Queen of the Sun and Moon
{(SxT)}
Suntrix had everything she could ever want. Nigh unlimited power was hers and with it she had easily overthrown her fool of a mentor Princess Lunestia. She had even trapped the three Elements of Harmony in Ponyville, constructing an inescapable bubble over the town. A simple malaise spell doused over the ponies of Ponyville kept them in a constant state of boredom and passivity. All-in-all it was a marvelous plan to keep the Elements out of the picture and assume control of the throne. There was just one problem. “KNEEL!” Suntrix screamed for the hundredth time at the castle staff.
Her horn glowed an eerie blue and strange incomprehensible lights sparked off of it. The ponies of Canterlot castle looked on in horror but none seemed to obey. Suntrix rubbed her head in frustration. She had been at this for close to an hour. Damn it, Mr. 4 said that her power would be unrivaled, yet she couldn’t even get a few ponies to bow to her? “They’ll never bow to a despot, Suntrix,” Lunestia spat from her cage in the throne room. “The ponies are too strong for that.” Suntrix had had quite a fun time playing around with the princess with her new abilities. She had settled on turning her into a parrot and locking her in a cage next to the throne. Suntrix turned to the white and blue colored parrot.
“It’s not a matter of strength!” Suntrix shouted angrily. “Believe me, I know. Things you could not even begin to imagine I now know. You think you were ever the teacher, then you have no idea how low on the totem pole you stand. When we left I was the student, but now I’m not only the master. I’m the god!” She leaned back in her throne and slumped forward a little. What was she missing? She recalled her previous meeting with Mr. 4 and how she got these powers.
----
“So that… thing I saw, that I touched,” Suntrix asked hesitantly when they had finished their talk. “It’s… what is it exactly?”
Mr. 4 grinned, his glasses back in place obscuring his… deformity. “That is the support beam that all realities rest upon. It is a wall that holds us up while at the same time protecting us from… other things.”
Suntrix was still having a hard time following. Mr. 4 noticed and sighed, waving his hoof and the entire area around them disappeared to be replaced by blackness. Mr. 4 made a snapping sound with his hoof, somehow, and the image of a long string of spheres appeared before them. The line seemed to go on for infinity both ways. “This,” he proclaimed, “Is the multiverse. Each sphere represents a reality. Believe it or not it is not as hard as you believe to traverse it. Some ponies use vibrational frequencies to realign themselves with another earth. Some ponies create holes in space with great technology. And some even soar through the time stream in magic blue boxes.” Suntrix had trouble believing that last one. “Really, anypony creative enough can travel between worlds.” Mr. 4 snapped again and a beam of pure white light shot through every sphere in a perfectly straight line. “This is the Fourth Wall. It exists in every conceivable reality and is connected in turn.”
“Why is it called the Fourth Wall?” Suntrix asked.
Mr. 4 rolled his eyes. “Haven’t you ever read a book or seen a play?” Suntrix frowned and shot him a glare. “Fine. The Fourth Wall is a term in stage performance. The actor is surrounded by four walls while on stage. Stage left. Stage Right. Back stage. And…” He looked to her as if asking for an answer from a student.
“Uh… The orchestra?”
Mr. 4’s expression fell and he slapped his face. “The audience. Whenever an actor in a play would ‘break the fourth wall’ as they say, they would speak directly to the audience or interact with them directly. Often they would talk about things that the characters themselves should have no idea about, breaking the flow of the story.”
Suntrix hesitated asking her question. “So, um… why is it called the Fourth Wall?”
“What would you call the barrier that separates all of reality from the unknowable?” Mr. 4 replied.
Point taken. Fourth Wall was good. Suntrix’ eyes widened in delayed shock. “But wait! I touched it! It… It cracked! Isn’t that a bad thing?”
Mr. 4’s grin did not go away. “One little crack will not rip apart eons of reality. Besides, this was an experiment after all. I wanted to see what would happen if a pony unchosen by the Void were to touch the Wall before…” He stopped as if he were about to give away something he didn’t want. “Regardless, it’s fine. Just keep the usage of your powers to a minimum.”
Suntrix narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Define ‘minimum’?”
Mr. 4 snapped his hoof again and the scenery returned to normal. “Don’t turn the sky into pudding and don’t make the air quick sand,” he joked. “Other than anything crazy like that go nuts.” He turned to leave but stopped, his ears perking up. “Oh, right. You also can’t change a pony’s personality. Matters of physics are fine, but matters of the mind… that’s another story.”
Suntrix frowned at the ominous warning before Mr. 4 finally turned and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Suntrix didn’t care though. She smiled wickedly, she had work to do.
----
And to think that had been nearly four hours ago, she thought. She already kind of had a revenge plan in place but it was pretty much fantasy until she got a hold of these powers. She looked out the throne room window with a bored expression. She saw a mountain range in the distance and willed it to become a giant pile of mashed potatoes. She kept doing this to things she saw through the window for a good half hour. Had she really become bored with the powers of a god? And so soon?
She willed a large tree in the distance to be turned into a stalk of celery/y/y/y/y/y/y/y/y/y/y…
What was that? Suntrix could have sworn everything just kind of… repeated itself like a vinyl disc skipping on a needle. Had she done that? Lunestia rattled her cage, her voice having been muted a while ago. Suntrix rolled her eyes at the parrot. “You get your voice back when you promise no more speeches.” She looked back to the horizon. The far off mountain range was not a pile of mashed potatoes. Odd. Why did she think it had been any different?
---<^^>---
Mare Do-Well regained her balance much quicker than before, having been the only one of the group to have done these jumps the longest. Rarity had to sit down for a moment while Flutterbat woozily staggered before Rainbow caught her. Mare Do-Well surveyed her surroundings. “Do you know where we are?” she asked Fili-Second.
Fili-Second shook her head. “No idea. I really kind of come into these things pretty blind.”
“Well, that’s great,” Mare Do-Well muttered. “For all we know we could be in the middle of a hive of changelings or a dragon nest or…”
“In Ponyville,” Rarity whispered. The rest of the group looked around. Sure enough it looked like they were in some town. Mare Do-Well looked at the streets and buildings. The names were very much similar to her own world, but every building and road was on a much smaller and less developed level. Rainbow looked as though she too recognized the town but her face held just as much melancholy in it as Rarity’s.
Mare Do-Well caught a glimpse of a pony trotting past the alley street they were in. “We should probably find a place to lay low while we can survey our surroundings. Rarity I need you to lay down a mirage to cover our tracks. Applejack will be a lookout. Rainbow and Flutterbat, I need you two to lay low for now. The two of you might stick out with your appearances…” She didn’t even need to turn around. “They’re all gone aren’t they?” Mare Do-Well cocked her head back and Fili-Second sat alone on the street. She smiled weakly at her before waving. “Ugh…”
~`(\/)’~
Rarity did not feel very bad about leaving the group. She was right where she needed to be. She was far away from the ponies of her world and this made them safe. For a brief moment her mind went to her sister. “Sweetie Belle,” Rarity muttered sadly.
“You think she’s safe?” Rarity frowned as she turned to a shop window and stared at her reflection. “I told you to go home because it’s the best place you could be right now if you truly want to protect them.”
“And let you get you’re hooves on my loved ones again?” Rarity asked with venom. “Absolutely not!”
Her reflection shook its head sadly. “I told you my feelings already about this endeavor.”
Rarity smirked. “Yes, you said you were scared.”
The reflection did not change its expression. “Fine. Judge me. But believe what I say is true. When a true force of evil and corruption such as myself is afraid, you’d do well to listen.” The reflection turned as if to leave but stopped. “Oh, by the way, ponies have been walking past you and seeing you for about ten minutes now.”
Rarity pulled her gaze away from the shop window. Sure enough the once empty street was now becoming a bit clogged with pedestrians. Each one seemed to notice her, but they gave no scream or sign of fright. Was this a world where Nightmare Moon didn’t exist?
Rarity noticed a familiar looking pony walking by. It looked like Cheerilee but she had the purple tail and mane as well as the cutie mark of one Berry Punch. Rarity held out a hoof to stop the slightly tipsy looking pony. “Cheerilee?”
“Cherry Punch, good sirrrr,” she slurred. “What’s it to you? I’vve got allot of nnnothing to doo today.”
“Do you, um, recognize me?” Rarity asked hesitantly.
Cherry Punch narrowed her eyes in concentration, but gave up. “Ugh, too much work. Worrying is too much work.” The rest of the ponies around them gave a similar response as they continued to trudge through the street unaware of their final destination or just not caring.
Rarity looked back into the window expecting her reflection to say something. When it didn’t she breathed a heavy sigh. Guess this world did need somepony to save it.
<___|=0
Applejack had one mission to accomplish before she would help the others. She would apologize later for sneaking off, but this was important. The chance to see her sister once more, even for a moment, even if it wasn’t really her, would mean so much to her. It would renew her resolve to return home and find her.
Navigating the town was actually quite easy. For some reason this “Ponyville” was formatted quite similarly to the town she lived in in her youth. If this was the same town then surely the next turn would lead her to… “Yes!” she shouted. She turned a corner out of town and a familiar dirt road led out into the hills. Just beyond she could make out the most familiar of scents. “Sweet Apple Acres.”
Applejack ran through the dirt road until she came to the crest of the hill and looked down. She smiled at what she saw. For the most part besides a few cosmetic differences, she was home. She squinted her eyes and saw a familiar figure lounging by the barn. He was large with a deep red coat. Applejack’s eyes widened. “Big Mac?” She hadn’t seen her older brother in years, not since the accident that claimed his life.
Applejack trotted toward the farm. She was no fool, she recognized that it might be a confusing sight for Big Mac to see her like this, if she even existed in this world or not. AJ lowered her Stetson over her eyes to obscure her face and walked forward to the large stallion. He slept on a rocking chair with a newspaper over his face. AJ cleared her throat to get his attention. “Pardon me.” The stallion did not respond. Applejack frowned and this time went up to poke him. “Excuse me.” This time the stallion stirred but it was merely a snore. Applejack rolled her eyes. She looked at the porch they were on. If it was anything like the farm she grew up on then this board here should…
Applejack stomped on a board and the loosely nailed plank of wood seesawed up beneath the rocking chair. The force of plank pushed it up and over and the stallion immediately awoke waving his hooves to regain balance before he fell over onto the dirt. He did not make any sound which made Applejack a little worried. Then suddenly his head popped up from the ground and he turned with expressionless eyes.
Applejack saw the stallion get up and was surprised. This Big Mac appeared to have a light purple mane and a sensible collar around his neck. His face held no expression with half lidded eyes. She lowered her hat again before approaching him. Big Mac not seeming to respond. “Sorry, but Ah’m lookin’ for a Miss Apple Bloom. Do you know if she lives here?”
Big Mac cocked his head at her in confusion. “Apple Pie?” He looked over her at her tail. “No, my mistake. Tails not poofy enough for that.” Poofy? Plus his voice seemed to have no tone to it at all. “So you’re looking for an Apple Bloom?” He scratched his head in thought, once again beginning to doze off. Applejack performed a clap with her hooves and the older stallion was brought back to attention. “Sorry. Do you mean Scootabloom?”
“Scootabloom?” Applejack whispered. That almost sounded like… “Uh, yeah. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is?”
“Probably out with her friend, Babsweet. Those two are always getting into trou- *snore*” Big Mac seemed to fall asleep midsentence. He was still standing too which kind of creeped Applejack out. Still, she had earned enough information from the stallion. She smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“It was good seein’ yah again, big brother,” she murmured. Now what to do? She considered going out and finding this Scootabloom but something didn’t feel right about it. It sounded like both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were the same pony. Come to think of it. That might be the case with Big Mac as well. Could he be an amalgamation of somepony she hadn’t met?
Suddenly she was struck with a wave of homesickness, which was weird since she was technically home right now. She looked to the house where she’d grown up and then back to Big Mac. “You don’t mind if I just have a little look inside? Right?” Big Mac responded with another snore. She chuckled and walked inside through the screen door.
It really did look different from her own home. The inside was much more rustic than she remembered. But that was a long time ago, she could be remembering differently. Still it did feel a lot like home. She smiled and began to look at the pictures on the wall. They were of three ponies primarily. One was Big Mac who looked a lot more awake and livelier than he did right now. In one picture there was a little filly on his back with a pink mane and tail and orange coat. Applejack looked hard at the picture and saw freckles. Was that supposed to be her? The tail and mane looked familiar, like Fili-Second’s. Perhaps she was right about the amalgamation stuff and this world had a combined version of her and the pink mare. She continued looking at the pictures until she came to one of a small foal coming from the hospital. She was orange as well but with a familiar red mane. She also had wings, to the surprise of the ponies in the photo. But all Applejack could see was that red mane. Her eyes began to water. “Apple Bloom.”
Applejack continued her search of the house until she came to a bedroom upstairs. Inside was pretty normal, except for an unmade bed. On the night stand by the window she saw another picture. This one was of the pony Apple Pie and Scootabloom at a carnival having fun together. Applejack sighed as she picked up the photo. Even now that she was so close to her sister she still felt so far away.
A glint of light seemed to flash outside the window. Applejack frowned and looked out at the sky. Only now that she was at a higher level could she see it. “What in the world?” she murmured. Across the sky and reaching across all of Ponyville was a giant dome.
{(SxT)}
Suntrix had now converted Canterlot Castle into twelve different types of architecture and none of them seemed to suit her. Maybe the old adage was true, “given everything and your left with nothing.” Suntrix had all the power she could ever want and no ideas to come with it. She decided to pass the time by changing the castle staff into squirrels and back. A bored look crossed her face as she waved her hoof back and forth and the ponies changed with each motion.
“Mistress, please!” an older tan pony in gold armor spat out before she could turn him into a squirrel again. Suntrix dropped her hoof and eyed the soldier.
“What did you call me?” Suntrix asked with a hint of madness in her voice.
“Um…” the soldier looked to his companions for support but each one stepped away, afraid of the unicorn’s ultimate power. “Mistress?”
Suntrix made her eyes literally become fire and her voice drop a couple octaves. “How many times must I command you to call me QUEEN!”
“Queen!” the soldier pleaded and got on his knees. “Queen then! Whatever you want!”
Suntrix grinned and sat back in her chair once more, her eyes still made of fire. “That’s better. But we still need a proper punishment.” She looked at her pet princess turned parrot in the gilded cage next to her. “Say, our princess was banished to the moon for a thousand years for her disrespect. How does that sound?” The soldier gulped nervously. Suntrix extinguished her eyes and she rubbed her chin in thought. “Nah, that sounds too evil even for me… Hmm, how about the sun instead?”
“No please!” the pony shouted desperately. Suntrix’s face becoming just a little more manic at his cries.
“Or maybe I’ll just turn you into the sun!” she cackled. A spark came from her horn and the soldier before her burst into flames that began to spread fast, quickly consuming the other castle staff present. Suntrix cackled wickedly until the flames consumed her as well. The flames spread through Canterlot and down into Equestria as well/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l/l…
“Mistress, please!” an older tan pony in gold armor spat out before she could turn him into a squirrel again. Suntrix dropped her hoof and eyed the soldier.
“What did you call me?” Suntrix stopped for a moment. This seemed familiar. The soldier and his friends cowered before her waiting for her to speak. Suntrix eyed them all with a hint of suspicion then waved her hoof and turned them into squirrels. “Eh, punishment is too much work anyway.”
===E8DB
Flutterbat followed Rainbow a little reluctantly. As they flew across the skyline she kept looking back at where they had left the others. Rainbow looked back at her with a concerned expression. “Yeah, okay, I know it wasn’t cool to ditch them without saying anything, but trust me. I’m a captain where I come from. I know the most important thing to do before any military campaign is to survey the-“ WHAM! Rainbow slammed head first into what she had assumed was nothing. Slightly dazed, she began to fall. Flutterbat did a dive and caught her right before she hit the ground. Rainbow shook her head clear and dropped to the ground. “Ugh, thanks.” Flutterbat panted a little bit expecting something in return and Rainbow scratched beneath her chin.
The both of them walked from where they landed until they came to the edge of town. Once again, Rainbow did not see the barrier and ran into it head first. “Gah!” she screamed in frustration. She narrowed her eyes at the near invisible barrier and placed a hoof to it. It seemed pretty solid. “Just what do you think this is?” she asked Flutterbat.
Flutterbat walked forward and sniffed the barrier, hissing a little at it. “Magic,” she rasped.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You can smell magic?”
Flutterbat nodded innocently. “Huh, good to know.” She looked back up at the barrier and now that she knew what to look for followed its edges with her eyes until she saw it encompassed all of Ponyville. “Well, this isn’t good.” Flutterbat flew up to her and tapped her shoulder. Rainbow looked down as she saw where the Pegasus bat was pointing. Not far off on the other side of the dome outside, two Filies were pounding on the barrier trying to get in. “Maybe they’ll have some answers.”
Rainbow landed in front of the two startling them. One was a Pegasus filly had an orange coat with red mane and bow, while the other was a kind of brownish unicorn with light purple and white striped mane. The Pegasus looked at Rainbow Dash with shock. “No way!” she shouted. “One of the Wonderbolts is here!”
Rainbow grinned at the fact that her group was a part of this world, but that also added to the confusion as to why nothing was being done. “Sorry I can’t sign any autographs but maybe you could tell us what’s going on with this?” Rainbow motioned to the wall.
The Pegasus was about to answer but saw her friend back away slowly. The other filly seemed terrified of Flutterbat as she had her eyes glued to the pegasus’ wings. Rainbow noticed. “Relax, kid. She’s harmless. And even if she wasn’t, she’s behind a wall.”
“Oh,” the filly sighed. “That makes sense.”
“Speaking of?” Rainbow continued.
“Right,” the pegasus filly said. “We were out playing in our clubhouse when it kind of just appeared. We’ve been trying to get somepony’s attention but everypony in town is just walking like a zombie.”
Rainbow turned around to see the closest street. Sure enough there were ponies passing that seemed completely oblivious to the sight of a large bat pony and a Wonderbolt. She turned back to the barrier. “Well, it’s a start. Let’s get back to Mare Do-Well and see what she thinks.” She gave the two kids a serious look. “Both of you stay put, this could get pretty dangerous.”
“No need to tell us twice,” the Pegasus smiled while saluting. Rainbow nodded and flew off with Flutterbat, the two Filies left behind with their hooves crossed behind their backs. “So, how do you think we can help?”
Flutterbat frowned at Rainbow as they flew to the center of town. “She going to be mad,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Rainbow chuckled. “But I can deal with Mare Do-Well.”
---<^^>---
“What is wrong with you two!?” Mare Do-Well shouted. Rainbow and Flutterbat were berated immediately after touching down where they had left Mare Do-Well and Fili-Second. Rainbow rolled her eyes in response.
“I know you’re peeved but we found some information,” she said with a smirk. “Apparently-”
“The whole town is covered in a dome of magic that for some reason is sapping ponies of their energy and making them act bored and unmotivated,” Mare Do-Well cut her off. Rainbow froze with her mouth open.
“B- B- But how did you…”
Mare Do-Well glanced over at Fili-Second who was in the corner humming softly to herself with an innocent face. “We have a speedster on the team,” she said. “She scouted the area in under a second.” Mare Do-Well got into Rainbow’s face. “Don’t go off again.”
Flutterbat hissed a little at Mare Do-Well. Rainbow simply pouted and frowned at Fili-Second. “I was only trying to help,” she muttered.
“Indeed,” came a voice from behind them. Everypony turned to see Nightmare Rarity. “I believe we all must come together to help these ponies.”
“You going to tell us where you’ve been?” Mare Do-Well asked. Rarity did not answer which just made Mare Do-Well grit her teeth.
“Looks like everypony’s up to speed,” came another voice. Everypony looked up as a familiar orange earth pony in a Stetson and hakama jumped from the rooftops. “One thing you might not be aware of is that this is a world where ponies are amalgamations of each other.”
“Animal-game-nations?” Rainbow asked dumbly.
“Amalgamations,” Rarity corrected her. “It means that two or more ponies are combined.”
“Ah saw a picture of my counterpart,” AJ continued. “It looks like both me and Fili-Second.”
Fili-Second perked up at the mention of her name. “That could mean that the other Elements of Harmony on this world are together as well.”
Mare Do-Well absorbed all the information she had been given. The dome would have to be the first thing to go, then they could assemble the Elements. “Now that all of you are done with whatever thing you ran away to do,” she said slightly heated, “we can get to work helping these ponies. The barrier appears pretty strong but that’s just from the strength of the caster. The spell matrix should be pretty simple.” She turned to the only pony on the team that might have a chance of lowering the barrier. “Rarity? You should probably have enough power to do it.”
Rarity frowned and closed her eyes as if to concentrate. “Everypony stand back.” The group moved aside and gave the larger mare room. Her eyes began to glow as she tapped into a magic the rest of the group had never seen before beside Rainbow. Rarity let out a loud yell before releasing a large burst of black light into the sky. The light hit the ceiling of the dome and the barrier began to dispel. All around them ponies began to stop walking and rub their eyes as if coming out of trances.
“That’s taken care of,” Mare Do-Well said. “Let’s see about finding the Glitch now.”
{(SxT)}
“Sooooooooo boooooooooorrrred,” Suntrix lamented on her throne. Who knew having godlike powers would get boring so fast? Once you took over, that was pretty much it. You could spend your time quashing insurgencies but there were none. Everypony was too afraid of Suntrix. Originally she had wondered just why Mr. 4 hadn’t used his power to conquer this world, but now she saw why. “Being Queen is sooooooo booooooring!”
She needed something to fight against. Something interesting. Something she couldn’t control the outcome of. Being all powerful was well and good, but she had been a god for close to two days now and she was already about to pull her mane out. She needed stimulation.
Suddenly she felt a disappearance of some of her magic. She summoned a crystal ball and waved a hoof to see what was going on. The image showed Ponyville with the dome down. Ponies were beginning to awaken from the waking dream she had put the under. Suntrix grit her teeth. “How? How did they escape? That plan was foolproof. I had them right where I…” she paused and thought for a moment. “Perhaps this isn’t as bad as I thought. I mean, I was getting bored anyway. Recapturing those fools just might relieve my boredom. Who knows, we could maybe even turn this into a regular thing and I could have them escape again just to be captured.” Suntrix giggled with glee left her throne and in a flash of light disappeared from the room, her throne beginning to flicker in and out of existence/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e/e…