//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - A Regretful Wish 
// Story: The Equestria That Never Was 
// by desertbat 
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When I awoke, I was in complete darkness, however, after a brief second, my surroundings became clear as day. While I was confused by the sudden shift with my vision, I was too preoccupied with my environment to care for long. I looked around and noticed stone walls surrounding me, overtaken by vegetation. I could feel I was on a soft bed and on the other side of the room, a door with two torn banners - one with a crescent moon and another with a sun. How did I get here and...where was here?

My attempts to get up and walk around proved to be a greater ordeal than I would have guessed. I tried to holler for anyone to help, but I couldn't hear a sign of anyone approaching. It was then that I realized I didn't feel my hands and my mind started to awake and grow fearful. Was I abducted late at night while I was sleeping? Did a serial killer kidnap me and my girlfriend - doing something to her while leaving me here in his dungeon to rot and lament?

With enough panic and struggle, I got myself out of the king-sized bed.  When my feet hit the ground it made the strangest noise, and it felt very difficult to stand. I decided I would get down on my hands and crawl to the door, and, surprisingly, it felt more natural and I reached my destination with little struggle. 

As I reached out to grab the door I noticed something horrendous with my hand - it wasn't there. I quickly yelled in fear, wondering how many of my body parts had possibly been removed by this killer and what he did to Violet. I stepped back from the door to calm my nerves and prepare to exit the room when I heard a cracking noise. I looked down to notice a shard from a mirror below me and quickly found the main source. I took a glance at the largest piece to see what else might have happened to me while asleep, but instead of answering my questions, it only raised more. Why did I see a pony in this mirror?

For minutes that felt like an eternity, I thoroughly inspected myself. Judging by the wings I had, I wasn't a pegasus, I was apparently a bat pony with a kind of short light brown bedhead mane, a dark brown coat, brownish orange slit eyes, and a sandy brown bat symbol for, what I remembered it being referred to in my dreams as, a cutie mark. 

In shock, I banged my head against the wall to wake up from this and immediately regretted it. I fell to the floor in agony with the knowledge that this wasn't a dream. After shaking that off I tried opening the door with my...hooves and, to my surprise, it was not a difficult task - then again, in all my dreams of the ponies, they never seemed to have trouble using their hooves the same way a human would using his hands. 

When I exited the door, I found myself going through an old hallway decorated with armor meant for a pony and large stain glass windows. I had no idea where I was at the time, but I could tell at this point that this place had practically been untouched for many decades until I arrived. Soon I was at the end of the hallway and found myself in a throne room with two empty thrones - one with royal crest of a sun, the other a crescent moon. With the beating of my aching head subduing more by the second, I finally understood where I was - this was the Castle of the Two Sisters. Somehow I had made it to Equestria, but how? It was then that I felt my answer, wrapped around my neck was the pendant given to me by my love.





Three months had passed since I met Violet - the only person that understood me. After our little "awkward" meeting, we decided to get to know each other better. Every moment we had time off, we would spend it together. I thought that would annoy me at first, considering I spent most of my time alone, but with her, it felt special. 

We spoke freely about the dreams we had about Equestria: our favorite parts of it, which ponies we liked best, and predicting the next time we would be getting these dreams, since we both seemed to receive about thirteen dreams each Saturday, separated between months - with the occasional special dream about the ponies. 

One night I invited Violet over to my house for dinner - it was a few Puerto Rican dishes my father taught me. When she arrived, she had on jeans and a long-sleeved lavender blouse that went down like a mini skirt, along with some stylish cowgirl boots. It may have been January, but it was never too cold in South Carolina, plus she always hoped to get cold so she could hug me for warmth - something I was not against.

After dinner, we sat out on my porch, cuddling as I knew she would, and looking at the stars. Like always, we spent hours looking at them, hoping to find a shooting star and using the pendant she gave me to grant the one wish we agreed upon, to leave this world behind and go see Equestria together. We didn't really believe this was going to happen, it was more of a way for us to relax and spend time with each other. I'm sure she felt the same though, that no matter what came our way, we would be facing it together from now on. Within a year, if things looked like they were still progressing as we were hoping, I was even planning to propose to her. It was then that we finally saw it - a shooting star.





When I departed from the decaying ruins in, what seemed to be the dead of night, I walked straight into what I knew as the Everfree Forest. This location was very familiar to me since I saw it so often in my dreams, so I wasn't as afraid as I could have been at the moment. Given the situation and that the pendant actually granted my wish to see the land I had never personally seen in real life, my only real option was to make it passed this forest and go to the nearest town for some kind of help - Ponyville. 

On my little trot, I tried to think more positive. I was sure Violet was safe in Ponyville. That we were just sent to different places, or, if I needed to, I could visit the pony I recalled the most - Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Friendship. I could tell her all about my situation and, knowing her character,  she would do everything in her power to help me find the one most precious to me.

All of my hopes felt shattered as I made it to the outside of the forest and gazed at the sky above. One half was daylight, while the other was the night sky. And from a distance, I didn't see Ponyville, or even the friendship castle - just a war-torn battlefield. Before I had the opportunity to question what chain of events made this, my answer was approaching. 

Marching from the night side, I saw a faction of ponies wearing bright golden armor - armor that resembled a solider more suitable for representing the daylight. From the daylight side, I saw a faction of ponies in dark colors - armor more suitable for the night. 

From behind each faction, I saw something I didn't expect to see, the two sisters donning their evil forms that I had known and feared. Luna was Nightmare Moon - a black alicorn garbed in battle armor, sporting fangs, slit eyes, and wings more demonic than angelic. Celestia was Daybreaker - a fiery psychopath with a flaming mane, battle armor similar to her sisters, fangs, and pupils resembling lightning bolts. Each sister began to use their magic and moved the sun and moon to their side. After the daylight was on Daybreaker's and the night sky on Nightmare Moon's, they signaled their armies to attack. 

I kept hidden in the forest's trees as I watched the fiery battle commence, horrified to see this befall on Equestria. " It's sad you know," a sudden voice announced, causing me to jump in fear, that is until I saw who spoke,"every day they change their half's day and night and send a portion of their troops to fight, and not all of them will survive from this."

I couldn't believe who it was. It was Discord, the draconequus - which the best way to describe his appearance would be a chimera resembling a serpent dragon -  and the spirit of chaos.

"Discord!" I exclaimed but recalled the words he had spoken. "What happened to Equestria? What's going on here?"

"Huh," the chaotic creature said in confusion, " I don't think we've ever met before, and yet instead of hating me like every pony else, you speak like you personally know me as a friend? I knew I felt a magical disturbance, but this is not what I expected to find."

"I'll explain a little later, but we need to get the elements now and find out who did this to the princesses."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," he spoke sadly.

"What? What do you mean? Weren't they just used to stop the Pony of Shadows? They should be good. I saw it in my dreams about your world. Just go get Twilight and the girls and we'll save the princesses." I began to express in a sudden panic.

" Look closer at the battle, Daybreaker's top general might look familiar to you." Discord sulkily stated.

"Okay, you're starting to scare me and remind me how lost I am in this world. What's going on!"

"The Equestria you saw in your dreams was nothing more than a signal interference with my personal gaze into an alternative Equestria - a more innocent Equestria." He sat down and held me close to his side as if he not only wanted to comfort me but to comfort himself. "Please forgive me, but I'm afraid the Equestria you know and love never had the chance to exist, and it's my fault."