What Might Have Been

by Mystic Sunrise

Journey Home

“Are you sure about this, Pearl?” Twilight asked as the pair walked down a side hallway that led back to the main room.

Pearl nodded. “I can’t take this anymore. I invited the girls over before all of this started. They should be in Ponyville by now. I need to know.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. She knew better than to argue with Pearl when she was like this. But as they came to the doorway, they stopped short, hearing the sounds of music beyond.

Pearl’s ears twitched as she placed them up against the door, before growling. “Oh, you have to got be kidding me!”

Twilight gave her a confused look, for she couldn’t pick out many details of the music. “What is it? I can’t hear much like this.”

Pearl shook her head. “I know this song. But it shouldn’t be here! Or anywhere in this world for that matter!”

Before Twilight could do anything, Pearl pushed the door open and rushed inside, only to be brought up short by what she saw.

The pony-sized fox was actually the least weird of what was going on, nor was it even the music of the Human World (how Kohaku had it was beyond her). It was the ponies dancing with him.

“What the hell, girls?” She shouted, unable to believe what she was seeing, as Celestial Nimbus, Amber Blister, Water Lilly, and Lavender Rain, all finally noticed the pair.

“Oh hey, Pearl. Didn’t know you two were still here,” Amber smirked. “Did you have as much fun getting here as we did? And why didn’t you ever say you knew this kind of music?”

Pearl’s eyes twitched as she eyed a certain pain in her ass, who only smiled. “Don’t tell me…”

“Ahh shoot I thought we had enough practice time before you two came back.” Kohaku chuckled stretching a bit. Producing water for each of their friends. “Kinda glad you sent invites out to the girls. I was kinda surprised to see them all show up on the train. They all said you had something to tell us. So I thought I’d tag along just to find out what it is.” He grinned.

Pearl fought her annoyance down for the moment as she eyed their friends. “How are you girls so comfortable around him? I was shaking in my feathers that first time. And this was before I found out he was Amber Orchid!”

Celestial giggled. “Yeah. About that…”

Pearl growled as something seemed to click. “You knew!”

“Well not until he told us personally.” Water Lilly came up to Pearl and lightly nudged her. “It was quite the shocker at first.”

Kohaku chuckled as he felt Pearl’s eyes bore into him. Raising a paw he shook his head. “What? Of course, I told them. Like I would keep secrets from our closest friends.”

“When did you tell them?” Pearl growled softly feeling her temper rise.

“Oh calm down Pearl. He told us the week after you left for Ponyville.” Celestial placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “He also made us promise not to tell you until he told you himself.”

“I think I get it now.” Twilight smiled as she sat in a crystal chair giggling. “You really are a crafty one Kohaku.”

“I try,” Kohaku chuckled loudly.

Pearl snorted. Her temper was on the edge of exploding. “Did you tell my parents as well?” She hissed.

“Didn’t have to. Your father kinda caught me in fox mode coming out of the bathroom one night during a sleep-over when we were all in school.” Kohaku chuckled nervously as he rubbed his paw behind his head.

Pearl felt her temper cool off slightly at that. “Okay fine. You get off on that one. I probably wouldn’t have believed Dad even if he had told me.” She poked Koahku harder than she probably meant. “But how the hell do you have this song? This isn’t from our world.”

Twilight nodded. “And very few even know about the world it does come from for a very good reason.”

“Oh please I’ve known about the human world for centuries.” Kohaku waved his paw after rubbing the spot Pearl poked him. “In fact, my whole family knows about it. We even know about our counterparts, we just don’t interact with them. But that’s for a whole other reason. I have a whole collection of music and movies from that world. But it was a pain figuring out how to get them to play for us. Thankfully Father was able to use these.” Picking up the small crystal cube that was on the map and twirled it between his paw fingers. “Plays anything from music to movies in high definition. And great audio as you heard.”

Pearl groaned. Of course, he had all of that. “Is your Kazumi as terrifying as your counterpart’s? I had the unpleasant experience of meeting her after seeing something I wasn’t supposed to. I’ve never felt so small and insignificant in my whole life.”

Kohaku nodded softly. “That sounds like an accurate description of my elder sister. Meeting her is an experience. She can be as gentle as a summer shower or as terrifying as a class 20 hurricane. She’s the one responsible for most storms you find near the Everfree Forest, particularly along the coastlines.”

Pearl and their friends shared a worried look. Growing up on the coast, they knew all too well what those storms were like. It was perhaps one of the few things everypony in Baltimare agreed on, no matter who you were.

You hung on for dear life during the worst storms and were lucky if everything was still standing at the end. “Then I’m glad it was the only time I’ve met her,” Pearl shivered.

Twilight lay a wing around Pearl’s flanks, a sight not lost on her friends who smirked knowingly. “Took you two long enough,” Lavender giggled.

Pearl blushed as Twilight giggled as well. “It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it to go. But I’ll take it. Only took one unicorn with a way too high opinion of herself to push me over the edge.”

Twilight sighed. Not this again, while the girls shared a look. “Cozy’s daughter?” Celestial asked. “They were at the station to meet us too.”

Pearl nodded. “That’s her. I’ll be having words with Cozy about just what she’s been teaching Luster when we return to Ponyville.”

Twilight rubbed her snout irritably. This was out of her hooves it seemed, while Amber rolled her eyes. “She didn’t seem that bad.”

Pearl rolled her eyes. “You haven’t had to deal with her constant pestering on going with me to the Dragon Lands. Maybe going to the School of Friendship will do some good after all.”

Twilight shook her head sadly. This was not going to be easy it seemed.

---

“Are you sure you can’t stay longer?” Summer pouted, as the group stood on the edge of the village, where Pearl and Twilight had first entered.

Pearl nodded. Was this how she looked when she pouted? No wonder it worked so well. “I could stay the rest of my life. But my parents would kill me if I did, and I miss my friends.” Smirking she looked at the group. “My Ponyville friends I mean.”

Twilight nodded. “And Ponyville has a horrible habit of doing something dumb if I’m away for too long. So we must be on our way.”

Pearl smiled. “Besides. Your river flows right next to Ponyville. Won’t be that hard to meet up every once and a while.”

Summer sighed. Perhaps, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pout about it. “I’m holding you to that, little sis.”

Pearl’s cheeks puffed in annoyance. “Hey! Who are you calling little?”

“Grow a few thousand years and I’ll stop.” Summer leaned in and kissed Pearl’s forehead much to the annoyance of the young mare.

Everyone laughed, as Twilight placed a quick kiss on Pearl’s lips before she really blew up, and it seemed to work as Pearl relaxed.

Her friends all shared knowing smirks, as they waived goodbye and headed back out into the Everfree Forest.

---

Pearl came spluttering, as Lilly helped her from the pond she had fallen in. Again. “Gah. I am going to murder that fox! That’s the fifth duck pond I’ve fallen in! He’s doing it on purpose. I just know it!” Looking up at Lilly she grumbled. “How are you all not falling for all this illusion stuff.”

“Because we’ve been visiting him for years now Pearl.” Lilly just shook her head. “So we’re used to it.”

“Has she always been like this?” Twilight whispered to Amber, who giggled.

“Oh no. Pearl was a lot worse when we were fillies. Hard to believe as it is. She’s actually mellowed out since she moved to Ponyville,” the Pegasus smirked.

Pearl shot them a look. “Laugh it up, Amber. I’m throwing you in the next one. Can’t we just teleport?”

Twilight shook her head. “As I said before, Pearl, no.” sitting down for a moment, Twilight rubbed her temples. “Pony magic is incompatible with the forest. I did teleport once, to see what would happen.” She shivered. “Never again. I know Kohaku had nothing to do with what I saw. But I could have done without it. Watching a dragoness slowly crawl up a rather large bed while signing what I think a song by… OH yeah, Divinyls. I think the song was called I touch myself.”

Pearl shuddered while all the other mares just giggled.

“Summer’s one hell of a singer.”

Celestial shrugged helplessly. “And I never learned how to teleport. What’s the point when singing has always been my thing? Plus I never went to the School of Magic.”

Twilight nodded. That made a certain amount of sense. “Very few unicorns learn how to teleport, for it requires so much energy that most don’t see the point.”

Pearl rolled her eyes as they started off once more. Of course, Celestial and Twilight would hit it off on magic.

At that moment, a tree branch slapped her flank, eliciting a yelp and a flurry of curses that would make any sailor proud. “Gah. I hate this forest! Just get me out of here,” Pearl huffed.

Everypony looked around nervously. It had been some hours since they had left the village, but they were still not near the edge yet. “Pearl,” Twilight warned, placing a hoof on her shoulders.

Pearl sighed, leaning into the embrace. “I know, Twily. Gods, I know I shouldn’t be saying stuff like that. But I can’t help it. I’ll be happy when we get back to Ponyville.”

Twilight sighed as she looked around. She was glad to see the forest had not changed it seemed after that outburst, as they continued on.

Pearl eyed the forest even more so now. She should not have said that out loud, or at all. Maybe she just needed to sleep in her own bed again to finally cool off.

Twilight tried to change the subject, feeling Pearl’s stress as she held her close, looking at Amber. “How did you manage to keep the two of you separate?”

Amber chuckled. “We knew each other long before Kohaku came along. I don’t think he got the memo there was already somepony with the name ‘Amber’ in the group. So we just used Orchid most of the time.”

Lilly nodded. “Thankfully my sister, who kinda has the same name, moved out before any of that happened, so it wasn’t that confusing.”

Pearl giggled at the memories. “Only got confusing when she visited, though.” The girls nodded, while Twilight rolled her eyes.

---

Finally, after what felt like forever, everypony saw the trees finally give way to open areas. If they squinted, they could just make out Ponyville in the distance.

Pearl was more than happy to leave the Everfree behind. She needed open skies, not this confined space. Amber felt the same, as did Twilight to a lesser extent.

Of course at that exact moment, only a few feet from the forest’s edge, Pearl fell into another duck pond with a furious squawk. Coming up for air, she swore she could hear laughter coming from all around her.

“Laugh it up, you oversized rug. When I get my hooves on you, I’ll make what your sister did to you look like love taps!” She fumed as Lavender helped her out. Now, everyone could hear the forest laughing and soon joined in, much to Pearl’s mounting annoyance as she stormed off to the edge of the Everfree, forcing them to catch up.

Coming to open ground at last, Pearl breathed a sigh of relief to see that they had exited where they had originally gone in. “At least he didn’t move the damn exit.”

“It wouldn’t have been the first time, Rosey,” Twilight giggled as the others joined her. “I somehow ended up near the coast on my first visit.”

“And right on time too,” Starlight smiled, as she teleported in front of the group. “I was worried for a little while. The Everfree’s been more active than usual lately.”

A moment later, Luster Dawn teleported in next to her, her eyes spinning slightly from the expenditure of magic. But the sight made Twilight proud all the same as her smile grew. “I see your teleportation has improved greatly. I am so proud, my faithful student.”

The words made Luster’s heart sore. But it soon crashed back down as she saw the way Twilight and Pearl were standing together. It could only mean one thing, though a part of her was unsurprised by this development, and a small part of her was happy for the two.

Pearl saw the pain that flashed in Luster’s eyes, and it made her heart sink as she pulled away from her marefiend. “You girls go on ahead. Luster and I need to talk. Girl to girl. Student to student. This is long overdue.”

Everypony nodded sadly as Luster fell in beside Pearl as the two headed for the Pegasus’s house. Luster herself had a good idea of what this was about. Twilight could only hope the two would work their differences out.