Pony POV Series Season 5.5/6.5 Side Story: Seven Dreams/Nightmares

by Alex Warlorn

Clover Story Part 3: The true power of luck

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Gaiden/Side Story
My Little Pony Tales
7 Dreams/Nightmares Clover
By Richforce and TheJacobLB44
Edited By Alex Warlorn, Kendell2, and Louis
Part 3 of 4

The barnyard revolutionaries had fled the farm for their lives at the sight of Rasa and Yoki. I heard they reestablished themselves on some of the other abandoned farms, but with not even the most basic education, like reading, took place. And with many ponies carving out their own tiny kingdoms around them, their revolution wasn't going anywhere. I almost pitied them, truthfully.

And that was the beginning of the most unusual friendship I ever had. As we traveled Rasa and Yoki would met up with us every now and then so we could teach them about what we had lost and some of the basic skills like reading, writing and math that they hadn't gotten a full grasp on but we tended to take for granted. In trade they often protected us when they weren't back with their clan teaching them what they learned, usually arriving at the nick of time because of my luck.

I heard of ponies' special talents increasing as they got older but this was crazy.

"Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, dear," Mom said.

The months then started turning to years until years after the disaster I went to a reunion of my friends who weren't either dead or wandering like a vagabond.

It was great to see most of the gang back together but it just wasn't the same and not just because of who wasn't there. Sweetheart now had this quiet seriousness about her, Bright Eyes, while still as clever had this calmness to her she gained when she lost her memories, Melody now had this air of humility that I never would have thought she'd get in a million years and Bonbon had gotten introspective, almost deep. While Patch hadn't been able to make it, we'd heard all these rumors about her having become an utter badflank action mare (and more surprisingly, married Buddy!). It wasn't that we weren't friends anymore, but we weren't the friends we were back then. It was like the world had changed us all as much as it had changed...

I'll admit a felt a bit ashamed of my own good fortune. All of them had lost members of their family on the day of the disaster; dead and never coming back. Me? I kept getting lucky, and never losing any of my family. Why couldn't my luck have rubbed off on them as well? It wasn't that I wasn't happy...it was that I wondered why me and no one else?

But it was there Cheval heard the most incredible rumor from Bonbon. Suzette, Albert and Amiee were still alive. From what she heard they were last seen heading to a fresh water source at this mountain that the unicorns had named the Canterhorn. Since our last home had been flattened by a tornado, we decided the best thing to do next was to get our whole family back together.

The mountain was very very far away indeed. The unicorns, themselves, had been hoping to get as far away as possible from tiny overlords like General Ripper. If we had kept going a while longer, if Cheval hadn't heard his family could be waiting at the top of that mountain, we could have gone to Paradise Estate instead. We were bound to be welcome and cared for there, right? We didn't even take a vote. There was no way we'd throw away a chance to have our family all back together again.

It was a long hard climb along a narrow path up the mountain until we found the spring with a number small wooden shacks around it and one that seemed to be built along the side of the mountain about fifty lengths away.

Cheval knocked on the door of one hut when a young unicorn opened it.

"Yes?"

"We are looking for my little sister and her family. Have you seen a mare named Suzette?"

"I think I know who you are talking about," said the unicorn. "But there have been a few sick ponies where they are working, the children should stay here."

Meadowlark hugged her ten year old and I bent down to my now five year old Lucky Bloom.

"Be good for Mommy and stay with your cousin okay?"

"Okay, mama," Lucky said. I am so proud of my little boy.

We went into one of the sheds built up against the mountainside. Inside were a number of other young unicorns, none of them any older than when I was when I had played the harlequin.

"I don't understand," said Dandy. "Where are Suzette and Albert?"

"Where you are all going," said a young filly that pulled a lever with her magic. At that moment the floor under us had opened and we all fell into a dark cave.

We all fell into a bundle of straw that we then forced out of by the young unicorns.

"Let's go," said an older colt. "The master will want to take a good look at them."

We were lead to a chamber that had wooden supports built to keep the walls up. The place was dimly lighted by a few candles. The shadow of a unicorn was seen on one of the lit walls.

"What is it?!" said the unicorn I assumed was the one these punks were calling master.

The older colt stepped forward. "We caught six more workers for you. They had a couple of children them that we are holding back on the surface." I felt a fury raise up in me as I heard that. My baby, my niece were in danger because of these ponies, I'd be MORE shocked had I not felt that way.

"Bring them into the light." We were pushed into the light of the candles. "Two of them look a little old but they should still be able to work the kitchens and workshops. The rest can definitely bring us more gems."

"Speaking of gems," said an older filly. "When can we get the ones you promised us, the ones that can give our magic more strength?"

"Be quiet! I was the one who found you all as children after the disaster and brought you here when you had no one! You should just do as I say and be grateful I took you in at all! You will get your gems when I say you can!"

The shadow turned as if thinking and then went back to where it started. "Take the children to the others to be taught like you were. Bring the old ones to be put to work they can do. The rest of you will go into the mines you worthless SLAVES!"

After we were separated from mom and dad the unicorns I now knew were orphans brought us into a large cavern were a large number ponies were digging into large deposits of crystal. We were led to one corner of the cavern and were each given a ball and chain. That was when I heard a voice I had wanted to hear for five years now.

"Cheval! Meadowlark! Clover!"

"Suzette!" Cheval said happily. Not exactly the place we wanted to have our reunion but beggars can't be choosers.

"You were captured too?" asked Albert.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Dandy. "They took Mr. and Mrs. Bloom and the kids away."

"The same thing happened to our little Amiee," said Suzette. "What day is it?" I told her the date. "Has it been a month already? Oh, poor Amiee, to think that 'orrible stallion is twisting our children like our poor captors."

"Poor?" Dandy asked.

"They were just kids when the disaster happened, some still are," said a familiar voice. "That unicorn is the one responsible for all this. I've been here for a while, they act all tough and relentless but deep down, our captors are just scared."

I took a closer look at the stallion, he was missing his left foreleg but with his figure eight knot cutie mark there was no mistaking it.

"Slipknot? Starlight's old boyfriend?"

"I've gone by Scout for a few years now Clover. I was trying to catch up with Patch because I thought she and Buddy could use my help. I was stopping over by the spring topside for the night when I was caught and ended up here."

"Hey, you better get to work or the master will be angry!" said a filly carrying a lantern. In the light I was able to recognize her. She was the same blue coated white maned filly whose parents had suffered brain damage on the subway when the disaster hit years ago, though now she had a cutie mark, a single star with a number of rays shooting out behind it. Back then she seemed so timid and scared, now we were afraid of the poor filly.

+++

I don't know how much time had passed. Our days were always spent the same way; we would be forced up and eat a small breakfast, then would work almost nonstop digging out gems until we'd be given an equally small dinner and then soon after collapse from exhaustion into sleep and all in the dark. I keep thinking back to that story about Sweet Stuff and many of the other Twinkle Eye ponies forced to dig in a dark mine so long they could no longer see. Was this going to be our fate as well?

I admit, I kept hoping Patch would swing in and kick 'Master's' flank and get us out, but I didn't think my luck was THAT good.

But more than anything I keep thinking of Lucky Bloom, about how our so-called 'Master' could be twisting him like he did those desperate unicorn children. It tears my heart apart to think of my sweet little baby as just another one of his thugs. If nothing else I would make sure he'd be free from that fate or die trying.

"You have to get back to work," said the filly that kept watching us. "The Master will not only punish you but me and my friends if you don't keep working."

"If you are so afraid of him, why not leave?" I asked.

She seemed surprised, good if she can still consider the ramifications of her actions then she isn't all gone.

"We, we have nowhere else to go. All of our parents are either dead or have lost their minds. We each heard about a place that was taking unicorn kids up here, but when we got here the Master was all that was left after a cave in. He's real sick so we can't get close to him, but he promised to make our magic stronger so we could take care of ourselves. He takes care of us, makes sure we don't go hungry."

"Is it worth having a full stomach but an empty heart?" Silence, she's thinking. "My name is Clover. What's yours?"

"St-Starburst. Starburst Mid-Summer Night."

"I remember you, Starburst. I saw you the day when the world broke. You were so afraid; your parents couldn't take care of you anymore, it must have been lonely. I can see you are still afraid."

"Yes."

"How did you get your cutie mark?"

"Before we had started catching other ponies we dug down here. One time when my group got lost I told them that we would get back to the others if we just kept going up. I felt a tingle on my flanks and when we got back to daylight there it was."

"Sounds to me your special talent is to be a light in the darkness. Keeping other ponies down here doesn't fit you at all, why don't you just leave?"

"M-my friends that went up against him because we didn't like being mean all disappeared. He's sick but he's too strong."

"No, he's not Starburst. He needs slaves to dig his gems and he needs you to keep us here, without us he's nothing. And he knows it, that's why he's trying to keep us afraid."

I heard a wooden bowl being set on a rock. "I have to get back to work. I'm sorry."

I believed her, she and most if not all of the guards were slaves too, slaves to fear.

I knew the bowl had my day's water ration so I kneeled down to drink. My lips touched something made of metal, in the dark I felt its shape, a key. I continued to work until it was time for us to sleep, then I tried the key on my shackle, it opened.

I tried to use the key on Dandy's shackle and woke him up in the process. "Clover what are you..."

My love's shackle was opened; the 'master's' shackles all had the same kind of lock. I suppose that made sense, considering how little he had to work with here.

"Wake up Scout and our family. We have to be fast."

In moments all seven of us were free and Scout had us in a circle. "Okay, here's the plan. Cheval, Albert you two take the key and start freeing the other prisoners. Suzette, Meadowlark head towards the surface and try to find where they are keeping your parents and the kids. Clover, since you got the trust of one of the guards I'm going to need you and Dandy with me."

"What are we going to do?" asked Dandy.

"Put an end to all of this, by cutting off the head of the snake."

I never thought shy old Slipknot would ever be this intense. He wants us to kill another pony? Sure, I know since the disaster a lot of rotten opportunists have been popping up, but even with the worst ones, any of my lucky breaks ever did was knock them out cold and leave their ambitions in ruins. Mom and Dad taught me that every life is precious, that even the worst of us deserves a chance at redemption. Still from what Scout said he might have intended for me try to talk the guards down the same way I convinced Star Burst. Well, my luck had started coming back good so far, hope it turns into a winning streak.

We found our way up to the chamber where we first met the 'Master'. All of the guards we passed were asleep... luck's still holding out. Even though we saw his silhouette we heard a light snoring.

"This guy sleeps standing up?" asked Dandy.

"Perfect for us," said Scout. "Clover, watch the door. Dandy, if you think you can handle it, strike with me."

"After everything thing he did, I'm making sure he never hurts my family again."

Dandy, hearing him talk about murdering someone. I just can't watch...

"Ready?" said Scout.

"Ready."

"Rargh!"

I heard them dive at the master then felt a head roll against my leg. I couldn't help it. I looked down and saw the severed head... Of a department store equequin.

"What in pony hell?"

"A dummy?" said Scout.

"The 'master' is a fake?" said Dandy.

Something isn't right, that snoring didn't come from the dummy. I looked over at the exposed set up. The candles and curtains gave the dummy the appearance of a unicorn thanks to a piece of broomstick glued to its head. A set up of pipes and musical horns led up to the ceiling...

That was when I noticed a pair of gleaming eyes and the glint off of the blade of a knife.

"DANDY! SCOUT! LOOK OUT!"

"Yeagh!"

Time seemed to go into slow motion when what looked like a mangy old dog wearing tattered rags leapt from the rafters holding a knife. The dog fell on Scout plunging the knife right between his shoulders and into his heart.

"UGH!"

"Scout!" I cried.

The dog pulled the knife out of Scout and pointed it and Dandy and me. "Back, ponies! Go back to digging gems or I'll do the same to you!"

"Another animal that got smart because of the disaster?" Dandy asked.

"No," the dog-thing said, actually holding its head with its free paw like it had a headache, "Damn nag, she say crazy pony and her hell spawn would be there ... we all go there ... nothing but gems ... gems... old man's voice ... wanting gems, all that's left of him, find gems, like ponies did before ... more gems ... more gems ... even when got away, even with old human gone for good, need gems. Just dogs to him, for his diamonds, Diamond Dogs. Then the horned ponies came to dig up my gems, I got all of them then the little horned ponies began to come. So I used what the horned ones left and got them digging, but they were too weak so when other ponies came I told the little horned ponies lies to get the big ones to dig. Now you dig in the dark or I'll kill you!"

"Master?!" I heard an older colt say. We all turned and saw the young unicorns that were holding all of the prisoners until now.

"Our master is some mangy mutt?" said an older filly.

The Diamond Dog crawled to where the drapes still hung. "Pay no attention to the dog behind the curtain!"

"You lied to us," said Starburst. "There are no magic gems to make us strong enough to make all our moms and dads better, is there?!"

The Diamond Dog snarled and ran through a hidden door in the back. That was a yes. I ran over to Scout who was bleeding on the floor.

"Scout, hang on. I'm sure that..."

"Clover," Scout said in raspy voice. "We both know this is going to end in only one way."

"Scout, it could have been me..." Dandy said.

"But it wasn't. At this point the last thing I want to hear is you both blaming yourselves. Just make sure some good comes from this. I'm okay, at the end I'm myself. I am free. Only one thing to do to go without regrets. I...Lo...ve...you...St...ar...Li...ght..."

Then I closed his eyes and let him sleep.

+++

I felt an anger rise up in me like I had never had in my entire life. The next thing I knew I was galloping through the door the Diamond Dog ran through. There were a hundred questions. Why go through the complex farce of being a sick unicorn? How'd he get his equipment to pull it off? Was he and others like him somehow connected to the wicked wizard from the twinkled-eyed ponies' story that Applejack had killed? I couldn't have cared less!

After going through a short tunnel I found him. He was in that mountain side shack stuffing a sack full of gems that were paid for in pony blood. I pounced on him like I had only seen big cats do on nature shows. The knife he had was knocked just close enough for me to grab and hold over his head. I'm pretty sure I looked more like a rabid animal than a pony.

"Heh,heh,heh,heh," the despicable beast laughed. "So pony has some fight after all. Your kind dug in the earth and took our gems. I lived in the dark while your kind laughed in the light. I hate you all. But pony is like all ponies are, soft, weak. Go ahead. Do it. But I know you won't. You don't have what it takes. You can't crawl out of the darkness unless you are willing to end those in the light."

"SHUT UP!! You are a monster. You worked us to the bone. You corrupted innocent children. You killed Slipknot! YOU TOOK MY BABY FROM ME!! You deserve to die!"

I raised knife as high as I could.

"What?! But you can't!"

I plunged the blade down as he closed his eyes...
...when he opened them again the knife was stuck in the floor inches away.

"Surprised? Don't be. You're not worth it!" I got off of the filthy animal. "Go. Leave this place. I don't care where, but I never want to see you again. And if I find out you're doing anything like this again, I might think it's worth it then. Ponies have endured, and will always endure. Tell your packmates of this defeat, this humiliation, and remember we are no one's cattle. Get out of my sight."

I looked around the room as he started to catch his breath. So many gems, how many died to amass this hoard? But then I noticed one that didn't seem to fit with the others, a green gem that seemed too perfectly shaped. After a second of thought I recognized it.

"A piece of the Rainbow of Light."

How it got there I never found out. Probably the mongrel found it and never realized what it was, to my eternal gratitude. If I gave this to Patch, she'd be one step closer to ending her quest. I reached out for it.

"MINE!!!"

Suddenly the diamond dog was on top of me again.

"That is my shiny! It is better than all other gems! You will not take my shiny away!"

He began choke me while he raised the knife I had so stupidly just left in the floorboard.

"You should have killed me while you had the chance! Your luck has run out!"

"CLOVER! NO!" Dandy was running towards me with so many ponies right behind him, I knew he'd never make it in time.

Just then the whole shack started to rattle as if we were suddenly in a hurricane.

"What?! What is happening?!"

I took advantage of the confusion and bucked the dog off of me. I used the next moment to grab the fragment and dove for the tunnel. It was like whatever was giving me my luck was telling me to GET OUT OF THERE!

I tripped on the edge between the tunnel and the shack dropping the fragment. Just then a gigantic claw came out of nowhere straight through the roof the shack.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

The shack was totally demolished and the dog with it. I heard the ill-gotten gems tinkle as they fell down the mountain side along with their owner.

"The fragment!" I reached for the piece just as it teetered over the edge of the cliff a little away from the claw. It fell over and I lost sight of it as it fell down into the forest below.

After a colossal effort to forget about the fragment, I looked at our unlikely savior. The claw was a hind foot of some kind, covered in platinum scales. We all got as close as we dared to see the rest of it. Even if I had seen an adult dragon before this would have easily been the biggest one I would ever see. There were large spikes all the way up its backbone, huge wings that must has caused the shack to shake like that and a crest of horns that resembled a cross between a war helmet and a crown. The dragon then moved and came down to look at us. Its eyes, it was like staring into lakes of made of gold. Was he considering making us a snack? After considering us for a bit he climbed a bit higher, gave an ear piercing roar and took off into the sky.

I'd hear later from outsiders that black cats had turned white and four-leaf clovers sprouting up around the mountain at moment the claw had come through the roof that night.

"Even as old as I am I never thought I would see the sight," said an elderly unicorn mare in the sizable group behind me. "When I was just a blank little filly I heard tales of an immense five-headed dragon queen who lived on an isle far away. I also heard of one dragon whose wisdom, fortitude and strength was so above the others he had managed to earn the respect or love of all five of her heads. So she made him her chosen, to stay at her side unless he is performing a rare task for her. We all see him before us.

Bahamut, Prime Consort to Tiamat the Dragon Queen."

Bahamut then gave one more roar as he picked up speed leaving a golden colored shockwave behind as he went over the horizon. I'll say this, he knows how to make an exit.

No, I didn't care what the odds of a dragon of legend showing up just in time to save my flank and send the bad guy falling to his death were. It'd happened, so there. I'm used to my luck causing things like that to happen.

"Mama!"

As soon as I heard that voice only one thing mattered to me.

"Lucky! Oh Lucky, I missed you!"

Mom and Dad were there and with Suzette, Albert and Aimee with us, our family was finally complete again.

Scout, wherever you are thank you.

+++

=Terranigma: Crysta=

Starlight was looking through her window when there was a knock on the door. "Uh, come in?"

The familiar black and white Alicorn peaked in. "Sorry if I am interrupting anything. I came because a new arrival had come and though he can enter My Father, I'm sure he wants to speak with you first."

A teenaged earth pony colt with four healthy legs and a figure eight knot cutie mark came in.

"Slipknot?"

"I'll give you both a week alone. I'm going to hitch Fluffy the Terrible to Havoc's chariot, but only because I think he's going to have to muzzle this dog. Scout, I'll try to get an answer for you from my sister Venus."

A brief silence came over the two after Mortis left. "So, would you rather I call you Slipknot or Scout?"

"Whichever you prefer," said Scout.

"I... feel bad about what I must have put you through."

"Probably not as bad as I feel that I was murdered by someone named Fluffy, not how I thought I'd go." They both laughed.

"Starlight, I was told a little about how the spell would have gone if it was allowed and I can't help but feel that you wouldn't have made that 'no stallions' wish if I had been honest with my real feelings for you."

"Scout, I've already accepted my guilt in things. Others could point a hoof at me for stupidly not realizing how deeply you felt."

"And they'd be wrong. Letting you know how I felt was part of my choices."

"Scout, it's okay, it's all in the past."

"Not all of it. Not what I have to say in here and now. Starlight, I love you. If could redo things so that I could have told you sooner I would, even if it meant I would be reduced to ash next to you."

"I would rather have had the choice where you lived, even if it was as someone else or with someone else. Because I...I love you too. But there's no room for regrets now."

"No regrets, never again. So we have a week before I move on and leave you to wait for the others, anything you want us do?"

Starlight gave a sly smile. "I have a few things in mind. So what was that question you wanted Mortis to answer that he needs to go to his sister for?"

"I was wondering, once we get to the Pony Heaven can you still get married?"

"I'm not sure what Venus will say, but if so my answer is yes."

They had to resist making their kiss overly long. They still had only a week together, before they would be reunited for eternity.

+++

"Wait wait wait wait!" Pinkie Pie said waving her hooves around, "I know I'm the pony who just goes with the flow and Twilight's the one who fusses over little details, but come on! A dragon ex machina?"

"Trouble I do not mean to summon,
But it did seem rather sudden."

Twilight look uncomfortable speaking to the Alicorn, in respect to all Clover had endured up to that point, "Princess Luna, why did Bahamut appear? I know it was Clover's luck, but luck still has a source behind it happen. If you luckily find some bits on the ground, they didn't just appear there for you to find. Even Pinkie Pie's ESP doesn't MAKE things happen. What was he doing there? Why didn't he come sooner or later? Why did he smash a little shack on a side of a mountain? Why did he just then leave? Is Bahamut really just Tiamat's consort? Or is there more to him? Many of the reports of him are conflicting."

Luna used the calm and thoughtful approach she had learn from her solar sister. "After the disaster, Queen Tiamat had Bahamut scout the world, to learn of all the changes that had occurred, and the fate of every single one of her individual dragons. Even after years Bahamut had not finish visiting every dragon in the world. His way was to stay with them and get to know them personally before moving on. Canterhorn was nothing more than a momentary rest stop, completely uninhabited when he had last visited. The exact moment was indeed, purely Clover's luck, for a filly who lamented of having no true talent, her cutie was very unique. He didn't notice the shed at all until he stepped upon it, he didn't even notice the diamond dog he had stepped upon. The ponies were, please excuse me, of no true interest to him and he still had many of his dragons to meet, he didn't wish to 'waste time' on little ponies when he had his own children to think about. Bahamut had no reason to care for ponies at the time.

"As for Bahamut himself? He is indeed more than he appears. He is ... like Tiamat, ourselves, our sister, Cadence, and yes, even Discord. One of us. As for how much he knows of this himself, we have never asked. One of the most damaging things for one of us is to remember what we are while we still live and breath as one of ye, because that destroys the purpose. No matter the world or life, reality or destiny, he has always been the balancing force to Tiamat as she is his ... like most marriages."

+++

Most of the ponies left for various places. A few of the Unicorns insisted that Starburst and the other orphans would be safest in a community called Horn Haven. I silently allowed it since I knew Melody was nearby so there is a chance they'd learn tolerance as well. But there were others, including my family and me that didn't have anywhere else to go. We realized that, ironically, the mine we were kept prisoner in also offered our best chance at survival. In addition to crystals, there was a considerable amount of useful ore that ponies in this ruined world could use to start rebuilding. If we mined and traded the ore while taking advantage of the springtime to grow a little food in gardens it would increase our chances of survival considerably.

That was the beginning of our little town on the Canterhorn. We decided to name it after the one who by sheer luck saved us and gave us an experience that would carry on in us for a lifetime. That was also the end of my family's wandering days, now Bahamut's Rest is our home.

Of course we all searched for the green shard around, on, and near the base of the mountain after I explained things to my family. We didn't stop searching after one night, or one week, but we never could find it. Too bad. I did find some crushed bones at the base of the mountain, that were very fresh, I did my best not to think of who they belonged to. I didn't understand why my luck was failing me now, like it had with that silver teapot. But who could have found it and taken it? And where? My luck didn't answer me this time. Was it protecting me from whatever found it in the first place? Blech, now I'm just making myself crazy.

We searched feverishly at first, but ... we just got tired of not finding even a clue, and we had much to do to make sure our family stayed fed with a solid roof over our head. No more supermarkets and shopping channels!

Mom, in addition to her vegetable garden is serving as the town's school teacher, we don't have a lot of students but she loves teaching her grandchildren. Dad works a more of a handystallion than an artist but he loves working with his hooves and gives a stylistic flair to what he builds. Dandy, Cheval and Albert work in the mine, but they say it isn't so bad since they can come home each night. Meadowlark, Suzette and I usually work in the gardens, but we do occasionally go into the mine to pick the edible mushrooms that grow there. It isn't the type of life any of us imagined we'd have but after so much has gone wrong things are finally starting to look okay.

+++

Things are not okay. It's been ten years now since the disaster. More than that? Less? I can't tell anymore. Sweetheart is dead, the victim of a plague she made a cure for. It had to take a special root to make the cure, but her kids managed to get plenty. And in the process, they realized that the tribes needed to work together, thanks to my old friends Rasa and Yoki. They told them that if Griffins and Keythong could work together, why not the different pony tribes? The Whispering Plague never made it to Bahamut's Rest due to a rock slide that turned to be a blessing in disguise, since it cut the town off from the rest of the world for weeks until the plague was gone.

Bright Eyes got her memory back so that's a plus, one of the few pluses I have seen so far.

The mine has made us prosperous but as more ponies came to town, a few less-than-reputable businesses were set up for the new miners. First a saloon, then came mares that practiced 'the world's oldest profession.' (I know Bright Eyes would throw a fit about how that was totally factually false. And Sweetheart would die of grief that mares had been made to, or chose to, sink that low in this new dark world.)

+++

"What are they talking about?" Twilight asked.

"Something we hope you never need to understand our little ponies."

+++

Before anyone knew it, Bahamut's Rest became 'a den of inequity where any vice was freely available' as an elderly mare who passed by our town once said.

The gambling, drinking and loose mares I could handle. If ponies want to be stupid, that is their business. But what really has me worried is my family. Mom and Dad have started to act erratically, this could be the start of senility. Lucky Bloom has been going around with a huge chip on his shoulder. Ever since he got into what would have been first grade he's been showing quite a temper. I just hope it doesn't get him into trouble someday.

Suzette and Albert have started dipping quite a bit into the wine. Amiee, teenager that she is, is usually out half the night and it seems like they hardly even notice. I can hardly tell if they are fighting each other or making love. Meadowlark and Cheval have it even worse; all they seem to do lately is fight. I hear them even now.

"I work hard down in that filthy mine all day! So why can't I have a little fun afterwards?!"

"Fun?! That's what you call playing hoofsies with a mare barely older than your own daughter?!"

"Well maybe if you actually get off of your lazy flanks once in a while I wouldn't need to!"

"I'm sorry if this isn't exactly the body of the limber ballerina you fell in love with! As I recall, bearing a child tends to do that!"

"And you did a great job raising her too! Oh wait; she was just got caught stealing, again!"

"As if you're Parent of the Year material yourself!"

To think that perfect wedding day from so long ago has been reduced to this. The charming groom had become a cad and the blushing bride, my sister, the big sister I was once so jealous of, had become a shrew.

But Dandy, he, he...

He and a few others were digging a new tunnel when there was a cave-in. The rest of the miners are trying to dig them out in shifts but it seems like they hit a natural cavern so they could be anywhere or even... I don't even know if my beloved is dead or alive. Lucky took it really hard. He keeps skipping school to go in the mine and try to find his father, if I lose him too...

But the worst is something I just found out today. I'm pregnant.

To think this foal might grow up never knowing their father or brother. That I have to bring a new life into a ruined world never knowing a cold that only meant staying home from school, the guilty pleasure of gossiping over the phone or the simple joy of sharing a pizza with your best friends. I'm sorry but you just had some bad luck.

Bad luck, is that what I really had all this time? Was that what my cutie mark really was? Have I been escaping one disaster just to suffer through a worse one? Would it have been better if I died when the spell went so horribly wrong? Maybe it was just bad luck any of were born in that time to know the height of civilization only to have it all snatched away. It all came down to luck.

+++

I was in the saloon next to a growing pile of winnings from a roulette wheel someone managed to salvage.

The owner came up next me. I only said one thing to him.

"Double down on fourteen black."

"Lady," he said. "This is the fifth time you doubled down. Maybe you should just take you winnings and call it day."

"No, I'm trying to prove a point."

"And that is...?"

"That it's futile. Sure we get lucky sometimes and things go our way for a while, but the game is always in the house's favor and in the end no matter what I do I'm going to lose."

"Look, these ponies are just trying to have a good time. Half of them know the odds are against them, but they try anyway because they want to believe they can win!"

"They're fools, all of them. The house I'm talking about is destiny and we are playing its game. A game we can never win. It doesn't matter if Patch found Paradise Estate or not, someone else would've. It doesn't matter if Starlight and Bright Eyes thought up of that spell, someone else would have done that too. The only thing that put us where we are on destiny's game board is pure dumb luck!"

The owner pointed to the door. "I think you better leave. You're making everyone else scared."

Then another pony spoke. "Double zero."

I pointed at the wheel that told me I lost, just as I knew I would. "See! That's my point right there! We're all as good as dead! Hahahahahahaha!"

The next thing I knew ponies were dragging me back home.

+++

"We think she's had some kind of nervous breakdown," someone said. "Probably about her husband and son in the mine."

"I can't believe how selfish we've been!" I heard Meadowlark say. "She's been beside herself with worry and fear and all we've done is get carried away with petty vices and arguments."

"She really needs you all now, but I wouldn't let her leave her room. Just in case she has another...episode."

"Yes," I heard Suzette say. "And your parents too."

They came over the next two or three days to drop off food and to talk to me. Their apologies don't matter to me, nothing does. Like everything in this room, all reminders of Dandy or a past that was lost to us all. In fact I was holding the one thing we were able to successfully get from our old house, my baby blanket with my name stitched into it by my mother. Just a reminder of the luck I was cursed with since the day I was born.

Suddenly there was a wind in my room that got stronger and stronger, followed by a brilliant flash of light that temporarily blinded me. When my vision cleared and there was elderly unicorn mare with a purple coat and a mane white with age wearing a fancy cloak and hood standing on top of a huge scorch mark on the floor.

"Magnificent!" she said. "Absolutely magnificent!"

"What? Who?" I stammered.

She went to a corner of the room. "What is this?"

"That's a sewing machine..."

"A machine for sewing? Marvelous!"

"It doesn't work anymore."

"But it did once and that is remarkable!"

I was getting frustrated with this unicorn. "Okay! Who are you and what are you doing in my house!?"

"Right! Not a lot of time so right down to business. Clover, do not give up on luck! It is the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to your family and it will continue to be wonderful for years and years to come! Things will get better! Not all once, in fact they will get worse at first and not to my knowledge as they once were but they will get better! Not just for your family but for all ponies of all tribes, so don't lose hope! As long as you have hope your family will make it thanks to your wonderful, wonderful luck!"

"H-how could you know any of that?!" Obviously, this old unicorn was senile.

"Because I lived it and I was able to tell you because of the book."

"What book?!"

"The book I found. The one I hid in the castle in the crystal desert. The one that told me I had to be here and now."

"I still don't understand."

"When I found the spell, my master made, what I wanted more than anything was to see my birth parents. But when I read the book I knew it was important to come here instead and that I would see them again one day. For the book told me of the lost past, an age that never was, what lies beyond the veil of mortality and a few paths the future could take."

"Why me? Why tell me any of this?"

"Because family has to stick together."

The winds started to pick up again lifting her cape off of her flanks. That cutie mark, it was different, blue and made out of stars, but other than that it was identical to mine.

"I still don't get it!" I said over the increasingly strong winds. "Just who are you?!"

The unicorn turned and seemed to pose for me. As if it was something she did because it was expected of her but for once was glad to do it.

"They call me Clover! Clover the Clev..."

There was another intense flash of light and when it dimmed she was gone out of my life as quickly and mysteriously as she came.

+++

"Time travel spell? Wait a second that episode hasn't even happened for us!" Pinkie Pie said looking through a script. Luna made a note to destroy it later, where did Pinkie Pie keep getting them? "HEY! We're past it already! It got skipped! That's cheating! You can't do that!" Pinkie Pie seemed to shout at the heavens. "You big jerk!"

"Wait! What?!" Twilight asked, confusion clear on her face. "Starswirl the Bearded has a time travel spell?! How did I not know about it?! And how did, Clover, I mean, CLOVER THE CLEVER, find a book telling her she'd already went back in time?!"

"It's best not to think about it," said Luna, sagely. "Just know Clover's choices were her own, a specific Fate was not forced upon her, in fact in many ways, Clover was a FORCE of Fate rather than it's toy by having a talent that can change the winds of fortune and probability. Starswirl the Bearded's time travel spell merely has a failsafe worked in to prevent one from causing a time paradox, thus Clover the Clever's intervention could not change the events that lead her to going back in time in the first place."

"But-"

"Twilight, I am a goddess who predates the Big Bang and even I don't know the answers to everything. It's best we just enjoy the rest of the story and let the Shadows think about the implications."

+++

"Clover, what's going on?!"

Meadowlark burst into the room. I just turned to her feeling strangely at ease.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, I'm not sure I believe it."

"Well, in any case you got to get to the mine! Something's happening!"

I ran over to mine entrance as fast as I could. A crowd parted from the opening and starting clapping as some of the miners started coming out.

"They made it! All of them!" I heard from the crowd.

= "Your Song" / EARTH, from Zoids Chaotic Century Guardian Force (5th Ending tune) =

I looked at the exiting miners to be sure it was true. At the very end of the line was Dandy, being held up by Lucky. I almost bowled them both over as I ran to them.

"Dandy! Lucky! Oh thank God you're alive!"

Dandy gave me a big hug. "When the tunnel collapsed so did the floor into an underground lake. We survived on the lake water and cave mushrooms until Lucky here noticed light from his lantern reflecting off of the lake."

"Luck, LUCK! Yes it was luck! Wonderful, wonderful luck that brought you back exactly as you left!"

"Well," said Lucky. "Not 'exactly' as I left."

He turned and we saw it. A red lantern was now on both of his flanks. That night Bahamut's Rest threw a party no one in town would ever forget, both for the safe return of its Stallions and for Lucky coming into his own. I think for once, everyone forgot their precious sin and vice, and were just happy everyone was alive.

Months and months later, the time finally came (why are we ponies pregnant for a month short of a year?). After thirty-six hours and a lot of pain (boy how I missed anesthetic) I gave birth to twins; a filly and a colt.

"So what are what are going to name them?" asked my son, now called Red Lantern.

Dandy stood there and nodded, he'd let me to choose, ("Their names are something that won't come down to luck," he said.).

I turned first to my baby boy. "This one I'm naming Lucky Coin. Luck's been good to me and I want to keep the name alive in the family as long as I can." I then turned to my first baby girl. "And this one I'm naming Blue Moon, because good things shouldn't happen only once in a blue moon. I have another tradition for her."

Dandy took the cue and gave me my old baby blanket which I then wrapped around Blue Moon. "I want her to keep this so she could give it to her child, and then that child would pass to their children and so on until the thing just falls into shreds. That way sometime in the future, maybe when we can get back what we lost a child will look at it and remember that they are part of a very lucky family."

My two little angels started crying and I set them down to nurse, surrounded by a loving extended family. While they had their first meal I was thinking of my friends when inspiration struck and I just started to sing to them.

Something is starting, right now
Something is starting, oh wow
My little pony, my little pony
My little pony tales
My little pony, my little pony
My little pony tales

Schoolhouse is our very first stop
Then let's try the ice cream shop
My little pony, my little pony
My little pony tales

Starlight, Sweetheart, Melody
Bright Eyes, Patch and Clover
Bonbon's making cookies girls
Hurry up on over

My little pony, my little pony
My little pony tales
My little pony, my little pony
My little pony tales
My little pony tales

To Be Concluded . . . .

Author's Note:

Fanart by dark-tsubaki88 http://dark-tsubaki88.deviantart.com/art/Clover-268364446

My Little pony tales song copyright of Hasbro.

Comments

[Paleb05]

Clover: 7th Pony entry
Dream/Lost Age: Minty: Merged with G1 Twilight's shadow to become Twilight Sparkle.
Nightmare: Was able to survive several disasters due to a stroke of coincidental luck.
To Be Continued.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

Was the scene where Clover spared Fluffy a ReBoot reference? It looked really similar to when Matrix spared Megabyte. Also, Fluffy is obviously a Gollum reference.

[Alex Warlorn]

2900397

She's something else isn't she?

6656597

I don't know if Richforce has seen Reboot.

[Godiswithus3]

hmm. This was a sweet chapter.

[Misty Spell]

"Where you are all going," said a young filly that pulled a lever with her magic.

To Cliche Villain Land, the happiest, most cliche filled place in Equestria!

Starburst Mid-Summer Night.

Interesting, verrrrrry interesting.

or chose to, sink that low in this new dark world.

Hey, if that's how they choose to make a living, no need to guilt or shame them. They have a service that others are willing to pay for they should be free to offer that service as long as it isn't hurting anyone.

[Alex Warlorn]

8977616
Hurting themselves.