Legends of Equestria: The Long Road Back
by JimmyHook19
First published
The conclusion of the Legends of Equestria saga.
Mistmane finds herself trapped in lands far from home, and must make her way home, no matter what. But a grand conspiracy is underway. Friends, enemies, and allies all converge in an epic battle for the future of our world as an ancient evil makes his designs known.
Reading the previous stories in the series is required, or else you'll struggle to follow what is going on.
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/story/452751/legends-of-equestria-south-swamp-rag
Far from Home
Gathered friends,
I wish to welcome you to this, the newest volume of our collected tails. This is the fourth, and indeed, the greatest of all the works I have assembled and labored to bring to you all, as the world deserves to know the truth of the Great Calamity that occurred all those years ago. And it falls to me to tell this tale, being the only one still alive of the heroes who fought that day to save the world from the darkness.
I suppose it is only fair that we begin at the start of the tale, and for this I shall return you to the place where these tales all began. On a small island off the Coast of America lay a small town. In this small town, lay a small house, split into two flats by the owner who leased both bits out to different tenants. Within this small house lay a series of rooms, occupied by the one of whom I write today.
This man's name was James Thomas Hook, who was normally referred to by the shorthand of Jimmy for reasons best known to himself. If one were to enter the room in which he made his rest and worked for much of the day, one would have seen a series of mannequins on the edges of the room next to the back wall. One of them was human shaped, and had a magnificent blue dress sat upon it with a voluminous skirt so wide it took up much of the corner.
But the other two were of more interest. Both of these mannequins were shaped like horses, and one even had wings applied. The first of these had a white headdress positioned atop the head of the mannequin, and the body had a white, see through dress of a design familiar to anybody who had lived and worked in hot parts of the world. The light green necklace around the neck did little to dispel this notion of a being from Egypt were it not for the shape clearly being designed for the shape and form of a pony- a pegasus pony, admittedly, but a nonetheless.
The other mannequin was of a similar design, but the clothing that sat upon it was not. Instead of anything resembling that, it had a golden necklace sat around the neck, with several fabric bands around the head and ears. A bracelet, cast in bronze, sat upon the left foreleg, and some fabric around the upper chest too. Most notable of all was a green skirt with a cream band around the bottom, which extended over the faux tail attached to the mannequin toward the floor.
Both of these displays were reminders of past journeys, for they were the garments of Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook, two of the greatest heroes that the world has ever known. The former had been seen more than a year before these events I recall, having faced down the mighty Sphinx in the California desert. The latter had been sent into the deepest swamps of Louisiana, and emerged alive and well on her long journey back north to civilization in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
But let us turn our attention to Jimmy once more. Right now, oblivious to the presence of anybody else, he was reading about a recent discovery made in China of an ancient relic. A relic that threatened to change everything that had been ever known about China in the Liao Period.
The artifact in question was a flower, an impossibly ancient one that had been dated to the 11th Century, along with the inscriptions in the walls of the tomb in which it had been found. The inscriptions told of the story of a mighty sorceress, beloved by all for her kindness and incredible beauty. But when darkness fell upon the land and an evil warlord attempted to destroy her village, the sorceress sacrificed herself to defeat him and drive evil away from her home.
But the legend didn't end there. The sorceress had transferred a small fragment of her life essence into this flower, meaning that a piece of her lived on. This flower had been just found, in perfect condition despite being over 1,000 years old, as well as the embalmed remains of the sorceress. This was what had stunned the archeologists who found the remains.
The embalmed body was of a horse.
Jimmy looked back over his shoulder to the two sets of garments sitting there, and looked at the article again. "Looks like Equestria has been connected to our world for longer than we thought," he said. He had head a report of a pony with a giant beard being sighted in Vancouver, but had dismissed this as mere rumor. After all, he was the only shapeshifter apart from his small circle of friends, and they hadn't reported anything.
He was so intent on looking at the article, he didn't notice when it began to cloud over. The cloud levels increased in magnitude as he sat there, still looking intently at that flower on the screen. It eventually became so dark that he finally took notice of what was happening.
"What the?" he asked. "Where is this cloud coming from?"
Indeed, the cloud levels were so great now that the world was covered in a blanket of darkness, with thunder and lightning roaring outside.
"There's no storms forecast for today! How did this get he-"
A voice boomed outside, laughing loudly. "At last! I've got the final one!"
Jimmy had no time to ask who the voice belonged too before a black cloud appeared in his room and zapped him up. Moments later, he found himself falling down a black tunnel made entirely of cloud.
"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
Lightning and storms shot past him as he continued to fall. Or was he climbing? There was no real sense of gravity in this place, which seemed to ignore the laws of physics in all senses of the word. Clouds and fire flashed onwards as his speed only seemed to increase with every passing second.
At long last, his speed seemed to slow, and he was spat out into a small courtyard. He got up from his feet, only to see the area still shrouded in fog and smoke. It was also very, very cold. "Hello?" he called. "Is anybody there?"
The area was completely empty. There was no trace of anybody, anywhere. Was this an abandoned place? He had absolutely no idea where in the world he was as he rubbed his arms up and down to try and generate some heat.
"HELLO! IS SOMEBODY OUT THERE! PLEASE ANSWER ME!"
Almost in response to his words, a fire suddenly started up in the distance. Jimmy wandered out of the industrial estate and towards the light, crossing over a snow drenched road and into what looked like a car park in front of a very shoddily built hotel made entirely of portable office buildings. As he closed in, the notice became readable. "Prudhoe Bay Hotel, Deadhorse, Ala..."
His heart skipped a beat. "How the fuck did I end up in Alaska?"
His attention was then drawn to the fire, and he sat down in front of it. It was then he saw a flower. It was in a grey pot, with green petals and a green stalk. The head of the flower was pink, with the inner parts being purple, and the center being red, with a white center to that and a white border.
"What the?" Jimmy asked, as he got closer. "That's the flower that was in the news article. What's it doing here, in sub zero temperatures?"
Suddenly, strange ethereal energies flowed off the flower, and floated in his general direction. The energies surrounded him, lifting him up high (though the fog still hung around), and a voice hung on the wind.
"One of suitable stock and noble build. He can continue the work I started, and stop the Evil One."
Jimmy had no chance to process what this meant as his entire body was consumed by raging agony.
The storm only seemed to intensify, the wind howling louder and louder as much of Jimmy's clothing was torn away. His shirt, however, was not the collar shifting downwards as a bow pattern appeared on the front. The sleeves shortened in length, becoming extremely short, and a belt like object attached itself to the bottom of the shirt, with a dark blue ribbon and light blue fabric panel on top of that.
The collar pattern and bow turned a light blue, with the rest of the shirt turning a dark blue, and the fabric under the belt turned an even darker blue. The fabric underneath the ribbon turned a light grey. Jimmy had little chance to process his change in attire following another energy surge. He screamed as his entire frame was compressed in length to a fraction of its former dimensions and untold amounts of muscle and fat sloughed off him, followed by his hips starting to ache.
"No! Not thaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
His former manhood was pulled into him, followed by a loud crack as his hip bones broke and reshaped to a wider stance, with the equivalent mare bits appearing behind. A tail popped out of her rear, a long, flowing, green mass as her legs snapped into a backwards stance.
Every bone in her feet shattered as they were compressed in length, becoming nothing more than messy stumps attached to the bottom of her legs. Hooves, maybe?
Her arms snapped into a backwards stance, with the discarded and breaking bone fragments causing Jimmy unspeakable agony. Her fingers were soon sucked into her hands, resulting in another pair of stumps.
Her neck began to randomly elongate, moving her point of vision higher and higher up like a giraffe as her hair came flying out in the gale.
"Whomever created this thing is a real sadist!"
The bones in her face shattered and broke apart before her mouth and nose stretched forward on her face, eventually merging into one another to form a pony muzzle. Another item then met its fate; a pair of red glasses fell off and were sucked into the storm. Her eyes grew in size and turned azure blue, followed by her ears vanishing into her skull and then regrowing on top. But these weren't normal pony ears. They looked more like rabbit ears.
A curved horn emerged from her forehead as a green mane erupted from her head, curving upwards atop the top of her head and then flowing backwards, giving her a very prominent fringe. Pink fur grew all over her body, the colour gradient down her legs lightening until the fur was basically white when it reached her hooves.
A symbol which looked like a cloud appeared on her flanks as the storm died down, and she was lowered back down to the ground. She looked about in confusion. "What- where is this? Hello? Is anypony there?"
Fortuitously, there was a puddle formed by some melting ice, so she trotted over to it and took a look in the puddle.
As she looked in the water at whatever this being was, a bolt of blue energy came once more from the flower, wrapping itself around her and feeding into her memory. She knew her name and her origin, but nothing else.
"I wish I could shake this headache," she groaned. She then lit her horn and decided to try a teleportation spell.
Nothing happened.
"What?" she asked. "Something's wrong with my magic!"
She tried casting a number of different spells, which ranged from trying to grow plants to even basic telekinesis and levitation. She was only able to use her telekinetic spells, although lifting anything heavier than a car proved to be exhausting.
She quickly checked her repository. Magic communications might have still been working, so she decided giving that a go was worth a try. She lit her horn, and suddenly a menu appeared in front of her.
YOU HAVE MAIL! said the display. Mistmane reached up with her hoof and touched the button, and moments later the message appeared before her.
The first thing to appear was a symbol of two wreaths held in place by a pegasus at the top, wings outstretched, with the letters IPNV in the center.
"Imperium Nubes Vallis," Mistmane whispered. "The seal of the Cloudsdale Empire."
The seal dropped away, to reveal the face of Flash Magnus, one of her friends. He had his helmet off, clearly revealing his face, and his skin was covered in scars. His fur was matted with dried blood, presumably his own, and he coughed repeatedly as he spoke.
There was just one problem. Mistmane couldn't understand what he was saying.
The transmission ended, with Mistmane only having understood select words, and then faded out. "Flash Magnus in trouble!" she said. "I have to find him! But I have no idea where I am, or where he is!"
She turned around, to see the flower still there. She gently levitated it up and looked closely.
"I suppose I should bring you with me, shouldn't I?" she said, and putting it away safely set off into a raging blizzard.
Little did she realize that a shadowy figure was watching her. "I'd better relay this to the Colonel," he said. "He won't be happy."
Author's Notes:
So this here won't be no any ordinary story from me thus far. In fact... it will wind up being the longest on my FIMFiction Account to date! :D
So be sure to see updates for it when it happens.
An Unforbidding Land, a Familiar Face
In a bunker somewhere in the United States, a soldier entered a room where an officer was standing in front of a display. "Colonel Peterson, sir!" the soldier said.
"At ease, soldier," the Colonel replied. "What's the news?"
"Sir, one of our field agents reported seeing a pony in the Alaskan wilds near a flower, heading off towards North Pole, Alaska in the middle of a raging blizzard!"
Peterson looked surprised. "Travelling through a blizzard? Not a smart move, given how fierce Alaskan snowstorms can get. But this also means our units cannot intercept as RADAR and communication systems won't work. I'll need to inform high command. Dismissed."
The soldier saluted, and then left the room as the monitor in the center flickered into life. On it, appeared an image with the text AUDIO ONLY.
"Greetings, my lord," Peterson began. "I bring news for you."
"I expected good news from you," the voice continued. "And yet I hear news of a pony, one of the Pillars no less, on the move in the Alaskan bay. Which one?"
Peterson consulted his clipboard of information. "According to our preliminary scans and acquired data, they have a curved horn and appear to be carrying a flower."
"Mistmane," the voice said in disgust. "A unicorn who never understood when to stop interfering. I expect you are already on an intercept path."
"Our military equipment will be unable to operate in those weather conditions effectively," Peterson replied. "The storm is wreaking havoc with satellite communications and infrared tracking equipment. It would be too easy for our units to get lost in the storm."
"Then send in a unit that doesn't need your technological hocus pocus!" the voice said once more. "I imagine you understand the danger this situation puts us in. Remember the prophecy! 'Two shall become Six, and the Six shall Become One. Their might will become unstoppable, and their Victory shall Shake the Heavens!'"
"And now there are five," Peterson sighed. "Five that we know of, at least. What of our assets on the Desert theater?"
"They dispatched the issues with a few casualties, but that's about it. On the other hand, Mistmane must be stopped. The consequences if you fail will be dire. Am I understood?"
"Yes, my Lord," Peterson replied.
"Good. I await your report."
As the screen flickered out, Peterson reached for the radio. "Dispatch Taskforce EMPRESS," he said.
Mistmane continued to make her way along the blowy roads filled with snow and sleet. This storm didn't seem to be letting up, and the levels of snow and ice in fact helped to make navigation harder. Wind whirled around her like an angry demon of the night, and the ice and sleet, not to mention the snow, stung her eyes. Normally, she would have cast a shield spell or something to protect her eyes, but this was not possible. Her magic was weak, unfocused, and as a result there was little she could do to cast spells or much else, really. As she made her way down this road, unfamiliar with her terrain, she had to make a guess as to which way to go. She had taken a right just outside the hotel, and soon after encountered a junction where the road split into a Y shape. She decided to take the left fork, for some reason, and continued onwards, narrowly dodging an oil tanker pulling up into a layby for the night.
As the land slowly changed to red, hard baked earth, the road split once more. One road went to the right, and the other straight ahead. Unsure of which way to go, Mistmane decided to go right. There was a short kink in the road up ahead, so she took that and headed off in that direction. Another right was the next direction she took, with the road once more splitting into several different directions. The terrain wasn't all too different to her native Chineigh's northern regions, so there was that. It didn't help, however, that none of the road signs were written in a language she could understand.
After passing over a frozen river, the continued to follow the road, the landscape once more shifting from red earth to hard packed tundra. After a right turn through a town (again, Mistmane had no clue exactly where), she took a right and crossed another bridge, which passed over a pair or iron rails. Mistmane paused in fright when a great bellowing started up, and then a great iron monster passed underneath, taking several minutes to get clear.
Once she was certain the monster was gone, Mistmane continued on her way, passing by a quiet area where the road met another, no clue as to what was causing her to go this way. She figured it must have been her gut. Speaking of which, she could do with finding a way station or somewhere to rest. It was very tiring. She must have been on the road for hours, and her little legs made walking a stretch, which was why unicorns teleported so much. She took a slight left, and saw the road curve around in a spiral ahead of her upon a great viaduct.
"What makes these engineering marvels?" Mistmane asked. "Are they built by giants?"
She ducked under another road and went another way, before approaching a town with a giant statue of a jolly fat thing. Mistmane had no clue what this creature was meant to be, and she took several more turns before seeing a large building, painted all white, with red lining and markings upon it, as well as a roof and skylights drenched in the harsh snow. She went to the door and pushed it open.
The interior couldn't have been more of a contrast to the exterior. Inside was a warm, welcoming, gently decoured tavern, a welcome resting place for the weary traveler. As Mistmane closed the door behind her, she made her way past several tables of ponies enjoying cards and other games. Others were merrily swigging beer and other spirits while swapping stories of their adventures in the wilds.
Mistmane stopped at the bar, and the bartender turned to her. He spoke again, but once again in that strange language she couldn't understand. "Excuse me, but I'm not sure we speak the same language," she said.
The bartender looked equally confused. Then he said something she couldn't understand either.
"Let me help," said a familiar voice, in a deep, but regal and gruff voice. Mistmane turned her head to see none other than Starswirl the Bearded sitting there, at the bar! "What would you like?" he asked. His Chineighse was a bit rusty, but it would do.
"A warm drink would be nice," Mistmane replied. Starswirl nodded, and then turned back to the bartender before saying something in that other language.
After a few moments, a mug of something was passed to Mistmane, and she and Starswirl decamped to a table. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
Starswirl took out his spellbook, and layed it upon the table before his horn flashed brightly, and he spoke again. This time, his Chineighse was perfect. "I cast the Balelius Translaticon. We can now speak to one another without difficulty, as the spell automatically translates what the other is saying."
Mistmane nodded. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I was conducting research with my followers, Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer, into strange magical phenomena that is happening across the world," Starswirl explained. "Strange events have been happening all across the world, and I believe it has some connection to this land's government."
"I came here on the trail of a message left by Flash Magnus," Mistmane replied. "My Magical Communications is one of my few spells that is still working properly, but I can only receive messages, not send them. Anyway, Flash sent a message that I couldn't understand. It was in Latin, which I seem to have lost the ability to understand, but the message was badly garbled."
"I'll take a look at it in the morning," Starswirl said. "Do you have your Glowpaz fragment on you?"
"Sorry?" Mistmane asked.
"Somnambula each gave us a piece of Glowpaz. One of its many properties is the power to instantly translate what another Glowpaz wearer is saying. It's how we talked to one another for, as you've probably picked up, none of us speak the same language."
All of this was a bit much in one go, and Mistmane's head sank onto the table, exhausted.
"I suggest we drink up, and then I'll look into hiring you a room for the night," Starswirl said, as he propped up the head of his exhausted friend. It was then he noticed something was off. Mistmane had her old and former beauty, which she had sacrificed to restore beauty to the world. "Does that have something to do with her magic being so weak?" the great wizard asked himself. "I guess such questions will have to wait until morning. In the meantime, some lively music please!"
Author's Notes:
So yeah... I prefer Mistmane with her beauty intact instead of having to give it up. Her look is just much more natural with all the beauty kept for her.
Anyways.... here's an overview of the segment covered in the chapter:
And of course..... appearance of Star Swirl the Bearded
is from this story down below:
/story/469875/legends-of-equestria-fire-and-faith
Next chapter shall arrive in three weeks from now.
The Longest Day
As the sun rose over the small tavern and rest stop that Starswirl and Mistmane called their temporary home, the pair awoke as the light began to roll into the rooms they were using. Starswirl was the first to get onto his hooves, and he glanced over at Mistmane.
"Do you have the message that Flash Magnus sent?" he asked.
Mistmane, still only running at about half speed, stood up as best she could. "Yes. Here you go." Her horn lit up, and she navigated through the menus and screens to get to the message.
It then began to play. Flash Magnus was there on the screen, still injured and smeared in blood. "To all units receiving this transmission," he said, "I am in need of support. Somnambula and I were... able to survive her wrath, but now we're trapped. If you can't find us, you have to stop him and ensure he never finds the device, or he'll become unstoppable. I have no idea how long I have left. We were so close to finding the-"
Abruptly, the message cut off, and the seal of the Cloudsdale Empire appeared again. "This is most strange," said Starswirl. "Firstly, who is she, and then what is this device?"
"More importantly, where are Flash Magnus and Somnambula?" asked Mistmane. "If they're in trouble, we need to find them as soon as we can!"
"Agreed," Starswirl said. "The lives of our fellow Pillars are ultimately more important than garnering knowledge for the sake of knowledge. We must move out, and fast. I can see the storm is clearing, but for how long I don't know." And with such a declaration, the pair moved out of the room, gathering up various items into bags and storage objects, with Mistmane putting her flower into a bag for safety reasons, and Starswirl keeping his spellbook on hand. Or hoof, rather, given he didn't have hands in any way, shape, or form.
The duo, upon leaving the resting place, headed to the southeast. After trotting for a while, they took a sharp left, followed by a right. Starswirl was rather surprised that there were no vehicles out on the road (as it turned out they were called), but that made their job easier. Whilst trotting through a mountain pass, they encountered a sign that stated something hard to understand. Starswirl had an easier time understanding the odd language, but even then he stumbled over some words, such as 'Canada'. After several twists and turns, the pair stopped at a wild, desolate place next to a river for a short rest.
Once refreshed, they then resumed their journey, taking several rest stops along the way as they zigzagged back and forth across the border between one land and another. "I wonder what strange wonders we will find in this land called 'Canaada'," Starswirl said. "Mountains made of pure crystal, rocks so tall they scrape the skies, and rivers of pure gold!"
"I haven't seen anything like that," Mistmane replied. "All I've seen is buildings and endless snow around here. Not that I'm complaining, but it makes navigation that bit more difficult."
"Indeed," Starswirl said. "Speaking of which, how do you know where you're going?"
"Instinct," Mistmane told him. "Instinct and something else. I'm not really sure."
After crossing several rivers, the duo paused once again for a while to get strength back up, before continuing on their way and crossing several more rivers in the process. A large metal contraption passed under the bridge and made a horrible noise as it sailed off down the water. Maybe this was what this world's boats looked like? Such giant metal machines would never have been possible in Equestria, after all.
They took several rights through a town, keeping to a logical road layout, before crossing over another bridge and into another place. "Are we entering another country?" Starswirl asked. "The sign is taking us a place called 'Alberta'. How many countries are there here?"
Mistmane looked behind her. "And that one says... Bri... tish Columbia? Why are words around here so hard to pronounce?"
At long last, they were over the bridge, and after turning straight and left in another town, ascended a ramp and continued along a large road, several lanes wide. This time, they were forced to stay in the hard shoulder as vehicles whizzed up and down, none of them seeming to take any real notice of two anthropomorphic horses wandering along the side of the road anyways.
After they crossed another river, paused, and then crossed yet another river (why were there so many rivers here anyway?), they took some more turns and passed over another of those strange metal strips, where yet another set of iron monsters roared by, with many strange things attached to them that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles. They then twisted and turned through the streets of a small town, which Starswirl saw on a sign as being called 'Edmonton', weaving back and forth through tight, constrained alleyways and confusing streets, until they arrived finally at a large building.
"Is this our stop for tonight?" asked Starswirl. "The night is upon us, and we have been walking for many hours."
"Yes, this is our stop," Mistmane replied. "Time to take a break, I think..."
Mistmane and Starswirl crowded around a table in the tavern below, both enjoying a good drink after a long day out on the road. Both of them poured over their notes once more.
"I have been talking to some of the ponies in the area," Starswirl explained, "and they tell me that we have the geography of this area all wrong. It turns out that we are in fact passing through one big country called Canada, which has several different states within it, rather like how Equestria has Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire. We passed through two such bits today; British Columbia and Alberta."
"Interesting, we learn more about this place with every passing day," Mistmane replied, as she levitated a menu in front of her face. "Hmm. They have Chineighse here. I think I'll have that."
"I can sense you miss home," Starswirl said sagely. "I think I'll have a bean stew, my old favorite. I always looked forward to that after a long day in my tower, creating spells."
After they'd placed their order, the band suddenly struck up with a series of Avalonian hits suitable for dance. "It is rather difficult to keep still with such lively music!" Starswirl admitted.
Mistmane placed her menu down. "Come on then! It's been so long since we last took to the floor together."
"Not since the School of Magic's winter ball," Starswirl admitted, as they left their chairs and took to the floor.
Even amongst their mirth, they had no clue that an old foe was nearby. A lorry pulled up outside the hotel, and several figures got out. Each of them wore heavy body armor, and one adjusted his goggles and gas mask as another vehicle arrived. This, too, stopped.
"Scan complete," said the first. "Targets confirmed. "Mistmane and Starswirl."
"Await clearance to advance," said a female voice over the radio. "We'll jump them when they try to leave, or failing that, manipulate their heroic nature. Project 722 must succeed."
Author's Notes:
In case you wonder what Project 722 soldiers look like, this gives you a clue:
And for those wondering for of Flash Magnus's message near the start of the chapter of which Mistmane and Star Swirl watch, it's from where the last chapter of Legends of Equestria: The Legionary ended out on.
Link to it shall be found down below:
/story/469881/legends-of-equestria-the-legionary
And last but not least.... here's the overview of the long segment traversed in Chapter 3, which alludes to the chapter's name as well:
Last chapter for 2020 of this story will arrive on the next to last day of 2020.
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Mistmane and Starswirl awoke the next morning, feeling thoroughly refreshed from their long journey and ready to continue on their long journey to... somewhere.
"May I ask why we take the route we're taking?" Starswirl asked, as he got his hat on and adjusted the strap holding his cloak on. "Already we have been taking several hours to cross over this place, and we still have no idea where Flash Magnus or indeed anypony else is!"
"I'm certain this is the best route," Mistmane replied. "As we have no magic, we cannot teleport across the country and as such we are limited to long distance travel. However, I can check the magic messaging system for information if you'd like."
"No need, I'll do it," Starswirl replied, and brought up the menu with a quick flash of his horn. "Ah, here we are. There is one message here, and I shall play it for you."
One message suddenly appeared on the display, which once again had the seal of the Cloudsdale Empire. The message was identical to the one Mistmane had received, but the angle on the shot was different, which Starswirl noticed.
"Hang on a moment," he said, as the image suddenly changed. He stopped the recording and backed it up slightly. The angle on the camera had switched to briefly show Somnambula, and above her was part of a word. "Bom... Op... Ho... Clue in Ash..."
He noted this down in his journal, and played the rest of the recording to scour it for any more clues. But clues their came none, and he shut the video again. "It said something about their being a clue in a place called 'Ash', but I have no idea what that even means."
"That is interesting, and gets us a little closer to solving this mystery," Mistmane replied, bringing up her map. "I've charted today's route based on some information I've recovered. Somnambula is normally found in the desert, and from what I remember of her Flash Magnus was normally found nearby. So it makes sense to head towards the desert." She had marked a point. "This seems like a reasonable journey for today."
Suddenly, the pair heard a lot of noise outside, and went over to the window to see what was causing the commotion. Their jaws dropped in shock when they saw the scene before them'
Several columns of soldiers were marching through the streets towards the hotel, all proceeding forward in absolutely perfect step. Each column was six across and at least 20 deep, and each soldier was clad in thick, heavy body armor, black in color with many interlocking plates and tubes for breathing gear running up and down them. Each also wore arm plates with a glowing golden display on the left arm, shoulder guards, hip protectors, and leg and shin protectors and greaves. The final feature of their armor was a large, streamlined helmet, colored like the rest of the ensemble in grey and black, with a red connecting port for the breathing gear and glowing orange eyepieces. They had a variety of ranged weapons resting on their shoulders, the swing of their arms counterbalancing the weight of the firearm.
As these columns converged on the hotel, they all stopped to mark time in perfect synchronization. They then turned toward the hotel itself, their boots thundering up and down and causing the ground to shake, and once all were in position and formation, they stopped, the deathly silence suddenly replacing the massive noise that had once been.
"Where did they come from?" Mistmane asked, as another vehicle rolled to a stop in front of the hotel. It looked like a truck of some description, and out of it stepped... a pony? This pony was wearing armor plating of a similar design to the soldiers, only built for the dimensions of a pony, and a gap had been left for a horn.
The figure suddenly began to speak, in a voice that was oddly familiar. And also female. "Listen up, Starswirl and Mistmane!" she called. "You can make this easy and surrender now, or we can do this the hard way."
"Who are you?" Mistmane called, as she opened the window.
"Oh, apologies. This is Project 722, the military operation working to research Subject X."
Starswirl looked in shock at Mistmane. "We have to get out of here, now," he said. "Project 722 is extremely dangerous!"
"I've always believed in negotiating before turning to more drastic action," Mistmane replied, rebuffing him, before turning her attention back to the window. "What do you want?"
"For ponies like you to stop being so selfish and hoarding all the magic," the voice said again. "Everypony needs magic, and with it lives could be improved for the better and new advances made. Already we have made marvelous advances with pegasus magic, and much of the equipment you see here is powered by Equestrian magic. But of course the popular ones such as yourself can never share, can they? Everypony wanted your advice. Everypony loved you. Your magical prowess was the reason for that, and I suspect your looks helped as well."
Mistmane's eyes widened in realization. "No," she whispered. "It can't be!"
The pony removed their helmet, and both Starswirl and Mistmane gasped when they saw them. "I say!" Starswirl exclaimed. "Something went wrong there!"
The mare's fur was an off, broken cream color, with a curved horn similar to Mistmane. She had blue eyes, and a grey mane in two tones that was done up quite severely, presumably to fit within the narrow confines of the helmet.
"Remember me, Mistmane? I was once your friend, Sable Spirit. You pushed me to do this."
"Do what? I never did anything to anypony!"
Sable Spirit shook her head. "You never were a good listener, Mistmane. As you were loved so much for your beauty, I tried to enhance my own. You can see for yourself how well that went. Not only that, I took the throne by force. Working for Project 722 has given me limitless power, and a chance to achieve my dream of finally getting rid of you, my hated rival."
"I can't let you do that," Mistmane said.
"That's hardly a concern of mine," Sable Spirit replied. "When I want something, I take it. OPEN FIRE!"
With a single, synchronized act, the soldiers brought their weapons to bear and began firing on the hotel. Starswirl indicated to a fire escape door, and both ponies galloped towards it, bashing to door open and escaping with seconds to spare. Once down it, they headed south as fast as they could.
Continuing down the street, they moved as quickly as they could as the sounds of gunfire continued to echo down the streets. They took a right and sprinted over a bridge and cleared it as a helicopter flew into position and opened fire, barraging the bridge with missiles. The structure couldn't take the punishment and broke apart, the giant metal structure falling into the river with a splash and the groaning of damaged metal.
Following a series of desperate moves and tight turns, moving through the streets to dodge several roadblocks that had emerged, put up courtesy of Project 722. When they at last made their way onto a major highway, they slowed down as the soldiers no longer seemed to be following them. After a left turn and another bridge crossing (this time without the bridge collapsing) they took two left turns in rapid succession, followed by two separate exits in rapid succession. Even though Project 722 had seemingly lost them, they didn't slow, continuing as fast as they could as they kept right, then left, and then crossed over another river. After turning onto a road marked 'Blackfoot Trail', although neither Starswirl nor Mistmane knew what a 'blackfoot' was, they took several zigzag turns alternating between left and right before climbing an access ramp and merged onto another escape road. Following that, they merged onto another road and crossed another river. They kept to the left, and then turned and zigzagged left and right on the road.
At long last, certain that Project 722 had finally lost them, they slowed down as they passed through a place of extremely flat plains. At last, they stopped for a rest after having climbed into the foothills.
"I... think... we... lost... them!" Starswirl said, breathing heavily from all the running. "Remember I am no longer as young as I was!"
"I think we can take a slower pace in this section of our journey," Mistmane replied. "Let's go."
Owing to the nature of the road up ahead, the journey became increasingly stop start as they headed along. After surveying some viewpoints, they crossed into the British Columbia place again, stopped at a bridge, and then paused once more on a roadside next to a strange tunnel, where another of those iron monsters roared past, looping over itself as it did so. After crossing several more bridges and stopping for another rest, they followed along a river and a lake, through a place called Sorrento, and eventually reached the Trans-Canada Highway. Merging onto the road (although the car drivers took no notice of two unicorns walking along), they crossed another river, and then took several turns as the road bent about. Following another lake and another river, they stopped at several lakes to get their strength up and have something to eat (as they had not had breakfast, being forced to flee the hotel). Passing Whistler Mountain, which Starswirl recognized, they continued over several rivers, lakes, and bridges, before taking several turns in the built up area.
"This is Vancouver!" Starswirl said.
"How do you know that?" asked Mistmane.
"I'll tell you later," the wizard replied.
After a few more turns and another bridge, they navigated through several streets, entered into another hotel, and went straight to sleep without dinner.
"What do you mean you lost them?" Sable Spirit demanded.
"Hostile targets were last sighted on the High Level Bridge," the soldier replied. "One of our choppers flattened the structure, so there's no way they could have survived."
Sable Spirit smiled. "Mistmane may be clever, but intelligence doesn't make you able to dodge rockets," she said. "As for this town, they harbored those enemies of ours. Raze it to the ground. Kill anything that moves."
"Yes ma'am," the soldier replied. Sable Spirit looked on as her soldiers opened fire on anybody in the vicinity and armored vehicles began to flatten buildings.
"Heed my words," the Empress said. "If you harbor our enemies, this is the price you pay."
Author's Notes:
In case you still wondering what Project 722 soldiers look like, this gives you a clue:
This here is Sable Spirit's armor:
I know that's actually Applejack underneath, but pretend that underneath the armor is in fact Sable Spirit.
Here's an overview of the segment covered in Chapter 4 ^^
Sleepless in Seattle
The very next morning, the sun opened its sleepy eye upon British Columbia, and the city of Vancouver began to awaken from its slumber, with people rising from their beds to go about their work and start their days. Indeed, this would also be the procedure followed by a pair whom we have been following on a long journey from Alaska, as the morning sun soon began to penetrate the room and flow onto the eyelids of Mistmane and Starswirl.
Starswirl was the first to awaken, getting off the bed and levitating his hat onto his head. "I do say," he said. "Is it really morning already? It feels like only a few moments since we went to bed."
"I think we both had a very long day," Mistmane replied, as she herself got up and looked in a mirror. "But at least we both got a good night's rest out of this day, so the day certainly counted for something."
"Indeed," Starswirl noted, as he searched the room for a coffee maker. "Have you seen a coffee machine anywhere? There does not seem to be one in this room."
"That's strange," Mistmane sighed. "Most of these places have a coffee machine somewhere, and I suspect we need it given how far we have to go today."
"How far are we going today?" Starswirl asked. "Ah! Found it at last!"
"A very long way, to a place where the rivers and land meet the ocean."
"Very cryptic," Starswirl replied as he switched the TV on. "You'd give Somnambula a run for her money."
Suddenly, CNN flickered to life on the screen. The image, a live feed, showed a large city burning with flames and smoke pouring into the air, as well as strange individuals walking around.
The news caption read BREAKING NEWS: EDMONTON ALBERTA DESTROYED BY UNKNOWN FORCE.
The newsreader began. "Footage sent to us has revealed that the town of Edmonton in Canada was destroyed by an unknown force yesterday. According to eyewitness accounts, strange paramilitary elements were seen in the city and were destroying anything in sight, as well as shooting anybody who got in their way. Who this group is and what their motivation for such an act is is unclear, but the scale of the destruction creates the impression of a foe who is not to be messed with. We turn to our domestic terrorism correspondent, James Whitley."
Starswirl turned the screen off as he glanced back to Mistmane. "I think we've seen enough of that," he said. "But that was my point. Project 722 will stop at nothing to contain us. As you can see there, they destroyed an entire town to ensure no news of us got out, and I suspect it was an act of retaliation as well."
"If they're fully prepared to destroy towns," Mistmane said quietly, "what would they do to us if they caught us?"
"Which is why they aren't going to catch us," Starswirl replied. "Let's have breakfast and then leave quietly. That way, we can be on the road before anypony sees us."
"Good idea," Mistmane replied. And so it was settled.
Once they had had their breakfast in the tavern that sat in the lobby of the hotel, frequented by both humans and ponies, the duo set off on their journey, starting by heading northwest, and then turning right and left several times as they navigated through the streets of Vancouver. A few more turns and twists (or twists and turns depending on which turn of phrase you prefer), and the pair crossed over a bridge and turned left afterwards. Large scale construction work threatened to slow their progress, so they passed by the roadworks on the sidewalk and crossed a river once again, before passing over some more of the iron rails and another river. At long last, the city was left behind them, and the pair found themselves trotting through rolling field and open farmland as far as the eye could see.
"This region would certainly seem to be the bread basket of British Columbia," Starswirl observed. "The land is flat, and certainly quite easy to cultivate thanks to the abundance of water, sun, and a temperate climate."
"Not to mention those strange whirling things as far as the eye can see," Mistmane pointed out. Large iron monsters patrolled up and down these fields, with strange whirling components that seemed to be sucking the plants up and taking them elsewhere. Precisely where Mistmane didn't know, but it ultimately didn't matter.
At long last, they left Canada behind and returned to the USA, and having successfully dodged border patrols (a task that was not easy given how many people had been assigned to guard an incredibly peaceful border), joined a road marked I5 and stayed on that. Keeping right, the pair crossed Dakota Creek and a river, before pausing in another town for a rest (their legs were tired from a very long walk today). Once more, the scenery began to change, the rolling plains giving way to unforgiving mountains and wild ranges, as they passed alongside a lake, a few more towns, as well as several rivers.
At long last, their great destination for the day loomed into sight before them, although a city that large would be a hard thing to miss, given how much light it seemed to put out each and every minute of the day. They crossed over a bay, taking a nearby exit, and merged onto another road on their way. They turned right, continued straight ahead, and then took several left turns before arriving at what Mistmane stated was their stop for the day. Their journey was done for the day, and the pair needed to rest, so they headed in, acquired their room keys for their rooms, and headed up into the hotel and found the rooms. Once inside, they made themselves comfortable, and dozed off to sleep after dinner several hours later, ready for whatever the world was to throw at them tomorrow.
Author's Notes:
So long Canada and back in the United States once more for real now! :D
So as per usual.... here's the overview of the segment covered in the chapter. :3
Next Chapter will arrive on... January 27th, 2021. ^^
