The doors to Twilight’s castle were yanked open by the frazzled Alicorn and Twilight flew inside with Starlight and Spike right on her heels. They really had no idea what to make of all of the strange things going on. According to Twilight the spell should’ve linked them with Starswirl and brought them right on top of the Cutie Map. But obviously that didn’t happen. And then the school being completely missing for some unknown reason and the strangely foreboding lights of the Crystal Empire being in the sky made all three of them worried about what was taking place here.
“Are you sure we’re back at the right point in time?” Starlight yelled to Twilight as the three raced through the castle. “Maybe the school just hasn’t been built yet.”
“I… I don’t know. Mine and Starswirl’s spell was anchored to one specific point in time with the help of the Cutie Map. We should definitely be at the correct day but with the other inconsistencies with the spell I really don’t know.” Twilight replied, frowning. “And for some reason the world is different and I don’t even understand how it could be like this. Something is wrong with the Crystal Empire but it’s not Sombra. My castle is here so Tirek was still defeated but there’s no school. Nothing looked wrong with Ponyville either. Ugh! This doesn’t make any sense!”
“Been telling myself that a lot recently...” Starlight said under her breath.
While the three continued on to the Cutie Map room Spike flew up besides Starlight and whispered in her ear.
“Do you think this could be a result of… well, everything?”
Starlight shook her head. “No. And I’m not even trying to shift blame, think about it. None of the changes I made had anything to do with this kind of stuff, it’s too inconsistent, I think somehow we’ve just been deposited in an alternate timeline or reality.”
“Then maybe you should tell Twilight that.” Spike nudged her.
The lilac unicorn grimaced. “Uh, she’ll probably be a little upset if I explain things to her. Let’s see how things go first?” She flashed him an uneasy smile.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Oh you so owe me for all of this.”
“Hello? Is there anypony in here?” Twilight started calling out ahead of them into the seemingly empty castle. “Is there another me in here?”
Starlight and Spike were happy that she wasn’t quite freaking out like she occasionally did but Twilight was still starting to make them worried.
None of Twilight’s yells got any response back, the Alicorn frowned with a nervous sweat running down her forehead as she continued to fly through the castle to the Cutie Map room. Finally seeing her destination dead ahead she bolted down the hallway at full speed and practically crashed right through the doors. Starlight and Spike carried up the rear and came in after her, the two of them panting in exhaustion.
“The map! What’s wrong with the map?!” Twilight screamed.
Starlight and Spike looked into the room to see that while the Cutie Map was still there it looked… off.
Instead of its usual coloration it looked gray and lifeless, there were almost no defining features on the map as if it was completely dormant and even Twilight’s appearance stirred no activity out of it. The chairs for the Elements of Harmony were all still around it too but the map for all intents and purposes was blank, no magic seemed to pass through it at all.
The huge base of Twilight’s old home still hung above the map as well, but all of the lights on it were off. Twilight’s castle seemed like it had been vacant for quite a while.
“How could this happen?” Twilight wondered as she looked at the map. “Without the map I can’t even reactivate the spell to try and get us back to the right place...”
“Is there something wrong with the Tree of Harmony?” Spike suggested as he came up beside her, looking over the dormant map.
“Maybe. But the Everfree Forest seemed normal… we should probably investigate it and all of Ponyville.” Twilight said. She shook her head. “This is no time for a freakout, I have to make sure everypony is okay.”
“That’s my Twilight.” Starlight said and threw a supportive hoof over her shoulders. “We’ve dealt with worse problems than this before haven’t we?”
Twilight giggled. “Yep, and I still have two of my best friends here to help me. We’ll get through this.”
The three of them reluctantly headed away from the map, preparing to head back outside and see what they could dig up. But as Starlight looked over her shoulder at the recovered base of Golden Oak Library she realized for sure something that Spike didn’t. Whatever world or time this was it was most definitely not the result of her time-traveling shenanigans.
Then what was it?
The three came walking out the front of Twilight’s castle at a brisk pace, Twilight’s mind racing with every little thing they should do or check. Ponyville looked alright at a glance so it was probably more pressing to head to the Everfree Forest and check on the Tree of Harmony. That would probably give them an explanation for why the map was the way it was too.
So caught up in these thoughts she was, Twilight didn’t notice that a pony was walking down the dirt road towards them until Starlight shook her by the shoulder.
“Twilight, look.” She said, pointing at the approaching pony.
Twilight looked forward, at first on guard but as she saw who it was she sighed in relief and stopped.
“Mr. Cake! It’s great to see you.”
Starlight and Spike stopped by her sides as well, smiling at one of the friendly proprietors of everypony’s favorite bakery.
That is until they all noticed a few things that were rather off.
For one he was staring blankly at Twilight with no recognition of who she was, his eyes were glassy and expressionless as they stared through her, like the eyes of a doll or someone looking at something but not really seeing it. Secondly instead of his normal outfit and apron he was wearing a blue police officer’s uniform.
Twilight bit her lip as he continued to stare at her. “Er, is something wrong?”
“Who are you two?” He suddenly said, looking between Twilight and Spike. “You aren’t supposed to deviate from your schedules and duties so why are you here? I have no record of any ponies or dragons that should be here at this moment. Why are you not following your daily routine?”
Twilight’s mouth nearly dropped in shock as somepony accused her of not following a schedule but she managed to shake enough sense back into her head to respond to him. “I’m sorry but what do you mean by daily routine? And why are you a police officer? What happened to Sugarcube Corner?”
Mr. Cake’s face betrayed no emotion as he answered Twilight’s questions. “Everypony has their job and daily routine that is not to be deviated from. I am the police officer of Ponyville, my wife makes bread at Sugarcube Corner.” Mr. Cake actually seemed to think for a second, tilting his head. “Since I don’t recognize you are you new to Ponyville? Is that why you’re here when nopony should be?”
Before Twilight could respond Spike took the opportunity to answer, quickly sensing it would be a good idea. “Yes! That’s exactly it, we’re new to Ponyville so that’s why things seem off. We’re not breaking the law or ignoring our schedules or anything.”
“I see.” Mr. Cake nodded. “I was not informed that we had new ponies moving in. I’ll have to talk to Mayor Mare.”
“Yeah, you do that.” Spike said, wiping the sweat from his brow and winking at Twilight.
Mr. Cake turned and began walking away from them towards the center of town. “Be sure to keep to your schedules.” He said back to them. “And I hope you enjoy your visit to Ponyville, Empress Starlight.”
Twilight’s and Spike’s heads both swung at terminal velocity in Starlight’s direction. Their faces screaming “WHAT?!” at her.
Starlight for her part stood there, grinning nervously as her head slowly turned to meet the stares of Twilight and Spike. “Ehehe… that... that can’t possibly be good, can it?”
“Excuse me!” Twilight bolted forward and cut off Mr. Cake. “But what did you just say?”
“I told Empress Starlight that I hope she enjoys her visit to Ponyville.” Mr. Cake responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His face and voice made it sound so natural and normal.
“Right, that’s what I thought you said.” Twilight held a hoof to her head as if soon expecting a massive headache while Mr. Cake walked on by her.
Starlight and Spike ran up to her, Spike supporting her in case she fainted.
“This is definitely not how I expected this day to go.” Twilight said through closed eyes.
“Well if it makes you feel any better I’m just as surprised as you.” Starlight tried cheering her up.
Twilight’s eyes slowly opened and she flatly stared at Starlight. “It does not.” She took a deep breath to calm herself again. “Okay. But enough of that for now, we clearly have bigger things to worry about. It wasn’t just the whole “Empress Starlight” thing, Mr. Cake didn’t recognize me or Spike and he looked like he was under hypnosis or something. He was too stiff and robotic, too different from his normal self for this to be simple memory-tampering.”
“Should we see if the rest of the town is like that?” Spike asked, nervously looking at the buildings of Ponyville in the distance.
But Twilight shook her head. “Not right now. After that little conversation I think it’s pertinent that we immediately check out the Tree of Harmony.”
With practiced ease Twilight teleported all three of them to the entrance to the cave of the Tree of Harmony.
Spike flew up at seeing the familiar cave and started his way inside with Twilight and Starlight walking after him. Hopefully everything was okay inside but the two ponies really weren’t holding out hope for that. The dragon meanwhile was idly talking as he fluttered deeper into the cave.
“You know is it even going to be here? I mean depending on the time-” He stopped in midair. “Oh. Oh no...”
“What is it, Spike?” Twilight trotted up to him and looked towards where the Tree should be.
She gasped and froze in shock.
With a grimace on her face, Starlight stepped out from behind both of them to also see what was wrong with the Tree of Harmony.
“Oh.” Starlight gulped. “Well, um. That’s bad.”
The petrified body of Discord was wrapped around the Tree of Harmony, a sad and exhausted expression frozen on his face. The Tree itself had the same lifeless look to it that the map did and there was no reaction to Twilight’s presence at all. Twilight quietly flew over to the tree and Discord, inspecting and prodding them both with her magic but getting no response from either of them. The physical Elements were still inside the tree but even her own Element of Magic was gray and lifeless and refused to budge.
Twilight floated back down to the ground, Starlight and Spike coming up behind her, and shook her head. “This is horrible.”
Starlight stepped forward and ran a hoof along the Tree’s cool trunk, looking up at her friend in his sad state.
“But… I don’t understand.” Spike said. “How? Why?”
Twilight frowned at the Tree, holding a hoof up to her mouth and biting it as she steadily paced around. The worry was evident on her face, for the Tree, for Discord, and for everypony else. With a last glance at the Tree and Discord she stopped and sat down.
“I think, and this is just a theory, but I think that Discord and the Tree are neutralizing each other.” She stood back up and stared at the petrified face of Discord while Starlight and Spike listened to her. “The powers of chaos and harmony are canceling each other out. Whoever did this… this world’s Starlight Glimmer most likely, probably did it to make sure neither Discord or the Tree of Harmony could act against her. I’m not sure how she would’ve gotten Discord to do this though.”
“My guess is it begins with Flutter and ends with Shy.” Starlight spoke up and then sighed. “So it looks like there really is some evil me here, huh?”
Twilight pinched her nose in frustration. “Ugh, so instead of going back home we somehow get transported into an alternate… past? Future? Present? Or entire world maybe, who knows! Where Discord and the Tree of Harmony are both out of commission and an evil Starlight apparently rules over Equestria. That’s just wonderful.”
Starlight coughed into her hoof. “Ehem. Yes, that’s bad, but in my defense I think an evil me ruling Equestria is at least preferable to any of your other past opponents being in charge. Right?”
Twilight and Spike both glared at her.
She coughed again. “I’ll just keep those thoughts to myself from now on.”
Spike rolled his eyes and looked to Twilight. “So what now?”
“Now we find our friends.” And again Twilight teleported them away.
And although they couldn’t see it, but right after they left the expression on Discord’s petrified face changed to the slightest of smiles.
Sweet Apple Acres was much the same as always. Much to Twilight’s relief it hadn’t been refitted into some sort of soulless assembly line shipping off cans of applesauce across Equestria. The trees and barn they all knew and loved were still there, the only big noticeable difference so far was that the fence around the farm had been removed for whatever reason. Like Ponyville itself things seemed normal at a glance but they were worried that the same fate might have befallen the Apple’s as Mr. Cake. Twilight was at once hopeful, doubtful and worried for what state Applejack might be in right now.
“I have ways to fix a pony’s memories, especially those of my friends, but without knowing what exact spell has been used or how their memories have been altered it can be difficult to proceed. The power behind the spell and the one casting it could also prove problematic.” Twilight explained to Starlight and Spike. “It’s possible I could go through Ponyville and fix everypony one by one but it would take a while at least and somepony else might notice that something’s going on.”
“I may be able to help you speed up the process if it comes down to that.” Starlight put forth.
“Thanks Starlight, but hopefully all I’ll need to do is return Applejack and the others to normal.” Twilight said as they walked down the dirt path towards the farmhouse that the Apple family called home.
“Don’t see any of em out in the orchards.” Spike said as he surveyed the rows upon rows of trees. “Must all be inside.”
“Are they gonna be confused as to why we’re coming to talk to them? Mr. Cake said everypony keeps to specific routines.” Starlight asked.
“Maybe.” Twilight nodded. “But we can just use Spike’s explanation again.” She got a thoughtful expression on her face. “And the fact that you’re apparently the Empress of Equestria might also come in handy around here.”
Starlight winced. It was not a pleasant reminder.
The party of three walked up the porch to the Apple family home, the old boards of wood creaking with each hoof landing on them. Twilight had to take a deep breath before she had the nerve to knock on the door.
“Hello? Anypony home?” She called out as her hoof rapped on the door a few times.
It was silent for a moment but soon Twilight heard soft hoofsteps from inside the house coming to the door.
And surely enough the front door was opened by Apple Bloom. But unfortunately she stared up at them with the same blank, unrecognizing, eyes as Mr. Cake. “Yes?”
“Apple Bloom.” Twilight sighed in delight and smiled at the young filly despite the obvious lack of recognition. “It’s good to see you. Tell me, is your sister home?”
Apple Bloom didn’t react to the purple Alicorn somehow knowing her name but her head tilted in response to the strange question. “Sister? I don’t have a sister. Just my brother and my grandma.”
Twilight’s expression cracked as Starlight and Spike both shot worried glances at each other.
“I’m sorry.” Apple Bloom continued. “But you must have the wrong place, we haven’t been alerted to any scheduled visits or pickups for today.” And she closed the door before any of them could say anything else.
The three stood silently on that porch for a moment longer. Twilight stared at the door while Starlight and Spike shuffled about awkwardly behind her. What could they really say in this situation? A cool breeze waved across them as they reflected on their feelings, Starlight really didn’t want to bother Twilight in what was obviously a very trying moment for her but they needed to get moving again. But it must have hurt her so much to hear that one of her closest friends was just… gone. And from her own little sister too who loved and looked up to her so much. Hopefully Applejack and everypony else was okay somewhere and just removed from the collective memory of Equestria. Hopefully.
While Starlight and Spike silently conversed with each other on what they should do about Twilight the Alicorn answered the debate for them.
“I should’ve expected that if I was erased from memory then Applejack and the others most likely would be as well.” She said and then looked over her shoulder at Starlight and Spike, taking a pause before continuing. “I’m not going to cry or anything. We don’t have time for that and I believe in them.”
Twilight turned from the door and walked off the porch, Starlight and Spike following her.
“It will probably be the same for all of them but I want to at least make sure. Let’s head over to Carousel Boutique first.” Twilight said.
“I think we should teleport there, if Mr. Cake sees us again it could cause some problems. Better to not chance it.” Starlight suggested.
“Good idea.” Twilight nodded and brought them to their destination instantly.
The home and workplace of Rarity was clearly abandoned and unoccupied but it wasn’t boarded up like it had been when Twilight and Spike came here in their previous time-traveling adventure. It looked like whoever had been living there had just left it one day and nopony else in Ponyville cared to do anything about it. The door wasn’t even locked.
“Sorry for entering. Is there anypony in here?” Twilight called out as she opened the door and gingerly stepped inside.
“Rarity? Sweetie Belle?” Spike walked right on by her and cupped his claws around his mouth, projecting his voice through the building.
Nothing.
“Why isn’t Sweetie Belle at least here?” Spike asked.
“She’s probably living with her parents. I’m sure she’s fine, there’s no reason why she wouldn’t be.” Twilight laid a comforting hoof on his shoulder.
The three left Carousel Boutique shortly after and searched the other homes of their friends, this time taking to the sky so they could overlook the whole town but not be accosted by anypony.
Unfortunately they had no more luck with the others. Fluttershy’s cottage was the same as Carousel Boutique, abandoned. And a quick dip into Sugarcube Corner proved that Pinkie Pie certainly did not live there. Rainbow Dash was harder to find out about and they had no idea where to start with her so Twilight just had to assume the worst and that she was gone too. The ponies of Ponyville mechanically moved about their day as if all of this was normal while three friends agonized above them in the clouds.
“There isn’t really anything we can do here, is there?” Starlight asked.
“No. Not right now. Not without more information.” Twilight sighed. She was struck by this the most but she was still a Princess and was doing her best to remain calm and keep her head in the game. She never gave up before even when things got dark and she wouldn’t give up now.
“So where do we go now?” Spike shrugged, at a loss.
Twilight looked up into the sky, it was quickly approaching evening.
“Regardless of what’s going on with everypony else the day and night cycle still seems to be in order so Princess Celestia must still be here. And probably Princess Luna as well. I don’t know what condition they might be in but Canterlot is our best bet for now. We’re going to head back there tomorrow morning.”
There was no argument from Starlight and Spike, the three of them flew down to Twilight’s castle to turn in for the night. They needed the rest after this day and nopony would bother them in there.