Our World Wasn't As Perfect As It Seemed

by bass-and-the-siren8976

Introductions Are Due It Seems

In the Artic North near the Crystal Empire, two stallions rush through the snow. A gray unicorn with an auburn mane carries a letter in the air with his magic. Beside him, a white earth pony with a pink and blue mane skips nonchalantly. “Have we lost them Cotton!” the gray one gallops as fast as he can. Cotton looks back while skipping “Nope! The Bears are still after us! Isn’t this exciting, Bitter!” One of the bear’s jumps at Bitter who yelps and runs to the side. As one jumps at Cotton, he jumps over it while humming.
After what seemed like hours, the two finally run into the throne room. Bitter, who is covered in cuts, pants and tries to speak but can only release of gasp as he begins panting from their rigorous run. Cadence and Shining Armor glance at each other from their thrones before they speak. “Um… Private first class Bitter, is everything all right?” Cadence stepped down from the thrown to check up on them. Cotton beamed “Yep! We just ran into some bears! Bitter’s really slow!”. Cadence gasped and left to get a nurse while Shining Armor stepped forward “PFC Bitter, SPC Cotton Candy, what do you need?”. Bitter regained his composure and passed the letter with his magic. Shining Armor began to read it ”Dear Prince Shining Amor and Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire… you are need in Canterlot immediately! Please hurry…” Cotton saluted “Goodbye prince! Stay safe!” He chuckled and pointed at the letter “You two have to come along.”

Meanwhile, at Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie stepped into the house. Rainbow flew in with Fluttershy and Evergreen, who informs them that Big Mac arrived and is taking care of Autumn at the cottage. Applejack walked over to her friends “What’s the matter, sugar cube?”. Twilight looked concerned “The princess has called us to Canterlot urgently, I have no idea what’s happening but it’s important!” The 6 of them headed outside, where Princess Cadence was waiting with a chariot, Evergreen flew off somewhere before they had exited. As they piled in, Cadence motioned for the Pegasus guards to begin flying. Rarity looked at the princess “Princess Cadence… If I may, why is it that we’re being called on?” Cadence shook her head “I’m sorry, the letter never specified.” Rainbow Dash groaned “What if it’s something boring! Like another test for Twilight! Or Gala preparations!”
Cadence re-read the letter “No, No. it’s certainly something important…” Fluttershy gulped “W-what if Discord’s gone bad again! Or, or… Chrysalis! Or-” Pinkie laughed “If it was Discord, I’m pretty sure I would be able to tell! I can smell his cotton candy clouds from a mile away! And if it was Chrysalis, I would be having fun with my clones!” Applejack sighed “I sure hope it ain’t those two…” Before they had realized, the chariot had landed in front of the Castle. Twilight was the first to jump out and hurriedly ran through the halls with the others in tow. As soon as she came upon the throne room door, she pushed it open and dashed inside. Princess Celestia was alone in the room.

“Princess! Is everything alright! Are there changelings! Is it Discord! Or worse, DO I HAVE A TEST-” the princess raised her hoof to stop her student “No. It isn’t Discord or anything of the sort… But, as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, I will need all of you.” Shining Armor stepped forward, and Cadence went to stand beside him. “There are some ponies I want you to meet…” she gestured to Shining Armor. “Oh! Yes, right…” he walked over and knocked on a door on the side of the room “Come in, one at a time!”.
The first one to walk in was Bitter. “This is Bitter. He is a Private First Class in the Crystal Empire Army.” Bitter waved at the group “Um… hello. I’m Bitter. Nice to meet you, I guess.” He stood next to the throne. Next was Cotton “This is Specialist Cotton Candy of the Crystal Empire.” Cotton jumped up “Hi! I’m Cotton! Nice to meet you all!” he skipped over to Bitter. “This,” Beowulf stepped in with a frown and headphones propped up against his neck “Is Beowulf.” Beowulf sighed as he walked “Hello elements.” The next one out was Black Board. Before Celestia could speak, he readjusted his glasses “I’m Black Board. It’s nice to meet all of you.” As Black Board walked to the rest of the group, his eyes met with Rarity and he smirked. She could feel a chill running down her spine. The final one to enter was Evergreen who waved at the group “Hi, you know me. I think… I mean Applejack must’ve mentioned me, right?” he landed by the others.

“Since you did such a good job with Discord, I would like you to reform them.” Celestia motioned to the stallions with her hoof. “REFORM!” Applejack’s jaw nearly hit the floor and she looked at her cousin “What do you mean reform!” Beowulf sighed “You see, from your standards, we’re what you might call villains. From our point of view, we’re just a little creative with our defenses.” Applejack glared at him “What do ya’ mean, creative?” Celestia cleared her throat “They are part of something we simply call, The Facility. They…” she shivered “They perform… experiments on ponies.” Twilight gasped “Experiments!” Black Board glanced at them before speaking “We prefer to call them modifications. We make ponies, stronger. We create ponies that can easily defend Equestria. And if it makes you feel better, other than the 5 ponies here with me, there are only 2 other modified ponies-”
“5?” Rarity looked around “There are only 4 of you.” Cadence sighed and knocked on the door “Please, come out. It’ll be fine, I promise.” The door opened slowly and a maroon stallion with a mane that looked slightly similar to Sunset Shimmer’s stepped out. “This is Stern.” Cadence said as he slowly walked to the rest of the group “You should be a little… gentle with him.” Twilight shook her head “No matter what you say, your actions are inexcusable! Princess, how could you allow this!?” Celestia closed her eyes “Unfortunately, The Facility has lent us strength several times. And as bad as their actions are, it’s true that they have only stayed within their group. Up until now, there was honestly nothing we could do with them.” She looked at Twilight “If you truly feel this way about their actions, isn’t it all the more reason to reform them?” Twilight sighed, unable to argue with her teachers reasoning.

“Well,” Celestia glanced at the members of The Facility “It’s time to assign you to your reformers.” Shining Armor pulled out a list “Applejack, you are assigned to Beowulf.” Beowulf reluctantly trotted towards Applejack who glared at him “Rainbow Dash, Bitter.” Bitter walked to Rainbow and the two nodded at each other “Pinkie Pie, Cotton Candy.” Cotton skipped to Pinkie Pie who pulled out her welcome wagon and blasted out confetti “Fluttershy, Evergreen Apple.” Evergreen flew and landed next to Fluttershy, who didn’t know what to think about him anymore “Rarity, Black Board.” Black Board walked over and Rarity sighed “Princess Twilight Sparkle, Stern.” Stern glanced at Cadence who pushed him forward. “Twilight,” Shining Armor walked to his sister “We need you to be extremely gentle with this one. He’s kinda… unstable.” Twilight’s eyes widened and he quickly blurted out “I mean he’ll easily get sad! Not crazy and evil.”

“Girls,” Celestia looked at them seriously “I want you all to take this very seriously.” Twilight nodded “Of course, Princess.” Twilight and the rest went outside with the members of the facility. “I think some introductions are in order.” Black Board trotted to the front and stopped the group “I am Black Board. The current leader of The Facility.” Rarity scoffed at him “Why should you get to introduce yourselves? I don’t see any value in friendship with you-” Beowulf trotted forward and grinned “Isn’t the whole point of reformation friendship?” Twilight sighed and motioned for the others to let them speak. “I have no modifications,” Black Board continued “But right now, I am the only one capable of modifying others.” Rarity glared at him “So you’re the creator of these, these, creatures-” Before Twilight could scold her, Black Board gritted his teeth “What did you call them! We are ponies just like you! I wasn’t the one who started this! These things were forced upon us! We just learned to live with them! You don’t know anything about what we’ve been through-”

Rarity shouted “Then perhaps you can inform us!” Twilight glared at her “Rarity!” Black Board looked directly at Rarity “There was a stallion we all admired as an elder brother. We had always been ridiculed for being orphans; he did this to make it so no one would ever hurt us. We hate him. He corrupted my mind, giving me temporary insanity at times!” They turned when they heard Bitter “He used all the magical energy that should’ve been directed to my horn during spells to give me rather fast healing…” Cotton piped in “I can go super-fast! Well…twice your speed!” Evergreen whispered “I can hear a lot better than most ponies…” Twilight looked at Stern “H-how about you?” Black Board interrupted “Stern and Beowulf don’t like to talk about it.” Rarity sighed “W-well I suppose, that I may give you a chance…” Black Board nodded and moved to the side to let the others continue walking.

Author's Note:

So, what do you think? Also, as for the time frame, Twi's already an Alicorn but there isn't any season 4 canon. I haven't seen season 4 yet unfortunately. Comments and Suggestions appreciated.