Pony POV Series Season Four: Generation Transitions & Origins

by Alex Warlorn


Pony POV Series Episode 47: "'HAPPY CAKE' ADVENTURE PART 1"

It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville! All the birds were singing, not a cloud in the sky!

The ponies frolicked left, the ponies frolicked right!

Everyone was quite happy! And there was no trouble in sight!

"Oh dear oh my! There is trouble I do sight!" Shouted Mrs. Cake in quite a fright!

The Cutie Mark Crusaders did come to her aid! For that is what they do! Not blowing stuff up! For that is not what good little ponies do!

"Oh what is your troubles? Please bring them to light!" Ask Sweetie Belle, always so nice!

"My cake! My cake! That I took so long to bake! For goodness sake!"

"Your cake?" Ask Applebloom, always so smart.

"Your cake?" Asked Sweetie, always so nice.

"Your cake?" Asked Scootaloo, always so brave.

"Yes my cake! For goodness sake! The cake I took so long to bake!"

"What is wrong with your cake that you took so long to bake?"

"It's gone! The time to bake it was so long! And now it is gone!"

"That is wrong!" Said Scootaloo, always so brave. "It is wrong for your cake to be gone!"

"But who?" Asked Applebloom, always so smart. "Who took your cake that you took so long to bake?"

"HA HA HA! I it was I! I took your cake! That you took so long to bake!" Shouted Discord, holding the cake it took so long for Mrs. Cake to bake.

Mrs. Cake said, "Please! Please! Give it back quick! Or I fear I will be sick!"

"No! I will not give back the cake you took so long to bake!"

"Why? Why won't you give back the cake I took so long to bake?!"

"Because I am mean! Of that! You surely can glean! I will take your cake! I will eat your cake! Then I will have your cake!"

"No!" Shouted Scootaloo, always so brave. "You will give back the cake Mrs. Cake too so long to bake!"

"HA! I will not give back the cake! Give me a break! I am Discord! And . . . my victory I have scored!"

Scootaloo, always so brave, did take a pie, as one did fall out of the sky! And with all post haste, did throw the pie in Discord's face!

"The pie! The pie you have thrown in my face! The pie you have thrown in my face with all post haste!"

"I can't tell a lie! I did throw the pie! I did throw the pie with all post haste! Now give back the cake, that Mrs. Cake took so long to bake! And leave without a trace! Or your face I will make into paste!"

"You are nice! And I am mean! And so you are mean to me! I'll running away now! Never to be seen again! Far around the bend!" So did Discord run away never to be seen again! Far around the bend!

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Applebloom, always so smart.

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Sweetie, always so nice.

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Scootaloo, always so brave!

"You saved the cake!" Shouted Mrs. Cake, happy to have the cake back that she had taken so long to bake! "What brave ponies you are! Everyone knows near and far! Now I'll give you a piece of the cake, that I took so long to bake!"

And Pinkie says, "There! We can end the plot now! They all lived happily ever after! The end! Nothing more to see! Just leave us to our completely boring -happy- lives! ... please?"

What is with you people? Who cares about tension and build up? Can't you just accept a little banal happy ending and leave it at that? Sigh. I guess not.

Ever since I became whole again, my memories that never happened have been a lot clearer. Pinkie Pie could just hand them off to Pinkamena if they got too painful.

Surprise the pony? I'm still not quite sure what Anarchy meant by that. The only reason I remember the iteration from before is because I'm not supposed to exist. Oh, I'm not depressed over that anymore; Fluttercruel's not supposed to exist, and here she is, as much as pony as anypony.

Anywho, I once read there was a pegasus pony named Surprise back a few thousand years where myths and history really blur together. Yeah, I know I was almost a pegasus, I'm not some geek who thinks Earth Ponies are lousy, but I can't say I wouldn't trade my bond with the Earth so I could fly in the air. Maybe that's why I'm so fixated my flying machines. I think Fluttershy wanted to trade places with me and be an Earth Pony too . . . for some reason the name Posey keeps popping in my head when I think about that.

I'm not sad she's finally learned to open up her wings and fly, she was given a gift, you should be happy you have gifts. And I'm not upset that she still likes hanging out with her animals like an Earth Pony either, that's her gift too!

You mean being an Earth Pony is just a different gift? I guess you're right, but after you see so many stories about Earth Ponies being the 'have nots' it's hard not to think along those lines. I'm a showy pony, I guess having magic that's the least showy of the ponies just bothered me after I finally saw beauty for the first in my life.

'Earth Pony magic is unseen, and so are all my tricks, so therefore, it's earth pony magic that lets me do all the tricks I do? What a smart filly you are! Yes you are! Hey-hey-hey! No no no! I'm not being Nightmare Whisper I swear! I meant that. You really are smart and clever for a filly.

It's because Earth pony magic is unseen, that I'm able to 'Ex-Ploit' the fact I'm from how things used to be and pull off my gags. I really never thought of it that way! Thanks! Oh come on! I'm Pinkie Pie! Recovering fast is what I'm good at! I mean, once I stop hiding from it!

So I guess this is where you want me to stop hiding from the life I never had, from the world that never was, and the friends who never existed? Didn't that Alicorn say they'd live on somehow? I still don't know exactly what she meant. No, they did exist, that world was here, it's gone, but I still remember it. And that's what counts! I'll keep them in my heart forever!

I know I'm supposed to tell you this kind of resolve after I'm done telling you, but, but I want to go into these memories with a brave face and a brave heart.

The Princess, Star-Catcher, didn't just unlock the rest of my memories, she showed me hers too, and a lot else . . .

Yeah. It was THAT style of horn to mind communication. Now I know why Fluttershy and Fluttercruel stayed cooped up all day after talking with Luna!

We had a great story time with Applejack, and the next day I spent all of it with my head in the ice box. I came out incased in an ice-cube with a snorkel. And I still had -two- of those 'anti-hang-over' drink thingies funneled through the snorkel. The Cakes gave me the day off and promised I didn't need to watch the babies. The next day the headache was down to where I could hear the ding from the oven and not want to ram my head through a wall. Good thing I just shattered the ice block when I tried that.

Why do you guys want to know this part anyway? It doesn't really have to do with how we've been healing up from how Discord hurt us. I mean, now that Fluttercruel's part of the family, Trixie's been put on the chariot back home, everything should be back to normal right?

Diamond Tiara? I'm just sure the writer forgot about her and she'll pop back up and it'll be like she never left. Shows do it all the time!

Sigh. So you really wanna know huh? Alright then, then hop onto the Pinkie Diane express and get ready for a trip down a memory lane that's all condos now. Ahem: 'Is this another chapter in Equestria's lost history that never was? Another path of reality? Or was it all just me in a bed with a damp wash cloth over my head being tended to by the Cakes and Fluttershy? You decide.' But for me it's real. And here we go!

Pony POV Series

Generational Transitions

Optional-Canon

The howling winds woke me up first. Ah. I was on Butterfly Island's beaches!

"Guys," I called out as I shook myself awake, "I just had the most horrible nightmare."

I wasn't on Butterfly Island.

A cloudy black sky hung over a Ponyville of faded colors. The winds were noisy in my ears. I blinked away tears as it hit me. "It wasn't a dream."

Toola-Roola. StarSong. They were gone. Rainbow Dash, wasn't Rainbow Dash anymore.

I didn't see the winged-unicorn or the mixed-up creature anywhere. I didn't see anyone anywhere.

Looking up I saw tiny bit of the clouds part under the chaotic winds for less than a moment. I gasped in fear and looked at the ground.

It wasn't dark sky behind the clouds, it was, nothing.

I was shaking like a leaf.

I tried to think something, anything but what I just saw. And whao, it worked!

My head hurt as I felt questions I had never thought about before rang out with pieces of my memory I never realized were missing.

What did my mother's face look like? What did my father's? Father? What's that? Ugh! My head! Animals had two kinds, girls of course, and another that was boys. But that didn't apply to ponies, right?

A gale of nothingness on the outside, a whirlwind of hurt and confusion on the inside, I fell on my side I cried even harder.

I thought of when I met most of my friends. It was when we were all in diapers, right? But . . . that impression, that memory, felt, tacked on, like it came along AFTER we actually all met . . . but that didn't make sense. It felt so, contrary. Like details just didn't add up. It wasn't that the memories felt fake, more like, what HAPPENED felt . . . made, constructed.

Cheerilee. One of our resident story-tellers and Scootaloo's big sister. But, likewise, wasn't she a unicorn from Unicornia who was Princess Rarity's tutor and caretaker? That didn't make sense.

Sweetie Belle. Met her before we even found out about Unicornia. She appeared when two rainbows crossed together and she floated down. But, little Rainbow Dash said, thought, sent, agh! Unicorns belonged in Unicornia. But we didn't know what Unicornia was then!

My head hurt worse. Make it go away! Somepony! Anypony! I don't want to think! Let me return to nothing!

I remembered when the seven of us went on our grand adventure to retrieve Twinkle Wishes, Ponyville's Wishing Star after Scootaloo opened her box early. Well, five of us, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stayed home to cover our flanks. But the dragon Whimsey Weatherbe wasn't in the mood for giving her back until right when the night of Winter Wishes Festival hit. She wasn't a wicked dragon, just lonely.

But, had that happened when we were fillies? But we hadn't all, met yet until we were older. Ugh! It didn't make sense! And why did it feel like the memory of that happened -after- our meetings as mares?

This is what Starsong gave herself up for? For me to hurt in a hollow Ponyville? Those bullies! For me to suffer in this big nowhere that was supposed to be home until whatever that lady and thingie were talking about happens?

The mix-matched thing, he said his name was Anarchy. He said he was going to give me an unhappy childhood. My memories hadn't changed at all, clear as day, as real as a moment ago. But now I could see where they contradicted each other, where the pieces didn't fit, like a bunch of different puzzle pieces being forced together. Some were being forced out...

I couldn't remember when I first met Minty.

I gasped. "Minty, Minty, Minty!"

I couldn't remember when I first met her.

Everypony acting strangely, everypony avoiding me like I was bad luck or something. I asked our resident mystery-lover Puzzlement what was going on. She said it was a scavenger hunt everyone was on. Of course I wanted to join in. She led me over half of Ponyville until we finally found everything. She suggested we get a wheel barrow for all our stuff, but I figured the list was enough.

All of Ponyville decked out in pink and more pink. But where was everypony? I bump into a pony with exactly my colors who copies my movements like a mirror. Then I noticed her cutie mark. "Minty, Minty, Minty." She accidentally rubbed the paint off her forehead letting her green coat shine through.

She finally let me pass, and everypony shouted 'Surprise!' and it was a birthday party! A day before my birthday. Minty had opened the wrong page on the birthday book.

Still a party was a terrible thing to waste, so we just had a two day birthday party instead.

Minty ... Was she okay? Did she still exist? How could anything be okay? How could she still exist?

Was this what Starsong gave herself up for?

Razzaroo always said I was the pony with tons of common knowledge and common sense that was a lot more common than I gave it credit for. Now I'd trade it all just to know that Minty was okay, that she was considered, not 'trash' to be 'recycled.'

Minty. I had to know. I needed to know.

She was my best friend! What's the point of a new world if she's not there to share it with me?

I got to my hooves. I stopped crying.

I danced. Squish, Wink, Think.

My Pinkie Squink, my one of a kind fortune telling dance that let me see the solution to the problem right in front of me.

But why hadn't we thought to use it when we had friends lost and that time we trying to figure out how to surprise Kimono for her birthday? AGH! The headache again!

The pink cloud came into being above me, and all I saw was, nothing? I shivered.

NO!

A flickering image of Minty appeared, pink mane like mine, violet eyes, green coat. And on her flanks was three unique peppermints, I hastily made out details behind her.

Then the vision shifted to an island shaped like a butterfly. It faded to black.

I galloped like I had never galloped before.

+++

Everyone knows everyone in Ponyville. This is an absolute truth, an undisputed fact, an debatable reality!

So why am I questioning it? My name is Fiesta Flair, and I'm the owner and manager of one of Ponyville many musical theater. Or I think I am. The world outside has turned faded, empty, like it or me aren't connected to each other anymore.

I try to remember any details about my life but it's all, empty, like I just popped into existence one day and no one questioned it.

I'm part of the inopportune music band The Lady Bug Jamboree. I had a yellow mane and a red coat, AGH! I mean red mane and yellow coat! What's wrong with me? I can't even remember what my cutie mark looks like two seconds after I look at it!

And why . . . why do I remember being in the audience at the same time I was on stage?! It doesn't make any sense!

"Because you're politically incorrect. And that means you have to go. There's no room for a pony who might maybe somehow upset a minority. Besides, who cares for one short cardboard cut-outs like?"

I turn around and gasp, a winged unicorn with yellow and pink hair, and monster that was a mix of everything.

They didn't say anything, they grasped my head so hard I bled and-

-Fiesta-Flair-

-Fin-

++++

I say, these clues don't add up at all. I am Puzzlement. Ponyville isn't known for having many mysteries outside of the library's fiction section, but that's what makes me even more passionate about the ones I do find.

I began noticing some contradictions in Ponyville's records as if late. Birthdays, names, either were in the wrong place or not mentioned where they should. When I began interviewing ponies on the subject, they bloody astounded me by giving completely different versions of the same events!

Now I know ponies remember things differently depending on their point of view and emotional investments can what you remember and how you remember it but this was bloody ridiculous!

I finally went to Master Spike in Ponyville Castle. He's a jolly good dragon, a polite and proper gentlemen he is. He seemed as confused as I did. Turns out he was investigating these strange contradictions as well.

And the more we spoke, the more I saw the look on his face darken, it scared me.

Finally he said we could talk more later. Princess Wysteria (as Spike still insisted calling her) rubbed shoulders with me as I left. A long snaky winged shadow came over me. I looked up and saw a tiger paw come down on top of me, I managed to duck at the last moment. But I wasn't prepared for the flowers around me suddenly growing like vines and tying me down like rope.

"Pity. You have a will to survive, a desire to know, and a mind that thinks. But you're not on the list. Sorry Puzzlement."

"Who are you?" I gasped out as I struggled to break free.

"Nature's fury." It said.

"And nature's law." Said another voice, I turned my head to see the biggest pony I had ever seen with wings and a horn. "We're sorry Puzzlement, you just didn't make it."

The pony's horn touch me and-

-Puzzlement-

-Fin-

++++

"Sunny Daze!" I heard a shout I knew all too well.

I lowered my sun glasses and saw Sparkle Works looking like they had banned glitter. Which some of us had considered doing after her 'Paint Ponyville In Sparkles' birthday project still left some of us with sparkles still in our hair.

"Yo, Sparkle Works, what's got your tail in a knot?" I spoke calmly not getting up from my tanning bed.

"It's gone! Everything! My entire glitter collection! And all the stuff I covered in glitter EVER are just, gone!"

I shrugged, stretching. "Sounds like someone just did clean up."

She shook her head so much the sparkle in her mane was coming lose. "No no no! I mean it's like-"

"She's sayin' that all her stuff went 'poof' just like you two are about to go 'poof.' Sorry surfer girl, you're a lady after my own heart, but them's the breaks. Break-break-BREAK!"

"Yoinks! What are you?!" I called out at the snake, bull, lizard, thing.

I fell out of my tanning bed. I finally noticed everything but me and Sparkle Works looked...gray?

"I'm the guy who's gonna make you go poof. But unlike a magic show you ain't gonna come back at the end of the act! Poof! Poof! POOF!"

"Sparkle run!" I yelled as I backflipped and got in a stance.

"There's nowhere for her to run," Said a mature, calm, and passive voice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge pony looking like a cross between a unicorn and a pegasus.

"Night-night-night!" The ugly puzzle mess snapped with a giggle. I shivered as I saw his eyes spin in opposing directions. "And good bye both pony, deader-than-dead."

I screamed and forward flipped into him back hooves first ... I fell to the floor in a thud as felt both my legs' bones shatter from the impact. It wasn't nearly as painful as I knew it would have been, but the feeling still made me vomit my smoothie I had for breakfast. The monster didn't look like he was hurt.

"Don't feel too BAD-BAD-BAD surfer girl. That was about the only outcome of you trying that." He leaned close to him.

I turned to see Sparkle hadn't run. She was paralyzed to the floor in fear.

"Sparkle please run!" I screamed as I landed a punch on the thing's face. My hoof and foreleg shattered like my legs. He didn't so much as bruise.

This time I did feel the pain. I screamed. Sparkle finally ran. Go girl! When she ran, she just ended up coming back inside ... from my closet? She looked about in fear like a mouse.

I tried to crawl to her with my one good hoof. "Sparkle. Please, you gotta get away."

"You know dudette," The thing leaned in close. "I like a girl who ain't givin' up, even when it's a waste of time. So I'll tell ya my name before you no longer exist. When I was little I was called 'Disruption.' Some of my family call me Disaster, but I also like the name Destruction, 'Mass Destruction' wHen I'm beInG Cool-cOol-COOL! Hehheh. Sorry. I get the twitches if I don't BLOW-UP something after a while. It's an addiction, wathcha gonna do right?" He looked like he had the rear legs of a buffalo, a bull, the tail of a monkey, the arm of a gorilla, and a . . . what I think was a tentacle. His wings were one lizard crest and one dove wing. I felt confusion just looking at it.

"Will you stop torturing them!" Said the 'uni-asus?.' "We don't have the time for this.

He touched a horn to the scared stiff Sparkle, her eyes rolled in the back of her head. It took me a sec' to realize she was still breathing.

"We should have done this while they were all sleeping anyway."

"Ah come off!" Said Disaster/Destruction. "Everyone deserves to face their end with their eyes open and aware. It's cowards who want to die in their sleep."

"And some long to die peacefully in their sleep in old age, everyone being the same is part of what caused this mess in the first place."

He looked in my eyes. "I'm sorry girl. Really am. Your world's going bye-bye and it doesn't even get to go off in onE bIg boom-BOOM-bOom!" He suddenly looked almost, apologetic? "Er. Look. Just. Sorry okay?"

He gripped my face.

-Sparkle-Works-Sunny-Daze-

-Fin-

+++

Sweet Berry hummed to herself as she put together yet another of her epic confectionary creations. Some would say monstrosities.

"It's just going to fall over again," Cotton Candy said behind the counter.

"No way, I've got it this time," Sweet Berry swore as she carefully stacked the tower of coffee cake and every type of berry known in Ponyville with all the vision of a renaissance master and the recklessness of a sky diver.

"Isn't that what you said the time before that, and the time before that?"

"I know I know but seriously, this time for sure!"

"Maybe it would be simple if I just told you a story instead?" Said the Cafe owner.

"You know, Story Belle and Cheerilee both tell more interesting stories than you. ERM! That is-" Sweet Berry gasped at what she just said, nearly knocking her creation off its based.

"It's okay. But I still -hear- plenty of interesting stories in here. And I don't mind sharing them. I don't have as much flare as Cheerilee or Story Belle, but it's not that bad."

Sweet Berry felt relieved, but why shouldn't she? Everything in Ponyville worked out in the end. Anything that went wrong in Ponyville ultimately fixed it self. "Almost-almost,-GOT IT! YES!" And her Berry Cake Tower was complete! And it wasn't falling over this time!

"I don't believe it!"

"I believe it! I just didn't give up!"

"We better tell the others! Where's my camera? So ... how are you going to get it out of here?"

Before Sweet Berry could answer, the two ponies fell asleep where they stood. They snored softly at each other, obvious to all around them.

"Why did you make us wait so long?" Asked the Alicorn sounding rather vexed at the delay in the schedule. Orders had to be maintained after all.

"But I wanted to see if she could do it! It sounded like she's been trying it for a long time!" Said his Draconequus counterpart in a high pitched fluttery voice. "And why not? All this time isn't going to be here anyway so why not?"

"So why bother letting her try when you knew it would all be erased anyway?"

"Because it was her final master work! Duh! An artist should have a chance to complete their last work."

"I need to find a new counterpart. Just do your job."

" ... alright."

She touched both ponies.

-Sweet-Berry-Cotton-Candy-

-Fin-

-

I fell off my motor scooter as I felt a headache hit me. Helmets save lives. With skinned back-legs I pushed myself up. The headache was getting worse.

A voice whispered behind me. I felt my entire body freeze, my muscles locking in place. "Don't worry Flitter Flutter, Mayor of Ponyville, you might no longer be immortal, you no longer have eternal youth, and may no longer have the activity you once had, but . . . at your core, you shall remain. Have a good sleep." Then blackness.

-

I could only gasp in shock and dismay as my watched my dragonfly familiar fade into nothing, looking at me sadly the whole time he turned gray, then transparent, then nothing.

"Gossamer!" I felt the spot where he had been, but there was nothing.

It was the final blow. I had nothing now. I had woken up early, intending to ~get~ a head start on the library's 'inspection' (IE re-reading my favorite stories all over), but had woken up to find the pages all blank. I had tried to go outside but found myself back where I started when I got out.

I fell to my back-legs and cried.

I noticed I was turning gray now. I didn't feel scared like I knew I should have.

"This'll be my last story won't it?" I said to myself.

"I'm sorry Story Belle, but it is."

I looked up to see a mixed-up but still somehow lithe creature. It was sitting in one of the chairs reading a book titled 'Pony POV Series, Generational Transitions by Alex Warlorn.' It wasn't a part of my library.

"Please. What's happening?"

"Think of all things as a story. People were sloppy and thoughtless when they wrote your story. Recklessness, nonsense, that whole 'plot? What plot?' I love it. But this place was trying to be organized and logical and . . . there was one too many rewrites."

Her body was a brown snake, and she had the head of a gray goat or horse. Her wings were one of a swan, and one of a flutterpony. Her back legs were different, one of a black cat, and the other of a duckling. Her tail was a fox's. Her front legs were as a bear's paw, and a green gnarled hand with warts on it.

"Isn't there anything that can be done?" I felt like I was leaking away. Like my fear was the first part of me to go.

"Sorry, real shame too. Seems like just a waste to toss out all these old stories, but what can you do? Sometimes you need to start the story over and there's nothing else to be done. I really prefer negative continuity myself. Allows for more creativity. What artist wants to be tied to a -previous- work anyway? No artist wants to say 'that was my last good work' after all. Doesn't mean the old stories don't have value, just creativity is more important than being held down by what you've already wrote. Oh and for what's worth, I liked Two For the Sky."

"Thank you," I whispered. I saw my back hooves vanish, but I was moving like they still there. I waved my front hooves through where they should have been but there was nothing. "What's your name?"

She didn't stop reading the book. "Well I like to be called Pandora, but Mother, The-End-Of-All-Things, says I'm Pandemonium. The name on my birth certificate is 'Desire' though. It's not like I MEAN to drive all those artists crazy when I inspire them! Logical thinking is for drones!"

"But could anyone read without being able to think rationally?" I sigh. My mane was strips of nothingness now.

"I,Um, er, that is, . . . I, don't really think about that. I'm sure they'd figure out something!"

I laugh. "I see . . . can you promise me something?"

"Yes?"

"If you really love stories, will you please remember mine?"

Pandemonium startled. She looked at me surprised, confused?

"By Mother Entrophy, I swear to always remember every story this library ever held, including yours."

"Thank you."

-Story-Belle-

-Fin-


--

Rainbow Dash "The One, The Only"

Perfect Lady And Drama Queen

Self-Proclaimed Expert On Rainbows

Humbled After They First Learned Of Rainbows' Origins In Unicornia

Nearly Lost Her Mane Colors And Had A Nervous Break Down When Rainbows Nearly Vanished From the World

Was The Most Staunch Disbeliever In The Existence of Flying Ponies

'Pegasi Are A Myth' She Believed

Now She Has Become One

The Self That Was Before Cut Away Like An Anchor From Its Ship

Heart Joined With That Of Firefly, One Of The Most Legendary Heroes Of The First Age

Neither Existing As They Once Were Or Ever Were

Not A False Past

Not A Rewritten Past

A Past Restarted

A Path Re-Begun

But Her Choices Remain Hers

Her Life Is Still Hers

And She Is Still Beautiful

-


"Dang, where is everyone?" Scootaloo said, Ponyville's resident sports lover. "I've got lots of new games I wanna teach everypony."

The mare look out the window of Sweetie's Belle house to the outside. Something looked strange, but Scootaloo couldn't place hoof on it.

"I'm sure they just got caught up at Starsong's concert. I know I wanted to go. But this surprise 'Congratulations!' party is gonna be the best!" The adult unicorn said to her Earth Pony friend.

"You know Pinkie Pie is likely already thinking up one," Scootaloo said.

"I know!" Sweetie clapped. "Isn't it going to be great? That'll make it double surprise!"

If they were all still fillies, Scootaloo would wonder if her big sister Cheerilee was leaving her and Sweetie Belle out again.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were the youngest of the group of seven friends. This was no longer as obvious now that they were all adult mares opposed to fillies. 'Naw. That can't be it. The seven of us are as thick as thieves. Huh? Seven?'

"Sweetie Belle?"

"Yes?"

"There are six coming to the party right?"

"You, me, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, your sister: five. Just like you said."

"Thanks! I feeling confused for a second there." The two teenage fillies nodded at each. "Huh sister?"

Sweetie Belle tilted her head. "Remember? Cheerilee? You two are always butting head."

"We are?" Scootaloo shook her head. 'Cheerilee? My sister? But . . . she's a unicorn, I'm a pegasus. How can she be my sister? But, we shouted at each other when we were fillies before the Winter Wishes Festival when I accidentally woke the wishing star up early, wait, wishing star?'

Scootaloo shook her head more.

"Scootaloo you okay?" Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah I'm-I'm fine." She grunted. But she didn't feel fine. It felt like something important was missing but she couldn't remember what. The pain faded as did the confusion.

"Yeah I'm fine. Hey! Bet I can jump on the bed higher than you!" Shouted the filly as she ran into the bedroom and began bouncing on the bed.

"Hey no fair you got wings!" Sweetie Belle laughed as the slightly younger filly followed her.

~

The Draconequus next to the pink Alicorn said, "That was rather unorthodox and unprocedural for one of your position, Cadence."

"I've lived many lives. And I'll live many more after this one has completed it's cycle. My only regret is that the laws of space/time mean I can't be everywhere at once to do this quickly and painlessly. The opposite of you. Now let's hurry."

+++

"No, no, no." I said, a contrast to my normal trademark, 'Yes yes yes.'

I was Ponyville's resident photographer, records keeper, and biographer of every pony in Ponyville. I never really got involved in things directly, except for Kimono's birthday. It was amazing how it looked like it was going to be a disaster but the circle of ponies had put their wits together and turned it into one of Ponyville's grandest personal displays.

I preferred to just stay in the background and keep notes and take photographs. It was what made me happy. In particular the birthdays, no two ever identical, each one was unique, each one reflected that pony's heart, and each year they figured out something new and different.

I remember when a small group of visitors came to Ponyville, and I explained the ins and outs of Ponyville to them, in particular how ponies loved to do things in big ways and 'over the top' rarely fit into their mental process. It was nice having someone to talk to and share my profiles of the ponies with.

Now those biographies were vanishing before my eyes. One by one, the photographs, names, and records I had so painstakingly kept were wiped away like they had never been there. First I tried to find Pinkie Pie, like it or not next to Minty's recklessness she was the pony in Ponyville who was always the most proactive. But I couldn't find her anywhere. I tried to find Toola-Roola next, then StarSong. But none of the ponies I talked to had a clue who Toola-Roola or StarSong were!

"But you shared their birthday cake!" I practically shouted at one. She asked if I had been working too hard.

Now I don't like to brag, but next to Kimono I like to think I'm the Ponyville resident with the most common sense. I'll accept Wysteria as a contender and I know Pinkie Pie is smarter than she looks and-Agh! This was a headache. You have no idea how infuriating it can be to be the one pony in town who doesn't live in her own world.

Halfway to Kimono's home outside of Ponyville I collapsed from exhaustion. My birthday book fell open to my own page. I was surprised at being surprised when I saw the details of my auto-biography pages fading away like a powering down projector.

I gritted my teeth and tears stained the blanking pages. "So it's my turn now?" I whispered. "This is how it all ends? No entering a true paradise? No big bang? No final party? Just a slow, simple, fading away, like we were never here? Like we never mattered? Just brushed aside? Erased like we were all one big mistake? Not bad but not good enough? All our efforts, just amounting to nothing? Why? What's the point?"

"Razzaroo. Razzaroo it's time to come home."

I looked up. In front of me was a pony around three times bigger than I was, with wings that reminded me of Star-Catcher a little, on her head was a horn much larger than any unicorn's. And there was this feeling of -power- from her, that made me feel small just from being near her.

"Who are you?"

"My name would mean nothing to you since I have had several and will have several more. It's time for you to come home though."

"What do you mean? Come home? Are you the one destroying everyone?"

"It's not being destroyed, merely taken back to the start."

"Reversing everything so it's like it never was?! What else would you call it -but- destroying?"

"This world was breaking itself into pieces already. Didn't you ever notice that your record book never got full no matter how many birthdays or ponies you added to it? And there was always enough space between entries? If it was magic, where did you find it or who made it?"

"I, I don't know," I stuttered.

"Exactly. Those contradictions in existence came about because in your heart you wanted a book that would help you keep your records easily. The spell ponies cast three thousand years ago changed reality to suit your heart's desire. But nothing can exist without an origin. Everything must have an entry point into existence . . . and an exit point. This spell contradicts this rule."

I tilted my head. "But, isn't that what all magic does?"

"No. Magic follows its own set of rules. It obeys them as readily as anything of the natural world does. By creating contradictions in cause and effect, this world's reality has become steadily more broken. It's terminal. This is being done to save this world."

"By sacrificing the ponies?"

"They are being returned to the source. Not being destroyed."

"And all they've done, all they've experienced, all the friends they've made, will all that happen again?"

"They'll have new experiences and friends to take their place."

"Then you are killing them! You monster!"

"DO NOT PRESUME TO PASS JUDGEMENT ON ME LITTLE RECORD KEEPER! I HAVE WATCHED ENTIRE CIVILIZATION RISE TO GREATNESS AND FALL INTO DUST! I HAVE MADE CHOICES THAT COST A FEW HORRIBLE AND SAVED A BILLION TIMES SUFFERING ON FAR A GRANDER SCALE! I LIVED THE LIFE OF A SLAVE! A PRINCESS! A SHOP KEEPER! A HOUSEWIFE! AND A STREET URCHIN THIEF! AND YES, I HAVE BEEN A RECORDS KEEPER OF PONY'S LIVES. DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OR MORAL AUTHORITY TO PASS JUDGEMENT OVER ME!"

For one moment. It was like the entire universe had its eye on me, glaring at me harshly. I shook.

"Do you think I WANT to do this? Do you think any of us do? Even Destruction isn't enjoying seeing a world fade away with no legacy remaining! What you're seeing is the absolute last resort none of us wanted!"

"AND WHO LET IT REACH THAT POINT-?! IF YOU DIDN'T WANT IT WHY DID YOU LET IT HAPPEN?!"

She actually trotted back from me, I think I actually hit a nerve.

She spoke in a much calmer voice, She spoke in a much calmer voice, "...I have no right to answer that question because there is no reason, none that can justify what's happening. All I can say is I'm sorry you all must bare the cross for our mistakes...Now Razzaroo. You've done a good job. You have observed and seen them all. It's time to come home with me. Your life here has ended."


I whisper lowly, "No, no, no."

"Razzaroo." She sounded like a mother. I don't remember my mother.

"I said no. This is my home. This is my family. This is my friends. I'll stay with them until the very bitter end!"

"This world's past has been cut. It is tapering away into nothing. It'll be as if it never was."

"I still have my memories. And as long as I have those. You can't say it never was!"

She sighed. "So naive. So innocent. This world was truly pure. Perhaps a little too pure. . . . Fine. If this is the only way you'll learn. But this world is on borrowed time. It'll all fade to dust soon."

"And I'll be here to record every last moment of it!"

"Very well."

And she vanished in a flash of pink light.

I took my record book. I would rewrite every detail, and draw in every photograph if I had to. I wouldn't let the golden memories I had of everyone I loved die. I began to trot towards Kimono's.

++++


"Princess Wysteria. Take Princess Rarity and get her away from here! "
"But why?! Cheerilee! We just got here hoping Unicornia's records could-"

"JUST GO!" I shouted at the nominal princess of Ponyville.

"Not until you say what's going on!" Shouted the violet earth pony, her crowner and sage Spike riding on her back.

I looked outside a castle window and saw one of the shadows grapple Lilly Lightly. The dark violet unicorn's horn, so special with it's own glow, dissolved into nothing, her mane became blond and her coat pink. Lilly's eyes bulged as she began screaming in a panic running around in circles at the sight of herself.

"I don't know! And that's why you have to go! Anywhere is safer than here now!"

"Cheerilee you're not making any sense!" Wysteria said.

Spike whispered looking out at the sight, apparently able to see it as well, don't ask why. "It's as if a giant eraser was coming along to . . . everything."

Another of the headaches hit me, this one hard. The two conflicting memories hitting me again like a hammer to the back of my skull. I saw my life in Unicornia teaching Princess Rarity all she needed to know about being the newest yearly Rainbow Princess, but in another I saw living as a pigtailed Earth Pony in Ponyville with a little sister who I would love and squabble with as sisters will. Being part of a circle of seven friends and regarded as Ponyville's true master oral storyteller.

Little Princess Rarity sniffled as she hugged me. My heart shuddered. She had grown so much from being a spoiled little slacker, she had become such a wonderful little princess. And I couldn't remember the names or faces of the two unicorns who had gone with me to find her when she had accidentally used the royal wand to teleport herself away! A sickening feeling of emptiness tore at my gut.

"Rarity. You listen to teacher. You need to be very brave. Very, very brave. You need to get somewhere, anywhere that's safe. You're the rainbow princess after all, remember?" I wasn't fool enough to say to her 'As long as you live, Unicornia lives.'

"Not without you!" The little pink unicorn cried into my side.

I saw the shadows begin to peak through the windows and begin to slowly slid into the room.

"I'll be along in a little while," I lied. Thank goodness ponies are unused to lies that they're never on the look out for them. Especially when they knew the one telling them so closely.

"All-alright." Rarity nodded.

Spike said, "Miss Cheerilee it makes no sense for you not to come with us!"

"WHATEVER THIS IS IT'S INSIDE OF ME!" I gasp out at the confusion in my mind. "If I go with you it'll follow you!"

Rarity gasped and her lips quivered. Wysteria and Spike stared in shock.

A wrongness flowed from my horn, I shook my head. "Rarity, remember the trick you used with the magic wand to teleport far away?"

"Y-yes?"

"I need you to do that right now. Spike, Wysteria, hold onto her. But Rarity, for me." I looked into her eyes pleading.

Still crying Rarity nodded as the others reluctantly did as I asked. I handed Rarity the magic wand that was the symbol of her station. She twirled it in the air once, twice, thrice (had it taken this long before?) and she vanished in a flash of light along with the other two.

I sighed. I felt my beautiful horn fade to nothing on my forehead.

The shadows came at me from every direction, a herd of half-there ponies drawn to me like moths to a flame.

They mobbed me all at once, like a horde of starving wolves.

The last thing I remembered, was how proud I was to be Rarity's teacher. I knew she was destine to great things.

++++


The sky was black. The colors of the world around me had faded. I had so dearly wanted to run to Ponyville and see if anyone was alright, or thought that if I waited long enough I'd have a horde of ponies descending upon my lilly-pad garden begging for answers they were sure I'd be able to provide. I was the keeper of all of Ponyville's knowledge and lore after all.

A word echoed through my soul, one I had long forgotten but I remembered now clearer than day. Death. Death was coming, for everypony, no, for everything, and it was as inevitable as the sunset. I hoped I'd get a few brave ponies who would shout hyperbole about free-will and ponies being able to chose their own destiny and how there was nothing that couldn't be overcome with enough friends.

But no one came. It was all happening so fast it was like all the world and everypony in it was being simply swept away like so much chaff. Some part of me I don't think was all that surprised, I did have a reputation of being a pony impossible to catch off guard except by one spastic scatter brain green pony.

I loved my fellow ponies dearly, but their antics could be too much sometimes. Life was one big game to them, not taking seriously what they should and taking far too seriously what should be taken lightly. This was why I lived outside of town.

Being alone most of the time suited my lifestyle. I preferred having time simply to think and to appreciate the natural and create world.

My face hardened. If this was the end then it would get no satisfaction from me. It would have to get its giggles from cowering mortals elsewhere.

I trotted into the cave that served as my home and took out one book and trotted back to my gazebo.

I calmly sat down and opened my book and began to read.

In sat there, turning one page to the next.

I only had to wait a short while until I felt a pair of shadows over me. I finished reading my page and looked up.

One was large pony with wings and a horn and a swan like figure, looking as dark as night and a mane of stars her face deadly serious and detached. Darkness radiated from her like light does a flame. I resisted the chill I felt looking at her. It was like I was looking at the heart of nightmares.

The other was the complete opposite in demeanor and about half the size. The other was a creature with a brown snake like body and a horse's face. It's back legs was one hoofed limb, another was a lizard. It's forelimbs were those of a eagle's claw and a lion's paw. It's wings was one bat wing and one blue feathered wing. Its tail red and scaly, it might have been a fish's but I wasn't sure

His entire body language screamed someone didn't take life, or anything, seriously, was as playful as a puppy and who was just looking for his next big game. His eyes reminded me of a child's, excited at everything he saw. His expression? Pst. a court-jester's. For him the world was one big playroom! Rather like many ponies I knew.

"I can't say I normally get house guests the likes of you. If you wait a while I'm sure I can get some tea going if you'll wait here a minute," I said in a calm, casual, almost indifferent voice.

The two looked at each other confused. They apparently hadn't expected this reaction.

Finally the, Alicorn was it? Yes, I'm sure that's what one of my book called it. The Alicorn spoke with a voice that could knock the seeds off a dandelion at a hundred yards. "MORTAL, YOU APPEAR TO BE IGNORANT OF THOU'S POSITION! YE SHALL SHOW PROPER RESPECT FOR DIVINE AUTHORITY."

"That is the most butchered Old Equesterian I have ever heard. If you're trying to sound impressive, it isn't really working." I said tempted to go back to my poetry book.

"That's what I keep telling her! But she won't listen! Stick in the mud!" The other creature made a face at her. A draconequus? Yes. A lot more obscure though. Had found it referenced only once. "She thinks that fancy way of speaking is gonna impress anyone! Of all the balance-partners I had to get saddled with, it had to be her! The most moody stuck-up artist in creation! I thought I was supposed to be teamed with my counterpart, not my opposite!"

"SILENCE! YE, YOU SHALL CONDUCT THYSELF IN MANNER BECOMING OF ONE OF THE PILLARS OF CREATION!"

"And could you please use your indoor voice please?" I said.

"That IS her indoor voice!" He declared.

I chuckled at his response. "That so. Heh."

The draconequus turned to the other one to address her. "'You shall conduct thyself' blah, blah, blah. Where's the fun in that? Seriously, you're more boring than my mother, and she's the embodiment of heat death!"

"THE NIGHT SHALL NOT BE LECTURED BY A MORTAL! NOR BE MOCKED BY THE CLOWN WE HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO ENDURE BY THE ELDERS!"

"The night, eh? What is your name then? Nyx? Selena? Nephthys?"

"ALL OF THEM!"

"Ah. I see. A predictable answer but, logical."

"You should see how stuck-up she gets around eclipses, 'Behold! My Nighty Night-Night Shall Dominate The Sun And the Day For A Whole Three Minutes! Watch me make a big deal of it by putting you to sleep with my three year long poetry recital!"

"IT WAS ONLY ONE YEAR!"

I laughed out loud. "You are a most pleasant entity."

"Why thank you." He knelt down and kissed my hoof.

"DISCORD!!! HAVE YOU NO SHAME-?!"

"Pst. I'll do what I want, when I want, how I want." He stuck his tongue out at her so long it stretched out six feet and wiggle the forked tip at the very edge of her face.

"BE SERIOUS~!!!"

"No. And whose going to make me? You wouldn't do anything to get the Elders angry, now would you?"

"AGH! WHATEVER!" She glared at him and then looked back at me. "LADY KIMONO OF PONYVILLE. YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO BE ONE OF THE FEW PONIES TO BE SPARED OF THE CLEANSING OF THIS ONE-DIMENSIONAL SACCHARINE PINK MONSTROSITY!" She struck a pose. "HONORED YOU MUST BE TO ACCEPTED AS ONE OF THE FEW AND THE PROUD TO HAVE A SOUL AND A IDENTITY AMONG THIS LEGION OF IDENTICAL EMPTY-HEADED PERSONALITIES. YOU SHALL ASCEND WITH US AS THIS DISEASED LIMB DIES FROM ITS AMPUTATION! AND YOU SHALL BE DEPOSITED INTO THE NEW WORLD AS A GREAT AND KNOWING SAGE WHO SHALL BE KNOWN AND ADMIRED BY ALL."

"I refuse," I said flatly.

"WHAAAT~?!!!!!!" I think she knocked over my favorite tea set back in my home.

Discord burst out laughing hugging his stomach when it began to hurt. He floated in the air curling up as his body shook with the giggles. "This is classic! AHAHHA! I could've told you that was coming!"

'HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU-?! YOU ARE AN ANT IN THE PATH OF A HURRICANE! YOU WOULD DARE TO DEFY THE GIFTS OF THE GODS THEMSELVES? " I am quite certain she damaged my hearing. Her left eye was twitching.

My first urge was to kiss her hooves and beg for forgiveness for which I was unworthy and declare what a worthless nag I was for daring to contradict her in any shape or form. Discord made some silly faces that helped me find my inner resolve. Laughter in the face of such insurmountable power? Was I expressing a virtue or I was enacting madness?

"So what is to become all others?"

"Scrapped or recycled, like soda cans." Discord looked at me, "So what's the deal? No, 'what is going on?!' No, 'What are you?!' No, 'I Don't want to die?' "

"I am the keeper of Ponyville's knowledge. I'd have to be blind not to see what was coming. And I know what you both are, so I have no need to ask."

"And you didn't tell your precious fellow little ponies?"

"For what purpose? So their final days could be filled with fear and sorrow? Each brand new day is a chance for games and candy. They wouldn't think of what joys they'd want to experience in their final day. And if I told them, they'd just panic more. They don't understand loss or endings. If we could've averted this ourselves, you two wouldn't be here, would you?"

"Heh. Interesting," Discord said.

She seemed to finally get her nerves back together and said, "L-LADY KIMONO OF PONYVILLE! I SAY AGAIN! YOU ARE TO COME WITH US INTO THE NEW TIMELINE."

"And I chose no. I would sooner be 'recycled' with my fellow ponies then abandon them."

" Fellow ponies you say?"

"Yes." I went back to reading my book.

" . . . . YOUR COURAGE IS COMMENDABLE . . . BUT YOUR ARROGANCE SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED! DISCORD DO IT."

"Meh. Don't wanna."

"AND WHY NOT? YOU HAD NO PROBLEM 'PLAYING' WITH ANYTHING ELSE SINCE WE GOT HERE!"

"Its not as fun when someone wants you to do something."

The look she gave him, I think it made my heart stop.

"Yes Luna." He said in a small voice. He tapped me on the head. It was like a fist through my brain. I fell over on my side, my body felt heavy, I crashed onto my gazebo's floor with a thud. My eye rolled to the open page of my poetry book.

I march forward to the end but I am not afraid.
All I have known and all I have done is gone.
But I do not fear what lies beyond this promenade.
For I know it is from the darkest hour that comes the dawn

+++

"WHOSE IDEA IS IT FOR ALICORNS AND DRACONEQUI TO ALWAYS WORK IN PAIRS ANYWAY?"

"Your Parents I believe. Something about cosmic balance in miniature yada-yada-yada."

"AGH. I WISH THEY'D HAVE ASSIGNED ME ANOTHER COUNTER-PART."

"Hey, normally I'm teamed up with your sister remember?"

"I DON'T SEE WHY YOU INSIST ON ACTING LIKE A CHILD AND COMMITTING SUCH MEANINGLESS ACTS OF MISCHIEF. THIS AGE IS GONE AND GONE. NOTHING HERE MATTERS."

"EXACTLY. This timeline is ka-put, so we can do whatever we want! Blow up a mountain! Turn a river into lemon-lime soda! Make Two Plus Two Equal Fish! And no one is going to care! Be a clown, be a monster, be a knight, doesn't matter because nothing that happens here matters! Even the ponies we're not recycling aren't gonna remember a thing! Don't you see? This world is our own personal playground! Ha ha!"

"YOU ARE ALWAYS A CLOWN. WHO COULDN'T TAKE HIS ROLE AS A SPIRIT OF CHAOS SERIOUSLY IF HE WANTED TO. YOU AND YOUR NONSENSE."

"What fun is there in making sense? Oh come on! Loosen up a TINY BIT! Look! Look! See that mouse? Just change it a TINY bit! Doesn't matter! This world is gonna be like it never existed! Gonna be abandoned, then condemned, then demolished, and finally paved over when the new timeline catches up with it! Let yourself go just some. Who knows when we'll get to cut loose like this again!"

"IF IT'LL CEASE YOUR BLABBERING."

The mouse in a sparkle of deep blue changed into a bat. It squealed and fluttered about on it's new wings and nuzzled in her hair. She laughed. About time she did if you ask me. I mean, come on, makes me wish time had more meaning outside of the mortal plane of reality. Her sister at least laughed at my jokes!

"There? You see? I'm sure one day you'll see things my way."

She looked at me drolly. Ick. Doesn't she know her face could end up sticking that way? "THAT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN."

I grinned. "Never say never."

She stuck up her noise and trotted past me whipping me in the face with her tail. Such all consuming darkness, such cold frigid winds that followed her wherever she went, a heart of ice and mind of iron. She reminded me of my mother. I hated that icy beotch. But Her, HER, she took all things I loathed about that lazy Concept that squeezed me out and made them right! It was completely confusing! Utterly contradictory! It made no sense! I loved it!

But she'd never let me in. No matter what persona I'd wear for her. Oh well. I think that made me feel . . . what's that word again? Bad? Time for Discord's patented and copyrighted one of a kind solution! If you're feeling down, make someone else feel lower.

Were there any of those butterfly ponies left? Maybe I can turn half into parasprites and have them eat the other half.

TO BE CONTINUED