Pony Fluttershy
Fluttershy sat curled in a ball as her friends formed a circle with her around a table in their suite filled with numerous snacks and drinks. It was one of those really nice, quality built tables with exotic designs that must have been imported from somewhere like Neighpon. So many intricate carvings in the black surface that Fluttershy could spend hours just staring at as the small group sat on the softest cushions that must have ever been made. It would be better than facing things as they were.
“Where do you thing the egghead is?” Rainbow Dash asked, exhaustion and frustration in her voice. Not that Fluttershy could blame her, none of them had much sleep since they learned of Twilight’s disappearance and it was weighing heavily on all of them. She couldn’t help feeling regret for not staying with Twilight when she needed it most. She really wasn’t too sure why she had walked off with the others, but looking across the table to Rainbow Dash made her remember. She followed her friend who assured her that Twilight was just overreacting. At the time it seemed so reasonable, but now Fluttershy couldn’t help hating herself for it.
“Dash, just please cut the name calling out!” Applejack snapped, wiping her eyes with a hoof as she tried holding back tears for their missing friend.
“I don’t care what some pink princess wannabe says, I’ll call my egghead whatever the buck I want!” Rainbow Dash snarled out angrily, “Where does she get off telling me what I can and can’t call Twilight?”
“Ladies, please calm down.” Rarity pleaded, trying to be the voice of reason between the two. She’s been trying to be the voice of reason for the whole group since learning that Twilight was missing which surprise Fluttershy. Gone, well mostly gone, was the drama queen as she stepped up assuming a more leader like role among the group. Not that Rainbow Dash and Applejack appreciated it much at first.
“I love Twilight! I don’t want some bucking pony I barely know telling me I don’t!” Rainbow Dash seethed angrily, clenching her jaw.
“We didn’t show her much love, Dashie.” Pinkie Pie sniffed, her hair flat and eyes watery. “Why did we do it? We didn’t know that meanie changeling queen when she pretended to be Princess Cadence. Yet we sided with her and turned out backs on Twilight. She hates us!”
“Shush darling, don’t say that.” Rarity said softly as she pulled a sobbing Pinkie Pie against her, letting the pink mare wail into her fur without once complaining that it would stain her coat. “We messed up, sure, but friends mess up all the time. We’ll find Twilight and we will make things right.”
“Not if the nag has anything to do with it. She fired you as her seamstress, how long do you think she moves to get rid of all of us?” Rainbow Dash scoffed, her eyes watering.
“That hurt, I admit it, it is going to have a huge impact on my business and livelihood.” Rarity sighed as she leaned her head on Pinkie Pies as the pink pony just curled into the white pony seeking comfort.
“Buck your livelihood! Were talking about Twilight Sparkle missing because of our buck up!” Applejack snarled, drawing back in shock as she noticed the tears running down Rarity’s muzzle.
“Darling, I’ll let that go as I know you are upset like the rest of us. Unlike you though, I don’t have Big Mac to help cover my side of things while I’m away. You should be worried too though because if this effects your farm then it could impact your livelihood.” Rarity explained as she visibly tried to fight back the tears, her body shaking.
“What does my livelihood have to do with Twilight missing, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, calming down a little despite still seeming agitated.
“Tell me, Applejack. If our businesses go under what happens to our families? To Sweetie and Bloom?” Rarity asked, Applejack’s face draining of color despite her fur as realization sunk in. “I’m worried sick about Twilight, but I’m also worried about what little family I have left.”
“This isn’t fair!” Rainbow Dash snapped, slamming a hoof down on the table making the snacks jump as she fought back more tears. “How did we come to this? How the buck did I do something so stupid? So uncool!”
“Rainbow.” Fluttershy sighed as she got up and went to hug her oldest friend.
“I’m sorry egghead! I’m so sorry!” Rainbow Dash cried as Fluttershy held her while trying her best to comfort the brash, sometimes arrogant Pegasus. Fluttershy knew that no matter how brash and arrogant Rainbow might seem at times, the mare was just as caring and kind as Fluttershy herself despite hiding it behind a wall of bravado.
“Look, we’re all tired so maybe we should just get some rest and hopefully things will look up tomorrow.” Rarity suggested and got murmurs of acceptance from the others though Fluttershy herself knew that none of them would sleep well despite her own agreement to try and rest. They were worried about Twilight and more than a few of them kept having nightmares about the wedding where they found Twilight dead because they didn’t take her serious when she really needed them to.
Princess Luna
“What’s wrong your highness?” A threstral night guard asked as she stood watch over the entrance to the chamber holding the mirror that apparently worked as a conduit for a portal to a whole other world.
“I have a lot on my mind.” Luna sighed, looking over to the guard realizing that it was Night Shade who was her most trusted guard when it should have been another. “What happened, why are you here? Not that I mind but, shouldn’t your shift be over?”
“Yeah, but I was worried after seeing how distraught you were earlier and switched out with Reaver so we could talk.” Night Shade replied as she pulled her helmet off. Unlike many of the solar and night guard, Night Shade’s appearance didn’t change much when donning the illusion enchanted helmet of their group. Only big change was the mare’s mane was much longer and a bit of a mess.
“What’s there to talk about? We should be celebrating my grand stallion marrying Princess Cadence. I should be celebrating with my family as I told them about our connections and plans to bring their houses back to the royal status they deserve. Instead we are running damage control because of a failed invasion that really should have been easily prevented in the first place. My sister and I are at odds, my grand mare in missing, my grand stallion and Princess Cadence’s relationship is in limbo. And I have a lot of work ahead of me getting this stupid thing to actually work.” Luna replied in a sarcastic tone while motioning with her front hooves as she grew more and more panicked with each point until she was breathing heavily and focusing on calming down.
“Are you alright, Princess?” Night Shade asked, giving a sad look to her Princess and the one she devoted all of her loyalty to.
“No, I’m not sure I will be either until all of this is settled. And then there is the fact none of it even makes any sense.” Luna sighed, looking forlornly up into the reflective surface of the mirror. “You know I was drugged so I wouldn’t interfere with the invasion right?”
“Yes, I’m one of the only ones who know the whole truth.” Night Shade said, “Are you worried about the security and it happening again?”
“No, well yes, but tell me Night Shade, how does it make sense?” Luna asked, a worried look filling her eyes.
“What do you mean your majesty?” Night Shade asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“Why would an invading force go to such lengths to keep Celestia, Cadence and myself alive? Apparently they had us at their mercy so why spare us? Why go to such great lengths to make sure no pony was seriously physically harmed?” Luna asked, giving the mare several moments to think it over though the confusion in her expression only grew.
“What about tricking Twilight to attack Princess Cadence?” Night Shade asked, pointing at what did seem like an obvious trick on the changeling’s part to try and get Twilight to hurt Cadence.
“I don’t think it was because of what every pony else is saying. Think about it, even in her weakened state Cadence is an alicorn and more than capable of taking care of herself. She would be able to dodge the clumsy attacks of a unicorn who is attacking in a blind rage as Cadence claimed Twilight to be in. Yes the crystals surrounding her nulled her magic, but the moment Twilight shattered the wall her magic returned.” Luna explained, “I have a theory this changeling wanted Twilight to attack Cadence knowing that Cadence would never harm the pony she loved as a sister.”
“Why do that though? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Night Shade asked, pacing back and forth now thinking over what she had heard.
“No it doesn’t, I can’t figure out why go to all of the trouble. Was the changeling trying to instill a sense of betrayal? Something more? Something less? I just don’t know and that is what is bothering me so much. Everything is a mess right now and on top of it I’m worried about all of the unknowns.” Luna sighed. Suddenly her ears perked up as she heard a noise shuffling on the other side of the door causing her to make shushing motions with her hoof before moving to open the door to find Celestia pacing back and forth. The white alicorn froze when she realized Luna was standing there looking at her.
“Hello sister, I went to personally bring my journal to your room. You weren’t there so I left it on your bed, but I still wanted to talk to you.” Celestia said as her eyes flicked back and forth nervously, ears drooped as her mane looked as if was barely maintaining it’s ethereal form.
“Hello sister, please let’s step inside to avoid prying ears. Night Shade, if you will please excuse us.” Luna said as she trotted back inside, Night Shade bowing before silently leaving the room. Celestia slowly moved into the chamber closing the door before dropping to a sitting position on the floor.
“How are you doing?” Celestia finally asked, looking up at Luna with a look as if she was fighting back tears. Luna really hated seeing her like this, even after everything.
“I’m doing fine, sister.” Luna said as she sat in front of Celestia, facing her with very little space between them. “I have to say, Starswirl did an excellent job on this mirror.”
“I’m not so sure he made it.” Celestia sighed, old wounds clear in the depths of her eyes.
“If she was here she would know for sure. She would also probably be better at figuring out these unorthodox spell matrices. I believe I can do something, but it won’t be easy.” Luna sighed.
“Please let’s not talk about her, I already lost her and now I’m losing you.” Celestia sobbed out, her body shaking with each powerful sob as Luna gathered her sister into her wings.
“Shhh, you aren’t losing me.” Luna sighed as she nuzzled Celestia. “We are having an argument dear sister. I may be upset with you, even a little disappointed, but I love you. You are my sister, my family, and you will never lose me.”
“I’m so sorry Luna. I try and I try, but no matter how good I am at being a Princess I always fail at everything else. I failed at being a sister. I failed at being a mother. I failed as a teacher. All I seem to do is fail at everything important to me.” Celestia sniffled.
“We all mess up sometimes sister, it is part of being alive. What is important is we learn from our mistakes and move on the best that we can.” Luna said, taking up a kind yet wise tone of voice.
“Since when did you get so smart?” Celestia asked, leaning into her sister’s embrace.
“I can’t always be as childish as I want to be. And after this I think we both will be doing some growing up.” Luna said.
“I hope I don’t do too much more growing, my plot is already going to be huge after all that comfort food.” Celestia sighed earning a bit of a giggle from Luna making them both smile. “Things are going to be okay, right sister?”
“Yeah, they are.” Luna agreed though she couldn’t help feeling a sense of foreboding.
Sunset
Sunset watched Twilight from the corner of her eye as they two rode silently on the bus towards her home after missing another one while listening to Twilight’s story. The darker haired girl was sitting by the window struggling to get the wrapper open on the last burger in the bag of take-out Sunset ordered as they left. They each had a large salad since Sunset was worried about Twilight freaking out over eating meat, and yet when the girl heard someone ordering a cheeseburger as they left Sunset had to hold back the giggle seeing the wide eyed hungry look on Twilight’s face. So Sunset grabbed a couple of them to go on the way out and they just made this bus as it pulled in. She figured why not since Twilight said she already had one since being here and knew what they were when Sunset asked.
It was hard to miss the frustration on Twilight’s face as she struggled to open the wrappers, just as it was seeing her eat the salad with the fork. Her whole fist gripped the fork then, and now she clumsily worked the wrapper. It looked as if she had some experience working her hands, but not enough to be used to things. It would have to be something to work with her with, teaching her dexterity and some of the differences in this world before getting her enrolled at the school if she even bothered with it.
The thing she was dreading was telling Twilight the truth about what help she could give her. Until the portal reopened Sunset wasn’t too sure if there was much she could actually do. She did intend to contact those few she knew who might have other ideas, but she didn’t hold out much hope. She didn’t want to go back to hr world so didn’t care much about the portal, but now with Twilight here there was more of a reason to look into it.
“These are so good.” Twilight moaned as she stuffed the trash back into the paper bag it came in. “I can’t wait to get back to Equestria and try making them myself.”
“What?” Sunset asked as she turned fully to face Twilight with a look of shock. “You said you knew what they were. You do know, don’t you?”
“Of course I do, they’re cheeseburgers.” Twilight said with a huge grim making Sunset want to smack herself in the face. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Later, this is our stop.” Sunset said as she jumped up, grabbed her bags and motioned for Twilight to follow as the large vehicle pulled to a stop. Shrugging Twilight hopped up and followed Sunset out carrying the paper bag full of trash. “Please keep quiet until we get to my office. I don’t want to wake anyone up.”
“Okay.” Twilight agreed, nodding as she followed Sunset closely.
The two made their way down a block and to a large home that didn’t have any lights on showing through the windows. Of course Sunset expected this seeing as it was past Moonie’s bedtime and usually Granny Peach retired to her own room after or stayed up to talk with Sunset depending on the situation. Before the last year the older woman would also wait up for Sunset if she was running late, but after turning over a new leaf and showing even more responsibility that she already did, Granny Peach started trusting her to make it back herself knowing that Sunset sometimes had business to take care if. And with Sunset’s earlier text Granny Peach already knew to expect Sunset to be late.
Opening the door as silently as she could, Sunset let Twilight in and closed the door behind her. Motioning the other girl to follow, Sunset made her way down to her office and put her new purchases next to the desk as Twilight looked around in awe.
“Welcome to my office, feel free to look around, but be careful. I need to go check on something really quick so get comfortable.” Sunset said as she dropped her keys in the desk.
“Thanks, where can I putt his though?” Twilight asked showing the mostly crumpled bag in her hands. With a roll of her eyes Sunset took it with a promise to take care of it. After a quick stop to throw the trash away, Sunset made her way upstairs to first check on Moonie and give the sleeping girl a quick kiss goodnight. After making sure the guest room next to Granny Peach’s was okay and the bed was made and clean Sunset once again descended to the basement to find Twilight looking through her movie collection. Not that Sunset was sure that Twilight knew what a BluRay was.
“These are weird looking books.” Twilight remarked as her eyes traveled from one title to the next, not bothering to pull any out. Sunset couldn’t blame her as the shelves were the perfect size for holding the cases and didn’t allow you to see the tops very well until you removed it from the shelf.
“Those aren’t books, they’re movies. I’ll explain that later though.” Sunset sighed, “I need to talk to you so have a seat.”
“Is everything okay?” Twilight asked taking a seat on the couch in front of the entertainment center.
“It depends on how you look at things.” Sunset sighed joining Twilight on the more than spacious couch. “Look, I wanted to talk to you about something else first. You said every pony really hurt you when they abandoned you. For the moment, I just want you to think about that. Do you really want to go back to a place, to the ponies who would do that to you?”
“I don’t know.” Twilight finally admitted after chewing her bottom lip until Sunset wanted to smack the girl over the head to tell her to quit it. Is this how Gran feels when I do that? “We’ve been through so much, but after the wedding I’m scared that no pony really wants me around.”
“Twilight, while I have my doubts about things, I’m sure that you are wanted. What about your parents?” Sunset asked, trying to remember if Twilight had parents or what. She realized that she actually knew more about the human Twilight that she did about the pony one despite not even meeting the human one.
“I don’t know, we haven’t talked much since I moved to Ponyville. They didn’t even tell me there was going to be a wedding until the last moment, no pony did.” Twilight sighed making Sunset begin to see a pattern. Twilight may be taking things differently than they actually were as she may be feeling put out due to not even being told about such a life altering event. Things may not have been as bad as Twilight was seeing them, still the things that happened were pretty shitty.
“I’m not even going to pretend that I understand what you are going through Twilight. I have a lot of my own demons, a lot caused by that bitch Celestia, but this just sounds like it must have been horrible.” Sunset sighed as she reached over and squeezed Twilight’s shoulder. “I promise I will help you in any way I can. If you truly want to go back I will help you get back. If you want to stay I will give you a place to stay here and teach you what it means to be human and get you set up with an identity.”
“What if I decide to go home?” Twilight asked, though by the tone of her voice and the sad look in her eyes Sunset could tell she was unsure of the idea of returning where she was hurt so much.
“Twilight, the portal naturally opens for three nights every thirty moons.” Sunset sighed as Twilight’s eyes flew wide in shock. “There may be other ways to get it to open sooner though. I have people here that I know who may have ideas. They still know more about this world’s magic than I do, but I’ve learned a lot from them.”
“There’s magic here? I haven’t been able to use any.” Twilight asked, hope shining in her eyes as she wiped them with the back of her hand. It seemed like this Twilight was just as consumed with seeking knowledge as the human Twilight was reportedly.
“Magic works different here. The humans here who can use magic are usually known as witches, though some call themselves shaman or wizards. Humans usually can’t just call upon magic though the ones that are born as a witch can take the magic that they generate or pull from the aether and channel it into medium to get different results.” Sunset explained, “I can do that, and you should be able to, but it works a little different for us.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as Sunset got up and walked over to her desk and opened a drawer on it pulling out a chain with a small red gem attached to it.
“Have you been feeling sore lately, maybe hot?” Sunset asked as she rejoined Twilight on the couch with the small necklace.
“Yeah, I think I’m getting sick from not eating much or something.” Twilight said as she shook her head.
“That isn’t it. We may share many similarities with the witches of this world, but we aren’t connected to it. I’ve found that different species from our world likely react to the changes differently. Unicorns such as us produced large amounts of magic that we constantly discharged through our horns which were our medium there. Here, we don’t need such a medium to cast magic as we can’t do all the things we did in Equestria. Our mediums here consist of runes or potions for example. They can do a lot, but they can’t levitate our tea for us. We have hands for that anyways.” Sunset reached into her top and pulled out a necklace she was wearing showing Twilight. Unlike the one in Sunset’s hand, the one she was wearing had a slight glow to it.
“Why is that one glowing?” Twilight asked.
“Because it is drawing the excess magic out of my body that I don’t use. If left unchecked it can make you sick and maybe even kill you. Of course that is just conjecture, but I was very sick before Granny Peach took me to see a shaman she knew. It was this shaman who figured out what was wrong and since then she crafts these for me. They’re great because they can be charged and used for spells later. They can also be used to create small shields or shock waves for protection if you release the magic stored in them.” Sunset explained helping put the new one around Twilight’s neck.
“That already feels kind of better.” Twilight admitted, heaving a sigh of relief.
“As long as they make contact with skin they will draw out excess amounts of magic and store it. It will have to either be discharged or changed out about once a month, but you don’t need to wear it at all time. At most I would go without it maybe a day or two if needed, but a few hours away from it won’t hurt you.” Sunset explained. “I’ll teach you about magic for as long as you want or as long as you are here. Of course you will have to spend weekend class time with an apprentice I have.”
“This world seems so weird.” Twilight sighed, “Maybe it would be best if I go back. Though the thought of learning does sound kind of exciting.”
“Good, just concentrate on the fun you will have learning for now. I’ll get a hold of the people I know after I get done at school tomorrow and see what they can do to help me with the portal.” Sunset said, relieved that Twilight wasn’t completely breaking down. Then again she cried pretty good when Sunset first found her so maybe Twilight was still just emotionally burned out from that. “Twilight, I do have several rules about staying here with me. There isn’t many people I would allow to do this, but you need help and frankly I have no other ideas on what to do with you.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, playing with the gem on her necklace.
“The most important rule is don’t hurt my daughter and things will be fine.” Sunset said getting a shocked look from Twilight.
“You have a daughter?” Twilight asked a little shocked.
“Yes, and I will do everything and anything to protect her. I’m taking a huge risk on you, but you are from my world and I kind of can’t turn you away.” Sunset said, Besides, if I’m right, it would be wrong to turn you away.