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Post by Nightbow on Jan 13, 2012 15:04:38 GMT -5
[Set right after 'Alea iacta est', open to the princesses and the Mane Six.]
They had been awoken gently, like little fillies congratulated with cake on the morning of their birthday. But there was nothing to celebrate. It was still dark out, and one of them had rolled over in their sleep and begged for five more minutes, another had awoken drenched in sweat. One had been stirring restlessly in her sleep, another Celestia feared wouldn't wake up. But here they were now, all six embodiments of the Elements of Harmony. The princesses had herded them down to the library, a big empty and quiet room lined with old volumes.
A grave Princess Celestia stood in front of them, giving the girls a moment to fully awaken.
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Post by Spitfire on Jan 13, 2012 16:38:07 GMT -5
Twilight felt, quite possibly, the worst she had since the utter chaos she'd caused simply because of her tardy letter, and was quite certain that she looked just as awful. While she didn't remember much of what had happened that last evening, when they'd confronted Eclipse - only bits and pieces, nothing solid - the magical unicorn was fully aware of one thing; that they'd failed. But this time, potentially being sent back to Magic Kindergarten was the least of her worries. Whatever became of her was almost insignificant, now that all of Equestria was in peril due to her faliure. As such, Twilight was unable to bring herself to meet her mentor's eye, or those of any of her companions, keeping her head firmly lowered. The lavender unicorn, simply put, felt awful. On top of her faliure threatening all of Equestria, she had almost led her friends right to their deaths as well; the one image from the previous night that hung, crystal-clear before Twlight's eyes, was herself as the last pony standing, surrounded by her five friends, all either unconcious or dead, she hadn't known, as she had struggled to complete her spell.
The spell that, evidently, hadn't worked.
"I'm sorry, Princess." her voice was almost a whisper, and the pony still didn't lift her head. "We failed you. I failed you."
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Post by Firefly on Jan 13, 2012 22:36:28 GMT -5
Applejack felt awful. Her whole body was still rather sore from what had happened, and she just felt downright terrible about failing the Princesses so badly. They had been entrusted to try and stop Queen Eclipse, but they hadn't been able to do anything against her. Applejack's ears drooped a bit and her head hung low. She couldn't remember most of what had happened during their encounter with Eclipse, but she did know that they hadn't stopped her. Now the whole of Equestria was in trouble. How were they supposed to do anything about that?
"Ah'm awful sorry we couldn't do anything about this, Princess. Ah really thought we stood a chance against that ol' Eclipse." Applejack said. Applejack closed her eyes and waited for the full of what could have been dolled out by the pair of Princesses before them. They must have been awfully disappointed in the six of them.
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Zee
Member
The #1 Assistant
Posts: 7
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Post by Zee on Jan 13, 2012 23:25:51 GMT -5
Pinkie Pie lifted her head from the ground. Sore all over, the femme looked around. This wasn't a place for a party. Pony rose to her feet and turned to stare at the princess. She gasped, taking in lots of air like the day she'd met Twilight. Ears flicked upward as the femme listened to what Twilight said. She lowered her head then perked it up again.
"Oh Twilight, its alright," she said, "Princess don't be too hard on her. Or us. I mean..." She tried to giggle but things were not working. She lowered her head and sighed. "We did bad..." She mused.
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Post by Becka on Jan 13, 2012 23:47:19 GMT -5
"It's not your fault. Any of you," Luna hurried to say. It wasn't very princessly of her to speak so, and she stepped back immediately and looked at her sister, but they must know it was not them who brought the Darkness on Equestria.
It was Night Mare Moon. Luna wouldn't hang her head here, in front of her subjects, but the knowledge weighed heavy on her. Besides, these ponies were her friends and they had risked their lives for Equestria - stood up to the Darkness - Luna could not let them think they did so in vain.
"We will try again," she said softly, still looking at her sister. "We will defeat...the Darkness."
Even now she could not say her eldest sister's name. If she went to battle thinking it was blood - blood that understood her darkness - then Luna could not go to battle at all.
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Post by Trixie on Jan 14, 2012 1:23:05 GMT -5
"Oww...." Fluttershy spoke up quietly, having awakened as well. She too was rather sore all over as she had to sit up as quickly as she could. Her gaze shifted to those that were awake right now, hearing that they had failed.
Fluttershy didn't want to have to admit it either, but they were right. They had failed in stopping the evil in question "We had failed...." she added in, again, rather quietly, trying to show that she wasn't all that injured, even though it was apparant that she was.
"Oww...." again Fluttershy winced a little more, her injuries were just there, and she had no idea on how to deal with her own injuries right now. But for now, that wasn't all that important as she looked at Luna and Celestia.
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Post by Nightbow on Jan 14, 2012 3:09:25 GMT -5
Celestia stood tall. Quiet and tall. But the sadness in her eyes was not stemming from disappointment, at least not in the assembled group. It pained the princess to see them like this, to see the girls hurt and to see Twilight so torn. For a mere second Celestia stirred anxiously, sympathy bleeding from her proud stature, energy fading. Then she turned back into a statue - adamant, but grieving. Celestia gave her sister a compassionate nod, clearly signalizing to the other that she spoke the truth.
"I need you all to be strong now. Stronger than ever," she finally spoke. "Eclipse's sign marks the heavens today. We do not know what it out there, but the forest is dangerous." The princess started to present her plan: "Everfree Forest must be shut off by military. I will give the order to the town guards to set up camp in the north eastern plains, just outside the forest border. My request is that you, after your recovery, will join them in keeping watch for anything unusual. You must not enter the forest." Her features seemed to soften somewhat. "I should never have sent you there in the first place."
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Post by Spitfire on Jan 14, 2012 4:18:27 GMT -5
"I'm so sorry." Luna's words of comfort had seemingly gone unheard, as in that moment, the unicorn had ears only for the elder of the two royals. Her mentor hadn't said anything to reassure the ponies, so Twilight could only assume that, in spite of the younger princess' words, she really was in trouble. Deep trouble. Celestia had said that she shouldn't have sent them at all; was her faith in the six of them shattered so completely by this faliure? "I'm a terrible student; I should have studied harder when you gave us the mission, I should have made sure that I knew what we were facing." She finally glanced back over her shoulder at her five friends, although still avoided anyone's eye. "I was overconfident; I nearly led you all to our deaths because I thought the Elements would be all we needed to win again."
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Post by Nightbow on Jan 14, 2012 4:56:58 GMT -5
A discreet wave of bewilderment went through Celestia's plume of feathers. "Dear Twilight, nothing could have prepared you for what you faced out there. I sent you to investigate what caused the increase of reports on monster attacks, not ..." Not that. "You see, we have been presented with a danger that can be found in no books of history, for it is older than I and until now, it has only lived in my memory. I hid it from you, and I realized too late that it had returned. I failed you." Celestia lingered, not sure how to tell them of Eclipse's origins. What had she told them? How much did they know?
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Post by Rainbow Dash on Jan 14, 2012 9:04:22 GMT -5
"But we still should have been able to stop her. We are the elements of Haromony, after all..." Rainbow Dash mumbled. She felt utterly horrible. It was not so much about morals, like the rest. She had not only failed the Princesses and Equestria, she had failed herself. That certainly was a new feeling for the cyan pegasus pony. She had always been the bravest, the fastest, the strongest if she didn't count Applejack in. And she had failed. That was unacceptable.
"We shouldn't have failed... failure is not an option for me." Dash stated, still in a whisper. Her body was sore, but her pride was the main hurt factor. She, the only pegasus able to perform a Sonic Rainboom, she, the element of loyalty, she, the awesome Rainbow Dash... had failed to stop the darkness this time. That was, by far, the worst humiliation she had ever lived.
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Post by Firefly on Jan 14, 2012 9:57:59 GMT -5
"Twi... it's all right. Ah don't think any of us knew what Eclipse was capable of. It ain't yer fault." Applejack said, trying to reassure her friend that things were okay. She knew they weren't all right, though. They were battered and bruised, beaten down by an unknown and powerful pony, and on top of that the Elements of Harmony had failed to even put a dent in her. Applejack refused to let Twilight take all the blame, though. They all played a part in trying to stop Eclipse. They all should have taken the blame.
As Celestia spoke, though, Applejack found her attention diverted. "Cut off the Everfree Forest?" Applejack repeated hastily. She snapped to attention, despite how sore she felt all over, and looked up at Celestia with wide, confused eyes. What would that mean for those that lived in the forest? It was true that it was generally free of ponies, but what about Zecora? The zebra lived in there and she was their friend! "Ah don't know if we should. What would that mean fer Zecora? She doesn't know about what's goin', Princess. We can't just cut her off from Equestria... can we?" Applejack asked. It was true enough that the honest pony didn't know what other sorts of things lay in that forest at the moment, but she didn't have it in her to abandon the zebra after she had helped them out before.
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Post by Spitfire on Jan 14, 2012 15:49:39 GMT -5
"Huh?" For the first time that morning, Twilight's head snapped upwards, taking in her mentor, and the unicorn was surprised to see that, instead of the disappointed scowl she'd been expecting and dreading, Celestia's face instead wore a mask of regret. What she was hearing, however, was almost incomprehensible to the lavender unicorn. Her mentor wasn't supposed to make mistakes... Princess Celestia was so wise, so infallible... it just didn't happen. Or so Twilight had thought, at least, and the realisation that the princess was just as capable of making mistakes as the rest of them was not one the purple-maned female took comfort from. The unicorn didn't speak; there were no words to use in response to her mentor's own admission of faliure, too stunned to do anything more than just listen to the others speech continuing to flow about her.
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Post by Nightbow on Jan 14, 2012 18:23:18 GMT -5
Celestia turned her attention to the orange earthling, voice tinted with regret. "I am sorry but we cannot go in after Zecora, it will jeopardize too many lives. I promise that when Luna and I depart to Canterlot, I'll send Philomena right back to her." The zebra would have to make it out on her own account, sad as though it was. The forest just was not safe. "When we ... retrieved you, you where all lying unconscious in an unknown black substance. It radiates magic, it is not natural - and I am sure that it was the otherworldly feeling of this ... this Dark Veil that caused Eclipse to leave you there as you were," Celestia explained. "Nopony should go anywhere near it, lest they be dragged into it. I don't know what would happen to that pony." The lustrous white mare hoped that she had averted any rescue parties.
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Post by Rarity on Jan 18, 2012 5:49:46 GMT -5
Rarity lied in her bed she made sure to lie on the other side so her friends couldn't know she was awake. The beautiful Unicorn was to embarrassed to talk to her friends. They had failed. Failure was not something Rarity really accepted on most occasions. She like every body else hated failure. And right now she was so ashamed that she couldn't really talk to anyone. She just lied awake listening to the conversation. Out of all the six of them it appeared she was the one who was most embarrassed and sad. At least the others had the courage to apologize. She was to much of a coward to say anything.
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Post by Nightbow on Jan 23, 2012 16:08:48 GMT -5
[Rarity - you shouldn't be in bed, everyone is gathered in the library. ] The royal white mare could barely stand to see the pain of defeat and shame of failure on the little ponies' faces. Not when it was hers and not theirs. The silence was deafening, and as much as the winged unicorn wished that she could hide in its hurting but quiet peace forever, she knew that she had to break it, painful as though the truth was. "Heed my warning, My Little Ponies, for darkness has awakened in the Everfree Forest tonight." Rang her vocals, chiming with elder knowledge of an ancient threat. This was not an order from a princess to her subordinates, but a plea from a desperate friend. Princess Celestia proceeded to tell the six the tale of Eclipse as thorough as she knew it, reciting it just as she had to her sister earlier, leaving nothing out. The old seafoam creature was left before them naked with her dark secrets revealed, exposed and weak. There was some motion over her, like the restlessness of water that wasn't quite still. As Celestia's voice died, her soul seemed to have left with it, her figure of shivering white standing ghostly before them, speaking not another word.
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