“In hindsight, that could have gone better,” Tempest remarked, but Lauren wasn’t listening.
Although they had left Baltimare a couple of hours ago, the creator still felt pretty stupid over what had happened. With one accidental slip of the tongue, she no doubt had set terror in the land of Equestria into motion. The reporters have already sent word to every news outlet in the country that will no doubt cause panic over the idea that she had said that the end of the world was coming.
Flying westward over the Hayseed Swamps towards Dodge Junction, Lauren felt the shame of what was essentially her fault. She was leaning on the guard railing of the observation deck of the ship, wanting nothing more than to be left alone for a couple of hours. However, despite the Princesses obeying, the ship’s captain does not. The dark unicorn came intending to try to lift her spirits a little.
However, she wasn’t doing that good of a job.
“Personally, I don’t quite understand why this is a problem for you,” Tempest remarked. “After all, if you’re a creator goddess, what is preventing you from changing the outcome of that press conference or rewording what they’re going to be printing? After all, if Celestia said that you’re able to make her fillyhood home appear, what’s stopping you from changing what those reporters are going to say?”
This time, Lauren was listening. “Have you ever written a story?”
Tempest blinked. “What does that got to do with anything?”
“Have you?”
“Well… no, not really. Why?”
“Because, as someone who is a storyteller, telling a story is a delicate thing. Sure, you’re able to add or take away a few things that aren’t essential. Say if I said that this ship’s paint was poke-a-dot, that detail wouldn’t change much of anything, would it? Or if said that we had waffles for breakfast instead of pancakes, then that too won’t make a spit of difference in anything. However, there are certain parts that if you’re not careful enough, the changes in a story, especially at critical parts, could have huge consequences and the story would end differently. Sure, it’s one thing to write or type it up as you’re just making it up as you go, it’s completely different if…” She stopped.
“If what?” Tempest questioned. When she didn’t respond, the captain asked, “Do you know what’s going to happen in the future?”
Lauren hesitated. “In theory. But I’m not exactly sure, and that’s the problem. I do have some idea what’s most likely going to happen, but the problem is that my stupidity might change things for the worse. At the moment, I need to figure out how to calm everyone down before the world goes up in flames – so to speak.” She quickly added that last part.
Tempest raised a hoof. “So, what you’re saying… this wasn’t supposed to happen?”
“To be fair, I don’t think that Alice and I are supposed to be here period, and yet, here we are.”
For a moment, the captain of the ship tried to figure out how to respond to something like that. However, before she could have the chance to answer that, a pony in uniform came up to her and saluted. “Captain, we discovered that there are stowaways on board.”
“What! Who are they? How did they get on board?”
“They claim that they know Princess Twilight, and they refuse to talk until they can speak with her.”
“But who are they?”
An idea came to Lauren, “I think I have a guess.”
“What were all of you thinking!?” Twilight scolded. Before her in a holding cell cramped together like stuffed toys in a box were not only the princess’s friends (including Starlight) but also six of her students. By the time Lauren came down along with Celestia and Luna, it was evident how long Twilight had been talking their ears off from the bored expressions on their faces. “Didn’t I make it clear that we’d be only gone for a few days? All of you should be at the school and not sneaking on board. Why did any of you come here anyway?”
“If ya let us-” Applejack was quickly interrupted.
“Who is looking over the school right now? What are the students doing? Did you just tell them to forget about classes and let them roam free like wild animals?”
“Are you done yet?” Gallus asked with a bored expression.
“No! I’m just getting started! When we get back, all of you are heading straight to detention and will be forced to write: ‘I will not be a stowaway on the royal airship because I can’ at least ten thousand times! And after that-”
Lauren cleared her throat. “So, have you been spending the last ten minutes ranting or interrogating?”
“Ranting,” everyone in the cell answered.
Celestia went up to them. “Why did you all sneak onboard? I thought some of you wanted to stay behind for the school.”
“We were.” Pinkie said, “But the students wanted to go really badly and that they don’t nearly get enough adventure so they climbed into a basket and were roped up here then Rainbow Dash said that we got to go after them so we did then suddenly all the doors closed and couldn’t get out so we had a slumber party all night and-” A dark blue hoof stuffed her mouth.
“So, what you are saying,” Luna said, her hoof still inside Pinkie’s muzzle, “is that the students wanted to come along, you went after them but got stuck with the cargo all night.”
“That is what we’ve been trying to tell Twilight for the past ten minutes.” Rarity remarked. She turned to her friend, “I can understand why you’re upset, but we didn’t come here by choice. The students want to come with you, especially when they want to spend more time with Lauren whom they got to know somewhat.”
Lauren took in a deep breath, turning to the students she said, “This is very sweet of all of you, but I’m afraid that you’ve caught us at a really bad time.”
“Why?” Ocellus asked, “What’s going on?”
The creator sighed, “Let’s just say I did something really, really stupid.”
“How stupid is stupid?”
“Well… let’s just say that I may or may not have accidently sparked a possible worldwide panic over the fact that the end is coming…”
For a long, very uncomfortable moment, not one of the students, teachers, sailors, or any of the characters responded. Several nervous eyes shifted to one another as if to confirm that they too had heard what was just said. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. “When you say ‘the end is coming,’ are you saying that as… the world is ending!?”
“But… it can’t end.” Fluttershy shook her head in disbelief, “You wouldn’t allow it all to end… would you?”
“Well yes – I-I mean no! I… ugh!” Lauren clenched her hair in frustration. “Look, I don’t know, okay! Right now, news of that slip-up is making to every Newspaper in Equestria, and most likely beyond that, as I said the show is coming to an end. No doubt causing widespread chaos and fear… and you know what’s the most frustrating part of all is? I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to say even to calm everyone down…” She leaned her back against a wall, letting her knees bend and slip to the floor. Her face was covered by her hands, taking in a shaky breath. “I don’t know what to do…”
Neither did anyone else. While Faust was sobbing underneath the weight of what she had caused, none of the characters, not even Celestia and Luna, had any idea what to say either. That was, until the sounds of running footsteps became louder, along with the shouts of “Mom! Mom!” in an excited tone. Alice came running into the detention area. The little girl held in her hands a piece of paper with a drawing on it, something she was proud to show to her mother. Alice wasn’t alone as an out-of-breath Pegasus in uniform came rushing behind.
“My apologies,” the uniformed pony said, saluting to Tempest, “she’s surprisingly fast.”
“Mom?” Alice noticed Lauren crying and approached her curiously. “Mom? Why sad?”
From her tears that she tried to banish away, Lauren looked up. “Oh, hi Alice. Mommy just… did something dumb. I uh…” She sniffed, “I scared a lot of ponies today without meaning to. I told them something that made them afraid. And… your mommy doesn’t know what she should do.”
Her daughter tilted her head. “But… Mom knows what to do.” Lauren asked her what she meant by that. “Remember? I had bad dream, and you told me story. That it okay to be scared. But will be okay. Remember mom?”
Another sniff and she nodded. “I remember. It took you a while to calm down but after reading a couple of stories you were alright again.” Lauren then noticed the paper that her daughter was holding. “What do you got there?”
“Oh! Look what I made!” Alice held up the paper up to her. It was a crude drawing like any kind her age would make. It was drawn out in crayons, but what was on there, Lauren had to pause. It showed ponies along with herself and Alice holding hands, smiling. What caught her attention, however, was that the ponies were not any of the crew or anyone she knew from the show. “That’s you, me,” Alice pointed out, “and the ponies I came up with.”
Lauren blinked, “These you came up with?”
“Uh-huh! That there,” she pointed to one who was a blue Pegasus, “Starry Night. This,” she pointed to a unicorn in yellow, “Sun Shine. And this,” she pointed to a green earth pony, “Green Hoof. See mom?”
Taking hold of the drawing, Lauren’s mood lightens a bit at the adorable little drawing her daughter had made for her. But also, an idea was beginning to form as she remembered something from many years ago. It was after she was appointed as the creator of the show that she and her then-partner were spitting ideas for what the show was going to be like. She recalled when she got stuck in writer’s block, Craig asked her, “I think maybe you’ve got to ask yourself: what do I want this show to do? What am I trying to get out of it?”
She also remembered what her response was. “I wanna make something that kids would look back on years later as something worth remembering. Maybe they would take what I made and make it their own.”
Looking at that drawing, she stood up, “We need to go to Canterlot. I’ve got an idea.”
“Why Canterlot?” Celestia asked.
“To put it simply, we’re going there to delegate. I know how to stop widespread panic and prevent Equestria from collapsing.”
“How?”
Lauren smiled as she picked Alice up, “I’m going to tell a story.”