//------------------------------//
// City in the Sky 
// Story: Angels and Demons 2: Timelock 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

Silver was tasked with finding his own way to Manehattan, and eventually found himself approaching the ticket pony doing a crossword puzzle. In the time it had taken to arrive there, the gender-switching properties of the blue plant had worn off. "Five letter word for clumsy... hmmm... oh!" He looked up. "Can I help you?"

"Inept... weedy... splay... crude... gawky..." Silver thought "I think you need more information, but try any of them, see if anything else fits. "Bulky might work as well. "How much is a ticket to Manehatten?" He had bits, but they weren't good currency here, and while he didn't mind making money, or doing trickery to get it, he'd rather avoid that as much as possible. There wasn't a law he couldn't break, if the timeline was restored all would be well again.

The ticket pony gave him a very odd look. He started laughing, then cut off in mid chuckle. "You're serious." He regained his composure. "Where've you  been? Access to Manehattan is completely cut off, nopony goes in or out. Under quarantine until further notice."  He explained calmly. "Can't let you go, not this way."

"Well, I spent quite a bit of time being a statue at the back of garden. My wife got very angry with me.. she was a powerful unicorn. Turned me into a statue, then Nightmare Moon came back... for some reason she didn't get to turn me back. Spell evaporated recently, which means she's dead. Is there any way to Manehatten at all?" Petrification was one of his nightmares.

"If there is, you have to find your own way. It's exceedingly dangerous. Ponies who come back from there... they aren't the same. One mare, absolutely nothing wrong with her in the slightest, wouldn't stop screaming that she was turning into slime. Horrible." He shook his head. "Sorry kid, if you can teleport, do so at your own risk, where I can't see you, I'm obliged to tell the authorities if I see you trying."

A long jump from here to Manehatten? He was crazy... just the thought of it was giving him a headache. "Okay, this was fun, but hypothetically speaking, do you have a hypothetical map showing Manehatten, in case a pony would hypothetically consider going there? Hypothetically?"

"Trust me, maps are completely useless. You.... really don't know what happened, do you? A pair of draconequui took over, completely demolished all ability to live down there. Nothing stays the same long enough for a map to be of any use. Anypony who goes down there is lucky to emerge with their own head, let alone less than two."

"There must be a general direction. I'll walk there if I have to. Look.. its important, I can't pay you but it is. Can you point me in the general direction" Discord and Alice.. joy. In his timeline she had been friendly, for a member of exclusive species she had been restrained, a little sorry.. with Discord free, he hated to think about it. Even the friendly version he'd known had often given him spontaneous changes when she'd come by.

The stallion shook his head,and offered a sly wink. "Sorry, can't do it, it's for your own protection. I certainly couldn't tell you to follow the tracks north, and I certainly couldn't advise teleportation, considering Manehattan is over a hundred miles away." He said sternly. 'Nope, can't do it."


"Thanks, you've talked sense into me. I'll return to where I came from. I just needed someone to talk to I guess." He looked down at the crossword. "Upper row starts with a B in the corner, and somewhere you'll need to fill in cornucopia." He turned, walked away from the train station, doubled back in a long away and started following the tracks north. At some point, when he felt he was close enough, he'd drain some more headache killer and do a jump as good as he could.

But perhaps he wouldn't need to. Although a seemingly lengthy journey was ahead of him, he was suddenly joined out of nowhere by the earth pony from the University. For somepony without magic, he appeared more efficiently than experienced unicorns. "'Allo!" He said cheerfully. "In a bit of a spot, are we?"

Silver blinked, it was getting on his nerves. "You're part of this, you're not working on the side of the ponies messing it up; You let me know of the timelock spell; Had Twilight nearby so that we would bump into each other. You've helped, now you're following me. Interesting conclusion, you want to help fix this mess even if not directly; Postulation, you're doing so because you were part of starting this mess in the first place?"

"A fantastic deduction, but alas, completely wrong. I don't take sides, I'm afraid." Another voice from behind him. "Doctor!" it called, and Derpy ran towards him. She looked annoyed. "You were going to leave me behind again, weren't you?" "This is not the time nor the place, my dear." He said patiently. "I was just about to offer our young friend here some assistance, but I'm not sure he's completely willing to accept it."

Silver approached, eyes narrowing "Strawman fallacy.. doctor.. I never said anything about you taking sides. You're interfering, but you pushed things my way, and now you're offering assistance." He turned to the googly eyed pony. "Do you know what kind of help he's offering me?" He turned back to the doctor. "Motivation? What's your teleology, doctor? You offer assistance, yet you act in such a way that I shouldn't trust you. Any intelligent being does things for some end, what's yours in this?" He may or may not be something he'd have to warn Novaria about.

The Doctor pulled Silver aside. "I'm going to help you, although I tend to try to avoid meddling in others affairs. If I take you where you need to go, you WILL promise to keep our encounter to yourself?" He asked. Derpy frowned. "You sure about this?" "Of course I'm sure, he just wants Angel back, nothing wrong with that." He seemed to march to his own drum, a very large uncoordinated drum that annoyed all the neighbors.

Silver took as much information in from this as he could; The doctor was intelligent and impressively capable; He knew much about Silver. Most of it he could learn from observing him here.. though it was likely he knew more, ergo he had the means for doing this; Time travel capabilities seemed likely, he was unaffected by the time change; He was intelligent, arrogant.. neutrally oriented. Dangerous, but capable. "If you involve yourself in the business of Evodia, my family, or Equestria, then you'll be involved doctor, otherwise I won't have any conflict with you."

"Oh, I have no intention of interfering unless I have to." He grinned. "Or unless it's just really really fun. Come on then, off we go, Allons-y!" He announced, and raced off, with Derpy following. The next half hour or so was a blur for Silver. Running, a strange blue box, nausea, lots of lights. The Doctor clapped his hoof on Silvers shoulder. "Here we are, Manehattan!" He announced.

A room that was bigger on the inside than the outside. Not magical; He was not from Equestria, and not from Earth. He stepped out of the box. "Thank you doctor." He said, it was a good favor, but the doctors involvement with this wasn't clear. "I don't trust you yet. A pony who doesn't take sides, doesn't fight the good fight. I don't know your ends doctor, but I'm thankful for your help."

There was no answer, and no indication of being heart. When he spun around, the box was gone, and he was completely alone. That was the first shock. The second... he was standing on the sky. Large fluffy clouds passed harmlessly through him, being taken wherever the wind decided they should go. Straight up, a hundred miles overhead, he stared at distant grass, green and fuzzy. It was absolutely sickening to look at, even more so to try to comprehend.

There was nothing he could do about the doctor. He seemed a wildcard, if he figured into any of this, it was neither as instigator or as remedy. A passerby. Testing he checked to see whether he was falling, he decided to walk for a bit, see if he was just floating or whether the sky had somehow become solid.

Falling no, the ground, if it could be called that, was solid. Yet he could see clouds far below him, beyond his reach. It was an instability  better left unthought about. There was no path or sense of direction, but a strange shimmering glimmer caught his attention a few feet away.

Upon entering the strange shimmering rip in space, Silver found himself in the abandoned citadel that had once been the thriving city of Manehattan. Now, it was as ghostly as its surroundings. What buildings that hadn't been turned to slime or flipped upside down had been  turned two dimensional, a flat unusuable wall on a three dimensional surface. The air was thick with purple fog, leaving the city completely uninhabited. How many lives had been uprooted for a game like this?

Colossal and vulgar displays of cosmic forces, the impossible made real. It could only be Discord and Alicia, without theFluttershy part of the six, there would have been no reforming him, worse without all six of them there would be no stopping him the first time around. Alicia thought not as excessive as her husband, might have stepped back into that role when his power had been unchallenged. Silver sighed, and slugged some more of the painkilling swill. Those two entities were unreasonably powerful, his only defense was that they seemed to delight in the absurd rather than merely dominating. Slowly he made his way into the remains of the city, trying to blend into a world where the normal stood out.

Applejack was here somewhere, at least, she had been. As he rounded a corner, he saw a grotesque sight. A mare trapped in a wall. Her back half had been fused into a chalk drawing, nothing more than colored powder on the bricks, where her front half fused out of the wall as if coming to life, and dangled downward. Her ears twitched, as her head hung between her front legs. She'd been there, who knew how long?

This was bad. Checking his surroundings idly, trying to just look like the jittery type, he checked to see that he was mostly alone. He couldn't be sure. Alice had once surprised him by disguising herself as an avant garde colored new sofa in the apartment he shared with Angel. It had given him quite a shock, but in that world she was safe. At least he had come to trust that. Here he could take nothing for granted, even that he was alone. He approached Apple Jack.. awake, aware? That she should even be able to be alive in any semblance of life was a testament to Discord's grotesque powers. Was this prank more something Alicia would have done? It seemed too mean and aggressive to be her. But then he had no idea how cruel she could really be. "H-hello?" He called to the pony.

The mare, a regular brown color, slowly looked up at him. Her eyes were full of sadness and defeat. "You shouldn't be here." She said weakly. "Go. Go while you can."

Silver really wished that he had that as a legitimate option. He needed all six to complete the elements of harmony, and get the full picture of what had happened, to give strength to Twilight and perhaps even to help stop what had been set into motion. "Blond mane, orange coat, possibly an apple cutie mark, earth pony; Seen her?" He asked quietly.

The mare scratched her head with a hoof. "Maybe. That sounds a lot like the crazy mare on the outskirts of town, except for the apple bit. But then, I've been stuck here for almost six months, anything could have happened. I can at the very least direct you towards it." She offered.

He'd offer her something to drink, or a pain relieving spell if he was able to complete one. Unfortunately he couldn't relieve this pony's suffering in any way. Food might work in a bad way in her now, and he couldn't risk being found out for Discord noticing that she suddenly had acquired an apple. "I'll take any directions you can give, the cutie mark bit might be wrong… it might be her." It was worth trying at least.

It was unlikely she could eat or drink anymore, her back half was stuck in the wall. She pointed a hoof back down the way he'd come. "Just go to the border of the city and you'll see a path branching right, follow that to-" She suddenly looked scared. "No... no! I'm sorry! I'll be quiet! I'm sorry!" There was a blinding flash, and her words were cut off completely, as Silver was confronted now with nothing more than a drawing on the wall, a drawing of a terrified pony. Looking around, he'd find himself still alone.

Someone was watching him, powerful enough to this and remain hidden. Few, if any at all, unicorns or alicorns could have pulled off something like that; Discord or Alicia. And as cruel as it was, he feared that he was bound for a similar joke. Dispensing then with the need for hiding himself, though playing the frightened part he hurried away from the crayon drawing version of the pony he had talked to. Speeding, not in the direction she had pointed but in another, seeking to double back eventually. Hopefully whoever was watching him would take him for a frightened visitor and would leave him be. However he didn't want to take too long in doubling back, in case whoever it was didn't want to let up the chase, and decided that it was time to have fun. Making his way to Apple Jack in another form was not his plan.

If anyone was following him, watching him, they didn't show themselves. But he was in a great amount of danger just being here. For now, although he was left alone, he would not be left alone forever. Upon reaching the eventual path that the mare had spoken of, he found a trail that led off down a hill and into an oddly placed forest of blue and red trees.

If he was followed now there was nothing that he could do about it. Either of the two tricksters could appear and cause mayhem for him to their amusement. Getting Apple Jack away from here was paramount.. if he failed he might not have the opportunity to get back again safely. The others of the six might be moved to help him, but could they in their present form? He moved on to the forest. Time was against him in more ways than one.

The path led into the forest, flanked by signs of warning on either side. STAY BACK. Read one. TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. Said another one. Cheery. He approached a small ranch house set fairly deep in the forest, it was as promising a lead as he'd had yet.

He was thankful that Apple Jack hadn't been turned into something that couldn't write a sign anymore. The fact that he hadn't run into too many ponies in the parts of the Manehatten that had been left three dimensional spoke eerie things about their fates. Now how would he approach the forest without unleashing Apple Jack's anger? He decided to wait it out a little, watching the forest from behind the signs. Not for too long though, eventually he would have to approach.

The weather here was odd, the sky wasn't quite night or day. It had been blue, but it was hard to tell how it worked exactly. It hadn't a steady rhythm, it was as chaotic as anything Discord had been told to have made. It hadn't rained though. Not yet at least. She was home.. if he knocked on her door he might be unwelcome. If he stayed here, then there were two possibilities. Discord/Alicia were following him and will eventually get bored and do something amusing to him. Or they weren't following him, but finds a suspicious pony out here and realize what he's up to. He decided that the best course of action was to approach the building and yell to Apple Jack as loudly as he could.

The front door cracked open. His approach had not gone unrewarded. The orange mare he had sought so hard for stood framed in the doorway, ragged and dirty. "Whatcha want?!" She snapped. "Din' y'all see the signs?"

Again, time to convey as much information in as short amount a time as possible. Discord or Alicia following him he couldn't do anything about. "Apple Jack? Of the Apple family? Raised by Granny Smith? Little sister of.." He wished he could recall all those names. Despite the research he had done into her and her achievements, and her history. "Large red stallion?" Had he ever seen him in any occasion. He had bumped into him, accompanying her sister.. some gala involving Twilight. He lowered his voice as much as possible. "Ee'yup?"

The mare seemed stunned by his questions, and her eyes teared up as he spoke. She could only nod in dumb acknowledgement. Whatever the case, they didn't seem to be around anymore. "Apple family ain't much anymore." She said quietly, and disappeared into the ranch. "Come inside, ask yer questions, then get out."

"Thanks." He said and went inside, he didn't know what had happened to the Apple farm and kicked himself for not having asked Twilight to research that. She had already been heavily taxed with the task of figuring out what had happened to Rainbow Dash and to figure out the timelock spell, but this bit of information would have been invaluable, here. "What happened to the Apple family?" He went straight to business, as much he wanted to be kind he couldn't waste much more time. "And beyond that I don't have a request except to escape this place with me. You're more important than you realize, Apple Jack. This place isn't where you belong."

Applejack didn't seem to enjoy answering his questions, but he was her first visitor in who knew how long. "Carnies happened." She said sadly. "Ah lost th'farm to a couple of fast talkin' stallions." She sounded angry. "We din' have enough money to fight it, we'd spent every bit we had tryin' tah fix mah little sister, an' they took all we had." She stomped in anger, and began spewing a wide range of obscenities directed about the pair of  stallions that even Silver was shocked to hear.

"I'm not here to rob you Apple Jack, I'm about as poor as you and you're probably stronger than me. I want to get you out of this place. The world isn't right.." He held up a hoof "And I'm not just talking about Manehatten, I'm talking about all of Equestria. Its constantly moonlit night, Discord is on the loose, Canterlot's ponies are walking around in a daze.. I'm sure you've always felt that there's something fundamentally off." He really wished for a simple puzzle to solve. Playing street preacher, moral coach, organizer… the only real puzzle was where Rainbow Dash was. Not in Cloudsdale, and not dead was about all he knew currently. The other was what had gone wrong exactly, and he was pretty sure only Rainbow Dash would be able to tell that. How would he gain Apple Jack's trust? It was wrong to have come alone.

"Yeah, Yer right, there is somethin' wrong. Yer trespassin'." Applejack said bluntly. "Y'all obviously didn' see the signs, so ah'll jes assume yer either blind or stupid." A second figure arrived at Applejacks side, much smaller in side. She was a deeper orange than Applejack, and frequently had to blow her shaggy mane out of her face. "Who's this loser, Aunt Jack?" She gave Silver a cold eye. "Whatcha want?" Applejack shushed her. "Quiet now. This young stallion was just finishin' his story, and then he was leavin' Wasn't that right?"

Twilight would have been better here, even in this timeline it was easier for her to connect with these ponies. How would he reach Apple Jack? "What are you doing here? In Manehatten? Its barely a walk away from two of the most chaotic and destructive beings in Equestria. Is that really where.." He tried to recall her gigantic family tree "Apple Bloom here should be raised? You know very well that should wake up an apple tree any moment. What about the rest of your family? Do you even care about them?" Sweet talking would get him nowhere, it was time for her to get angry with him. "You wanna be stuck here until Discord and Alicia decides to play a jokes with your life?"

Surprisingly, he seemed to have gotten through to her. Her aggressive attitude saddened, and her eyes lowered to the floor. "Apple Bloom ain't right. She caught some sorta Cutie Mark disease, and it drove her near crazy. Ah sent her to Coltifornia, some doctors there who said they could help. But payin' them bills took everythin' ah had, and when Macintosh got sick, ah couldn't afford no help." Her voice filled with regret. "Ah love mah family more'n anythin', but most of em are sick or ain't with with us no more. Ah don't got much left."

"So why on Ea.. cough, Equestria's solid ground do you spend your time here? You've got a filly with you, and this place is about as dangerous as it gets. For crying out loud, how do you even plan on earning bits here? I've got an offer, if you're willing to listen to it. A friend of mind Twilight Sparkle is searching for five other remarkable ponies. She works at the Ponyville university, and I happen to know that you fit her profile. She can help you.. financially as well. I'll help you get out of here free of charge, she'll help you financially. All you have to do is meet her and talk to her. Easy peacy, and if you really want to live underneath Discord's shadow until he turns you into that for laughs, then by all means I'll help you back. Now get up on all fours Apple Jack, you've got work to do and you know it" Silver hoped his drill instructor from royal trainings would be proud of him. If this didn't convince Apple Jack then there were rougher means.

Applejack looked down at the filly that was with her. The latter seemed to agree. "It... WOULD be nice, to get outta here, Aunt Jack..." She offered hesitantly. Applejack agreed. "Alright. Ah'm with ya. But y'all better hold tah yer promise, ah hate broken promises. How d'we get back tah Ponyville? Trains out, and its a long walk." She said sarcastically.

He hated to think about it, and preemptively got out his flask. Teleporting here had been possible, it had been a terrifying jump and it had hurt. Teleporting with passengers was far more difficult. He was sure that he could make the jump intact, but it might be a rough ride for his passengers. "Either we gather up some supplies, I can summon water so you'll only need food, and we walk.. or I try teleporting us all. We walk if I can't" If the alicorn of his horn fractured he could only hope that the restored timeline would have it whole again. "When you're ready stand on either side of me.. close.." He went over the checklist of all the things you needed to keep in mind with teleporting with passengers. Presence, distance, destination, sizes, warm up, intonation, incantation, sublimation, quarklication... 

Applejack slowly emerged from the house, the younger filly at her side. "If you're sure you know what you're doing, go for it." She said hesitantly. "You're a unicorn, so as long as you get the spell right, there shouldn't be any problem."

It was a little more complicated than that. Though most ponies were born with an aptitude for a particular line of magic that tended to coincide with their talents, given training it was possible to pick up spells outside that talent. Few ponies had cutie marks that indicated an aptitude for magic itself, usually celestial bodies or abstract symbols. Puzzle solving was fairly general, and so Silver was a jack of all trades but master of none when it came to magic. And Angel had put him through the same teleportation drills that she had gone through.. but carrying passengers was something they had only done sparingly, as it was usually only useful in emergencies. He charged up the spell matrix, intoning the words and meanings of the incantation. Arcane energies welled up in his horn. Electric discomfort turned into a burning sensation, which became a sharp painful pressure. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, pushing the spell forward and then...

Silver wasn't entirely sure what happened after that. He'd pushed for Ponyville, had he even made it there? It was impossible to tell at this point.  Voices faded in and out of existance, and six mares were standing over him, watching. Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie.  United again, although some of their cutie marks were wrong. Applejacks had been restored to three apples, leading to further confusion as to what exactly had transpired. "You alright, Sugarcube?" She asked. But her voice seemed a million miles away. The sixth mare leaning over him... the sixth mare was Angel. If Fluttershy and Rarity didnt still have the wrong marks, it could easily be a dream.