//------------------------------// // The Disappointing Alicorn // Story: Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic // by Invinsible //------------------------------// Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic The Disappointing Alicorn “What the hay were you thinking?!” a cream coloured pegasus colt growled as he pushed his older brother into a mud puddle. “Ow! C-cool, I said I’m sorry!” the sunflower coloured pegasus cried. “Sorry won’t turn back the sun, now will it?!” Cool Breeze growled. “Just because your leg was feeling tired, you thought you could shove all the work onto me! I missed out on the buck ball game because of you, Warm Breeze!” Warm grunted as he stood back up. “I’m sorry I broke my leg, Cool, I-” “You did not break your leg, you liar! I can see it just fine!” Cool turned around and kicked Warm’s left front leg, which had a cast wrapped around it. “OW! Ow, how, ow!” Warm cried as he collapsed back onto the ground. “Stop faking!” Cool growled as he brought his brother’s face up to meet his. “Now here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to Tulip’s party and you’re going back to the farm to do my chores. It’s only fair after you betrayed me yesterday, you greedy monster!” Without waiting for his brother’s response, Cool galloped towards Town Hall. Obviously it wouldn’t be Town Hall for much longer once the new castle was put in, but he’d heard that castles took time to build. Cool had been standing in line to join the party for ten minutes and he was already getting impatient. “Come on, come on, come on!” he grumbled, mentally debating the pros and cons of pushing the other ponies out of the way so that he could be first. About fifty ponies ahead of him in line, one pony was being a nuisance at one of the checkpoints. “Please, I’m sorry I didn’t get one of the advance tickets, but I didn’t have enough bits at the time! Look, I have enough now! I can buy a ticket from here, can’t I?” the plain brown earth pony with a broken heart cutie mark pleaded. The mare in charge of the checkpoint, a dark green unicorn wearing a fancy dress suit, sneered at the heart-marked pony causing a scene. “Normal tickets are more expensive than advanced ones. Were you not paying attention to your invitation? You only have one hundred and fifty gold bits, and the price up here is TWO hundred bits.” The brown pony gulped. “P-please I need to get in! I’m s-sorry but I don’t have enough gold-” The unicorn mare and everypony with earshot glared at the heart-marked pony. “So, you’re not attending the party?!” the ticket taker scowled. “No, I am attend-at…I mean, I am going to the party, I just, it was a slow day yesterday! I’m friends with her Majesty and the Grand Decorator, can’t I ask them to-” “They’re your friends, and you’re acting this disrespectfully at their party?! I think you’re lying. I know I wouldn’t be friends with a thief like you!” the unicorn mare spat in the brown pony’s face. “W-wait! I have this hat here! My best friend gave me this hat for my birthday last month, so it holds real value to me!” the heart-marked pony said as the unicorn mare took the offered hat. “You can hold onto it and when I pay the rest of the gold bits tomorrow, you can give me it back and-” The unicorn mare smiled and placed it on her head but frowned when her horn poked a hole through the hat. She removed it in disgust and said, “You need better friends if they give you defective gifts like that.” “B-but t-that…t-that…I-I…” the heart-marked pony stammered, struggling to hold back her tears. “Sir, do you need to go to the hospital?” the unicorn mare huffed. “I was going to offer you some bedroom fun later to sweeten the deal, but I don’t want damaged goods polluting my future children. Get lost, you thief!” The brown pony closed her eyes and dragged her hooves back the way she came. The other ponies in the line glared at her. “He’s NOT going to Her Majesty’s party?! What a self-absorbed flank head!” “How could he not show his support for Her Majesty when she invited him?!” “Ugh, stallions are the worst! Seriously, stallions are all scumbags!” The heart-marked pony said, “A-actually I’m a mare…” “What?! How we were supposed to know?” “You don’t look like a real mare!” “Ugh, it’s one of those freaks!” Unicorns in line began to shoot spells at the brown earth mare, while everypony else in line began to throw rocks or small presents that they had brought for Her Majesty. The brown mare cried and galloped away in a hurry. Once she was out of firing range, the ponies inline went back to conversing with their friends. “Can you believe that freak?” Cool Breeze overheard one mare say, “Seriously, some ponies have no respect for other ponies. Ooh hay, she dropped her gold bits!” “Hay dude, what are you doing with those?” her friend asked the mare as she scooped up the leftover bits. “Well, I’ll give them to Her Majesty of course! I AM her best friend after all! And this is just what a Generous friend would do!” the mare said as she brushed her mane to the side to make herself more alluring. “Ah, I gotcha girl. Hay, speaking of generosity, you cool with helping me pay for my little brother’s birthday?” “You know it mare! He’s turning ten, right? That means hooficures, buck ball, and bedroom fun! Whoop, whoop!” The two best friends high hooved each other and kept on talking as the line moved. After impatiently waiting inline for two hours to be let in, they all finally made it into the crowd of ponies gathered for the greatest celebration their town had ever held. Balloons, streamers, spotlights, sparklers, miniature stages for the bands, snack tables, and party games were all spread out in Town Hall, arranged to complete perfection. A gorgeously rich velvet curtain dominated one of the walls, with all eyes trained on it. Hundreds of brightly coloured ponies gathered in the middle of Town Hall, eagerly awaiting their Mistress of Cere-Ponies and the Grand Decorator to start the show. Within the humongous crowd of ponies, two unicorns with green eyes stood side by side. They pressed close together, eyeing the other ponies and discreetly licking their lips, but otherwise remaining completely still. Squished together in the two corners at the very back of the party hall, there stood two smaller herds of party guests. These guests didn’t have any pretty coloured coats like the other ponies in the hall. In these two small herds, all the stallions and colts had black coats and all the mares and fillies had white coats. Members of these two herds were dabbing at their faces with washcloths, as many of them were sweating. The ponies continued to chat, gossip, and giggle together before the lights dimmed. The crowd instantly hushed itself right before a spotlight turned on and illuminated a pegasus mare flying above them. Smoke billowed out around her and everypony gazed in awe at her, even though they had no idea where the smoke was coming from. The beautiful mare hovering over them had a perfectly snow white coat. Her rainbow mane and tail were expertly styled, and their colours seemed to radiate off her like a halo. A large, puffy, and dazzling white dress wrapped around her. She also held the record for the largest, most complicated cutie mark in all of PonyTown: a mesmerizing, dominating, spiral rainbow. Her red eyes looked down at the ponies as she grinned at them, her face as glorious as the sun. Just behind her, a magical firework rose up and exploded into colourful letters, spelling out her name: REGALITY “Ponies, I ask you: What is a party?” “Why, a party is a celebration of friendship!” Regality purred. “A celebration of the strength of your herd, the community of our fair Ponytown, and the Holy Order of Harmony. From the moment our ancestors gained free will on this earth, we have been marked by Destiny! Every day our earth ponies toil away at the soil, growing rich and bountiful food. Every day our pegasus ponies prove their mistress-y over the heavens themselves. Every day our unicorn ponies find new ways to bend the holy power of Harmony to our will! And every day we unite to defend our home against the demons, the heretics, and the parasites!” “Every party I have mistress-fully created has been for you, the good ponies of PonyTown. Eighth of my bloodline, my House has produced at least one extraordinary party hostess for over three generations. So I ask you again: What is a party?” A flash of light sparkled into radiance behind the crowd and they all shuffled around to gawk at its source. There stood a unicorn mare with a pretty pink coat and a hime-cut, honey-blonde mane and tail. She wore a delightful purple gown that draped over her body, and she carried herself with dignity and poise like a princess. Her cutie mark was a purple balloon with a red string that reached up and tightly wrapped itself around the balloon in a spider web-like pattern. Another firework shot up behind her and spelled out her name: Tulip Secondborn “Parties are the world! The magic of friendship that unites us all! The heavens, the earth, and all of ponykind!” the unicorn declared proudly, with a face and voice that sounded exactly like a certain Twilight Sparkle. Whoever that is. The unicorn teleported up to the stage in front of the curtain as Regality floated down beside her. “Ponies, I give you the Grand Decorator, my exceptionally talented daughter: Tulip Secondborn!” Regality stated proudly. “My little mare has had plenty of practice preparing birthday parties, garden parties, weddings, and Changeling Trial Celebrations. However, this party is an extra special occasion and I knew there was no other pony I could trust more with its completion than her.” Tulip Secondborn bowed before her mother, before she spun around and posed for all the cute stallions in the crowd. “Yes, mother. A party is a celebration, but this party is truly a crowning achievement even by our family’s standards.” “Indeed,” Regality purred, posing in front of her daughter for the crowd to stare at her. “The most successful party my second born daughter has ever held, all in honor for her eldest sister.” “I agree completely mommy!” Tulip cheered, posing in front of Regality. “Why just a week ago, if somepony had told me that my big sister would go from faking her invalidy to achieving the greatness she has now, why I would have tied the deceitful parasite to a stake for the next Trial!” Tulip preened as the crowd laughed appreciatively at her hilarious joke. “Indeed,” Regality purred once more as she fluttered her wings and elegantly hovered over her daughter. “Friends are always honest with each other, and I can honestly say she was quite a disappointment. But not anymore! Today, our herd becomes royalty! Today, my bloodline becomes divinity! All hail Harmony!” “All hail Harmony!” the crowd cheered. “And now my little ponies, the star of our show! We proudly present to all of you ponies, my daughter and your new Queen! Lily Firstborn!” Regality flew up and pulled back one corner of the velvet curtain as Tulip levitated the other corner of the velvet curtain back to reveal…nopony? The crowd stared in silence at the empty stage for exactly four seconds before they shouted, “Hey, where’s Queen Lily?!” “I paid good money for this, our herd is owed a meeting with the Queen!” “You lying horses! You’re changelings, aren’t you?! You better prove that Queen Lily is here, or you’ll be hanged for this!” “This is Tartarus! How could you make us suffer like this! We’ve been waiting for two hours, we DESERVE to see the Queen!” As the crowd threatened to riot, Regality glided over to her daughter and whispered harshly, “Where is she?!” “Where else?” Tulip whispered back as she rolled her eyes. “I’ll get her. B.R.B, L.Y.M.” Tulip teleported away from the perfect party that she had slaved away to create and arrived at a small house-sized blue box that had been built a few days ago at the very edges of PonyTown. “LILY!” she shouted as she threw open the door, not waiting for a response. In the middle of the blue box there sat a very disappointing alicorn. Yes, she did have both wings and a horn, but they were in such disorder. The horn flickered like a badly lit torch and the wings were in desperate need of preening. Her white coat was far too pale to be considered desirable, and her red mane and tail were messy, too dark to be attractive, and not in any respectable manestyle. Her legs were too long and wobbly, her flanks weren’t bouncy enough, and her cutie mark was very boring, depicting nothing more than a quill and ink bottle. The dress she was wearing was beautiful, more than worthy of a queen, but she wore it like a filly playing with ratty window drapes. The alicorn also had a fat gut like an injured stallion who never exercised. Somehow, the alicorn even had acne, with horrid little pimples on her face. Seriously, doesn’t she care about her health? What if her future children came out with pimples? “Lily!” Tulip shouted again to get her dimwitted sister’s attention. “T-Tulip,” Lily stammered. “H-hi, how, um, how a-are y-you?” “I’m disappointed in you, Lily. Mother and I do all the hard work and we ask so little of you, but when your herd depends on you, you always shut yourself in some dark, smelly room and drool over your brain-rotting books,” Tulip huffed. “T-they do n-not rot brains. An-and, I-I’m not d-drooling,” Lily insisted. “I-I was g-going over, um, the uh, taxes.” Tulip furrowed her brow at the gibberish her sister was speaking. “Lily dear, we don’t have time for one of your little riddles. And speak up!” “B-but m-mayors need to…look over t-taxes and stuff, r-right? I-I thought I c…c-could getta head start, t-to help the town…” “Help the town? You would help the town greatly if you would show up to MY party that I threw in your honour!” Tulip firmly stated. “B-budgets are part of p-planning p-parties, a-aren’t they?” Lily asked. She meekly levitated a chart up. “I…I was think, uh thinking of h-how to g-get more money f-for the school, the hospital, the um, the library…” “Oh Lily, the hospital wouldn’t need extra bits if you’d stop going there! I thought you had gotten past these little tantrums of yours when you got your wings, but now it sounds like you’re slipping back into bad behavior. Are you trying to make your herd cry? Is that it?!” “N-no…no,” Lily mumbled, hiding her face behind her messy mane. “S-sorry, I…I’ll help. J-just please could I have o-one minute t-to…” Tulip saw the book that was slowly levitating towards Lily and snatched it out of the air, tearing it in half with her teeth. “T-Tulip!” Lily cried. “W-why’d you-” “Enough excuses, Lily!” Tulip declared as she bit her sister’s ear. “It’s time for you to grow up, get rid of these dusty old books and make some more friends!” In a flash of light, Tulip teleported herself and her sister to the stage in the Town Hall. “Here she is everypony!” “OOH!” As one, the ponies approached Queen Lily and gawked at her. “Wow! She’s beautiful and awesome!” a burly looking stallion cheered. “She has wings!” a pegasus mare said in amazement. “I’ve never seen a pegacorn before!” another mare gasped. “U-um, uh…er, um…” Lily mumbled as her ears folded down. A pegasus stallion flew up on stage and stopped right behind Lily. “WOO! Check out them flanks! Yowza-wowza!” “Like oh my herd, who does her mane? You should like totally do your mane like that, Jelly!” “Hey hot stuff, fluff your wings out!” an earth pony mare cheered. “U-ugh, um, h-hello every…every…uh…er, um…” Lily murmured as she hesitantly raised her hoof to wave at the crowd before she quickly brought her hoof back down, wobbling unsteadily. “Hey Lily! Catch!” a brightly coloured pony squealed as she threw a buck ball at the queen. The ball hit Lily right in the muzzle, causing all of her pimples to pop and turning her face into a disgusting mess of blood and pus. “Eww, this is what an alicorn looks like?” a mare criticized, gossiping with her friends. “Why’s she just standing there? Doesn’t royalty make speeches?” a stallion asked his wife. “She’s kind of gross. Like, who pushed their foal down the ugly tree?” an older filly whispered loudly to her friends who all giggled. A mare wearing a sparkly dress with jewellery, with a diamond as her cutie mark approached Regality. “Excuse me, Miss Regality.” “Mistress Regality,” Regality corrected. “Of course, Mistress Regality. If you’re in the market for a suitable king, I can offer you my fifth child, Tail Chaser. I’m sure he would make an excellent husband for the queen.” Regality brushed a wing over her mane. “What makes you think your stallion is worthy of my queen?” “Yes, quite right Mistress Regality. I believe one hundred bits is a suitable dowry.” “Where is your lottery ticket?” Regality asked, unamused at the meager offer. “Excuse me?” the mare asked. Regality hovered over the ponies again and stated aloud, “All parties interested in my daughter should have received a lottery ticket when they purchased the Rainbow Diamond package. We shall begin now!” Twenty-seven mares and four stallions all waved rainbow tickets as the bidding began. “I offer two hundred bits as a dowry!” “I offer three hundred bits as a dowry!” “I offer four hundred bits!” “Five hundred bits!” “Do you accept payments in cows?” As Regality continued to barter her daughter’s hoof in marriage, Lily’s vision began to blur. Her wings, ears, and tail all twitched violently. Sweat and tears started to mix with the blood and pus on her face as she felt her eyes turned red, itchy, and puffy. “Mommy, I wanna hug the queen!” she heard one little filly cry at her mother. “Go right ahead, sweetie pie!” She felt her heart hammering in her chest and her stomach gurgle and flip flop as dozens of fillies and colts began to leap onto the stage, jump on her back, and climb all over her. Lily honestly thought she was going to faint as she felt one baby foal spit up a gob of used milk on her. “Eh…every…p-pony, c-can I-I uh…” “Lily, play with me!” “Lily, catch the ball!” “Lily, my son would make a great husband!” “Lily, when are you going to-” “Lily, stand over here!” “Lily, try my carrot cake!” “Lily, I need you to foalsit my seven little girls!” “Lily, make the stadium bigger!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” “Lily!” It was too much for Lily and she vanished in a rather uncoordinated, jerky teleport. “Hey! Where’d she go?!” “She just tele-pathed out!” “It was those rotten parasites, wasn’t it?!” “Ponies, ponies, at peace!” Regality’s voice rose over the crowd, like a wave of loud kitten purrs. “We’ll find your beloved queen soon enough. In the meantime, enjoy the festivities! Partake in the banquet, let your ears feast to the flavors of tonight’s many musicians. Make memories that you and your friends shall share forever.” Ponies all seemed to settle down as the party rose up into full swing. As Tulip supervised the crowd, Regality tapped her hoof against the polished floor. “Husband.” A muscular earth stallion with an earthy brown coat and a short, brick red mane and tail galloped to her side, pausing to kiss her wings. “Yes ma’am?” “It seems my little wayward queen is throwing another hissy fit. Run along and fetch her back, darling,” Regality purred as she fluttered her eyelashes at Lily’s dad. “Yes ma’am,” the stallion grunted and galloped away. Regality’s eyes lazily drifted over to where Tulip had just sat down, legs crossed and huffing in frustration. “Darling Tulip, whatever could be the matter? The crowd is loving your party. You should join the festivities. I can see a game of Spin-the-Bottle breaking out already, and there are so many hunky stallions out there for you.” “Isn’t it obvious, mom?” Tulip huffed. “Lily ruined my party! I go to all this trouble for her and she just throws it in my face! That Star Swirl wizard made a mistake…” “Do try and see reason, darling,” Regality whispered into Tulip’s neck. The unicorn let out a happy moan as her mom licked her ear. “Let little Lily work out the last of her temper tantrums. It is a small price to pay for the wonderful future that awaits us.” Regality’s smile widened as Tulip nuzzled her. Her wing lifted Tulip’s head to look up at the ceiling above them. “The sky is no longer a limit to us, darling. Your sister is now a queen. Our flesh and blood is royalty. Divinity. No matter what happens to us, our herd shall be Eternal.” Lily reappeared in an intersection of PonyTown that she knew wasn’t going to be that busy for at least a few hours. She sat down and took several deep breaths. After a minute, Lily determined that her stomach wasn’t calming down so she summoned a bucket with her magic and threw up into it. Once her stomach had settled again she vanished the bucket and her dress. Lily shuddered some more as she felt the mess still on her back and face, and a wave of blue light washed over her body, getting rid of any dirt, germs, pus, blood, and any other unwelcome fluids. A long-sleeved, hooded shirt appeared on her body to replace the dress. She levitated the hood to cover her head and lengthened the sleeves of the shirt. Seeing that nopony had discovered her yet, Lily pondered over what to do next, absentmindedly waving and flapping her front legs, pretending that the sleeves had given her octopus arms. “Hey! What did I say about rhyming?!” “S-sir, please, I wasn’t rhyming. I-I was singing!” Lily looked up and saw a unicorn stallion with a giant hat, a monocle, and a gem-studded vest coat pushing around what looked like a very sweaty white earth mare. “Don’t you lie to me, you were speaking that weird demon language, weren’t you?!” the stallion growled. “I wasn’t, I wasn’t!” the mare cried. Lily cringed and her ears folded down as the unicorn continued to rant about enchantresses and mushrooms or something. Her horn lit up with blue light and teleported the stallion to her mom’s party, where he would hopefully forget what he was doing once the bands started up. The mare blinked in surprise at the unicorn’s disappearance before she noticed Lily. “T-thank you!” she said with an uneasy smile. “You’re Queen Lily, right? I’m Zoe.” “Y-you’re w-welcome…” Lily mumbled with a similar uneasy smile. The two mares nodded…and hummed…and stood there silently…avoiding eye contact…for a few minutes… “I…I gotta g-go,” Lily murmured. Lily awkwardly began to shuffle away after Zoe didn’t say anything, but then she raised a hoof. “Wait, please. There’s something I need to tell you.” Lily flinched but still stopped walking as she focused on Zoe. “My parents had an old…life lesson, if you will,” Zoe said. “A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to finally feel its warmth.” “Uh…um…w-what does that m-mean?” Lily hesitantly asked. “Uh…n-nothing, sorry,” Zoe said with a blush. “I don’t, um - I don’t know why I said that. A-anyway, good fly – b-bye. I meant goodbye.” Before Lily could mumble a “see you later”, she heard a glass bottle smashing against something followed by several giggles. Zoe ran away as soon as she heard the first noise while Lily, very stupidly chose to give her curiosity dominance over her common sense. She pressed her back up against one of the nearby buildings while using her wings to stop the dirty wall from touching the rest of her body. She slowly slunk towards the loud noises to see a trio of teenage mares stumbling along the road and laughing to each other as they each drank from a different glass bottle. “Goal!” the one pegasus mare giggled. “Nuh-uh, mine’s the goal I got,” the one unicorn mare cheerfully argued. “Who’s that snooty Regality mare think she is?” the one earth mare hiccupped. “We can’t afford a ticket and somehow we’re the bad girls? How’s that flair…I mean fair?” “Ah, forget ‘bout it. Them unicorns are always so snobby,” the one pegasus mare said as she leaned on her friend. “Hay!” the unicorn said with a frown. “I thought Reg…Regal…what’s her name was a pegasus?” “I dunno. Oh, hay, hay, your turn!” the pegasus said to the earth pony. The earth mare giggled and took aim with her empty bottle before throwing it as hard as she could. The bottle smashed against something in the park and a baby immediately started screaming its lungs out. “OOH, busted!” the three mares giggled as they all ran off. Lily’s eyes widened and she quickly galloped over to where the crying was coming from. She gasped as she came across a foal carriage with broken glass around it, and then hesitantly crept closer to it to see who was crying. Inside the carriage, two foals, a colt and a filly, were kicking up a fuss. The slightly older colt was covered in most of the glass and his body was cut pretty badly. The baby colt was crying the loudest since the baby filly was having difficulty screaming due to a large piece of glass that had gotten stuck in her throat. “Oh, oh no…no, shush, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Lily mumbled to the foals as she gently wrapped her magical aura around them. As blue light washed over the foals, the glass removed itself from their bodies, all the nasty cuts began to heal, and the two foals slowly stopped crying. Lily let out a sigh of relief as the two foals blinked up at her with curious coos and gurgles. “It’s okay…it’s okay…” Lily whispered to the two of them. “HAY! Get away from my babies, you horn-head!” Lily yelped as a silver-maned earth mare came charging in and kicked Lily away from the babies. “What kinda voodoo spell were you casting on my foals?!” the mare growled. Lily shrunk at the mare’s glare. “S-sorry. Y-your f-foals-” “What? Talk louder, stupid filly. Wait, what’s this now?” the mare said as she noticed Lily’s wings. “Ain’t you that fancy queen? Oh, so parading around town with your fancy forehead magic stick, using your witch powers on all us hard-working farmers wasn’t good enough for ya? You had to go and make yourself a mutant so you could lady over us in the skies!” Lily tried to mumble something, but she was cut off as the mare literally spat in her face. “Go crawl back to your own herd!” As the mare took the carriage and strolled away with her foals, Lily shuddered and shook while her horn lit up and a wave of blue light washed over her body, getting rid of the saliva. Not taking any more chances, she made a decision and teleported to her destination. Out at the very edges of PonyTown, where the bushes and trees of the Dark Forest started to creep in, there was a circular patch of land with nothing but burnt, blackened grass. Lily unsteadily made her way to a pile of ash in the center of the circle and crouched down. With a gentle hum from her horn, a bouquet of black roses, a box of chocolates, and a stack of books appeared onto the black grass. Lily bowed her head and whispered. “H-happy b-birthday…M…Mister B-bookworm.” Her head started to pound as tears spilled out of her eyes. “I…I-I’m…s-sorry. I g-got your…b-book. I’m s-so s-sorry.” As she mumbled apologies into the earth, a gust of wind blew through the area and Lily “eeped” as she felt a scrap of paper blow into her chest. Hesitantly, she levitated the piece of paper and brought it up to her eye level. Her body started to quiver as she read the words: “Embrace the solution!” She scratched the pamphlet with her horn, causing the message to burst into blue flames and vanish into the wind. Lily’s hooves flew up to clutch her head and her face contorted in pain as she mumbled, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Lily was so distracted by her own thoughts, at first she didn’t notice the tear through time and space forming in front of her. She choked back her tears and looked up with frightened eyes at the quiet arrival of Lady Faust. The first alicorn looked down at her younger self with a frosty glare. When Lily tried to open her mouth and attempt some form of greeting, Lady Faust pointed a hoof at her causing her past self to shrink down to the size of a grape. As Lily let out a terrified scream Lady Faust stepped on her, silencing and reducing her to nothing but a red smear. Lady Faust removed her hoof and stared at the remains of her younger self for exactly five seconds. She then pointed her hoof again and slowly raised it into the air. A bright blue glow surrounded the area like a magical circle, transforming the mess of blood and bone back into a living, breathing alicorn and then restoring her to her former size. Lily Firstborn gasped as she was brought back from what felt like death. Taking more than a few seconds to figure out what happened she weakly refocused on her older self and cringed in horror. “W…w-why..?” “You don’t remember me killing you,” Lady Faust said. As she spoke that sentence and rewrote her former self’s mind, Lily’s fear fell back within her normal levels of panic. Without another word, Lady Faust turned away and walked through time and space again, causing the tear in reality to vanish. Lily stood silently for a few moments, once more having no clue as to what was happening around her. And then she got hit in the back of the head with a ball. “Lily! You’re supposed to catch it!” some stallion whined as he caught up to where Lily was and retrieved his ball. “Lily, don’t scare us like that!” a young mare cried as she came galloping towards Lily and enveloped her in a hug that made Lily think about a boa constrictor. “I can’t believe you left your own party, and without your bestie-best friend-better-than-the-rest!” “Uh…I…I…” The young mare rolled her eyes with a playful smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You can go to the hospital later, Queen Lily. Now let’s get back and party!” She pushed Lily back towards the direction of the party and grinned. “B.T.W, we bumped into your dad, but we had Rose Basket take him back to the party. The poor idiot was wandering around all lost and confused looking for you. Speaking of dumb studs, I just met these four hotcakes that would be perfect for you! Now letcha bestie glam up that mess on your face and those stallions will be putty in your hooves!” As the other ponies in the past dragged Lily Firstborn back to the party, Lady Faust continued down the dimly lit hallway. As she walked, her powers reached out to a piece of chalk sitting on a chalkboard. The chalk added another tally mark to the chalkboard’s current count of fifty-two. She dropped the piece of chalk as she passed by a completely full chalkboard, and another chalkboard, and then another chalkboard… Lady Faust paused for a moment and slowly did a double-take at the four tally-covered chalkboards. Her blank face betrayed her as she blinked once…twice…and then turned around to keep walking down the hallway. Ponies, hippogriffs, yaks, donkeys, changelings, and even a few humans scattered through the hallways that Lady Faust traveled through. They all took one glance at their leader and wisely stayed out of her way without a word needing to be said. Her journey was brought to a brief pause as one mare cheerfully greeted her. “My lady, I have good news!” Merry Weather said as she pranced over to her queen. “I just got an interview with Applejewel’s…um…” Her smile faded away as Merry Weather noticed Lady Faust’s emotionless glare. “W-what’s wrong, my queen? Is there anything I…” Merry Weather silenced herself as she was gently levitated out of Lady Faust’s way and pushed against the wall. Without another word, Lady Faust abandoned the idea of walking to her destination and teleported into one of her bedrooms. Her magic reached out to a little fridge that contained several bottles of chocolate milk, yogurt drinks, and magical potions. She levitated a potion called Liquid Courage up to her mouth and drank the contents in one swig. There was a very brief feeling of warmth that spread through her body before it faded away into nothing. Lady Faust drank two more bottles of the Liquid Courage, not really expecting any difference before she collapsed onto her bed. She levitated the covers over her head and spent more than a few minutes lying down against the pillow, staring blankly at nothing as her mind raced with millions of thoughts. She pressed her hooves to her head as she felt a very familiar headache coming. “Shut up…shut up…shut up…” “Oh Lily, after all these years you’re still such a silly filly.” Lady Faust’s eyes widened as she bolted upright and fixed her glare on the eerily smiling Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Leave. Me. Alone,” Lady Faust growled. “Oh Lily, you know I’ll never do that. Aren’t you excited, Lily?” Twilight whispered eagerly. “You’ll be visiting Equestria and Everfree any day now. Think of all the friends you’ll make there.” “Nobody is going to listen to me. Nobody will want to be my friend.” Twilight tilted her head. “You think threatening to blow up a universe is going to stop them? Ponies are a forgiving, friendly species, Lily. You’re going to be redeemed.” “Shut up,” Lady Faust growled as she turned away from Twilight and pressed a pillow around her ears. “You’re going to be reformed.” “Shut up!” “You’re going to befriended.” Lady Faust stood up from her bed, her body glowing with power. “I would rather die than be your friend.” “And yet you’re the silly filly who made yourself immortal!” Twilight giggled. Her smile warped into a snarl as thick green venom dripped out of her mouth. “Did you really think you could refuse ME?!” “You can’t escape us, darling,” Rarity hissed as she slithered out behind Twilight, levitating dirty gray ribbons that snaked their way towards Lady Faust. “Now try on these dresses as a favor to a friend…” She giggled as she spat out a glob of venom. “We’ll have the stallions slobbering all over you…” A jittery-looking Applejack with eyes as black as coal faded into view. “Apples, apples, apples…” she chuckled, holding up a basketball covered in rotten apple skins. “Come cuddle with us bestie…” Fluttershy’s voice whispered as mud-covered rats skittered across the carpet. Lady Faust backed further and further away as Princess Twilight’s body twisted and warped until she resembled Eternal Twilight. Yet another shudder went down her spine as she heard Pinkie Pie whispering next. “I love you…you love me…we’re a happy friendship tree…” “No, no, no, no…” Lady Faust muttered herself as she shut her eyes tight and hid behind her wings as they fanned out to shield her. “You dis me…I’ll kill you…All you’ve heard about FRIENDS is true…” Out from the floor, a deathly pale Rainbow Dash floated into existence wearing a bloodthirsty grin…and carrying a three pronged pitchfork… “NO!” Lady Faust screamed as she teleported out of the bedroom. When she reappeared it was on the surface of the second moon of a very distant, lifeless planet. But the Eternal Twilight illusion followed after her. “Oh Lily, you’re always so selfish. But that’s what my friendship will cure. Because a true friend will always lend a helping hoof. So quit bellyaching about your stupid pop culture shows and DO AS YOU’RE TOLD LIKE A GOOD FRIEND!” “LEAVE ME ALONE!” Lily Firstborn cried, her eyes and ears shut tight, her tiny filly body twitching feverishly as sparks of light leapt off her flickering horn. But then with a bolt of lightning, Eternal Twilight was banished from the nightmare. And the second Guardian of Dreams, Princess Nightmare Moon descended from the sky and touched down in front of the confused filly. From the moment she saw Regality’s party, Nightmare had caught on quickly that she was somehow seeing Lady Faust’s memories. If she had to guess, Nightmare’s daydream spell was more powerful than she could have imagined and it had sent her unwillingly into Lady Faust’s mind. It made Nightmare realize that part of the reason why Lady Faust seemed so unfocused sometimes was because she was constantly daydreaming. Though at what point did Faust’s memory turn into a waking nightmare? The princess of the night hadn’t figured that out yet. Lily Firstborn titled her gaze up from the floor and stared at Nightmare as tears and blood gushed out of her eyes. Nightmare sighed. “I really shouldn’t be feeling sorry for you…but I do. From that one glimpse of Regality and what those ponies did...growing up in Tartarus would have been nicer. But please…give me back Everfree and Equestria and I’ll leave you alone. I just want my aunt and my friends back.” Lily’s puffy eyes narrowed, turning from slightly red to glowing blue. Numerous cuts on her body formed, but instead of blood they all gushed out burning blue flames. It wasn’t until her entire body was covered in fire that she growled out, “THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS FRIENDS.” Spotting the warning signs a little too late, Nightmare flapped her wings and rocketed away from Lily. She was able to fly a good sixty feet away from imminent danger when the alicorn filly exploded into a supernova that swallowed Nightmare Moon and spat her out of Lady Faust’s mind and into the next chapter. ... ... ... ... ...