//------------------------------//
// Princesses Have Big Mouths 
// Story: Harmony's Parallel 
// by Xutiepops 
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The seven were now in one of the princesses rooms. After Rarity looted everything, it was a huge mess that Twilight was momentarily trying to fix as she spoke. 
Of course, because of her late arrival, they were all curiously angry at the alicorn. She kept a bored expression as she waited for them to calm down, keeping her eye on a magic orb next to her with a real-time imagery of the princesses. 
"Where the hell were you?" Rainbow Dash yelled at her. "AJ and I got hurt! And you could care fucking less!" She growled at her. Her wing bent awkwardly against her back to accommodate the pain for it. 
"What does a bruise matter in the success?" Twilight asked angrily, tired of their complaining. 
"It doesn't matter in a fucking success! It matters cause you didn't stick to your own plan!" She was so close their muzzles were practically touching as Rainbow's hoof was pointed to Twilight chest with accusation. 
Rarity stepped in, wearing a lot of gold and purple jewelry. "Even if I didn't get hurt, I agree. You should've been there! You gave us all quite a fright!" She said with poise and confidence, as if she was above all the yelling. 
"Oh, can it, princess," Fluttershy barked at her. "You were terrified, even with your boyfriend drake their to protect you." 
Spike glared at her with a growl, "The name's Spike." She ignored him. Rarity started arguing with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Spike joining in with the twos remarks. 
Twilight yelled over the commotion, "Shut up!" They all immediately stopped talking, waiting for a reason. She sighed, "The rulers decided it was the best time to stop and chat. They were warning me of something so I couldn't just bail." 
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at the mare, anger fueling her entire being. The rest relatively understood, silently agreeing to stop the blaming on focus on something more important. Twilight thought all of them agreed, until Fluttershy walked up to her. 
"You mean we could talk to the rulers and you didn't tell us?" Fluttershy asked calmly. 
Twilight stared at her, preparing herself for whatever the pegasus was going to complain about. "I didn't think it was important, they can only message us, we can't do anything to contact them." Twilight stated. 
"Besides," Twilight's voice cut just as far as her eyes. "I doubt you need to worry of a draconequus, I think that's his job in this situation." 
"I don't care about some stupid king! I cared about my safety!" Fluttershy growled. "If they can see us, that means they'd protect us. And that means we would have nothing to worry about!"  
"You have an alicorn and a dragon, were you that scared?" Twilight asked with a playful smirk. "I doubt it, I'm sure you're more concerned of other things." 
Fluttershy rolled her eyes and lowered her head angrily. "Oh, just can it," she stated and looked towards the window. "I'm going to go find the gardens, have fun," she said and flew out the window. 
Twilight noticed Rarity's worried face before the mare spoke. "Are you sure that was the right thing to do? Maybe one of us should go after her." 
Rainbow sneered. "The mares fine." She turned to Twilight, "So captain, what's next?" 
"Tomorrow you can use your magic and force them to tell us about what we need," she told Rainbow Dash. Her magic glowed around a pillow, after a second, it became six straws. "For now, since I can't keep up that spell all night, we'll draw sticks to see who stays to play babysitter." She said with a smirk. 
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the childishness, but agreed. She guessed it was rigged to never pick Twilight. After everyone did, Applejack was the one with the shortest straw. 
Rarity smiled, "Looks like Applejack plays babysitter! Have you done anything like it before?" 
Applejack looked confused, but answered anyways. "Uh, yeah. But that was with a filly, not two grown alicorns." 
Twilight stared at her with a serious look. Her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth was a flat line. "Just stay awake and make sure the two don't talk to any guard. Oh yeah, and stay out of sight in case a guard does walk in." 
Applejack nodded with a determined smile and started for the door. About half way down the hallway, she heard the door open and looked back to see Rarity standing there. "What's up? You want my place?"
Rarity smiled. "Oh, heavens no! I just wanted to ask you something." 
"Shoot," Applejack stated, confusing the sophisticated mare. 
"Sorry if this is invasive, but do you have a little sister? ... Or a foal of your own?" Rarity asked with a nervous smile on her face. That smile fell at the sudden laughter that came from the mare. 
"Haha! You guessed I had a foal?" Applejack said in between chuckles. Rarity blushed and looked away with a high head. 
She snorted. "I was leaning more towards little sister personally!" 
"Was not."
"Was too!" 
Applejack chuckled again. "Well, it was a little sister, yeah." 
Rarity heard the word 'was' and immediately went pale. Whether it was a mistake in words or it was correct grammar, she still felt bad. She smiled nervously with a laugh. "W-well, that was all! Goodnight!" She raced back in the room, leaving Applejack simply confused. 
But the simple mare shrugged it off and started walking towards the throne room. On her way, she admired the scenery. The bright, pastel colors of the halls that mixed with the dark skies through the windows was pleasing, even if she wasn't one for it. 
And as she approached the familiar big doors, she pushed them open. As she walked in through the doors, she saw the stained glass windows again. 
She only got a glimpse at them before, but now she could actually look at them. One was of six ponies with weird jewel things magically floating around with them. A mare that looked like Nightmare Moon was the victim of the attack. 
She guessed that Nightmare Moon did happen. But how'd they stop her? She must've had evil powers, even then, Applejack thought as she looked at it. 
She shrugged it off, mentally telling herself to tell Twilight later. Another had a similar theme, but the victim was Discord. She was still confused, especially on how they were able to beat both Nightmare Moon and Discord. As she looked further, she noticed that Twilight was a simple unicorn, which only confused her more. 
Another one had Twilight with wings, a bright light behind her. Applejack cowered at the image, as if it was really there. She ducked underneath it and moved to another one. 
She looked up at it and saw a bright blue heart. A small dragon with Spike's color scheme was holding it. Above the heart was an alicorn that looked like the old princess Cadenza her grandmother told her about. She hung her head, understanding the now four serious threats instead of two. She shook her head and slammed her hoof down angrily. That was all excluding the other five and whatever jewel things they had, and Discord! The mission was impossible!
She stomped angrily to the throne room. Her head lowered, her shoulders shifting angrily with every step. She slammed open the doors, catching the attention of the two alicorns, who seemed magic ridden. 
"What's up with y'all? The mare didn't take y'all's magic," Applejack asked, walking along the velvet carpet as she approached the two. They looked down at her with weak hate. "Guess y'all ain't gonna tell me nothin', huh?" She asked with a slight smile. 
The twos expressions didn't budge, they still looked determined and furious. Celestia spoke as Applejack turned away. "Who are you?" 
Applejack looked back at her with a new hope. The two were easy enough to apprehend. "I don't think Twilight would want me tellin' y'all, so, sorry, can't answer." 
"If that is Twilight you speak of, you should be Applejack. Correct?" Luna asked, an angry determination in her veins. Applejack smiled at the two. 
"I'll answer ya if you answer me," Applejack smiled trustingly. A hidden smirk hid behind her eyes as they turned an ugly, forest green from their bright, emerald green. The two alicorns didn't notice. "Though, I'm sure y'all don't think I trust ya. So answer a question I got first."
The two alicorns were confused by the smile and nice attitude, and their guards dropped temporarily. "Alright," Celestia stated cautiously. "Go ahead." 
Applejack smiled joyfully. She had so many questions to ask, but decided to ask the one she didn't expect Twilight to ask. She did only think of the question due to the windows down the hall, like Twilight would analyze those thoroughly. 
"What are those weird jewel things I saw in those windows in the hall?" She asked with a tilt of her head. She knew by the look in their eyes that they learned something, meaning they would more or likely answer. As well as the innocence she was putting off. 
Luna sighed. "They are the Elements of Harmony. They kept all harmony in this world, pushing out evil." 
"They still usable?" Applejack asked. 
Before Luna could reply, Celestia spoke, "A question for a question." 
Applejack chuckled. "Right, what'cha wanna know?" She looked up at them, the green getting darker and uglier as the conversation continued. Celestia noticed it, and now did Luna. Their guards were brought back up. 
"What are you all capable of?" Celestia asked hesitantly, but with determination. She sighed at the smirk brought up by the mare. 
Applejack winked with a smirk. "That's pretty personal, princess. You should take a mare out ta dinner first," she said cheekily. "Thanks for the info though, call it a... starter conversation."
"What should we have expected?" Celestia asked with a hang of her head, her mane falling with it, almost immobile. "But no matter who you are or what you can do! You will not succeed!" She said, picking up her head with a determined look as she puffed out her chest.
Applejack looked at her, her eyes fading back to emerald. "You don't know that," she shouted in the large room as she skipped off to a corner. She plopped down in the corner with a smile, feeling proud. 
Celestia's eyes attempted to bare at her, attempted to threaten her. But not even the hatred of a respectable mare such as her could penetrate Applejack's confident happiness. "Yes, yes I do. You don't know what Twilight Sparkle is capable of!" 
Applejack smirked as she rocked back and forth. She decided to mess with the mares. "Course I do! I'm her friend. She's an alicorn." She saw the immediate fright on their faces, but saw it freeze just as quickly. 
"That mare was not Twilight Sparkle!" Luna shouted in her Canterlot voice. 
"Was too!" Applejack stuck out her tongue as she rocked forward. 
Her confidence threw off the mares confidence, but she knew they didn't believe her. That was fine, she at least made them scared. She tricked a princess. Scratch that off the bucket list. 



Applejack wasn't a mare for staying up for long hours in general. Especially with nothing to do like in her situation. The late night and light sleep from the night before was hitting her as she picked up her head and shook it to keep herself awake.		
All she ended up with was a headache. Her eyes weren't open for a while, but they snapped open and swung to the door at the sound of it opening. She saw that orange pegasus from before, he'd come in there a lot. She assumed he was just dedicated. 
The princesses glared at her and then looked at the guard. "We're alright, thank you for checking in," she said with a fake smile to Applejack and a real smile to the guard. Applejack rolled her eyes and laid her head back down. Celestia mouthed some words and the guard left with a nod. 
Applejack was going to stay up, she was really determined too. But the last time she put her head down was the first moment for a while. Needless to say, she fell asleep. 
Celestia and Luna almost said nothing to one another as they eyed the door, waiting for the guard to return. Once the door creaked open with a orange coat under grey, they looked to see that Applejack didn't stir in her sleep. 
Celestia gestured for the guard to come over to them, a nod along with it. He flew over to them, setting his hooves down as quietly as he could. "What do you need?" He whispered to them. 
"Go to Ponyville, tell Princess Twilight that we're kept captive," Celestia stated. The pegasus started and spread his wings to fly away when she spoke again. "Tell them to be prepared for everything. These adversaries are like none we've experienced before." He nodded again and flew out of the room. 
As the door slammed shut due to his hasty escape, Applejack snapped awake. The princesses faked dozing off and Applejack attempted to stay awake again. She didn't last five minutes before her head was placed on her curled up hooves and her ears twitched. 
Luna sighed. "I prey the dreams of the ponies are alright." 
Celestia looked out the windows, the moon shining back at them. "What if this enemy doesn't know how to raise the sun?" 
Luna sighed again, looking at the moon as well. "They seemed well coordinated before," she stated sarcastically. "They need cover, they wouldn't not know how to raise the sun." 
"I hope so," Celestia stated, her eyes lingering on the moon. 



"What do you mean you don't know how to raise the sun?!" Rainbow Dash yelled at Twilight, waking Rarity with her shouts. 
Rarity groaned as she sat up. "Can you keep your arguments a bit quieter?" 
Rainbow Dash growled. "Well, you're sleeps are gonna get a whole lot quieter in a prison since princess here doesn't know how to raise the sun." Rainbow looked to Twilight scrounging through the drawers of the room. 
"You don't know how to raise the sun?" Rarity asked, confusion masked her voice.
"I'll figure it out, go to sleep," Twilight said, frankly ignoring the two. Rainbow and Rarity both didn't believe her. But like hell Rainbow was going to help her out of her own problem. And like hell Rarity was going to miss out on her beauty sleep. So, the both went back to sleep, despite their lives being on the line. 
Twilight, though she seemed composed, was freaking out. How could she possibly forget about the sun? They're screwed once the princess doesn't raise the sun, even if she's a second late. 
She scrounged through drawers and piles of paper in candlelight, she assumed the others would be able to sleep better if they didn't have magenta filling the room. 
After looking through almost everything, she sat down in defeat, running a hoof through her tangled mane. She winced as she slowly removed her hoof, trying to avoid the tangles by making more. She put her hoof down and sighed in even further defeat. 
Her eyes started tearing up, she felt so alone in a room full of ponies she knew. These ponies... weren't strangers, but they weren't friends either. They were like, high-level acquaintances. But still, she was alone. She couldn't possibly break down out of fear in front of them all. How could she? 
She was supposed to lead the group, she couldn't possibly let her fears flood out. They needed a leader they could trust. Not her anxieties. She couldn't even tell them the truth about why she wasn't there earlier. She couldn't even do that, how was she expected to be terrified?
She opened her eyes, seeing a pink hoof push a book in front of her. She looked up at Pinkamena, confusion masked her teary eyes, she got a smile in return. "I found it. It was in Nightmare's room." 
Twilight wiped her eyes and flipped open the book with her magic. Her page flipping stopped on a bookmarked page with the spell to raise the moon. She started there and started looking around. In less than a minute, she found the spell to raise the sun. 
She smiled at Pinkamena and jumped up to hug her. "Thank you, Pinkamena." The mare hugged her back with a smile. 
"You give me special treatment. I should be able to help you more often," Pinkamena said cautiously. She backed away and smiled. "Just call me your assistant!" 
Twilight just stared at her and chuckled. She looked down at the book to start studying the spell. "Thank you, again. This is amazing." 
Pinkamena smiled. "All you have to do is get it right the first time. You know if anything messes up that we're caught, right?" A worried look now took over her face. 
Twilight smiled weakly with a nod as she looked down at the book. "I'm not the worst at magic, it'll probably be fine." 
"Is there anything you can practice on? You do have to lower the moon, too," Pinkamena stated, still worried. Twilight nodded and stood up, taking the book and the candle in her magic as she walked over Rainbow Dash to get to the door. 
Pinkamena followed her as she exited the room and asked for Luna's room. Pinkamena showed her the way and pushed the door open, the room wasn't that different from her sisters. Once the two were inside, Pinkamena shut the door, just to turn back to Twilight levitating two pillows up and down consistently. The two stood in a wavy line as they were levitated. 
Pinkamena just stood by the door and watched attentively. But that attentiveness grew to boredom, and that boredom grew to sleepiness. As she laid her head down, she still watched, the lines were much straighter and the movement was much more consistent. 
She knew Twilight wouldn't get it perfect, but she'd get it good enough for no pony to notice. After pillows, she used the book and a lamp, the lines became shaky again. 
She guessed Twilight was using a simple levitation spell. The moon was a huge rock, so that wouldn't be so different, but the sun was a flaming ball of death. Sure, the concept was equivalent, but the sun and moon were massive compared to two pillows. 
Pinkamena smiled as she fell asleep, all her faith and belief in Twilight's abilities. 
She soon woke up with the sun in her eyes and a jumping Twilight in the corner of the room. She smiled and stood up, stretching her back in the process. "Did it go well?" 
Twilight smiled with a giggle. "Well, it was a bit difficult and shaky at first, but it got better quickly! I doubt any threats noticed." She bounced around in a circle with a huge smile on her face and a giddy sound leaving her. 
Pinkamena nodded, "Imma gonna go back to sleep. Wake me up when you want to do something with the princesses." She walked over to Luna's bed and jumped on the fabric and snuggled up. 
She looked over her shoulder and saw Twilight lying on the bed with her. "You gonna get up on time?" Pinkamena asked with a nice smile as she turned back and closed her eyes. 
"I just raised the sun and the moon! I think I can manage waking up," Twilight said as she started dozing off. 
Pinkamena smiled, feeling a new kind of happiness. She opened her eyes slightly, her hooves started to shake as she remembered all the special treatment Twilight gave her. She believed in Twilight, and everything worked out! She was so happy. Maybe being happy is a good thing? She thought.
Her eyes faded to a deep, pale blue. Her mind filled with memories of the last time she fell for someone. His smile and laugh filled her head as fear struck her. W-where did these come from? She asked herself. 
The memories of that day filled her, his screams and confused voice echoing inside her. He was worried over her, after the Cakes business fell. The store was dark, the door creaked open as she hid underneath the counter, thinking some idiot walked in wanting a cupcake. 
Make it stop... Make it stop! She cried to herself, holding her hooves to her head as she started crying. 
She pounced, she was starving, resorting to her only method after she did it with the Cakes. She grabbed a knife when she heard his voice, but it was too late, she already swung at him and the sharpened blade cut easy. Blood stained his yellow-orange fur. 
He screamed at her, yelling words like 'maniac' and 'psychopath'. She screamed and cried as she stabbed again and again. She couldn't stop. She needed him to shut up. 
Pinkamena slammed her hooves against her head over and over again, crying and wanting the memories to stop. And they eventually did, but they subconsciously played over and over again. She stared numbly at the wall ahead of her. 
Nah, happy's for babies who don't know how harmful the world is, she thought and tried to go to sleep. But the nightmares kept her awake. And she was terrified.