Chapter 7
Am I The Only One?
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“So, you’re the special Alicorn that’s living among us,” Rainbow Dash said, smiling down at Twilight.
Twilight looked away. This was really weird. Rainbow Dash was just like her Rainbow Dash... aside from a few things and that was not even including the fact that Twilight was the size of a filly compared to her.
For one, this Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark was the rainbow lightning bolt of her world’s Rainbow dash, but with no cloud.
The stallion standing next to her (Rainbow Blitz) was like a male version of his wife, with a cloud for a Cutie Mark, the same cloud Twilight knew was part of her Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark.
Twilight glanced at Scootaloo, who was standing next to her and looked to her Cutie Mark. It was a fusion of both her parents’ Cutie Marks.
It was two days after Twilight’s friends had all gotten their Cutie Marks and they were all having a sleepover at Derpy’s house to celebrate again and to talk aobut how cool it was that the five non-alicorn of them had all gotten their Cutie Marks on the same day.
Scootaloo had been the last to arrive and her parents had come with her.
While the Cutie Mark difference was one thing, what really caught Twilight’s attention, not to mention broke her heart, was how Rainbow’s right wing didn’t look right. It seemed, damaged.
Rainbow noticed Twilight tearing up and glanced to see she was staring at her wing.
She smiled. “Hey, kiddo, it’s okay.”
“Not, it’s not!” Twilight almost shouted, glaring, yet the tears still slid down her face. “Your wing’s like that because you saved Diamond Tiara’s parents, but she doesn’t even care at all. To her, the fact that you can’t race anymore is your own fault!”
Rainbow blinked, then her smile returned and she wrapped a wing around Twilight. “Hey, I’m okay with it. And while their daughter may not care, Filthy Rich and Suri Polomare will never forget what I did for them. As long as they’re thankful, I don’t care what their daughter says.”
Twilight stopped for a second. Suri Polomare was Diamond’s mother? Well, made sense. The Suri from her world was horrible. The two matched up well.
Rainbow turned to Scootaloo and grinned. “Have fun, ’kay, Squirt?”
The two hoof-bumped. “You got it, Mom,” the filly grinned.
The two ponies left, the door closing behind them.
“Okay, girls,” Fluttershy said, coming in and smiling around at the six (or so she thought six) fillies. “Sorry, Scootaloo, but, um, you got here pretty late, so I’m afraid all the fun stuff we had planned will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Since it’s not a school night, I’ll let you all stay up til ten, okay?”
Scootaloo saluted. “Got, Mrs. Shy.”
Fluttershy sighed. “It’s Miss Fluttershy, Scootaloo. You know I haven’t had a husband since... well...” She put a hoof to her stomach and sighed again. “It’s a shame he’ll never get to meet it.”
She walked off, leaving five of the six ponies to turn to Derpy with confused looks.
“Yo, Derps,” Scootaloo said, an eyebrow raised, “what’s she talking about?”
Derpy sighed.
She led them to the living room, where they’d all be sleeping and told them about her mother's late husband, her father.
He’d been a unicorn her mother had met when she’d had to handle some of the weather duties in Canterlot because they’d needed a little extra help.
They’d gone on a few dates, then, a week later, her mother learned she was pregnant with Derpy. They'd gotten married and moved to Ponyville a few years after Flight Camp.
However, a week ago, she learned she was pregnant yet again and had gone to Canterlot to tell him, only to learn he’d died when a Manticore had managed to get close to Canterlot. He died in order for the warning to go out. Because of him, Canterlot had been able to repel the beast.
The queen had awarded him the highest honour regards, even making him a member of the Royal Guard in honour of his deed.
The mood was sombre as they all took this in.
“I’m so sorry, Derpy,” Twilight said, her voice a little hoarse.
If only she were bigger, if only she’d been in Canterlot at the time, she could’ve done something. Her magic was the most powerful in all Equestria, because she was the only alicorn.
At least, she was possibly the only alicorn on Equestria.
She looked out at the sky. The moon was out tonight and the Mare in the Moon looked down at them through it.
Twilight thought back to when she’d first seen that marking on the moon.
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It had been a few days since Apple Bloom had started living on Sweet Apple Acres.
The two of them were currently lying in their crib, Apple Bloom fast asleep.
Twilight, however, wasn’t able to sleep.
She’d only know realized just how alone she was in this reality. True, she had Pitch and Fresh and even Apple Bloom now, but they were all Earth Ponies. She fluttered her wings and glanced up at her horn. She was the only alicorn in all of Equestria. In that regard, she was truly alone.
She rolled over, facing the window. As she looked out, she saw the moon looking down from the sky. It was full tonight.
From what she’d learned from Pitch and Fresh, there was a special group of unicorns in Canterlot, whose job was to raise the sun and the moon each day and had been doing so for the last five thousand years. She could understand this. With no Celestia or Luna, or even Cadance, they needed to find another way to raise the sun and moon.
She was about to roll over again, when something about the moon caught her eye. It looked like the same moon from when she was a filly. For some reason, this didn’t seem right.
She frowned, getting up, flapping her wings and flying out of the crib and over to the window to get a better look. What she saw made her stop flapping for a second, before she caught herself before she fell and woke Apple Bloom. On the moon, clear as day was a blemish Twilight hadn’t seen since her first night in Ponyville. The marking of the Mare in the Moon.
At once, Twilight used her magic to open the door as silently as possible and flew downstairs to the small pile of books Pitch and Fresh had recently gotten her. She searched them; going along the line until she found what she was looking for. Grim Pony Tales by Grims Pony.
She opened to the index and went down it until she found the title she was looking for. Legend of the Mare in the Moon. She skimmed through the book until she reached the page the tale was on and started reading, paying more attention to the tale than she had when she’d first read this world’s version before.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters, alicorns, the last of their kind, who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land.
To do this, the eldest used her alicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn and the younger used hers and brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.
But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night.
One fateful day, the younger sister refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn.
The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.
She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night.
Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony.
Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister.
However, the battle was fierce and it had taken all of the elder sister’s power to stop Nightmare Moon.
When the dust settled and ponies searched for their rulers, while Nightmare Moon was gone, the eldest sister was no more than a few strands of her hairs and her regalia.
Thus, the non-alicorn relatives of the two sisters took over rule of Euquestria, founding a group of the most powerful unicorns in all the world to take over the responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since..
Twilight finished reading and looked out the window at the blemish on the moon.
Was... was it possible that... was Luna banished to the moon, like in her own world?
Suddenly Twilight realized that, if what was in this tale was true, then this world’s Celestia died... her last act being to banish her sister.
Twilight’s heart broke and she started sobbing, not caring how loud she was as the grief of knowing that Celestia’s last thoughts would have been on how she had to force her sister to remain on the moon.
The lights came on and Twilight glanced behind her to see Fresh standing by the stairs. Her sobs turned to wails, to which Fresh responded by hurrying over and trying to comfort the Alicorn as she held her in her forehooves. Twilight cried into Fresh's shoulder. She knew she seemed to be acting like a foal now, but she didn’t care.
While this world’s Celestia wasn’t hers, the thought that this world’s Celestia’s last thought before her demise had been something so horribly heartbreaking tore at the young Alicorn’s heart.
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A small tear slid down Twilight’s muzzle.
While she still felt heartbroken at the knowledge of what happened five thousand years ago, she had a small glimmer of hope in her heart as she looked at the blemish.
If the blemish represented Nightmare Moon, then that meant Luna was still alive. The Luna of this world was alive, on the moon.
But that still left a question.
Just who was up there? Was it Luna? Had the Elements purged her of Nightmare upon her banishment or was Nightmare still in control, waiting to return to Equestria, without its Celestia and bring about night eternal?
Twilight wanted desperately to believe that it would be Luna and not Nightmare. Without the Elements, there would be no way to stop her, and she doubted the Elements’ current location was known to anypony. After all, Celestia had died and Luna was on the moon.
She’d gone to the Golden Oaks Library (she had felt almost back home there) and found the Reverence Guide to the Elements of Harmony and it had only told her that nopony knew where the Elements went after Nightmare Moon was defeated.
Twilight shivered as another thought occurred to her. If the Elements of Harmony were lost, what would happen if the Tree of Harmony lost its magic...?
Twilight shivered, not wanting to think about it, or how her brain was saying the memory made no sense to her.
“Twilight?”
Twilight snapped out of her inner revery, turning to her friends, who were all looking at her.
“Somethin’ up?” Scootaloo asked, cocking an eyebrow. “You haven’t said a thing since you told Derpy you’re sorry. Which, reminds me, why’re you sorry? I wasn’t your fault. And don’t say anything about how, since you’re an Alicorn you coulda helped,” she said as Twilight opened her mouth, intending to say just that. “Just cos you’re an alicorn it doesn’t mean everything bad that happens is your fault because you couldn’t stop it.”
“She’s right, Twi,” Apple Bloom said, coming over and nuzzling Twilight. “Ya’ll can’ solve all the world’s problems just cuz yer an alicorn. It ain’t tha’ simple.”
“What’s this really about, Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking concerned. “Why were you crying as you looked at the moon?”
Twilight sighed. She had to tell them. She had to tell them everything. Everything. They were her best friends after all. They’d understand, right? Hiding this from others, including a pony she almost felt was like a sister to her now, had been so hard. It was time to come clean. If any ponies would understand her reasons for withholding the truth, it would be these five fillies.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight told them about the legend of the Mare in the Moon... and everything about herself.