//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: In Your Town // by SilverAlchemist //------------------------------// Twilight was woken by the feeling of a burst of power hitting her horn, something powerful and ancient and natural beyond words. Three minutes. With the ease of someone who had been woken like this every day for almost her entire life, she got to her hooves, opened her eyes, and took in her surroundings. Get out of bed, check. She was in a crystal tent, magically and hastily created, with spells running through the walls to keep it up. Around her were the other Elements, sleeping peacefully on the grass, assuming Rainbow Dash’s snoring could be considered peaceful. Rarity must have made this, then. Were they at their destination? Another burst of power, more urgent. Two minutes. Quietly, she stood and walked out of the tent. Thankfully, there was an enchantment on the walls - Slider’s Door Symphony, if she remembered correctly - that caused them to open as she approached them without making any noise. Alpine bluegrass coated the hill, and the air was a mild 13 degrees. According to Flora and Frost, that would correspond to the theoretical makeup of the unexplored region they’d been sent to by future-Pinkie. The incline of the ground that the tent rested on suggested that her friends had used MSP345A, although she was a bit disappointed to see that there was no water-filled moat (Ludicrous Liar’s Cryptology for Dummies had suggested that Fire Ants lived somewhere in this area, and she definitely did not want to wake up to the sight of a bug twice the size of her). At the very least, she hoped that there were meteor wards up. Identify your location, check. The magic hit her a third time, the final warning. She walked up to the highest point she could see, a nearby hilltop, and prepared herself. Across Equestria and beyond, countless unicorns - and several other species - did the same. Long ago, several of her books said, the Sun and Moon had been raised by a council of the most powerful unicorn mages and nobles. Every day and every night, they’d reach beyond the clouds with their powers, draining themselves of their life force to power their spell and their mind to guide it, eventually dying as confused and powerless as the day they were born. Diamond the Wise - and, she now suspected, Princess Luna - had the idea that all unicorns should contribute to the spell, that if everypony took a little bit of the damage then everypony would survive, and that idea had been proven correct. It was true that there were no unicorn mages as powerful as Platinum or Meadowbrook around anymore, but there weren’t any unicorns who’d suffered their fate around either. She flexed her magic, pouring it into the sky, reaching with a thousand other tendrils to bring the Sun into view. This was her Element - and not just in the literal sense, with Friendship and everything, but figuratively as well. Long before she had earned an Element, she’d earned her mark - a checklist - for organizing and connecting ponies, for making groups that could do more than the individuals they contained ever could. Raise the Sun, check. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight had expected to be scared out of her wits in the town - various monsters and ancient forces of darkness tended to have that effect. It was completely normal to be scared of things that could and would eat your face, as she’d learned on the adventure her friends had at Smokey Mountain. She had not expected that that same effect could be caused by a completely still town. The others didn’t look like they were feeling exactly the same, which was good - a different mindset would let them focus on different details of the environment. Pinkie seemed to be completely unfazed by the place, pronking along the pavement as she normally did. Rainbow demonstrated exactly the sort of poise one would expect from a guard, scanning for threats and using pegasus magic to clear their paths of snow. Fluttershy was clearly nervous, staying near Rainbow. The other two had clearly noticed something, although they’d need prodding to vocalize it. Twilight turned to Applejack. “Applejack, did you notice something odd about this place?” “Well, yeah. Look around ya.” Applejack pointed to the nearby houses, which were boarded up and shattered in various areas. “These buildings are plenty damaged, but not in the vital spots. When one of my barns gets damaged back home, it stops standing; these things are stickin’ together like glue, even if a coupl’a spots are patched up where they need to be. And they have to be patched up, can’t have been fixed by a pony with an architecture talent, because that would have gotten them fixed up right proper-like. Now take a look at the roads.” She pointed to the gashes along the road they were on. “They’re torn up, but still usable - there ain’t been any point where we had to take a detour because the road was too destroyed to continue ‘long it. There’s a couple a’ materials used here, not just one, so it’s not like there was just one builder. The heights we’re at ain’t level, so the roads were probly built at different times.” “So we’re dealing with multiple ponies rebuilding after whatever happened?” Rainbow Dash looked a little less tense at that, somehow making it look like she was relaxed as she spewed fire from her wings. “If there’s a local resistance, we should meet up with them and kick some monster flank - basic guard tactics.” Rarity spoke up. “It certainly seems that there are several ponies around. For example, you’ve doubtless noticed the massive snowfall. I traced it and that’s pegasus magic, not random weather, which means that there’s at least someone in the sky. And if you keep an eye on the street we’re on now -” At this, one of Pinkie’s eyes bulged out of her head, and turned toward the ground. “- there’s a trail of earth pony magic around.” “Hmmm... Let’s split up! Dashie and Fluttershy can check for anyone in the air,” Pinkie said, pointing a hoof at the duo and then a second hoof at the sky, “Rarity and Applejack follow the earth pony trail,”, pointing a third and fourth hoof at the business ponies and a random direction, respectively, “ and Twilight and I can.... uh… can….” “Check out the massive building at the center of town?” Twilight suggested. “That’s right!” Pinkie said, before gravity remembered her and she fell to the floor with a thud. Twilight wasn’t sure how that disregard for the laws of physics actually worked, but she had never really worried about it. It was probably some secret long-lost earth pony art that the Princess had taught her. The others agreed to the plan easily enough. Rarity pointed out the track to Applejack and they started walking away, Rainbow Dash took flight with Fluttershy following, and the remaining two mares headed off in the direction of what Twilight suspected was town hall. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “-ou know, this is great! Big adventures, tons of fun!” Pinkie cheerfully finished her twenty-minute long speech, before turning around and completely changing to a serious demeanor. The effect was odd, given that she hadn’t stopped pronking. “Twilight, are you okay?” Twilight laughed, only a little nervously. “I would have been frightened if we’d been been in different groups, but splitting the physically weakest of us with somepony who can actually defend themselves was a good idea. Thank you for that, Pinkie.” “Nessun problema, amica mia.” And with that, Pinkie bounced backward straight into a wall. “Owie, what happ -” Turning around, she saw exactly what she bumped into. “Woah.” Find the town’s center, check. Before them, the town’s central building sprawled. Stories high, covered in mirrors and flyers, with crystal wiring so powerful Twilight could feel it just from being nearby. She walked up to the wall and looked through some of the flyers. Starlight Glimmer. Cutie Marked Supreme. Under that, a photograph of a mare with a pink coat, concealed under a hooded cloak that might have been stuck to her skin. “Who’s Starlight Glimmer?”, she wondered, mentally listing possibilities - mayor, resistance member, tyrant. At this, the door to the hall opened, and the very mare on the photo stepped out, concealed within the same cloak. (How had she known they were there? Perhaps she had heard their hoofsteps, or perhaps there was an alarm spell on the area, or maybe Pinkie crashing into a wall was just loud). Looking toward the pair of friends, her mouth curved into something like a smile (and, at the sight of Pinkie’s wings and horn, her eyes widened in something like shock). “Hello! I’m sure you’re weary from your travels, with many questions. Please, come in, if you want. Our town hall is your town hall.” And with that, she retreated back inside. “You ready, Twililililili?” “I think so, but I’ve also realized why this place makes me nervous. The entire point of towns in the Equestrian Confederate Realms is that they’re places for ponies to work together. For an establishment like this, there should be constant hustle and bustle, and plenty of different flyers. But every single paper posted here is the same, and that mare might be the only pony in the building.” And with Twilight’s cutie mark, she felt the effect more strongly than most - that there weren’t ponies around, working together, was an affront to everything that she lived for. “Eh, I was scared too, but then I remembered my future self never led me wrong before!” With that, the alicorn stepped into the building, too quickly for her to hear Twilight’s response. “But your future self has never led you before at all!”