Off course
Chapter 23: Chapter 20: Out of the Frost
Previous Chapter Next ChapterI woke up the next morning with Elisa still looking the way she was yesterday and with her spooning me. I gave a huff as I got out of bed and got ready, and when I was done I was about to wake up Elisa when I felt my ear piece buzz. I stopped and took it out of my hammer space and placed it in my ear. I pressed the receive button before speaking.
"Yes?"
"Evan we have a slight situation on the ship." I heard Delma say.
"What's going on?" I asked as I snapped my right hand. My body was soon cover with a pair of blue jeans and a black shirt with a skull on it.
"Well you may not like it-"
"Just tell me." I said as I walked to the rooms balcony. I could see the ship in the distance but nothing seemed to be wrong.
"Some of our guests have woken up from their cryo sleep." she said. I stood there for a second until it hit me. I rushed over to Elisa's side and didn't bother to wake her up as I teleported to the ships medical bay and ran in, not bothering to see that all the damages Elisa made a day ago was fixed.
"Where are they?!" I yelled.
"No need to shout." I heard to my right. I looked to the source of the voice and saw Gleaming sitting on the floor and covering her ears. She wasn't the only one as I saw that Celestia, Luna, Nightmare Moon and Cadence were awake as well. But Luna wasn't looking at me, rather Elisa.
"What hast happened to my beloved?" she asked. I looked form Luna to Elisa and back before responding.
"She was forced to watch her greatest failure by a creature in the Inferno when she went to go help A friend get his weapon from there. After that when she awoke the hollow within her took over, and right now she's been calming down. Which has helped to reverse the effects of the hollowfication, and it also helps to keep her away from souls." I said as I watched her crawl over to where I laid Elisa on the floor earlier.
"Where are we, if it's not so rude of me?" I heard Celestia ask which made my attention shift from Luna to Celestia. I walked me sit down in front of the other three girls and sat down before looking at them.
"After you were in cryostasis this ship, the Mother of Invention, was shot down above Equestria before it could get the chance to destroy the planet. After a few decades Rage comes to us looking for help with a little infestation problem."
"Is it the changelings?" Cadence asked and I just shook my head.
"I wish. No, it was Caribou. Somehow they got into their world and they needed our help to kill them off."
"Why not just kill them all off with your guys's overwhelming power?" Nightmare asked.
"Because then the story would be short and the readers wouldn't get that much." I said before a confused expression came across my face.
"What?" Cadence asked with the same confused look, and I just shook my head before I continued.
"Anyways, I'm glad you guys are awake, now we could get you to meet the others." I said as I got up and walked over to the controls in the room. ON my way over there I caught a glimpse of Elisa licking Luna, and I gave a chuckle before I pressed the the button for the PA system. "Lucky, Blaze and Faust please come to the medical bay I need you." I said as I left the controls and sat back down next to the girls again. About ten minutes later they showed up; Lucky was still wearing the vault tech suit Elisa gave her, Blaze was wearing a pair of brown pants and a white shirt and no shock to myself Faust was naked.
"Faust, how many time has your mom told you to wear some clothes?" I asked with an annoyed look.
"To many times." she said. Just then she was tackled to floor by a white blur and I saw that Elisa was holing her to the floor and growling. She looked at Faust for a second before licking her face and getting off. In a flash of light Faust was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans and a tank top, and she got up and watched as she went back to Luna and laid in her lap. When I looked to Lucky I saw a little jealousy, but that should be cleared up shortly. Anyways with Faust clothed I introduced them.
"Everybody this is Wrathful Blaze, Lucky Shot and Faust." I said as I gestured to them with a hand.
"Did you saw Faust?" Celestia asked.
"Before you ask, no that's not your mom. Elisa made her during the time we were stuck in the vault. She also had a mishap with some poison joke extract."
"What happened?" Gleaming asked.
"You remember how Elisa was once a guy right?" I asked them and they all nodded. "Well the poison joke decided to play a prank on her by giving her a dick. But I have a serum that reverses the effect of the poison for a week, but after that the poison will take effect again."
"Why not just make a permanent cure?" Cadence asked.
"I've tried. There is nothing that can counter-act the effect after a day the person is introduced to the poison. So in layman's terms, she's stuck with it." I said as I gave a shrug. After that I had them talk to each other and get them acquainted with one another, but every so often I'd see Lucky look at Luna that just said 'I'm jealous of you'. I had to remember to have a talk with her later about it before she does something stupid. But after they all got to know one another I had the royal get dressed and I tried looking for Elisa but I couldn't find her. When I asked Luna she said she left to go to the castle. Apparently since Elisa is part wolf Luna can understand her, and honestly that seems cool. I had asked if everyone was ready to go but Nightmare said she wanted to stay behind on the ship and think about things, and I didn't argue with her as she left the room.
Anyways I teleported everyone to the castle and the guards let us go by and I lead everyone to the dinning room where I was pretty sure the others would be. As we neared I could hear them talking inside.
"To think our fight with Celestia looked like a mere preschool roughhousing." I heard Dream Catcher say as I was right outside the doors.
"And the fact Ash went through that...blood bath is something else entirely. How long did the war last Rage?" Shining asked as I opened the doors and entered. I saw everyone from Ash's world was here as well as Elisa.
"Six years in Europe and eight years in the Pacific. As for America, it lasted four years." I said as I entered. When everyone noticed us I saw the group belonging to this world was staring at the group of royals from my world in utter shock and I saw my group had similar expressions on their faces.
"Didn't tell them where they are?" Bones asked.
"I did, but i may have forgot to add the fact that there were other versions of them here." I said as I rubbed my neck. I then saw Bones get off his chair and walked towards the door.
"Bones?" Rage began.
"If this Celestia decides to put me on a leash like the other, I swear to the lord almighty I'm going to something very violent." Bones said before he left
"What does he mean by that?" my Celestia asked.
"Allow me to simplify things Bones the wolf you just saw and this Celestia don't like each other to the point of trying to kill each other...Well more Celestia trying to kill him," Rage said.
"Forgive me but I'm beginning to feel uncomfortable myself when there are two Celestia's here." Nightmare said before she left also and when I looked to Celestia I saw that she looked hurt. But she didn't show it, instead her eyes did.
"Celestia," Faust at the table said. "This needs to end right now next time you see either Nightmare Moon or Bones I want you to end this petty matter both of them have well earned everyone's trust it's time you give them yours," Faust said in a motherly way.
"Yes Mother," Celestia said.
"I agree with mother on this. You shouldn't judge somepony just because what they are. I should know, I dated a Griffin back when we were at war with his empire. I loved him with all my heart and he betrayed his own country for me. So just give them a chance and you'll see." my Celestia said. Hold up, you know what I'm gonna call my Celestia Tia so then you guys don't get confused with whom I'm talking about. Same for Luna and Cadence. Luna is Lulu and Cadence is Cady. Anyways With the edition of my crew there wasn't enough seats for everyone to sit down so I spawn enough chairs for them, but I didn't get one for my as I wanted to stand. They each grabbed one and pulled it to the end of the table and sat down in them. Blaze decided to break the silence since this was starting to get annoying, and I had to thank him later for it.
"Will someone say something. This is getting awkward." he said as he leaned back in his chair.
"Well would you care to introduce yourselves?" Faust asked nicely.
"I'm Lucky shot." Lucky said as she looked excited.
"I'm Wrathful Blaze." Blaze said as he raised a hand in the air before lowering it.
"And I'm Faust." my Faust said as she started to take her shirt off, which earned a growl from Elisa.
"Don't you dare." I said as I looked at her and she stopped right then. 'Really need to get her to stop that shit.' I thought to myself. "And you already know who these ladies are," I said as I gestured to Tia, Lulu and Cady. " but this fine mare is Gleaming shield." I finished as I pointed to Gleaming.
"Well it's nice to meet you all." Faust said and earning nods from everyone.
"Before we continue, remember how I said that shining was a mare in our world?" they all nodded. "Well this her." I said as I pointed back to Gleaming. I looked around and saw that most everyone, more of the main six, had their jaws dropped. However when I looked at Ash's Cadence she looked at her other self and Gleaming with a look I couldn't place, but knowing her it's something weird.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop looking at my wife that way, she is very self conscious about her looks." Cady said as she hugged a red faced Gleaming.
"Sorry it's just," Cadence began. "She's just so cute."
"Well let's not dwell on this topic, how about we change it hmm?" I asked.
"Agreed." Twilight said as she summoned a notepad and quill.
"So is it true that you are one of Elisa's Reapers?" Lucky asked as she looked at Rage. I heard a whine and turned to Elisa and saw her covering her face with her paws, and I gave a small chuckle as I turned and looked at Rage who had a smile on his face. Everyone else looked at Lucky and Rage in confusion.
"Well I'd lie if I said that we didn't help her with trying to liberate their Canterlot. But I am not one of her reapers, hell I doubt she has any seeing how she is one." he said with a wave of his hand.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"What I mean is that Elisa didn't summon Ash and I, we came to your world to help. What we didn't expect was the zebra's to have nuclear weapons." he said with a sigh.
"That's another thing that had been bothering me," she said as she pushed her index fingers together repeatedly. "where is this 'Ash' you have mentioned?" As soon as the question left her mouth the atmosphere of the room changed, going from happy to depressing and a little bit of anger in a second. I knew that with that was still a sore topic for some of the people here but I'm hoping that they'll be nice to her since she doesn't know.
"He's gone. And I'd advise to not talk about it so openly." Rage said. "I'm not trying to be mean or anything but it's just a hard topic to talk about. For some of us more than others." he said as he looked at Luna, who was looking at the table with a sad expression on her face.
"But if you'd like to know more about him then ask Luna, she was is his wife." I said. "But I just came here to introduce these guys to you, but I need to get back to the ship and watch over the reconstruction that is happening because someone nearly destroyed the ship." I said as I got up and left the room. As soon as I got far enough away from the door to wear no one could see me I teleported to the ship with my wind magic. I was hoping that they'll continue the conversation while I left and if I needed to know anything then I'm sure Lucky'll tell me. If not then I'll just ask Elisa when she can talk again.
Anyways I really needed to oversee the construction for the ship sadly, because I would have loved to stay and talked but Delma wanted me to come back later today and sign some paper work as the nano bots fixed the ship we the metal that we had gotten so far. Once I got into the ship I immediately headed to the bridge. 'Might as well get the paper work done with so I won't have more to do later.' I thought as I walked. The walk was quiet and I was wondering where Nightmare was at and what she was doing but I could wait and ask Delma when I get to the bridge.
I finally reached the bridge after a fifteen minute walk from where I teleported in, so note to self next time I teleport make sure to teleport into the bridge so I don't have to walk. I'm not joking when I say that the bottom of your feet would be hurting by the end of a twenty minute walk. Anyways when I reached my destination I walked up to the doors and put in the password to enter. I had that so no one could get on the bridge without my permission. I went over to my desk I had set up in here and got to work on the papers.
As I went through the papers I heard a ding and Delma appeared next to me.
"Hey boss. What's up?" she asked.
"Nothing much, just trying to do this paper work before it starts to over pile." I said as I finished a few papers.
"Well you have fun with that." she said but I had stopped her before she could go.
"Delma have you seen Nightmare at all?" I asked.
"No sir. Last time I saw her she was in her room."
"Pull up the camera feed from her room." I said and I watched as a holographic screen showing a basic military room. A bed a few lockers and a sink, well a basic high ranking bedroom anyways. But thats beside the point, inside I saw Nightmare sitting on her bed in a meditating posture on the bed. I started at her for a few seconds before sighing and looking over to Delma, who took the liberty of sitting on my desk. "Okay you can turn it off." I said as I looked back down to my papers.
"Why did you want to know what she was doing?" she asked as the screen dissipated into pixels.
"Because I was worried what Nightmare was doing." I said as I signed another paper.
"She doesn't liked being called that I hope you know."
"Oh is that right?" I asked as I looked at her.
"Yeah she said she would liked to be called Selena."
"Hmmm and when did you have this talk with her?"
"When you and everyone else went to breakfast at the castle... why?"
"I just wanted to know." I said as I went back to signing papers. "When I get enough time to be free I want to have a talk with her, and see why she changed."
"Okay sir." Delma said as she dissipated too into pixels. I then spent the next three hours signing and stamping papers and when I was about done the alarms on the ship started to go off. I immediately stopped what I was doing and rushed to the controls, the screen was lightign up different colors and I had no idea what was going on. That was until Delma came back.
"Sir we have a problem!" she yelled.
"I see that! Turn off these infuriating alarms!"
"On it sir!" she said as I continued to figure out what was the problem. Thankfully she did turn the alarms off but the was still the fact that I had no idea what was wrong.
"Selma what caused the alarms to go off?" I asked.
"Well sir you received an emergency message from Elisa. It said that you where needed at the castles hospital immediately." Selma said as she floated down to the floor.
"Well why didn't you say that!" I said as I prepared to teleport.
"I did!"
"I meant sooner." I said as disappeared in swirl of wind before I appeared in a hallway in the castle. I was confronted by some guards and I told them who I was and asked them where Bones was and they said that it was halfway across the castle. So I zoned in on his magic and teleported there, outside the doors. As I reached the front doors I barged with enough force that the doors hit the walls.
"What happened?!" I yelled as I looked around the room.
"Living...transmutation." I looked for the source of the voice and saw Bones, sitting against a wall with much of his bod showing. His bones but his clothes were unharmed but covered in blood.
"Bones what happened?" Celestia asked in shock.
"Twilight...in...hospital," Bones said weakly causing Twilight's friends along with, both Cadence's and both Celestia's to leave while the rest of us could only look at the mess before Nightmare walked over to Bones and picked him up and acted as a way of supporting him to stand. "Thanks."
"Why is she in the hospital?" I asked in a serious tone.
"Let's just get to the hospital and I'll tell you everything I know," Bones said before he shuffled over to the deformed corpse and grabbed some hairs from it.
Nightmare's horn then lit up and we appeared in the hospital ward Bones then asked a nurse on Twilight's location but the mare fainted at the sight of him so Luna went ahead and asked a doctor on the location and asked him to attend to the unconscious nurse the doctor pointed us in the right direction and once we arrived I saw Twilight was on a bed and unconscious and her left arm was missing and was reduced to a stump and was wrapped in several bandages but the bandages had a lot red on them from blood I then looked around and saw the others and Rage were here watching over her.
"The doctors have placed Twi in a stable condition but she's lost a good deal of blood so she should be out for awhile," Rage explained when he saw us.
"Bones please tell us what happened," Rarity pleaded causing Bones to sigh before he sat down in a vacant chair.
"Alchemy has many abilities as you all know...," Bones started.
"we're not here for a alchemy lesson Bones!" Rainbow shouted but Rage held his arm out stop her.
"Go on," Rage said.
"But there are certain types that are a taboo to perform the one you saw the result of was one of the most forbidden living transmutation or rather human transmutation this transmutation is used to create living sentient beings or...bring someone back from the dead," Bones said causing everyone to gasp.
"B-b-b-but why would she do that?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know but the reason this transmutation is forbidden is because there were those that thought others could create an obedient arm but the main reason is because most of those who do commit the taboo will either go insane, die or be changed forever," Bones said.
"Changed how?" Celestia asked.
"No idea depends on what Truth showed them," Bones said.
"Who in tarnation is Truth?" Applejack asked.
"Truth is an it it's all and it is one it could also be either you or me or anyone here," Bones said.
"So it replaced somepony?" Rainbow asked.
"No it sees what we see and hears what we hear and speaks what we speak but it doesn't interfere with what we do what Truth is is the greatest collection of knowledge anywhere bigger and more vast then an library you can think off," Bones said.
"But why is Twilight missing an arm?" Luna asked.
"Truth took it as payment for the knowledge it showed her Truth would have taken her entire body and soul had I not interfered," Bones said.
"That's the reason why you never commit that crime. I remember two brothers who wanted to bring their mother back. It cost one boy his arm and leg, the other his entire body. Luckily the first boy was able to attach his brother's soul to a suite of armor before truth could take his soul." I said as I looked at Twilight with a disapproving gaze. I couldn't believe this would happen, but I had a feeling it might when I found out Bones had taught them alchemy. The rule she broke was one that should never be crossed, no matter the intentions.
"I know those two as well but you're wrong about one thing the elder brother who lost his arm and leg actually lost his leg to Truth and sacrificed his arm to attach his brother's soul to the suit of armour," Bones said. I guess I had forgotten that about that anime, and I do have an excuse seeing how I haven't watched it in a little over a thousand years.
"What happened to them?" this world's Faust asked.
"No clue," Bones said.
"That's nice and all but I think the main question here is what was Twilight doing with such a...disastrous transmutation circle?" Rage asked.
"I was trying to bring back Ash."
My eyes turned to the bed and I saw Twilight trying to sit up but she clutched her arm in pain before falling back to the bed. Just like that this world's Celestia rushed over to check on the lavender alicorn, like a mother would with her wounded child.
"Impressive. Most people would have been out for longer then what you've had and the fact you seem rather calm right now only impresses me more," Bones said.
"Twilight what do you mean you were trying to bring back Ash?" Celestia asked.
"When Luck Shot brought it up I couldn't handle it anymore I also thought if I was able to bring back Ash we could stop the caribou much sooner," Twilight said while sobbing slightly. I decided to look at the mare in question and saw that Lucky was looking at Twilight in guilt, and I had a feeling she now feels as if it was her fault Twilight lost her arm.
"Twilight as much as I wish to see Ash once more I will not accept or have m subject's harmed just for that and even if I did what would he say upon leaning of this?" Luna asked.
"I-I didn't think on that but now I may have just killed Ash a second time," Twilight sobbed as she gripped Celestia tightly, while Celestia gently rocked her back an forth.
"No...you didn't," Bones said.
"What?" Twilight asked.
"I pulled a few strands of hair off the body you made Twilight I want you to look at them and tell me what color it is," Bones said as he got up and placed the hairs in front of Twilight's eyes before he sat down again while Twilight studied the hair.
"Blonde." Twilight said.
"Exactly and I saw Ash's hair is jet black with a silver streak in it."
"But I could have just put Ash's soul in a different body."
"Wrong again from what I saw the bod had no soul signature and it only had enough energy to move one arm before it gave out what ou did was just create a deformed corpse," Bones said causing Twilight to smile.
"Thank you Bones." Twilight said.
"Now Twilight I need to know how you learned of that circle."
"Well...it's on your eye," Twilight said causing Bones to place a hand over his right eye. "I saw it was an alchemy circle and decided to look it up and found out what it means."
"Well as interesting as this is I say it's time we ended this Q and A session." Hingure said who was standing in the doorway.
"For what purpose?" Rage asked.
"Twilight committed a very serious crime. Now she has to face the consequences like the others." Hingure said and I watched as she turned her right arm into a blade before aiming it at Twilight causing Celestia to hold Twilight tightly. "Move aside."
"No if you're going to kill her then you'll need to kill me too." Celestia said.
"Since you're protecting her it just make you an ally and must also be eliminated." Hingure said as she prepared to take a swing at them but Bones stopped her before she could by grabbing Hingure's arm. "Maker?"
"This isn't her fault...it's mine," Bones said.
"But maker," Hingure said before Bones continued.
"I should have told her the do's and don'ts of alchemy so as her teacher the blame lies soul with me," he said before Hingure transformed herself into a katana and placed herself onto his back. "Sorry her sense of justice is strong she commit's herself to righting wrongs and giving wrongdoers what the deserve but sometimes she tends to go overboard," Bones said as he began to make his way out.
"Wait Bones if that mark is on your eye then does that mean?" Rarity asked stopping him before he could leave us.
"Yeah...I also committed the taboo," he said with a sigh.
"What did you give up?" Applejack asked, and the room was in silence for a few seconds before Bones placed a hand on his chest and answering.
"My heart... Now if you'll excuse me I have a bod to take care of," Bones said before he left. I watched him leave the room before I walked over to Twilight and told her I was highly disappointed in her and I could give her and automail arm for her. All she needed to do was come to the ship, but only if they couldn't get her anything else. After that I walked out of the room and I heard foot falls behind me. I looked back and saw Elisa coming after me.
"Mind teleporting us to where Twilight screwed up?" I asked and all she did was give me a look. "What?"
"You know you could have been nicer to her." She said and I looked at her in shock.
"Since when could you talk again?"
"Since this morning by that's beside the point. Show some emotions and stop acting like a terminator. It don't suit you." she said as her paws continued to hit the floor.
"Just get us to the ship please. We can talk about this later okay?" I asked.
"Okay, but we will talk." She said as we disapearredcin a flash.
Next Chapter: Chapter 21: Holidays Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 24 MinutesAuthor's Notes:
Hey guys sorry for the wait but I had gotten grounded for a very stupid reason. Anyways here's the next chapter to the story.
Anyways I hope you enjoy the chapter and I'll see you in the next one.