Chapter 11
___________________________________________________________
“So... why did the princesses ask you to come along?” Rainbow asks me as the Crystal Empire starts showing over the horizon.
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity scolds the Pegasus, sitting in the seat next to me.
“I honestly don’t know,” I say, not meeting their eyes due to keeping them fixed outside at the approaching empire. I can assume Luna convinced Celestia to get me to come, as a kind of favour for my advice. Either way, it’s good I have reason to be here, what with the reason for Twilight and the gang even coming here in the first place.
It’s Twilight’s first Princess Summit and we all know what that means and I’m going to be prepared. I know how the movie went, but I’m pretty sure there will be differences.
It’s been a few days since I got out of the hospital. I wasn’t too pleased I was kept in there after waking up, but it is procedure, I guess and shows that, despite my being an alien from another world, the hospital staff were still doing their job in regards to my health and weren’t judging me by my species.
After getting out of the hospital I was very surprised by how much Twilight wanted me to stay close. Guess the idea that I was put in danger because she’d failed to originally stop Trixie has made her anxious about my safety. I even had to refuse strongly when she wanted me to move into the library. No need to live in a place, which likely will end up holding several items of personal value, only for it all to go up in flames when Tirek blows the thing sky high.
I didn’t meet Trixie after waking up. Apparently, like in the show, once she’d tried to fix the mistakes she could (since it took Luna to wake me up, she clearly wasn’t any help there), she hightailed it out of there; probably too ashamed about what she’d done to me to meet me face to face. Could be something to do with how Rainbow explained to her once the Amulet was off what I did the first day they saw me, but I digress.
I’m also a little surprised that I haven’t run into Discord yet. I’m guessing he’s planning on making an entrance for our first meeting. So looking forward to that.
Actually, not gonna lie, I kinda am looking forward to it. I’m curious to see how he’ll react to me.
Half an hour later (we would have gotten here quicker but, like in the show, the Crystal Ponies can’t help but swarm Spike with praise whenever they see him and it took a fair bit of work to get away from all that, despite that not happening in the movie) we all are walking into the Crystal Empire’s throne room and— ah, fuck! I knew I’d forget something.
I face palm as the purple princess bumps into the pony counterpart of the guy she’ll get a crush on. Great. I’m gonna have to put up with that.
The princesses excuse the ponies and dragon, who all head off to their rooms, myself moving to follow, when I clear of a throat gives me reason to pause and glance back over my shoulder.
The three princesses are looking at me, one with a slight frown, likely due to my punking her.
Turning back around, I walk back and nod. “Yes, princesses?”
Cadance looks to her aunts, then steps forward. “Luna told us about... your fear.”
I give Luna a glance, to which she nods in return and I return my attention to the pink pony princess. God, why is that so fun to say with the context in mind.
“Twilight’s also mentioned something about a gemstone?” Cadance continues.
I reach back and pull out the gemstone with the T on it. Twilight gave me a small bag with a spell on it that makes it so I can fit anything inside it and it’s so light I can wear it around my waist. I’m currently wearing my Raven outfit.
Cadance takes it in her magic and studies it for a moment. “I know a miner in the Empire who would probably be able to figure out what it is. Give me until the end of the Summit and I’ll see what can be done.”
I shrug. “’Long as I get it back before we leave, I’m cool.”
With that, I walk off to join the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike in finding their rooms, though I won’t be getting any sleep tonight.
___________________________________________________________
The cloaked pony stood before the bedside table, making sure the Alicorn Princess in the bed was still asleep, before lighting her horn with her green magical aura, lifting the crown with the Element of Magic up and replacing it with the fake crown she was sure the purple princess wouldn’t notice until too late.
“You honestly think you can just take that?”
The unicorn jumped in fright, nearly knocking over a nearby lamp, but caught it in her magic and put it back, before turning. A tall figure in a black cloak, hiding its features beyond its strangely human-like mouth from view.
“Who are you?” she growled in a whisper, lowering her stance, her horn glowing. That monotone whisper had scared the shit out of her. “What are you?”
The figure chuckle dryly. “Someone who knows more about you than you do yourself, Sunset Shimmer.”
Her eyes widened under her cloak. This thing knew her name? It knew who she was, even under this cloak? How?
Her eyes narrowed. “Then you know I can’t let anyone or anything stand in my way!” Sunset rapidly charged a spell before firing it at the creature, expecting it to hit.
Imagine her shock when a barrier of black energy seemed to come out of the floor, redirecting the blast.
Sunset dived forward to avoid her own magical blast, which smashed against a vanity mirror on the other side of the room.
“Huh-wha...?” a light voice said.
Sunset glanced over her shoulder to see the princes had woken up and was looking right at her, or, more accurately, the crown in her saddlebag.
“My crown! She’s got my crown!”
“Ponyfeathers,” the unicorn muttered, casting a quick glare at the still cloaked figure and surprising them with a blast to the face they hadn’t been ready for, before running out the door, hearing the princess and several other ponies giving chase.
The princess tried to stop her by teleporting in front of her, but Sunset cast her own teleport, leaving her cloak behind and revealing herself, before hurrying back to the room she’d found herself in after exciting the mirror.
However, just as she was inside the room, she heard a terrified cry, before being bowled over by the princess, their impact with the hard crystal floor causing the crown to fly out from Sunset’s saddlebag and through the mirror.
Everypony who wasn’t Sunset gasped, before the princess glared at her. “What did you do with my crown?!”
Sunset just smirked. “Sorry it had to be this way, Princess.”
She teleported to the mirror and was about to hurry through it when she heard a voice growl, “I’m not done with you, Shimmer!” before being bowled into again, falling through the mirror.
Tumbling out of the portal onto the concrete of the human world, she struggled against whomever it was that had charged her, them both shoving and kicking so much Sunset couldn’t get a chance to look at her assailant, before she managed to toss the person off her back and back through the portal.
She smirked, before standing up and looking around, before frowning in anger, clenching her fists. Where was the crown?!
___________________________________________________________
“This is something Princess Twilight must do alone,” Celestia says to the room.
After I came back out of the mirror (flew out more like, damn, crystal hurts when you smash your head against it at high speeds) I was rather disoriented at first whilst Celestia explained about her former student and how she herself basically fucked up as a mentor to her.
Okay, she didn’t say that exactly, but it’s how I’ve always seen it, especially after reading the IDW comic about how Sunset fell from grace.
The main reason I didn’t pay much attention is, well, one, I’d heard it God knows how many times when I watched the movie and, two, I was still trying to figure out why I came back a humanoid.
I read a fic series called Five Score Divided By Four, a fic series in which it’s revealed the Equestria got betrayed by Discord, again, and he sent everypony and even non ponies, into the real world as human babies. Now, the interesting thing is, in that, if a normal human goes into Equestria through the portal, they wind up a pony or whatever.
That’s honestly how I thought the portal would work, which is one reason I’d honestly tried to stop Sunset here, so I wouldn’t end up going into that world and risk coming back as a Raven Pony.
But, for whatever reason, when I came back into Equestria, I’m still the same. Maybe it’s because I’m not from this world and that effected me somehow, messed with the portal in some way?
Whatever the case, I’m now with the princesses, the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike after everything was explained.
“Yeah, sorry, but I’m going with,” I state bluntly in response to Celestia’s last words. The slight frown from Celestia makes me smirk. “Last I checked, the main reason for why you don’t want the rest of the group going with her doesn’t apply to me, since I’m not from this world.”
The feeling of annoyance from Celestia is quite amusing, even if she doesn’t show it. Man, she’s got a good poker face. But, what does she expect? I know magic won’t be back in that world until after Twi gets her crown back, so, I’ll be the only one with magic until then. Can’t say that wouldn’t come in handy. That is if my magic still works there, of course. I didn’t exactly get a chance to try it whilst basically having a brawl with Sunset. I mean, Twi can’t just use her magic there whenever, but, since the portal didn’t turn me into a pony on the way back here, maybe it won’t restrict my magic either.
Plus, maybe I can keep Flashlight from becoming a thing.
With everything else said and done, Twilight heads into the mirror, myself kneeling down a little as I pass through to follow her.
As the world stops being a multi-coloured blur and put a hand to my head and shake it.
Wow, is that uncomfortable. How I didn’t notice it when I went through it before, I don’t know, but man is that weird.
Standing up first, I glance down to see humanized Twi’s still looking a little dizzy, even though doggified Spike looks perfectly at ease.
I decide to look myself over. Huh. I seem to be just the same, the only odd thing being I’m now wearing the clothes Rarity gave me to wear so I’d have something other than my Raven outfit. Lifting my wrist, I see the inhibitor Twi made for me is still there. Good. Last thing I wanna do is lose control in a world devoid of magic.
I finish looking myself over and hold up my hand, trying to focus some magic in it. It works just fine, my normal aura glowing around my hand. Okay, cool, so, whatever turned me into Raven gave me the added perks of being able to travel to and from this world without fear of changing species or losing my magic. That’ll be handy to know once Twilight gets the portal working 24/7.
“Spike?” Twilight’s voice catches my attention and I stop using my powers to see her giving the dog a confused look. “Are you a... dog?”
Spike spins in a circle, looking himself over. “I... think so. But, why do you look like Raven?”
“What?” Twilight looks down at herself... and I face palm as she cries like in the movie, before doing the body check from the movie.
“You’re a human in this world,” I state in a deadpan, taking a few steps forward and turn back to look at her with folded arms. “Get over it. It ain’t that bad.”
Twilight blinks, before looking down, then sighing.
“And stand up already,” I indicate for her to stand with a finger aimed upwards. “Since you’re humanoid now like me, it should be obvious you don’t walk on all fours.”
Oh, this is going to be more of a headache than I’d anticipated.
___________________________________________________________
And I was right for the most part. Glad my inhibitor kept me from going nuclear. I never realized getting through the events of the first movie would be so frustrating.
I almost lost my shit and attacked Sunset when she was putting down human Fluttershy due to feeling the poor girl’s fear and sadness, got annoyed when Twilight still did that damned little speech insulting hands, to which she apologized after I glowered at her for several long minutes and instead of Twilight screaming for the mane 5 to shut up with all their bickering, I did, almost using my magic to separate them all. And don’t even get me started on what outfit Rarity put me in for the idea of disguising Twi and me after Sunset’s slander video went out.
Finally it’s the last day and everything’s been going pretty well since. Strangely though, when we were all at Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight didn’t get into that obvious crush moment over Flash. In fact, she kinda just blew him off as if he was just some other guy.
Huh? Weird. Maybe I don’t have to do anything against the Flashlight. Somehow, it’s killed itself. Sweet. That’s one less headache.
Anyway, Twi and I head for the library to wait out the rest of the day, pretending to be students (seriously, why haven’t this world’s Luna or Celestia caught on that we’re not really students already?), myself knowing what will happen later.
As I finish showing Twilight for the umpteenth time how to work a particular search engine, I tell her I’m just gonna head for the toilets. Finishing up in there, I head out, only to notice Sunset walking towards the gym with Vice Principal Luna following her.
Frowning, I follow at a distance, listening to Sunset giving Luna the bullshit lie that Twilight destroyed everything in there. As I do, I frown as I notice Flash is nowhere to be seen.
Once Luna and Sunset head out, Luna clearly going to find Twilight to interrogate her, since I didn’t see Flash, I’m going to take matters into my own hands.
Alighting my hands with my magic, I reach out and try sense for Sunset’s aura, more specifically a part of her residue aura that isn’t with her now. Following it, I come across a bin near the library and, using my magic to rummage through it since I don’t to actually use my hands (though it feels gross, since this makes it feel like I’m still touching everything in this dang bin), I find the photo cut outs Sunset used and head to deliver the news myself.
I get in just as Luna’s about to give Twilight her punishment (which I know, dumb as she is about that kind of thing, Twilight would accept, even if it means we’re stuck here for thirty moons).
I give Luna the photos and explain how I found them in the garbage.
“In light of this recent evidence,” Vice Principal Luna says, sitting back at her desk, “you may of course continue your bid to be crowned Princess of the Fall Formal.”
What happens next takes me by surprise though. In the movie, since it was Flash who saves her ass, she gives him a big hug and it’s a badly done forced romance moment.
What catches me off guard is... Twi gives me that same kind of hug and her emotions are gratitude and several other too blended together for me to make hide nor hair of them.
“Uh, Twilight?”
She blinks, before pulling back and grinning sheepishly. Wow, the embarrassment coming off of her is... odd.
Luna tells us the dance will have to be postponed until tomorrow night and leaves.
Twilight sighs, looking to me. “Again, thanks Raven. If not for you coming here with me, we might never have been able to get the crown back to...” She trails off, her eyes widening. “Tomorrow night?!”
And... with that she bolts off.
I sigh, rubbing my head.
___________________________________________________________
When Twilight races into Rarity's boutique and runs into one of the changing rooms, I walk in to see the girls giving me confused looks. I just shake my head and indicate a hand to let them know they can ask her. A little over a minute later Twilight opens the curtains, all the girls having gathered in front, looks of concern on each of their faces.
Twilight explains about what happened at the school and takes a breath to explain just why the formal needs to happen tonight, myself looking to Pinkie, knowing what’s coming.
Twilight sighs, holding and arm. “You see...”
Pinkie Pie pulls Applejack’s hand off of her mouth, “You’re from an alternate world and you're a pony princess there and Raven’s actually a being from a totally different world than that which has no magic at all and became a character based on a comic book/TV series from said world where having powers of any kind isn't unheard of who ended in your world after touching a weird freaky deaky mirror before finding herself stuck in your world and the crown actually has a magical element embedded in it that helps power up other magical elements, and without it they don't work anymore, and you need them all to help protect your magical world, and if you don't get the crown tonight, you'll be stuck in this world and you won't be able to get back for, like, a really, really long time!” she finishes with a squee.
I join Twilight and Spike in staring at the pink girl, my eyes wide in a “What the hell?” kind of why. How...? How could she...? Okay, I know it’s Pinkie Pie and the rule is It’s Pinkie Pie, Don’t Question It, but... how did she know that about ME?!
We go through the girls’ unbelieving reactions, followed by Spike talking and what that leads to, before Twilight turns to Pinkie.
“How did you know all that?”
Pinkie shrugs “Just a hunch.”
A hunch? A hunch?! How the hell could she get a hunch I’m from a dimension different to Twilight, or that I’ve been turned into Raven, or how it had anything to do with the mirror (that latter part I’m still trying to understand how it happened in the first place)?
“Wait a minute!” Applejack says, holding up her hands. “Lemme get this straight. You're a pony?”
“You're a princess?” Rarity says, still not having recovered.
“You're from another world?” Fluttershy asks.
Twilight gulps. “Mm-hmm.”
I shake my head, before smirking as I shake off the... whatever it is Pinkie did there. “And in case you girls don’t believe that, which I wouldn’t blame you, even with the talking dog.” I hold my hand up, it glowing with my magic. At once several of the items around to room an encased in the same aura and lifted into the air, where I spin them around the girls heads for a few moment.
“Wheee!” I blink, before realizing Pinkie has somehow gotten atop one of the boxes I’ve levitating and is riding it.
“What a minute!” Twilight turns to me, wide-eye, one of which is twitching. “You mean you’ve been able to use your magic this whole time?!”
I nod, before rolling my eyes. “I figured I’d be able to after I returned through the portal but hadn’t changed species between dimensions. Guess my being this way makes me immune to the affects you or any others would suffer.”
Twilight just stands there, her eye twitching several times.
“That... is... awesome!” Dash cries, changing the subject and they all gather around us, snapping Twilight out of her daze, though her aura tells me she’s not done with me about not telling her my magic works.
After we head back to the school and get everyone to help clean up the mess in the gym (I started with using my magic to move stuff around until I sensed students coming, so had to go with just my hands afterwards), we head back to the boutique to get ready. Suprisingly, Rarity’s made me a long dark-blue dress that is designed like my hooded cloak, the sleeves even look like my ordinary outfit. The only differences are these see through bits of fabric over my shoulders.
___________________________________________________________
I grab the crown in my magic to keep it away from Snips, but a sudden tackle from Snails knocks me over and the crowns flies towards Sunset instead, who catches it.
When we all ran out to get Spike and Sunset gave us her lame ass ultimatum, I explained in a deadpan how Sunset’s threat didn’t make any sense because of how the hammer would just go through the portal, we got the speech Twi gave in the movie about how she won’t let Sunset have power in this world anymore and the girls praising her for it, leading to Sunset charging and the game of Keep Away... which we’ve just lost.
Before I can get my wits about me enough to summon my magic to grab the crown from her hands, she puts it on her head, transforming into her demon form.
I help the girls up who’ve fallen whilst Sunset turns Snips and Snails into demons, makes a giant hole in the front of the school and zombifies the students and faculty.
Sunset comes out to see us all standing there, blocking her path. She chuckles. “Spoiler alert: I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don't want to rule this pathetic little high school; I want Equestria!” I face palm as her hair acts like a fire at that moment. “And with my own little teenage army behind me, I am going to get it!”
Yeah, even being here in person and hearing her say that... it sounds dumb. Twilight took ages to get used to walking on two legs and she expects brainwashed humans to work out how to walk on four legs, use wings, horns, etc, right away? If she isn’t stopped here... I’m pretty sure her plan is still pretty much doomed the moment she goes through that portal.
“No, you're not!” Twilight says firmly standing strong.
Sunset Shimmer just laughs. “Oh, please! What exactly do you think you're going to do to stop me? I have magic, and you have nothing!”
Dash steps up to Twilight, along with the other. “She has us!”
“And they may not have magic,” I say, my eyes glowing white, before blasting Sunset with black energy and levitating into the air, “but I do.”
Sunset shakes her head, before looking to me with wide eyes. “What? But how? Nopony that comes through the portal can use their magic!”
I shoot forward, my hands glowing as I aim to punch her, which she narrowly avoids as I smirk. “I’m no pony.”
She glares, before smirking and snaps her fingers, Snips and Snails quickly flying up to her side. She points at me. “Handle her.”
Wow. I’m not sure whether to laugh at her stupidity or feel insulted that she thinks those two nimrods can “handle me”.
They both leer at me and charge. I avoid them, spinning in the air and fire off several blasts of magic, which they dodge and come back at me.
Thinking fast, I stop using my flight abilities and just drop like a stone, avoiding them, before flying up again and sending streams of black energy from my hands that end in hands, grabbing the two of them and smacking their heads together.
I frown slightly at the comedic bonking sounds that happens or the sounds of birds tweeting as they’re eyes rolling around in a daze.
“She needs to be dealt with!” I hear, before turning to see Sunset has already thrown her fireball at Twilight and the others.
It collides just as I’ve lowered Snips and Snails down.
Sunset laughs, before shouting, “What!?” upon seeing Twi and the others safe, surrounded by a lavender aura.
Twilight and the others go through their transformations, Ponying Up for the first time, but Sunset is struggling against the crown.
Thinking fast, I do what I did with her lackeys and grab her with my giant magic hands.
“Argh!” she growls, trying to break free as I fight to keep my hold on her.
Twilight looks firmly at Sunset as she and the others float in the air. “Together with a crown, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine, but it is a power you don't have the ability to control! The crown may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer, but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all: the magic of friendship!”
The light around the girls grows brighter, before a rainbow swirls up into the air before crashing down on Demon Sunny.
“No!” she screams as the rainbow engulfs her, allowing me to release my hold. “What is happening?!”
After that and Twilight gives her speech to Sunset, we all head back to the dance where Twilight does dance with Flash, though I, for whatever reason, still don’t feel anything for him coming from her, even though I do feel something coming from him. Weird.
Once the dance is over we all meet up at the portal, myself keeping an eye on the moon.
Twilight looks to each of the girls. “I know we've only been friends for a short time, but I'm gonna miss all of you so much.” She sighs, before turning and walking towards the portal.
I look to the girls, my arms folder and smirk. “Don’t worry. I’ve a hunch we’ll be meeting up again sooner than you’d think.”
I hurry over to join with Twilight and Spike as the dragon in dog form says, “And the wings?”
Twilight gives him a smirk. “I've been walking on two legs and picking things up with these! Wings? I'm thrilled that's all I'll be dealing with back in Equestria! I don’t know how Raven does it.”
“I am right behind you, ya know,” I say as we pass through the portal.
We come back out, Twilight flopping forward whilst I have no problem, coming back into Equestria just as I was before, I’m even still wearing my original Raven outfit. Sorry, Rarity, looks like that cool dress ya gave me is lost to the multiverse.
After the girls says their bits, Celestia walks forward, an anxious expression on her face that doesn’t even begin to express how much I’m feeling off of her. “Sunset Shimmer, is she alright?”
Twilight and I look to each other, before she smirks and nods to her fellow princess. “I think she's gonna be fine. I left her in good hands.”
Rainbow Dash blinks. “Wait. They have hands in that world, like Raven’s?”