//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Phase Two // Story: Twilight Daylight // by thedarktome //------------------------------// "Sunset...why are they here?" Luna asked, sitting down with Celestia in front of the group of stowaways. "You know duplicates can upset the portal balance." "Well......Pinkie showed up, so....." Sunset tried to explain, motioning to the party mare-human behind her, currently blowing up a balloon. "There's that. And I thought they could provide clues as to Twilight's whereabouts." "Sunset, there's absolutely no way that—" "And," Sunset interrupted Celestia. "And who better to find Twilight.....than herself?" The Princesses looked at her unamused before they caught onto what she was talking about. "I'm not Twilight!" Sci-Twi yelled before once again adjusting her glasses. "Just because I'm Twilight Sparkle on Earth, doesn't mean I'm Twilight Sparkle here! I'm just a girl who got pushed in here by the crazy party planner!" She gestured to the pink mare standing next to her bouncing up and down. "Why is she jumping?! I really don't get this! At all!!" "Darling?" Rarity said calmly, trotting over and placing a hoof on her neck. "It's Pinkie Pie. I thought we established to never question what she does. For instance, right now she is talking to the other Pinkie Pie who is standing behind us." Everyone turned their attention back to the castle to see the Element bearers staring unbelievably at the two Pinkie Pies hopping around in a circle. "What in tarnation?!" Applejack yelled. "Why are there two of 'em? Pinkie, have you been swimmin' in that mirror pool again?" "Uggghhhhh," Celestia groaned before walking past the group and out into the open. "It's okay, it's.....Pinkie Pie from Earth. Sunset thought we could use some help in finding Twilight and....she showed up." She gestured towards the two Pinkie's making faces at each other. "Ahhhhhh, that makes far more sense than this," Rainbow Dash said before a lavender pony bounded into view. "YEAH, BUT WHAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE IS WHY! AM! I! HERE?!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE SUNSET, IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO—" Sunset Shimmer quickly thrust a hoof nonchalantly into Twilight's mouth. "Could ya' shut up for a moment and let me explain first, Twilight?" She said, ignoring the disbelieving faces of the Element bearers. "Jeez, you scream louder than Rarity when she drops her purse on the concrete. Are you going to listen?" Twilight nodded, prompting Sunset to take her hoof out of her mouth. "Now. The reason I came to you guys was because I could use 'Twilight's Insight' to find Twilight. And since you two are the same—" "We are not—" Sunset put the hoof back into her mouth. "And since you two are the same," she continued. "I wanted to ask what would you do if your friends lied to you, you stole a weapon of mass destruction, and you ran away." She pulled the hoof out of Twilight's mouth and wiped it on the ground, ignoring her friend's shocked face. "SHE DID WHAT?! Why would I do that?!" "Well they lied to her for four years," Sunset answered, pointing towards the Princesses and element bearers who had guilty looks on their faces. "Oh, don't forget ALL of Equestria too," Spike interjected motioning his arms towards the area behind them. "Everypony EVERYWHERE lied to her. Maybe her parents too. Maybe even Shining Armor and Cadance, I don't know. Did they know?" He looked towards the Princesses who have turned around, acting like they were watching the birds or something. "Well......I'm guessing they did too," he sighed. "Either way, the only way to get Twilight to come back would be if there was a disaster or something, which even then is unlikely considering how much you guys totally played with her mind. So we have to find her quickly. Where would you go if everyone lied to you, and you wanted revenge or not to be found?" Twilight sighed and put her hoof to her chin, already a little freaked out that she didn't have hands, thinking deeply on that subject. The Princesses took that moment to turn around, proving to Spike that Cadance and Shining Armor did know. He shook his head and sighed, already making plans to definitely not attend their Christmas party this year. "Well....if I were to steal a weapon," Twilight finally answered. "I'd do it like all villains. Erase myself off the map. Destroy everything that had remembrance of me and leave. I'd take the weapon with me, plot my revenge and strike. Of course, that's just ME! But I'm not Twilight Sparkle!" "Okay, it seems that Twilight is probably going hectic right now," Sunset said, ignoring Twilight's exclamation. She shook her head and created a face of disbelief. "You guys don't get it. Yes, me and Twilight are the same......sort of. But we are different because we don't have the same mentality. Look at where we are right now. A world full of magic. Twilight was born here and knows it like the back of her hand. Er...hoof. And look at where I come from where magic barely exists. There is a HUUUGE difference. The decision she makes would be influenced by magic because she's used to magic. She was born around it. Her? 'Oh! Since they lied to me, and I have this weapon of mass destruction, I'll just go underground, create a huge magical bomb, and blow up the whole country.' Me? 'Oh! Since they lied to me, I'll just go chug down a bucket of ice cream, cry myself to sleep, and then wait for them to apologize. And probably, PROBABLY, eat a bag of chocolate chips.' Our decisions are influenced by what we HAVE. And Twilight's amazing at magic, so I'm told. So she has a lot of things at her disposal. Another example. If somebody has an altercation with another large group of people, and they have thirteen crazy friends, they're going to grab them and teach them a lesson. But a person in the same situation who has only themselves is probably going to switch schools or something. Sorry, Sunset. But I don't think your plan is going to work. I can't help you in this." Everyone was just looking at her wide eyed while Spike was just biting his lip. "She's right," he declared, catching their attention. "Twilight has a lot of things, I doubt she would just be in one of these houses in Equestria. She loathes Equestria right now." "So she might be outside of Equestria then," Rarity suggested. "Some caves in the Badlands?" "That's in Equestria," Celestia responded. "How about Zebrica? Or the Dragon Lands? She sent me a letter saying that she wanted to try and establish connections with them." "Maybe," Sunset answered. "But this is Twilight we're talking about. She just doesn't go places unless she has a full understanding of them, so I really doubt she could've went off the map of Equestria. If she did, then we've probably lost her." "Not precisely," Luna responded. "Zebrica is only twenty miles off the coast of Equestria. Plus, there are far more places that Equestria has that we haven't assigned guards to search. Like Foal Mountain, the Badlands, no matter how deserted it may be, the old Everfree Castle, Hayseed Swamps, San Palomino Desert, Galloping Gorge, The Frozen North, and The Crystal Mountains. Twilight knows so many spells she could survive all of those. However, it will take some time to search them all thoroughly." "How long are we talking?" Spike asked slowly, nervously tapping his index fingers together. "Months," Luna answered. "The Frozen North alone would take two, it's so big. But either way, Twilight's out there somewhere. And she has a weapon that we need back." The group got quiet until Twilight broke the silence. "Yeah, so umm.....I'm leaving." She turned around and walked back inside the castle ignoring the guards stationed at the doors. Sunset sighed and shook her head. In Psera, things were looking great. Literally. The sun was shining through once more, hitting the larger-than-Equestria world and bringing the feeling of summer back to the Pserateps. Birds were chirping, animals were coming out, and everyone was celebrating, but the job wasn't complete. After lunch, which she skipped to make plans and preparations, Twilight was guided towards the top of the mountain range to begin Phase Two which was following Phase One of her plan to rebuild Psera. The plan was clear the clouds, restore the land, repair the buildings and heal the ponies as best as she could, which would take a few weeks. Repairing the buildings and healing would have to be done at the same time to avoid injury to those she healed. Phase One was the most important. Clearing the skies, which worked wonders. But right now, she needed to focus on phase two. Restoring the land. This part was all her. All magic. Perfect for a mage. The group landed at the top of the mountain and made their way to the other side, focus on their faces. "Have the Pserateps been evacuated?" Twilight asked, as they neared the edge. "Yes, ma'am," Dark Silver answered from her right. "They have been moved to the edge of the town and are currently waiting for the cue to return, which is a loud horn." "Alright, good." She stopped at the edge and looked down at the city of Merōl, the emptiness of the city evident of the ponies still leaving towards the east. It was all brown, save for the patch of green she placed earlier on when she arrived. "I'm going to scan it and see how much magic I have to put into it. Give me five minutes." Twilight focused on her horn, using her magic for this task. It lit before she pointed it upwards, releasing a pulse of the energy through the air around her. "This spell works like a detection and measuring system. On Earth, it'd be called Radar." "What's a Earth?" Silver Sword whispered to a soldier beside him. "The waves will bounce back," she continued, ignoring him. "And I'll be able to know the distance, which will let me know how much magic I'll need to use." "Is this dangerous?" King Madun asked worriedly. "Not at all, it only affects soil." She sat down on the stony surface, looking at the city below. "You know......this would be a really beautiful sight when this is over." She gestured to the landscape in front of her. "Put a park there, a large lake here, some rainbows and you'll have a pretty good residential city." Madun chuckled and settled down next to her. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is a historic city. It'd be looked down on if you were to change something here." "How is it historic? If you don't mind me asking that is." The ruler shook his head before gesturing towards the landscape. "Not at all. And it's historic because this used to be a battlefield. That's a history lesson for another day." "So, you're not going to tell me now? You're so unfair," Twilight teased. "What?! No, I'm...I'm-I'm—" The king started hyperventilating. The soldiers and advisers behind him chuckled and shook their heads. "Calm down, I was only playing," Twilight appeased, chuckling. "Don't worry. From what I've seen, you're an amazing ruler. So don't worry about what I've just said. I have a feeling you're going to be thinking about it all night." "Nuh uh," he protested, sounding like a filly. "It'll probably just clear out when I see your next trick." Twilight looked at him and smiled before focusing forward again. "Try and impress me." She scoffed and looked at him, shaking her head and trying to hide that grin off her face. "I'll impress you alright." She stood back up before the wave came back and hit her horn, giving her the information. "Everypony stand back. This is about to be big." The king got up and stepped back with the rest of the Pserateps, getting out of the danger zone and ready to watch the show. Twilight lit her horn and started generating her magic, ready to unleash it. That went on for about six minutes before she began feeling that tingle of the magic about to blow. "Okay here we go!" Her horn began shining brighter and brighter, until it looked like a star to the Pserateps below. Right when it got to its brightest, Twilight moved her head to the left and swung it to the right, sending out the magical wave at the same time with a very loud sound *SHHHIIIIIMMMMMM* The pserateps watched it travel down the mountainside and onto the ground below at a very fast speed, creating grass, trees, bushes, flowers, and more as far as the eye could see. Popping up out of the ground. Going all the way to the docks. Once it was finished, everything that was brown and lifeless now had green all over it. The Pserateps all stared wide eyed and open mouthed at the display in front of them, amazed at the power of the alicorn that had managed to bring an entirely barren landscape back to life before they began clapping. Twilight turned around faced the king with a grin, who had his jaw to the stone of the mountain. "Was that impressive enough for you?" He slowly lifted his jaw up off the ground and nodded his head rapidly. "YOU....are DEFINITELY not going anywhere. You are staying here, I will make it an executive order." Twilight giggled before looking back at the map, trying to find the next location. "What ever you say, your majesty. Now.....our next stop is.......Fenix." "Fenix is very important for this," Blue Comrade explained, stepping closer to her. "Each of the cities specializes in an industry. Merōl specializes in building materials. Trees, rocks, gems, metals, and glass. Fenix specializes in food plants and vegetation. Lavender specializes in military. That's the second biggest area of land we have. Capita specializes in cleaning materials and health. Our main hospital is in that area and is on the farthest side of the land, over two hundred miles away from the capital. That's our MAIN hospital, we have smaller ones in every city." "How big is this hospital?" Twilight asked. "REALLY big," King Madun interjected. "Two thirds that of the castle." Twilight just stared at him open mouthed while Blue Comrade continued. "Then there's Eventa. The biggest, which is our....party world. We have major events there such as celebrations, inaugurations, sporting events, gatherings, receptions, etcetera. Rayray, which is our city for clothing is basically a big ol'shopping area. The rich go and shop there all the time. Very fashionable clothing over there. Snow, which is the city that specializes in corporate. Businesses that run businesses. Of course every large business needs a huge head at the top right? And finally, there's Cop. The Capital of Psera. We specialize in law, law enforcement, and the justice system. Taxes, rules and regulations, not to mention knowledge. We have libraries here as well." "Okay." Twilight folded up the scroll and put it back with her other things. "So we head on to Fenix. Which is where?" "That way," King Madun responded pointing towards Southeast. "It's one hundred miles away." "So it's like going to Equestria. Alright, let's do this." She opened her wings and prepared to fly until the King stopped her. "Hold on...hold on, you need to eat, you haven't eaten yet," he said sternly, grabbing her shoulder. "I have no time to eat! Ponies are sad and I need to make them happy again—Oh my Faust, I'm sounding like Pinkie Pie," Twilight responded before shaking her head, getting that out. Cursing those ponies for getting in her head again. "Twilight, I will not have a lady go out and help others on an empty stomach. You are going to eat lunch and you will enjoy it." Twilight stared at him non chalantly before pulling in her lips, trying not to blush at his commanding tone. "Yes, your highness." "Hey, none of that 'your highness' stuff. At least not from you. You've gained a level of respect from me. After seeing what you just gave my people, you can just call me Madun. Guard? Go get Twilight some food, please." Dark Silver saluted before flying off back towards the castle miles away, but still clearly visible like it was in your face. "You didn't have to do that," Twilight said, giving him a smile. "I could've easily got some of my own." Madun smiled and stated, "Twilight, a gentlecolt doesn't let a lady go around making her own food. He makes it for her." "But you didn't make—" "Or he has somepony make it for her, hey I'm trying here." Twilight giggled before shaking her head and giving him a kind smile. "Well I appreciate your kindness, Madun," she said genuinely. "I really do." "It's the least I could do. You are our guest after all, as well as a mare who respects the wishes of others. So you get a great lunch." Twilight grinned before turning back to look at the city below, seeing the hundreds of Pserateps flying around, rolling in the grass and cheering in happiness. This place made her feel like she belonged. Unlike Equestria.