//------------------------------// // Part 3 // Story: Luna and the Tree Ponies // by McPoodle //------------------------------// Betwixt Silver and Gold 3: Luna and the Tree Ponies - Part 3 - Luna woke up in a bed, back in the castle. She was not in her room, but instead in a large room located in the unused “Hospital Wing”. Luna had never known what a “hospital” was before now, but she concluded it was where you put ponies foolish enough to wish themselves to the really-scary outside of the Big Ball without asking for permission first. Luna sat up and looked around. There were other beds, and at least one looked like it had been used, but the big room was currently empty. “Mommy? Daddy? Can anybody hear me?” she said out loud. “We can hear you, Luna,” said a strangely-familiar voice. And into the room walked two creatures that Luna had never seen before, which was very surprising. One was a pale lavender filly with a purple mane. And the other was a light blue stallion with a pale blonde mane with a purple ribbon tied into a bow around his neck, like he was a birthday present. He seemed to have some difficulty in walking. Both them were missing the wings that Luna’s family had. “W..who are you?” Luna asked. “These are your rescuers,” said Tia as she hobbled in. One of her forelegs was in a cast. Luna suddenly felt rather guilty about that, as she was certain her hole was the cause. The new filly bowed. “I’m Susan, and this is...The Doctor.” The new stallion bowed his head briefly. “We found you quite a long way from your home, miss. I hope you’ve learned your lesson.” “I have,” Luna said in a small voice. “Oh! If you’re both from outside the Big Ball, you must have seen the Tree Ponies! Could you tell them to visit Neurth, if only for a little while? My sister misses them terribly.” “Oh!” gasped Tia. “Is that was this was all about?” The Doctor harrumphed. “If you want to know what happened to your precious ‘Tree Ponies’, why don’t you ask your father, hmm?” “I don’t suppose reminding you that I saved your life for the fourth time is going to improve your mood any,” said Father, as he and Mother entered the room. Luna put a hoof over her mouth in shock at seeing how very grey they were—she couldn’t even tell their colors apart anymore. “I suppose I should be thankful I found the two of you unconscious so you wouldn’t resist the transformation spell. I didn’t suspect that all Ancients are as stubborn as Megan was.” Luna’s eyes glittered as she realized she was looking at two Tree Ponies, even if they were currently disguised as alicorns. “Perhaps I would have given my consent, perhaps not. But I resent not being given the choice!” the Doctor replied. “And now to learn that you...” “...you can’t turn them back!” Luna exclaimed in realization. “You don’t have enough magic left, do you?” Luna’s parents were shocked at how quickly she had figured this out, but eventually they nodded silently in acknowledgement. “I’m afraid we didn’t even have enough magic to make you into proper alicorns,” Mother apologized. Luna jumped out of bed and approached the two visitors. “I never meant to force anybody to stay here,” she said, sadly. The pony known as The Doctor looked down coldly at Luna, but then he sighed and his eyes softened. “It can’t be helped, child,” he told her. “You know, I don’t really mind all that much,” said Susan. “We were running away from our homeworld in any case—a change of species is not that much more to deal with.” “Ooo!” exclaimed Luna with big eyes. “Were you running away from The Taxes?” The Doctor laughed. “Something rather similar, yes.” Luna didn’t see much of either the Doctor or of Daddy over the next week. They spent their time talking and talking, using the biggest words Luna had ever heard before. From overheard bits of their talking, Luna figured out that Daddy had told the Doctor about what happened to the Tree Ponies, and the Doctor had told Daddy about things that made no sense whatsoever. The phrase “mistakes were made” was uttered by each of them at least once. Susan meanwhile helped Luna to fill in the big hole that Tia had fallen in, with the sister warily watching from a nearby bench. After that, Susan showed Luna how to plant flowers and vegetables. “We used to have a garden,” Tia said one day. “But not anymore. Mother said it took too much magic to tend to the plants the way that they deserved, so she goes out foraging now, once a day when everything goes still.” “My mother always liked to garden before she went to work each morning,” Susan said quietly. She was using her horn’s telekinesis to tend to a small sunflower seedling, and her eyes never left it as she spoke. “She said it was her only chance during the day to touch something she could comfort, to create life instead of death.” There was a long silence from the sisters. “...that was almost exactly what Megan said,” Tia said, finally. “This is Megan’s garden, then?” Susan said, looking over at Tia. Luna had made sure to tell Susan about Last Megan the first time she had gotten time with her away from her elder sister. “I hope you don’t mind...” “I’m sure she doesn’t mind!” said Luna, walking between them. “Right, Tia?” Tia tried to say something, but no words came out of her mouth, so she just nodded her head. That evening, Luna was on her way to the Moon side of the castle when she heard shouting coming from the Doctor’s room. She carefully snuck up to the partially-open door so she could hear what was being said. As usual with the Doctor, she was lucky to understand half of the words coming out of his muzzle. “Grandfather, I couldn’t bear to lose you!” Susan exclaimed. “I’m afraid that far more than my own life is at stake here,” said the Doctor. “I am now convinced this world is the one once known as Beach Head.” Well, he said that last word more like “beachhead”, but Luna didn’t know what that meant, so she just imagined a big alicorn head made out of sand. “Yes, Grandfather, I...” “Beach Head was the planet where the Oh-Sigh-Rans and the Gallop-Fray-ans defeated a dimensional invasion.” Luna sighed inwardly—not only was the Doctor speaking in big words, but they were getting kinda silly. “It was a bit more than just...” Susan once again attempted to explain, before once again being cut off by the elder pony. “And it was not just any dimensional invasion, Susan,” the Doctor continued, “but a threat to the very nature of existence! The Faerie came from a universe where matter and energy could be controlled by force of will.” At first, Luna thought they were talking about fairies, which she wasn’t sure were real or not. But later she learned these were different creatures entirely, and asked Tia for the correct spelling. Doing all of this thinking caused Luna to miss most of the rest of the Doctor’s explanation. There was something about a Supreme Will, and people in one universe getting sick in the other universe, and “slow portals”. “The Supreme Will built a world called This M-Bark-ation on his end of the slow portal, and Beach Head at the other end. Some of the Faerie came to live on This M-bark-ation [what a weird name!] and as the laws of this universe slowly leaked into the earth of that world, the Faerie became more and more able to live in this universe, while at the same time the laws of the Faerie were leaking into the earth of Beach Head, until it became able to support Faerie life.” “I know, Grandfather. The Oh-sigh-rans...” “The Oh-sigh-rans first discovered this invasion when they learned that the worlds of Oh-Muh-Gah Cent-Aw-Why were becoming sterile,” the Doctor continued. Luna was certain that the Tree Ponies had the weirdest names for things of any creature ever. There was some more here about these Oh-sigh-ran people getting other people to help them, and finding a way to land on Beach Head without getting hurt, and talking with that Supreme Will person, but this was all getting really boring, and Luna was beginning to wonder what this had to do with the shouting. “So there was no other choice but war.” This got Luna’s attention. Last Megan’s song about the “War of Ballantree” was one of her strongest memories of the Tree Pony—the little alicorn liked to imagine that the ghost fight outside the castle was the very same war, and she had even written a new verse for the song about the giant rock that fell on them every night. “So, on one side you have the Oh-sigh-rans and their coalition, and on the other side you have the Faerie with the power to control the very fabric of reality! Now you would think that that the Oh-sigh-rans wouldn’t have a chance, yes? What could they possibly do under the circumstances?” “They dropped a rock on them,” Susan said, not expecting to be heard. It was with great effort that Luna was able to keep herself from squealing in delight. “They dropped a rock on them. Wait, how did you know that?” Susan sighed. “Father was the Gallop-fray-an observer. The rock was his idea.” “Wait, how...?” There was some indistinct mumbling here, before the Doctor finally gave up. “Very well! And how, pray tell, did he get this wonderful idea of his?” “When he was visiting the Faerie homeworld, he noticed that gravity didn’t exist there, and he told that to the Oh-sigh-rans. They didn’t think much of this, and so tried a number of other things to defeat the Faerie, but just to keep Father from complaining they also positioned a planetoid so it would eventually collide with Beach Head. Everything else the Faerie defeated, but the slow-moving rock was not seen as a threat until it had built up so much speed that it could no longer be stopped. The impact created a new moon, the same one we see today, apparently. It also caused the massive portal to fall to the center of the planet. Since the two portals were linked, the portal on This M-bark-ation was also pulled to the center of its planet, and thus became completely worthless. And that was the end of the matter, or so everybody thought. The cluster was resettled by Hue-mans, and so was this world, which appeared to be perfectly ordinary.” “However,” said the Doctor, “the fact that this world no longer obeys normal physical laws is proof that the portal between dimensions was never completely closed. You can probably figure out what happened to the settlers on this world. By building that shield, they managed to save Oh-muh-gah Cent-aw-why without even knowing it. Now our host tells us that an object that I think is the portal is located at the bottom of a shaft right under this castle! I’d build a machine to measure how fast the portal is working, but nothing more complicated than a toaster can survive the transition when I take it out of the TARDIS, so I’ve been working on a spell that should do the same thing. I should be able to determine if the portal is acting passively, or if it is once again under the control of the Supreme Will.” “But Grandfather,” Susan protested. “We’re not truly alicorns. How can you be sure that you can survive being that close to this portal? For that matter, how do you know that even a magical creature can survive?” The Doctor sighed. “Well to be frank, Susan, that is a risk we have both agreed to take, for the safety of the entire universe.” The next day, Father and the Doctor removed the boards at the bottom of the basement, and wished themselves to the room at the bottom of the big hole that was under it. And then they got in trouble, so Luna went down after them. The bottom of the hole was very weird. What should have been sights were turned into sounds, and sounds into tastes, and tastes into feelings. And what you smelled was some new sense nobody had ever sensed before. But Luna had taken many naps while laying on top of the wooden boards, and in her dreams she had the same problem with her senses, and had heard the same awful but at the same time soothing voices, so it was not hard for her to find the two confused stallions, and lead them back to the bottom of the hole. But the Voice had promised Luna enough wishes for ice cream, and cotton candy, and an end to all of the scariness ever, so she would finally be able to leave the castle. All she had to do was open this tiny little door... This made Father mad, and he rushed back into the room and shoved Luna away from the little door. Maybe he was worried that Luna would get cavities from the cotton candy. Anyway, he grabbed the door between his hooves, and tore it off of the shimmering wall. And out of the hole behind the tiny door poured a million wishes, and Father drank all the wishes like they were water. And that was how Father got his color back, all while saving everybody everywhere in the whole universe. Later, the two Tree Ponies stood outside of their magical blue shed, ready to continue their wanderings. “By my reckoning,” the Doctor said, “Neurth will be safe for Tree Ponies in ten thousand years, if you spend the whole time bringing and keeping the magic of this world under control. Tree Ponies by their nature are very crafty, and sooner or later, they will find this world, no matter how well it may be hidden. Tree Ponies are also rather remarkable creatures, but not all of their traits are admirable, so you need to be prepared to deal with them eventually. “By a coincidence, ten thousand years is also roughly how long it will take for the Supreme Will to regain control of the portal, so you must prepare yourselves doubly for that day, to face the threat from without as well as the threat from within.” “It seems that you are predicting the beginning of a new era,” said Mother. Like Luna and Tia, she had been taken by Father to bathe in the wishing light before he turned it off for good. She had back her color, and when she spoke, it was like Neurth itself was speaking for her. “You may not have noticed this yet,” said Susan, “but today is the first day of a new era for this world. The Fourth, if I’m not mistaken. The First Era was that of the Faerie, and ended in darkness. The Second Era was that of the Earth Empire, and ended in fire. The Third Era was that of the Wizards, and ended in madness. Today we see the dawning of the Fourth Age, the Age of the Equestrians.” Father nodded. “I agree completely. Every age has had a different name for this world, and I propose to continue that tradition. From this day forth, the world of Neurth will henceforth be known as...Equestria!” The Doctor pulled his granddaughter aside. “Shouldn’t you have used ‘Equinoid’ instead of ‘Equestrian’?” Susan shrugged. “What, and have this planet called ‘Equinoidia’?” The Doctor sighed. “No, I suppose not.” He turned back to face the others. “Farewell. I’m afraid I cannot guarantee that we will ever meet again, but rest assured that we will never forget you.” Mother cast a protective bubble around the two visitors and their shed, and then Father pushed the tip of his horn into the bubble and a blinding burst of light sprang forth. When it faded, two tree ponies could be seen waving. Luna rushed forward to just outside the bubble and waved, her eyes drinking everything in. This would be a sight she would never forget for as long as she lived. The Doctor and Susan walked into the blue shed. Mother lowered the bubble and with a funny little sound, the blue shed faded away. The End. Wait, no, there’s more! A few years later, The Doctor and Susan came back, and found us in our new castle. We told them how Father had managed to unite the warring tribes and bring peace to nearly half of Equestria, and how Celestia and myself had taken on the tasks appointed to us at birth, of moving the Sun and the Moon through the sky. Susan gave me a detailed map of the heavens as seen from Earth, and I have been working hard to make the inside of the Big Ball truly represent the sky as it was once seen by the “Tree Ponies” on their planet of origin. I also left a surprise. Someday, perhaps many millennia after we have served our purpose of preparing Equestria for the Twin Threats and moved on, someone will reinvent the human telescope, and use it to examine my night sky. Maybe they will figure out that they live on the inside of a Big Ball, and hopefully by then the ten thousand years will be up, so that it will be as safe for them to leave as it will be for the humans to visit. But until that day, if they ever want to know where in the cosmos that Big Ball is truly located, all they have to do is point their telescope at the Omega Centauri globular cluster, 13 hours 26 minutes right ascension, -47 degrees 28 minutes declination. If they pick just the right spot to focus on, they will see a circle of pitch blackness, with a tiny little animated version of me standing on top and waving at them. Well, not too tiny. A telescope can only magnify so far, after all. The End. For Real.