//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Destinies // Story: Destinyswap // by wingdings //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash’s wings healed, but the doctors told her she would never fly as fast as she used to. This suited her just fine, as she developed serious anxiety of flying after her traumatic crash. She lived with her parents for a few more years, but Cloudsdale made her uneasy, and her cutiemark called to her - the animals weren’t here in the clouds. So she moved to Ponyville, on the outskirts of town in an empty cottage, by the forest she’d fallen in, where the animals were. She kept her hooves firmly on the ground, and took care of the animals around her house. She bought as many books and encyclopedias on forest animals as she could get her hooves on, read voraciously about the woodland critters that she could communicate with.  She took care of all her animals, but formed a special bond with a green tortoise named Tank that she sometimes used as a headrest while she read, leaning on his shell as they cuddled on her couch together.  Rainbow Dash became a veterinarian, inspired by the doctors that had healed her, and with the ability to ask the animals what was wrong and her countless books on animal care, became a pretty damn good one at that. Eventually, word got around - the reclusive pegasus on the edge of town is who you go see if you’re having animal problems or need a petsitter.  Fluttershy loved Ponyville, and frequently asked her parents to take her there for little day-trips with her brother. She never really talked to anypony, but the residents still recognized the pink-haired filly whenever she visited, especially the Cakes, who would always offer her and her parents free samples whenever they stopped by Sugarcube Corner. Some of her happiest memories were days with her family in Ponyville, walking in the sun and smelling the flowers.  So when she decided to move out, she chose Ponyville as her destination, and contacted the Cakes, who had become almost like her aunt and uncle, asking if she could potentially have room and work at Sugarcube Corner until she found her true calling - the meaning of the balloons on her flanks still eluded her. The Cakes of course said yes, and Fluttershy made extra money on the side by foalsitting, because, as it turned out, Fluttershy was a very good foalsitter. Her social anxiety didn’t flare up around younger children, and she was able to keep them entertained and cared for for hours until their parents returned.  She felt fulfilled, like she’d never need anything more out of life, and then realized this was it - making ponies happy. That was what her talent was. When she told the Cakes, they told her about a birthday coming up that they were planning a party for at Sugarcube Corner, that she should show up and see if she would like to be an entertainer.  The prospect of being surrounded by so many ponies intimidated her, but she made it to the party, and, although she stuck close to the Cakes and awkwardly avoided other adults, the fillies and colts at the party were delighted by the balloon animals she made for them and happily played pin the tail on the pony with her. From then, the children of Ponyville began to adore the pegasus, despite their parents’ bemusement.  She can be found around Sugarcube Corner handing out little party favors or balloon animals to little ponies that ask for them, and always has a kind word to brighten their day along with it.  Pinkie Pie’s apple cutiemark surprised her parents - the rest of her family had rock-based marks - and surprised Pinkie, too, who expected maybe a pie or cupcake, something more generic related to the food she loved to make for her family. In an effort to try and find out what it meant, she retraced her hoofsteps. There were apple slices on the cupcake frosting, to represent the crisp blue of the cold sky she had seen the rainbow in. She traced them to Sweet Apple Acres. The name rang a bell. Weren't their families related somewhere distantly? Or maybe the Apples and the Pies just had a long history of doing business with each other... it was something like that, some way their families were tied together. Baking confections wasn’t a particularly useful talent to have on a rock farm, so soon after, she moved to Ponyville, found Sweet Apple Acres, and apprenticed there. The family was more than happy to take her, to fill in for the absence of a filly named Applejack.  Granny Smith was chatty, and the baby foal was noisy, but Big Mac reminded her of her sisters, a serious, quiet, hard worker that she did farm chores with. Pinkie didn’t say much, but when she talked, ponies tended to listen. She had a surprisingly high-pitched, sweet voice that rang out like a bell. The Apple Family and their regular clients began to know her for her fair judgements and always speaking her mind. She had strong opinions and wasn’t afraid to share them, but tended to be right, or at least unbiased. She has grown into an amazing baker and of course, her favorite things to make are with apples.  Applejack continued to pursue her hobby of sewing, rather than give up on it to simply pursue gems like the three on her flank. Instead, she used her ability to sense gemstones to dig them up and incorporate them into the simple garments she had begun to make. When she finally made something of good enough quality to pass her Aunt Orange’s quality test and wear out on the town, a smooth dress with tiny gem fragments incorporated in to make the fabric shine like a night sky full of stars, ponies began to talk about the young filly’s talent and sense of style.  As Applejack grew in Manehattan, she became more conscious of the problems in her city, and began to make blankets and coats for the homeless or poor, to hand out on cold days to those in need. She also continued to make simple articles of clothing for herself and her aunt and uncle until Aunt Orange suggested she make a business out of it and sell the clothes she makes.  And so Applejack did just that. On the outskirts of Manehattan, near the mountains where she could go to find gems, she set up a small shop with funding from the Oranges and began to sell dresses embedded with small gemstones and gave out free blankets to anyone who asked, even if they seemed well off. She made enough money back, as her garments were rather expensive due to having crystals in them.  Every so often, she visits Sweet Apple Acres to see how her family are doing, and was surprised to find a strong pink pony with straight magenta hair filling in for her on the farm, getting along with Applejack’s siblings as if she were a part of the Apple family herself.  In Manehattan, she stays out of the limelight despite being a fairly popular and trendsetting designer, and truly does prefer her days in Ponyville, quiet and peaceful compared to the bustling city.  After the Rainboom, her magic got a jumpstart and it finally began to do things. Unfortunately, those things often got her in trouble. It took a surprisingly long time to identify what was wrong with Rarity’s magic, what the matter was, when she would try to use magic outdoors and the weather would fluctuate, why the clouds would evaporate or it would start to snow in the middle of summer.  Rarity was born with pegasus magic, but no wings to channel it with. She was often admonished by the Ponyville weather team, who tried as best they could to teach her how to channel pegasus magic using her horn, and she got a better handle on how to manipulate the weather. She loved how the clouds looked, and would absently swirl them around in the sky when on duty. Although it caused strange patches of shade, people recognized and enjoyed the beautiful patterns and cloud structures that occurred when rarity controlled the skies. she still sometimes gets in trouble for big displays and so will almost always have a cloud or two floating around her she can absently shape into things, like a piece of clay. She will openly talk about her strange magic and how she had to learn her own way to cast ‘spells’, and a few studies have been done on her incorrect magic. She even met princess Celestia once. She works in Ponyville as a ‘weather pegasus’ and despite her difficulties, thinks she’s one of the most unique ponies in all of Equestria.  She could be anything she wanted, and she was indeed a Rarity. Twilight Sparkle was Celestia’s prestigious apprentice, a powerful unicorn scholar… though you would be forgiven if you don’t know what she looked like. She never left her suite in Canterlot, a library filled to the brim with knowledge. She was always accompanied by a small purple dragon named Spike, the very same one she’d hatched in the entrance exam, and her only true friend aside from the Princess herself. Twilight studied magic daily, working on refining her skills and gaining new information, but never doing anything more.  Her destiny was magic. The star on her flank reminded her of that fact.  But Celestia… seemed to disagree. She pushed Twilight to try new things, even though Twilight was happy where she was, almost like Celestia was trying to get Twilight a second cutiemark. Eventually, she urged her to move out of Canterlot. Twilight was shaken, fearing that the Princess didn’t want her anymore, but Celestia assured her that was not so, asking her to write letters.  And so Twilight traveled to the place Celestia had arranged for her to stay, a small town called Ponyville with an old library inside an old tree that was begging for a librarian to fix it up.  Twilight relished the task, getting to work as soon as she moved in, bringing her entire collection with her to add to the library as well. Her and Spike worked tirelessly to clean out the cobwebs and prune the branches and sort the shelves, and she eagerly wrote to Celestia that she had completely refurbished the library. Celestia responded, asking her if she’d met any of the residents yet. As if she was a foal that needed to say hello to the neighbors. However, the neighbors seemed to come to her. Despite Twilight Sparkle’s attempts to ignore the knocks on the door, the ponies in this town seemed undeterred. A few days into her stay, there was a knock at the door.