Nearly a thousand years ago, there lived three tribes: unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi, all three tribe united under two alicorn sisters. Alicorns themselves live for centuries longer than normal ponies, 5000 years to be exact. The eldest alicorn governed the day, while the youngest governed the night. Both lived in harmony with each other. Unfortunately, both also felt slightly disrespected by the tribes, and each other. The younger sister, for her first few years, kept doubting herself until she had met a pony who helped her learn about how to raise the moon. That pony, she held very close to her heart. When this pony passed away due to old age, the younger sister, as time went on, was scared and misled into thinking that ponies not seeing her night, or her own elder sister not letting them, would make them forget the pony who had helped her, and, while she could dreamwalk, which allowed her to see every pony’s dreams and bring the night with her as she comes to comfort them, it seemed increasingly to her that the moon had to rise every night or else every pony would forget the existence of the one who helped her. The elder sister meanwhile, was becoming increasingly jealous of her younger sister having the power of dreamwalking, because while she kept order in the day, it was her younger sister who ponies came to for comfort, and thus, the younger sister had a more personal connection with the ponies. The eldest was jealous and the youngest was misguided, and soon, after the eldest got manipulated by the essence of the one they call Discord, whom was already defeated at the time, and started refusing to lower the sun, a chain reaction occurred and they started to fight.
As the Two Sisters fell out, they both soon became monsters. The youngest became Nightmare Moon, a being driven towards eternal night so that ponies wouldn’t forget the pony who had helped her through her struggle, as she had helped them, while the eldest, became the much more infamous legend known as Daybreaker, fuelled by the desire for eternal day as she wished for the same personal connection her sister had with the ponies.
Their battle could’ve gone on for eternity, but then came a group of six powerful ponies: The Bringers of Hope. These Bringers had powerful magic that was used to confront the feuding sisters, and very soon, Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, while Daybreaker was imprisoned within the sun, and the Bringers used a mystical day-night amulet to control the day and night, and, since then, there has been no trace of Nightmare Moon, Daybreaker, or even the Bringers of Hope. It is said, however, that Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker will both return on the longest day, the day they were both defeated a thousand years ago, while the Bringers of Hope, regardless of lineage, have passed their magic onto six ponies of a new generation. These ponies, are the ones chosen in defeating the Fallen Two Sisters when they are to inevitably return. Over time however, when Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker were defeated, the three tribes slowly separated, and have all, since then, completely forgotten each other’s existence. It’s said however, that when the time is right, the prophecy of the new Bringers of Hope will begin.
When the youngest has performed the blast,
The six forces will come together at last.
The eldest will unite the forgotten tribes
And soon changes shall further occur for many other lives.
Others will be effected
But much lesser detected.
When all fates are ready and all secure
The fight against enmity will endure!
This is how the story of the Bringer is said to start.
Now, may the story soon begin.
Twilight Sparkle then closes the book telling that story. It was one she use to read, before she began to get inventive. She had read the book for inspiration, mainly because she remembered a tribe who ponies had tried replicating, but she couldn’t remember why it was, but knew it was mentioned in that book: Pegasi. She had always found the story of the Fallen Two Sisters interesting because of its mentioning of other tribes. While she never really believed the story because there is still no proof that unicorns or pegasi exist, it was still interesting to see what could be used as inspiration from the story. And she decided that maybe she should consider making a glider to replicate pegasus flight. It was, after all the third most common thing she’d hear ponies talk about when discussing the story of the Fallen Two Sisters, after only that of the Fallen Two Sisters themselves, and the Bringers of Hope. Among the Fallen Two Sisters, it is usually Daybreaker who is the most talked about.
Twilight in question, was a lavender earth pony mare with slightly darker purple eyes. She had a mostly horizontally straight manecut, mostly. There were small splits at the side. In terms of the colours in Twilight’s mane, they were dark blue, and purple in a vertical stripe pattern of three purple stripes and four blue ones. The part of Twilight’s mane that hung over her shoulders, and goes down to between her fore and rear hooves, has two purple stripes and four blue ones. Twilight’s tail also has a vertical stripe pattern of two purple stripes, and two blue ones. Twilight’s cutie mark is a pinkish purple six pointed star with ten white stars surrounding it and and ethereal pattern of white and purple entering the top part of the large star. Twilight’s coat was mostly fluffy at the chest, with small splits running down, and same goes for the back of her hooves, the bottom part of Twilight’s hooves were a lighter pink and, like all ponies in Ponyville, were solid rather than fluffy, and were sparkling.
After months of working and reworking the glider so that it could fly rather than glide, Twilight concludes that today would be the best time for a test flight, and decides to perform it at sunset. So she heads outside, of her home (which is a windmill) to ask her friend, Applejack if she would like to see her try out her glider. Applejack had just finished apple bucking and was headed home when she saw Twilight approaching her.
“Howdy, Twilight! Didn’t think you’d be here at this time.” she says before noticing the glider on Twilight’s back. “What that be on your back?” she adds, referring to the glider.
Earlier
Applejack had just finished bucking several apples from an apple tree. Her family were a bunch of farm ponies who make a living off of bucking apples and making different apple themed foods and drinks to sell to local ponies. She took pride in this, and would usually get herself up early to get to apple bucking as quickly as possible. It had been hobby to her, and something she did to help out her family as much as possible. Sadly, all hobbies must come to an end, so, when the day for bucking apples was over, she had decided to pay her friend, Twilight, a visit.
Applejack was a tan coloured earth pony mare with green eyes and white patches on her coat. The patches were shaped into a white, fully shaded circle in her forehead, that then goes down to around her muzzle. Her chest also had a white patch, except this one was more fluffy, and a diamond shape that went down to between her forehooves. Her mane and tail were a cream yellow, that down the right side of her mane, and down her tail, both had a pigtail with a red band. The solid bit of her hooves were green and also sparkle, and we’re shaped similarly to Twilight’s, (in fact Twilight’s and Applejack’s hoof shape is how Earth Pony hooves are usually shaped). And her cutie mark was an apple with four small green leaves surrounding it, with a slightly lighter tan colour patch surrounding it.
“Oh, that?” Twilight asks pointing to her glider. “Well, that’s why I came to see you. You know the story of the Fallen Two Sisters, right?”
“Yes. What’s that gotta so with it?”
“Well, while reading it, I found it mention pegasi, which are ponies that can fly (and control the weather) and I thought about replicating their flight.”
“Ain’t that gonna be dangerous?”
“Possibly.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to see if I can make such a machine work. I do this because I like finding things out.”
“There ain’t no talking ya outta this?” Applejack asks with little emotion.
“Nope.” Twilight says with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.
“Why do I even bother?” Applejack asks herself, “Can I at least watch you just to make sure that I can get you to a hospital as quickly as possible if you get hurt?”
“Sure. That’s actually why I came to see you, so that I could ask if you’d like to see me try it out.”
Applejack let’s out a small “Heh.” in satisfaction. While Twilight’s ideas have had a frequency of putting her in danger, she was thankfully willing for some pony to watch her and keep her out of danger. So there’s that at least. It would help however if she could actually dissuade her, but, it’s seem like that’s not possible. But she digresses.
Very soon, at around sunset, Twilight and Applejack reach a cliff with a clear majestic view of their home of Ponyville, a small town of around 270,000 ponies.
“Okay. I didn’t think you’d go for this time. What made you want to test that there glider at sunset?”
“A sort of… tribute to the story. It is what inspired me to make the glider after all.”
“But there’ll already be a tribute to the story in the next three days, Twilight.”
“Really? Three day? I didn’t know that.”
“You didn’t? In three days, it’ll have been a thousand years since the time the story of the Fallen Two Sisters supposedly took place, and the government has agreed to officially celebrate this special occasion.”
“Huh. Then we’d best get this test done before Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker return.” Twilight jokingly remarks.
Applejack chuckles. “Indeed we should, Sugarcube. Let me know if you ever get in danger.”
“I will.” Twilight says before leaping into the air with her glider wings open. She had already tested it a few times already, at least seven times, each one (minus tests 2 and 5) saw her in the air for longer than previously. She had hope for test 8, and hope was what she’d need as it turns out. As her glider wings sprung open, she flapped the wings, but this time used her analysis on how birds flap their wings as inspiration, and it worked. But there was one problem she did plan to figure out: stopping while staying in midair. She began swooping all over and above Ponyville, cheering in joy as she swooped up, down, left, and right while singing her joy.
Twilight Sparkle
After eight tests, it’s near-complete
This is why the best minds
Don’t give in to defeat.
This is the fun of being creative
Looking at the boundaries before us
Finding way around by being inventive
And seeing if the boundaries will ignore us!
As the sun is setting
No pony will be forgetting
The work moving past their very eyes
To think of what I’ve just achieved
Exceeding my own dreams?
Even I am that surprised!
Eight whole tests in two whole days!
Unfortunately, she was so caught up in the accomplishment that she didn’t realise that she was starting to swoop away from Ponyville, even when Applejack’s voice called out to tell her, until she was several miles away. Only after she swooped under a rain cloud did she realise the predicament she’d founde herself in. Realising she would need to stop and find her way back to Ponyville, she lowers herself to the ground and observes her surroundings, looking for a cliff side for her to use to swoop from. But, all she could see was an endless grassy plain.
“What’s up with those wings?” a raspy voice suddenly calls out from above.
Twilight then looks up to the clouds and sees something unnatural to her: a magenta-eyed cyan mare sitting on a cloud. The mare had an unkempt rainbow mane and tail, each colour shaped into resembling a bolt of lightning, while the pony had a pair of wings that were not pony-made like her’s, but organic, and sparkling. Even stranger still, these wings each appeared have rainbow pinions that are red at the top, before fading to green at the bottom, with orange and yellow in between. The pony also had unique characteristic in her hooves, which were a slightly darker blue than the rest of her body, and unlike the ponies in Ponyville, this pony’s hooves, not only didn’t sparkle, but also had three risen smooth-ended points at the back. And the front part of her body (and rear hooves) looked as though the wind had almost always been flowing through her fur, generating a sort of shimmer at the front with a shiny spiked pattern surrounding the top part of the hard end of the pony’s hooves, with the front of her chest having a shimmering shape that could best be described as a horizontally stretched V shaped with two lightning bolts.
A pegasus? Twilight thought to herself upon seeing the strange pony.
“Are those really your wings? It looks as if you built them yourself.” the mare asks.
“Oh, um… that’s because they actually are.” Twilight admits.
The pegasus raises a brow before asking “You’re serious?”
“Yep.”
The pegasus then looks down to Twilight hooves. “I guess that would explain the sparkling hooves.” she deduces, “Speaking of which, who are you? We’ve never met.”
“Oh, right. Sorry. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Rainbow Dash.” the pegasus, now known as Rainbow Dash greets. “Wait. If you don’t have wings… and you have sparkling hooves… are you one of those… um dirt ponies…”
“Earth ponies.” Twilight corrects her.
“Yeah, that. Are you one of them? I’ve never seen one before. I didn’t even know they existed.”
“First, yes. Second, I thought the same thing about pegasi. I only know one book that mentioned them and that book was called ‘The Fallen Two Sisters’.”
“Huh. And here, I thought only we would know that story but… it sounds like it could’ve happened. How else could there possibly be two of the same story for tribes that have forgotten each other?”
“We can’t be sure of it until we’ve… wait. Rainbow, do you have a copy of the book for me to read by any chance?”
“Sure. I’m not that big into reading, so… you can have it. Just let me go and fetch it. I’ll be back in ten seconds.”
“Okay.”
Rainbow then turns around and Twilight gets just enough time to see her cutie mark. It’s a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt, and there’s a slightly pale cloud-shaped patch surrounding it. Twilight had enough time to see it just as Rainbow zipped away to retrieve her book.
When Rainbow said “ten seconds”, Twilight probably didn’t think she literally meant that, but, turns out she did. Twilight, understandably, was bewildered.
“Here.” Rainbow says, holding the book out to Twilight with her right wing.
“Wha… but… how did you—“ Twilight stammers out, still trying to figure out how Rainbow moved so fast.
“What did I say? Ten seconds.”
“But… but I didn’t think you literally meant that. I thought you were simply just using figurative language.”
“I have no idea what ‘figurative’ means.” Rainbow admits.
“I basically didn’t think you actually meant it when you said ‘ten seconds’. How far is your home anyway?”
“You’d be surprised. But I doubt earth ponies can walk on clouds like pegasi… so, what do we do about this?”
“Hmm. Maybe you could lift me with my glider and show me where it is.”
“That could work. But if we do… please, be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because one pony up there gets crazy over every new pony she sees, and I think she’d go even crazier than she normally does is she saw you.”
“Why would…” Twilight asks before she remembers that she didn’t know pegasi exist, and Rainbow didn’t know earth ponies exist. So if this other pony gets crazy over every new pony she sees, she’d likely get even crazier over her since Twilight would be the first earth pony this pegasus would’ve met. “Oh…” Twilight realises after she had answered her own question within her thoughts.
“Yeah.” Rainbow bluntly answers “So, maybe once you’ve read that book, you could stretch the wings of that… um…”
“Glider.” Twilight says.
“Yeah. That, and I can—“
“Dashie!” a high pitch, overexcited voice yells out from behind Rainbow. “I’ve been searching all over for you!”
Reluctantly, Rainbow turns to face the source of the voice. “Now is not the best time, Pinkie.” Rainbow explains.
The voice, now known as Pinkie, asks “What’s not a good time? I thought every time was a good time.”
From Rainbow’s view, Pinkie was a blue-eyed pink pegasus mare with a slightly darker pink at the bottom of her hooves, as well as surrounding her eyes, and the patch that surrounds her cutie mark, with the patch stretching to her wings. Her mane was all long, puffy, risen, and swirly, with her tail resembling candy floss. Her sparkling wings had the same colour as her mane on the first row of feathers, while her pinions were a very light pink. Her hooves were shaped similar to Rainbow’s, with three smooth risen points at the back. The hard bit of her hooves was a darker pink from the lower part of her coat. Her cutie mark was three balloons with the centre balloon being yellow held under a blue string, while the two surrounding it were blue held under a yellow string.
“She meant you came at an inconvenient—“ Twilight says before Rainbow interrupts her.
“She knows that what I meant, Twilight.” Rainbow warns “And don’t answer her question. She’ll just notice you.” thankfully, Rainbow was at a distance that allowed her to speak with Twilight quietly without Pinkie being in hearing distance, although Rainbow did turn her gaze towards Pinkie a few times, most likely to make sure she wasn’t eavesdropping.
Twilight doesn’t finish what she was going to say, upon realising that ‘Pinkie’ may be the name of the pony that Rainbow was warning her about.
“Who said that? I don’t see anypony who speaks with that voice nearby, and I know lots of ponies.” Pinkie asks. Twilight and Rainbow both realise that the damage was already done and Pinkie was now inevitably going to find out. “And why are you near the edge of that cloud, Rainbow?” Pinkie adds. Because she called Rainbow by her actual name and not ‘Dashie’, Rainbow could tell she was actually serious about the question, and thus was catching on much faster than she could in covering it up. If Pinkie found out about Twilight, she’d go crazy, and Rainbow would have to just hope that Pinkie leaves Twilight alone soon.
Pinkie walks toward Rainbow, but not directly towards her, more likely wanting to see what’s beyond the edge of the cloud that has got her attention. In an effort to hide from Pinkie, Twilight tries walking under the cloud, hoping that Pinkie wouldn’t notice her that way. When Pinkie reaches the edge, Rainbow quickly tries to stand in front of her, but to no avail as Pinkie simply doubles back to pull a party cannon out from under the cloud, points it at Rainbow, fires it, blocking Rainbow’s view of her, and then runs past her to the edge of the cloud.
“Wow. I admit, Dashie, I never thought you would try to delay me, let alone for quite a bit of time. But if only you were able to delay me by an extra seven halves of a second.” Pinkie remarks.
“Where did you even get that?” Rainbow asks.
“I have spare party cannons all over Cloudsdale for any party cannon emergency, although I admit, this wasn’t exactly what I was picturing my first party cannon emergency to be, but hey, you’re the first time I’ve used an emergency item in a way I’d never normally intend to use it.”
After that failed attempt by Rainbow to delay her, Pinkie looks down towards the grassy plain beneath the edge of the cloud. Fortunately, she found nothing. Unfortunately, Pinkie isn’t stupid. She immediately looks under the cloud, and sees Twilight, who had taken her glider off to limit the amount of noise it would make if it were jiggling on her back.
Upon seeing Twilight, Pinkie gasps. “A new pony?!” Pinkie yells out before getting a good look at Twilight. “Wait. Where are her wings? And why are her hooves… sparkling… wait.” upon noticing, Pinkie gasps even louder, and yells out “ANOTHER TRIBE?!” she then moves to face Rainbow. “Dashie, how long have you known about this?!”
Rainbow chuckles, before admitting “Just a short while before you did.”
“Oh! We need to set up a party— no, a CELEBRATION for this! We’re seeing history here before our very eyes! There is whole other world out there, and that wingless lavender pony is proof!”
Rainbow chuckles. She’s not sure what to do here. She had never seen Pinkie act with this much enthusiasm before.
“Hey, Pinkie. In three days, it’ll be a thousand years since the time that the story of the Fallen Two Sisters took place, why don’t we celebrate then? That’ll make it a tad more special, and, might I say… memorable.” Twilight suggests having finished reading Rainbow’s copy of ‘The Fallen Two Sisters’.
Pinkie’s eyes widen at the suggestion. “Lavender-pony-I-don’t-know, normally, I prefer parties/celebrations to occur on the day I come up with them, but I’ll make an exception because that would work wonderfully! The story said that there were three tribe who forgot each other, and the celebration would mark the beginning of the reunification of the tribes, if I’m right to think that unicorns exist and your tribe are called earth ponies. Speaking of, what’s your name?”
“Oh. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Nice to meet you, Twilight. My name is Pinkie Pie. So… what brings you here?”
“Oh, well, I was testing this glider,” she points to the glider, “but I ended up being so caught up in the moment when it worked that I ended up here, in… um… what’s this place called?”
“Cloudsdale.” Rainbow answers.
“Yeah. Cloudsdale. And I don’t know my way back to my home in Ponyville.”
“Huh.” Pinkie says, “Well, I don’t know where Ponyville is, and it won’t be easy finding it in this large world, but I do want you here for the celebration here, and it would be great to have both pegasi and earth ponies come together for this, and it would be good to find the unicorns, so…”
As Twilight thinks about a way they can solve this problem, a frightening realisation hits her. “Wait. If earth ponies exist, and so do pegasi, and maybe unicorns, could the Fallen Two Sisters also exist?”
Rainbow then looks to Twilight and after thinking about it, realises the same thing, and adds “If they do, then…”
“We are all in danger!” Twilight and Rainbow tell each other, unfortunately, Pinkie wasn’t listening.
“Okay. I’ll be headed to my house to plan out and prepare the celebration.” Pinkie says “You two do whatever floats your boat. Later! La, la, la, la, la, la, la~“ Pinkie then hops away to her house.
“Wh- why doesn’t she just fly to her house?” Twilight asks.
“Apparently she enjoys it. Do understand that Pinkie is actually completely random because she’s meant to be a… rather slapstick pony to the point that some of her actions might not make much sense to you.”
“I’m not going to ask for examples of that, because I wouldn’t be surprised if she really is random.”
“Good, because I can name plenty of examples.” she then looks around and after a few moments of silence, asks “So, did you see anything different between my copy of the book and yours?”
“No, not really, aside from your copy mentioning a place called ‘Canterlot’.”
“Wow. That is strange. It’s almost like…”
“Someone or something is trying to send us there. But why?
“So… what should we do?”
“First, can you show me how far your house is from here? Then we’ll go searching for Canterlot, and who knows, we might find unicorns there. Just in case, I’ll take your copy of the book with us, just so that if there’s a unicorn version, I can see the difference between the two.” Twilight asks.
“Okay.”
Twilight then puts on her glider and Rainbow lifts it by the wings.