In the middle of a forest clearing, Twilight Sparkle cried. These weren’t tears of pain or sorrow but instead tears of unbridled joy – the first time in what felt like years that she’d ever felt such shameless and outright happiness.
Fifteen yottahertz, she told herself. In the end, all it came down to was fifteen yottahertz.
Fifteen yottahertz, the PORTAL device’s setting a completely random-seeming calculation all thanks to Pinkie’s ever-unexplained “Pinkie Sense”, and it had come to this. Fifteen yottaherz, all because Pinkie tried to get the Stereolab computer Derpy had built so long ago to divide by zero; the result of that had fried the system so that it focused on a random reality, certainly not one Twilight would have thought of but still another dimension separated from their natural one by a paries quartum vibrational frequency of fifteen yottahertz.
Thus set with a location nopony had expected, Twilight and her group set out for their final trip. It had been just the week before, Celestia had told Twilight in private that if this last search wasn’t fruitful, for the sake of their family’s overall sanity the sun alicorn was going to end the search and issue a jus regium of legal death. It wasn’t anything Celestia wanted to do, she’d told an equally heartbroken Twilight, but after all these years, all the tragedy and loss, and the incalculable cost for the continued search, the toll had now been too great to bear.
And then Pinkie divided by zero and came up with fifteen yottahertz. And everything changed.
The crystal in Twilight’s hoof glowed with a brilliant, strobing red light. Embedded within the glass was a single strand of brown hair, cut from a newborn’s mane so very long ago and one of the few items left that said she’d ever existed. The fact that the normally-clear shard recolored itself a ruby hue filled her with trepidation, but it was the occulting of the magic within that stilled the unicorn’s breath. The flashes beat in a familiar pattern, that of a heartbeat.
Standing next to her in Guard barding instead of his lighter Wonderbolts livery, Soarin’ wiped tears of his own from his eyes. Twilight had briefed him on the function of the crystal years ago, but he’d never thought he’d ever see it in action.
Sandalwood was here, in this reality. More important, their niece…was still alive.
“Soarin’,” Twilight said, reaching out to embrace and nuzzle her old friend, as the tears of joy rained unabashedly from their eyes. “We found her, Soarin’! We found her!” Unexpectedly, he took her in his forelegs and twirled her around, both dancing for joy and not caring who watched their burst of foalish glee. As for the rest of the search team, the cheer was deafening, the applause thunderous as hooves repeatedly hit the ground. This was, without a doubt, a moment of great triumph for the members of Project SANDALWOOD, not just those present but all those who had participated over the years…and those who had lost their lives.
Seated on a nearby log, heavily bandaged but smiling nonetheless, was the heroine of the day, Blossomforth. It had been her crystal that had located Sandalwood’s heartbeat, and it had almost come at the cost of the weather pegasus’ life; she had been attacked by what she described as a “roc” – a mythical giant bird that easily dwarfed fully-grown winged dragons – and she’d somehow managed to escape its magical grabbing spell despite having broken her left foreleg, two ribs and having sprained her left wing. For weeks, dozens of pegasi had flown around this world with similar crystals, but it had been Blossomforth that had come through in the end.
However, the intelligence gathered by other pegasi was just as important, as it revealed that this world was hardly as peaceful as their own homeworld of Earth. This world, whose name was unknown assuming it had one, was filled with nightmare creatures, beings of pure malice and the very stuff that had scared foals since the dawn of time.
Humans.
And yet…somehow, these humans were different than the monsters they’d encountered on several worlds. The first one had been filled with savage, uncultured beasts that had likely been responsible for the pony foal that Rarity had so heartbreakingly named Toola-Roola and buried with care just outside her old home. The second world they’d run into was a world with nearly no land whatsoever, and the humans there were thinner, reedier and had pointed ears, but were just as vicious and brutal; the end result of that fracas had been the death of all but one member of Team Gamma. Though the bipedal monkey-monsters had been exceedingly rare, they were still cunning yet diabolical entities.
But these humans…there was no way to explain it: they weren’t the same as the others. These ones had built societies, culture and technologies. They had music and language – and to everypony’s shock, the language was modern Equestriani. So if that was the case, how did these humans build all of this? Strange, unproven theories and pseudoscience rifled through Twilight’s mind, amongst them ideas like electronics and other ideas from fantasy. But as much of a temptation as it was to consider it, the unicorn mage knew it was merely that – fantasy. Science without magic was impossible – you needed magic to perform studies, tests and research, and even so-called “non-magical” sciences like chemistry and geology still required a thorough knowledge of alchemy, geomancy, lapidimancy and related disciplines. It was simply impossible.
But despite all this…Sandalwood had lived in this strange, unknown world for nearly a decade and a half. Was she safe? Or would Twilight find her niece raised by animals and thus no different than the feral title character in Daring Do and the Jungle Pony of Zebrababwe? Or worse?
Either way, Twilight decided, it was time to take care of business. Turning to the nearest guard, a pegasus, she floated two scrolls over to him and ordered, “The first scroll is to go to Princess Celestia only, no subordinates save for Princess Luna.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the guard nodded with a sharp salute before grabbing the scrolls. “And the second?”
“The second should go to Ponyville,” Twilight commented. “137 Bluebell Lane, to a mare named Lyra Heartstrings.”
The pegasus snorted derisively. “Yeah, I’ve heard of that madmare,” he said, a tone of disgust in his voice. “Got herself kicked off the Royal Orchestra due to her crazy obsession with humans. I swear, my wife was second violinist in the Orchestra and watched that freak make su—”
Twilight narrowed her eyes, getting right into the guardstallion’s face. “That ‘madmare’ is a foalhood friend of mine, Corporal. And more importantly, as of now she is the foremost authority in our world when it comes to this one. She deserves respect, and I expect you to give it to her, do I make myself clear?”
The guard suddenly blanched, managing to squeak out an anemic “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. You have your orders,” she grunted. Not wanting to piss off the Archmagus and Knight Elemental Commander, the guard beat a hasty retreat for the nearby camouflaged tent where the portal back to Equestria lay.
“You were a little harsh on Jolly Jetstream, Twi,” Soarin’ noted.
“This is our only chance to save our niece, Soarin’,” she reminded him. “Our family has waited nearly fifteen years for this moment and if I need to be harridelle supreme to save her, I’ll do it to anypony who tries to stop me.”
“Gotcha,” he said. “I’m going to organize a flight south. Blossomforth’s patrol carried her about fifty to two hundred miles south. That’s probably a good place to start, and that way we can get a second confirmed reading.”
“Good idea,” she said, flashing him a grin as he and a dozen other pegasi took to the skies.
Hang on, Sandalwood, she thought to herself as if she could broadcast her thoughts to the Lost Foal. We’re coming.
“Breakfast!” Faust shouted. She’d taken the time to make a traditional Belgian breakfast, and on the table were assorted cheeses and baguettes, Nutella and fruits, coffee and orange juice. The moment they’d made it to the kitchen, both Screw Loose and Screwball immediately dived at the table like a pair of hungry jackals having not eaten in decades. The pair alternated between no concept of having table manners whatsoever and having them to a point that would make Emily Post blush; one moment they were licking their plates clean with tongues longer than should be humanly possible, then the next they were sipping tea, complete with pinkies outspread.
Faust was about to chastise the pair for being so chaotic – even they could control that much – when she suddenly heard soft giggles coming from behind her. She turned around to see the gigglefest turn outright into girlish laughter as Twilight fell on the floor, somehow finding the whole tour de farce beyond comedic.
“Finding this funny, are you?” Faust said in resigned tones.
The answer she got was a “Yes!” somewhere in Twilight’s laughter, and with that, the former queen decided to just let things be. It was the first time she’d seen the pepsis filly smile, much less laugh, and that was an outstanding sign that her healing – both physical and other – was going along much faster than anyone hoped.
Soon she’d be ready for the challenge of her life, and Faust had to make sure she was ready – it was their best chance to push the entropy away for another day.
Elusive had brought the boys to Twilight’s home when the others arrived. Spike immediately went upstairs to Twilight’s bedroom to get the keys to their parents’ old home while Matt and Anna decided to have a late lunch out in town and to take the kids with them. “They’re watching a video,” Elusive explained, “but I’m sure they’d be happy to get out of the house. How did everything go?”
Mike sighed. “Look, Luse, I have to be honest: I’m wondering if she gets her anger from her pony heritage as opposed to her adoptive parents. I’ve never seen Matt nor Anna as I did DJ today, and both of them would have been tearing the other’s throat out had it not been for the barrier – and even not that, really.” Mike then explained Rarity’s goading of DJ and DJ’s resulting almost-fatal faux pas.
A pensive emotion suddenly washed over Elusive. “I…see,” he responded. “Well, mother isn’t very quick to anger, but when she gets riled, she does get hotblooded at times, I admit. I trust it’s too much to hope that they made up?”
The human shook his head. “Not even close. After both of them stated how much they hate each other, it took Twilight to get DJ to agree to try to continue to work things out, for the kids’ sake, not her own; as for your mother, well, Twilight had to use some sort of magic spell to put her to sleep before it got any worse. And if you want to know the truth, that’s fine with me. My concern is seeing that my wife lets go of this thing that’s eating her alive before it broadsides her. I’ve tried to help her get over this over the years, but there’s only so much I can do due to my career. In the end, she has to make the call.”
Elusive was very quiet for several moments before clearing his throat and adding, “Ironically, before all this started, Mother had suggested that we get some help for Minty. Her husband had much the same concerns about her as you have about DJ, and though I’m not one to lose my temper I can’t help but wonder if there’s something else involved.”
“It’s possible.” Mike plopped onto the couch, leaning back and stared at the vaulted ceiling. “I love DJ totally. I have loved her and only her almost from the first day I met her. And bear in mind that at the time, she was an unknown quantity – an alien – on Human-Earth. And yet, I fell in love with her.”
Elusive gave his brother-in-law an appreciative smile. “That’s saying quite a bit about how special a stall…er, guy you are.”
“Maybe,” Mike replied. “But then again, your sister has been special to me in a way no woman ever has. While she went to college at USC and I went to the Naval Academy, we agreed to see other people to make sure what we had was real. DJ told me she’d dated a couple of guys, but nothing ever came of it. But as for me? I didn’t even do that much. Sure there were plenty of opportunities and a few I found attractive, but at the end of the day all I could see in my mind’s eye were those soulful purple eyes, just waiting there for me. And it was the day after Lyra’s wedding that I told DJ that I wasn’t going to change my mind. She was my girl and she’d always be that to me.”
“What did she say?”
He chuckled. “She actually asked me what took me so long. After our second date way back when, she decided that she was going to be mine if I’d have her, and though she knew I felt the same way, I’d never voiced it. Even still, it took a year after I went to my first assignment to officially propose to her.” He shrugged in a what-can-I-say? manner, and Elusive chuckled; as a stallion, he certainly could understand that.
“But I’m getting off-track here,” Mike continued. “Because I love your sister so much, I worry constantly that all that hatred and anger is going to tear her apart. She could do any number of things and I’m afraid someday that I’d come home from a deployment to find myself a widower.” He ran his hands though his hair, adding, “That, more than anything else is why I took this assignment – so I could be there for her when she needs me most. Things aren’t going to get much easier now regardless of what Earth we live on, but I know this much: Lyra’s right when she says she thinks a part of DJ is crying out to be accepted by Rarity. But I think she also wants Rarity to acknowledge both of us, and I’m guessing somewhere deep down my wife is willing to forgive if she can get that much.”
Elusive’s ears turned down. “I don’t know if that’s possible, as much as my extended family wants it. Mother doesn’t want DJ. She wants Sandalwood. Everypony else accepts you, and perhaps once my father sees the life you and DJ have, he might as well. But Mother has obsessed over finding her lost daughter and now what has come before her in the past twenty years is nothing more than a human in a pony shell, as if her adopted parents scooped out her soul and put a human’s in. I know that’s not the case – I met Anna briefly and she seems normal for a human and I suspect DJ’s father is the same – but DJ, even by her own words, isn’t Sandalwood; will never be Sandalwood. But that’s who Mother wants to see.”
“And DJ couldn’t be Sandalwood if she tried,” Mike stated. “She’s a stranger in her birthworld, and to her Human-Earth will always be her true home.”
The pair was deathly quiet for a few minutes before Elusive spoke again. “Do you mind if I speak to her? I’d like her to visit Father and see him. It might even bring him out of his coma. At the very least, it would be good for Father to hear her voice, I think.”
“Well, she went to take a walk right now,” Mike said. “She just wanted to be left alone for a while and I couldn’t argue with that. She’ll be back later and you can suggest it to her.”
There was one church in Northside, St. Eligius, ostensibly a Catholic Church, but used more often by all Christians of various denominations for their services as well. The rector, a Catholic monsignor, named the building St. Eligius, after the patron saint of horses – and by genetic extension, ponies. Officially, as it was currently the only Catholic presence in Alter-Earth, it was directly under the administration of the Vatican, though if there were more Catholics eventually it would become its own ecclesiastical province with a cathedral, dioceses and the like.
That was the plan, anyway; the reality had been much different. For one, whether it was due to a shared name with a famous fictional hospital or a coincidental yet derisive comment from ponies offended at what they felt was a false religion in their midst (after all, it was clear that the gods walked amongst them; who else could be earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus at once?) and so St. Eligius was known to the general public as “St. Elsewhere.”
And as a depressed DJ found herself walking through the human district, she noticed the church sitting alone, the lots on either side of it now empty since the buildings that had once been there had been torn down to make room for newer structures. According to the sign, the one on the left was scheduled to be a humanist center; the humanized pony found that mildly interesting since ponies here seemed to be shocked that other species didn’t worship the alicorns, a thought that to them was completely blasphemous. They’d probably completely lose it when it came to people who believed in no gods at all. Briefly, she wondered what the other lot would be, but figured on it eventually being a mosque, if only to balance out any atheist crazies.
Well, she admitted to herself, not all of them are bad; a few of them are even nicer than some of my fellow Christians. It’s just the hardcore anti-theists that bother the hell out of me.
And so as she found herself walking towards the church, a sad thought came to her mind: for someone who was so religious, prayed on a regular basis and read the Bible…she really hadn’t been to the base church all that much as of late. Well, if the Catholic chaplain wasn’t so boring, maybe I’d go a little more, but…I really should set a better example for the boys. And as she walked onto the grounds of St. Eligius, she made a promise to herself that she would do so as soon as they got back to Yoko, she’d do so, take the boys to the first possible mass…even if it meant sitting through another monotone sermon delivered by Father Dionos.
As she entered the building, she found that surprisingly, the architecture was similar to Our Lady of the Angels, the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; she’d been there on a regular basis when she lived in LA, even going once or twice with Logan when they had the chance. The adobe-colored walls felt warm and inviting, and at the same time, just a tad bit chiding to the humanized pony for not having attended mass – or is that my Catholic guilt kicking in?
She noticed a man coming out of a confessional booth and decided that she was due for that as well. Stepping in to sit down, she brushed her tail off her seating area as she intoned, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”
“We have all sinned at one point or another, child,” the response came from a voice, bassy and deep, yet warm. “What troubles you?”
“I…there’s a woman…excuse me, mare…who I haven’t spoken to in years. Decades, actually.”
“Decades?”
She chuckled softly. “I’m not human, Father. At least, not on the outside.”
“I think we should do this outside of the confessional,” the priest said, suddenly and surprisingly. “I think you and I should talk.” DJ found that very weird, but she did so and as she did, she found herself surprised: the priest coming out of the booth was an old man, aged but well-built like her father, as if he worked out regularly. As he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, she noted the numerous tattoos on his body and the close cropped Van Dyke beard and shaved head. Her first thought was that he looked like a biker. Her second thought was that he was probably a—
“Reformed biker,” the priest chuckled, smiling with a serene grin that would look truly fitting on that of a saint.
The look on DJ’s face was priceless. “How did you…?”
“Because you wouldn’t be the first person who thought that. As for the answer, however, you, like they, came close. I used to be a skinhead, a neo-Nazi, but now I am a devoted servant to God. And I am here in Equestria, strangely enough, because of you.”
“Because of me?” DJ asked. “Oh, you must mean ponies in general. Well, as you can see, I’m not exactly a normal pony.”
The priest, however, shook his head. “No, Ms. Martinez, I mean you in specific.” He then paused, adding, “It is still Ms. Martinez, right? Apologies if I got your name incorrect. I’ve enjoyed reading your books over the years, but I assume you’re unmarried.”
“Well, I am married, but I use my maiden name for professional reasons,” she explained as he gestured to a nearby pew. “But I’m wondering what you meant by me having something to do with you being here.”
“Well, since you came to confession,” the priest said with a grin, “I believe you’re supposed to tell me something. However, I will tell you my story afterwards. Would that be fair?”
She nodded, then began. “This is the first time I’ve been to Equestria since the trial. I never wanted to return. Dear Lord, if I never had to return to Equestria again I would have been a happy woman. But…a couple of my aunts are dying because of an incident here, and I care enough for them that I had no alternative but to return in case…well, you know.”
“It is in God’s hands,” the priest said solemnly. “I presume there’s a reason you’ve chosen not to come here before?”
She nodded. “My….” She hesitated before spitting it out; there was no other way to really clarify it. “My biological mother. Rarity.”
“Would that be Duchess Lippizan, the Bearer of Generosity?” he asked. “I’m still not entirely versed in pony politics and culture, sorry.”
DJ nodded. “But I…I’m not her daughter, no matter how much she wants me to be. And she doesn’t want me, she wants the person – pony – she thought I should have been. But I’m not that, will never be that.” The look of anger and anguish, so familiar to DJ, alit on her face once more. “She can’t – won’t – respect that my parents, my Mom and Dad, raised me to be who I am because that’s all they knew.”
“I understand,” the priest answered in a restrained tone. “I remember when you first appeared to the public: an alien, a – please forgive me, but these were my thoughts at the time – a freak who didn’t belong on our world. I could barely stand a person like your father because he refused to mind his place, and your mother was worse because she married him. I was, sadly, racist to the core. And then came you, some sort of horse…thing,” the priest said, spitting out that last word in emphasis. “You were an abomination, a creature infecting the world.” He leaned forward, as if punctuating the sentence with his very body language before retreating back to his previous position. “But Christ’s salvation came to me, and I am not the man I was then.”
DJ nodded; she’d felt that raw hatred directed towards her many a time in her life, and the turnarounds such as his or Valerie’s, she knew, were rarer than precious jewels. “But to continue: my aunt, Twilight Sparkle, wants me to make up with Rarity. My other aunts do as well. I’ve already done so in some respect: I met my younger brother Elusive, and he accepts me for who I am, and I cannot say how much I appreciate that. But Rarity…she thinks of me as a madwoman and my children as abominations, my parents as kidnappers and I cannot imagine the horrors she thinks my husband has inflicted on me.”
“And what do you want from her?”
“Nothing – she means nothing to me. I suppose you could say I owe her my life, because she gave birth to me, but the truth of that is that she gave birth to Sandalwood, her daughter. But that child disappeared to another world and was raised by two humans and that child became me. I am not Sandalwood. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that yes, I was her once, and that gave me openings to a life that few have ever had – but I didn’t have that life, just the only one I’ve ever known. Rarity has never been a part of my life since I arrived on our Earth, and she wishes no part of the life I’ve lived, only the one that was stillborn and never started.”
“Perhaps it’s not my place to say this, but have you really taken the time to consider what she wants? I realize you may find this odd, but please, hear me out. Part of the reason I’m asking is because this is what I’ve learned from you, albeit indirectly.”
DJ looked nonplussed. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“As I said before, I was a biker and a skinhead, not the kind of person you wanted living next door. And from the day you were revealed to the world, many of my then-friends would have been your worst nightmare. But then First Contact occurred, followed by the trial. While I’m sure it was a horror for you, for many of us, we believed it to be so much worse than it actually was. We’d already had enough of you – meaning just you and you alone – and we weren’t going to stand for any further – again, apologies – ‘kickstands’ infesting our world. So we took it upon ourselves to deal with it before it became a bridge too far to be stopped. So when the Equestriani government set up shop at their consulate in Houston, that’s when we struck. I took it as striking a blow against yet more ‘undesirables’. But it was the good people of Texas who let me know I was the undesirable when I was arrested for the murder of two ponies, killed when we firebombed the place.” The last words came out raspy and pained.
DJ sat there, quiet, unsure of what to say. This priest had admitted to killing people in the past, and yet was here, in the land where those two had come from. How did that come about?
He knew she would ask, so he continued unbidden. “I spent fifteen years for manslaughter in prison. I would have received life, but it was, by a small miracle, the kindness of the younger brother of one of the victims that spared me. Me and my gang had killed his sister and brother-in-law, robbed him of his only family. But that pegasus didn’t want further blood. He said he saw the rage of the humans at the invasion of their world and the rage of the ponies against the perceived original theft of one of their own. He’d seen too much pain in the clashing of the two worlds and he could not be a party to more. So while he understood I needed to pay for my crimes, he would not compound it.
“So I spent fifteen years in prison, thanks to that pegasus. For months, I didn’t understand why he visited. Was it because he was gloating over his victory? Because he was looking for revenge after all? Did he want to burn me to a cinder the same way I did to his loved ones? I dreaded every time he came, just to look at me, calmly, eagerly, as though I was the prey for a hungry lion.”
“He looked at me and one day told me that I was his last link to sanity, that he wouldn’t just let me slip into a morass of hatred and bigotry. Because to do that would be to deny everything his sister and brother-in-law stood for. If he did that, as far as he was concerned, he would lose them for good. So he made it his life’s mission to save me from myself.” The priest’s face took on an earnest cast as he added, “That day, seeing White Cocoa’s genuine concern for my own soul made me seek refuge in the prison chapel. Needless to say, I didn’t make it out of there quite the same. Once I was released from prison, I went straight to the seminary, and I begged my superiors to make my first posting here in Equestria. I have much to make up for, not only for my own soul, but for those I took as well.
“Safe to say, none of this would have come about had you not come to our world. I would still be the shame of a human being that I was, and while Cocoa’s loved ones would still be alive, we would not have our friendship and I would still hate as powerfully as I now love. And that is my point, after a fashion: until I listened to what my friend – then my self-supposed tormentor – actually had to say, all I could do was suffer in pain and torment. Christ did not suffer on the cross for that.”
“I know what you’re trying to say, Father,” DJ prevaricated, “but there’s been too much damage done to fix things.”
He smiled wryly. “And yet you said yourself that your brother accepted you for who you are, as have your aunts. What about a sister? Father? Other brothers?”
“Well,” DJ admitted, “Minty is in the hospital right now, on the verge of dying – and the one time we met…it wasn’t pleasant. My biological father is in the hospital as well, and while our first meeting wasn’t as bad I wouldn’t characterize it as a success, either. Other than that, my only other sibling was adopted, like me, and Sam’s human, so….” She shrugged.
“Then for your confession, child, I give you this penance: ten Hail Marys…and work with your brother – your biological one – to mend the gap. I have lived my life wallowing in hate and misdirected rage, and it only burns the soul. I would hate to see the same happen to you. You are too special an individual, whether human or pony, woman or mare, to let yourself be self-destroyed by hate.” He chuckled. “I remember a quote from a movie from my youth: ‘all that hate’s gonna burn you up, kid.’ Don’t let it, just as I didn’t let it happen to me. We are too loved by Christ to suffer so.”
She smiled. She wasn’t sure of what to make of his words; only that it was clear that something had affected a change in his life, and it was, unsurprisingly, related to ponies. Wonder what God’s trying to teach me here – or maybe I’m just too much of an idiot to figure it out the easy way. Unsure of what to reply, she merely nodded slightly.
The priest nodded in return, before smiling and adding, “That is all I can ask. The Holy Spirit will guide you from that point, as it did me. And I hope that you will find the peace you crave.”
“But I am at peace, Father.”
He shook his head. “I believe the saying is: ‘you can’t kid a kidder.’”
As they walked through the palace, Pip could see the tension in each of the Ceremonial Guards’ stances. A changeling queen – or at least what appeared to be one – walking freely and unfettered through the castle would definitely unnerve the most battle-hardy of soldiers…of which the modern ERG were no longer. Even though nearly half a century had passed since Chrysalis’ attack on Canterlot, many of the senior guardsponies had passed the events – maybe even a few recollections that weren’t heavily embellished – down to the younger ones, and the horrors, unreal and imagined, showed in their faces.
He noticed one particular guard looking at Imago as if ready to attack. Pip decided it was time to put a stop to it now before he had to hurt somepony. Striding forward, making sure his dress uniform was picture-perfect, he stopped right in front of the guard. The movement was enoughto block the guardspony’s view of Imago just before he would have drawn his true weapon by dropping the ceremonial pike he carried for the pistol in a hidden pocket on his barding. “Is there a problem, Guardspony?” the soldier asked.
“Colonel,” the guard hissed in a needlessly loud attempt at a whisper, “that’s a changeling – a queen, no less! With all due respect, sir, what are you doing bringing her into the palace? We have a prison for her kind, not here in the halls!”
“Guardspony, let’s get a few things clear: one, what I do is none of your concern; your duties are to protect the Royal Family. However, your exuberance today is unwarranted, as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza has specifically requested Queen Imago’s presence. Secondly, are you aware of the difference between changelings and flutters?” The guard shook his head and Pip continued. “Obviously not, because if you did then you’d know that flutters are vassals of Princess Celestia and are staunchly anti-changeling even if they have the same genetics. And lastly,” he said, leaning uncomfortably close to the guard, Pip whispered in a tone only the guard could hear, “regardless of whatever she is or may be, she is one more thing to me, Guardspony: my wife. And if you ever threaten her again, I will make sure you’re standing duty at the Royal Science Facility in Antrotica, understood?” The guard nodded slowly, terror crawling on his face, and with that, Pip went and joined Imago.
“Smoothly handled,” she whispered to him as the duo continued to walk, “though I feel horrible that you had to do that for me.”
“What, isn’t a mare supposed to swoon when her stallion steps in for her?” he said wryly, eliciting a laugh from her. The pair took a few more steps before approaching the door in question, with no further interference from the staff. At the door to the Throne Room, the guard present had apparently already been apprised of the situation and allowed them in, where Luna and Cadance were seated on their respective thrones. At the younger princess’ side was a bassinet, where a soft, playful gurgle emanated from.
As per military decorum, Pip snapped to attention, while Imago curtsied. “We are Imago, Queen of the Flutters of Dream Valley, presenting ourselves before the court of High Queen Caelum de Aurae. It is our fon—” The flutter queen looked up, horrified to find Princess Luna laughing uncontrollably.
“I’m…sorry,” she said, after a few minutes of completely helpless laughter. “I…used to be so formal and stiff, speaking in archaic Equestriani and piling on the ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s like a game of Tetris. I’ve had plenty of years to relax since, enough to tell you the same thing my sister told me: you’re among friends, Imago. You don’t have to be so formal.” The dusky alicorn descended the dais, went over to embrace the nervous younger royal. “Just call me Luna and we’ll be fine.” She then looked at Pip, saying, “You could have told her, you know.”
Pip shrugged, though there was a ghost of a smile on his face. “Luna, I’m a military stallion. Means I have to at least try to show proper military bearing.”
She nodded. “I know things have been rough for you the past couple of days, but you will always be family, Pip.” She went and hugged him. “Things have been hard on all of us lately. Just…work things out with her, okay?” The night alicorn didn’t need to specify who she was referring to.
Pip’s smile faded. “I’ll try. If she’ll speak to me again, I’ll try.”
“That’s all one can ever do. And thank you.”
Meanwhile, Imago and Cadance had already introduced themselves and were chatting along breezily. At the moment, Maggie was holding Dusk Shine in her arms. “He’s a wonderful colt, Cadance. You should be proud.”
Cadance smiled. “What about your daughter?”
Maggie gave a wan smile. “Rosie’s taking a nap in our room; the helicopter ride wore her out. I don’t blame her for that, as I was pretty astonished about it myself. Things have clearly changed a lot since the day Shining Armor found me. He…I owe him a lot, Cadance. I want you to know that. If it wasn’t for him, I’d have either died or become one of Chrysalis’ short-lived lieutenants. If there is anything I can do, please, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you, Maggie,” Cadance said, wiping a tear from her eye. “It means the world to me that he meant so much to you.”
The four continued to talk until Duskie awoke, the young colt pleasantly surprised to find himself the center of attention. Looking at the others surrounding him, he reached his little hooves out, a quartet of loving smiles aimed his way.
“He’s so much like his father and aunt,” Luna told her niece. “Another member of the Twilight family spreading light and love.”
“They do that, don’t they?” Cadance said, the laughter of love filling her voice.
Well, Sam thought to himself, if nothing else Zebrabwean cuisine is something I’ll have to try more often. He then looked at the cute blonde across the way from him and thought, and it doesn’t hurt that the view’s nice either. He then admonished himself; his “date” was actually the very individual trying to get him to take a new job here in Equestria. Furthermore, despite her human appearance, she was anything but; she was, not only metaphorically but possibly literally a goddess – in this case, Princess Celestia, the ruler of the country.
“Well, from your leaning back and sated sigh I can guess that you enjoyed lunch,” she said with a soft smile on her face. At the moment, she was lifting a teacup to her lips, a blend from Quaggaton that to Sam’s lack of tea expertise tasted like lemon tea with a quart of raspberry juice poured in.
“Well, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever had carrots prepared like that before, Yo—”
“Tia,” she interjected. “Please, just call me Tia when I’m like this, okay?”
“As long as you call me Sam, then.”
“Count on it,” she said with a grin.
“In that case, Tia, tell me why you’re so bent on having me in the position we discussed?”
“Well, as I mentioned, DJ’s—”
“Look,” he sighed. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m a cop, so it’s my job to think things out to their conclusion, even if Occam’s razor tells me otherwise. And something doesn’t entirely connect the dots. There’s more than a ton of qualified officers that could do this – I’m a sergeant, not a detective or commander or anything that high. Likewise, the job Mike just took – from what he told me, that’s a SPECOPS job, of which Mike isn’t. He’s just a line weapons officer, even though he’s seen a lot of stuff. And yet those strings got pulled and we’ve got two positions that are high-profile and could bring a lot of grief to…uh, Princess Celestia if ponies figured it out.”
“I’m sure the Princess knows what she’s doing,” Tia said enigmatically.
“Yes, but I’d like to know what she’s doing,” Sam told her. “Let’s just say that I’m not comfortable taking the job from someone who deserves it far more than I do, and knowing Mike like I do, he’d say the exact same thing. Plus, I’d like to know that my prospective boss isn’t just treating me like another piece on the chessboard.”
“Sam,” Celestia said softly, “what can I do to convince you that the job offer was meant in earnest?”
“What I want,” he said, leaning forward, “is the truth.”
“Fine,” she said, a little too brusquely. “I’m playing nepotism to stack the deck. Is that what you want to hear? But before you give me the fairness and civics speech, let me tell you that I’ve probably heard it more times in my life than you have minutes in yours. Plus, once I’m done, you’ll understand why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
He leaned back in the chair. “Okay,” he said, “I’m game.”
“There is a popular group on the rise called the Purehooves that could pose a true threat to Equestria, far larger than the so-called ones that we’re facing right now. We know about what Tehran wants, and we know what Chrysalis wants – but for the Purehooves, what they want is pure, unadulterated madness: they want to turn back the clock, to deport every non-pony in Equestria, citizen or not, and seal the gates and portals between your world and mine. Their plan is to create a supposed ‘pony paradise’, but in the end all we will see is the return of the Great Schism era. I was too young to do anything to stop it then, and I do not want to see a return to that insanity.
“So, while the Purehooves are infiltrating as many major government positions as they can, I’m doing what I can to ensure that I have individuals I can trust in positions to be able to do something about it in case of worst case scenario. I did stay here for several hundred years due to meticulous planning, you know.”
“And so you really think these Purehooves pose that much of a threat?”
“Sam, read up on your own nation’s history – an event that occurred in 1973 known as Operation Snow White.” She set down her teacup and, reaching for the kettle, refilled. “Now, I know you’re thinking that’s probably even before your parents’ time, but to me, time like that was practically yesterday. And those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to fail in the present, and I cannot fail, for the sake of my ponies.”
“I…see.” he said. He was quiet for the longest time before saying, “I’ll have to think on this, honestly.”
“Fine. We can discuss it at dinner tonight.”
He raised a brow. “Dinner?”
“Don’t worry – I was meeting with Senior Mage Potato Chip from the Guild Investigations Division, and I’d like to have you there. Regardless of your decision, I think what you might have to say will be invaluable.”
“Well, in that case, sure, count me in for that.”
“Twilight, as long as I’ve known you, you don’t do things halfway ever,” Lyra said in an appreciative yet teasing tone.
The lavender unicorn sighed; the sleep spell she placed on Rarity took more out of her than she expected, weakening her already precious reserves. “I did the best I could,” she told her old friend. “It’s going to take some time to sort out things between them, but I’m confident that it can be done.” Behind her, sitting in silence, Applejack merely nodded.
“But are you sure it’s the right thing to do?” Lyra inquired. “Don’t get me wrong: as a mother myself, I sympathize with Rarity’s situation, and if I ever lost any of my children know I’d go off the reservation as much as she did back then. But at the same time, you have to remember that I associate with DJ on a regular basis, and she and I are very close. Don’t think you guys are the only ones who care about her and consider her family.”
“No, I know you care,” Twilight replied, recalling the argument she’d had with Rarity the other day on that subject.
Unaware of her friend’s thoughts, Lyra continued. “And because I see her regularly, I saw all the damage the Foalnapping Incident and the subsequent trial did to her, and how long she’s had to force her way out of the bottomless pit she was dropped in. And I also see the constant support she’s always gotten from her family, and from Mike. I’ve seen both the good and the bad.”
“So, yer sayin’ we should just let ‘em go their own ways? Ah don’ think that’s right, Lyra,” Applejack protested. “Whut good duz that do fer DJ or Rares?”
“What good does it do to push them together when they want nothing to do with each other, AJ?” the celeste unicorn challenged. “Look, we all know the needs are there. DJ, deep down, wants to be accepted by Rarity, but not as Sandalwood. On the other hoof, we have Rarity, who wants her daughter back in her life, but she wants Sandalwood, not DJ.” The unicorn had her forelegs out, her hooves serving as palms for her example, as she separated them from each other. “They both need time to realize that the other isn’t going to change, and that in the end, they will have to accept what is there, not what never will be. But the only way they’ll do that is if they’re talked into it – separately. Forcing them together is no different than what happened to me and my father when we argued about my future way back when.”
“Ah’m sorry, but yer outta line on this’n,” Applejack said. “No ‘ffense, Ah respect ‘cha an’ all, Lyra, but t’ me, this is a family matter, an’ mah thoughts is that we gotta put ‘em t’gether, even if’n it means lockin’ ‘em up inna room an’ throwin’ away th’ key.”
An irritated look came over the diplomat’s face. “Look, there’s a saying back on human-Earth that I think applies very much, AJ: ‘Go fuck yourself.’” AJ understood what that meant immediately, but Lyra continued before the mortified earth pony could say anything further. “No offense, but ultimately this is between DJ and Rarity; if you force it, neither of them will appreciate it, and you’ll only be making things worse.” Leaning forward, a haughty look on her face, she asked, “During the time you helped raise Apple Bloom, did you solve a problem by thrusting a solution on your headstrong sister? Or was it by sitting down and listening?”
“Yeah, Ah git yer point,” the orange pony sighed.
“Plus, if I recall correctly didn’t Rarity have this problem once before – with Sweetie Belle, back when we all lived in Ponyville?”
“Believe me, it’s been brought up time and time again,” Twilight told her. “Sweetie’s even brought the subject up a few times herself. But Rarity continues to insist that the circumstances were different back then, that she and Sweetie just had differences of opinion that had to be worked out, as opposed to the ‘brainwashing that was inflicted’, quote unquote, on DJ.” The archmagus sighed. “At this point, that avenue of discussion is very much a dead end.”
“Well, thankfully you already made a salient point,” Lyra advised. “You asked DJ to be the better woman in this and work towards the goal. But that, like anything worthwhile, takes time. I know that sometimes here in Equestria it seems like any problem can be solved in thirty minutes, but humans aren’t like that, and for better or worse, DJ is human in that regard. She’s going to need time – real time, not on ‘your clock’ time – to deal with this.
“For that matter, Rarity will as well, though I would still work with her to make her understand that DJ is still her daughter, just a little different than she’d expected. And it won’t go by fast, either – you two well know it took a thousand years for Celestia and Luna to resolve their differences, and while this isn’t as epic, between DJ and Rarity, it’s not going to happen by the end of the episode.”
“‘End of the episode?’” Twilight asked, curious.
Lyra smirked. “My secretary watches way too many American TV shows, and I think she’s starting to infect me with the lingo. Then again, I have to admit I’ve cribbed a few lines for speeches from I Love Lucy.”
“Oh.”
The room briefly fell silent while Lyra changed subjects. “So with that done, care to explain to me why you’re all still behind the barrier and Rainbow’s still in a coma? I swear, Twi, you’re starting to slip in your old age.”
“I’m no yearling,” she said with a smile.
“Spare me that line – we’re the same age.”
“Maybe I just needed time to think about things,” Twilight said wryly, “and have a very worried niece do one of the things she likes least in order to come convince me.”
“What, friends and family not enough?”
“Maybe I just needed the words of someone who’s like a daughter to me,” Twilight admitted. “I have to admit, DJ’s confession – while it hurt Rarity very much, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t warm my heart.”
“It’s because you care about her, Twilight. You’ve been there for her in a way that family is supposed to be.” Lyra looked intently at her foalhood friend, and then came to a conclusion. “You’ll be a good mother someday, Twilight. I know it.”
Applejack snickered. “Lyra, hate t’ say it, but th’ chances, of Twi bein’ a mother are less than her givin’ up readin’.” The lilac unicorn blushed furiously at the words, but knew it was true: she was probably even past the upper allowance for adoption at this point.
Lyra shrugged. “Stranger things, AJ. Stranger things.”
Eventually, after a lot of idle wandering, DJ found herself at Campolina Overlook Park in the southwest end of town, just outside the gates of the palace. Considering its position, she’d walked a lot longer around the city than she’d intended…and really hadn’t noticed the roughly thirty-mile walk she’d done today. Was it the natural magic of this world working its way into her body finally, giving her the full strength of the earth pony she should have lived as? That thought unnerved her; she was already excessively strong for a human even if not for a normal earth pony; to reach the standard strength profile would have catastrophic effects in her life, especially since she was much larger than the typical mare and came close to the average stallion in size.
Which was another thing: magic didn’t play a role in her life, well, not much – she knew her natural green thumb was a result of earth pony agrimancy abilities, and there was that aforementioned strength and stamina, which was apparently now significantly increased. What was the magic going to do to her sons? Or Lyra’s children, since they were currently here as well? And were there any human/pony hybrids already living in Equestria? It was something of import, and while she trusted that Twilight and Sweetie would probably have some sort of way to deal with it, it was still a matter of concern.
As she entered the park, she saw it as the typical ornately decorated and well-tended facility, not unlike Mikasa Park just outside the base boundaries back in Japan. There were obviously differences, such as the giant marble muffin in the center of the park – that definitely fit the weird end of architecture in a city built into the side of a mountain. But it was the edge of the park, overlooking the cliffside and the open hills and dales below, that was a breathtaking vista; apparently some individual had agreed, and there were a row of ornate telescopes, some of which were being used.
“Hi! Want a muffin? I like muffins. They’re kinda special to me. Really! Especially the blueberry ones. Would you like a blueberry muffin?” DJ looked in the direction of the voice and found a pegasus mare her around age – maybe; it was kinda hard to tell – with a huge tray of muffins. She was gray, with hair and eyes a very delicate shade of pink; she was also wearing eyeglasses that seemed to help correct a vision issue. She was also clearly familiar with humans, because she was upright and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt from The Electric Postman’s 2040 “Worlds Tour”. DJ really didn’t care for the Aussie band, but she knew who they were and apparently so did the pegasus.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” DJ waved it off. “Just looking around at the park. The view is nice.”
The pegasus nodded. “Uh-huh! It’s a beautiful view of the Everfree and the towns and cities down there. You can even see as far as the start of the Badlands on a clear day. Though to be honest, I really prefer looking at Ponyville. That place is really important to me.” There was a slight catch in the mare’s voice, the sound of something lost long ago and an emotional scar imperfectly healed over.
“It is?” Something made the hairs on the back of DJ’s neck suddenly bristle, but she reached up with her tail to slap it down. Even still, her wariness had kicked into overdrive because of the mention of Ponyville. Almost nothing good ever comes from Ponyville, at least when it comes to me, DJ thought.
“My aunt – the first Baroness Campolina – and my cousins all died there. Princess Celestia said they were heroes, but I would have rather they not died.”
A lump formed in DJ’s throat. She knew immediately who those ponies were. Derpy Hooves and her daughters had died trying to save Sandalwood from being caught in an attack by someone trying to break into their house as they were babysitting the newborn filly. The filly, however, had been hit by magical lightning and sent far away. It had been fifteen years later when Sweetie Belle, Spike and Celestia had told DJ about how she’d arrived in the world she considered her home. And the guilt of having innocent ponies lose their lives in the attempt to save her was something that DJ hadn’t ever come to grips with.
“But I guess you know that already, don’t you, Miss Sandalwood?” DJ caught the name as the pegasus waved another pegasus over and she passed the muffins to that one. Still looking at DJ, the pegasus said, “I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Hazy Jane Gartside, Baroness Campolina.” She offered a hoof as a human would offer a handshake; DJ took it. “You know, I always thought that the day I met you, the first thing I wanted to do was to buck you – really hard.”
“Me?”
Hazy nodded. “Duchess Lipizzan – Rarity – was a friend of my mother’s. And she’s a friend of mine. And she’s a nice mare who has always looked out for me, she said, because she owed my aunt a favor she couldn’t repay. And I’ve heard all the fighting you’ve put her through. And that really makes me mad. Really mad. But my husband…well, he says I shouldn’t be judgmental about it and should listen to your side first. Plus, Fluttsy over there—” she pointed to the yellow pegasus she’d given the muffins to “—made me promise I wouldn’t or else she’d tell him.”
“No tasers, either!” the other pegasus shouted in their direction.
The gray pegasus sighed, then turned back to the one named Fluttsy and said, “I left it at home, okay?”
“Wait – you were serious about that?” DJ quickly squelched an urge to go on the offensive. Now was not the time, especially not in public…at least, not without some justification….
Hazy nodded. “Well, technically it’s an improved fuse design I’ve been working on in my spare time, but it has a very strong discharge capability.” The pegasus could see she was starting to go over the head of the humanized pony, so she said, “So why are you hurting Rarity? All she wants is her daughter back, Sandalwood.” DJ would have exploded at the pegasus had she not said the next sentence: “But I guess you’re not really Sandalwood, are you?”
That deflated the humanized pony’s anger. “Maybe I was once, when who you are is decided by your parents and not by you. But I grew up in the human world amongst humans and as far as I’m concerned, I am human. I married a human—”
“So did I,” Hazy said, pointing at her shirt. “But keep it a secret, okay? Danny and I live in Equestria because he likes it here, but we spend nearly as much time in Sydney, so I know what human life is like.”
“So then you understand, at least a little bit. But you and other ponies I know adjusted to the human lifestyle. I lived it, just as you lived this. I can’t just switch it on and off like the ignition button on my car. And Rarity wants that of me. She doesn’t want me to be DJ, she wants Sandalwood. But that filly is long gone and I am more than tired of constantly repeating that.”
“Are you sure that’s the case?”
DJ folded her arms in an aggressive posture. “Positive.”
Hazy mimicked the slightly taller mare, but without the attitude. “Maybe she just wants her daughter back, even though she knows it’ll never be the same. I should know. I found out about a few years ago that my father had an affair with my aunt and that Derpy Hooves was my real mother even though I was raised as the daughter of her sister, Ditzy Doo. I usually don’t mention that, but the reason I’m telling you is because Aunt Derpy, who had a significant influence in my life, watched me from both afar and up close and could never tell me the truth during her life. I don’t doubt there were days she wanted to tell me and be the mother she should have been instead of the mother-like aunt she was. But to quote one of my husband’s song lyrics, ‘While it would be so very grand, life rarely works out as per the plan’.”
“Look, Hazy, right? Pithy song lyrics aren’t going to save the day here. There’s nothing to save.”
But the pegasus continued to bull forward with her beliefs. “Rarity loves you. I’ve been there when she cried that she’d never see you again. I’ve seen her through her worst. And the years since haven’t been kind to her either. I won’t lie: she’s denied that you’ve existed several times, and she’s blamed humanity for that, so much so that she’s had to apologize to me because it seemed like she was blaming Danny personally. And I think how while she doesn’t hate humanity, she only hates your adopted parents.”
“Gee, that’s a real load off my mind, thanks,” DJ said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“But mothers always love their foals; it’s just how things are,” Hazy said. “I know you have foals…er, children with your husband, right? You love them, I presume.”
“Of course – and before you go into that, if the situation was reversed, I think I’d feel nothing but gratitude to someone for making sure my child survived in a strange world all this time. And that’s the thing that pisses me off the most: I love my Mom and Dad. I’m not brainwashed, I don’t have Stockholm Syndrome or whatever. They are, and always will be, my parents. I would have died, much less had the life I do now if it wasn’t for them, and for Rarity to just dismiss them as brainwashing thieves? That’s nothing less than obscenely insulting, and if anyone thinks I’m supposed to just accept that, well, they’re completely out of their minds.”
“No, I can understand how you feel, and if I were in your shoes I’d feel the same. But she wanted…wants… you back so much, Sandalwood—”
“My name is DJ,” the humanized pony seethed.
“I know. My husband has hardcopy and digital forms of all your books and I’m sure you hear that all the time. But I have a reason I’m calling you by your birth name. Because no matter who you are or what you’ve become, in the very beginning you were a helpless newborn foal held in white forelegs, and loved by so many.”
“Well, that’s the past. This is the present. And thanks to Rarity’s attitude, there’s no future – for us, that is.”
“Wait, I think you’re forgetting something, Sandalwood,” Hazy pointed out. Adjusting her glasses, Hazy then went face to face with the other pony. “My aunt and cousins gave their lives to protect you. And I think you owe them the chance to try to work things out. You might just find that it will.”
“You sound like you’re so sure.”
“My mother hated my aunt until the day she died, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was me. By the time she realized what a fool she’d been, Aunt Derpy was gone. You never understand what you’ve lost until it’s gone forever. Don’t be like that – and, for the record, I’ve told your mother – that is, Rarity – the same thing as well. Rarity has done so much for me; it’s the least I can do if I can be of help.” Hazy reached out with her forehooves and took DJ’s own in them. “Promise me you will. If Derpy Hooves were here, she’d say the same thing; I know she would.”
“I can’t. At the very, very least, not until she can accept my parents and my family. I will not have them demeaned like that.” She would have said more, but at that moment, her phone went off.
Hazy figured that was the best time to break off. “Well, I’ll let you get to your call. It was nice meeting you, DJ. And I hope we can be friends someday. Next time you’re by, have a blueberry muffin! We Campolinas make the best and I know you’ll just love them!” And with that, the pony walked over towards her sister and off to what she’d been doing earlier.
Meanwhile, DJ answered her phone, deciding to write off the other pony as some sort of bizarre hallucination. “Heya, hon.”
“Hey, love. Just checking on how you’re doing.”
“I thought you lost your phone,” she teased.
“Well, apparently Luna heard about that and she sent someone over with a new one, the latest model, too. I’ve really got to thank her next time I see her. Anyway…you’ve been gone for a few hours and I wanted to how you’re holding up. I know you’ve had a hard day, and…. Well, I love you and you know I’m here for you.”
“I know.” She smiled. “I’ve had a lot to think about today. As to where I am…I think I’m in the southwest portion of town. I walked up to the church in Northside, then around town, and now I’m just outside the palace.”
There was a brief silence as Mike mentally ballparked the trip. “That’s gotta be about thirty miles, hon. That’s a lot of walking. Especially for you.”
“I know. I think…I think I’m starting to absorb some of the magic of Equestria, becoming more of an earth pony, gaining the stamina of a normal, healthy one. But don’t worry, I’m not going to start walking around buck naked or anything like that…well, maybe around you, but you get the idea,” she laughed. “But it’s made me think a lot about what everyone’s said. And….” She stopped; this wasn’t going to be easy to say.
“I’m listening.” She knew if he were present, he’d have his arms around her, and she loved him for that.
She sighed, and then opened the floodgates. “Why is it so hard for Rarity to just accept that I’m not Sandalwood, and that my parents are who they are to me? I can deal with the fact that she’s my biological mother, but that doesn’t make her my Mom. And it never will.”
“Then think about the converse, hon – why is it so hard for you to accept that Rarity has wanted you in her life all those years you were gone, and now seeing that you’ll never be there, and that all that love that she had for you is spurned and you’re giving it to two people who didn’t give birth to you. At least, that’s how I’m sure she’s seeing it.
“But what I’m also seeing is that we’re all going in circles waiting for you to make a choice. And I don’t care what that choice is. You want her in your life? Fine. You never want her in your life? Fine. You want to be Daisy Jo, or you want to be Sandalwood? I don’t care. But what I care about is you. And I know we’ve been over this a million times, but I will always be by your side.”
She blushed like a schoolgirl. “You know just the right things to say to a woman, you know that?”
“Not really; if I did, I’d be married to one. Fortunately, I’ve something better in my life.”
“I don’t know if should kiss you or punch you for that statement.”
“As long as it’s you, I can deal with either.” A pause, followed by, “Well, since I have you on the phone, Luse is looking for you.”
“You don’t have to say it; I know what he wants. Which one?”
Another pause. “Silversteel – I guess that’s his…your…father. Maybe Minty afterwards. Do you want me to tell him?”
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” she said, waving for a nearby taxi, “and we can talk about it.” The cab – actually an old-fashioned Equestriani pony-drawn carriage vice a car – pulled up to the sidewalk and DJ hopped in. As soon as the humanized pony gave the address, the taxi driver headed off towards the direction of Twilight’s home.
As the taxi took off, the two pegasi stood and watched it leave. “So what did you tell her?” Flutterwonder asked her sister.
Hazy Jane smiled. “Only that she’s not as alone as she thinks. I get that she’s pretty much human, but just as much as her human mother loves her, so does her real one. Sometimes it doesn’t show, but.... On Hearth's Warming Day last year, there were a bunch of the usual tourists from out of town. The guys in the band were here helping pass out muffins and Rarity came, too. And then this little filly walked past, unicorn, couldn’t’ve been older than four. But she had the exact same coloring as Sandalwood, down to a T. And Rarity just broke down and cried; thankfully Peter was there to catch her. But she was miserable watching that little filly, seeing that foal as the daughter she lost so long ago.”
Flutterwonder shook her head. “Glad I don’t have to deal with that. Then again, I’m glad my marriage worked out much better than our parents’ has.”
“Hey, Mom and Dad are still together, and Mom is trying. I’ll take my miracles where I can,” Hazy replied, though as she watched the cab turn a corner and disappear, she quickly added, “Though it’d be nice to see Rarity smile again. Maybe I should go see her in the hospital when I get a chance.”
Luna was all but standing at the front gates to the palace when Celestia came in, dressed her softer ‘Skye’ human form, and just looking as though she’d swallowed the cat that ate the canary.
“I will not stand for this,” Luna hissed the moment her older sister came into earshot. “This is scandalous and unfair to DJ!”
“Stand for what, Lulu?” Celestia said as she reverted back to her natural form. “Are you still angry about that joke I made earlier?”
“Joke. Right,” the dusky alicorn drawled.
“I….” Celestia was contemplatively quiet for a couple of seconds, as if she was confessing via her silence. But the moment passed as she spoke. “I know how much DJ means to you, Luna, and it’s not as though she doesn’t mean anything to me. And yes, I owe Mike my life and that can have an effect on a mare’s heart. But I promise you, I would never endanger their relationship. Everypony relies on me to be their standard-bearer for morality, their lodestone for life. I cannot be that shining example if I were to do that.”
“You’ve never cared about that,” Luna half-accused. “Or has trying to get into Mike’s pants changed your outlook?”
“Lulu….” Celestia began.
“Don’t…just….don’t. It wasn’t enough for you to destroy me and Robin, was it? Now you have to rub it in my face by going after a human yourself and he’s the worst one to go after!” the Princess of the Night said, her voice cracking.
“I never wanted you to be hurt,” the day alicorn said in response. “And I only wanted the best for you and Robin. But you and he led different lives, and he said it himself – both of you were in your gilded cages, only able to escape for the moment.” The older sister approached the younger, reaching out to nuzzle her. “And if things were different, I would let you go, little sister. I know how much he meant – means – to you. But Equestria needs us, and until the day we are as distant a memory as our mother is, we are bound to our roles.”
“Tia, please don’t,” Luna said. “Don’t do this to her.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a dinner meeting tonight with Senior Mage Potato Chip. He’s going to give me an updated report on the Purehooves issue. I’ll also have Sam there as well.”
“Sam? DJ’s brother?”
Celestia nodded. “Regardless of how you think I may or may not feel, sister, my duties to you and our ponies will always come first. Always.” With that, the pastel-maned alicorn walked towards the main building of the palace grounds, leaving the younger alicorn to stand there and watch her sister’s retreating form as warring emotions filled her heart and mind.
It was just a quarter past five when DJ returned to Twilight’s home. She saw nearly everyone standing there – apparently Sam was out on personal business – and she felt that now was as good a time as any to speak. Maybe they had just happened to be congregating at once, maybe they had been there waiting for her intentionally. Maybe this was meant to happen – if so, God had a funny way of getting things across to her.
Yup, Catholic guilt kicking in like William Shatner at a grammar school, she mused to herself.
She looked at her family as they looked at her. All of them human, save for her sons, who were half; Spike, who despite being a dragon was more of a pony than she was, practically; and Elusive, who went without saying. Three parts of her family, all of which loved her, and yet at that brief moment she felt farther apart from them than anything else, an unbridgeable gap that she couldn’t get past. Each second that went past, each moment that went by the chasm between her and them got metaphorically larger and larger, and somehow she felt agoraphobic from it all.
“Is there something the matter, furball?” Anna asked, knowing her daughter well enough to recognize the slight flicker of fear in her eyes but not fully clear as to why it was there.
In response, DJ plopped down on the nearest couch, almost as if sinking into herself. For a moment, Spike saw a sort of symmetry between DJ’s morose sitting and Rarity’s infamous – and thankfully retired – “fainting couch”, but he didn’t voice it. Instead, he said to Mike, “I’ve got the keys, whenever you guys are ready to go see the place.”
Mike looked at him, asking, “Can we hold off on that until later?” He then went over to his wife and kissed her on the head, murmuring, “I know what you’re thinking, Dee.”
“You do?” she asked, somewhat perplexed.
“Well, what was it you once told me? ‘It’s the job of the spouse to do all the thinking so the other doesn’t look like a babbling idiot,’” he recited from memory.
“I said that once?” Seeing his slight nod, she blushed in shame. “I musta really been in a really bitchy mood that day,” she admitted. Rising back to her feet, she then looked at them all, making sure she had their attention. “Guys, I’ve been…well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking today. And I want to say before anything else: Mom and Dad, I love you both. I wouldn’t be anything without you and that won’t ever change. I will always be your daughter and I will always be proud to be your child.” Her eyes couldn’t help but start watering as she then intoned, “But I can’t deny that I came from somewhere else before that – here, Equestria. And….” Her voice trailed off, unsure if she should continue.
Matt put an arm around his wife, drawing her near. “Go ahead, furball,” he said. “We’re with you, always.” He gave her a comforting smile; now, as always, he was proud of her for having faced this.
“That’s both of us,” Anna added, leaning into her husband’s embrace.
“Three,” Mike said, putting his arms around her, and as she looked up to him for comfort, he kissed her gently, wordlessly lending her his strength.
Elusive sat there in an odd position; he felt as though he belonged in this moment but at the same time did not. He looked to Spike who said to him in gentle tones, “She’s going to need you to be there for her, Elusive.”
“Me? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” he said wryly, but nodded and said, “I just got her back in my life. I wouldn’t let her go for the world.”
Meanwhile, DJ continued. “Thanks, all. But being here has made me realize that I was a foal named Sandalwood before I was a girl named Daisy Jo. And the past few days, combined with the fact that I’ll be staying in Equestria soon makes me think I need to learn who Sandalwood was and should have been.” Her voice began to choke on the last few words and in turn, Mike held her closer, feeling her shudder.
“Mom, is everything okay?” Stuart asked, opting to stand next to his brother for protection. That brought a smile to the humanized pony’s face; it reminded her of so many times when she’d been there for Sam when they were younger and he needed her help. To see her older son continue down that path brought a ray of warmth into her heart.
“Everything’s fine, Stuart,” she said softly, the tears flowing free. “In fact, it’s for you and your brother that I’m doing this, dear heart. Someday you’ll want to know about who I was, and while I’ve never cared, you may want to know and that’s reason enough.”
“DJ….” Elusive began, but then suddenly couldn’t find the words. And what could he say? This was rough for her – rough and brave. There had been many times in his life when he’d faced direct challenges and faced up to them, committed errors and owned up to them, and the various things in life that were never easy on anypony…or anyone. But as he watched DJ do it now, he had to wonder if he could do the same thing. She’d already faced those kinds of things during her life amongst the humans. And now, watching her do it all over again….
She has more of Mother in her than she knows, he thought to himself.
Unaware of his thoughts, DJ looked at her brother. “I appreciate whatever words of comfort you were going to say, Elusive, I really do. But I have to do this. For my little guys, and for any other children Mike and I may have someday, and for whatever children my own have. And maybe there is a part of me that wants to do it for myself; I’ve never really felt like I have, but maybe there is. And maybe I owe it to you, and Spike, and Twilight and Sweetie and Luna and the rest of my pony family.”
She took a few minutes to recompose herself, leaning into her husband’s embrace. “But I want to make something clear: at the end of the day, I am still and always will be human, as far as I’m concerned. I will always be Daisy Jo Hikaru Martinez-Hengst. I have never known any other way of life, and to even try to be Sandalwood now…all I would be doing is just lying to myself. And no offense, Elusive, but I don’t want to be Sandalwood.”
“None taken,” he said solemnly. “I wouldn’t want you any other way, DJ.”
“But a pony I love very dearly told me that I owe it to my children, my husband and my family – both sides – to be the better woman. And I owe my aunt Twilight for that, as well as my other aunts – Luna, Sweetie, Celestia and the rest.” She felt Mike bristle slightly at Celestia’s name, and she wondered why – had they argued about something regarding her? “And while I don’t think it will change who I am, it will probably explain who I am and maybe why I am as well.
“So, Elusive…when you are ready, I’ll go with you. To meet Silversteel, or Minty…or, maybe Rarity again – not sure on that last one, though I’d like to see the others. And maybe understand a little more about where I came from, learn something about my heritage – if you’re willing to have me with you, that is.”
Elusive nodded, feeling his eyes sting with what his uncle Shining Armor used to call “liquid pride”. DJ said she would be a fixture in his life now, and she clearly meant it. “I need to brush up on the family history myself if I’m going to pass it along to my foals. This will be a good opportunity to have somepony to go over it with. But as for Father, I was hoping to see him tonight. Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She gave him a smile, one that was uncertain and trusting, looking for a lifeline. “I’d like to see the house Twilight’s giving me first, and then we can backtrack and go after, if that’s okay with you.”
Elusive nodded, knowing this was a promising sign. “That would be grand,” he replied with a wide smile.
Faust poked the door open to the room Twilight was using. She smiled as she saw the pepsis teen fast asleep, looking very peaceful and with no indicator of the past she’d been through. That was a good thing, she knew, because soon – very soon – she would have to leave and face her destiny. Faust knew that fate all too well; her own destiny had dragged her through the mud more times in her life than she could count until she’d met Greg, and even with the life they shared together she was still ever separated from her two oldest daughters, waiting for the unknown day when The Rules would subside and she could hold them in her arms, or forelegs, or whatever, again.
She suddenly heard a plastic flutter behind her, and the alicorn queen immediately turned around, just in time to see the cards fall towards the ground. Screwball had another one of her premonitions, and Faust had learned not to ignore them. Reaching out, she snatched one out of the air, just in time to look at the face of The Magician.
The woman immediately turned to look back at the dozing pepsis lying in the bed. Her wings were healing well, but would still need time to grow back in naturally; that was time she might not have, if the premonition was right. Walking quietly into the room, Faust sat down beside the young mare and sang a soft lullaby as she started to warm up a few healing spells. She was going to have to accelerate the healing and bring the filly back to fighting shape, but at the same time, she wished she didn’t have to.
“Hurts,” a soft voice said from behind Faust. “Hurts to watch.”
“Yes, Screwy,” the former queen of the alicorns said, looking at Twilight and wondering when in the near future she would be leaving them. “It does hurt to see her like this. But she’ll be brave, I know it. You did say so.”
In a hospital bed, something began to stir. It climbed out of bed, moving unnaturally, ignoring the pony dozing away on the other side of the room. Instead, it moved forward, lurching towards the door. As it cracked open the door slightly, whispering out a waterlogged, “Nurse….” before collapsing to the ground in a heap.
“That’s great, Vanilla! Congratulations!” the earth pony nurse appreciatively cooed. “You’re going to be missed.”
Vanilla Orchid, unicorn, blushed furiously. Tonight was her last night on evening watch. Tomorrow, she’d be leaving this job so she and her fiancée could get married and then move to his old hometown of Maneapolis. Sure, it wasn’t as big as Canterlot, but the regional hospital had offered her the head nurse position, which would easily make up for the fact that it was a small town. It was a chance of a lifetime and Vanilla couldn’t turn it down.
“Thanks, Honeymint,” she said. “Tell you what: I’m going to do my rounds real quick, and then when I get back I’ll tell you all about the wedding plans Diamond Frost and I came up with.”
“Sure, you do that,” Honeymint moaned, “while I just sit here and mope why my love life sucks. Why can’t I find a stallion of my own?”
“You will, Honeymint, he’s just out there waiting for you.” With that, she left her friend alone, headed on her rounds; Honeymint was a good co-worker, but she was a little too obsessed with her love life – or lack of it – as of late.
Well, if she was into mares, I could have introduced her to my cousin Misty Meadow, the unicorn thought. And while I don’t know any single stallions off-hand, maybe Diamond has a friend that I can—
She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost missed the pony lying on the ground. However, the moment she saw him, her professionalism kicked in. “Sir, just hold on!” she said, rushing to his side. She checked his pulse; it was ragged, unstable. He was going to need a doctor and he was going to need once fast. Using her telekinesis to place him onto an empty gurney, she said, “I’ll go get a doctor right now, sir!” as she looked around for the nearest Code Blue button.
But it was suddenly to her horror that the pony turned into something out of her nightmares. She screamed, but it was a futile effort, as the halls were empty and the creature dragged her towards a nearby broom closet. Within seconds, both were inside and the door slammed shut, followed by a few more instances of muffled screams, and finally what sounded like something wet slamming against the floor and a bone-snapping crack.
A few minutes later, a unicorn nurse stepped out of the broom closet, moving with purpose towards the Isolation Ward. There was much to do before the plan would be executed.
And execute, it would.