//------------------------------// // 04 Consequences // Story: The Wrong Twilight // by Pinklestia //------------------------------// "You did WHAT?" Celestia asked incredulously; the fact that somepony who usually remained calm and cool headed had just raised her tone showed just how angry she was. "I... where did I do wrong?" Luna asked confused, "I mean, you have manipulated Princess Twilight before and..." "Manipulated is the key word. What you did to young Tara was mind control. Oh, Luna, what I am going to do with you?" "But I said I was sorry!" Luna protested, her ears lowering; she had thought she was doing such a great job! "Saying 'sorry' is not enough, I want you to give her a real apology. I also want you to actually explain things to her in detail. She needs to know why she needs to stay a secret besides the short summary we gave her before. Also, I need to think what will be your punishment..." "Punishment? But, but... she is not even a real pony! She is not one of our subjects!" Luna protested again, she even seemed slightly offended. "That might be true, but she is also stuck here against her will, and she is not our enemy – , but she will be if we don't fix the damage you have already done. I know it is hard for you to understand, – things where different before your exile, ponies didn't get along well with other races. But even back then what you did would be considered a criminal act!" "But I am the Princess of the Night, one of the two rulers of Equestria. What about our divine right?" "That's how King Sombra thought, you know, that all he did was right and just because he was a king." "It's not the same!" Luna protested "King Sombra was...” " A master manipulator, a selfish bastard that only cared about himself... so much like Nightma-” Celestia stopped herself from talking, that was still a touchy subject for both of them. However by her sister expresion it seemed like it had helped to get the point across. "Oh, horsefeathers... I... I really messed up, didn't I?" "Yes you did. But it was also my fault, I am still hurt, so I'll let you deal with our problem without thinking that you might not know what was the best to do." Luna stood up, "Well, then, I guess I should go to apologize, shouldn't I?" "Not so fast! You are still not getting out of your punishment my little sister." "Oh, horsefeathers." Tara walked around her neighborhood. Everything was dull and in monochromatic shades from black to white, like in one of those old movies. Or when they try to show the past in a TV show and just don't film in color. At least in the dream, she was human; the bad thing was that she was naked, she always hated dreams where she was naked for some reason. "Hello Dusk Star," said a familiar figure in front of her. It was a statue of her pony form, only it looked tall and had big bat-like wings. Like everything else in the dream, it was in grayscale. "Evil Tara? Or should I say, Shadow Star?" Tara asked, unafraid of the being talking in front of her and ignoring the new name her so-called evil counterpart had for her. "As I said before, 'Shadow Star' sounds nice." "What do you want?" Tara asked, annoyed. As if she didn’t know! "Revenge is a dish best served cold. I realized that I haven't been very helpful. If we want to make those ponies pay, we must work together." "No, just no! And in case you did not see yourself, you are a pony too." "Not by choice! You can't say you are happy with what happened to you. Losing your family, the few friends you had, only to end as a useless blank flank unicorn and a prisoner! While that damn princess fake steals your life!" "Look, no matter how powerful you think you are, try to think things straight: there are two princess who control the sun and the moon, while I can't even use the most basic of magic spells. Any plan of revenge you have is doomed to fail, and that's not counting that you won't have to deal with just Sunbutt and Moonbutt, but also with others. If this is a land of might, magic, monsters and colorful ponies, there must be heroes too." "That's why we must work together! Give in to your rage and hate, and we will have-" The statue was interrupted by Tara's jumping at it and kicking the statue. The statue started to shatter, while Tara screamed since her leg hurt like hell. "No means no, thank you very much!" Tara said after holding back her cries of pain. Then, she noticed the dream had changed and she was in her pony form, she lost her balance and felt down to all fours. her left back leg now the one hurting. This time, everything was in color, but it was like a mix of Equestria's cartoon colors and Earth's more realistic colors. "Uh, now what?" Tara looked around her neighborhood once more, then felt a soft warm wave over her injured leg, and the pain was gone. "Uh, anypony is here?" Then she heard a voice singing. It sounded like herself when she was younger, about five or six years old. Colts and fillies come out to play, The moon does shine as bright as day; Come with a hoop, and come with a call, Come with a good will or not at all. Loose your supper, and loose your sleep, Come to your playfellows in the street; Up the ladder and down the wall, Please be very careful to not fall. But when sleep comes, what will you do? Go trotting back home and say thank you.* When the singing ended, she felt something hugging her from behind. Tara turned around and saw a smaller and younger version of her pony form; it looked really adorable and cute. "Hey, wanna play?" the filly asked. Tara had to apply all her control to not hug her; she was supposed to be over cute childish things, dammit! "Yeah, sure." Tara and the young her played kicking a ball around for what it seemed like hours. Tara woke up feeling calm and relaxed. Then the blank flank unicorn took another bath; after she was done she found a table with breakfast ready for her in the bedroom. The tea was still warm. Must be because of magic! Duh, of course it’s magic, what did I expect? An electrical teapot? But then, they do seem to have electricity, or are the lamps magical? They do look like electric lamps. After breakfast, Tara didn't bother to try leaving the room, fearing the mind controlling spell. Instead, she headed to the study desk and found a big book that wasn't there yesterday. "‘Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports?’ This must be a joke, right?" Finding a note from Luna telling her to read the book, she frowned but proceeded to do so, after a few pages she frowned even more, accidentally making a scrunchy face. This... these Friendship reports, surely this must have been used when Princess Twilight Sparkle was like five, ten years old, right? Yet the book itself said that the reports were from last year. But it couldn't be that just last year she was still writing these things – even if the Equestrian year did not last the same as an Earth year, it was still ridiculous! 'Mental note: Find out how much a year lasts around here.' And yet, here she was, reading a book that held a copy of every so called Friendship report ever written by Twilight Sparkle, right up until the day she had to face a creature called Discord (basically, an evil trickster and chaotic figure). It was very, very hard to accept, but it seemed that yes, friendship was magic in Equestria. Both Nightmare Moon and this being named Discord where defeated by said friendship magic. Elements of Harmony uh? What did that mean for her? She had no weapons. The only weapon she knew that could take out Sunbutt and Moonbutt was the Elements Of Harmony; she couldn't use it because in the land of Equestria she had no... She had no friends or family. That hurt, hurt more than anything else. Hurt more than when her dog Spike had died, hurt more than the day grandma went to sleep and never woke up again. And with a twisted version of herself who was constantly tempting her, trying to turn her evil. What did she have to stop herself of going to the deep end? Hope, she had hope. She remembered that young playful version of herself in her dream, whom she supposed was her inner child. It was proof that not all was lost, that, no matter what, she still had goodness in her heart, that there was a part of her that... A part of her that wanted to believe. A part of her that wanted to learn magic and live in a land of wonders. But... She was no child, yet she was not adult, she was somewhat in the middle. The child Tara would just have accepted all of this with a smile, hoping, no, KNOWING that no matter that everything would turn well in the end, because the good guys always win. An adult would tell you those were just childish fantasies, that real life was cruel and bitter, that the good guys didn't always win. That there was war, and poverty, and sickness; that those that could help would not, simply because it was not their problem. But she wasn't an adult, just like she wasn't a child. "Tara of Earth, may I come in?" That was the voice of Princess Luna. What was with the "Of Earth" title? "Yes." Tara stopped paying attention to the book, and looked at the door. To her surprise, Princess Luna entered without wearing anything, no jewels, crown or royal regalia of any sort. "Princess? Why aren't you... ya know?" Tara could not help but to imagine how the situation like this would play if they where both human and blushed. "Due to having abused my authority, I been stripped down of my royal rank and title, yet not of my duties. Until the time my sister deems me fit to have it restored. I am no longer a princess, I am just Luna." "WHAT? Why would your sister do that to you?" "Because I controlled your mind, and because I had claimed I would help you and then abused that trust. And she was right, what I did to you... it was horrible. I had not realized how wrong what I did was, that just saying that I was sorry was not enough." Then the demoted princess bowed to Tara. "Tara of Earth, I humbly ask for forgiveness for my traitorous act, and I hope that you have it in your heart to forgive me." "Stand up." Luna did so, and Tara was reminded once again how small she was compared to the horse-sized princess. "Forgiveness should not just be given, it should be earned. It you want me to forgive you for real, from it to come from my heart, then do what you said you would do. Be a friend, a real friend and a mentor, help me understand this crazy world I am stuck on. In Equestria, I have no pony I can trust, but I would like for you to become that pony I can." "Those conditions are acceptable. Tara of Earth." "Just call me Tara, if you are just Luna at least for a while, there is no reason for me to have a title." Then, surprising even herself, the blank flank unicorn hugged the bigger pony. Friendship is complicated. With Gilda I had to accept that when she was rude it didn't really meant much, it was just the way she was. With this crazy pony, who knows? *Colts and fillies come out to play, old nursery rhyme from Equestria, unknown origin.