Chapter 4: Of Firebirds and Thunderbirds

(\PoV: Scootaloo/)

Wow. For having such HUGE wings, this guy just flies so… slow. I mean, hey, might just be that armor he's got but still. "Can't you fly any faster?" I mean, from that hill to Cloudsdale, it would only take me about five minutes going slow. We've been flying for double that and aren't even a quarter of the way!

He looks at me flying at his side loosely. "I'm afraid not, goraan gein, young one." He looks ahead with a… what was that word? Solemn! That's it! Solemn expression. "My ability to do so was… taken from me." Oh… Well, ponyfeathers.

"S-sorry if I hit a sore spot there…"

He sighs. "It is fine. It happened long ago, and you had no prior knowledge of my ailment. There is no need to apologize." He looks back slightly with a sad smile. "Though it is appreciated."

We continue flying for a short while. "I do suppose that you have questions don't you, goraan gein?" Let's go with 'well no duh'.

"Well, yeah! I mean, what happened to Cloudsdale?"

He thinks a moment then tilts his head back to me. "The first blast would most likely be a critical overload from lightning generators," Makes sense, but how... "Which may have been my fault, thinking back." Uh, WHAT!? He shakes his head. "Shouldn't have been so frivolous with throwing lightning about. Nevertheless, the second blast was something I, as stated previously, have never encountered before." …Again, makes sense.

I shake my head. "At least nopony died, right?"

He smiled slightly. "Yes, I suppose that would be a positive part of this scenario."

We flew in silence for a minute. Y'know, I just realized that I have no idea what this guy's name is. "Um…"

He turns his head slightly. "Yes, young one?"

"I don't think that I caught your name through all of the… well… everything."

He gives a small grin. "Ah yes, where are my manners? I am Lightning Flash." Huh. For some reason I thought it'd be something more… Royal-sounding. "While we are on the topic, might I ask your name?"

I grin. "The name's Scootaloo. Nice to meet you." At least, I think that's how that Sweetie Bell would've said it…

He chuckles lightly. "Well met, Scootaloo."

Alright! So, apparently I'm an alicorn now. That's bucking awesome! Dash is a bitch. Not awesome. At all. Liquid rainbow is actually concentrated blood and pegasus magic. So not cool, that its in the buckin' Samareah Desert! Oh yeah and those quote 'failures' who get exiled from Cloudsdale? Yeah, they're the ones gettin' killed for liquid rainbow. Really. Not. Cool.

"Have you no more questions, goraan gein?" Huh? I look up at Lightning to see him looking back with a small amount of… Amusement, I think? OH! Right, question.

"Meh, I'm still kinda shellshocked, y'know?" I frown. "I mean, first off I failed my flight test, then it ends up bein' that Dash, the pony who taught me howta fly in the first place, is a bitch. Who apparently gets off on seeing others die in pain and horror," I shudder a moment, I can't imagine what it was like for that one unlucky colt who was randomly picked. I nearly barfed! "Then, everything starts exploding, and I'm suddenly an alicorn cause why the buck not?" I shake my head. "It's all kinda happenin' a little too fast, ya know?"

Lightning chuckles and shakes his head. "All too well, albeit under far different circumstances."

We keep flyin' for another five minutes. Wait… Didn't he say something about Phoenixes? "Hey," He turns his head to look at me. "Didn't you say something about a Phoenix or something?" He stiffs a moment and his wings quit flapping. Wonder why? "Is… Is everything…"

He shakes his head. "My apologies. Yes, I did," He looks me square in the eye, lookin' pretty serious, "I said that you had created a spell that my civilization had never done before, a theorized Phoenix-class spell." Oh great, he's about to go full Twilight, isn't he? "Now, the main reason that it was theory only was that it's thaumatic cost was simply far too great for anyone to reach without straining their internal aural energies to…" Yep, he's goin' egghead. Crap, now I'll never get my question answered! Oh well, at least I can take a look at the 20% cooler Cloudsdale.

The place doesn't look like too much of it was actually changed, just like the clouds used to make it are different. I mean, the clouds are an ash-gray, with a buncha red and orange spots everywhere that I guess are embers or somethin' like that. Wait… Phoenixes are those cool birds that burn then bring themselves back to life, aren't they? "Scootaloo, was it?" !

"Uhh, yeah?" I look back to him sheepishly. When did I get ahead of him?

He just smiles and shakes his head. "I was about to summarize my impromptu lesson on spell theory, but if you lack any interest…"

Ahhhhh…. "N-no, that's alright. I just realized somethin', is all."

He raises an eyebrow. "And that would be?

Well, here goes nothing… "You said it was a Phoenix-class spell, right?" He nods, and motions for me to continue. "W-well, don't phoenixes *gulp* die, and-and get reborn?"

He sorta looks surprised for a sec, then gives me a... Sympathetic? Yeah, that's it. Sympathetic look. "Yes, they do, making it as though they had never died." …By Luna… That… T-That would mean-"Indeed, before the spell was cast, everything here would have died. With no traces of the city's existence other than gently falling ash." T-that's… "And you saved them, young one." H-huh? A small grin appears on his face. "It is the fate of a phoenix to be born, burn, and be reborn. That, is what you have done. Made all the more special by the fact that you didn't let a single drop of dark energies into yourself to do it." Waitwaitwait, WHAT?!

"Whoa, hold up," He lifts an eyebrow. "You're sayin' that me, a blank-flank just now going into the higher grades back at Ponyville, somehow had enough magic to do all this?!"

He looks pretty surprised that I was a blank-flank, but then he laughs. Why the buck would he have..? "Well, you could've fooled me, young one!" Wait… No. Bucking. Way. I look back at my flank and-Oh Luna I've finally got one! A Cutie Mark! And it's utterly bucking AWESOME! There's a large shield, just like the other's, and on it is a phoenix mid-flight!

Lightning laughs again, "Well then, I suppose that this is quite the special day for you!" WELL NO DUH! I FINALLY HAVE ONE! I HAVE ONE! I HAVE A CUTIE MARK! AND ALL IT TOOK WAS EVERYTHING GOING ABSOLUTELY BUCKING WRONG!… Right… Everything went to Tartarus… And now… Actually… Now what?

"So… What now?" I ask, after the minute or so the words-can-not-describe-how-happy-I-am-right-now feeling of getting my cutie mark passes.

Lightning shakes off a small grin I missed somehow and looks straight to the… Oh, he's looking at the… Actually, the buck is that? I mean, it's big, black with red embers, and it looks like an old maws… Musoli… Mausoleum! That's it! Not to mention, it's attached to the Weather Factory… No. No bucking way. That has to be… "We must go to that which used to be the Rainbow Factory, and ensure that those responsible do not escape that which awaits them at the hooves of your leaders."

(/\)

*Slowly, the divided screens appear. However, instead of the dreaded red and black that was Umbra's visage before, there stands a black and blue Draconic Alicorn, (an alicorn with dragon wings, eyes, muzzle, spines in place of mane, and a dragon's tail,) with a curved horn, (tip colored blue,) and indigo eyes. His Fate Mark is nowhere to be seen, but that may be because his camera is only aimed at his face. Hunter and Shadow, on the other side of the Divide, appear to be their normal selves. Hunter with his rich red and ice blue nobleman's robes and hat, and large oak staff topped with a fire red orb in between twin golden thunderbolts. Shadow with his wild-looking black and white fur, and white eyes that seem to glow from within. The Draconic Alicorn is sitting on his haunches with a calm look about him in the center of a dark, but not quite foreboding background, with no indication of what he is sitting on. Hunter is sitting on a bench with Shadow in his lap.*

Hunter: "Greetings, dear reader. My name, if you did not know previously, is Hunter Redflame. If you are new to my fics, then welcome! I do hope you'll stay and continue to read in the future. But to all those who have been with me since the beginning… I am so. So dreadfully sorry. I have left you hanging on not only this, but my other story as well. I cannot excuse this, and please do not say that it is alright, it's not. If you can forgive me, then thank you. Now, I'm certain that regardless of when you found me, you're rather curious as to the Alicorn to the left… "

Unnamed OC: "Greetings, I am Umbra. Not the original, no, but I am the one who you can expect to see from now on. And, as Hunter and I discussed earlier, I will continue from here on out with an important announcement: the fanfiction Hidden Whispers is to be slated for rewriting, to begin at a later date. This is because Hunter feels that he did not do his original story justice, and therefor will be trying to remake it in a way that does it justice… and allows it a sort of parallel to this story. In any case, the sole reason that the rewrite hasn't started is because Hunter thinks that this one can still be salvaged, and wishes to write this one before the other."

Hunter: "Now that this is out of the way, I will say that I am in need of OC's. In particular, OC's for the 'Failure' pegasi, Factory pegasi, and Rebel pegasi. Others are also welcome, but those are preferred at this time. Also note: the pegasi in question will have to have a Dark Souls-esque ember aesthetic IF they were in Cloudsdale at the time. You didn't honestly expect them to be reconstituted exactly the same, did you? Lightning and Scoots don't have it because they're alicorns. They have their own Aspects, (which will come in later.) Now without further ado…"

Umbra/Hunter: "Farwell!"

*The screens fade to black.*

…You guys still here? Great! So, here's the deal: next time we'll be seeing the new interior of the Mausoleum/Rainbow Factory, and finding out exactly what the lame hint in the previous chapter (how long ago was that posted again?) actually meant. Also, expect the PoV to stay on Scoots for the majority of this fic.

Sooooo SEE YA!

*Silence…*