FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Near the western border of Equestria, smack-dab in the middle of the vast sandy plain, is a small town by the name of Appleoosa. It is a humble town, filled with humble ponies. It resembles what one would expect to find in an old Spaghetti Western: Wide dirt roads with buildings bunched together along either side, ponies and the occasional buffalo walking up and down them going through their routines. In the center of town was a large courthouse, which also served as a clock tower.

Hardly anypony noticed the two shadows darting down the street, and those that did simply dismissed it as a couple of birds. If they had looked up, however, they would have seen something much worse than birds.

Flying high above the town were two ponies. One stallion, one mare. Both had a coat darker than night, hair the same color as their coat with blood red stripes running through it, dark red hooves, and bright red reptilian eyes. On the mare's flank was an image of a heart, cracked down the middle. Her hair was long and messy, but with some degree of order. Her wings and horn looked the same as any other pegasus' or unicorn's. Her brother's, however, did not.

His wings resembled those of a bat, with long skeletal fingers and membranes of skin stretched between them. His mane was messy and stuck up from his head almost like a mohawk. It had three large stripes in it, one black, two red. His tail followed the same pattern. His horn was permanently broken and fractured, causing it to be only half its normal length. On his flank was what appeared to be a hand in an odd position; its two middle fingers were folded down into the palm and the thumb was on top of them.

The two of them landed on top of the courthouse, looking down upon the town's inhabitants. The stallion shifted his gaze from pony to pony, until he spotted the one he was after.

"There," he said, pointing to a brown pony with a large mustache and wearing a blue vest with a star shaped badge, "That's him. If we take him out first, then the buffalo, the rest should be easy to take care of."

The mare's horn began to glow with a red aura as her shadow began to change shape. Two "blobs" of shadow separated from hers. From them, two forms rose from the roof. Two pegasi took shape, the shadows beneath them shrinking as their bodies grew. They had no mane, tail, or face, and their entire bodies were as black as the shadows they were made of. They stood motionless, awaiting orders from their mistress.

"Kamikaze, then?" she asked.

"Great minds think alike, I suppose," he answered, "You get the sheriff and anypony else you can. I'll go around and kill the buffalo." His horn glowed with a dark gray aura as a swirling mass of flame started to materialize in front of him. The flames suddenly dissipated to reveal a strange device hanging by a strap that went over his left shoulder, across his back, and under his right.

The body of the device hung directly in front of his chest. It was shaped almost like a "V" and was cherry red, except for some pieces of black metal bolted onto it and a few curved black lines, imitating his wings. Attached to the body was a long, thin piece of wood that jutted out to the left. One side of it was black, with small silver bars running width wise down it. The spacing between the bars increased as they moved outward. At the end of it was a black rectangle with a red spiral running up it. The two longer sides had 3 small silver knobs each. Six strings ran from one of the pieces of metal on the body to the six keys, hovering just above the silver bars.

He stood up on his back hooves, using his wings for balance. He put his left hoof against the long part and used his right to pluck each string, carefully listening to the sound they made.

"Looks like she's in tune. Let's do this," he said with a grin. With that, the shadow pegasi shot into the air, climbing higher and higher. Once they had reached an adequate altitude, they nosedived. Sheriff Silver Star was pushing open the door to the sheriff's office when he heard something behind him. He whirled around and hardly had time to blink before he was tackled by one of the shadow pegasi. Within half a second, both of them exploded, engulfing the sheriff's office and half the street in darkness.

The stallion took flight, scanning the panicking crowd for any buffalo. He spotted one and brought his right hoof down across the strings, making a loud, deep, gritty, sound. A sonic wave burst from the device and shot down towards the fleeing buffalo. It hit the ground directly behind him, creating a small crater and knocking the buffalo into a wall. The stallion played another chord, finishing off his victim. He turned around to see another explosion of darkness and pieces of buildings flying through the air. The two continued on their rampage until they were only a few ponies left, huddled together inside one of the few remaining buildings.

The two hovered in the air just outside, the stallion ready to blast them to smithereens, when something caught his eye. He turned to his right to see what it was that had distracted him. Off in the distance, he saw something coming through the clouds. It was big. It was round. It was purple. It was... a hot air balloon?

He looked to his sister and said, "Do you know anything about this?"

"I haven't got a clue," she said as she shrugged.

He turned his attention back to the approaching vessel. As it drew closer he could see that there were four ponies inside the basket and two flying alongside it. Unsure of what to do, they watched as it eventually landed just outside of town. They flew over to where it had landed as two earth ponies and two unicorns climbed out of the basket and the two pegasi landed next to them. They were all wearing gold necklaces with a large gem set in the center, except for a lavender unicorn who was wearing a large golden tiara which also had a large gem.

They all turned to the mare and the stallion hovering above the destroyed town. The unicorn wearing the tiara spoke first.

"On behalf of the royal sisters Celestia and Luna, I must ask you to stop this and surrender. Otherwise we will attack you."

The stallion landed just a few yards from the group of ponies, an amused expression on his face, "Please, do you really think you could take us? And just who the hay are you anyway?"

"I am Twilight Sparkle, pupil of Princess Celestia herself, and we," she motioned to the rest of the group, "are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

"Pfft, yeah right." said the stallion, "You, using the Elements? Please, only Celestia and Luna can use them."

"That's were you're wrong, for you see, we embody what each of the Elements stand for."

By this point the mare had landed next to her brother as he said, "Oh, is that right? I bet those are the exact words that came out of Celestia's mouth. She must have sent you six just to see if we had forgotten about the Elements. Seeing as you were sent here to die, I will let you have the honor of being the first of our victims to hear our names. I am Devil Horn, but I prefer to go by 'Dev'."

"And I am Midnight Gem." added the mare.

"We are the children of Discord, The Siblings of Chaos." finished Dev.

"Wait, children of Discord?" said a white unicorn with a mid-Atlantic accent. "But we were told that you were created by him."

Midnight Gem replied, "Yes, we were created, not truly born. Dev was the first. He was conjured up out of thin air."

"And then she was created using a piece of me." Dev said, pointing at his broken horn.

"Why do you have a guitar?" asked a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, pointing at the device strapped onto Dev.

"This," he said, caressing the frets, "is Hell Wing. See, I've never been very good with magic due to my... handicap. But when I play Hell Wing, she absorbs magic from me and the air around her. I then release the magic in whatever form I want, just like a magic horn. Now then, are there any more questions?"

"Just one more." said the lavender unicorn again. "What is it, exactly, that you want?"

"As his children we seek to free him, so that our family will be whole once more." Midnight answered.

"Then what will you do?" asked Twilight.

"We will serve Discord as we did before. If that means another war against Equestria, then so be it." answered Dev.

"I see, then I guess we don't have a choice." She turned her head to face the rest of her group. "Ready, girls?" They all nodded in response. She turned back to Dev and Midnight as she said, "Alright then." They all grimaced as the gems they were wearing began to pulse with light.

"What the..." Suddenly a rainbow shot up into the air from the group. Dev jumped in front of Midnight and started playing a complex series of notes as he yelled, "BARRIER, NOW!" A wall of shadow rose from the ground as the rainbow redirected itself towards them. Dev continued playing as the rainbow collided with the shield, causing it to crack. The rainbow pounded away at the shield, making more cracks every second. Dev played the last note just as the rainbow broke through, and they were both engulfed in a flash of light.

Deep inside one of Equestria's largest mountains, lies a network of tunnels, long forgotten by most ponies. Dust was piled thick on top of everything inside, as nothing had disturbed this place in over a thousand years. Most connections to outside had been sealed off by cave-ins, the only ones remaining were just large enough for a mouse to squeeze through. The majority of the chambers were wrecked, with moss and mushrooms growing everywhere. Only a cluster of a few rooms were in better condition.

Upon inspection, they would be seen to be two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a library, with a hallway connecting all of them. The kitchen was filled with cupboards and barrels full of all kinds of food with a fire pit in the center. The library had exactly what you would expect to find in a library, books. All still in nearly pristine condition despite sitting in a cave for several generations.

One of the bedrooms was very neat and organized. There was a personal bookshelf next to the large bed with many books on advanced magic. Against the wall opposite the bed was a desk with several quills and an inkwell sitting on top, ready to be used, next to an open book and an unfinished set of notes.

The other bedroom was almost the opposite. Sheet music was strewn all over the floor, desk, and bookshelf. A variety of musical instruments had been collected and were in various places around the room, including a lute, several drums of various sizes, a flute, a lyre, and a guitar.

In the hallway, the darkness was interrupted by a sudden flash of light, producing two forms. "Hold on." one of them said to the other. There was a red glow in the darkness, then all the torches on the walls blazed to life, creating a more welcoming atmosphere.

"Ah, home sweet home." said Dev, looking around to see if anything had changed while they were gone.

"Yes, it does feel good to be back." said Midnight as she walked into the library.

"Well, our plan didn't draw out Celestia and Luna, but it looks like we got the next best thing." Dev said back as he followed his sister. "Did you manage to plant the tracker?"

"Yes, very soon we will know exactly where the princesses, and hopefully father, are."

"Good, as always, I will leave the planning up to you." Dev said as he started towards the door.

"Of course, make the genius do all the work." she replied sarcastically.

"Hey, don't forget..."

"What?"

"I love you." A large smile crept across Dev's face.

"Yeah, love you too." she said, smiling herself.