//------------------------------// // A New Future // Story: It's Complicated // by K.J. Cragon //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle galloped as fast as her hooves could take her as the field she was in poured chocolate milk rain. She could have gone faster if spike hadn't been on her back, but they were and had always been a team, two birds of a feather per say. At least if she was using that phrase correctly. As they went farther through the field, she noticed two things. One, a large building was coming into view, which she soon recognized as Canterlot Castle. The second was that the chocolate milk rain was starting to turn into a light drizzle. "Spike, look, the Princess' castle!" Twilight shouted, waking the dragon whom had apparently been sleeping on her back. "Huh? Oh sweet, finally we can get some grub! I'm positively starving!" Spike retorted as his stomach grumbled. Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled at her friend. He could be so funny sometimes. "I could really go for some gem apple tart!" He said. Suddenly Twilight's stomach growled too. "Huh, yea I guess your right, Spike, I really could go for some food too. Maybe a daisy sandwich and a sala- Oomph!" She hadn't been paying much attention to where she had been going an had bumped into what looked like was a... Statue? "What the?" Spike opened a tired eye and saw the statue that they had ran into. He looked in closer and his eyes widened at the look on it's face. It wasn't a happy face, of a joyful one at the least. It was a statue of a fierce looking guard pony pointing his hoof at him accusingly, But to Spike and Twilight, this was no ordinary guard pony. This was a member of the royal guard. The pony was Shining armor, Twilight's brother. Gilda the gryphon was dreaming. She was not dreaming of daisies or of flying around the sky with friends that she did not have. No, she had stopped dreaming of stupid things like that a long while ago. Tonight she was having her usual nightmare, the kind that makes you wake up in a cold sweat screaming. But this one was very unusual. It was about one of her first, last, and only friends, Rainbow Dash. The one who she thought was cool enough to hang around her until she chose her new friends over her. But that was over 60 years ago, why would she be dreaming about that loser? It was as if she was watching a movie. She was seeing what was going on, but she could not do anything about it. It was as if she were a ghost, just floating around the scene. No purpose, no meaning. Just there watching things unfold with no chance of stopping it. Rainbow was going as fast as she could, almost breaking the sound barrier as a large blast of yellow colored energy sped behind her. Just as she was about to break the sound barrier, a high pitched scream came out of her, the loudest one Gilda had ever heard. She tried to cover her ears, but to no avail. The screaming ended quickly enough, as the cyan Pegasus was engulfed by the blast. Gilda screamed, afraid of what has happened. She loked down to find everything below a baren wasteland. Almost everything, at least, a she saw a small bubble of obvious magical energy collapse right before she awoke. As soon as she awoke, she shot up in her bed. A cold sweat again covered her body and she was breathing heavily. As she bega to recover, she noticed something stir in the corner. She stopped for a moment and looked again. All she could see was a heavy outline of something. 'Ugh, blast these darn glasses," she thought, as she reached over to her bedside table and got them with her talons. When she was In Flight school at age 12 she didn't need them at all, but as she got older, even when she saw dash that last time, she had needed contacts. That was age 21, now she was 84 and the gryphon queen. She sighed, wishing things had gotten easier rather than more complicated in her long life, as she put her spectacles on. She looked back over at the corner and almost had a heart attack and hernia at the same time. Standing there in the corner of her room, who she knew should surely be dead, long gone by now, was her old time friend Rainbow Dash. And she looked not a day older than the last day she had seen her, over 60 years ago. "Um, Twilight? Are you seeing the same thing that I'm seeing?" Spike' voice wavered and cracked. "Because I don't think that this is a very good thing." Twilight rubbed her head with a hoof and looked up. She took it in for a few seconds and staggered back. No, that couldn't be! Her brother couldn't be turned to stone, it was unethical, impossible! And yet, here he was, here SHE was, looking at a statue of her brother. And in equestrian, statues weren't built as a tribute for somepony, statues were built as prisons. "No, this can't be! He can't... He..." She stopped talking after that and started to plain sob. "Oh, well well well, look what we have here," a familiar voice ringed out from behind them. "My old friend the purple unicorn thing in my new country. Well, I certainly haven't seen you in a long, long while." Twilight spun around, spike falling off of her back with a grunt. "Discord!" She said, astonished as she looked at the creature hovering above the ground just a few feet away. "But, we reformed you a month ago! What happened to you? What happened to me?! More importantly, what the buck happened to Equestria?!" "Eque- Oh, you mean Discordia? Well, my dear Twilight, all of that delightful nonsense will be answered in time. For now, though, why don't you and your pesky little dragon friend come With me and I'll reintroduce you to my servant Celestia? Maybe I'll even show you off to my Fiancé. You do remember Nightmare Moon, don't oh dear?" Twilight reeled back, astonished. "We cleared that witch out of Luna's essence two years ago!" "Oh well then, this should be interesting," Discord smiled wickedly and snapped his fingers, making him and Twilight vanish into thin air. Spike looked around confused. "...Twilight?"