//------------------------------// // A Found Spark // Story: Apparent Trilogy // by PioneerofImagination //------------------------------// Equestria the land of harmony, or at least it was. Twilight Sparkle, once the proud student of Princess Celestia had felt betrayed by those she cared for most when they locked her away. The only one that came to her rescue was Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony who would warp her mind and heart to seek only vengeance. Twilight would end up getting just that but at the cost of her life, and in the process the ones she called friends would become doomed to wander inside a mountain for the rest of their days while Princess Celestia and Prince Shining Armor lost their lives. Now with them out of the way Discord would claim Equestria as his own and along with the changelings and a few others would set his eyes on the final ray of hope for the ponies, the Crystal Empire. There were quite a few ponies that still had fight in them and were waiting for Discord's forces to arrive. Those ponies included most of the royal guard, Princesses Luna, and Princess Cadence, despite both having been broken-hearted over losing somepony they loved. And Forest, a student of the late Princess Celestia who while not under her guidance for long had become rather fond of her. Perhaps it was because she took him in when he had nowhere to go, but either way he was ready for a rematch with Discord. He remembered it as if it was yesterday when the attack on the capital happened, he tried to stop Discord. Before that though Celestia began the evacuation of the capital and he went to see her once again using her memory sphere. "Oh Twilight, if only we could somehow return to those happy times," Celestia said. In her grief of losing Twilight she wouldn't stop looking at old pictures of her but carrying around the book would become distracting so Forest helped put the memories somewhere more convenient. With her help he put some of her most precious memories of her daughter in a small sphere that would let her watch them as they moved and talked. Forest had a rather unique connection with objects of magical properties, perhaps that was why Celestia took such a huge interest in him. After that she gave the sphere to Forest for safekeeping and would look out into the sky and would tell Forest to get out as well, but he refused and before long the attack came. "I can't let you do this!" Forest said. "Oh really? I didn't realize that I needed your permission." Discord replied with a rather somber tone. "What you're doing is wrong." "Oh is it now?" "Of course it is, what you're doing will spread misery across the land, don't you care?" Forest then shot a beam of magic but Discord split his head and neck to dodge it. "No I don't care, you know why? Because you ponies mocked me for my appearance when I was younger and turned me into stone after I was just having a little fun, nopony ever cried for me." Discord then summoned a giant mallet and tried to hit Forest with it but he jumped out of the way only to get whacked by a 2nd mallet. He was whacked in midair and landed against a nearby building. "Sneaky little…" Forest struggled to speak and for that matter, stand. Suddenly his head was filled with images of a strange creature that looked like a pony but stood on 2 legs. "What, what is that?" Forest asked as he got back up and looked around as if what he saw had appeared right in front of him. But he quickly regained his senses and saw Discord so he attacked him again this time hitting him dead on. "OUCH!" Discord said annoyed he let his guard down enough for a pony to land a rather solid hit on him. "Oh I thought you were down for the count." "So was I," Forest said. "I guess we're just stronger than you give us credit for." "I doubt that, very much actually, after all I turned Twilight against her friends and family didn't I?" Discord then let out a series of chaos magic attacks including one that hit Forest with a kitchen sink. Those attacks like before triggered the images in his head to appear again, before he knew it Forest was slammed against another building and Discord appeared right beside him. "You know it's funny really when I was hiding away plotting my revenge. I thought I was going to need some sort of phenomenal cosmic power to destroy the magic of friendship, but in the end all I really needed was a little insecurity and a few harsh words." "No that can't be," Forest said trying to disagree but in reality he never had any friends. Forest then tried once again to stop Discord but the spirit of chaos and disharmony just had to slap him silly a little bit more and Forest was down for the count. "What an annoying little pony." Discord said as he went to see how Twilight was doing. When he awoke he was given the horrible news that Celestia was dead, killed by her former student who she thought of as a daughter. After hearing about this Forest went to see her grave, overcome with sadness for the one pony that cared for him was gone. There were times where he considered Celestia to be more than a teacher, not a friend but as a mother. Now he would never get the chance to tell her exactly how he felt. "This can't be real, it's like a bad dream," Forest said as he was in tears. But he wouldn't have time to cry for much longer as Discord and the changelings continued their attack. "I'd give anything to see her just one more time," he wished with all his heart, one day and to his utter shock he saw his surroundings change and when he did he saw himself back in the castle during the attack once again standing by Princess Celestia. "Forest you need to get out of here," she said. Forest figured out what was going on right away and grabbed on to the pony he cared for like a mother. "Forest, what are you doing?" "I'm getting you out of here!" "I'm staying right here!" she replied. "No you aren't." Forest then held on tighter and tried to do what he did only moments ago. He did, but as he did Celestia disappeared into the time stream Forest was traveling through and he found himself back in the present alone. "Why didn't it work, was it because I didn't directly prevent her death or am I the only one that can travel through time?" Forest tried again but for some reason he could never get it to work, after that and in the meantime he found himself helping Cadence and Luna trying to fight Discord and the changelings but all their attacks failed. This brought the two princesses and Forest to the Crystal Empire, their last stronghold against the forces of evil that have grown stronger while the forces of good have grown weaker. Tirek broke through the front lines with the power he obtained in his 3rd form while King Sombra flew around in his shadow pony form distracting the Pegasus guards by using the shadows to blind their vision. Princess Cadence tried to take down Chrysalis with a few elite guards to back her up and Luna took to the sky with bat ponies to fight Sombra leaving Forest to fight Tirek with the Crystal Heart powering him up. Forest, despite having a large and down right ruthless opponent managed to defeat him, but his stamina dropped quite a bit in the process. But the others weren't as lucky Discord got rid of Luna and Cadence's backup leaving Sombra and Chrysalis open to go all out. Sombra canceled out Luna's magic and would brainwash her into a doll-like trance never to be freed which would make her all the more of Sombra's trophy bride. Cadence was swarmed by several changelings who helped Chrysalis restrain Cadence and would force her to feed the changelings for the rest of her life, also never to be freed. Before long Discord helped them get to the center of the empire where Forest continued to fight but he was shocked to see Luna brainwashed and Cadence captured causing Discord to sneak up on him and destroy the Crystal Heart. "Looks like I win again." "No it can't end like this," Forest said as he panicked and teleported away from all the bad guys. "Where did he go?" Sombra asked. "Who cares we won, let's party!" Discord said and the other bad guys agreed as they laid waste to the Crystal Empire while Forest was alone trying to figure out what he could do. "There has to be something I can do. If I could somehow travel back in time like I did before, but even if I did, what could I do to stop such a horrible future?" Forest then reached into his saddle bag and found the sphere Celestia gave him and when he used the sphere to see all the moments of Twilight his late mother figure held dear, he had an idea to save the future. He focused with all his might, as he did before but only sparks had appeared before, but this time he could feel himself about to go into the past. Perhaps it was because this time he was determined to do it no matter the cost and within a magical spark he vanished, then everything around him faded away. *** Princess Celestia was on the lookout for the pony she called her pupil, Twilight Sparkle, as she was flying around but as she continued to look she came across an unusual sight. A stallion with a light yellow coat and a long red horn all by himself, sleeping in the woods all alone. She went down to see the pony and if he was okay. "Are you okay my little pony?" "Celestia?" Forest said as he awoke after Celestia lightly shook him and suddenly she was shocked when the pony she found grabbed on hugging her. "You're alive!" "Well of course I'm alive, did you hit your head or something?" "Funny enough I think that was the only part of my body that wasn't hit," Forest answered as Celestia forced him to let go. When she did she saw that Forest had a sphere that caught her attention so she picked it up and found that it had memories of Twilight. "Where did you get this?" Celestia asked but just then Forest fell to the ground and Celestia helped him up. "Get me to Canterlot." Forest asked. "Why?" "Because I know where you can find Twilight." Hearing that almost sent Princess Celestia's ears into shock, but before he could explain more Forest blacked out. Forest then awoke in a bed at the hospital wing of Canterlot castle with several guards around the bed who were put there to make sure Forest was okay. When he awoke Celestia was informed right away as she ordered and she went to the wing immediately, along with the other members of the Elements of Harmony including Applejack. "How is he?" Princess Celestia asked one of the guards. "He seems okay though a bit out of it," the guard answered. "So if I were you I'd try to make my questions short." Suddenly Pinkie Pie jumped on top of the bed and was right on top of Forest. "Who are you? Where did you come from? Why's your horn a different color than you coat? Can you really help us find Twilight? Where is she? Is she okay? Will she ever forgive us?" Pinkie wanted to ask more questions but was suddenly surrounded by Celestia's magical aura and pulled off the bed and planted her in front of a rather unhappy Princess Celestia. "What? All my questions were short." Celestia then couldn't help but smack Pinkie on the side of her head, not too hard but it was enough for Pinkie to get the message and walk back to where she was. "Forest, another timeline, a result of me getting in this timeline in the first place, yes I can, in a mountain west of here, she might still be, and for all of your sakes I hope so." Forest said to everypony's surprise except Pinkie. "I beg your pardon darling?" "He answered all my questions I asked Rarity, weren't you paying attention?" "How long was I out?" Forest asked as he put his front hooves on his head. "About two moons." one of the royal guards that was watching him answered. "Yeah we were getting pretty worried about you." another royal guard that was watching him said. "Wow, I hope I'm not too late." After saying that Celestia approached the side of the bed where Forest was. "You said when I found you that you know where to find Twilight." "Yes we need to hurry before she kills you again!" Forest said as he tried to get out of his bed but fell due to a lack of energy. The ponies were shocked to hear what he just said, including the guards, but after a few moments they got out of their shock and helped him back into bed. "Again?" Rainbow Dash said confused as the rest of them. "Yeah what in the hey are y'all talking about?" "We don't have time, we need to go now." Forest said. "We ain't budging until we get some answers, how do we know we ain't walking blindly into a trap? This could all be a big fat lie." "I think he's telling the truth," Pinkie Pie said, surprising the others. "When I jumped on his bed he had a rather good vibe to him." "His story does sound like it's too crazy to be made up." Rarity said. "If Rarity believes him than so do I." Spike said to nopony's surprise. "Yeah, if he was lying he'd try to make it more believable." Rainbow Dash said. "I think even if he is lying we should look into it." Fluttershy said. "Well then I guess it's decided." Princess Celestia said ready to get her beloved student back. "Hold on a minute," Applejack said, stopping everypony and Spike in their tracks. "Why are we ready to believe somepony we just met?" "Because the fate of this whole world is at stake!" Forest said. "Is the whole world just for a pony that ran off and abandoned us?" Applejack was going to continue on but Princess Celestia smacked her in the back of the head which rather stung shutting her up in the process. "She didn't abandon us, we abandoned her." Princess Celestia said. "Whatever problems we may have with her we can deal with that when we get her back, but we need to get her back. I believe this pony too. Yes it's risky but I'm willing to take that chance. So let's do this, for Twilight." Celestia then put her hoof out and the others joined including Applejack and even the guards. "For Twilight." the others echoed. "Yeah let's get her back!" Spike said. "Forest was it?" Princess Celestia asked. "Yes?" "Will you help me get a plan in order for our rescue mission?" "I already have a plan." "All right then, and before we do Pinkie I'm sorry I smacked you earlier." "Oh that's okay Princess Celestia it didn't even hurt really, that was just surprisingly out of character for you." Pinkie replied. "Um Princess?" "Yes?" Celestia replied as she looked at Applejack and knew right away what she was going to ask. "No, I'm not sorry for smacking you, you deserved that." The guards couldn't help but laugh a bit at their princess's response. *** "So does this mean we can put everything into action now?" The changeling queen asked the spirit of chaos. "Yes Chrysalis I think it's time to finally start the endgame." Discord would then get ready to put the final part of his plan in action, or at least he would have if not for the major interruption. Princess Celestia broke into the mountain with her group taking the entire changeling hive completely by surprise as well as the spirit of chaos. She was joined by Twilight's friends, Spike, Forest, several guards, and Shining Armor who used his barrier spell to force the changelings against the wall of the mountain. The sheer force of it alone knocked most of them out. Discord avoided it by teleporting to Twilight to tell a lie about Celestia leading an attack. "Where's my sister!?" Shining Armor called out to the changelings that weren't knocked out only to get his answer when Twilight hit him with a stun spell. "Twily!?" Shining Armor asked as he tried to get up. "My name is not Twily," she said as she was about to attack again. Or at least she would have if Forest didn't teleport behind her and used the sphere to place a mountain of memories into her head. He had reworked or rather reversed the magic of the sphere from taking memories out of a pony and into it, to instead taking the memories out of the sphere and into a pony. The sheer amount of information swimming into her head at once overwhelmed her and made her collapse. "Uh oh," Forest said rather sheepishly. "I think I broke her." "Then allow me to return the favor!" Discord announced ready to launch a counterattack, but as a plan was made to stop Twilight a plan was made to stop him as well. Forest had a rather unique connection with objects of magical properties, perhaps that was why Celestia took such a huge interest in him. Forest was able to connect with the Element of Magic and when combined with the other elements that Twilight's friends brought with them they were able to imprison Discord in stone. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh it worked!" Rainbow Dash said as she jumped and danced a little bit out of excitement. "We aren't done yet, Rainbow Dash don't get cocky." Spike said while standing in front of Rarity ready to protect her. "I think that ship has long since sailed darling." Rarity whispered to Spike. He was about to laugh but suddenly Forest, similar to Twilight collapsed to the ground as parts of his body changed color and stretched out. Princess Celestia having already gotten the out cold Twilight picked Forest up as well and brought him to the others. "What's happening to him?" Fluttershy asked. "From the looks of it, I think he broke himself as well." Celestia answered.