The Dark Storm's Fallout, (See OOC!)

[AlextheAngel]

Zed sighed a bit when Thunder nuzzled him. "I'm calm. I'm calm..." He said, taking a deep breath. He nodded at Luna in approval. "That would be amazing. Thank you, Aunt." He said, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Now... the thing we have to worry about now is where this guy is right now." He said, a flash of anger going through him. "He threatened my family... the nerve of that mother f-"

 

"No." Celestia said, interrupting him before he could say anymore. She glared at Zed, knowing full and well what he was about to say. And she didn't allow that kind of language. Of course, she could understand that the young man was upset. "The next thing we must worry about is resting. Our defenses are crippled because of him, and you've exausted too much energy."

 

"But he could appear at any time-" Zed began, only to be cut off again.

 

"Zed. Go get some sleep. Now." Celestia demanded firmly. "We'll talk about it when you, your brother, and the soldiers are all rested up."

 

Zed sighed, shaking his head. Usually, Celestia was not as assertive toward him, but these were dire times. And at the moment, he was in no position to argue. Nor did he have the energy to. Rubbing his eyes, he nodded. "All right, I'm going." He said, before kissing Thunder on the cheek. "You can join me if you'd like."

 

---

 

Solar nodded, coughing a few more times and dusting his coat off. "All right, sounds like a good plan. I think I know which room you're talking about. Come on, Lullaby. Stay close." He said, before carefully walking out the door. The place seemed abandoned, but he couldn't tell for sure...

 

---

 

Zed stepped forward and handed Zecora the bag of plants, giving a nod. "All right, here they are." He said, before stepping back and watching carefully. He was getting a bit... antzy, to say in the least. If there was actually a potion that could take away this dreaded pain, he wanted it as soon as possible.

[Noedig]

Snow Storm was glad for the hug, and so was Silver Line. But something in Silver's mind still bugged her... what can she do? She wants to do something, but she has no idea how... and that's what she needs to figure out first.

"I'm fine, thank you. I'll be heading back to my room." Silver said. "I need to think about something right now... I'll see you both later!"

"Alright, dear! Dinner will be ready soon." Snow Storm said. So, Silver left to her room to ponder about what she can do...

She lied on her bed looking at the ceiling. Currently this is what she's thinking:

I know I can do something about this, but I can't figure out what... my body feels uncomfortable-- but it's not because of him, is it? Maybe, but that power... his power to control the clouds, lighting, and wind-- it feels like something within me has sparked up some sort of... life since I've first seen that terrible power. Do other ponies get this sort of feeling? I'm not so sure about myself anymore, so what's with me?

The room is getting dark because the sun is setting, it's close to dinner time-- but I'm not hungry. I need to think about this. What can I do?

My blood flow is running higher and hotter every time I ask myself these questions right now, like I'm about to get a fever-- but I don't feel sick. I just feel... uncomfortable. What is going on with me?

My stomach is lurching, my lungs feel cold, my heart is beating faster, and my brain is telling me something's gonna happen! But what?! What can I do?!

 

She turned over to her left to lie sideways. Her body is unusually uncomfortable right now. She's not sweating, or running a high fever. Little does she realize, is that this is some sort of phase.

Like hitting puberty, this just actually processes overnight. Dark Storm's terrible power have sparked life within Silver Line's dormant power that she never knew she had.

Her body suddenly stopped feeling anxious, she got up and thought what could that have been? She doesn't know. But she does know she's actually hungry after all. She came out of her room to eat dinner.

 

 

 

_________________________________

 

 

 

 

Gale Storm noticed Zed's nervous behavior. He wanted to assure him, so he approached him by his side nudged softly at his side.

"Relax and be patient." He said. "You've dealt with the pain for too long, so you will get it when she's done."

[BraveShield]

Braves ears twitched as he heard silvers heart rate increase

But before he could get worried it went back to normal

(Maybe it was nothing) brave thought as he followed snow into the kitchen

He too felt hungry but in this form he had the urge to suck blood

Snow had already made it clear she didn't want him doing that and neather did he so he would have to change back to a unicorn

Witch brave was also not fond of

So instead he walked up behind snow and kissed her neck

"I need to get back so I should get going....and can you make sure silvers fine....her heart rate increased a bit ago" he told her knowing it was normal to hear such things with his Arieon ears

------

Shadow frowned but did as he was told from lullaby

------

Zecora took the bag and poped one leaves into her mouth and chewed it up before spitting it into the brewing pot

She then stured it up for a few minutes before putting some of it in a small bottle

"Take a sip once a day

To have the pain go away

This first time take two

But not more or you'll turn blue" zecora rhymed

And she was serious about not taking any more then two

The other zed learned that the hard way and got sick with the blue flu

-------

Thunder also nuzzled zed before agreeing to come with him

[PrinceoftheNight]

Lullaby nodded to Solar and walked beside him, staying close to him as they walked around. She didn't felt safe in here.

Darky stayed back, doing what he could to the controls to repair it.

 

---

 

Luna looked at Celestia arguing with Zed. "You need to rest dear." She said softly, then turned to Tia. "So do you sister, and me. All of us need to rest. It was been quite the day." She said calmly to her.

 

---

 

Lullaby looked for a place to seat as she waited for the others to finish the potion.

[AlextheAngel]

Zed nodded to Luna, before gently grasping Thunder's hoof and walking out of the room. All of this mention of sleep really was beginning to exhaust the young man. "I just hope things go our way soon..." He said softly, leaning a bit against his wife. "I want my uncle back."

 

"Very well, dear sister. Let us all get some sleep, and we will figure this out in the morning." Celestia announced, before moving to leave the study. She turned back to Chrysalis and gave a small sigh. "Are you going to be all right?"

 

---

 

After a moment, Solar spotted the room off to the left side of the hallway. "There!" He said, before cautiously pushing the door open and turning the light on. It flickered a bit, before illuminating the entire room. Thankfully, no one else was in there aside from a few small mice that squeaked and scattered out of the room. The room was full of spare parts that would be perfect to use for repairing the machine. "All right. Grab what you can and get back to Uncle."

 

---

 

Zed watched carefully as Zecora began to finish up the brew, wincing a bit as she chewed up the plant and spit it out into the pot. That was... gross. I have to drink that?! He thought. He couldn't help the fact that he was a bit of a mysophobic, but at this point, he was willing to try anything with no questions asked as long as it got rid of this pain. He accepted the bottle as Zecora held it out to him, before giving a sigh. "Well... here goes..." He said, before taking two sips of the strange-tasting liquid, just like she instructed. A split second later, the young man blinked as the pain in his shoulders immediately subsided into nothingness. It felt so strange... he had not felt that amazing since he had first arrived in Equestria. "Oh... wow..." He said. "It... it's gone... The pain is really gone..." He was completely speechless. Now was the crucial decision of whether or not Zed should stay with Gale...

[BraveShield]

Shadow sat there indifferent as he watched zed drink the bottle

Zecora smiled brightly and began bottling the rest of the fluid till she had no more clean and not broken bottles left

Thunder smiled and leaned on zed too

"Don't forget to take your medicine" she reminded before turning them to they're bed room

"And do you think we should check on Alex again.....to be sure dark storm didn't sneek into the castle" thunder asked letting her motherly instink take over a bit

[Noedig]

"Oh?" Snow Storm said, curious. "Well, she's out of her room now. And dinners about done for her and me. Alright, see you later, sweetie!"

Silver Line came by, noticed her mother saying goodbye to her father, she joined in. "Bye, dad! Come back soon!"

"Well now, I have some dinner almost ready for us." Snow said to her. "And believe me, it's improved wonderfully over the years. Your father would even admit it."

"You sure you didn't blackmail him?" Silver teased. Snow chuckled. "Heheh ... actually, I really did." She said, suddenly looking and sounding somber. Silver Line never could understand if her mother was joking or not... so she had to resort to looking concerned.

"I'm just kidding, ha!" She said, lightening up. Silver sighed in relief. "I really did improve my cooking." Snow said. "Honest!"

"I believe you, mother." Silver said. She thought to herself that from now on, she'll just tease her lighter than usually to her mother. Snow Storm got to the best of her, which made her mother look like the mistress of Poker-face itself.

"Ah, dinner's done." She said her daughter. "Be at the table, will you, please?"

"Alright!" She said. They went to the table and began eating dinner.

 

Chrysalis looked at Princess Celestia when Celestia asked her if she's going to be alright.

"Yes... I hope." She said, a bit unsure. "I'm just as anxious as everypony else right now... but I'll be alright. I'll see you in the morning, too. So, good night, Princess Celestia."

The queen went off to go to her own guest's bedroom, feeling exhausted from the incident.

 

 

 

____________________________

 

 

 

 

Gale Storm smiled a bit after Zed responded very positively about the medicine.

"Thank you and bless you, Zecora." He said to her. "Even under such a terrible time now, you still manage to be the good Samaretan."

Gale Storm now looked at Zed to say something to him. "Well... you're fixed up now." Gale said, and then considered telling him something. "As I've said before, I'll be making an audience with Nightmare Moon about this situation they're dealing with. If we're splitting up from here on out, that is completely up to you. You're still welcome to join me, Zed."

[Noedig]

----

[PrinceoftheNight]

Luna soon went to her room to wait for her husband and daughter to come back

---

Lullaby smiled when they spotted the room and followed Solar. She nodded to Solar and used her magic to gather all they could,

---

"It would be of great help if you came with us to deal with mother." Lullaby said to Zed. "The more the better."

[AlextheAngel]

Zed sighed. "I very much doubt that he's been here lately... but let's go check on him anyway." He said, holding onto her hoof tightly, walking with her to the child's sleeping quarters, where Alex was still sleeping peacefully, huddled safely under the blankets.

 

---

 

Solar carried as much as he could using both his arms and magic, before leading Lullaby back to the main control room, where he dropped all the pieces in a pile next to Darky. "All right, will this be enough? If not, there's plenty of scrap in that room."

 

---

 

Zed's normal hard expression softened a bit, and he looked back and fourth between the entire group. Gale was literally the first pony in twenty years to even bother helping him... yet he already made up his mind... as difficult as it was. "I... I can't..." He said, his voice even choking up a bit. He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost exactly like the Zed in the other universe. "I... I thank you for helping me, but I just can't... I'm not going to risk becoming attached to anyone else. It... only leads to more loss." He said, before moving out towards the door. He stopped and looked back at Chrysalis for a moment. "Your friend is an amazing pony." He said to her, meaning Gale. "It would be wise to keep him close. Don't push him away, like I've done with everyone who ever cared for me." He continued out the doorway, letting out one last. "I'm.... sorry..." Before suddenly disappearing into the Everfree.

[Noedig]

Gale Storm felt saddened by his reaction and dismissal.

Chrysalis was irritated that Zed left them like that. If he said anything else in any other way, she would have only felt less irritated than what said.

"He says that and leaves?" She said. "Hypocrite!"

Gale Storm sighed and let him be. "It's fine..."

"No, it definitely is not!" She said. "It's his choice." He said to her. "Besides... he might not be gone for good."

Chrysalis just scoffed for now, not caring about Zed right now. "Well, then... should we get moving now?"

"Yes. Let's get to the Crystal Empire-- or what may have used to be." He said. "Princess Lullaby, you may lead the way."

[BraveShield]

Shadow stood up and got ready to leave with them

Zecora shook her head in zeds direction

"I hope he chooses right....for a angle needs to stay in the light" she rhymed being vague one again

Thunder leaned agenst zed

"I...I just needed to be sure" she said as her eye lids grew heavy

She may not admit it but all the stress from today has really drained her energy

[PrinceoftheNight]

Darky looked at all that brought Solar and his daughter. "That should do it." He said as he satrted to levitate them. He repaired the maching.amd after 15 minutes he was done.

"Right. I did what I could, and it should be fine..." he said as he flicked some switches thay should stop the factory.

---

Lullaby nodded to Gale and lead them out, then started walking towards the crystal empire, soon flying to be out of reach of the forest.

[AlextheAngel]

Zed watched for about a minute longer as Alex slept, the boy still curled comfortably underneath the blankets in a deep slumber. Zed sighed and gently brushed a hand across the child's cheek, before leading Thunder back to their section of the room. "He's fine. I'm not going to let anything happen to him or you." He said, before suddenly yawning.

 

---

 

Solar watched as Darky got to work using the spare parts to repair the machine, sighing with relief as it was fixed after only fifteen minutes. "All right, nicely done." He said, before looking around. "Let's post a clean-up crew in the city, and head back to Canterlot. It's getting late, and I'm really exhausted right now."

 

---

 

Zed roughly shoved open the door to his house, before slamming it shut. Throughout the entire trip home, he had been fighting off tears, but to not much avail. Gale, Lullaby, Brave, Zecora, and even Chrysalis took time out of their mission to help him. Him! Of all people, ponies and Pegasi, they chose to help him. Zed wanted more than anything to aid them in their quest to convince Nightmare Moon to work with Celestia... but he couldn't. Mainly because every single person he has ever become attached to... he always lost. And he was afraid. More than afraid... he was terrified that the same thing would happen to them. Rubbing his eyes, he reached under the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of red wine, before popping the lid off and taking a large sip, not even bothering to pour it into a glass, as the Zed from the alternate universe would. The boy was scared... and at this point, drowning in alcohol was his only answer.

[Noedig]

"Goodbye, Zecora." He said. "Again, thank you for helping him."

Chrysalis and Gale Storm have followed Lullaby to the Crystal Empire.

[BraveShield]

Zecora smiled at gale and looked like she was about to say something when Zecrath jumped down from the tree and stole her attention

Shadow continued to escort lullaby

Thunder yawned cutely before closing the doors that separated Alex's room from theirs

"It looks like me and Alex arnt the only tiered ones" she teased as she crawled into bed and got ready to cuddle with zed

[PrinceoftheNight]

"Yes. Lets go, the sooner we finish, the better." Darky said to solar as he lead him and Lullaby into the city to aee if they could help,

---

Lullaby lead them out towards the crystal empire.

"It will take a while walking, but we can get there before night." She said to the rest as she walked.

[AlextheAngel]

Zed gave a half-hearted smile, before searching his bedside drawer for the beakers of medicine he kept. He popped the cork of one of them and took a sip, before putting the rest away and getting into the bed. He sighed as he rested under the covers, cuddling closely to Thunder and closing his eyes. "I'm not letting anything happen to you or Alex... I promise." He whispered,

 

---

 

Solar sighed and rubbed his eyes, before following Darky. "All right, but let's make it quick. I'm exhausted." He said, noticing the sun setting over the horizon.

[Noedig]

"Alright, Lullaby." Gale Storm said, nodding. He kept following her. "Just curious: Out of all the destruction here, are the trains also out of commission?"

[BraveShield]

"Most leading to the empire or where Celestia calls home.....it makes it hard for us to invade the other and end the war between us and Celestia but it dose cause this ordeal to take longer then it needs to" shadow said finaly speeking to gale like he wasn't suspisous of the Pegasus

Thunder smiled and nuzzled under zeds chin as she too closed her eyes

"I know.....love you..." She said before going quite to sleep

[PrinceoftheNight]

"Sure." Lullaby said to Solar as she waled to his side.

They soon exited the factory and seemed that thing were going back to normal.

---

"Pretty much what Shadow said."

Lullaby said after a moment. "Though... I... repaired one..." she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I have it hiddrd from mom and dad." She added. "Mosy railroads are still intact, so we can use them."

[Noedig]

"Interesting..." Gale said, intrigued by Lullaby's skill. "Lead the way, we'll use the railroad."

"I didn't think a young princess like you would be into that sort of thing." Chrysalis said to her.

"I would." He said. "Looks like she improved herself sooner than her other self."

[BraveShield]

shadow looked at lullaby.....like she should have shared this information

 

but he quickly stopped glareing at her and went back to paying attention to where they were going

[PrinceoftheNight]

Lullaby let out a small shy smile to Gale before leading them to a small portion of the forest that connected to the traks. The train was there. It had painted some musical notes and moons, as well as a drawing of Princess Lu and Darkness. How she knew Luna? Nopony knew.

[AlextheAngel]

Zed slept rather soundly through the night, though every once in a while he would be plagued with nightmares full of blood, death and destruction. Though the only noticeable thing that showed he was having these nightmares was when he tossed and turned, or softly mumbled incoherent words. He woke up the next morning, his eyes and cheeks crusted with what seemed like dried tears. Alex was still fast asleep in his own bed, seeming rather peaceful.