Total Eclipse of the Sun
Chapter 7 : Long Live Pony
May 3rd
My stomach quickly reminded me that I still hadn't eaten this morning. I also think it has gotten much louder ever since the ponification started. Or I might just not have eaten as much as I needed. I'll admit that I always had reservations about accepting gifts from others, or food in this particular case. I still intended on paying Luna's generosity back later.
I procured a bowl rather easily and I was surprised when I spotted a cereal box with a familiar image on it, the green and orange O-shaped cereals I ate yesterday. It was appropriately named Applejack considering its delicious apple taste. It was too bad this particular brand of cereal wasn't available back home, or I might have become addicted to it.
The bowl was soon filled with the apple-sugar delicacy and milk that I borrowed from Luna's fridge. The first spoon revealed that I hadn't been as thorough as I thought when I checked myself earlier. The cereal tasted nothing like last time; the apple taste was much pronounced and delicious. Yep, I was definitely becoming addicted to it. I used my tongue to feel my teeth to notice that I no longer had any canines. Apparently, I had also joined the rank of vegetarians during the night.
A few minutes later, I had devoured my cereal, cleaned the bowl and spoon I used, and was back in the living room, eying the strangely colored box on the shelf. I must really be desperate to truly consider a cartoon as a source of information. Then again, I was becoming a mare that originated from the show. Oh, wasn't that the future me on the box? She must have eaten a lot of cake to be so much bigger than the other ponies.
The first disc of the first season quickly found its way into my computer that I had previously connected to TV. As the first part of the pilot started, I was greeted to a female voice telling the story of two royals sisters whom ruled equally across the land. One controlled the sun and the other one the moon. Talk about being overpowered. Besides, moving the sun would be kind of dangerous as moving an object with such a large gravity well would cause a massive amount of chaos in the neighboring celestial objects.
The rest was the usual in children stories. The older sister got too stuck up with her ego and failed to notice her younger sister's sorrow. Eventually, the younger sister got so jealous of her sister, she eventually refused to lower the moon. Her sister attempted to reason her but failed, finally making me realize how stupid I was to not have noticed her plight earlier. It was much too late, as my little sister had already been corrupted by the Nightmare.
I was forced to fight her in an attempt to subdue her, but her strength equaled mine. Eventually, I was left with no other choices but to use the Elements of Harmony, the symbols of love and friendship that had once united us, against her. In her arrogance, she didn't think I could manage to use them on my own. She was wrong as the Elements sealed her in the moon. In the end, a dark figure was left on the surface of her moon, serving as a reminder of the foalishness of both of us. I'm sorry Luna. I failed us both...
Wh-what was that? Where did it come from? Memories blended in with the narrator's story. But those weren't mine. At least I don't think they were. Arg, what was I thinking? I was never a pony before, so those couldn't be my memories. I hoped that it was only a fluke...
In any cases, a familiar voice attracted my attention back to TV, just in time to notice a lavender unicorn before the theme song started. I wasn't impressed in the slightest by the song, but it was fitting for a foals' program. The next interesting part was when Spike was constantly being hit while trying to help Twilight finding the book Predictions and Prophecies. Thankfully, baby dragons are much tougher than what everypony would think. After learning about when the villain that the narrator introduced would obviously return, she made her assistant write a letter to warn her teacher, the Princess of Day, of the danger to come. And my head decided that it would be the perfect moment to ache; a lot.
I could barely contain my misplaced excitement at the possibility of seeing Luna again, even if only in her corrupted form. It had been far too long since the last time I have seen her, every passing year only serving to remind me of how much I failed her... I knew that she would come for me in her fury, but I would be no match for her this time; raising and lowering her moon had taken its toll on me over the last thousand years and I had lost my connection to the Elements of Harmony on the night I used them on my dear sister. But that didn't mean that I lacked a plan to deal with the twisted form of Luna this time around.
Oh, a scroll coming from my most faithful student! Normally, I couldn't be happier to receive a letter from little Twilight, giving me a much-needed distraction from my daily paperwork. But today was an exception. There was much to do in the case that my plan would fail… or exceed my expectations. The young Sparkle did have the habit to surprise me and there was no way to tell how the Elements would react at their full potential. Then again, I had to send her a letter to put the final and most important piece in place.
I was pleasingly surprised by the content of my student's letter. She had done a remarkable job, as always, but she apparently still haven't learned the true meaning of a vacation... I should answer her quickly before her home lay in ruins. Heavens know how bad she can get when she was stressed out. A chuckle escaped my lips as I imagined too clearly the young unicorn reaction to the first part of my reply. As for the rest, I may have set her up so that she'll meet the Element Bearer candidates that I had found. Well, except for Pinkie Pie, but I have heard that there was no new pony in Ponyville that didn't meet her on their first day, so it is safe to say that Twilight Sparkle would meet with the rather strange candidate for Laughter. Once the message was sent, I returned my attention at the others matters at hoof. Oh, I was so not looking for the beating that Nightmare Moon would surely give me...
I froze in place as the scene changed from the tower to a chariot guided by two pegasi. What the hay is happening to me! It was no fluke, now I was certain of it. The worse was that those manufactured memories felt so real, as if the situation had happened to me. Weren't they happening to a pony princess? I might have a hard time trying to distinguish them from my real memories once the changes will be more advanced. The show was obviously the cataclysm that provoked those fake memories, but I couldn't stop watching that episode as it specifically dealt with the pony that John was becoming. Considering that her first appearance was as a villain, I had the feeling that I would learn some rather interesting bits of information about her. I only hoped that the knowledge would be worth the addition of the memories of a princess...
The rest of the episode went by with no more memories incidents, but I'll admit that the various meetings with the different ponies were quite funny, though I wouldn't touch a cupcake covered in hot sauce. That was a waste of a perfectly fine cake. On the other hoof, John will earn herself a new rendezvous with the frying pan if she ever start to act like Nightmare Moon. Seriously, she was just a typical villain with the usual overconfidence and egocentric problems. I was happy that her appearance didn't trigger another of those memories though; being defeated by such a being wasn't something I'd like to experience first hoof.
The episode dared to end on the evil laughter of the scoundrel. This won't do! I started the next episode in ten seconds flat. Yep, I shamelessly stole a quote from Rainbow Dash. As much as I hate to admit it, this cartoon was much more endeavoring than I first thought. I was of the proper gender at least, as for the age part, I think I was old enough that it no longer mattered. I meant 25 by that, totally not over a thousand years.
Oh, great move on to the part with guards; a pony who managed to capture the princess who can harness the power of the Sun and they think that only three of them, all pegasi, would be enough to deal with the culprit? They might need a lesson in common sense... And let not mention the fact that Twilight didn't start by looking at the letter E for information about the Elements of Harmony. Then again, she usually keep her own library sorted... by... subject... first... There is no reason to panic Alex, you knew that it would happen as long as you are watching the show. This was obviously only a more subtle fake memory, right?
Keeping my concentration on the TV seemed a much better option than trying to reassure myself that I wasn't starting to go crazy. At the moment, the group had just entered the Everfree Forest, soon followed by a landslide. Ouf, that part with Applejack was bad... Wouldn't it have been better if she simply told Twilight that the two pegasi would catch her? Thankfully, it was the only awful thing that happened while they navigated the forest. Well, the way Pinkie Pie acted did remind me of somepony I knew, except that the orange pony in question liked to drink a little too much.
The revelation at our old castle, destroyed a thousand years ago during my little altercation with Luna, about the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and the spark was a little cheesy. It could have been worse; they could have said that they would punish Nightmare Moon in the name of love and justice! And don't get me started on how the villain thought it would be so easy to destroy the Elements; especially considering that she was once one of their Bearers.
And I lost all contact with reality soon afterward... I was flying toward the ruins where I hid the Elements after I lost my connection to them. I could feel the wind flowing through my fur and the feathers of my… wings? This... this can't be happening! This wasn't a simple memory like earlier; I was fully conscious that it wasn't the reality, though I felt every movements of the body and every thoughts. Or the overpowering sensation as my mind reached out for the sun to finally raise it.
I quickly arrived at the ruins with the perfect timing to make my entrance. I was pleasantly surprised to see John back in her original form. My most faithful student had succeeded where I once failed, I couldn't be more proud of her success. Twilight wasted no time to reach me, making the height difference between us all too apparent. My body decided to nuzzle her soon enough out of happiness. The sensation of our fur rubbing proved to be very weird for my still human brain.
After a small monologue of telling my student that I knew she would prevail, I turned my attention to my little sister still lying unconscious on the floor. We had been separated again for 25 years... Wait! No, it was the first time and it lasted a thousand years. I could only hope that she would be willing to forgive me after all those years, all had started because of my negligence after all...
The mention of Luna's name was enough to wake her up and gather he attention. My younger sister step back at first, fearful of how I would react. Her reaction hurt me a little, but I understood why she would be scared of me. She was so vulnerable at moment and would be unable to protect herself if I decided to punish her like she thought she deserved for her actions. I told her that all I wanted was to reconcile our differences. She hesitated at first, but we were soon embraced together in a hug. Well, a pony hug that is. That scene would have moved me even if I weren’t experiencing it first hoof. For a moment, I was no longer a princess; I was only a pony who had finally reunited with her little sister after all those years apart.
The world faded before being greeted by a too familiar sight; a crowd of ponies. The current memories playing corresponded perfectly to the dream I had the night before meeting Luna in the flesh. If that dream was an actual memory of this Celestia pony, then it meant the memories didn't need anything to trigger them. Yeah, screw you too Murphy...
Soon, the memory ended and the world returned to normal briefly before fading again as the music of the credits stopped.
++M++
This day was going to be perfect. Alex had accepted to spend a week over here after a little convincing from my part. The original plan was to bring him with me at my parent house for the usual party my parents prepared in honor of mine and my sister’s birthdays. Sure, the fact that the party was mainly for the girls meant that they decided its theme. They had been obsessed with ponies ever since they saw one rerun of the friendship thing show.
Everything went south on a single day. First, my parents decided that it would be a good idea to go away for two weeks just in time for my birthday. I have always hated when they left on one of their impromptu vacations, but this was the worst ones so far.
Then there was Alex. What the hell was he thinking deciding that he wouldn't come at the last moment! At first, I made fun of him about having finally found a girlfriend, but I was starting to think that that might the truth. It was as good a guess as any about the mystery he was keeping. Pff, he could be becoming a pony for all I knew. I wish it was possible, it would be a proper way to excuse himself from the girls. One thing was certain; he was in for it when I see him again.
On the bright side, I successfully managed to move the party to my house on such a short notice and it had been a great success. My friend going Yoda on me was already enough of a blow on my sisters morale, they didn't need their friends missing the party. To be honest, I was a little jealous of them. There are times when I wished I could be young and innocent again. Well, not that I would use innocent to describe Fiona, but my point stood.
In any case, I should probably start to clean the remaining of the party up. It was already one o'clock and everybody else had already left. First, I should find something to occupy Fiona and Samantha while I was busy. The little gift I gave them should do the trick.
“So, what do you want to do while your big brother is busy?”
Their answer was rather predictable as they both shouted at the same time, “PONIES!” Their excitement made me smile. My life would be so empty without them.
I reached for the ten years celebration box of My Little Pony that also contained several figures and a guidebook about several ponies. They had already played with the figures along with their friends after we had finished unwrapping our gifts. Strangely, my sisters had taken possession of three ponies and they pretended that they were us. Fiona was a pink pegasus filly with a light blue and white mane and tail, free to move with the wind, and there was a peach carried by a breeze on her flank. Sam was the light blue unicorn filly with her mane and tail styled in a ponytail in the colors of white and pink and she had a peach strangely glowing of a green color. As for myself, they used a pink pegasus filly with a purple and light blue mane, decorated with a green bow, and tail; and, unlike the others, she had no images on her flank... Children...
I decided to play their favorite episode; thanks to the booming business the Sugar Cube Corner received after winning the national dessert competition, the Cakes had hired a new pastry chef to help answer the increasing demand. Unfortunately for Strawberry Frosting, the pink and yellow maned pink earth pony chef, her coworker, the infamous Pinkie Pie, decided to help with her shyness. Pinkie had even tried to have the shy pegasus to coach Strawberry! In the end, what worked was to have her baby-sit three young fillies while their parents had to go to Canterlot for royal business. Wait, weren't those the same fillies that my sisters played with? Well, that would explain why they loved them so much.
Soon after the episode started, something very strange happened; Fiona actually froze in place. I have never seen her so calm in my life, even asleep. This scared me; didn't the same thing happen to Al-
~~~~~~~~~~
This had been fun! Everypony in town had followed Pinkie’s example to play a massive hide and seek game with Dissy. That was until my big sister Breezy was unable stand still and we were discovered by one of the many seekers on the other team. I was surprised at first that some of the Princesses' guards agreed to play with us, even if they did not seem to be having much fun.
Mommy and daddy were shaking while the guards escorted us back home. A quick glance at both of my older sisters revealed that they were as clueless as I was about the reason our parents were so scared. The guards were the good guys, right? I mean they must be, especially those whom worked for Luna. She had been so much fun to play with during Nightmare Night last year. I wonder if miss Berry has been caught too. We have been eating only things 'good' for our health since we left two days ago. I'd like to eat one of her delicious cakes.
As we entered Ponyville, the buildings looked like the Crusaders had decided to try to earn their cuties mark in home improvement. Splashing gray paint all over everypony in the process. It also seemed that they had mixed a potion from Zecora again in with the paint, as the ponies that passed by us were looking rather dull. They will get in so much trouble this time around; I was so happy that I had not joined them when they pressed me to. In any case, the activities they normally do in their attempts to find their special talent are more of Peachy Breeze’s style anyway.
We soon approached the nearest landmark to our home, Sugar Cube Corner. Actually, the building seemed to be more like cake than usual. Discord stood in front of the building with the words 'I am evil now' written on his forehead. Only him and Pinkie Pie would do something this weird. He did seem more sinister than usual though; the fact that my sisters placed themselves between the two of us didn't make me feel safe anymore.
“Well, well, well, what have we here? Four petites pêches and some snow trying to escape the harsh summer? We can't have let you do that now, can we? After all, the winter does need to be wrapped up."
He started to approach us slowly, obviously intending to do something very bad to us. Mom and dad still haven't moved ever since they saw the Discord.
"Now, let see. Who shall I eat to make sure you ponies won't try to exile yourself from my great Empire of Chaos?" He removed a spyglass from his left ear as he spoke and he used it to look at me. The creepiness made me start to shake and bounded my wings to my sides.
“Don't tremble ma pêche, or else you will make me feel like a péché myself. Oh, isn't it a great idea. I have never eaten une pêche rose.” He pointed his claw toward me, retrieving a pink peach from the air when my sisters gathered even closer to me. Breezy wings flared and Glow’s horn was glowing its usual green color as they tried to appear menacing, “Stay away from her!” I would have expected Breezy to say those words, but I was surprised that it was Peachy Glow that did.
It obviously didn't work well as Discord started to roll on the floor, leaving a black solid substance on it. The lack of noise from our parents to our display worried me, so I glanced behind me for a second. They looked grayer than usual.
“Aren't you two cute, defending your little sister from the big bad monster.” Breezie looked a little hurt of being called cute, but I knew that deep down she loved being adorable. “It seems like I'll need a bigger package to send you away.” He threw a box behind himself that wrapped itself in a gray paper as it fell on the floor. “I was wondering how well the group discount worked.” He took a scroll and started to roll it, putting a seal on the paper when he was finished.
The sky started to blacken and thunder rose from the ground to reach some clouds in the sky.
For Five Score! Divided by Four!
Your memories removed, your bodies confused!
To punish your parents, you shall pay
Cast off in a galaxy far far away
The protectors shall become the protegees
For the first shall become the last
I hope you shall have fun
In a world you don't understand
Breezie disappeared in a flash of white leaving us stunned. But it didn't last long as we soon followed.
~~~~~~~~
Breezie- I mean Fiona was waving her hands in front of my face when I recovered from whatever just happened to me. Judging from the fading theme song, I was gone for a couple minutes. My little daydream also left me slightly shaking until I noticed it. Pony feathers, I didn't need to worry the girls any further after that little accident.
I wanted to comfort my sisters, but Fiona was faster, “Are you okay sis?” I mentally cringed when she called me sis, but I decided not to push the matter further. The lack of amusement in her tone made it clear that she did not plan to make fun of me. This reversal of roles was surprising for me too.
“Don't worry, I'll be fine,” I rose an eyebrow, “what about the two of you? You did black out first.”
My two bi- little sisters looked at each other before Glo- Sam spoke for the two of them frowning, “We aren't... We missed the start of the episode.” Yep, kids were the only who considered missing the start of an episode worse than blanking out. If I consider the numerous errors I had done so far, I would guess that the experience left me rather shaken.
As I proceeded to sit on the sofa between Fiona and Sam, I decided to address their problem, “Don't worry, I'll restart the episode. I'll even watch it with you.” I gave them a smile for good measure, which they reciprocated by snuggling me. I don't know if it had something to do with my weird pony dream, but I felt much more interested in the episode than usual. I wasn't in any condition for cleaning duty anyway.
There was still one fact that greatly worried. Alex had a black out like this two days ago and he had acted weirdly afterward. I hope this wasn't a sickness that he had passed to me and my sisters. Even so, I couldn't help but be worried for him at the moment. Please be safe Princess.