Part 2
A Common Goal
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Ponyville does not reveal anything good. The place seems abandoned and grey, the only pony noticeable is Carrot Top and the moment Spike waves to her, she closes her curtains and doesn’t open them again.
Once we’ve confirmed that none of the others... or really anypony for that matter, are in town, Twilight leads us to Sweet Apple Acres, confident that it won’t have changed.
...
While she’s right that it’s there and clearly got ponies running the place... it’s nothing like the Sweet Apple Acres we know. If fact, it’s more like the factories I remember seeing back on Earth, with big pipes spewing smoke into the air, where it hangs like a dark cloud.
Looking inside the barn through a window after rubbing the grim off it... I can’t help feeling my heart break. Instead of the barn I’m so used to seeing with tools and equipment... it’s all a big converybelt with cans that have Granny Smith’s face on them as a machine spurts what I think is mashed apple into the cans, before they’re sealed and moved to other areas.
“What... what’s happened here?” I ask as I step down from the window, feeling... I’m not even sure how I’m feeling.
A question I’m honestly asking myself, Nightmare says inside me instead of using my mouth.
Twilight and Spike move away from the window as a pony come out from the barn, pushing a barrel and my heart leaps. She may be wearing some dreary brown uniform of some kind and her mane and tail are in netting instead of her usual ponytail style, but I’d know that orange coat and freckled face anywhere.
“Applejack?!” Twilight and I both cry happily, hurrying over and hugging her.
The response we get is... depressing to say the least. She doesn’t even react to our hug and steps out of it, asking, “What can I do for ya?”
I can’t help frowning. Her accent sounds... off. Almost like it’s not even there.
Never thought I’d rather hear her speaking the way she normally does, Nightmare responds to my noticing how AJ sounds.
However, my attention is returned to the farm pony when she says... she doesn’t recognize any of our friends/family’s names aside from Rarity, who apparently moved to Manehatten years ago.
“Probably to become a world famous fashion designer, I bet,” Spike said, shrugging.
“Not that Ah know of,” Applejack says as she finishes putting the barrels into her wagon. “Last Ah heard she went to help with the cause, just like everypony else.”
“The cause?” Twilight and Nightmare (using my mouth) say at once, voicing what I’d just been thinking.
“The war against King Sombra and Crystal Empire?” the orange mare replies in a tone that says we should know what she’s just said.
“WHAT?!” the four of us (Nightmare and I spoke in unison) ask, before glancing at each other.
Just how in Equestria is he waging war on Equestria? Nightmare asks, sounding confused. He was defeated in the Empire. There’s no way he could have survived and taken over, not with that Alicorn of Love ruling it.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Twilight says, clearly having been talking to Applejack whilst I paid attention to what Nightmare was saying. “And if you come with me, I’ll prove it.”
With the Twilight runs off, Spike following her. I remain, noticing Applejack is not following. I do follow, however, when Twilight’s magic grabs Applejack and drags her along.
We show Applejack the map, which she says she never saw before, even though she’d lived in Ponyville her whole life.
After some talk, Twilight asks how this all happened Applejack explains to us how this apparent war started.
When the Crystal Empire returned, it brought King Sombra back with him and he made his own enslaved subjects fight against Equestria for him by using his Dark Magic to make them all do it.
But, even with Auntie Tia leading the charge, it still takes everypony in Equestria, doing their part day and night to keep up the fight. It’s horrible.
Once she finishes, she and Twilight talk, but it doesn’t seem to lead to anything.
AJ sighs. “Look, I hope this all helped but, Ah really need to get back to canning those apples.”
She starts walking away.
“Thank you,” Twilight says, causing the orange mare to pause. “We’re going to set things right.”
Applejack sighs again, before looking back. “Ah hope ya do.”
She starts walking away again, when something about what she told us catches in my mind.
“Wait!” she stops again as I hurry over, stopping in front of her. “You said Aun— Um, Princess Celestia is leading the fight, right?”
She nods. “Yeah. That’s what Ah said.”
“What about Princess Luna?” I ask, trying to hide the anxiety from my voice, but doubt I did it.
Applejack’s face seems to sadden more than it already has, and she has seemed sad since we first saw her. It really isn't making me feel any better.
She looks away. “Well... seein’ as ya didn’ know about the war... guess ya wouldn’t know about that either.”
“What? What happened?” I plead. I know Twilight and Spike are watching, but I need to know. What happened to Mama?
“She died.”
...
...
“What?” I whisper.
Applejack sighs, before turning fully around and places a hoof on my shoulder. “Seeing as the two o’ ya are Alicorns, Ah’ll take it yer related to the princesses, correct?”
I don’t respond, but guess the others nodded, because she goes on, sighing.
“During the early days o’ the war, Princess Luna led another of the squads. However, Sombra found a way to lead her into a trap and, in trying to save her subjects... Luna was hit with a blast of Dark Magic. Princess Celestia’s had to raise the sun and the moon again ever since.”
I lower my head, my eyes wide as tears run down my cheeks. Mama’s gone? She’s... she’s dead?
So, Sombra not only dares to challenge Equestria for its throne, but dares to kill one of the mares whom was responsible for my creation?! Nightmare scowls from within me.
I’m not listening. I’m still reeling from learning Mama... the second mother I’ve ever had and the only one I can ever have again... is dead.
“Spike, that’s it!” Twilight’s cheerful voice cuts into my spiral of sadness. “The map’s connected to the Tree of Harmony. It must sense that something isn’t right. That’s why it’s still here!”
I turn to see the scroll with the spell that sent us back in time is floating out of Spike’s bag, held in Twilight’s aura.
“I’ll just use Starlight’s version of the spell and go back a little earlier and stop her before she even knows we’re there!”
“No.”
“What was that, Stell—AH!” Twilight cries out as my mane shoots out, grabbing the scroll and pulling it over to me before she can cast the spell.
I glare at them. “We’re not leaving.”
“Stellar, are you nuts?” Spike asks, hopping down from the throne he’d been sitting on. “We can’t stay here. Didn’t you hear Applejack? This world’s horrible.”
“Which is why we’re not leaving, yet.”
Spike cocks an eyebrow. “Yet?”
I turn my glare to Twilight, though the next words out of my mouth aren’t mine. “Twilight Sparkle, Celestia would be ashamed of you!”
Twilight blinks, before her eyes narrow. “What are you playing at, Nightmare? Give Stellar back control of her body, right now!”
My head shakes. “Stellar is currently giving me control, princess.”
Both Spike and Twilight eyes widen. “WHAT?”
My eyebrows narrow. “For somepony that’s such a big fan of Starswirl the Bearded and who has herself used his Time Travel Spell before, as well as Celestia’s student, I’d have thought you would understand.” My mouth scoffs. “Clearly she overestimates your abilities.”
“Hey!” Spike glares, stepping towards me. “You’ve no right to say that.”
“When she is about to do something beyond stupid that would haunt Stellar Nova forever, I think I do have the right, dragon!” Nightmare snarls with my mouth.
Said dragon hesitates, looking confused, whilst Twilight narrows her eyes. “What do you mean?”
"It is complicated, to say the least,” Nightmare replies, looking down at Twilight despite the height difference in mine and the purple Alicorn’s bodies.
“Twilight’s smart!” Spike growls, glaring.
“Tell me, Nightmare,” said Alicorn says firmly, her eyes lidded. “Tell me what would haunt Stellar, now!”
Nightmare rolls my eyes. “Fine. To put it simply, if one goes back in time and changes the past, they create an entirely new present, a new world, you could say. And that world will continue to exist, no matter if the past change is rectified or not.”
Spike looks confused, but Twilight’s expression shows she’s going over what Nightmare told her.
“So, this world will still exist, even when we return to ours,” she says, before frowning. “I don’t see how that could haunt Stellar, when she’ll be in the present that we fix too.”
Nightmare scoffs. “For a pony claiming to be her sister, you sure don’t think to clearly ahead, do you? Luna, the mare this filly considers her mother, is dead is this world and this world will continue as it is even when we fix what that blasted Starlight Glimmer did! Do you honestly think Stellar could live with herself, knowing this world still exists, that the monster that took her mother away from her, regardless of Luna’s well-being in the correct timeline, is still free to do as he wishes and harm the ponies she cares about that exist here?”
Twilight mulls that over for a while, before comprehension seems to dawn on her. Apparently Nightmare spoke in a way not to complicated, because Spike is wearing a similar expression.
However, Spike’s eyes narrow almost instantly. “Wait a minute. Why do you care about it haunting Stellar? I’d think you’d want to take advantage of her feelings to take over her.”
Nightmare uses my eyes to just glare at him, causing the little dragon to scurry behind Twilight and cower. “I was merely stating her reasons for why this world is one we cannot just abandon. As for my own reasons, Sombra dares to think he can take Equestria for his own. Only I may take it away from Celestia. Also, he killed my former host. I feel I should honor her in some way by taking revenge on the stallion that took her life.”
“Wait,” Spike looks confused again. “If Sombra wasn’t stopped by us, shouldn’t all the other bad guys you and the girls dealt with be around?”
Nightmare opens my mouth to speak, but Twilight beats her to it.
“Well, taking things into account, if the Rainboom not happening caused all this, it could have had other effects.”
“Like...?”
“Oh, please, dragon,” Nightmare scoffs at him. “The Rainboom was pure Harmonic energy. When it happened, the Elements were effected by what they sensed. When Celestia banished me to the moon a thousand years ago, I was torn from Luna and the Elements energies were the only things keeping me from taking over her again. However, when the Rainboom occurred, the Elements sensed the magical connection it gave to Twilight Sparkle and the other five and chose them to wield them. This, however, meant their energies faded from the moon, allowing me to take control of Luna’s body once again to use when the thousand years were over and the stars would aid in my escape to take revenge on Celestia.”
The two glare at her for what she said and I’m glaring at her to... sort of?
Nightmare rolls her eyes. “You wanted an explanation, so I gave it. As for Discord and Chrysalis... Discord only broke out because Tia and Luna’s bonds to the Elements broke when Twilight and her friends became their new Bearers. However, he could only break free thanks to the fight that broke out between those three fillies. The straining on their friendship in that single moment, though forgotten by them, was enough Disharmony to free him. As the Elements never bonded with any other mares, their power over Discord has not shattered. And, what with this war, I highly doubt the fillies have been brought near his statue. i doubt they even know it exists.
And, as for the Changeling Queen, she may very well have tried, but I doubt things went well. And, even if they did, she is not fighting this war now, not Celestia and the ponies of Equestria.”
“So... what does all this mean?” Twilight asks cautiously. “With you and Stellar, I mean.”
My lips form into a snarl that is unanimously made. “Our interests align in this,” we say together. “We will fight against he who took my mother and dares to try taking Equestria for his own.”
My mane moves over to Twilight, handing her the scroll. “You’re giving this back?”
We both glare at her as I turn, facing the sky. “You will use that spell only when Sombra and his army are no longer a threat to our kingdom. Understood?”
Looking over my shoulder, we see Twilight look uncertain for a moment, before her expression firms and she nods, leviateing the scroll back into Spike’s backpack. “Understood.”
I will now be giving you access to more power, child, Nightmare tells me as I feel new energy coursing through me. You have not been able to use all your power, as we were in Disharmony and fighting each other from within. Now, we have a common goal. Use this power and stop he who has earned both our ire.