this is the story of an alicorn mare who wakes up from a strange dream, and has no idea who she is, where she is and what she is supposed to do. the only hing that she does know is that the series of dreams she is experiancing, are trying to lead her
Equestria is under siege by the Changeling Hordes once more, this time under the command of a dangerous and powerful new master. The Elements of Harmony are nowhere to be found, and Canterlot itself has been taken, the princesses of the sun and moon captured. Apollo Sparkle never asked to be a hero, but after stumbling across an alicorn mare by the name of Piper in the midst of a battle ravaging Manehattan and getting swept up in a world of changelings, challenges, and danger he just may end up as one. Teaming up with new friends and allies to face off against foes he's only heard of in storybooks, and being pushed to the limit time and time again, Apollo will learn more about trust and friendship than ever before, and even a little about himself along the way.
Dreams can be weird sometimes. Like, sometimes you have a dream about what your alternate life could be like, or if you were somepony else. And sometimes, your sub-conscious brain really wants to screw with you. If you get that, then you pretty much understand Pipers situation. She was walking in a dimly lit, slightly depressing hallway with no known end. The candles that poorly illuminated the room flickered in an unfelt breeze. For what seemed to be hours, she walked down the marble-floored hallway, until finally, she saw a door. She curiously walked over to the door, and went to turn the knob. But, to her upmost surprise, the hallway extended, taking the door with it. Shocked by what had just occurred, she turned to run, but smacked into what seemed to be an invisible wall. She rubbed her snout gently, as the nerves in it started to scream at her. She turned, and ran. She ran towards the door, but every time she reached it, it just moved further away. She chased the door for what felt like forever, until that is, she found another hallway. The hallway that branched off was much better lit, and she could clearly see daylight outside. So, she forgot the door and ran to the light. Just as she was about to leave the accursed hallway, she began to feel dizzy. She felt the blood flow to her face stop, her heart beat slowed. She looked down to see that she was falling, her vision blurring with every inch. She looked down at the hard, marble floor greeting her, as if saying “hi, how are you. Nice weather today, is I right, oh and this is going to hurt. A lot. She hit the floor with full force and her retinas were immediately enveloped in a bright, white and green light. She closed her eyes, and remembered no more.
A loud explosion was heard in the distance, but Piper heard nothing but a powerful, high-pitched ringing in her ears. As her ears began to receive sound, she realized how deafening it was. Ponies screaming, sirens wailing, explosions threatening to liquefy her ears drums at any moment. She lay in a smoking crater in the hard, stone paved street. She inclined her head upwards, and saw what she could only classify as a bloodbath. Ponies were bent over dead others, yelling their names, trying to awaken them there permanent sleep. She looked around; only to see trees burning, lasers of energy firing off in all direction. The scorched stones of half destroyed buildings, broken glass and downed power lines everywhere. This was unknown to by Piper, Manehatten, or what was left of it. The changeling army had charged a full scale invasion on Equestria, headed by non-other than the immortal queen of the changeling, Queen Chrysalis. The enemy was everywhere. They were flying, they were running, and some were even floating. Piper tried to harness the will to scream, but she could not. No noise came. One of the changeling soldiers had taken notice of her, and was slowly advancing on her position. It sulkily walked over so her, with is sunken shoulders and hole-filled chitin, breaking glass beneath its hooves. It stood over her now, a fully grown, lethal looking, unicorn-changeling. It charged its horn with a ball of green light and brought it so close to her that Piper could feel the deadly energy emanating from it.
“Aaaaany lassst wordsssss” it hissed, its horrible foul breath washing over her. Its canines extruding from its mouth cut her across the top of her right eye as it spoke. Piper just sat there, whimpering in pain and fear when some pony yelled to her.
“Get down!!!” said the voice. She did so immediately, flattening her back against the broken glass patterned pavement. She inclined her head just in time to see a blue-green flash of light knock the creature into the air, sending it spiraling away. It crashed through the roof of a weak building, which promptly collapsed onto the creature. Slightly stuned by the pure violence of it all, she did not see the guard that came running over to her aid. It grabbed her by the hoof, and pulled her into a “safe” alleyway.
She turned to thank the stallion for saving her, but when she turned, she was greeted by a disturbing flash of green in the guard’s eyes. Dismissing this as her own eyes playing tricks on her she thanked the stallion, but he did not reply. With a puzzled look, she tapped the stallion on the shoulder. He immediately hissed violently, and its skin began to disintegrate. Thoroughly scared now, Piper backed away. There was a bright flash of green, and then there was no guard. There was a changeling. Standing in his place. He moved toward her, but suddenly stopped and cried out in pure agony. An arrow was protruding from its windpipe and it fell dead, its blood pooling around a nearby drain. Piper felt as if she was going to be sick, but suppressed the feeling. She ran out of the alleyway into a deteriorating building. Another guard rounded the corner, but this time, it didn’t even get too close to Piper. With an ear splitting caw, she turned to see a dawnix dive-bombing towards her. This creature was simply beautiful. Its feathers were black as night and it beak was silver grey. Its eyes sparkeled so elegantly, they could put Luna’s own stars to shame. Stunned with fear, the mare couldn’t move. It was as if her feet were stuck to the floor by some invisible glue. The Dawnix ignored her and flew right around her, or rather under her. Instead, it went straight for the guard. Its razor sharp talons extender to the full length, about 3 inches of deadly keratin knives. In one fluent motion, the creature severed the guards femoral and jugular arteries, leaving him instantly dead, face down in a pool of his own blood. She stared at it, as the skin melted off it, leaving a dead changeling laying there.
The Dawnix screeched in triumph, and went into a straight 90 degree turn up wards. Piper ran out of the building, to see where it was going. It landed on the roof, before taking flight again. Luckily for her, the Dawnix flew over the back roads, which allowed her to follow it. She came to a dead end, inhabited only by a sewer cover and an empty fruit cart that was falling apart, surrounded by glass and rusting metal bits. She yelped as she felt a sharp but short pain in her side, followed by an audible “thunk.” She turned to see an arrow quivering, pinning one of her feathers to the wall. On the arrow, was wrapped a small scroll. She untied the scroll and read it.
“Don’t move” she read aloud, quite puzzled. She saw a Dawnix feather lying on the sewer cover, and went to go pick it up. She looked at the small feather, before she was suddenly falling, the sewer grate having been moved. She fell down, but right before she hit the sickly green water, somepony caught her. Stunned, she looked at her savior. She could not see his face, but knew he was a unicorn. He had a quiver of arrows, fletched with dawnix feathers on his back, and had a mahogany long bow slung over the opposite shoulder. The Dawnix she had seen earlier flew down through the opened sewer grate, and landed on his shoulder, cawing happily, munching on a small mouse.
“You’re welcome” said her savior, who then put her down, turned, and began slowly trudging through the muck of the sewers. Suddenly he stopped and looked back.
“Coming?” he asked, beckoning her forward with a nod of his head down the tunnel. She hurriedly ran towards him
“Who are you”she questioned. The stallion looked at her, which was not hard. She was small as allicorns go.
“My name is Apollo, Apollo Sparkle. And yours?” he asked, in a surprisingly young voice. He seemed to be only a teenager.
You haven’t experienced a truly awkward situation until you’ve tried making idle conversation in a cramped tunnel while wading through sewage, which is exactly the situation Piper found herself in now. Apollo, though he seemed to know what he was doing, wasn’t much for small talk. Piper tried several topics; the premier showing of The Mare Who Cried Stallion 3, comments on the weather, and a few inquiries as to the war raging in the streets he had so recently rescued her from. After so many failed attempts at breaking the silence, Piper was feeling bitter and ready to give up altogether, until one question in particular grabbed Apollos attention.
“Where’d you find your Dawnix?” She asked, her face taking a quizzical expression as she cast a glance towards the large black bird. Apollo turned his head, looking at the Dawnix with a smile.
“It’s a bit of a long story.” He started. “When Syracuse and I first met, it was because Id nearly killed him. I was just a colt, and I was hunting pheasant to give to the dragons camped out at my aunt Fluttershy s house.” He said. “I would startle them into the air and shoot them down, and I was pretty good at it. One day I was out hunting and I made some noise to draw them out, like I usually did, and I shot at the first one I saw. I barely hit it though, just clipped its wing and sent it spiraling to the ground.” “When I went to claim my kill I found Syracuse hobbling around with my arrow through his wing. He looked so majestic that I couldn’t help but feel bad about hurting him, and it was the first time I’d ever seen a dawnix.” “They’re incredibly rare, you know; the last census of them only counted thirty seven.” The Dawnix, which was apparently named Syracuse judging from the story, puffed up his chest in a display of pride. Apollo took a breath and continued.
“Well, I couldn’t just leave him lying there in the middle of a field, so I brought him home. He didn’t really appreciate me touching him though; he put up a fight the entire way. I got my arrow out of his wing and started nursing him back to health as best I could.” “I would have had aunt Fluttershy help me out, but after hearing the story of how she tried taking care of the princess’s phoenix I decided to settle for simple advice.” “The wound to his wing was pretty gruesome, and it left one heck of a scar it, but he seemed to be recovering just fine. I was pretty shocked when he flew at me one day and sank his talons into my leg, returning the favor I guess. He cut me up pretty bad.” Apollo rolled up his sleeve, showing a nasty looking jagged scar from the elbow upwards on his right arm.
“After he got his revenge he turned and made like he was ready to fly off out the window, but I guess something held him back. Maybe he felt indebted to me for helping him heal, and he wanted to return both favors.” “You know how Dawnixes have magical tears right?” Piper shook her head, unaware of that attribute of a dawnix.
“Well, they do. Tears from their left eye can seal up a wound like crazy glue, and tears from the right eye are deadly poisonous. Syracuse flew over to me and ripped a wad of his own tail feathers out so that he could shed tears on my gashes, and they sealed up right then and there.” “If he hadn’t done that I could’ve gone into shock from the blood loss and possibly died, because nopony was around to help me if I passed out”
Apollo looked down at his hooves for a moment and then back up at Syracuse. “After that he stuck around. I was willing to let him leave, but Dawnixes are very intelligent creatures. They only share their tears with somepony they really care about, so I guess he got attached to me while he was recovering, and we’ve been buddies ever since.” Syracuse let out an almost chirping caw and rubbed his beak against Apollo s head. “The hardest part was convincing Twilight to let me keep him. She’s always been as protective of me as if I were her real son.”
Piper suppressed a gasp. “You’re adopted? I, I didn’t know.” She gave Apollo an apologetic look, which he shrugged off.
“Yeah. I forget sometimes, though. Twilight s been a great mom to me, and I’m thankful to her for that. She never once held it against me that I’m not a Sparkle by blood.” Apollo broke eye contact with Piper and continued walking. Piper frowned slightly, the gears in her mind turning until they finally clicked.
“Sparkle, wait, you mean THE Twilight sparkle, student of Celestia and leader of the Elements of Harmony? The actual element of magic Twilight Sparkle?” Pipers jaw nearly dropped when Apollo nodded casually.
“Yeah, I suppose she is.” He kept walking almost nonchalantly. Piper gaped at him, feeling a rush of confusion.
“And you don t seem to regard that as out of the ordinary at all? Really?” She stared at him in disbelief. Apollo shrugged and replied;
“It didn’t really have much of an impact on my life. The Elements of Harmony had their last adventure years before I was even born. I never even saw them go up against Discord when he was misbehaving. And anything political she does, she usually leaves me out of it.” Apollo said his thin smile fading. “Like right now, she’s off in Saddle Arabia trying to get supplies flowing again after production mysteriously halted. It was timed so soon before the changelings attacked, I can’t help but think that it was one of their plans to weaken us before they struck.” Pipers frown drew itself tighter across her face.
“I didn’t t realize Saddle Arabia was supplying us…” She stopped suddenly, her unfinished sentence hanging in the air ominously. Apollo looked at her, a worried expression forming on his face.
“Something wrong?” He stared at the mare, who was standing like a statue.
“Do you hear that?” She asked. Apollo pricked up his ears, slowing his breath and focusing on the sounds around them. He could hear his breath, his heartbeat, the dripping echoes of the sewer tunnel around them, and a faint hissing sound. It sounded peculiar, almost to the point he hardly believed he heard it at all; a slight buzzing and hissing like a bumblebee flying past a leaky valve. He heard the sound again, this time assuring himself it wasn’t his imagination. He and piper stood silently for what felt like an eternity dragging on through the near silence, the sound getting progressively closer to them. Cautiously, they looked around, scanning the tunnels for any sign of the sound s source. Piper turned at a bend in the tunnel, the unexpected sight that awaited her eliciting a high pitched scream. Apollo jumped, turning to see what was going on, and could hardly believe his eyes.
Packed into the tunnel before them were at least thirty changelings, all mirror images of Piper. He couldn’t tell which was the real allicorn that had accompanied him through the tunnels, so he simply turned and ran, pushing his legs to carry him faster through the knee deep sewage he had galloped into. He needed to put some space between himself and the multitude of changeling Pipers before he could put any of his quickly conceived plans into action. He whistled to Syracuse, who had flown off of his perch on Apollos back when the changelings appeared, and the dawnix swooped down to him, his talons glistening with the fresh blood of some unfortunate target. Apollo could only hope that target hadn’t been the genuine Piper. Apollo looked at Syracuse with worry etched into his features.
“Syracuse, you find the real Piper. Go!” He hissed through his teeth. Syracuse cawed in acknowledgement before taking wing again. Apollo hoped the birds keen eyes would be able to differentiate between a changeling Piper and the real deal. The echoing sounds of chitinous hisses and buzzing signaled that the changeling horde had caught up with him. He started running again, turning his head briefly only to be rewarded by the sight of a changeling launching itself at him. Apollo quickly ducked, gripping his bow and removing it from its sheath on his back before he brought himself back upright, taking a split second’ s aim before loosing an arrow towards the fumbling creature. The arrow flew true to its mark, piercing the changeling’s throat; the momentum carried it to the wall of the tunnel, pinning the changeling’s body to the wall. The creatures disguise faded, blood spilling from its mouth with a gurgling sound as the green glow faded from its eyes. Apollo didn’t have time to admire his marksmanship, however. He readied another arrow and turned to face his pursuers.
Syracuse flew close to the tunnels ceiling, the cramped conditions proving less than convenient for anything more complicated than a glide, the occasional flap, or a dive-bomb at a Piper that obviously wasn’t the genuine article. The dawnix folded his wings closer to his body and stuck his talons out, slamming them into the eye of a changeling disguised as the light pink allicorn he was trying to find. The changeling shrieked, shaking its head violently and splattering droplets of blood over the tunnel walls and several nearby Piper changelings. Syracuse held fast to the creatures face with his talons, lifting one leg and then plunging it back down towards an eye. The talons met their mark and the changeling shrieked again, a violent shake finally dislodging the dawnix. Syracuse flapped his wings heavily, getting himself out of reach of the infuriated changeling whose eye he had just removed. The changeling lashed out, only to collide with the wall of the tunnel with a sickening crack. Syracuse scanned the mass of Pipers again, looking for any detail that would set the real Piper apart from the many disguised changelings. After a minute of searching the crowd he spotted an undisguised changeling dragging a Piper by the throat away from the rest of the changelings. The Piper being dragged had one of Syracuse’s feathers stuck in her mane, and the dawnix took that as proof enough that he had found the genuine Piper at last. He flapped his wings, keeping close to the ceiling of the tunnel, and then glided silently over to the buff looking changeling who had a stranglehold on Piper. Syracuse took advantage of his dark feathers to blend in, waiting until the last second to dive out of the shadowed ceiling towards the unsuspecting changeling. A well placed swipe at the changeling’s throat rewarded Syracuse with a shower of hot blood and a garbled choking gasp from the changeling, in place of what was probably intended to be a scream of agony. Syracuse slashed out again for good measure, the large changeling’s head dropping into the sewage with a splash and sinking to the bottom. Piper gasped for breath, her wide and fearful eyes taking in the bloody mess of the changeling that had been dragging her, and she realized she was soaked in the hot blood of the creature. The blood was quickly growing cold, and as the realization finally hit Piper, she fainted outright.
Syracuse screeched unhappily, the mare he had just risked his own tail feathers to save had repaid him by going to sleep in the middle of the sewage tunnel. The dawnix knew he had to somehow get Piper back to Apollo, but with her asleep and refusing to wake up, the task seemed a lot more complicated. Syracuse cawed at the sleeping mare a final time before giving up hope that she would wake up and start walking on her own, and he knew that he would have to carry her back to Apollo himself. Of course, Syracuse could do this with ease. Dawnixes were said to be able to lift ninety times their own weight, and whether or not this was an exaggeration didn’t change that the allicorn mare was light enough for Syracuse to lift far enough off the ground to move her. That did not, however, mean that the dawnix was happy about having to do so, and she was heavier than she looked. The dawnix strained his wings and started to make his way back to his master, and closest friend.
Apollo landed a solid kick to the shoulder of a Piper changeling that had tried to sneak around him. He followed up on that kick by smacking the changeling with his bow, a solid thunk and a cracking sound satisfying him that the creature was out of commission. Apollo quickly notched another arrow and barely had time to aim it before he let it loose towards another changeling, who shrieked in pain as Apollo followed that arrow with two more that hit it in the stomach and shoulders, the third arrow piercing the changeling’s heart. It dropped into the sewer water with a splash, the arrows breaking under its weight and becoming irretrievable. Apollo groaned and loosed another arrow at a Piper changeling who was snarling and preparing to launch itself at him, hitting it squarely in between the eyes. Apollo rushed forward and yanked the arrow out of the changelings head before he notched it again and sent it flying after another changeling. After sending several more arrows into the chitinous bodies of changelings, many of which were wearing Pipers appearance, the remainder of the horde seemed to retreat from the merciless unicorn who was felling changeling after changeling. He almost allowed himself to sigh in relief before he realized the trick, whipping around just in time to avoid being tackled from behind. A changeling barreled into Apollos abdomen, making him drop his bow and spill the remaining arrows from his quiver into the murky water. He reached for a knife from his sheaths, only to find them empty.
“Well this sucks.” He thought to himself, slamming a hoof into the changelings face and wriggling away from the changeling who had tackled him. Out of knives, bow gone, arrows gone, and Syracuse is off looking for Piper He smacked the changeling again, its chitin cracking under the blow and leaking hot blood into the water. Apollo managed to get to his feet and gave the changeling a firm kick before diving out of the way of a second changeling, this one disguised as Piper. He hesitated for a moment, only striking out at the changeling once he was certain it wasn’t the real piper. He brought his hoof down on the creature’s neck and quickly followed up with a hoof to the face. “I don t know how much more of this I can take” Apollo checked his magic reserves, not surprised to find himself nearly drained. He was far too exhausted to perform any combat spells, though if he absolutely needed to he guessed he had enough left in him for a single stun, or if he was really desperate a teleportation spell, but only as a last resort. He heard the sound of splashing water and looked back to see the changelings he had just beaten off of him starting to get up again, and knew that he wouldn’t be able to repeat that performance. He bolted down the tunnel for as long as he could run, which proved to be about twenty seconds of solid sprinting before he collapsed from exhaustion. Apollo pulled himself back to his hooves and looked back, the shadows of the changelings cast across the walls showing that he hadn’t gotten far enough to outrun them. He closed his eyes, the choices of his life swimming regretfully through his mind. He wondered if he could have done anything differently, if he could just get another chance to make things right. Apollo braced himself for a final encounter with the changelings. “I won’t let them take me without a fight.” He resolved to himself. Something brushed against his leg, and he fished his bow out of the slight current that had dragged it back to him.
Braced for the fight of his life, the last thing Apollo expected was for Syracuse to peck him on the back of his head, cawing irritably. “Syracuse! You’re alright!” He cried, so overjoyed to see the dawnix that he barely noticed his cargo. “You found Piper! That’s great!” Apollo opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the hiss of four obviously pissed off changelings who had just turned into his branch of the sewers. Apollo closed his eyes, summoning everything he had left in him, grabbed Syracuse and Piper, and erupted into a flash of purple energy just before the changelings reached their position. He left them grasping at nothing but empty air and a small pile of ash which settled into the sewage and was quickly carried away.
Piper awoke with a groan, opening her eyes. They gave her their best impression of a blazing fire and she squeezed them shut again. She sat up slowly, daring to crack her eyes open again and pushed through the pain. She was in a light pink colored room, dotted with posters of mares, bows and arrows, and various knives and tools. There was a closet that was standing open, revealing an assortment of black and dark blue cloaks with a few white one mixed in, as well as what looked suspiciously like a chameleon suit. She realized that she was probably in Apollo’s room, in Apollo’s bed... the realization made her feel strange. She was in this guy’s bed! Who knows what’s happened in here. Piper slid out of the bed and walked carefully over to the door, pressing an ear against it. She could hear a sound that was like metal scraping on stone that sounded like it was coming from the left of her. She stepped out of the room, keeping a wing against the wall for balance. Her head still spun from the sewers, and she had no clue how they'd gotten out, and trying to recall how she'd gotten to her new surroundings was disorienting. Piper gasped; she stood on a balcony that overlooked a circular room that was constructed entirely out of bookcases. She had never in her entire life seen so many books in one place. Aside from the bookshelves, the room had a round table in the middle, a strange head carved of wood sat on it. The floor around the table was worn down, a two inch deep depression in the wood. She turned to where the sound was coming from, afraid of what she might find there. It was a brightly lit room, with sparks flying out of the door way, and metal pieces lying around the entrance. Piper walked down the steep, creaky steps and turned to see Apollo in what looked like a very advanced metal shop. He had a blacksmiths apron on, with welding goggles and thick dragon hide gloves. He was working intently on some form of knife, building and sharpening it. Once he felt satisfied, he pulled out a leather belt, which had about a dozen loops; each already filled by a knife, and stuck the knife he had been working on into remaining loop. He yawned tiredly and sighed, sitting down on a wooden chair to rest. Piper stepped into the room fully, now revealing herself to him.
“Good morning Apollo” she said sleepily.
“Morning?” he asked, "It’s three in the afternoon, but you've been asleep, so I can see how you would think that”
“How long was I out?” Piper asked suspiciously.
“About sixteen hours, nothing too major.” He told her.
“Well, that’s um ok, I guess. What are you making” she asked curiously.
“New equipment.” he said “Here, let me show you.” he proceeded to lead her back up to the room with the round table. When he got there, he just looked at her and snorted slightly at her confused face. He then gestured to the wooden head, and pressed the left eye in. With a faint click, a small door opened up to Pipers left, a slight wind blowing through it. Apollo motioned to her to go down the steps that lead from the door. Piper hesitated, but started down the steps regardless. Apollo followed, lighting the way with his magic, which filled the room with a soft purple glow. After about ninety steps or so, she found herself in a large rectangular room. The room was lined with shelving, but instead of books, like the circular room upstairs, these shelves were filled with weapons. All around her were different variations of bows, arrows, swords, knifes, and armors. She even saw what looked to be dynamite.
“Pretty cool right” asked Apollo.
“Yeah, you could say that” she said, mouth gaping. "What is this place?"
“This is the Golden Oaks library in Ponyville. Well, it's the libraries secret basement. This is where all my stuff comes from.” He said, running a hoof over a short sword.
“Damn,” she said “you have a lot of time on your hooves." She walked over to a chest piece that was dented, yet very reflective. It acted as a mirror, and Piper took a good long look at herself. She was a candy pink alicorn mare, her mane and tail were a candy cane swirl of colors; pink, light pink and light red. Her feathers were a tie-dye pattern of pink and white, mixing delicately with each other and turning solid pink at the tips. Her eyes were dark purple flecked with blue, and her horn was long and shared her manes color scheme with more intensity. She thought her cutie mark looked strange, a heart shaped shield with two weapons crossed over it. The left was a unicorn horn sword, and the right was a battle axe with a stylized wing shaped blade.
“I have something for you” he said. “Uno memento” he called to her from a room, in a very botched manexican accent. He came back, holding a leather case. He unzipped said case, and inside was a dagger, shaped exactly like her horn-sword, only scaled down.
“It’s made of a single sea monster scale, which I found lying around in my aunt Rarity’s attic. She told me it was from the Everfree forest. Hopefully, you won’t need to use it, but seeing as the changelings seem to really like you, I figured you should at least have some level of protection” he told her, as he slip the beautiful, razor sharp purple knife into a dragon hide sheathe. “Hard as diamonds, he continued, but light as air.” He gestured for her to take it. She did, and he was right, it was far lighter than it looked to be. She set it down on the table, and smiled at him.
“It means war and peace, if you were wondering” Apollo said, pointing at her cutie mark. “I looked it up in one of the thousands of books upstairs. I um... kinda saw it when I was carrying you to the bedroom.” he said, his face darkening several shades to rival his aura. Piper looked at him, wondering why this would embarrass him, then remembered that she had been wearing a gown in the sewers. She laughed at the stallion’s embarrassment, and then took a good, long look at him. It was the first time she had gotten to see him in full light without some form of cloak obscuring his features. He was a midnight blue, with the occasional black hair catching her attention. His coat looked to rival Luna's in darkness. He was strong, built like a work stallion, and tall for a pony. He stood three or so inches taller than Piper. He had starry blue eyes that shimmered in the light; His mane and tail were a few shades lighter than his coat. Without his cloak, he was actually quite handsome. His cutie mark was a flaming bow firing a golden arrow. While she was staring at him with wide eyes, he walked over to her.
“Are you alright?” he asked “You seem a bit… distracted.” He looked her in the eyes, a small frown forming on his face. He looked worried. Why did that make her feel guilty?
“Oh, no, I’m fine.” answered Piper quickly. This was a lie though, she was defiantly not fine. She was in a house with a stallion she had just met, having recently escaped a warzone, and she had no idea who she was, where she was from or really anything along those lines. “It just sucks not knowing who you are. This is all so weird, not knowing.” She admitted.
“I think I may have a solution to that.” Apollo said, a purple aura enveloping his horn. “Be very, very still. I’m not as good as my mom at this, but I think I can cast a simple memory spell. Let’s take a look.” “ this is going to hurt” he thought “but this might be her, and theres only one way to find out.” He walked over to her, and touched his horn to hers. His face quickly got red again. Touching horns was considered to be a fairly intimate act, but it had to be done. He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. She stared at him for a few seconds, seeing his pupils moving around under his eyelids. Suddenly, there was a small purple spark, and Apollo was sent flying across the room into a weapon rack. He lay stunned, breathing heavily.
“What happened? Am I dead? Is this hell?” he mumbled looking around. A quick smack to the side of his head snapped him out of his stupor. “That was so weird. It was like being in a third person view, but I couldn’t see myself." “He then turned to look at Piper ”Oh. My. Celestia.” He said, eyes wide. Then his eyes rolled backward into his head, and he was gone.
Apollo awoke with from a cold sleep with a pounding in his chest… and his head. He was very warm, and was laying on something quite soft, and pink. And warm and… alive!!! Piper snorted in her sleep. Apollo jumped off her as fast as possible, allowing her chest to fill with air more fully. He sighed, and using the bit of magic that had regenerated while he slept, he levitated her up the stairs. Sweating from only this small exhaust of magic, he realized he needed a rest. Holding Piper in midair, he slumped down on the step he resided on. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he trekked once more up the seemingly endless case of stairs. When he rested, a small bit of the cloth from Pipers dress became undone. The scum-soaked rag that was once a beautiful dress, now un-furled itself, revealing her cutie mark for him. He stared at the strange weapon-based insignia, and then coming to his senses, blushed furiously. Normally, staring at her flank would have been more-or-less fine, usually they were naked anyway. But the fact that she was in fact wearing a dress made him feel as if he was 'peeking' at her, and felt that it was wrong. After putting her in his room, he realized what was happening.
“Quick recap,” he told himself. “So, number one, alicorn mare named Piper, mysteriously teleports onto a battle field, with no recognition of who she is. Number 2, he helped her a great deal, and they were even attacked by changelings in a seemingly secret tunnel. Three. She was in her bed upstairs right now, she has an odd cutie mark, she was extremely cute, and she had a nice flank.” He tried to shake the last two things from his head at once. He could not become romantically involved with this mare; he didn't even know who she was. “Four. He resumed his recap. “She is a very important pony. That much was certain. Why else would queen chrysalis want her as bad as to send her troops directly at her? He needed to find out more about this mare. Only one pony could help him do that. Princess Luna. Being the princess of the night, and governor of dreams, she had to know something about her.
He pulled out his quill and paper, and went to work writing a letter. He normally would have Spike do this, but as far as he knew Spike was having lunch with Rarity. Or was it dinner? Not that it mattered; he wasn't here now, and that’s all he needed to know. He levitated his quill to his face, dipped it in ink, and began to write. Dear Princess Luna. I have come into contact with an alicorn mare, and I fear that she is one of the royal families. As far as we know, her name is Piper. She is pink; and has a very odd, weapon-themed cutie mark. We don’t know anything else about her, as she appears to have some form of collective amnesia. If you know anything, please send word at once. I await your quick response, your friend and worshiper,
Apollo Sparkle.
“There.” he said to himself “All done.” he neatly folded up the letter, and called to his bird companion.
“Syracuse” he yelled, his voice echoing through the building. A piercing caw greeted him as his bird-friend swooped down from a banister, and landed on Apollo’s shoulder.
“Send this to Princess Luna.” He paused, and seeing the bird roll its eyes added “Please.” With a caw, Syracuse hopped off his shoulder onto the table, looked at the letter, and gave a stare so violent, that it could rival Fluttershy's. Following this intense stare, the bird shrieked in the letters direction, which caused blue and black sound waves to emanate from its beak. They washed over the note, and in a puff of smoke, not unlike Luna’s mane, it vanished.
“Good boy” he said, “you deserve a treat” he said as he pulled a jar “Gryphus’ best fish eyes.” He threw it up into the air, and Syracuse promptly caught it, returning down to his master, munching happily, yet disgustingly, on the treat. They were only available in the griffin domain of Gryphus, so they were rare for him to have around. He walked upstairs, periodically to check on Piper, before having a fifth realization. He had no weapons, except his bow. All his arrows were spent, and all his beautiful, hand-crafted knives were either broken or used. He groaned. Making weapons was always a tedious task, usually getting him burnt from his forge or sparks. Last time, he nearly crushed his own hoof with an n anvil, and the time before that, well, He didn't think Syracuse would ever forgive him for that. Cringing at the memory, he pushed the thought out of his head. He had worked to do. He walked into a massive circular room, with a large table in the middle. He walked over to the carved head on the table, and flipped it up wards, revealing a small brownish-red button. He pressed said button, and heard a click behind him. The small trap door opened, and he went down to his locker to get some raw building materials. Levitating at least a half ton of iron and steel, as well as firewood up the stairs, he brought it into a room adjacent to the circular one. Placing the materials down, he set to work. After about three hours of working, ha had managed to create eighty-seven arrows, and six knifes. He was now out of materials, and he still had around thirty arrows to build, as well as six more knifes for his belt. Sighing, he walked back down the wooden secret steps, preparing his magic for some heavy lifting. As his store of raw materials came into view, he enveloped them all in a purple aura, and began lifting the objects. This was a strenuous task, and many people didn't know it, but lifting things with magic was hard. It feels as if your on steroids, not as if the objects are weightless, just as if you are stronger. It still feels as if you are lifting the object, not magic. He began moving his materials up the stairs again, when something caught his eye. A small, jewel studded ceramic box. Curious, Apollo, dropped his objects, and walked over to the box. He tried to undo the latch, but found it locked. Closing his eyes, Apollo concentrated. He concentrated on how the lock looked, the inner mechanisms, and how it would look when the tumblers fell into place. With an audible “click” the latch undid itself, and the case popped open. Inside, he found an oval shaped purple, um… thing. He had no idea what he was looking at, and he wanted to touch it. Gingerly, he picked it up in his hooves, and ran one along the side of it, and shrieked. His bloods covering the oval, making it turn scarlet. The odd purple now scarlet oval had cut him. He dressed his wound and returned to the thing. He cleaned his blood off it, and picked it up to examine it further. He levitated it up the stairs, where at the top of said stairs, he found a picture. The picture was of his mother, and her friends. Aunt Rarity and Aunt Applejack were sitting next to each other, jostling each other about playfully, with huge smiles on their faces. Aunt Dash was flying overhead, with an expression so clearly of laughter, that he could almost hear it. Twilight and Aunt Fluttershy were standing next to each other, smiling lightly. He noticed, after further investigating the picture, that Rarity’s horn was charged. After further examining the picture, he saw that she was levitating the purple oval. So it had belonged to Rarity. The setting was a clearing, with a very large lake in the background. The sun was setting, which beautifully illuminated the boats in the background. At least they looked like boats, but upon EVEN FURTHER an investigation, he found that it was actually one very large body, which went in and out of the water. It was purple, the same shade as the oval-thing, and it had a face. And a mustache. And a mane. He nearly overlooked the fact that the mustache was half purple. Nearly. The other half was dirty blonde, the same as the creatures mane. It was only then that he realized what he was looking at. He mentally slapped himself for not realizing sooner. It was a scale, and the creature in the back ground was a sea monster. That explain why it was so sharp, and why it felt light as air. He stared at the purple, shiny, almost reflective surface. He saw his barely visible reflection, and gasped. He hadn’t even realized it, but he was filthy. He was grime caked, and now that he thought about it, smelled worse than Fluttershy's animal’s bathroom. He ran up the stairs, and realized that piper was filthy to, and she was in his bed. Not that he cared; he could clean it later, but that he had left that rag of a dress on her. He ran up to his room, to find her in R.E.M, pupils moving around at a rapid pace, and a small moan escaped her lips. He blushed, and closed his eyes. He levitated her into the air and undressed her, with eyes still closed. After the deed was done, he placed her back into the bed. He went up further still, to go and shower. While in the shower, he thought and reflected on his life. I mean, what else are you going to do in the shower, right? In this act of thought, he realized the potential of the scale. With a sudden burst of thought, he turned off the shower and ran down stairs, still dripping wet, but not caring. He could clean up later. He grabbed the scale with his levitating aura, and ran it to his workshop. He ran over to the grinding wheel, and placed the scale against it, hoping that he would be able to carve it into a suitable dagger. He pushed the scale against the wheel, and turned it on. There was grounding all right, but not of the scale. The wheel itself was being ground down, and it was getting smaller, and the scale was not. Once the wheel was reduced to a small pile of pebbles, he gave up, and the scale didn't even have a dent in it. He moved on, and on, and on, until every tool in the shop was reduced to a similar state of the grinding wheel. All except his machine which he used to make daggers, but that one was far too valuable to risk braking. He was about to give up, when he remembered his sun forge. As of writing this there are currently seven sun forges in existence. The sun forges were portals that opened up on the direct surface of the sun. They were enchanted so that when opened, they would not ignite the very oxygen of the planet, thus destroying all life as we know it. That would be about 5,778 degrees Kelvin. He only possesses one because when Celestia found out that he was a builder, after all of the favors from his mother, it was given to him as a gift. He put on his special equipment, and entered the room the forge resided on. He picked up some heat-proof magical tongs and dipped the scale into the fire. Instantly, it melted into a purple, burning gelatinous blob. He quickly moved the melted scale to a dagger mold, and it froze almost instantly. However, just because it hardened, does not mean that it was not hot. Oh no, scales had a very high melting and burning rate, and he knew that it was still around 4000,000,000 degrees Celsius, so didn't touch it. Instead, he levitated it to his Lunar cooler, which was given to him by his celebrity crush, and friend princess Luna. The cooler came with the forge when it was given to him, and when opened, it released the temperature of the freezing vacuum of space onto whatever object was placed inside. When he placed his newly forged knife inside it, it sizzled and went cold. He removed it from the cold and examined his handiwork. It was still razor sharp, which meant he didn't need to ruin his sharpener to. He turned around, and slashed at a column. The column was cut in half, right where he had hit it. At first, he thought he had, missed, but upon further examination, he found a very, very fine cut, followed by the wood sliding off each other. He went to work, adding to the dagger, giving it a leather handle and an oiled sheath case for her belt. He was just praising his handiwork, when he heard a screech. He turned to see that it was Syracuse and he was holding a letter. It was from Princess Luna! Wrapping it in magic, he pulled it away from Syracuse, nearly tearing it in half from opening it so fast. The letter read:
Dear Apollo Sparkle, it is good to hear from you my old friend, but as I’m sure you know, the castle is under siege, and this letter must be quick. Though we recognize you alicorn friend’s description, I can’t say that we know her name to be Piper. Check her memories, if there is one of her birth that could be quite helpful. This problem perplexes me, and I feel that we should inform the other Princesses on this matter. As of right now, Princess Cadence is a prisoner of war, and shining armor is doing all he can to keep the changeling army back. I fear for my life and if I never see you again, it was good to send a final letter to you. Somepony who might know the mare in question lives in Gryphus, by the name of Talon. I amend my previous statement to inform you that he is in fact a griffon, not a pony; you can find him in gryt—
The letter ended there. The rest of it was burned off.
“Oh Luna, why are these things never clear. Couldn't I get a straight location, for once?” He groaned. “I may not even have to go, I mean, maybe she has no memory of her birth, making it impossible for her to be of any value, let alone a princess.” He trekked back up the stairs wholeheartedly, wondering what to do. He returned to what was left of his sharpener, resuming his weapon building. He heard a creak behind him, and turned to see Piper. It was time to know once and for all.
Piper stood in a shocked stillness for a few moments, her gaze fixed on the unmoving body of Apollo lying under a pile of various weaponry. She forced herself to break the hypnotic gaze and rushed over to the crumpled stallion, crouching and checking for any signs of life.
“Um, Apollo... Apollo, wake up” She nearly whispered in a quavering voice, quickly rising to a desperate half-shout when the comatose unicorn didn't respond. She shook him, shouting his name and lightly slapped his face, silently praying that he would be alright. After a short eternity of shaking and slapping the unresponsive unicorn, she fullhoofedly punched him across the face, screaming; “Apollo! Wake the hell up!” Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes, her tear ducts like a dam with cracked foundations. Despite her best efforts to keep herself calm, her composure broke when she needed it most. Hearing a guttural chirping, Piper looked up to see that Syracuse was crying too, but he wasn't holding back at all. In his beak was a tuft of black feathers, and tears flew shamelessly down his left cheek. The bird leaned over Apollo, his head turned to let the tears fall freely. As the glistening droplets broke away from Syracuse' face, they dropped into Apollo's slightly agape mouth. Piper had forgotten what Apollo had told her about Dawnix tears, and taking this display as a sign of mourning, she wept over his body. The seconds dragged on like mountains forcing their way across a landscape, when Piper's weeping was interrupted by a sharp wheezing sound. Piper lifted her head and saw Apollo's eyes fluttering open, followed by an obviously pained gasp for air.
"Apollo! Oh, thank Celestia you're alright!" She choked, leaning further over Apollo and throwing her hooves around his neck. Apollo writhed under her embrace, trying to free himself from the vice grip she had him in.
“Um…hi.” Wheezed Apollo. “Could you…um… get off me? Please?” He pushed his hoof between them, trying to shove the alicorn away. “And uh... why does my face hurt so much” he said rubbing the check that Piper had struck.
“What? Oh, yeah sure. Sorry.” Replied Piper, ignoring the second part of the question. After she had released Apollo from her hug and rose shakily, her muscles becoming rigid after she stood. Apollo took a few deep breaths, reveling in the non-constricted flow of oxygen into his lungs. Before he had time to properly enjoy it, however, his eyes snapped open and widened in fear. He staggered to his feet and starting running about the library.
“We need to leave, now!” said Apollo urgently, drawing the shades with his magic and dousing the lamps in the room at an alarming pace.
“What? Why?” Piper stuttered, simultaneously relieved and baffled by his quick recovery, and worried by the fearful urgency he was displaying. Apollo started mumbling to himself, grabbing his cloak and bow as well as his belt of knives. She caught words like 'danger' and 'quickly, almost here'. Now Piper was even more confused, the stallion’s odd behavior turning her worry into a gnawing fear. Piper charged her horn, feeling an immediate exhaustion due to this being the first time she had even attempted to use her magic since the strange teleportation. Her horn sputtered, releasing some small red sparks, then fading completely. With a groan, Piper decided to try physically restraining the panicked pony. She grabbed him by his shoulders, and spun him around to face her.
“What .Is. Happening?” she questioned, enunciating each word using her best scary voice that she could muster. “The changelings are coming.” He spat, before pulling away from her and returning to his frantic preparations. “For you” he added.
“What!?" Piper exclaimed; "Why me?”
“I’ll explain later, just be ready to leave in two minutes. “ He rushed off to get the rest of his stuff from the other room. When he returned, Piper had slung her saddle bag over her back, and was attempting to tighten it with her teeth. Apollo stepped over and used his magic to tighten the strap and fasten her new knife to her upper arm.
“I won’t need to use that, will I?” she asked somewhat nervously.
“Hopefully not, but no promises.” answered Apollo. Just then, they heard a knock at the door. Apollo enveloped his bow with his purple aura, and went to answer it. He threw the door open, bow drawn back to his ear, only to be confronted by the town mail-mare, Derpy Hooves, suprisedly cowering at the point of a razor tipped arrow.
“P…p…package f… for a mi…mis...t-t-er Apollo S-s-s sparkle.” She said, shuddering in fear, as she pulled a small box from her leather satchel.
“Sorry about that Derpy, being cautious and what not” he said, sheathing his bow. The mail-mare handed him a clipboard.
“Sign here mister Sparkle." Now slightly more relaxed, as she was in no immediate danger. Apollo signed it, and then opened the small package. Inside, there was a phone-looking device. He hit the middle button, and the device came to life; a white blank screen upon which words formed. When finished, the screen read:
“Death to wolves means life to lambs.”
Suddenly, grey smoke started billowing out of it. Apollo threw it into the back room, covering his mouth, and advised the other two to do the same. He looked back at Derpy, who was clearly dumbstruck. Then, from out of nowhere, a black shape darted down from the skies above, creating a crater behind Derpy. The shape rose out of it, and walked over the cowering mail-mare, and laughed; A blood curdling, evil laugh. He slowly lowered his head down to her and, barring his incredibly sharp, dragon like teeth asked her in a horrifying whisper: “Do you fear death?” Being rewarded by a small, terrified whimper, he bit into her neck and ripped out her jugular.
The mare didn't even get the chance to scream, having bled to death in mere seconds. Piper screamed, and Apollo looked horrified over the mare’s corpse. The changeling started to walk toward them menacingly, his mane and face dripping with crimson blood, which he savored as it dripped onto his tongue. Apollo readied an arrow and fired the projectile bouncing harmlessly off his shining black chitin. He sneered at Apollo, then tilted his head upwards to the sky, and buzzed. It was incredibly loud, high pitched buzz. Craters started exploding all around them. Apollo, realizing what was happening, grabbed Piper by the hoof and ran. He ran as fast as he could, knife drawn, sticking the short blade into as many changelings as possible while he pulled Piper along behind him. Apollo knew the gas from the device had been a tranquilizer, and his vision began to blur. His hearing was fading, but still he pressed on. Piper tried flapping her wings, her shoulders burning from the effort, and failed to get into the air. Apollo urged his aching legs to go faster, in an effort to keep going. His eyes began to droop, and his vision becoming blurrier with every second. Apollo was scanning the town for a suitable escape route when he felt his legs buckle under him and he fell to the ground. Piper tried to pull him back to his feet, only to discover that the unicorn could no longer stand. Piper was starting to felt his effect of the smoke now as well.
Piper could feel her eyelids becoming heavy, the detrimental effects of the gas starting to blur her vision. Her body began to grow unresponsive and her mind grew tired. The only reason she had lasted this long against the effects of the gas was because she was an alicorn, possessed of a magical immune system. Unfortunately, even the strongest of systems breaks and she slowly slumped down next to Apollo, who was now urging his body to go on. Apollo was crawling forward across the dirt road, listening to his heart beating like a drum in his ear and looking around him. Changelings bent over ponies, ripping them apart and feasting on their flesh with bloody maws. The school fillies screamed as a changeling ripped Cheerilie to pieces with his bare hooves, several other changelings setting fire to buildings and bodies. The library, which he had used as a home and hid out for years, was now in flames. An exaggerated high pitched scream filled the air, and Apollo could swear it belonged to Rarity. He prayed he was wrong. This was maybe his last look at his world, and it was gruesome.
As the changeling leader approached him through the haze of dust, smirking at the dying ponies, Apollo turned to Piper and whispered; ”I’m sorry your majesty, I have failed you.” then turned back to see he was face to face with the big bad wolf. With the last of his strength, Apollo harnessed his magic onto his dagger, and thrust it into the changeling. It stumbled backwards, losing its balance for a moment before starting to laugh again. This time though, it was an amused laugh. That of a mad-pony, as he used his own magic to pull out the bloodless dagger, and throw it to the side. Still gigging to himself slightly, he bent down to Apollo’s ear level. Apollo could smell its putrid breath, and feel its evil soul with its heart of black writhing within.
“Silly pony,” he whispered, “Gods don’t bleed." Then, for the second time in forty-eight hours, Apollo fell back into the bliss of unconsciousness, right across from Equestria’s newest princess, Piper Cadenza.
Cold. Hard. Itchy. Those were the only words Apollo could fish out of his vocabulary to describe the position he was in right now. He had a pounding headache, blurry vision, and a large gash on his head that had caked his face and mane with dried blood; some of it close enough to his mouth to leave a metallic taste. He rose slowly off of the hard brick floor, stumbling slightly on the uneven surface. His eyes adjusted to the dimness to show an alien world, the walls around him were covered in a thick horrible green slime which dripped onto the floor, filling the air with a nauseating scent. The sound of dripping slime was unsettling in the otherwise quiet darkness. Ignoring his new surroundings long enough to check on himself, Apollo found that his leg and right cheek were matted with coagulated blood, which had apparently pooled onto the floor around him. Gnats were swarming the stain. 'Better that than me'. Apollo heard a soft moan from his left, spinning quickly to face it. Maybe that wasn't the best decision as he had a horrible headache, but that could wait. He turned to see Piper. 'Princess Piper Cadenza'.
Another nearly inaudible moan escaped her lips, and Apollo moved quickly over to her, again being rewarded with pain. He slid to his knees to examine Piper for any injuries. She was breathing very lightly, and her abdomen had a large bandage wrapped around it. There were also gauze strips surrounding her wings. Piper was covered in small cuts and bruises, but otherwise she was fine. Something in the room squeaked, then the faintest shuffling of hooves. 'More than hooves. What is that?'. Apollo stood, squinting into the darkness. He couldn't see a thing, and had almost written it off as his mind playing tricks on him when he heard the recognizable sound of feathers rustling. He had heard that sound in the night many times before since adopting Syracuse.
“Who’s out there?” he said into the oppressive blackness. “Show yourself!” Apollo waited for a few moments, hearing nothing. He slowly turned his head, trying desperately to see anything in the room. "Don't make me ask again!" He raised his voice enough for it to repeat itself along the unseen walls. Hearing no answer, nor any other sound, he lit his horn. Unable to conjure more than a dim glow, he paced around, waving curious gnats away from his face as he searched for the source of the noises. 'There' , he thought to himself. His horn had cast enough light to make out a dim silhouette beyond a row of thick bars. "I know you're there. Answer me!" He intensified his horn's glow as much as he could muster.
"Please stop" said a soft voice, so quietly that Apollo wasn't sure he had actually heard it. If it was who it sounded like... Apollo once again forced his horn to give off more light, revealing the huddled shadow as a buttercream pegasus with a rose mane, three butterflies adorning her flank, She was pressed into the corner, almost as if she were trying not to exist.
“Aunt Fluttershy?!” Apollo gasped. “Is that you?” he asked, relieved to find that this pony was a friend. He tried to get closer to her, but was stopped by the thick bars. His horn dimmed slightly in relief.
“A-apollo? I-i-it's me... Is that r-really you?" The timid Pegasus slowly emerged from the dark and approached, only to befall the same bar-related fate as Apollo.
"Yes, Auntie Fluttershy, it's me. What's going on, what are you doing here?" Apollo stuck a foreleg through the bars to hug his Aunt, who trembled hard enough to rattle his teeth in the embrace. Fluttershy sniffled a bit before responding in between whimpers.
“They captured all of us two months ago!” She exclaimed, tears streaming down he face and wetting Apollos knee. 'Two months?' Apollo thought, [i']That’s when Twilight left for… oh no…'he put his hooves on Fluttershy's shoulder and pushed her back to look her in the face. “Fluttershy, where are the others!” he asked with as urgent a tone as he could muster. Fluttershy wilted under his gaze, nearly collapsing back into a fit of choked whimpers before Apollo drew her back into a hug.
“Umm… Wh-whoever is in charge, he-, he took them" She said quietly, a fresh stream of tears spilling from her eyes as she recalled an obviously terrifying memory. Before Apollo could ask her anything else, he heard another moan from Piper, who was apparently becoming conscious.
“Whur er wear?” She slurred, making several attempts to flip herself over and stand. “Whas gon ona?” Apollo swallowed, trying not to panic at Piper's distress.
“Actually” He said to Fluttershy, “I was just about to ask the same thing. Where are we?”
“Umm…well ummm, this is the Canterlot dungeon, so I want to say… in the Canterlot dungeons?” She responded uncertainly, almost sounding like she was asking Apollo the question. “The only reason I’m still even here, is because they wanted me to revive your marefriend over there.” She tilted her head in Pipers direction. Piper, who had managed to get to her hooves and was walking like a light drunk, flopped down onto the stone floor and giggled crazily.
“That should pass” Fluttershy said, seeing the concern spreading across Apollo's face. “It’s only the sedative wearing off.” She shrunk back slightly, her voice trailing softer as she did so. Apollo considered informing Fluttershy about how him and Piper weren't a couple, but he froze as he heard the sound of heavy locks and bolts being moved. A door at the end of the blackness opened, light flooding in and making Apollo shield his eyes from the painful exposure. He found that Fluttershy was right; By the looks of the corridor beyond the door they were indeed in the Canterlot dungeons. Two changelings walked in, showing all their chitinous glory, and went over to Fluttershy's cell. One pulled out a ring of keys so large it looked like you could kill someone with them, the ring jingling as the keys were flipped in search of a particular key. Once the first guard finally found the right key, he inserted it into the lock, the bolt making striking sounds as the huge tumblers fell into place. It eased the door to the cell open with some deafening creaks and squeaks, and grabbed the cowering Fluttershy. Fluttershy went limp, her whimpering cutting out to silence as she lost conciousness. They grabbed her under the shoulders and dragged her along, not even bothering to support her legs. Apollo's eyes had adjusted enough that he could get a good look at Fluttershy's condition. There were bald patches on her coat, and she had large bruises on her legs that showed through the remaining yellow. The second guard came over to his cell, pulling out an equally large key ring, and unlocked the door. They grabbed him in an even less respectable manner than Fluttershy… by the horn. Unicorn horns are extremely sensitive, to both pleasure and pain. Pain shot through Apollo's entire body, causing him to spew several choice vulgarities at the changelings. Once they got him clear of the doorway, another changeling grabbed piper with levitation and the group began dragging their prisoners up the stairs to the throne room. Apollo could make a solid guess about their location in this castle, what with being here so many times with his mother. They were dragged up the marble staircase that eventually opened up to flat marble floor, that was furnished only with a Chrystal cut throne. Upon said throne, lay a creature which looked like a changeling, but it's size rivaled that of the Alicorn who usually occupied said throne, and was covered in… scales? Yep, those were defiantly scales. 'Well, that explains the dragon teeth' Apollo thought. The hybrid snarled as his guards entered the room, and they cowered back in fear. The ground before them was littered with all different types of cracked and shattered pottery. Looking around, he also noticed what appeared to be blood, feathers, and shattered fragments of horns, as well as pages of books everywhere. Broken and littered across the floor were the once beautiful stained glass windows that had lined the walls, depicting his mother’s great feats.
“Pull.” hissed the vile creature sitting on the Lunar Princess’s throne. At once, a priceless and likely irreplaceable spell tome went up into the air. With a snarl, the being charged up his horn, encasing it in a green glow, and blasted the book out of the air, which exploded into dust due to it's old age. The creature then directed his attention towards Apollo. “You, what are you doing still alive?” It demanded, no longer hissing his words. Apollo cringed. Somehow the smoother voice of the creature made it even more unsettling.
“Sorry to disappoint you, whatever you are.” He said sarcastically, his usual arrogant bravado resurfacing as rage made his stomach feel hard and knotted. First, this creature captures his mother, kills countless souls, then has the audacity to question his very existence!
“Soon, you will be.” It said, it's voice filling the room despite the hushed tone it had used. It continued, “I am Exetheleon, lord of the changeling hive and the Conqueror of Equestria. And you will learn to fear the very mention of my name.” Exethelon growled, bearing down on Apollo. Pipers ears perked up at this notion, she had not aware that the hive was under new management.
“What happened to Chrysalis” she asked. The creature, Exetheleon, flinched upon hearing that name. He turned, sneering at Piper.
“She was weak, I am strong.” He said simply, breaking out of his trance he continued “Chrysalis is no more, and the Hives are better for it.” Exetheleon tilted his chin up, a look of proud satisfaction adorning his face. Horrified, Piper grasped at nothing as she tried to find words. Her face contorting with confusion, she spoke;
“You…you killed her. Your own queen… and you killed her..." Pipers confusion broke way for anger "You son of a bitch disgusting creature! Rot in hell!” Piper was writhing with anger, horrified by how plainly he could speak of the murder he had committed. Exetheleon burst out of his throne, and flew straight at her, his wings buzzing. He pinned her to the opposite wall by her neck, nearly shouting;
“Silence, insolent worm!” Apollo fought against the guards grip, trying desperately to go to Piper's aid. Exetheleon snarled, increasing the pressure on Piper's throat. “Were it not for the fact that you are royal, you would be dead at my feet." As Piper tried to figure out what he had just said, Exetheleon took a deep breath, and turned to the now furious Apollo. He walked toward him, seeming to taste the air around him as he approached, and then he started to laugh; A deep, cackling, evil laugh full of malice with no comforts whatsoever. His eyes darted to Piper, then back to Apollo. His laughing gradually subsided, and he leaned over Apollo. “Let’s play a game.” Exetheleon whispered, pulling Apollo by his mane over to a window that was more or less intact. “You win, and she gets to live.”
“And if I lose?” asked Apollo, somewhat amused by this sudden proposal.
“It’s very simple really, you both die, and I’ll even have you kill her, just for the fun of it.” Exetheleon cackled.
“What… what do you have in mind?” Apollo asked, finding it hard to speak, or even breathe with his face pressed against the window as it was. Almost giggling to himself, Exetheleon pulled him back and slammed his face into the glass. Grunting with pain, Apollo struggled against the creatures insane grip, but couldn't free himself from it. Still maddeningly happy, Exetheleon spoke.
“See that maze over there?” he asked, and sure enough, a maze of shrubbery, wood and stone rose up from the ground where there was once nothing. “I want you, and a few others, to go in there and come out… alive. If you do this, I will let you, and those else who survive, free.”
“What about Piper?” Apollo asked.
“Oh, she stays. But you can go and carry out a normal life, or as normal as possible, and like I said, if you decline I will kill her right now, right in front of her own love.” Exetheleon said playfully bumping Apollo’s head into the glass every few words he spoke.
Apollo's will broke, and he exclaimed in a pained manner; “Alright, alright, I’ll do it. I'll go into the maze!” “Excellent.” hissed Exetheleon, nodding to his guards by the door. The burly changelings acknowledged him and opened the huge wooden doors, and a changeling came through, ferrying prisoners into the room. “These worthless creatures will also be going into the maze with you, but they are anything but friendly.” said Exetheleon. Looking around at the disheveled, obviously frightened beings, Apollo noted that they were not all ponies. There was a zebra, two griffons, a small dragon, and what appeared to be a baby hydra in the crowd as well. Looking past all that, Apollo also noted a small blue blur that flew by the adjacent window, smiling to himself.
“Come, the games are about to begin!” Hissed one of the changelings, brandishing an electrically tipped spear. He prodded at one of the griffons, the female one, and she retaliated, stunning it with a wing before bearing down on it with her beak and claws. She nearly ripped the changeling into pieces, but at her own expense; The other changeling guards came over to the assaulting griffon and beat it to death with the electrical spears and clubs. Her squawking stopped abruptly, echoing through the halls as the male griffon cried silently to himself over the death of the female. Apollo struggled against Exetheleons hold once more, earning a prod with an electrified spear in the process. The changeling guards chained them together and led them out of the throne room, a final backwards glance showed Apollo that Exetheleon had returned to his game of antique skeet before a changeling prodded him again, hissing at him to keep moving. The hallway the band was in started to widen and brighten, until they emerged in the castle gardens. The entrance to the coliseum-like maze lay in front of them, with barred doors and gates. At the presence of the group, the doors slowly swung inward, revealing three passage ways. Each was equally dark and smelled of death. The changeling guards prodded them into these dank, dark hedge passageways, shocking any who resisted. Apollo made his way over to the male griffon, who was also accompanied by a unicorn mare, with electric blue hair, and a pair of shattered magenta sunglasses on her face. Her cutie mark was that of a music note, and she seemed to be clutching a piece of paper in her mouth. As he observed the griffon, he noticed his features. He had a long scar that ran down the entire length of his beak; his left eye was green, while the right was a shockingly bright, electric yellow. He had a strong build, and he was quite tall, far more so than any pony, maybe even Celestia herself. 'Celestia. And Luna. Where were they? How could they let this happen? Have they betrayed us?' He shook that last thought from his head. Luna would never betray him. One of the changeling guards shoved a hoof toward a large rack of collected weapons; among them was Apollo’s bow. “Chose your weapon, any two” said the changeling. He quickly ran over and grabbed his bow, and looked around for Pipers knife, but found nothing. Maybe they hadn’t taken it. These thoughts crossed his mind, but were suddenly interrupted by an annoyingly clear voice. It was Exetheleon.
“Mares and gentelcolts, fillies of all ages, I give you, the maze!” Grinning wildly he continued, “Let’s take a look at the audience, shall we.” He gestured behind him, and multiple ponies were shoved forward, among them stood Piper. As he looked at the horrified crowd, he also noticed among them, Celestia, Luna, and… his mother, as well as the rest of the elements of harmony. They pointed to him, happy to see him, but scared as to why he was here. He walked forward, ignoring them as best he could, and selected his arrows. A changeling walked over to him, and hoofed him in the face, breaking his nose. As blood spilled down his maw, he stammered and demanded to know why his nose and face were just mutilated. The changeling coldly responded “To break you.” then stalked off. Apollo called after the thing, and it turned to face him.
“What do you want, you worthless worm” he said . “I am allowed two weapons, yes?”
“Yes” replied the changeling incredibly annoyed, so much so that he went over, and hit Apollo again. Grimacing from the pain he felt in his face, he put his lips together, and whistled. It was a loud, incredibly high pitched whistle, which probably stirred the diamond dogs in there far off mountains. As he did this, a period of silence followed suit, then an ear-shattering caw rang through the sky, and a blue streak came flying through the sky, and landed on Apollo’s back. It was Syracuse. He cawed happily to his friend, then turned and stared daggers at the stunned changeling, who began to hiss in fury.
“That is not a-“
“Let it be, Cremesius, HE will not survive either way.” Intervened Exetheleon. Upon hearing this, his mother began to sob. Seeing his own mother cry infuriated Apollo, filling him with a whole new form of rage. He wanted to rip, tear, and bath in the blood of Exetheleon. He wanted to not only kill him, but to destroy him, to incinerate every fiber of his being, and to mutilate every cell in his body. To completely and utterly obliterate his very soul.
Then, Exetheleon spoke again "These are the rules.” He cleared his throat before continuing. "When you enter this maze, you will each face a series of challenges, which will result in death for most of you. The last creature standing will be crowned the victor, and be given his freedom. The losers, well, you’ll all be dead won’t you?” He laughed insanely again. “Begin!” A sound like a gunshot, followed by scrambling and wicked laughter. When the shot sounded, the griffin bolted into the left corridor, followed closely by the blue-manned mare. Apollo, seeing this, took off in that same direction. He kept running, but no matter how fast he willed his body to go, the griffin was still the faster of the two. Apollo kept running, until he heard a scream. It was a female scream, and he rounded the corner in the general direction. It was the mare. She must have gotten separated from the griffin. She was being pulled into the ground, roots strangling her, pulling her through the dirt downwards, and she was still…alive. She was in serious pain though, the roots pulling out her fur, cutting into her skin, whipping her exposed back. She was screaming, Apollo tried to blast off the roots, but it did not affect. He realized that his horn was coated in a thick, green slime, as well as hers. Gurgling now, drowning in the blood that was filling up her chest cavity and lungs, she pulled him down to ear level and whispered:
“Kill… agghhaah… me…” When Apollo hesitated, she grabbed an arrow from his quiver, and stuck it through her own heart. As the arrow pierced her, small red fireworks burst from the stands, symbolizing the death of one of the challengers. Apollo yelled into the air, furious with this evil creature. He saw a black blur out of the corner of his eye, and stopped. He slowly slunk towards the shadow, the pure rage in his heart being so intense, that his horn melted the green slime off, which dripped onto the ground, and sizzled producing small wisps of smoke. He slowly slunk toward the assailant he saw, and pounced on it. This sent both of them tumbling through one of the hedges, into a clearing. Apollo charged his horn, ready to blast the enemy to pieces, when he recognized him.
“I would appreciate it if you lowered that horn of yours” said the griffin coolly.
“Who are you, and what happened to that mare?”
“Well, the mare wondered off even though I told her to stay with me, and my name is-" he was cut off by strange laughter coming from nowhere. An ominous sound, seemingly coming from the wind itself. Truth be told if not for the griffons keen hearing, Apollo would have thought himself mad, or on the brink. The griffin perked up his ears, and looked around. A very suspicious shadow began to cover the clearing, coming from the north then stretching outwards. The laughter began to grow louder, and turned into more of a cackle. A light pink glow began showing through the darkness, but then became brighter in area, yet darker in color. The cackling progressed into more of a high pitched hollow giggle. Out of the pink darkness, came a pink pony, with bright green eyes. They blinked, studying the duo quizzically, then without any sort of warning, the pony pounced. It jumped onto the griffin, or it tried to at least, but he was too quick for it, and evaded easily. It tumbled into a somersault, and then skidded to a halt, taking a good deal of dirt with it. Turning to face the two, she giggled, blood dripping down from its right eye socket and onto the floor. Its single remaining green eye was still as vibrant as ever, and was beginning to flicker between green and yellow. Then it turned its attention towards Apollo only, snickering at the look of sheer surprise on his face. It was pinkie pie. Only it wasn’t really her, this thing was the same, but different. Pinkie pie would never attack them. Apollo cast a reveal changeling spell, which resonated and rippled off her body, then died down. Nothing happened. He tried again and still, nothing happened. Pinkie just laughed. She wasn’t a changeling, but something was off, she would never try to hurt anypony, or griffin for that matter. She shook her head back and let out a long cackle, then charged. Apollo took a right hoof to the base of his horn, which caused him immense pain. So much so that he fell over, leaving the griffin to fend for himself.
The griffin dodged, blocked, swept, clawed, bit, and stunned, but this Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to tire, or feel pain, or anything. She had long cuts along her mid-section and upper body from the talons of this ferocious monster. Apollo had heard stories of the ferocity of the griffins, but he had never seen it in person. Never saw one take a fatal hit, and then continue on as if it were nothing. From his ground view, he saw his talons rake across pinkies face, mutilating her other eye. She stumbled around, blinded, and the griffin took this as a time to check on Apollo, who was still writhing with head splitting pain. His eyes fogged, but he could still see pinkie advancing on them. She couldn’t see, but she could still hear. She readied a particularly sharp rock, and made the motion to bring it down on the griffins head, but the blow never came. Apollo, being the smart individual that he is, cast a time freezing spell, right at Pinkie. She stood frozen in time, only able to move her destroyed pupils. Then, with a cry of anguish, the griffin turned, and dug his claws into her chest, pulled out her still beating heart, and threw it. Apollo released her from the time spell, his vision now blurred only by tears. The Pinkie Pie, stumbled, faltering. Then, suddenly the green left her eyes, and they turned a beautiful bright pink.
“Hehe that was fun!” she said, and then fell over in a puddle of her of blood, mixed with the blue of the griffins. The griffin promptly wiped the blood off his claws, than went over to finish checking up on the sobbing Apollo. The pain had nowhere near subsided, but it was bearable, for now at least. Though he doubted he would walk away from another hit like that. The base of his horn was leaking silver liquid down onto Apollo’s face, which he wiped off. Still sobbing, he walked over to Pinkie Pie’s mangled body, and cried some more. This was not a changeling, it was a changeling bite. The proof of this was in the pinpricks in the side of her neck. They had just killed the legitimate bearer of the element of laughter. A pony that he called aunt, and hoped his own kids would one day do the same, and they had just killed her. Sullenly, he got back to his hooves, and turned to the griffin, which was looking just as sorry.
“We were going somewhere, yes?” questioned Apollo. Nodding, the griffin made a gesticulation with his wing, pointing down the corridor to the right of them. Suddenly, they heard an awful, high blood curdling scream to the north. The griffin nodded, and they bounded off towards the screams. They had barely gone thirty yards, when a pony came barreling through the hedges, covered in blood, a gaping hole in his chest that was singed around the edges. He was dead, yet his pulse remained. His mangled body began to writhe, broken bones clicking back into place, sticking out of skin, or shattering. The sound was horrible, and as its spine snapped back into its spot, his head tilted upwards slowly to look at the two horrified creatures, and then it smiled. It was an awful smile, with cracked teeth, a shredded tongue and gums caked with blood and grime, his eyes opened, and the two were shocked that underneath he eyelids lay two piercing green eyes. It snarled, foam now dripping from its nose and mouth, and pounced.
It grabbed onto Apollo, who whistled just in time. His faithful dawnix companion swooped down from the clouds and grabbed the freakish pony-zombie-changeling hybrid. He flew up into his sky, as high as he could, and dropped the monster. Apollo shielded his eyes as he heard a horrible splat, and the feeling of warm, sticky blood splatter all over his hooves and front of his body. He blinked several times, clearing the blood from the area around his eyes. Then he saw it. Dozens of purple glazed shapes underground. He could see through the dirt, as if by x-ray. The purple shapes were moving, and they were going up. Fast. Suddenly behind them, a hoof broke through the dirt and rubble, and a pony climbed out. He was from the Discordian wars, a soldier, with a very sharp looking spear. Its eyes were green just like the last, then they heard another heart wrenching shuffle of gravel and dirt, and they turned to see another dead pony. This one was a member of the Lunar Republic, those who supported Nightmare Moon. Those who were caught after her fall had their wings tied and were thrown off the tallest tower, and quite a few of them landed in the gardens, buried for hopefully all eternity. Yet one was staring at them right now, with eyes as green as grass, but horrifying. More and more creatures started to rise up around them, mainly from those two groups, but there were also several griffins, a small dragon, and three cyro griffins, a wolf-griffin species that were endangered and extremely rare, and equally dangerous. All at once, the green eyed demons attacked. Apollo drew his bow, and the griffin readied his talons, and Syracuse poised to attack. With the sound of charge form his companion, Apollo leapt into battle. He jumped into the air, assisted by Syracuse, and rained arrows down onto the creatures below them. The griffin tried to take off and give more Arial support, but could not. He fluttered his wings a bit, but it pained him greatly, and he was still on the ground. Giving up, he stuck out his arms, and using his wings to help him, began to spin. He became a whirling-dervish of destruction, his claws slashing anything that came within a five foot radius to shreds. Meanwhile, Apollo and Syracuse were fighting for their lives. He was shooting, and blasting zombies away from him, releasing stun pulse whenever he could. He could almost feel Exetheleons eyes boring into him, sitting, waiting for him to slip up.
Apollo was determined not to give him the satisfaction. He was beginning to tire though, and he wondered how the griffin had such fantastic stamina. The thought was cut short however, as Apollo heard an ear splitting cry of anguish. The creatures were swarming around something, and the whirling death had stopped. A bird was crying, and Apollo took action. He was throwing the remaining ponies out of the way with telekinesis, and saw a cyro griffin stooping over his friend, going in to bite onto his neck, and finish the fight. He charged up his horn with the most powerful spell in his arsenal, cosmic rip. It teleported part of the body two another dimension, ripping the target in half. He cast the spell on the creature, and it rippled all over its body. Then, without seemingly any warning, there was a great purple flash, and a vertical half of the undead cyro griffin was sitting there, then it fell over with a flop. That still left two cyro griffins, and a *gulp*… dragon. The cyro griffins began advancing on his position, snapping their jaws threateningly at him. One of them pounced, but he dodged it, then the other did the same, but he was slightly less fast this time, and was clipped by a canine tooth on the side of his shoulder. He cried out in pain, clutching his shoulder, blood dripping down from the wound. The other cyro griffin that he had originally dodged took advantage of his problem, and grabbed his bow, which had been dropped in his pain. He picked up the bow in his teeth, and snapped his jaws, splintering the oaken bow into slivers of wood. Apollo, upon seeing this, seethed with rage. That had been his actual fathers bow; it was the only thing with him at the orphanage when he was found there. He drew an arrow, and wielded it as a knife, slashing at the creature with such rage that this mindless beast seemingly backed off. But it only looked that way for a minute, because the next thing he knew the cyro griffin was advancing again. With a practiced hand, he spun the arrow around in his hoof, and drove and slashed at the beast. He put several deep cuts around its chest and facial area, which were bleeding profusely. This made it lose its balance, but did not kill it. Apollo took this to his advantage, and rushed it, driving the arrow into its chest, and through its lung. It shuddered, and died. Apollo breathed a sigh of relief, but he wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. He still had another cyro griffin and a dragon coming at him. Speaking of the dragon, Syracuse was currently distracting it and the remaining griffon from Apollo. He fished into his quiver, and brought out his last arrow. Then, he threw it, but not at the enemies, up into the air horizontally. He jumped with it, took air, and slammed his hoof into the back of the nock, sending it flying at the griffin. The creature didn’t even have time to register that the thing stuck through its throat was in fact an arrow. It shuddered, and fell over with a “flump”.
That just left the dragon. He walked toward it, being that it was still distracted by Syracuse, it was safe as it could be, but then, the dragon roared and released a pillar of fire at the bird, engulfing it in flames. He screamed as he saw his longtime companion plummet down to the unforgiving earth. The dragon reared its ugly face at the insignificant pony who was addressing him. He was met with a massive blast of raw purple energy. The dragon roared, throwing its head back in pain, but only to be bombarded with a flurry of furious spell form a furious pony. He blasted the dragon with every spell in his mind, even a color changing one, and a light spell. Surprisingly, it was the light spell that did it. This dragon was nocturnal, and when it saw a light as bright as a solar flare coming right at it, it veered it body and hid its eyes, promptly tripping, and landing on the great stone statue of discord, which went right through it. The dragon laid there, blood pooling around its body. Apollo turned his attention back to the griffon, and ran over to his side, panting heavily. He went over to the downed griffon and hit him in the chest, trying to wake him up. With a flurry of CPR like hits, he managed a cough, then a series of coughs, followed by blood flowing from his mouth as he cleared it from his lungs.
Dragons blood; of the things capable of countering the effects of total lithiasis, Discord would say that was his second favorite. So powerful was the binding cast on him from Celestia's damned minions, bearing the Elements, he was once again encased in the form of a statue. That was nearly thirty years ago to the day, and it didn't feel as though this weaving of magical stone would grow any weaker in the next thousand years. Oh, he had tried to commune telepathically with the apprentices pet dragon, to tempt a sacrificial offering on the base of his stony feet, but with no such luck. No, the only thing he could do in his stone hellish prison, the only thing that kept the sanity that he had left preserved, was watch. He watched, oh yes he watched. He watched Celestia and her daily routine, he watched Luna in her dark kingdom, he even watched whatever creatures would be bold enough to wander into his little enclave. He watched all the castlegoing ponies go about their business, not even looking twice at him in his stone form unless to scowl in disgust. So he waited, and waited,longing for the day he, Discord, God of chaos, would be freed. And so, being immortal, he sat dormant for these thirty years waiting for his moment to come. For years he starved, but could not die, lay thirsty, but unable to dry out. Being immortal wasn’t always good, but it had its advantages. One of them being that he saw it: the glorious overthrow of the mighty Celestia and valiant Luna. He watched with intent vigilance, as the greatest defenses in Equestria fell to this… this … thing, this beautiful, powerful, evil thing. The changelings were swift, and the battle was quick, leaving nopony alive save the two princesses. No he kept them alive, but his army ran rampant through the streets, killing every last stalllion, mare, and foal in sight. The slaughter was merciless, and in Discord’s eyes, beautiful. Ultimately the rear grounds of the castle were decimated, and all the animals killed for sport. It was glorious, just as he had pictured the downfall of Celestia, only without himself in it. Now that there was a new ruler, he could be freed, but alas, he was not. Not until now at least, and by the cursed apprentice's son, no less. It was just too perfect. The only thing bothered him though, was the absence of Princess Cadence. The idolized ruler of love and compassion was nowhere to be seen. But what worried him worst however, was the lack of her daughter. She had no idea what she was, a super being. He, being millennia’s old, had seen it happen only once, and that was with the ruler of the crystal empire, Sombra the cursed unicorn king. Celestia saw the signs as well, and now she was gone. This was very bad news for this new ruler, because if she realized her full potential, then he would be the relative equivalent to moss on a rock. But, the chances of that were under a landslide at best. Now, as tendrils of light like veins covered the stone prison he was in, he could hear it cracking. He could for the first time in three decades smell the air feel it on his face and hands, and he spoke. He nearly had forgotten how after all those years, but no. as his arms began to crack, he moved his shoulders and stretched. This was the first time he was able to move his arms in thirty years and boy did it KILL. He was sore, but he cared little for this inconvenience. He took in a deep breath and his lungs filled with air and began to pump once more. We wiggled his toes and shook his tail free of any pebbles still stuck to it. Just to check his magical ability, he summoned up a glass of chocolate milk, promptly chugging the glass and throwing the milk aside. He looked around the canterlot gardens, which were now a bloodsoaked red maze, and finally, for the first time in decades, saw what was behind him. It was a tree. Just a single lone tree, which contained a bird’s nest and two baby birds with their mother. They were happy. Discord snarled at this display of happiness, snapping his fingers. The tree burst into flames, and as the mother desperately tried to save her young from the fire she was hit by a falling branch.The blaze illuminated the clearing, the hapless mother bird lying dead at the base of her doomed home. Discord turned and walked away, whistling along with the symphony of dying baby birds.
He chuckled. “Let’s go make some chaos” and walked away towards the maze.
“Talon” whispered Apollo under his breath, and then he gave in to embrace his blood-soaked companion. “Thank Celestia I found you, come on I need your help, but first we have to get out of this hellish maze.”
Talon nodded in agreement at this notion. He wanted out of this place. They began walking towards the entrance to the next wing of the maze, when they heard a feeble caw come from the bush beside them. Glancing cautiously at Talon, who was already in attack position, he used his magic to spread apart the bushes. Lying there, singed and breathing lightly, was Syracuse. He was burned badly, but alive. Relief flooded through Apollo’s heart at the sight of his friend, and he quickly levitated the shivering bird onto his back and applied healing magic to his injuries. The burns that scattered his body began darken as they healed, but it was only now that Apollo realized the dawnix's face was badly burned. The bird was blinking rapidly, but Apollo had already seen the problem; His pupils had shifted from their beautiful black to a chrome-like appearance. The birds pupils were incinerated, and he was now blind. Apollo bit back a cry of horror, beckoning Talon to come to his side. Upon seeing the Dawnixs' eyes, Talon gasped. To a bird, eyes were everything, their entire life. They hunted and fought and did nearly everything else with the use of their sight in some way; A bird without eyes was like a pony without legs. Carefully, Apollo used his magic to wrap Syracuse' face with a damp cloth. Syracuse shivered when the cloth was applied, but calmed down after a moment; Eyes becoming foggy with tears that were trying to push out. Apollo placed the bird on his back, hoping that there was some bit of magic mom knows that could fix his eyes. He shuddered as Talon placed a comforting wing on his shoulder, and for a moment Apollo was calmed. The moment of empathy was interrupted by an ear splitting shriek which rang out through the maze. It was screaming for help. It was defiantly a woman’s voice, and it sounded distantly familiar. Talon heard it as well, turning his head to better identify the sound. Apollo rose shakily to his feet and turned to face the maze. Slowly, he began walking to one of the eight pathways that were now facing him, the clicking of claws informing him that Talon was following close behind. Apollo turned to face him.
“Did you know her? The other griffon I mean.” He asked solemnly.
“Yes, she was my sister” Talon said, eyes glazing over.
“I am so sorry. What happened” he asked.
Breathing In shakily, the griffon turned. “We were just sitting in my house in Gryphus, playing a card game. We heard sirens and alarms going off everywhere, and our parents ran in and told us both to get to the basement and to stay there. There was this huge explosion from what felt like nowhere. The windows shattered, and I threw myself in front of her to protect her from the glass.” He pointed to the scar on his beak. “This was what I got for my heroism, and I haven't been able to fly since either. I think my wing is broken. Anyway, after the glass rain had stopped, our door burst open. My father went over and tried to fight off our assailants, and they killed him. Armageddon, my older brother, also tried to help, but it was no use. He was also killed and we were overrun. They took my mother away somewhere and dragged me and my sister to the palace. She was always too proud for her own good though…” he trailed off, silent tears now glistening across his face.
“I’m so sorry my friend. When we make it out of this nightmare, we can avenge her together” said Apollo.
“There’s no use in crying about it now, we need to get out of here” responded Talon, almost snapping at Apollo. They continued to walk toward the source of the cry in silence, neither of them wanting to break it. They rounded the corner, but what they saw would have made even the most battle hardened soldiers' stomach churn. Ahead of them was a small clearing which looked as though it had once been a courtyard. The grass was stained crimson with blood, and body parts littered the area. As Apollo looked around, he noticed something; He could hear somepony breathing. He looked over at Talon, whose ears were up like radar dishes, scanning intently; he had heard it as well. They looked around, careful not to step in any…mess. Then, they found the source. It was an alabaster mare with a charcoal mane. She was also wearing what remained of a pink bowtie. She was lying on her stomach, blood seeping out from under her. They slowly shifted her body, and gasped at what they saw underneath. Her entire stomach was shredded apart and blood, now unrestricted, was flowing freely from the cavity in her abdomen. She groaned as they lay her back down.
“What did this to you” Apollo asked in a whispering voice near the mares ear. Slowly, she opened her eyes, seeming to gather her strength. Apollo could see her muscles straining to strain, but she pushed on. She slowly raised her hoof to point down a darker passageway. As she did this, they heard a growl, and though they stared intently down the passage, they could see nothing. They heard the growl again, though this time it was louder and more malevolent. Apollo gasped as he saw what was happening; Alpha timber wolves were melting out of the mazes' hedge walls and beginning to surround the three creatures. The wolves circled them, snarling and foaming sap from their mouths. Apollo felt a small tap on his hoof and looked down; the mare had used her dying moments to push a scrap of bloodstained paper towards him. Wordlessly he took it from her and slipped it into his pocket, imagining that the success of her final efforts would have made the mare smile. The timber wolves snarled savagely, pulling Apollo back into reality. Quickly he took a head count of the pack as it circled the group. There were twenty-six.
“We can’t fight them,” hissed Talon through his beak. “there are too many”
“You think I don’t know that?” Apollo hissed back at him. “But what else can we do?’
Apollo could almost feel the cogs working in Talon's mind as he tried to think of a way out of their predicament.
“I got it.” he said suddenly. “See that smaller wolf over there?” he nodded to what appeared to be the runt of the pack. “The next time he makes a pass, jump over him, and then… Run for your life.” Apollo nearly laughed, but Talon's serious expression clearly stated he wasn't joking. Apollo nodded in understanding and prepared to jump.
“Three…two…one!” shouted Talon, leaping as hard as he could, Apollo following immediately behind him. They hit the ground with a thud, and heard the howling of the wolves behind them, realizing there prey had gotten away. Apollo ran with such determination that he couldn't even see Talon. He knew that if he stopped he was as good as dead. He could hear the wolves running after him, and he knew he would not be able to run much longer. He turned his head, drawing his bow in one smooth motion, and began firing arrows as fast as he could draw them. He heard the crashing of sticks and knew he had met his mark. Then, Apollo had an idea. It was crazy, but it just might work. He pulled an arrow from his quiver, and dragged its steel head against the ground. He went over a small patch of stone, then another. Then, suddenly the arrow head ignited, engulfing the arrow shaft in flame. He made a silent prayer to Luna, then drew and fired. The arrow struck true to its mark, hitting the leader of the peck full in the chest and knocking him off his feet. The pack leader was consumed in flame, howling in pain as he blindly lashed out. The wild blows from the alpha began igniting his comrades. rewarding Apollo with the sound of wood crackling and the scent of burning pine needles and tree sap. He glanced back at the corridor he had just run through to see a bonfire of timber wolves lying in a smoking heap. He skidded to a halt, turned, and looked at his handiwork. He looked to find his now panting companion, who gave a silent nod of approval. They turned once again, and began walking down the corridor for what felt like hours, until it finally split. They looked down the passage on the left, seeing more darkness and overgrown shrubbery. They leaned in and looked down the right hall, only to be met by what appeared to be a candle flickering at the end of the passage. They went right, and as they neared the small bit of light, it expanded until it filled the entire corridor. As they walked closer, Apollo could feel the wind against his fur, and smell the sweet scent of fresh air. Talon ruffled his feathers and looked over to Apollo, smiling. They had made it out of the maze.