The Equestria That Never Was

by desertbat


Chapter 10 - Basic Training At The Farm

I had awoken from my slumber but kept my eyes closed and remained in bed, cuddling Violet. I could hear the cute little noises she was making in her sleep and felt the soft warmth she gave off as I had her wrapped fully in my wings.

As I continued to embrace her in bliss, I began to feel the metallic chains to the pendants we still kept on our necks. Ever since she gave me this pendant I always felt some powerful force that connected me to her - something I'm sure she felt as well. After the time spent in Equestria, I started to wonder if the pendants attracted us together. As if they knew we were compatible with one another and chose us to wield its power for such a reason. It was only a theory and I didn't take the thought too seriously, but it still made me wonder.

My train of thought soon shifted over to some giggling. What the heck is that noise? I thought to myself - unwilling to move from my spot to find out. I decided to put my bat pony ears to use and could hear whispers.

"We need to wake them up now, your highness." I heard, who I thought was Tempest, say. "They need every second to train."

I could only guess that Cadance and Tempest were about to wake us up, but Cadance was stalling, for some reason. Being curious, I pretended to still be sleeping and continued to listen in on them.

"I know, but they look so precious all cuddled up like that." It sounded like Cadance was getting all happy about...Violet and me sleeping together? "Can't you see those two getting married someday?" My face turned a shade of red from that question.

"Uh," I heard in a frustrated tone, "yes, Princess Cadance."

"What have I told you about calling me that?" Cadance teased. She then spoke in a mocking high authoritative voice, "I am your wife now, Fizzy. I demand to be treated as that over some royal title given to me by some stupid hierarchy. Besides, it's not like all of Ponyland doesn't know already."

I heard some shy stuttering from Tempest before she could properly respond. "So...sorry, honey. I just want you to be addressed with the utmost respect you deserve." I could hear kissing. "Now, we need to wake them up. If your little sister has to travel with them someday, I want them to be able to protect her."

I decided to stop this facade and pretend to have wakened up, though I kept myself wrapped around Violet while talking. "Good morning, your majesty," they both turned and faced me, "I’m ready for my training."

"Awe, that's so cute. You're trying to keep cuddling your mare while talking to us." I began to wonder if she was taking this situation seriously. That is until her tone began to vastly shift. "It's about time you stopped pretending to be asleep, Angelo Rojo."

Wait I thought. Was she spying on us? How did she know my name?

“Discord told me your name, you silly stallion." She playfully told, chuckling at my nervous expression. "Now then, wake up your girlfriend for me so we can begin the training. Fizzy is right, after all. Every second does count."

There was a big smile on Tempest's face from that compliment. I moved my wings from Violet and she began to groan a little. "Violet, sweetheart, it's time to wake up. We need to start training."

In no time, she sprang up from the bed, ready to take on the world. She noticed Tempest and Cadance in front of us and began to feel embarrassed. "Umm, sorry for oversleeping. It's just been a while since I slept so well."

"Well, bat ponies are known to make really good lovers, and I'm sure your Angelo is really something, Violet" Cadance joked, giving her a wink and turning Violet's face bright red. "But enough of talk, Fizzy and I will escort you to your training grounds. Violet, come with me. Desert Bat, Fizzy will take care of you. Try not to crush him too fast, sweetie."

Cadance and Violet began to leave and I could see a smirk on Tempest after hearing that. "Of course, dear. Have fun today. Love you."

"I love you too, my tough beauty."

They both left leaving me and Tempest alone. "Alright, let's go." I would be lying if I said she didn't intimidate me, so I followed her - without any signs of a protest.


We walked out the palace and I felt the morning sun in my eyes. This surprised me a little because I was getting used to the day and night not being right.

“What’s wrong?” You look stunned.” Tempest asked.

I pointed to the sky to emphasize my point. “It’s actually morning for once.”

Tempest began to laugh at my comment and I guess it did sound ridiculous. “It might not be. The barrier Twilight and Cadance made makes an artificial day-night cycle. It helps make things more....peaceful, don’t you think?” She had a very joyful smile and I couldn’t help but return one to her.

“Yeah. Your home feels very peaceful. It makes me think of the Equestria I saw in my dreams.”

“Train hard then, scion of balance.” It was the first time she addressed me with such a title. “Maybe someday you’ll be able to show me this Equestria. I would love nothing more.”

As we began walking to our destination, I kept Tempest’s words fresh on my mind. I would get stronger and help them make the Equestria I saw.


The walk was a little more than half an hour, but we finally made it to a large orchard full of apples and pears. The orchard was very large and made me wonder how far this barrier stretched across. "Is this Sweet Apple Acres?" I knew the answer, but I had my hopes up.

"Catchy name, but no. This is Pome Orchard Farms. You'll find the tastiest apples and pears here." From the name, I had a feeling I knew who lived here, but I couldn't help but wonder what part this farm played into my training. "Firefly," Tempest shouted out in the Orchard. "we're here now. You ready to teach your new student?"

Within a flash, a pink pegasus pony with an unruly blue mane landed by us. She had a cutie mark with two blue lightning bolts and I felt, from her similar appearance to another pony, that I had possibly found the element of loyalty. "Captain Firefly of the Ponyland Royal Legion reporting for duty, Princess Tempest, Ma'am."

"Firefly," the reluctant princess frustratingly said, "how many times do I have to tell you? Just because I'm married to Princess Cadance now doesn't mean I want to be called a princess. Just call me Commander Tempest, please."

"My apologies, Commander Tempest, ma'am. I just want to treat you with the utmost respect you deserve, ma'am." I couldn't help but laugh internally at the way these two were acting towards one another.

"You two really are something." I chuckled a bit while saying. They both turned to me and let out a small smile - making it clear I didn't disrespect them.

"Now that that's out of the way, have you finished your breakfast?" Firefly gave her a salute as a response, which seemed to be all that was needed. "Good. I guess I'll go see AppleJack for some breakfast as well." I recognized that name and knew I had found the element of honesty too. I was about to follow Tempest again, but that quickly changed. "Why are you following me?" Tempest asked, looking amused. "I'm getting breakfast. You are learning some basic flying from Captain Firefly here. You have these wings, but now you're going to learn how to use them. I'll see you when I'm done."

My stomach began to growl and, as she left, my hunger became more apparent to me. "Attention!" Firefly shout, which got me to focus on her. I walked up to her and awaited further instructions. "You see these trees?" I nodded to her. "Do you see these buckets under the trees?" I nodded again. " Fly up and pick the fruits from each tree and put them in their basket. I'll let you know when you're done."

"That's it?" I responded in a confused manner. "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Are you still standing here? Move!" I did what she told me and opened my wings. I tried to flap them and lift myself up, but I couldn't. "As I thought, the report I got from the commander was that you only flew when your pendant gave you that power. Look at me, rookie. I want you to watch how I move my wings and mimic that. If you do, you'll surely be able to fly.

I watched the way she flexed her wings carefully. For five minutes, I repeatedly watched her do every motion and then I decided to try for myself. To my surprise, I achieved flight. It was really bad, but it was flight and I became extremely joyful. "Hey...look, Firefly. I'm actually flying."

"Good job, my flying lessons always work. I'm awesome like that." Her boasting was very amusing to hear. Even with things so different, it was nice to know no matter what form the elements might take, they seemed to keep their personality. "Now get to picking those apples and pears. You'll improve your flying as you go along your work. If you impress me enough, I'll even treat you to some breakfast. You seem cute enough." I could hear a playful tone coming from her. She was probably hoping I would get all fluttered from that. I thought it would be better to play along.

"Sounds great, captain," I said while picking some pears. "I'm really hungry, and it would be nice to be treated by such a pretty mare."

"Oh, seems you're not falling for that, huh?" She quickly noticed. "Probably a good thing, since I'm already taken." The captain said with pride.

I had finished the pear tree and moved on to an apple tree - my flying slowly improving - when I decided to continue the conversation. "Wow! Congratulations. Who's the lucky pony?"

"Well..." she said a little shyly. "other ponies may not see him the way I do, but I married this adorable egghead named Quibble Pants."

"What!" I exclaimed, causing myself to lose balance and hit the ground. I remembered Quibble being a pony Firefly's counterpart, Rainbow Dash, had been friends with, but I wasn't expecting her to have married him.

"You have a problem with my husband rookie?" Firefly angrily questioned.

"What, no." I quickly shouted in self-defense, "I just didn't know you were already married. I just thought you meant, like...a boyfriend."

"Alright, enough banter! Get back up there and keep picking those apples." I did what she said and flew back up. "Your flying has improved tremendously for being a pony for, what, a week?"

"Wait, how did you..."

"The commander gave me a really detailed document. Now go faster!" I continued to fly faster and I was surprised that I was already making decent progress. It still took everything I had to maintain what I had, but I was improving.

While continuing my task, I noticed a snicker from Firefly. "Am I doing something wired, Captain?"

"No, you're doing good, rookie. I'm just surprised how accurate your girlfriend described you. You're doing all this training just for her, aren't you?" I didn't cease my task, but she got the answer she needed from my smirk. "You remind me of my husband in a way. He's nowhere near as tough as you, but he'll do whatever he can - scared or not - if it means it will help me. I give it a year before she becomes your wife."

That last comment made me lose focus again, but I managed to stay in the air. I could hear Firefly laughing her flank off. "Very funny, ma'am," I said sarcastically, " though, you're not too off on the time. I was planning on proposing to her in a year before all this."

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that." She stated sympathetically. "For what it's worth, from the way she was talking about you, I know she'll say yes. Just don't wait too long to ask that question. In this world, you never know if you'll see tomorrow."

That hit me harder than I thought. I've been thinking about Violet's safety over my own that I didn't even think about how she would feel if I wasn't there anymore. She charged Cadance when I was in trouble. If I was too careless, she could do the very thing I always knew I would do on instinct - sacrifice myself for her. "Thanks, it was worth a lot to hear. When things seem a little more settled, I think I'm going to propose."

"You got guts, rookie. You got guts."

We both shared a smile and I went back to picking the apples. I was in luck though, I had just finished picking apples from the apple tree. "Okay, that's both trees!" I shouted joyfully, flying back down

"Hold up, rookie," the pink mare commanded, "I said I'll let you know when you’re done. Get back up there and pick more trees. The ponies of Ponyland need more food."

I was really hoping that I had finished. My wings were already tired and I knew it would be a challenge to pick the trees, but, I kept my complaints to myself and went back to working anyway.


For a solid hour, I was picking apples and pears. It may not have seemed long, but flying nonstop for that long for the first time, early in the morning, and on an empty stomach, that was very new to me. I was hurting, though I knew complaining wasn’t going to help, so I just endured.

I had just finished picking the last pear from a tree and put it in the bucket when I heard the words I was hoping to hear since the first two trees. “That will do, for now, rookie. You can come down.”

With no grace, whatsoever, I plummeted down to the ground. My wings were sore, but they didn’t feel damaged, and I was positive I could fly after resting for a while. I pulled myself up and tried my best not to seem tired, however, I was pretty sure it wasn't fooling Firefly. "Heh, I think you deserve some breakfast. Follow me and I'll take you to see the owners."

My stomach growled so loud and it amazed me how hungry I was. I did what she said and prayed I would last before we got there.


Through the large orchard, I could see cabins all around. Some of them had designs of pears and others had apples. It seemed the Apple and Pear family was large even in this world. It was amazing how many acres this orchard had. Made me wonder how Cadance kept this colony hidden from the numerous enemies out there. My best guess was that it was far away from the main battlefield that the fiends didn't care to look for it.

We finally arrived at our destination. I could see a large wooden cabin and an enormous red barn to the side, along with a collection of farm animals. As I walked up to the porch, I saw an elderly amber stallion on a rocking chair. "Welcome back, Firefly," he greeted kindly. "Is this the boy Tempest spoke about?”

Firefly stood proudly. "He sure is Grand Pear. He's already shown amazing progress too. He'll be a great soldier in no time, just like your grandson. By the way, are Pear Butter and AJ still here, or did they go to Granny Smith's part of the Orchard to see Violet and Sugar Bell?"

"They're already over at Granny Smith's. They think Sugar Bell might have the baby soon and want to be sure she gets the help she needs. Big Mac might have gotten off duty today to see her too. I'm pretty sure it's just me, Bright Mac and the princess."

"How come Tempest lets you call her a princess?" Firefly shouted "She get's annoyed when I do that. Uh, never mind. I can't understand the commander sometimes." She calmed down really fast after that, and you would almost think the last few seconds didn't happen.

"It's good to hear about Sugar Belle, anyway. I bet you can't wait to be Great Grand Pear." Grand Pear was a little giddy with excitement and it put a smile on my face to see the two families seemed to be doing well together.

"I sure can't wait." He joyfully said. "Now go on inside and have a nice meal. As soon as you're done, Bright Mac's going to help me to see them too."

We walked into what was a cozy looking cabin. From the way the furniture appeared, it was made by the family and had been with them for years. Walking into the kitchen, I could see Tempest talking with Bright Mac and having a few laughs. They noticed us come by and Bright Mac got up to give me a stack of pancakes with eggs, and what I could only assume was some kind of....hay-bacon.

"Well, well, well," Tempest teased, "looks like you finally showed up. Firefly, report his progress to me."

Firefly quickly saluted in response, and I could see she went back to her serious self. "Yes, ma'am."

She went on about how she thought I did during that hour while I began eating. The food was really amazing. Everything tasted so natural and not made on an assembly line like back home. Bright Mac, a large yellow stallion with a red mane and brown Stetson, sat by me with a very humble expression.

“I reckon you’re the pony that sweet mare, Violet, was talking about?” He held out his hoof and I held out mine to...shake it. “I'm Bright Mac.”

“Desert Bat,” I returned.

“Gotta say, you’re a lucky stallion. That mare is very sweet and seems to talk about you a lot. And while she’s nowhere near as pretty as my Buttercup, she is beautiful.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “The fact that everyone keeps saying nice things about her just says it all. She really is something.”

We both had a chuckle at that. "You're telling me. Buttercup already made her an honorary Apple. Let me know when the wedding is, son." I almost choked on some pancake, which caused Bright Mac to burst into laughter. "Easy, kid. Don't die on me. That mare of yours seems like she's going to be really powerful, and I don't want to become her first victim."

"Princess Cadance said she saw it herself," Tempest added, "Violet will become very powerful. She just needs lots of intense training, as do you, Desert. Enjoy your breakfast while you can, because it's still an early morning and that little flying lesson was just a warm-up. You'll become on par with the Ponyland Royal Legion when we're done with you."

She probably expected me to be nervous from that statement, but I found this moment humorous. She saw it on my face and was confused. "It's funny, Tempest. years ago I once thought about joining the military back in my world but decided not to. I didn't like who was in charge and didn't feel the drive I once had at that point. Ponyland feels different, though. Maybe this is my second chance to join a cause greater than my own." I got out of my seat and saluted to her. "I'm at your command, Commander Tempest."

Tempest was amused and I could see Firefly excited as well. "Very good. It's time to make you one tough stallion."