Cutie Mark Crusaders' Journal of the unexplained Part 3
Ispita pouted. "Vortex, I was hoping for them not to realize that until they got back to the past," she whispered.
The Draconequus shrugged. "Can't help my nature."
"Well they still got screwed over, so I can't complain..."
Sweetie Belle couldn't help but think those 'nonsense' words in the book looked like the High Equestrian Runes that Twilight had read all the time. (Sweetie Belle couldn't read them, Chrysalis had had other translate them for her).
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS! YAY!" yelled six VERY LOUD voices.
The group looked over to see six foals in CMC capes standing with what looked like an Alicorn of Silver Spoon in fancy looking guard armor as their overseer. One was a Changeling filly, two were sea ponies (one of which Applebloom swore was wearing Braeburn's hat), one was a hippogriff filly, one a very large brown Earth Pony colt with a white stripe on his muzzle and face, exposed white fetlocks (and a very old tan cowboy hat), and the last one an light brown Earth Pony filly with a toy silver star on her hat.
Applebloom blinked. "Wait, there are Cutie Mark Crusaders in the future?"
Princess Applebloom nodded. "Yep! That's actually the Ponyville branch and the Appleloosa branch."
"Branches?!"
Alicorn Applebloom nodded. "Yep! All over Equestria! A cousin of ours runs the Manehatten branch."
"We have very high insurance premiums..." Coffee Swirl stated.
"Yeah, but it gives blank flanks more friends and no one really complains about that," Cruel said with a shrug.
Applebloom got a devious look... she almost resembled one of the Scootaloo-imps when she grinned, kneading her hooves. "So if yer an Alicorn... what are ya the Alicorn of?"
Princess Applebloom smiled. "Do ya really want to know... or are ya just fishing for clues about yer cutie mark?"
Applebloom winced. "Is it that obvious?"
"Ah've been where you are now. Literally." The princess winked. "So Ah know it won't hurt to tell ya that Ah'm the concept of Empirical Truth."
"Empira... what?"
"That's when you know things because you did a bunch of experiments and wrote all the results down," said Sweetie Belle brightly. "It's one of Twilight's favorite words."
"Huh. Ah thought for sure mah big sis would be the Alicorn of Truth if anypony was."
"Oh, but she is, past me. Applejack became the Honest Truth."
Applebloom squinted, clearly skeptical. "How many kinds of Truth do ya got around here?"
Princess Applebloom waved a hoof in a shrug. "Well, Big Mac became the Plain and Simple Truth, and Red Gala got the Beauty of Truth, and that's before we even get to the thirty generations of Apples after us." She grinned. "This one time, a Nightmare Mirror peeked into our universe with that magic mirror of hers, and when she saw all of us different kinds of truth together and all being friends, she imploded into a new Alicorn on the spot! That's how Princess Epiphany was born."
Applebloom stared. "Yer kidding..."
"Not at all. Thalia threw her a Thank You for Not Being Crazy Any More party and everything. Now please, enjoy the rest of your time here, past me. There's plenty more folks who want to meet you."
A giant, thick book with A to Z tabs and Discord's face on the cover appeared, floating in the air. "What are you, a dictionary?" The animated face fell. "What? Did I miss my cue? Sorry, sorry everyone! Carry on..." Discord snapped his fingers and vanished.
"I'd say I've had enough of this, and it's our time machine, so I say we leave now!" Film declared.
-
"Aww...but Ah didn't even get to meet future Applejack..."
"Uh..." Future Apple Bloom said, giving a chuckle.
"Oh...right..."
"Kifuko..." Sweetie started.
Kifuko gave Sweetie a nuzzle, having finally realized what happened with some explanation. "Do not fear, my old friend, we will meet again, on that you can depend."
~*~
After getting the time machine fixed up (as best as possible) the ponies waved good buy and did a leap through time.
"I hope we don't end up in somewhere ruled by apes," said Scootaloo. "I've seen the movies.
However, instead of returning to their proper time...the group found themselves sitting in a glowing rainbow void. "...Did we break the laws of time again?"
"Probably," said Sweetie Belle.
"Hello..."
The group blinked, turning and seeing a towering humanoid shape. It reminded them of a shadow being cast by something, but...a shadow seemed to be LESS that what cast it...this seemed like MORE. It was also clearly bipedal, two arms, two legs, one head.
Just standing in it's presence...they felt LOVED. Comforted. Like the entity was proud and happy for them just for EXISTING.
That didn't stop them from staring in utter shock at it.
"...Oh...I suppose this form is a little hard to speak too."
The shadow condensed down into an Alicorn shape. She was white in color, had a pair of red glasses on her face. Her mane and tail were both simply yellow. She had a red pendent hanging around her neck. Her Cutie Mark was a dazzling rainbow over a unicorn.
"Hello, My Little Ponies."
The group shook their heads to clear it. "Who...who are you?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"My name is Bonnie...I was the one who set the foundations for all of you," the Alicorn explained. "And I'm proud of what you've become...of what you inspired."
The group all looked at one another. "Come again?"
"A long time ago, I made the thing that one day would become you," Bonnie explained. "...You could say I am where it all began."
Flim and Flam, being themselves, looked at one another. "...So you're the Creator of the universe then?" Flam asked.
"No, I created the first Heart World...your world is the descendant of the one I made. And I can't say I'm disappointed in it," Bonnie explained with a smile. "After all...I intended the first Heart World to inspire others."
"...Then...what's the meaning of life?" Flim asked, earning a sad look. As if Bonnie knew WHY he asked it. He wanted something they could make a profit off of.
"...To pursue your dreams and make loved ones. And to be a loved one for them."
"That's it?" Flam asked, blinking.
"Yes."
The brothers both looked disappointed. "We can't do anything with that."
"It's why I made the First Heart World," the Creator explained, smiling. "It's all I ever intended for you. There's no cosmic joke, no dark secret. Just a world full of friends to meet and dreams to weave. That is all I ever intended for the world I made to be."
"Makes sense tah meh!" Applebloom exclaimed with child-like understanding, the other two nodding.
Bonnie smiled warmly. "It should...ever since I was young, I dreamed of having a pony...This world was meant to fulfill that dream. Not just for me, but for all who had it..."
Her horn flashed and she created three little plastic figures. They had different proportions, they had long, curly manes. But they were clearly the three of them.
"That everyone have a pony friend..."
She gave them to the three of them. She then created two for Flim and Flam, slipping them into their pockets when they weren't looking.
"Some ponies like to credit the Shadows Who Rule for THAT part. But the truth is I had to argue with them for a long time to convince them of it. 'Girls like to cook and iron, Bonnie', are you kidding me? I didn't even intend it for just girls anyway!...Thankfully...the one who created your world, and the one who created the one that inspired him, both understand that at this world's core...it's meant to be an innocent dream, not a dark nightmare."
"...I like your idea better than some of the ones we've seen," said Sweetie Belle, remembering that world with Thorne.
Bonnie smiled. "Thank you, Sweetie Belle. Now, let's get you home, shall we?"
"How? We've been trying this whole time!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
An old fashioned type writer appeared before Bonnie and she typed. "'And then the little ponies were back in Everfree, safe and sound.' Goodbye, my little ponies...continue to be the friends I wanted ponies to be. Continue to inspire dreams just as I always intended."
In a flash of light, the group (and the time machine) both reappeared in a clearing back in Ever Free.
"...Girls..." said Scootaloo, looking at the figure. "...Am I the only one who remembers meeting Pony God?"
"Nope," was the resounding reply.
"...Okay, just checking..."
Sweetie hugged her doll self. "That was so much better than meeting Pony Satan!"
-
Flim and Flam hugged each other in relief.
"Oh, brother, home at last!"
"That's right," Flim said. "No crazy rock monster dogs, no soul-eating draconequi and crazy money-hating alicorns, only the trees and these fillies and our machine that we'll make money on and those Royal Guards with the Blue Demon in front of them -- GAH!"
Trixie stomped forward, her father beside her in his old armor and half a dozen members of the Hoofington Town Watch with him. "You! You cheats, Trixie warned her father and his friends about the 'Veteran's Insurance' you tried to sell them. Now Trixie is going to watch with vast glee as you are dragged off to a cell, and..."
"Hi, Miss Trixie!"
Trixie blinked and looked down to see the CMC standing before her.
"Girls, what are you doing here in the Everfree?"
"Oh, we just traveled in time, met lots o' alicorns and monsters, and saved Flim an' Flam from gettin' turned inta statues," Applebloom said. "How about ya?"
-
With Trixie distracted, Flim glanced at Flam. "Brother of mine, do we still have that thing?"
Flam arched a brow. "What thing, brother?"
"The thing about the place."
"You mean, the place with the stuff?"
"Yes, that's the place!" Flim concentrated and started magically digging through the trunk of their time machine, moving behind Flam to hide the green horn glow. A broken sonic screwdriver flew off into the bushes, followed by a very surprised squirrel, and finally a colorful brochure levitated out and floated over to Applebloom.
"Pony God AND Pony Satan?!" Trixie exclaimed just then. Scootaloo grinned and nodded happily. "And Trixie thought she had a vast imagination!"
Applebloom peered at the brochure. "Manehatten Institute of... Technology?"
Flam declared, "Let it never be said..."
"Henceforth," interrupted Flim.
"Henceforth let it never be said that the brothers Flim and Flam never did anything nice for anypony!" Flam winked. "Just don't mention our part in this. Your folks would NOT understand."
Flim nodded. "And the Institute kind of threw us out."
"But you, kid, you're a natural."
"Give it a chance, you'll love it there."
The brothers tipped their hats in unison, then dove into their magical wagon, which started rolling, then backfired and starting zooming away through the forest.
Trixie and the soldiers gawked. "After them! You won't escape Trixie this time!"
-
"But we really did meet them..." Scootaloo said.
"Bonnie even gave us these!" Sweetie Belle chimed in, showing her doll of herself.
Trixie frowned. "...Trixie wants a miniature doll of herself..."
Suddenly, in a rainbow colored flash, a plastic doll of Trixie in the same style as the Crusaders appeared before Trixie, complete with a hand stitched cape and hat. "...Trixie now unconditionally believes your story..." Trixie took the doll. "Now after those two!"
Applebloom then watched the Flim Flams take off with Trixie in hot pursuit. "Well...we're alone again." She looked at the gift from the Flim Flams and put it in her saddle bags. "Let's continue explorin'."
-
As the three fillies continued on the path, they came to yet another set of branching trails.
Apple Bloom looked back at her friends. "Well, which one do ya reckon we should take?"
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other and shrugged.
"Well," Scootaloo said. "I guess we could take..."
Sweetie's ears twitched suddenly. "Ooh! Do you girls hear that?"
The other two Crusaders looked at each other now, blinking in confusion. Scootaloo spoke up first. "Um... hear what?"
"This way!" Sweetie took off at a gallop down one of the paths, forcing the other two to chase after her.
"What are ya doin', Sweetie!?"
Sweetie continued to run, not even glancing back. "Just listen!"
The other two fillies had to strain their ears to hear what Sweetie could apparently pick out of the silence of the forest. However, as they ran, they began to hear things as well... something rhythmic and melodious... music! The light 'plink's of a stringed instrument being plucked at in a simple song.
"Who would be playin' music in the middle o' the Everfree?"
"Lyra!" Sweetie called back, grinning. "That's her style!"
Finally rounding another bend in the 'road', Sweetie skidded to a stop, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo doing the same a moment later. True to the music adept's words, Lyra Heartstring -- sitting in an upright position as usual -- was plucking at a lyre that was an exact copy of her cutie mark. Bonbon was there as well, her eyes closed and smiling as the music played; and Ditzy stood off to the side.
All in all, not a terribly unusual scene, save for a few differences.
Bonbon was wearing a full suit of armor and had a hammer with the head alone bigger than any of the fillies, she looked tired and her armor was sporting the dings and nicks of battle. Ditzy, though not readily visible where she was standing, seemed thinner than the Crusaders remembered her, and seemed almost unnaturally still. Lyra herself was wearing a black cloak, and -- most unusual of all -- colored lights where flitting about around her; listening closely, one could almost hear whispered voices coming from them.
Apple Bloom about summed it up. "Um... what?"
-
Sweetie Belle shivered. "Do they look... a little weird to you?"
"We must have messed something up in the past!" cried Scootaloo. "We are so grounded..."
Applebloom frowned. "We can't have messed it up that much. Think about the future we just left! Ah think the Everfree's just messin' with us again."
At same time, Lyra and Bonbon drew back warily. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders... with cutie marks?!" Bonbon exclaimed. "What madness is this?"
"Ooh, they probably have all kinds of cool chaos powers now," said Ditzy. She ambled towards them fearlessly, wobbling back and forth as if staying on her hooves was just a happy accident... moreso than usual. "With that mark, Sweetie Belle could have a bewitching voice! And Scootaloo could turn into... um... butterflies! And maybe Applebloom has the power to turn invisible!"
Applebloom sighed, grinding her teeth.
Sweetie Belle peered at Ditzy. "Does anypony else smell something funny?" Then she realized that Ditzy was literally a walking corpse, and nearly barfed on the spot.
"This is no joke," said Lyra ominously. "I sense powerful dark magic..." She lifted a hoof, pointing it straight at Sweetie Belle. "within *that* one."
-
"What?" Sweetie said, and "What!" her two friends echoed her.
"Dark magic, I said." Lyra got up and walked slowly up to Sweetie Belle. "Inside of you."
The little filly tried backing away, only to stop when she collided with a mostly solid and rather nasty-smelling something. The stink reminded her once of some rotted pumpkins on Applebloom's farm. Sweetie looked up to see Ditzy's half-rotted face smiling down at her.
Sweetie remembered what she'd seen in Thorn's world, the awful things that world's evil Lyra did there. The things she might do to her. She did the only thing she could think of.
Surrounded by the glow of unicorn magic, Ditzy flew at Lyra with a 'Whoops!" as Sweetie's scream filled the clearing.
Applebloom and Scootaloo tried charging forward to help their friend, only to stop as Bon Bon moved before them. Her warhammer shined.
"Get outta th' way!" Applebloom tried to force her way past the muscled mare. "We ain't lettin' Lyra and Zombie Derpy hurt Sweetie!"
"What? Wait!" Bon Bon dropped her hammer and tried to hold the fillies still. "Nopony wants to hurt anypony..."
"Urrgh! Ach! Ptui!" Lyra got up, spitting some nastiness away, bits of Ditzy still smeared on her. Ditzy grinned sheepishly as she stepped aside. Lyra snapped, "I may be about to change my mind about that, Bon Bon. And ugh, Ditzy! We need to find some embalming fluid to preserve you!"
"Umm," Ditzy said, drooling. "Embalming fluid. Tasty." Aside from Lyra, everypony else there shuddered.
"Where's Sweetie at, anyway?" Bon Bon said. "She was right here... There!" She pointed at a trail that lead off among the trees, down which a tiny white filly with a candy-cotton mane and tail was vanishing. Applebloom saw it and froze. Bon Bon called after her, "Come back, Sweetie!... Oh blast it, she's getting away. Good job scaring her, Lyra."
"How was I supposed to know she could work magic at her age -- hey!" She almost jumped as the remaining two Crusaders charged past her for the trail. "Now where are you going? Come back here! If you get hurt your sisters will kill me, and I don't trust any of my colleagues enough to bring me back!"
Applebloom and Scootaloo ignored the three mares as they dashed after the panicked Sweetie. When they heard the sounds of pursuit -- a set of heavily-laden hooves striking the dirt, a more lightly-burdened one together with the flapping of a cloak, and a last set that seemed to almost stumble along -- they set their ears back and ran even faster.
"Keep running, Applebloom! We gotta get away from that Lyra, she must be another one like that Nightstallion Thorn!" Scootaloo panted as she dashed after her friend.
"It ain't that!" Applebloom cast a horrified look over her shoulder. "We gotta catch Sweetie; this is th' way ta Sunny Town! If Grey Hoof or the others catch her, they might," she gulped and forced the thought away. "We gotta catch her first!"
And so two fillies, one Earth pony paladin, a unicorn necromancer, and good-hearted undead pegasus all raced through the Everfree after an incredibly scared little unicorn.
And with every hoofbeat came ever closer to Sunny Town and the undead ponies who dwelled there.
-
As energetic as fillies could be, even ones running in fright, the longer strides and faster gallop of the mares (even Ditzy's unsteady shamble) meant that the three were slowly closing the gap between them and the Crusaders. Bonbon, even wearing the heaviest armor, was gaining the fastest. "Stop! The ground here, it's cursed! Can't you feel it, Apple Bloom?"
Apple Bloom didn't glance back, but she had a sinking feeling deep in her chest. Bonbon was right, something about the ground beneath her hooves was just plain wrong; and, even worse, it was wrong in a way she recognized. Even if the trees hadn't given way to the clearing just yet, they had arrived.
The ruined buildings of Sunny Town cast haunting shadows in the moonlight, and the air around them was deathly still. Apple Bloom's breathing quickened, almost to the point she started hyperventilating. Being in this town again was a nightmare come true, and she could already hear the moans of things long dead being roused by their presence.
"The maaaaaaarrrrk...." A skeletal hoof popped out of the ground, dragging an almost entirely decayed pony out with it. "The maaaaaarrrk! Kill the cursed! Kill the cursed!" More and more of the severely rotted corpses pulled themselves out of the ground, the eye sockets of their skulls glowing a bloody red as they shambled toward the pegasus and earth pony.
"Apple Bloom! AB, snap out of it!" Scootaloo was shaking her friend; while she could have flown away, they'd lost sight of Sweetie when Apple Bloom had become frozen in terror, and she wasn't strong enough to carry both of them out anyway. The thought of actually leaving either of them behind wasn't even considered. "Apple Bloom!" The skeletons were getting closer by the second, almost touching them...
Then, the sound of a lyre being plucked cut through the air.
A golden glow overcame the red glow in the eyes of the three closest skeletons, and they simply just stopped moving. A second later, the glowing head of Bonbon's hammer smashed through each of them in turn, scattering the bones about. Another was shattered a moment later, when she brought her weapon down on it's spine, then her armored hooves bucked the head off yet another.
Ditzy arrived next and, foregoing fancy fighting techniques altogether, smashed a skull with a single hoof-punch and then used both her hooves to crush another to powder.
Lyra finally caught up, her instrument held in a telekinetic aura and being strummed with her magic to make simple melodies. Each tiny song caused a golden glow to surround the skeletons for a moment, before most of them just collapsed into piles of bones.
"I'll make sure we've got a path out of here," Bonbon said as she hefted her hammer again. "Ditzy, Lyra; go find Sweetie. I'll put a circle around the other two and keep them-"
"Y'all ain't keepin' us nowhere!" Apple Bloom, though still terrified out of her mind, finally found it in her to speak again.
"Yeah!" Scootaloo jumped up into the air. "We're not letting you hurt out friend!"
"Yes, we're doing all this because we want to hurt her." Lyra's voice dripped sarcasm. "WAKE UP, KID!"
"Even if yer tellin' the truth," Apple Bloom started, "who's she gonna believe? Us, or the mare who scared her half to death?"
"...you know, she's got a point, Lyra." Ditzy grinned sheepishly as the necromancer glared at her; had she had flowing blood in her system still, she would have blushed. "Sorry, it's true though."
Lyra stamped a hoof in frustration, then took out a nearby skeleton with another quick tune. "Fine! But you're all going to be explaining what in the nine Hells you're doing out here to begin with when this is over!" Her expression softened as she turned to Bonbon. "You, stay safe, okay?"
"I always do, Lyra."
The necromancer smiled a bit, then gave the paladin a quick kiss. 'For Luck', she'd said.
So, against the better judgements of most of their members, while Bonbon stayed behind to keep their exit route open, the group of Lyra, Ditzy, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all entered the town proper to save the lost Crusader.
As soon as they stepped into the undead town proper, the broken and desolate town became a bright colored place with bright lanterns hanging from ropes and the building looking perfectly intact.
"An illusion?" Lyra asked herself.
"Applebloom! It's wonderful to see you again!" A gray filly with an orange mane appeared, her eyes were a solid yellow glow. Her cutie mark was a magnifying glass.
"Ruby!" Applebloom said, still scared, but happy to see her friend. "Sorry I didn't visit before! Applejack wouldn't let me."
"Applejack is very smart," Lyra said.
Applebloom did as close to a hug as you could with an immaterial presence.
"A ghost?"Lyra said, not sounding all that freaked out at the existence of one.
"Hi little filly, I'm Derpy."
"Oh my!" Ruby said looking at Derpy, not scared of her being a zombie at all, and more alarmed. "Did the bone-fiends get you? For some reason they're acting up, it's like some powerful source of necromantic energy was activating them without orders."
"Oh no! It's more...complicated than that," Derpy said.
Lyra however took a moment to notice a mural painted on one side of the building.
"WHY do they have a painting of Fluttershy as an Alicorn?!" Lyra said.
Sweetie Belle meanwhile, felt safer in the brightly lit and peaceful looking town, even if she didn't see anypony yet, were they all indoors? Then she spotted a green mare with a green mane. What surprised Sweetie most about her was that she was a blank flank. Maybe she could become a cutie mark crusader?
But, she looked all said and mopey. "Un, hi! I'm Sweetie Belle! Do you need a hug?"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" The earth pony shouted took a step back. "I'll...I'll drain the life out of you cursed, I mean, filly."
"Uh, okay." Sweetie stopped. "Where is everypoy? I think I saw walking skeletons outside. I promise I'm not crazy."
"The bone-fiends are mindless automations. They'll attack any non-undead pony they sense." Three-Leaf sighed, "They're instructed to never enter the town. They'll also pull us back to town if we try to leave when it's not the night of the festival."
"What town is this? I Everfree?"
"Welcome to Sunnytown."
Sweetie Belle's eyes widened at that name, remembering everything Applebloom had told her about this cursed place. She took a trot back. "Oh."
"Excuse me, what's that thing on your head?"
"What thing?"
"The thing sticking out."
"Huh? That's my horn. I'm a unicorn."
"Oh right, unicorn, we've had cursed, I mean visitors like you before, but I thought their horns grew when when they were big or something."
"No, I'm born with one."
"I didn't know that."
"What's your name?"
"Threeleaf."
"Nice to meet you Threeleaf. Do you have any friends?"
"Actually yes I do, but they're all inside, it is night time after all."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. Why aren't you?"
"Just wanted to look at my garden. And...I thought I sensed the bone-fiends acting up when they haven't been awaken since Princess Gaia gave us...PEACE for a few days."
"Princess Gaia? You mean Fluttershy?"
"Yes...she visits us from time to time . . . Is it painful to have a curse mark?"
"Curse mark?"
"The symbol on your bottom."
"Huh? This is a CUTIE MARK. It means I know what I want to do with myself."
"But . . .the cutie pox."
"Cutie pox?"
"That's why we were given this town by Princess Celestia. To be safe from it."
-
"Princess Celestia?" Sweetie Belle asked in shock.
"Will you stop repeating everything I say?"
"Oh sorry."
Threeleaf nodded. "Our ancestors said she made this place to protect us from the Cutie Pox...when...when we saw Ruby..."
Like or not, Applebloom knew this town better than the others, and got a step ahead of them, and heard what Threeleaf had to say.
"Uh...T-Threeleaf?" asked Applebloom, keeping a distance. "...Ah've HAD Cutie Pox before, them and cutie Marks are two completely different things..."
The zombie's eyes went wide. "What? You...how are you alive?!"
"Well...this friend of mine, Zecora, healed meh...but cutie Pox AIN'T Cutie Marks. Ah think Twilight said they're a 'disruption in the innate magic that all ponies have, causing fake Cutie Marks to manifest rapidly without control' or...somethin'. But the Cutie Marks Cutie Pox cause are fake ones."
Threeleaf took a step back. "These...these Cutie Pox you had...what...what were they like?"
"Let's see, these fake cutie Marks started poppin' up all over mah body! Ah mean ALL over it. And makin' meh do all kinda crazy things to the point Ah could hardly move!"
"...Am I doing that right now, Threeleaf?" Sweetie Belle questioned.
Threeleaf looked on in shock. "But...but if Cutie Pox can be cured...that...that means..."
"That we didn't have to kill Ruby?"
"Mitta!" called Applebloom, smiling.
Threeleaf looked down. "B-But there might not have been a cure then..."
"You're right...but we didn't even try to find one, did we?"
Mitta looked to Applebloom. "...Hello, Applebloom, it's been a long time."
"Yeah!" the little filly replied, looking the only one of Sunny Towners who HADN'T tried to kill her. She then gasped, her eyes falling on a mark on the mare's flank. Namely a shield. "Mitta...you've got a Cutie Mark?!"
Mitta nodded. "Yeah...I got it when we got sent back here...The others CAN'T do anything to me and no 'disease' could do anything to them anymore, so they ignored me...I think they're still just too focused on trying not to admit that they're wrong to admit living proof they are is right here."
-
"This doesn't make sense," said Sweetie Belle suddenly. The others blinked at her. "You said that Princess Celestia knows about this place. Why hasn't she done anything about it, then? It's been hundreds and hundreds of years. She wouldn't just forget about it, when ponies are suffering and all."
"We're not even alive," said Mitta sadly. "Our suffering probably just doesn't matter."
"Maybe," said Ruby hesitantly, "there's nothing anypony can do. Even with this mark for finding things, I haven't found a single thing that can help."
"Well, maybe you just haven't looked in the right way," said Sweetie, trying to stay optimistic. "I'll try a scrying spell!" But when she drew magic into her horn, something immediately felt off. The pale green glow from her horn became an eerie flickering flame, and faint purple mist trailed from her eyes.
Applebloom took a step back. "Is that dark magic? Ah don't know if that's such a good idea..."
"Take it easy," said Sweetie, trying to ignore the sick to her stomach feeling. "I'm not turning into Thorn... I just want to help them!" She frowned, shook her head. "I don't understand... I'm trying to tell them they're free of the curse, but nothing's happening."
"It's not that kind of curse, young one," said Lyra, approaching them with Ditzy and Scootaloo close behind. "They have imprisoned themselves with their own hatred and lies and regret." She smirked. "It's almost a shame I'm not evil. Most necromancers would kill for servants like these."
-
Lyra, her moment of megalomania passed, sat down and ran a hoof through her mane. "Okay, let's see here. Got a find a way to break an unbreakable curse, we've got a minor army of undead constructs surrounding the whole town that my marefriend is fighting single-hoofedly, and a filly using dark magic well above her level." She paused. "Okay, I've dealt with worse."
"The curse can't be broken," Mitta said. "It shouldn't be broken. We deserve this."
Lyra glanced at Mitta, then looked back to the group as a whole. "Okay, as I was saying-"
"Weren't you listening!" The undead filly stomped her hoof. "They killed Ruby! And I let it happen! We deserve to-"
"I'm not deaf, kid! I know what happened; and, believe me, it's not even the worse thing I've seen this week! So I'm going to do my best to save this town, you included, whether you like it or not! So cut the melodrama!"
Mitta recoiled, momentarily stunned that somepony would talk back to her like that; having social interaction limited to ponies like Fluttershy tended to do that to you.
"Good, now then... time to think."
Sweetie Belle, her expression still a little green from the use of dark magic, spoke up. "Didn't you just say this wasn't that type of curse?"
"Yeah, it doesn't have a way to break it included," Lyra admitted. "But the thing about dark magic, and with curses especially, is that most ponies that used it aren't exactly thinking in the long term. They set it up to do one thing, and one thing only; usually making life nothing but pain and suffering for the targets.
"Something like this; it's powerful, no question, but that doesn't mean we can't trick it."
Ditzy jumped up with a flap, smiling in realization. "You want to create a paradox!"
Lyra grinned right back. "Yep; put the curse in a position where it can't fulfill it's intention without breaking it's own rules. It should short itself out trying to solve the problem." Her expression fell a bit as she looked at Threeleaf, who had been getting steadily more hopeful as they had conversed. "But... I can't promise what would happen to you or anypony here if we do that."
Ruby spoke, "The one who placed this curse was Princess Luna...when she was living a double life as Nightmare Moon. She said it was to punish them for killing me. She said even she can't break it. The only way it can end she said, was for Grayhoof and the others to 'accept their own sins or in Mitta's case stops punishing herself.' I think she made the corpses of ponies who died of cutie pox in Everfree when Sunnytown was founded becoming the bone-fiends to keep Mitta and the others from leaving except on the night of my death was something extra she added. And even then, they can't leave Everfree."
Sweetie thought back to her black magic lessons from Chrysalis. "So Mitta has to . . . forgive herself, and the others ALL have to admit they did the wrong thing?"
-
"More or less," said Lyra. She frowned sharply. "But first... why are you channeling dark magic again? What are you casting?"
Sweetie Belle blinked. "I wasn't casting anything. I... huh?!" She squinted, trying to see her own horn, which was indeed glowing again.
Lyra sighed. "Uh huh. First things first... I know, this place is saturated in dark magic, but you must control it." She tapped a hoof, scowling. "It doesn't control you, or we've got a real problem, you and I, so stop that right now, young filly."
Sweetie Belle gulped and did her best, making funny faces as she found the mana flow and shut it off. "I don't understand... Chrysy spent so much time teaching me before I could do any magic at all, and now I'm doing magic when I didn't even mean to?"
"That's kinda scary," said Scootaloo, feathers fluffing. Applebloom nudged her. "Um... but we believe in you, Sweetie Belle!"
Lyra smirked mildly. "Dark magic is easy... too easy. It'll solve all your problems... and ruin your life and the lives of everypony around you in the process. That's why ponies like us have wardens. You're going to need one."
Applebloom leaned towards the other Crusaders and whispered, "Would this be a good time ta tell her we're from another world where there ain't no such thing?"
"Which brings us to lesson two," continued Lyra. She leaned close, putting on a very serious face. "Don't make things worse."
Sweetie looked left and right, bewildered. "How could *this* possibly get any worse?"
Lyra snorted. "Things can always get worse. For instance, if you tried to set these spirits free by taking all their hate and regret upon yourself... and turned into the Nightmare Queen of the Everfree in the process."
Sweetie looked away, fidgeting her hooves. "So, that would be a real bad idea, huh. It's... um, a good thing I wasn't even considering trying to *force* them to get over it with magic! The thought hadn't even crossed my mind!"
Applebloom winced, even without any truth vision.
"Zecora tried that once," mused Lyra. "She was never quite right afterwards."
Scootaloo blinked. "Zecora!?"
"Yes, a local zebra shaman." Lyra shook her head. "She never says anything but funny rhymes, now." She stretched, eying the others, who had stood there and listened to everything with the patience of the dead. "The truth is, it would be better if we could save them without using necromancy at all. If we just had some other way to reach their hearts..."
Sweetie Belle glanced back at the musical cutie mark on her flank, and suddenly grinned.
-
"Anypony remember what a heart song is?" Sweetie asked smiling.
-
Applebloom gasped. "Ah never asked her."
"Who?"
"Princess Applebloom."
"WHAT?!" Lyra, Derpy, and three Sunnytown pies asked.
"Ah didn't ask her...what was it like...knowing that not every pony she made friends with was gonna become an Alicorn, wasn't gonna live forever...how was she gonna deal with that? What made 'er take the trials?"
Lyra frowned. "Those are FAR TOO ADULT thoughts for you to have little filly!"
Apple bloom folded her ears. "Sorry."
-
"Ah guess it's just hard, not thinkin' about death in a place like this." Applebloom kicked at a rock, sighing. "Ah didn't see any Alicorn Sweetie Belle or Alicorn Scootaloo in the future. Am... am Ah supposed to go live forever and leave my friends behind?"
Scootaloo hopped over in front of her. "Hey, hey! Don't go talking about us like we're already dead! We could have been there... just someplace where nopony saw us."
Sweetie Belle smiled. "And even if we weren't, that future isn't set in stone."
Lyra nodded firmly. "Whatever dark visions of the future that you think you saw, anything can still change."
"Flim and Flam saw that future too," mused Applebloom. "Ah hope they aren't gonna make any trouble."
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Those two losers? What could they possibly do?"
-- The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, one thousand and fifteen years ago...
"Astonishing," said Dark Glass, Archmage of the Night Guard, as he examined a small glowgem held in his magic. "Tis exactingly cut and enchanted well enough, though I could do a finer job myself. Thou sayest that thy machine made this?"
"Indeed!" boasted Flim. "Our invention could make a hundred such crystals in a day."
"A hundred?" cried Dark Glass.
"And we could build many such machines!" added Flam. "Why should wizard ponies waste their valuable time enchanting one crystal a day, when our invention could make them plentifully?"
"And cheaply!" chimed in Flim.
Princess Luna took hold of the crystal, lifting it up to her throne. "With such a supply of glowgems... our little ponies could illuminate every one of their dwellings and public thoroughfares." She rose, excitement clear on her face. "They will stay up many more hours, appreciating our Night. Master artificers, thine invention could change the world!"
Flim grinned slyly. "That's exactly what we're hoping for, your highness."
-
"What do you mean a 'heart song'?" Mitta tilted her head to the side.
"The song all ponies carry in their hearts," Sweetie hopped up and down, growing more excited. "Cadence and Chrysalis both told me about it." Looking around at her friends, Lyra and Derpy, and the Sunny Towners, she said, "If we can connect to each other through that, to each others' lives, then maybe we can bring the Sunny Towners into the song and make them alive again too!"
"That's a great idea!" Applebloom grinned at Ruby. "Y'all will be alive again."
"That would be nice," Bon Bon trotted up to them, gasping. Black ooze was smeared across the head of her hammer. She tossed her head back in the direction she'd just come from. "Those bone ponies are getting closer, and they're not happy."
"If it works," Scootaloo said. "If not we're gonna have a lot of unhappy undead ponies to deal with." She waved her hoof outwards.
More and more of the undead Sunny Towners began to gather around, looking and smelling like well-rotted corpses. The ponies cringed, all save for Lyra and Derpy.
"Help us," the Sunny Towners half hissed, half moaned. "Help us. Save us. Make us live again." A rotted sort of growl sounded through their voices, causing Bon Bon to grip her hammer tightly, as they almost snarled, "Or else!"
"We will!" Sweetie and her friends gathered in a semicircle, facing outwards towards the Sunny Towners. Sweetie hummed and then sang a clear, brilliantly beautiful note.
"This is crazy," Lyra grumbled. "Bon Bon, we better be ready to run with these fillies when those revenants realize what... Bon Bon!"
"Come here and help," Bon Bon stood behind Applebloom, close enough to support but letting them take the lead. Derpy dropped down beside her, behind Scootaloo, looking as happy as ever. Lyra shook her head in disbelief. "You said you wanted to help, so help!"
"I hope I don't get diabetes from this," Lyra grumbled as she stood on the other side of Bon Bon and supported Sweetie Belle. "Okay kid, hit it."
Sweetie took a deep breath and began to sing.
-
Sweetie Belle began to swing alone, slow and sad:
(Tunes borrowed from Sally's Song and Jack's Lament from the Nightmare Before Christmas)

Oh spirits of the Everfree
Will you please share your tale with me?

Lyra got caught up in it too. She lifted her lyre in her magic and began to play. The necromancer wanted to object... this was far too much like possession for comfort... but that would have spoiled the moment. 

I’d like to help you if I may
If I could only find some way.
To save you from a fate so grim
Doomed to remember
Now and forever
Your greatest sin
When you gave in to fear
It all happened right here.
Another undead pony rose up out of the ground, not looking very happy about it. "Grey Hoof," whispered Applebloom, shivering a bit. He stepped forward menacingly... and began to sing, sounding almost cheerful. An invisible orchestra joined in.

There are few who recall there was a time long ago.
The royal pony sisters ruled from Everfree
And here in Sunny Town, everypony said hello
No one found fault in our hospitality!
The orchestra turned more menacing. Grey Hoof hesitated, but he kept singing.
But then our lady of the night went mad
The day and night did go to war
And worst of all a dreadful sickness had
Spread like wildfire right to our very door
Well, we sent them away, every pony with the curse
Those marks on their flanks, which could only mean the worst
We thought the pox was banished but we made a grave mistake
One little mare among us had to go, for all our sakes…

Then Ruby herself sang a verse:
I thought it was my dream come true
A happiness like I never knew
The thing that I loved, my own special gift.
But when they saw my mark my doom was swift.
Then she stepped aside. Grey Hoof shook his head, silently pleading with Sweetie Belle to let him stop. 

We could not take chances, no time for debate
Our fear of the cutie pox soon turned to hate
How dare she bring us this terror so dire?
And so we put that dear mare… into the fire

The ghost actually sobbed, tears running down his face. He wasn't the only one, either. The song returned to the sad, slow cadence, with just Lyra's harp accompanying him. 

And though the Moon had grown so cold
Her wrath was great when she was told
She promised vengeance on us all
She took our lives, and
Far more besides, then
Forever more
We cannot die nor live
Until she should… forgive.
-
In the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, Dark Glass strode into the lounge where Flim and Flam had been waiting. Flim quickly nudged Flam awake, and the brothers sprang to their hooves and bowed, grinning in anticipation.
Instead of congratulating them, the archmage slammed a heavy tome on the table. Charlatans!" brayed Dark Glass. "Didst thou think I would not find you out?"
"How dare you?!" protested Flam. "We resent being called charlatans."
"Besides," said Flim, "we're telling the truth this time."
Dark Glass spread a stack of papers over the table with his magic. "Thy so-called schematics make reference to devices which nopony in this castle hath ever heard of! Mana oscillator... What is a mana oscillator, pray tell?"
"It oscillates mana," said Flam. "Obviously."
"We'll get one for you... ah..." Flim leaned and whispered, "Wait, when were those invented?"
Flam moved his lips, counting, then facehoofed. "About four hundred years from now, brother. Wait just a moment, now... we'll build one!" Now it was his turn to lean and whisper to his brother. "Remind me, just how does one construct a mana oscillator?"
Flim threw his hooves up. "How should I know? Why would I want to build one of those? They're two bits each at the supply shop!"
Dark Glass fumed, then shouted, "Enough! Night Guard, these charlatans shall be taken to the dungeon and whipped severely, then interrogated on the remote chance they actually do possess some scraps of useful information. Thenceforth, whip them again, and then I must take up the unhappy burden of informing our Princess of the Night of this setback. She shall be most gravely disappointed. Furthermore..."
One of the Night Guards cleared his throat.
"What? Yes, what is it?"
The guard shuffled his hooves awkwardly. "Thy pardon, archmage, but the prisoners fled the room whilst you were rambling on."
The archmage looked as if he would literally explode. He had, in fact, exploded on occasion... that one hall in the east wing still had scorch marks. Before he actually could, another Night Guard flew in, out of breath. "Sir, they have fled in their arcane wagon, but these books were left behind in their haste to escape!"
Dark Glass groaned. "Take a squad and arrest them. I shall take change of these."
Back in his private chambers, he sighed and started to flip through the books, but his expression quickly changed. "The Necromantik Art? Tea with Ponythulu and Other Amusements?" He leafed through more chapters breathlessly. "These are books of Dark Magic. Real Dark Magic, at last!" Dark Glass hesitated, then tugged on his black robe of office, briefly revealing his pony skull cutie mark. "Oh, they will pay!" He grinned maniacally, shaking a hoof in the air. "Everypony who made fun of my name will pay! Bwahaha!"
Meanwhile, Flim and Flam's wagon bounced down a forest path. "There's just enough stored mana to get back to our time," shouted Flam, his voice jarred by all the rocks and potholes in the road.
"Fine by me, brother!" shouted Flim, holding onto his hat. The wagon swerved, barely missing a sign which read "Welcome to Sunny Towne!"
-
Apple bloom held her breath, her entire body tense at what would happen next.
-
What happened next, much to the surprise of everypony (living and dead), was the Flim Flam brothers' wagon careening through the town.
And heading right toward the assembled sextet who had just finished their song.
Instinct took over for three of them. Bonbon moved first, grabbing Apple Bloom and diving out of the way; Lyra snagged Sweetie up in a telekinetic aura and actually pulled her down so the wagon passed over them; Ditzy grabbed Scootaloo and tossed her out of the way before she moved herself. Of course, that meant that one of them wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way in time.
"Ah, horseapples." Ditzy managed to get off the swear just before the wagon's left wheels ran right over her; her undead body didn't offer much resistance, leaving her essentially sliced in half in the cart's wake. However, it seemed to be little more than a minor annoyance to her, as her torso slowly twisted itself around to look at her lower half with a slight frown. "Well, darn it."
"I'll help you pull yourself together in a bit, Ditzy." Lyra stood up, examining the bifurcated pegasus while the three fillies looked on, horrified. "What was that thing, anyway?"
*CRASH*
"Shrapnel, apparently." Bonbon sighed and trotted over to the wreckage of the wagon. "Are you alright in there?"
It took several moments, but the twin conponies slowly extracted themselves from their ruined wagon, coughing a bit at all the dust and dirt, Flam actually sneezing thanks to the debris in his mustache.
"More or less," Flim said, digging around for a bit. "Ugh, my hat is ruined." He looked at the torn article of clothing, almost unrecognizable as what it had once been.
"Yes, because that's the biggest issue, Brother." Flam began sifting through the pieces of their wagon despondently. "We'll never be able to put this back together."
"It was out of juice anyway, and given how things went, I'm in no mood to try more time travel and end up stuck somewhere without a way to get back."
Bonbon blinked, taking a look at their cutie marks. "Strange, you two don't have the marks for chronomancers..."
"Chrono-what now?"
Before the paladin could explain, another voice spoke up.
"Will you get off of me!"
Flim and Flam blinked, then hurriedly stood up and shifted some more pieces of the wagon aside, revealing a brown earth pony stallion with an orange mane and -- of course -- no Cutie Mark. "Ugh, thank you."
"Terribly sorry about that," Flim said," the wagon wasn't responding to any of our steering attempts."
"Let me help you up." Flam reached a hoof down and pulled the pony up.
"No, wait, I-" Gladstone, the pony in question, blinked as he was hauled back to his hooves by the moustachioed unicorn, their bodies clearly touching. "...doesn't this hurt you?"
Flam blinked again, finally letting go. "No... why do you ask?"
The other Sunny Towners openly gaped.
"D-d-does that mean..." Roneo gulped, his hoof moving to grab Starlet's out of pure reflex. "Th-the curse is..."
Bonbon frowned, studying Gladstone intensely. Even though he hadn't hurt Flam when he'd touched him, or her when she kicked off part of her leg armor to do the same, something about him still felt 'off' to her. "Hold on a second." The paladin reached under her armor and pulled out a medallion shaped like Celestia's cutie mark, then held it close to her chest. "Mare Celestia, Guiding Light; may your radiance shine a beacon of truth for us, that we may see through all falsehoods." The medallion began to glow, and she held it up; when the light hit the buildings around her, the illusion was dispelled, revealing nothing but ruins. And, when she shown it upon Gladstone, there was only a pony so rotted what little remained of his flesh was black as pitch. However, his eyes seemed to be intact.
"Looks like we got partial credit." Lyra spoke up as she plucked at her lyre. "You're still undead; but I think we managed to peel back the part of the curse that prevented you from interacting with others." A golden glow surrounded Ditzy as the undead pegasus slowly pushed her to halves back together, the decayed flesh melding back into itself and even her more rotted outward appearance diminishing greatly. "I could probably help you get back to looking more like normal ponies; just be careful, since undead can't heal without a necromancer around to work a few spells."
"You're going to restore all these ponies?" Ditzy asked as she stood up, taking a few ungainly steps to get her body working the right way again.
"Yep." Lyra suddenly turned to Sweetie. "And you're going to help."
The filly practically jumped back. "What?"
"You're not licensed to teach a filly dark magic, Lyra." Bonbon warned.
"She already knows dark magic, Bonny. She needs to learn better control over it before she starts trying to use it for every little thing; and besides, while we're doing that, the three of them can finally explain what in the name of Luna is going on here!" She turned back to Sweetie. "Time to learn a bit of necromancy, kid."
Sweetie gulped, fidgeting nervously; Rarity was going to ground her so hard when this was over.
-
As Flim and Flam starting picking through their time-traveling wagon for salvage, and Lyra fetched a black book from her bags and drew Sweetie Belle aside for a lesson in safe use of dark magic, Scootaloo looked to Applebloom and wondered aloud, "Now what?"
Two tall ponies stepped out of the woods, not afraid of the haunted ruins or the herd of dead ponies in the slightest. Applebloom sighed. "Ya had to ask."
"Here they are, sister," said Mortis. The Alicorn of Death and Rebirth had chosen an appearance easier on mortal eyes, a jet black Alicorn stallion with raven-like wings. "You see? Patience is rewarded."
Rota Fortuna snorted, her mechanical wing creaking as she flexed menacingly. "I waited a thousand years to find them again, brother. Even for an immortal Alicorn, that's a long time to nurse a grudge." She stamped towards Flim and Flam. "Duck."
Flim lifted his head, facing the wrong way. "Duck, goose?"
"No, duck!" cried Flam, throwing his brother to the ground. A huge fireball streaked over their heads, singeing their greasy manes. The blast consumed the rest of their "borrowed" Canterlot University magic texts and turned the broken wagon into melted scrap.
"This world line is a shambles, thanks to you," growled the Alicorn of Fate. "I should haul the both of you straight to Tartarus." She took a deep breath, regarding the cowering brothers... and the ponies of Sunny Town, still dead, but they'd taken their first steps towards forgiveness. "But this... this *never* happens. It took elements from two completely different world lines to bring it about. I will be pondering this for a long time to come."
Flam tipped his hat. "You're, um... welcome, your ladyship!"
"No charge!" said Flim brightly. Flam bonked his brother with his hat.
"You shall not go to Tartarus," said Rota, "but if the two of you *ever* play with time magic again, I will make sure you miss this planet entirely and hurtle into deep space! *Is that clear?*"
Flim and Flam nodded frantically.
Mortis, meanwhile, strode over to Lyra. Bon Bon moved to get between them, loosening her hammer in its harness, but Lyra hastily waved her off. Lyra bowed, and gave Sweetie Belle a nudge to do the same. "Lord Mortis."
"Lyra," said Mortis testily. "Your own army of zombies now, is it? An apprentice, too! If I did not know better, I would think you were seriously backsliding."
"They aren't my slaves!" protested Lyra, a bit flustered. "And I won't let Sweetie get corrupted. On my soul, I won't!"
Mortis smiled grimly. "That is already the case. Still, you did a good thing, today. I shall be seeing you again, later?"
Lyra returned that smile. "Unlike some, I'm not fool enough to think I can avoid you forever."
Mortis nodded. "Later, then."
-
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Flim said to Rota. "What do you mean, 'how we messed up this worldline'? Everything looks the same as ever to me."
Rota just rolled her eyes and made a newspaper appear before them.
Wary, Flim and Flam took it.
"Huh? This is 'The Canterlot Sun' and..." The brothers' eyes went wide as they read the headline.
"'GROGAR OF TAMBELON DEFEATS PRINCESSES, PROCLAIMS REIGN OF ETERNAL TYRANNY, ABOLISHES CURRENCY, EQUESTRIA DOOMED YET AGAIN'?" A photo showed a gigantic goat between a golden and silver statues of Celestia and Luna, the Elements of Harmony and dozens of other ponies hitched to carts and straining to drag heavy loads as guards lashed them.
"Wait," Flim scratched his head. "'Abolishes currency'?"
"It means there's no more money in Equestria," Rota said.
The next second found them at her hooves.
"No more money?!?" Flim sobbed.
"How do we keep ending up in these nightmares?" Flam added. "Save us, Miss Alicorn!"
"Help these fillies, Lyra, Bon Bon, and the Sunny Towners," Rota said coldly, "and maybe, just maybe, everything can be fixed."
"Wait! Altered timeline!" Scootaloo asked, "Does that mean-"
The fillies then found themselves in Applebloom's bedroom, seeing themselves at Sunnytown with Lyra and co on the what-if machine.
"I guess it does," Scootaloo sighed.
-
The Crusaders all jumped when, out of the blue, Flim spoke up. "Not a bad little place. A little rustic..."
"Could use some new curtains," said Flam. "We could sell you some!"
Applebloom's jaw hit the floor. "Get out! Get out before mah family sees ya in our house!" Moments later, her second floor window was opened, and Flim and Flam were hurled out of it with great force.
-
"Ah'm still tryin' tah get used tah the whole respawnin' thing..." Applebloom said, trotting back into the Everfree with the others.
"At least so far we've just left them in alternate universes..." said Scootaloo, rubbing her head.
Sweetie Belle nodded. "At least we made those universes better..."
"Yeah but...hey, do you hear something?"
The three heard what sounded like screaming.
"Yeah..."
Suddenly, a time portal opened and a minecart came careening out of it and skidding to a stop near by.
"Ugh...I think we got away from that freaky universe, but, where are we, Scootaroll?"
"I don't know, Barb, let's see."
Out of the mine cart popped five heads, four ponies and one baby dragon.
A male Silver Spoon (or rather Silver Laddle) blinked, looking over to the female CMC right next to them. "Uh...."
"...Flux capacitor?" Applebloom asked.
"Yep," Applebuck replied, adjusting his cap.
"Minecart tracks?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah," Sweepy Belle replied.
"Just came out of a dead universe ruled by some freaking thing called D__t?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yeah," Scootaroll replied.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders Time Travelers?" Applebloom finished, getting a collective nod. "This is actually the most normal weird thing we've seen tonight."
-
"So . . .uh, what are your names?" Sweetie Belle asked gingerly.
-
"Oh! Us?" The little snowy-coated colt looked around at his friends. "I'm Sweepy Bell," he waved his long tail, dusty at the end. "And my friends are Applebuck," He pointed at the yellow colt with the red baseball cap, then the orange and purple pegasus, "Scootaroll," the little purple-scaled dragoness with the green barbs along her spine, "Barb," and the gray Earth pony colt with the somewhat dorky glasses. "And that's Silver Ladle. We were enemies for a while, but we're getting to be friends now, I hope."
"I wish we had Spike an' Silver Spoon here ta see this," Applebloom said.
"And who are you girls?" Barb hopped down from the cart and walked closer. She gave them a cautious look. "This isn't one of those weird mirror universes from out of those books by Dusk Shine's dad where everypony good is evil and vice versa? Though I bet Elusive would make a handsome, I mean great, evil overlord." She sighed dreamily.
"I think we can guess just who 'Elusive' is," Scootaloo nudged Sweetie. Pointing at her friends and then herself, she said, "Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle. We know a dragon named Spike and a Silver Spoon, and we wish they were here. They'd love to meet you guys."
"An' wait, you came outta some weird dead universe ruled by D__t?" Applebloom gulped. "Say, ya didn't haveta deal with some weirdo mind-bendin' monster named Discord, did ya?"
"Naw," Applebuck shook his head. The CMC relaxed and then froze as he said, "We had one named Eris, an' boy was she mean!"
"And ugly!" Sweepy Bell said.
"And she kept flirting with their big brothers and my, well," Scootaroll looked uncommonly shy, "with Rainbow Blitz, the fastest and toughest pegasus in Equestria. From what they said it was kinda creepy."
"I can imagine." Scootaloo tried wondering what it would be like to see Discord romancing the Mane Six. "Uggh, anyone know how to scrub your brain?"
-
Sweetie asked suddenly, realizing something. "Wait! So you haven't gone to Canterlot yet for the royal wedding?"
Sweepy Bell asked, "Royal wedding? What's that?"
"With Princess Cadence, I mean, whatever the Princess Celestia's nephew is called, King Celestia! Uh! The nephew of the Alicorn who raises the sun."
"Oh! You mean Prince Solaris's nephew Prince Bolero. What about him?"
"Look! We were flower fillies at their wedding! I-- I guess that doesn't really apply to you, maybe your Spike, I mean Barb will be flower filly, flower dragon-girl, whatever, and you'll be ring carriers, but the point is! When you meet Prince Bolero! You have to know that he isn't-" The world turned dusty and brownish gray. The world was still, except for herself, and Blankie who was suddenly in front of her.
"Blanky?"
And for some reason, the magic ghost dog was wearing a t-shirt that read. "I eat stuff that shouldn't happen." And the dog made a 'zip the lip' motion.
"What? You, you can't really want me NOT to tell them that Chrysalis, or whatever she is in their world replaced Cadence, Bolero, and is gonna brainwash Sweepy Bell like she did me! And so many of our friends and family! You can't expect me NOT to tell them."
Blanky crossed his forelegs and nodded. Apparently, that was EXACTLY what he expected Sweetie Belle NOT to do. Whether she liked ir not.
"Isn't what?" The world was normal again.
"Uh, isn't that . . . that bad once you get to know the REAL Prince Bolero."
-
Applebloom was struck by lightning as she realized that while she didn't have her cutie mark, her friends did . . . and their counterparts didn't . . . Would that mess up time and space or something? Apple Bloom didn't want to respawn so soon and gently pushed her friends' saddle backs so slightly so they were covering their flanks.
-
"Ah can't believe it," Applebloom murmured to herself. "Me, helpin' keep cutie marks a secret from other Crusaders. Maybe if Ah can't tell 'em straight out, Ah could at least give them some kinda hint..."
Sweepy Belle took a deep breath. "So... what's it like, being a girl?"
"What's it like being a boy?" countered Sweetie Belle, getting right in his face.
"Um..." The colt blushed.
"Better question," said Scooteroll hastily. "How do we get home?"
Barb raised a claw. "We should go talk to Dusk, of course!"
"You mean, Twilight?" asked Applebloom. "Ah'm not sure we're supposed to leave the forest..."
Silver Laddle blinked. "What do you mean, you can't leave the forest? Do you fillies live here or something?"
"Maybe they live with Zircoro," said Sweepy thoughtfully. He gasped. "Because... they're his new apprentices! Cutie Mark Crusader Alchemists?"
"YEAH!" shouted the colts, and one dragon.
Sweetie Belle winced. "It's... not really like that at all." She leaned and whispered to Applebloom, "Do we really sound like that?"
Applebloom nodded firmly. "Eeeyup."
Scootaloo leaned into the conference, frowning. "We'll just have to hope we can talk to Twilight this late. I'd feel really bad, telling them it doesn't matter if they never get home, cause time will just reset anyway."
Applebloom gasped, suddenly remembering something. "Oh no... the reset! Where's that brochure?" She took off her saddlebags and started digging through them.
The colts looked on, perplexed, while Sweetie Belle groaned. "Well, it's not going to be in there. How could it be? None of that ever... happened?" But there it was in Appleboom's hoof.
"What else have you got in there?" asked Scootaloo.
-
Silver Ladle looked over to Sweetie Belle. "Uh...hey, Sweetie Belle? You girls are like, from the future right?"
Sweetie Belle jumped. "Uh, yeah...Looks kinda like it..." she said nervously.
"Does...Diamond Crown come back?" the silver colt asked, desperation in his voice.
Sweetie Belle blinked, as did the rest of the Crusaders. They felt new memories rush to their minds.
"Diamond?" Silver Spoon asked, seeing the filly in the middle of the massive battle in Canterlot with the Changelings.
The filly jumped a foot in her air. "S-Silver?!" she asked, a mix of emotions on her face. Some happiness, some sad, some...undeserving. The filly had been in the process of pushing over a pillar that'd been leaning, her surprise causing it to do so, setting off a surprisingly chaotic chain reaction ending in a squad of Changelings being pinned by rubble. Before Diamond could react, Silver hug tackled her.
The three fillies looked like they were waking from a dream. "What...what happened?" Applebloom asked. "That was...new...Ah think...or had it always been that way?"
"Has what been what?" asked Scootaroll, blinking.
Barb suddenly belched up a note with a symbol of a balloon and opened it. "Uh...it's for you..." She handed it to Sweetie Belle. "How did YOUR Luna know how to dragon mail me?"
The Crusaders looked at it.
Dear Cutie Mark Crusaders
Princess Thalia is still making alterations to the past. Please know that if you suddenly get flashes of memories you don't instantly recognize, it is due to your present status bequeathed by my sister Fate. Just know these new memories are now as time has always been and nothing you need to worry about. Just know she succeeded in her venture.
The Ruler of the Night, Princess Luna.
"...Am Ah the only one a little freaked out by that? Like it's kinda familiar..." said Applebloom, shuddering. Like she felt a bad alteration had, even if in this timeline it hadn't.
"What did Pinkie DO?" Scootaloo asked, wondering why Pinkie had made it so they met Diamond Tiara in Canterlot. She knew Diamond had come home with her mother. Though she also remembered her being a tad distant and it felt like she was talking to herself. Silver said she seemed a bit guilty for something.
Sweetie Belle blinked, remembering something that Thalia had said. She looked to the other CMC. "...Do you girls know about Breezies?"
Sweepy Belle rubbed her head. "Yeah, I think Pinkie Pie mentioned them. They live somewhere in Equestria."
Sweetie Belle heard Blanky growl a little, but gave a small smile, sneaking a peak at Silver Ladle. "...Cool. I hope we get to see them someday."]
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Apologies for not getting around to this one. College can be a real female dog sometimes. ShadowLDrago-style breakdowns shall arrive soon!
Be very afraid.
What are you, a dictionary?
That's what I said.
Hi God!
Its like this entire universe is run by Blue Lanterns. Not that that's bad.
Its official. The CMC have just usurped Shining's title of "Guy Who Has The Weirdest Things Happen To Him".
So that's where that came from
You'd get along well with Shining. Also, is it me, or is this the first time Lyra and Bon-Bon are openly aknowledged as a couple in POV?
So Bon-Bon is her executioner if things go nuts. Wow
So, they're going to force a redeeming musical number. Y'know, things like this are where this series' meta elements really do their best work.
D'aaw
Are Lyra and Bon-Bon from any particular story? Because they sound awesome
7825459
The Lyra, Bonbon, and Ditzy featured in this chapter are from my story. The Necromantic Adventures of Lyra Heartstrings.