Everypony was waiting in a line that went out of the bookstore and all the way to Sugarcube Corner. Fly Writer, the celebrated Pegasus writer of The Harmony Games, was at the Ponyville Bookstore autographing books. Rainbow Dash, the main one obsessed with the books, was just in front of me. Twilight, the second to Dash's fanfillyness, was just in front of her. They had heard about this for weeks, and had been squealing fanfillies ever since.
I finally took the next spot in line to get mine signed. As the light blue Pegasus went on about her favorite part in front of me, I took a moment to study Fly Writer over. She was a bit shorter than a normal pony, but it could've been a sign of being slightly older. She was a slightly darker shade of blue than the Pegasus in front of her, and had blue hair that was neatly tied back in a bun. She also had red eyes, the kind that if a teacher had them, you'd pay attention.
Now, it was my turn. She looked at the cover before signing it, and asked, "So, is Losing Laughter your favorite?"
"Yes, it is. I just love the seen where Pita Bread breaks under pressure. That was just so…detailed of how you broke him."
"Well, I was actually inspired by those two," she pointed a hoof to my two friends who were admiring their autographs, "and their adventures in the Canterlot Labyrinth. Those 'games' really helped me think of a future where harmony is dead, and the only thing keeping that harmony together is the games."
"Ah, I see. So, the books are a blatantly based on those events?"
"Well, inspiration can come from anywhere. And I take it you're a writer as well?" She pointed to the mark on my flank, a pencil and piece of paper. I insisted, "No, no, no! I'm a great drawer, and that's where I got my cutie mark!"
"I think it's time you took a double take at that mark on your flank, honey. Maybe there's more to it than there seems to be." She took a piece of paper and put a number and letter, 2D, on it. "I'll be staying at the Ponyville Inn at this room for the week, so come to me for a professional author's advice."
I went to the library to get some ideas for what to write about, since I thought Mrs. Writer was write. I may actually be good at writing something, since I've had some ideas in the past. I usually lost interest in them or put them off for later. The library was locked, but from a window, I could see Twi was inside. I waved to Spike, who was close to the window, and he responded. He then turned to the unicorn and told her something, and she immediately ran to the door.
"Sorry, DD!" She apologized after opening the door for me. I walked in and she explained, "I wanted some alone time to read the next book in The Harmony Games series, Lies and Loyalty. I finished it, and got to reading some of my old Physics books." At the mention of old Physics books, I realized some old doodles I did on my Science notes from my school days. They would be perfect for a story.
"Actually, I'm sorry for disrupting you! I just got a brilliant idea! Sorry, got to go!" I ran off, my best friend slightly confused by why I came, and started looking through my own old high school notes. I found a sketch of seven different ponies, each representing a different type of energy. The idea had withered away, but the characters still lived on. I then remembered the story of these characters: Seven rulers, some on friendly terms, others not so much, have been tasked to create the Eternal Energy for their countries. But when a not-so-hidden mole wants darkness and has friends on the dark side, will they be able to make it? I thought it was a good story, but wanted my friend's opinion. I started to write out the story on a piece of paper.
A white allicorn stood at the front chair of a big circular table. She wore a dress inspired by the sun, and had a long, red-orange mane. She sighed, for she knew what would happen. Every month, the same leaders of the eight cities would come together, and every month, the same leaders would lash out at each other.
The Finoexes would lash out at the Green-hooves, the Lecktriks with the Netos, and she would find herself arguing with the leader of the Cleaks, Nuclessa. But she found peace with the two peaceful leaders, Canicleas of the Steamponies, and Muse of the Sondwaies. She soon found every leader surrounding her, and she, being a leader to them all, explained, "I want to bring up the most pressing matter of this night's meeting."
"We know, we know," Muse scoffed, waving a dismissing hoof to her. She then continued worriedly, "My vibration magic isn't working. The vibrations won't power anything."
"You're worried about your 'good vibrations'?" Canicleas asked with sarcasm. "My gears are needed to power Steam-Ponyville, which is twice as big as Sonway!" Great, the white allicorn thought. The ones who don't usually fight are fighting!
"Well, forget about Steam-Ponyville!" exclaimed Ellic, Pegasus leader of the Lecktriks. "Electric energy is obviously the most powerful! We just had more blackouts this month than in our history!" All of the leaders got in an argument. The white allicorn tried to calm things down in the meeting hall, but it was the leader that was silent that finally restored order.
"QUIET!" yelled Nuclessa, who hadn't contributed to the argument until now. "Our leader, Splendora, is trying to speak. So, everypony, SHUSH!" Splendora, the white allicorn, was the main leader. Nuclessa, a dark green-blue allicorn, told the rest of the leaders, "Splendora has found a great discovery that could revolutionize the way we use fuel forever."
"Well, what is it?!" Rainbow Dash asked, eager for more. I had asked of her to read the first few chapters I had finished, since she gave the best critique when it came to writing stories, as Twilight had told me. I answered, "You're going to have to read a little bit more to figure that out." She skimmed over the text, saying, "Meeting…meeting…blah, blah, blah….the Eternal Energy? Well, what's that?"
"It's a power source made with all their energy combined. It needs to be made at an ancient temple, which they must journey to."
"Will there be any trials or dangers along the way? Because without that, it kind of makes the journey boring."
"Well, they will be going through a wood. I could put in some danger there. It could be the EverfreeForest for all I know."
"By any other name, considering this is a speculative fiction, right?"
"Y-yes, I believe that is the right term for it." I was actually impressed with the light blue Pegasus' knowledge of books, so I wasn't shy to ask, "How do you, of all ponies, know all this stuff?"
"I'm actually kinda a….bookworm…"
"You, a bookworm?" I laughed at it. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. It just strikes me as-!"
"The complete opposite of who I am?" Rainbow guessed. I nodded, and she continued, "Yeah, a lot of ponies are surprised when they find out I read a lot. So, my suggestion is that you give it more action." We agreed I should do that, and then I got to work on the next chapter.
Splendora led the group through the thick wood, trying to find small trails through the place to get out to the other side. The small specks of moonlight were the only things keeping it from being pitch black in the woods. She explained, "We can't draw any attention to ourselves. Nopony is to use their powers until we get out of the woods, literally."
Everypony in the group silently nodded as they went ahead. Unfortunately, many pairs of yellow eyes were already watching them. The owners of those eyes quickly pounced towards the group, and Splendora alerted them, "Timberwolves! Positions, now!" The two unicorns, Traho and Muse, leapt into action. Muse used a sonic sound-wave to blast the wolves back, but a brave few continued foreword. Traho used his powers of metal attraction to call forth a sword, and sliced through the wooden wolves with ease.
Another pack of timberwolves attacked them, and this time the two pegusi, Ellic and Thermos, came to the rescue. Now, they had powers of their own. Thermos had wings that produced great heat, able to catch things on fire with ease. She used this to make the wolves burn, and the sight of the flames made some more of them go away.
Ellic's wings surged with unnatural electrical energy, and with this, was able to create a force-field around the group. Splendora put her powers to the ready, but soon asked, "Where's Nuclessa?" The dark green-blue allicorn was walking ahead of the group, slashing her way through the wolves easily. The white allicorn caught up with her, the force-field still around the group, and scolded her, "Nuclessa! You would desert the group for your own safety?!"
"Well, your spells were useful for letting me go up ahead," she answered, showing little empathy. Splendora and the rest of the group only stared back in shock. Why was Nuclessa being so mean all of a sudden? Once they were out of the woods, and had chased all the wolves away, Thermos started a fire.
As Splendora decided the next route they should take and explained it to the other leaders, Nuclessa slipped away, and found the clearing where she would meet her ally. The mysterious ally came out of the bushes. She looked like an allicorn, but if you were to look closer, you'd notice that she had holes in her hooves and horn, and bug-like wings instead of ones made of feathers. She had short, neon green mane and tail, and nauseously green eyes. The changeling asked, "Why didn't those timberwolves work?! They should've torn the leaders to pieces back in the forest!"
"I am sorry, Princess Metamorphosis," the green-blue allicorn apologized. "The leader's bonds are stronger than I thought. The only way we can stop them from succeeding with the creation of the Eternal Energy is if we stop them as they make it."
"Yes…this is good. If we kill the Energy as it's being created, then they will be so drained of power, we can just stop them on the spot. Then, we can begin the night that never ends. Since Splendora controls the sun, once it sets, the world is ours."
"This is very nice for your first story," Fly Writer commented. I decided a good friend's critique wouldn't be enough, so I decided to get a professional opinion. "It's an interesting, but somewhat expected plot twist."
"What do you mean, 'somewhat expected'?" I asked, confused by why she thought that.
"Well, you can see that Nuclessa is the anti-hero, someone who isn't quite for the heroes, but also not quite a villain. But, I wouldn't have guessed she was working for somepony else. It's a really interesting twist, and if you put more in there, it will keep the audience glued to their seats!" I nodded, keeping the Pegasus author's words in mind for the next chapter.
"Here we are!" Splendora proclaimed with much excitement. "The Energy Temple!" All eight of the group's members raced towards it, all hoping to each gain a part of the Eternal Energy to use for their cities. But one actually still kept her hopes in destroying it.
Nuclessa still kept her alliance with the Changelings all this time, though she still kept faithful to the other leaders. She stood her ground whenever they had to defend themselves, and maybe after this, the other leaders would finally appreciate the dark night…
"Come on," Ellic shouted to the allicorn, who was lagging behind. "We have to get this over with before sunset!" Sunset… Nuclessa thought, when my rule over all of the lands begins. She, of course, would keep the other leaders around as advisors, knowing her new friends would let her keep them around. She hurried to see the spectacle that would activate this energy, and couldn't wait to see it power down.
The eight leaders all placed themselves on a symbol that stated which city they ruled over: A plant for the Green-hooves, a gear for the Steamponies, a magnet for the Netos, a music note for the Sondwaies, a fire for the Finoexes, a lighting bolt for the Lecktriks, a sun for the Radites, and a neutron for the Cleaks. Herbie watched as her friends stood there, and then asked, "How to we activate the powers?"
"I-I have no idea," Splendora replied, a bit nervous by her own response. Canicleas then noticed something near where he was standing, stating, "There's a lever in front of my spot, but it's broken. Maybe we can activate the energy if we can just-!"
"Use the metal in your wings," Muse shouted out. "I can manipulate it into the perfect fit for the le-!"
"No! No!" The brown earth pony exclaimed. "These things are very important to me! This is the first great step in letting one individual pony fly without being born a Pegasus!"
"Come on, Canicleas," Thermos insisted, "we all know your wings don't even work. Since these failed, why don't you just move foreword and we use the metal to fix the lever?"
"But-!" Canicleas tried to think up another excuse, but he knew it would prove useless, so he took off the mechanical wings, rendering him a normal earth pony once again, and Muse magically manipulated the metal into the perfect shape for a lever. Muse inserted it, Canicleas pulled it, and the plate the symbols were on started to spin around. All the pony leaders gasped in shock as it moved, and Splendora shouted to Herbie, "Herbie! Pour the elixir you made with those plants from the woods!"
The green earth pony did as was told, pouring the green potion into the gaps of the plate, and the small gaps of the temple filled with the green liquid, all regrouping in the center of the temple to form a bubble of green energy. It was now Canicleas' time to contribute, and threw two gears into the ball of liquid energy. These gears not only made the ball solid, but grow in size as well.
The unicorns contributed next to the ever-expanding Eternal Energy. Traho tried pulling in the energy using his magnetic powers, but all it did was add a sense of magnetism to it, him being the only one feeling the force he'd added. Muse then set out a sound-wave to the ball, it now giving out a hum of energy and song.
The pegusi now gave their contributions, Thermos blowing the hot air from her wings to the ball. It set the ball aflame, and it still stayed intact, a ring of flame now circling the energy ball. The electricity from Ellic's wings shot straight to the ball since it now had a magnetic force. The ball now crackled with electrical energy and was five times bigger than what it had started out as.
"Nuclessa, it is our time to contribute! The power is now strong enough!" Splendora exclaimed, but to her surprise, the green-blue allicorn wasn't even looking at her. The other allicorn said, "No. I won't do this. We can't."
"No! Both allicorns need to do this, as stated in the prophecy."
"I'm sorry, Splendora, but you're on your own." Nuclessa then stepped off of the still rotating platform. The white allicorn, knowing how stubborn the green-blue leader could be, only groaned, "Fine! I can do this by myself!" Her horn started to glow bright white light that shot straight into the core of the energy ball. It started to expand, growing bigger and bigger…
Until the energy burst like a bubble, throwing everypony back from the force. The leaders involved all fainted from the tiresome energy that it took to make the Eternal Energy, leaving only one left standing. Nuclessa made her way to the other allicorn, and chuckled, "Well, I guess this means there's now one leader left standing."
"But…what about the United Energies?" Splendora gasped, still off her hooves from how tiresome it was to make the Eternal Energy.
"My friends will be taking over." Suddenly, the white allicorn saw a million black somethings surrounding them just before her eyes closed shut from exhaustion. The green-blue allicorn turned around to see Princess Metamorphosis, who asked her, "Are you sure they are fainted?"
"Yes," Nuclessa explained, looking at the fainted ponies around her, "the energy it took to create the energy should be enough to make sure the light is drained out without a hitch."
"Perfect," the princess laughed at the expense of all the leaders' pain. "Now, we can have a glorious feast…on these bodies of course." As the allicorn heard the changelings around her almost purr with satisfaction, she nervously asked, "Wait, that wasn't part of the plan! The plan was to steal every last bit of sun energy so that it will never rise again, and the night will be truly appreciated."
"No, this is to ensure that nothing happens to make the sun rise. You really want your sister to come to power again?" Nuclessa was this close to snapping when she heard the changelings were going to eat the leaders, now she knew it snapped when the changeling princess threatened her sister's life. Looking at Splendora, she answered, "No…
"But she was better a leader than you will ever be! You always put me second place, never first! The same was with me and my sister our entire lives. Now, I think it's time I stepped up and became first!" Her horn was glistening with a sickingly-sweet green glow, one that kept expanding and expanding. It was now nearly ten times the size the ball of energy that the leaders created was before. The changelings all backed away from her in fear…
Until the green light burst off in all directions, the changelings all being sent away by the blast. Nuclessa looked to her sister, Splendora, still fainted from the earlier blast, just as the sun set. In the dead of night, she saw lights coming from the United Energies, and she knew she had actually saved the light…and created the Eternal Energy all by herself.
"Wow!" Twilight exclaimed, looking over the final copy of my story. I had decided on her to read the final draft, since she would actually be able to read my story without taking sides. "This story is really good. This is speculative fiction, right?"
"Yes," I replied, eager to tell her more. "The base of the story is thattwo new allicorns have created eight states, each representing the eight types of energy. Their energy source is running out, and they must go through a lot of trials and tribulations to make a new one."
"And I would've never expected Splendora and Nuclessa to be sisters! I mean, they're both allicorns, and the rulers of Equestria right now are sisters that are complete opposites as well. But what really comes as the shocker is that Nuclessa is actually strong enough to make the Eternal Energy all by herself! So…are you going to publish this?"
"Actually, I'm deciding to keep it to myself. I'm not too keen on showing my special talent just yet…" That night, I finally got to writing something I was keen on showing to the public eye. Specifically, my parents.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I have realized over the past week that we are not defined by the mark on our flank, but what we do with that mark. Ponies may have special talents, and not even realize it! It's important to make discoveries and try everything you can; seize the day! It may be the thing that's keeping you from finding out who you truly are.
Sincerely,
Doodledraw