//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: I Woke Up In My Favorite TV Show, But Before I Could Do Anything, I Was Recruited By The Villainess! // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// I was not comfortable. We weren’t even halfway down the path to the village before we were spotted. Word spread fast, and before long there were a dozen ponies standing at the entrance to town, watching our approach. They wore a mix of expressions. Plenty of inviting smiles, but a couple of them seemed fairly apprehensive. Not that I could blame them, really—they couldn’t be accustomed to other ponies showing up, and I had no idea what state the village was in at the moment. Well, I had some idea, because there was one fairly major clue: Everypony still had their cutie marks. Trixie must’ve noticed the same, because she gave me a slightly confused look. I could only shrug. “We must be earlier than I thought we’d be,” I told her. “What if she’s not even here?” Trixie whispered back. “She’ll be here,” I told her. “I’m pretty sure she founded the town or something.” “Just pretty sure?” “I’m sure! And even if I’m wrong, we can just wait it out. It shouldn’t be long before—” “Hello!” I jumped at the sudden voice. I’d been so focused on Trixie, I wasn’t even paying attention to how close we were, and now there was a pony I vaguely recognized standing just feet in front of me, wearing a slightly puzzled smile. “Uh, hey!” I greeted the pony as naturally as I could manage. “I’m Starfall, and this here is Trixie. We’re travelers.” “Ah, well, hello!” The pony, a purple unicorn mare, grinned cheerfully. “I’m Sugar Belle. Welcome to our town!” Behind Sugar Belle, the other residents of the town watched the conversation with rapt attention. They still seemed largely wary of us, but seeing us talking with somepony they knew put them at least a little on ease. “So,” Sugar Belle continued, “what brings you all the way up here? I can’t say we’re much of a tourist destination, and I don’t think there’s many travels that would bring somepony up through this mountain range.” “Actually, we’re looking for someone,” I told her. “Is Starlight Glimmer living here? We have some business with her.” Sugar Belle’s eyes went wide. “Starlight? Well, yes, she’s here, but… Well, this is strange. Starlight gave us the impression that she didn’t know anypony else in Equestria. May I ask what business you have with her?” “It’s, uh, complicated,” I said. “Uh-huh.” Sugar Belle’s smile flickered for a moment. She glanced back at the other ponies, but none of them were able to provide anything other than a few shrugs. When she turned her attention back to us, she started choosing her words carefully. “Well, how do you know Starlight, then?” “We, uh…” I hesitated, but Trixie took this as an opportunity to butt into the conversation herself. “We don’t know her,” she told Sugar belle. “I see…” Sugar Belle started scrutinizing Trixie, which made her visibly uncomfortable. “C’mon, what’s the big deal?” Trixie asked. “We just wanna be her friends!” “Well, it’s just… Our town is very secluded, you see, and that’s no accident,” Sugar Belle tried to explain. “We wouldn’t want anypony to feel that they need to leave.” Behind her, some ponies nodded their heads in agreement. “We’re not gonna make her leave,” Trixie said, “we just wanna talk! She doesn’t even know us.” “Trixie,” I said quietly, “they’re worried we’re lying.” “What reason would we have to lie?” I sighed. “Think about it from their perspective,” I told her. “On the off chance we do know her, why would both we and her lie about it? It would probably mean she was trying to get away from us.” Recognition crossed Trixie’s face. “Ohhh,” she said quietly. I nodded, then turned to Sugar Belle. “Okay, I know how this might look, but it’s true that Starlight doesn’t know us. If you’re too worried, why not go ask Starlight first? If she turns us away, you’ll never have to let us see her.” Sugar Belle thought about that for a second, then trotted back and started whispering with the other ponies. After a bit of deliberation, she returned to us and nodded her head. “Okay,” she said, “that works, but on one condition. We don’t want you to be able to follow us and figure out where she lives, so we’ll need you to wait in that empty house over there, okay?” She pointed to one of the homes nearby. It looked like all the others, but the door was swinging open, and I could see that there was nothing inside. “That works,” I said, and waved for Trixie to follow me. “Come on, Trixie, let’s go wait. It shouldn’t be too long.” Trixie followed along, and behind her came another pony, a stallion with a white coat. After we stepped into the house, he shut the door behind us, and presumably took up a position outside to guard us and make sure we didn’t do anything sneaky. Trixie tried looking out the window to follow the movement of the other ponies, but I just sat down in the middle of the room and sighed. “Leave it alone, Trixie,” I told her. “Let’s not give them any more reason to suspect us.” “But—” Trixie glanced between me and the window, then groaned and trotted over to take a seat beside me. She lowered her voice and whispered to me. “Are we really going along with this? I mean, what if she turns us away? Trixie did not come all the way across Equestria to leave without even speaking to this mare!” “And what would you suggest, huh?” I whispered back. “Well, if I could see where they went, we could wait until after dark and sneak over to her house!” “You realize that’s exactly why they stuck us in here, right? To prevent that?” “Well, yes, but that’s just because they don’t know why we’re here! It’s not like we’re bad ponies!” Trixie huffed. “This is to save Equestria! Surely, being a little sneaky is justifiable for that, right? You’re the one who kept saying how important this pony is!” I sighed. “Maybe. Still, don’t go around acting suspicious. If they saw you at the window, we’d be kicked out for sure, and then they’d be on guard all night.” “But we have to know where she is!” “I already know where she lives.” “Oh. Well, why didn’t you say that sooner?” Trixie pouted. “You didn’t have to lecture me like some filly.” “I just worry about you compromising on your morals,” I told her. “I am not a bad pony! Bending the rules here and there isn’t going to suddenly turn me evil!” “I—Okay, you’re right. I should have more faith in you. I’m sorry,” I told her. “Anyway, this is probably all moot anyway, because I can’t think of any reason Starlight would turn us away. We’ll just go talk to her, explain the situation, and I’m sure it’ll all turn out just—” Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding purple light, and the world vanished. It came back a split second later, but it was different. The empty room was gone, replaced instead with a dim, cozy study. The walls were all lined with stuffed bookshelves, and there was a desk at the far end with the room’s only light flickering out from a weak lamp.  “Gah!” Trixie yelped at the sudden change, and scrambled up onto her hooves. I followed her lead, standing up next to her, and steeled myself to face the third pony in the room. Starlight Glimmer sat at her desk, leaning over an old, tattered book that she seemed wholly engrossed in. Just beyond the book, laying unassumingly on the desk, was a branch that I recognized easily as the ‘staff’ that Starlight would soon use to take over the town. “Wh-wh-wh—” Trixie stammered, struggling to regain her cool. “What the heck! Where are we? Who are you? What’s going on?” Starlight snorted out a short laugh. She didn’t bother turning to look at us, still reading her book. “Pretty sure I’m the one who’s supposed to be asking who you are.” “What? I don’t even know where we are!” Trixie replied. “We’re in Starlight’s house,” I said. I put a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder to try and calm her, and it seemed to work a bit. Then I turned to Starlight and cleared my throat. “Uh, hello Starlight,” I said. “I’m Starfall, and this is—” “Yes, yes, Trixie, I know,” Starlight interrupted. “But who are you? Nopony should know I’m here.” “That’s… Complicated,” I said. “We came to ask for your help.” “I can handle complicated,” Starlight said, “and you have a lot of explaining to do. So explain.” “Well, uh…” As I struggled, Trixie cut in. “We’re the bearers of the Elements of Harmony!” She declared proudly. “And we think you might be able to use one of them to help save Equestria!” “Pfft…” That got Starlight to look away from her book. She broke out into a fit of laughter, and as she laughed, she stood up and turned to look at us. “Seriously? That’s the best you can come up with?” “But it’s true!” Trixie said. “I mean, look, they’re right here,” she told her, pointing at the Elements strapped to our legs.  “Yeah, sure,” Starlight said, “and I’m the reincarnation of Princess Luna.” Suddenly, her smile vanished. Her features hardened into a glare, and her horn lit up as she whipped her staff around and pointed it at us. “Do you think I’m an idiot? You track me down in the middle of nowhere, in a town I designed to be unfindable, knowing things that you have no business knowing, and you expect me to believe some fairy tale story about mythological rocks? Please. You two aren’t half as clever as you think you are.” Trixie and I both took a step back, away from the staff aimed straight at us. “Look, Starlight, just hear us out,” I said. “I know it sounds unbelievable, but these are really the Elements! We came here because you’re the strongest unicorn I know of, and Equestria is in danger!” “How do you know who I am?” Starlight reared on me. “How did you know where my town was? My house? Who are you?” “What do you mean, your house?” Trixie asked. “Hah!” Starlight scoffed. “You know, I wasn’t sure if I was getting ahead of myself hiding listening devices all over town, but it turns out it was a pretty smart idea! Yeah, I heard everything.” “Well, then you should know that we’re telling the truth,” Trixie said. “You heard us talking about saving Equestria!” “I know you believe that,” Starlight replied, “but that doesn’t make it true. This one,” she said, pointing at me, “knows way too much for me to just blindly go along with all this! She’s clearly hiding something!” “The truth isn’t exactly believable,” I told her. “Try me.” “Well, I… Uh…” “Just tell her,” Trixie told me. “This is getting us nowhere.” I groaned. “Fine. The truth is, I’m from another world, and I know about the future of this world because it’s a story from my world.” Starlight stared at me for a long minute, then turned to Trixie. “You believe this pony?” Trixie shrugged. “It explains how she knew Nightmare Moon was gonna come back.” “Nightmare Moon?” Starlight faltered, and the staff clattered to the floor. “Are you sure she’s coming back?” “Oh, she already came back,” Trixie said. “We stopped her, and now she’s helping us stop the next guy.” Starlight glanced back and forth between us, occasionally looking down to sneak looks at the Elements on our legs. “But… But that’s…” She started mumbling to herself as she thought deeply. After a minute, she turned back to her desk, pulled out a pen and paper, and started frantically scribbling some kind of notes.Trixie and I just looked at each other, unsure of what to do as she spent several slow, silent minutes working through her thoughts. Finally, she dropped her pen and turned back to us. “You’re… You’re telling the truth?” We both nodded. She leaned on her desk with her head in her hooves. “But… Why me?” “Like I said, you’re the strongest unicorn I know of,” I told her.  “Oh, stop lying,” she said. “No, seriously.” I walked up beside her and hesitantly put a hoof on her shoulder. “We need your help.” She looked up at me, then down at the Element on my leg. She seemed to be at a loss for words. Trixie walked up to her other side and leaned against the desk. “C’mon, it’s worth a shot, right?” Starlight thought, then said, “What do I have to do?” “Well, they’re the Elements of Harmony,” Trixie said, “so we need to be on the same wavelength. So, step one is to be friends.” “I don’t have friends,” Starlight said. “Well, you do now,” Trixie told her. “Right, Starfall?” I nodded. “Yup.” “Just like that?”  “Just like that,” I told her. “So, are you in?” Starlight stared down at her desk for a bit. Finally, she pushed herself to her hooves and nodded confidently. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I’m in.”