Chapter 3
“Where is...Discord…now?” Lauren asked, finally conceding that she would be getting nowhere by insisting on calling Craig by his real name when Celestia refused to believe her. That probably meant Lauren would have to overlook the whole ‘Mother’ thing as well until she found a way to prove the truth to Celestia, but that could wait.
“After Discord escaped on Earth, the humans refused to dispose of him for us,” Celestia answered. “They supplied a second cage with internal anti-magical properties, but insisted that we ‘deal with our own problems.’ Rather ironic, I think, what with so many of them coming to us to escape their dying planet.”
Lauren didn’t point out that as those humans had stayed on Earth, they were more than likely among the humans who had chosen to try and save the Earth rather than go to the ponies.
“I oversaw the transport of Discord’s cage to Equestria myself, along with your being moved to the royal hospital wing here in Canterlot, Mother,” Celestia went on. “Discord is being dealt with even as we speak by a team of specialists. In a few moments, he will be petrified once again.”
“Petrified?” Lauren echoed with a gulp. That was even worse than death—if Craig was going through any of the kind of psychological turmoil at the loss of his humanity as Lauren herself was going through with the loss of hers, than what must it be like to have to stew over that conundrum, trapped in one’s own mind, for what could be eternity? “Where is Discord, exactly?”
“His cage is about to be opened in the Royal Canterlot Sculpture Gardens right outside the palace,” Celestia told her. “I know it’s distressingly close, but don’t worry, Mother—my specialists will deal with him before he can harm anypony ever again, especially you. We’ll make him pay for what he did to you, and to Equestria.”
Right outside the palace? Lauren could make that! If she hurried—
Lauren sprang from the bed, wobbled a bit on her still unfamiliar four-legged stance, and then galloped to the window.
“Mother, what are you doing?” Celestia wondered, surprised at Lauren’s sudden burst of action. “I really don’t think it’s safe for you to be out of bed just yet—”
Lauren skidded to a halt at the foot of the window, though not because of Celestia’s concern. Lauren was hardly listening to the Solar Princess right now—instead she was looking at the long drop to the ground far below. As a human Lauren had never been one for heights; back when she had flown on Earth Lauren had barely skimmed along the ground. This was different—falling here could put her right back in that hospital bed, or worse. Assuming of course that alicorns could be hurt by anything other than anti-magical energy, which Lauren wasn’t quite up to testing.
But Craig was in trouble, and if she didn’t act now, he’d be a statue for who knew how long, maybe forever. Lauren knew all about the recent fiasco involving the real Discord from her Equestrian studies—they had almost closed the Bureaus because of it to prevent Discord from getting to Earth—and his punishment had been anything if not a fate worse than death.
Lauren would not stand for Craig to be subjected to that, not while she was still breathing, even if it meant she might have to stop breathing for him to be free.
Lauren swallowed deeply, tried to ignore the monstrous butterflies—more like poisonous wasps—of fear buzzing in her knotted stomach and leapt out into the open air. Lauren spread her wings, flapped as hard as she could—and fell as her wings buckled out of a resurgence of terror.
Lauren screamed on the way down, trying to flap her wings, trying to get them to do anything besides stick themselves stubbornly to her sides, but the closer the ground got the more terrified Lauren became and the more her wings refused to cooperate.
“Mother!” Celestia shouted from the window. The Solar Princess’ horn sparked and Lauren was instantly bathed in a warm golden glow, her downward plunge halting immediately. Celestia gently lowered Lauren onto the grass and released from her golden grip, alighting on the lush grass of the palace grounds beside Lauren. “Mother! Are you alright? What happened? Discord must have made you forget how to fly!”
But Lauren merely smiled a thank-you at Celestia and dashed off. Celestia called out for her, running after Lauren, but Lauren’s fear-fuelled adrenaline was pushing her too fast to warrant Celestia’s catching up.
Lauren looked all around the palace grounds as she ran, looking for any signs of—there! Spotting a statue jutting over a hedge, Lauren leapt over the leafy wall and continued her sprint on the other side, Celestia flying over from behind, still calling out to her. But Lauren didn’t stop, racing down the path through the statues, till at last she rounded a bend to see a giant metal cube identical to the trailer of the hover-truck back on Earth. This one, however, had no fake moving company emblazoned on the side, just a warning that read DO NOT OPEN in bright red letters on all sides.
A pony of the Royal Guard was about to do just that, however. Standing on top of the cage, an armored equine stuck a golden key held in his mouth into the lock on top of the cage, preparing to turn it and send the door falling flat on the ground.
In front of the cage, six younger ponies Lauren instantly recognized as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony (she’d written a full paper on them for Equestrian Studies, after all) were bracing themselves for the door to open. Each pony wore the famous Elements of Harmony, five golden necklaces with a jewel resembling the identification symbol known as a ‘cutie mark’ of their bearers and a shining tiara with a large purple gemstone in the shape of a star.
And every one of these gemstones was beginning to glow.
“No!” Lauren shouted. “Stop! Don’t do it!”
But the ponies didn’t seem to here Lauren over the growing hum of the most powerful magic in this universe. Each glow was getting brighter, the air shimmering as the magical energies built up, preparing to burst forth the minute the cage was opened.
And when it did, these ponies would unleash a torrent of power unlike anything ever seen in this universe or the one that had been forever lost to Lauren. The Elements of Harmony were stronger than the mystical night-magic of Luna’s Moon, outshone the internal raging nuclear fusion at the heart of Celestia’s Sun, and could bring order to even the ancient powers of raw chaos, quelling the entropy that fundamentally ran throughout the fabric of reality. These Elements were beyond space, beyond time, and beyond the scope of anything an innocent human caught up in a new life he didn’t ask for in a body he wasn’t born with could handle.
And these ponies were about to use it inflict upon Craig a fate worse than death without a second thought to the life they were ruining forever.
Lauren saw this, saw the horrible, simple truth of it all—these ponies were going to get rid of Craig. They were going to put him someplace she could never see him again. They may mean well—in truth, they were just as innocent as Craig himself was—but right now, they were about to hurt someone Lauren loved (there, she thought it, and she wasn’t about to revoke it).
And as Lauren saw this, something snapped inside her.
She would not allow them hurt Craig.
She.
Would.
Not.
There was a flash, and Lauren’s burning anger—at the situation, at what had been done to her, at what was about to be done to Craig—burst through and entered reality like a raging monster. Lauren roared out at the Element bearers, who noticed just in time to scramble as she ran up through them, scattering like mice at the sight of a hungry cat.
But the hum and glow of the Element’s magic was still growing, threatening to burst forth at any second.
Lauren would not allow that. She would stop the Elements, and the only way to do that was to stop their bearers. Without a second thought, without really thinking what she was doing at all, without even seeing the ponies as living beings themselves but as nameless adversaries she must defeat, Lauren surged forward and snatched up an Element bearer in her mouth by the mane. The creamy yellow pegasus whose pink mane Lauren had bitten into cried out in fear as the new alicorn swung her around and around and finally threw her up into the blue pegasus with the rainbow mane who was swooping down to rescue her friend. Both pegasi fell to the ground, their Elements powering down as they fell unconscious.
Lauren snorted and turned her eyes on whoever was next, only to feel a sharp pain in the back of her hind legs. Lauren whirled around to see a freckled, Stetson-wearing orange earth pony having just bucked her in the back of the shins. Lauren brought her head down and conked the earth pony on the head with the base of her horn, watching her too fall unconscious as her Element powered down.
Lauren turned and ducked just in time to see two statues flying over her, both glowing with unicorn magic. Lauren ran forward as the ponies who had thrown the statues telekinetically lifted two more statues and hurled them through the air at Lauren who leapt into the air, touching down on the two statues and then jumping off of them as well as she came down hard in front of the two unicorns. Rearing up, Lauren brought her hooves crashing down on the unicorns’ skulls, knocking them out for the fight as well.
“Anypony else want some?!” Lauren raged, turning with glowering eyes upon the carnage of the battlefield.
“I do!” announced a surprisingly perky voice as a pie came out of nowhere and splattered into Lauren’s muzzle. Spluttering and wiping the edible goop from her face, Lauren darted her eyes about the field angrily to find the source of the pie, but saw nothing. Then—there! Lauren galloped forward towards where she saw a pink blur dash between two statues. Rounding the statue the blur had disappeared behind to catch the final Element bearer, Lauren was surprised to find nopony there, but jumped in even more surprise when a pie splattered her rump.
Lauren spun about furiously, snorting again, and galloped towards where the pink pony who had thrown the pie was smiling proudly at her accomplishment. Just before Lauren could charge into the pony with her horn bared, though, the pinkness darted off again to hide behind another statue, though once more she had vanished by the time Lauren got there a split-second later.
“Ha-ha!” the pink pony laughed from far off, throwing another pie right as Lauren looked up to have it smash into her face again. The oozing cream of the pie began steaming as Lauren pawed the ground, snorting, and charged forward. The pink one would NOT escape her this time.
But it did. And again, and again, and again, until Lauren was left whirling around in frustration at the rapidly appearing and disappearing laughing pink streak of pie-throwing vivacity. Lauren turned this way and that, but everywhere she looked the pony was gone and a pie was waiting to splatter into her face.
At long last, perhaps from exhaustion (if it was possible for an alicorn to be exhausted), perhaps from the cold cream of the pies cooling down the angry heat emanating from her flesh, Lauren began to slow, and finally, stopped. Lauren gave up the fight when she realized that pies were hardly going to be a real threat, least of all to Craig who was still safe in his cage, never having been released.
Lauren sighed with relief, wept the latest pie goop from her muzzle, and found herself face-to-face with Celestia. The Solar Princess’ eyes were wide, and they were brimming with tears.
“Mother…” Celestia whispered, those tears starting to stream down her long face. “What have you done? What has Discord done to you that you would turn on your own subjects like this?”
Confused, Lauren followed Celestia’s trail of vision from where she was staring past the new alicorn. There Lauren saw, as if for the first time, the carnage she had wrought. Two pegasi, who only now Lauren could remember where named Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, lay in a tangled heap, a few of their wings and limbs bent at odd angles. The earth pony Applejack had a large bruise on her head from where she’d fallen, which looked like it was bleeding. The same mark was in the shape of two hoofprints on the skulls of the unicorns Rarity and Princess Celestia’s own student, the beloved Twilight Sparkle. Both were also unconscious with their points of impact red and swelling.
It all came rushing back to Lauren—losing control, flinging herself as violently as she could into the Element bearers, and hurting them. Physically hurting them, mortal ponies, who she as an alicorn could have easily killed. But as she did look upon the battlefield, what frightened Lauren the most was not that she had been the one to wreak such havoc, but that she didn’t feel the least bit of remorse for the ponies she had struck down. They had been a threat to her Craig, and however innocent they were, her heart kept telling her they had had to fall regardless of what her head was saying.
“I did this,” Lauren thought to herself. “I did this…and I’m not even sorry.”
“That’s IT!” Celestia roared, causing Lauren to jump at the sudden change of character. “Discord has brainwashed you, Mother, and I won’t stand for his tricks anymore! I’m going to kill him myself! Guard, release the monster!”
“No!” Lauren yelled hastily, rushing in front of the enraged Princess and putting herself between Celestia and Craig’s cage. “It’s not what you think! I didn’t mean to, it was an accident! I just lost control, and—”
“Discord will PAY for this!” Celestia raged. “Move aside, Mother. You don’t know what you’re saying, you’re not yourself right now—”
“ENOUGH!” Lauren roared herself, stamping her hoof. The ground trembled as she did so, throwing even Princess Celestia off balance. “I’ve had enough of this! Why doesn’t anypony just LISTEN to me?! I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t ask for my life to be stolen from me by a bunch of crazed humans and ponies! And no nopony will even believe that’s what happened! Why does everypony have to base everything solely on how somepony looks?! I LOOK like your Mother, but I’m not her! I LOOK like an alicorn, but I’m HUMAN! And just because Craig LOOKS like a monster doesn’t mean he IS one!”
“Mother, please, try to understand,” Celestia pleaded, still crying. “None of what you say is true! It’s all a trick by Discord, you have to believe me!”
“ENOUGH!”
Both Lauren and Celestia looked, startled, at a small pink pony who had just appeared in between them, seemingly out of nowhere. It was she who had spoken—it was she who was the only one of the Element bearers who had evaded Lauren’s wrath, and even made a fool of her as she did so. Lauren remembered now—this was Pinkamina ‘Pinkie’ Diane Pie, bearer of the Element of Laughter. But right now, she looked anything but jovial.
“Princess Celestia,” Pinkie said calmly, looking at the Solar Princess. “What do you think is going on here?”
“I…” Princess Celestia stammered, surprised to have somepony else take charge of a situation in her presence. In fact, it was probably the first time it had happened to her. “I think—I know—that Discord escaped from his prison, somehow, and went to Earth to destroy my Mother, who you see before you. He must have sent her to Earth so long ago because he couldn’t destroy her, but tried to do so again with the same results. Seeing that he couldn’t destroy Mother, Discord must have brainwashed her, which is why she attacked you all. Please, you mustn’t blame Mother for her actions, she wasn’t herself, Pinkie.”
“Now…Celestia’s Mother? What do YOU think is going on here?” Pinkie inquired, looking to Lauren.
“Think?” Lauren echoed. “I KNOW what happened. I’m NOT Celestia’s Mother—I’m Lauren Faust, I’m twenty-one years old and I used to be a human going to college on Earth. That’s the way I wanted things to stay, too—I wanted to live my life there, as a human, studying you ponies but never actually being one. But the Ponification for Earth’s Rebirth group stole some Conversion Bureau ponification potion and turned a bunch of us humans who had decided to stay on Earth into ponies. For some reason nopony can figure out I was turned into an alicorn and Craig—my friend—was turned into a draconequus. That’s not Discord in there, even if he does look like him. That’s Craig. I’m sorry I hurt your friends, but I didn’t want anything to happen to him—I didn’t want Craig to be turned into stone for a crime he didn’t commit!”
“I think I see what’s going on here,” Pinkie surmised, pulling out a pipe seemingly out of nowhere and smoking bubbles out of it, looking thoughtful. “We have a failure to communicate mixed with two different stories and a whole bunch of other messy nasty stuff.”
Lauren and Celestia just stared at her.
“I know what to do!” Pinkie brightened up, trotting over to Twilight Sparkle. Picking her up and putting the lavender unicorn on her back, Pinkie Pie trotted back over to Lauren and Celestia and deposited Twilight at Celestia’s feet.
“Could you heal here real fast?” Pinkie asked the Solar Princess. “I want to see something.”
“Yes,” Celestia nodded. “Yes, of course! I’ll heal the others, too, as soon as I’m done with Twilight.”
The Solar Princess leaned down, her horn aglow, and touched it to Twilight’s wound. The giant bruise healed instantly, and Twilight groggily opened her eyes.
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. “What’s going on—oh no! Look out, she’s dangerous!”
This last part had been in reference to Lauren, who Twilight had caught sight of halfway through her sentence and rushed behind Celestia for protection.
“It’s alright, Twilight,” Celestia soothed, or at least tried to. “She isn’t dangerous. This is my Mother.”
“Your MOTHER?!” Twilight gasped. “But then—why did she—”
“Princess Celestia thinks Discord brainwashed her,” Pinkie clarified. “But Celestia’s Mother—sorry, Lauren Faust—thinks that something else entirely is going on. Can you perform the memory spell that snapped us out Discord’s trick the last time?”
“Oh, sure!” Twilight brightened up herself, happy to be useful. “Princess, can you remember all the times you spent with your…Mother?”
Celestia nodded.
“Okay,” Twilight announced, her horn glowing. The magic reached out to touch Princess Celestia’s horn and then Lauren’s, enveloping them both in the lavender unicorn’s purple aura. Lauren backed up for a moment, hesitantly, but the magic didn’t hurt—it was more like a tingling sensation all over. “Now, Princess, remember!”
Celestia closed her eyes, deep in thought, and Lauren’s eyes suddenly flashed wide open.
Images, sounds, smells, sensations of all kinds, flooded into Lauren’s mind. Lauren saw herself—or rather, herself as an alicorn—telling a smaller version of Celestia a bedtime story, playing ball with a baby Luna, teaching them both how to fly, showing them where to find the best grass to eat, and so much more. Lauren witnessed winters melt into springs that hazed into summers that fell into falls which froze into winters again as the cycle repeated, each year passing with Celestia and Luna growing older while she stayed the same, watching them grow. There were celebrations, the quelling of fears at night, the wonder of the world all around them.
And then, one day, a familiar draconequus’ face reared up and—
“No!” Celestia shouted, and the images abruptly burst out of being. Lauren and the Solar Princess were released from Twilight’s magical grip, and the new alicorn shook her head to clear the bizarre feeling of her brain being invaded. “No, that’s enough. I don’t want to see anymore. I don’t want Mother to see anymore, either.”
“Oh, I understand now!” Twilight realized. She must have had a glimpse of Celestia’s theory of how Lauren had come to them when all three of their minds were linked, as the lavender unicorn prattled off what the Solar Princess had been insisting was the truth all along.
“That is indeed what I believe happened,” Celestia agreed with her student. “But thank you, Twilight, for clearing that nightmare away. It will be so good to have Mother—the real Mother—back with us at last.”
Pinkie looked wonderingly— and was that a hint of doubt in the pink pony’s eyes?—at Lauren.
“Now, do you remember?” Pinkie inquired.
“I…” Lauren said. “I saw it. All of it. I lived it.”
Celestia and Twilight’s faces lit up, but Pinkie, facing Lauren and away from her Princess and friend, didn’t look convinced.
“But I only saw it through Celestia’s eyes,” Lauren continued. “I don’t remember any of that stuff happening to me. It looked like me—for a moment I even thought it WAS me—but that had to have been somepony else. I must just look like them. I still think what I said is true—I still know I used to be human.”
Celestia’s eyes were watering again, and Twilight looked to her forlornly. It must be tough to see the Princess of your country cry, especially when you looked up to her even more than most ponies did.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” Lauren apologized lamely. “But that’s the truth.”
“I understand,” Celestia said softly.
“You do?” Lauren uttered, surprised.
“Yes…” Celestia looked up, trying to smile, though her eyes were still wet. “I’m sorry. I just thought that you were my Mother, and after living without her for so long, I latched onto that hope like a fool.”
“You weren’t a fool, Princess Celestia!” Twilight gasped. Lauren had been about to say the same thing, but the lavender unicorn had beaten her to it. “Everypony makes mistakes!”
“I know, my most faithful student,” Celestia smiled down at her pupil. “But that doesn’t make them any easier to bear.”
Then, turning to Lauren, Celestia asked “So all that you said is true? You really were a human once, as was…the draconequus?”
Lauren bit her lip, and nodded firmly.
Celestia turned to the Guard still atop Craig’s cage, who had been watching the whole fiasco with the utmost distressed confusion.
“Release him,” Celestia commanded.
“But, your majesty!” the Guard protested, shocked. “The Elements—they’re not recovered or charged yet—”
“I said release him!” Celestia glared.
“Yes, your majesty!” the Guard hastily complied. Turning the key with his mouth, the guard stepped back as the cage door fell open and clattered loudly to the ground. Out of the shadows within slithered a long shape, rising into the air, looking at the ponies with surprise, then seeing Lauren and rushing over to tackle her.
“Mother!” Celestia gasped. “I—I mean—”
But Lauren was laughing, as was the draconequus, and both were paying no mind to the ponies around them. Instead, they were embracing, laughing, and even crying.
“You rescued me!” Craig laughed tearfully. “Thank you, thank you Lauren! I never thought I’d get to see you again!”
“I never thought I’d see you either!” Lauren tearfully laughed back. Then, throwing her forelegs around the draconequus’ neck and giving it a big squeeze “But I’m so glad I did.”
Craig returned the embrace with equal fervor.
When they finally released each other and got up, dusting themselves off, both Lauren and Craig embarrassedly saw the other ponies watching them. Twilight looked like she was about to vomit, and Celestia was trying to maintain her composure, though it was clear that she wanted to do the same. Pinkie, meanwhile, looked unaffected.
“Uh, everypony…” Lauren announced, gesturing to the draconequus. “This is Craig.”
“Hello,” Craig said awkwardly, feeling just as tense about being introduced to ponies who had been trying to kill him—or worse—as they were feeling about a being they had (and maybe still did) think was going to destroy Equestria. “Um, I’m Craig.”
“M—Lauren,” Celestia said, turning to the new alicorn and looking like it had caused her physical pain to call her by her real name. “I will allow this…Craig, to roam free in Equestria wherever he wishes, on one condition.”
“What would that be?” Lauren asked nervously.
“That you stay by him and watch his actions at all times, alongside my personal team of overseers: Twilight and her friends,” Celestia commanded. “I know now that Craig is not a direct threat to Equestria, but the majority of my subjects will not think the same way. Only with an alicorn and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony by a draconequus’ side can be there be any hope of preventing a panic among the populace.”
Lauren was about to protest, but saw the reason in this and simply agreed with “Those terms are acceptable.”
“Good,” Celestia smiled painfully again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must attend to Twilight’s other friends.”
“Of course,” Lauren agreed.
“Come with me, Twilight and Pinkie,” Celestia commanded again, and trotted off with the two smaller ponies in tow to heal the others. Once they had reached Applejack and were far enough away from Lauren and Craig to not be overheard, Celestia leaned down with her horn aglow, and whispered “I’m sorry to have to involve you and your friends in this, Twilight and Pinkie.”
“That’s okay, Princess Celestia!” Twilight said immediately.
“Of course, I would never allow a draconequus to roam free in Equestria unwatched,” Celestia continued, taking a lot longer to heal Applejack than was necessary to give them time to talk. “But I believe there’s something else at work here. You looked into my memories, Twilight, during the spell—you saw that that alicorn and my Mother are one and the same.”
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight inquired. “You can’t seriously be considering—”
“I am and I have,” Celestia interrupted her student. “Discord must have done something to Mother—I would know her anywhere, even when enchanted, just as I would know that that monster we saw before us is the one and only Discord—that goes beyond the brainwashing spells he placed on you and your friends, Twilight and Pinkie. I not only want you to keep an eye on Discord, I want you to keep an eye on Mother. I want you to try and figure out a way to snap her out of whatever it is that Discord’s done to her.”
“But, Princess Celestia,” Pinkie Pie piped up. “What if Lauren’s telling the truth?”
“I know my Mother,” Celestia said simply.
“I kind of have to agree with Pinkie Pie,” Twilight ventured uncertainly. “Although, I don’t think Lauren’s version or yours, Princess, or Pinkie's, entirely explains what's really going on here. I don’t even think that’s an alicorn at all. It must be some imposter posing as your Mother, working for Discord.”
“Twilight!” Celestia scolded. “How DARE you talk about my Mother that way!”
“But, Princess Celestia—” Twilight tried to enforce her point. “She attacked us! Your Mother would never do that, even if she was brainwashed! My friends and I never attacked each other when Discord brainwashed us!”
“Silence!” Celestia commanded, and Twilight abruptly complied. “Listen here, my little ponies. I know that what’s going on doesn’t make much sense, but you have to believe me. I know that my theory is right—that is my Mother, and that is Discord, and Discord has brainwashed my Mother. I need you all to shake her out of it and stop Discord, but don’t let them know you’re on to them. And please, you must forgive my Mother for what she did to you all—this was all Discord’s doing; she was just a slave to his bidding, as she will remain unless you do something about it! I only wish I could attend to the matter myself, but I have my diplomatic duties to take care of. But I trust you with this mission. I know you can do it.”
“Don’t worry, Princess Celestia!” Pinkie Pie announced.
“Yeah, don’t worry…” Twilight added lamely. Celestia glared at the lavender unicorn, but said nothing, before finally finishing healing Applejack before moving on to the others.