Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
The walk from the throne room up to the royal apartments had been a quiet, dreary affair. Usually after receiving an assignment from Celestia to go into battle they would be in high spirits. Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be bantering about which one of them would land the first kick on the thing’s face, or Pinkamena would be trying to goad Rarity into a snit by asking if she could turn the monster’s pelt into a new hat. This time was different though, and Celestia’s final warning had left them all shaken.
The eight Bearers walked into the elaborate 4-bedroom suite that had been their home away from home many a night for the last few years. Subtle and unobtrusive artwork hung on the walls, the main decoration in the room since the Canterlot Museum curators had ordered all breakable antique objects back to the vault after the ‘Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie play tag’ incident. No expense had been spared to bring the eight heroes every creature comfort the kingdom could provide. There were even personalized gift baskets on each one of the ponies’ beds.
None of it seemed all that appealing to any pony at the moment. As soon as he entered his room Rainbow Dash trotted over to a bay window that looked out over the plains that lay below Canterlot. While the others began unpacking the things they had brought with them from Ponyville he hopped up onto the cushioned seat and just stared out at the sky.
Dash tried to wrap his mind around what Celestia had just told him. He knew the Princess wouldn’t lie about something like this, but the idea of himself as a mare just seemed so ridiculous. When he tried as hard as he could, he could kind of pick out a few hazy memories of himself, but much younger and a filly. Did that even prove anything? It might be one of those things, like when some pony tells you not to think of an orange and yellow zebra and you can’t think of anything else. He wondered what he had been like as a mare. Had he been as awesome as he was now? Sure, his seven best friends were examples of just how awesome mares could be, but he was Rainbow Dash! Could you really improve something that was already pretty much perfect?
His friends. It always had seemed a little weird to him that only one of the eight Elements had gone to a colt. Over the years he’d just gotten used to shrugging off the question when it came up, not to mention the bawdy jokes that some colts liked to make about how he was so lucky to have ‘his own personal harem.’ None of the girls had ever held his gender against him or believed there had been anything to the jokes of course. They all just laughed it off with him.
Still, working so closely together in such a dangerous job for so long, it had probably been inevitable that romance bloomed within their little group. Over time they’d grown closer, and for nearly five years he’d been in a relationship with one of his best friends, feeling like the luckiest pegasus in the world. Sifting through his memories in the harsh new light Celestia had cast on them, though, he was starting to realize something.
He wasn’t sure which one of them it was.
He had never even considered cheating, he knew that much for sure. What kind of Element of Loyalty would two-time his own marefriend? But he remembered how nervous he had been when he’d asked Rarity out on their first date. He remembered the first kiss he’d shared with Dawn under the night sky. He remembered the random food fight with Pinkie Pie that had degenerated into them both making out on the floor of Sugar Cube Corner. He remembered the anniversary of his first date with Fluttershy when he had tried to surprise her with a home-cooked meal and nearly burned down her cottage. Hundreds of memories like that, with him ecstatic to be in a monogamous relationship with each of his seven teammates, apparently all at the same time and yet not. Rainbow Dash wondered what the other seven remembered about him, and how they would react if they realized the same thing he just had. Ideally, he would have tried to talk to them about it right away, but the present circumstances were hardly ideal.
Twilight and Dawn were the first to finish unpacking, putting every piece of clothing and equipment they had brought into the same carefully considered place as it always went when they visited. They returned to the main seating area and settled in while the others slowly finished as well and trickled back to the common area. Twilight decided to leave Rainbow Dash alone for the time being, trusting that he would come over on his own once he was ready to talk. Once the seven mares were all seated together, she stood and addressed them. “Well, until the research gets up here I think we should start brainstorming how we’re going to divvy up the search so it gets done as efficiently as possible. Dawn and I will start with the texts. Rarity, I’d like you and Applejack to talk to the scholars and see what they’ve-”
“Are you really going to ignore the fact that Celestia just told us that some of us aren’t supposed to exist?” asked Pinkemena, interrupting her.
“We need to get to work if we’re going to find this Book of Fate. We don’t have time to speculate about that kind of thing right now,” said Twilight.
“That’s stupid. If we can figure out which of us it is then at least the other six can stop worrying that they might be one. Besides, I think it’s pretty obvious who one of them is,” said Pinkemena.
Before Twilight could think better of it, she asked, “It is? Who?”
“Pinkie Pie, duh,” said Pinkemena, pointing a hoof in her sister’s direction. “I mean, you all must have noticed that she doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the world, right? All the weird stuff that goes on around her? Pinkie sense? What other pony do you know who can do any of that?”
A pink blur darted through the circle they were seated in, slamming into Pinkemena and knocking the chair she was sitting in over backwards. Two pink ponies tumbled head over heels, and when they came to rest Pinkie Pie was sitting on her sister’s chest, pinning her back to the floor.
“Take it back, ‘Mena! You take that back RIGHT NOW!” Pinkie shouted, stomping a hoof into Pinkemena’s chest for emphasis as their friends looked on, stunned by the display of violence from their usually sweet and easygoing friend. “If you don’t take it back this second I’ll... I’ll...”
Pinkemena looked up at her with a sneering grin on her face. “You’ll what? Stop existing at me?”
Pinkie screamed in rage and punched her sister in the face. Twilight finally snapped out of her shock and grabbed Pinkie in a field of magic, lifting the struggling pony off of Pinkemena. Pinkie struggled helplessly in the air, flailing her limbs in rage as she tried to get out of Twilight’s spell and back at her sister. Pinkemena sat up and wiped her foreleg against her muzzle. When it came away with some blood on it, she looked more impressed than angry.
“Damn, Pinkie,” she said, spitting a glob of saliva and blood onto the white carpeted floor “I never thought you had it in you. Maybe you really are my sister after all.”
For her part, Pinkie’s struggling slowed down as she tired herself out. Finally, she stopped and Twilight lowered her to the ground. Pinkie stared at her sister with tears in her eyes.
“Um, actually, Princess Celestia never said that she knew for sure that some of us, well, might not be from here. She just said there were two more Elements than there used to be, right? Well, um, maybe two of us were just normal ponies before something changed and we thought we had been using the Elements the whole time. I mean, sometimes I can’t believe I’m really the Element of Kindness. Maybe I wasn’t before. That wouldn’t be so terrible, would it?” suggested Fluttershy.
Twilight seized on Fluttershy’s words. “That’s an excellent point, Fluttershy, I’m sure the Princess just wanted to let us know what the most extreme scenario would be. There’s no reason for us to immediately assume the worst,” she assured her friends. Pinkie didn’t seem convinced. She stormed out of the circle.
“I’m gonna check on Dashie,” said Pinkie without turning her head. As she walked away, Applejack glared at Pinkemena, who scoffed and rolled her eyes. Twilight considered ordering Pinkemena to apologize, but knew from experience that she wasn’t likely to get very far. Deciding that she would rather move past the incident as quickly as possible, she cleared her throat.
“Well, I’m going to go downstairs and ask the library to send all their material up so we can get started right away. And I’ll see if they can send up lunch early, I skipped breakfast to catch the train this morning,” she said, pushing open the heavy oak doors with her magic. “I’ll be right back.”
Twilight walked through the halls of the royal apartments. Since it was the middle of the morning, most of the ponies she encountered were servants and maids, cleaning up after the departed residents from the night before. She gave them a friendly wave but didn’t stop to chat, letting them get on with their dusting and polishing of the hall’s trappings. All the bedrooms were vacant, save for one down Luna’s side of the hallway. Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard giggling voices from the room next to Luna’s personal chambers. She walked over and peeked through the door which had been left ajar.
Luna sat inside, laughing at something Twilight hadn’t heard. On either side of her were her daughters, Titania and Artemis. The two alicorn fillies took strongly after their mother in appearance. Just like Luna, they had dark coats although in Artemis’ case this contrasted with a stark white blaze in the shape of a five pointed star just below her horn. Their cutie marks all reflected different phases of the moons that they moved each night. Titania, the elder sister, was right on the cusp of marehood, approaching her 1500th birthday in just a few months time. Artemis, on the other hoof, was still an adolescent filly. She had barely been even 20 years old when Luna had been banished to the moon 1010 years ago.
The banishment had been hard on both of them. Artemis' father had helped them get through the initial stages of their grief over losing their mother, but being mortal he soon passed and it fall to their Aunt Celestia to take them in and raise them. Artemis had still been too young to understand what had happened, but Titania had been furious at being raised by the pony who she felt had betrayed her mother and locked her away. Celestia had told Twilight and Dawn stories of temper tantrums that had reduced mountains to rubble and arguments that had lit seas ablaze.
As the centuries wore on, though, Titania had grown to accept what had happened. By the time Dusk and Twilight had come to the castle she had let go of her rage and her adolescent rebellions had mellowed to things like dyeing her coat an especially neon shade of pink. The difference in maturity meant they hadn’t had much common ground with one another. Artemis, however, had been much closer to the twins in terms of maturity. Celestia had even arranged for her to foalsit the two unicorns on occasion, and the three of them hit it off. Twilight’s reminiscence was sullied when she remembered that now she had to try to figure out if any of that had ever actually happened, but she put her worries aside for the moment.
Currently the three alicorns were gathered around a Ponopoly board. Titania appeared to be far in the lead, gently teasing her sister for landing on North Marolina Avenue, fully upgraded to a palace. Twilight pushed the door open a little and stuck her head in, waving a hoof to catch Luna’s eye.
“Oh! Twilight!” said Luna, “I didn’t see you there, come on in.”
The bedroom was just as Twilight remembered it. Black silks and heavy velvet lay over dark wooden chairs, with two canopied beds across the room from one another where the sisters slept. They had begun sharing a bedroom as soon as they moved into the palace, so they could be close by to comfort each other, and the habit stuck even though they had the entire royal apartments available to them. The bed room's only window had heavy shutters that blotted out the midday sunlight when closed. But the real draw of the room was the ceiling. It was painted with an enchanted map of the stars in the night sky, slowly turning to match the real ones outside. Twilight and Dawn had spent hours staring up at it with Artemis, who had taught them everything they knew about astronomy. She wished she had time to linger there now.
“Oh, I can’t stay, I’m just making a snack run for my friends and picking up some research material, but I wanted to say hello,” said Twilight.
Luna shrugged. “Suit yourself. Actually, it’s about time for these two to get to bed anyway.”
Artemis and Titania groaned, but Luna raised a hoof to stifle any objections. “I won’t hear it. You should have been in bed an hour ago. Titania, you need to be up to raise your moon in not that long and I won’t have you pulling an all dayer. Go brush your teeth while I help your sister put on her pajamas,” she said.
Titania grumbled under her breath, but complied with her mother’s demand. “OK, good day everypony,” said Twilight from the doorway. She pulled her head back and shut it, resuming her trip to the kitchen. She couldn’t help but smile. It was funny in retrospect how Celestia had been so worried that Luna would become withdrawn and isolated after she had returned from her banishment. After she was defeated by the Bearers on their first mission together, she had moped for maybe an hour, or however long the chariot ride from Ponyville to Canterlot had taken exactly. Then came the moment she had been reunited with her daughters. Titania, especially, had been ecstatic to have her back. They’d hugged and cried for hours. The three alicorns had spent their first evening, night, and following day together in that very bedroom, just talking until the three of them passed out in a heap on the floor, exhausted but happier than any of them had been in a long time.
From the moment she awoke the next night, Luna was a whole new mare. She threw herself into every facet of modern day Equestria with a desperate energy, hungry to make up for lost time with her girls in any way she could. These days she probably knew more about Equestrian culture and society than any other pony, including Celestia.
By the time Twilight reached the kitchen, she found the cooks had already started assembling a platter of sandwiches and fruit for the Bearers. She chatted with them for a few minutes about families and goings-on in the castle, but didn’t mention the circumstances that had brought her there. Technically it was a state secret, but even if it weren’t Twilight didn’t see the need to share information that would shake them so dramatically when there was nothing they could do about it. Still, she found herself analyzing everything they said, trying to pick up hints of discrepancies that might indicate something had been altered.
Carrying the tray back the way she came, she ran into the scholars she had been planning to meet with coming out of the library, pulling a cart full of books behind them. The walked back to the suite together, and Twilight gathered that while they hadn’t really found anything definitive pointing to the location of the Book of Fate they at least had a few suggestions of where to start looking for clues.
Twilight entered the suite with everything she’d gathered up in the last half an hour. She looked around at what her friends had been up to in the meantime. Pinkie and Pinkemena were sitting on opposite ends of a couch with Dawn in between, trying to get them to reconcile. Twilight beamed with pride. That was her sister all right. The Element of Friendship had clearly known what it was doing when it chose her.
Applejack was chatting with Rainbow Dash, trying to cheer him up a little. Probably by trying to pick a fight, knowing them.
Rarity sat in a creaky rocking chair, staring out a window at nothing. Two knitting needles were suspended in a teal magic field, clattering away against each other as they worked on the beginnings of some garment, it was too soon to tell exactly what. Twilight knew that Rarity usually broke out her knitting needles when she wanted time to think, and took their presence as a good sign.
At first Twilight couldn’t figure out where Fluttershy had gotten off to until she glanced into her bedroom. The pegasus was napping, already worn out from the morning’s stress. Twilight lifted one of the larger tomes from the cart behind her and released it over the coffee table. It landed with a heavy THUMP. Everypony in the room turned their attention to her.
“Alright team,” said Twilight, “break’s over. Let’s get to work.”
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This explains where Shining Armour and Cadance came from.
1201173
And that is exactly the reverse of the point I was trying to make: both the "new" and the "old" memories are equally valid and real, given how they just originated from different timelines but got woven into the current one while retaining whatever details confirm them.
I'll give that story a shot sometime. got a ton of stories I'm already following.
So the elements of harmony act likea surgeon running on coffee, damn near perfect but not a substitute for sleep. The elements need some rest.
But honestly, this problem is like critics, complain about something without thinking about the problems of fixing it. Less monsters, Ended lives.
Celestia should just research a new way to stop these problems.
Poor Twilight, she will be missed
Also, you made Dawn an exact replica, even down to her cutiemark. What is her element, and Twilights?
1201898
I dropped it in at the end of chapter 3 but you might have missed it.
Pinkemena is the element of Pragmatism
The Mane 6 have the same elements as in canon, Twilight's still Element of Magic
Dawn is the Element of Friendship
1202877 I don't know how I missed it.
This has been a wonderful story, and I'm sorry to see it on hiatus. But it's a big project, big worldbuilding, and big stakes. The drama is subtle and worth all my feels.
As for where it is on the Hero's Journey, I'd say it's only 1/6 complete. Your storytelling instincts will strangle you if you try to tell it in a shorter time.
1967841
Not gonna lie, I really, REALLY want to come back to this story at some point. Even have a bittersweet ending for it. The middle is the tough part. Thanks for reading anyway.
1967850
I hope you figure it out, I quite interested to see where this goes.
This is pretty interesting. I hope you come back to this.
1967850 Add another vote for "yes, return to it when you can". This is sheer worldbuilding porn, and you're setting up for some extremely interesting conflicts as the ponies try to disentangle the timelines. Hell, even the horseshoe dropping of untangling R63!Dash x Everypony could be a story in itself.
Aw man, I just found this and it's already cancelled? It's so good! Could you at least switch it to on hiatus?
I mean, it's only been a year since you updated it..there's still hope.. 
this is brilliant!
I love all the little differences
you really are an amazing author
I've noticed that you seem to have a theme--at least through this story and the Hard Reset trilogy.
The elements being a force against the natural order.
Now, I'm not going to pretend to understand everything that went on in that story or this one, but it is a fun idea to toss around.
I'm curious, though, what brought this idea about? Or, at least, what are your thoughts on it? Is it something you've invested a lot of time in--barring the effort you've put into these incredible stories.
Your faithful reader,
Golden Script
P.S. Do you think you'll ever come back to this story, or is it truly and fully dead, like the Canceled tag makes me think? Either way, it was a fun story. I'm glad to have read it.
7830616
I would say dead. Anything of value was cannibalized and folded into You Can Fight Fate, in a way this was a practice run at some of the ideas I ended up using there.
As for where the Elements being a force against goodness comes from, I guess having artifacts be that powerful and as unambiguously good as they seem in canon didn't sit right with me. More dramatically interesting if they have either a cost/side effect like they do here, or a sinister agenda of their own as in Fate
7831767
And now all of the similarities make sense.
We'll, it was a blast to read. And there's still so much more to read! I'm looking forward to all of it!