My Little Pony: Lands of Time

by Lolsternater

The pub and Princesses

The pub was nearly full with all sorts of ponies drowning in alcohol. Some were trying to forget things, some drowning their sorrows. Many of those in here were just looking for a good time with friends, like us. We sat up at the bar front getting cider after cider, telling stories and having a laugh.

“So I tell the lady, ‘Ma’am! Apes do not think intelligently and they most certainly do not talk’. However she continued to prod me into seeing her prized find. A creature called a human? Please, something like that could never exist.” We all listened to Strings’ tale about the strange teal mare he had met on his travels. Never before had I heard of such a creature. “She was quite upset by my rejection, so I booked her to see a therapist before I left. I believe she moved to another country after that.”

I drowned another cider down my throat thankful for the rough aftertaste at the back of my throat. “Well guys, this is the most fun I’ve had in years. I don’t know how to thank you.” Drinking made me somewhat more talkative. “Hey! Why don’t we sing a song?” This would kill me in the morning.

“Why of course! I would be happy to oblige!” Yelled String. The big happy stallion basically fell onto the stage, before getting back up and facing the microphone. “Here is a song dedicated to my dear *gag* friend Dream Blizzard who saved plenty of ponies today from the evil plant thingy.”

He cleared his throat and brought the mic up close.
“A hero, so great, as he soars through the sky;
Chopping down plants and snapping vines;
Catching the dames with just a single hoof;
He’d scare all you fellas away with just one hoot.”
Nearly every head in the bar face-hoofed. Despite his voice being clear as day and wonderfully sung, nothing really rhymed.

“Well, I guess he can’t rhyme when drunk,” said Flame.

“Hey. *Hick* That’s... That’s not nice... *Hick* at all you birdie. Oh! I’m so... *Hick* Sorry,” said Free Leaf in a slurred manner, which meant she was the drunkest out of all of us.

Flame just sighed at the pathetic display of words going around the bar, and just sat there looking quite bored. She had chosen to stay sober to keep the rest of us in check. Clean beam had decided to do the same before chugging an entire vodka bottle, she then went home.

String Lyrics came wandering back over with a unicorn mare hanging over him. “Hello chaps! I would like you all to meet, Er... Silver Moon! That’s it!” Silver Moon was average sized unicorn with a silver coat and teal and bright yellow mane. She also showed off her strangely sharp teeth in a smile.

“Hello everypony! How wonderful to meet you all.” Her voice was smooth and clear, pretty much perfect. “Well, as nice as it was to meet you and your friends, String, I really must get back to my own.”

“Silver Moon! There you bloody are! Where in Dayflow's name did you damn go?” Along came a rather angry looking midnight black stallion Pegasus. “I thought I told you not to bother with idiots like them, they aren’t worth our time,” he said. Now he just went and pissed me off. No one calls me or my friends worthless, ever.

“Are we worthless, huh? Well how worthless is this!”

I smashed the empty vodka bottle left by Beam over the guy’s head. After staggering for a bit, he picked up an occupied chair from under someone and threw it at me, it hit me hard. He would have been revealing in his victory, but the guy he stole the chair from wasn’t too happy, and bucked him right in the snout.

After that all hell broke loose. Ponies were picking up whatever they could find and threw it at whatever they laid their eyes on. A mare in a cloak behind me got smacked right in the back of the head by a flying bottle of something, and was knocked unconscious, right on top of me.

Remembering first aid, anypony unconscious that had been drinking alcohol was in serious danger, so I hoisted her onto my back.

“Hey guys! I think it’s time we left.” My friends all looked at me and nodded. We pushed our way towards the exit, with String in front. We got hit my many flying objects by the time we got outside, but we were otherwise okay.

“Whew. We are *gasp* never doing *gasp* that again.” Most of the group agreed with me. Then they all stared at what was lying on my back.

“Hey Dream, who is that your carrying?” Flame landed on my back next to the unconscious mare and poked her couple of times. I walked over to some grass and put her down.

“I have no idea. She got knocked unconscious when we were inside, I couldn’t just leave her there.” String gave me a look. “What?”

“There’s a good lad! Trying to get in with the ladies huh? Just be sure she’s awake before you try anything.” Face-hoofs all round.

We looked back down at her. “I guess we should look for identification. Knowing who she is might help us find her home.” Looking at the cloak I saw it had no pockets. “No pockets. Maybe she has a pouch or something?” Hearing no objections I took the cloak off.

We all gasped at what we found underneath. A pink, mixed with a bit of blue and yellow in her mane, mare with wings that turned purple towards the tips and a horn sticking out of her forehead.

“She’s, she’s a... a...” We all locked eyes with each other. “She’s an alicorn?” There were no known alicorns in Dayflow, except for the Time Turners, but they were locked away, and none of them looked like this.

We all just sat in silence and watched the breathing of the mare. We had no idea what to do or if we should get involved in any way. At last it was Flame who spoke.

“Do you think she has something to do with the chaos magic?” No one said a thing. String grabbed the cloak and put it back over her.

“I don’t think she has anywhere to stay tonight. I’m busy as it is, and so is Leaf and Beam. I guess you will have to take care of her, Dream.” I gave him a shocked look, but knew it made sense.

After that we parted ways. I picked up the Alicorn again and headed for home. When we got back I was happy to find the sheets were finally clean, so I got them back to my apartment and made the bed. I laid the mare on it and left for the couch. Flame did not approve.

“You don’t owe her anything. Why give her the bed? You need it more.” I was too tired to care right now so I clasped on the couch and fell asleep.

The next morning the Alicorn woke with a start, her head still hurt from getting hit the night before. She looked around and didn’t recognize the place she found herself in. She got out of the bed and walked into the lounge. Lying on the couch was a slightly darker shade of sky blue Pegasus stallion whose mane was a mix of blues. She slightly remembered seeing him back in the pub last night. Quickly panicked she checked between her legs, and was relieved to find he hadn’t tried anything.

She thought about just leaving when a voice came from the kitchen. “Morning there Pink. Care for a cup of tea?” The alicorn wandered to the kitchen and found a Phoenix jumping around, grabbing cups and tea bags. “Oh by the way, could you wake up the bag of waste on the couch? He gets upset if he sleeps too long.”

The alicorn was speechless. She had seen the most trained Phoenixes in the land and none of them knew how to speak, much less form sentences. With not much else to say she made her way to the sleeping stallion on the couch. She gave him a couple of pokes before he finally started stirring. He opened one eye and looked at her lazily.

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I then screamed my head off. She reacted the same, falling over the coffee table. Flame flew in from the kitchen carrying cups of tea.

“Well don’t make a song and dance about it. It’s not the first time you’ve been woken up by a strange female.” She rolled her eyes at that, remembering the memories. “Right, so who wants tea?”

After calming down a bit we settled and took out cups. “Thank you.” Was the response from the mare.

A few moments of silence later and I started asking questions.

“So, who are you?” The mare looked up at me, as if I had said something that might be a lie and was trying to see if I was telling the truth.

“My name is Cadence,” she answered finally. “I’m looking for my brother, he came here yesterday. I fear he is in serious trouble.” Cadence looked at the floor. I noticed she had a ring on her horn, I’ll leave that question until later.

This time flame asked the question. “Where are you from? And why are you an Alicorn?” The mare looked shocked at these questions. As if she feared that we had found something she was trying to hide.

“I’m from... Trotting-ham, it’s in Equestria. I was born like this, not really sure why.” She tried giving a smile, and failed. She was obviously lying, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. She then began her own questions. “Where am I? I’ve never even heard of this place before, and how did you train your Phoenix to talk?”

Oh dear. She shouldn’t of said that. Even she knew from the way my ears drooped that this wasn’t going to end well.

“His Phoenix? His Phoenix? I am my own bird, thank you very much! I trained myself and anything more is none of your business!”

There was a knock on the wall. “Hey! Shut up in there!”

“Me shut up? You shut up you worthless pile of pony droppings! I will not take orders from anyone!” Me and Cadence had sunk into the couch by the time Flame was finished.

I quickly went to go make another cup of tea, and Cadence quietly followed. Only once we were safe from the raging Flame and had the kettle on did we continue our conversation.

“Well, that was strange. I never knew Phoenix’s had much feelings and volume,” I simply chuckled; this wasn’t the first time Flame had been ignited. “So, Cadence, tell me about this Equestria?”

She sighed, knowing she couldn’t get away with not telling me about it. “Pull up a chair.”

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"Equestria is a land ruled by two alicorn princesses; Princess Celestia, who raises the sun every morning and Princess Luna, who raises the Moon each night. The place is quite busy most of the time as there is always something being fixed by some sort of disaster. The latest was an invasion by an army of changelings.

Luckily, we have a special group of ponies who always seem to be there to save and protect our land. They are called the Elements of Harmony. They were just normal ponies at first but then they discovered the Elements when Nightmare Moon attacked, and used them to defeat her. Since then they have been defending the three princesses, and the kingdom, as well as getting into all sorts of crazy trouble.

That’s pretty much it."

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After she was done, I looked at her for a bit. She noticed this. “Is something wrong?” She asked.

“Yea, there is. You said that these Elements defend three princesses, but you only mentioned two. You also said that they were alicorns, which means the third must also be an Alicorn. So, who are you really?” She was surprised I had caught on so easily. She dropped her head in defeat.

“Yes, I am a princess. But my name is still the same. I couldn’t just go around saying I was a princess because that would draw too much attention. Please, don’t tell anypony!” Cadence actually got on the ground and begged. I was completely dumbstruck.

“Ahh, yea sure; your secret is safe with me.” She smiled greatly. “Your highness.” I let out a big smile of my own and we laughed. At least for a princess she could be casual. “So, what’s your plan now?”

She sighed before looking out the window. “Well, I still need to find my brother.” Oh snap! I had forgotten about that, other wise I would've asked. “I don’t know where he is, but I fear if I don’t find him soon I might not be able to help him.” Help him? Did he have something to do with the plants that attacked everyone yesterday?

I was about to ask more about it when there was a knock on the door. “Hey Flame! Could you get that?” I sipped on my tea and waited for Flame to tell me who was at the door.

“Dream? You might want to come here.” I got out of my chair and walked into the lounge.

Standing in the doorway was a couple of imperial guards. “You have been summoned to an appearance with the council. It is about yesterday.” Cadence came from the kitchen. “They want to see everyone involved. I guess that includes you as well."

Cadence looked at me with fear in her eyes. She might be discovered if she had to come. I gave her a reassuring smile and we made our way into the hall. The guards nodded and walked off. We followed.