//------------------------------// // Winds of Enlightenment // Story: When The World Bets Against You // by Tie RoamingHooves //------------------------------// “Aw what hell?” The filly before Ashley only tilted its head in confusion at her remark. Ashley stared... and the filly stared straight back. The awkward silence that ensued was an awkward silence to kill all other awkward silences. Ashley knew that just letting the yellow pegasus go would prove to be a fatal mistake but she didn’t want to harm her. She also didn’t want to have to move everything... AGAIN. Awkward silence, laziness, and a small yellow filly. These are the ingredients to make for a horrible conversation. But unfortunately another ingredient was added to the concoction: A disguised human. Thus, an impass was born! (Let’s see who gets the reference.) It was a stare down to end all stare downs... for the first few seconds at least. The filly pointed a hoof at the confused human/pony and giggled much to the confusion of the former. “Stop looking at me like that! Your face is making me laugh!” That caught on something within Ashley. “So wait, are you calling me ugly?” she said, not bothering to cover any of the aggravation in her voice. Ashley then realized that that was redundant because she stole this body. Using the word stole in that last thought made her feel bad. “No. You just have the funniest look on your face. It’s funny.” The way the filly was giggling reminded Ashley of a little girl. That coupled with how it was a small pony made it so cute that Ashley almost contracted cuteness induced diabetes. The filly’s magenta eyes screamed childlike innocence and it multiplied the cuteness of her because magenta was Ashley’s favorite color. Her coat was a stark yellow which was complemented with a light green straight mane. Her mane was cut short which made it end about halfway down her face. It reminded her of Raven from a classic cartoon she used to enjoy: Teen Titans. A thought occurred to her: ponies aren’t native to Saddle Arabia, camels are. She then heard some clattering and recited a phrase reflexively. “Don’t touch that.” she commanded. Coming out of her thoughts she saw the filly looking around and she couldn't think of what else to say. Her only options that could ensure the that the mission isn’t compromised was to get rid of her or to bind her so she couldn’t escape and alert local authorities. Ashley really didn’t want to do either but her hand/hoof was forced. “Are you some kind of cool scientist?” the filly asked innocently while continuing to look around. Maybe Ashley didn’t have to hurt her after all. “...Yeah.” she lied. The filly’s eyes lit up and Ashley regretted her decision to lie as for the next hour she was bombarded with questions while she tried to find a way to get rid of the filly while keeping her conscience clear. She did learn a few things though. The filly was from “Manehattan”. The filly’s name was Little Wind and if she were not so cute Ashley wouldn’t hesitate in throwing into a fire to shut her up. Another thirty minutes passed and the filly finally was about to show herself out. Ashley told her that her “research” was secret and the filly promised that she wouldn’t tell a soul. She had put it on “Crusaders Honor” which led Ashley to believe that the filly was truly honor bound because Little Wind went on to stress about how important “Crusaders Honor” was to her. (Something about cutie marks, bad seeds, and other things that Ashley didn’t hear when she zoned out a little bit during her explanation.) The filly said that her she would probably get in trouble for being out so late as it turned out that hour was truly a couple of hours. Little Wind walked up the incline and then tripped over a loose stone and tumbled back down much like she did when she came in but this time she hit her head on a crate and she was knocked out cold. This left Ashley with two problems because she then heard footsteps at the entrance of the cave. She turned around and saw a blue maned pony clad in armor but was minus a helmet. There was only one response for this situation. Ashley facepalmed/hooved and sighed. “Fuck my life.” Cadence had teleported out of the dungeons and into the castle. She had misinterpreted the distance between there and her chambers but was grateful nonetheless because she could have ended up halfway inside of a wall. She had ended up in the dining hall and decided to calm her nerves with a bit of red velvet cake: her favorite. She trotted out of the dining hall while levitating her slice of cake. She passed the Hall of Harmony, which housed the Elements of Harmony, and stopped. She nodded to the guards at the door and they nodded back in return. This place became a sort of “home away from home” for Cadence ever since Twilight’s disappearance. She felt ashamed that she never really made time to see Twilight when she moved away to Ponyville. Twilight was like a sister to her but she had missed out on Twilight’s life up until her and Shining Armour’s wedding day, despite the fiasco that ensued. Cadence gave a sad smile and looked at the stained glass window. It depicted the Twilight and her friends fighting off changelings while Cadence and Shining Armour crossed horns and were encircled by a pink aura that seemed like it was expanding. The second fiasco was lesser known but it involved Pinkie Pie and her party cannon not being able to fit a wedding cake inside of it but it wasn’t deemed important enough to get a window like this event. Whoever made this window had to be incredibly talented. She looked behind her at all the other windows depicting Twilight and her friends’ accomplishments, her eyes though, were focused solely on Twilight. She saw another window. It was one depicting Twilight Sparkle leading Cerberus back to his post within Tartarus. She chuckled. She remembered Twilight telling her all about that trip. She had thought that Cerberus was the disaster that her future self was trying to warn her about... The red velvet cake and the plate it rested on found its way to the floor. It’s owner: absent. Cadence flew out of the door and made her way towards the Canterlot Archives. She had knew how she could find out where Twilight is... or at least if she would ever be found. This made her gallop slow into a quick trot. Maybe she shouldn’t do it. If it turns out that Twilight is gone forever... she didn’t know if her heart could take it... No. She would be found. She couldn’t possibly be dead or gone. Twilight was far too strong her to let that happen to herself. That was for sure. The young princess returned to her gallop blowing past door after door. After another seven minutes of galloping she stopped in front of the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing, panting from exhaustion. Looking up and seeing where she was she got an energy boost as she started to run solely on hope. She looked at the second to last shelf where Twilight had told her she had put it. She used her magic to grab scroll from the top shelf and took it down and began to read it. She quickly read it and looked at the dusty old room with a steely expression of determination. It just so happened that she could go forward in time a lot longer than if you were to go back.She charged her horn and prepared it to cast the spell she was preparing. Then... she felt queasy. Princess Cadence found herself in the garden just behind the Statue of Victory. She looked around and saw many other statues including that of Discord until her observations were interrupted by the sound of a conversation. The only voice she could recognize was her own. Cadence the quickly jumped into a bush and hid as she saw herself walk out talking with... THE HUMAN?!?! “I’m sorry but I just can’t stand to be around them ever since... that.” the human said to Future Cadence. The human was dressed in grey vest that was worn over a black, long sleeved, sweater with the sleeves rolled up to her elbow. Her pants were the same black as her shirt and seemed to be a cleaned up version of the pants she wore back in the dungeons in her time. Future Cadence looked to the human with a soft and caring expression. “It’ll be fine. I know they will respect your decision. You need to do this not for anypony else but yourself. Spike will be hurt for a little while but he’ll move past it in time. I know it. You have to do this, Twilight.” There was only a single thought in Princess Cadence's mind: ... Wut?