//------------------------------//
// Escape to..."Ponyville?" 
// Story: Caught Between Day and Night 
// by lord_steak 
//------------------------------//

Another gorgeous sunrise greeted Ponyton.  Princess Dawn Twinkle smiled broadly as the sun crested over the eastern mountains, watching from The Palace of Harmony’s cathedral balcony. She was a thin and lithe alicorn, sky blue dappled with white, dark blue eyes, and braided mane and tail the colour of the sun at sunrise.  The princess, of course, had already been up for several hours, attending to her morning routine of study and worshipful meditation.  The warming sunbeams pressed into her fur and she inhaled deeply and happily.  Life had been very good to her: studies under Princess Galactia, becoming a bearer of an Element of Friendship, spreading harmony around the world...her work gave her great satisfaction and contentment.
 
She couldn’t help but smile when she thought about her achievements: Dawn had averted war on four separate occasions, turning the would-be belligerents into friends.  Internal threats came to the United Pony Kingdoms numerous times, and she and the other Element Bearers prevented the tragedies, often turning lives around for the better in the process.  They made peace with many other species: the Deer and Elk kingdoms, the Yaks of the north, the Bison of the west, the Water Buffalo of the east, and the Wildebeest to the south.  Trade had grown across the continent and shipping lanes over the ocean were taking hold.  Peace and prosperity reigned.  Coffers everywhere were filling up.  Even the poor across the known world were nowhere near as destitute as they once were.  Homelessness was almost a thing of the past, and at the rate they were going, would be in the next three years.
 
Yet…, there was something wrong with the world, something very wrong.  There was talk of “grey waves” that shattered everything in their path, leaving an empty void behind them.  Princess J’aime La Musique had disappeared after such a wave struck her palace…the whole town, gone without a trace.  Many went to look, but found a new edge of the world before they got to where it was.  There had been other grey waves, and it had been awhile since the last one was seen, but it still was unsettling to think reality was just plain falling apart.  Princess Galactia and Princess Soleila had been frantically searching for answers.  Late last night an answer came from Princess Galactia.  Dawn did not know what books, or what astronomy, or what powerful magic the royal sisters went through to find an answer, but it was not a good one.  She said their world and another were in competition for reality, for existence, that for one to survive the other had to die.  Galactia said that their world, from what they could tell, was losing the fight.
 
I can’t believe such a thing.  And even if it were true, I cannot and will not believe the gods would choose to destroy us instead of this other.  We’ve ever been true unto them.  We’ve shone the light they wished to every society, to every corner of Equus.  We’ve made every enemy into a friend.  We used the Elements of Friendship they bestowed upon us as their written wills commanded us to do.
 
She felt a rumble.  Looking down, she noticed the book she set down on the banister was vibrating.  She looked around.  Ponies came out of their homes in a frightened clamour.  Dawn flitted upward, continuing to look around.  And out of the west she saw it: a grey wave.  It was headed at Ponyton.
 
She swooped down, and, using a spell to amplify her voice, “Everypony run!  There’s a grey wave coming out of the west!”
 
Ponyton’s resident didn’t need telling twice.  They set off at a full gallop toward the rising sun.  But the wave was coming, and coming quickly.  Pegasi took off.  The wave crashed through The Palace of Harmony, which went to pieces that quickly disappeared from existence.  Dawn looked back to see the houses and stragglers be swallowed up.  The wave spanned horizon-to-horizon, and began overtaking the rest.
 
Dawn swooped down as the wave approached a zebra in the crowd, shouting, “Tabasamu!  I’m coming!”
 
“Save yourself!  For me it’s too late!  Please, Dawn, do not hesitate!” he shouted.
 
He disappeared as the wave overtook him.  The dappled princess started to cry as she pulled up before the wave snatched her, too.  Others she knew fell, including the other Element Bearers: Amber Waves was next after Tabasamu Kubwa, then Garland Wreath was swallowed, Nightwatch’s air speed could not get away, and neither could Greased Lightning’s.
 
No...no, no, no…!!  My friends...I’m sorry...I’m so sorry...this can’t be happening...why would the gods do this…??  How could they betray their truest followers?  I…can’t…Tabasamu, Amber, Garland, Nighty, Lightning…I loved you all….
 
Dawn screamed as she pulled up into a vertical climb, eyes clamped shut and flowing with tears.  She wailed in heaving sobs as she could not climb any higher.  The abyss below tugged at her as the grey wave collapsed, another area of the world claimed.  She opened her eyes and looked downward, refusing to flap any more.
 
There’s nothing now...no reason...may as well join my friends in the beyond….
 
She sighed and passed out as she tumbled out of the sky, into the empty nothing below.
 



 
Dawn groaned and snorted, her nose full of dry dirt.  She opened her eyes, and found herself in a familiar woodland, with familiar flora around in every direction.
 
The Unchained Woods...must’ve been a nightmare.  I don’t recall coming out here, but that sure beats those grey waves.  Eugh...creepy.  I need to stop reading all those old myths.  Not sure why the ancient ponies conjured up such horrible tales and scary legends...they had enough to deal with back then.  Now, where am I in the woods?
 
Dawn started to trot along a small animal path.  She pressed through saplings, over fallen logs, and around greenbrier patches.  The princess, however, did not recognize where the trees where, nor their shapes, nor their undergrowth...as if the gods shifted everything around on a tabletop model.  Even the creek didn’t look like one she’d seen in The Unchained Woods.
 
At least the creatures look familiar...where the heck am I?  Do I go upstream and up the hill to look around, or downstream until it hits a river?
 
Dawn turned upstream.  The brook was about a length and a half wide and not particularly deep, except by its cut banks.  Time passed.  Half an hour?  Maybe a full hour?  Dawn wasn’t sure.  What was certain, though, was that the trees began to thin and shorten.  With a glint of hope kindled in her heart, Dawn pressed forward along the stream.  She came out of the woods.
 
What the…?  That’s not...what’s going on here!?
 
Dawn found herself on the outskirts of a rural, agrarian town.  It resembled Ponyton in many, many ways, but...something was off.  The wood-framed Tudor architecture was right.  But the frames were all the wrong colour.  Ponyton’s frames were all a rich dark brown; these all had redder frames, like they were cedar or something similar.  Dawn cautiously stepped forward.  Nopony had noticed her yet.  As she walked forward, she felt eyes upon her.  She looked to her right, and saw a white unicorn with a crazy blue mane and tail, wearing purple shades and headphones looking at her with a raised eyebrow.  The faint hum of electronica with a heavy bass line leaked from the headphones.
 
Dawn walked over to her and asked, “Excuse me, miss, can you please tell me what’s going on?”
 
The unicorn titled her head to the side.  She stopped her music player and pulled down her headphones.  She also pulled down her purple shades, revealing a pair of red-magenta eyes that were full of confusion, surprise, and a hint of distrust.  Dawn pursed her lips and repeated, “Miss, can you tell me what’s going on, please?”
 
The unicorn just blinked at her.  Dawn tried again.  “I don’t recall seeing you in Ponyton before, ma’am.  May I have your name, please, and tell me what’s happened to town?”
 
The unicorn frowned.  She tapped at her throat and shook her head.  Dawn’s eyes widened for a moment as her mouth rounded.  “Oh...my apologies, miss.”
 
The unicorn patted her on the shoulder, then pantomimed...something.  Directions, maybe?  Letter shapes?  Dawn couldn’t tell, but tried to keep up.  After she finished, Dawn said, “Um, thanks?  I’ll...just head home, I think.  Hope it’s still in the same place….”
 
The unicorn stared as Dawn walked away, and shrugged.  Dawn passed between two houses, both of which looked unfamiliar.  Out onto the street, she found the whole place shuffled.  Buildings were shaped wrong, and the wrong colours.  Everypony she came across looked familiar, yet clearly were not the ponies she knew from Ponyton.  That mare with the two-toned mane was a few colours off from Chocolate Kisses, this mare with the keg was too purple to be Cider Cup, and that red draft stallion looked so much like Oat Rows it gave her a headache.
 
Was...was the grey wave a real event?  Did that really happen?  But I’m still living and breathing...so that means—but this is a bad mirror-image of Ponyton!  Maybe I’m dead, and this is the afterlife?  If it is, I have to find my friends!
 
Dawn rushed onward and found the bazaar.  To call it a ‘bazaar’ would not quite be accurate.  Maybe a ‘farmer’s market’ would have been better, as pretty much everything for sale was fresh produce and the like.  Dawn quickly found herself subjected to numerous confused stares as conversations halted when she walked by.  Everypony made way for her.  In under two minutes the marketplace had gone silent, with all eyes on her.  Dawn’s cheeks heated up and her ears flattened while she walked forward.  Hushed voices echoed around the stalls, mostly mystified at her presence, though there was plenty of suspicion, distrust, and accusation going around.
 
Dawn turned around, looking across the sea of eyes.  After a brief moment to think about what to say, she asked the crowd, “Is…there anypony here who knows who I am?”
 
More murmuring answered her.  Much of it was more confusion.  Some of it was pity.  Others sounded angry, as if she were insulting them all.  One word kept popping up that she could distinguish: “twilight.”
 
Dawn cut in, “I’m just looking for a familiar face.  Any familiar face.”
 
“It’d help if we know who you are!” shouted somepony in the crowd.  Many others murmured in assent.
 
This isn’t going to go over well….
 
“My name is Dawn Twinkle, and I have no idea where I am,” she said, almost fully masking her anxiety and apprehension.
 
“Ponyville!” the crowded shouted in near-unison, making Dawn stagger a moment from the sheer volume.  The hushed talking amongst themselves resumed to varying degrees and states of emotion, though none had returned to what they were doing.  The word “twilight” came up in many more of these side conversations.
 
Well...that at least explains why it doesn’t look like Ponyton, but I’ve never heard of a place named “Ponyville” anywhere, foreign or domestic.
 
“Are you a princess?” some stallion shouted.  The entire crowd shut up and stared at her again.
 
Oh, horsefeathers...somepony just had to ask...gonna go down like a lead balloon….
 
“Well...yeah, or at least, I was...I don’t know anymore,” Dawn said sheepishly.  The tone among those talking turned much more accusatory as she shrank under the crowd pressure, with that “twilight” word coming from every direction.
 
Yeah...that went well….
 
“Look,” Dawn started.  “I’m just trying to find a few of my friends that may have come this way.  Has anypony around here seen a zebra—” several ponies’ faces lit up “—named ‘Tabasamu Kubwa,’ by any chance?”
 
All the faces that brightened after hearing the word “zebra” dropped back to their previous state upon hearing his name.  Dawn’s shoulders slumped.
 
Thought he would’ve stood out the most, since zebras are rarely seen on this side of the ocean, and his contagious glee already seemed like it was in the air, until they all saw me.  Guess they’ve seen a different zebra.
 
“Or a thestral named ‘Nightwatch?’”
 
Some blinked.  Others shook their heads.  Most of them just stared.
 
So much for the two most-recognisable of my friends.  This doesn’t bode well.
 
“A fast pegasus called ‘Greased Lightning?’”
 
No response came from the crowd.  Dawn’s ears drooped.
 
“A festival unicorn by the name of ‘Garland Wreath?’”
 
Still no answer came.  Tears started welling up.
 
“A grain-farming earth pony named ‘Amber Waves?’”
 
Silence, again.
 
Where are my friends, if they’re not here?  And what kind of afterlife is this?  This is nothing like what the gods promised….
 
Dawn hung her head as she began to trudge away in some random direction.  She tried to withhold the sobbing, with limited success.  Crowd noise resumed, still with “twilight” coming off of most lips.  Her mind found no reason to dwell on why these ponies were so concerned with sunset and just after.  She just wanted to leave, wanted any hint of what became of her friends, wanted any clue as to where this so-called “Ponyville” was and how to get home.
 
She felt somepony give her a push.  Dawn opened her eyes to see a concerned unicorn mare with a mint coat, whose voice, coat, and mane were a touch away from being the same as Balladeer.  “Um, Miss Dawn, you were about to walk into a wall.”
 
Dawn looked up to see the side of a house not even two steps in front of her.  She adjusted her course down the street, paying no further mind to the crowd noise as she muttered, “Sorry...thank you….”
 
Crowd noise picked up, along with instances of that word.  A young mare’s voice called from overhead, “What’s going on here?”
 
Dawn opened her eyes to see a young mare land.  Her eyes about shot out of their sockets when she noticed the horn along with the wings.
 
Who...there’s a sixth princess!?  Just how many of us are there?!  May as well make the crowns out of brass if this keeps up….
 
This alicorn was a lavender colour, with a dark blue mane and tail that both had one purple and one magenta streak side-by-side in them that all fell in a very straight pattern.  On her back was a tiny purple dragon with green spines.  Dawn noticed the entire crowd pointed this princess toward her.  The alicorn in question turned, and gasped deeply as their eyes met.
 
Before Dawn could say anything, this other alicorn exuberantly motor-mouthed, “Oh my gosh!  You’re an alicorn too!?  But I didn’t know there was a sixth one of us!  Where are you from?  You must be a visitor from a distant land!  I had no idea we had a dignitary coming!  Spike, prepare the Ambassador Suite for our guest!  I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle!  Welcome to Equestria!  May I get your name, please?”
 
Dawn felt suddenly woozy and overheated.  Her vision grayed out and went to a tunnel as she uttered, “Dawn...Princess Dawn Twinkle….”
 
As unconsciousness overtook her, Dawn heard the little dragon say, “Geez, Twi, you overdid it again….”