//------------------------------// // Bonus Chapter 1: Behind the Story (Optional) // Story: Past, Present, and Future // by Bpkyle777 //------------------------------// Aha! My first bonus chapter! I want to start off by saying thanks to everypony that’s been enjoying my story. I’m still pretty new at writing, so I didn’t expect to get this much attention. Thank you. Anyways, to celebrate my first milestone, 3000 views and 600 favs, I present to you a collection of deleted/alternate scenes from my time planning Past, Present, and Future. Warning: The plot in some scenes differs greatly from what the story is currently on. If you're easily confused or don't have a firm grasp of what's currently happening in the story, DO NOT READ THIS. This is entirely optional! If you don’t care about my planning process, or how some events early in the story came to be, feel free to ignore this chapter. For the rest of you, enjoy! ---------------- The following is part of the first draft of “Chapter 2: Fun?” When she finally relaxed a bit I decided to ask her for a favor. “Can I ask you for a favor?” Twilight looked at me suspiciously, “Depends. What do you want?” I couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction. I did come off as a little creepy and suspicious with my appearance and vague answer. “Well, I just need you to send the Princess a letter for me. I actually haven’t seen her for a while and thought it would be best to send her word on where I am and how I’m doing.” Twilight was incredulous, “How do I know you’re telling the truth? You’re being awfully vague.” “Well, how about this. You send the letter. Whether or not she responds to knowing me would be your proof. I mean, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to ask your teacher if she knows a mysterious stallion at your door, would it?” I grinned at her. She put a hoof to her chin to think. “I… guess not. But no funny business. If she doesn’t know you, you’re out of here. Deal?” “Deal.” I shook her outstretched hoof. “Spiiiiike!” Twilight called. The little dragon came running down the stairs to see what Twilight wanted. “Yes, Twilight?” “Can you take a letter?” “Sure. Is it another friendship report? It’s a bit early in the week for that, isn’t it?” Spike asked. Twilight glared at her assistant. “No Spike. I just need to confirm something with the Princess. What do you want it to say, Blast?” I thought for a moment then remembered something only she and I would know. “Just tell her that a mysterious stallion has appeared at your door and he says ‘Only two knew the sun rose from the west.’” Spike looked confused but wrote it down anyway. “Is that it?” “Yep.” Spike rolled up the letter and burned it, sending it towards Canterlot. Twilight was curious. “What does that mean? ‘Only two knew the sun rose from the west’? It rises in the east every day.” I laughed. “It’s an inside joke between her and I. It happened a long time ago, basically she-“ Suddenly, a huge explosion of light and magic cut me off. Twilight’s mane flew back and Spike was practically thrown at the wall, knocking him out. After readjusting my eyes I saw a white alicorn standing in the middle of the room, looking around frantically. “Oh, hey Tia. Long time no see.” I said nonchalantly. I looked back to see a stunned unicorn and unconscious dragon and decided to continue my story. “Anyway, as I was saying, one morning she was… Uh, Twi? You paying attention? It’s a really funny story.” She kept staring at Celestia, who, in turn, was looking at me, confused. “Z… Zack?” I sighed at not being able to finish my story but quickly turned to the Princess with a huge grin. “Hey Tia. How’s Wittle Wuwu doing? Better I hope.” I had never seen Tia’s jaw drop so far. She could almost give Pinkie a run for her money. “You…you look…” “Different, I know. Don’t know how, but all I know is it happened. I miss being a unicorn though.” I turned to Twilight, who hadn’t moved an inch. “Twilight, enjoy being a unicorn now. You might not be one forever.” Technically true since I knew she was destined to be an alicorn someday soon. Tia had tears in her eyes and was slowly walking towards me. “W-where did you go? You disappeared over three millennia ago!” Before I could respond, Twilight broke out of her stupor. “Wait, WHAT!?! Three thousand years ago? How old are you?” she asked me. “23.” “…” Her eye twitched. It was kind of funny and adorkable. I turned back to the princess, who was less than three feet from me, looking like she might break down any second. I explained all I could. “Look Tia, I’m so sorry. All I remember is going out on that patrol near the Everfree Jungle. The next thing I know, Nurse Redheart is waking me up and I have a terrible headache like I was struck by a frying pan.” Celestia couldn’t help but giggle through her tears. “I always said your head seemed to have its own gravitational pull.” I pouted at her. “Hey, my head isn’t that big.” “Yes it is,” Celestia said. “It kind of is,” Twilight said, throwing in her two bits. “Just a bit.” What the hay?! Even Spike joined in. I didn’t even know he was conscious! “Augh! Whatever!” I was suddenly pulled into the air for Tia to give me a life-crushing hug. “We thought we had lost you. Luna and I spent the next six months searching for you and found nothing.” “What, only six months? I thought I was more important than that.” I returned the hug with as much force as I could, but I knew the ‘all-powerful’ alicorn wouldn’t be phased by my strength, or lack thereof. This scene was scrapped due to issues planning the next few interactions, e.g. Meeting Luna, Revealing past as Sapphire Knight, Mixing in the flashbacks appropriately, and a few other kerscuffles. Aside from its preplanning stages, this is part of the very first thing I ever wrote for the story, so I wasn’t as adept as I am now with keeping characters… in character. I hated Zack and Celestia’s dialogue the most, so I did an entire rewrite, eventually making Celestia more like a calm, experienced ruler and sending Twilight and Zack to Canterlot. ---------------- “Behind the Story” Fun Fact #1: Did you know that it wasn’t until chapter 6 that I had the idea of giving Zack a non-Royal friend? Smith started as a small joke in one of the flashbacks until I figured Zack seemed too alone, so I flung Smith into the heat of things with him. Don’t believe me? Here’s an old version of Smith from an outdated Chapter 6: All Is Revealed: I rolled my eyes. “Well, I don’t need the whole army at my side.” I walked to the front of the group. “Listen up, at most I’ll only need about eight of you with me. Lieutenant Light, you’re with me.” He trotted to my side. “I’m also gonna take… Star, Flare, Mills, Rich, Green, Songs, and… Smith,” I said, pointing out each guard as I said their name. “The rest of you may continue your previous duties in Canterlot.” “I still don’t understand how you can recognize each of us,” Light told me. “Well,” I said with a smirk, “I invented the enchantment for your armor. I should also have a way to see around it, right?” The guards I called out gathered around me as the rest cleared out. “Alright,” I said, “We are investigating the entrance to a potential threat to Equestria, near the border of the Everfree.” Everypony saluted, except Private Smith, who was almost visibly shaken. “Are you alright, Smith?” “Well, it’s just…” He paused to think about it. “If what we are investigating is a possible threat, why did you send away the rest of the guards?” “Haha. Well, that’s the thing,” I said. “We don’t know what this could be. It could be nothing! Besides, after so long of nothing bad happening, why would something happen now?” Oh boy. Did I just jinx us? See? He started out as some minor scaredy-cat Private. Way different from what he is now, huh? ------------- Just For Kicks Here are a few lines/jokes that were removed from the story, as well as a running joke still in the story that at least half the readers missed. (Truthfully, those should have been the ones removed.) In Chapter 6: All Is Revealed, sometime after Zack convinces the group of his knowledge of MLP: “I have another question for you,” Rainbow Dash said. “What would that be?” I asked. She glared at me with a serious look on her face… before grinning and sounding excited. “Do I have a catchphrase?” “What?” Rarity asked. “You know,” Dash looked at her, “A catchphrase. A line or something the cool characters in stories say regularly that makes them more memorable.” “Oh,” Rarity said in understanding. Dash turned back to me, questioningly. I had to chuckle. “Well, honestly from the first moment you appeared, you got a catchphrase in ten seconds flat.” Well… It may have been a little more than ten seconds. The other girls in the room giggled as Dash did a hoofpump. “Sweet! What is it?” Everypony stopped laughing and looked at her. “What?” she questioned. “Uh, Sugarcube?” AJ started. “That was yer catchphrase.” “What was?” Dash thought about it for a moment. “The ‘ten seconds flat’ thing? I don’t say that that often,” she shook her head. “Yeah, you do Dash,” Twilight said. “Remember? It was one of the first things you said to me after I told you to clear the skies for the Summer Sun Celebration.” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Once doesn’t count as a catchphrase.” I stopped writing right there because I found that I was going way off topic on something with virtually no meaning to the story. Also in Chapter 6: All Is Revealed, I was going to have Zack explain what a human was, and under the assumption the general fandom was correct, say “You know, those things Lyra obsesses about?” I scrapped the whole ‘human’ dialogue before it got anywhere, so I don’t have a copy of it. Here’s a few quotes from Chapters 6, 7 and 17. Maybe you guys can catch the running joke with them so close together? Hint: What is Pinkie best known for doing to the fourth wall? Tia grinned at me. I guess she believes me. I mean, with everything that’s happened, why wouldn’t she? “So, that’s how you knew about my little ponies?” she asked. I snickered and Tia looked confused. “Oh, sorry,” I said. “I usually laugh when a book or show mentions its own name inside it.” That got a few more confused looks. “‘My Little Pony’. That’s the name of the work of fiction based on y’all.” After a few moments of silence, Applejack spoke up. “So let me see if Ah’ve got this right. You were a… Hue-man that was magically dropped in Equestria 3000 years ago as a fancy Unicorn, disappeared, and then reappeared here as a Pegasus, and you know a heap about our past, present, and future?” Pinkie snickered for some reason. Tia rolled her eyes and nuzzled me and I returned it. It felt a little weird, but I liked it. When we separated, I looked back at the journal on my desk. “It’s been technically only a few days since I’ve written in that thing, but it feels like an eternity now,” I said as I picked it up with my magic and brought it closer to me. “Do you plan to continue writing?” Tia asked. I shook my head. “Nah. There’s no need to anymore. Everything in here is in a past life.” I could swear I heard Pinkie Pie giggling somewhere in the distance. ------------ “Behind the Story” Fun Fact #2: "Wittle Woona" in Sapphire Knight's time was going to be extremely filly-like personality wise before I came up with a few things she'd need to be slightly more mature for, like keeping Knight from hitting on her sister, advancing more in her magic studies, and, yes, dating Smith. Although by the point Knight shows up, both Luna and Celestia are well above the age of adults (not telling their real ages due to possible spoiler/plot later in the story), their mental maturity was only about a mid-teen and young adult, respectively. “Behind the Story” Fun Fact #2.5: Although it's never directly mentioned in the story, Smith is only younger than Zack by a couple years. That's why I made the crack about Luna being 'Barely Legal' in a flashback. ------------- The following is the first draft of Chapter 15: Seeing Double. Note that this was written before I even published Chapter 13, so details and story direction was set to drastically change by the time I got to publishing this one. Originally, Smith's doppelganger was really Smith. Both of them were, but the travel through time, or what Sombra did prior to that duplicated him. Like I said, as I worked my way toward this chapter, plotlines changed, and frankly, I didn't want to do a heap of storytelling. You'll see what I mean: Smith and his doppelganger approached each other with identical looks of confusion on their faces. They each looked just as disheveled the other. Our Smith from the storm last night and the other from getting ruffed up by Twilight’s older brother. They stood face to face to each other. Same height, mane, coat. Hay, even their cutie marks were identical! After circling each other a moment, almost making me lose track of our Smith, they lifted their right hooves to each other. The Smiths repeated this a few times before one turned to us and the other turned to Luna. “This… is awesome!” “This… is awesome!” They quickly turned back to each other, a huge grin plastered on their faces. “I knew I was hot…” “…but this is ridiculous!” I facehoofed. Great! They’re already finishing each other’s sentences! “Smith, please. This is serious!” “What’d I say?” “What’d I say?” I groaned and one of the Smith’s sat down and looked at Trixie and Me before turning to the other Smith. “Who are the other two?” “Oh! The mare is Trixie Lulamoon,” the other Smith suddenly looked a little apprehensive at the mention of Trixie’s name. Trixie raised a brow at him. “And you might not believe this, but that Pegasus is actually Sapphire Knight!” Smith explained. “Really?” Smith stood up and walked over to me with a serious look on his face. “Prove it.” I rolled my eyes. “Two weeks before we vanished, you and I were at the pub when this really cute mare walked over to you and said-” “Stop!” they both yelled, panicked. “I believe you!” the Smith in front of me said. “You promised not to tell anypony about that.” “That didn’t stop him before,” Luna muttered. I gave Smith a glare similar to the one he had used earlier. “Now prove you’re Silver Smith.” He jumped and did a backflip in the air. “You mean aside from the awesomeness I’m giving off?” The other Smith started cheering and applauding. “You certainly sound like him. Tia, you mind giving me a hoof?” I asked. Tia walked up next to me. “What do you need?” “We’re gonna check both Smiths in case one’s an imposter,” I explained and turned to the Smiths. “Sorry buddy, but with the possibility of… you know who…” Smith nodded, but the other one tilted his head. “You mean Sombra, right?” he asked. I looked at him questioningly. “Uh, how’d you know?” “Dude, I’ve been awake for over two days. You don’t think it’s strange that I only just now got to Canterlot?” I thought about it for a moment. “I’m guessing you’ve had your own run in with him?” Smith nodded. “Not directly, but it doesn’t take a Sapphire Knight to figure out it was the Prince.” “King,” Our Smith corrected. “WHAT?!” Smith yelled. “How did that creepy jerk end up a king?” “We’ll explain in detail later,” I said. “Long story short, he took over an entire empire 1000 years ago, making himself king, but was quickly overthrown by Tia and Luna.” I shook my head. “Anyways, since we’re all on the same page about who’s behind this, you know why I have to be careful, right?” Smith nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.” He chuckled. “It’s not like this would be the first time you’ve blasted meEEEEEEE!” Smith’s volume increased as Tia and I hit both of them with our magic. After a few moments, we released the Smiths, dropping them unceremoniously to the floor, and we looked at each other curiously. “Heh, so,” one of the Smith’s started as he tried to stand back up, “what’s the verdict?” “You’re… both Silver Smith,” I said and sat down to think. “But… how are there two of him? You sure it’s not a changeling?” Trixie asked. I nodded. “I’ve met a changeling before, nice guy, by the way, so I know how to detect one. Both Smith’s are giving off almost identical signatures to the Smith we all knew 3000 years ago.” “What dost thou mean ‘almost’?” Luna asked. “Well, there will be some minor differences,” I explained. “Whether it’s from teleporting to the future, Smith’s involvement in clearing the storm in Ponyville, or the other Smith’s involvement in… Whatever he did after waking up.” “Why has he been split into two, then?” Tia asked Luna and Trixie both nodded, also wanting to know. Smith sat down next to Smith. I looked around to see everypony staring at me in expectation. “What?” Smith rubbed his head. “Well, you’ve always been the one who could explain bizarre things before anypony else.” I sighed. “Well, I’ll try my best, but I think we should fill Luna and… Smith in on what’s happened so far.” I turned to Smith. “I’ll start with the truth about me…” ------------------- Smith just sat on his pillow with a blank look just like Smith’s yesterday. We had all moved to Tia’s study to be more comfortable, making most of the Royal Guard turn their heads at the two Smiths. I waited for the obvious comment. “I always had my suspicions,” Smith said. Right on cue. I decided to roll with it. “About what?” He smirked at me. “That you were some kind of alien.” I raised a brow. “…What?” That actually caught me by surprise. “Well, you weren’t the most subtle, you know,” Smith said. “The way you acted at times seemed a little… alien. After the first few weeks, even you were having issues believing your amnesia story.” “And don’t get me started with the verbal slip-ups,” our Smith cut in. “I think you said ‘Someone’ and ‘Anybody’ more than the council at a griffon conference.” Everypony in the room except Trixie nodded. “When you put it like that,” Tia said, “I don’t know why I didn’t see it sooner.” “Anyways,” I continued, “here’s what’s happened since yesterday…” ------------------- After I finished explaining what we talked about on the train ride over, Silver (that’s what I’ve taken to calling the second Smith to separate them) crossed his forelegs and huffed. “I knew that guy was no good.” I chuckled. “I said it once, and I’ll say it again. You just didn’t like him because he had a thing for Luna.” “He was hitting on her even after Luna and I were publicly dating!” both Smiths yelled, causing Luna to look up, a slight red in her cheeks. She lightly nodded. “He really did.” “Okay, now that everypony’s filled in,” Trixie spoke up for the pillow she had been lying upside-down on, “can you tell me why we have a double dose of ‘annoying’ over here?” She pointed at Silver, but then hesitated. “Wait, which one’s which?” I laughed. “Smith, the one we were with, is that one.” I pointed at Smith. “Silver, which is what I’m calling the other Smith for clarity’s sake, is that one.” I moved my hoof to point at Silver. Tia raised a brow. “How can you tell the difference?” My hoof lit up and I held it out to her. “May I?” I asked Tia. She looked confused but nodded anyways. I touched her leg and her head briefly lit cyan. “Now look.” She turned to the Smiths again. “Smith,” I pointed, “Silver.” “Oh! That’s clever!” she said and smiled at me. The Smith’s looked at each other for a moment. “What?” they asked. “Before I go into the difference between you two,” I looked at Silver, “I want you to tell me what happened after you woke up.” “Oh, okay…” Silver looked a little nervous. “You know I’m not good at long explanations, right?” Smith patted his back. “Of course I am! What are you talking about?” “The Garenger Assembly?” Silver and I both deadpanned. Smith quickly retracted his hoof and grimaced. “Riiiight…” Silver took a deep breath. “Anyways, it all started two days ago…” ------------------- -Silver’s POV- I woke up with a horrible headache. Why do I feel like Knight on a good day? When I was finally able to move, I opened my eyes, just to see more darkness. I slowly stood up and brought a hoof up to my head to find my helmet. It was unusually tight, so I struggled to take it off. I finally got it off and inspected it. My helmet had a huge dent right above the engraving ‘S.S. waz here’. That would explain the headache. I tossed it to the side and looked around to see where I was. It looked like I was in a clearing in some kind of thick forest. I really hope I’m not where I think I am. I walked over to the edge to try to look into the forest, but it was too dark. I frowned and turned back to the clearing. “Alright, so I’m in the middle of the Everfree Jungle,” I said to myself. “I have no weapons, my armor is damaged, and I don’t have any supplies.” ------------------- “Wow,” Smith said. “That sounds eerily familiar.” I nodded. “No kidding.” Tia and I looked at each other for a moment. Luna looked like she was growing inpatient again. “Well, go on!” she told Silver. “What happened next?” “Well, I started panicking a little until I looked up…” ------------------- -Silver’s POV- “An opening!” I gasped. I hadn’t noticed it before, because there was no moon or sun to shine light through, but I could still see stars. “It must be either early morning or late evening.” I inspected the hole for another moment before spreading my wings to take off. After a few test flaps, I rose through the opening in the canopy- ------------------- “What?!” Smith yelled. “That’s not fair!” “What?” Sliver asked. Smith crossed his forelegs and pouted. “The crash in the Everfree Ju- err, Forest injured my left wing! I had to walk through the scary place, only to be ambushed by some Timberwolves!” “Oh my, I heard.” Luna said and hugged Smith. “Are you okay now?” Smith nodded and hugged her right back. “That explains why you asked about my wing when you saw me,” Silver said to Luna. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” I reminded him and looked at Smith. “And please, no more interruptions.” Smith nodded. ------------------- -Silver’s POV- After a few test flaps, I rose through the opening in the canopy and looked around. The sun had only started rising. Okay, not the Everfree Jungle. The trees were too short overall and I could easily see a large field between here and Canterlot where the tree line used to reach. Wait, Canterlot looks different for some reason. I couldn’t be absolutely sure in this dim light, but it looked… larger. I started flying towards the city before something caught my eye to the left. I turned to see some kind of small village. That didn’t use to be there. I ignored it for the moment and continued to Canterlot. About an hour later I stopped to take a break. I glided down to the field below and found a single oak tree to rest under. Phew. It looks like it’ll take a few more hours to get there. The sun was a little higher, so I could see Canterlot a little better. Yeah, it is bigger. The castle didn’t use to have that many towers. I looked around the field I was sitting in. And this all used to be jungle. How long was I out? I sat there for a few minutes trying to remember the last thing that happened to me. “Let’s see… Tia asked a bunch of guards to accompany Knight on an expedition. I joined the ranks outside. Knight called me out and selected a few others… We… went to the jungle’s edge for him to scan something, then…” I tapped my head a bit. “Augh. I wish Knight were here. Oh wait! We were ambushed by-” I shivered a little, “Timberwolves.” After thinking on it for a while longer, I realized I wouldn’t be able to remember anything else anytime soon, so I took off north towards the city again. Another hour went by and my stomach growled. I stopped to look around and spotted a wagon on the dirt road beneath me. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I asked for a little food. I glided down and stood outside the little caravan. It was about four meters long and two wide. A bit cramped, isn’t it? I knocked on the door. “Who’s there?” I heard a mare ask. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m on my way to Canterlot by wing and I don’t have any supplies on me. Would you mind donating something for me to eat?” I heard some movement inside. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not deal with hitchhikers or beggars.” “Please, Ma’am. I don’t normally do this, but I’m a little desperate at the moment.” Look at me. Reduced to groveling for food. That was you?! …Yeah. It took me the whole day to clean up your mess! I was late to Ponyville because of you! Trixie, please. I said no interruptions. Hmph. “Please leave before I summon the guard” I heard her say. “First of all,” I said, “I am part of the guard. Second,” I looked around at the vast fields in every direction, “We’re sort of in the middle of nowhere. How would you summon the guard?” The mare, I assume her name is Trixie, hesitated. “Magic, of course!” Wait, ‘Great and Powerful’, small caravan, magic… Am I really begging for food from a carnie? CARNIE!? Trixie! “So there’s nothing you can give me?” I asked the showmare. Silence. “Agh, fine!” I flew up to her roof and waited. A few minutes later I heard the door open and a blue mare in a tacky magician’s outfit covered in stars stepped out and looked around. I couldn’t see her face from above her hat, though. Trixie stepped around the corner of her caravan. I took the opportunity and quickly flew down into her open door and shut it. She quickly ran to the door and started pounding on it. “Let me in you sorry excuse for a-” “I just wanted something to eat! I’ll open the door in a minute!” ------------------- “Really, Silver?” I interrupted. “I knew you get crazy when you’re hungry, but breaking in somepony’s home and stealing?” Silver looked down dejectedly. “Look, Trixie, I’m sorry. I never act rationally when I’m hungry, and I promise to pay you back for everything I broke or stole.” Trixie’s expression was a mixture of anger and sadness and she hesitated. “…It doesn’t matter now anyways. My home was destroyed in the storm in Ponyville.” She quickly glared at Silver. “But don’t you even think for one second I won’t get you back for that!” I couldn't find an easy way to have everything here meld into the plot I wanted, so it was scrapped. This was actually the first chapter that I had to completely throw out and start over from scratch. It was just... horrible, quite possibly the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING! ...except, you know, not really the worst, just inconsistent and annoying, like I already had the idea of Smith being a changeling, so how would physical hunger really affect him like that? And I didn't like the idea of changing the story to write from somepony else's point of view. It seemed like too much trouble this far into the story.