“Twilight? You awake?”
I felt a warm hand push my cheek. It woke me up.
“Twilight? You okay?”
The hand pushed me again. I recognized the voice. It was Rainbow Dash.
“Twilight, are you okay-“
I groaned loudly. “What do you want?”
“Well, I…I wanted to say sorry. For what I said. You were right.”
Before I could react, she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. I returned the hug and smiled. “It’s okay. I forgive you.” I felt moisture on my shoulder. “Are you…crying?”
“No! I’m just…um…oh, fuck it, yes I’m crying! I could have lost you!”
“But you didn’t, did you?”
“No. So, we’re cool?”
“Definitely.
Just then, another pair of arms wrapped around me.
“Hiya, Twilight! Did you know how worried I was? I mean, what with you and I both sleeping under the same overpass, and there’s no way it’s as comfy as sleeping in a bed! Sleeping in a bed is way comfier! That reminds me, who made beds? Who decided that sleeping on a rock wasn’t comfy enough? Because that person is really, really, really smart! And if they’re smart, I bet they were a scientist! And if they were a scientist, I bet they-“
I hugged Pinkie Pie. “I’m glad to see you too, Pinkie.”
“Twilight?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. For what I did last night.”
“It’s okay, Pinkie.”
And then Pinkie started to cry, too.
I saw Fluttershy walking towards us.
“Oh…um…am I…interrupting something?”
“Not at all, Fluttershy.”
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry…”
“For what?”
“For not listening to you guys about Tim. I’ll tell you about it some other time.”
She came towards me and hugged me. “I’m sorry for leaving like that.”
“It’s okay.”
“Well, howdy, Twi! Hope I didn’t miss out on any of the fun?”
Applejack.
“Of course not, Applejack.”
“Twi? I’m sorry ‘bout all that last night. I didn’t mean to mess up so bad.”
“It’s fine, Applejack.”
Walking the same steps as her friends before her, Applejack hugged me and started crying.
And, finally, to round us off, came Rarity. “Hello, darlings. I’m…I’m terribly sorry for what happened last night. I was not thinking straight.”
Rainbow Dash piped up. “Don’t sweat it. Wasn’t your fault.”
“Oh, but it was.”
I took over for Rainbow. “No, it wasn’t.”
Rarity gave me a hug. We seem to be following a convention here.
Something was still nagging at me.
“How did you guys find me?”
Pinkie answered my question.
“Easy! I fell asleep under this here overpass, too! And when I woke up, all I had to do was look over and I saw you there! But you were asleep, so I sent a text to the girls when you were awake! But then I fell asleep, but I just woke up!”
Huh. “I see.”
----------
That’s about it. We all made up. Oh, and remember when I said I had spent more time in the human world? Well, Princess Celestia had sent me a letter, instructing me to do more research on the human world with my friends! So we did. We went to parties and restaurants and all sorts of places. We sent our experiences to the Princess. Sure, this place has a ton of vices, like alcoholism, smoking, and abuse, but there’s also lots of good here, like with Travis, who we got to know some more. He’s a pretty nice guy, in short. And Nathan, Fluttershy’s new boyfriend. He’s not a huge prick, like Tim was. Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to him…
But, I digress. Today, we leave back for Equestria. Maybe I’ll continue this log when I get there. Until then, this is Twilight Sparkle, signing off.
----------
Fuck me.
I was so stupid to trust her! I should have known! She even told me Equestria was weak without the Elements before! How could I be so stupid? Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Maybe I should slow down a bit, huh?
In short, we were all lied to.
When we got back through that makeshift portal, we found Equestria…taken over. Not by changelings, or Sombra, or Discord.
It had been taken over by Princess Celestia.
Or, as she liked to be called, Lord Celestia. Her intimidating likeness was all over posters with the word ‘OBEY’ written in large block letters under it. It was straight out of George Horsewell’s 1984.
“Twilight Sparkle and company. Just the ponies I wanted to see.”
I looked straight at her, betrayed. “What the hell have you done to Equestria?”
She looked calm. “I’ve made it better, don’t you see?”
“Better!? How!?”
“Well, for starters, no more violence. Everyone agrees. There is peace, and there is order.”
“There’s no free will! Or self-expression!”
“Where there is free will, there is thought. Where there is thought, there is doubt. Where there is doubt, there is unrest. Where there is unrest, there is chaos.”
“But…but…”
“Are you really this stupid, Twilight? You were my best student! I didn’t realize you were a fool!”
“Wha…”
“Did I stutter?”
I was taken aback by the Princess’ behavior. How could she just…do this to everypony?
She wasn’t going to get away with this.
“You’ll never dispel Equestria’s freedom! We’ll stop you!”
“Ha. You can stop me from an enchanted prison cell?”
“What?”
Before I could respond, she picked me up with her aura. It enveloped me.
She turned to the others. “You five. Leave, before I kill you.”
Rainbow Dash flew a few feet off the ground. “We’ll never let you do that to Twilight!”
Rarity pulled her down. “Rainbow Dash, we need to go now. We need to find a way to rescue Twilight later. Going in headfirst is a bad plan.”
“But…” She sighed. “I guess you’re right. We’ll be back for you, Twilight! Okay?”
My friends ran off to live another day.
Celestia turned to me. “So, where were we? Oh, right, prison cell. Off you go.”
Before I could fight back, I was in a prison cell in the Canterlot dungeons. I could tell by the style of the stones that were my walls. The floor was padded with hay, and cold, metal bars let me look out into the hallway, where there were other cells.
But that’s not all.
Remember my nightmare?
There was the same image, painted, on the floor of my cell.
Where was I? Oh, right.
Fuck me.