father- Chen Noodles -this was completely unacceptable! In a fit of paranoia and rage he publicly blamed the Apples for the merging failure and accused them of bringing Pear Butter into their family simply to derail the merger. And flat out SUED them for 'corporate espionage' and 'sabotage'.
This naturally did not go over well with the Apple's and they immediately broke off numerous and very lucrative business deals and agreements with the noodles.
In addition to this, Chen spent MILLIONS in legal fees trying to sue the Apple family and get compensation for their 'slight'. His constant attempts to sue, slander, harass and downright defame the Apple family got so bad that Mayor Mare had to personally get involved and put an end to it.
This whole fiasco had not only been expensive but also a PR nightmare. More and more People started to see Chen as unstable and even downright deranged. Investors and customers had been pulling out right and left.
Worse, people had been far more sympathetic to the Apples. To show their support for them, many towns protested the Noodle's actions and even downright boycotted their businesses.
This sent the once great financial empire into a tailspin. Now again, despite these problems, the Noodle empire was very vast and influential. If they'd simply buckled down, compromised when need be, and overall just been SMART about the whole thing. They could've gotten out of the whole debacle with a good deal of their assets intact- diminished though they would've been, they still would've been moderately wealthy.
Sadly, Chen's would not allow this, and so he went on to make the same type of mistakes that had felled far greater aristocrats then him.
Desperate, he began to invest large chunks of money and manpower into 'new' business- he reasoned if the 'nouveau riche' could handle such businesses then he'd be able to do it easily...naturally he was wrong.
His inexperience in handling new 'modern' business was quick to show and said businesses began to suffer. Worse, since he diverted much needed resources from his older and more reliable business during a time of crisis, they suffered as well!
Eventually, he went passed the point of no-return...and the Noodle family was forced to declare bankruptcy.
At that point Chen completely lost it! He went to the apple family reunion and shot up the place! Fortunately, he was overpowered and brought down before he could do too much damage...but not before he killed Applejack's parents.
Chen was sent to a mental institute and the rest of the family fled the country impoverished and disgraced...except for Clouse. Although more clever and more patient then his father, he'd refused to leave. Vowing one day to rebuild his family's empire to even greater heights and declare it for his own. He'd cast aside his last name of noodles...after much research he'd discovered the original name of his ancestor. The original Patriarch of his family who rose from a poor family in Haysia and would eventually build a powerful financial empire with his own sweat a blood. His son changed his last name for branding purposes...but one day Clouse vowed to adopt it...this NAME once feared by the orient...when he'd earned it...
But...the years had not been too kind for him.
He'd been able to find this patch of dirt- mostly because it been kept off record for tax reasons and to store illegal smuggled of which worth a small fortune.
But he'd been forced to keep a low profile to avoid angry former investors that had lost much money to his fathers insanity, vengeful former business partners of his father that lost everything when the company went under, fanatical debt collectors forever hounding his footsteps to repay the large debt his father had uncured by borrowing obscene amounts of money from every legal(and not so legal) financial office in the country in the waning days of his company.
Naturally, with all the bad press attached to his name. He couldn't afford to do anything public or official, even all these years later the 'taint' on his family was still strong(Bright Mac and Pear Butter had been loved by MANY).
But Every attempt he'd made to build a new financial empire in the shadows had been thwarted! There was simply too many people on both sides of the law who considered his family name to the equivalent of 'mud' or worse!
He was sitting on a fortune of illegal goods, but he was unable to use them lest he be arrested in 5 seconds flat or worse just have it all confiscated by other criminals after they throw his corpse in the nearest river! His father had simply made too many enemies!
He could barely afford to keep the small group of thugs he'd assembled! And even then that was only because one of them- Jungle Bob -was doing all the actual earning, and the only reason he hadn't used that against him to usurp his position as boss was because he lacked the ambition to do so!
It was maddening! Even after he'd killed himself in the asylum, his moron of a father was STILL ruining his life! He lazily threw darts at a picture of his father and his other cowardly family members...
He looked over the various occupants of the garage in turn.
Brick; a low-level moron thug...nothing much to him really aside from the fact he was cheap. He was currently juggling improvised bowling pins.
"BRICK! Fetch my darts!" Said thug looked over dimly to his boss just in time to accidentally get smacked by one of the pins.
McKibble; again low-level, but actually fairly competent. So that was good...
"MCKIBBLE! Serve my tea!"
Said henchmen looked up from the bowling ball(or rock made to look like a bowling ball) he'd been about to use to knock over more makeshift pins annoyed. "Y'know I'm getting pretty tired of 'fetching your darts' and serving your tea'- he gets right up to Clouse's face -Were henchmen, not valets." he said that last bit with a sneer.
Clouse responded by grabbing his noose and twisting it so hard it not only broke but Mckibbles whole body flipped and slammed to the ground painfully.
"Uh...One sugar or two?" Groaned Mckibble in pain on the floor.
"Two." Said Clouse dismissively. Sadly those were the last of his minions he could afford to treat like actual minions...the rest were more complicated.
Squint; A bit more high-level. Born with an unusual eye deformity- hence the name -He was the head mechanic here. He actually co-owned the place with his dad(indirectly). He was compliant as long as he continued to get his monthly stipend.
Jungle Bob, sadly the main breadwinner here. When businesses started to tank, Squint made a deal with an old contact. He'd give him the money to start up a wild animal emporium and he gave him a cut of the profits. Clouse couldn't help but be impressed at the amount of exotic and terrifying animals that the former animal smuggler/hunter had captured with his bare hands and tamed. Among other things; There was a rhino, a great white shark, a komodo dragon, hr even kept a fracking Dire wolf as his personal pet for crying out loud!(Seriously, how was that even possible? They were EXTINCT!).
And then there was the man meditating in the corner, simply called...'The ninja'...Clouse actually wasn't sure how he bagged such an elite-level enforcer from a poker game of all things, but he wasn't about to complain considering his own situation...
that brief mental census over, Clouse went back to crunching the numbers...as always, they weren't good. No matter how he looked at it his fathers incompetence would continue to haunt him until the day he dies...and maybe even longer then that!
If only...if only there was a way...some way...to wipe the slate clean...
ZAP!
The doors that lead inside the garage crumbled to dust in a flash of dark energy. Clouse quickly pulled out his family sword as all his thugs leapt to action.
ZAP!
Suddenly an energy leapt off an amulet carried by a stranger that entered the room, knocking everyone else down.
Clouse looked at the stranger from the ground, stunned. "Who...who are you?" He asked amazed.
The man smirked and handed him his card, "Facilier, Dr. Facilier...and I do believe you and I can help each other..."
...A couple days later...
Pinkie got on her Pajama's, she was so excited over how super-duper the day had went! They helped Fluttershy get enough money to save her animal shelter in the nick of time, helped a neighborhood tuff learn the power of friendship, and made so many scrumptious cookies! And tomorrow, the girls were thinking of having a slumber party!
Pinkie Pie giggled as she jumped onto her bad, "Just another super-duper day with my super-duper friends! Just like tomorrow will be! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that! And the day after that!-
...three hours later...
FINALLY, Pinkie was exhausted enough to sleep, she yawned. "What a wonderful life I have...may it never end..." And like that, she was out like a light, all was quiet in her room, the darkness obscured everything...
But one piece of darkness moved toward the ceiling...
The Ninja stealthily climbed to the top of the ceiling and clung there. Quieter then any mouse, he took out a string and dangled it over Pinkie's gaping mouth- busily licking her lips while eating 'dream candy' -He then drips poison onto the string...slowly...it drips into pinkie's mouth...
Satisfied, the ninja quietly left as quickly as he'd came...he had other stops to make tonight...
...The next day...
"And you say you found them all like this when you when you went to their homes?" Asked Princess Twilight as Sunset lead her into the school infirmary, all of sunsets friends including Sci-Twi were all green and covered in spots.
Nurse Redheart has done all she can...but this is beyond her!" Said Principal Celestia worried.
"Not surprising, I think this disease is magic in nature." Said Sunset concerned.
Twilight dose some tests and quickly confirms it, "Your right...but...this is Tatzl-flu! But how is that possible? You can only catch it when a Tatzlwurm sneezes on you! Those don't exist on earth!"
"Wait, then how'd they get infected?" Asked Sunset concerned.
"I don't know, but we need to quarantine them fast! It's highly contagious!"
Principal Celestia's eye's widened, "What!? Twilight were not outfitted for a quarantine! Let alone a MAGICAL one! This is a high school!"
Twilight frowned at this, "And we can't risk taking them to the hospital...I doubt they'll be equipped to handle this either, and it might just spread it faster!...I guess there's no choice, we'll have to move them to Equestria and quarantine them to my castle!"
As Sunset and Celestia began to make the necessary preparations...Twilight briefly wondered if this was the right thing to do...after all there was a reason her friends never came over to visit earth or Sunset's to Equestria. It was too dangerous! The whole 'alternate world, good Sombra' incident showed the dangers of having too many of the same types of alternate people on the same world for too long of a time(especially ponies as important as the elements of harmony!)!
But she immediately shook this thought off, her FRIENDS needed help! Besides, once properly treated. This disease would dissipate in a couple days...so she should have them home soon without any big consequences!...right?
...
"You better know what your doing." Stated Clouse flatly. Dr. Facilier smirked as he used a magic hand mirror to watch Twilight have all her friends moved into the portal.
"You let me worry about magic, you just do the heavy lifting...now you did find what I asked for right?"
Clouse frowned, but nodded and gave him the contract and assuring him that all the necessary preparations had been made...
It irked him to be the one taking orders, but he but knew he could do nothing. Facilier promised him a substantial amount of GOLD for his efforts(already gave him a large lump as a DOWN PAYMENT no less!), but more importantly...if this succeeded..all his problems would quite literally go away...it was almost too good to be true...which probably meant it was...He would keep their contract for now...but he'd DEFINITELY be keeping a close eye on Dr. Facilier...
He also made a note to speed up his studies with magic...
He'd learned the hard way- among MANY other things -from his dad not to handle things he had no experience or expertise with.
Fortunately, unlike most of the sheep in this town. When 'magic' became public he didn't just shrug it off and go 'meh'. He actually looked into it to see if he could use it to reverse his current fortunes.
Unfortunately, this train of thought was mostly ground to a halt when it became clear that the only current source for reliable and consistent magic were either the Rainboom's or risk sneaking through a portal of an alien world that was being guarded by a fairly powerful magic princess.
BOTH of which considered themselves best friends of the APPLE family. A family who- needles to say -would still be harboring bad feelings toward his family...
Worse, any form of independent magic seemed to only find their way to the hands of idiots( If it wouldn't have been more trouble then it's worth, he'd swear he'd smack Wallflower and Vignette Valencia upside the head's! Seriously, they had the power of controlling memory AND teleporting people wherever they wanted...and they waste it on petty grudges and making an amusement park more popular...he swore he sometimes felt he was surrounded by IDIOTS sometimes!). The only one's smart enough to know how to use magic properly AND be willing to help seemed to have been the Dazzling's but not only were they now depowered/useless, but apparently also impossible to find after there defeat...
So Clouse had been forced to put learning/using magic on the backburner in the wave of more pressing concerns. But he still studied whenever he could, he was still a novice but a quick-study nonetheless...
So again, he was forced to let Facilier do as he wished...for now...
Facilier then smirks, "Right, there all in the portal!" He picks up the walkie-talikie, "Right boy's, time to commit the crime of the century!"
...
"Oh, great. Another 'crime of the century'...I'm still on parole for the last one." Groused McKibble annoyed, but obeyed as he and brick put on hockey masks and began to throw stones to shatter windows on the far side of the school.
...
Learning of the ruckus, Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna, and Dean Candance ran to see what the commotion was...
And with no one around...Faciler walked in and made his move. He rolled out the contract onto the ground, slit his hand, let the blood drip upon the mystic paper, and begin to intone the incantation-
Hoc munere laetus obtuli signa ista concordia!
Fiat mihi da vires in sanguine huius ritus antiquorum!
Et dabo verba mea ad focus et ad hoc pertinet intent!
Vodoo per voluntatem Dei, et leges ex Divino, ita ab Inferno mearum traditionum. Tua consilia omnia testor coniungere foedus ratum et feres!
Sic enim dictum est, ut sit!
BOOM!
For a brief moment, the sunny skies grow dark, the heavens shoot down a might bolt of lightning to strike the contract, the parchment is burnt away...but the words...the words remain...they flow through the air like dying embers...and attach themselves to the statue...they warp and grow...until they encompass the entire thing!
On the other side, Twilight and Sunset are too busy tending to their friends to notice their side of the portal being sealed as well...
And By the time the teachers returned to the statue, Facilier was long gone...and it was FAR too late...
…III...
TO BE CONTINUED?