Chapter 3: Rebirth
(\Third-Person Perspective/)
It had been a normal day in Cloudsdale, bar the failing pegasi being officially exiled from the city and unofficially being processed into liquid rainbow. Most pegasi were going about their business, flying about doing various things from shopping to delivering the weather to where it was supposed to go.
That was before the bell in Cloudsdale struck noon.
The bell tolls once. A massive explosion rocks the weather factory, causing employees to stop what they're doing and look around in worry.
Twice. The electrified cloud cover over the Rainbow Factory disperses, finally being revealed in full to the citizens of Cloudsdale. Some gasp, others mutter, and still others could care less about the darkly colored extension of the weather factory.
Three times. The sound of lightning can be heard in the sections of the weather factory closest to the restricted sector. Many begin to gather near, while others move back in worry of an overload.
Four. Alarms blare in the factory, starting a panicked evacuation.
Five. Several machines malfunction, causing unrefined liquid rainbow to spill onto several nearby employees. When later questioned, the employees state that the liquid smelled and tasted like blood.
Six. The citizens of Cloudsdale begin to worry when smoke starts to pour out from the top of the Rainbow Factory. Said smoke is thick as volcanic ash, and if any had been flying nearby, was filled with massive amounts of static electricity. The city would have smelled of ozone for weeks afterward.
Seven. Cascade failures in multiple lightning generators. The factory begins a rapid ascension to critical mass.
Eight. All parts of the weather factory are evacuated successfully, save the Rainbow Factory. More urgent sirens blare as the lightning generators begin a fatal overload.
Nine. News journalists have begun writing down details of the event. The lightning generators reach critical mass. An overload is imminent. Scootaloo, Borealis, and Virgo begin their climb.
Ten. The city holds is breath nervously, unaware that it is about to be shook to its very foundation. Estimates would later be that this is about twenty seconds before the initial explosion.
The eleventh toll. Scootaloo is at the peak of her dive. Ten seconds to the worst explosion in the history of Equestria.
The final toll. The lightning generators detonate, and a solid wall of violent electric energy tears through the city, destroying everything, including the city and its inhabitants, for four miles in each direction. Simultaneously, Scootaloo's unintentional aura blast detonates, and a massive flaming phoenix appears in the midst of the devastation. It dispels, and a huge wave of fire goes forth. As quickly as it was all destroyed, Cloudsdale and its inhabitants are reborn in the flames.
Yet none of it was quite the same… And there was, in the factory, two who had survived the overload…
(\PoV: Scootaloo/)
Uhg… My head… Open my eyes to see an inky blackness. "Where… Where am I?
'There was a time when all was as this.' What the hay?! 'Darkness, and nothingness. Then, a voice called out in the darkness: "Let there be light."' What the heck is with the voice in my-a very bright light appears from out of nowhere! "AHHH! MY EYES!"
The strange voice chuckles. It sounds almost like thunder. 'Ah yes. My apologies. Let us wait a moment so that your eyes can adjust.' "Wait, who are you?" …Nothing. Damnit! Well, might as well try. It takes a few minutes, but my eyes eventually adjust. Huh, that's weird, the light isn't flickering, or even shimmering in any particular manner. It almost looks like… the sun? 'Good, you have adjusted. And there he is again… Now, where was I?'
'Ah, yes. Then the Voice created many smaller lights, one like the first but smaller and dimmer, the rest as but small dots in the darkness. Thus were the sun, moon, and stars created.' Huh… definitely not what I learned in Ms Cheerilee's class. The 'sun' set. And so ended the first day.
The voice kept talking, and the place kept changing. The oceans and skies came on the second day, the louder and deeper voice calling them. On the third, land was raised on the deep voice's command, the fourth, plants. On the fifth, animals just appeared at the voice's command just like the land, water, skies, plants, and light.
'…And thus ended the fifth day. Now on the sixth day, the Wahliik, the Creator, decided that the creatures would need caretakers. And so he called forth, and created the gryphons, minotaur, hippogryphs, tauren, buffalo, and pony species. However, four others were added to this group. The first, the race known as humans, was crafted by the hands of the Wahliik himself, who breathed life into them from the dust. The others, the small and hardy dwarves, tall and fair elves, and winged humans known as briva, were created by his servants, the Stahdim Kendov or Holy Warriors.' So… Lyra isn't insane? Humans did exist? Huh. 'However, we have already tarried too long, so I must cut this short. Look on the waters.' …Okayyyyy. I look down-Oh. My. Celestia!
It's me, scruffy purple mane and rough orange coat, but my wings are a LOT bigger, and I have a freaking horn. I'm. A freaking. Alicorn! "Whaaa…"
The voice chuckles. 'Yes, I understand that it is quite a shock to you at the moment, but look.' Images of myself and the crusaders swim past, ahh good times, before I went to practice under Rainbow motherbucking Dash. 'Though your life has been short, you have not wasted a moment of it, despite having no parents, despite having failed some test, despite what you've seen. And now… you have done what my civilization had only ever dreamed of. A Phoenix-class spell.' Everything shifts, and suddenly I'm on a hill looking at Cloudsdale. Suddenly, it blows up! On second it's there, the next its just gone! A HUGE phoenix suddenly appears and then a fire just blasts and the phoenix disappears and Cloudsdale comes back, but more flamey and and-"Calm yourself, young one!" The voice in my head!
My head snaps to the left and I see the alicorn from the Factory looking down at me with a slightly amused look. "It would not do to have you hyperventilate on your first day of being an alicorn, after all."
He looks forward, to Cloudsdale. "Come, that which you have made awaits." And with that he flies toward Cloudsdale before stopping and looking back at me expectantly. In shock, I simply follow him toward the city of the clouds…
(/\)
Hello everypony. I am back once more. And late, once more. Or am I early? Perhaps neither?
In any case, thank you for putting up with my quite uneven upload rate. And thank you, Bluecat. I apreciate the kind reveiw, as always. And yes, Scoots is now an alicorn. But not without reason. This aura blast that I have given her is the epitome of restoration magic: the ability to defeat death without the use of dark magic. Something that even the Equestrian Imperium failed to create.
Other than that, there is little else to mention as of yet. Therefore, I bid you all farewell!
SPOILERS
Dash's eyes are mauve. Not red.