Blue Heart has always wanted to fly, but when she tries to give herself wings the spell goes wrong.
Blue Heart is a young unicorn filly, but she has always wanted to fly up in the sky, graceful as a bird. When she asks her friend, Twilight Sparkle, to teach her the ways of magic, a spell she casts goes horribly wrong.
While in the human dimension, Emily lives peacefully. She is a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but she hides it from her friends, who think "she's too old" to watch "baby" shows. But one day, Emily wakes up to find that she has been turned into a Pegasus!
Will Blue Heart ever fly? Will Emily ever turn back into a human?
A small Unicorn filly sat on a hill of grass in Ponyville. She was a pretty azure color with a darker blue mane and tail, cyan eyes, and no cutie mark. Her head was tilted up towards the sky, where a blue Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, flew around and around, performing wonderful tricks.
Suddenly, a clopping alerted the filly to the approach of a purple unicorn. "Morning, Blue Heart!" she greeted the filly, joining her on the small hill.
"Morning, Twilight." Blue Heart sighed.
"Why the long face?" Twilight asked, sitting beside Blue Heart on the grass.
Blue Heart gazed up at the morning sky. The last of the pink was leaving the sky, and there were only a few clouds, which Rainbow Dash was using to perform great tricks. "I wish I could fly." Blue Heart murmured.
"You're a Unicorn." Twilight pointed out, "You can't change what you are. I'm sure earth Ponies and Pegasi wish they could cast spells."
"But I don't want to be a Unicorn!" Blue Heart spat, standing up and clopping her hoof in frustration. "I want to fly! If only I was a Pegasus!"
"Calm down!" Twilight laid her hoof across the filly's back and pushed her back into a sitting position. "It doesn't matter how much you want it, you have to be happy with what you have. Why don't you try to be the best Unicorn you can be, instead of trying to be something you're not?"
Blue Heart sighed. "I guess you're right." Then she perked up. "Hey, Twilight, you're like, the best Unicorn in Ponyville, right?"
"I wouldn't say that."
Blue Heart ignored this and continued. "Would you take me on as your apprentice in magic?"
"Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin, thinking about it. "Sure! But it will take a lot of studying." she warned.
Blue Heart sighed. She didn't like the idea. But, since she couldn't live her dream of flying, she had to set her sights of something else. She hung her head in disappointment as she followed Twilight Sparkle to the library. She shook her head, she couldn't be disappointed. She was determined to do something worthwhile!
----
Emily stretched her arms and yawned. Why was school so boring? More specifically, math? Math was her least favorite subject.
"Emily, are you going to help me?" sighed Emily's friend, Sarah.
"Oh, yes." Emily looked at her sheet of math problems. She and Sarah were working together on the math problems. Emily pointed at an equation. "You messed up here- you're supposed to multiply before you subtract."
"Oh, now I see." Sarah wrote out that math problem and redid it the right way. "So, the answer is forty-five?"
Emily put it in the calculator. The answer came up '45'. "Yep." she said. "Now, I'll work on this half of the problems, you work on that half." For the next half an hour, the two friends worked on the sheet of equations until the bell rang that signaled the end of the class.
"Great! school's over!" Sarah raised her arms up and 'raised the roof'. "What are you going to do when you go home?"
Emily stood, packed the sheet in her backpack, and walked out of the room. "I'll probably watch TV, I don't have anymore homework to do."
"What will you watch?"
"My- I don't know." Emily lied. She, of course, would watch her DVDs of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. But she didn't want any of her friends to know. they would probably hate her and call her a 'baby' or something like that. All of her friends considered My Little Pony in general just a show for five-year-olds. Emily loved My Little Pony, but would never, never let anyone find out.
"Well, I'll see you later!" Sarah ran off, backpack on her shoulder, towards her house. Emily felt a heavy weight lay in her belly as she walked home. What would happen if her friends found out her secret?
"Are you serious?" Blue Heart's cyan eyes were wide as she looked at the huge pile of books that Twilight Sparkle had just dumped in front of her.
"Yes." Twilight was still searching the shelves for more books. "Those will help you control your magic. Now this," She pulled out a large book with a green cover, levitating it with her horn,"is an encyclopedia to simple spells." She dropped the book on the ever-growing pile in front of Blue Heart.
"How am I supposed to read all this?" the azure filly gasped, looking at the first book, which was so thick that she had trouble lifting it.
Twilight didn't seem to hear her, since she was still busy taking books off the shelves and adding them to the pile. "Spike! Where's 'The Guide to Modern Spell Casting'?"
"Here." the purple-and-green baby dragon held out the book from high up on his ladder. Twilight used her magic to grab it from him and tugged it away with such force that Spike's ladder fell over and he fell flat on his face.
"Sorry, Spike." Twilight said, checking he was okay by helping him to his feet. She then dropped the book on the pile in front of Blue Heart and continued searching.
Blue Heart picked up the first book that Twilight had given her in her mouth (it was heavy) and set it on the table. She decided to try something she had never done before. She focused all her magic, and after a moment, the cover of the book flipped open. "Yay! Twilight, did you see that?" she jumped up and down.
"See what?" Twilight turned and clopped over.
"I turned the page using magic!" Blue Heart did it again, her horn glowing a light shade of orange as she used her magic to the turn to the next page.
"Great!" Twilight whinnied, "A starting point!" She went back to the shelf and continued searching for books. Blue Heart went on reading, but found it hard to concentrate. About half and hour later, there was a knock on the door. Spike raced over to get it.
"Good afternoon, Twilight." Blue Heart turned to see a light yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tale, teal-blue eyes, and a three-butterfly cutie mark.
"Hello, Fluttershy." Twilight greeted her friend. she dropped the book she was levitating with magic and clopped over to Fluttershy. "What did you need?"
"I found a baby Phoenix out in the Everfree forest," she turned to reveal a small red baby bird. "It was all alone. I wanted you to write to the Princess and ask her for some tips on taking care of Phoenixes, since I don't know much about them." then her shy side showed. "I-I mean, if it doesn't bother you."
"Of course not!" Twilight clopped over to the drawer where she kept her scrolls and quills. It was empty. "Spike! Where is all the scrolls?"
Spike walked over. "I think we're all out."
Twilight threw her head back in frustration. "Ugh! I thought we just placed an order for some!" She trotted to the door. "You keep reading, Blue Heart. I have to go to the store and find some scrolls and quills."
"Oh, no, you don't need to go to that much trouble, really." Fluttershy said.
"No, no, it's all right, it's no trouble." Twilight reassured her. She left, Fluttershy behind her, leaving Blue Heart and Spike alone. Blue Heart continued reading, and after awhile, Spike left upstairs to go to bed.
Blue Heart suddenly noticed that it was getting dark, and she was all alone. She clopped across the room to find the lamp, but tripped over the pile of books. "Ouch!" she whinnied, rubbing her head. She found the lamp, clicked it on, and looked at the scattered books. She used her magic to move the books and lay them back in their perfect piles. Then she noticed the Encyclopedia, which had fallen open to a page with a Unicorn that had beautiful butterfly wings.
The azure filly gazed at the picture in wonder. She picked it up and laid it on the table next to the book she had been reading and read the caption. It said 'spell to give ponies wings'. Excitement coursed through Blue Heart. She knew she should wait until Twilight got back, but she just had to try it. She read the page, then focused all her magic in her horn.
It seemed her whole frame turned the light orange glow of her magic. She did her best, and she started to float in the air. Magic surrounded her, and all she could see was orange.
Then there was a huge blast and the filly fell hard to the wooden floor. The 'BOOM!' echoed all around, and the wave of magic passed all over the town. Spike raced down the stairs, stumbling and rolling down, landing on the floor. "What happened?" he asked.
"I-I don't know." Blue Heart looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed. suddenly, Twilight came through the door, breaking it down and looking alarmed.
"Blue Heart!" she gasped, "What was that flash?"
"I-" Blue Heart was interrupted by Spike breathing out fire, and a scroll landing on the floor in between her and Twilight. Twilight picked i up with magic, unrolled it, and read it.
Emily clicked the remote and her TV blared with the My Little Pony Theme song. She was in her room, laying on her bed, watching her television that was laying on her desk. It was a big television, she had gotten it from her uncle, who was very rich.
On screen, an owl hooted at a purple-and-green baby dragon. she was watching an episode called, "Owl's Well that Ends Well". As she watched the owl fly, she wondered what it was like to soar. What would it bee like, she wondered, to fly, far above the clouds, so high that all troubles were forgotten, that all cries of responsibility were unheard, that fear and blame were far below?
"If I were a pony, I would be a Pegasus." Emily sighed to herself. "I would corkscrew through the sky, fly fast enough to create a tornado, and kick holes in the clouds. I would be like Rainbow Dash." the more she thought about it, she wasn't at all like Rainbow Dash. In fact, she was more like a mixture between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. She was very timid and shy, but when she was around her friends and family, she would act very silly.
But, still, she wanted to fly.
Flying would be a dream come true.
Suddenly, her door burst open. He first reaction was to quickly hit the 'off' button on her remote. She even kept it a secret from her family that she watched My Little Pony. Her second reaction was to jump off her bed and run to the door and block the view of whoever it was until the TV shut off completely.
"Emily, what in the world are you doing?" it was Emily's brother, Maxwell, or Max for short. "You woke me up!"
"What are you doing, sleeping this early?" Emily asked, sure to block Max's view of her television until the sound faded.
"Early?" Max showed his little sister his watch. "It's ten at night!"
It was. Emily hadn't noticed how late it had gotten. "Already?" she asked, surprised. "I'd better go to bed." she pushed her way past her brother to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
After she had gotten ready for bed, she glanced in the mirror. The face she saw there was slightly tanned- she spent a lot of time outside- with pretty gray eyes and brown hair. "What would I look like as a My Little Pony?" she asked herself quietly. She smiled at herself in the mirror, then went to bed.
----
Emily blinked her eyes open. She rolled out of bed. As she stood, she suddenly fell flat on her face. why couldn't she balance on her two legs?
She lifted herself up on all-four. It seemed... strange. Like her arms and legs were the same length, so it was comfortable and natural to crawl like this. In fact, she did seem taller like this than she usually was when she was on all-fours.
Something was wrong.
As she raced across her carpet, a million thoughts ran around in her head. She could turn the doorknob, so she just broke down the door. She ran right for the bathroom, pushed open the unlocked door, put her hands on the sink, and lifted herself up to look in the mirror.
Blue Heart, Twilight, and all of Twilight's friends sat before Princess Celestia. "There is an imbalance of magic somewhere." the graceful white alicorn was saying. "If we don't correct it, it will result in chaos, worse than when Discord was here!"
"I-I really did something as bad as that?" Blue Heart stuttered.
Celestia thought about her answer for a moment. "..yes. But you are not entirely to blame. There was a buildup of evil power somewhere, and your magic triggered it. You have exceptional magic ability."
"The irony." Blue Heart muttered to herself.
Celestia didn't seem to hear this. "Now, Luna and I have located the imbalance. It is in a different universe."
"A different universe?" they all gasped.
"Oh! Oh! Are there strange non-pony creature there with big fangs and evil eyes?" Pinkie Pie asked, hopping over to the princess. Applejack grabbed Pinkie's messy tail and tugged her back to sit again.
"Almost." Celestia said, looking amused for a moment. "It is inhabited by humans, creatures that walk on two legs, and use their other two legs to hold things. But not anymore."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
"Due to the magical imbalance, they have all been turned into ponies." Everypony gasped.
"What are we goin' to do?" Applejack asked.
"If Luna and I combine our magic, we can send a few ponies to the other universe." Celestia looked at the ponies. "But only for about a week, and only four or less ponies."
"But, how are we going to fix this without the elements of harmony?" Twilight asked, "If you can only send four, then you can't send all of us with the elements!"
"I know, but we need to try. I suggest that Twilight goes, and three. Twilight is the best with magic, so she has the best chance of fixing it."
The Mane six and Blue Heart all looked at each other. Twilight stood and clopped over to stand next to the princess. "I'm going." she said. "I have to go. But who else will come?"
Pinkie Pie stood and hopped over. "I think I should go!" she said seriously.
There were several moments of silence as Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy discussed who would go. Then Rainbow Dash flew over and landed beside Twilight and Pinkie Pie. "I'm going." She said. "I'm fearless, so I'll have no trouble." If the situation wasn't so serious, everypony would have laughed.
Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy remained. While they were whispering and thinking, Blue Heart came to a conclusion. She stood and clopped to stand beside the others, making everypony except Celestia gasp. "I know I'm young and a filly, but Celestia just said that I have an extraordinary amount of magic power. My power and Twilight's combined will give us a better chance of surviving in that strange universe, and repairing the imbalance."
"She's right." Celestia said, "But I can't send a filly to a strange and unsafe place like this."
Everypony considered. Was there a choice?
"She has to come." Twilight said what they were all thinking.
"Don't worry princess, I'll keep this one safe." Rainbow clopped over to Blue Heart and patted her on the head with a hoof.
"Then we should get ready. Luna will be back soon, she has gone to raise the moon." then the princess turned back to the last three ponies. "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, you three have a different job. you must go about finding the buildup of evil power that caused the imbalance."
"You can count on us, princess!" Applejack said.
Everypony left the room where they were standing, leaving to make sure everything was okay at home before they got ready to solve this. But Blue Heart and Princess Celestia stayed. Blue Heart, realizing she was alone with royalty, suddenly felt shy and was about to slink away when the princess asked, "So, mind telling me what's ironic?"
The azure filly stopped, dead. "You mean when you said I had great magic ability?"
"Yes." Celestia said, looking down at the filly with kind eyes. "You muttered that it was ironic. What did you mean?"
Blue Heart sighed. She felt terrible that Celestia had heard her- she had been rude to royalty when she had just complemented her! "I always wanted to be a Pegasus." she admitted, "I always wanted to fly. When my magic got out of control, I was trying to cast a spell to give myself wings."
The Princess just continued to smile at the Unicorn filly. "You can't change who you are, Blue Heart. That's an important thing to remember."
----
Emily burst in her parents' room. "Mom! Dad! something's wrong!" she gasped when her parents sat up, throwing off the blankets. They were ponies too! They were both Pegasi, and, looking at her sides, Emily found that she was a Pegasus too.
When she saw a My Little Pony in her room, Emily's mother instantly fainted. Her father, instead, took the violent reaction and jumped off the bed to attack the strange pony that was his daughter. But, surprsied to find that he couldn't balance on two legs anymore, he fell.
"Dad, dad it's me!" Emily said, helping him to his hooves, "Emily! We've been turned into ponies!"
Then her father fainted.
Emily decided to leave her parents and check on her brother. She galloped down the hallway, turned, and kicked the door open with her back hooves. Her brother was startled awake. "Max! Max! We've been turned into ponies!" she exclaimed.
Max jumped out of bed and looked at himself. He looked a lot like one of the background characters on the show- Dr. Whooves. Strangely, he wasn't panicking. "This is awesome!" he whinnied, examining his wings. "I can fly!" He flapped his wings, and hovered a bit.
Seeing how relaxed her brother was calmed Emily a bit. He was right, this was awesome! She examined herself- she seemed to be a dark teal colors with darker blue mane and tail, gray eyes, and no cutie mark. "That's odd." She murmured to herself. "Why don't I have a cutie mark?"
"This might be a dream, but who cares?" Max asked nobody- or nopony- in particular. "I'm gonna go fly!" He flew like a bullet out the broken down door, farther down the hallway, and outside. Emily followed. Now that she thought about, her parents nor Max had their cutie marks. She supposed that, since they had only just become ponies, that they hadn't discovered their cutie marks yet.
Then something hit her. People who weren't fans of My Little Pony would be having heart attacks! She had better go check up on her friends!
She spread her wings and flew out the window. She was right- it was wonderful to soar. But her nagging worry that this wasn't a dream held her down. She flew as fast as she could across town.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sat side-by-side with Blue Heart, Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow in front of them. "Now, we have to gather our magic to send you four back." Celestia said. "Ready, Luna?"
"Ready, older sister." Luna said. The two Alicorns' horns began to glow with magic. The glow became stronger and stronger until it was blinding. Then their magic flew at each other, colliding in the middle and building in a giant ball of glowing light. The ball grew bigger and bigger until it was big enough to fit all four ponies inside.
"Quick, get in." Celestia murmured, voice strained with the effort of holding all of the magic there. Twilight was first. She hopped in, and disappeared within. Pinkie Pie then hopped in, then Rainbow Dash flew in. Blue Heart was last. She looked up at Celestia. "Hurry." she told the filly. Blue Heart nodded, the princess winked, and the unicorn filly clopped towards the ball of magic.
It swirled in front of her hypnotically. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen. She held her breath and jumped in.
She opened her eyes. It was hot, it burned, she needed fresh air. All around her was swirling masses of different colors. Blue, red, yellow, pink, purple, orange all swirled around her, confusing her and making her dizzy. She seemed to be rushing through a tunnel, and she felt like she was going to throw up.
Just as suddenly as she had entered to hot, swirling tunnel, she exited it. She was blinded by morning light and was thrown into something soft. She stood, rubbing her head to make the dizziness headache go away. She looked around. She appeared to be alone in a room. she had landed on something like a bed with blue sheets. There was a big, strange device that appeared to be a thick mirror. But the view wasn't clear- the glass seemed to be black.
"Who are you?" Blue Heart jumped as an unknown voice rang out behind her.
----
Emily landed on Sarah's roof. She jumped off, landed easily in front of the door, and rudely broke the door down. In this strange circumstance, she really didn't care how rude she was. They were ponies, for goodness sake!
She heard a scream. She raced to find where the scream was coming from, and found a pink Earth Pony mare on the floor, hooves over her eyes. "Who are you?" she asked, jumping up and hiding behind the couch.
"Are you Sarah?" Emily asked. She wasn't sure, the mare could be anybody- er, anypony.
"Y-yes." she stammered, "who are you?" she repeated.
"I'm Emily!" She flew over to her friend's side and wrapped her hoof around her. "Don't worry, it's okay."
"Why am I a pony?" she asked.
"We're My Little Ponies." she said, "I don't know why."
"My Little Pony?" she asked. "You mean, from that baby show?"
"I have to admit something to you." Emily sighed, "I am a big fan of My Little Pony. I don't know what's going on, but I know about these ponies, okay? We should get back to my house, quickly."
----
Emily clopped into her house. I was pretty beat up. Doors and windows had been kicked open when she had been panicking. "Let's go in my room." She told Sarah, still attempting to calm down her friend. She led Sarah to her room. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash and her and Sarah both fell back.
Emily stood and grabbed Sarah's tail in her mouth as she tried to run off. "Nothing will happen to you while you're with me." she reassure her. The pink unicorn stopped and followed Emily, but kept shaking with fear.
Emily clopped into her room. what had that flash been? Then she spotted a blue Unicorn filly on her bed. Had a child gotten in? Why wasn't it panicking like everybody else? It looked like a school-age pony from the show.
She clopped closer to the bed and looked at the filly. She was azure with a darker blue mane and tail and cyan eyes. "Who are you?" she asked, and the filly jumped.
"My-my name is Blue Heart." Blue Heart said. This must be one of the 'humans' that had been turned into a pony! She was a darker teal Pegasus. "I'm not human!" she said quickly at that thought.
"What do you mean?" the stranger asked.
"I mean, I've always been a pony, I wasn't just turned into a pony today, like you." Blue Heart explained. "I'm been sent by Princess Celestia to this universe to fix everything."
"You mean you know how to fix this, so we're not ponies anymore?" the stranger looked excited.
"Not exactly, no." Blue Heart responded, then she glanced at the Pegasus. "What's your name?"
"I'm Emily, and this is my friend, Sarah." She pointed at the scared-looking pink Unicorn behind her.
"Hello, Emily, Sarah." Blue Heart greeted them. She looked around. "Have you seen a Purple Unicorn? Or a Pink Earth Pony? Or a blue Pegasus?"
"You mean... did you bring the Mane six with you?" Emily looked excited again.
"Not re- how do you know about the Mane Six?"
"It's a TV show." Emily pointed at the strange device on the desk that looked like a dark mirror. "we can watch Adventures from your world over and over again on that thing."
"You mean that this thing can see through different universes?" Blue Heart gazed into the thing called a 'TV' in wonder.
"Not exactly." Emily said, "But more importantly, if you've been sent here to help us, then we'd better get started looking for your friends. who did you bring with you?"
"Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash."
"Okay, well, they'll be easy to find." Emily turned so Blue Heart could climb on her back. The filly got the hint and climbed on. "They'll be the only ones not panicking." she spread her wings and took off out the window. Only once she was in the air did she remember. "Oh, Sarah, just stay here." She called, "Watch My Little Pony, It's in my DVD player."
And then they were off.
----
Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash landed in the middle of what appeared a town square. "Where's Blue Heart?" was the first words out of Rainbow Dash's mouth. "Don't tell me we've lost her already!"
"She might have gotten lost in the tunnel." Twilight said. "We should look for her."
"I'll do a fly over." Rainbow spread her wings and took off before anypony could say anything.
"Pinkie Pie, I want you to search for anything unusual, something that could be linked to the magical imbalance." Twilight said.
"Yessir, m'am sir!" Pinkie Pie said, then bounced away.
"Now I need to calm the ponies here." Twilight said to herself. As she looked around, she saw ponies running in every other direction, panicking and screaming. "This isn't going to be easy."
She jumped onto a nearby fence post and balanced there. "Everypony, listen to me!" she called as loud as she could. A few ponies stopped, but the rest continued panicking. "Everypony! there is no need to panic! Everything will be fine!" she continued, but only a few ponies listened. Finally, she gave up with screaming and her horn glowed with magic. She released the magic and a huge blast echoed around, making Everypony stop and stare at Twilight.
"Thank you!" Twilight called. "Now, nopony panic! Everything will be fine! we are taking care of the problem and you will be in your normal state as soon as possible!"
----
"Emily! This is amazing!" Blue Heart exclaimed. They were flying high, the wind whipping through their manes. "It's everything I've ever imagined!"
"Imagined? what are you talking about?" Emily asked.
"I've always wanted to fly, but since I'm not a Pegasus or an alicorn, I'm stuck on the ground." Blue heart frowned, but Emily couldn't see because the filly was on her back.
"Well, I've always wanted to be a Pegasus, too." Emily admitted, "I've always wondered what it was like to soar. In fact, I would prefer to be a regular ol' Earth Pony than a human."
"Hey!" Blue Heart whinnied suddenly, "I saw a blast of magic! We'd better go see- it might be Twilight!"
Pinkie Pie bounced around. she saw nothing suspicious- this world seemed remarkably like her own. Same type of houses, same gardens, even the same pets. But there seemed to be many more towns and less nature.
She started humming a song to herself as she looked around for something that might be tied to the imbalance. "Come on everypony, smile smile smile, fill my heart up with sunshine sunshine, all I really need is a smile smile smile, from these happy friends of miiiine." she hummed.
"How can I smile?" someone asked.
Pinkie turned to see a sad-looking brown Earth Pony stallion. "Well, it's easy, silly!" Pinkie Pie raced over to him and stretched his mouth into a smile. Once she took her hooves away, the smile faded.
"I've been turned into a strange creature that I know nothing about." he said, his hazel eyes brimmed with sadness. "How can I smile when I'm as lost and confused as I am now?"
"Aww, don't be sad." Pinkie said, "I like to make everypony smile! I will fix this so everypony in this universe will smile too!" She looked around. Nothing looked that strange. She turned to the stallion. "Have you seen anything that looks strange around here?"
He thought about it. "There's the tower in that direction. It's rumored that at night, it has a strange glow."
"Great!" Pinkie clapped her hooves together in triumph. "I will make you smile again!" and, because it would be quicker than bouncing, she galloped off in the direction the Earth Pony had told her.
----
Rainbow Dash looked around her from where she sat on a cloud. She saw the galloping form of Pinkie Pie far below. That was strange, Pinkie usually bounced instead of galloping. She corkscrewed down towards the pink Earth Pony and stopped right before she hit the ground. She flew beside Pinkie and asked, "Have you found anything."
"A sad Earth Pony told me that there was a glowing tower in thi direction." Pinkie nodded forward, "It might be what Celestia was talking about!"
"Let's check it out." Rainbow grabbed Pinkie Pie's forelegs and pulled her up into the air.
"What about Blue Heart?" Pinkie asked.
"After we find the tower." Rainbow carried Pinkie Pie through the sky as fast as she could, looking for said tower.
----
"Blue Heart!" Twilight saw the little blue filly waving from high above. "You're safe! Rainbow's out looking for you."
"Well, I'm fine." The Pegasus that Blue Heart had been riding landed and she jumped off. "This is my friend, Emily."
"Hello, Twilight." Emily waved with her forehoof. "I know about what's going on, and I want to help."
"You're a human, though, right?" Twilight looked at Emily.
"Yes, and even though I've always wanted to be a pony, I have to help my universe right itself!"
"Great Idea!" Twilight looked around at the nervous ponies. "I think we need Pinkie Pie to calm these ones down. Emily, can you go find her and Rainbow? I sent Rainbow looking for Blue Heart, and I sent Pinkie looking for something that might have anything to do with the imbalance. Rainbow is a blue-"
"I know who everypony is, I'll be fine." and Emily took off, dashing through the sky.
----
"I think that's it!" Pinkie exclaimed. they were approaching a big Bell Tower.
"Alright." Rainbow said. She slowed down and they landed safely at the foot of the tower. After looking it over, Rainbow turned to Pinkie. "It looks normal, but I think we should look inside."
"Okey Dokey!" Pinkie clopped happily to the foot of the tower, found the door, and twisted it the doorknob with her mouth. She clopped inside, but clopped right back out, looking scared. "It's dark in there." She had her ear laid back. "It's scary dark. Not the I-can-laugh-it-away scary, either. A bad kind of scary."
"Let me go in." Rainbow trotted in, and instantly knew what Pinkie was talking about. It was pitch black, and it seemed that the very taste of the air made her feel scared. She kept trying to go on, but her fear held her back. Finally, she dashed out. "I see what you mean." Rainbow gasped, trying to calm herself, "We might need a unicorn to light the way in there."
"Then we should go get Twilight!" Pinkie said, still shaken by the fear in the tower.
"I'll go get her, stay here." Rainbow spread her wings and dashed off into the sky just to collide with a dark teal Pegasus.
"Ow!" she and the stranger said at the same time. Then the other Pegasus saw who it was she had collided with.
"Rainbow Dash!" she exclaimed.
Rainbow was surprised. "You know me? Who are you?"
"My name's Emily, I'm a human from this world and a friend of Blue Heart's." she spoke quickly, "I know all about the situation. Blue Heart is fine and she's with Twilight. I've been sent to find you and Pinkie."
"Pinkie's down there." Rainbow pointed to Pinkie, who was watching from below. "We think we found the source of the imbalance in this world."
"That means that we need to tell Twilight and Blue Heart!" Emily looked delighted. "I'll go get them, then we can meet back here!"
----
About an hour later, Twilight, Blue Heart, Emily, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were all sitting around the Bell tower. Emily looked beside her, and saw that Blue Heart was trembling. She pulled the filly close and wrapped a leg around her. "It's okay, I'll protect you." She smiled down at the filly. "I'm like your big sister from another world."
"We should explore it." Twilight said. "We'll all go in. I'll lead the way, because I can light it up." She clopped over to the door. "I want Emily and Blue Heart in the middle. they're not really used to this 'saving the world' thing."
All five ponies found it hard not to run from the tower. Inside, stairs were spiraled up to the top where there was a chamber below the bell. It was a creaking and rickety staircase, and it felt like it was going to collapse at any moment. Emily kept one of her wings spread over Blue Heart at all times, just in case. She did feel like the little filly was her little sister. She loved her like a sister, almost instantly. There was a connection between them, like they really were related.
Maybe it was their wish to fly.
Suddenly, Blue Heart screeched with fear. She appeared to have walked into a cobweb. She tried to run out of the tower, but Rainbow, who was behind them, blocked her path. "It's okay, Blue Heart." Emily motioned for Blue Heart to come back. Even the bravest pony would be scared of this place.
There was a crackle of something like lightning, and everypony flinched. "That sounds like a crack of magic." Twilight called from ahead. "I think it's coming from the chamber above!"
Everypony raced on, and soon they reached the chamber. The sight made their jaws drop. There was a huge ball of magic, crackling in the middle of the chamber. Feeding it was three creatures that looked a bit like zebras, only with horns. When the group entered, the creature turned and growled at them.
"What are they?" Emily whispered to Twilight.
"We are Zebrics!" one of the creatures growled, advancing on them.
"Zebrics!" Twilight whispered in shock. "I've heard of those! They are like elves that protect the forests of Equestria!"
"Not anymore, pony!" a second Zebric growled. "We wanted something in return from Princess Celestia for taking care of Equestria. When she refused, we attacked, and she banished us."
"Yes," the third Zebric said, "Then we rebelled! We are going to plunge all worlds into chaos!"
"No you're not!" Rainbow growled. She flew up into the air and plunged at the Zebric. There was a flash and the Zebric teleported to the other side of the chamber, leaving Rainbow to smash into the floor. The whole tower shuddered and the floor fell in.
Rainbow flapped her wings and she hovered there, not falling, while everypony else tumbled around in the collapsing tower. Emily grabbed Blue Heart, wrapped her in her forelegs, and flapped to keep her from falling. When Rainbow saw Twilight and Pinkie falling, she tired to catch them both, but they dragged her down and they all fell into debris.
The Zebrics' magic ball was still floating there, along with the Zebrics themselves, who were using magic to levitate themselves. "You cannot stop us!" The first Zebric said in a threatening voice. "We are more powerful then Celestia!"
"We have to get out of here!" Twilight gasped from below as more chunks of wood fell from the roof. Rainbow grabbed Pinkie Pie and physically threw her out a hole in the wall. She then ran to dig out Twilight.
Above Emily flew out a window that had not collapsed yet. She landed and let Blue Heart race a safe distance away. But Emily didn't follow her. "Emily, what are you doing?" Blue Heart called as the teal Pegasus raced back towards the collapsing Bell Tower. She passed right by Twilight and Rainbow, who had just broken free and were running, and flew right up to the Zebrics.
"You will never, never plunge the world in chaos!" She screeched. She flew right at the first Zebric, who also teleported, but instead she collided with another Zebric that was behind the first one. They tumbled in the air for a moment, then they fell hard on the ground, Emily pinning the Zebric down. Suddenly, a terrible pain overcame Emily and she writhed on the ground. The Zebrics were putting a spell on her, and it hurt worse than anything in the world. Everything went dark and all she could see was pain, all she could feel was pain, everything but pain faded.
I'm dying... Emily thought.
Then the pain was gone. As her vision cleared, she looked up to see Rainbow and Pinkie attacking the Zebric and Twilight beside her, horn glowing with magic. She had cured her of whatever spell had been put on her. She suddenly stood and looked around. "Where's Blue Heart?"
"I'm here, Emily!" the little azure filly was right beside her.
Emily turned to Twilight. "Why did you come back to save me?"
"We had to save you, silly!" Pinkie called out. "You risked your life in our battle, what kinda ponies would be if we left you here to die? Not very good ones!"
Twilight laughed. "Yes, she's right. We couldn't just leave you here. And-" she looked down at Blue Heart, "we wouldn't just leave the big sister of our friend die, now would we?"
Emily was suddenly back on topic. "We need to stop them!" She turned and flew off towards the Zebrics. "Come on, Twilight!"
One of the Zebrics had Rainbow pinned to the ground and his horn was glowing with magic. He was putting that same pain spell on Rainbow Dash! Emily dashed over and crashed into the Zebric. "Don't hurt my friends!" She spat.
But the Zebric just smiled. "You'll never win. We know your weakness."
A screech made Emily's heart freeze. He jumped away and spun around. One of the Zebrics was hovering in the air, holding Blue Heart and casting a pain spell on her. For some reason, the first thought in her head was Do these Zebrics know any spells other than pain spells?
Then her mind was on track. These monsters were hurting her little sister. She stretched out her wings and launched herself up at them. She grabbed Blue Heart from them and landed hard on the ground. She stood over the azure filly and growled, "Nopony will ever hurt this filly while I'm alive."
----
Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy searched the Everfree forest. "Ah had a feelin' it were here, girls!" Applejack said. Ahead was a mountain, and at its tip was a strange, magical glow. "This has to be it!"
"At least I'll get a rest from all this muck." Rarity looked around her at all the mud they were walking in. "All this mud has stained my coat!"
"If we don' fix this imbalance, we'll have a lot more to worry 'bout than mud, Rarity!" Applejack snapped.
"Maybe-maybe I should fly up and check it out." Fluttershy offered.
"Great idea, sugercube!" Applejack whinnied, "Rarity 'n ah 'ill meet ya up there!"
----
Fluttershy saw Applejack and Rarity not far below as she flew up to the cave. She wasn't used to flying to high, but this was an emergency!
She was soon at the peak. She landed in a pile of snow and scanned the area. There was a strange magical glow coming from a cave. She crept closer, still just telling herself It's an emergency, don't run away, it's an emergency, don't run away.
She peeked in. She held back a gasp. There was a huge ball of magical power, and controlling it were three zebra-like creatures with Unicorn horns. They had to be the ones who were creating the imbalance! She spread her wings and flew down to Applejack and Rarity to report what she had seen.
"Zebrics?" Celestia gasped. "We could never defeat them! They are more powerful than even I!"
Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were reporting back to the princess. "What are we gonna do, y'all?" Applejack asked in fear.
"I will never let the Zebrics plunge the world into this chaos!" Celestia looked fierce. "I will never let them hurt anypony! We have to think of a way to stop them."
"Oh, what if Twilight and the others are facing the Zebrics in the other world?" Rarity fretted.
"We can't help them, if I send more than four, then we won't have enough power to retrieve them." Celestia commented.
"There is nothing we can do right now." Luna said, stating the obvious. "We must wait and see."
----
"You are giving your life to protect that little pony?" one of the Zebrics sneered. All three were focused on Emily now.
"This filly is as good as my little sister." Emily said. "This little pony, I would protect her with my life. I would protect this world with my life."
"Fool!" another Zebric spat, "You give up your life for a hopeless cause!"
"Maybe!" Emily narrowed her eyes, "But what is the point of living if I don't spend my life doing something useful? If I succeed, I will be rewarded with a non-chaotic world! If I fail, I will at least die knowing I tried my best to fight you."
All the Zebrics' power gathered at the tips of their horns as they got ready to shoot Emily with a death spell.
"My Little Pony helped me through the toughest times." Everypony except the Zebrics were stunned as Emily continued, "My life was terrible, and watching My Little Pony helped me. It not only entertained, it gave me hope when I was hopeless. It gave me comfort when I was afraid. Now I must do something to help it." Emily turned to look at Everypony. "Stop them, Twilight Sparkle. And protect my little sister."
There was a blast as the killing blow hit Emily.
If anypony had been paying attention to her flank, they would have seen a small heart appear there.
----
The Zebrics laughed. As Emily lay, dead on the ground, wing splayed out protectively over Blue Heart, they laughed. "Why, you!" Rainbow Dash flew at them, but Twilight stopped her by using magic to pull her back.
"Smart unicorn." one of the Zebrics cackled. "Don't want another one of your friends dead now, do you?"
Twilight didn't answer. Rainbow looked like she was about to explode with anger, and Pinkie's hair had gone flat with sadness.
"We win!" all the Zebrics said at once.
Nopony noticed Blue Heart crawl out from under Emily's body. She sat and stared at her dead 'sister'. She died to save me. she thought. Then again, more fiercely, She died to save me!
"You killed my sister!" Blue Heart screeched, so loud that it was glass-shattering. All her anger and magic was released and she rose into the sky, levitating there and glowing with magic. Her eyes turned light orange and a huge ball of magic gathered all around her. The Zebrics suddenly looked fearful.
"YOU KILLED MY SISTER!" Blue Heart repeated, even louder now. The magic was released from her and there was a huge boom. There was a piercing scream of pain from the Zebrics, then they disappeared. A huge pulse of magic spread all over the world, and once it had faded, Blue Heart fell to the ground again.
The azure filly raced over to Emily. Her body was still warm. Tears fell from Blue Heart's eyes and she murmured over and over again, "My sister... my sister... oh, Emily I'm so sorry... my sister..."
"I'm sorry, Blue Heart." Twilight clopped over. Pinkie's hair was still deflated and Rainbow just lay on the ground, looking like she was going to cry. "But you saved us all."
"Wrong." Blue Heart stood. "She saved us all. I couldn't control that magic. If she hadn't died, then I wouldn't have been able to do that."
"Come on, Blue Heart, let's check the town." Twilight said. "I have a feeling all things in both our universes are solved."
The four ponies trotted into town, the loss of Emily still dragging them down. She had given her life to save them all... They could never repay her.
"Look!" Rainbow pointed. There was a strange creature walking on two legs in front of them. There were more. Many more. they were all the same color, except they seemed to be wearing differently colored clothes.
"Humans!" Twilight whispered. "Blue Heart, you must have changed them back!"
"Then why didn't Emily change back?" Blue Heart asked.
Twilight thought about it. "Maybe it was because she was already dead."
"Or because, in her heart, she had always been a pony." Blue Heart murmured. Suddenly, she hated herself. "If I hadn't been so selfish, none of this would have happened! If I hadn't wanted wings so bad, I wouldn't have created the imbalance, and Emily would never have sacrificed herself to save... me." Her voice faded on the last word.
"But you never would have meet her, you never would have loved her as a sister." Twilight pointed out. "I think you shouldn't regret anything. She wanted to die- it was for a good cause."
"She got her cutie mark, you know." Blue Heart remembered the heart appearing on Emily's flank before she had died. "I think her special talent was... love."
Twilight smiled, and the group started to trot away from town. Just as they were almost gone, Pinkie gasped and her hair grew fluffy again. "That's the guy!" she squealed, pointing at a man sitting on a bench. "He's the guy who couldn't smile!" The man was now feeding birds, a broad smile across his face.
"How do you know, Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.
"I just do." Pinkie said.
"You always succeed in spreading smiles, Pinkie." Twilight said, smiling at the man. And Reluctantly, Blue Heart's face stretched into a smile.
----
Celestia and Luna had their horns together again. They were calling back the four ponies they had sent. they had a feeling that all was corrected.
Out of the ball of magic jumped Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow. Last, Blue Heart slipped out.
"Did you succeed?" Celestia asked.
The four ponies all exchanged a glance, then, in detail, they explained all. They talked about how they had to calm everypony down, how they couldn't find Blue Heart at first, how Emily had come to help them, how Emily had become Blue Heart's big sister, and, finally, in sad voices, they explained how Emily had given her life to save all the worlds.
"It sounds like you had a very big adventure." Celestia smiled.
"We did." Twilight looked at Blue Heart, "And we wouldn't have survived it at all if it weren't for Blue Heart. If it weren't for Emily."
Blue Heart's story didn't end there. no, she preceded to tell the stories of her adventures over and over, to young fillies and colts, to old ponies in senior centers, to everypony. She never forgot Emily, and kept her older sister's memory alive by telling these stories.
She even learned how to do the wing spell, and soared through the clouds, telling her stories in Cloudsdale, and flying all over Equestria to tell her stories.
She never stopped.
Then, one day, when she was resting in her home in Ponyville, she got a strange visit.
She was adult age, and lived in a blue house on a corner. She ran a bookstore- Blue Heart's Books. She was flicking through an old book about Starswirl the Bearded when there was a knock at the door. She wondered who it could possibly be. It was early in the morning, and the sun had just risen into the sky.
"I'm sorry, we're closed, you'll have to come back to-" as Blue Heart opened the door she gasped. She had to be dreaming! for, standing before her, was Emily. "E-emily? What- am I dreaming?"
Emily laughed. "I'm afraid not, little sis." When Blue Heart looked confused, Emily stepped aside to reveal a Zebric. "Don't be afraid, this one is not a protester- he brought me back. He heard one of your stories of me, and thought he would use his magic to lessen the pain in your heart, as a reward for saving the world." Emily smiled at Blue Heart. "You've grwn. you're about as big as me!"
"Why aren't you human, if you're back?" Blue Heart asked, glancing at the Zebric, who looked pleased with himself.
"Because I've always been a pony in my heart." Emily smiled. Blue Heart, filled with joy, leaped at her sister.
"Emily! Emily, how I've missed you!"
"How about we go visit our old friends?" Emily clopped off towards Twilight's library.
"They'll be delighted." Blue Heart clopped happily after her sister. But then a though occurred to Blue Heart. "I never got to fly with joy. When you died, I learn the wing spell, but...but there was no joy in it."
"Because I was dead." Emily just continued smiling. She looked at the Zebric. "You think you could perform just a bit more magic?"
"Of course!" The Zebric's horn glowed, and magic surrounded Blue Heart. She was lifted into the air, then, when the magic faded, she fell to the ground. She looked at her sides. She had wings, but she still had a horn! She was an alicorn! "Alicorn for a day, but that's the best I can do." The Zebric said.
"Thank you!" Blue Heart raced over and hugged the small zebra-like creature. "I have my sister back, and I can fulfill my dream!"
Blue Heart and Emily swooped and corkscrewed through the sky on the way to Twilight's house. If this wasn't a happy ending, what was?
