Convergence
It was mid afternoon, when all of the refugees came limping into Unicornia. Lily Lightly ordered tents set up in Rainbow Crystal Castle, and soon the main hall was filled with sad and broken earth ponies. In Princess Rarity’s private chambers, the equine leaders were currently arguing over everything that had happened.
“This is all you fools fault!” Starsong yelled at Kimono. “If you idiots hadn’t tried to crack the dome open, then none of this would have happened!”
“If you hadn’t been so secretive about Twinkle Wish, we could have devised a method to escape without awakening it!” Kimono snapped, losing her cool. “You have as much blame in this as we do!”
“You’re ones to talk about secrecy!” Sparkleworks snapped back. “You were keeping your plans about breaking the dome secret from all the other ponies!”
“Well, you kept the existence of the dome secret from other ponies!” Storybelle retorted. “You tried to keep us all prisoners!”
“No they didn’t, Storybelle.” Pinkie Pie finally spoke up. “We all knew about the dome already, the books in your Library talk all about the Ponyville theme park!”
“Y-you did?!?” Kimono asked in shock. “But why didn’t you ever try to break our herd out of here?”
“Maybe because we didn’t see anything wrong?” Princess Wysteria added. “If ponies like Starsong and Fiesta and Puzzlemint’s parents could find a way in, then it only stands to reason that a pony who wanted to leave could find their way out! The exits are difficult to find, but not impossible!”
Cheerilee’s head drooped. “Then everything we plotted and planned… all for nothing.”
It was then that Starcatcher flew into the room, landing beside the arguing ponies.
“I heard about what had happed in Ponyville, my condolences to the earth ponies.” The queen of Butterfly Island whinnied sadly. “I swear to you, that I will do everything within my power to help you get your homes back!”
It was then that a guilty, downtrodden Skywishes trotted over to Starcatcher sadly, her head down.
“I’m so sorry, Starcatcher.” The repentant earth pony wept bitterly. “I never meant to betray you, or any of my friends!”
“It’s all right, Skywishes!” Starcatcher said with a smile, nuzzling the distraught mare. “You were only trying to protect us all!”
“It was Sparkleworks and Starsong who perpetrated this evil!” Minty snapped. “Garden Wishes and Bright Sprightly already paid for their mistakes, and Tiddlywink and Tralala already redeemed themselves by turning stool pigeon on you traitors!”
“Lily! Take these to bad ponies to the old cells beneath the castle at once!” Cheerilee ordered. Two unicorns moved to take the two conspirator ponies below.
"We were right! We were only trying to protect our homes!" Sparkleworks declared. "Our way would have been better for us all! You'll see!"
As the two ranting mares were carted away, Puzzlemint came back from her spying mission on Ponyville. Trotting into the room, the detective mare bowed to Princess Wysteria.
"Puzzlemint, you're back! What do you have to report?" Pinkie Pie enquired.
"Blimey, I cannot believe what I've seen!" Puzzlemint whinnied. "They've moved in and taken over our lives, right as if they'd been living them themselves! Why they've even started acting out incidents from our childhoods, like that one Christmas we had the Winter Wishes festival!"
"You mean the one where we befriended Whimsy Weatherby?" Minty asked curiously.
Puzzlemint nodded. "And I think that blasted star got control of Whimsy, too! She's reenacting the scenarios right along with the bait ponies!"
"The what, darling?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused.
"Bait ponies, that's what I call the little monsters, as they were created as marketing bait to get kids into the park." The detective mare explained. "Anyway, I did notice some discrepancies with reality in the 'storyline', like Cheerilee being an earth pony, or Scootlaoo being her sister!"
"My sister... Scootaloo would probably find that funny." Cheerilee replied bitterly. "If the freaking baits hadn't eaten her while we were escaping Ponyville!"
"They got Loop De Lah too... and Desert Rose, yes yes yes." Razaroo added sadly. "Their stallions tried to protect them... but the baits devoured them, too."
"I think they got Applejack too, darling!" Dash whinnied sadly. "But I couldn't see what happened to her after we fled!"
"Why aren't these terrors coming for unicornia?" Princess Rarity asked curiously. "If their job is to cleanse and fix the park, they'll be coming for both us, and Butterfly Island!"
"Right now, they're busy 'fixing' Ponyville." Puzzlemint replied. "Last I saw they were ripping down Celebrations Castle!"
"That does it, Darling!" Rainbow Dash snorted in anger. "We need to get those terrors out of our homes, and get our town back!"
"If we going to do dat, seniorita, we need to get Whimsy free of de Star's control!" Fiesta offered. "Once we get her free, la dragon will be able to barbeque dat star to a crisp!"
"But how can we get a female dragon's attention?" Minty asked, puzzled.
All of the Eyes in the room turned to look at Spike, who was sitting outside the nearby window, staring down into the river.
"Oh..." Minty giggled, looking out the window. "...right!"
"But somebody's going to go and talk to Spike." Skywishes pointed out. "He doesn't look like he's in the best of spirits right now." Skywishes's ears drooped. "Though I can understand why."
"I will go talk to him, darling!" Rainbow Dash Replied. "The rest of you remain here!"
...
As she wandered around the streets of Ponyville, Applejack could not believe what she was seeing. The little monsters had torn down and rebuilt every house and building, resizing the entire community to their diminutive stature. Right before her eyes, the red earth pony had witnessed Ponyville entirely remade!
Applejack had no idea why she was still alive; one minute the little terrors had been pouncing on her, the next they simply scurried away. Now they simply ignored the old mare, as if she wasn’t even there. If she tried talking to them, the little runts would merely state "Hi, welcome to Ponyville!", then tell their name, then say what they liked doing for fun. It was all very perplexing to Applejack!
"I really wish I knew what the hay was going on here!" She mumbled to herself. "It's like the ponyocalpse has hit Ponyville, and I'm the only survivor!"
It was times like this that the ageless mare wished she had never come back to Ponyville. Having wandered the world aimlessly since the death of her friends, AJ would stop back in on Ponyville from time to time. Using the secret entrance to the dome near the woods, the little red Pony would check up on both the apple family, and her friends' descendants.
Applejack had hated Diamond Tiara's plan from the start, of course, but there was noting she could do to stop it. It had taken every once of her willpower to resist acting when Sweet Apple Acres was sold and demolished- but she had no choice but to sit back, and let her family's farm be sold off. If she had revealed herself, AJ would have been shipped off to the pony nuthouse for who she claimed to be.
For this Applejack... was the original Applejack.
There was no way to explain to other ponies how she had survived the ages- it had been a freak accident with magic, in her youth. She kept her coat perpetually dyed red, to keep other ponies from recognizing her. She felt old... ever so weary of this world... and wish she could join her family and friends in the hereafter. No pony, save the alicorns, was ever meant to live this long. And AJ's weariness with the world around her only served to drive this point home.
As she watched the midget ponies act out their little dramas, she mused they could not see her, due to the energies in her body that kept her from aging. AJ hoped all of the others had gotten away from town safely. Applejack had first met this current crop of ponies five years ago- when she appeared out of nowhere, claiming she had gotten lost in the woods. AJ had made friends with quite a few of them, including this generation's Rainbow Dash and Fiesta Flair. Now, all she could do was pray that they had survived.
Sighing, Applejack trotted around the corner, and found herself face to face with two of the little monsters. They were half the size of the others, and almost looked like two newborn foals. The two little pink abominations looked up at her, and grinned.
"Oh ponyfeathers!" AJ thought to herself. "The baby hell spawn can see me!"
"Hi, we're the newborn cuties!" The two little freaks told her, their mouths and eyes not moving as they spoke. "You wanna play?"
"No, I don't want to play!" AJ started galloping off in the other direction. "I don't want anything to do with you!"
The terrified mare galloped off in the other direction, with the two neworn cuties in hot pursuit. The red mare and her two pursuers made laps around the edge of town, with the little runts not seeming to tire or slow down.
"HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!" AJ screamed, as the unnoticing and uncaring adult freaks simply went about their business.
....
"Spike, darling... may I have a word with you?"
Rainbow Dash trotted out to the river, where Spike sat staring down into the water, crying into his own reflection.
"Darling, are you all right?" Dash asked the small dragon. "Whatever is the matter?"
"I destroyed your world." The depressed reptile replied simply. "You all took me in, showed me kindness... and how did I show my gratitude? By destroying everything you had ever known and loved."
"Darling, you were only trying to help us!" Rainbow Dash protested. "You thought we were all prisoners, and were trying to set us free!"
"The conspirators were right though, all I did was make the situation worse!" The dragon looked up at her with tear filled eyes. "I wish I was back in my Ponyville, with my Pinkie Pie, and my Rarity..." He put his head back down again.
"Darling, I know you've made some mistakes in the past, but you're here now, in the present." Rainbow Dash put a hoof on his shoulder. "Everybody makes mistakes, darling... we are all imperfect, dragon and pony alike!"
"But... but how can I possibly make up for what I've done?" Spike asked desperately.
"You can help undo what you've done, by helping us with a small problem that only a dragon can solve!"
"What is it, my dear?" The dragon asked him, wiping a tear from his eye. "I warn you, my fire breath really isn't that good!"
"No darling, what we need you to do, is win a female dragon, named Whimsy Weatherbee, over to our side!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "We think Twinkle Wish has gotten control of her, and we need you to snap her out of it, Darling!"
"So you need me to be a dragon Casanova, eh?" Spike replied, starting to smile again. "But... I've never met a female dragon before, except only briefly! And never in an intimate situation! What should I do?"
"Just be your natural, charming self Darling!" Rainbow Dash replied with a smile. "I know you'll sweep her off her claws!"
"Yeah! That's right! It'll be just like that time I wooed fair Juliet!" Spike stopped and thought for a second. "Oh, no wait... that was the guy in the Spakesponian tragedy..."
...
"So here is the Plan." Pinkie Pie declared, looking towards all the ponies assembled in the room. "Puzzlemint and her team will launch a covert strike against the town to get to the control room beneath the castle. From there she can shut down the Twinkle Wish program manually."
"I've already gathered volunteers for my team." Puzzlemint added. "Minty, Fiesta, Kimono, and Rainbow Dash will be coming with me!"
"Team two will be a distraction, to draw the bait ponies and Twinkle Wishes attention away from the covert strike!"
"I'll be leading Razaroo, Skywishes, Sunny Daze, and Pinkie Pie on that one!" Starcatcher added. "I'm going to make sure those ruffians don't get through, and mess with my Pegasus ponies!"
"Wysteria and Cheerilee will coordinate everything from here!" Pinkie added finally. "While Spike makes his way to the cave to... convince Whimsy to join us."
"Well, then what are we waiting for!" Sunny Daze asked, eager for a rematch with the bait ponies. "Let's get to it!"