Cutie Mark Crusaders' Journal of the unexplained Part 4
At the small newlywed cottage on the grounds of Sweet Apple Acres, Big Mac laid down his hammer and surveyed the structure with pride. He'd worked into the night again, and the cottage was finally looking like a home instead of a broken-down relic.
Cheerilee emerged from the house just then, bringing sweetened tea and two cups in a saddlebag. She joined him there in the crystal lantern light, not minding one bit that he was sweaty from working hard all day, and the two of them nuzzled beneath the stars.
Three fillies, four colts, and one baby dragon peeked out from behind the bushes.
"You know what this means," said Scootaroll, his wings buzzing with excitement. "Our plan worked!"
Silver Ladle rolled his eyes. "You mean, the thing with the love poison that got you so totally grounded?"
Barb folded her arms, tapping a foot. "And doing extra chores for a month."
Applebuck grinned. "But it still worked! They sure had us fooled back then, but Macareina and Mr. Cheeryloo really were sweet on each other!" He hoofbumped Scootaroll, and Scootaroll hoofbumped with Sweepy Belle...
And then Applebloom hoofbumped with Sweepy Belle, and it took Sweepy a moment to realize he'd hoofbumped with Applebloom instead of Applebuck. "Wha... What did you do that for? Girls don't hoofbump."
Applebloom blinked. "Huh? Ah don't see why not." She hoofbumped with Scootaloo, and Scootaloo turned to Sweetie.
Sweetie Belle hesitated, though. "I don't know. My big sisters did say that hoofbumping wasn't very ladylike."
"Um... did you say sisters?" asked Sweepy Belle. "As in more than one? Because I only have one brother..."
Sweetie Belle got all shifty-eyed. "Um... you shouldn't think about that too much! Come on, let's go see Twilight before anypony asks why we aren't in bed."
-
Sweetie Belle looked to Sweepy as they walked. "So, does your Pinkie Pie have a weird variety show thing too?"
The colt looked confused for a second. "Pinkie Pie?...OH! In our universe he's called Bubble Berry. And no, not yet, but I think he mentioned something about renting a studio.."
Sweetie chuckled. Thinking about the Tartarus Break Out. Particularly antics with a certain cat woman.
"What's so funny?" asked Sweepy.
"Uh...can't tell you, spoilers...The show will be fun."
Applebloom looked to Applebuck. "Hmm...So Rarity is named Elusive in your world, Rainbow Dash is Rainbow Blitz, Pinkie Pie's Berry Bubble, and Twilight is Dusk Shine, what about Fluttershy, mah big sister...er, brother, and Trixie?"
Applebuck rubbed his chin. "Fluttershy...Ah! I think that's Butterscotch. Mah big brother's name is Applejack."
"Wait a second, so's mine!" Applebloom said, blinking. "So Applejack's named Applejack even if she's a guy?"
"Guess so," Applebuck replied, rubbing his head. "Though he has some big long fancy name he doesn't use most of the time. Ah don't remember it that well..."
"Huh..."
"And our Trixie is named Presto..." Scootaroll explained. "...I wonder if he'd get along with your Trixie or they'd just try to out ham each other..."
"Probably both," Scootaloo joked.
-
Sweetie shook her head, "Uh, can some pony tell me why we're going to Twilight Sparkle's house in the middle of the night with our clones again?"
"We're not clones! You're clones!" Sweepy Bell retorted.
-
"We're going to your girl version of Dusk Shine to see if she can get us back to our world!" Apple Buck reminded her.
"Sorry, I feel like we've been standing here like zombies for days or somethings." Sweetie admitted.
Apple Bloom meanwhile continued to look through the brochure.
-
The small herd made their way to the Golden Oaks Library without any more trouble, and Applebloom knocked on the door.
"Coming!" shouted a familiar voice. A magenta glow opened the door, revealing a yawning Twilight. "Is there trouble? You're lucky I was up late reading..." Her eyes focused. Slowly, she rubbed her eyes and looked again, counting all of the fillies and colts (and dragon) on her doorstep. "Is this some new Variety Show thing? Cause this sure looks like a Variety Show thing."
Scootaloo fluttered her wings sheepishly, which made Scooteroll jealous. "It kinda is... and it's kinda not!"
"What's a Variety Show?" whispered Barb to Silver Ladel.
Silver Ladel frowned. "Um, do you mean generally or in this context?"
Applebuck poked at him with a hoof. "What are ya, a dictionary?"
Twilight hardly seemed to hear any of that. "But, I wasn't invited. And Pinkie Pie would never forget to invite her closest friends to a big event." A few strands of her mane sprung out of place. "At least, Pinkie Pie wouldn't have. Maybe Thalia doesn't think we're that important any more, now that she's a princess..."
"Princess Who?" asked Scooteroll.
"Don't think too much about that!" said Sweetie Belle hastily.
Sweepy started poking her. "Why do you keep saying that? Come on, I want to know more about this other sister you have! Can I meet her?"
Twilight twitched, her mane getting more mussed by the moment. Then she turned her head and saw the studio in the distance, surrounded by a giant pink bubble and rippling with reality-altering energies. "Or maybe... we've all been fooled and Thalia's really a nightmare in disguise! It's happened before!" Her pupils shrank and she grinned eerily. "But, um... never mind that now. Come on inside, girls. And boys. Let's get you home right away."
The colts and fillies looked at each other uneasily, but with no better ideas, they trotted inside after her.
Twilight's workshop was already a flurry of flying magical components. "Spell circle... check!" Three pieces of chalk sketched a fancy runed circle on the floor. "Getting a fix on the target universe... check!" Her magic plucked some hairs from Sweepy and a single scale from Barb. "Precasting and... okay, ready to go!"
"Wow, that was fast!" said Sweetie, amazed by all the different magical flows she'd felt Twilight using all at once.
"Yes, it was!" said Twilight brightly. "It's a good thing I studied up on dimensional travel spells after that other time I got stuck in a strange place for *an entire year* with no access to advanced magical literature!" Her smile faded a bit. "I'll get you back home just as soon as it's safe. I promise."
"What do mean, get us back?" asked Sweepy. Then the spell activated, dropping not just the five travelers, but all eight of them through the floor, to lead in a heap outside the library.
Sweetie Belle groaned. "Dang it, I'm tired of falling down the interdimensional stairs! Whatever happened to interdimensional doorways?!"
The library door swung open, and a purple unicorn stallion with a handsomely mussed mane looked out at them. "Where have you been?!" asked Dusk Shine sternly. "Your brothers have been worried sick and... and, we appear to have guests." His eyes lit up. "Actual travelers from another dimension! This is amazing!"
-
Scootaloo sighed. "Any pony else notice how we're supposed to be using our portable video camera to record all the weirdness in Everfree, we aren't actually doing much exploring of the different weird places in Everfree?"
-
One explanation later, the CMC were standing on another circle, this time their male selves standing far back. "Hope you guys have fun!" Scootaloo called.
"You girls too! And come back! Yah know how the minecart works!" Applebuck replied.
One spell later, the group fell through another dimensional gateway.
+++
"Girls?" asked Twilight's voice...only for a purple wolf with Twilight's Cutie Mark on her chest.
"AH!" the three screamed, then looked behind Twilwolf to see three more CMC...who were also wolf pups.
"...You girls don't eat ponies, right?"
"No," Twiwolf replied. "How are you even sapient?"
One more explanation and spell later...
+++
"Well this one looks right..." said Sweetie Belle, looking around the basement.
"Hey, girls!" called a floating brain in a jar, expressive anime eyes and mouth holographically on the front, Twilight's Cutie Mark on the front of the machine it was attached to. "How'd you get in my lab?"
"AHHHH!"
One long two-sided explanation later.
"Alright, girls, I can just send you home right away! Unless you want to try being Cutie Mark Crusaders brains in jars, it's actually pretty fun!" Brainy Twilight replied.
The trio looked to each other. "Is it permanent?"Applebloom asked.
"Not at all!"
"Hmm..."
One questionable medical experiment later...
"Huh...this feels weird..." said Applebloom, floating around in a flying jar, just a brain but having an expressive holographic face.
"Eh, I miss my wings..." Scootaloo muttered, in the same situation.
Sweetie Belle giggled a bit, cycling through face options and landing on one looking like a Changeling.
One brain returning procedure and spell later.
"Ow!" called Applebloom, the trio landing rather roughly in the middle of Everfree Forest this time.
"How did we end up here?" asked Scootaloo.
"Brainy Twilight did say the spell would put us where we belonged..." Sweetie Belle remarked, standing up. "And that she'd tell Twilight we were back home...hope seeing herself as a brain in a jar doesn't scare her too much..."
-
The Everfree Forest was getting more eerie by the moment... the sun had just set, a strong breeze rustled the branches and leaves around them, and the nighttime birds and bugs were awake and chirping away. Applebloom rummaged in her saddlebag and pulled out the camera. "Ah can't wait to see what we discover this time!" She nudged the focus knob and looked through the camera lenses at... deep forest. And more forest to the left of them, and behind them, and to their right.
"So..." mused Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle sighed. "Why didn't we think to film the future?"
Scootaloo glanced around again, then did a double-take. "Hey... what's that?"
A faint golden light was streaming from a hole in the earth. They might have trotted right on by and never spotted it, if the sun had still been out. The fillies trotted closer, peering inside. Sweetie didn't even need to light the way with her horn... they could clearly see a short earthen tunnel and a shiny archway with a glowing door, the source of the light.
"Is that metal?" wondered Applebloom aloud, peering at the door. "Who would bury all that metal under the ground?" She prodded at the dirt with a hoof. "This is fresh... Ah'd say this hole opened up not more than a week ago."
"What does all this funny writing say?" asked Scootaloo, brushing hoof over a panel on the left side of the archway. She was startled when her hoof nudged some kind of mechanical switch.
The glow remained, but the door slid open, revealing a scene right out of a spaceships and aliens movie. Big console-things full of important-looking buttons, strange chairs on wheels, big flat-panel movie screens on all the walls that should have been blinking away, only everything inside seemed frozen in time...
Including the brown pegasus pony with a shaggy black mane, wearing a white overcoat with lots of pockets. He was half-out of his chair, one hoof poised over a box with lots of wires and some kind of rainbow crystal sculpture.
The fillies stood there with their mouths hanging open, as frozen as the room beyond the door, until the golden glow faded and everything suddenly started moving again. "The prototype device appears to have worked!" exclaimed the pegasus. He snatched up a pencil and notepad and started scribbling purposefully. "Now to see what effect..." An ear flicked, and he spun the chair to face them. "How did you girls get in here?"
Applebloom glanced to the others. "Um... we're explorers! Ah'm Applebloom, and these are mah friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! Who're you?" She pointed the camera towards the strange pony and kept filming, which seemed to annoy him.
The pegasus tugged on his coat lapels. "I am Dr. Moon Shadow, and this is an important government research station, so I will have to ask you to... that's odd..." He poked at a box, which showed only a screen full of static. "What's happened to the broadcast?" He rolled his eyes. "I suppose the joke will be on them, if their so-called wishing spell has blown them all to bits."
-
"Uh, Mr..." said Applebloom, looking the guy over. "Uh, you said this was a military base or somethin'?"
"Government research station, yes," Dr. Moon-Shadow replied. "Why?"
"In the middle of the Everfree Forest?"
"Everfree-what?"
"The Everfree Forest," Scootaloo said. "Yah know, the most dangerous place in Equestria?"
"Equestria? But...do you mean Ponyland?"
"Ponyland? No..." Sweetie Belle replied, cocking her head.
The stallion trotted out and looked around the forest outside of his room, walking on his hind legs. "What...how..."
Scootaloo looked thoughtful for a second. "Wish spell..." she muttered. "Um...Dr. Moon-Shadow? You said you were in here because of a wish spell?"
"Yes...some fools were trying to make a spell to make everyone's wishes come true. I personally wanted nothing to do with it...I was trying to avoid being involved in all that stupid nonsense."
The orange pegasus looked sad. "I...I think you did...But...by a really long time..."
The scientist blinked, turning around. "What?"
"...Miss Twilight told me about something like what you said...but it happened a really, really, really long time ago..."
"...How long?"
Applebloom shook her head clear from her friend's confusing statement. "Uh...do the names Princess Celestia and Princess Luna mean anything to you?"
"No...I'm aware of a Princess Rosey."
"Then...Ah think yah might be a few...thousand years in the future..." Applebloom said, giving a nervous smile.
"T-Thousand years?"
-
Dr. Moon Shadow stared at them a few moments more, then burst into bitter laughter. "You really had me going there. Thousands of years in the future?" He snorted and shook his head. "This is clearly one of those prank shows. See, you even brought a camera! Who put you fillies up to this? Was it Comet Chaser? Aurora Blaze?"
"But, mister..." said Applebloom uncertainly. "This ain't a joke."
Moon Shadow stomped his way back into the underground room and picked up a gadget attached to another gadget by a curly cord. "Don't you 'mister' me. It is a joke. It's just not funny." He held the gadget up to his face and started talking into one end. "Hello, operator? I need... Hello?" He stared at it in disbelief, then rushed to the box he'd noted before, but no matter how he turned the knob and pushed the buttons, the screen still showed only static. He rose and backed away, standing on just his hind legs again. "This... this is a well executed prank, I must admit. It is becoming most unsettling!"
Sweetie Belle had followed him back inside, curious. She jumped when he walked on two legs again. "How do you keep doing that?"
"Doing what?" asked Moon Shadow, honestly puzzled, and then annoyed again. "Enough." He shrugged off his lab coat so he could spread his wings, and then he flew outside, hovering. "I'm going to find a gas station or something... with a working phone!"
Scootaloo took off and followed him as he pumped his wings to gain altitude. "Mis- I mean, doctor! Wait! You don't understand!"
But Moon Shadow shot up through the tree canopy and froze. "What.... WHAT? What happened to the SKY? I- I don't recognize a single constellation! Never mind being in the future or the past... what planet am I on?!"
He started to tremble and fall, wings faltering, but Scootaloo caught him quickly, guiding him back to the ground.
-
Scootaloo gave a small sigh. "...No, you're on the right planet...I know about the wish spell because Twilight told me."
"Twilight...The unicorn from those Paradise Estate lunatics?" Moon Shadow asked, still trembling.
Scootaloo's eyes went wide, remembering from their trips to the past. "...No...Her descendant."
"Descendant?!"
"Yeah...Um, there was an Applejack the First there, right?"
"...Yes..."
"Ours is the Sixth of the Sixth line, whatever that means..."
The scientist's brain seemed to shut down as he mentally did the math. "How...how can this...You're joking...please...let this be..."
We art afraid tis no joke, Doctor."
The group turned around, a shadow of an Alicorn appearing on the moon before the form of Princess Luna descended, landing before them.
"Princess Luna!" called the three fillies, bowing.
Moon Shadow merely stared in disbelief. "It...it can't be...That mad mare Brightglow was right about a pegasus with horns?"
"Brightglow is our sister, Professor Moon Shadow. My name is Princess Luna Nyx Selena Equestria...and we remember you."
The doctor took a step back. "I've never met you, how can you possibly remember me?"
"Because we art the Goddess of the Night. Of the Moon which you desired so strongly to help ponies reach and enjoy," Luna explained. "...Thank you for that."
"...What?"
Luna's horn flashed and the group vanished in a tornado. When it faded, the group found themselves standing on a grey, rocky expanse.
Moon Shadow held his breath, seeming to know something the fillies didn't...but nothing happened. "What?"
Luna's forcefield surrounding them flickered. "Don't worry, my magic is protecting us...welcome to the Moon."
"Wow..." called all three Crusaders, staring in disbelief.
"But...Unicorns can't teleport this far!"
"And that is true, but we art an Alicorn. And this is our domain," explained Luna. "While we art every Moon in the universe...this is the moon of Equus, the planet we call home...Do you recognize that, Dr. Moon Shadow?"
The Doctor turned, eyes falling on a flag still still lodged in the lunar surface. "That's..."
"The flag your civilization planted here millennia ago," the Night Princess explained. "Even at our worst, this little flag brought us joy to see...our little ponies wanted to step foot on the Moon so badly...and for that, we...I am eternally grateful."
-
"Shouldn't the radiation of made it . . . fade by now?"
"Even when . . . suffering a sickness, I still sustained it, as it was one of the few symbols of love towards me from my little ponies I had."
-
Luna scratched her chin. "Also, in my.. unwell state I found that flag... inspiring."
"Huh?" Applebloom tugged on Luna's fetlock, and when the Alicorn looked at her, said, "Inspirin' how?"
"We-ell..."
*On the Moon, centuries ago.*
"Yes, representative of the planet Venus," Nightmare Moon said in her loftiest tone as one of her Moon Creatures, dressed in a painfully pink robe, bowed before her. The old flag from Equus stood at the Nightmare's right flank. "I DO accept your surrender! You and your people may have the honor of living to serve me!" She looked at the next Moon Creature, wearing red-painted tin armor and helmet in the style of ancient Roam along with asurly expression. "Now for Mars! NEXT!"
In the rear of the line the representatives of 'Neptune' and 'Pluto' whispered to each other.
"Not this game again."
"You want to try getting that nightmare through to Celestia again? The one where the cakes try to eat her?"
"... On second thought I'll stick with being the diplomat from Neptune, thanks."
"Yes Olo, you can be regent of Mars if you want," Nightmare Moon said to her imaginary friend Olo the Owlbear. Which being an imaginary friend, only she could see. Her loyal subjects (in this world line having been her loyal servants even before becoming Nightmare Moon, and now served their princess even in her insane state duty bound as they were) pretending their queen was not talking to herself again.
-
Moon Shadow couldn't help but smile a bit, watching Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo competing to see who could jump higher in the low gravity. "Coming here this way almost seems like cheating. The first lunar mission was done entirely without magic, you know?"
Applebloom gasped. "Ooh, really? Just technology? They could *do* that? Er.. why would they do that?"
"Because they had no magic, of course," said Moon Shadow, always up for a good lecture. "It was done entirely by earth ponies, before they rediscovered the unicorns and my kind. For the second mission, we are... well, we were planning to use every available resource." He gestured with a hoof. "Pegasus magic to ensure air quality, and unicorn magic for all sorts of things, and still it was a daunting task." The pegasus paused, suddenly puzzled. "Er, how did it go, if I may ask? Where are... you know, all of the moon habitats?"
Applebloom tilted her head. "Habitats?"
"Places to live. Of course, there must be some... I've missed out on thousands of years of pony progress, after all! So where... ah, I see! This must be a sort of natural preserve, this pristine bit of the moon's landscape, and great and towering moon cities are surely waiting just over the horizon!"
Luna's face fell... she seemed, in that moment, as immensely old as she actually was. "My little pony... I know that you spoke in jest before, that it would serve them right if the wishing spell 'blew them to bits," but... That moment truly was the end of the world that you knew."
Moon Shadow stumbled, his legs suddenly too weak to support him, even here. "But, I didn't think... I... I mean, I did think about it, obviously, but I didn't *want* their foolish spell to bring disaster."
Luna smiled sadly, and sat herself down beside him. "No one is blaming you, doctor. Nor you should blame yourself for surviving when so many others perished. We will offer you what solace we can." She paused, reflecting. "It is a curious but not unwelcome feeling... typically, our sister is the one ponies turn to for comfort, given recent unfortunate history."
Moon Shadow drew a deep breath. "Well, right now you can help me best by satisfying my curiosity. Please, princess... tell me what happened."
She did. Luna told him how magical radiation had hurt and maimed ponies, and turned every piece of modern technology to useless scrap. She spoke of a new society that was only just beginning to rise once more when Discord ground it into the mud all over again for a thousand years, and windigos that forced ponies to make hard journeys to entirely new lands, leaving behind everything. As the tale went on, Applebloom began to stare in fear and awe, while Doctor Moon Shadow seemed to dwindle, huddled low to the ground, lost.
"At least," he said cautiously, when the tale was done, "there was no one at home waiting for me. Not so much as a pet cat. I have that blessing at least." His ears pricked up. "The research station!"
Luna smiled. "You remember it. Are you pondering what I think you are pondering?"
Moon Shadow nodded, already shaking off his depression. "It must be carefully protected and put to use, so it does not go to waste! Everything inside... the books, the DVDs, the equipment and *knowledge*, any or all of them may be one of a kind in this new age, irreplaceable! If only you can make use of it before it wears or breaks down..."
Applebloom gasped, then dug in her saddlebag and unfolded the brochure for the Manehatten Institute of Technology. "Ah'm thinking... maybe a place like this could help you do that?"
Luna smiled to Applebloom and nodded. "Fine idea, young Applebloom...And you are in luck, Doctor," she explained. "Our sister and her student Twilight Sparkle have already began help ponies uncover what technology they are now ready for, so these three discovering you is quite a fortunate. In fact, that is why we chose to contact you myself."
Moon Shadow blinked. "Yes?"
"Ponies of this age have combined science and magic, thanks to our allies the Deer we now have green energy, it was quite amazing to learn of after my return," Luna explained. "...While it may take time to develop everything that's needed...would you like to perhaps help ponykind reach the moon once again?"
Applebloom blinked. "If yah want ponies on the moon so bad, Princess, why go the hard way?"
Luna smiled. "...Because this flag here represents effort. Desire. Determination. Reaching the moon under their own power, Applebloom, is proof to ponykind of what they can accomplish."
Moon Shadow gave it thought. "Green Energy?"
"Well, We art not the most technologically minded Alicorn, due to my long absence, but there are mana batteries and moss that generates it's own power we use to power many machines. Our airships no longer need oil or fossil fuels to operate. We have spoken to Mother Deer about it and she said they're working on plants that can be used to produce large amounts of oxygen, at the moment the intended use is sea exploration...but space exploration and colonies is naturally a possibility."
"That's amazing...airships?"
Luna nodded, focusing her magic and showing an image of various airships. "In some ways, they are superior to the airplanes of your age. They can be built much larger and we've grown quite adapt at using them."
The doctor gave a small smile. "So...with all that happened, ponies continued to adapt and grow...that is quite the solace...and you are correct, green energy of this caliber would be very useful."
-
"The griffins will likely benefit with his knowledge themselves along with the other peoples of the world." Luna declared with a flourish.
"Griffins? What do they have to do with anything?" Moon Shadow asked.
Sweetie quoted from her geography class. "Well, next to the dragons they are a major power on Equus and-"
Moon Shadow tilted his head. "Griffins are dumb animals, PONY EATING dumb animals, how could they be a power? Is it a nickname some ponies picked up?"
The CMC looked at each other bewildered and shaken.
-
"Not really, no." Sweetie Belle, "It's not a nickname some ponies picked up, and they are not dumb animals."
"It's true! Rainbow Dash has a friend called Gilda who's a griffin. Isn't that right?" Scootaloo elaborated, with the other Crusaders nodding their heads in confirmation.
"My sister Rarity also told me about this griffon called Gustave le Grand who's an éclair chef!" Sweetie Belle added "And there's also a sports team of Griffons who competes in the Equestrian Games every few years!"
"... What." A shocked Moon Shadow managed.
"We see that you are not aware of what became of the Griffons in the thousands of years that had passed." Princess Luna observed, "But Sweetie Belle is correct in that they are no longer the 'dumb' pony-eating animals they use to be."
"So, wait, if they're intelligent..." Moon Shadow's mind put two and two together and snapped out of his confusion, "Was that the Wishing Spell's doing? It has to be, it's the most likely explanation from what we know of evolutionary biology and paleontology. It'll take at least millions of years for any lineage of species to develop from non-intelligence to anything resembling sapience by natural selection, over countless thousands of generations. And that's assuming that the environmental pressures during that period of time favors selection for increasing brain sizes and functional differentiation, leading to eventual development of problem-solving, self-awareness, abstract reasoning, and other cognitive traits." Moon Shadow placed a hoof to his chin as he dived deep in thought, running through all possibilities and hypotheses in his heads. "It'll require either an epic miracle or artificial uplift by another intelligent species to cut that time-scale to only a few thousand years."
"You are mostly correct, though it hardly took thousands of years." Princess Luna confirmed, "In fact, it was almost instantaneous. Ponies themselves were mere beasts, once," said Luna, a bit frostily. "They grew wise over many long ages." The moon goddess sighed. "Griffons had to grow up rather more quickly. When the Wishing Spell faltered with civilization-leveling force, it unleashed a deluge of arcane power across the world. While in many cases it caused havoc, in a few instances, it altered the environment and living beings in ways most unpredictable. The Griffons were not the only ones who were benefited; cows, Yaks, and sheep are also given the light of thought and reason, all in the space of a single day.
"So they're not just live-stocks that we herd in farms to harvest their milk and wool from anymore?" Moon Shadow inquired.
"They're not live-stocks! Daisy Joe and her herd are good friends of us Apples and the rest of Ponyville!" Appleboom interjected, shocked at what she heard, "We do get their milk, but it's with fair payment, like bits, free meals and lodgings."
"I see... my apologies." Moon Shadow replied, rubbing his temple with a fore-hoof. "Sorry, I'm still a bit shaken by all this. I mean, just going with the Griffons, the greatest predators of our species in ancient times, becoming intelligent. No doubt they're even more dangerous and cunning now that they can think. And if they're a civilization and major power to hoof as you say..."
"Tis' fine, honestly." Princess Luna reassured, "There had been conflicts in the past, but nowadays our relationships with them are more or less cordial, and most of them no longer has the desire to devour us. It had been fortunate perhaps that the ponies had a few powerful goddesses who can control the heavens themselves to deter the Griffons from any aggression towards us."
"So, they aren't still carnivores?" asked Moon Shadow nervously.
"They do not eat pony.But..."Luna grinned sharply, showing small fangs like her bat-ponies."They did not stop being carnivores, nay.Not at all."
The doctor gulped."It seems that I myself have much to learn..."He took a deep breath."But I still wish to teach the ponies of this era whatever I am able!We can yet have hope that the lessons of the past will guide Ponyland to new heights, *and* a wiser course."
Luna beamed."Excellent!I shall gather scholars from both Canterlot and this new institute, and ensure that your state is well known to them.It would be a poor welcome indeed to this era, if they believed you a fraud."
The doctor chuckled."I'll be most grateful for it, princess.Who knows?Perhaps one day, I will be instructing Miss Applebloom, here."
Applebloom blinked."Ya want to teach me?About technology and magic stuff?"
Moon Shadow tilted his head."You intend to apply to that college in the brochure, I thought.Did I assume incorrectly?"
Sweetie Belle grinned."Better him teaching her than Flim and Flam."
"You should have seen her fixing up their crazy machine," added Scootaloo."It was like she knew how it worked better than they did."
"Really, now?"Moon Shadow peered at the yellow and red filly, noting her blank flank.
"It.. it wasn't anything much, really," said Applebloom, blushing.Then, out of the blue, she shivered and gasped."Sis..."She looked upwards at Equestria, a bright ball hanging in the pitch dark sky, as if wondering how high she'd have to jump to get there."Princess Luna, Ah really need ta..."
"Fear not," Luna interrupted."I sense it as well.You shall be there for your sister."A dark blue bubble surrounded them, and Luna's horn flashed, teleporting them straight to Sweet Apple Acres.
"Thanks!" shouted Applebloom before dashing away at a full gallop, meeting up with Big Mac as he helped Granny Smith hobble out of the house.
When Sweetie and Scootaloo moved to follow, though, Princess Luna barred their way with a foreleg."Let us follow them quietly, my little ponies.Our presence would alarm and distract young Applejack at this crucial moment, but we may watch unseen."
-
"Where are we?" questioned Moon Shadow, but listened to Luna and stayed hidden.
Scootaloo jumped. "You're still here?...Oh yeah, right, we teleported from the moon."
"This is Sweet Apple Acres," Luna explained. "The Apple Family provides the apples for the majority of Equestria."
"I see...I notice a lot of farming techniques are still in use."
"Indeed, in fact her family helped preserve it."
Moon Shadow nodded. "Impressive..."
"Oh, look!" Sweetie Belle called.
"Sis?" asked Applebloom, she, Big Mac, and Granny Smith standing around Applejack.
Big Mac stepped closer, solid and reassuring as ever. "Sis, Ah just want you to know... If this is about what Ah think it is, we're here for ya."
"Always were, always will be," said Granny Smith, putting a hoof over her heart.
Applebloom bounced in place. "One hundred percent!"
"You made a fine wolf," growled Snowbound, suddenly present and lounging off to one side.
"Huh? Where'd he come from?" asked Scootaloo, cocking her head.
"Power has not changed who you are," the pony finished.
"Everybody..." breathed Applejack, brushing a tear from her eyes. "All right, then... Ah'll stop foolin' mahself, and admit Ah'm as ready as Ah'm a-gonna be." Everything seemed to sharpen around the farmpony, colors growing brighter and more distinct, more real. She floated right off the ground, curling into a ball... shining white light enveloped her, concentrated, then burst, leaving the air full of slowing falling sparks.
Within the light, a new being spread wings covered in mirror-like feathers, then reared up, a long horn flashing. The old Stetson remained untouched, sitting atop golden locks of hair that drifted in the breeze of her magic. "Everything's crystal clear now," she spoke. "Ah don't use Truth ta hurt ponies. Ah don't force Truth on anyone... Ah say what the Truth is in this world. Ah *am* the Honest Truth."
Her hooves came back down to earth, and she was surprised and a little embarrassed to find that she was taller than Big Mac now.
"She's done it..." Luna said, giving a smile. "Isn't it wonderful?"
The rest of the group were too busy doing a collective jaw drop.
"Oh...yes, this is a shock, isn't it?"
"Oh ho, pretty fancy!" said Granny Smith, stamping her old hooves in approval. "So what should we call ya now, princess?"
The Alicorn grinned. "Applejack, of course. Okay, technically I'm Veritas and the Page of Swords and a lot more things, but AJ is just fine with me." She blinked. "'Scuse me a sec..."
In a flash of silver, Applejack vanished.
Moon Shadow, being the least versed in Alicorns, was the first to shake it off. "Ponies can do that?!"
"Yes, but few ever do. Applejack has ascended. Now I have even more to inform my sister of."
"So...uh...Princess Luna...all this is real, right?" Scootaloo asked. "I mean...this is OUR universe, right?"
Luna smiled and nodded. "Do not worry, young one, this is part of our world now."
-
Sweetie Belle gasped. "Wait, did she say 'Veritas?'" She paced a bit, turning around when she got to the bubble wall. "And Pinkie Pie is Thalia." Her eyes grew wide. "That means that the Council of Friendship in the future is..." She glanced at Princess Luna, who was gazing down at her expectantly. Sweetie sighed. "I shouldn't think too hard about that?"
Luna smiled. "You are indeed growing wise, Sweetie Belle."
The dark bubble dissolved, and Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and Applebloom turned towards them at once. Applebloom seemed thoughtful, ears drooping a bit, and Big Mac paced slowly towards Luna, giving her a hard look. "We were worried when Applebloom didn't come home last night. She says you an' another Alicorn swore no harm would come to 'em. Ah want to hear it from you mahself."
Luna nodded. "I, whom you know well, and my sister Rota Fortuna, the Alicorn of Fate and Freewill, have ensured the safety of these three fillies during their adventure. If they choose to continue, then so shall our protection. No lasting harm shall come to them. This we swear... Bearer of Honesty."
Big Mac let out the breath he'd been holding. "Alright, then." He lowered his head to Applebloom. "Even so, you be careful now, ya hear?"
"I will!" Applebloom exclaimed, throwing her hooves around her big brother. "Sorry for not sayin' anything ahead of time."
"If there's a next time, you'd better!" said Granny Smith. She peered up and down at Doctor Moon Shadow. "Howdy, young'un. What brings you ta Sweet Apple Acres?"
The doctor, already dead on his hooves and a little twitchy besides, started giggling. "Young one... young! I'm... oh, where could I even begin?"
"There, there," said Granny soothingly. "How about we get you some lunch an' a good rest before you move along?" She looked up at Luna. "Unless he's in a hurry ta be someplace?"
"Actually, that might be exactly what he needs," mused Luna. "We can send a chariot to convey him to Canterlot in the morning, or whenever the good doctor feels himself ready."
-
After getting a small meal from the Apple Family, the CMC returned back to their adventure, Dr. Moon Shadow remaining behind and Luna departing.
"Well that was really cool!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
Scootaloo smirked and nodded. "Yeah! We actually found something BIG! That's so cool!"
Applebloom nodded. "And tah think, this is just the start! Let's see what else we can find!"
Continuing their search, soon the trio came across a clearing with a small bit of ruins in the center. "Looks like we found somethin'! Let's get a close look!"
The group carefully trotted up to the ruins and looked around, finding what looked like a statue of an Alicorn flanked by a unicorn on one side and a pegasus on the other.
"Hey, what's this?" Scootaloo asked, pointing to a ruby in the hooves of the Pegasus.
"Hey there's one here too!" Sweetie exclaimed, looking to a sapphire being held by the unicorn's hooves.
Both slowly took one and looked at them. "Hey, is it just me or do these look like they're supposed to go together?"
Sweetie Belle blinked, looking at the Sapphire, which was circular while the ruby was more of a crescent.
Applebloom blinked, looking to the Alicorn statue, though looking closely she noticed it didn't seem as muscular as the other Alicorns she knew, it just looked like the Earth Pony part was missing. In a necklace on it's chest was an engraving that looked like the ruby and sapphire combined. "Looks like the statue has 'em like that too!"
"Should we try it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Why not? Maybe it'll open some sort of secret treasure or something!" Scootaloo replied.
Carefully, the two foals held up the twin jewels and pushed them together...at which point a massive purple light was let off.
Applebloom covered her eyes as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo seemed to turn into orange and white energy and meld together.
The resulting light orange light solidified and Applebloom's jaw dropped at the result.
Standing where her friend's one stood was a light orange winged unicorn, her mane being a slightly longer and better kept version of Scootaloo's mane physically, but the pattern was Sweetie Belle's with Scootaloo's purple hair color replacing the purple of Sweetie's.
Her Cutie Mark wasn't just the two's on top of each other, but a mixture: a butterfly who's wings seemed to form a heart with the G-Clef like symbol from Sweetie's seeming to form motion lines for the Butterfly.
The ruby and sapphire mixed together was now around her neck in a necklace.
The remaining energy from the fusion seemed to rain down as butterflies and song notes.
The pony opened to reveal blue eyes and gave a confident smile. "Hi Applebloom!"
Her voice wasn't some weird legion thing of her friends, but sounded like a unique voice that was...both of them but neither of them.
Applebloom blinked. "Sweetie? Scootaloo? Is that you?"
"Yep! Well, sorta."
"Sorta?"
"I'm kinda them but I'm not them...I guess just call me an amalgam of the two of them, okay?"
Applebloom blinked, finding that making an odd deal of sense. This pony seemed to have Sweetie Belle's excitement...but was more confident like Scootaloo. And looking closer, she noticed they didn't seem as muscular as an Earth Pony, more like they were right in the middle of them. And Scootaloo wouldn't say amalgam...but Sweetie Belle would.
The pony put a hoof to her chin. "Scootabelle? Nah, that's lame, not to mention uncreative...how about...Upbeat? I like that name!"
"Okay...so, Upbeat...are yah stuck like that?" Applebloom asked, seeming a bit scared.
"Nah! I don't think so, pretty sure I just gotta take this necklace off!" replied the fused filly, taking the necklace a little off, causing her to revert back to the light orange and began to separate before putting it back on and stabilizing back into Upbeat.
The farm filly gave a sigh of relief. She looked at the ruins. "That's good, guess that ain't some evil artifact thingie...so...uh...what now?"
"I've got an idea..." said Upbeat, getting a look that reminded her both of Scootaloo when she wanted to do something kind of dangerous, but also Sweetie when she was going to sing.
The winged unicorn's (not Alicorn, there was a difference) horn lit up with Sweetie Belle's magic color and Applebloom gave a yelp as she was lifted into the air.
"Come on! This'll be fun!" called Upbeat in a confidently excited tone.
Applebloom flailed a bit...but then looked Upbeat in the eyes. They weren't the eyes of some invader or demon...they were a mix of her friend's eyes. She could see both Sweetie AND Scootaloo in them. "Okay...Ah trust yah...But how yah doing this?" she asked, pointing to the magic holding her and the camera up.
"I'm everything Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have! Including their stamina and mana reserves!" was Upbeat's reply. "Come one!"
The winged unicorn took both of them up above the forest canopy.
"Wow! Ah can see mah house in here!" exclaimed Applebloom, seeing the Apple Family farm.
"Yeah! It's awesome!" exclaimed Upbeat, her tone a mixture of pride and sheer glee of someone who was just happy to be in the air. Applebloom wondered if Sweetie Belle was enjoying flight. "This way all of us can fly together!"
Applebloom blinked, then gave a smile. "Yeah!" After all, Scootaloo couldn't really carry BOTH of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle easily, this way all three of them were flying together!
At that point, the fused filly took in a deep breath. "We leave the ground so easily
Float along so breezily!
Here we are, you and I
Three for the sky!" she sung. While the voice was still the same mixture, it was no doubt the talent was from Sweetie Belle.
Upbeat took Applebloom up above the clouds, showing she had Scootaloo's flying talent as they seemed to be dancing in the air. In fact, they were! And Applebloom decided what the hay and joined in. After all, she was floating in the fused ponies telekinesis, so why not exploit that?"
"Above the clouds, we're hovering!
Having fun discovering!
Way up here, way up high
Three for the sky!"
Applebloom gasped as they went up, seeing the moon high above.
"Could any road be airier?" Upbeat sang, but seemed to roll her eyes playfully at her own pun.
Applebloom gave a chuckle and joined in. Even if she'd never heard the song, her heart sure noticed it. "Any friends feel merrier?"
"Gosh I'm glad we can fly
Three for, three for the sky!"
They continued to rise, but it seemed Sweetie Belle's more restrained nature was part of Upbeat as well, as they didn't go TOO high. Still high enough that the moon looked big and bright and they could see Canterlot and Ponyville easily.
Luna's image appeared on the moon and gave the fused filly and her friend a smile, they waved back.
"We see the earth grow tinier
Every star seems shinier
And we sigh you and I
Three for the sky!"
Applebloom did a spin as they continued the aerial dance, now descending a bit and flying alongside a flock of night going birds.
"Could any road be airier?
Any friends feel merrier?
Gosh I'm glad we can fly
Three for the sky!
Zip and zoom quite snappily
With the birds so happily
Now that we too can fly
Three for three for the sky!"
Upbeat slowly let the two glide and come down to the ground.
"Three for, three for the sky!"
As the two touched down, Applebloom and Upbeat laughed. "That was so much fun!" Applebloom exclaimed.
Upbeat smirked. "Tell me about it! You have no idea how long Scootaloo's wanted that!"
Applebloom blinked. "She did?"
"Yeah...she can fly with one of you, but she's really wanted to fly with you both. Glad I could let her have that!" Upbeat exclaimed with a mix of kindness and confident pride. "Anyway, I think I'm going to split. Just remember, if you want to see me again, just ask those two!"
Upbeat removed her necklace completely, causing her to turn into light orange energy and split apart back into white and orange energy that solidified into Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, both smiling.
"...You two okay?" Applebloom asked carefully.
"Yeah! That was so cool!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, hopping up happily.
Scootaloo chuckled. "Yeah! All three of us flying together! Or...all two of us...I'm confused."
"Still, that thing is pretty cool if it can do that!" Applebloom said, smiling. "But where'd that song come from? It sounded...kinda familiar."
Scootaloo blushed a little, realizing it'd been her soul that Upbeat had gotten it from. "Somewhere...anyway, we found a really cool artifact! I'd say that's another success!"
"Yeah!...Though..." Applebloom said, looking at the twin gems. "...Think Ah should give that thing a try with one of yah? It looks like fun!"
"I sensed it was you three who had found it," said a voice that sounded kinda like Princess Luna, but instead was looked like a filly version of her.
"I'm sorry I can't be in person, but I'm also helping Moon Shadow, but at the same time, I sensed you girls had need of me again. Because of the damage that has happened. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Moonshine, one of Princess Luna's avatars, I am both an independent being and but a extension of Princess Luna's existence."
"And Apple Bloom, just because an artifact joins a pony into one entity in a permanent fashion does not make it evil. There are ponies alive today who are descendants of fused ponies and their mate. It is . . . considered an unspoken, but not impossible third option for love triangles and love dodecahedrons though that is rarer. Though it more common in Neighpon for some reason, a Neighponese Prince named Lighthawk Wings had a half dozen mares in love with him, all would be dead-inside without him as their one and only and chose to fuse into one mare to be his wife, and is now remembered as one of Neighpon's queens. And then there was a horde of martial artists who kept destroying their town over who would love who among them, and were fused into a single loving couple to save their town from total destruction.
"Most ponies simply choose to find somepony else, or accept their beloved is happy. Tis reserved for ponies who truly would be hollow-within without the same other half. Thus why my sister has a 'trial period' before the joining is made permanent. Tis also considered too . . . unruly to be used as a tool of fighting for ponies to simply join together to gain power over an opponent. Thus why my sister and I have never done so, and have extracted a vow from Cadence NEVER to do so."
"What you are holding is merely the trial run version." Moonshine brought a pearl to bear in her telekinesis. "Apple Bloom, this is the third part. You'll find it fits perfectly in a depression in the sapphire, place all three together, and you'll become one pony. But I must confess, I came here for another reason.
"Something is very very wrong here." Moonshine said. "According to the rules of the protection you were under by Fate, the night, FOR YOU, should have lasted until you had had your fill of exploring Everfree. Effectively, dawn should have come only once you had had enough. Since once you had spent an entire night in Everfree, the protection would end. Time SHOULD NOT have passed for you, you would have been starting over from THAT moment as you different yous through out the Everfree explored different paths, until the final group of you came out of the Everfree. It was part of the nature of the protection for your girls to be exploring ONLY Everfree at night. You SHOULDN'T have been able to go to Twilight Sparkle's home. And you SHOULDN'T have taken till the next day. The lines of fate shouldn't have allowed that to happen. Since the ENTIRE POINT was that none of your friends and family would worry regardless of what fates you met. There was been some SERIOUS DAMAGE to the protection given to you. And I fear it might soon damage you."
"To concise, it should STILL be the night you girls started exploring, not the next day. And you SHOULDN'T have been able to explore anywhere except the Everfree, not Ponyville. This has . . . to suffice to say, imagine a container, now imagine holes have been poked in it, and now imagine the liquid leaking OUT of the container. . . . And then the container will be empty."
-
Apple Bloom gulped. "What coulda done that? Did we do somethin' wrong, somethin' that coulda messed up time?"
"What haven't we done?" fretted Sweetie Belle. "We hopped all over time outside our special night in Flim and Flam's time machine... went to all those other dimensions... got our brains put in jars... broke a spell that was keeping time frozen for thousands of years...."
Apple Bloom nodded along. "And then mah big sister got reborn as an *Alicorn* and turned everything upside-down again!"
"But, Luna promised Big Mac that we'd be safe!" Scootaloo pointed out. "So she must already have some kinda plan!" She grinned hopefully at Moonshine. "Right, Princess Luna?"
-
"Maybe I can help with this."
The group turned to find Snowbound suddenly behind them.
Sweetie blinked, seeing a little white wolf pup. "Blanky?"
Snowbound gave a blush at that name but gave the filly a wink.
"Oh! Hi...uh..." Applebloom looked a little nervous.
"How can you help?" Scootaloo asked.
"You could say it's kind of my job..." Snowbound explained, trying NOT to spill the secrets of the universe to a bunch of fillies. "I'm kind of..."
"A werewolf?!" Applebloom asked, then covered her mouth. "...Sorry..."
"...You could say that, but I'm the good kind...you know, the kind that eats the bad ones?" Snowbound asked, looking relieved.
"Yes! Mystery solved! Ah told yah!" Applebloom whispered to her friends.
"But..."
The group looked back.
"I'm more...slash stuff up than patch it up..." the Blank Wolf in pony form explained. "I can fix things, but normally I have to...cut out the bad parts first. But...the same power I use to clean out a wound...could be used to stitch one up if I had unicorn magic...and sewing knowledge."
Sweetie Belle blinked, then looked at the necklaces. "Oh! I get it!"
Moonshine looked to Snowbound. "Well well, I know my sister said you were allowed more freedom, but I thought..."
"Long story..." Snowbound explained, hiding a blush and not wanting to admit having enjoyed the role of being Sweetie Belle's pet dog. "Besides, this is a hole in mom's design, I'm supposed to help with stuff like this if I can."
"Are yah sure about this Sweetie?" Applebloom asked, cautious.
"If it fixes this," the unicorn replied with a smile.
"Okay..." Scootaloo said, handing the Ruby to Snowbound.
"This is going to be so weird..." the stallion replied, reverting back to his Wolf form and putting the ruby together with Sweetie's Sapphire. The two converted into slightly different shades of white energy, the Blank Wolf's having the strange void-like appearance he normally did.
Combining, the two became an androgynous unicorn-like foal a bit taller than they originally were, manifesting with a wolf howl as the residual energy formed a full moon behind them. However, unlike Sweetie Belle, this pony had shaggier white fur, wolf-like ears, and a more wolfish tail that still kept her fur colors. Their hooves were now wolf paws and they had a wolf's nose at the end of their snout, but the rest of the body was still equine. Snowbound's aura of the void still hung around them. The necklace around their throat resembling a collar for some reason.
Their cutie Mark was the Heart from Sweetie Belle's with musical notes forming a Wheel of Fate around it. One cutie mark, not two, in other words, one identity, one awareness.
"Hi!" said the strange being, voice making it hard to tell if it was a male or a female tone...but strangely sounding like a happy puppy.
"Uh...hi..." Applebloom replied.
"Hmm...I think call me Wolf Song, okay?" the wolf-pony hybrid asked.
"Okay then..." Scootaloo replied, a little confused. "Are you a boy or a girl?"
Wolf Song blinked. "...I don't know..." they muttered, scratching their ear with a hind leg. "I think neither...or both...I don't know..."
Moonshine cleared her throat. "Wolf Song, you were formed for a reason, remember?"
The Avatar left it out that this was likely only safe to do because Sweetie's soul was from Cadence's and thus could mix with the Blank Wolf's nature, and the fusion gems were divinely created to begin with. Any other soul and she'd have rejected the idea instantly.
The Blank Foal blinked, then looked focused, if still a bit hyper. Putting their nose to the ground, they sniffed around. "This way! Follow me!"
"Hey! Wait up!" called Scootaloo and Applebloom, Moonshine following as they chased the foal with the energy of Sweetie Belle and the limitless drive of the Blank Wolf.
"Oh! And if this is a tear is the magic momma set up, I might need you to cover me if anything tries to slip through!" Wolf Song called back, not taking their nose off the path ahead towards the metaphysical tear. Being metaphysical, it was less 'somewhere' as 'nowhere', but traversing nowhere was among the Blank Wolf's abilities.
"Anything?"
"Uh...you'll know them if you see 'em..."
-
Deeper in the forest, Wolf Song came to a crossing of paths and started pacing in a circle, sniffing at the ground.
"So..." Scootaloo flew over, hovering just behind them. "You turned Applebloom's sister into another werewolf, before she turned into an Alicorn? What's up with that?"
The Blank Foal paused, then went right back to sniffing. "Long story."
Applebloom grinned saucily. "Is Mr. Snow Bound mah sister's secret coltfriend?"
This time, Wolf Song stopped and gave her a look. "We're just friends. Although..." They blinked, considering. "She's eternal now. That means I won't lose my friend to death!" They bounced in place, tail wagging. "I can't wait to see what kind of party Miss Thalia will throw! It's gonna be awesome!"
Moonshine gave them a reserved smile, as the wolf-pony went bounding down another path. "I can certainly see Sweetie Belle's influence in this combination."
Scootaloo hesitated. "This path... isn't this the first place we went, the one with the magic duel?"
She and Applebloom glanced at each other, and then they galloped ahead, trying to keep catch up. They charged around another bend in the path and found Wolf Song sitting in front of a weird hole that fluttered in the air, like a ghostly sheet hung on an invisible clothesline.
Even weirder, on the other side of the hole they could see Dusk Shine, Rainbow Blitz, and Apple Jack standing in the clearing, with another Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, all staring back at them. "Okaaaay, that's a pretty good trick," admitted Rainbow Blitz. "I don't know how I'm going to top that one."
Wolf Song did something in-between a pony snort and a growl. "This interaction... this doesn't happen." With a great howl, or maybe a musical shout, they sprang and sunk claws glowing with void energies into thin air, pulling the tear closed. Then they began to hum eerily... their horn glowed, and a giant needle and thread made of pure green light stitched the hole closed.
Applebloom and Scootaloo could only stand and stare, their mouths agape. "Well... that wasn't so hard," said Scootaloo.
Wolf Song barked a laugh. "There will be more for you to do at the next one."
-
"What? How many are there?" Apple Bloom asked.
-
"We'll know when we catch up to the one making them." Wolf Song sniffed their way around the clearing, then growled and took off running again.
Apple Bloom blinked. "Huh? Ya mean, it wasn't the time machine? That's a relief! Ah was feeling bad, thinking this was mah fault... Hey, wait up!"
"But if there's some *thing* running around here that can chew holes in reality..." Scootaloo gulped. "Uh, not that I'm scared or anything!"
Wolf Song flicked their ears, realizing that they'd run far ahead of the others. Scootaloo especially... she was lagging and out of breath. "We must hurry... but I can't take you through the shadows unprotected, and I haven't learned to teleport." They gave Apple Bloom a toothy grin. "The next time Twilight offers to teach me magic, just hogtie me and toss me in the library if I don't say yes!"
"Don't slow down for me," Scootaloo urged Wolf Song. "I can fly."
Apple Bloom grinned. "And Ah can run a long time!"
Moonshine nodded. "Rest assured, I'll not be left behind."
-
Wolf Song, being currently half an immaterial instrument of the gods, and one flesh and blood filly whose spirit could trace its roots back to the goddess of song. So its power to turn intangible was lessened, but only slightly, she/he zig-zagged between the Everfree Trees, losing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo for a minute.
It was another portal, and a pony had finished squeezing her way out.
It was a blond maned pony with white fur, her cutie mark architect's triangle. Her mane was done in Sweedish pigtails.
"Hi! I'm here to point out the logic fallacies in your lives and view points, that you'll accept without any meaningful counterargument because my logic is just that flawless, and you'll be totally thankful that I did so, unless you're a designated villain of course whose only purpose in life is to be an obstruction to the greater good."
She smiled a smile that was supposed to be friendly and warm, but somehow instead came across as smug.
Wolf Song spoke in its genderless voice. "Author Mouth Piece detected." Wolf Song snarled and leapt upon the pony. A few moments later, Wolf Song said to her/his self, "So that's what author mouthpiece tastes like without the seasoning of Mary Sue superpowers. Am I sure she was a infection? A infection is not measured by their power, but by their lack of meaningful failures, how their actions 99.9% turn out for the better even when they apologize for them, and they ALWAYS have a GOOD retort when they're called out, opposed to when THEY call out others. So yes, I did just eat an infection. Oh Mother Fate, I really did just eat a pony! She was an infection, an empty vessel for the will of its creator. She had no personality or identity of its own. So I did nothing wrong."
Wolf Song began to seal the tear as the others caught up.
"Everything went well?" Moonshine asked.
"Yes." Wolf Song replied.
-
Wolf Song began to sniff around again, this time leading in another direction. "We're getting close to the root of this," they remarked.
Scootaloo looked to Moonshine. "So, uh, if the fusion stones were meant for lovers, what does it do in ponies that aren't?"
"The fusion the gems create is an embodiment of the components bond with one another," the avatar explained, as they headed forwards. "When it's two ponies who love the same one so strongly they can't live without them, the fusion is likely to become permanent because both love the same being, if it's a fusion of lovers who genuinely love one another, it isn't uncommon for their fusion to become permanent, the two truly becoming one as a literal manifestation of the marriage."
The mare chuckled. "There was a hot headed, emotional Earth Pony and a logical, calm unicorn who's love was so strong that they desired to fuse together into a well balanced hole so they can never be apart."
"Okay, and friends?" Applebloom questioned.
"Lovers differ from friends in how utterly one they are. Friends hearts beat as one, lovers hearts BECOME one. And thus friends don't have the same desire to remain fused as lovers. I would not have given you the Pearl if you were being put at risk by the fusions. Simply don't take them as a TOY, more as an expression of your friendship. And be careful not to fuse with someone you have NO bond with...such fusions tend to be VERY unstable."
"And her? Him...them?" Scootaloo asked, still following Wolf Song.
"The two seem to know each other, but their relationship seems more akin to a pet and their master," Moonshine admitted. "The only other example I've seen of such a bond fusing was a Neighponese Shinobi who could fuse with their pet dog via a spell. It was normally quite stable, primarily because a pet is loyal to it's owner, and thus will obey without question but leave when it's master desires to."
"Wait, owner? How does that work?" Scootaloo asked, causing the Blank Foal to blush a little.
"We're here!" Wolf Song exclaimed, coming to a larger rip in the universe.
Standing in front of it and turning around was what looked like a tall, slender stallion in a black suit, his face nothing but a blank white head and his Cutie Mark an odd symbol none of them knew.
"Ugh, this guy. I knew Snow Bound smelled his stink earlier," Wolf Song replied, the Slenderpony having been driven off before by several benevolent possessed toys. "Looks like Mother Fate's protection getting damaged gave him a chance to do more damage."
The camera filled with static for a moment.
"Uh, the Camera doesn't seem tah like him," said Applebloom.
"Yeah, he does that."
The Slender Pony made several unintelligible screeches.
"I believe he said 'I'm doing this for revenge on Thalia for foiling my cousin's plans.' I believe he's referring to Thalia adverting a massive disaster," Moonshine explained.
*Static*
"We've got to stop him so I can close the main rift!" exclaimed Wolf Song. "Oh, and just so you know, he's an invader so I CAN fight him, but I need help to actually finish him off, and he kinda has a taste for foals."
"Alright *Static* Let's go!" Scootaloo said with a gulp.
"You shall not harm our subjects demon!" roared Moonshine.
The camera was consumed by static, and when it came back, Scootaloo was being held by black tendrils coming from the eldritch horror's back...until Applebloom reared back to give him an Apple Buck to a certain area.
*Static*
Slender Pony roared as he tried to force Wolf Song back with his tendrils as the Blank Foal snapped at his throat, Scootaloo flying by him with a wing blade and slicing him, spilling black blood.
*Static*
Wolf Song was thrown into their fellow Crusaders with the monster's tendrils, before Moonshine gave a blast of pure, focused moonlight to the face.
*Static*
The group blinked as Ponythulhu popped out of the dimensional rift and invited them to a midbattle tea party.
*Static*
"His one true weakness is a children's toy truly loved!" Moonshine warned as the group were slammed together by the abominations tendrils.
*Static*
"Hey faceless! Catch!" Scootaloo yelled, pulling the little pony figure Sweetie Belle had gotten from Bonnie Zacherle a good while ago from the foal's saddle bag and throwing it at Slender Pony.
The monster blinked, catching it in his hooves...and then screaming in agony as it burned his flesh like acid.
*Static*
Moonshine seemed to refocus the portal to another location and Scootaloo and Applebloom sent the weakened abomination flying through the portal with a combined flying headbutt and Applebuck.
"Where did we send 'em?" Applebloom asked.
The group looked through the portal to find the monster looking around to find himself sitting in a little filly's bedroom.
A little yawn came and a small donkey filly strangely resembling Smartypants set up in bed, looking at him.
"Hi! You look like you need a hug!"
The monster screamed as the little foal who was once a children's toy hug tackled him and he instantly melted into nothing, the spirits of all the poor foals he'd devoured being released, giving a smile at their murderer's demise.
Wolf Song quickly sealed the portal with the combined power of their components. "There! All done!"
The group collapsed. "So all done? We fixed it?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yep!" Wolf Song exclaimed, finally separating their necklace and splitting back into their components.
Sweetie panted. "That was fun...weird and kinda scary, but fun..." she said, hugging her little doll of herself.
Blanky allowed himself a lick on his 'master's' cheek. "Yeah...it was."
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Sorry Sweetie, you're not a deity(yet, anyway)
Poor Twilight. At least its not a surprise any longer
Hoo boy. Here we go.
Not sure why, but this Dusk has always had a British accent.
No they don't! ......oh sweet Celestia what if they do? Nowhere is safe!!
I'm sorry, what?!
No. None of that. Shame on you(i love puns, but that one physically hurt)
If only i listened to advice such as that.
Always did like that song. nice
That is quite an interesting concept
What kind of fanfics have you been reading princess? Tell me so i can avoid them at all costs
And working with AJ and losing to Shining Armor, and boy our canine friend sure has gone through alot
Scootaloo does a pretty good Professor Oak
Eliminate with extreme prejudice. And speaking of, i just want to say how incredible it is that you haven't done this at all despite the ridiculous amounts of meta in this series.
All I can think of is Sweetie's rage at the Magical Fillies' attempt to sing the song.
Nice
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She was based on a pony comic of an OC who every strip pointed out a logic fallacy the mane six were using, who always agreed with her, never gave counter arguments, and was never proven wrong.
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You can thank my editors for me not going overboard sometimes with my meta commentary.
7829056
Brainy Twilight is a Ask A Pony Tumblr where Twilight removes her own brain and places it in a hover bot to maximize her mental potential... and every pony trying to get used to her new lifestyle choice.