“So. Ah think it’s about time we cleared some thin’s up. Ah have some suspicions that Ah need ta air out with y’all.” I frowned.
“Suspicions?” Applejack nodded.
“Yeah, suspicions. About yer… er, Celestia. Let’s… move ta the greenhouse.” Rainbow frowned.
“Uh… can we do this some other time? I’ve kinda got plans…” Applejack grabbed the little pegasus by the collar and pulled her close.
“Sure Rainbow. Go ahead. Course, if ya wanna live a few more years though, Ah suggest ya come with me.” Rainbow squirmed out of Applejack’s grip and held her hooves out.
“Woah, what!? You’re screwing around right?” She shook her head.
“Ah’m not. What Ah am sure of is that shit’s been goin’ down fer a month now, and Ah think Ah’ve got a good idea on what’s happenin’, but Ah’m missin’ details, and Ah need y’all ta help me out because Ah don’t have everythin’. Come on y’all.”
Applejack moved, and with unease hanging in the air, the four of us followed her. Once we’d all filed into the greenhouse, I noticed Pinkie galloping away from the school.
I didn’t even ask what’s wrong. Why didn’t I go after her? I… feel like I’ve… been neglecting her lately.
“So, first order of business here, do any of y’all have any idea what Celestia is?” Fluttershy was the only one to speak up.
“I-I think she’s the lost Sun Queen.” Rainbow frowned.
“Sun Queen? What’s that?” Rarity pulled out her phone and after a few taps, she opened up the story.
“Once upon a time, over a thousand years ago, there were once two rulers in Equestria. The Sun Queen, and the Moon Queen. In the beginning, they ruled together. They conquered modern day Equestria in the span of 300 years and then lead this land to seek new heights for pony kind. Most of the world’s earliest technological advancements stem from this country, but around the first millennium, things broke apart.
As the story goes, the two queens were seen fighting over a shadow. The Sun Queen wished to abandon Equestria to her ponies, and the Moon Queen fought to keep her. In the end, the battle was fierce, but the only one to suffer a loss was the Sun Queen.
Using all of her powers, the Sun Queen escaped to the stars, chasing her shadow, never to be seen again. Queen Luna is often referred to as the Moon Queen in ceremonies and traditions, and her royal gown has holes to show her cutiemarks, both of which are the crescent moon, the very same mark that lies on Equestria’s flag.
Now then… what kind of crazy idea makes you think Celestia is some ancient mare lost to time? You know that the two queens were part of a race that carried the traits of all three tribes, right? As in, they had wings?” Applejack rolled her eyes.
“First, Rainbow is here and alive. Trixie just about bashed her skull in. Were it not fer her and Twi, she would definitely be dead, if she wasn’t already in the first place. The thin’ that bothers me though, is the fact that ya both say she was dead fer a point. Legally anyways. Her heart stopped beatin’ by Fluttershy’s account, right?” the yellow pegasus nodded.
“It’s true. I checked her pulse and everything. I was… terrified.” The blue one looked from her, to me, then to Applejack.
“Wait, really? I knew I passed out, but I didn’t think… Ya know, that would actually explain the conversation I had with my mom the other day. Geez, wouldn’t that be a trip if it wasn’t actually a dream?” I blinked.
“I’m sorry?” she shrugged.
“Yeah. After I passed out, I had a dream about my mom. At first it looked like she was sad to see me. She asked me what I did to get there. But then I started to glow and she gave me a hug. Said, ‘I’m so glad you’re not done yet.’ Then I woke up on the bike in front of the house with Celestia.”
Applejack rubbed at her snout and sniffed.
“Well, maybe a bit more than legally. Point is, that is some kinda magic. Ponies don’t last more than a few seconds if the heart stops, and even if ya manage ta restart it, there’s usually severe brain damage, and they don’t typically last too long after. Dash is dumb as dirt, but Ah think she was always that way.”
Rainbow punched the orange pony in the shoulder.
“Man, fuck you.” Applejack brushed off her shoulder and continued,
“Not interested in mares, sorry. Speakin’ of, that brings me ta my next point, these shadows. Between y’all and Celestia, ya revived a pony past the brink of death. Magic like that is unheard of, and all the theories about it suggest that all the unicorns in the world couldn’t come together ta produce enough magic ta do what y’all did. It would be safe ta say that either Celestia knows a trick, or with Bramos’ power, the two of ya have enough magic ta revive the dead. Ah think it’s a combination of both.”
I thought back to that day. My head was a little weird as I wasn’t quite used to how I was moving. It was more like he was controlling me than the other way around, but I felt so powerful, it was like I had this torrent of energy just waiting to flow out of me. That was why I shot the beam, I just needed the release.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, yer story about the first one. There’s a common theme with how those shadows popped outta ya. Pinkie was havin’ a breakdown when the first one showed up. Fluttershy was experiencin’ somethin’ similar durin’ the second, and Rarity the third. Somethin’ Celestia said had been botherin’ me fer a while, but it wasn’t until after Ah spent some time with her the other day that Ah realized what it was.
‘She got eaten by her feelings’ she said. Ah think the shadows are our emotions given shape. Ah know it sounds crazy, but think about it. In our lesson the other day, she said that emotion is what makes music so special. Certain notes can be put together ta make a sound that makes ya feel somethin’ and when ya can resonate with that emotion, it makes the sound that much more meanin’ful. And at the end of our lessons, she keeps sayin’ ‘Harmony is Magic.’ Harmony is also the basis fer music, so what if that translates ta ‘Music is Magic?’”
Harmony is magic… Music is magic… The strongest magic requires emotion and sound… that… makes a lot of sense. But why would she think that? Rarity spoke for me.
“Okay… I think I’m starting to see where you’re coming from darling, but I apologize if I’m not seeing how you came to this conclusion. Why is this life threatening, again?” Applejack pointed and nodded.
“Because her end goal is ta summon the original shadow, where all these came from. Luna, that big blue unicorn that was here last week, is the Queen, and Celestia’s sister. They both called each other that, and Luna got me a whole bunch of documents about Pa that Ah couldn’t find online. The weirdest part about them was the one Ah did find. That one had redactions on it. Not fer public eye. But mine didn’t. What kinda pony can access that kinda data without some kinda crazy security clearance? Another thin’, when Ah woke up that mornin’, Ah did feel wings, because the other day, Ah found this in yer couch.”
Applejack went digging in her bag, and then she pulled out a gigantic, beautiful, blue feather. It was a dark blue that went from royal to a deep navy that ended with silver speckled fibers. It was steeped in all kinds of magic, most of which was ancient and something I couldn’t decipher… just like the white one I found four weeks ago.
“So, the bigger shadow. The whole time Luna and Celestia were together, they were at odds. Luna is afraid of what Celestia is doin’, but also wants ta ‘build the chord’ as they called it. Luna says she’s tryin’ ta save the world and stop Celestia, but Celestia is doin’ it fer some other reason. Over the week, Ah’ve noticed somethin’ about the news. Everythin’ about space exploration and evacuation hasn’t been mentioned, at all. It was almost like it never happened. When Ah asked Pappy about it, he said somethin’ similar has happened before some of the more recent wars. He called it a Media blackout. Somethin’ the government is sayin’, ‘don’t talk about this fer security reasons.’ Y’all ever heard of Discord’s comet?”
Like, Celestia’s ex-boyfriend Discord? Fluttershy nodded.
“My little brother was talking about that the other day. I looked it up, and apparently, it’s a comet that passes by the planet at what seem like random intervals involving the number seven. Seven years, twenty-one years, seventy years, seventy-seven years. They say it’s coming back again soon and we should be able to see it over Fall break on the harvest moon.”
Applejack clapped her hooves.
“Exactly. There’s another thin’ they say about that comet, and when it came by forty-nine years ago, Pappy said he remembered that whole week bein’ strange. There were ponies that shouldn’t be able ta were usin’ magic. There were weird monsters that popped up all over the world that were said ta be extinct. But nothin’ was stranger than what the military was doin’. Small outfits were stationed all over the world and a few of them were recorded fightin’ shadows with instruments. Here, have a look.”
Applejack took a file out of her bag and then put it on the tool table in the center of the green house for everypony to see.
‘Musical combatants? Off duty soldiers fight magical beast with instruments!’ the headline read. There was an image of soldiers with… marching band instruments surrounding something so dark that the old camera used to take this didn’t quite have the power to make out what it was.
‘Local soldiers fight off black beast terrorizing citizens, three casualties have been reported thus far. It appears as if the age old adage of lulling the monster to sleep is the real deal while trained soldiers play for their lives. This reporter witnessed five members of a marching band harmonize out in the street one night while avoiding a dark creature too black to catch on camera.
The monster seemed like something out of a grim fairy tale that comes to life and eats bad foals, a shadow that moves silently with teeth like dark daggers! As a 26 year old stallion, I couldn’t believe my eyes. One of our brave stallions lost a foreleg to this thing, but he kept on playing his trumpet one hooved as best he could! When finally, it seemed like the beast was weakened, the brass quintet played notes all at once, and the monster disintegrated before me. We attempted to interview the soldiers, but we were very quickly told to forget what we saw.’
“This ain’t the only paper like that. There’s not many, and several are removed from the internet, but that one was from Underhoof, and our library keeps its records well. It was one of four issues that mentioned this attack. The other papers mention reports of attacks from all over the state. Somethin’ is up with that comet, and Ah think she’s usin’ you ta bring it ta her.” Applejack pointed to me. I reared back.
“What? Why me?” she pulled her hoof back and scratched at her face.
“Well, uh… she hit ya first. If the shadows thus far have only come outta yers and Rarity’s head, wouldn’t it be safe ta say that the ‘Gate’ has ta be a unicorn?”
Hmm… Both Rarity’s mom and Celestia used that word, didn’t they? But… Applejack had one too. I saw it while I was in Bramos the second time… and another thing, Applejack was in Bramos.
“Now hold on, something doesn’t add up here. If it’s only unicorns, how did you take control of Bramos? And what about those shadows, the scorpion looking things? Why were they after you, and where did they come from?” Applejack scrunched up her face and shrugged.
“Well… Ah don’t know. Celestia calls us notes, and we’re necessary ta ‘build the chord.’ Luna said Celestia had already gathered all the notes. She told me that the best way ta get my ‘piece of the chord’ was ta make me take it out myself. That makes me think two thin’s: one, she’s done this before, and two, the guitars are the ‘chord.’ She said somethin’ durin’ the paintball war-”
“Wha- You had a paintball war without me!?” Rainbow exclaimed. Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Sugarcube, please. She asked Luna why she was after the ‘Elements.’ In the full story of the Sun Queen, there was somethin’ mentioned that Rarity’s cliff notes version didn’t have; the Elements of Harmony.”
Oh… shit.
“When the two queens fought, each had three of the six elements and it was like the apocalypse. Both Queens were usin’ the full extent of their powers with the help of the magical artifacts sacred ta this country. When the ‘shadow’ they were fightin’ over tried ta stop them, he ended up gettin’ caught in the middle of one of their attacks. Somethin’ happened, but he wasn’t dead. He ‘escaped ta the stars’ and the Sun Queen went after him. Twi, don’t that sound a hell of a lot like the story Luna told us the other day?”
Finally, the thing in the back of my head connected. It was the exact same story. The tale of the Sun Queen, everything Luna said, everything Celestia said in her drunken stupor that night… None of this makes any sense if she isn’t the Sun Queen, but… what does that make me? Why am I precious to her? Something is… missing.
“I came back home for the second time in a thousand years to chase after your father.”
Why did she say that, if Dad has been here the whole time?
“Okay, I think… I think you’re onto something here… Can we go over this? I’m… beginning to see the pieces, but you’ve already kinda laid them out.” Applejack nodded.
“Alright. First; Celestia shows up. She bangs five of us in the head with her green guitar. Everypony here but Rainbow, and Pinkie. All the other incident reports say they were hit by a high speed vehicle, but none were injured. In the Sun Queen story, there are six elements. So she’s missin’ one. She finds a pony that meets whatever requirements she needs, and she has her shipped here.
Rainbow said that her dad received a transfer notice two weeks prior ta her showin’ up. That means, before she even landed in Underhoof, she already had plans ta get all six of us here. Ah’ve only been here a year, but y’all have been here fer several years. Ah get the feelin that she hasn’t been plannin’ this fer so long that she started the fire ta kill my dad ta get me here. The way she put it, we’re replaceable. And of course, she’s done this before, so there’s a way ta meet her conditions and start pullin’ elements outta ponies.
Since we can’t know any of the specifics right now, let’s just move on ta what we do know. The first shadow appeared on October 4th, the same day Celestia appeared. It came outta yer head, and ya said Pinkie was havin’ an emotional breakdown at the time. But at the same time, Bramos came outta yer head and was fightin’ it. Bramos is a piece of this, but Ah just don’t know where he fits in. There were only six elements, and Ah’m not quite sure why he eats us and gives us superpowers or whatever.
But again, a thin’ we don’t know. On the 11th, the shadow that attacked us after Rainbow showed up was fought and killed. But like ya told us, that shadow that was ‘killed’ was actually the same one that y’all fought while Shy was havin’ her masturbatin’ issue with Celestia.”
“Eep! W-why would you say that? I-I don’t h-have a… a…” the yellow pegasus stuttered. Her wings flared out her knees were practically glued together, and her face was as red as Applejack’s brother. The orange filly put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Come on Shy, we all know. Every one of us has seen the awful, awful thin’s in yer sketch book.” Fluttershy covered her face with her hooves and curled up.
“Oh goddess, what’s wrong with me?” Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry darling, everypony has… needs, and yours are just… excessive. It’s not as if you’re doing drugs or something, and you’re a wonderful artist, you might just um… try to cool it a little, hmm?” Rainbow raised a brow.
“Yeah, says the pony with her tab on that site bookmarked.” Rarity put a hoof to her chest, offended at the remark.
“Ah! How. Dare. You. I have done no-” Finally, she took note of Applejack holding her phone.
“Well, not just Fluttershy’s page. There’s at least four here.” Rarity snatched the device out of her hooves.
“Who told you you could look at that!? That is private information! Goddess, did you visit the site without turning my VPN on!? Do you know what my mother will do to me if she looks through the log!?”
That’s a reaction. Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Yes, yes, Ah know the rules. Look, none of that shit is important. What is important is that Shy was vulnerable, Celestia took advantage of her, and that got her eaten by the monster. The beast attempted ta get Shy the first time, but it was interrupted. Ah don’t think she was ready ta deal with it at the time. So, she just weakened it and made a plan ta get it later. Same with the first one. On ta the third one, Rarity’s monster. Her weakness was dealin’ with her mother’s life and her parent’s divorce, which Ah guess they’re gettin’ remarried now. She was ready this time, and then had a second element. Rarity’s element.
Two in hoof, she goes after a third, but it’s not as easy as she wanted it ta be. Her plan didn’t go quite right, but… Who’s ta say it didn’t?” I tilted my head.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, ain’t it kinda weird that Luna showed up just in time? Ah think Celestia was stayin’ close ta us the other day because she knew Luna was here, and was waitin’ fer the right time ta get her. Luna had an element herself. Ah’m pretty sure it’s Twi’s guitar cause of that pattern, and she was plannin’ a way ta steal it. She used Shy’s event, even made the monster more powerful on purpose ta get Luna’s attention, and then waited fer her time ta take it from her. So, Shy’s guitar in hoof, she has three, Luna has one. Rainbow here, like me, didn’t really have a big weakness ta get over. She and her pa already went through that, so she was just the one that resonates.
That leaves two pieces of the chord she didn’t have, mine and Pinkie’s. We don’t know what the scorpions were, but Ah was clearly the next target. She said the bugs weren’t part of her plan, and Ah believe that. She talks in circles most of the time, but when she was drunk, Ah think she was tellin’ the truth. She showed me that she can make the guitars ‘resonate’ and combine ta be more powerful, but she needs ‘The Amp’ or it takes a ton outta her by it. Ah had ta help her ta bed and Ah think she was outta commission fer the rest of the day. That’s why she gave me the bass. ‘Cause she knew she was done fer a while.
So, after our lesson, Celestia grabbed Luna and bolted. That time, she definitely knew what was gonna happen. She let us get attacked on purpose, so Ah would pull out my guitar. She took Luna with her ta make sure she didn’t interfere. The only thin’ that bothers me is that she didn’t take my guitar away when she finally managed ta steal Luna’s. She has four, Ah have mine, and there’s one left.
Ah think yer guitar is the black one since it’s got that same Star ya get on yer face when ya merge with Bramos all over it. The Clear one is Rarity’s, the Acoustic is Shy’s, and the Green one is probably Dash’s since, like us, she didn’t have any big issues ta work through. Pinkie’s gotta be next, and what happened with Shy worries me. That Angel Bunny was infected by the remains of the second shadow and was restored… somehow. If Rarity was ‘eaten by her feelin’s’ then somethin’ must’ve happened ta make the bunny grow outta control.”
Fluttershy came out of her wings a little to explain.
“W-well, following that train of thought, I um… may have been put in a situation where I got to um… live out a fantasy. She gave us real duel disks made out of the green and clear guitars, and she used some kind of magic to turn us into the protagonists of that show. And then um… I was told it was real, and I was half shocked to death, and then Twilight turned into Trixie, and I top-decked and got a winning hand and um… tried to kill her. I was… admittedly a little mad.”
That’s right… and Celestia was wearing… that pendant… just like the one…
“So… then we’re lookin’ fer somethin’ here. Pinkie needs ta be monitored, and we need ta make sure she doesn’t have some kinda black thin’ hangin’ around her.” Rainbow scratched at her face.
“Uh… about that…” Applejack narrowed her eyes at her.
“Yeah?” Dash looked away.
“So uh… Alligators aren’t normally found around here, right?” Applejack reared back.
“Wha- what kinda question is that? This is South Dartmoor! We’re thousands of miles from the Equestrian Keys, we’re so far north that lizards in general aren’t even found up here.” Dash nodded.
“Yeah, figured. So uh… Pinkie has this… little, retarded, toothless, black alligator that she keeps in her backpack, so…”
I had to pause. Of all the shit I’ve dealt with this October, that is far from anything I would have ever thought to hear.
“What? Toothless? Retarded?” Dash nodded.
“Look, the thing is weird, and it has a lazy, or at least slow eye. It has no teeth, and it’s about the size of a wiener dog. I swear, it’s real. It was on my head. I saw it more than once too, I promise, it’s real. Probably…” Applejack sighed and shook her head.
“Oh-kay.” A sense of dread was starting to work its way up my back and I was beginning to worry about her. She was running home today, so… I pulled out my device and dialed her number. It rang twice, then she answered. She sniffed across the line and then said,
“Hello?” Hearing her voice was a relief.
“Oh, geez, you’re alive. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, damn it, leave me alone!” And then the line cut out. I pulled my phone away from my ear and met everypony’s stares.
“Well. She’s okay for now… But uh… that doesn’t bode well.” Applejack brought a hoof to her chin.
“Hmm… ya know, that reminds me of somethin’. Durin’ our fight, Pappy was concerned about me bein’ around yer brother.”
My brother?
“He said, ‘The Pies tell me stories about that one, Ah don’t want ya around him.’ He was real concerned about it.” I froze. Her family? Talking to other ponies about… my brother…
“But that wasn’t what made me pause. It was what he said after. ‘That kid ruined their da-’”
“Stop!” Don’t say it! Don’t say anymore! I stood up and collected my things.
“Twi?” I shook my head and headed for the glass door.
“Just… stop. Don’t… Leave Pinkie alone, I… I’ll take care of this. I… I think I know what her weakness is, and… I… just… let me take care of her. I… need to be alone.”
“Damn, the fog is crazy today… Hey, are you here?”
I couldn’t help but worry all night yesterday. My talk with Applejack from a few weeks ago reared its ugly head back, and what she said yesterday… Had Celestia not been there, I doubt I would’ve slept at all. Another point of fretting, I found that stupid pendant in my drawer. It hadn’t been moved in years and was covered in dust, but… it looks just like it. I… can’t even begin to focus on anything. If the tests weren’t so easy, I doubt I would even do well on today’s.
“Oh!” I heard Pinkie a little bit away, then she kicked something, and… wood fell over? I followed the sound until I found Pinkie on the opposite side of the bridge by the river. She was building… something out of a bunch of old sticks and wooden planks. It almost looked like a log cabin. She looked me over, then went back to what she was doing.
“Tired of your new friends? You haven’t been here in a while.”
I circled around to examine her structure. It was about as tall as she was and relatively well built for the more random shapes she was working with.
“Oh, don’t give me that. I heard you went over to Rainbow’s house the other day.”
She shrugged and added another branch to the tower.
“Well… maybe I did. It’s not like you cared to know.” I gave her a dry lipped frown.
“Bullshit. I do care. Pinkie, are you… okay?” She raised her snout and turned her head.
“Humph. Says the pony with all the new friends. Why are you here? You haven’t walked to school in forever. Where’s Celestia?”
Why is she being so ornery?
“She had something to do this morning. She drives for that DIY Taxi Service and apparently teaches guitar to more than just us. She also drinks like a frat boy, so I assume that’s what she uses the money for. What is…” I drew a circle in the air around the wooden structure, “this?” Pinkie paused for a moment with a plank in hoof, and then moved over by me to place it.
“A tower. I found a whole bunch of wood the other day and I’ve kinda been collecting it over here for a while.” She pointed her hoof to the corner of the other side of the bridge, and sure enough, there was an enormous pile of the stuff there.
How did I never notice this?
“I see… Any particular reason why you’re building it?” She shrugged.
“Not really. I just felt like it, is all. Are you ready? We can go whenever.”
Pinkie had her bag still on her, so I suppose she meant it. It’s not particularly weird for Pinkie to be… weird, so this isn’t the strangest thing I’ve found her doing here. It is… foreboding though. It puts me at ease to know that all this stuff is pretty wet from the rain and the mists we’ve had this week, but… I don’t like it.
“Sure.”
She added the last one she was holding to her tower, and then off we went. It was about as tall as I am now, so that was no small feat for her, but… what is it for? I… don’t like this.
“So… how’ve you been? It feels like we haven’t walked to school like this in weeks,” I said. The gray world was overcast and hidden, almost as bad as it was back when Luna first showed up. There could be ponies not but five meters away, and you might as well be in separate worlds.
“That’s because we haven’t. Celestia usually takes you. If it’s not her, then somepony else. Or you’re with somepony. It’s been 21 days since we last did this.” I looked down and bit my lip.
Well, that would explain that. She’s been counting?
“I see.”
Much like the still fog, it felt like my mouth was full of smoke and I couldn’t turn any of it into words.
What do I say? What should I say? What will she answer? Will she tell me what she’s really feeling if I ask? Should I… no, no, we can get through this without that. We don’t…
“Pinkie… I’m worried about you, alright?” She tilted her head to the side and popped her neck.
“Isn’t that sweet? Good for you.” I rolled my eyes and groaned. I pushed forward and stopped in front of her. The way she looks now and that picture in the yearbook are like two different ponies. It wasn’t just an exaggeration like I thought, she’s literally lost color. And weight. She looks sick, and I can’t believe I never noticed it.
“Be serious for once! You… you look sick! I never thought there was anything wrong with the way we were before, but now… it all feels messed up! This isn’t right, things shouldn’t be this way and… and I think I’m at least partially to blame for it. Please, talk to me?”
She smiled. Then her smile started to break and she snorted a few times. Finally, she broke out into all out laughter.
“Ha! I can’t believe it! You… goddess, what cruel and twisted game is this!? Ha ha! Fuck me, this is insanity! Ha!”
She shook her head and took a few deep breaths. Her composure regained, she took a step forward and put a hoof on my shoulder. Her eyes… I didn’t know what I was looking at. I’d never seen her make a face like this.
“Fine, you want serious? I’ll give you serious. I love you.”
Without warning, she pressed her lips against mine and I was caught up in some feeling I didn’t understand. Her tongue wormed its way into my mouth, and slowly but surely, she worked me to the ground. I never fought back, I never even thought about denying her. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I couldn’t decide if this was my punishment for ignoring her, or this was what she really felt.
On the grass now, she pursued my mouth even harder, going so far as to wrap herself around me with everything she had, like I was the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground.
What do I do? What do I do? Should I reciprocate, or should I just let her go? Should I fight back, do I… do I have the right? Is this my fault? Does she believe something that I never said? Did I say something she took the wrong way, or did she say something I didn’t understand?
Suddenly, I felt her hoof reach down my skirt and my body reacted without my consent. Another feeling I was unfamiliar with, a tingling electricity that raced up my spine and fought against my will. Once my thighs tightened around her hoof, she stopped. She pulled away, and she got up. My head was swimming and I couldn’t make sense of anything.
Why did she stop? Did I do something wrong?
When the droplets fell to my skin, I thought it was raining. When I noticed their warmth, I finally figured out what they were.
Is she crying? Why is she crying?
“I-I… I’m sorry, I… I shouldn’t be doing this to you… I’m sorry.” Without another word, she turned and galloped at full speed away.
“W-what just happened?”
I never got the chance to talk to her for the rest of the day. I saw her once when I passed her classroom, but never again. It’s like she knew exactly where I was and made sure I could never see her. I spent the entirety of lunch looking for her, and when the end of the day came, Rainbow said she was out the door and gone before my class was even released. What was that this morning? Why… I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything.
The blue skies in Underhoof… are missing today.
If she went anywhere, it would be the bridge wouldn’t it? She… she made me a promise! She said she wouldn’t do it! She’s not… she wouldn’t! It… all that wood was wet, she couldn’t, right? But… what if she had a starter? She makes her own money, and they have vehicles at the mine… she could get her hooves on gasoline… she has the tools to do it.
Once the thought crossed my mind, I started toward the bridge as fast as I could. I had to.
She can’t! I won’t let her! That’s not fair, she can’t just… give up!
When I got there, Pinkie was smoking on top of the tower that she’d built up even higher. At this point, it was almost as tall as the bridge itself, and she was sitting on top of it, smoking. There was a strange smell in the air, but the empty red gas tanks clued me into what that was. Her mane was wet, and she had a dark tinge to her coat. She was covered in it.
“Pinkie!”
Her body stiffened, and slowly, like a rusty valve, she turned her head. She’d been crying, and crying a lot. Her eyes were bloodshot and there was… nothing there. She’d given up.
“Oh… y-you’re here… you… you weren’t supposed to see this.”
Something was welling up inside me like a fire. Every muscle in my body tensed, all the commands for attack magic were floating on the surface of my mind, and my horn was primed to let loose every spell I could think of to hurt her for… for being such a-
“Fucking idiot! What the fuck is wrong with you!? Who the fuck do you think you are!? Who… who… who gave you the right to just… to just run away!?”
Pinkie’s face contorted in anger and she smashed the burning end of her cigarette and threw it on the tower. Fear overcame me for a second, but when she didn’t go up, my rage came back.
“Who are you to say I can’t!? Fuck you, you don’t know anything!” I stomped my hoof on the ground.
“How am I supposed to know anything if you never tell me!? Why are you doing this!? You don’t owe anypony anything, there’s… there’s no reason for this, you… you can’t just give up! Didn’t we make a promise!? I’m still here!”
“No you aren’t! You’re… living. And I’ve… been dead for a year. Stuck in the past, all because I… I didn’t say no.” I shook my head.
“No, no, no! What are you going on about? Come down from there and talk to me, damn it! I never ask you to do things, why can’t you just do this for me once?” She shook her head and kicked her bag off the tower.
“Because it was me, alright!? I did it! I wanted him! I said yes to anything, I let him do whatever he wanted because I… I just wanted him to love me, and he… he never… really did. He… he knew I wouldn’t say no. He… probably knew it was wrong too, and he… he did it anyways.
It hurts at first, ya know? It tears you apart in your most sensitive spot, and then it rips a hole in you. I cried at first, but he said it was okay. That it would get better. It was easy the second time. By the third time, I even thought I kinda liked it. But then… then he left. There was a hole in me… one that we made together that he… was supposed to fill, and… he didn’t even say goodbye. I… did that. It was… me.”
I tasted blood. I was so angry. I was so frustrated, hurt, upset, infuriated, irritated, indignant, resentful. I know all these words, but none of them were enough. I’d always known. I watched it once. I saw them. I told myself it was a dream. That it wasn’t real. He was my big brother, he never would’ve done that to my friend. She was five years younger than him, and he was perfect. He couldn’t do anything wrong. He wouldn’t have taken advantage of her like that.
But then… I started to notice it. These… little things he did. Small cruelties. He was… a bully. He was manipulative. He was charismatic. Ponies were attracted to him. He was powerful. He was gifted. Talented. Corrupted. It was easy for him. Everything was easy for him. She would’ve done anything and more if he asked her. And she did.
“That was not your fault! Shining used you! He… he… he’s a bastard, damn it! He’s not a good pony, he never was! Just like his mother, cruel and vindictive, taking advantage of anything and anypony he could, and he had the bite to back up his bark! He was a spoiled brat, and he hurt you because he wanted to! You… it wasn’t… your fault…”
“What do you think you’re doing!?” The white unicorn with a violet and white mane storms into the kitchen, screeching at Dad.
“I have to report this. He must be punished, he’s gone too far this time! He knows better. That little filly didn’t! This is unacceptable!” The mare slaps him.
“I have worked far too long and far too hard for you to ruin my son’s career! You will do nothing!” He doesn’t react.
“He is my son too, and this… this is a blight. I should’ve never let you take him. He’s this way because you were always there, weren’t you Velvet? Mommy tells a kid like that that he’s a prodigy and the world is owed to him, that he can do no wrong, then how does he act when he grows up!? A spoiled brat blessed with power he doesn’t deserve, just like his mother!
Fine. Have your game. Watch him destroy himself. I pray to the goddess that the military can work him into something decent. Growing up without a mother… would’ve been better than leaving him with you.”
Furious, the mare attacks him again, and finally, Dad fights back. A solid right to the face and she smacks into the wall. Her snout bleeding now, a new level of rage takes over her face, morphing it into something hideous. Her horn lights up with an intense light, but Dad was faster. He takes hold of Shining’s neck and starts to squeeze.
“What’s it gonna be, Velvet!? Take me down, and we all go!” her horn goes dim and she gets to her knees.
“Stop it! What are you doing!? Let go of my son!” He takes a step closer and Shining raises off the ground, clawing helplessly at his neck, the ring on his horn preventing him from fighting back.
“Take him and get out of my house. Never come back. I should just end both of your miserable lives right here and now, but I still have another responsibility. You talk and I talk, got it?” Shining dropped to the floor and scrambled to his mother, and she took him and backed away slowly.
“I hope you’re happy, Nightlight! You started this! You were the one who gave up on me for that… that… harlot! You will regret this!” The door slams. Dad falls into a chair and sighs with both hooves on his face.
“No, Velvet. I have regretted this… for fifteen years now…” My hoof hits the wall when I try to back away and Dad snaps to attention.
“Twilight?” He rushes over, horror stricken. His teeth take his bottom lip and blood starts to trail down his mouth. “Goddess damn it all!” He takes me in his hooves and strokes my mane. The hall lights up with a faint blue aura around us.
“This isn’t your fault. Just… be still and rest. In the morning… this will all just fade away… like nothing more than… a bad… dream…”
Pinkie shook her head.
“I’m… sorry Twilight. I… that’s just not true. My parents… they warned me. They told me that I shouldn’t be around him. They told me that I wasn’t allowed to go out at night, but I… didn’t listen. I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me. I thought… they didn’t. And I… I did the exact same thing to you! He left me, and I… I used every dirty trick I learned to get you to… to make you…” She swallowed and shook her head.
“I’m sorry. I… I meant that… what I said, this morning. I think I… finally learned the difference. Please… just… let me apologize?”
From her blazer pocket, she retrieved a match box. I tried to grab her in my magic, but I just couldn’t reach. The tower was too tall. With no time to think, I ran back up the stairs. I made it to the beginning of the bridge, when I heard the sound.
FWIP
The match was lit.
“PINKIE, NO!”
Then, I noticed the alligator.
The black beast’s flame filled roar razed the sky in writhing light. She dropped the match, and in the same moment, she was eaten by the big black dragon. The tower went up in flames and so did the beast. But rather than consuming it, it was almost as if it started to consume the flames. Burning at each limb, wings of darkness and fire, the monster flew above the bridge and focused its eyes on me.
The eyes… were what scared me the most. Reptilian by nature, silted and angry, but… glowing red-hot tears filed out of them, and the color… they were crystal blue. This was her. She’s still in there, and now I have to pay for it.
“You… stupid, selfish, bitch! Fucking idiot, dumb ass, brainless moron! Limestone is right! You are an idiot! You deserve everything she says about you because it’s all true! You’re dumb enough to think killing yourself will make anything better! That’s what you are! Who does that benefit!? How does that fix anything? Hurting your family, hurting your friends, hurting me! To what end!? How is it useful!? Do the problems you cause just go away!? No! They get worse because now we all sit here and wonder what else we didn’t do to make you feel like this!
Why would you leave me behind like that!? You never even gave me a chance to answer, you never even once thought about me! You’re so fucking selfish, and I hate you! It’s always about you, you never even look at me like I’m somepony else! I’m not Shining, I never was, and I never will be! I… I’m… probably not even his sister. I’m not blind. I have eyes, Pinkie, I can see. I don’t look like him. I don’t look like his mother. I… I don’t even look like Dad. I don’t fit. The family doesn’t make sense if I’m a part of it. I… I know, now. I… should’ve always known.
But I… was too afraid to look at the truth. I couldn’t face it. The sky… was always supposed to be blue. It never changes. It’s always the same. But… of course, it was a shooting star that brought it all down and crashed on top of us. She said it in the beginning. She never lied to me, she was always telling the truth. I just wouldn’t believe it. Ha! How could I? She misdirects and speaks in metaphors with every breath, how could I recognize what was fact and what was fiction? You’re my friend, Pinkie. I don’t… know what these feelings are or what they mean, hell, I don’t even know what to call them. All these words I have are just useless in the face of everything I want to convey, but you’re just too fucking dumb and blind to see it!
And I… pushed you away. I didn’t want to hurt you, so I ran away. Anypony who could even remotely hold a conversation with me was enough, as long as I could get away from you. They all seemed to just show up in front of me, and I was so happy to… be free of you. I was… just as blind and willingly ignorant of the truth. We’re a pair, aren’t we? Best friends, only you and I… could be this close and this far away at the same time.
I’m tired of it! I’m tired of this, I’m tired of us, and once I get done with you, I’m going to go find her and make her tell me straight just who she is. But you must be punished! You abused me, you treated me like your plaything, and you played with my emotions because you were taught by the best. I hate you. I love you. You’re my best friend, and nopony else was always there for me like you were. I’m going to face the truth… then I’m going to make you do it with me! Because the truth… shall set you free!
BRAMOS!”
The dragon roared at my call, and I simply prepared. I raised one hoof in the air and then remembered the sound. In an instant, the black guitar appeared before me and I took it in both hooves. Covered in six pointed stars, pink and white, this one was mine. The beast breathed in a long breath, its chest lit from within as the furnace inside prepared to launch furious flames at me.
I pressed my hoof on the board and remembered the lullaby. The major first, I. The fire burned with a heat so intense I could feel it before the flames even came close to me. The dragon breathed over my head, but the music was too strong. Music is Harmony. Harmony is Magic. Magic is Music. My hoof struck the bridge, and the chord repelled the flames, dispersing them as if they were mere match embers.
The secondary dominant sixth, V/vi. I moved my hoof on the frets and strummed again. The dragon glitched and screeched, even the flames started to go out. It beat its wings and tried to free itself, but the music was more than it could handle. My feelings in sound, emotion, raw and burning. Frozen in place, this was my chance.
The major fourth, IV! Strumming once more, all around the bridge, violet chains of magic and sound resonated to my call. Arms, legs, wings, head, and tail, Pinkie was trapped. Her burning form reduced to nothing more than smoldering black, the oversized lizard was helpless in my sound.
I stood on two hooves and slammed the axe into the ground. Not a moment passed, and my servant had come. The amplifier I needed to finish the job and save my friend.
As I fell down the tumbling hole of memories this body had stored, I finally saw and heard one clearly.
“I never believed… I always thought… we were infertile, but… but you…”
She was choked up. She looked weak and bloody, that mane of so many colors dull and sitting still for once, holding a little bundle in red stained towels emblazoned with the emblem of the sun. My body walks forward and wraps a foreleg around the white alicorn, gingerly helping her to sitting and carefully pulling away at the towel so I could see.
“Shh… you did all the work. She’s beautiful. And she’s finally here.”
There in the mess, was a little lavender unicorn with the beginnings of a dark blue mane sleeping soundly in her mother’s hooves.
“Sombra, will you name her for me? My head is… a little unclear right now, and I… can’t remember… it wasn’t Starlight, was it?” I shook my head.
“No… this… is my dear, T-”
The memory cut and the burning bridge with the black dragon held still by my chains returned. I leaned over and felt myself laughing.
That was it, all along, wasn’t it? I was ignorant. I never knew the truth. Nopony told me. I would have lived my whole life feeling out of place and alone had she hadn’t come back. How funny. That was what I wished for that day, wasn’t it? Silly filly. You don’t know that there isn’t magic in space. You can’t know because you’ve never been given proof. And the truth was sitting in that drawer all along.
The dragon roared a glitching misshapen screech and I shook the new truth away. I bunched up my hind legs like a spring and stretched out my wings. With a leap and an echoing boom, I flew to the monster’s face and reached deep inside its head. One, two, three things my hooves found, and I pulled at them with all my might.
Is that… a baby alligator?
I stared at the little green reptile for a moment, but then shook my head.
Fuck it, this isn’t even the weirdest thing I’ve come across lately.
I backed to the ground to drop off the filly, who’s color had returned, and the little green alligator, then hovered in front of my captive black beast.
With my black axe in one hoof, and my pink fender in the other, my body moved before I could think. Spinning the left, it resonated to my root of my final chord, the Db. Spinning the right it resonated to the top of my final chord, the Bb. In their harmony they spun until together they met at the middle of my final chord, the F.
I slammed the two guitars together, and instead of breaking like I expected them to, they merged. In shining violet light, the new guitar was a double necked electric, covered in interlocking stars and balloons of gold and crystal blue on a black body outlined in pink.
I finally know what you are. I know what she’s doing, and I know what she was after all this time. She’s just as stupid as we are, isn’t she? If children are stupid, then you never grew up, did you? It’s time to face the truth.
The minor sixth, vi. I strummed the chord on both bridges and the monster glitched out in frenzied madness, little scorpions dropped onto the bridge and eroded into smoke as the monster was reduced in size. But, it wasn’t quite dead yet.
Why? Am I missing something?
“From something sour to something sweet. Harmony, in sound.”
Ah, that’s right. I have to finish the loop.
Pressing my hooves at specific points on the two necks, I flapped my wings hard to rise into the sky, and then let myself drop. With a heavy swing, I slammed the guitar into the dragon’s skull.
TWANG!
Like an ocean of electric stars, shining lights of every possible color, like a mosaic of two pictures that shouldn’t be together but fit, like the memory of a mare and a stallion together in love, the sound rang out through the world. The black beast evaporated into black smoke and my chains disappeared. The twin guitar segregated itself, and as if it were the most normal thing in the world, I stepped out of Bramos. I walked over to the pink filly, the one who’s color had been returned to her, and I kneeled to wake her.
“Hey. It’s over. Time to wake up.” She groaned and rolled on to her back. One foreleg covered her eyes and the other found its way under her renewed poofy mane.
“You’re pretty mean when you get worked up.”
I smiled and chuckled. My hind legs finally caved in and I flapped my wings just in time to keep myself from slamming on the concrete bridge.
So weak. I just wanna go home and sleep forever. Thank the goddess it’s the weekend.
“Yeah, well, I meant it. All of it. You’re a fucking moron. But… you’re also my best friend. And I couldn’t imagine life without you. Underhoof isn’t supposed to change, right?”
“I’m so sorry.”
Pinkie got up and hugged me, and I wrapped around her tightly.
This time, I won’t let you go.
After a moment, Pinkie touched me somewhere, but I wasn’t sure how. It didn’t make any sense. What I felt was all the way on her back, but it wasn’t my leg. I opened my eyes to see her messing with some… lavender wing?
“So uh… those are new. Hey, it looks like the cutiemark stuck this time. Nice.”
My eyes followed the wing, and then I was looking at my back. But… the wings were still there and my uniform looked like something busted the seams. I tried to move them, and I was shocked when they did what I wanted.
“Whaaaaaat the fuck.” Pinkie scratched at her cheek.
“Geez. Next week of school is gonna be awkward for you, isn’t it? None of your old clothes are gonna fit either. Heh, go into the school like, ‘Hi, can I uh, get a pegasus uniform? I know I signed ‘unicorn’ when they put my race down, but this was unexpected for me too.’”
I sighed and covered my face. When I realized all my hooves were still on the ground, I let out an even deeper groan.
“When they told me puberty was going to bring changes, this is not what I was expecting.”