The multiverse is under threat while the Doctor can't even remember himself. But not everyone is willing to go quietly into the dark. This is how risky plans are made.
The multiverse is dying, devoured by an enemy that feared only one being in all of creation...the Doctor. But the Doctor has already fallen, his memories stolen by the evil that now spreads across countless universes. But there are those who know the Doctor is their only hope, and a plan has sent a martial artist from a now devoured world to wake the Oncoming Storm. If only he could actually find said Doctor on an entire planet.
"MOVE!" The shout from the guard sent soldiers streaming into the hallway to take positions behind barricades and in alcoves set for just such purposes. At the end of the hallway the door began to shimmer as every magical ward and scientific shield in place began to be devoured by the energy entity that tore at it. Seconds later a golden light shimmered into existence and spread outward devouring the door itself leaving the hallway open and allowing the guards to see the cloaked figure standing there while shimmering golden ropes of light whipped around him scoring the walls with darkness. "Open fire!" The shout had barely been given when whips of golden energy lashed forward to grab the first two soldiers wrapping around them before seeming to pull right through them. The two men screamed as golden light began to spread leaving a dark blackness behind until they had been completely covered in it before it the faded out entirely leaving nothing behind. The commander shuddered, shaking his head as the timeline lurched and his neural implants informed him the two soldiers who had been struck hadn't just been killed but completely wiped from the timeline as if they had never existed. Without waiting a second longer the men opened fire only to have a mass of golden strands whip forward clearing the hallway of obstructions.
MCA COMMAND CENTER
The double doors vanished under the assault of golden energy as the cloaked being walked into the command center watching with disinterest as soldiers, agents and even a few of the facilities prisoners tried to defend themselves, all without success. In the end only the facilities general still stood, protected by layer upon layer of magical shielding even as the energy ate away at it steadily.
"Destroying us won't get you what you want." General Cartwright glared at the being who had not only neutralized the Multiversal Control Agency's headquarters but also wiped out its agents and soldiers.
"What I want?" Laughter filled the room as the golden light began to spread outwards devouring the room itself and the building around it before starting on the world and then the space around the world until the two were standing on a small bit of floor floating in a true expanse of nothing. "You think too highly of yourself, believing that I want something from you."
"Then why here! Why attack us."
"Because you are in my way." Under the hood the general could see the beings lips curve in a smile "Because I was wondering if there would be a challenge here, a chance to test myself. Unfortunately you have proven a lackluster bunch." Letting out a sigh he looked at the general who was now protected by only a handful of shields.
"There are plenty out there who will stop you." The general sounded quite a bit more confident that he looked.
"No. There was one who could have challenged me. One who could have put up a fight and maybe even beat me." Claw tipped fingers dipped into a pocket and then came out with a small pocket watch, looking at it he smiled again. "There was one, but I have already dealt with him." Lifting the watch he let it sway back and forth gently "All that he is, all that he has ever done is in this watch." Seeing the dismay on the generals face he chuckled "Ah so you know of the one I speak of." Golden light ripped through the last shield sliding through the general and starting blackness spreading across his body.
"Doctor." It was the last whisper before the blackness had consumed the general and then the floor leaving only the cloaked being floating in the darkness.
"There will be no Doctor to help you this time, or ever again." He looked up at the blackness around him "Yes. Devour this universe and then spread to the next. Nothing stands in our way now." He slipped the watch back into a pocket. "They say ignorance is bliss. Well enjoy your bliss while it lasts Doctor for your end will come soon enough, along with everything else in creation."
000000000000
Reality Cluster 3002 Universe type : Chaotic
"Move it boy!" Genma was over the tree and sprinting down the path as swiftly as he could move after having abandoned his pack nearly a mile back. Glancing back he could see Ranma keeping pace as the golden light rushed through trees and rocks leaving a strange blackness behind that seemed to try and shove the eye elsewhere. Genma knew he'd run out of stamina eventually and was just hoping that somehow there was a way out of this even as his mind told him this was going to end in death no matter what he attempted to do. Running was only delaying the unstoppable thing behind them that was moving so quickly to destroy them. "And the day started so well."
Ranma raced forward to catch up to his father as the golden energy continued its advance without even slowing down. "I don't know how much longer we can keep this pace pops." Looking forward he noticed they were getting close to a cliff that overlooked a large valley of springs with bamboo poles sticking out of them. Both reached the edge of the cliff at the same time and launched themselves off and over the springs angling for the ground between them Ranma noticed a small hut by a path and saw a large man and a small girl standing in front of it watching the light that was now devouring the sky above. Even as the two landed on the ground he could see the same golden light rushing in from the other direction until the valley of springs was surrounded. Only for the light to slow to crawl as if something was resisting its forward momentum into the area.
Genma looked up to see the sky had turned black as golden tendrils lashed against a strange shimmering barrier that seemed to surround the valley. He had lived long enough to know a magical reaction when he saw it, but he could also see that it was shrinking steadily under the pressure of the golden light and its trailing black. The two martial artists quickly crossed the area to where the man and what Genma assumed was his daughter were standing with the man staring in fear at their encroaching doom. He could see the girl was crying with her face buried in her father's shoulder.
"W-what do we do?" Ranma couldn't keep both panic and fear out of his voice as he stared at the approaching light.
"Nothing boy." Genma sighed looking around "There is nothing we can do but sit and wait." Sure he could have been freaking out but in this situation what would that have accomplished. Looking once more at the man and his daughter Genma slipped forward and struck a pressure point on the girl knocking her out completely. "It's best she not know what's happening." Genma spoke before the man could complain and then moved back near Ranma watching as his son looked at every inch of the sky and surrounding area. "There's no way out boy, we're not getting out of this one."
Ranma wanted to shout at his old man for being so calm in the face of what could be a truly painful and excruciating death but his attention was suddenly caught by one of the springs as a glimmer of blue light shimmered forth. Frowning he crept towards it watching the surface of the water as more blue light shimmered forth in a light mist. Looking up he could see more blue glows starting from other springs but the light flowed inwards towards the spring that Ranma had first looked at until the water seemed unnaturally clear and bore a faint blue glow that seemed to shine from every inch of the spring. "Ranma!" Spinning around he watched in shock as golden light, having breached the last of the shield around Jusenkyo, lashed downwards enwrapping the man and his daughter in a cocoon of light before pulling away to nothing but blackness. Genma on the other hand had dodged dozens of the lights only for one to lash around his waist pulling through him and leaving a spreading blackness in its place.
"POPS!" The scream was wrenched from Ranma's throat as he launched himself forward to grab his father and the lap back to the edge of the spring as golden light rushed inwards. Even in that short a time Ranma saw the blackness had covered nearly half of his father's form.
"S-sorry boy. Sorry for everything." Genma managed to gasp it out before the darkness claimed him completely and he vanished from Ranma's arms. "NO!" Jerking back in shock actually saved him as the light that would have curled around his head missed, only for another to lash through his arm at his wrist leaving a strange numbness behind even as he toppled backwards landing in the spring with a splash of water as the golden light washed inwards to meet rising blue mist in a clash of ancient power.
00000000000
Reality Cluster: None Universe Type: Non-existent
"Ranma." The whipser floated through darkness.
"Ranma." It touched a mind, a mind still reeling in shock from what it had seen but still intact.
"You are needed..." The whisper went unheeded as the mind tried to turn away, tried to shut down from the horror it had just faced.
"We are sorry this must be done, we know your desire but you must WAKE." The mind tried to pull away again only for images to suddenly flood into it.
Ranma woke screaming. His mind filled with countless images of destruction. Golden light washing across the multiverse, devouring all in its path. Uncountable innocents screaming in fear and then silenced as if they had never even existed as planets, solar systems, galaxies and universes alike were wiped from time. "NO! Please, no more!" In an instant the images stopped though he could still recall them, still see the aliens, humans, animals and others who had stared at their skies in fear as the light descended.
"We are sorry." The voice sounded weak as if just the actions taken had sapped what little strength it had left. "But you must listen. He will destroy all, devour all. Unless he is stopped."
"How?" Ranma's voice was grim, he had just seen his father die. No, not die, he had just seen his father murdered. And yet even in his mind that paled in comparison to the number who had fallen by what was out there.
"There is a being." The voice almost sounded wistful "called the Doctor. The enemy took from him his mind, all his memories, all that he is. Because the enemy fears him, you must find him."
"Why wouldn't he just kill him?" Ranma wasn't exactly an expert on evil things out to destroy the universe but if he had planned to do something like this he certainly wouldn't let an enemy live, especially one who actually could defeat him.
"Because at the end, at the very end when there is nothing left to save the enemy will give him his memories back. So that in those last few moments he can gloat, he can watch the pain in the eyes of the lonely god as the last of the multiverse unravels." The anger in the voice was obvious. "The doctor must be found. We have used the last of our power to bring you here, the last chance to change things. Will you do this? Will you find the Doctor?"
It was a question that Ranma didn't even need to take any time thinking about. "Yes." He felt a strange tingling rushing across him. "Can he return what's been taken?"
"We do not know, only the Doctor will know what can be done." The voice grew weaker. "Find him, return to him what has been stolen. Be wary shard of chaos, the enemy will sense our involvement and evil will come."
Pain lanced through Ranma's brain before spreading to his entire body nearly causing him to scream. "FIND HIM! RELEASE THE ONCOMING STORM!" The shout tore through his mind even as it went dark.
Wind whispered through grasses, trees, and across the surface of a small pond causing leaves to rustle and small ripples to spread across the ponds surface. The wind also brushed across the form now lying in the grass that was twitching every now and then where it lay before it let out a soft pained moan. The forest quieted as the smaller animals fled or hid in foliage to watch the unknown that had suddenly appeared in their woods.
Ranma let out another soft moan as his mind slowly began to clear from the darkness that had closed in on it. The memories where still there, his father being struck by the light and the countless worlds and people devoured by the consuming light and darkness. His eyes cracked open slightly before clenching shut in the face of light shining down from a midday sun that shone in a cloudless sky. He could feel the warmth of the light shining on him as a soft breeze washed over him sending strange tingles across his skin. Opening his eyes slowly to get used to the light he found himself staring at an odd landscape. Sure there were trees and grass and a brilliant blue sky but the colors seemed far more vibrant than he was used to and the world felt strange to his senses. Reaching out with his admittedly still crude ki senses the area around him thrummed with a life he had never felt anywhere on earth. He knew enough from the voice and it's images that earth no longer existed, or at least his earth, so this had to be some other planet or dimension if he was truly off to find this strange Doctor person. It was at that point that he started realize that something was very, very wrong with his body and it was only added to when he lifted his head and looked.
"WHAT THE HELL!" The shout echoed out and into the dense forest as the martial artist stared at himself in shock. "I-I'm a freakin horse!" Okay maybe not a horse as he certainly wasn't as big as any horse that he'd seen. It was possible he was some kind of pony though he wasn't even as big as some of them. He was currently trying to decide whether he should panic or go straight to anger when the last day caught up to him and he flopped back on the ground staring up at the sky for a moment. "At least I can talk." Which led to the question of if this world was populated by talking equines, at least that would be interesting. He slowly struggled to roll over and push himself up until he was upright. Strangely it didn't feel as weird as he thought it would and he took a few tentative steps towards the small pond trying to get a feel for walking with four legs. As he moved slowly, practically thinking each step out, he was dimly aware of a part of his mind that thought that his acceptance was likely due to mental shock more than anything. Not that he was a master of martial arts psychology, that was one tough school of martial arts and it focused almost entirely on engaging in mind games with your opponent while fighting.
Reaching the pond he stared into it getting his first look at his new body. A dark grey equine stared back at him as he examined his reflection. His ears seemed more pointed than a normal equines and where topped with short tufts of fur, he found he could move them in quite an impressive amount of directions as well as simply pull them flat against his head. It was his eyes that nearly caused him to jump back in fear, the golden eyes with slit pupils looked far to cat-like for his tastes. His night black mane was wild and sticking out in plenty of places and he seemed to have lost the tie he had used in his hair before, not that that was of much interest as he wasn't sure how he'd tie it even if he did have the string. Around his neck hung a silver chain that had a golden hourglass hanging on it. Even as he looked at it he could almost swear he heard whispered words brushing at his ears. Shaking his head he finally twisted around enough to get a look towards his rear enough to see his tail matched his mane in color, and there was something else...
"WHY DO I HAVE A TATTOO!" For a second time a loud shout echoed through the forest.
00000000
Everfree forest
Water rippled past as the unicorn sat beneath the tree looking out into the forest at the glowing eyes that peered out at her. She had long ago run out of tears to cry and while her stomach rumbled with hunger that hadn't been sated in days she knew it wasn't going to be long before it didn't matter.
"Well what are you waiting for?" The mare threw the question at the growling creatures in the trees the bitter sadness in her voice obvious. "Put Trixie out of her misery."
A flicker of light shone through the foliage as Trixie watched the glowing eyes of the timber wolves as they moved among the shadows. One had seemed to finally decide to make a move when a loud howl echoed from the deeper in the woods to the east. She could see the glowing eyes shift as the wolves looked to each other before a second howl sounded and the surrounding wolves vanished back into the forest at the call of their pack leader. Trixie blinked in surprise staring at the trees around her in confusion at the sudden reprieve from death.
"Apparently Trixie is not even able to die right." She shook her head and felt her spirits rise slightly as she took in the now empty forest around her. "Maybe it's a sign? Maybe Trixie is not meant to die?" Death though was exactly what she had been seeking, though she supposed that she had taken the more cowardly way out. Instead of killing herself where others might find her she had decided to do so in a place where nopony would ever know. Not that it would really matter, after all she already didn't exist as far as most ponies were concerned. It wasn't as if she had ever been well known, not a truly famous pony like the great Hoofdini. Now there was a pony who didn't need to travel to make a living. He had run a show in Los Pegasus for years until his death due to a magical mishap that nopony could have anticipated. She on the other hoof was nothing more than a simple traveling performer with eventual dreams of becoming well known enough to be able to settle down to a steady show in one of the larger cities. Though that had all died out after Ponyville, and oh how she hated that town! It hadn't been enough for them to simply learn that she couldn't defeat an Ursa Major, or Minor, no they had to spread the word of such. Calling her a fraud, a fake, and generally destroying her name in every town they could get to within one days flight distance, and from there it had spread even faster, the seeds of the destruction of her reputation sown before she had even made it to the next town.
After Ponyville everything had gone wrong. The loss of her wagon had hit her hard at first as there had been a great number of things in there she never wanted to lose, pictures, items and clothing that she had accrued over her years of travel that had sentimental value to them, and that wasn't even mentioning her books, pans, and general items for everyday living. But she had held to the belief that she could replace it all as soon as she got to the next town and started performing. Of course she learned quickly enough that no plan was going to end well for her after Ponyville. That first town had been bad enough, the mocking laughter and insults had shocked her as she certainly wasn't ready for them and her confusion at said insults only seemed to make the other ponies laugh all the harder. It hadn't taken long to abandon that town and move on in the hopes of trying somewhere else. The problem was that the news had spread everywhere, and it had grown only more wild and speculative with each telling. For months she had been completely unable to perform in any town or city, and as her reserve of bits had gotten dangerously low so she had struck out for the one town she was sure would give her a second chance. Appleloosa.
She had gone to the frontier town in the end because she was known there for saving a young filly during a heavy storm that almost drowned her. The residents had been extra kind to Trixie after that and she believed they wouldn't have forgotten her. She should have known better, it was a disaster from day one. She had found that the ponies there were no different than anywhere else. Oh there were some who remembered her, the filly she had rescued being one, and who tried to stand up for her but all it did was get them in trouble as well. And in the end, for the first time in a long time Trixie let her anger get the better of her. A young stallion decided to add injury to insult and threw something at her, she still wasn't exactly sure what it had been but her already foul mood, added to by what she saw as the betrayal of some of the last ponies she been willing to trust not to judge her over rumors and stories, had finally driven her to the desire to make a point. Said young stallion had found himself smashed into a building by her telekinesis with enough to force to break one of his legs. That hadn't helped her in any way and she soon found herself fleeing that last haven. Another few weeks and she had ended up working on a rock farm, a rock farm of all places!
It hadn't taken long working there before she had simply had enough. All she had ever wanted to do her entire life was to perform magic for others, it was what she had done as a young filly, and what she had done when she fled home for a life on the road. It was her special talent, the one thing in life that she truly enjoyed doing. And no pony would give her the chance to even attempt it anymore. And so her anger had festered until she could stand it no longer, and she had left the rock farm to on a quest for an ancient item she had read about in one of her old mentors books. Her plan had been simple, defeat Twilight in a magic duel which would force everypony to recognize that she was the stronger unicorn. After which, the word of said defeat would spread as fast as the stories that had destroyed her reputation and it would lead to no pony making fun of her as she would have defeated a pony who could subdue an ursa minor. She should have known better really, as horrible as her life had been going at that point she should have known it was all too good to be true when she found it.
The amulet was corrupted. She hadn't even known how far she had fallen until nearly a minute after the amulet was removed and the last of the corrupted power filtered out. She had truly felt terrible about what she had done, she had only wanted to restart her career by defeating Twilight in a duel and then moving on. Of course none of this would have happened in the first place if the ponies of Ponyville had just left her alone! Had they never spread those stories she would have simply got on with her life but apparently just mocking her wasn't enough for them, they had to destroy her life while they were at it! And if her reputation had been bad before the Alicorn amulet catastrophe it had only been worse afterwards. The ponies had been willing to just chase her out of town with insults and laughter before, they used rocks and fire afterwards. So a first, and last, trip into the Everfree forest had simply seemed the better option.
Trixie twitched slightly as the howls intensified farther away followed by what sounded like a pain filled cry from a timber wolf making her wonder what could possibly be out there hurting them? Curiosity is an impressive motivational force, known to make everyone from the most courageous to the most cowardly do things they normally wouldn't. And Trixie found herself motivated enough to move towards the sounds that seemed to be coming closer. Creeping through the trees she had just reached a large trunk that was split in half when a pony launched itself over the tree and, with a startled shout, slammed into her sending them both tumbling into another tree and to the ground. Trixie winced at the pain that shot up her left back leg even as she heard a loud roar followed by claws tearing at wood from the tree the unknown pony had jumped past. Looking up she stared in surprise at the timber wolf that was trapped in the split trunk as it let out another roar and struggled to get free. With a splintering crack wood shattered as branches broke and another wolf skidded around the tree and dashed towards the two ponies. A shout from the other pony drew the wolfs attention and it leapt forward only to hit empty air as the pony dodged to the side planting his front hooves on the ground and twisting in a way that allowed him to hit the wolf with both back hooves in a buck that sent it flying into another tree shattering the wolf into pieces.
Where had this pony come from?
00000000
SLIGHTLY EARLIER
Ranma was holding up fairly well, somewhat surprising after watching his world die and having the image of thousands of similar worlds deaths shoved into his head on top of being turned into an equine. Few would know that it was the neko-ken itself that protected his mind from going into full mental shock and breakdown. The damage, and mental alterations, suffered by learning that technique had forced his mind to be far more flexible and accepting than most. things that would cause a normal mind to crack merely caused his to shudder and then plow through with rationalizations and acceptance. After all, he had gotten through a technique that had the ability to drive him temporarily insane and survived to be completely fine, though it was likely that others would dispute his assertion of being fine...or sane. But even he would likely have been forced to admit that the vision of so many deaths across the multiverse had been nearly enough to cause even his mind to retreat to a protective state, of course the instant it had thought about that it had also thought about what was back there looking to take over if he did retreat. And now he was here in this new world in search of someone he had never seen in the hopes that this person could stop whatever bastard had killed so many. And though there was part of him that was saying it was futile to believe so he was still holding to the hope that this Doctor could restore his world and every other world destroyed.
He had taken a minute to stare at the mark that seemed to adorn his flank on both sides of his body and was still trying to figure out what the hell it was supposed to mean. A large red cat paw print crossed by two silver bo staves overlaying it in an X was both confusing and weird. It reminded him far too much of brands put on animals owned by farmers and others but since he couldn't do anything about it he decided to worry about it later. He had then decided that maybe it would be good to try and familiarize himself with his new body since who knew how long he'd look like this and with the way his life usually seemed to go he was going to have to do quite a bit of fighting. Which of course lead to the next realization, that his entire form of martial arts was probably useless in this form and he'd have to try and devise and entire new form of fighting if he planned on doing any. That outlook had changed slightly when he had found out how flexible and unlike an actual equine his body was. His forelegs had a range of motion that no real life pony could ever match and he had found that through effort he could stand up, though his unfamiliarity with his new body meant he usually fell down seconds after doing it. But it meant that he would, possibly, be able to use some moves and ideas from normal human fighting, which of course lead to a few tests.
The hoof snapped past the rock, missing it completely, sending Ranma to the ground once again to a mouthful of dirt and snarled curses. He had found out quickly that bucking things with both back hooves was going to take some work. It wasn't as simple as just spinning around and lashing out with ones hooves, it required aiming and precision so you didn't miss, or hit your target at an angle that would send the hoof, or hooves, skidding to the side instead of slamming dead on into the target. And while a pony who had grown up their entire life as a pony probably knew exactly the distance they needed to plant their front hooves to turn and kick Ranma wasn't nearly so lucky and thus was still trying to estimate exactly where he needed to be. Thankfully this body had seemed to come with a bit of motor control as he had mastered walking and even trotting fairly quickly. The first attempt at a gallop had sent him tumbling through the grass and almost into the pond before he had slid to a stop. But what had truly held a good portion of his minds attention while practicing was the sheer amount of life around him. He was by no means a master of Ki manipulation but he was okay at sensing it and had even gotten to the point he could read peoples auras, though not well, but no one would have needed a strong sense to feel what was around him.
This world was literally overflowing with life energy, it practically poured out of every plant and animal around and made moving around like walking through a sea of life energy. He couldn't really see it but he could certainly feel it, hell this much energy in one area would possibly even affect weather patterns due to the sheer amount of power flooding the air, the ground, plants and everything. It was more power than he had ever felt anywhere on earth and he was confused as to why it was here. The trees seemed normal if more vibrantly colored than he was used to and he was sure he had seen a few birds he could recognize in the trees, several of which had given him the creeps by the almost...intelligent way they focused on him. Even the water of the pond had seemed strange to his senses as well as tasting cleaner than anything but the mountain streams pops and him had drunk from at times.
He swung a foreleg around and tried to memorize the exact movement path and reach so he would know exactly how far it would strike once he began training for this new form. He was still swinging said leg around when he heard a loud snap coming from the trees to his left. Stopping all movement he looked to the trees watching the darkness between them for any movement. It was at that moment that he realized that all the small animals, some of which had hung around at the edges of the trees, had vanished completely. Ranma had to admit that his danger sense wasn't fully developed and that at the moment it wasn't giving much in the way of warning. Frowning he moved towards the trees where the sound had come from while keeping his body tense and ready to move at a moment's notice if it became necessary. He was still a short distance away when a loud howl filled the air from somewhere close by causing him to jump in surprise. It also exposed a bit more about his new form that he hadn't known about, that he had instincts that were new and built into the body and which were now shouting at him to run. Shaking off the desire to flee he took another step towards the trees when something shifted causing him to jump back in surprise again as several greenish yellow glows sprang to life in the trees and moved forward slowly until they entered the light.
To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. Ranma had faced wolves before, as one of his father's prized training methods was to drape the trainee with fresh meat, strap a several hundred pound rock to their back and then drop them into the middle of a wolf pack. It was good speed and tactical thinking training, especially when you weren't allowed to take to the trees to get away. As the trainee got better you simply put heavier rocks on them until they could outrun a wolf pack carrying several ton, after that it became a wasted exercise as the trainee was simply too tough for the wolves to damage anymore and so you moved on to a different method. But he'd already found out his new body was not nearly as tough as his old one yet, and these were not normal wolves. Wood, leaves, vines and other forest material had somehow been woven together to create the bastardized version of wolves that were now stalking out of the trees and growling as they moved forward. Instincts that had shouted to run from just hearing the howl pushed their way forward once more and his entire body shook from the desire to get the hell out of there as more and more wolves exited the forest. They had slowed their advance to a slow creep as they continued towards him though that was likely because unlike normal prey he hadn't run yet. Running was an option to be held until he could truly get away, so he did the one thing they wouldn't expect, the one thing only a Saotome would do...he charged.
The lead wolf jerked back in surprise and Ranma launched himself upwards and over the creatures head. While he didn't have a fighting style in this body yet there were several basic things he knew he could perform easily, and as he landed on the creatures back he kicked viciously at what should be its spine. The wooden wolf gave a pained cry as a loud splintering sound was heard and it dropped to the ground thrashing as Ranma was flung to the side. The martial artist had barely skidded to a stop when the second wolf was on him sending them both tumbling as it tried to get it's jaws around his body. Ranma reacted with all the panicked fury a trained martial artist could, even in an unfamiliar form, and the remains of the wolfs body flipped up to slam down to his left shattering into pieces as the remains of its head clattered off of trees to his right. Not that that was going to stop the other twelve wolves as they began their own charge and another loud howl sounded in the trees to his left followed by the crashes of something truly huge heading his way. Ranma considered every option and then did the only remaining thing he could do...ran like hell.
He managed to impress himself by tripping only twice within the first ten minutes and then none after, thankfully he managed to dodge around enough rocks and trees to keep from getting caught when he did trip. The sounds of the wolves behind him was close enough that he knew if he didn't find some way to ditch them he was going to get caught eventually. It wasn't just that the body was still unfamiliar to him but that he had almost no idea of how to shift his Ki into the right places to keep his stamina from collapsing faster than he was used to. Breaking free of the trees he was on open ground for a moment before being forced to skid to a stop staring off a cliff edge into the trees below. It wasn't a huge drop but more than the wolves would be able to make with how low their durability seemed to be, though he was sure there was something else coming as the huge crashes were coming more often and getting closer. Turning to look back at the trees he watched as the wolves skidded to a stop as they exited the trees even as the loudest crash yet sounded and a small tree was knocked out of the way allowing the largest wolf he had ever seen stalk out into the open. The other wolves were small compared to the giant as it strode up next to them, its eyes focused on what it was planning on making its next meal. It barely managed another step forward before its prey spun and with a short charge towards the cliff edge launched itself off and plummeted down into the trees below. Even as he fell Ranma could hear an enraged howl from above and managed to snag a look back to see several of the smaller wolves looking over the edge of the rock. Twisting around he had just enough time to think that this was a really, really bad idea. And then he hit the tree.
"STUPID!"
Branches snapped with loud cracks punctuated with cries of pain.
"FREAKING!"
A loud thud followed by more cracks from within the tree as the pony smashing through it hit the trunk and bounced off into more branches on his way down.
"TREE!"
A final few cracks and followed by a loud thump as the martial artist impacted the ground, followed by another pained cry as broken branches rained down on top of him.
With a pained groan Ranma pushed himself somewhat unsteadily to his feet and stumbled a little away from the big tree till he found a large enough opening to look up where he could see the wolves still looking down, though he saw them pull back a second later and figured they would probably try and find a way down. He winced at a pain that shot up his right foreleg and slowly swung it around to try and get the pained twinge in it out. He was still doing so when a duel set of growls echoed from the trees and a new pair of wooden wolves slipped out into the few shafts of light that pierced the foliage to his left. Golden eyes narrowed in irritation as he backed slowly away from the advancing predators. "Oh come on!" Pushing his irritation with the encounter back he spun and dashed into the forest hoping to lose the two irritants before the other wolves managed to get down from above and cause him even more problems. It hadn't taken much running to see a tree ahead with a split trunk and with the hope that at least one of the wolves behind him was stupid enough to try and follow he leapt up and through the gap. What he hadn't expected was the pony on the other side of said tree who looked quite shocked to see him. With no way to change direction he simply managed a surprised shout before he slammed into the other pony and they both went flying into another tree. Ranma managed to push himself up as his first hope was answered by the sound, and sight, of a wolf trapped within split trunk of the tree he had leapt through. But he was forced to focus on the second wolf as it skidded around the tree and oriented on the pony he had run into. A plan flashed through his mind and he got ready to move. "HEY!" The shout got the wolfs attention and it lunged at him even as he swung to the side to dodge its jaws and planted his front hooves allowing him to lash out with a double kick that sent the wolf flying into a tree where it shattered into pieces. Spinning to face the other wolf Ranma could see that it was starting to work its way free of the tree it was trapped in. Moving to just out of range of its jaws he waited till it tried to snap at him then reared up and lashed out with a strike that shattered much of the creatures head making the rest of the body fall into pieces. Even as the remains of the wolf fell a howl in the distance sounded.
Ranma wasn't sure how much time there was before the other wolves would catch up and while these weren't like normal wolves they reacted somewhat the same though they seemed to be quite a bit smarter than normal wolves. He finally got a good look at who he had slammed into after his jump and blinked in surprise at the horn that adorned the other equines head causing several questions to jump to mind. Was it a unicorn? Where unicorns even real? Compared to his more muted grey coat and black mane and tail colors this pony was a bright azure blue with a mane and tail that seemed to be pale blue and a paler blue so light it looked almost white. She had a mark on her flank just as he did, though it seemed to be a wand and maybe a crescent moon though he wasn't sure and wasn't going to spend time looking. He shook off the question of the unicorn horn and focused on the faint, but growing louder, howl from deep in the forest.
"You alright?" He stepped forward "There's more of them out there and I don't think I lost them for long."
"Trixie is fine." Trixie was proud of the fact she got the words out without stammering, after all it wasn't every day you saw a pony deal so quickly with two Timber wolves without any kind of magic backing them up, or at least not in direct hoof to hoof fighting. Then again this was one of the Night Guard, which was surprising in and of itself. She had never heard of members of the Night Guard being so far from the palace on their own, in fact she had never really heard of them being too far from Princess Luna. If they did leave the palace they usually traveled in small groups and kept to themselves to the point of even avoiding some of the Sun Guards and that was usually for small short trips into Canterlot and then back to the palace. Trixie wasn't sure she bought into the rumors told by some that the Night Guard had simply appeared several weeks after the return of Princess Luna, as if her return had signaled to them that it was time to come return to serving the princesses. Those rumors also had vague statements about historic alliances with Nightmare Moon, curses, and talk about some ancient war as well as speculation on the home where the odd ponies that made up the Night Guard originated from. Any more thought was cut off by the sound of a howl deep in the forest, followed closely by a loud roar.
"Okay we need to get the heck out of here." Ranma looked around frowning "I don't suppose you know the way out of this place?"
"Trixie doesn't know the way out." Not really a lie as she had never been planning on leaving the forest so she hadn't even tried to follow any kind of path. Looking at the unicorn Ranma could easily see the beginnings of malnutrition, he had suffered from it plenty of times himself so knew what it looked like, as well as picking up a very strange reading with his senses. He could make out auras better when the person, or in this case pony, was feeling something very strongly, and Trixie was practically bleeding the heavy Ki of depression into the air around her. That wasn't good. While He had suffered from depression himself at times he usually pushed through it as quickly as he did everything else. But he had certainly heard of, and seen, those who couldn't. She would slow him down, hold him up and possibly get him killed before he could even find the Doctor. And after having so much death shown to him he was as likely to leave her behind as he was to give up practicing martial arts. Another roar, much closer this time, made him settle on a course of action.
"They're wolves, they'll either try and surround us to cut off escape or try and herd us towards a place they know we can't get away from." He looked at Trixie and pointed behind her "We'll run that way, should keep us away from them and it's the way I was heading anyway." A howl getting closer.
"Go. Trixie will slow them down and give you time to get away." She was proud she had thought to say something so impressive sounding when she felt like her legs were going to give out in terror. Maybe a few tales of the Great and Brave Trixie would get spread by the pony if he made it out of the forest.
"The hell you will!" Before Trixie could make statement saying otherwise the young stallion dashed forward, ducked his head down underneath her and then jerked up throwing Trixie onto his back before leaping forward into a run. The showpony gave a startled scream as she clamped her forelegs around the stallions neck holding on for dear life as the scenery began to speed by faster and faster. It was common knowledge that earth ponies were stronger than Pegasi or Unicorns but she had never heard of a earth pony running as fast as the one who was now carrying her was moving. For his part Ranma was ecstatic that he had finally seemed to get the hang of his legs and body, not a truly insane surprise considering how fast a learner he was but it was still something to be happy about. He was still certain that he was making huge mistakes on Ki manipulation in this form, as he was hemorrhaging Ki at a massive rate into the environment which was something that shouldn't be happening. This body was simply...wrong, was the only word he could come up with in relation to the techniques he knew for Ki control and manipulation. His speed was going to start to suffer soon if he didn't find some way to ditch the creatures behind him. Trixie merely did her best not to fall off the back of the pony she was still trying to figure out. He had to know that he couldn't outrun timber wolves while carrying her across such uneven ground. A roar behind made her look back and she stared in shock at the massive timber wolf that rushed through the trees, actually smashing some of the smaller ones out of its way. Her legs tightened around the stallions neck and she didn't even try and keep the fear out of her voice. "They are catching up!" Ranma glanced back and barely held in a curse as the big wolf from earlier knocked aside a small tree on its charge towards them. "We just need some thicker trees and we can lose them t- " His hoof came down on what looked to be a normal section of ground only to hear a loud cracking and his hoof punched straight through the grass and dirt and the ground caved out from underneath the two of them. "SHIT!" Ranma tried to lunge forward but the ground under his back hooves gave way next plummeting them down into darkness. Trixie managed a terrified scream before they vanished into the now exposed blackness below.
00000
CANTERLOT
"The Griffon kingdoms are requesting several negotiators to settle a dispute along their frontier. It appears that the Diamond Dogs have begun to expand into one of their hunting areas and they wish to settle the dispute without starting a war." The official looked up from the papers she was levitating in front of her and stopped speaking as she noticed Princess Celestia staring out a southern window with a look of worry on her face. "Princess, Is something wrong?"
It was thousands of years of training that kept Celestia from jumping in surprise at the interruption. She had felt...something, to the south. A power entering the world, a whisper of voices on the wind speaking in languages unknown but filled with an ancient sorrow. Shaking her head she returned to the business at hoof. With the attack of the changelings and the return of the Crystal Empire so new in the minds of the ponies of Equestria she couldn't cause any kind of panic right now, it could easily spiral out of control and cause problems that they couldn't handle at this moment. But she knew that this was something both she and Luna would need to look into, and just maybe the Intelligence Service would need to be sent to investigate as well.
"It is nothing. Tell High King Krag that we will send representatives to speak to the diamond dogs and try to broker some kind of peace between them." She knew that such was not going to be easy, the diamond dogs were notoriously hard headed when it came to territory and while the they would not litter the surface of the griffons hunting ground with buildings, as they were a mostly subterranean race, they would compete with the griffons for food. From the corner of her eye she could see the Night Guard beginning to filter into the edges of the court and knew it would soon be time for the Lunar Court to begin. She would have to speak to Luna about what she had felt, it was likely that her sister would have felt it as well. She just hoped it wasn't even more danger for Equestria and its citizens.
00000000
PONYVILLE
Moonlight fell through the open window of the living quarters above the Ponyville post office, the light illuminating two forms in the large bed set near the window. One, a brown stallion, tossed and turned as the breeze that wafted through the window seemed to carry whispering voices on the wind. Ancient, sorrowful, and yet calling to him all the same, a golden hourglass in his dreams swaying before him with voices whispering faintly from it. 'The enemy rises, the universe burns. Doctor! Doctor, you must wake!'
Even as the words whispered through his mind the mare next to him snuggled closer and dreams of strange blue boxes and strange worlds faded once again, lost under dreams of his life in Ponyville.
Ranma was certain he was going to be deaf in his left ear. Or at least he expected it after the extended screaming his passenger was doing on the way down. Ranma was a martial artist, well his universes insane version of one anyway, and in this situation he would have usually just tried to angle to the wall and dig in with feet and hands to slow his fall. Being in pony form meant that any attempt to grab the wall was fated to fail and if he tried to drive a hoof into the thing the only result he was going to get was to send himself spinning and the screaming weight on his back wasn't helping as she was shifting around too much for him to be able to attempt anything reckless anyway. Even an attempt to use ki to anchor a hoof or two to the wall was likely to fail, and he wasn't good at doing it to moving objects anyway. Any other thought of trying something vanished when, in the dim and fading light from above, he noticed the sides of the cave closing in around the two of them right before flailing hooves hit rock and he tumbled into a slide down an angled rock tunnel that sent the two ponies tumbling.
The forward momentum lasted only a few moments before they were airborne again. Ranma managed to catch only a minor glimpse of a cavern illuminated by a dim glow coming from something on the floor before he had to worry about the fall to said floor. At the last second he managed to get all four hooves under him and impacted the rock floor, with luck on his side, so that he managed to skid to a stop while still standing. "YES!" Smirking he almost felt like dancing in place at his accomplishment when a heavy weight slammed into his back driving him to the ground. With a pained groan he turned his head to glare at Trixie who was scrambling back to her hooves and trying to look innocent.
"Geeze how much do you weigh?" He groaned as he pushed himself up trying to ignore the pain he was currently feeling in nearly every part of his abused body. The hoof that hit him a second later nearly knocked him back to the rock floor. "What was that for!"
"It needs an explanation?" The mare glared at him angrily before turning to look around at the cave around them. A luminescent plant, likely moss, gave off a dime blue glow from where it grew around the edge of a pool of water near the entrance of a large tunnel. Desiring more light Trixie conjured a simple light sphere and sent it flying upwards to illuminate the cavern she was now occupying. It was fairly large, with a ceiling a good fifteen feet above her, but it was also riddled with tunnels that seemed to come into it at random with some even going straight down. Turning she almost jerked backwards as she found the night pony less than a foot away staring at her horn with excitement.
"How did you do that?" Ranma had been shocked when Trixie's horn had glowed and released the light that now hung in the air above them. He hadn't even sensed anything when it had happened, well he had gotten a tingle up his spine but he was sure that had everything to do with the heavily abused state his body was in and nothing to do with Trixie. "How does it work? Can I get a horn like that?" It didn't take much to note the look he was receiving, as if he had asked her the dumbest question in the world. Trixie for her part was starting to wonder about the sanity of her current companion, after all he had been running through the Everfree and fighting Timber wolves so he couldn't exactly be completely right in the head. Of course what did that say about herself? And while she wasn't an expert on the royal guard she was starting to wonder if he was on a mission at all, or if he was simply an insane pony that she probably shouldn't have gotten close to, not that she'd had much choice in the matter. "Trixie is a unicorn." She put as much offended pride in that statement as she could, only to see him still looking confused. "Unicorn magic?" Still a mostly blank look with only minor comprehension. "How can you not know about unicorn magic?"
"I'm...not from around here?" It was practically as much a question as it was a statement. "I'm looking for someone. Someone who can help me fix a...problem." Trixie was focusing on the other ponies words while looking around the cave for anything that might be useful or dangerous and latched onto the statement of 'someone'. Ponies of course weren't the only sentient races in the world, they might have been the largest in population but they certainly weren't the only ones. Trixie had gone to enough school, or been forced to go actually, and was widely enough traveled to know that dragons especially used the different 'someone, anyone' instead of 'somepony, anypony' along with other language differences. It was interesting to hear it come from another pony though. "He's called the Doctor, and I think this hourglass is his."
Trixie froze for a moment before turning slowly to look at the pony "Did you say Doctor?"
"You know him?" Ranma couldn't keep excitement out of his voice.
"Trixie met a pony called the Doctor when she was a little filly." Trixie frowned as she started to think back on what she remembered.
"Then you can help me!" The desperation in Ranma's voice caught Trixie's attention "I don't even know what he looks like and I have to find him quickly. What does he look like? Where is he?" While he might not be in the same place anymore he could at least get a start on the search and know what the person, or pony, he was looking for looked like.
Trixie's face scrunched in concentration "Trixie...can't." She blinked in confusion "I can't remember." The words were spoken softly and in increasing confusion "Why can't I remember?" And yet she remembered everything else about that day, especially when she had met the one pony that inspired her to start really training in magic. It had happened in Hoofington, though she herself had been just passing through at the time on her way to wherever her wandering would take her. A small filly with a blank flank that had left home to travel, and had found inspiration in one of the truly legendary unicorn ponies in Equestria.
00000000
Hoofington, 20 years ago.
Mud and water splashed up as the little blue filly tripped into the puddle left over from last night's heavy rain sending the dirty water into the walls of the alley as well as working a new layer of mud into her fur. Grumbling she pushed herself to her hooves and listened for a moment to make sure she wasn't being followed anymore by that annoying tailor and his friends. Why did adults always have to assume that she needed somepony to look after her? She was perfectly capable of doing so on her own and had been, and been doing so, for quite some time. Any other thought was stopped by the building shaking roar that was getting closer and coming from east of town. That was where the unicorn she had seen earlier was likely to be, the unicorn who had performed for the town and spoke of grand adventures, far travels, and horrible beasts defeated. The Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon was what she had called herself, and Trixie had made the decision that she was going to become the unicorns apprentice and learn everything she knew.
Running from the alley she crossed through several streets and past now abandoned houses and buildings, making her way through the nearly evacuated town for where she was sure the unicorn would be. Nearing the edge of town she found the view to the east blocked by a truly titanic beast striding towards the town, each paw striking the ground with enough force to shake the buildings and rattle the windows. The creatures dark violet coat of fur seemed to shimmer and glow with stars shining within it and almost seemed to have a partially translucent look to it. In truth massive didn't even begin to describe the sheer size of the beast that was tromping towards town, it could easily have crushed entire city blocks under its paws and the roar it voiced nearly sent the filly tumbling backwards.
Trixie stumbled back in terror until she backed into something that stopped her rearward motion. Looking up she gasped in surprise and quickly spun around to stare in awe at the unicorn she had been looking for. Trixie had once seen Princess Celestia at a summer sun celebration in Canterlot, before she had left the place, and had been awed by how beautiful and powerful the solar princess had seemed. And the unicorn she stared at now made her think of the same thing. Her fur was a midnight black that seemed to shimmer in the light from the sun while her silver mane and tail blew gently in the breeze that still brushed through town. She was taller than many, with a lithe build and long legs that were a rare trait among pony kind. Her cutie mark, a star topped wand flanked by a small crescent moon on one side and a small full moon on the other, caught Trixie's attention as she was still holding out hope to get her cutie mark soon. The look Trixie received from the mare though caused the filly to shrink back.
"What are you doing out here!" The mare looked again at the massive beast her voice sharp with anger. "Facing an Ursa Major is not a place for little fillies. Or most full grown mares for that matter."
Trixie wasn't sure what to say but cowered as another thundering roar sounded from the creature as it reached the first houses and smashed several aside with contemptuous ease. Whimpering slightly the filly began to back away until, to her shock, Lulamoon strode forward to confront the beast. Taking a deep breath the unicorn spoke, in a voice that Trixie was sure would have deafened any pony standing in front of her.
"I give you a chance to stop this and allow us to help you. If you do not you shall face the wrath of the Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon!" Her voice thundered loudly and she ended the statement with a flourish of explosive fireworks that boomed before the creatures face causing it to focus on the unicorn. And while Trixie was impressed she didn't think the giant celestial bear was. The creature gave another roar, close enough now that the air pressure actually knocked the filly over. When she was done tumbling backwards she looked up to see Lulamoon's horn glowing grey as she stepped forward to meet the beast.
The glow around the unicorns horn grew brighter and brighter until a it was hard to look at and with a loud grunt of surprise the Ursa Major's claws struggled for purchase as it was slowly lifted upwards until it was completely off the ground with limbs flailing. Trixie could only stare in shock at a feat of magic the filly doubted any but her new idol could do, she grudgingly added princess Celestia to that list as well though she assured herself that the princess wasn't as awesome. Squinting to see past the blazing light shining from Lulamoon's horn she could see by the strained expression on the unicorns face exactly how difficult it was to do what she was doing. Light flashed as large ghostly chains shimmered into existence and wrapped tightly around the Ursa's legs pinning them together before a third chain appeared to wrap tightly around the bears muzzle chaining it shut and muting its roars. The unicorn swayed slightly, her legs shaking with the drain on her magic reserves.
"N-now D-doctor! I c-can't hold it f-forever." Her voice still boomed from the enhancement spell placed on it earlier and Trixie saw a stallion dash from the cover of an alley with something held tightly in his mouth before flinging it forward where it skidded to a stop under the giant. Trixie heard a gasp from Lulamoon and watched as the black unicorn stumbled for a second before lifting a glowing right forehoof and then slamming it into the ground sending a jagged pulse of power lashing out to the object now under the bear. The small object began to glow brightly for a moment before it unleashed blinding wave after wave of multihued light shining across the bears form. The celestial bear gave one last muted roar before it faded away entirely and the glow from Lulamoon's horn winked out allowing the unicorn to nearly collapse to the muddy ground. Letting out a shuddering sigh she turned her head to look at the awed filly standing next to her and smiled. "And that is how you deal with an Ursa."
"You did it! You did it! You did it!" Trixie cheered as she literally bounced around the exhausted unicorn. She was still bouncing around the unicorn as the stallion walked up to her.
"Well that should do it, back to its proper place in time." He smiled "And nopony got hurt."
"Teach me!" Trixie skidded to a stop in front of Lulamoon recieving a surprised look from the stallion next to her and a weary smile from the unicorn. Seeing the looks she was recieving from the two of them Trixie looked up hopefully "I can go with you, really I can. There isn't anypony to say no."
"So you want to learn magic?" Lulamoon lowered to her head to look into Trixie's eyes. "Are you certain that is what you wish for?"
"YES!" Scrunching up her face in concentration Trixie's horn began to glow and ever so slowly a rock levitated off the ground to hover in front of the older unicorn. "See!"
"Well I must admit that for a unicorn of your age that is a feat." She smiled sadly at the youth "But I'm afraid that you can't come with us. I can't teach you." Seeing the downcast face she got in response she patted the small unicorn on the head and smiled. "Follow your goal, you will reach what you seek."
"There is a school in Canterlot that teaches young ponies to master their magic." The stallion, Trixie assumed him to be this Doctor that Lulamoon had called out to, spoke finally.
"NO!" Trixie released her magic, dropping the rock, and glared at the pony "I-I don't need them!" She drove the memories of her failed entrance exam to the back of her mind along with the laughter and the, barely bothered to be whispered, insults she had received for being a failure from the young ponies who had passed theirs. "I will be a powerful unicorn!" She almost shouted the words causing the stallion to take a step back in surprise at the angry glare he was receiving. "I'll be...I'll be The Great and Powerful Trixie! So powerful than I'll be able to defeat even you in a duel." She spoke the last while looking both hopefully and defiantly up at Lulamoon who smiled.
"Will you now?" The older unicorns smile widened "Well a great and powerful unicorn needs great and powerful magic. Will you keep practicing your magic till you have mastered it?" She watched the small filly nod vigorously.
"Yes! And I'll become so powerful that all the ponies of Equestria will know my name." Trixie reared up waving her hooves in the air for effect as the young pony imagined the cheering crowds that would great her. Surely that was the way they greeted Lulamoon, just like the night before when the town had cheered her performance. The young filly didn't notice the small flinch the older unicorn gave as well as the sadness in her eyes as she looked at the young filly. "You have great dreams Trixie. Are you sure you want to pursue such acclaim?"
"Yes." Smiling, Trixie waved a hoof at the Doctor "And someday I'll have a assistant with me as well."
"Assistant!" The indignant cry from the stallion went unheeded as Lulamoon laughed loudly before replying "I'm sure you will, and what a hoofful he's likely to be." Her mirth vanished quickly though as she watched the little filly for a moment. "Trixie" seeing she had the attention of the small unicorn she sighed "I want you know that I believe in you, that I believe you can become Great and Powerful. No matter how things might seem at times remember that the Amazing and Wonderful Lulamoon is waiting for that duel." She smiled at the filly "All you have to do is find me."
"I won't let you down." The filly spoke proudly while smiling happily "I'll become great and powerful and then find you." She again noticed with confusion the sadness the older unicorn seemed to be feeling.
The unicorn suddenly seemed to shake off her sadness and drew herself up taking on a haughty arrogant tone. "Now though Lulamoon needs a tailor. Do you know where she could find one?" Trixie could see the barely contained laughter in the older unicorn and quickly adopted the same stance and tone. "Trixie will show you to the shop Mr. Stitch runs."
Lulamoon smiled at the Doctor "Come along Doctor, I can't do this without my assistant." It was obvious to the young filly that she was barely containing mirth and the Doctor was looking irritated. "Assistant." He muttered, shaking his head as he followed.
Through the entire conversation the young filly didn't notice the minor fuzzy feeling she got in her mind whenever she looked at the stallion next to Lulamoon. And never questioned why he seemed so plain that while she remembered every little detail about that day she never could really picture him afterwards. His name though was one thing she did remember, and that Lulamoon seemed to treat him with at least some respect and listened to him when he insisted they get moving to handle 'things' that needed to be done.
000000000
Present Day. In a cave.
Trixie came back to herself with a jolt feeling the poke in her side from the stallion standing next to her. "You okay?"
"Trixie is fine. She simply...can't remember what the Doctor looked like." She was still confused about that. She had always prided herself on having a fairly good memory, it was how she had remembered info about the Alicorn Amulet years after she had seen that book. But for some reason she was absolutely incapable of remembering the stallion that had been with Lulamoon that day. And thinking about the legendary unicorn nearly brought her depression crashing back full force. What would her idol think of her now? She'd probably laugh as much as any other pony and point out how pathetic Trixie had turned out, especially compared to how big her expectations had been back then. It probably wouldn't have been surprising to her considering she had been traveling a long time and had probably seen plenty of young fillies and colts stupid enough to make the same boasts Trixie had. And a duel? A duel against a pony that could defeat and Ursa Major, a true Ursa Major, was so far out of her league that the mere thought nearly caused her to shudder. Lulamoon wasn't just a unicorn, she was one of the few legendary unicorns for her abilities in magic. The only thing Trixie seemed to be legendary for was her failures.
Thinking about that time long ago made her mind shift back to the attack on Ponyville by the Ursa Minor. Not that Trixie had known it was an Ursa Minor, she hadn't even known there were Minor's and had assumed that it was merely a smaller and different colored Ursa Major. Why had she even bothered to cast spells she knew wouldn't work on the beast anyway? She knew the answer to that question and it was that as stupid as those two colts were she couldn't just leave them out there, or just let the creature tear into the town without doing something to it. The more she thought of it the more the two of them reminded her of herself and how she had looked up to Lulamoon when she met her, but the outcome was far different for her than for them. She stopped her, probably thousandth, rerun of what had happened at that time and focused on the here and now.
"Damnit!" Ranma turned to glare at the water for a moment before spinning back around "Where was he though?" At least he could get that much.
"Hoofington." Seeing the look on his face she sighed "It's on the edge of the Everfree forest" Blank look "The forest we were just in." Shaking her head she frowned "Why are you looking for him?"
"Gotta save the world." Well technically he was trying to save the multiverse but he wasn't sure how she'd react to that statement, hell he wasn't sure how he felt about it yet. By the look he was getting, and the fact she edged backwards slightly, she probably wasn't buying that either. "It's true! That's why I'm looking for the Doctor. He's supposed to be able to help." Ranma wouldn't be the type to normally admit needing help for anything but this was so far beyond him that he wouldn't have any idea of what to do without help.
Trixie had to admit that she knew the Doctor was real, even if she couldn't remember what he looked like for some reason, and he traveled with Lulamoon who she was sure could save the world if anypony could. Trixie tried to think herself out of helping what was probably a madpony but in the end forced herself to think of the fact that he had saved her from those Timber Wolves, not that she had really wanted saving. Forcing herself to come to a decision she tried to tell herself that she wasn't going to regret this and looked to the night pony. "Trixie will help you. But she demands to know who she's working with. You are a night guard obviously but what is your name?"
"My names Ranma." He was silent for a moment before latching onto something else "What the heck's a night guard?" Seeing the incredulous look he was getting he frowned "Seriously, what's a night guard? I'm a martial artist, though I really need to do some work on a new style now. Hooves, how do you grasp things with hooves? The entire wolf fist style goes right out the window, along with nearly a dozen others. Why turn me into a pony? What, human wasn't good enough for them? How am I supposed to help anyone like this." The frustration in the pony's voice was obvious.
For a moment Trixie very strongly thought of revisiting her decision to help the pony as he was obviously nuts. But some faint drive pushed her forward, the memory of Lulamoon's statement that she believed in her. As much as Trixie wanted to find a hole and pull it in after her instead of meeting the one who she had looked up to for so long she couldn't help but feel that of all the ponies in Equestria maybe Lulamoon could tell her where she had went wrong. And if this stallion was the only way she was going to get there then she was going to damn well take this one chance. "Trixie knows Lulamoon and the Doctor didn't stay in Hoofington, but there are some ponies there who might have remembered where they headed."
"Great!" His enthusiasm vanished as he looked around the large cavern and noted the multitude of tunnels. "Now all we have to do is find our way out."
"Leave this to Trixie." A new spell created a second sphere though this one was a muted blue color and began to float here and there throughout the cavern until it pulsed a soft light in front of one tunnel before moving on. In total it gave the same pulse in front of six different tunnels, all on the left side of the cavern, and Trixie soon walked to the largest, stopping at the entrance only to look back to Ranma. "Well, are you coming?" Seeing the confusion on his face she explained "The spell seeks out fresh air. These tunnels have drafts with cleaner air than the others." As the two walked into the tunnels with the light sphere floating ahead of them Trixie noted the light claw marks in the walls with a frown and wondered what they might be walking into. She noticed the earth pony was glancing at her horn every now and then. "Yes?"
"So...magic. I don't suppose you can teach me anything?" Ranma was already trying to decide what cool way he could incorporate magic into his martial arts. Seeing the unicorn shake her head with mild irritation he frowned "Why not?"
"You are an earth pony." Trixie was truly getting confused by the other pony continuing to ask questions that he should know the answers to, and it was only increasing her belief in the mental instability of her companion. Seeing that her statement wasn't effecting him at all she turned to him "Unicorn, magic" She pointed to herself before pointing to him "Earth pony, not magic." Well that was a simplification as she knew earth ponies had a type of magic but it wasn't like unicorn magic. "This is common knowledge."
"Hey I said I wasn't from around here. I'm from a really long way away, at least I think it's a long way away and I'm not even sure how I really got here." Well he had seen ponies before but not like her.
Trixie frowned as she glanced at the pony for a moment trying to decide where he could have come from and not run into other ponies before today. To land in the Everfree and not run into any pony towns or cities was nearly impossible unless one truly tried to stay away from civilization. Her horn glowed again and a light aura shimmered to life around Ranma causing the earth pony to shiver slightly. Her frown only deepened as she considered what the minor scanning spell had told her, that the earth pony was surrounded by an extremely powerful magical field, in fact it seemed to be woven throughout his entire body. She had seen something similar in Manehatten when the guards were transferring a unicorn prisoner through the city and had passed through the area she was performing in and wanted to make sure he couldn't use any magic. But this was completely different in purpose, in fact it almost seemed like some form of transmutation magic working to alter some fundamental aspect of the pony. This only increased her curiosity as to cast such a spell and not have to be in close proximity to maintain it would require power that likely only existed in ponies like the princesses and the few powerhouses like Lulamoon and the irritating Twilight Sparkle, she admitted the last only grudgingly but had found it was better to face facts than run from them. She also knew better than to tamper with such a spell either, while she was quite skilled in many areas this was a spell that was far beyond her abilities.
"What is it?" Ranma shook off the funny tingle he felt running down his spine again.
"Nothing." Had somepony taken his memories? The spell certainly had some mental sections to it but they seemed minor and token additions compared to the rest. Shaking her head she decided to simply file the information away for use at a later date.
"You did something so what was it?" Ranma frowned at the unicorn as she seemed about to ignore him again but she finally turned to shoot him an irritated glare.
"Trixie was simply checking for some mental damage since you appear to know nothing."
"Hey!" He trotted forward quickly to catch up as she started walking again. "I'm fine. I just...don't know a lot about things around here." He pointed to her horn. "Like magic, can every unicorn do the spells you do?" Ranma normally just took things as they happened, to the point that one old sensei to call it 'one of his faults'. He often simply reacted in situations he was unsure of instead of taking action first himself but in a world of magic using ponies, animals that seemed too damn smart for their own good, killer wolves made of plants and the fact he was a pony that seemed to have at least some catlike qualities he was really starting to re-evaluate his usual methods.
"Of course not! Trixie is the Great and Powerful Trixie, she is not a normal unicorn." Seeing at least minor interest she sighed "Most unicorns are only proficient at a small amount of magic based upon their special talent, unicorns whose special talent is magic itself are much more adept and powerful and capable of a much larger range of abilities though they are much rarer than other unicorns." That wasn't exactly true but it was the simplified version most ponies were told to make them understand. In truth ponies could expand on their spell knowledge but those whose special talents fell outside of magic would find it nearly impossible to truly master any spells of worth. A unicorn with a good grasp of ground magic, the locating of gems being only one such spell in that field, would find it not impossible to cast weather magic but would find that they were absolutely atrocious at it. Conversely a unicorn who had a very good grasp of weather magic, a true rarity in itself, would find it nearly impossible to cast a useful ground spell. This of course lead to interesting questions on why a pony whose talents led them to one field could not cast all spells in that field, there were theories and tons of tests had been done but no really understanding had ever been found.
"So how do ya know exactly what a ponies special talent is? I mean I'm awesome at martial arts but I can cook pretty good as well. And I know how to sew really good to." Ranma supposed that if he had to choose one thing that martial arts would obviously take top option in talents.
"Did you come from across the ocean?" It would certainly explain his misunderstanding of such common things, as well as explain his particular choice of words. If he had grown up near the dragon or griffon lands he would have met few ponies if any, though that would raise the question of where his parents were. And it made her wonder if the fabled night ponies home was across the ocean. She shook her head in resignation, every question she thought she answered only lead to three or four more. She decided to handle the pony as if he had never set foot in civilization before, as that seemed to be the best option for the moment.
"Not from around here remember?" He glanced at her expectantly.
"Most ponies are good at many things, but the one thing that they enjoy doing more than anything else as well as what they are truly best at is their special talent. When they find out what that is they gain their cutie mark." Blank look again, which received a sigh and a hoof pointing at the mark on the stallions flank. Was she going to have to explain everything as if he was a little colt in school, she had never had the patience for such things.
"Is that what that is?" Suddenly the name hit him "A cutie mark? You call these things cutie marks?" He was trying to decide whether that was hilarious enough to laugh at or if he should be angry that someone had stamped a mark on him that anyone would refer to as a cutie mark. Sure the bo staves were a depiction of his martial arts but why in the hell was there a paw print of one of those furry little demons stamped on him! He glanced again at hers "So what does yours signify?"
"Trixie is skilled in magic." She didn't even bother to keep the pride out of her voice when she said it.
"So you're one of those really rare unicorns?" Ranma glanced down a side tunnel as they passed and frowned as he thought he noticed something move deep within it.
"Yes." It was a simple answer to a not so simple question. Even among those who were skilled in magic there were levels of power that the unicorns found themselves placed into. The usual rankings for such were low, middle, and high. The true names were more fancy and official sounding but none of the young ponies Trixie had met ever used them. A low ranked magic user could cast spells across all fields but would be limited to lower ability casting, while this still made them impressive by unicorn standards they were vastly limited compared to the high power level unicorns. A mid level magic user could cast many more spells than the lower power level unicorns but were still heavily deficient compared to the high levels. And a high level, well for one such as that the there was little that was out of reach. Of course there were those who were higher than that, the princesses and the legendary unicorns were in that level and she had a suspicion that Twilight Sparkle was as well considering all she had heard and seen of the unicorn. She decided to explain a little more "Unicorns whose talents are magic range in ability from those who are low level spell casters, which still makes them much more powerful than normal unicorns, to high level which are vastly stronger than even the low levels."
Ranma kept his eyes on the adjoining tunnels but was also still listening and glanced to Trixie "Where do you rank?"
Trixie consoled herself that the pony likely didn't know how offensive it was to pry so much and decided to skirt around the question somewhat "Trixie has never formally been tested." A truth though not entirely. She might not have been tested by those stuffy judges and teachers at Celestia's school but she had been tested by her mentor and had fallen squarely in the middle. It had taken her mentor three days to convince her that there hadn't been a mistake and that she was simply going to have to realize that that was where her talents were and that wishing it to be different wouldn't change anything. She admitted that it was likely that which drove her to leave her mentor and start traveling on her own, the realization that any dream of dueling Lulamoon was a just that...a dream. She had failed before she had even began but had always consoled herself with the thought that maybe it was wrong, and that someday in her travels she would meet Lulamoon and the unicorn would acknowledge her abilities. But any hope and dreams she had had left were shattered that night in Ponyville and every day since with the ponies of Equestria pointing out to her all of her failings. She found herself wondering what Ranma, and what an odd name that was, would think once they reached civilization and he found out about her.
"We're being followed." The simple statement got Trixie's full attention.
"By who?" She strained to look down a tunnel but could only see darkness.
"By what is probably a better question. It's big whatever it is." Any other statement was cut off as they came to a stop at the end of the tunnel, which exited into another cavern. This one they couldn't see the bottom of, what with the tunnel being an unknown distance up the cavern wall and even across to the other side though it was easy to see the continuing multitude of tunnels connecting with the cavern. "Who dug all of these? Why dig them all?" He watched as Trixie's light sphere began to float out into the cavern to at least attempt to illuminate a way down. Something glistened in the darkness of the cavern as the light shone outwards. Leaning forward Ranma tried to get a better view but could only tell it was something white that stretched from wall to wall in one area. It was a tiny scratching sound, the smallest sound of rock scraping on rock that got his attention and made him turn slightly to look back...right into a now blocked tunnel as something massive reared up. "Down!" He tackled Trixie as two large legs lashed forward to strike the spot they had been standing.
It was a spider, if spiders were made of rock and were the size of a horse and one could only struggle to imagine how the damned thing had snuck up on them. Ranma darted towards the creature to try and attack only to have the creatures abdomen shift and a strand of thick white webbing shoot forward to hit his left foreleg jerking it to the side and pinning it to his right sending him tumbling to the ground. A scream from Trixie caught his attention and he turned his head to see another strand of webbing wrapped around her and dragging her towards the horror made of rock. Ranma managed to get upright and dig his back hooves into the tunnel floor and draw on his ki to try and anchor himself to the floor. It was a simple skill that while not truly securing you to the floor would at least make it much harder for an opponent to pull him in. "Trixie use the light!" The panicking unicorns horn flashed and the light sphere rushed back into the tunnel and right into their enemies face causing it to shriek in surprise and wrench at the webbing sending the unicorn into the wall with a loud thud. The instant after the thud the light flickered and began to dim as the glow around Trixie's horn winked out and the unicorn stopped her struggling entirely.
Snarling a curse Ranma wrenched backwards as hard as he could in an attempt to break free. A sickening crack came from somewhere in the spiders abdomen and the creature shreiked again as Ranma stumbled began to fall backwards as a inky black fluid gushed from the small hole in the rock that the webbing came out of. It was only when one back hoof slid off the edge that Ranma realized how close the edge he had been and by then it was too late. "No!" A desperate and futile reach in Trixie's direction and then he tumbled over the edge into blackness. "Trixie!" His last view as he fell into the darkness of the cavern was the spider, still leaking fluid from its body, dragging the unconscious unicorn closer.
Biting cold spiked through him as he slammed down into fast moving water which swept him away. Not sure which way was upright he was having trouble getting to the surface with the twisting and turning current being interrupted by rocks jutting up from the riverbed until he slammed into one with enough force to flash white across his vision and caused his struggles to weaken significantly, they hadn't been working to well with his front legs pinned together anyway but at least he had been trying. Blackness had begun to claw its way across his vision when something suddenly grabbed him and jerked him out of the water, tossing him through the air to land on solid ground. He would have thanked the Kami for his rescue if he wasn't blacking out.
"Is pony dead?"
"No. Bring it along, they're getting closer."
Ranma was almost sure that his failing vision was telling him that the one who talked was some kind of bipedal bulldog but his brain decided he needed to take a nap and he finally went dead to the world.
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Canterlot. Royal Palace. Celestia's suite.
The set of rooms that were occupied by the solar princess would likely have surprised most of her subjects who would have expected them to be filled with the greatest luxuries that the country could afford for their ruler. Instead the first of the rooms, entered by passing through a set of pure white marble doors bearing a golden sun on each door, was sparsely furnished with a few lounges and a small handful of paintings depicting places like the mountain peaks that were the seat of the Griffon kingdoms power. Another showed the old castle in the Everfree forest when it had still been a beautiful and grand structure, looking closely at the picture one could swear the lights in the windows shimmered in the night around the castle and the trees swayed to an unfelt breeze. Near one corner was a display case featuring a set of armor, the crimson and gold metal was covered with barely visible runes that held power still within them even after the over five hundred years it had sat unused in the royal suite.
A plain brown unicorn with a deep red mane and tail bearing a magnifying glass cutie mark stopped for a moment to look at the armor and couldn't help but shiver slightly at the remnant of a more violent time. While pictures in the wider world were almost nonexistent the archives of the agency still had some hoof painted portraits of the princess when she had worn the armor during the Nightmare War. Quite frankly the pictures were hard to reconcile with the calm and often times motherly princess, but the reports painted the princess of the time in a much different light. A pony who had entered battle alongside her troops to the point of leading a charge of pegasai against the Shadowbolt air corps during the siege on the Griffon kingdom. It was likely the princess didn't even know that he or the agency still had documents and reports from that time, though in truth he wouldn't put it past her to know everything they knew.
The doors leading deeper into the suite of rooms opened giving him a short view of the private room of the princess before it swung closed again leaving him in the outer room with Celestia. The alicorn had removed her regalia and to the eyes of the unicorn pony she looked weary. He could understand why, she was up hours past when she normally would have been resting from her duties.
"Agent Glass. I heard you desired to see me privately? I assume this has to do with the investigations?"
"Yes your highness." The pony sent only a light pulse of magic to a small gold ring near the base of his left ear and a small stack of papers appeared and floated to the princess. "As we reported earlier Soft Step has made some inroads into the Changelings hives and has finally managed to make contact with the rebels, she hasn't been able to send back more than that before they had to evacuate for a safer area. She reports that Queen Chrysalis has managed to awaken two Behemoths to aid her."
"Behemoths? I had believed them all dead. Lost during the last queens short war with the dragon clans." Celestia didn't bother to hide the worry in her voice "With those on her side the rebel faction won't last long. You said they had to retreat, where did they go?"
"She's driving them deeper towards the edge of the areas claimed by the dragon clans. I believe she is hoping the dragons will deal with the problem for her." Looking Glass shook his head "I would suggest making an entreaty to the dragons to let the rebels pass out of the hives and have Soft Step lead them around to the frontier. The rebels seek only peace and a clean break with the other members of the hives, if we have the chance we should offer it to them."
"Getting the clan lords to let them through would be...difficult, but I could speak to them and call in a few old favors." Celestia could see that the agent had other things on his mind as well and gestured for him to continue.
"There is some...disturbing things that have begun to come up in a investigation I am doing in private on the alicorn amulet incident." Seeing interest on the princesses face he tried to decide exactly what to say "It's starting to look like there might have been some deliberate record altering within the archives about information pertaining the original investigation. I've seen some very confusing things regarding Trixie, some contradictory information regarding her birthplace and parents. As well as strange info about the aftermath of the Ursa Minor incident in Ponyville. I'm not completely sure but there appears to be some kind of shady actions being taken."
"In what way?"
"Did you ever give an order for her to be brought in for questioning pertaining to the amulet your highness?" The unicorn knew the answer already but it was best to ask everything.
"No. Twilight described the incident to me in plenty of detail. Trixie herself was not responsible for actions taken while wearing the cursed item." Celestia had nearly went to the zebra shaman and requested the amulet herself so it could be disposed of but in the end had trusted Twilight's decision and left it in the capable hooves of Zecora.
"And yet we currently have a standing order to capture and imprison her for questioning." The pony could practically feel the confusion radiating from the princess.
"Neither I nor Luna gave such an order." Frowning she turned to look upon one of the pictures on the wall. "You are saying that somepony has been looking for her?"
"More than a few your highness. If my investigation is correct there seems to be quite a bit of interest in her in certain quarters of the agency and a few places in the guard as well." He made a few mental notes to add to his investigation.
"I want this looked into, quietly." The steel in the alicorns voice caused the agent to stiffen slightly "No such orders were given and I want to know why some have such an interest in her."
"Yes your highness." He was about to turn and leave when she turned to face him again. "I want you to keep this within a small group, bring Lock and Key into it but nopony else." Celestia trusted Glass but he would need help and the twins were some of the best.
"Is there anything else your highness?" He watched as she summoned a map to her and levitated it to him. It was a map of the Everfree with a small area circled. "I need you to find out what is there, both Luna and I felt the arrival of something in that area and we would like to know what it was."
"Of course your highness. I'll look into it personally." He bowed and turned to head out. "Sleep well Princess."
Pain. Trixie wasn't exactly unfamiliar with the sensation but this was a horrible thumping pain that pounded through her mind in waves and was making it hard to focus. It reminded her of the morning, several mornings later actually, after a post show party she had attended for a fellow performer where she had been stupid enough to drink an imported drink that supposedly came from the Diamond Dog undermines. That instance had gotten more interesting when she had found out it was three days later and she still to this day had no recollection of what had happened over those days. All any of the other drinkers would say was that she had a beautiful singing voice. Which she refused to believe as she had never sang a song in her life, despite many ponies penchant for breaking out in song when they felt excessively happy or sad. Wincing she slowly opened her eyes to a pale light that seemed to glow from many tiny crystals growing from tunnel walls. She was finding it impossible to move her legs and with an effort that sent a painful spike of agony rushing through her head she twisted enough to see that she was currently secured to the back of the giant spider thing that had attacked her and Ranma. The immobility of her legs came directly from them being pinned together with webbing along with a few other strands that secured her to the back of the spider. Ranma wasn't anywhere to be seen.
'probably ran while he had the chance.' The thought flickered through her mind and she nearly felt her earlier despair come crushing back full force. Not that she blamed him for taking off, she wasn't exactly worth the effort to save. And she doubted she would have put the effort into fighting a giant spider to save anypony. The spider she was on top of seemed to be having difficulty walking and a look back showed a line of black behind it that seemed to be leaking out of somewhere below. Trixie could only imagine that Ranma had injured it enough that it couldn't stop him from getting away, but she found herself having trouble believing that. She had only known the other pony for a short time but he just didn't seem to be the type to run out on others. Of course that would have meant that he possibly could be dead, which she found a worse option than if he had run away. She ruminated on the realization that she was taking the entire situation rather calmly and put it up to head trauma. Any other thought on the subject vanished as the spider shakily stumbled its way into a huge cavern filled with webbing from floor to ceiling and literally crawling with numerous other such creatures.
Even this close to what she was sure was certain death she focused on what she could see of the surrounding area. There was a number of bundles near one section of the webbing that she was certain were most likely other unfortunate creatures captured by the spiders and held for later purposes of eating. Some even still seemed to be struggling to break free of the heavy strands that held them. Behind that section of webbing was a pile of pale white that she could easily identify as bones, and as they got closer she could see that several even appeared to be pony skulls and bones. The nearer she got the more panic managed to dredge its way past barriers of pain and haziness. She desperately tried to channel magic into her horn only to get a few fitful sparks from the tip and a horrid spike of agony right below her horn that nearly knocked her unconscious.
"Yes, more food." The whispery voice caught Trixie's attention and she managed to turn her head to see the creature climbing down another web, she managed a whole five seconds before she screamed. It was as if something had taken a giant spider and decided to staple something else on there as well. It was mostly hairless on the non-spider part though it seemed to have a mane of some type. Two spindly limbs jutted out from what she assumed was its shoulders that ended in claws much like a young dragons. The head though appeared to be even a third type of creature as it most certainly wasn't like the rest, being reptilian and scaled in nature with a snout full of sharp teeth. It appeared to be a patchwork creature of some kind and she could see what appeared to be the remains of a belt dangling around where spider met...whatever else it was.
Trixie was jolted out of her shock by the spider she was riding suddenly lurching to the left and then, with a loud grinding sound of stressed metal on metal, collapsing to the ground and lying still but for a few minor twitches of the legs. Other spiders quickly scrambled down the webs to snatch her from its back and begin wrapping her in webbing. The creature crossed the floor to the downed spider and pulled a small box from its belt sweeping it back and forth across the downed spider. "Damaged? By brute force? Stop!" Turning to the spiders holding Trixie the thing approached until it's reptilian head was close to her. Trixie was trying not to scream again but could feel her heart thundering at top speed.
"How was my creation damaged?" That close Trixie was able to see that the creatures words weren't coming from its mouth, though its mouth was moving, but from a small grey collar around its neck. When she didn't answer right away the creatures claws dug into the webbing pricking her sides. "Your death can be painless or excruciating, decide now."
"Trixie's c-companion was w-with her, he did it?" Her voice only squeaked a little in the answer, she was actually surprised she had been able to answer past the sheer terror that was clawing its way through her mind right now. And it wasn't like she was putting Ranma in danger, he was likely long gone by now.
"Another pony?" Seeing her nod vigorously he snarled and backed away "Impossible. No pony is strong enough to break my creations." But Trixie could detect uncertainty in the things speech. "More calibrations." The creature turned away and headed out of her view while the spiders went back to wrapping her in webbing. Once completely covered she felt them shove her against the webbing that the other unfortunates were cocooned against. Was it luck that the light had startled the creature or something else? She was a showpony, not skilled in real battle magic, not that there was many ponies who were. She knew that the unicorns of the royal guard who had the skill were trained in spells more designed for fighting but in truth now that Trixie really started to think of it, and she certainly had plenty of time for that right now, her lightning spell was used as a magic trick but if a pony fed more power to it and modified it a little it would kick out a truly impressive bolt of lightning. Instead of just a minor shock it would put out a bolt capable of possibly even heavily damaging a pony, or maybe a spider?
For the first time in weeks she was starting to feel like she didn't want to die. She wasn't sure where Ranma was but she told herself that she wasn't going to go without a fight if she could help it. Now all that was required was for her head to stop feeling like a group of diamond dogs were trying to bash it in and she could try to get out of here.
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*POKE* Ranma twitched slightly.
*POKE* Ranma twitched again as the irritation poked him in the flank for the second time.
*POKE* This time his body responded by itself, by snapping a kick back at what was bothering it. The pained cry that sounded apparently got a laugh from someone, or several someone's, and Ranma tried to focus on the noise and drag himself fully back to the land of the living. He could feel heat on his face and the sound of wood crackling in a fire while even a minor attempt to open his eyes and look around sent a spike of pain through his skull. Clenching his eyes shut for a second he opened them slowly to get used to both the light of the fire before him and the spiking pain that drove through his head. Looking up slowly, so as to lower the amount of pain, he tried to see past the flickering flames at what had both saved him from the river and apparently had been carrying him some distance as he couldn't hear the water nearby.
"Pony finally awake."
"I told you he would be." The one who talked strode more into the light and Ranma had to wonder if he had picked up head trauma and was hallucinating. "About time you woke up pony. We were getting tired of carrying you."
It was a dog. Or at least some kind of dog. It had a build that seemed at least partially reminiscent of a gorilla and seemed to alternate between four legged and two legged walk. The one who was talking looked like it was some breed of husky though one nearby appeared to be a type of bulldog. With a pained wince he slowly managed to get to his hooves, and when his stomach lurched he was glad he hadn't eaten anything yet today. A part of his mind, usually the part that was obsessed with food started to wonder what ponies ate. The four dog-things moved enough into the light that Ranma could get a good look at them. They all wore vests and collars, the latter of which were covered in gems of differing types. Blue, grey and brown, which he decided was what he'd call them until he knew their names had only the vest and collar. The other had bracers, covered in gems as well, and a belt that was also gem covered. While the first three were covered in short fur that seemed like it was probably no longer than what Ranma himself had the fourth had thicker fur and the voice was definitely making him think female.
"Spot, check the tunnels. We don't want to be getting sneaked up on." And by the orders being thrown out she was the leader as well. "Rover, Fido we're going to be moving soon get ready to douse the fire." She turned to focus a emerald green eye on Ranma "I suggest you come with us pony, unless you want to be spider food."
"My name is Ranma, not pony." Bad enough that he was a pony but to have to be called it instead of his name was pushing his limits. Wincing at the pain in his skull he shook his head "I have to find Trixie. Where would one of those spiders have taken her?"
"If your friend has been taken then forget it, she's probably dead already." She turned as Spot came back. "Well?"
"Tunnel is clear Rose."
"Good, we need t..." She didn't get to finish as Ranma stamped a hoof cracking the stone underneath. "I need to find Trixie! I didn't leave her behind in the forest and I sure as hell ain't leaving her behind to be eaten by a bunch of damned spiders." She was the first person...pony, that he had met in the world and he wasn't about to just abandon her because some wannabe dog-gorilla things wouldn't help him. He jerked back in surprise as a large paw closed on his neck shoving him back. "I lost five miners to those things! I'm not going to fight them until we receive help from the main mines. We saved you, be glad I don't just keep you for manual labor." Ranma could tell both by her words and actions that the lost miners was getting to her.
Even as she began to turn away Ranma heard the sharp scratching sound of rock on rock and a spider dropped from the ceiling nearly right on top of Fido who swung a fist wildly in surprise. Ranma was surprised that when said fist connected the spider reared back stumbling from the strength of the blow. A second later the spider lashed out with both front legs to try and knock Fido down only to have its front legs snagged by Rose who began to slowly push the spider backwards. Ranma's head may have been pounding but he wasn't about to let that get in the way of a fight. Rushing forward he leapt upwards clearing Rose entirely and landing on the spider, rearing back he tried to focus his ki and lashed out with a forehoof that slammed straight though the rock and into the creatures interior. He jerked his hoof out of the hole he had created to find it covered in inky blackness "Gah! What the heck is this?!" The spider jerked underneath him letting out a shriek even as Rose suddenly wrenched backwards bending the legs in a direction they weren't meant to bend causing the rock to snap loudly and more of the black liquid to pour out. A second later found her underneath the spider and connecting with an uppercut that actually lifted the entire thing off the floor of the cave and cracked the spiders underside allowing more liquid out.
Ranma rode the spider down to the ground as it collapsed and he closed his eyes to try and lessen the now increased pounding in his skull. It was the clicking and whirring that got his attention and he attempted to peer into the insides past the hole he had punched into the creatures back but it was to dark to see anything. That was when the smell finally wafted to his nose and with surprise he lifted his black stained hoof and sniffed at it. "Can't be." With a grimace at what he was about to do he licked it lightly and then spit. "That's oil!" looking around quickly he hopped off the back of the spider and looked at the remains of the fire, there were several sticks with some fire still burning on them but he was finding it extremely hard to figure out how to hold onto anything. "Arg! Fingers, why did I have to end up as something without fingers!" Spotting Rose where she was trying to get some oil off her paws he pointed a hoof at one of the burning logs "Hey, bring that up on top."
"You want to get yourself killed, do it by yourself pony. shouldn't have even bothered to save you." She gestured to her subordinates "We're leaving." Ranma glared after the retreating dogs and muttered a curse before turning back to the fire. Every attempt to grip the sticks with his hooves failed miserably and with a final grumble of irritation he snagged the end of the stick in his teeth and carried it up to the top of the spider and peered down through the hole.
Firelight glinted off metal gears and springs as several twitched and attempted to turn without the lubricating oil that seemed to have kept them mobile. There were several larger gears that were obviously deformed from the blow from underneath and two gears near the top had been driven down into the heavier assembly below by Ranma's strike. Deep in the central gear assembly he noticed a small grouping of spherical gems that glowed dimly with their own internal light. By the small metal wires that connected to that area he could assume it was some form of power source, not that he was an engineer or anything but the weird glow was sort of an indicator of energy of some type. The strange thing was that the gears looked like they were extremely rough, with jagged edges in some places and looking partially malformed from whatever process had created them in others. It was more like the thing had been hastily thrown together and then kicked out the factory door. Of course this raised the question of how did a machine even feel pain? And he was sure the creatures response to the punch had been pain.
Looking again in the direction that the dogs had gone he muttered a curse, which had the effect of dropping the torch, and with a roll of his eyes he snatched the burning wood up again and leapt down to the tunnel floor. The jarring movement sent more pain through his skull, aided by the tight grip his teeth had on his new torch, and he stopped for a moment to let the pain subside again. Thankfully it appeared to be fading somewhat as his impressive healing kicked in. And none of this put him even a foot, or hoof, closer to Trixie or wherever these things came from. His thoughts on the matter were interrupted by a scraping sound from another tunnel and he quickly dropped the torch and dove for cover behind a small rock pillar that supported the ceiling. Peeking out into the cavern he watched as another of the spiders, this one smaller and colored in a slightly different shade of grey and black, clamored over rocks and other debris to reach the fallen spider. It poked and prodded it but when it got no response it extruded a few strands of webbing and attached it to the fallen spider before turning and beginning to trek back into the tunnel it had come out of, taking its fallen comrade with it. The debate on whether to follow or not was settled before the thing had even gone twenty feet and Ranma slipped out from behind the pillar and began to shadow the smaller spider.
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Trixie jerked awake with a start and desperately attempted to ignore her roiling stomach while also trying to push past the pounding that still hammered in her head. As the slow thud in her mind lessened she opened her eyes to the darkness of the webbing that surrounded her. She did have to admit that it made it a lot easier to relax as she could simply rest her body against the strands. Hearing soft muttering from somewhere she slowly began to open her mind to her magic while trying to ignore the slight increase in the pain that such an act incurred. The strands of webbing hid the dim purple glow and she slowly began to work at the webbing near her eyes prying it open enough to be able to see but not wide enough to be spotted. After doing the same to the area near one ear she let the glow die out and focused on the creature from before as it strode back and forth before a strange glowing image. If her studies in astronomy were correct the central object was Equus, she could make out the continent that Equestria was positioned on when the object rotated. Around the massive planet orbited Celestia's star and Luna's moon. The creature paced around the image alternating looking at the image and then at a small object in its claws that let out a beep every now and then. The pacing continued for several more minutes until another beep and the creature snarled and threw the device at a wall shattering it to pieces before turning to glare at the glowing image.
"Impossible! The planet size is wrong. The sheer gravity should crush all life on the planet." Frustration had driven the thing to speak loud enough for Trixie to hear and by the looks of it the thing seemed about ready to tear its own mane out in confusion. "The sun should not be orbiting the planet! This is...is...impossible!" The creature stalked around glaring at the image and Trixie had to restrain the urge to snort in mirth at the creatures stupidity. Could it really not know that the satellites of Equus moved at the will of the royal sisters? The next idiotic thing it would complain about would probably be the pegasai controlling the weather. Not that that was a pegasai only activity in the world. While pegasus magic was what ponies used to control the weather it was well known that the griffons had their own weather teams and if the book she had looked at detailing exotic cultures was correct the zebra shamans were adept at handling things in their section of the world. She didn't know what the dragons used, or if they used anything at all, but she doubted they would have difficulty handling the weather if they so desired. Her understanding of the diamond dogs was limited but they were mostly subterranean and the few above ground cities they had used migrant pegasus and griffon workers to deal with their weather. 'And why am I thinking of the weather?'
Watching the creatures pacing she nearly missed the spider that crawled into the nest dragging another of its kind behind it until it reached its creators side and then stopped to stand obediently in place waiting for attention. The creature used two of its legs to lift the downed spider and examine the damage to the overall structure. "Another?" The creature looked near the head and let out a sound that Trixie could only assume was glee of some type and it pulled a small box from its belt and hooked a small wire up to the damaged spider before jabbing the same wire into its own head near its left eye. Trixie was glad her muzzle was pinned shut or she might have made some audible sound of disgust as a small trickle of green ran down across the creatures scaled face. "Impossible! A pony is not that strong! And the others, why are they still here? How many of them must be killed to drive them from this place?" Trixie could only think of one pony that would even be down here and that was Ranma. Which meant he hadn't run, it meant...her thoughts were interrupted by a shadow flickering from place to place near the edge of the nest. She noted a flash of a golden eye, the glint of light from crystals off a swaying hourglass. He had come back. For her?
And yet that begged the question of why? Why would he have bothered to return to find her. It would have been far easier for him to make for the surface and continue his search for the Doctor and just leave her behind. In fact she really couldn't think of any reason he would have bothered to even look for her, nopony else would. Most ponies would likely have just said she deserved what she got and left her behind. 'Why? I'm...I'm not worth it? Am I?' A clatter, a hoof hitting a stray rock followed by a muted curse, and the creature began to turn. It was time to make a move for freedom if she was planning on it and with the way the spiders all over the nest had begun to turn towards the new sound she knew it was now or never. She opened herself to her magic and began to struggle to free herself.
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"Why are we following the pony?" Fido spoke softly while they moved through the tunnels, sometimes carving their own when a patrol was heard coming.
Rose herself wasn't sure why she had decided to backtrack and begin to trail the pony through the caves. Maybe it was just the thought that by leaving and waiting for the reinforcements she had asked for she was likely consigning those captured to death. And something about that pony called her to action. She wasn't sure what it was, it wasn't just his words alone, or his obvious drive to rescue his friend. It was...it was some kind of pull that seemed to tell her that helping him was simply the right thing to do. If he had been a unicorn she would have suspected a spell of some sort but she knew that the earth ponies were incapable of that kind of magic. And yet everything was telling her that he had influenced her somehow, and for some reason she found she didn't care. "How long do you think those idiots have before they get themselves eaten? If any of them are still alive we have to do something." It was a complete 180 from the position she had been holding to for the last two days but she tried not to think about it.
"He's in the cavern ahead." Tracking the pony was easy for one with her nose "Rover, Spot, Dig up to the top of the nest and get ready for a Crack and Drop." She looked to Fido "Be ready to move in and fight." The larger diamond dog looked scared by the prospect but orders from a pack leader were orders.
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'Sneaky hooves, ninja hooves.' The thought would have made Ranma laugh if he hadn't been trying to stay as quiet as possible across the rock floor. An action that he had found was much harder when you had hooves than when you had feet. And though his eyes were far sharper and with much better night vision than his human ones had ever had he of course just had to miss seeing that small crystal lying on the ground, the same type as the last ten he had avoided and tried his best not to run into. The clatter of the crystal moving across the floor drew a muted curse from him, at which point he knew the situation had gone from a dangerous rescue of Trixie to a beyond dangerous possible full out fight. As the first spider approached his hiding place Ranma muttered a curse and threw caution to the wind. Ducking his head he charged forward impacting the underside of the spider with enough force to knock it upwards before leaping up to strike it nears its eyes, shattering stone and sending it stumbling back to collapse onto two others. He had barely touched down when he had to throw himself to the side to avoid silk thrown his way. Even as he began to scramble up he heard a loud crack and saw another of the spiders lurch to the side while a familiar black and white furred figure leapt to the top of the spider and struck it with both fists sending it down to the floor in a broken heap.
A brilliant purple glow flared around Trixie's prison as she began to exert pressure on the strands. When that failed to work she quickly summoned a knife to slice through the webbing and cut herself free. Pulling free of the strands she decided to vent some frustration on the creature that was now shouting at its minions to kill Ranma and, of all things, a couple diamond dogs. Her horn glowed and a blackness swirled into existence above the strange creature followed swiftly by a brilliant flash of light and sound as the lightning bolt pounded down onto the thing sending it crashing backwards even as thunder boomed. She found herself wincing in pain from the minor feedback as the spell dissipated with too much energy still contained. It wasn't a bad effort considering the amount of changes she had had to make to the spell to get it that powerful, and it hadn't backfired or just went wild which was a plus as well. She turned in time to see the larger diamond dog tearing at the webbing that contained the other prisoners of the spiders. As some was torn away Trixie could see that the imprisoned were diamond dogs themselves. She wanted to help Ranma, but with the amount of spiders that were now starting to drop from the ceiling and walls they needed all the help they could get. Summoning another set of shears she went to work freeing the other diamond dogs.
Ranma dodged around another strand of silk and twisted around skidding to a stop underneath another spider before bucking upwards into its thorax causing the stone to break and drenching him in oil causing him to slip and nearly get crushed by the machines remains as it crashed down. Scrambling out from under one of the things legs he was just starting to push himself up when pain pierced his side as a huge hand clamped down on him lifting him off the ground and flinging him at a nearby wall. Ranma could feel the rock shattering behind him as he slammed into it hammering a crater in the wall before falling to the floor with a pained moan. Shaking the darkness from the edges of his vision he looked up to see the creature approaching him. The human torso attached to a spider body from the waist down was a shock, but it certainly got stranger than that in the alligator-like head that was on said human torso along with the clawed hands that certainly weren't human either. He struggled to get to his hooves and started coughing until he hacked up a small amount of blood. 'That isn't good' The thought had barely registered when he noticed the thing, whatever it was, had crossed a good halfway to him only to be intercepted by Rose. The creatures punch stopped dead as it slammed into a paw that didn't budge from the impact. Rose let out an enraged growl and then stepped inwards lasing out with a right hook that staggered the creature, only to have to dodge as several of the spiders attempted to grab her.
Ranma's vision flashed white again as a lightning bolt slammed down driving the creature back again. "How dare you think to keep the Great and Powerful Trixie as food!" Trixie's shout echoed through the cavern followed by a yelp that got Ranma's attention and he looked to see another spider, that had just tried to hit the showpony, plummet to the floor as a lightning bolt impacted it. But Trixie was starting to look tired and Ranma could already see another dozen of the spiders scrambling down the walls along with others coming in from the tunnels leading into the nest and the freed diamond dogs were being pushed back. Ranma stumbled slightly as he got to his hooves only to have two lines of webbing latch onto him stopping him from moving forward. Focusing his ki he began to stalk forward by anchoring each hoof as it struck the rock and then moving the next. The two spiders began to slide across the rock as they pulled backwards trying to stop him. The creature that had hit him was now focused on Rose and rushed the diamond dog only to have her leap out of the way.
"NOW!" Rose's shout stalled the creature for a moment in confusion only for a loud crack to sound from the ceiling followed by a thundering boom as a massive chunk of rock slammed down on top of the creature crushing it under tons of stone. Rover and Spot looked down from the hole that now dominated the ceiling to check on their work.
"Woah!" Ranma stumbled forward as the spiders that had been holding him back suddenly stopped doing so. Looking back in surprise he saw the machines sliding to the floor and lying there unmoving. Crashes sounded as the bodies of other spiders dropped from the webbing and slammed to the cavern floor. A glowing pair of shears appeared and sliced through the webbing attached to his side and Trixie trotted over looking confused. "You came for Trixie." Ranma could see she was trying to puzzle something out. "Why?"
"Why wouldn't I? We're friends right?" To Ranma it was a simple and truthful answer, mostly as he had a somewhat broad definition of friendship. As long as someone wasn't actively trying to kill him, cause damage to anything he liked, or stand around insulting him he would treat them fairly and usually try to be nice. If they actively helped him they usually automatically got lumped into friend territory. Of course once in the friend category Ranma usually had a hard time kicking them out of said category, even when they actively tried to kill him once or twice like that weird girl in Denmark. Ranma had no idea that in the universe he was in, especially on the planet he was on, the term friend carried far more weight than it did in his own world.
'Friends?' The thought flickered through her mind and Trixie tried to remember the last true friend she even had. She had to think back a really long time but it was likely Boom Boom in Canterlot. The young filly had been older than Trixie and already had her cutie mark but she had few if any friends outside of Trixie and the two had gotten into tons of trouble using Boom Boom's prototype explosives. 'And who would have thought that liquid rainbow could be mixed with the right ingredients to make a really massive explosion. Wonder if the guard ever did find out why that warehouse blew up.' But she really hadn't thought of Boom Boom in...how long had it been since she thought of her old friend? And she hadn't even told the other filly that she was leaving Canterlot when she had taken off, she hadn't even left her a note. Why? She had trouble even remembering why she had left Canterlot in such a hurry, only that she had been absolutely sure she had to leave to find her cutie mark. No, there was something else there, something...something she didn't want to remember. Over the years she had trained her mind quite well and had come to understand when it did and didn't want her to know things. This situation had happened only three times in her life and she had learned not to pry when her mind told her not to.
"Trixie you okay?" Ranma watched as the blue mare jumped slightly and saw her focus on him again.
"Yes Trixie is fine." Glancing towards Rose and the others she frowned "Where did you find the Diamond Dogs?"
"Uh...They pulled me from a river before I could drown, figured they had left but I guess they decided to come back." 'Diamond dogs? Really? What is up with this world.' He shook his right foreleg slightly to try and work some stiffness out of it and walked over to Rose. "Thought you were leaving?"
"Yes well, I couldn't leave my workers trapped down here to be food and just wait for reinforcements to show up." Suddenly sharp teeth flashed in a smile "Besides pony, you were the perfect distraction."
"Ranma! My name is Ranma, not pony!" He glanced around at the collapsed spiders "Must have had something on him that controlled them." Frowning he walked up to one and tapped it with a hoof "Why use rock?" Any other questions were silenced by a scrape from the near the center of the nest. Turning Ranma watched in surprise as the rock used to crush the creature began to shift and move. "Ya gotta be kidding me." Slowly the rock lifted until it slammed down beside the creature as it struggled up onto its now only five working legs. One arm looked to be busted halfway down but the other was raising something that Ranma could recognize by shape even if it looked a little different than he was used to. "DOWN!" He tackled Rose even as a red lance of light shot from the weapon slicing through the air where the diamond dog had been standing.
"NO! I will not die here. I saw! I alone saw the way out. As the light burned our world I saw the way! I slipped into the nothing between universes and crossed the void, crossed the abstract plain! I SURVIVED! And I will not allow myself to be stopped by you stupid ponies!" The weapon shifted to point at Ranma and he could see the claw tightening on the trigger even as he knew he wouldn't be able to move in time to avoid the entire shot. Still, maybe he could get off with only losing a leg or something.
"NO!" The shout came from Trixie whose horn flared to life once more with a brilliant shine as the cavern darkened noticeably. Startled by the shout the creature had just begun to turn towards the unicorn when light flared around his good legs wrenching them out from under him with more than a few loud cracks of breaking chitin even as everyone in the cavern was deafened by a staccato of thundering booms as more than a dozen brilliant lances of lightning slammed into the creature again and again ending in a last rolling boom that echoed away down the tunnels attached to the nest.
Ranma, who had had his head against the ground, eyes clenched shut, ears pulled flat and hooves pressed against them to try and block out the noises that assaulted his extremely sensitive hearing, slowly lifted his head to look at the now smoking creature. Trying to ignore the ringing in his ears he stood up slowly and watched as the creature slowly began to fall forward even as the parts of its body struck directly crumbled to ash. "Wow." He looked to Trixie who happened to be swaying on her hooves looking like she was about to fall over. "Remind me not to get you mad." He looked to Rose as she stood one paw holding her shoulder where the beam had just grazed her. When she moved her paw Ranma could see that her vest had and fur had vanished in a line across her shoulder leaving blackened flesh where the beam had brushed past.
"Good riddance." Rose stepped back to look around at the spiders. "Have to clean this mess up just to reopen mine shafts 20 through 40." She glanced at Ranma and Trixie as the two approached.
"Well I hope they can get us out of here near where we need to go." Ranma's stomach suddenly growled and he tried to remember the last time he ate. And then thought of his new form and wondered exactly what ponies ate. 'If anyone thinks I'm eating grass they can forget it.' "Let's see if they'll lead us out."
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Everfree Forest.
Looking Glass wandered around the small clearing as his scanning spell continued its work trying to determine what magic the princesses had felt. He had already seen the section of the small clearing where a fight had taken place. By the hoof prints in the dirt and the claw marks nearby it was obviously between a pony and multiple timber wolves. By the looks of the ground and the way the hoof marks shifted an moved it hadn't ended well for several of the timber wolves, not that they would have been down for long. The light of his spell zipped back and forth sweeping across the ground as he glanced up at the moon dominating the sky. He could have slept and went out tomorrow but something about all of this, Trixie and this new problem, were driving him forward and he could already tell this was going to be one of those cases where he slept little. His right forehoof slipped into a slice into the ground and he stepped back to stare at the deep gashes in surprise. "A Timber King?" Timber Kings were rare compared to the more minor timber brutes that could form from the remains of multiple fallen timber wolves. If there truly was a Timber King running through the Everfree it would need to be reported to the guard so they could deal with it. The last one that had formed had led a full six packs of timber wolves into the surrounding population centers and caused quite a few deaths before being put down.
The gold earring winked with light for a second and a small notebook and quill appeared allowing him to start taking notes on the Timber Kings claw size and spacing. By the looks the creature must have been truly massive. By size alone he would have believed it to be at least two hundred years old which would make it quiet dangerous to engage in hoof to hoof combat. This was a situation that likely would require the Nova Guards arcane squads. Filing all information away he turned as his spell stayed hovering over one spot winking fitfully. Trotting over he could see where the grass seemed to be completely dead and brown in the exact outline of where a pony had lain. His horn glowed again and a second glow surrounded his right forehoof as he extended it to the dead grass and touched it lightly. There was the remnant of some power still buried in the grass and dirt where the unknown pony had lain. It was too weak for him to get much of a lock but it was certainly not pony magic. It also didn't conform to Zebra shaman magic, or the powers the intelligence service knew the Griffons and Diamond Dogs possessed. The EIS though had little knowledge of Changeling magic, or of Dragon and Harpy magic. "And plenty more." Looking Glass frowned as he looked around the clearing again and sighed. Well his target had obviously headed out from here to escape both a pack and a Timber King.
Shaking his head the agent trotted along with his scanning spell keeping an eye on everything around him so he wouldn't get caught unawares if something managed to see through his stealth spells. Now all he had to do was find out where this unknown pony went.
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"Ya sure about this?" Ranma hadn't meet many girls who could travel as quick or as long as he and his father could. But then again with spending most of his life outside of normal society he hadn't met many girls at all, and he really didn't know the limits of pony stamina.
"Trixie has been relaxing enough." She looked out at the edge of the trees they were about to pass out from under. "With where we came out it's several hours to the road and all day and part of the night on the road to reach Hoofington. It would have been nicer if we could have come up closer than here."
"It's not that bad we..." Ranma staggered as they stepped out from under the trees, leaving the Everfree and entering normal Equestria. "What the!" He spun to stare at the forest edge, which ended as if a knife had sliced it off in a straight line and then placed normal rolling plains next to it. "It's like...like the whole world changes." His muttered words caught Trixies attention but she could only watch in confusion as he stepped back over the edge into the Everfree and then out again. To Ranma it was like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach the instant he stepped free. One minute he was practically swimming in energy and the next, nothing. Well not nothing but the amount of ambient energy dropped to being lower than he had ever felt anywhere in his life but one place. 'Hell, only deserts have less life energy than this!' He could certainly feel some life energy around him but it was much smaller than it should have been. He could imagine that with this low energy even the plants would suffer a slow growth cycle. And yet understanding how this worked was impossible, the massive amount of energy in the forest should have been bleeding over like nuts into the surrounding land, but it wasn't. The instant he stepping into the Everfree he was back in the wild ocean of energy, step out and he was practically digging to find any kind of energy to bolster his own.
"What is it?" Trixie was starting to get irritated over her companions continued stepping back and forth across the edge of the Everfree.
"You can't feel that?" He stared at her for a second before walking over "The massive energy difference between the places?"
"Of course there is an energy difference." Trixie rolled her eyes while turning and starting to walk away. "That is the Everfree, the magic there runs wild." Seeing that wouldn't be enough she snorted "Old stories place it as the remains of an ancient battle that got out of hand and unleashed magic beyond any ponies control which spread and spread until it corrupted the wood and created the Everfree."
"Not exactly the energy I was talking about." But it did explain some things, as well as add more questions on top of everything else. His stomach growled again and Trixie glanced his way. "Anything to eat around here? And please don't say grass." He noted Trixie's raised eyebrow before she let out a snort and shook her head.
"Trixie believes you must have been very far from normal society. Grass is food when nothing else is around." Frowning she looked around the plains, glad for the full moon that shone down upon them, and spotted a small grouping of flowers growing nearby, she couldn't identify them outright but she was hungry as well and they didn't match any of the poisonous flowers she had learned about in Flora: A Pony Guide to Cuisine on the Road. "Now there is food. would be nicer with bread but one takes what one can get." Her magic plucked some of the flowers and floated them over to Ranma who looked at them uncertainly. "If you aren't going to eat them then Trixie will."
"No it's okay." He snatched the flowers with his hooves and looked at them warily for a second before deciding that he really didn't have a choice and shoved them in his mouth. And a second later Trixie was shaking her head as the night pony dove into the remaining flowers and ate all of them.
"Trixie can tell this is going to be harder than she thought." At his confused look she frowned "You know nothing..." She raised a hoof to stop his protest. "Don't try to lie to Trixie, she can tell you know nothing of pony society. While she can't teach you everything you likely need to know by the time we reach Hoofington she can at least make sure you don't make easily avoided mistakes. It will be better for both of us if you don't draw attention." After all, the more attention he got the more ponies would look at her and the more likely she would be recognized even through an illusion spell. And her bruises from the last such foray into town had finally faded, she didn't need any new ones.
"Fine." The answer was sullen but he trotted over and began to listen as she tried to cover the most need-to-know points of pony society. neither pony noticed the grass becoming greener and growing longer in each place the night pony stepped as they went along.
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Two Hours Later.
Looking Glass smiled as the hulking steel armored diamond dog dove back into the hole in the gem fields and went to fetch his pack leader. The agent had learned more about his target, the pony was fast and extremely durable if the jump from the top of the cliff was something to go by. But he had also picked up another pony while moving through the woods, and if his scanning spell was correct it was a unicorn. Two sets of tracks had entered that small area but only one had left, though by the depth of the hoofprints he could assume the target pony was carrying the other. His musings were cut short by the arrival of a diamond dog decked out in enough gems to identify her as a mine operator, or more commonly known as a pack leader among the diamond dogs.
"Rose." Looking Glass smiled as he trotted up to the diamond dog "I didn't know you were back from Ruby City."
"If this is a social call It will have to wait as I have brainless miners who need looking after and twenty mine shafts that need cleaning." Rose's irritation at the interruption to her work was obvious. "And the overseers aren't being much help right now." She smiled coldly at the unicorn "We could always use a few more strong backs."
"Maybe some other time. In truth I'm searching for a couple ponies who traveled through your mines." He noticed the pack leader stiffen at the same time she tried to adopt a casual air.
"No idea what you are talking about, we have been busy dealing with our own problems and haven't had time to look for ponies in our mines." She looked to the smaller diamond dog who hopped out of the tunnel next to her to hand her a stone tablet with writing scrawled on it. "Yes, send it back and tell them we don't need the soldiers any longer, the problems been dealt with." She turned back to look at the agent. "No ponies here but you."
She was trying to send him away and it was blatantly obvious, it also irritated him greatly. "I do have to wonder if we should examine your mines. After all we would hate for an instance like that one a couple years ago." He was of course refeering to the diamond dogs attempts to press gang the element of generosity into being their personal gem finder.
"I wasn't here when that happened, my business in Ruby city was still ongoing. If I had been you certainly wouldn't have gotten whatever pony it was back." She glared at the agent.
'Got you.' Looking Glass put on his most disarming smile "Really? I have to wonder if the Diamond Dogs are still subject to the alliance treaty then?" Seeing her about to object he raised a hoof "After all trying to imprison a pony is bad enough, but you tried to press gang an element bearer." Seeing the pack leader freeze and her eyes widen he continued "The element of generosity at that. And when the other element bearers came to retrieve her your guards attempted to capture them as well, while this has been known for some time the case was closed. I would hate to have to bring this before the princesses themselves, the loss of your peoples lease of these lands would possibly be only the beginning of legal action."
"Two ponies." Rose snarled the words glaring at the agent with now undisguised anger. "They traveled through our mines and aided with a...problem we had. They were traveling to Hoofington."
"Good. Now describe these ponies to me and we can put all this behind us." In truth he was sad to have to pressure the pack leader this way. While he wasn't exactly friends with the diamond dog he had met her in Diamond city and he had gotten quite a bit of good intel out of her. It was obvious that whatever problem they had suffered had been dealt with by both Rose and the two ponies. Like normal dogs the diamond dogs showed loyalty to those who aided them or made friends with them. To Rose giving up information on those she felt loyalty to would seem to her to be a great betrayal. But when it really came down to it he could always find new sources of intel from within the Diamond Dog kingdom.
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Changeling Hives, Near Dragon Clan Border
Soft Step winced as she lifted her right foreleg off the ground holding it up while watching the refugees moving through the jagged spires of rock that had slowed their advance on the border. A light buzz next to the pegasus caught her attention and she turned as the blue armored captain, Swift Wing, landed next to her. "How close are they?"
"Moving into the spires now. We haven't been able to find out where the Behemoths are but it is likely they are close by." The changeling watched as his forces escorted those who couldn't fight, which ranged from the young, to the old, to the injured. "We are being slowed down."
"You wish to leave them behind?" Soft Step knew it was a question that needed to be asked as it was the first time the statement had been made by the captain and she wanted to know how he would respond. She was learning quite a bit about the changelings but still had only partial knowledge of what had brought about the desire for a part of the hives to break free of their queen. She had been shocked to find out there had been other attempts at rebellions in the past but that all before had been put down swiftly by the queen. She watched several changelings pass by below dragging a wagon that contained several collapsed ponies. She shivered slightly at the sight and the knowledge of what had been done to them, but the rebels were trying to save them as much as themselves. But she had to wonder if there was anything left to save in those ponies. Nearly emotionless husks that simply followed orders at this point she could imagine that it was going to take years of spells and therapy before they could be returned to some kind of normal life.
"No! We would never leave behind those who couldn't defend themselves. We will defend our hive no matter the cost." He glared out across the rock spires "Whether your princesses helps us or not." He looked down at several soldiers carrying the youngest of the changelings, those who still hadn't even gained the ability to fly. "Whatever the cost." He took to the air again to try and speed up the movement of the rebel forces.
Soft Step glanced down into the mass of changelings as they funneled past the spire she was on and tried to keep a brave face for the ones who looked her way. They were relying on her to bring them aid, relying on the princesses to convince the dragons to let them through the clan territories. It would take another days march to reach the border and it was likely that Chrysalis's forces would engage them several times during that march. But she could only hope the princesses could get them passage through the clan territories. She had been sending reports when she could while leaving out the fact that she herself was injured. Her leg hurt bad enough, but the damage to her left wing would take weeks to heal without a hospital to help it along. And the changeling idea of healing magic certainly didn't work for her. With a sigh she tried to suppress a wince and turned to stumble along with the rest of the refugees towards the border tossing a quick prayer to her princesses for aid.
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Next Day, Sunset.
Celestia stood watching the sun vanish from view of Equestria even as she guided it's rising on the far side of the world. Few ponies really considered the weight of the duties that were laid upon the royal sisters in taking care of the sun and the moon. It was known to all races that at one time the unicorns themselves raised and lowered the sun but few knew that at the time the sun and moons schedule was erratic and at one time the mistakes of a few nearly altered the entire orbit of the celestial bodies to disastrous results. The correct path and exact schedule was necessary for things to run smoothly in the world. She watched as the moon began its slow ascent into the sky and looked upon the stars that twinkled in the sky. Closing her eyes she reached out, pushing her limits farther and farther, through the depths of blackness that separated the lights that shined in the sky to reach for the nearest star. Celestia, the might and glory of the sun itself knew how long it took for light to travel from place to place. Thusly she knew this star was five hundred years of travel away if one traveled by the speed of light. She could feel the stars pulses and rhythms, the flares of uncontrolled reactions and she exerted her will. She could feel the star settling as the flares that had been bursting from it lessened and then ceased entirely as its core settled into a more efficient cycle extending its life by hundreds of thousands of years.
"Tia?" The voice startled the solar princess and her power twitched causing the surface of the star she was linked into to roil wildly until she could calm it and cut her connection. Turning she saw a her sister giving her a mischievous smirk. "You did that on purpose."
"Would I do such a thing sister?" Stepping up next to her sister she looked out into the night sky. "An impressive display." She looked to her sister seeing the worry buried under the calm. "What is wrong?"
"Something. I can't put my hoof on it but I feel that there is something wrong, something deep within the entrenched bureaucracy." She frowned looking down upon Canterlot. "Something is rotten within the system Luna, something that I should have seen years ago. And it's coming to a head now." Shaking her head she looked worriedly to her sister seeing the concern there. "I can feel it."
"Your highnesses." The two sisters turned to see a night guard standing at attention near the door to the balcony. "There are two pegasai to see you. They say they are expected."
"Let them in." Celestia smiled as the guard stepped out and watched as two ponies slipped silently onto the balcony. Both bore deep red coats with manes and tails of black, one bore the cutie mark of two crossed skeleton keys while the other had two interlocking padlocks. Both pegasai, like the unicorn Looking Glass, wore a small gold ring near the base of their right ear. "Lock, Key, it is good to see you." Celestia stepped forward noting the two pegasai seemed a bit tired. "I certainly didn't expect a report so quickly."
"We spent all night and day on this." The gold earring in Lock's ear winked with light and a small binder of papers appeared. She set it on the small table nearby and began to nose through it.
"We compiled what we could find of previous reports, as well those strange reports that Looking Glass showed us. And he was correct. The reports within the archives have been altered and changed to show different information than what the original reports recorded." Key stepped forward frowning. "Retrieving this information would have been nearly impossible if it hadn't been for the meticulous record keeping of Sharp Quill. He made copies of all his reports and kept them in his own filing system in case of problems in the archive."
"The original reports covered the actions taken by the unicorn Trixie upon leaving the town of Ponyville up until the end of the Alicorn Amulet incident." Lock looked up from the binder. "Sharp Quill discovered that his reports were being altered and began to look into the situation some time ago but was being blocked on almost every level. He believed that there was a deliberate attempt by parties unknown within the intelligence service, and possibly farther abroad as well, to destroy the career of the unicorn Trixie."
"You sought him out?" Celestia asked the question even though she was fairly sure she knew where this was going.
"Unfortunately he is nowhere to be found. We even examined the apartment building he was staying and found that somepony had already ransacked his home. We talked with some of those who knew him and found that he had set up a meeting with a member of the royal guard but the guardspony stated that Sharp Quill had never arrived at the meeting." Key watched as Luna levitated the binder to herself and began reading. "We would also like to state that we were followed three times and attacked outright once. Nothing we couldn't handle but it is obvious that somepony has something at stake here."
"You've looked into what Looking Glass stated about discrepancies in her birthplace and parents?"
"Yes your highness." Lock shook her head "It is most confusing. According to the registration files on record the first mention of Trixie is with two earth ponies, Sifter and Pie Plate. Their origin is listed as cooks who had spent years working within the griffon High Peak. But a few discreet inquiries to our ambassador there as well as some interagency cooperation with the griffon inquisition tells us that Sifter was never pregnant, nor did she or Pie Plate have a filly with them when they left High Peak. The first files on Trixie appear to be several guard reports on file about her actions along with a young filly named Boom Boom. Both Boom Boom and Trixie were listed as suspects in the destruction of warehouse seven at the time but no charges were ever leveled."
"Not long after that Trixie seems to have left town and began to travel, we attempted to speak to her parents but they would not talk with us. We have limited information on her until she turned up in Ponyville. She appears to have been a successful showpony until then, afterwards..." Key frowned trying to decide what needed to be said. "We believe that actions were taken in an attempt to destroy her."
Luna glared at the binders pages and then stepped forward. "Why? What reason could there be to attack the reputation of this showmare? She appears to be just a random citizen."
"Yes that is what we thought, but the problem is we have been unable to get access to the deepest levels of the archives, the chief archivist refuses to allow us access." Lock noticed her sisters look and shook her head. "It is speculation."
"Let me hear what she believes." Celestia's expression told the sisters to continue.
"Key believes that the followers and the attack on us is the fault of the chief archivist, those actions only started after our attempts to access the lower archives. I believe she's seeing things that aren't there." Lock noticed her sister roll her eyes and flicked her wing out to hit the other on the nose. Before she could do more a letter floated to her, addressed to the captain of the Shadow guard.
"Thou will take this message to my captain, he will accompany you to the lower archives." Luna's eyes narrowed "We wish to know why, and what, actions have been taken against our subjects." The two pegasai nodded and left with the letter to find the captain of the Shadow Guard.
Celestia frowned trying to decide whether she needed to get involved directly when the captain of the royal guard rushed onto the balcony. "Your highnesses! We have recieved a report from Soft Step. She has reached the border between the dragon clans and the hives, from there the interference of the hives is lessened and she got a report out. They are currently under assualt by the queens forces, they attempted to retreat into the dragon clan territories but the first squad to try was incinerated by a dragon guardian. According to Soft Step the dragons have taken position on the pillars and refused to allow them access to the dragon lands." He stomped a hoof in frustration "The last of her message said that a Behemoth was approaching."
"When did the message arrive?" Celestia's worry for their agent as well as for the rebel forces who had dared to stand up to their queen filling her mind.
"Less than two minutes ago." He frowned "Is there still no response from the dragons?"
"No." Celestia frowned while her mind rushed through ever strategy she could come up with.
"We suggest simply aiding those in need." Luna frowned as her sister shook her head. "Would this not solve the problem?"
"It would rile the dragons, and we have enough problems with rogue dragons the way it is. The one dealt with by Twilight and her friends was young, and the green that currently inhabits the Everfree is still a cause for concern. I do not understand why they have not sent a reply, they would have received my request by midday."
"They would have yes." Captain Spear stepped forward "But by not responding at all they allow themselves leeway. They can claim that your message arrived too late, that nothing could be done before the destruction of the rebel forces happened. And due to the hives wild magic getting messages out is nearly impossible, they likely believe we have no contact with our agent. In fact it is even more likely that if Soft Step survived the last fight the dragons would make sure she didn't get the chance to report back."
Celestia frowned as she considered the captains words and could find truth in them. There had been plenty of time for the dragons to respond but they had not. "I will speak to the clan lords directly." She strode from the balcony, followed by Luna and the captain.
"I will rally an honor guard."
"No." She could see the captain was about to object but she continued. "This will be between myself and the clan lords, there will be no others allowed. Do not worry captain, I have friends there." Or she had, long ago when she had last stood before the council. As she left the royal guard and Luna behind she strode down passages she hadn't been down in decades until she stood before an ancient dais carved with runes. Stepping onto the dais her horn flashed gold and she vanished.
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Dragon Citadel, Claws of the Sky.
"This is folly." Graven rested on the small outcropping of rock that he often sat on during council meetings and looked upon the other clan lords. "Celestia has ever been an ally of the dragon clans. And you offer her insult."
"We will not allow the filth of the hives to travel through our lands." Emerald Claw was a young dragon compared to Graven and the other elders and at a mere seven hundred he had participated in the short war against the changelings the dragons had had five hundred years ago though he had been kept from the heavy fighting and had never got the chance to even see a behemoth. "Allowing them to spread would cause more problems than it would ever fix. Do you desire to see their hives begin to spread across the world. All here know there is no such thing as a reformed changeling. They are a disease that we have allowed to remain only due to the treaties of the old alliance."
"And what of Celestia's agent? There is a pegasus there that serves the royal sisters." Verdant looked upon the rest of the lords, far too many of which were far too young. And it was that youth that was going to end with both her and Graven on damage control with the ponies. Looking upon the council she knew how this insanity had started, with the beginning of the long sleep. While the youth of the dragons might rest for a mere hundred years at the most, in their sleep the elders could rest for far longer. She knew of an elder who had once napped for nearly five hundred years before wakening, and what a job catching that one up on political changes had been. When an elder entered the long sleep they usually chose from among their kin the ones that they believed would replace them eventually when they entered the final sleep. It was a way to allow these untested to see the ways of the council and see the way things were run by the lords. But this time...this time things had changed for the worst in far too many ways. Four of the lords had entered the long sleep, four elders who should have been sitting on the council making sure young blood didn't endanger things to this extent. The last time the council had such untested blood on it they had nearly started an inter-clan war.
With four of them sleeping now the only age on the council was herself, Graven, and Vox who spent most of his time dozing when not called upon to speak. And in the place of the sleepers were four youth who were so young they hadn't even been hatched during the Nightmare War. The youth had banded together, thinking they would show their elders a thing or two about politics. This normally would have simply left Graven, Verdant, and Vox chuckling in the hallways at the idiocy of the youth if they hadn't just undercut the dragon clans greatest ally. And calls to the clan keepers to wake the elders had fallen on deaf ears. Seeing Crimson Wing stand Verdant nearly groaned audibly. 'And the clan idiot will now speak.' Why Typhon had chosen this brainless imbecile to represent her clan she would never know.
"I'm sure that something can be arranged. After all we don't even know if it truly is her agent anymore." The youngest of the dragons currently on the council chuckled darkly "I've often wondered what pony tasted like."
"You fool! Do you..." The loud crack caught the attention of the clan lords and drew eyes to the two massive doors that lead into the council chamber. Verdant watched as the doors, forged by the most talented dragon smiths, and endowed with the most powerful magic they could wield, deformed and twisted before shattering as they blasted inwards with a boom that shook the council chamber. Crimson Wing jerked in surprise as a chunk of the doors nearly half her size scythed past her head to burry itself in the wall.
"May the ancients preserve us." The choked whisper came from Graven as he looked at the shining star that blazed in the entrance of their council chamber. Said star began to stride into the room, each golden shod hoof impacting the floor with a ringing boom and turning rock to molten slag though the hoof never sank into the liquid.
"WHERE IS THE PACT!" The thundering voice shook the council chamber. "WHERE ARE THE ELDERS! FOR BEFORE MY EYES I SEE ONLY HATCHLINGS."
Emerald Claw reared up "You dare!" Any other thing he might have said was stopped as a golden light slammed closed on his jaws clamping them closed. The dragon, used to being heavily magic resistant to the point of near immunity from most spells found that said ability wasn't helping him the least.
"BE SILENT!" Eyes as bright as the sun glared upon the council. "I REQUESTED AND IT WAS NOT DELIVERED. I ASKED AND IT WAS NOT GIVEN. HAS THIS COUNCIL FORGOTTEN THE FALL OF GRIMJAW, HAS IT FORGOTTEN THE FLIGHT OF CLAN BLOODWING!" A single hoof slammed down and a shudder passed down to the roots of the mountain itself as cracks formed on the ceiling of the council chamber. "MUST IT BE REMEMINDED OF ITS VOWS? REQUEST AND IT SHALL BE DELIVERED. ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN. WERE THESE NOT THE WORDS SPOKEN! DOES THE COUNCIL SO EASILY FORGET ITS PROMISES!" The princess continued to shake the chamber with her speech and Vox stirred looking down upon the small being who's eyes now turned to him. Her mane and tail no longer the aurora of colors but a seething mass of flame. old memories stirred in the eldest's mind and he lifted his head.
"Nay princess, we need not be reminded." A long neck lowered and the ancient dragons head swept close to the solar princess ignoring the heat blasting outwards from her while ancient blue scales shone in her light. "But these younglings think they hold the reins of power and a new vote must be made if that is to change." He looked to the youth of the council, disgust writ large across his features. "And a new vote we shall have." The ancient blue smiled grimly at the youth. "And for the sakes of your continued survival I would strongly suggest you vote correctly."
Claws finally dug into the golden power shattering it from his snout "You can not simply order the dragon council to do what you desire!" Emerald Claw slammed claws into the council floor while trying to regain some control. "This council is not subject to your laws!" His voice cut off as power flared sending shockwaves throughout the chamber.
"Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth hatchling, lest I tear it from you." Vox's voice bore none of the casual tone he usually used as he glared down at the much smaller dragon. "You have caused enough trouble, all of you have. You bring dishonor on your clans, and I will be sure to speak if it to your elders when they return." Three of the four younglings lowered their heads in shame, and not a little sheer terror under the gaze of both the ancient one and celestial princess. "Now let us vote."
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2 Hours Later.
"The fastest flyers have already returned. The changelings put up quite a fight and had gotten the behemoth trapped within some of the spires near the border. Orders were given and your agent led them across the border." Vox rested on main floor of the chamber, Graven and Verdant sitting with him before Celestia. They had the council chamber to themselves with the youngers having been nearly tossed out by Vox himself. "They lost some but most survived." The princess had damped her power to normal and her mane and tail had returned to their normal aurora coloring as she looked upon the three old friends before her.
"What has happened here? I came to speak to the council and I find many little more than hatchlings that so casually discuses the death of the innocent" She hadn't seen this number of younglings in control since the time she first contacted the dragons.
"Four have entered the long sleep." Graven sighed shaking his head "Verdant will tell me I am being paranoid but this simply doesn't happen. I believe that something has induced this slumber. Something or someone who seeks to destabilize the council. For four members to sleep at the same time is unprecedented, and the ones chosen to take their place? I know Typhon well and Crimson Wing would not have been her true choice for council replacement. Something is going on be we can not prove it. I believe that the keepers in Typhons clan will attempt to waken her soon, especially after this debacle."
"As will the other keepers. The clans can not let this dishonor stand." Verdant frowned as she looked down upon the princess "Do you truly believe they can be reformed? You know their penchant for capturing the innocent to feed on."
"Yes, I know. And if an ancient treaty did not still sit within the vaults within Canterlot I would have long past marched alongside the dragons and shattered the hives open." She looked across the chamber at the ancient throne set against one wall, a throne once rumored to have had a king upon it. "Something is stirring." She looked to the elders. "I have felt uneasy for days now and just yesterday a power entered this world. Something is wrong."
"You have our support, and the support of the sleeping elders as well most likely." Vox couldn't help but chuckle as he thought back to days of old. "When you stood before us today it reminded me of the old days, the Nightmare War in full swing and you in the armor of old shining like a new star to lead us through the dark and into victory. Ah the battles we fought, the glorious clashes in the skies."
"You and I remember those days very differently old friend. Where you see the glory of battle I remember the fallen, the stench of blood and death and the cries of the wounded." Celestia shuddered slightly "I wish never to see those days returned. Never to have to watch my ponies and their allies fall before such darkness. I keep that armor only to remind myself of my failings, to remind myself never to allow things to go so far ever again." She tried to shove the old memories away and focus on the present. "Please see to the safe travel of the changelings through your lands and to the frontier. Once there we will meet them with our own forces to aid them in the last legs of their travel."
"You believe in them Celestia and I can't truly say you are wrong to give them a chance. But you have never seen the insides of their hives, never seen what they do there. You will recieve a report from your agent when she arrives." Verdant bowed her head to the princess "When you make your decision we will aid if you desire."
"The treaty..."
"Some treaties are meant to be broken princess." Vox stood stretching as he readied to leave.
"You know something." Celestia looked up at the giant dragon "Tell me."
"Listen to your agent Celestia. The changelings are different than they used to be." Even as he spoke she could feel sadness radiate from him. "They have fallen Celestia, fallen farther than ever. You once moved against Sombra when he enslaved the empire and I know why, I trust you will do what you believe is best when the information is given. And know that we did send word, but received only the response that you knew and the treaty still held."
Celestia watched as the dragons flew from the room as she pondered the words Vox had spoken, that they had sent word. Word of what? What could the changelings have been doing that would get even the dragons anger riled. And if word had been sent why had she never seen it? A slow simmering anger grew as she realized that all of this was linked together, the actions that seemed to be coming from the archives as well as the intelligence agency. Something needed to be done, and done now. She left the council chamber for the teleport dais.
Note. If this chapter doesn't seem up to snuff please read the note at the end. Stupid power company. end note. thoughts {mind to mind} This is mostly a Luna and Celestia thing though certain spells will mimic it.
Chapter 5
Golden light washed down across the land as the sun rose above the horizon bringing with it the sounds of birds waking to the bright rays. Ranma on the other hand only felt a wary nervousness as the golden orb began its ascent into the skies. Trixie had spent the entire last day telling him as much as she could about both the country they were in, called Equestria, and the world, called Equus, and she certainly hadn't glossed over the fact that their sun and moon were supposed to be controlled by the ruling princesses of the nation they were currently in. After everything else he had seen so far he wasn't sure if he could discount the idea, though it went against everything he had learned in the few schools he had attended. A very obvious conclusion that the two princesses were goddesses had received an odd answer. She seemed to find the idea both correct and wrong at the same time. According to her the princesses were revered by the average ponies to the point that many, if not most, would die to protect them if it was required and that the two were near universally loved by all ponies and even greatly respected by other races. Ranma knew there had to be a problem there as traveling with his old man he had found out quickly that no matter how loved someone seemed to be there were those who hated them and wanted them to fail. But he had to admit that if Trixie was correct the ponies and other nearby races hadn't had a real war in nearly a thousand years. Which beat out humanities best record, hell the two weren't even in the same galaxy of comparison.
She had mentioned a few minor border clashes and one larger conflict between the Diamond Dog kingdom and the Griffons that apparently happened five hundred years ago but it had been a swift conflict that ended in only a month. And he now knew there were griffons, and dragons, and harpies, and some kind of Zebra nation along with crystal ponies and...he shook his head in irritation and focused back on his training while waiting for Trixie to wake up. She had drilled him in plenty of things and he at least wouldn't make the mistake of using the incorrect terms when talking, most of the time anyway. He knew that because she had forced him to go over them until he wanted to smash his head into the nearest boulder in frustration. Still, he had to admit that she was pretty nice for a traveling companion as she was the first girl, 'mare' he mentally corrected himself, who hadn't started whining after spending most of the day traveling without stops. And her aura was concerning. He had been doing some exercises to try and widen and fine tune his aura reading which meant he was exposed to her aura constantly, and while she was very good at tossing up an arrogant and boastful front he could practically feel her buried depression. It was worse than he got after losing a fight which he would grudgingly admit was pretty bad.
Something had obviously happened to the traveling pony that had driven her into that forest and after spending a chunk of the night focusing on her for research, he had gotten worried about her aura. Aura reading was the entire basis of certain schools of martial arts and Genma had been adamant about him learning what he could from several experts in the short time they had been allowed to stay at a dojo in America. The short time being caused by his idiot of a father trying to steal some super secret scroll the masters of the dojo had that was supposed to be a particularly impressive aura technique. Thankfully they hadn't blamed him for his father's crimes but they also wouldn't teach him more than they already had, though they both told him that with his aptitude he had already learned the basics and that experimentation would lead him to the rest. Aura reading allowed one to read their opponents better, as well as detect opponents who were trying to attack unless said opponent was very good at hiding their presence. To an expert aura user an average person was an open book, with everything from mental health to physical health to truth and lies spoken and more right out there for them to see. A sufficiently skilled martial artist would be able to shield themselves from that to the point where the aura reader wouldn't know if they spoke truth or lies or what they really felt. As much as Ranma wanted to claim he was that good he knew that even with the basics down he was completely open to an expert. But the basics gave him some info on Trixie, who had no defenses against his aura sight, and those basics were...concerning.
While the grandmasters he had studied under simply read auras like it was second nature to them it took Ranma an hour of meditation just to get into the right state of mind to begin a deep reading of Trixie. Her aura was obviously different than a humans but he was able to make out certain things, like the colors that identified particular emotions. Reading those was easy once you saw them as they appeared to be the same in Trixie, and his new form, as when he was human. Blue was confidence, gold was arrogance, and let no one tell you they were the same thing. Red was anger, despair and depression were a sickly green color that usually made Ranma sick to his stomach for some reason. But he had to admit that the worst he had ever seen was black, the feelings of worthlessness, the belief one didn't deserve to live, that one's life was meaningless. When he had first begun to be better at the basics the masters had taken him to a hospital to learn to read the auras of those who were injured, to show him how physical and mental damage transferred into a person's aura.
He had learned quickly to spot the alterations in auras of those whose bodies had been injured both by deliberate means and by accident. It took him longer to begin to identify those who had been harmed mentally. He had been walking through the hospitals children's wing on his way to get something to eat when he had had his first breakthrough in reading mental damage. He had been keeping his aura sight open while walking, not an easy feat at all at his skill level, when he had happened to glance into one room and saw, for the first time, a black aura. The girl couldn't have been more than ten but it was obvious she had suffered badly under someone. He had had to ask the masters what a black aura meant to figure out how badly damaged the girl was. The worst thing was that her aura had been almost completely dominated by the black, only a little light still shone within telling anyone with sight that a part of her still had hope. He had done his best, spending time with her every day at the hospital but it was as if every time a spark would begin to break through that it would be gone the next day. He had figured out the problem quickly, and it happened to be her parents. Ranma had to admit that he was pretty damned proud of the fact nobody at the hospital, or anywhere else, had figured out who had flattened the two assholes. The look on the girls fathers face when his arm was broken by a thirteen year old was priceless and Ranma hadn't stopped there. He'd made sure the two jerks realized that he would come after them again if they didn't confess to their own actions. The last he'd heard the girl was being taken in by some relatives while her parents would be arrested, after they got out of the hospital of course. Thankfully the relatives seemed nice and he had at last seen at least a few cracks in the blackness of her aura before she was released from the hospital.
Trixie was different from that but damaged in other ways. The core of her aura was a brilliant shining blue with streaks of gold blazing through it overlaying the more average colors that signified things like kindness and other emotions. But that core was surrounded by walls of sickly green interspersed with a few thick strands of black constricting around the bright light. It was a battered aura that had obviously taken some heavy mental strain and damage. But the black seemed to be thinning, or cracking, letting jolts of light shimmer through. Even so he worried about it as it meant that she might have been in the forest with no plans of ever leaving it. It also meant he needed to be careful to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't relapse back.
After examining Trixie's aura he had spent much of the rest of the night working on ki distribution throughout his body. Trying to figure out how to funnel ki where he wanted it instead of letting it bleed out all over. It hadn't gone great but he had found his frustrations melting away under the moonlight. Strangely just standing in it had been calming and given a feeling of being protected. Because of the calming nature of the moonlight he had actually gotten more done than he probably would have. He had found out that the reason he was bleeding so much ki outward was that that the pony equivalent of ki pathways were twice the size they should have been. While this would allow one to expel and move ki much easier than a human could it also left him wasting far too much energy. During one of the few times he had gotten irritated over the ki circulation he had shoved his aura into his right hoof, quite hard, in an attempt to force it around. The result had been a sore leg and hoof and a small crater in the ground where his forehoof had been pressed. It hadn't been big, and the energy expenditure had been huge due to bleed-off, but it was interesting to note the ease with which ponies could shift energy around and then expel it outward.
Trixie blinked blearily at the night pony some distance from her where he was going through movements she had once seen a defense instructor doing when teaching students in canterlot and found herself wondering if he had even slept at all. Grumbling vague insults at morning ponies she stumbled to her hooves and squinted in the general direction of the rising sun. They had traveled all yesterday and had bedded down for the night near some bushes off the side of the road to Hoofington. It would take several hours to reach the town and she needed to decide how to handle the situation when they did arrive. Mostly the part where she would get chased out of town if she showed her face there without a disguise. The problem with illusion magic was that a gifted unicorn would be able to see that a spell was active if they decided to pay enough attention to the pony the illusion was on. And the mere fact she was traveling with a night pony would get her plenty of attention which meant she needed some kind of easily overlooked illusion that would make those nearby not even consider glancing in her direction. Picking up a small pebble from the ground she launched it at the stallion to get his attention, not once expecting said pebble to suddenly be struck by a hoof and launched back at her.
Ranma had been mostly focusing on his new workout, that had taken a good chunk of the remaining night to figure out, when he heard a loud yelp from Trixie and looked to see the mare rubbing her head near her horn. Deciding he had trained enough he trotted over and watched her as she grumbled about irritating insane ponies. "You okay?"
"Trixie would be fine if you didn't hit her with rocks." Her glare got only a confused look back and she frowned "You can't tell Trixie that you don't even know you did that." See his confused look only get worse she decided to just let it go before she got a headache, or decided to do something she'd regret later. "Forget it. Let's just get moving so we can be in Hoofington before noon so Trixie can get a good meal."
As the sun rose and her stomach grumbled she tried to think of ways to get through town without truly getting examined by everypony they ran into. Or more to the point, keeping everypony from looking at her. Though she had to admit she could try and meld a minor misdirection spell with her illusion spell as both were enchantments which she was particularly good at. The trip continued in silence for quite some time until Trixie couldn't stand it anymore, she had been alone for so long that she actually wanted company and now that she had some he wasn't even talking.
"Trixie has seen that kind of fighting before." She noticed this perked up the other pony quickly enough.
"Really?" Ranma had to admit there might be hope for this world yet if there was martial arts on it. It also gave him hope of possibly learning some new things and maybe facing a true master of martial arts who was used to this type of body. It would be a good test of his new abilities.
"Yes, though she is unsure if they moved as wildly as you do." Honostly she found herself interested in what the night pony would say on the matter. Being a unicorn she had never really thought of learning to fight with anything but magic, and it had served her well in the few times she needed to defend herself from bandits and the like.
"Well...My form of martial arts is called the School of Indiscriminate Grappling but it's more commonly known as the Anything Goes school of martial arts. One of the most powerful fighting schools in the world." He felt better talking about something he knew so much of. "Our school works to take the best of every other form of martial arts and incorporate it into our own. That way we end up with all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of our opponents." True it meant their school relied on the theft of other schools secrets but he preferred to think of it as preserving the best of the best instead of letting it get lost. He stopped to lift his right forehoof from the ground and let some of his aura into it so that it gained a soft white glow.
"What is that?" Trixie cast a quick spell and received nothing in return, there was no magical energy there whatsoever.
"It's life energy, my life energy actually." He stopped the glow and started walking again. "The greatest schools of martial arts teach the wielder to access their life energy to bolster their abilities. With it I can do lots of things a normal person can't, reinforce my body to make me a lot tougher and stronger. You saw me pull those spiders in the caves?" Seeing her nod he continued "I used my aura to anchor myself to the floor so that they were pretty much trying to pull me and several tons of rock towards them instead of just me."
While life energy wasn't unknown to Trixie, the idea one could use it in the way Ranma was talking about was...crazy. She knew that unicorn doctors and nurses knew spells that would shift such life energy around to aid in healing but the idea one could use it to increase their strength was beyond anything Trixie had heard of. "How do you get such power?" She wouldn't profess to be an expert but she had read some medical books, a traveler needed to know these sorts of things on the off chance they ran into trouble on the road after all.
"Training. A lot of very hard brutal training that forces the body to reach a point where it can begin to access the energy. Once you can touch it you can use it, and once you can use it you can make it stronger." He leapt into the air to a height no normal pony should have been able to even come close to and then landed without even causing much of a disturbance in the roads dirt. "It's skill. Like your lightning spell in the caves, that was really cool. Use stuff like that any nobo-er-pony could beat ya."
Trixie was glad the stallion was looking ahead so he didn't see her blush. "Y-yes it was a modified spell." She thought of unicorns like Lulamoon "But all the training in the world won't help Trixie be stronger." Seeing he was about to say something she shook her head "Unicorns have a set level of power, it doesn't grow or change. What Trixie has is what Trixie has, she will never be more powerful than she is."
"Really? So you could'a done the same thing to that weirdo back in the caves at any time?" Ranma already figured he knew the answer to the question.
"No, Trixie just said she modified the spell to alter its abilities." Seeing the smirk on his face she snorted "don't try to equate a modified spell to more power."
"Power isn't just the raw strength of abilities, or spells. Being powerful can simply mean you're more skilled than your opponent."
"Trixie is already skilled. She knows plenty of spells." Of course plenty wasn't good enough when dealing with a celestial bear like an ursa minor. Especially when she hadn't even been prepared for something like that.
"I know lots of martial arts moves, but knowing the moves and understanding the moves are two different things. If I went up against a fighter who knew every move I did but he didn't really train in them I could kick his ass easily." He glanced at the unicorn hoping she would understand.
Trixie's mind was focusing on what Ranma had said but also on something she had read when she had been snowed in for nearly a week on her way to Trottingham once.
Most unicorns believe that simply learning a spell is good enough for them, as if learning the spell will give them all the insight necessary to understand the spell. In truth one must take the spell apart, examine every aspect of the spell to understand how it is cast, what parts of it use what magic, and why the component parts utilize the magic in the way they do. By doing this a unicorn can gain an understanding of the spell far greater than any simple common practitioner of the magical arts. This not only allows the caster to understand the spell they have, but also allows them to alter the spell in ways an opponent might never consider. This is the entire basis behind the elite arcanist squad known as the Nightmare Breakers, who were the greatest spell casters of the Equestrian army during the Nightmare War.
HISTORY OF SPELLCRAFT
BY: SHINING STAR
At the time she had scoffed at the idea she didn't know her spells. But with her own work in the caves, Ranma's statements about understanding his martial arts, and her memory of the book she had read, she was starting to wonder. The odd thing was that she knew for a fact that Celestia's school for gifted unicorns discouraged modification of known spells. While she herself hadn't gone to the school she had hung around in areas where the ones who did go would hang out and talk. They enjoyed mocking her as the failure who hadn't gotten in but in doing so, and trying to flaunt their knowledge, they had passed on quite a bit to her. She remembered her old mentor had also talked about not modifying spells. It was an oddity that she couldn't quite understand, sure her new lightning spell had a horrible feedback problem that she needed to figure out how to deal with but she was working on that. And she was fairly sure she could get it worked out eventually. Any other thought on the subject vanished as they crested a hill and looked down onto Hoofington.
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Hoofington. One hour later. Daisy Chain Restaurant.
"I still don't know why you had to disguise yourself." Ranma managed the question around his seventh sandwich. Trixie had refused the enter the town looking like herself and had quickly layered a spell around herself that gave her a pale grey coat and a silver and black mane and tail.
"Tri...As I said I don't want anypony to recognize me." Trixie would have said it was a miracle that nopony had done so already but she had found, to her irritation, that most eyes had fallen directly on Ranma. Even now she could see three mares sitting in a booth on the other side of the room who were spending more time giggling and eyeing the stallion than they were eating the food in front of them. And it didn't seem to be just the mares, she was certain there were at least two stallions in the restaurant who had managed to move three tables closer to Ranma since they had gotten in. She would have been more irritated about the situation if she hadn't wanted it that way. She stayed silent for a moment before noticing a single mare that was paying attention to her, watching her sharply in fact. A mare with a gold coat and a black and gold mane. "Of all the mares to show up, why did Golden Lining have to be here." She looked to Ranma who was starting on his eighth sandwich and wondered where he was putting it all. "Take care of this. I need to take care of some things." She waved off his complaint "I'll meet you at the train station in an hour, as soon as I talk to somepony I know who might know where the Doctor went."
"What? But I need..." He didn't get to finish.
"I have to do this myself. Please." She glanced towards the golden mare once again only to see she was gone. "I promise I will meet you in an hour."
"Alright. One hour." It had been the 'please' that had gotten him, she hadn't been able to completely hide the almost desperation that had been buried in that word. With a sigh he went back to eating as Trixie got up and left only to suddenly realize he had no money. "Aw great. How the heck am I supposed to pay for this?" Those words got a gasp from the right and suddenly he found three different mares at the table.
"Did she just leave you here with no money?" The oldest of the three leaned forward looking as scandalized as she could "How rude! I'm sure my sisters and I could help you."
"Really?" Ranma wasn't completely clueless when it came to women, but these weren't women and he had no idea what he was getting into when it came to ponies. So it was that several minutes later he was being dragged from the restaurant, with many glares being leveled at the three mares who were clustered around him, and being led down the street.
"So where are you from? I've heard all the stories about the Lunar ponies, is it true you're more powerful under a full moon?" The youngest, which was probably around Ranma's own age, was the quickest with questions.
"Umm..not sure really. I haven't been in any fights above ground at night yet." He blinked in confusion as the three giggled.
"What's your name?" The youngest again. Though in truth Ranma wasn't sure of her age, or the age of the others, as he really didn't have much of a lock on what ponies looked like at what age. "And your age?"
"Ranma, I'm sixteen." Ranma in truth was paying more attention to the buildings around him and trying to figure out where exactly Trixie might have been. As they passed a building that's sign bore the image of some kind of tankard he figured he had found the town bar. A flicker of color in the alley next to the bar caught his eye and he turned towards it moving to the head of the alley. The leader of the three sisters immediately tried to pull him away "It's just a drunk. Probably got tossed out when they started a fight or something. There's no need to go in there."
She might have been right but Ranma's eyes were much better than her's at seeing in the dark and he could easily pick out the fact that said drunk pony was female by just looking at her face, which was angled enough towards the street to be seen. And as much as he didn't want to go dragging a drunk from the gutter he had done it for his pops plenty of times and he felt he couldn't just leave a woman, or mare, collapsed in the alley. Pulling away from the three sisters he strode into the alley and picked his way past what looked to be trash though he was surprised it hadn't been picked up considering how clean the rest of the town was. Reaching the downed mare he looked her over seeing that she appeared to be an odd coloring of very light green, or maybe it was a mix of very light blue and green together, he wasn't quite sure. With a mane and tail of amber and orange and a cutie mark consisting of a Lightning bolt with three stars. He also saw that she had wings, which was interesting right away as that would mean this was the first pegasus he had seen, though Trixie had described them to him. He nudged the downed mare slightly but got only a groan in response for several moments before one orange eye opened to look blearily up at him.
"whadda you want?" The slur to the ponies voice told him she was still pretty trashed.
"You okay?" He wasn't sure why he was asking, or why he was even wasting his time in an alley with a drunk but his instincts were all he really had to go on in this world and they were telling him to stay put.
"F-fine..'s nothin w-w-w..." She twitched and then heaved, managing to avoid puking on herself or Ranma but impacting the wall near her. With a groan she slowly pushed herself up to sitting position and then ever so slowly tried to stand. It probably would have been a failed effort if Ranma hadn't stepped in to help. "Thanks. Name's Lightning Dust, now leave me alone." She nearly fell over turning around and had been about to make a her way to the street, or at least try to, when three figures blocked the alley entrance.
"Well, well. Bout time we found you." The leader of the three was probably the biggest pony Ranma had seen, standing a foot taller than Ranma himself and bulked up with more muscle than he thought any pony should have. His two friends were quite a bit smaller and didn't seem to have much in the muscle department. But it was the cutie marks that nearly had Ranma cracking up, the leaders was a set of brass knuckles, the one to his right a baseball bat, and the one to his left a pair of boxing gloves. Ranma wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a sports team or the local hired thugs. "You owe us."
"Yeah, yeah. Just give me the time to get in another race and I can pay you back in full." The pegasus swayed slightly looking almost as if she might fall down.
"You said that at the last race, and you didn't make near enough money to even cover the interest." The larger of the ponies stalked forward till he was nearly nose to nose with the mare and glared at her. "You owe use two thousand bits."
"Two thousand! That's way more than..." She never got to finish as the one Ranma had now dubbed Brass Knuckles lashed out with a blow that struck her in the face and slammed her into the nearby wall. He never got the chance to gloat as a second later his head impacted the ground with enough force to flip the rest of him forward and over. Before his body had even impacted the ground his two flunkies got introduced to Ranma launching himself at both of them, twisting around and kicking both with a back hoof sending them flying out into the street to tumble to an unconscious stop. He turned to see Lightning Dust puking up what she had left in her stomach before trying to look at him.
"When did your two brothers show up?" Her attempt to get up ended in a collapse and Ranma muttered a curse. The sound of shouting from down the street got his attention, the level of authority in the voices sounded too much like police for his tastes. It took a few attempts to get her onto his back but he stood in time to see the first of the armored ponies come to a stop near the unconscious duo in the street. It didn't take more than a second for them to look his way. "Halt!"
"Heck no." He spun and galloped down the alleyway towards the other end, deciding that avoiding local law enforcement was a better option than possibly getting in trouble for...well, whatever this crazy world might come up with. It didn't take long to realize that outrunning the guard was near impossible when they had pegasus guards in the air directing the others to wherever he went. And his passenger was not in the best medical condition, both from the blow to the head and the amount of drink she must have put away. His only thought at the moment was to find Trixie and see if she could help with her magic, if that was possible.
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Trixie knew that Golden Lining was following her, the annoying mare wouldn't attack or push her luck most likely purely because Trixie had entered town with a night pony. The irritating unicorn wouldn't know if she was working for the guards or not and so wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her future. Trixie had no doubt that she had seen through her disguise, it wasn't the best bit of work she had ever done but it was the best she could throw together on short notice. Deciding to ignore her follower for the time being she headed to Stitch's Emporium glad to see that it was still where she had remembered it to be even after all these years, even if it looked a bit more rundown than it had so many years ago. The door didn't make a noise but she knew Stitch would know she was here, he always knew when a costumer walked through his front door.
"It's been a long time Trixie." The words nearly caused the unicorn to jump in surprise as Stitch stepped out from the back.
"How did you know it was Trixie?" She banished the illusion and walked to the counter where the old tailor settled into a comfortable chair.
"You forget who you're talking to." He smiled at the showmare "I'm probably the second most perceptive unicorn in this town, behind Golden Lining of course."
"Of course." She couldn't keep bitterness out of her voice when thinking of the golden unicorn. "Well Trixie isn't here for old times, she needs information."
Stitch couldn't keep concern out of his mind when he looked at Trixie. She was attempting to keep up her old bluster and arrogance but as he had said, he was the second most perceptive unicorn in town. And he was easily able to pick out the wary shifting of the mares eyes, the tenseness she held herself with and the very minor but still there shimmer around the base of her horn speaking of power ready to be unleashed. "Trixie, you still have friends here." He stood warily, while speaking with as soothing a tone as he could muster.
"Really? Trixie seems to have missed when they spoke up on her behalf." The acid in her voice caused him to step back in surprise. "In fact Trixie seems to remember them standing way in the back when she was being chased out of town, almost as if they didn't want anypony to know they knew her."
"That wasn't..." He sighed as he got a look at her eyes, she wasn't going to believe him no matter what words he spoke. "What is it you wished to know?"
"Trixie is wondering if you remember a job you did for the great Lulamoon around twenty years ago? And if you do remember, Trixie needs to know where Lulamoon and her assistant were going." She was relying on Stitch only because he was the best at this sort of thing next to her, he had a memory like a steel trap that never let anything go once he learned it. Trixie was actually better at absorbing information than Stitch but unlike her he could remember even the tiny details that she might forget.
"Ah, Lulamoon. A beautiful mare, she and her friend were needing quite the wardrobe fix." He chuckled "They were heading to Manehattan, according to the Doctor they were off to see Sonata in her closing act." Seeing the look on her face he shrugged "That was what he said."
She could only assume that he had heard incorrectly as she knew that Sonata, a mare of great acclaim, had died nearly 80 years ago. In fact her closing act, the last act set before her retirement, was said to have been one impressive mess with rumors of dark unicorns and some kind of monster involved in the destruction of the entire theater she had been performing in. Just rumors though, the guards had stated that in the end it was simply a unicorn with a grudge against Sonata that had cast multiple illusions and other attacks to try and bring down the performers amazing final show. Still, Manehattan gave her the next place they would have to go in their search. "Thank you." She had almost made it to the door when he coughed politely, getting an irritated look from the showmare. "Do you desire something else? Trixie is busy."
"I have something for you." Using his magic he slid a small picture aside and pulled out a wrapped bundle from behind it. "I never got the chance to give this to you the last time you turned up in town."
"Truly surprising that you couldn't get a chance to give something to Trixie while cowering behind the mob." She took the item and unwrapped the twine that held the paper wrapping shut. She froze, staring at the item on top for a moment before levitating it up to get a better look. It was a hat much like her last though black, instead of purple, with blue and gold stars that seemed to shimmer slightly. The other item was a cape, like the hat it was black with blue and gold stars and used a red octagonal ruby within a gold setting to hold the cape in place. She had been paying attention to the clothes so much she nearly hadn't noticed the book that had also been inside the wrapping. A thin book with covers of dark crystal bearing an embedded emerald in the shape of a wisp of fire. Underneath the embedded emerald was the title of the book Magic of the Crystal Empire: A Guide to Stage Magic. Eye's wide with shock she stared at the spellbook in confusion before looking to Stitch. "Why?"
"Well I just happened to be in the Crystal Empire on a vacation earlier this year and decided I'd check out their library. It just so happened that that book there caught my eye and I knew it would be good for you." He smiled as Trixie pulled the book close to her wrapping her legs around the item and hugging it close. He knew that after everything that had happened to the unicorn that she had lost everything she owned, quite frankly that was likely the only spellbook in her collection now. "Now you take care of that book. I got frisked by customs twice on the way out and had to bribe three ponies in Equestria when I got it back here." Seeing the look on her face he smiled "Let's just say books aren't exactly for sale from there right now. But I knew that it would be something for you."
Silence reigned in the shop for a moment as Trixie sat looking down at the book and Stitch watched in surprise as tears dripped onto the cover. "T-trixie is..." She looked up and he could for just a moment see the pain that she tried to hide so well. "Thank you." She rubbed furiously at her eyes for a moment before standing and levitating her hat and cape into place attaching the ruby to the cape. "Trixie is grateful for this...for everything. She promises to visit sometime in the future, when she isn't on a supposed super important quest." Thinking of her new spellbook she walked to the door and swung it open just in time for a pony to come dashing down the store fronts and slam right into it sending said pony to the floor with another on top of him.
"Ranma?" Confusion vanished as she heard shouting from down the street and could see guards rushing out of an alley. Trixie sighed "Celestia, you must be testing me." Dragging the two ponies inside she closed the door before pulling Ranma and the currently unknown pegasus to a corner of the shop and weaving a quick misdirection spell around the three of them. Both guards had looked like earth ponies so she doubted they'd see through a spell telling them to look somewhere else. It didn't take long for the guards to burst in, on directions from their pegasus spotter, and look around the shop quickly before being told by Stitch that the fugitives had gone out the back. When the guards were gone Stitch turned back to Trixie "It won't take long for them to realize they're going the wrong way. I suggest you disguise your friends and get them to the train station."
"Ow...What happened?" Ranma rubbed his head before noticing Lightning Dust lying next to him. Every now and then the mare would twitch and look like she wanted to retch up anything else she might have eaten. "Geeze what the hell happened to you? I've seen drunks and you've gone above and beyond even pops."
"Nothin...Jus...just ate something that didn agree wif me. And drank some stuff." She groaned clutching her stomach "Hurts."
Trixie frowned at the mare wondering who she was, and for that matter where she came from. But decided to just go with it for the moment and work on getting everypony to the train station so they could get out of here.
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Friendship Express. On track to Manehattan.
Ranma looked out the window and watched the scenery rush by as the train chugged its way towards Manehattan. He had managed to get a bit more out of Lightning Dust but it was mostly just a push to be left alone. After the cooks of the dining car had whipped up a hangover cure, that had to nearly be forced down the mares throat, he had left her in her own car to sleep it off. Trixie though seemed to be in better moods now that she had a cape and hat, and apparently a new book to read, which she had been doing nearly nonstop since they'd boarded the train. Unfortunately he was relegated to training his aura sight and manipulation as he was stuck on a train until the morning after next. 'At least I can get some training in, even if it is only in my aura.'
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Several Hours Later. Early Night.
The rumble of the train as it continued on its long trek to Manehattan echoed up through the railcar floors and into the beds that the few travelers where resting in. It was a soothing feeling that in a way reminded Lightning Dust of resting on storm clouds, something she usually did when she was having trouble sleeping. But now...what was the reason she couldn't sleep? It only took a small amount of thinking to figure it out, the question of the day if not the week. 'Why did he get involved? Why did a pony who didn't even know me defend and protect me?' Not that any of it mattered really, her life was officially over, and had been from the instant she'd been kicked from the Academy. Getting the chance of joining the Wonderbolts taken from her had been a blow she had never even considered could happen, but to have to listen to that sanctimonious ass Spitfire talk about her grandfather to her just before telling her to leave had nearly caused her to attack the older mare.
The pegasus curled tighter on her bed staring out the window at the darkness outside while extending a wing for a moment to stare at it. Her wings...the only two things she had ever trusted after her grandfathers death. After she had realized her parents were sabotaging every training exercise she had been so desperately trying in an attempt to get better. She could still remember the first time her parents had taken her to the doctor, when every other pegasus in her class had been flying for nearly a year already and she couldn't even get off the ground. Heck even the pegasi a year younger than her could at least hover, but she couldn't.
Doctors, specialists, and even some crackpot nuts her parents had eventually trusted all told them the same thing, she was doomed to be a weak flier. Her energy tap, that which allowed in the magic that gave a pegasus their abilities, was too small. She wasn't the only pegasus with this problem but for her it hit extra hard. Her grandfather, Lightning Blitz, had been a member of the Wonderbolts, the most elite flying team in the country if not the world. They were everything from Equestria's stunt flying teams to the elite of the royal air corps. They were the best of the best, and she so desperately wanted to join them after hearing so many stories from her grandfather. She had vowed to prove everypony wrong about her, told them all she'd be the best of the best. That no stupid magic deformity would hold her back, she would be the fastest, strongest, most skilled flier in all of Equestria.
Lightning Dust pulled her wing back in and stared out the window as lights moved in the distance, a small town they were passing in the night. Her mind going over everything that had gone wrong again and again. "She was right. You would've been disappointed in me grandpa." She remembered her last arrogant words to Rainbow Dash before the end and felt her spirits wilt even more. "You were right Grandpa...Everypony was right." She pulled her wings tighter to her sides and lowered her head onto her forelegs closing her eyes, she could feel tears starting. "I shouldn't have even tried."
"Feeling sorry for yourself will not make things better, Trixie has tried and it only adds to your problems." Lightning Dust nearly fell out of the bed at the sound of Trixie's voice and jerked around to stare at the unicorn who was sitting in the center of the sleeping car with her nose buried in her crystal spellbook.
"W-what do you know!" Lightning Dust shifted straight to defensive at realizing the other mare might have heard her.
"Trixie is well versed in feeling sorry for herself. " She looked up and smirked "But then she doesn't let it get to her as she is the Great and Powerful Trixie." It was the full title and name that finally caught Lightning Dusts memories.
"Wait, you're that mare who..."
"No. Trixie is many things but not what you are thinking. She is simply a traveling showmare." Trixie went back to looking with interest at the spellbook. The crystal ponies magic was very interesting. Unlike the ponies of Equestria they had no unicorns and so their spell casters channeled their power through their hooves. It reminded her of the spell she remembered seeing Lulamoon cast that activated the strange object under the Ursa Major. If this was correct then travelers among the crystal ponies wouldn't know which ponies were magic users and which weren't as it wasn't species but an innate skill that allowed ones to cast magic. They also didn't rely on normal magic but used something the book was referring to as rune magic, a type of magic that seemed to be over complicated to Trixie. But then she was a unicorn and any magic that needed an outside anything seemed overly complicated.
"Hmm...Trixie thinks she might try this spell." She stood and began to concentrate her magic in the way the spell was trying to tell her to do. Lightning Dust, who had been about to speak again grew quiet as she watched the strange light begin to grow. Trixie didn't have to channel magic in the way the crystal ponies did, and couldn't even if she wanted to, but magic was magic and she concentrated on bringing the spell to life before her. Slowly a circle of purple light drew itself in the air before her glowing with the same pulsing as her horn. Within the circle four small squiggles that Trixie wasn't completely sure of the meaning of came into existence spinning lazily within the circle until they suddenly came to a stop, locking into place. A second later the runes flared brighter and with a small pop a bouquet of roses snapped into existence. With a squeal of delight Trixie clapped her hooves together several times and then grabbed the roses from the air checking them for smell and solidity.
"What's the big deal, it's just some flowers." Lightning Dust watched as irritation swept across Trixie's face and surprisingly found no mirth at annoying the other pony like she often did when irritating others.
"Trixie is more than capable of doing such a spell through normal means." To prove it her horn lit with magic once more, and in half the time of the previous spell another bouquet of roses shimmered into existence. "But this is completely new magic. Trixie has never studied crystal pony magic and so she is starting with the smaller spells first so as to learn the basics and then going from there." As the mare shifted pages to look at more illustrations of rune magic Lightning Dust decided to change the subject.
"Why did he do it?"
"Trixie doubts he really thinks ahead. He saw you were in trouble and helped you." She flipped a page and her eyes widened "Ohhh...Trixie wants to learn this spell!" If she was reading the book correctly the runes in the last spell might have been about the summon, dealing with color, number, casing for, and position of, the roses.
"That's it? I was in trouble so he risked his own life to help me?" It was a foreign thought to her, the idea that anypony would simply want to help her just because. Everything in her life so far had practically been the opposite of that and yet she somehow managed to run into one pony who did things that way.
"He did the same for Trixie, and don't think he was in danger from whatever ponies where after you." She smirked "Trixie was being threatened by timber wolves." Trixie stood and secured her book before trying to decide whether to take a solo room in one of the other cars or stay here.
"Don't go." Lightning Dust froze after she spoke the words and tried to decide why she had done so. Maybe it was loneliness, she had been alone before the academy and then again afterwards and really didn't want to be alone right now. "I...I'd like to see some more magic."
Trixie raised an eyebrow looking at the other mare for a moment and then smirked. "Then prepare to be amazed by the show stopping talent of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie's cape flared out as she reared up and prepared to cast what spells she could within the confines of the railcar.
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Dreamscape.
Grassy plains spread out as far as the eye could see broken only by a handful of tall rock spires that jutted up over the plains like tall silent sentinels watching over the few who wandered into what some would call a paradise. A short distance from one spire an alicorn stood watching the suns trajectory as it moved through the skies. Her coat was the white of freshly fallen snow, while her mane and tail were a rippling mass of golden solar flame. Her wings, like her mane and tail, were a construct of light and fire though only a small amount of heat pulsed outward from her. Lowering her head she looked at a small white filly with a pink mane and tail and smiled "Do you think you can find your sister Tia?"
"Yep." The small filly turned and dashed into the tall grass on a course for the nearest rock spire. Every now and then she'd jump to clear the grass to orient on the spire as she dashed along. Reaching the end of the tall grass she skidded to a stop on the much shorter grass that existed around the base of the rock spire for nearly ten feet in every direction. The spire was a thick chunk of grey rock covered by vines and flowers that the family had been staying by for the last few years while Celestia and Luna grew older. Giggling evilly she crouched down and slunk along the base of the spire until she reached a small upward path of rock. Slinking along the tiny path of rock she rounded the spires base until she reached where the rock ledge ended and she could look down to the ground. Below her a small filly with a dark blue coat stood with hooves planted firmly on the ground, face scrunched up with concentration while her horn gave a light fitful glow as she focused on something Celestia couldn't see. Smile widening Celestia crouched even more before launching herself off the rock ledge and plummeting towards her sister.
"Ninja pony!" Celestia's shout got the attention of Luna who managed a surprised scream before her sister landed on her sending the two of them rolling across the ground to a large pile of cut grass that was the two fillies bed.
"TIA!" Luna struggled out from under her sister to glare at the older pony who had now vanished into the long grass of the bed.
"I am ninja pony! Destroyer of evil." Celestia's voice echoed from under the grass.
"Stop it." Luna tried to act serious even as she couldn't stop a giggle as Celestia slinked out of the grass making over exaggerated expressions while looking around for the supposed evil. "I was really busy." Her sister abandoned her ninja pony act and hopped up smiling.
"What were ya doin?" She could see where Luna had been looking and now saw there was several objects in the shadow of the rock ledge.
Luna turned and trotted over to where she had originally been standing and stomped her hooves, settling herself in place, and started to concentrate as hard as she could. Her face scrunched up in concentration as her horn began to glow and ever so slowly a large rock, carved into the image of a crescent moon, began to lift from the ground until it hovered in the air wobbling for a moment before she smiled widely and let it drop. "I did it!" She bounced around in a circle for a moment before turning to face her sister. "See, I raised the moon!"
"Yeah!" Celestia smiled as she danced around with her sister.
"Someday I'll run the big moon all by myself." The thump from behind the girls got their attention and they spun around.
"Will you now? Run the whole moon all by yourself? Are you sure such a little filly can do that all by herself?" The two fillies dashed forward with a happy cry. "Papa!"
As a direct opposite of the fillies mother this alicorn's coat was pitch black with points of light shimmering within. His mane and tail were a deeper black that flowed with shimmering stars and his wings seemed as parts of the night sky. "And what have my two precious little foals been up to?"
"I was ninja pony! Defeater of the evil moon monster. Just like your stories." Celestia crouched and began to slink around her father's legs while trying to look intimidating, she received a laugh from her father for her effort.
"I raised the moon papa!" Luna pointed to the rock she had levitated. "Someday real soon I'll have a cutie mark just like you and mama." She pointed to her father's cutie mark, the image of a spiral galaxy, and tried to look serious. "And I'll control the moon and all the stars in the night sky." She hopped closer to her father as he laid down in the grass.
"Nuh-uh!" Celestia abandoned her ninja pony act and scrambled onto her father's back. "The stars are suns. Mama says so. And when I get all grown up the sun is mine so all suns are mine." She smirked in victory as Luna glared at her.
"Stars! And stars are the night sky." The younger sister glared at Celestia until their father chuckled gaining their attention.
"You're both right actually." He smiled as the fillies groaned. "The stars of the night sky are suns. Each one a bright sphere of fire comprised of many elements that puts out the light you see both during the day and night."
Celestia wasn't sure exactly what her father had said but to her it sounded like she was one in the right. "The sun is the only reason the moon even has any light. It's way better than some dumb rock."
"Tia!" Her father's voice, sharp and angry, stopped the filly and she noticed her sister looked to be about to cry.
"It's n-not a d-dumb rock." Luna sniffled as she looked to her father. "I-is it?"
"Of course not Luna. The moon is very important to the world, and with the responsibility of moving it comes the care of the entire night sky." He swept a wing forward and pulled the young filly to him. "There are even times when the moon blocks out the sun, making it so the sky goes dark even in the middle of the day." He watched as Celestia slid off his back and rushed to her sisters side.
"I'm sorry Lulu." She hugged her sister and their father smiled.
"So this is where you all are." All three looked up to see the white alicorn approaching, her flaming mane rippling in a unfelt breeze. "You're three days late Alpha." Lying down next to him she smiled as Luna dashed over and snuggled under one of her wings as Celestia crawled under one of Alpha's.
"Sorry. I had to be sure." He looked worriedly to the sky. "There was nothing left, just a few scraps of the planet. Whatever it is happens to be on a direct course for Equus. Though it's quite a long way away." He smiled as he looked to his wife. "Didn't you like having the girls to yourself Omega?"
"For a time, but they can be hard to handle." She shot him a look "Especially Tia after your ninja tales." Both ponies looked to the sky with worried frowns while Celestia peeked out from under her father's wing.
The dream shook.
With a brilliant flash of light two figures appeared on a hill overlooking the large city below as faint crashes and booms sounded. Celestia was surprised her legs hadn't given out after the teleport as she stared down into the valley in horror at what was happening. Entire massive buildings were wrenched from the ground to float into the air as ponies and other races tumbled from them to fall screaming towards the ground far below. Some would spontaneously stop falling and begin to float, others would grow wings, some would simply plummet to a ground now altered in strange ways to the point of being soap in some places and acid pools in others. She could feel the fabric of reality torn and split asunder while the being that was the cause of it all floated above the chaotic destruction and laughed.
"Mama...papa?" The shocked, broken whisper from beside her pulled Celestia's view from the destruction to where her sister lay staring at the land below. "W-we have to go back." She struggled to her hooves and started to take a step towards the cliff edge spreading her wings only for Celestia to grab her. "Let me go! We have to help mama and papa!"
Celestia shuddered at the thought of reentering the city below. Their father had used his power to fling them from that place and whether she wanted to admit it or not deep down she knew that the last titanic boom she had heard afterwards had been the last stand of her parents. A part of her wanted to simply collapse and cry for a week but she had to take care of Luna who was barely holding it together. They needed to escape before the creature calling itself Discord found an interest in them. Even as she struggled to hold her sister back and concentrate on a teleport she heard a loud booming followed by Discord looking to the west as an object rocketed across the skies. To Celestia it looked like a large blue box that was spinning and whirling as it plummeted through the air. As a laughing Discord rushed away after it she felt joy that he would be giving the races in the city a bit of a respite, and sorrow for whomever was within that box as Discord was likely to concentrate on them for a time. Holding her crying sister she teleported them away.
The golden flash of their arrival in the underground cave was the only light the place had seen in quite some time and she stumbled with weariness before simply collapsing to the cave floor unable to stop the sobbing as she thought of her parents. The last thing she felt before blacking out was Luna collapsing next to her.
The dream shattered.
"Your Highness!" The shout echoed through the royal suite of the solar princess as the doors slammed open and three ponies, lead by the captain of the guard, rushed into the apartments. "Your highness!"
Celestia jerked awake at the shout and for a moment her muddled mind was confused as to where she was but it took only moments for her to settle her memories and stand. Lifting a foreleg she rubbed at her eyes, pushing away sleep and the few tears that had leaked out due to a dream she hadn't had in centuries. She had just strode from her bed when the guard ponies rushed into the room nearly falling over each other to get to her. To her surprise the two following the captain took up guard positions at her flank while the captain examined the room for a moment before turning to her.
"Your highness, we are glad to see you safe." Seeing her confused look he answered before she could even begin to question. "Princess Luna has taken two squads into the lower archives when word of treachery reached the court. We were ordered to rouse the guard and wake you."
"Treachery?" Celestia's horn glowed a gentle gold as she reached out to her sister...and found emptiness instead. "How long has she been down there?"
"No longer than it took for me to reach here." It was then that she noticed he didn't even have his armor on. It was likely that he had been roused from bed and had opted to follow his orders as quickly as possible. Celestia strode past the captain glancing to her regalia as she passed it and bringing the collar to her. The crown and boots were mostly just filled with minor enchantments that would be useless compared to the might contained within her collar. The gold slipped around her neck and snapped closed bringing with it a feeling of warmth and protection as the magical enchantments layered throughout it settled around her.
"To me." The guards closed in and with a flash of gold they all vanished before reappearing in the outer offices of the EIA to a scene of near chaos as the Lunar and Solar guards dashed to and fro shouting orders and trying to tend to wounded ponies. The sudden appearance of the princess and her guard didn't go unnoticed, and one extremely jumpy soldier nearly launched a crossbow bolt their direction before recognition set in. Not even acknowledging the shock of her appearance to the guards Celestia strode through a room now nearly silent as they looked with surprise on the solar princesses arrival.
"Captain." The request inherent in the word was obvious.
"What in tartarus do you think you're doing! Get back to work or I'll personally see you mucking out the dungeons for the next three years!" The captains bellow sent ponies scrambling back to their jobs even as he was diverted from following the princess by the fact he had to captain both the Solar and Lunar guard as Shadow Lance was currently down in the lower archives.
Celestia stopped near four Lunar pegasi as they stood guard over three tied up ponies. "Report."
"Captain Lance sent word that there was an attack on the agents within the lower archives and that they were in need of immediate assistance. The princess grabbed two squads and headed down, we were trying to catch up to help when our way to the archives was blocked by a magical barrier keeping us from following the princess and the others in." The pegasi glared angrily at the captured ponies. "When we decided to retreat and inform others we were ambushed by seven enemies. We lost Sure Shot and Striker on the way out of the hallway but we caught these traitors."
Celestia looked at the injured and contained ponies frowning as she saw each appeared to be workers in the archive. "Guard them well, and send word to the Nova and Shadow guards that their interrogators are required." Turning she strode deeper in the agencies central offices and into the upper archives heading towards the hallway that would lead down to the lower archives. The archives held an impressive amount of information, not all of it from the EIA, that had been collected over several thousand years. It contained everything from birth and death records, to rarer basic information on the elements of harmony. The lower archives on the other hoof had sensitive information that dealt with everything from lost treasures of immense power to information on the retuning of the elements of harmony and ways to access power from places like Tartarus. As well as also containing several rooms of all copied files from the upper archives. It was a redundancy measure that Celestia had always believed was going too far until they had actually needed it now.
She could smell blood before she even reached the hallway entrance and rounded a set of shelves to see the entrance of the downward sloping hallway that lead to the lower archives. The bodies of six lunar pegasi lay collapsed by the hallway entrance and four other pegasi were tending the wounds of several injured. Another ten were clustered near an injured unicorn who was snapping orders to the few who looked to still be in fighting form. Celestia could see that several of the ponies armor bore deep gashes in the dark metal. Talk stopped as she approached and the guards saluted.
"Princess!" The unicorn struggled to stand only to have his back legs give out and drop him to the floor again.
"Easy Sergeant, do not injure yourself worse than you are." She looked worriedly at the injured and dead. "Report."
"We attempted to breach the shield that is blocking us access to the lower archives. Once we had Day and Night to give us some aid on the shield we were starting to make headway when something came out." He shook his head grimacing "Lost four just trying to push it back. I think it's a pony but I've never fought a pony with that kind of power before. Followed us as we retreated up the hallway but headed back after we both retreated out of the hallway and attempted to disengage."
"The shield?"
"If I didn't know any better I'd have sworn it was one of your creations your Highness." Confusion was obvious in his voice. "It bears your magic signature but also about a dozen others burrowed through it." He looked to the dead that were just now being moved away from where they had fallen. "I have no idea how they could do it unless they had their hooves on an old shield crystal."
"Princess." Captain Spear galloped up bringing with him a small squad comprised of solar and lunar guardsponies. "The Nova and Shadow guards are securing the train station and aiding in securing the castle. They report that Princess Luna's apartments appear to have been broken into." He shifted nervously "They report finding seven different magical traps set in the bedroom alone." Captain Bright Spear had to admit he'd been happier when Shining Armor was captain of the royal guard and he didn't have to worry if things were correct. But with Shining Armor now a prince consort and general of the Crystal Empires forces he had ended up promoted into the spot, and now he found himself facing eyes filled with a deadly calm that he had never seen in his life.
Before Celestia could head for the hallway leading into the lower archives a pulse of power washed outwards in a blue wave that dissipated harmlessly after leaving the end of the hallway. In an instant Celestia could feel her sisters presence again, and the immense irritation Luna was feeling right at that moment. "Captain, Luna has dealt with the situation below. And with the enemy in the hallway. Send guards back for medics and make sure the area is cleared of any traps left behind." {Lulu, what happened?}
{The agents and captain Lance were attacked. When I and my guards attempted to aid we were attacked as well. I do not know who these ponies are Tia but four times they attempted to bypass my guard to strike directly at me.} Celestia could hear both confusion and a hint of sadness buried beneath it. She knew Luna still worried about how the ponies of Equestria viewed her since her return and the lunar princess was wondering if this was some form of attack based on those feelings.
{We don't know who they are yet but they tore up your bedroom and put some traps in it as well.} Celestia could sense Luna's growing anger, she had spent nearly a year getting the rooms how she liked them and it was likely that now they would have to be stripped clean to clear them of danger.
{They set fire to the lower archives but we were able to put it out. One of them used a murkstone to summon a shade but it has been dealt with.} A shade would have explained the dangerous pony that the guards had faced in the tunnel. {They also had a shield crystal, I know not where they acquired such an item.} Even as the last mental exchange was finished Luna and her guards strode from the hallway to the obvious relief of the Lunar guards nearby. The guards with Luna had brought their injured with them as well as a trussed up, and currently unconscious unicorn that looked to be only slightly injured. Several nearby unicorns shivered at the sight of the black ring that now adorned the base of the prisoners horn. Being cut off from ones magic was a horrible experience that unicorn guards knew of only because they were required to spend one month of basic wearing a magic inhibiter to see how they could function in the field without their magic. It was a process that weeded out nearly half of all unicorns who tried to enter the guard.
Celestia couldn't help but give a double take at the sight of the massive war hammer that was floating next to Luna as she came to a stop near her sister. She hadn't seen that hammer in almost two thousand years and the head still bore a few faded crude paintings and drawings on it from Luna's younger days. "Really Luna?"
"Don't mock Mr. Smashy." Luna looked with fondness on the giant war hammer before banishing it back to wherever she stored it. Celestia still hadn't figured out where Luna kept her things.
A minor pulse of magic from Luna and the unicorn on the floor woke with a start, only to see himself surrounded by guards and princesses. Luna smiled coldly as she stalked forward to glare down at the injured pony. "Thou will tell us of thy reason for assaulting our person." The unicorn simply looked to the floor refusing to answer.
"I suggest you answer the princess." Captain Spear glared at the prisoner "The princesses will go much easier on you than the Nova guard interrogators will." Not a complete truth. The interrogators had a reputation as cold hearted brutal information gatherers who never failed to get information from their subjects at any cost. The truth was that they were just general soldiers who employed a few mental spells to ferret out information from the minds of their prisoners. The spell work was heavily monitored by medics and the spells were tailored only to seek out the info they were looking for. He'd actually seen one interrogator look utterly mortified when her spell had grabbed information not pertinent to her investigation. Such a failure in the spell work was usually followed by a minor reprimand unless said mistakes kept happening. Three mistakes within a certain timeframe and the interrogator would have to retrain. More mistakes after that and said interrogator would be demoted to normal guard duty. But the interrogators enjoyed the reputation as it meant that prisoners entered their care with the belief that they would have to put great effort into guarding their secrets, which made it all the easier for the spell to find them quickly.
"I do not answer to the tyrant moon." The shocked and angry cries from many of the Lunar guard only seemed to make the pony happy.
"Insult the princess again and I'll personally see to breaking your horn from your head." Captain Spear glared darkly at the injured unicorn making sure his message got across. "Now you will explain what this is about. Why you attacked the agents sent to work in the archives. And why your forces have made an attempt on the princess's life."
"All you need to know is that our purpose cannot be stopped, the seer Far Sight saw our future and we will bring it to fruition." He clammed up afterwards and refused to speak again.
"Give him to the interrogators." Celestia looked towards the lower archives before shaking her head "Once the medics are finished I want the commanders of the guard to attend Luna and I in the strategy room. Send orders to Lock and Key to be there as well."
5 HOURS LATER.
Papers were scattered across the table detailing everything from captured archivists to complaints from the train station crew on the actions of the elite guard in closing the station. Captain Lance and Spear were sitting on one side of the massive table while the elite Shadow and Nova guard captains were on the other. Lock and Key were both there, with bandages wrapped tightly around the base of Lock's left wing and Key's right wing. It had taken quite a while to get every pony brought in, especially those who were injured as they had been given orders by the medics to rest, but in the end even the medics couldn't overrule orders from the princesses.
"The interrogators will likely be done soon." Bright Spear looked to Lock and Key "Until they are can you tell us what you found?"
"Yes." Lock looked to Celestia "There is no information on who the captured archivists actually are, but we have found information in the areas they attempted to burn. Though there is much more there to look through than we've seen so far."
"It is likely that they wouldn't have even shown themselves if we hadn't moved into the area that held information they desired no pony to know about. And again this seems to be in some way linked to the unicorn Trixie." Key brought several pages into existence with her earring and pushed one towards Celestia who looked it over with a frown.
"We do not understand how a simple unicorn could arise such interest." Luna looked at the pages as well and frowned. "In what way does this mare connect with our Lunar ponies?"
"There was little information on Trixie herself, we originally thought that this was due to her being born in griffon territory. while we know from other information that Sifter certainly didn't have a foal while in the Griffon kingdom and she didn't have one when she and her husband left High Peak they had a young filly with them when they arrived in Equestria. We later found that there is little information because they do not use the name Trixie." Lock shuffled some other papers before finding the one she wanted. "Her original name, according to the files kept by this faction, is Lulamoon." The name got the reaction she expected, everything from an 'impossible!' from the Nova guard captain to a shocked gasp from Celestia.
"You must be mistaken." Before Celestia could continue Key interrupted.
"No your highness. According to the files she is the daughter of an earth pony mare named Pepper and a pegasus stallion named Bright Bolt." She had expected at least some recognition but not the shocked look Celestia held.
"That's not possible, they died. The bodies were found."
"Were they your highness?" The captain of the Nova guard, the eldest of the guards in the room looked around the table before turning to the princess. "I know this is a hard subject to speak of even after such a long time but we never found the filly, or all the bodies of the guards. It is possible that she might have survived."
"We desire to know of what you are speaking of." Luna looked expectantly at Celestia who let out a low sigh.
"It was nearly thirty five years ago, a super storm came in from the ocean sweeping across the Wandering Island and picking up a large amount of magical energy from there. It took six weather teams to break it up with the oversight of several of the Wonderbolts. When at last the storm came apart a pony fell from the central funnel, he was saved only because of the sharp eyes of one of the Wonderbolts there, I believe his name was Lightning Blitz. The pony that came from the storm was a Lunar pegasus, the weather teams had never seen such a pony before and the Wonderbolts only knew of them because they still teach their teams about their battles against the Shadowbolts." She stayed silent for a moment organizing her thoughts on what had happened back then.
"He was badly injured as well as malnourished and dehydrated, and so was brought to Canterlot to be looked after until he could get back on his hooves. Unfortunately, when he did wake up he had little memory of what had happened, in fact he couldn't even remember his own name or where he was from. We could have contacted the Lunar ponies but he seemed adamant on not doing so even if he couldn't remember why he didn't want them to know where he was. I decided to allow him to stay as he desired and so wove an illusion around him to make him appear as a normal pegasus to allow his easier integration into the population once he was well. During his time in the castle he was looked after by one of the royal cooks, a mare named Pepper. Needles to say they two fell in love fairly quickly." She smiled at the memory of the twos original attempts to hide their attraction and outings and the bets that had changed hooves all over the court on how quickly they would realize everypony already knew. "Eventually they got married and eight years after he fell from the storm they had a little unicorn foal they named Lulamoon in honor of the legendary spellcaster. In fact the legendary spellcaster herself was actually in the palace when the younger Lulamoon was born." Celestia left out the part about the ghosts and stone creatures that had been in the lower caverns of the mountain which was the real reason Lulamoon had been there, she was one of only a small group who knew of it anyway.
"Nearly a year later we were asked to aid against the griffon revolutionaries who were attempting to dethrone the High King, so we dispatched the Wonderbolts as well as three squads of the royal air corps to back them up. The battle was extremely hard and the allied forces lost many a good fighter." She bowed her head in sadness "But our greatest loss was Bright Bolt, he had been leader of one of the Wonderbolts teams and had fallen near the end of the battle. The news was hard on Pepper who was left with only their little filly to look after and remind herself of her husband. I did what I could to aid her for several years but in the end she decided that she wished to travel to her husband's home, she wanted to see the Lunar ponies mountains."
"At first I tried to talk her out of such a trip as it took her through griffon territory, the rebels were still active in some areas and the trip was long and very hard for even prepared expeditions and with little Lulamoon being so young it would extra hard on her. But she could not be swayed and so an ambassador was sent to the Crescent Mountains seeking an audience with the ponies there. All were surprised when they agreed. Before that they had at worst never showed themselves to an ambassador, or at best just told the ambassador to leave and never bother them again. But this time they seemed almost excited by the prospect of Lulamoon's arrival."
"It is no surprise." The words were spoken by the captain of the shadow guard as he contemplated a hybrid Lunar and Solar pony. Celestia could see nods from both the Lunar guard captain and Luna herself but only got a minute shake of the head from Luna when she looked askance at her. Resolving to speak to Luna about it later she turned back to the table and tried to push her emotions to the back of her mind. "I ordered the dispatching of thirty of the royal guard to protect her on her trip and sent word ahead to the Crescent Mountains about the expedition...they never made it." Pepper had been a good friend of hers and she had found little Lulamoon to be absolutely adorable. Cadence had had great fun playing with a filly her own age at the time and they got along wonderfully. They loss of Pepper had hit her very hard, but the loss of little Lulamoon had hurt Cadence far more than it had anyone else. "They were attacked in griffon territory by the remnants of the revolutionaries, the entire group was wiped out. The griffon scout forces were the ones to find them, many of the bodies had been...devoured by scavangers to the point that some were nothing but bones. We never found five of the guards or Lulamoon, but considering how small she was and how many predators there were out in the snows there was no hope she survived." She frowned in thought "Spells were cast to see if any survived but every attempt returned nothing."
"They shielded her, made certain that if spells were tried it would come back with nothing making all think she had died." Lock nodded to herself, adding parts together for her full report. "She survived somehow and was found by Sifter and Pie Plate as their caravan traveled for Whitewing to set sail for Equestria. Files pertaining to that time suggest that the griffon revolutionaries were actually hired muscle meant to bring down the royal guards and capture Lulamoon. This seems to have failed and one report mentions that the griffons were eliminated from service after botching the operation by failing to kill all the guards. Though by the fact that spells were used in an attempt to find anypony still living it would appear the last of the guards likely fell to wounds suffered before they could be found."
"That gives us a history lesson but it doesn't tell us why this particular group is after her, or how they infiltrated the archives so deeply." Captain Spark of the Nova guard rested his hooves on the table and glaring at the pictures of the burned archives. "To be embedded this deeply into the intel agency they would need to have been active for decades if not centuries."
"Centuries most likely. All of the lower archivists appear to be part of this group and at least some of the upper archivists, agents, and at least two guards we've caught so far." Key brought out several more papers "Whoever they happen to be they are very good at hiding their name and numbers. While there are multiple files dealing with plans and activities there is no names within the files to draw from, no overall name of the organization and if what we have learned is correct then they are very good at covering their tracks. Their actions against Trixie seem to have no purpose that we can see though. Or they have not put those reasons into the files they left in the archives." This time she passed out several more papers that detailed exactly what plans the unknown group had perpetrated against the showmare.
"I see." Celestia looked at the paper trying to contain the shock of seeing the actions that had been done to the innocent mare. "I had wondered why she sought out the amulet, why she believed it was her only chance." It was one thing to think of the fact, quite another to see a report filled with facts on the complete destruction of a ponies life. To know they had worked so hard to take everything from her to the point she had felt no other option than to take drastic measures. She felt the power that rippled outward from her sister and turned in time to see the paper in front of Luna combust into ash.
Before Luna could express more anger the door to the room swung open and a regal white unicorn strode in looking around at the occupants haughtily. "Auntie I need to speak with you."
"All here are trusted Blueblood, you need not retain the act." Celestia smiled at her nephew as he let out a sigh and the foppish overly vain act vanished in a second replaced by the more serious prince she only got to speak to in private.
"Thank you, you can't imagine how irritating it is to have to keep that act up." The unicorn strode to the table and quickly conjured up several papers. "The interrogators got to narrow their field of prisoners quicker than they would have liked. Three of our prisoners killed themselves with embedded magic before they could be stopped. The last few that were taken appear to be the type who are to cowardly to take their own lives. We have received some vital intel but will need to do more work to learn everything they know of what is happening. What we do know is they refer to themselves as the Order of the Crimson Horn and seek to bring about a future that was seen by the ancient seer Far Sight." he brought out a large scroll and unrolled it upon the table, it was an image of Canterlot burning. Dead guards littered the area and black crystalline creatures that vaguely appeared to be ponylike perched on destroyed buildings, carts and even some fallen guards. But it was the unicorn in the center of the image that dominated the picture, a azure blue mare with glowing green eyes and a curved horn of crimson. She wore a black cape secured by the Alicorn Amulet and seemed to stare from the image with cruel mirth, one forehoof placed upon the dead body of what was easily seen to be the captain of the Nova guard. The cape was up far enough to allow the ponies to see the unicorns cutie mark, a star topped wand trailing pixie dust. "They seem to believe this mare will bring down the kingdom and usher in a thousand years of darkness. This picture was drawn by one of the interrogators after she saw it in the mind of one of the prisoners. None of those still alive seem to know how this is to happen, only that their leaders said that it was seen by the great seer and thus it would happen."
"Thank you Blueblood." Celestia stared at the image feeling only a deep sadness welling up within. 'Oh lulamoon, what have they done to you.' Was this another of her failures? Should she have sent more guards? Ordered Pepper to stay in the castle? In the end she knew that this group likely would have reached Pepper and her foal no matter what had been done. 'I've grown complacent, to trusting down the years.' She blinked in surprise as she realized everypony was looking to her. "I'm sorry, what is it?"
"It regards my other work." Blueblood shifted uncomfortably. "It appears that you were right, and General Cutter has vanished, left rather quickly to when he found his office had been raided." He conjured up a group of binders and hesitantly passed them to his aunt, the others in the room noticed that he immediately edged back away from her as she looked at the first files. The top one reading Elements of Harmony: Contingency Plans.
"HE WANTS TO DO WHAT!" Dust rained down from the ceiling as the ponies in the room, thankfully with ears shielded by a quickly cast spell from Blueblood, cowered as the section of the castle they were in shook leaving many desperately hoping the structural stability of the palace held. The words after that devolved into curses and statements of what Celestia would do to the general and any of his compatriots. Blueblood had to admit that he had never known his aunt knew that much about anatomy and exactly what you could do to a pony and still leave them alive. It was his aunt Luna that was far more scary though, there was no tantrum, no rage and insult filled rant, no explosion of power. There was simply dark deathly calm as she perused the files, examining everything the general had planned as his 'contingencies' in case the element bearers were deemed compromised. Of course said deeming would be made by him and his compatriots as would any and all responses to rectify what he thought the problem was. He watched as Luna calmly tapped the files into a neat pile and set them on the table before giving a simple nod to the Shadow guard captain who slipped from the room while Celestia was still ranting about what body part was going to go where. Blueblood had no doubt about the orders that would already be being give, and he almost felt sorry for the members of the royal army that were about to find Lunar guards kicking down their doors.
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Minor Notes. (Author note will have info on chapter, this is about characters.)
Next on the list, Lightning Dust. An interesting character when you take into account that she actually was doing everything Spitfire wanted in the academy. She pushed herself more than any other pony to be the fastest and most skilled and Spitfire acknowledged that. Yes Lightning Dust is at fault for her actions with the tornado and the way she acted afterwards. But instead of giving her a second chance Spitfire simply boots her after getting a talking to by Rainbow Dash. Spitfire herself is a horrible leader as she seems to spend little time observing the academy students and most of her time signing autographs. She also encourages Lightning Dusts actions instead of explaining to her immediately after the first time Rainbow Dash clips her wing that the lives and health of her teammates would be reliant on her during team actions. If she had right away told Lightning Dust that recklessness was wrong and that being in the Wonderbolts meant teamwork the entire situation would likely have been different. Either way Lightning Dust in this story is going to have a somewhat tragic past. As a young filly she was a lot like scootaloo in flying ability though probably weaker than even she is, except with a future of flying like Fluttershy. She didn't accept that and worked actively to change it, ending up beating all expectations and becoming one of the fastest fliers in Equestria. I will say outright that I got the idea to include her after reading a comic on deviantart that showed her in a sad light after her being kicked out.
Second, Blueblood. I can already hear people going "You made Blueblood intelligent!" Yes I did. Think of him like a spymaster, his job is essentially to wander around the elite and high society ponies and act like a vain, arrogant airhead who couldn't figure his way out of a room with one door if his life depended on it. You'd be surprised how much people will yap about when they think you're too stupid to understand their little coded phrases. It puts a major spin on how he acted to Rarity and Applejack, especially when in this story Celestia literally had to directly order him to act that way towards them because he attempted to refuse to do so. After all, do you think he would act like that to two parts of the kingdoms most powerful weapon? Especially when they are the reason his aunt Luna is now free of evil and hatred. He absolutely despises the fact he had to treat Rarity and Applejack the way he did but he did both as ordered and as his job required. In this story he's actually one of kingdoms best tacticians and an extremely proficient fighter and spellcaster. I'm not sure how often he'll show up but I figured since nearly everyone makes him and idiot I'd pull out a twist on his actions.