fan fiction Equestria - The Year of Hell - Chapter One

[Lupus 127]

CHAPTER ONE

 

Evening fell over Ponyville, an evening of proportions not seen since an age long gone, so long ago that only two ponies now lived who remembered those times, but where were they this night? Reports had come flooding in to Ponyville that the crazy weather, the metamorphing animals, and the strange metaphysical phenomena were being seen all over Equestria. From Cloudsdale to Appleoosa, from Manehattan to Canterlot, what was being seen in Ponyville was being duplicated all over the realm, though no one town was experiencing a crisis identical to any other.

 

Below, the school hall was buzzing with the mares and stallions of Ponyville thronged to hear the Mayor, and set up an emergency committee to attempt to deal with the crisis. Even Applejack had come in from the farm, though nobody had seen Pinkie Pie, but then nopony had for weeks now. And whilst the adults talked, some amongst the younger ponies baulked to be excluded - and some among their number schemed and plotted to take advantage of the situation for themselves.

 

"No you don't..." Scootaloo whispered to herself, seeing her prey make to sneak out of town. Rising into the shadow of the evening, the pegasus filly flitted from eve to lee, from gloom to dim shadow, keeping the two fillies in her sight. Just as she was wondering how she was going to fare when the shadows thinned to nothing, and they were out into open ground, it didn't matter anymore...

 

For out of the sky came a roaring chariot, pulled by not two, but four fully-armoured pegasi

"Alright!" Scootaloo performed an aerial tumble, "Princess Celestia!"

She dropped to the ground, ready to perform the obeisance, then looked up again as the chariot circled preparatory to landing. It was empty!

"Huh?", Scootaloo gaped, then "Aghhh!" as something blundered into her.

 

Rising from the ground she shook her head to clear it, and saw Applebloom struggling to her feet beside her.

"You ran into me!" the pegasus snapped.

But the other was staring in confusion at the chariot which had now landed in the clearing in the centre of the town,

"Where's the princess?" Applebloom asked.

"I don't know..." her friend began.

 

They watched as two of the pegasus guard unhitched themselves from the chariot and strode straight towards the library, slamming their hooves onto its heavy door once, then twice, then stepping back and launching themselves at it, full flight, shattering it inwards.

"Woh!" Scootaloo exclaimed in admiration.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" the voice of the royal guards boomed into their ears, even from across the clearing, "PRINCESS CELESTIA COMMANDS!"

 

From inside there came the sound of swift movement, apologetic mutters, and then Twilight, who had remained shut away all day, came blinking into the night, nodding her head at the two pegasus guards who remained in harness to the chariot, then galloping swiftly away.

"Quick!" Scootaloo urged, but Applebloom was already running, and soon the two of them stood in the shadow of a shop, watching as Twilight Sparkle used her magic to open the door of Sugarcube Corner, before running in.

 

"Pinkie Pie..." Applebloom breathed

From inside came the sounds of fighting, of breaking crockery, and of the winnying of infuriated ponies. Then silence, and after a moment Twilight emerged, breathing heavily, followed by a floating Pinkie, her flattened mane hanging loose about her ears, as the unicorn magically compelled her to accompany her.

"Woh!" Applebloom breathed.

Then the two fillies hurried on as Twilight headed purposefully towards the school hall.

 

A crowd was already gathering around it, mares and stallions who had not attended to the meeting, mixing with fillies and colts who had been excluded from it. Scootaloo and Applebloom nudged their way through into the centre of it, finding themselves up against Zecora, the zebra having just arrived in from the forest.

"Applebloom and Scootaloo! But Twilight, what has she come here to do?"

 

Twilight answered it herself by pushing into the school hall, followed by the floating Pinkie, and emerging a moment later with a far from enthusiastic Applejack at her side.

"We have got to get Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash" Twilight was saying as they hurried out of the town.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo enthused, "I can find Rainbow Dash", she opened her wings.

"But I can't!" Applebloom knocked her to one side.

"So long Crusader!" Scootaloo was already rising on the wind, "If I can get to Cloudsdale first and tell Rainbow Dash she's wanted..."

"Come back!" wailed Applebloom, but her friend was gone.

 

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"We must get to Canterlot immediately!" Twilight was saying as she led her friends back towards the library.

"I don't see what it is we're supposed to do" drawled Applejack, though she remained stoically at her friend's side.

"Yeah" Rainbow Dash drawled, floating just off to one side, "The princess has the elements now, locked up safe and sound in Canterlot"

"But Princess Celestia needs US to use them" Twilight protested.

 

They were now outside the library, where all four pegasus guards were now back in harness, ready to pull the chariot to Canterlot as fast as they could. Applejack looked from one pony to the other, from the silent Fluttershy to the magically-compelled Pinkie, and then back to Twilight.

"I can see why they sent four ponies" she said.

They quickly boarded the chariot, Twilight forced to release Pinkie Pie from her compulsion, but as they were almost immediately airborne, there was nothing that the outraged earth pony could do about her predicament.

 

"Seafoam", the stallion who spoke was standing alongside the unicorn watching as the pegasus guards strained with their load, rising into the night sky, and roaring off towards the capital.

"We have to do something..." his companion agreed, swishing her multi-toned blue tail in agitation.

"You have been to Canterlot?", the stallion was a dun yellow colour, his mane a shade of blue that didn't have a name.

"Of course", Seafoam reminded him, "I was Guest of Honour at the Gala"

"Oh yes", Green Grapes said softly; Guest of Honour, winner of The Friendliest Pony, attendee of the Gala with Rarity's ticket...but like many another pony, he had silently but steadily admired the style-setting unicorn from afar.

 

He shook his head, sending his mane coursing in the curious wind that was not a wind, just another feature of the crazy weather stalking the whole land. Seafoam was his friend, his good friend since school together, and they now stood together amidst the chaos. Rarity was dead, mourned and missed, but he had never truly known her. But he had known Seafoam, for years and years, and he trusted and believed in her. His smile was not all that forced when it did come.

"Do you think we can help?", he asked, "Do you think we can go to Canterlot?"

 

A group of long-legged bunnies crossed their path in front of them, and the unicorn paused to stare after them.

"If Canterlot is like this, they have their hooves full"

"Does that mean you think we should go to Canterlot?"

The unicorn turned her pretty eyes upon her friend,

"I don't know", she admitted, "But I don't think it would be very easy for us to get there"

 

An upwards shower of apple pies seemed to put the punctuation mark upon that statement.

 

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"Maybe Princess Celestia can be the Element of Generosity?" Twilight mused in an aside to Applejack as they quickly dismounted from the chariot in the palace gardens.

Fluttershy was looking around the scene of her infamy with trepidation, while Rainbow was trying to talk some sense into Pinkie, who stood stubbornly against the side of the chariot, refusing to move.

"Somepony has to be" Applejack said softly, looking across at Rainbow, but her friend was too deep into an argument with the stubborn pink one to hear, "We cannot leave it until we need them"

"With how things are", Twilight looked up at the pink candy dawn now blazing five hours early in the skies above, "we would find ourselves alone just when we needed somepony to wield the element"

"Do you really think the Princess..."

"I do not know!" Twilight stamped her hoof.

 

Applejack looked from her to Fluttershy, standing alone under a tree, her eyes closed, her chest heaving with the effort of not speaking, not looking, not trying.

"Wooeee..." the earth pony breathed, "There ain't nothing normal about ANY of this!"

"Come on everypony", Twilight appeared to have made her decision, "We need to see the Princess!"

Even Pinkie seemed to be motivated by this, and as if it were the old days, the five sometime friends galloped off towards the palace gates.

 

Behind them the gardener rested upon his rake and whistled a tune that he had never heard before. It had just popped into his head, and with it some words

"We all live in a yellow submarine..." he sang in perplexity...

 

 

Lupus

 

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I am not sure that this worked as well as I had hoped. Applejack especially, and rather unexpectedly, proved hard to write dialogue for.