//------------------------------// // The story line congeals // Story: How I Met Them // by The Infinity Doctor //------------------------------// "-and you actually live here? This place is amazing!" Jonas said, walking down the street "Is that a gingerbread house?" While Twilight enjoyed Jonas's enthusiasm, the continous stream of questions and comments were starting to irritate her. "Jonas?" "Hmm?" "Does any of this look familiar? Jog your memory?" "Nope, sorry Miss Twilight" "You don't need to keep calling me 'miss'" "Oh...sorry" "It's alright- the library's just up ahead" Twilight and Jonas trotted into the tree-shaped building, where Amy and Bass Flight were waiting "There you are! We haven't seen you anywhere since we got bacK" Twilight said "Well...I've been here the whole time!" "Right, but you could've stayed long enough to meet Princess Celestia" "Er- na, I bet she wouldn't want to see me..." "Why do you get so nervous around Celestia?" "It's...uh, nothing" Before Twilight could respond, Bass shot out of the library- off to Celestia-knows-where. "Ooookay, Jonas, we should work on getting your memories back" "Alright- where should we start?" X X X X X X X "This isn't helping" Twilight groaned, sitting on the floor "What isn't?" Jonas asked "...nevermind...let's try later..." "Okay" "You really have no idea who you are?" "I don't think so...my memory is a little fuzzy, what happened?" Twilight was about to respond, when Spike belched- a letter forming from his fire-breath She took the letter, her mouth curling into a wide grin as she read "This is perfect! Why didn't I think of this before?" "What is it?" "Princess Celestia, she suggested we try taking you to visit your sister!" she said excitedly "How will we do that? Don't we need Jonas and Dash to do a Rainboom at the same time?" "Well, yeah..." "I think I know somepony that can help!" Jonas said "Really? Who?" "It's a suprise" he said "Ugh..." X X X X X X X Jonas had led Twilight and Spike deeper into the seemingly nonsensical, upside-down world, soon reaching a town unlike anything they'd seen before. "Ah, Jonas, Twilight, Spike! I'm deeply sorry about what happened...So, how have you been?" Jack asked "Great! How's everything going here?" Jonas replied "Fantastic! We're almost ready" "Huh? Ready for what?" Spike asked "It's a suprise" "Wait a minute...this is where you've been all this time?" Spike asked "Nope, I spent some time in Canterlot before finding this place" "Where exactly is 'this place'?" "Why, Halloween Town, of course!" "What's Halloween?" "Oh, Nightmare Night, sorry" "That would explain the ghouls...and witches...and zombieponies!" Spike cowered Jack waved a hoof dismissively "Anyway, to what do I owe the pleasure?" "We need to get back to the human world, preferably as close to his sister's home as possible" Twilight said, indicating Jonas "Though I can't figure out why we'd need to come to you" "Ah, well follow me, we'll get this whole thing sorted out in no time" Twilight and Spike nodded, and followed Jack into a large graveyard, a large hill in the center of the area The hill curved towards the blinding light of the moon, and spiraled into itself "Here we are" Jack said, stopping the group at a large headstone "How will this get us back?" "Easy" Without another word, he pulled at the stone doors, and they swung open Inside, it was pitch-black "How is this going to help us?" Spike asked "Easy" Jack replied "Just step through" "I don't think I'll ever understand this place..." Twilight muttered as she, Spike, Jack, and Jonas walked into the darkness "Where are we going?" "We're almost there, just a little longer" "How is this going to get us back to Earth?" "You'll see- here we are!" Jack pushed open another set of stone doors, the light blinded the other three as they trotted out into another graveyard "Alright, hold on" Twilight, Spike, and Jonas took hold of Jack's coat, and the landscape melted into a blur Jack stopped suddenly, and the four found themselves in a small home, in front of a couch with a very suprised Sara. She lept off the couch and hid behind it "Twilight? Spike? What are you doing here? Who are these two?" she asked, peeking out from behind the couch "Sara, was it?" At her hesitant nod, Twilight continued "There was a little...incident...with Jonas..." She immediately stood up "What happened to him? Where is he?" she demanded "You might want to sit down, this is going to take a while..." X X X X X X X Eve sighed to herself as she sat on her perch at the tip of Mickeyjunk Mountain, allowing her a full view of the destruction and chaos in result of the Thinner Disaster. "It's lonely at the top, isn't it kid?" She jumped as another draconequus seated itself into a tea cup. "Er, who are you?" "Feedback, of course- prankster extraordinaire; now what's a chaos wreaking spirit like you doing up here all by your lonesome?" "Nothing" she sighed "Go away..." "What's the matter? Don't want a little company?" "No..." "Why not?" Eve ignored him and stared down the steep inclines of the mountain "It's a long way down, isn't it?" "Yes..." she sighed "I know what you're thinking" "No you don't...nopony or no one does..." "I'm sure your mother would..." Her ears fell against her skull "Where is she by the way? I would think-" "Shut up..." she said quietly "-she wouldn't just let you climb a mountain, much less-" "Shut up" she said a little louder "-one of this height, after all-" "SHUT. UP!" Eve conjured a sharpened candy cane and pinned Feedback against the ground "Did I strike a nerve?" he asked boredly She pressed the sharp end of the candy cane against his long neck "No need to get snippy" "Go. Away." "What? And leave you up here by yourself?" "Don't you think there might be a reason I'm up here?" "Nothing comes to mind" Eve released her grip on him "I wanna be alone, go away" "You-" "Didn't you hear me, you big meanie? Leave me alone! Go away! Bye bye!" "I will kid..." he finally said "but he'll forgive you, y'know- you just gotta tell him" The other draconequus dove olympic-style off of an overhang and spun as he plummeted towards the base of the mountain Eve briefly smiled at his antics, and flopped backwards, laying on the ground 'How did all of this get so screwed up?' X X X X X X X A dark grey pegasus stallion with a black mane and tail walked the gloomy streets of Blot Alley, he adjusted his black bowtie as he passed through the narrow back alleys and up to Club 13. He pressed doorbell with a hoof and stood back The double doors swung open "Well, well, looky who we got here" "Don't start with me, Petetronic" the stallion growled "Just let me in" He stepped to the side and let the stallion in He entered the club and sat at the bar "Hey doc, the usual?" the bartender asked, wiping a glass "I told you not to call me that" he grumbled "Sorry, slipped my mind, anyway- the usual?" "On the rocks" The bartender walked to the other end of the bar and prepared the drink "-and I mean ice!" the stallion called "So, see any blotlings out there?" "It's Blot Alley; what do you think?" "Just makin' conversation..." The bartender hoofed him his drink The stallion downed the entire drink in one go, and slammed his glass on the counter "Another" "You're going to be sick if you keep downing drinks like that" "Do I look like I care?" The bartender cocked an eyebrow and set the drink on the counter "Huh, never seen them around before" the bartender commented, spying two the two figures entering the club The stallion turned and saw a purple unicorn and an alicorn bi-ped sitting down at a booth "Dunno" he replied "Never saw them" His left ear flicked as he picked up the conversation the two were having "-utter waste of time...you sister wasn't very much help..." the unicorn sighed "She seemed nice" "We're running out of ideas..." "Those two kids were cute too, who were they again?" "Jonas- maybe we should just get home, I need to get back to Spike and the library" "Okay, let's go, then" 'How did they even manage to get in?' the stallion thought He set his glass on the bar and got up to leave Pushing the couple from his mind, he exited through the front doors of the club Upon entering the street, he spied Petetronic and Prescott talking 'The oaf, isn't it his job to be guarding the doors?' The stallion ignored the two and headed the opposite way down the alley 'Another night alone in a big blue box' he thought idly, staring up at the moon as he trotted through the narrow streets. X X X X X X X "I just don't know, Jonas- I'm out of ideas...Sara wasn't able to help us, the only other option I could think of would to ask Princess Celestia..." Jonas sighed and stretched his wings "Eh, I can wait- I wouldn't want to bother the Princess..." "Jonas, this is a serious problem! I'm sure she'll want to be notified now that you've turned into- this" He shrugged and laid belly-first on the floor, splaying his wings Twilight took a quill and parchment in her magic, and began writing- she put the quill down and rolled up the paper. "Spike!" "On it" the dragon said, hopping down the stairs He took the scroll and burned it with his breath "That was cool! Can you do it again?" Jonas asked, amazed "Maybe later..." "Oh...okay" X X X X X X X Meanwhile- In Canterlot "Are they asleep?" Princess Celestia asked, peering at the two fillies curled beneath Luna's wings. "Yes, they are- the poor things..." Luna replied sadly "Have you managed to find out what happened?" Celestia asked, her voice dropping to a whisper "I have not, they were in a state of shock when they first arrived" "I see...perhaps when they awake we will know" "Yes, for now- we let them rest" Celestia nodded and gave her sister a brief hug before leaving the room Luna laid her head between her forehooves, and heard Unara whimper from beneath her wing "Unara? Art thou alright?" She had started squirming now "Unara?" Luna moved her wing and saw the child thrashing on the bed "Mommy...MOMMY! DON'T GO! NO! NO! no...it can't be...she's gone...she..." Unara slowly opened her eyes, tears already streaking her face "Unara?" Luna asked softly "I'm- I'm fine..." "Art thou sure?" "Y-yeah..." "Thou wast screaming like a filly not ten seconds ago" "Bad memory..." "Ah, what might that memory be?" "It's nothing mo- *ahem* Luna" Luna smiled as Unara blushed, attempting to hide beneath her wing "Are you ready to tell Us what happened?" "N-not yet...Oh Luna! It's just so horrible!" she cried, covering her face with her forehooves. Luna soothed both of them as Unara wept. X X X X X X X Clockwork hummed to herself as she drove the hammer into the armor, working out the dents and scratches as she checked the internal wiring of the mechanical behemoth splayed out across the work table. "Just a little longer, and we'll have you all fixed up" the tall mare muttered, re-routing the main diode cores in the chest cavity of the machine. "Mistress, you'll surely drive yourself to insanity if you continue talking to yourself" a male-voice said. She looked up from her 'project', and saw a small dog staring up at her from the floor. Almost the entire body of the dog was infused with metal, cogs attached to its chest and small pipes running in and out of its body- pumping out puffs of steam One of its eyes were glowing red, parts of the coat that weren't fused with metal revealed thin, pink scars. "I'll be fine, dear- I'll need to go out and gather more parts, anyway; would you mind taking care of things here for a few hours?" "Do you think I won't?" "I know you will, I just wanted to be sure" The dog nodded as Clockwork picked up her cloak and saddlebags as she left. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Heartswirl wept as she and her husband sat in front of the casket, sitting in the mostly- empty room of the funeral home. "She's gone, Steel...she's really gone" she cried "I know, sweetie" the stallion sighed, tears spilling down his muzzle "Why did this have to happen to her? She was such a sweet little filly" The mare broke into fresh sobs as she looked upon the picture next to the casket, showing a dark blue pegasus filly grinning at the camera lens. The couple continued to grieve as another pony entered the room, the new mare's entire form was covered, save for her head and neck. She adjusted the red bowtie around her neck as her glowing, red eyes wandered around the room- inspecting the two ponies positioned in front of the casket. "Perhaps this is not the best time" the mare stated, stopping just behind the two "but would you mind directing me to the nearest recycling facility?" Heartswirl spun in place and prepared to backhoof the mare, when she took notice of the mare's glowing eyes. "Wh-what are you?" she asked "A pony, the same as yourself" she replied bluntly "Go away, let us mourn in peace..." Those red eyes shifted to the casket, then back to the couple "Do you miss her?" "Of course we do!" Heartswirl spat "Did you love her?" "I think you should leave, Miss" the stallion growled "Yes or no?" "How could you even ask such a thing?! Of course we did!" "What would you do to have her back?" "Anything! Everything!...something..." "I may have a solution; but you must swear to me, you will not- must not- tell anypony of what I am about to do, and where I am about to take you" "Why should we go anywhere with you? Let alone trust you?" The mare's red eyes saddened "Sir, you and your spouse have demonstrated deep love and care for your child, I am already taking a great risk by making this offer- I am not forcing you to choose, merely presenting an option" Heartswirl bit her lip, and looked to her husband "I just want her back..." "I know, honey- I do too, but how can we be sure she-" He waved a hoof at the brown mare "-is actually telling us the truth?" "Sir, both of you have my solemn word- I will complete the task to my best ability" The couple looked to each other "This is insane- I can't believe I'm doing this...we'll do it..."