Chapter 3: The Friendship Committee
Morning breached the infirmary’s windows, waking Shooting Star as it had the day before. As much as she loathed to take orders—openly resisting those from her superiors that she didn’t agree with—sleeping rough didn’t seem worth the point she would be making by doing it. The matron entered the room with a clipboard in hoof, seeming quite surprised when she looked up and noticed the pegasus resting in bed.
“Oh, you’re back.” She didn’t sound too pleased to see the escapee, though still approached and began testing the flexibility of her patient's wings.
Star didn’t reply, though not out of spite. Perhaps guilt? Or maybe she just had nothing to say.
“Good, your range of motion is improving nicely,” she continued, giving the pegasus one last look before returning to her desk near the double-doors.
“So… This is Equestria, huh?”
The nurse raised her head and turned, lifting an eyebrow. “It is. Where are you from?”
Star snorted and looked out the window ahead of her, through which the rainbow waterfall refracted a spectrum of hues across the otherwise white walls inside. “Here, apparently.”
“Goodness, are you telling me you have amnesia?” She stood up and walked back to the bed, concern across her face.
“No, I remember everything, it’s just… different.”
“Different how?” she cooed, putting the rear of her hoof to the pegasi’s forehead.
“Just… different. Similar, yet… The buildings, the ponies, nothing here is like my Canterlot.”
“Well, if you’re in a more talkative mood today, should I let the Princess know? I’m sure she'd love to talk to you about it, and she’ll be a lot more useful to you than I am.” Content that her patient didn't have a fever, the nurse removed her hoof and made a note to arrange a brain scan later. “She has a knack for sorting things like this out.”
Spike the Dragon suddenly burst through the double-doors, red in the face and breathing heavily.
“Sorry I'm late,” he huffed, leaning on his knees. “It was Hearts and Hooves day yesterday, and I ended up over-sleeping.”
The matron swapped places with the dragon, giving him a light-hearted eye-roll as he passed.
Shooting Star sneered. “Let me guess, you and your precious Princess?”
“Eww, gross! Twilight is like a sister to me!” he gagged, sticking out his tongue in disgust.
“Oh, sure, a dragon and an alicorn siblings, why didn't I assume?”
Spike shot her an unimpressed glance before spitting a small green flame out the side of his mouth, a signal to let Twilight know that her little project was awake. No sooner had he done so, the Princess teleported into the room with her trademark purple flash.
“You're awake! Good,” she beamed. “I hope you had a nice time with Rainbow Dash yesterday, I'm sure you had a lot in common to talk about. Spike, how was your date with Gabby?”
He blushed, chuckling as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, you know, it went pretty good. How did it go with Luster Dawn's friendship problem?”
“You know how it is with young fillies on Hearts and Hooves day. All she needed was a little perspective and a push in the right direction, just like when I was her age. More importantly, Rainbow Dash spoke to me after your little meeting, and I couldn't help but stay up all night researching the 'Valkyries' that you mentioned. Just like Dash and I recalled, the Valkyries were the very first iteration of what would later become the Wonderbolts! This was back during the Third Age, making it something that only historians or Wonderbolts members would know, narrowing down exactly where you fit into this puzzle.”
“You really shouldn't stay up all night like that, Twilight,” Spike interrupted, his arms folded. “Don't you have better things to do?”
“Pfft. Like what?”
“I don't know, like running the country?” He raised an eyebrow, causing Twilight to blush.
“Oh, right. Look, I'm sure everything is just fine without me keeping an eye on Equestria twenty-four hours a day. It's not like Celestia and Luna stepped in with every little problem.”
“Right, and how many times was Equestria in mortal danger under their watch?” Spike couldn't help but imagine a scene of ponies running back and forth across a flaming Ponyville, while Luna slept and Celestia sipped tea in their castle. “I know nothing major has happened since that whole Grogar thing, but we don't have the Elements of Harmony to fall back on anymore.”
“Ok, you've made your point, Spike. No more late nights,” she sighed. “Can I get back to what I was saying?”
He gestured for her to carry on.
“Thank you. Now where was I? Oh! So I was reading about the formation of the Valkyries at the beginning of the Great Griffon War, and I did find mention of a Lieutenant Shooting Star in the records. Of course it was an honorary title given to her after the war, since she was originally expelled from the academy for insubordination and the reckless endangerment of herself and others.”
“How do you know all this? Those are confidential records!” the rainbow-maned pegasus growled from the bed.
“As principal Princess I have access to all written records and historical archives, and let me tell you that power has not gone to waste!” She couldn't help but let out a barely tempered giggle-snort at the very thought of such literary adventures as of yet unhad, even after all her decades in power. Taking a breath to calm herself, she continued. “Records from that era are pretty spotty to say the least, but noted historian Silver Quill had already outlined and compiled the surviving documents in his own dissertation, so finding the originals was a breeze!”
“So if she's Shooting Star, are you saying what I think you're saying?” Spike asked, hoping for a more succinct answer.
“That's right, Spike. Right now we're looking at Equestria's first ever documented time-traveller!”
“You're joking, right?” Shooting Star straightened up, spreading her wings in contempt. “How in Equestria could I travel through time? That's impossible!”
“I was hoping that was something you could tell us.” The Princess seemed somewhat disappointed that Star didn't have an exciting story of her adventure through time at the ready, though not surprised. “But I can assure you, it is possible. I've done it myself on more than one occasion, and I'll be the first to tell anypony that time-travel should not be taken lightly.”
“As if!” She scoffed and crossed her forehooves, turning away; unwilling to entertain the idea for even a moment.
“As far as we know, Starswirl the Bearded was the only pony to ever formulate a working time-travel spell, though he never recorded using it himself. To somehow move through time accidentally... and by a pegasus no less!” Twilight's eyes had unfocused, lost in her own train of thought once again.
“Hey! I'm right here, you know!” she scowled. “It's not like I want to be, but I am!” She tossed the sheets from her lower legs and stood on the mattress, now eye-level with the princess and breathing angrily. “Princess, alicorn, I don't care; you need to start treating me like a real pony! I exist! I'm right here!” Her voice was bitter, but the tears welling up in her eyes spoke to an unshared fear. She was starting to lose grip on reality—whatever that meant anymore. She wasn't sure how much more of these mind games she could take. If this really was Discord's doing, then he was a certified evil genius.
“I'm sorry, I know you're upset. I didn't mean to reduce you to a problem that just needs solving.” The Princess bowed her head, attempting to diffuse the pegasus' anger. “I know I can get a little... wrapped up in things sometimes; and I know what it's like to need answers when you're feeling confused and alone. I'm being as forthcoming as I feel it's safe to be, but time-travel is a difficult situation to address—this is why it was banned so many moons ago by the Council of the Nine. Going forward in time isn't so much of a problem, but going back...” She sighed, risking Shooting Star's intense gaze with her own look of... regret? “Have you ever heard the term 'the ripple effect'?”
“No.”
“It's a way of exemplifying how something unassuming can have far reaching consequences—like a small pebble dropped into a large lake, creating ripples that reach across its entire surface.”
“So what's that supposed to mean?”
“Yeah, you've kinda lost me too, Twilight,” Spike confessed from her side.
“Basically, it means that even the slightest change to the past could completely alter the future; our present.” The princess turned to her advisor, who was clutching his head in worry.
“Are you saying that travelling back in time could-” he swallowed, “s-s-s-stop me from ever being born?!”
“It's highly unlikely, but yes; that's the problem, we have no idea what the effects of such a 'ripple' could bring. Knowing specific events of your own future—or maybe even just the time-travelling itself—could completely change Equestria as we know it!”
“Oh no!” Spike yelled, distraught and pale in the face.
“And that's just the beginning!” she continued. “For all we know, this was predestined, and sending her back is what we need to do to keep the timeline intact! Not doing anything could be the very mistake we were trying to avoid”
The purple dragon shrieked in existential fear, doubling over into a ball on the ground.
“So that's it, huh. You're sure I... travelled through time?” The pegasus' eyes were shadowed by a deep frown, but at least the anger seemed to have abated.
“If you really are Lieutenant Shooting Star of the Canterlot Valkyries, then that seems to be the only logical conclusion.”
The rainbow-maned pony exhaled, limply slumping down onto the bed.
“I'm sorry, I know it's not good news; but knowing is the first step on the road to a solution.” The Princess spoke softly, walking to the opposite side of the bed and laying a hoof near Star's. “We'll figure out what to do next—together.”
The pegasus looked up at Twilight through misty eyes and nodded, though the gesture seemed hollow in her confused and insecure state. The trio took a moment of silence to calm their racing minds before Twilight went on.
“As I mentioned before, records from your era are few and far between, be it from age, censorship, or lack of resources at the time. Can you remember anything from before you woke up here that might help us pinpoint when you came from?”
She snorted. “Why don't you ask Discord that? He must have been the one to send me here, there's no other explanation.”
“Was he the last thing you saw? The thing is... I already asked him what he remembers about you, and he said he doesn't recall anything before his showdown with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna—not even his years of rule over Equestria.”
“'Years of rule'?!'”
“Shoot! Um, pretend you didn't hear that, okay?” The Princess squeaked an awkward smile, having already bumbled her own rules for preserving the timeline. Spike face-palmed on the opposite side of the bed, having recovered from his panic attack. “Maybe you could just tell us everything that happened leading up to your arrival here?”
Shooting Star sighed and leaned back on the bed, finally giving in to the pressure of this bizarre situation. “Fine. The day started pretty normally; routine as usual. It's hard to know when things started to go wrong... The King had become lax in his duty to raise the sun, so the hours and days began to bleed together after-” She stopped abruptly, making direct eye contact with the Princess. “Just how much do you know about... that.”
Twilight blinked, though it didn't take long for her to realise what the pegasus meant. “About the passing of Queen Starshine? Only as much as the historians recorded. It remains the only documented case of an alicorn ever passing, and for it to happen during birth of Princess Luna... I only learned about it after assuming the throne, but the guilt it must have caused her may explain what happened later...”
“So you do know...” As insane as this situation was, there was no way that Discord could have known what happened in that operating room. Such confidential information would have been archived for only the highest members of court, so her story of being a Princess was starting to seem legitimate. “What happened later?”
“Uhh-” Twilight turned to Spike, who was vigorously making a gesture for her to stop. “I really shouldn't tell you any more than I already have.”
The pegasus grunted dismissively. “Well, anyway, sometime around midday everypony heard an explosion from the palace throne room. Next thing we know, the whole place starts to shift and change like some kind of nightmare—complete chaos.” The alicorn and dragon shared a knowing glance as she continued. “I was already on my way to the throne room when Diamond Aegis almost flew into me; said that Starswirl—Starswirl!—had ordered a palace-wide evacuation! Normally I wouldn't take orders from anyone but my commander or the King, but the situation being what it was left no time to question decisions. I raced outside and started airlifting ponies from the courtyard to just outside town, then before I knew it, we were all suddenly sitting back in the throne room. It happened so fast—in the blink of an eye.”
“Or the snap of a finger?” Spike interjected.
“Sure, I guess. That's when I first saw him; that- that creature, sitting there on his twisted throne where the King's should have been, mocking us. My hooves were glued to the floor somehow, and then he started turning ponies to stone left and right. We tried to stop him, but by the time we were free, half the staff were already...” She paused as her voice began to quiver, closing her eyes to suppress unexpected tears.
“Turning ponies to stone? That doesn't sound like the Discord we know, even on a bad day,” Twilight muttered, looking to Spike who silently agreed.
Catching her breath, Star continued. “We managed to surround him, but he swatted us away like flies. The commander ordered us to retreat to Pegasopolis, but I ignored his orders. I wanted to stay behind and rescue as many ponies as we could, but- A small squadron remained with me, but it was obvious we wouldn't make a difference against that monster. It was all or nothing. While the others distracted him, I prepared an all-out, final attack. I flew as high as I could, picked up as much speed as possible on the descent, and aimed to take us both out on impact... I would give my life to defend Equestria, but- but even that wasn't enough. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in this bed.”
“That sounds awful. I'm so sorry you had to go through that…”
“‘Pegasopolis’?” Spike interrupted in a lowered tone.
“I’ll tell you later,” Twilight hushed back, returning her attention to Star. “And you're sure this was the same creature we brought before you?”
“Yeah. You don't forget a face like that—the face of pure evil.”
“Hey, I know Discord is different from most—well, all—ponies, but he's really not a bad guy,” Spike pled in defence of his friend. “Sure, he's done some bad things in his time, but he was never 'evil'; he just- uh- had a different sense of humour to the rest of us.”
“You think this is funny?” Star snarled at the dragon, raising her voice as she spoke. “Turning my friends to stone? The fear of death in the eyes of the innocent? Does that sound like a joke to you?!”
“No! No, that's not what I meant!” He raised his palms in defence. “I just- I can't imagine the Discord we know ever being that cruel. Sure, he's tried to take over Equestria once or twice, maybe upset a few ponies along the way, but he’s never done anything to endanger lives!”
“I'll handle this, Spike,” the Princess cut in, exhaling calmly before continuing. “We don't doubt for a second what you're telling us, Shooting Star, I can see the truth of it in your eyes. We just want to understand how Discord—or somecreature impersonating him—could be capable of such an atrocity. As lackadaisical as Discord can be, I don't believe for a second that he could simply forget such a crime... Spike, you know him better than I do; do you think he could be holding back from us, even now?”
“No way! After the whole Tirek and Chrysalis thing, he knows the importance of trust and honesty—I'd stake my wings on it!”
“Okay...”
“Did you say Tirek? Like, the centaur?” Star asked, confused. “I remember my mother reading me bedtime stories about him and the first alicorn... What's he got to do with this?”
“It's a long story,” the Princess groaned, rolling her eyes. “That was a long time ago anyway. You don't need to worry about them anymore.”
“Worry? Why would I worry?”
“Spike, if you trust Discord, then I trust your judgement of him.” Twilight continued, ignoring the pegasus' question. “But that raises all sorts of questions about what Shooting Star encountered in her timeline...” She turned back to the patient. “Is there anything else you can remember about those last moments in your Canterlot? Anything at all?”
The proud Valkyrie looked up, thinking deeply. “There was one thing...”
“Yes?”
“When I was flying down, using gravity and my wings to reach speeds I never had before... Something... Something felt different.”
“Different how?”
She subconsciously unfurled her wings as she remembered the feeling. “It was like... It was like I was flying between the sky... At the peak of my momentum I felt almost frictionless, like gliding on a still summer's day, but at speeds so fast I could barely see. With every flap of my wings, it felt like the air behind me was bursting, propelling me even faster. I've never felt anything like it before, and I have a reputation for being the fastest around.”
“That sounds like...” Twilight turned to Spike, who shared her look of confusion. “Shooting Star, would you say the very last thing you remember is a sort of... explosion?”
She stared at the Princess blankly for a moment while she thought, before answering: “Yeah.”
“I think we should talk to Rainbow Dash about this,” Spike suggested.
“My thoughts exactly, Spike. I'll arrange a council meeting so we can hear what the others think, too.”
“No WAY was it a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow Dash yelled, slamming her hooves on the large crystal table as her voice echoed throughout Ponyville's Castle of Friendship. “The sonic rainboom is my thing! I'm the only pegasus to ever do it!”
“I know, but how else do you explain what happened?” Princess Twilight asked from her cutie-marked throne in the now-mapless map room. “The sonic rainboom was a legend long before you first performed it, and that legend must have started somewhere.”
The blue pegasus took to the air just above her seat and gesticulated wildly. “I don't care about that! I won't let her steal credit for my thing. It's MY—THING!”
“I don't know, Rainbow Dash, it does sound awfully similar,” Fluttershy cooed in her typical whisper-like voice while sitting on her own throne.
“Not you too!”
“Calm down there, Sugarcube, this ain't nopony's fault,” Applejack calmly instructed from below her three engraved apples. “We're here to talk about helpin' this filly, and gettin' riled up over nothin' ain't gonna help one bit.”
“'Riled up over nothing'?! This isn't 'nothing'! The sonic rainboom is practically the backbone of my entire career! If it hadn't been for me, none of us would-”
The earth pony gave Dash a withering eyebrow raise, pressuring her to reluctantly float back down to her seat. With her rump planted back on the hard, crystalline throne, she crossed her forelegs and scowled indignantly toward the wall.
“Twilight, did them books mention anythin' like a sonic rainboom?”
“No, nothing like that. Not even the ponies who were present at Shooting Star's disappearance mentioned anything in their statements. Maybe it happened too fast, or the petrification she mentioned affected their short-term memory, but all that was recorded was her disappearance on contact with Discord.”
“This is bogus,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, earning another unimpressed look from the country mare.
“Well this is news to me,” Discord remarked, his long body lying across Pinkie Pie and Rarity's vacant chairs. “It does sound exciting, though, doesn't it?”
Fluttershy turned to her draconequus friend. “Maybe she would feel better if you apologised to her?”
“I don't know about that, Fluttershy, she's still very upset,” Twilight interjected. “Remember that this only happened a few days ago for her, so an apology might ring hollow. She doesn't even know that her friends survived their encounter with Discord.”
“Why haven't you told her?” Spike asked from his somewhat uncomfortable position, perched upon the throne sized for his much younger and smaller self. Ever since Twilight had moved into Canterlot Castle, the Castle of Friendship had stopped growing to fit its occupants' needs, leaving it as somewhat of a time-capsule of their old adventures together.
“Spike, I already told you we can't tell her about her future. If we do manage to send her back to her own timeline, that kind of knowledge could affect all of our presents.” It was at this moment Twilight expected an elated interruption of 'Presents?!' from Pinkie Pie, though her seat remained silent in her absence—a bitter reminder of how times had changed.
“Isn't it a bit late for that?” Spike shot back. “Not only has she already seen plenty of the future on her own, but you yourself told her things she shouldn't know!”
“Nopony's perfect, Spike,” the Princess snapped, turning away as she blushed. He was right, of course. She had consistently let her excitement get the better of her so far, possibly endangering Shooting Star's chances of returning home, if not the lives of everycreature in the world!
“Ah, hypocrisy, thy name is academia,” the dragon waxed with theatrical flare, earning a red-cheeked glare from the purple alicorn and a giggle from Fluttershy.
“Lookit, ah figure we can't do nothin' for this filly without some solid evidence to work with,” Applejack posed. “Since we can't get nothin' useful from her, the books, or Discord-”
“Oh excuse me. When was the last time you remembered something from over two-thousand moons ago?” he snapped back.
“Be that as it may,” she continued, “Ah reckon we need to get practical. Rainbow Dash, how 'bout you help her recover at the academy, then see if you can't recreate this so-called sonic rainboom of hers?”
“That's an excellent idea, Applejack!” Twilight beamed, receiving a gracious hat tilt in return.
“Uh-uh! Absolutely not! No way! First she wants to steal my claim to fame, and now you want me to help her do it?!” The irate pegasus slammed her hooves on the table again, snorting steam from her muzzle.
“Dash, you got plenty of claims to fame; ain't no reason to get so defensive over this one,” AJ asserted as calmly as ever. “For Twilight's sake, you're the Captain of the Wonderbolts, Drill Sergeant at the Academy, and've helped save Equestria more times than Ah can remember!”
The rainbow pegasus made her stance known with a petulant re-crossing of her forelegs and a long, drawn out growl.
Applejack sighed, shifting gears to a more motherly voice. “Do it for me?”
Dash ground her teeth in frustration, then forcefully pulled her hooves down her face, stretching out its skin before shouting, “FINE!” indignantly.
“Great! With that covered, I think we'll adjourn this meeting for now,” Twilight announced, standing from her chair. “Thank you so much for coming, girls; you don't know what it means to me to have us all working together again like this.”
“T'ain't nothing, Twilight. You can take the pony out of Ponyville, but you can't take Ponyville out of the pony.”
“What does that even mean?” Discord sneered, floating up from his appropriated chairs.
“Don't mind him,” the yellow pegasus countered. “Applejack is right, we would never hesitate to help you, Twilight. After all, we are best friends until the end of time.”
“Bleh!” The draconequus stuck his tongue out in somewhat faked disgust, before turning and waving his hand in a circle to create a portal behind the chairs. “When you're quite done with all the snuggly-wuggly friend talk, I have an Ogres and Oubliettes board to set up. Let me know if that firecracker wants to talk again, though—it's not often I get to see a pony with such bloodlust in their eyes. It warms the cockles of my old heart.”
Discord winced as Fluttershy jabbed him in the ribs for his comment, giving an embarrassed smile back towards the group as she followed him through the portal.
“See you later, Discord!” Spike called out. “I'll bring the firesnap cider!”
“Too bad Pinkie Pie and Rarity couldn't be here for this.” Rainbow Dash circled the table to stand next to Applejack. “Would have been nice to see the whole gang back together again so soon.”
“Yeah. Rarity's still at the Las Pegasus Carousel, sorting out those fancy costumes for Flim and Flam's stage show,” Spike replied, long since over his childhood crush on the pony, though still close friends.
“And Pinkie Pie's with Maud, Mudbriar, and the Cheeses at the rock farm,” AJ continued, a bittersweet tinge to her voice. “We've all got our own lives these days.”
“Life might have taken us in different directions, and while I'm sad that we can't always enjoy each others' company like we used to, I couldn't be happier knowing that each of my friends are living such rich and happy lives.” Twilight smiled with a mistiness in her eyes, garnering similar reactions from the others.
“See ya soon, Twi.” The earth pony tipped her hat and made for the rear door, closely followed by Dash after a casual salute.
“So what now?” Spike asked Twilight, now the only ones left in their old castle.
“We'll leave it in Rainbow's hooves for now. They might not see eye-to-eye yet, but I get the feeling those two share some special kind of connection I've yet to discern. Anyway, I've got to get back to ruling the country, isn't that right, Royal Ambassador?” The alicorn gave her adoptive sibling a wry smile before sharing a light laugh.
As a silence warmed by their smiles settled in, the pair looked around at the nostalgic scene, from the cutie-mark-inscribed thrones to the majestic roots of the former Golden Oak Library above. One of the benefits of a crystal castle was that things remained exactly how you left them, and the wooden chandelier had only improved with age, with each memory-gem gleaming just as brightly as the day it was revealed.
“Let’s get going,” Twilight sighed, still smiling at the memories.
“Yeah.”
With a flash of light, the pair disappeared, leaving the room empty once more. A moment of silence passed within the cavernous walls of the castle, broken by the creaking of one of the map room's large, crystal doors.
“Is somepony there?” Starlight Glimmer asked, peaking around the door. Met by nothing but an echo, she slowly backed out the room with a look of concerned confusion on her face, closing the door with her.
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Well this is certainly Interesting. Can’t wait for more!
It's a shame that they probably won't think of contacting the Equestria Girls universe. Sci-Twi would give the answer in a second.
This is of course assuming that time moves at a similar speed between dimensions and that not too many years have passed.
Oh, and it's also a shame so few people have commented on this story. I've really been enjoying it so far. The premise is engaging, the story is well-written, and the main character is interesting.
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Thank you very much, both of you! I really appreciate it ^^ I try to work to a high standard, so hopefully it's just a matter of time before people start seeing my work.
well done on this fine story. it is a fun read.