Always Has Been

by Eakin

Chapter 1

ALWAYS HAS BEEN

Chapter 1:
Twilight stepped off the express train from Canterlot onto the platform of the Ponyville train station.

“Back at last. Come on guys, let’s go home. I could use a few days off before the Princess calls us back again to deal with whatever elemental spirit of destruction or eldritch abomination from beyond the stars shows up tomorrow,” she said over her shoulder. At her order her cadre of pets and helpers stepped out as well. Spike, her number one assistant and second in command, was as always the first to run to her side. Owlysious followed, along with the two phoenixes; Philomena's daughter Phillamini and youngest son PeeWee. Twilight’s pony friends had all caught earlier trains home, while she had gotten stuck with the paperwork for their latest use of the Elements of Harmony.

She cast her thoughts back to earlier days, when she and her friends could just show up in Canterlot, ask the Princess to borrow the Elements to fight whatever menace was threatening Equestria this time, set out to battle and been home by supper. But that could never work now. With all the action the Elements and their Bearers saw these days, the ancient relics needed to be properly checked in and out so the unicorns of the magic academy could recharge them as quickly as possible.

“Twi, let’s get moving. I’d like to get home before second sundown for once,” prompted Spike. Glancing upward Twilight realized he was right. Celestia’s sun had already set, and the smaller orb that her son Lucifer rose and set each day was getting ready to follow it. Titania’s moon had already been up for nearly two hours, with Luna’s and Artemis’ moons soon to come.

“Lead the way, number one assistant,” said Twilight as she gave the young dragon an affectionate nudge with her muzzle.

They walked along in silence. Twilight took the opportunity to contemplate the town. Her life had changed in so many ways since she moved here a decade ago. Life in Canterlot had certainly been a lot less exciting. She’d lost track of all the natural disasters, monster attacks, scientific experiments gone wrong (an embarrassingly large portion of which were her fault), and other forms of mass destruction that had rolled through Ponyville over the years. No matter how bad the destruction got though, the town always bounced back as if it had never happened at all.

A few months ago, on a whim, she’d sifted through the official Hall of Records archive to get an exact count. There had been 3437 incidents that had been classified at the “Total Calamity” level or higher over the last 10 years. They seemed to occur about once a week.

Something had bothered her about those numbers, but she remembered each and every one of the disasters as having happened. Usually she and her friends had been in the middle of it.

She turned at the corner where Sugarcube Corner stood, pausing a moment to glance inside. She saw Pinkie Pie directing the four Pie fillies who helped run the bakery while she was away fighting evil and saving the world all the time. Even though Pound and Pumpkin as well as their younger siblings Angel Food and Devil Food were still too young to take over on their own, they’d developed into a wonderful team. They were, collectively, stunningly independent for their age. The Cake’s second set of twins had been born a year and a half after the first. The Cakes were delighted to finally find themselves the parents of an Earth pony son. Not that they had been any less pleased about their Seapony daughter, she had been a joyful surprise. Heavy on the surprise.

It wasn’t that seaponies weren’t an incredibly important part of Ponyville, of course. They always had been, doing as much as any other pony to make the town work. Even her friend Rarity’s mother was a sea pony. Twilight had met her one day when she had walked Sweetie Belle over to Carousel Boutique while Twilight had been there ordering a new dress, and they’d had a nice chat about the finer points of oceanic currents.

No, wait, Rarity’s mother was a unicorn. The conversation had been about thaumaturgical currents, not the oceanic variety.

No, that wasn’t right, she had definitely been a sea pony. Now that she thought about it, she clearly remembered BOTH conversations. They’d been surprisingly similar, really. But it wasn’t like Rarity had two mothers...

Twilight felt a sharp lance of pain in her head. Great, yet another migraine. They seemed to be happening more and more frequently these days. Probably just all the stress she’d been under. She would feel better once she was home and had a good night's sleep.

The small entourage continued down the street. Twilight stole a glance at the shop across the way from Sugar Cube Corner. She liked Pinkie’s sister, she really did. They’d even become good friends. But she could never feel entirely comfortable about Pinkamena’s Pikes, Pistols, and Partisans, the weapon shop she ran. It just didn’t seem to fit comfortably in Twilight’s mental picture of Ponyville. It was nice that the two of them had moved from their family’s rock farm to Ponyville together, but Twilight couldn’t imagine a more different pair of identical twins.

Almost home now. She could already see the grove of oak trees that had created the frame of her library. The three humongous trees grew so close together that bridges between the upper floors had been woven out of their branches. The library was a botanical miracle. Everything Twilight knew about plants suggested that they shouldn’t have been able to grow that way at all. Their root systems should have tied each other into a hopeless mess, and one of the trees should have overshadowed the other two, slowly starving them of Celestia’s (and Lucifer’s, can’t forget Lucifer) life giving sunlight. Still here they were, against all odds, just like they always had been.

Twilight’s party opened the front door and was immediately rewarded with the delicious smells of a home cooked meal. Homemade wheatgrass curry, her absolute favorite.

“Dawn, you are far too good to me” said Twilight, her mouth already beginning to water as she carried Phillamini and PeeWee to their perch and poured them a bowl of phoenix feed.

“Hey, it’s my favorite too” said Dawn from the kitchen. The purple unicorn stepped out into the foyer to greet Twilight. “Welcome home, sis.”

If Pinkamena and Pinkie were the least similar identical twin Twilight could imagine, she and Dawn were the most similar and always had been. They had the same taste in... well... everything. The same special talents, the same cutie marks. They had even been accepted together by Celestia as her personal students. Twilight was proud to have fought beside her sister against everything Equestria could throw at them, first as fellow mages and later as fellow Element bearers.

“Well, I don’t know about you...” both ponies smiled at Dawn’s little joke. They had always been able to tell exactly how the other thought or felt. It was just the special bond they shared as twins. “...but I think we should eat. Then I’m looking forward to bed, honestly. That last mission really left me drained.”

“No kidding,” added Spike. “At least we should have some time to catch up on rest now. I feel like I could- *cough* -sleep for- *cough* a week.” With those last few words and another hacking cough, Spike produced a spurt of green dragon fire. As it cleared, a letter fell onto the oak table. A letter than bore the royal seal of Canterlot. Twilight stared at it, her curry momentarily forgotten. It couldn’t be another mission already, they had JUST saved the nation of Equestria not a dozen hours before. Besides, the Elements were drained as dry as Twilight had ever seen them. They needed time to recharge and recuperate, just like their bearers. Maybe it wasn’t a mission. Maybe it was an invitation to some sort of celebration. Or heck, maybe it was just a simple thank you note.

“I don’t suppose” said Dawn “that she might have just sent us a friendly letter or an invitation to her birthday party, do you?” They shared a sideways glance and both rolled their eyes. “It’s your turn to open it, Twi.”

Twilight broke the seal and unfurled the letter. She quickly read the letter. It was brief and straight to the point, as if Princess Celestia had grown as tired of writing these sorts of letters as Twilight had of receiving them.

“She wants an audience with all of us first thing tomorrow.”

Dawn groaned. “Does it say why?”

“The usual. ‘A matter of utmost importance to the future of Equestria.’” Twilight rose wearily and walked over to Owlysious’ perch. “Would you mind taking this to the other bearers tonight, please?”

“Hoo?”

“Don’t start that. I’m much too tired right now.”

“...You’re no fun anymore, Twilight” Owlysious said in perfect Equestrian. “I take it you’ll be asleep before I get back?”

“Well before, I hope.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Try to get some rest Twilight, you look exhausted.”

She smiled wearily. “I’ll try. See you tomorrow Owlysious.” She returned to the dinner table as Owlysious flew out into the night to deliver the letters. The news of her early morning appointment had killed the anticipation she’d felt for her meal, but she mechanically dug into the curry anyway. It was delicious. Dawn had become an excellent cook over the last few years, much better than Twilight was. Not that that was saying much. Twilight had slowly taken more and more of the responsibilities of leading the Bearers after they had both agreed (naturally) that identical twins or not the team needed a single leadership figure to rally around. Twilight had won their traditional coin flip. In response to her sister’s new responsibilities Dawn had picked up a lot of her slack on the domestic front. It bothered her that they were different from one another in even minor ways. They had always been identical in every regard, and now that they weren’t Twilight felt like she had lost something she hadn’t realized she had relied on always having.

They ate in silence, exhausted from the months of lurching from disaster to disaster, alway hoping against hope that after this one things would surely calm down, that they’d be able to relax at last. But it was getting harder and harder to find even a moment of peace. After dinner, they decided to leave the dishes for the following day, or whenever the next time they returned to the library might be. Retiring for the evening, Twilight set her alarm for before daybreak and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Comments

[Eakin]

So yeah, this one's going to be a weird ride, no getting around that. A story that grew from a challenge to turn one of my own wise-ass comment about retcons in the Season 2 finale into an actual serious story. I have a few more chapters already written but I need to go back to them and do some rewrites. Given the themes of this story that's either a brilliant example of meta-textual irony or me being an indecisive twat.

Lack of the Alternate Universe tag was intentional, by the way.

[Scarlet Key]

8 Elements?

[Eakin]

1083270
Intrigued yet?

[uberPhoenix]

You have my full and undivided attention. This is amazingly well written, and I cannot wait to see where you go with this.

[Scarlet Key]

verry much. Started reading right now. Peewee isn't Philomina's son, though.
I like how there are now 2 suns and 3 moons.

[Scarlet Key]

And SEAPONY CAKE!?!?!

[Eakin]

1083289
Thanks. As my description mentioned I can't promise how often this'll get updated, but when it does it should be a mind f^$k

1083293
Or IS he?

1083301
You know it will probably be more efficient if we consolidate all your freaking out to one comment and I can just respond to that.

[Scarlet Key]

1083305
maybe, but there is time between exiting discovories, and I need to point them out as soon as posible.
Anyway, LOVE it, faved, and liked.

[MarcDaJohnson]

Well played
I always suspected Rarity's mother of being a seapony.

[heynow]

I just... I have no idea how to respond my mind has exploded.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_future.png

[ray10k]

And now I wonder:
- Did Discord get turned to stone at all?
- Does Luna have a foal as well?
- Will we ever find out if Twilight's split memories (like about Rarity's mother) are caused by a villain trying to mentally unhinge her, or the result of her memory being overwritten as history changes around her?

Edit: yes, Luna has foals of her own. also, I think I spotted the first hint that things are fundamentally wrong: 10 years is about 3650 days, so how can there have been 3437 incidents going at a rate of one incident per week?

[Eakin]

1084659
"Yes" to the first two questions, "next chapter" to the third. And your observation re: the frequency of disasters is spot on, I don't just think Equestrian years are 10 times the length of Earth years or anything like that it's related to why ponyville is messed up as it is

[Deus]

I feel...so confused! Such subtle yet noticeable changes... and Twilight's picking up on them...

[ray10k]

1085582
Personally, I'd call having a twin sister, the parents of your best friend changing species and your previously practically mute pet speaking anything but subtle, but that is my view as an outside observer.

Also, scary thought: which memories are fake? Those of Rarity's mother being a Unicorn, or those of her being a Sea pony? Given the evidence, the first sounds the least plausible...

[DerpedRainbow]

1085637 To quote Discord in the ballad of Echo the diamond dog. 'Why does one have to be fake? Who says their not both fake?' Sue me if I am wrong and I will tell you I pointed you to a great story.

[arancaytar]

Possibly not intentional, but the weird, maybe fake memories and the sister named Dawn kind of reminded me of Buffy. :P