• Published 21st May 2013
  • 23,631 Views, 902 Comments

My Two Most Faithful Students - Flaeirye



Twilight changes Star Swirl's time spell to travel back to the past once more. She ends up in the Pre-Equestrian era and unwittingly saves two fillies in the process. Little did she know what teaching them magic can do for the fate of Equestria.

  • ...
33
 902
 23,631

Chapter 11 - Turn the Tide

Twilight dashed to the Cakes house, slamming the door wide open. Relief immediately flushed her face the moment she found everyone, especially those two fillies. Everypony turned their heads to her sudden entrance.

“Mommy!” Selene along with Celeste rushed towards her and gave her a warm embrace. Cookie engrossed herself to the calamity outside the window, not missing even a single moment.

“Quick, close the door! Can't let those unicorns steal our sweets.” Mr. Cake sprinted to the doorway and slammed the door back shut. “My heavens, how’d you make your way here with those gem hounds and unicorns rampaging the streets?”

“I couldn't leave my fillies alone ” Twilight said, holding her fillies close. “I'm glad you two are safe.”

“We're okay,” Celeste replied. Selene's head was still buried in Twilight's coat and could only give out a muffled reply.

“Wow Twilight! I thought you got yourself lost when you went out for a walk.” Butter hopped off the hay couch and greeted Twilight. Even in a time of such conflict, the butter colored filly kept a positive smile.

“Alright, all we have to do is to stay calm and remain hidden. Eventually everything will be fine,” stated Mrs. Cake with a panicked look on her face.

“Haven’t you heard what they said? The unicorns are here because some criminal hid inside this city.” Mr. Cake stated to clear things out.

“Are they going to burn this town too, Pa?” asked Ginger. Her mother held him close.

“No, of course not. We can survive this just like before.” Carrot replied with mixed feelings.

“You can't be serious. Burn this town?!” repeated Mr. Cake. “That's outrageous! They better leave after they catch that loose criminal."

“I don’t think so. They will still return even when this is over.” Carrot shot a subtle glance at Twilight's direction.

“But, we don’t know where the missing unicorn is,” Mrs. Cake said.

“What’s most important is why are they so desperate on finding the unicorn? Did that pony done something horribly wrong?” Berry joined the discussion.

While the Cakes were having a conversation about their fate, Celeste quietly poked Twilight and whispered, “A bunch of guards came in a while ago. They said they were searching for a rogue unicorn. What are we going to do?”

Twilight caught Celeste's doubt and fear in her eyes. She had to come up with a plan to escape. She could feel a certain thickness in the air, like a thick barrier that prevented teleportation, so she couldn't pull off the same stunt from back in Trote. It must have been that secretary's research placed on that bell.

“Are they going to catch us?” Selene gazed up at Twilight.

The pressure built up inside the purple pony. They wouldn't be able to hold their disguise for too long. This was a bad idea from the start. They shouldn't have come here in the first place. Was there even a way out of this? Whatever it was, there was only one thing certain: the timeline was ruined.

A simple lie brought on this horrible situation. Maybe she could keep up the disguise and wait everything out with her fillies -- dealing with Carrot was possible with a magic spell or two -- but would that really be the best choice?

Maybe it’s time to tell the truth. No more lies, no more running. It was time to fight back. Although there was little chance to change the situation, it was still a step in the right direction. But first...

“I won't let that happen,” Twilight leveled down to Selene and ruffled her soft mane, “and I promise to keep both of you safe.”

Twilight stood up boldly, back to the Cakes still arguing about the unicorns' motivations.

“Everypony,” she said, but her voice was drowned out. Twilight took a deep breath, and shouted with volume worthy of the Royal Canterlot Voice:

“Everypony, listen to me!”

Silence immediately filled the room, everypony's eyes turned to Twilight. The unicorn paused, collected herself, keeping the two fillies in mind, and continued.

“I want to apologize for the danger I brought to you here,” Twilight said, planting her hooves strongly on the floor.

“Why ever would you apologize yourself, dear?” Berry asked.

“It’s because--” She focused her mind and a bright magenta light burst forth from her invisible horn. Celeste and Selene looked at each other, shedding their disguises to reveal their true appearance once again. Twilight continued, “It's us that they're searching for.”

The Cake couples let out a high-pitched scream while hugging each other.

Twilight wrapped their mouths with her magic. “Please, you have to understand. I'm not a threat to all of you. In fact, I’m here to help. Carrot, can you please tell them?”

Carrot kept quiet. There was no point in explaining further. Butter and Ginger were shocked, eyes spinning while figuring out what the hay was even going on. Berry shot an angry look to her husband, “You knew this all along? Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I--” Carrot lost his train of thought. He really wanted to blame Twilight for not leaving sooner, but since he allowed her to stay, he was partly at fault as well.

But a different glint -- the glint of opportunity -- shone in Cookie's eyes.

“Everypony, just calm down,” the filly jumped on the table, “can’t you all see this is a great opportunity? This pony right here is a unicorn, a unicorn! And good at magic too! We can fight back against those unicorns, like fighting fire with fire!”

She quickly zoomed towards Twilight and whispered in her ear, “By the way, I knew that you had a horn all along,” and bounced back to the table. “Listen, I have a plan--”

"Here's the plan," Mr. Cake interrupted as soon as he was able to speak, "We shall hand them over!"

Twilight and the two sisters froze in fear, but Cookie stood up for them, “Dad, listen. Turning them over won't make any difference.”

“What are you thinking about, oh Great and Smart Cookie?” Butter asked her like a proper disciple.

“I gave it some thought after we had a late night conversation about this ruby,” Cookie held out the gem. “And I thought, how could a simple earth pony with two fillies go through the gem front and come out not only alive, but filled to the brim with gems? There's only one answer: she vanquished them!”

Her excitement only grew exponentially. “And if she vanquished them, the memory -- the fear! -- must still be struck in their hearts.”

“What are you trying to say, dear?” asked Mrs. Cake, visibly confused.

“What I'm saying is,” she hopped beside the purple pony, “Twilight here can command those hounds to help us fight the intruders.”

“That makes zero sense at all!” Mr. Cake shouted back.

Would that work? Twilight tilted her head. Back in her time, Rarity did control the diamond dogs with her whining. But these gem hounds looked even more dumb.

Still, an idea was an idea, better than "just blast everypony with magic" and hope it would work out. Here was another bright idea: if she could just gain access to the watchtowers, she could, theoretically, use a spell to alter the sound frequency and communicate with the gem hounds. Applying a mind spell inside the hounds’ head through the whistling sound might just do the trick? How far was she going to bring this crazy idea? Was she still sane?

“Think you can do it?” Cookie asked with a challenging smile.

“Yes,” replied Twilight with confidence. “But I need to get to one of those towers.”

“I can lead you there,” Carrot stepped in. Everypony stared at him with confusion, so he defended himself. “I'm only doing this to make sure the plan will work. And also, just in case if she runs back to her own kind.”

“Twilight would never do that, mister!” Celeste blurted out.

“Yeah! Our mommy defeated those scary monsters with a hundred -- no, a thousand flying gemstones,” Selene added. Twilight couldn't help but smile at her two fillies who were being supportive.

“I want to come with you, Pa,” Ginger put his brave face on.

Carrot looked at his young colt. His son really has inherited his personality, “I'm proud of you, son. But I need you to stay here and protect your mom, a’ight?” With that said, he whispered at his wife, “Please look after him.”

“I will,” Berry replied and gave him a hug. “Be careful out there. We don’t want to lose you.”

The Cakes finally stopped panicking. If nothing else, they trusted their smart daughter more than anything else in this world. They approached the purple unicorn and asked, “Can we really trust you?”

Twilight smiled and assured the couple: “You have my word.”

“Alright, let's go kick some flanks!” Cookie shouted. Butter steeled herself and prepared for an adventure of a lifetime.

“Oh no you don’t.” Mr. Cake stopped them before they got out of hoof. “You two are staying here inside the house.”

“Come on! It’s my plan after all,” the orange filly whined but her parents wouldn’t change their mind.

Carrot waited for Twilight at the door, ready to go at a moment's notice. The purple pony took a small moment to hug her fillies then proceed to follow the brown stallion.

“We'll be back soon."

---

Galloping through the streets, Twilight could still see the chaos caused by the rampaging gem hounds running away from the sounding whistle. She needed to get to the tower before all the hounds were gone. Gazing far away, she could clearly see the town hall was on fire and noticed a corner of the second floor was blown away. It looks like the unicorns managed to infiltrate the center of the village. A stray unicorn noticed them and quickly obstructed their path.

“Stop right there!” the unicorn shouted. But both Twilight and Carrot ignored him and kept their pace. A magic beam cut through their path, making it clear that the next shot wouldn’t miss. Seeing as they weren't stopping, the unicorn fired once again -- only to be blocked by a purple magical barrier. But the scout kept strong, holding the beam to pierce through the shield. Carrot took this moment to decently execute his attack. He flanked the unicorn and quickly knocked him out..

Carrot stared at the purple pony as the barrier faded into thin air. He didn't need her to thank him, but he saw that she fired a beam right at him. The stallion dodged, then saw it hit a unicorn behind him who was about to do a surprise attack.

“You're welcome?” said Twilight.

“Did I say thank you?” Carrot replied stubbornly.

Finally close to the watchtowers, Twilight saw earth ponies on top of the platform blowing the mouthpiece. Outside the door were earth pony guards taking a stand against any hostiles they might encounter.

“Here, cover that thing on your head,” Carrot tossed a rag to the purple pony.

Twilight couldn't see why this was necessary when she could just put those guards to sleep. Nonetheless, she didn't argue with his idea. As she covered up, Carrot trotted towards the guards to do the talking. The earth ponies shifted their attention on them. “You two! You're not supposed to be out in the open. Stay in your homes.”

Both guards were abruptly shot by unicorn magic. Carrot flinched at the sudden attack. He looked at Twilight who was untying the burnt rag around her head.

“What did you do?” he asked in an angry tone.

“I put them to sleep. Don’t worry, they'll wake up in an hour.” She dropped the smoky rag. A certain realization came to Carrot: this unicorn had great abilities and was not to be easily messed with. It was the same feeling he got when she spared him back at Trote. She is definitely their only hope to turn the tide of battle.

Once inside the tower, Twilight scanned the cylinder room while Carrot dragged the unconscious earth ponies inside. A ladder rose up to the platform above. She climbed the ladder only to alert the remaining earth ponies to her presence. Twilight quickly shot them all to sleep before they had any chance to fight against her.

The view from the tower was great. She saw earth ponies and unicorns battling each other while the hounds brought even more chaos to the clash. Beams of different lights were seen blasting structures, setting buildings aflame. Little did she know that the roofs were two-layered and only the hay part of the roof burned while the bricks only remained slightly charred. It looked like the unicorns were having trouble burning the houses down. The refugee zone wasn't affected by the battle, at least not yet. She had to hurry. The conflicts was getting closer to the Cakes’ area.

“What a mess.” Carrot gazed upon the view. “Never thought I'll saw Southern Earth burning in front of my eyes.”

Twilight melancholically stared at the village being raided. “I never wanted this to happen.” She couldn't believe the unicorn race would have ever done this. Are they really after the food stock of this village? Or her two daughters. Was there such an event in the history books?

“Well, better act quick. Even if I told you to leave, those horn heads will still lay siege to the city.” The stallion checked the whistle as he opened the hatch where the pipe was. “You sure you know how to control the gem hounds?”

“I can’t control them, but maybe I can convince them to help us. Although it might take some time.” This would be much easier if she could persuade other creatures like Fluttershy. She should have asked her for animal communication lessons when she had the time, but those snakes were just too terrifying. Twilight stood near the mouth piece, going over her spell. It was still a work in progress but it was enough to enchant the mechanism.

“If you try to pull off a unicorn trick, I swear I'll make you regret it,” he warned her.

Ignoring his threat, she looked far, towards the unguarded gate entrance. “I don’t think I'll be able to finish it in time. Somepony needs to close the gate to trap the gem hounds.”

He looked at the gate as well and thought of a good idea. “Let me handle it,” he said with confidence, acquiring a crossbow from the unconscious archer. He loaded it with an arrow, stretching out the sturdy string all the way from the locked trigger, and focused on his target. A wooden lever was sticking out a hundred meters away from where he was standing.

He let out a deep breath. This situation brought back his childhood memories.

Twilight noticed him sighed. “On second thought, leave it to me. The gate's too far away and there’s no way you could possibly do it. I can use my magic to close it--”

The trigger was pulled, sending the arrow flying straight. Twilight traced the projectile with her eyes as it approached the target. She couldn't keep up as it whistled pass her line of sight, and not long after, the gate of Southern Earth started to crawl down.

“Wha-how?” Twilight was surprised by the stallion's marksmanship. As far as she could recall from history books, earth ponies were featured as farmers with the strength to defend themselves from invaders. But that didn't include marksmanship. That was more of the skills of the pegasi. But this pony...

“Quit looking and do your mind-whistle thing,” he said, dropping the crossbow without another word.

Twilight shook away whatever theories that came into her head. “Right, sorry.”

---

"Celestia, huh? Got a nice ring to it. What's it like in Unicornia? Pa said they eat earth ponies back
there."

Ginger kept bothering Celeste and Selene with a barrage of questions, but who wouldn't? It was his first time to have an actual conversation with ponies that could use magic and he couldn't hold back that burning flame of curiosity — much to the annoyance of the older sister.

"It's Celeste," she scoffed, "and yes, they eat annoying earth ponies who keeps asking annoying
questions like you there."

"We do?" Selene asked with teary eyes.

"Of course not," she answered her sister who couldn't take a joke. "But Unicornia is the worst
place to live in. We're not going back to that place ever again."

"They punished us every time we fail our magic lessons," Selene added.

"You got gems with you, right?" Ginger immediately moved on to his next question without pause. It was a question born from the thought process Unicorn Place equals Filled with dazzling rocks. "Can I ask some? Pretty please?"

"No."

"Aww, I wish I had one like my cousin."

"You're in luck!" Selene felt sympathetic to the young colt's longing, "Our mom just happened to have a bag full of g—"

"Grass!" Selene's words got cut a Celeste's hoof plunged in her mouth. The older sister had to keep her younger sister in check her. "That's right, we used them to make grass soup."

"Grass soup?" Confusion was apparent on ginger's face.

"Grass soup?" Mrs. Cake, who was listening to their amusing talk, couldn't help but raise her voice. "My goodness, I… that is quite…"

"At least it's no worse than Butter's salad." Mr. Cake uneasily glanced at Butter and shivered.

"What's wrong with the salad?" Celeste asked, but nopony would answer her question. But looking at everyone's hesitant eyes, she understood that it was best not to ask further.

"Alright, chit-chat's over." Cookie emerged from the kitchen with a pot helmet on, like a soldier prepared for war. "Tonight we're going to fortify our base and wait for reinforcement to arrive. We've got to protect ourselves in case intruders barge in—"

The door blasted open. Everypony but Cookie screamed as a robbed light blue unicorn marched inside their humble house.

"…in case intruders barge in, never mind then."

The Cake couple, slow in reacting, screamed as well by the sudden intrusion of the unicorn, only to be enveloped in a mute bubble.

"There you brats are," Snow Cross howled at the two sisters hiding behind the earth ponies. "Tell me, where's the rogue unicorn who abducted you?"

"She didn't foalnap us." Celeste stepped in front of the frightened crowd, putting a strong hoof on the group to stop her shaking.

"That's right, you evil pony, and she's teaching us the magic of harmony to beat the likes of you!" Selene added, now behind her older sister.

Wasn't it the magic of friendship? But Celeste had other things to worry about than correcting her younger sister.

The mage snickered. "Ridiculous! I only sense a tiny bit of magic coming from you, fools. You're nothing but earth pony food compared to my great powers!"

Celeste focused hard. She shut her eyes and pushed every bit of magic in her body and poured it to the tip of her horn. A faint yellow aura shimmered around Snow Cross.

But it did nothing but bring a laugh out of him. "Trying to tickle me to death? Is that what you learned from the rogue?" With no effort at all, blue magic enveloped Celeste and lifted her off the ground. She tried her best to break free, but she couldn't break free from the powerful magic.

"I could show you how great the powerful magic you're against with, but I have clear orders not to harm you. Consider yourself lucky."

"You'll never get us, mommy's gonna come to our rescue and you're gonna be so sorry!" Selene got lifted up together with her sister against her will.

"We'll see about that." Snow Cross stared at them with a challenging look. These fillies were too much trouble for what they're worth and he'd like nothing more than throw them away and join the hunt for that rogue unicorn, but the captain's orders were infuriatingly absolute.

"Head's up!"

The unicorn turned his head — and a sack of flour slammed on his face, a puff of white cloud around him. The impact disoriented Snow Cross and made him weaken his telekinetic grip on the fillies and the mute bubble on the Cake couple. Cookie and Butter hoof bumped each other.

"Ginger, you're up!" Cookie signaled her cousin. Ginger dragged a sack with his teach and hopped in on a compact home-made catapult. He buckled himself and shouted, "fire!"

Butter released the lever and fired the little pony right towards Snow Cross, who was wiping the flour off his face.

"You—" Without a second to even cast his magic, a sack covered his entire face and brought everything dark.

"Intruder has been contained," Cookie visually confirmed, and proceeded to the next phase,

"Butter, let it slide."

"With pleasure, oh great Cookie!" Butter grabbed a crate of banana peels out of nowhere and littered it around the sacked unicorn.

"Aunt Berry," Cookie took her pot helmet and tossed it to her. "You do the honors."

The unicorn conveniently slipped on one of the peels, sliding down towards the two.

"Oh I've been wanting to do this for a long time." Berry bit the pot handle hard. With a good swing, she slammed the pot straight at the unicorn's face, flipping him backwards and landing on the couch.

"And for the final touch." Cookie pushed the catapult and slid it underneath the couch. She pulled the trigger, launching the entire couch outside the window.

After a brief silence, the whole Cake family cheered for their victory, along with the two unicorn fillies.

"Wow, that was amazing! You were like 'head's up!' and he was like 'wahhh?' and you're like 'Raaahhh!' and you… wow!" Selene burst with joy, trying to express her excitement with broken words.

"No need to thanks us, concerned citizen," Cookie said with a smile, awkwardly patting her horn.

"I can't believe our daughter's smart enough to do all that," Mr. Cake said to his wife, receiving only a nod from his wife. Shock filled their face, wondering how their filly was able to outsmart the unicorn.

Celeste stopped her celebration short. She felt something coming from outside. And suddenly, a blast of powerful magic struck the wall into oblivion, revealing a unicorn filled with pure unadulterated rage, levitating mid-air. His eyes burned, his mane and robe flowing with the wind.

"You dimwitted earth ponies DARE insult me!?" Snow fired a blue beam at Berry, dodging it in a hair's breath with a jump.

"I, Great Magus Snow Cross, will destroy each and every one of you!"

"Snow Cross? The name would've gone better to a calmer pony," Cookie said. The orange filly floated through levitation and was dragged closer to the hovering pony.

"No, please!" her parents begged, only to fall on deaf ears.

Cookie felt her whole body clutched tight. It was a sight that shook Celeste. She closed her eyes shut. She brought herself back to the lessons Twilight taught her. She cleared her thoughts, washed away the sounds around her. She had to do it, and it had to work.

And the next thing she realized, everything went dark. Three pebbles appeared in front of her, two rolling towards each other and formed one big boulder. She imagined that to be the robbed pony, while the smaller pebble became Cookie.

The boulder laughed at her, laughed at her failure. Laughed at her weakness for being unable to save the small pebble from being crushed.

Celeste grew mad, clouding her focus. The stones felt heavier that a mountain, and her spirit was crushed by the sheer weight of her task.

"What's wrong?" A voice came over her shoulder. It was a familiar voice, once she only knew recently, but a warmth that brought a calm to herself. Even in this imaginary world, Twilight comforted her.

She exhaled from her efforts as sadness took over. “I can’t do it. It’s too hard.”

Twilight then placed her hoof under Celeste’s chin. “Yes, you can. Don’t let chaos take hold.” She motivated the filly. “Remember. Harmony.”

That’s it! Celeste recalled what she was missing.

Her previous surrounding came back with the sounds. She saw Cookie was about to get crushed by the robed pony. She concentrated, but this time with no anger. Thinking only about happy memories, she let harmony reign in her heart. Yellow entities sparked at her horn followed by an aura.

“You should be glad for being the first one to taste my magic.” Cross grimly smiled.

“Ok, I surrender!” Cookie held her hooves up high as the magi lit up his horn to give the orange filly her demise.

All of a sudden, the two ponies were covered by the shimmering yellow light that was consuming Cross’s blue magic aura. The mage’s ability was disabled and this surprised him. “What is this?! What did you do?” Cross had lost his magic to levitate, but he remained in mid-air as Celeste has taken control of the levitation.

Cookie was released from the grasp of Celeste, leaving her to fall but Mr. Cake caught her quickly. The mage couldn’t believe it. This was impossible. How could this happen? How did she do all this? What’s with her face? Why is she smiling like that? There’s only one thing he did know-- he had lost.

“No! I won’t be defeated by some uneducated foals!” he shouted, still trying to retain some of his pride. “Well, you just did,” Cookie said simply.

“Noooooooooooooo!” The light-blue pony shot right to the roof as he flew up high into the night sky until he became one with the stars shining above.

Maybe next time, Celeste can send ponies to the moon.

“I have to say, that was really awesome,” Cookie praised the unicorn filly.

“Sister, you did it! You showed that evil pony who’s powerful!” Selene cheered with joy that her big sister has won against the magi.

“I know right?” Celeste turned to Selene with her big creepy smile that might rip off her cheeks. She couldn’t feel her face for some reason. Selene got flinched by her psychotic gesture. No wonder the vanquished magi was also bothered.

It wasn’t long after as a new unicorn stallion appeared from the blown away wall of the building. It made Celeste’s plastered smile fade. It was a good thing though, otherwise she would turn into a crazy looking filly.

“Hello, my two little fillies,” Aura Gleam smiled.

Gasped!

---

A scream.

The scream pierced Twilight's ears. It was an ever-familiar voice of two troubled fillies, one she came to be familiar with. She stopped for a moment, looking at the location where it came. It was coming from the Cakes. Something was wrong!

“What are you doing?” Carrot asked as he saw Twilight drop her progress on adjusting the long pipe.

"My daughters are in danger! I'm going back to rescue them!"

The stallion's eyes widened. If what she said was true then his relatives were in danger as well. But despite the news he heard from Twilight, he didn't hesitate to decide to continue the plan. He sensed that his family could handle it, at least enough until their work was done. Once the purple pony got it to work, the gem hounds could get the unicorn to distract themselves.

“No,” the stallion halted her. “We Cakes can protect ourselves. Just hurry up on what you're doing so we can get out of here.”

“But-” Twilight stammered, then stomped her hoof on the ground. “No! They need me now and I'm going to save them. You have no idea who they're up against.”

Carrot sighed from his newly gained weariness with the unicorn’s stubborn personality.

“Do you really think the Cakes can face the head knight of Unicornia? If my calculations are correct, the odds aren't that great,” Twilight added, then went to the ladder.

The stallion’s face darkened. His confidence about his family's safety had dropped real hard. Another unicorn who this powerful unicorn was afraid of? He hadn’t put much thought about it. Either way, he should really go back and check it himself.

“Wait,” he said to Twilight, who turned her head to him. “I'll go. You stay here and continue your spell thing.”

Twilight didn't want to judge but she felt he wouldn't stand a chance against the high knight. Carrot looked at the incomplete progress of the enchanted pipe. “Is it almost done?”

“Yes, just a few more adjustments. Once it whistles, the altered sound frequency should reflect among the other towers, causing a chain reaction.”

“Good, make that happen.” Carrot held the ladder, pulled the unicorn back to the whistle and went back to the ladder himself. With a final look, he said, “I’m trusting you to help us earth ponies fight against these unicorns. I'll take care of those daughters of yours.”

After that, he slid down as he held both sides of the ladder.

“Wait! I don’t think you can-” Twilight's words were cut short as the stallion had already left. She kept hitting her head, thinking about every little possibility that Carrot had on winning against the unicorn leader.

There wasn't any. But still, she couldn't leave this plan alone -- it was their only hope.

The only thing she could do to raise their chances of winning was quickly finish this nearly-complete invention.