//------------------------------// // Exodus (Rewrite posted on 11/10/2014) // Story: Starting Over // by Twilight Nightmare //------------------------------// Words are a powerful tool, something that can make the best of friends and the worst of enemies depending on what it said. They can also become something to bring hope to those in need or the weapon to destroy a ponies heart. It was something that Twilight had learned in the two years that she had spent living in Ponyville among her new friends learning all that she could about friendship. It had been the best time in her life next to hatching Spike, her number one assistant and in her heart, her son. Through the ups and downs she learned so much about what it was like to have friends, and how much pain they could bring though the happiness they also brought her far outweighed the negative. They all shared so many adventures together starting with coming together in order to defeat Nightmare Moon and restore the Princess of the Night to her true self. Since then they had done so much together, and even though sometimes they hurt each other sometimes they also knew that they would all be their if one of them truly needed it. Or so Twilight thought. The Smartypants incident had been something that Twilight deeply regretted, something she was deeply ashamed of. And even though she now knew that her actions were so very wrong, she also learned another lesson. She learned that she couldn't always trust her friends to be there for her. Sure they promised never to take her worries so lightly again, to be there for her from then on, but the damage had been done. For the first time since moving to Ponyville, Twilight had reason to worry about losing her friends. She tried to push it out of her head, but her heart felt like their were cracks in it that just wouldn't heal. And the more time she spent with them the more she felt the cracks grow with the worse being Rainbow Dash... Egghead...something other students had often called her as they constantly made fun of her. The few times she tried to socialize because of Princess Celestia's encouragement, the other students would only pick on her and call her geek, Princess Pet, or egghead. Egghead, the same thing Rainbow Dash called her a lot despite Twilight asking the rainbow maned pegasus not to do it. And while it didn't bother her much at first, after Twilight started wandering why her friends cared about her it began to hurt. Twilight began to realize that Rainbow Dash was the same as her old classmates. The pegasus's careless words becoming the weapon that starting turning the cracks in Twilight's heart into chips. Since the others were friends with Rainbow Dash long before she showed up, Twilight started paying more attention to the others as well. She observed how they acted around each other, but especially how they were around Rainbow Dash and herself. Her findings weren't too promising...she would think with her birthday coming up in a matter of weeks that they may actually want to spend more time with her. Instead, they started acting funny around her, and at times even went out of their way to avoid her. It hurt Twilight everyime she came up to a gathering of her friends only for them to all of a sudden become deathly silent then instead of acting like they were happy to see her, they acted as if she was intruding. Of course they didn't come right out and say it, but the way they deflected her questions and quickly excused themselves told her everything. Twilight had two questions that kept bothering her, questions that she was afraid to answer. First, why did her friends like her? The second question was...did they even really like her? Of course the questions were very similar, yet at the same time both answers threatened to break her. For the first time that Twilight could remember, she didn't want answers to questions that she couldn't answer. Yet, she began to figure the answer to one of her questions when they went to Canterlot. It appeared that her brother was marrying her foalhood sitter, who turned out to be a princess. And despite knowing that something was wrong with the pony that looked like her sitter, not one pony would believe her. In fact, every one of her friends seemed to rather kiss the imposter's flank instead of listening to her for one moment. It was up to her to confront the evil monster that either possessed or controlled Cadence. She admitted afterwards that perhaps she went about it all wrong, yet did she really deserve the reactions she got? She learned just how devastating a weapon words can be between her own brother basically disowning her and throwing her out of his life followed closely by Princess Celestia, her second mother, even damaging her heart even more. And as much as those words had crushed her, they weren't what finally shattered her heart. No, what finally shattered her was the last lesson she would learn within the walls of Canterlot. She learned that as mush as words could hurt, the lack of words could hurt just as much or even worse. She watched as her friends walked away without a word, even Spike, giving her the answers she was afraid of. Her friends didn't care and the only reason they acted like they did was so they could kiss up to royalty. She was alone... Even as her heart shattered, the imposter returned to send Twilight deep underneath Canterlot into a series of crystal caves where she found the real Princess Cadence hurt and malnourished. If not for Twilight, the princess could have died down in the caves with no pony the wiser until it was too late. And if it wasn't for the princess, Twilight surely would have died as she was having serious doubts that anypony cared enough to come looking for her. Together the two managed to find there way out of the cave system and back to the palace just in time to stop the wedding. The following few hours went by in a blur as Twilight accompanied her unrepentant friends in an attempt to collect the Elements of Harmony, though she doubted they would work. The Elements needed Harmony among their bearers and there was none at the moment, especially not in Twilight's heart or mind. As she realized this as they were surrounded by the changeling army, she also came to another realization. Celestia knew... Celestia always knew Twilight would become the bearer of the Element of Magic and guided every moment in Twilight's life to accomplish pushing the lavender unicorn towards taking up the element. Her whole life was a lie just to become Celestia's attack pony! The princess probably didn't even care about her, because if she did then she wouldn't have just tossed Twilight aside like she did. Realizing this brought even more realizations to her, ones she wanted to discard as lies that her paranoid mind was creating...but she couldn't deny them. There was too much evidence pointing to her new realizations to simply just ignore them. She realized as the changelings forced them to return to the reception hall where every pony was being held captive by the changeling queen and her army. Looking to Cadence though brought a little hope to Twilight as the princess had never once done anything to hurt Twilight. No lies, schemes or false words of hope. The pink alicorn was the embodiment of love and here was little room in her heart for hate. Taking a deep breath Twilight went to her while the changeling queen was gloating over her victory. With a little magic Twilight banished the green substance holding Cadence in place so the princess could spend their last moments with the pony she loved the most. It was a shock to Twilight when both Cadence and Shining Armor combined their power to repel not only the changeling army, but the queen herself. It sent a shockwave throughout Canterlot banishing all changelings as well as filling every pony with a sudden surge of love and confidence. Every pony except for Twilight as she looked around at the ponies around her not seeing one look of apology. Not one of them looked sorry for the way the treated her as they all rushed Cadence letting the princess know how happy they were that she was safe. Every pony that is except for one... "It looks like you have a real wedding to prepare." Celestia said as she slowly made her way to Twilight with a gentle smile. Twilight wanted to scream and rant at the white alicorn. She wanted to scream at her so called friends and tell them how much they hurt her. She wanted to lay into her brother for throwing her out of his life for an imposter. "Of course princess." Twilight sighed as she watched the group flow out of the room, Celestia following close behind leaving Twilight alone with the guards that was still there. Heaving a sigh she forced her pain down as her body seemed to flow into autopilot as she directed the guards in cleaning up the mess left behind and directing them in preparing the room for the real wedding. After all cadence didn't do anything to her, she deserved her special day and Twilight was intent on getting it ready for her. Afterwards she could decide what she wanted to do, after all she wasn't welcome at the wedding despite being expected to get it ready. Despite the amount of chaos that engulfed the reception hall where the wedding was to take place, there wasn't much damage to the decorations. For a moment Twilight couldn't help feeling a surge of anger as Pinkie Pie should be here for this as the decorations was her department. She quickly squashed it down though as a guard came up to her. "What would you like us to do?" The guard asked making Twilight smile a little. She didn't want to deal with her so called friends, but to make sure everything was ready she would have to check and make sure everything was ready including the food, dresses and entertainment. This guard though gave her the perfect opportunity to do something she normally wouldn't have done. "Actually, I have an important task I was hoping you could take care of while I helped set the chairs back up." Twilight said, continuing when she was sure she had the guard's undivided attention. "I need you to check in with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and make sure the entertainment is ready for the wedding. Then go to the kitchens and check with Apple Jack to make sure the food is coming along nicely. And finally, check with Rarity to make sure that the dresses are ready." "Yes Ma'am!" The guard saluted with a hoof before turning to trot off from Twilight. With a deep breath, Twilight turned to the chairs which took the most damage of the invasion. With every pony running in fright they had overturned many of the chairs making a mess, but thankfully there was no real damage to them. She set about setting them back up along with two other guards. It took a little more time than she thought it would, but she finally finished it just as three other guards was finishing up the clean up from the unrecoverable decorations. The ice sculptures and flowers were ok, the enchantments on them to keep them in pristine condition kept them from suffering any real damage as well. Hearing some voices passing by the open doors drew Twilights attention to see her parents walking with Shinning Armor by the door. He looked confused, yet when he looked in the door and caught her eye, he quickly turned away. She saw a worried expression on their mother's face, but not one of them came in to her to ask how she was doing. Why should they after all, they didn't care about her? Fighting the urge to cry as the three passed the open door not coming in. A part of Twilight wanted to scream at them, to make her feelings on the matter known. Yet she knew better than that, they would only shun her more just like the shunned her not long ago when she accused the fake Cadence of being a monster. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Twilight checked everything n the hall one last time. By the time she finished making sure everything was in order, the pony she sent to check in with the others returned. He looked a little winded as if he hurried to complete his task. "Everything will be ready within an hour." The guard reported, once again saluting her. It was a little annoying, Twilight hated when any of the guards did as it made her feel as if they thought she was better than them. She never believed that, but she was beginning to wonder if she was less than them. After the way all of the others treated her, she couldn't help feeling that way. "Good, please go inform Princess Celestia that everything should be ready to go in an hour and that she can inform the guests that it is okay to come back." Twilight said, wondering just what she should do. Maybe she should just go pack up and return to Ponyville? Then again, she didn't really want to be forced to see the others every day knowing that the didn't really care about her. "Right away, Ma'am!" The guard pony saluted again before turning to rush from the hall. With a deep, shuddering breath Twilight took one last look around the room. It looked perfect and it should make cadence happy. Cadence was the only reason Twilight evern bothered with putting things back together as the pink alicorn deserved her happy day. Cadence was one of the only two ponies who haven’t trampled her heart since it all started, but the other pony may very well have if she wasn't sleeping. With a shattered heart Twilight slowly made her way away from the reception hall and headed to her room. As she was coming close to the door she came across a nervous looking Spike as he closed their door and stood there trying to avoid looking at her. "Hey Twilight." Spike said, his voice sounding a little funny. "Spike." Twilight said, her voice devoid of emotion as the little dragon shifted back and forth on his feet. "Sorry, I have to go. I'm helping Rarity get the Princess's gown ready." Spike said, holding a gem in one of his claws. "I...told her I had a gem that she needed." "It's fine." Twilight said as she held back a choked sob. Of course he cared more about Rarity and impressing her and the princess, why shouldn't he? He didn't need Twilight anymore...he didn't want her anymore... "See you later Twi!" Spike said before running around Twilight and down the hall away from the lavender unicorn. "Maybe not..." Twilight sighed as she pushed into her room and looked around. She had a few things that she brought with her from Ponyville sitting around to remind her that she did have friends and ponies that loved her. Only she realized over the last few days just how little she truly mattered to any of them. Even her own family had thrown her away as if...as if she was trash. "Maybe I am trash." Twilight sobbed out as she looked at a picture of the girls, Spike and her a few months ago. They all looked so happy, but Twilight knew better now. They never really cared about her, only her position and in with the Princess. Her family didn't care or they would have visited her like she asked them to in her letters. They couldn't even bother to tell her about her brother's wedding since she had to learn about it from a letter from the Princess and not her family. With a cry f anguish, Twilight picked up the picture in her magic and threw it across the room against the wall where the frame shattered and glass rained down around the photograph that lay discarded on the floor. She couldn't return to Ponyville, she couldn't take it...her heart couldn't take it... She couldn't go back to Ponyville and she couldn't stay here in Canterlot as her so called family and Princess was here. She needed to go somewhere, somewhere where she wasn't really well known. She wanted a new start, and this time she wouldn't make the same mistakes. She wouldn't try to make friends this time...it wasn't worth it. Pulling her saddlebags out, Twilight emptied it of everything except a few books, a blanket and a coupe small cloth bags. One of the bags she left on Spike's bed as it was some rare gems she bought for him as a gift before they all abandoned her as the rehearsal. Taking the other bag she split the bits in half despite knowing Spike would be well taken care of by Rarity. The small pile of bits she left on her bed was enough to do Spike awhile and the other half she put back and put in her saddle bag. Taking a piece of paper she started writing the hardest, yet easiest letter she had ever had to write in her life. She wasn't sure why she did it since she still loved every pony despite trying her best not to. She didn't want to hurt them, yet somehow both her love for them as well as the anger and hurt she was filling flowed out onto the parchment that Twilight left on the bed. With nothing personal or tying her to her life, only a few books, blanket and a little money in her bag, Twilight walked to her balcony and looked out over the city. She could see a dark alley just on the other side of the palace walls where she wanted to teleport, but she wasn't sure if she could make it that far. Closing her eyes she brought up her magic, her horn glowing just before she disappeared with a pop and reappeared in the alley feeling dazed. It was the farthest she had ever teleported and it left her feeling weak using the amount of power she had to do it. Knowing that there would be unicorn guards investigating the sudden surge of power, Twilight forced herself to get moving. She needed to make it to the train station since she saw one of the long range expresses just pulling in before she teleported. She wanted to be out of there as soon as possible since she didn’t want any pony to catch her before she could make her escape. Shoving the slight queasy feeling from the long range teleportation, Twilight ran to the station hoping to make it in time before the train left. She wasn’t sure where she was going to go, but she had decided that she wanted a new start, she wanted to start over and make a new life far away from all the false promises of friendship and the pain of knowing that even her own family didn’t even care about her. Running around the crown of ponies leaving the station while ignoring the indignant cries of protest when she bumped in to a pony on accident, Twilight skidded to a halt in front of the ticket booth. She looked up at the map that matched the stops for the train resting on the tracks not far from her, studying the most likely places that any pony would bother looking for her if they even bothered. Settling on two stops that seemed so unlike her, Twilight had her decision made for her. Las Pegasus was far too expensive to buy a ticket for…not to mention she heard things about the place. There were mares who would sleep with others for bits as well as it being well known for gambling and drugs. Of course the Princess has had three different Lords from court trying to take care of the drug and gang problems in the city, but it seemed to be an impossible task. The other place, one that she was sure would be perfect was Fillydelphia. The ticket itself was actually pretty cheap since there was nothing in the town to really draw tourist. There wasn’t much of a library either as Twilight personally knew the biggest and best libraries in all of Equestria, and the library in Fillydelphia was mostly non existent after a fire a few years ago. The place though had rumors that it could be a hard place to survive if you didn’t know some pony of higher social standing or have a generous amount of bits to your name. Twilight was sure that she could make do with a little hard work, something she wasn’t afraid of. Something else Twilight wasn’t stupid, and she knew it would be stupid to buy a ticket straight there. If for some reason someone really did care about looking for her, then they would check who purchased tickets to where and come looking. Twilight needed a way to throw the trail off, and the only way she could think of would cost her more money than she planned to use. It would be worth it though if she could find peace. “I’d like a ticket to Manehattan.” Twilight said pulling out the bits that was required for the ticket. It wasn’t really that far, but the ticket was higher than one for Ponyville since it was a popular location. It also had one of the biggest and best libraries than any other city besides Celestia’s private archives. It was perfect as every pony would think she went there to hide in the library, but she wouldn’t be there. She would cast a spell once she arrived that she knew, but couldn’t hold for too long. She would change her color and use the blanket in her bag to cover her cutie mark so no one would be able to recognize her. And finally she would buy the ticket for Fillydelphia and be on her way to a new start. After paying for the ticket and boarding the train, Twilight was momentarily surprised to see how empty it was. It didn’t take long for her to understand why though, the royal wedding. Even with all of the chaos because of the changelings, not many ponies were leaving as it wasn’t everyday a princess was married. It was thanks to that that Twilight was able to have plenty of space to herself as she sat by the window and leaned her head against the cool glass. She was wondering if maybe she made a mistake leaving Spike behind after everything they had been through together. She loved him like a son and he meant so much to her. Then again it was obvious that he really didn’t want to be around her any longer. He wanted to be with Rarity and most of his time had been spent with her and avoiding Twilight. ~~~ It had been a long day having to make up excuses for ordering several extremely high priced books under the library account. Of course the money didn’t come out of the budget for the library, but was paid for by Filthy Rich who Twilight owed several big favors to as he loaned Twilight one of a kind tomes of magic research when needed. They had a somewhat tenous friendship, but a friendship still. Despite their friendship he more or less bullied her into ordering the books that were very rare and turned out to be heirlooms lost to the pony’s family a generation ago. They were being sold by a company that supplied the library with a majority of their books and supplies and offered a sizeable discount on all orders. A discount that Filthy Rich was interested in as he was a very wealthy pony, not a stupid pony. Why pay full price for something when you can get it for a much cheaper price? The mayor was fuming though when the mare came and dragged Twilight away from the library just as the order that she was waiting for came in. Twilight didn’t even have time to sort through everything, and Derpy had agreed to stop by and pick up a package and deliver it to Filthy Rich. Twilight needed to carefully catalogue the books and make sure they were in good condition before packing them for Derpy to pick up. Thanks to the Mayor though she had to leave Spike to handle it, though he didn’t really know just how expensive or rare the books were. Still, he promised to be careful with them and take care of it before Twilight was dragged away. For several hours she had to listen to the treasurer and Mayor demand answers for the copy of the invoice that was sent to them. Thankfully Twilight had managed to convince them that the books were important for her research and wasn’t paid out of the library funds. They were furious, but let it go with a warning that if it happens again she would have to find both a new job and a new place to live. The library accounts weren’t there for personal use, which Twilight more than understood. She was so relieved when they let her go and she was able to make it back to the library just in time to see a letter vanish in the dragon’s green flames as she entered the library. The shocked and worried look on his face told her all she needed to know as it had been happening a lot lately. Every time she left him with important taskes he would drop them as soon as he caught sight of Rarity and ran off to help her. “What was that letter Spike?” Twilight asked, hoping that she was wrong. Hoping that things went according to plan as Derpy would be there in a matter of minutes. “Nothing.” Spike said as he shifted nervously. “Where’s the paperwork and the package for Derpy?” Twilight asked softly, disappointment already filling her as she already knew. His guilty look only managed to confirm her thoughts. “I…kind of got busy doing something else.” Spike said in an almost defensive tone of voice. “What were you doing Spike?” Twilight asked, her tone taking on a slightly sharp tone. She was trying not to get upset, but after the day she just had and the pressure from Filthy Rich she felt as if she was going to have a mental breakdown. “I was helping Rarity.” Spike said as he rubbed his arm in a guilty manner. “Spike! I told you that it was important that this was done before Derpy got here. She’s too busy to have to wait for this to get done if it isn’t ready.” Twilight said, her voice filling with the disappointment she was feeling. “I’ll do it now, Twilight, sheesh.” Spike huffed as he hurried over to the desk and picked up the small stack of books. They were surrounded by a purple aura as Twilight tried to pull them from his hands. “Spike, I understand that you like Rarity, but this was important! You promised you would get this done for me, just like a lot of things lately. You need to realize that when you promise to do something, you need to get it done.” Twilight said tugging at the books with her magic though Spike wasn’t letting go. “Rarity will still be there later, you can’t keep dropping everything to run off with her when I need you here.” “You aren’t my mother so stop lecturing me like you are!” Spike snapped giving a strong jerk on the books. “I’m going to do it, ok?” “Spike!” Twilight gasped painfully, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as her magic wavered a little from the pain shooting through her heart. She never dreamed that Spike would say something so…so hurtful to her. “Spike…what…what’s gotten into you lately?” “What’s gotten into me? What’s gotten into me?! I’m sick of being cooped up in her and surrounded by books all he time!” Spike growled out as the shock caused Twilight to completely lose her grip on the books sending Spike tumbling back. As the dragon fell backwards the books in his claws was sent high through the air to come crashing down in the fire place where the fire quickly consumed the old books before anything could be done. “No! No, no, no!” Twilight cried out as she ran forward to stare into the fire to see the last parts f the books go up in ashes. “Chill Twilight, they were just a couple of stupid books!” Spike grumped seeing Twilight starting to freak out. “Spike, those books cost more than we bring in over three months!” Twilight snapped at the dragon as she felt a cold dread fall over her. Filthy Rich may have been somewhat friends with her, but he would never let something like this go. “You can’t be serious Twilight, they were just a couple of stupid books!” Spike snapped crossing his arms. The glare Twilight sent him made him shrink back and take a step back before turning to run. “I think I left something back at Rarity’s!” Spike never saw Twilight collapse with a sob as visions of them losing everything flew through her head. ~~~ They hadn’t lost everything, but Twilight did lose what little bit of a relationship she had with te rich pony. She also lost a majority of her private collection as she had to sell them to get enough to pay Filthy Rich back after he threatened to have her arrested for stealing them. She couldn’t really blame him for being as mad as he was since she knew they were importat to his family’s heritage. The short time after that incident Spike seemed to spend many of his waking hours away from the library at Rarity’s. It was obvious Spike would rather be with the fashionista than Twilight herself making this for the best. He would be happier being able to stay with Rarity and Twilight knew the white mare would take good care of the baby dragon. For the rest of the day Twilight spent on the train, disembarking long enough to cover her back and cutie mark with her blanket and changing her body to a pink color and mane to a simple blue. Under that guise she bought a new ticket and finished the last leg of her journey mourning her bit pouch. The last ticket cost more than she thought it would, but she would still have enough money to get by a few days, maybe even a week or two if she was very careful. By then she should have a job and hopefully be started in her new life. Just as it was starting to get dark out Twilight finally got off the train just in time as it was getting too hard to maintain the color change spell since she wasn’t really a master of it. Still, she made it out of the station and into a dark alley nearby where hopefully no one saw the change back. She looked out from the alley at her new home and wondered if maybe coming here was a mistake. The city was huge for lack of a better description, and something about it intimidated her. Ponyville was a very small town all things considered, but Canterlot was a large city. Still, something about this city seemed off and much different than the capital. Everything seemed closer together and it didn’t look as…clean as Canterlot. Shaking her head she pushed her worries aside as just cold hooves as she looked out at where she would start over and make a new life. “Hey there beautiful, you lost?” A blue stallion with a greasy looking black mane and tail asked as he seemed to come out of nowhere. Something abut the way he was looking at her made twilight feel a little uncomfortable, but once again she pushed the feelings aside beliving them to be just nerves. “Yes, this is actually my first time here. Could you maybe point me in the direction of a cheap place to stay for the night?” Twilight asked softly, avoiding looking in his eyes. It felt as if he was…checking her out? “Well, your in luck. I can show you a dirt cheap place to stay. But first, why don’t you stay with my friends and me…I’m sure we can show you a good time.” The stallion said flashing a smirk toward Twilight as she heard something coming up from behind her. She started to crane her neck around to look, but a painful blow to the back of her head knocked her to the ground dazed before falling unconscious as she could see shadows of several ponies surrounding her.