Seven Dreams/Seven Nightmares
PONY POV SERIES SIDE STORIES
OPTIONAL-CANON
Bon-Bon Entry By Sherlock-Holmes18
Introduction By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Alex Warlorn, Kendell2, and Louis(Audio Adaption Producer).
MLP & "Wish You Were Here" copyright Hasbro.
Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle. Recently, Pinkie Pie and I have admitted to each other that we both know about the 'Erased Third Age.' If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not get into the nitty-gritty of all the questions we asked each other, the apologies exchanged, the stories shared of a harmonious world now lost... of our... former selves. I tried my best to put the story down to paper several times but all it did was give me a major headache. I am most certainly NOT a bad writer, but figuring out whether to use past or present tense alone was driving me batty! Perhaps I'll try again, some other day, when I have a much clearer head, but at present, I'll take Pinkie's advise and just skip it for now.
But I can tell you it all began with one song:
This is where rainbows all are born
Try asking any unicorn.
La la la la li la li luu.
Every unicorn knows it's true.
In a world like ours where rainbows are made by Pegasi, a song like this is just... ludicrous doggerel. But it would make perfect sense in a world where they were made by unicorns.
I don't have any of Minty's memories. Personally, I think I'm saner for it. But I won't say so to Pinkie Pie. Not that she's actually been acting all that different around me. She has sung me one or two songs Minty knew, since my long talk with Celestia. I did feel something from them. No surge of memories, though, no sudden burst of insight, just...a feeling, like it was something that was mine...it actually felt good. Before you ask: No, we haven't told Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or Fluttershy. They all have enough to deal with without me, Pinkie Pie (and surprisingly Applejack,) making them worry who they are the revisions of.
Rarity and her parents are speaking to each other via mail correspondence. She's trying to get Mr. and Mrs. Belle to see that their best medicine for them as a family, especially Sweetie Belle, would be to come home. She's also getting along better with Onyx Tiara...or Filthy Rich...I don't know anymore.
The Flutters are socializing more with Rarity's help. I'm not exactly keep tabs on them to know who is spending more time doing what but Fluttercruel seems happy and Fluttershy is finally gets props as 'Fluttershy who saved the tornado,' instead of 'Princess Gaia who tried to conquer Equestria.'
Rainbow Dash is now Scootaloo's honorary guardian. Apparently Scootaloo's parents sent a letter saying Rainbow Dash would have to do the job until they came back from business. I hope Rainbow Dash knows what she's getting into. Still, I think that filly has done her a world of good, she actually apologized for being late to work, Fluttershy told me.
And Spike has become friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Silver Spoon. I'm not scared to admit feeling jealous: Spike's always been my number one assistant, now he's forged his own little circle of friends. But I'm not so petty as to sabotage his quest to finally have friends of his own, like he should. But I have encouraged the five of them to write friendship reports.
I haven't seen Trixie, but we still send each other letters. Last I checked she's doing well with her family.
"Twilight! You have that book on Rainbow Spices Mrs. Cake wanted?"
"Oh sure Pinkie!"
'Pinkie Pie' or 'Pinkie Diane' had gotten a little confusing, so I figured shortening it to just Pinkie might be better now that she had made peace with all of herself, funny though, it felt familiar. "Owlowiscious! Would you be so kind?"
My Night Shift Assistant, Owlowiscious, flapped up a few sleeves and retrieved the book.
"Who."
"Oh! Sure Owlowiscious, good hunting."
Owlowiscious flew out the window Pinkie Pie had been singing wistfully by.
"Thanks, Twilight." Pinkie Pie hugged me. I might have imagined it, but I think she held the hug a bit longer than normal.
"Twilight," Pinkie Pie said, "I just want you to know, Minty was my best friend, and I don't regret making friends with you..."
"Neither do I...and Pinkie...thanks..."
"Huh?"
"For remembering your friendship with Minty no matter what...it feels good to know I owe my existence to one act of genuine friendship..."
Pinkie Pie laughed, "SILLY FILLY! You already owed your existence to your parents really really loving each other! And it's what friends do... You know in a crazy way we need to thank Princess Luna when we next to see her."
"Eh? Why her?"
"Well, if Nightmare Moon hadn't been around, Princess Celestia wouldn't have sent you to Ponyville, and if Queen Meanie-Nightmare Moon hadn't shown up, we wouldn't have had a super-exciting super-dangerous quest to go on to be friends with all of us."
I felt a shiver.
"Twilight are you cold?"
"It's nothing too bad." I assured her.
It was just that... taking Pinkie's statement to its logical conclusion... if Discord hadn't planted the seeds of hate and jealous in Luna's heart, then there would have been no Nightmare Moon to bring us all together. Moreover, Luna and the others wouldn't have even been born in Equestria if Entropy hadn't demanded to eat all us ponies in revenge for the Windigos... and that wouldn't have happened if... UGH! My head swam. This was pointless.
I nuzzled her, "Pinkie Pie, it's great to know that no matter what the reality, we've been friends, a part of me, all of me, I don't care, you're a great friend, and I wouldn't want to ever be without you."
"Gee! Thanks, Twilight!"
Pinkie Diane didn't have to babysit that night and Spike was already asleep so we just chatted away, I asked her more questions about the ideal fantasy world. It was the world reflected in foal's eyes; their lives had been happy, simple, contrived, and they had loved it. My discomfort about this subject melted away as I heard her bubbly babble about 'Special Days' and rainbows with different colors.
"So don't you think it's funny how Christmas and Hearth Warming's Eve are so alike?" Pinkie Pie asked, "And how Santa Claus became Santa Hooves?"
"Not really. From what you're telling me, both are celebrations of love triumphing over hate. And it nice the Alicorns... all of Celestia's family... did try to keep some things... "
"I wonder if Santa Hooves remembers Minty for giving him the socks idea, not that we do that anymore, er, ever."
I didn't want to say how I had regarded Santa Hooves to be a modern addition to the Hearth Warming Eve's tradition, that he was based on a historical figure, and that the modern image of him was less than a hundred years old. Oh, who am I to complain?! Not too long ago, everypony thought I was weird for going around declaring the central figure of Nightmare Night was returning!
KNOCK!-KNOCK!
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE, WE HUMBLY SEEK TO SPEAK WITH THEE AND THY GUEST!"
Speak of the Mare In The Moon...
Pinkie and I looked at each other and politely opened the door to find the Night Princess calmly standing alone looking down at us, her starscape mane wavering in non-existent wind.
"Hi Princess Luna!"
Greetings, Pinkie Pie . . . Greetings Twilight Sparkle."
"Princess Luna, what-what can we-, um, it's nice to see you-" I shook my head, "Welcome back to Ponyville."
Princess Luna gave a smirk that reminded me a LOT of Princess Celestia. "You are welcome, Twilight. You have been a great help showing Us the right and wrong ways to make friends. And We wish to return thy favor."
"Well, that's very nice of you, so how can we-, I mean it was nothing, Luna, friendship isn't a checking account you need to keep balanced."
"All the same, Twilight Sparkle, we feel that this would do you, and you, Pinkie Pie, some much-needed good." Princess Luna stepped inside, closing the door behind her. The room seemed to darken with her presence. But it wasn't an ominous darkness, it was comforting, inviting. Maybe that made it more creepy.
She looked right at the party pony, "And Pinkie Pie, our sister has informed Us of what you now remember. A goddess is not supposed to feel regret, it is simply the way things are. All the same, We are truly deeply sorry for what happened to you and those you held dear. For the role the Concept of Night played in the erasure of your world. As well as Our actions outside of Our officially-assigned task."
Pinkie hugged her, hugged her she was hugging Princess Luna! Whoa boy! I am not going to let my brain freeze up this time!
"It's alright! Twilight told me what happened to you afterwards when I asked. And you turned out super-duper nice this time!"
Princess Luna blushed, "T-Thank you, Pinkie Pie, that means a great deal to Us." Luna nuzzled her and folded her wings around her.
They held that for a minute before Luna broke the hug. "We would also like to thank you for having changed Our opinion, regarding ponies' ability to perform songs at a moment's notice. It is not excess."
"You're welcome!" And Pinkie opened her mouth and I realized she was going to do it! She was going to thank Luna for being Nightmare Moon! On no! But before I could magically zip her mouth shut, I saw in Pinkie's eyes she realized she'd be opening old wounds and closed her mouth.
"Now that we have cleared the air, let us move on," Luna said, giving a smile. "The gift I have is in a way for both of you, our friends Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. That your hearts are touched by a history that no longer was is admirable. I now believe you are willing to accept the other side of the story, the world that was written over, restored, only to be lost again. And the ponies whose hearts who lived in the moment."
Luna's magic produced a pink book from nowhere. It was old. Stickers of sweets adhered to its corners. The book was locked, but a key was already in place in its keyhole.
"This is Bon-Bon The First's journal, from the Second Age. We found it in the royal archive. It took some time to restore. It seems somepony has written additional entries to this journal. It contains the thoughts and hearts of seven ponies who beheld the revisions to their world, and the time when Destruction the draconequus... prevented the creation of the Lost Third Age. Seven souls who bore witness to the end of what some might consider Pony civilization's golden age."
"I'd say we've recovered pretty well," I said.
"Did you know you ponies once landed on my moon? The Ponyland flag is still planted there... Even during my most vicious tantrums as Nightmare Moon, I could never bring myself to desecrate that flag. ...The image of ponies wanting to come to my moon was just too... sweet."
Jaws slowly opened as we stared at the night princess.
"I'd love to go and see it sometime!" Pinkie Pie said.
"So would I," I heard myself say.
Luna smiled, and sat down on one of the couches. "Some day maybe I will be able to grant that wish. And you are right, Twilight Sparkle. Ponykind has indeed recovered. Other civilizations would have crumbled to nothingness for good after such a calamity. And someday... who knows? 'Technology marches on,' as the saying goes. Given enough time, you ponies of the Fourth Age may outclass those of the Second Age. We, for one, would welcome such a thing. But for now, let us read Bon-bon's journal. And let us keep the interruptions to a minimum."
"You're going to read it with us, Princess?" Twilight asked.
"I wish to read it through your eyes."
"I dunno, Twilight," Pinkie Pie said looking at the book, "It looks real private. Like some pony put their heart in here. It would be rude to just nose around in it."
"Trust me, Pinkie Pie, the pony who this book belonged to would not mind. I am certain Bon-Bon, herself, is watching alongside My Father, even as we speak."
"Alright." I unlocked the book and flipped to the front page, "Let's begin."
+++
Bon-Bon
Before Revision/Disaster:
Dear Diary,
Hello new diary, I'm Bon-Bon, nice to meet you. Do you like the new lock on you? Just a little something I started doing after one of your ancestors fell into the wrong hooves. Wouldn't want that to happen again, would we?
As I write this, my family and I are currently waiting at the Ponyville Square to celebrate something that will change the world forever! What is this something, you may ask? Nothing less than the greatest paradigm shift of all! A supreme magic spell that'll be cast on the whole wide world and cause all our innermost dreams to all come true! Everypony! Everywhere! And now that I've just wrote that, I realize how silly it must sound to you. It seems like only yesterday that I would have insisted that magic isn't real. Then came the day I got a call from Patch. A lot has happened in my life since I last heard from Patch or any of my old friends! I became a chef who did a little bit of modeling on the side, I like to think I'm good at it. I started dating Cookie, and my older sister Misty got married and had a daughter only a few weeks ago. Anyway, I got a call from Patch, who claimed she'd discovered some place called Paradise Estate that was inhabited by ponies with wings and horns. Of course, I didn't believe her and called her a liar, but still she paid for my train ticket so I decided to just play along.
And then I found out that Patch wasn't lying and that she really had discovered ponies with wings and ponies with horns (there was even one with gem eyes, they were so pretty), and of course I started apologizing nonstop to Patch (even though she said once was enough). It makes me wonder if the magical glowing ponies Patch claimed she saw when we were both on that balloon were actually real. Now I wish I had asked Patch for more details when she told that story.
It's weird but when I went to visit Paradise Estate, the thing that sticks in my mind was a pony that caught my eye in a group photo that was hanging on the walls. It was an ordinary-looking pony with a white coat and a dark purple, light purple, pinkish, and bluish mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a quintuplet of gingerbreads. Her eyes looked like blue gems. They were beautiful. I felt a strange sense of familiarity with this pony and asked who she was. They told me she was a friend of theirs named Gingerbread who left a few centuries ago (just how old are these ponies?). I never found out more about her, though, so I never found out why she seemed so familiar, cause I fainted when I met the dragon.
It didn't take long until the whole rest of the world learned of the existence of pegasi and unicorns and all the rest. Patch and the Paradise ponies became media icons. And then it dawned on me, if Patch could follow her dreams, why couldn't I? So I decide to focus more on my old dream of being a model (of course I didn't stop being a chef), and in this time Cookie proposed to me and we got married. Teddy? By that time he and Sweetheart had finally worked out their feelings for each other and had tied the knot too! I know now he wasn't as awful as he wanted to be, but Sweetheart's just better for keeping him on the straight and narrow. And while it may not look it, Cookie is in love with more than just my cooking.
Then Starlight and Bright Eyes came and told us about a increible plan of theirs to magically make everyone's wishes come true. It involved some magic rainbow in a bottle that the Paradise Ponies held onto for emergencies (they'd told all kinds of stories about their adventures, it was amazing all they've done), and putting pieces of it in seven castle around Ponyland, but it all kinda went over my head.
At first I was a little uneasy about it, but eventually they managed to convince me to help out. Bright Eyes promises it won't grant any mean wishes. So after we contacted Princess Rosy and told her our plan, we set everything in motion. Skip forward a few years, and here we are! Everything is complete and me and my family are just waiting for the big moment to arrive! Although I am excited, at the same time I have to admit I'm kind of scared:
What kind of wishes are in my heart? Cookie says as long as he's with me, then he's happy (he's so sweet!). I already have my Mr. Right, a family who loves me, I have all the attention I could want with my model and cooking career, but they get a bit hard to balance sometimes. The stressy schedules, the creepy fan letters, the cameras following me off set, mares as skinny as skeletons saying I should lose a few pounds. Maybe I wish life could be a bit simpler.
Sincerely, Bon-Bon
After Revision:
Everything started glowing a strange vibrant color. I looked down at myself and noticed my cutie mark had changed to two strawberries and a white flower. Eventually, my coat started to turn a reddish-pink and my mane and tail became a mix between purple, white, and some green-like color. I turned to my husband and saw that Cookie's cutie mark had changed to a cotton candy cone, and his coat was turning pink while his mane and tail were becoming a mix of pink, white, and blue. Such... feminine colors! Okay, I'm a little scared here. Is this supposed to be happening? Is my husband supposed to be looking so... dainty? So mare-ish? Dad, Rusty, and Misty's husband are looking really effeminate too. I feel like I'm a big warm milk bath. My head feels cloudy, like cotton candy, I don't think I like this anymore, I... feel... so... happy...
Dear Diary,
I don't have much to say right now since I just got up. Although, I will say this, it's a lovely morning. Of course all mornings are lovely. Every day is super-duper-new! A taste-tastic surprise waiting to happen! I have to help Cotton Candy out with the shop right now so I don't have a lot of time to write. Anyway, I have a new idea for a cake, and this time it's not gonna fall over! Yeah, I'm sort of ambitious when it comes to cakes, and I kind of have a problem with making them too tall and they usually topple over, and it's usually Cotton Candy who it ends up toppling onto (luckily she doesn't seem to mind). Of course, not all my cakes end up falling over. The cake I made for Kimono's birthday didn't fall on anyone. What will I call this cake, you may ask? I call it the Berry Cake Tower. And I promise that no pony is ever gonna forget it.
Sincerely, Sweet Berry
After Disaster: Journal entry #1:
This wasn't supposed to happen...it just wasn't... The spell was supposed to make everyone's dreams come true! Instead, my parents, Misty, Rusty, and Misty's husband...they're all dead. Misty's baby girl managed to survive -Misty using herself as a shield- and now I'm stuck having to raise my own niece, and I don't know if I have what it takes...but at least she's still alive.
Due to the enormity of the explosion, media outlets of every form, from print to television, have either been obliterated or abandoned. The world has no place for gourmet chefs or models. Grass will suffice... canned goods will suffice, forget freshness, just throw whatever you can scavenge into a pot and call it soup! And as for the ponies who are drawn to my good looks... well, they're suddenly a LOT less nicer about the fact. THRUST themselves upon you.
Survival is everypony's first, last, and only concern. Those 'end of civilization' movies don't seem so badflank when you're the one living them.
I later found out that Starlight died in the explosions too...It's probably for the best that Starlight didn't live to see what the world has become.
The three remaining tribes (the sea ponies and the flutter ponies have gone into hiding) have started hating each other after the incident, but they hate the ones responsible for the spell even more! It doesn't matter I didn't actually have anything to do with the project, with Starlight gone, they need somepony to hate. A while back, a pony tried to throw a rock at my niece. I could understand if they had thrown it me, but my niece? As in my sister's daughter? As in the only thing I have left to remind me of my older sister!? How dare he! Needless to say, I may have gotten a little violent. How violent? Let's just say it was enough to cause to cause my younger siblings Amber and Twink to have to hold me back. As I write this I have recently found out that I'm pregnant. And I have to say that I'm scared. I'm scared of what kind of world my child will grow up in. The world that all of my family is going to have to live in. I worry for my husband, Cookie, Amber and Twink, my youngest brother, Junior, my niece, and my unborn child. We tried making an exodus to Paradise Estate, but there are so many of us, and traveling doesn't come with a movie and fee peanuts anymore.
I will continue to write more of these journals in the hope that ponies in the future will learn not to repeat the same mistake we did...Be careful what you wish for...
If you're reading this, then please remember, grudges are never going to get you anywhere, don't go thinking you're the boss of something just cause you know how it works, life is fragile, life is precious. We lived in a world where ponies lived without fear of monsters, ponies all got along. I'd like to say we took the easy way out, that magic is an easy way out, but the unicorns work hard for what they had the same as Earth ponies and Pegasi, Flutterponies and seaponies. None of us are better or worse. I'd like to blame magic for all this, but the unicorns on Paradise Estate are my friends, I can't hate them or magic. Because I know hating is not going to solves anything. More than anything: Ponies don't need to live in a world of monsters, and we don't need to be monsters to survive, please remember.
Signed, Bon-Bon
Many decades later... I felt a sharp pain in chest that seemed to go away just as soon as it came. "It's about time you showed up," said a friendly voice behind me. I looked behind me and saw Starlight and Sweetheart... as well as, of all ponies, Gingerbread. Starlight and Sweetheart looked like teenagers again, but for whatever reason it didn't bother me.
"Starlight, Sweetheart, what are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"We were waiting on you," said Starlight.
"We really truly missed you Bon-Bon," said Sweetheart.
I turned to Gingerbread, "What about you?"
"I decided it was time to pay a visit to my descendant," she said.
"Descendant? Of course! That's why that photo with you seemed so familiar." I turned back to Starlight and Sweetheart, "Wait, what do you guys mean by you were waiting for me? Wait, Sweetheart, Starlight, aren't you-"
Starlight got a serious look on her face, "Bon-Bon, I think there's something should see." She turned me around and I gasped at what I saw. I saw my body lying limp on the floor and my husband trying to administer CPR.
"You mean I'm..." I couldn't even finish the sentence.
"I'm afraid so," said Starlight.
"No! That can't be! Cookie! You can hear me right-!? I'm right here!" I shouted at Cookie, but he didn't notice me. My own empty face stared back at me.
"It wont work," said Sweetheart sadly.
"Cookie can still save me!"
"Your heart's never going to beat again Bon-Bon," Sweetheart said, her eyes actually quivering.
"You don't know that!"
"You wouldn't be here if it was," Starlight sighed.
I shivered, but I didn't feel hot or cold, I simply was.
"So I guess that means that it's time for me to see what's on the other side?" I asked as my lip quivered.
"Not just yet. We decided to wait on the rest of our friends before we move on," exclaimed Starlight.
"Care to join us?" asked Sweetheart.
My niece, child, and grandchildren were coming into the room as they heard Cookie weeping.
"Yeah, that sounds good," I said. I wanted to get away from that thing on the floor my husband was holding, but if my family couldn't see me, at least I could with them in spirit until the others had had their run.
Gingerbread got up and started to leave, "Where are you going?" I asked.
"I have to get back to family, they're waiting for me to return, I'll be there when you come," she said.
"Thank you," I manage to say, "Gingerbread, I-I look forward to it. And, your eyes are beautiful."
She smiled. "Thank you Bon-Bon. Oh, and by the way, Misty wanted me to thank you for looking after her daughter and for still believing in life to the end," she added.
At this I smiled. "You're welcome."
Starlight and Sweetheart hugged me.