//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Courage Will Pull Us Through // by Cloudy Serrano //------------------------------// ~Chapter 9~ Ice cold water hitting my face, I snapped backwards, falling down and slamming my head on the ground as hard as a stallion stomping on a spider. Sputtering, I began furiously attempting to rub the water out of my eyes with my hooves. As the prickles of the ice cold water slowly subsided, I heard a voice which sounded suspiciously like Mew say, "Yay! Good job, Twilight! Let's do it again!" I looked up at Mew with a scowl on my face. "Mew! Why in Equestria would... you... do... that..." I trailed off as I noticed that Mew was not alone, but was, in fact, in the company of another pony. Standing off to the side of him, a pale violet Earth Pony stood, a smile on her face that didn’t reach past her pained eyes. Her mane and tail were a deep sapphire blue, with a gray streak running through each. "You found another pony! Oh, this is so exciting, I can't believe you actually managed to find another. I mean, I had begun to think that I was the only pony in this whole place, and that I wasn't even in Equestria anymore!" My horn lighting with it's usual light raspberry color, I tried to cast a small heat spell to dry myself off, but found that I couldn't. Frowning, I lowered my head to cast it again, this time pushing harder. When the spell refused to cast the second time, I closed my eyes to concentrate, and was about to go for a third try when the Earth Pony spoke. "Twilight, don't bother with a spell. Wherever I go, the power of Celebi and the Guardians of the Lakes follows. I know you don’t know what this means, but basically, your spells don’t work right now.” Hearing that none of my spells will work, I whipped my head up to look at her so fast an audible CRACK! could be heard. “My- My spells won’t work? Oh dear Celestia, my spells won’t work!” Beginning to hyperventilate, I began to pace back and forth and said, “Oh, what am I going to do? How am I going to turn the pages of a book, and take notes on my parchment, and- wait, I don’t have parchment, because I have leaves! Celestia, first I lose my parchment and quills, and now-” “TWILIGHT!” Shouted out the pale violet Earth Pony. Having successfully gotten my attention, she calmly said, “Relax. Don’t worry, you’ll have your magic back once I’m gone. And besides, I don’t plan on staying very long, anyways.” “You… you promise my magic will return when you’re gone?” I asked, skeptical of her. There was no possible way an Earth Pony would hold enough magic in them to be able to focus it into even the most basic of spells, let alone one as complicated as magic nullifying. The only other way it would be her would be if a spell had previously been cast on her body to nullify the magic around her, which would explain what she meant by my magic returning when she was gone. “Yes, Twilight, I promise it’ll return when I’m gone. But before you have anything else to say or ask, I have to tell you one thing.” Pausing to allow me to nod in understanding, she said, “Twilight, remember when you cast the spell to travel back in time a week to warn yourself to not go back in time? Well, this is like that time, but on a much bigger scale. Twilight, I’m you, but far, far into the future.” Pulling back her hair with her hoof, she pushed the stringy strands out of the way to reveal the jagged remains of her horn, small droplets of light raspberry magic condensed on the edges. Gasping, I reeled back from her- myself. “Wha- what are you talking about? You can’t be me. I’m- I’m lavender, and I- I have a full horn, and… and…” Struggling to find something, anything to prove the mare in front of me was not my future self, my eyes scanned her body until they landed on her cutie mark. “There! Look, see! Your cutie mark is different from mine. Mine is a six-pointed violet star surrounded by five smaller six-pointed white stars. Yours is a six-pointed violet star that isn’t surrounded by anything!” As I smiled triumphantly, I looked up to meet her sad, pitying gaze. “Twilight,” she said gently. “You know that, although my cutie mark may be different, and I may look slightly different, we are the same pony. Come here, and let me show you.” Noticing my hesitation, the mare continued, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.” Slowly, my hooves moved one after another, softly clip-clopping on the hard stone floor. I could hear a faint dripping sound, one that I had not noticed before, but seemed to be coming from outside the room. The Earth Pony who claimed to be me was smiling, but as I got closer, I realized that it was not a smile of joy, for her eyes drooped, and gray hairs had started to become apparent on her muzzle. But even then, the smile was not forced, almost as if it had been one she had gotten used to having, day after day, week after week, month after month. Her smile was not a smile of joy, but one of grief. “You’re- You’re depressed,” I said, not expecting a response. I got one anyway. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Twilight. It’ll all work out in the end. Right now, we just need to worry about you.” “What are you talking about? If you’re sad, you need to talk it out with somepony, let all the emotions out. If you don’t do that, then-” “-All the emotions will build up, until you can’t contain or control them anymore,” she finished for me. “Yes, I do remember that book I read on psychology so long ago. Its name eludes me at the moment, however. But still, how about this. I’ll talk with you as long as I can about what’s made me this sad, if you let me tell you what I need to. Is it a deal?” Biting my lip, a far-away look came to my eyes as I thought about her offer. If she really, truly believed she was me, then she was most likely a pony who was mentally ill. But on the other hoof, if she was sad enough about something that her hair was beginning to gray, then who was I to deny her the possibility of being able to move on? Plus, she was the only pony I’d met so far, and if what Mew said was true, then I may not get another chance like this to learn about where in Equestria I was. The answer was obvious since the first reason to accept it. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll accept your offer.” <~> “I can’t believe this,” I whispered. “You really are me.” After accepting the mare’s- my offer the mare proceeded to tell me about her life. Her life, which was exactly like mine. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike- she knew them all, and told me about our adventures we had. Stopping Nightmare Moon, helping Daring Do, Rainbow Dash getting a new pet, my coronation- she knew it all. But it didn’t stop there. She even started to tell me about her time in the Pokemon World, what she called, “Earth.” She stopped for a short break when she got to the part about right now, when she came to me. And all throughout her telling of the story, I had been asking questions. Sometimes a few, and sometimes many. “Yup,” she said. “I sure am. In fact, Twilight, I went through the exact same thing that you were going to go through. But this time, there’s a difference. When I started out, I didn’t have anything with me. All I had was my magic, and the psychic connection to Mew he’d set up. It took me a while, but when I got to where I needed to go, a place called Sinnoh, I was in awe. There were, great, massive towns, with so many different types of Pokemon. But at the same time, there were people. So, so many people. I wasn’t sure what I was to do. I remembered Mew’s and the other Pokemon’s warnings, that not to trust any of them. So, I stayed out of sight of them, but made sure to listen in to what they were saying. Unfortunately, that didn’t last very long.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “Did something happen?” “Well you see, as I listened to the humans, I heard a lot about this thing they do, called battling. The first time I heard about it, I only heard it mentioned. The translation spell was still a little bit shaky to me back then, and I could only hold it, oh, about an hour I’d say. But either way, I didn’t need to hear about what the battling was. No, all I needed to do was keep sitting there, and watch it happen.” “Just watch it happen?” I asked. “Oh, yes.” She said. “Just watch it happen. When I saw the battling for the first time, I was shocked, and just a little bit angry. So shocked and angry, that I nearly jumped out to stop them. But luckily, I didn’t. I didn’t because I saw that the Pokemon didn’t hate it. No, they really they just… enjoyed it. I don’t know why, but all of them enjoyed to have their battle, from the youngest, to the oldest. What they did was horrible, yes, but out of all they did, nothing was long-term. In all actuality, when I saw them get taken to what’s known as a Pokemon Center, I thought something bad had happened. But instead, they came back out, all well and healthy. Not even a scratch remained.” Pausing and closing her eyes, the mare who was me suddenly stopped speaking for a moment. When she began again, she said, “I don’t have much time left. It looks like I can’t tell you about everything that happened. This means from now on, no interruptions, for our time together is coming to a close. But I will tell you one thing, though, about how I came to be here. You remember the spell by Starswirl the Bearded, the one to let a single pony travel back in time for a short time?” At my nod, she continued. “Well, in the book about the spell, it says the spell can only be cast once in a pony’s lifetime, and only allows for short-distance traveling, and for a short time.” She snorted. “The only time traveling spell known to ponykind, and it barely scratches the surface of what is possible. But still, as it is, Twilight, there is something in this place, or rather somethings, called Legendaries, or Legends for short. These Legendaries… they have power. More power than we can imagine. But either way, in order to get here, I asked for help, and I received it from four of them.” Motioning toward Mew, who had fallen back asleep during Twilight’s retelling of Nightmare Night, she told me, “Our friend there, Mew. He himself is a Legendary, but he’s young. Too young. He knows little about the world, but at the same time, has enough power to change all of it into whatever he desires.” “Back to what I was saying, these four Legends… well, they helped me come here. They helped me, not travel through just time, but through the dimensions as well. Their names are Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, and Celebi, although you will meet them in time. Since the four of them are also young, but not as young as Mew here, they said they cannot keep me here for long. But a long time for them, and a long time for us, are two very different things. In other words, I would only be able to stay here for about an hour at most, and I have already been here for so long, I don’t know how much longer I can stay.” “I asked these four for aid, because Twilight, where I’m from, I beat Discord’s game. I beat it, and in doing so, lose everything I love, and at the same time, gain everything I thought I loved. So I came here, to try and change that. Twilight, I am here to tell you to beat the Champion, as I myself did. But do not, under any circumstances, follow in my hoofsteps. That will only lead you to ruin.” Reaching into a bag that had previously gone unnoticed by me, she pulled out a folded piece of square paper, about the size of my head. “This is the map I used when tried to find the Legends for help. Twilight, I need you to follow this map, and at the same time, don’t follow it. You need to get through each of the eight gyms, and beat the champion. If you can do that, and at the same time do everything I didn’t do, you can beat Discord’s game, and save Equestria.” As she finished, her colors slowly began to fade, allowing her body to become clear. “You’re… You’re leaving now?” I asked, afraid and curious of her sudden translucence. “I am,” she said. “I only wish I could give you the spellbook I made.” “Spellbook?” She smiled. “What, you didn’t think I only used spells I already knew, did you? No, I had to make some of my own design and creation. They may not have been perfect, but it was what I had to do, and what you will most likely have to do also.” My eyes grew wide. “M-Make my own spells? B-But I’ve only ever read on the theory of it once, and I have never seen it actually performed in the field.” “Do not worry,” she spoke airily, objects now able to be seen through her body. “If I can do it, then you can, too, for we are the same.” As she became more and more translucent, I said, “But… But when will I be able to see you again?” “Let’s hope that it never comes to us having to meet once more,” she stated simply as she slowly become clearer and clearer. And then she was gone. As soon as I noticed she had disappeared, I went into overdrive. “Oh Celestia, oh Celestia, I need to hurry up and get to Sinnoh so I can beat the Champion!” Swiftly moving through the room, I collected all the of my things that were strewn about, and placed them in a rudimentary bag; however, in my frenzy, I failed to notice that I had awoken Mew. “Twilight, what are you doing?” He asked, sleepily rubbing at his red eyes. “Isn’t it still the middle of the night?” Not looking away from the gathering of my things, I replied, “Sorry, Mew, but I think it’s morning right now. And besides, you woke me up, so you can’t really say anything.” Sighing, Mew looked over to a circular object on the other side of the bubble he was on. “Uh, Twilight? It’s four in the morning. I’m pretty sure that still classifies as sleep-time for me.” “Perfect!” I shouted, nearly finished with my stuff. “Four is a pretty lucky number, and if I want to get to Sinnoh and beat that champion to save Equestria, then I’m going to need all the luck I can get!” Mew’s shoulders sagged, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he said, “Look, Twilight, I know what you’re trying to do. And it’s not gonna work. You want to rush out to the Sinnoh region, and immediately attempt to challenge the champion, right?” “Sorry, Mew, but no time for talking. I have a world to save!” Stepping towards the door, I was about to step out, when I felt something hard smash into my face, snapping my neck off to the side, and nearly knocking me unconscious. However, something, but I don’t know what, prevented me from going under. Looking over at my assailant, I saw Mew was grinning awkwardly. “Sorry about the Wake-up Slap, Twilight. But I had to stop you from going out and doing something incredibly dumb and idiotic, and it was the only thing I could think of.” Immediately wanting to yell at Mew for hitting me, and thank him for stopping me, I was speechless. Not knowing how to react, I settled for simply saying, “So you decided on just hitting me, not picking me up with your telekinesis, or making a wall in front of me?” Tears beginning to glisten on the corners of Mew’s eyes, he said, with a slight tremble in his voice, “I-I didn’t know what e-else to do, Twilight! Y-You were just a-about to leave, a-and I knew i-it would be a bad idea, a-and you wouldn’t listen to reason, and-” Not being able to stand the sight of him crying any longer, I said, “Look, I’m sorry, Mew. I know you only had my best interests at heart. But it still was wrong of you to do that. You shouldn’t immediately turn to violence to solve your problems, okay?” “O-Okay, Twilight,” he responded, sniffling. “So, why is it that I shouldn’t go out and try to beat the champion who resides in the place called Sinnoh?” I asked, a smile once again donning on my face. Mew gently smiled. “Well, remember how I was already awake when future you came? Well, when she got here, it kinda woke me up, and I saw her. Anyway, that’s not important. What is important, is what the Lake trio told me.” “Lake trio?” I asked. What in Equestria was that? “Didn’t Twilight tell you about getting the help from four powerful Legends?” “Oh yeah, I remember that! Do the Lake trio happen to be three of those four that helped her- er, me?” “Yes, they are. Well, what happened was, since they’re psychic, and I’m a psychic, they were easily able to set up a working connection between our minds. Basically, in the time it took future you to figure out she was in the past, they had already told me everything I needed to know so I could help you to go back and save your friends.” Wait a minute, if Mew knew what I had to do to save Equestria, did that mean… “Mew, since you know what I have to do to save Equestria, can you tell me what I need to do?” He smiled. “Yup, and I’m not just going to tell you what you need to do, but also how to do it!”