You opened your eyes to your room in the Apple family’s home. You looked out the window and saw the sun was still far beneath the horizon. You couldn’t shake off your encounter with Blackstar. You had been tossing around the idea of being in an alternate universe, but now it was all but undeniable. You took a deep breath and tried to reason that what you had just seen might have just been a dream.
Even though the sun wasn’t even up yet you decided to get out of bed and prepare for the day. Your body did its best to remind you that you were in fact not a morning person. You ignored your body and walked into the bathroom. You hummed a few bars to a tune while you turned on the water to the shower and waited for it to heat up. You then tested the water with a hoof and stepped in. You sighed in content for a moment as the water washed over you.
The feeling didn’t last as a persistent thought continued to nag at you. You had to know if you were really in an alternate universe or not. You sat back on your haunches and started to inspect your body carefully. Eventually you found what you were looking for on your rear-leg. It was faint. If you hadn’t been looking for it, it would’ve easily escaped your notice. You found a scar that looked like two puncture wounds. You were immediately reminded of the story that God had told the real Blackstar… and by extension you in your dream.
‘This proves it.’ You thought sullenly. ‘I really am in an alternate universe. Not only that, but I… took over the body of the alternate version of myself. I’m worse than a thief. I should’ve just let myself die.’ A bitter feeling formed in the pit of your stomach. ‘I suppose that doesn’t matter now. I’m here and alive, and that’s all that matters. Besides, I have a promise to keep.’
After your shower you grabbed your shoulder bag and jacket, put them on, walked downstairs and made a quick breakfast of toast and ate it while you thought of what to say to Blackstar’s friend and family. Nothing you thought of seemed appropriate. You sighed in defeat and just decided to say whatever came to mind when you found them. You finished your simple meal and decided to write a note to the Apple family, explaining that you had something important come up and you’d have to leave town for a while. You placed the note on the refrigerator so that it would be easy to find and walked out the door. When you did you heard a voice call out to you.
“Where do ya think yer goin’?”
You almost jumped out of your skin, but recovered quickly when you recognized the voice. You turned around to see Applejack without her hair tied up and signature hat. A part of you thought she looked kind of cute like that, but put the thought out of your head.
“Why are you awake at this time of day?” Was all you managed to say.
“Ah could ask ya th’same thing.”
“I had an odd dream so I just decided to get up.”
“Well, Ah woke up when Ah thought Ah heard the shower on.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Don’t worry about it. Ah’m used t’ wakin’ up early. Now, where are ya goin’?”
“Well I…” This was bad. What were you supposed to tell her? The truth was obviously out, or was it? “I made a promise to an old friend so I have to leave town for a little while. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it, but I just remembered it myself.”
“An old friend, Ah thought ya said that ya didn’t have any old friends.”
“I said that once I started moving that I never really had time for friends. I met this pony before I decided to avoid making friends.” You lied.
“Alright, Ah suppose keepin’ a promise is important. But when ya get back Ah’m makin’ ya clean out the barn fer not tellin’ me about this sooner.”
“I accept your terms.” You said with a small grin. You turned and started to walk away before Applejack called out to you.
“Make sure t’ come back soon, okay?”
You stopped for a moment. The truth was you didn’t know how long you’d be gone. But you couldn’t bear to hurt Applejack, so you just gave her a weak nod before continuing to your destination. You made it into town and were somewhat disturbed by the silence. It didn’t feel right. You had grown accustomed to all the dins and shouts of store owners, the strange whooshes the weather team made when the cleared away clouds, and the antics of Pinkie Pie. She was always trying to find some reason to have a party. Or just playing a prank on you or somepony else.
You tried to take your mind away from the uncomfortable silence by trying to focus on something, anything else. Unfortunately, the only thing that came to you was your task at hand. You couldn’t help but think about all the ways it could go wrong. What if they hated you? What if they called you a murderer and tried to have you arrested? Or what if you just broke their hearts?
You stopped in front of Whitetail Woods and gulped. You were starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea. You were even considering not doing it all together. But with a shake of the head you put that idea out of your mind. ‘I can’t just avoid this. I promised, Blackstar that I would do this. Besides, I’m the one that chose to have this new life. Now I just have to reap what I’ve sown.’
You decided to calm your nerves with some music. You pulled out your iPod and turned it on. You carefully placed the ear-buds in and hit the shuffle button. When you did “Wheel in the Sky” started playing. ‘You know, sometimes I think this thing has gained sentience. At the very least it’s familiar with dramatic convenience. Oh well, Allons-y.’
You pulled your hood over your head. Luckily, Rarity had made it large enough to obscure your face even with your horn. It gave you a small sense of security. Now nopony from Blackstar’s hometown would recognize you. You made your way through the woods and shivered as a cool morning breeze whistled through you. Other than that the trip through the woods was rather enjoyable. Unlike the Everfree Forest, which was ominous and dark, Whitetail Woods seemed friendly and inviting. It helped calm your nerves a little for what you were about to do.
Your trip lasted hours and took you out of the woods and through several other towns. You grabbed some food and water at one of these towns. Thankfully you were almost done refurnishing your home so you didn’t have to worry too much about your finances. You garnered a few looks from the ponies around you. You easily ignored them. Looks of suspicion or accusation was something you were used to.
The sun was high in the sky by the time you made it to Blackstar’s hometown. A small place called Hoofington. The town reminded you a little of Ponyville. It was a small collection of mostly thatch-roofed houses arranged in a way that it would be easy to navigate the streets. Unlike Ponyville though, which had a fairly decent balance of all three types of ponies, Hoofington was predominantly Earth pony. There were a few Pegasi and Unicorns peppered along the streets, but they were few and far between.
It was at that moment that you realized something important. You had no idea how to find Lily. Even though God had told you and Blackstar about her personality, he had failed to describe her appearance. You considered asking around town about her, but quickly tossed the idea aside. If this town was anything like Ponyville, then everypony here knew each other, and would recognize your voice almost immediately. You almost hit yourself at how stupid you were being. You could easily use your magic to disguise your voice.
You ducked out of sight and pulled out your books on magic and quickly found the spell you were looking for. Once the spell was complete you strolled back into town and started asking around about Lily. Most of the townsfolk didn’t seem to want to answer. You guessed that it was some sort of paranoia against outsiders, but kept trying. You told one elderly mare that you had an important message for her and that you had to see her. The mare relented, despite the fact that you wouldn’t tell the mare what the message was about.
The mare led you to a flower shop with a picture of Lily’s namesake on the hanging sign on the front. You wanted to face hoof at how obvious this should’ve been. Instead you thanked the mare and walked inside the store. Inside a young mare with a white coat and a short, curled yellow mane was making a floral arrangement and humming a tune to herself behind the store’s counter. You could tell her heart wasn’t into it and took a deep breath before walking up to the counter.
“Umm, Lily?” You asked hesitantly.
The mare opened her eyes and they were a vibrant yellow color that was a few shades lighter than her hair. “Yes, I’m Lily. How do you know my name stranger?”
“That’s kind of what I want to talk to you about.” You said pulling down your hood.
Lily’s eyes widened and tears started to form at the corners of her eyes. “You’re back!” Lily cried, rushing out from behind the counter and locking you into a massive hug. “I’ve missed you so much. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. What are you doing here? Don’t you have some super important classes you have to be at in Canterlot?” Lily kept asking you questions at a rate that put even Pinkie Pie to shame. At some point you were unable to make them all out and just waited for her to finish. Eventually, she stopped hugging you and looked up at you, confused. “What’s wrong? You look like something’s bothering you?”
You undid the spell on your voice and did your best to try and explain the situation. “Listen, there’s something important I have to tell you.”
“Go ahead, you can tell me anything.”
“I’m not really Blackstar, I’m someone else entirely.” You stated bluntly.
“What are you talking about?” Lily started to chuckle but stopped when she saw your somber expression. “Blackstar, what’s going on? You’re starting to scare me.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that. But, I’m being serious. I’m not the real Blackstar. I’m an alternate version of him from a parallel universe.”
“Blackstar, if this is your idea of a joke, it’s not funny.”
“I told you I’m serious. I wish I wasn’t, but I am. Blackstar and I both died and thanks to a deal I made with a powerful being, was able to come back in Blackstar’s body.”
“Okay then, if you’re in Blackstar’s body, then what happened to Blackstar? And if this ‘powerful being’ could bring you back to life, why didn’t it just put you back in your body, huh?” Lily growled.
“Because you can’t put a soul back into its original body,” you explained. “And the Blackstar you knew is in my body now.”
“That can’t be true! Why are you lying to me Blackstar? What aren’t you telling me?” Lily blurted out, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. “Did you meet another mare? Some sort of Unicorn that you can do magic with? Have you outgrown me, is that it?” Lily sobbed, weeping freely now.
“I’m not lying to you. By God, I wish I was. But this is the truth. And sadly, I can prove it.” You said, slipping off your shoulder bag and pulling out the photo of your parents. “Lily, look at this.” You sighed, holding out the photo with your magic.
“What’s this?” Lily asked, grabbing the photo from you and wiping the tears from her eyes. Her eyes widened and she started to tremble. “What the hay are these things?”
“Those are my parents, the ones from my old universe.” You explained looking away from her.
“This isn’t fake, is it? Oh by Celestia! Blackstar’s really dead, isn’t he?” Lily started to break down and threw her fore-hooves around you, weeping into your shoulder. You wrapped your fore-hooves around her as well, and started to rub the back of her head in a vain attempt to comfort her.
“I know how hard this must be for you. I’m so sorry. If I had known that being brought back to life meant taking over someone else’s I never would’ve agreed to it, I swear.”
“No, I don’t blame you for what happened.” Lily said slowly, trying to collect herself. “Even If you hadn’t done this Blackstar would still be dead, right?” You nodded slowly which made Lily tremble a little more. “And didn’t you say that Blackstar is alive in your body right now?” You nodded again which seemed to cheer Lily up a little. “Well, at least he’s still alive somewhere. Do you know how he’s doing? Is he alright?”
You looked at the hopeful expression in Lily’s eyes and knew you had to say something to make her feel better, even if it could be a lie. “He’s with a caring family right now, and is fine.” You said with a weak smile.
“Thank you, umm… if you’re not Blackstar, then what is your real name?” You told her your name and she scrunched up her face a little and started to chuckle a little. “That’s kinda weird, but it’s still a nice name. Thank you, you didn’t have to tell me this, but thank you for telling me the truth.”
“I promised Blackstar that I would tell you so don’t thank me too much.”
“It was still nice of you to tell me, you could’ve easily broken your promise.”
“Yeah well, I still haven’t kept the promise completely. Could you take me to Blackstar’s parents? I have to explain this to them too.”
Lily’s face hardened a little, but she nodded in understanding. “Sure, just follow me.” You put your photo back into your bag and draped the bag over your back. You quickly caught up to Lily, your hood concealing your face again. “Why have you been hiding your face like that?”
“I don’t want anypony to recognize me. Otherwise I might have to explain to a whole town about what happened to the real Blackstar.”
“Don’t they deserve to know? Almost everypony in towns was friends with Blackstar.”
“Look, once I’m done explaining this to Blackstar’s parents, you can tell the rest of the town whatever you want. But for now, can we just keep this a secret?”
“Alright, I’ll keep your secret, for now.”
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence you made it to the home of Blackstar’s parents. You knocked for a bit and almost gasped when the door opened. It was like someone had taken your mother and turned her into a pony. That really shouldn’t have surprised you seeing as this was an alternate universe. Blackstar’s mother was a teal color and hardly looked her age. Her mane was long and jet black just like your mother. Her eyes were the same color as your mother’s as well. But the thing you noticed immediately was the smile. It was the same smile that melted away all of your childhood problems.
“Oh, hello Lily, it’s so nice to see you. And who are you?”
You wanted to say something, but a lump in your throat kept you from making even a pathetic gurgle. Luckily, Lily could tell you were having trouble and stepped in. “I just met this guy, but he says he has something important to tell you and your husband.
“Why didn’t you just say so? I’ll go get him. You two make yourselves comfortable. I’ll get you something to drink too.”
You stared at the pony version of you… no. These were Blackstar’s parents you kept telling yourself. Blackstar’s father had the same dark blue fur and mane as you. The only real difference you could see between the two of you was that his mane didn’t have black in it like yours, and he wasn’t a Unicorn. Actually, both of Blackstar’s parents were Earth ponies.
“So, you have something you want to tell us?” Blackstar’s father asked impatiently. You struggled on what to say for a moment but Lily gave you a reassuring look that helped calm you down.
You told Blackstar’s parents about what had happened to their real son and at first they didn’t believe you. It took some time before you and Lily were able to convince them, but it hadn’t been easy on anyone in the room. Blackstar’s mother just seemed mournful of the fate of her son and maybe even a little concerned for you too, but his father looked at you with bitter rage.
“You monster,” he spat. “You took my son from me!” He boomed.
“Honey, keep your voice down, you’ll wake up Ginger.”
“Who?” You asked.
“Blackstar’s little sister.” Lily whispered to you. A little sister; why did that sound so familiar to you? You didn’t have time to explore that thought as Blackstar’s father got right in your face.
“You took my son from me,” he repeated, “and then you had the nerve to slip inside his body and decided to wear it like a cheap suit.”
“I…I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, I swear.”
“Tell me, can your sorry bring back my son? No, then I don’t want to hear it.”
“You’re right. My apology can’t bring him back. If it’s any consolation, then please do whatever you want to me to make you feel better.” Right then, Blackstar’s father smashed his hoof into your jaw. You winced as a gush of blood worked its way down your throat. You looked up and saw that he was about to hit you again but Blackstar’s mother stood between him and you.
“Honey don’t, no matter what you do to this boy it won’t bring back Blackstar.”
“Boy, this thing took the place of our son… our little miracle. Remember when we first called him that.” Blackstar’s father said a wave of sadness overwhelming him as tears trickled down his cheeks.
“I do, but this boy said that Blackstar is still technically alive. He’s just in this boy’s old body that’s all. Even if we can’t see him anymore, we can at least take solace in the fact that he’s not really gone.”
“How do you know he’s not lying? What if he’s the one that killed Blackstar?”
“If he really did kill Blackstar, then why would he come tell us?”
“Well… I don’t know.” Blackstar’s father sighed, calming down a little.
“Honey, I don’t know if this boy is telling us the whole truth or not. But I do know that it took a lot of courage to come here and tell us what he did.” Then, Blackstar’s mother turned to you and gave you a slight grin, and helped you up. “Listen, I don’t know what you were doing before you came here, but if you really are an alternate version of our son then you’re welcome to live with us. Is that okay with you, honey?”
Blackstar’s father grumbled for a moment but ultimately let out a sigh and softened his expression. “If he agrees to it, then I’ll manage.”
You didn’t know what to say. You had always wanted to get your old family back, and this was as close as you were ever going to get. But, you still had your friends back in Ponyville to consider. Even though you had only known them for a relatively short time you felt so close, and what about the Apple family? They had done everything in their power to make you feel like you were one of their own. You stood there with your mouth agape for what seemed like an eternity. Somehow you were able to form a reply.
“Can I please have a few days to consider this? I don’t want to make any permanent changes without thinking it over. I’ll stay here for the time being, and I’ll let you know if I’m going to leave or not.”
“That sounds fine.” Blackstar’s mother assured. “You take as long as you need to make up your mind.”
“Thank you, and can you please show me to Blackstar’s room. I’m really tired.”
“No problem, right this way.”
Blackstar’s mother… and potentially your new mother took you upstairs and opened a door to a fairly small bedroom. There were posters of things like the Wonderbolts and various magicians along the walls, and the dresser was lined with numerous photos of Blackstar with his family and Lily. You felt a twinge of regret that you no longer had any photos like that and looked over to Blackstar’s mother was starting to get misty eyed.
“I’m sorry that things turned out like this, I wish I could just use my magic and make everything different.” You said, wanting to do anything to make up for what you'd done. Blackstar’s mother chuckled a little and gave you a weak smile.
“You sound like him so much. He would always say that he’d make his magic so strong that we’d never have any problems ever again. I remember when he was first born. He looked so beautiful that we almost thought he was a filly. Hay, we didn’t even notice that He was a Unicorn until his magic started to flare up. But that was Blackstar for you. He was always full of surprises. The only thing that never surprised me about him is that I never stopped being proud of all the things he did. I’m glad that he’s safe, even if it is in another universe. Oh, I’m sorry it must be tiresome to listen to some mare you barely know ramble on about her son.”
“It’s no trouble at all. You actually remind me a lot of my mother.”
“Thank you, I appreciate the sentiment. So, what was your childhood like? I’d like to get to know you a little better.”
“I…I’d rather not, my childhood was… long and very painful to say the least. Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.”
“I understand, you can tell me anytime you feel ready. Good night.”
You parroted good night back to Blackstar’s mother and carefully placed your things in Blackstar’s closet. You got into the bed and started to consider what you wanted to do with your life.