Ponysona 3
Written by: Shade the Hero Project-X
Modified/edited by: darkponyD
Prologue
The moon rose over the land of Equestria as Princess Luna took her shift of watching over the kingdom. As always, her beloved night was calm and quiet. Her subjects had retired to their homes to sleep. She stepped out onto the balcony to gaze upward at the moon. It seemed like ages ago when she was imprisoned within the moon's cold and desolate landscape, after her own selfishness took hold of her and turned her into a living nightmare. The Lunar Princess then directed her gaze over toward a little town to the west of the castle. Ponyville was one of the smallest towns in the land, but its size did not reflect the hearts of its citizens.
With a calm smile, Luna left the balcony to attend to her other duties, knowing that her subjects were safe under the moon's light. The moon, however, had other plans. The phase suddenly shifted from Last Quarter to full, casting an eerie green glow on the land. As the princess opened the door to the library, she passed a strange statue. She thought nothing of it until more began to appear.
'Hmm, strange. Where are the guards?' she thought, continuing down the hall towards her sister's chambers. As she continued down the corridor, she found that she kept stepping in pools of an unknown, yet sticky substance. 'What in the name of Equestria is going on?' The Lunar Princess knocked on the door.
"Sister? Are you awake?" she called. "Something strange is going on! The castle's a mess, and the guards are nowhere to be found! Sister?"
Luna creaked the door open and peered inside. She tried turning on the lights, but nothing was working. Instead, she used her magic to illuminate her majestic horn with blue light. There was something on Princess Celestia's bed. 'Another statue?' she thought as she moved closer to get a better look, once again stepping in a sticky pool. What she saw was no less confusing. 'A coffin?! But how?! What is going on here?!'
She looked down, as she turned the events over in her mind, more questions forming by the second. It was at this time that she finally got a look at the sticky mess on the floor, noticing that it was neither water, nor mud, but rather,
"Blood?!" the Lunar Princess gasped, backing away in a panic, knocking over one of her sister's large mirrors, shattering upon impact with the stone floor.
The dark, cold shadows behind her grew much darker as she backed away from the fragments of the once magnificent mirror. A pair of blood-red eyes slowly opened in the darkness, several hands growing from its inky blackness, ready to rip, and tear limb from limb. Luna barely had time to scream, as she caught a glimpse of the creature in the reflection of the mirror shards just before the Shadow claimed its first of many victims under the eerie green glow of the now full moon.
Chapter One
Three days later over in an old rock quarry a portal opened up. Six ponies shot out from the vortex and landed hard on the ground. The portal closed up behind them as the group tried to recover. "Ugh, Junpei, get off me!" Shouted the light pink pegasus with the sandy-yellow mane. "Sorry Yuka-tan, it wasn't my fault!" Replied the brown earth pony with the jet-black mane. Another light brown earth pony with a short, silver mane approached the two from where he was thrown. "Is everyone alright?"
"My landing could have been softer." Answered a Dark-pink unicorn with a rose-shaded mane. The earth pony named Junpei looked around. "Hey, where's our leader? He made it through the portal didn't he?" A bush rustled a few yards away. Both the earth ponies rushed in to investigate. "I don't mind beating around the bush, but I'd rather get freed from this one!" Junpei and the other stallion sighed. "Yep, it's gotta be Ikusuki. C'mon Akihiko, we better help him out."
It didn't take long before the third Earth Pony was freed. He shook the loose leaves from his pale tan-colored coat and brown mane. "That's one embarrassment I'd love to leaf behind, hehe." The rest of the group sighed in annoyance. "Can we save the bad jokes for later? right now we've got to find Minato!" Yukari stated while pointing to the forest on the other side of the clearing. "It wouldn't surprise me if he landed in there somewhere since he's obviously not here!"
It was then that Yukari's light pink wings began to flutter and everyone noticed their new appearance. Junpei looked at himself and moaned. "Aww, how come I don't have wings? And what are we anyway?" Mitsuru looked at herself. "I think we've been turned into horses." Akihiko trotted ahead. "Well you said we might change our appearance when we dropped into another reality, but we can worry about that later. Right now we've got a missing companion to find."
Minato's world was dark. He didn't know where he was or what had just happened. He could hear a voice, but it seemed very distance and muffled. As he slowly began to gather his senses the voice became clearer. "Um, excuse me, are you alright?" Minato slowly lifted his head. The voice spoke again. "You don't look so good. You had a pretty bad fall. I saw you crash through the trees while I was on my way to see a friend so, I followed you. I hope you don't mind." Minato slowly opened his eyes. "Crashed through the trees? But, we were in Tartarus just a minute ago. Has the Dark Hour already passed?" As he spoke his vision became clear and he noticed that he was in the presence of a yellow pegasus. "I must have hit my head pretty hard."
As he rubbed his head trying to clear it the yellow pegasus became concerned. "Are you alright? I really only know about taking care of animals, but I have some bandages at home that could help you." Minato looked up at her with a surprised look. "What are you?" He didn't want to sound rude since the creature was trying to help, but he couldn't believe he was talking to a horse. The pegasus smiled. "Why, I'm a pegasus just like you."
"Just like me?" Minato looked down at his hands and noticed they were now light grey hooves. He then looked over his shoulder and noticed he had wings. He blew his dark grey-blue mane out of his eyes in a confused sigh. "I guess Igis and Fuuka's dimensional portal worked after all." Minato then looked at the pegasus who seemed confused by what he meant. He decided to go along and believe this was real for now, until he was fully sure he wasn't dreaming. "I'm Minato Arisato, what's your name?" The yellow pegasus with the long pink mane smiled sweetly as she answered. "I'm Fluttershy." Her smile only seemed to grow.
"I don't know why, but you're different from any other pony I've met." Minato blinked, hoping she couldn't tell he was from another world. "Different? How so?" She fluttered around him. "Normally I'm too shy to introduce myself to strangers and usually run and hide, but that didn't happen with you." Minato smiled. "Well, I'm pretty easy to get along with." He then remembered he didn't come here alone. "Have you seen my friends?" He then thought about what he had asked. He didn't know if they had been changed as well and if they had he wouldn't even know what they looked like. "Um, five other ponies like myself?" Fluttershy shook her head. "No, I haven't, but if they're new around here they'll end up in Ponyville sooner or later. Follow me!"
With a gentle breeze kicked up by her wings Fluttersky took to the sky. Minato wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to let on that he didn't know how to fly but, he didn't want to slow her down either. "I might have hurt my wing in the fall, would it be possible if we walked?"
Fluttershy landed next to him and checked his wings. "They seem alright to me, lets test them." She gently folded his wings outward then bent them a bit and slowly worked them in a flapping motion. "Did that hurt?" She asked. Minato shook his head. Fluttershy started flapping her wings again. "Alright, now try flapping them just how I was moving them and tell me if anything hurts." Minato followed her movements and slowly felt himself lifting off the ground. "Good! Now a little more, that's it!" Fluttershy said with a smile. Minato was soon a hovering a few feet above the ground.
With a nod from Fluttershy they were soon flying above the treetops. As the two headed towards Ponyville Minato couldn't believe he was actually flying. No longer nervous he was enjoying the feeling of true freedom. They came upon Ponyville a short time later and landed just outside the town limits. Fluttershy nodded at his smooth, yet cautious landing. Minato was a little sad that the flight ended so soon.
As the two entered town square Mintao was caught up in what looked like a pink tornado. They tumbled until they crashed into a food cart a few yards away. When the dust cloud settled Minato looked down at the pony who was still coughing up dust. When she looked up at him she gasped dramatically with her mouth wide open. She jumped to her hooves and got in Minato's face, startling him and makiing him take a few steps back.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! It's been ages since we had a new face in Ponyville! I know because I personally welcome every newcomer that sets foot in our amazing town!" Minato tried to calm himself as not to be rude. "Um, yeah, I am new." Fluttershy walked up to Pinkie Pie. "Minato here has been looking for his friends. Have you seen them by any chance?" The pink earth pony shook her head. "Nope. Sorry to say I haven't, but if they're half as much fun as you are Minato then I'll be sure to throw them a huge party when they get here! Oh! I better go get everything ready! Be seeing you!"
With that Pinkie Pie darted off leaving Minato quite confused. "Who was that?!" Fluttershy walked up to him. "That was Pinkie Pie, don't mind her though, she loves to welcome people and make them feel happy and at home." As they made their way to Fluttershy's cottage an orange earth pony with a cowboy hat galloped to catch up with them. "Fluttershy, wait up!"
When the pony caught up she took a minute to catch her breath. "Applejack, what's wrong? You look worried." Fluttershy commented in a worried tone. Applejack looked between the two of them and stomped her hoof down. "Twilight's asked all of us to meet her at the library. Something bad has happened and she needs our help!"
"Oh my!" Fluttershy looked over at Minato then back at Applejack. "He's not from around here, can he come?" Applejack started heading off to find the others. "Twilight seemed panicked so I don't see why not. We might need all the help we can get!" With that she raced off and around the corner. Fluttershy looked over at Minato. "Sorry for getting you involved, but we must hurry. It might involve the Princess."
Hello readers, I know it's been a long time since I've updated this story and I apologize. I kinda hit a dead end for a while and didn't exactly lose interest; distracted by other projects would describe it better. But, that's over now. I have some fantastic news for you all. This story has its own editor! I'd like to introduce darkponyD. ^_^ This story also has amazing new Cover Art done by the very talented Ramisha.
The prologue is newly updated and the first chapter will soon follow. Expect new chapters for this story soon.
