//------------------------------// // Stranger Than Fiction // Story: Harmony's Wrath // by hahatimeforponies //------------------------------// "Well, you did say we all had a special connection before we even met, Fluttershy..." Twilight's consolation was met with fearful gibbering from the gentle pegasus. "How do we know this ain't all just a big load o' hooey?" Applejack argued. Twilight thought hard for a moment. "I... I don't know. It's not like we can just look into the past to see... what... happened..." Just then, an idea struck. "Of course!" She tossed the storybook aside and began to pick through the books scattered around and still on the shelves. "Of... course what?" "The book said Aurum used 'means both mundane and magical' to get the whole story of what happened, which means somewhere there's a spell that can see into the past!" She continued to throw books around the library. "Hmm... nope, uh... no... that's not it either!" "Uh, is this gonna take a while? It's..." Applejack yawned deeply. "... pretty darn late." "Oh, ah... you ponies should get some sleep, I might be a while looking for this spell..." "I don't know if I'll be able to sleep..." Fluttershy mumbled to herself. The next morning, Applejack was the first to wake. After all, her body was disciplined to get up at this hour to tend to the farm. Everypony else was sprawled around the room, in various states of disturbed sleep. Fluttershy looked awful, like she hadn't fallen asleep until fatigue finally managed to overcome her terror. Rainbow Dash had found herself a nice little perch on top of a bookshelf. Rarity, it appeared, had given up trying to to sleep on a pile of pillows and just claimed Twilight's empty bed. Pinkie Pie had found herself an odd sleeping position underneath Spike's basket. Her mane had poofed out again, indicating that she was at least feeling a little better. Spike was beginning to stir - he would probably be up soon. And most importantly, Twilight was sound asleep, her nose in a book. The earth pony smirked a little and pulled the book out from under her. She had drooled on it a little, and while the paper was a little worse for wear, the ink appeared not to have run. Window to the past, the page read. Observe events as they were in the location of casting at some time in the past. The rest of the page consisted of impenetrable explanation, littered with arcane equations. She quirked an eyebrow, and came to the conclusion that this must have been the spell Twilight had settled on before passing out. "Whoa! When did all you guys get here?" a voice called out. She looked up from the book to find Spike toddling down the stairs, rubbing his head. "Oh, ah... we got stuck in the blizzard last night an' all had to stay here. You ah, don' mind, do yer?" "It's fine, but next time warn me so I don't accidentally try to ask Rarity for breakfast." Spike rolled his eyes. Applejack couldn't help but giggle. "You don't look so great, like you didn't sleep right. Is something up?" "I, uh..." the earth pony knew she was a terrible liar, so she opted for a half-truth. "... ah think Twi should explain. Mah head ain't a hundred percent this mornin'." "Alright... got any gemstones? I'm hungry..." Twilight was the last to wake. The chatter and noise only made her stir; she eventually had to be shaken awake. When she was roused, she mumbled about something incoherently for a few moments before pulling herself up. She found Applejack lightly nudging her with a hoof. "Y'alright sugarcube? Looks like you were up pretty late." "Oh, I... I'm fine. I... got the... where's the b..." the unicorn looked around in mild panic, before noticing the book in front of her. "Here it is. I found a spell we can use. It's tricky, but it's the only one that might work." Rainbow Dash yawned and floated by. "Can we talk about it over breakfast? I'm starving." "Did somebody say breakfast?" Spike promptly appeared from the basement with a small bale of hay. Twilight just kept talking. "What it does is create an image of what happened at a particular point in the past. For example..." She squinted in focus. A small area in front of her glowed a little, and everything within it stopped. Then it appeared to play in reverse, little flecks of dust rising where they were falling a moment ago, before coming to a stop at the point Applejack pulled the book from under her face. She held the still for all to see for a moment, and let it dissipate. "... now that was just a small area a few minutes ago. To get what we want from this spell, we'll need to find somewhere that we know all seven Banished were at the same time and go back over a thousand years. And from what I could tell from re-reading the story, the only place that works for that is the hall in the old palace..." "Banished? Thousand years? Twilight, what are you talking about?" Spike tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. Twilight just kept on spilling her research, as if she wasn't even aware of Spike. "... which Celestia's palace was built on top of. Then add to this how public it's likely to be, and how many hexes Celestia might have put on the place to remove the evidence of the past..." "Equestria to Twilight! Come in, Twilight!" Spike knocked on the unicorns head. She blinked and looked around, then squeaked and fell over in surprise. "Spike! Sorry, I forgot you were here..." she gibbered. The dragon huffed. "What are you talking about? Did I sleep through something again?" "Oh, I..." she thought quite hard for a moment. As loyal as Spike was, this was the one individual she knew who could rat them out to Celestia on a whim. She didn't think he would, but it was still a big thing to bring to bear. "Spike, I need you to promise me something." "Oh... kay? Sure, Twilight." Spike quirked an eyebrow. The unicorn went shifty-eyed for a moment before continuing, her tone hushed. "What I'm about to tell you, you must tell nopony. Not a soul outside this room should know about this." "Huh? And what makes this secret any different from my secret that you didn't keep?" "Spike, this is serious. It's not like your lrhh-hrr crhrh hrn Rhhr-hrr-hrr that you don't exactly keep secret yourself." The dragon pouted at Twilight's accusation, before looking down at it his 'I heart Rarity' t-shirt. He quickly pulled it off and threw it aside with a nervous chuckle. "Alright, cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my ey-ow." Twilight smiled a little, and pulled him over to the side. "Okay, Spike. This is gonna sound a little far-fetched..." After breakfast, Twilight began to talk plans with the other ponies, with a noticeably paler Spike sitting on her back. "Alright, now as I said earlier, this spell is going to be hard to get right, and probably going to be very public if we can't find another way in. So before we go running around the basement of the palace, I think we should follow another lead first." Silence. "... such as?" Rarity gestured. "Rainbow Dash, I need you to find Gilda..." "Oh, brother..." "... and see if it adds up on her side of the story." "I don't remember her saying anything about any of this before... and it just seems nothing like her! It's almost like this is just a great big prank..." "If this is a prank, it's a big mean one that isn't funny!" Pinkie Pie interrupted, frowning. Her mane was still at only a mild poof. "Rainbow, I know things are still sore between you and Gilda, but you need to at least try. It's the simplest lead we have." Twilight pleaded. The pegasus frowned, still thinking. "'sides, ya should be quick enough to get yer flank outta there in a jiffy if things get messy, right? Or are you not iron pony enough?" Applejack grinned, giving her a light shove. Dash immediately perked up. "Oh, you're on!" She bolted for Twilight's balcony door - the one door not barred with snow - and took off fast enough to leave the door spinning in her wake. Twilight just boggled. "Are you two really that competitive?" "Ah know she is." the earth pony chuckled. Shattering. A large block of ice split into a million pieces upon a sharp impact. The blow caused the frozen cube to split along lines of weakness and fall apart like glass. "Yer not usin' power tools, are you?" a young voice queried. "Ugh!" another replied, casting away the hammer and chisel in her telekinetic grip. "I guess we can take 'ice sculpture' off the list..." a third added. Scootaloo took a pencil in her mouth and scribbled out the phrase from a very, very long scroll. In big letters at the top of it was a title, 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Crusades'. The 'e' in 'cutie' was backwards, but nopony who ever read the scroll seemed to notice. Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were out in the snow on Sweet Apple Acres that morning, continuing their usual misguided quests for their Cutie Marks. "Applebloom, it's cold, can we go inside?" Sweetie Belle complained. "Yeah, a snow survival cutie mark does not sound fun..." Scootaloo stashed the scroll in her saddlebag and started in the direction of the house. Their treehouse was barely accessible in the snow, and after all, the Apple family house had heating. "Fine..." Inside the kitchen, a hearty stew was brewing on the fire, and Big Macintosh was snoozing nearby. His peaceful nap, however, was short-lived. The three young fillies burst down the door and charged inside, stunning him awake. "Mmm, something smells good!" Scootaloo barged up to the cauldron and took a good long sniff of the soup, unwittingly pushing it over a little. Some excess spilled out on to the fire and boiled off in an instant. Still delirious, Big Mac could only raise a hoof and open his jaw in protest before the young pegasus was off again to look at something else. "Applebloom, your house is really nice! I can't believe we've never been inside before!" Sweetie Belle was crawling along the mantelpiece, examining decorations and tossing them aside. A photo frame just cracked on the floor. Applebloom just kicked her boots off, one of them careering through the air to thunk against Big Mac's head. Dazed for a moment, he shook his head and slowly rose to his hooves. He glanced casually at the chaos around the room for a moment. The door was left wide open, cutlery and crockery was flying everywhere, and Applebloom was perfectly content to let the two guests root around the room while she raided the pantry for a snack. It was hard to even see where they were at any given moment - they were practically bouncing off the ceiling. He quirked an eyebrow and thought for a moment. He then simply and calmly raised a hoof to his side. Scootaloo's absent-minded prancing led her straight into the hoof, clothes-lining her and knocking her flat. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, on similar oblivious courses, tripped over the hoof and landed in a heap on top of Scootaloo. With just a disparaging look, he sat back down. He didn't need words; his calm, definite gestures communicated everything he needed to. The Crusaders untangled themselves from each other and sat around the fire. "Big Macintosh, you ain't seen Applejack anywhere today, didja?" "Nnnope. She didn't come home last night." The stallion gazed stoically at the fire, settling back down to nap. The Crusaders exchanged mildly concerned glances. "I haven't seen Rarity since yesterday either!" Sweetie Belle added. "And I couldn't find Rainbow Dash anywhere!" Scootaloo whimpered. "Are you thinkin' what ah'm thinkin'?" Applebloom smirked. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle grinned, and the three of them yelled out in unison; "Cutie Mark Crusaders Detectives!" The collective shout made Big Mac nearly jump out of his skin. He grumbled quietly to himself while the three little fillies scampered back outside. Twilight decided to go for a walk to clear her mind. Rainbow Dash would be at least a couple of hours; she had to make her way all the way to Gilda's nest after all, and the gryphon lands to the north would be positively frigid at this time of year. Nopony else went to join her; her friends were perfectly content to huddle up to stay warm. The events of the night before still played back in her mind; the whole story seemed so far-fetched, so alien, so... scarily plausible. The characters of the story matched so closely to her friends; the fiery but loyal Captain Spectra to Rainbow Dash, honest hardworking Rose to Applejack, the fabulous but generous Baroness to Rarity, the mute, kind, animal-loving Wingscale to Fluttershy, the talented, bookish Dawn to herself, and Diana Cake is just Pinkie Pie all over... Another thing stuck in her mind as odd. The book said that the ponies walked upright on two hooves and had "hands", whatever they are. They sounded a lot like Spike's claws, with fingers for holding delicate objects... but shouldn't this have a huge effect on how Ponyville was built? Some of these structures are well over a thousand years old... her train of thought was interrupted when, too absorbed in her own thoughts to look where she was going, she bumped into a bench. The blow knocked her over on to the ice. "Are you okay, Twilight?" A voice called from nearby as she slipped and struggled to her hooves. "Yeah, I'm f-" As she opened her eyes at the speaker, her mind made a sudden, startling connection. Lyra and Bon Bon were sat together on the bench. Lyra had always, inexplicably, had this habit of sitting in an awkward slouch with her belly up and her head and shoulders resting on the back of the bench. Why would a bench made for ponies have a back rest on it? Why would ponies even need benches to sit on? "-ine..." As the cogs whirred in her head, she stared intently at Lyra's posture, and the bench which appeared to accommodate it... That's it! "Uhmm... do you want us to call a doctor or something?" Bringing herself back to reality, she turned tail as quick as the ice would let her and started galloping back home. "No-thanks-I'm-fine-thanks-anyway!" she called back. Lyra and Bon Bon just looked at each other quizzically. Back at the library, she skidded to a halt in the snow outside the front door. She threw the door open and barged inside, panting. Everypony looked up in alarm. "Twilight, are you okAGH!" Spike began, before Twilight grabbed him by the tail and swung him overhead to ride on her back. "Spike you're coming with me, I need to figure something out!" She blurted frantically, levitating her scarf around him, and before he had a chance to protest, she was already out the door and off again. Her friends just exchanged puzzled looks. "Twilight, what are you doing?" "I need to borrow your claws for a moment..." the unicorn panted as she sped through the town. She slid to stop outside Sugarcube corner, almost overshooting the front door. She stormed in to find Mrs. Cake tending the counter, doing business as usual. "Why, hello there Twilight Sparkle, what can I do yer for?" She asked cheerily. Twilight just bounded up to the counter, throwing Spike on to the back of her head. He clung to her mane for dear life. "Quick, Mrs. Cake, find me a cup!" The earth pony tilted her head and quirked a brow at the request, but complied, depositing a small teacup on the counter. "Okay dearie! I do hope y'know we don't sell 'em, so bring it back. What's the emergency?" "Spike!" Twilight banged her head forward, tossing the baby dragon on to the counter. The teacup wobbled. Mrs. Cake gulped nervously, stretching out a hoof around it so it wouldn't fall. "Pick up that cup!" "Uhm..." Spike scratched his head and stuck three of his prehensile claws into the handle of the cup, and clamped down around it with a fourth that was opposed to the other three. He held it up. "Oh... kay?" Twilight nodded, while Mrs. Cake watched in dire confusion. "Alright, now Mrs. Cake, you pick it up." Twilight instructed bluntly as Spike put it down. The earth pony continued to boggle at this bizarre instruction, but nonetheless proceeded, leaning her head down and biting the handle. Craning her neck and twisting her jaw, she managed to raise the cup up at a somewhat awkward angle. "Hmm... do you use the cup that way, or..." Mrs. Cake muffled a response. Twilight smirked. "That's all I needed to hear!" The unicorn grabbed Spike by the tail magically, yanking him off the counter and rushing back out the door. Mrs. Cake put the cup down, confounded. "What... just happened?"