tales from the multiverse as read by Echatu.

by dudebladeX

what if... #2

"Aracnophobia, noun. the fear of spiders, scorpions, and arachnids in general." Echatu said "...really? a definition from the dictionary? we're really opening with that?"
"eh, it wasn't that unoriginal- hey! my text font is just a plain default! what gives!?" Our favorite pink equine exclaimed. "don't think you can get off the hook by saying I'm your 'favorite pink equine', you do realize this. means. war you little sonova-"
Echatu cut her off before Pinkie could lose this story's rating, "and let's get to the story! Arachnophobia depicts Celestia freaking out because of all pets, Luna got a Tarantula, and she is deathly afraid of Tarantulas, and spiders in general." he continued, "not our story andcuethetrollface! our story is a twist on the old 'Nightmare moon is Twilight's mother' fic, ya dig?"
Pinkie face-hoofed. "really? that's how you're introducing it? we are so, going to get horrendous reviews."
"the author wants to, quote: 'make it more modern'" Echatu said.
"and crappy slang is the way?" Pinkie continued, "the author is watching some Marvel ultimate alliance® playthrough, and we have a bad first chapter."
"yes, I am well aware of the horrendous first chapter that we had, I am the watcher after all, but hey, we here at multicorp we learn from our mistakes." the watcher was then interrupted by pinkie,
"Echatu, your contract states that you have to give a 'what if' example for the first three chapters, and so far, you piggybacked off of one writer's fic, and made some kind of weird innuendo about another! at least designate which universe the mainstream series take place."
"sigh, of course, the mainstream universe, designation: '72574' and if any of you get the reasoning behind the number, you get to torture the author by posting your idea of a what if no matter what the fic is. it can be-"
Pinkie cut him off, "okay, first off: 'did you actually say 'sigh' instead of sighing?" Echatu sweated at this question "and second: the author obviously won't do stories like 120 days of blueblood or sexual locust. let's face it, he's not doing clop fics, now just get to the new scene transition and get on with this."
Echatu sighed as he continued, starting with his example universes, (and before you ask, yes Pinkie did eye the watcher suspiciously at his actual sigh, now will she end this parentheses drop in or not? ah, there we go-) "a 'what if' is a scenario where something different may have happened, for example a minor change causing a big effect would be if Rainbow dash had more of a mesh colored mane, this would result in Applejack not seeing the rainbow to lead her home, assuming it was an aurora, and she would stay in Manehatten, ultimately creating eternal night without her, ironically, Babs Seed would have tried to comfort her Ponyville family loss by saying 'hey maybe even if you were there, you probably wouldn't change anything' yeah."
pinkie continued his example, "that was... weird, but a major change resulting in a minor effect would be 'what if Nightmare moon was a completely separate entity from Luna?' the result being that Luna would end up talking with her sister about her problems, and Celestia making an occasion just for the two lunar princesses, or at least trying, but a freak magical accident would fuse Nightmare and Luna together and they would end up making Nightmare night themselves and everything would go downhill from there as the subjects would get the wrong idea, and*pant* resulting in them going to the moon. Celestia would then get the candy and drown her sorrows in it, until Twilight would come along and give Celestia the hope that her sisters would need. Unfortunately this resulted in Luna getting multiple personality disorder switching between herself and Nightmare at random moments making it really awkward for them."
the watcher was stunned "how did she... never-mind, and remind me again why we have to do this?"
"I... don't... know... I think the author just wants to increase the word count..."
"let's... just start the story okay?"
"yeah... sure..."
"let's uh... yeah, let's get started..."
<~>
It was the eve of the summer sun celebration, and all through the equestria, not a creature was stirring, not even a... pizzeria... apparently, but wait what is this? two fillies and their mother walking through the mist! this rhyming is a pain! oh, but they insist! sigh, riding on the back of the Lavender Alicorn they are, white and blue can be seen, if not from afar, playing ispy with a nice hummed tune to play by, "I spy with my little eye, some thing that is nice!" the white one said with glee,
the blue one replied, "is it, mommy?"
"how did you guess?" the white one said, a little depressed (she was losing)
"it's been 'me' for the last thirteen times Stella" lavender alicorn as she interrupted her hum to say, "Selene's just following the pattern" Selene stuck her tongue out to make a point, as her mother had a look made of disappoint.
(it was at this time the author ran out of rhymes, what a time.) "But Mom! you're the only pony worth noticing!" Stella said with a nuzzle.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but honey, Selene is beating you fifteen to three, and I'd like to see you win or at least get to the double digits" The lavender Alicorn said with a smile.
"Mom! Mom! the next town's coming up!" Selene said with glee.
"hmm? oh, so we are," Their mother said, "so what'll it be, sweeties? Earth, Unicorn, or Pegasus?"
"we don't do unicorn all to often what with most of them being near that stuffy old town up that mountain..."
"yeah, and the blue-blood clan still teases us for being 'weirdos'" Stella continued for her little sister.
"Alright my little princesses, unicorns it is, and I'll be sure to get those blue-bloods back for you two."
"eeee!" the little fillies squealed, as they made their way to the cozy horsey and initiated the disguise spell that hid their wings
"hi, suite for three?" the lavender said, she smiled as the Earth pony led the way to their suite, and gave him a nice amount of bits for his troubles. all through the night they practiced magic, played some board games, and told stories until it was time to go to bed.
"goodnight my little princesses, see you in the morning." the little fillies mother said as she tucked them into bed. she gave them an affectionate smile, 'they are going to do extraordinary things one day, I just know it' she thought as she made her way to her bed, the traveling trio dreamed sweet dreams.
"Mommy?" Selene asked with a hint of worry in her voice waking her mother in the middle of the night.
"huh? Selene? what are you doing up? you know it's not healthy for a growing filly." her mother groggily said.
"I know, mom. but..." Selene was clearly distraught about something, "I had... I had a dream, where you, just got sucked into a portal and never came back. y...you you never came bahahack!" she sobbed into her mothers arms with some sniffles and tears.
"don't worry Selene," her mother said comforting her crying daughter, "even if I disappear," she said with a firm yet comforting tone, "I'll always be in here." she punctuated by pointing to Selene's chest signifying her heart. "now come on, you can sleep with me tonight." a little whimper came from the other bed as Stella stood up also a bit distressed and also let out a whimper.
Their mother let out a tired sigh, "alright Stellie, you can sleep with me too."
as if on cue, Stella hovered over to the other bed, snuggling up to her mother and letting out a sigh of content, "I love you mommy..."
"and I love you too, my little princess..." her mother replied with a yawn as they both drifted off to sleep.

The summer sun celebration was festive enough, with snacks, games, prizes, and little shops for everypony. The three disguised alicorns had a wondrous time, from the caramel apples, to the dunk-a-pony game. Stella even got her mother to let her enter a raffle for a certain event that wouldn't be kept public until a winner was drawn. after a little more time of the festivities the raffle was announced to be drawn in a little while.
"Fillies, and gentlecolts! today we will draw the name of the name of a little filly or colt to assist in the raising of the sun!" the announcer called out with volume, "the raffle has been drawn! and our winner is, Miss Stella!"
Stella gasped in fear and excitement, she had never won a contest, and this was a big honor for her! she walked up to the stage nervously trying to shy away from the crowd when she saw none other than Bejeweled Blue-blood! glaring at her with a malicious intent. "way to go Sis!" Selene called out from the crowd as she and her mother quelled down their supportive cheering, she made her way to the center of the stage.
"what do you mean three of them are late!?!" the announcer barley whispered backstage. "you five were all supposed to be here on time! now we'll have nearly four hundred fillies and colts panicking and several parents worried out of their minds!"
"b-bu-but sir!"
"No 'buts'!" the MC said, "we gotta find enough magical energy to move the Faust-damned sun! now you hurry up and uhhh..." he stuttered as he saw Stella and her eyes glowed pure white as sunlight slowly started to peak out over the horizon, shocking every single living being in the crowd.
But nopony was more shocked than Selene and their mother. mouths hanging open completely perplexed as to how she was slowly rising the sun all on her own. once it was in place, she calmed down, and started passing out, only hearing the murmurs of the crowd. the last thing she heard was the concern of her mother and sister.

---

"are you okay sis?" Selene's voice came through,
Stella let out some exhausted moans as she stretched her wings, finding herself and her sister riding on their mother's back traveling through a forest. "ohhh, my head hurts..." she semi-whined as she rubbed he head
"and here I thought your flank would hurt too," her mother said in a playful tone, "you also got your cutie mark!"
Stella gasped, and she took a look finding a little sun design where she expected a patch of white fur to be. "yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! woo hoo!" she cheered as she bounced around her mother as they were walking.
after for what felt like hours, they found a clearing, and their mother, using a dimensional 'bag' of sorts, brought out a large tent, some sleeping bags, some food, and cooking supplies while her daughters gathered some sticks to make a nice warm campfire.
Selene noticed the clouds moving and went up to her mother, "Mom, uh, how can those clouds move without the Pegasus ponies moving them?"
Her mother gave her an affectionate smile and a little tussle of her mane, "I don't know sweetie, maybe the clouds decided to move, ever freely in the sky to take a break from being pushed around by them."
Stella exclaimed "Hey! if this forest hasn't been discovered yet, maybe we can name it! how's 'Everfree' sound?"
"sounds like a great name sis!" Selene agreed, "how about it mom? can this bee like, the 'Everfree forest'?" she said with a bit of a pout.
"alright, alright, it can be the 'everfree' lets just get camp set up alright?" The lavender alicorn conceded.
"yay!" the two fillies squealed, joyed to having a good time, they gathered sticks, rolled some stones, and helped set up the tent. Stella then stopped and looked west, as if she were sensing something.
her horn started glowing and caught her by surprise. as she tried to stop it the sun started setting in the horizon, but the moon had yet to come out. "wha-what's going on?" she asked, quite worried.
"uh," her mother started, "don't quote me on this, but... I have no idea."
Selene and Stella donned an expression of disbelief, they thought their mother knew everything!
it took about four minutes for the moon to follow along with various haphazardly placed stars, as per usual.
the three alicorns finished up setting up camp, the lavender one then started to make some daffodil and daisy sandwiches.
as they ate Selene spoke up, "Hey sis, how exactly were you able to move the sun on your own?"
Stella shied away at the question "uh, i-i don't know..." she started trembling "I-I-I I just overheard them saying that the other unicorns couldn't make it and i..." she let out a small sob, "I just wanted to help..."
"it's alright sweetie," her mother comforted, "you won't get hurt. not as long as I'm around. as long as I'm here, I'll tear apart mountains to protect you, you and your sister. she hugged the now comforted filly and her sister as they all smiled.
"hey, mom? when do you think I'll get my cutie mark?" Selene questioned
"I don't know sweetie, but hey, maybe you'll get yours by raising the moon." all alicorns giggled.
"yeah... maybe" Selene yawned as she and her sister drifted off to sleep.

---

Ponyvile was a nice place to settle down, and living in the library was relaxing, and being able to have bedtime stories conveniently around was a plus for their mother. of course, they couldn't go out as their alicorn selves, Stella's incident was still in the papers, luckily, the news reporters didn't get a look at her cutie mark and the residents simply assumed that Stella simply had the ability to bring out the brightest in everypony, they weren't wrong.
The ponies were friendly enough, except for the 'Riches' whom Selene described as 'arrogant stupid spoiled hate oriented little eggheads'. Her mother was not amused and told them to ignore them and play with the 'apples' whom both sisters described 'as sweet as a sugar cube' the alicorn was amused this time.
the trio of alicorns went up to another nearby town to celebrate the 'Winter moon celebration' or rather, duo. Stella stayed back home out of fear of a repeat.

---

The two alicorns slammed the door shut.
The lavender, out of breath, spoke first, "what... are, the odds of that happening twice?! to my daughters!?"
Selene, caught her breath and said, "I don't know! I'd like to question the odds of me also controlling the stars too!"
Stella frantically ran down the stairs, tripping on the fourth step, she flapped her wings to regain balance. "oh come on! again?!" she started hyperventilating while holding onto her mother's leg like her life depended on it, "Mommy, I'm scared..."
both little alicorns hugged their mother, who comforted the crying fillies. "don't worry my little princesses, it'll be alright, maybe ponies will just think Selene enjoys staying up late and being effective in the dark..." their mother comforted them even more. 'i saw another blue-blood at the ceremony. why are they following us?' she thought. she hugged her daughters closer and tighter assuring them that everything would be okay...

---

The mother alicorn found her herself in a sack, a potato sack to be exact. she also felt rope around her wings and a strange ring on her horn. she tried using her magic but found it useless, "copper! the only thing that can shut down magical energy!" she cursed under her breath, before her eyes went wide, "My daughters! I swear if these little buckers hurt them in any way-"
she was cut off by a hard kick to the stomach that took the wind out of her and heard a voice, a voice that she had many times, a voice whose owner she had to defend her daughters from often, "quiet in there! or next time, it'll be towards your horn!"
The alicorn grunted and yelled out, "my daughters will realize I'm missing and get a rescue party! you won't win!"
Bejeweled Blue-blood simply sneered, "ha! with the psychic blind spot on them, they won't even remember you!" he cackled, "and soon, neither will you!"
The mother, trying to get past the pain of knowing her daughters wouldn't remember her started up her horn, she had heard a story of a brave unicorn who overloaded a copper horn ring and shattered it, she hoped to whatever benevolent entity that was watching over her that it was true. another voice called out, as if he were conversing with the greedy unicorn.
"we still get to have our way with her, right?"
the alicorn gasped, but didn't interrupt her magical flow, 'they're going to wipe my memories and rape me!?' not wanting to give them the satisfaction, she doubled up, knowing that a psychic blind spot had its own weakness as well. she heard blue-blood speaking again, irritated that she had to still listen to his voice however,
"of course! how often does one get to have sex with an alicorn? but the fillies, we can manipulate to our liking, we can get a lot of power and they'll do a lot of work! so much that they would be too busy to stop us!"
"but can we pull it off?" the other questioned.
"if not, then we can still get more power." blue-blood pointed out "ah we are here!"
The alicorn instantly recognized it as the clearing that she and her daughters dubbed the 'everfree forest' the next thing she noticed was a great big castle in the clearing.
blue-blood spoke again, "start it up, once we're done with her, she'll think totally differently." he cackled as if he were a 'cliche evil scientist', as Selene would have put it.
The copper cracked, then it cracked again, then it shattered and opened up a hole in the fourth dimension. sucking the alicorn in as she also casted a spell to hide her wings until she could recover from the 'blind spot' spell going right at her, incomplete of course. "she launched a counter attack, "When you get to Hell, tell 'em Twilight Sparkle sent you!"

---

many, many years into the future...

---

a lavender unicorn, very drained, and very young stumbled her way to Canterlot castle, so exhausted that she even looked like a filly. she collapsed as the mental, physical, and mystical strain took its toll. as she drifted off to sleep, she saw a small family of three rushing to her, concerned.

---

"what do we do Nightlight? we have an injured filly in our guest room, and the only thing she's said was 'Twilight Sparkle'."
"I don't know velvet," her husband continued, "but what I'd like to know is why those words are similar to your name, maybe her name is 'Twilight'..."
Twilight Velvet, with an unamused look, said "don't be ridiculous! she can't have! it's a family name only! but maybe... we could take care of her?" she asked sheepishly, "shining armor has wanted a little sister you know..."
Nightlight, exhausted, and no match for his wife's sheepish look, conceded "alright, I'll talk to the officials and see about getting it done..."

Twilight woke up to seeing a white unicorn tiredly watching over her, and without anything that she could remember, she did the only rational thing she could think of: attack. Scanning her target, she came up with a list of estimated statistics 'bulky, large back hooves suggest jock, messy coat probably means he isn't that magically gifted, best course of action: use a transfiguration spell to entrap him, and make a break for it.' all of this being thought of in the time between jumping to prepare an attack, and the initial landing. the stallion was taken aback by the sudden war-cry the little filly shouted out, and propped up a shield to stop her.
she slapsticked onto the shield and slid off like a tomato on a window.
"ah! are you alright?" he asked genuinely concerned.
"ugh..." Twilight grumbled, 'okay, so maybe not that weak in magic, and the concern is reassuring...'
The two parents ran into the room, worried that their guest had injured herself, and sighed in relief that there were no major injuries, physical ones anyways, the little unicorn's self-esteem was a bit down due to the whole 'failed attack' thing...

after some introductions, explanations, and general hospitality, Twilight opened up, but without any recollection of anything save the past few hours, it was difficult to find out just who she was.
"so all you remember is your name, and the local language?" Nightlight asked, in conformation.
"uh huh." Twilight nodded, a bit of a sheepish look overtook her, can-can I sleep here tonight? I don't know who my parents are..."
Nightlight's eyebrow raised, seeing the similarity between this look, and his wife's version. his wife however, injected herself in, "of course, stay as long as you want! we were just thinking of adopting you anyways, you can sleep here for as long as you need, or until your parents come looking for you." she said gleefully "I've always wanted a daughter to swap gossip with!"
for the first time that night, Twilight had smiled.

---

"alright, alright, I'm here, geez, how much trouble can one filly be?" a pink alicorn questioned, as she walked into the Twilight household.
"a lot, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, a lot" Velvet sighed,
The alicorn rolled her eyes, "Velvet, I told you many times to not be so formal, 'Cadence' or 'Cadenza' will suffice."
Velvet sighed, "I know Cadenza, but our little girl has had a lot of magical misfires, and my husband and I really need this anniversary dinner. I'm a little on edge."
"a little?" Shining Armor scoffed, worn out from another one of his sister's magical bursts and a little embarrassed about being outdone by his little sister in front of the 'prettiest mares in school', "there wasn't this much tension when... dang, this was on the test! how could I forget? um, the worlds bounciest trampoline was made." he paused for a moment, "It was the only thing I could come up on the fly okay?!"
"oh, it's alright shining, I balked out on my physics class if it makes you feel any better about the history quiz" Cadence assured.
Velvet spoke up, "Alright, Cadenza, there's a couple of leftovers in the fridge, numbers are in the usual place, and if you run out of food, there's money for pizza, Twilight's favorite topping is daffodils by the way. If you need anything, well... you always have your aunt." Cadence was about to interrupt when Velvet and Nightlight ran out the door to their little chariot.
"great" the pink princess deadpanned, "well, I have an English project due in a week, want to compare notes?" she asked Shining.
"shouldn't we check on-oof!" Shining was cut off as his little sister got flung towards the two knocking Shining Armor within kissing distance of Cadence.
"uh..." both started, before blushing and getting up rubbing the backs of their heads awkwardly until Twilight saw the foal-sitter's and squeed at the sight.
"Woo hoo! The best foal-sitter in the world yay!" she started dancing in a circle as Cadence giggled to see her favorite little 'costumer' as they preformed their little 'hoof-shake' "sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Shining smiled as he rolled his eyes, it was cute and embarrassing at the same time, but one does not simply tell an alicorn princess they are doing something embarrassing.
"Alright little Twily, let's bring out a board game, we'll all play, then we can have some of those leftovers your mom talked about." Cadence said still stifling some giggles from their hoof-shake.
"yay!!!" squealed Twilight, "try the apple soup! it's one of the best things I've eaten!"
"alright, I've never had apple soup, maybe I'll like it..." the foal-sitter said as she was dragged into the kitchen, while Shining Armor took out his English homework to do.
"Hey, Twily! the Princess is going to raise the sun tomorrow morning, you want to watch?"
Twilight was overjoyed, "yes, yes, yes yes, yes YES!" okay, maybe the overjoyed part was an understatement.
she forgot about ever being hungry, and skipped into the living room, where she instantly hugged her big brother. until her stomach rumbled. "heh, heh." she went back into the kitchen for the soup and they all enjoyed a nice game of marnopoly.
"you know, my aunt loves this board game..." Cadence said, "Said it was something she remembered enjoying a lot..."
"your aunt sounds like she could use a friend." Shining armor said.
"I agree BBBFF, I couldn't imagine being all alone in that castle, with only hired help as company..." twilight went on, "Ha! Cadence, you landed on my railroad, you owe me 200..." she said as The love princess levitated the appropriate amount over to Twilight.

"She fell asleep reading 'Silk of the pink spider' again..." Cadence said to the filly's parents who looked like they did more than dinner and a movie. "she's also excited about My auntie Celestia raising the sun tomorrow. maybe you'll take her?"
"hmm, maybe we will..." Nightlight said
<~>
The watcher interrupted, "Alright, alright, we all know how this goes, let's just skip ahead to after the whole corenation thing, alright?"
"sure, why not?" Pinkie agreed
<~>
Twilight's nightmares were becoming worse and worse, and Luna was unable to find the cause of it.
against the protests of Prince Blue-blood who demanded the attention be directed towards his ascension, Luna ultimately ignored the whining Prince.
"But auntieee! she's just a commoner! how could you pay more attention to her than to me?" he demanded.
Luna groaned and made a mental note to dock her guards pay, she had requested to not to be disturbed, most of all, by him. "Because you arrogant prince, she has actually done things to help equestria, unlike you, and your proposal to storm Ponyvile."
"But they humiliated me! they should be executed for that!" blue-blood countered.
"And prey tell, Blue-blood, what would we do when we would need the elements of harmony again? or the skills of it's separate bearers?"
Blue-blood simply harrumphed at the counter as he made his way to leave. Luna's spell was building the spell to remove all mental trauma from the target's mind. the spell was growing in power and Twilight's size began to grow. when the spell was finished Luna was perplexed as to why the 'young' alicorn grew in size.
Twilight then spoke two words "Stella... Selene..."
as if at once Luna's eyes widened as did a headache. The psychic blind spot was lifted from her mind as she said, with wonder and hope that she wasn't dreaming, "mother?" she questioned.
Out of nowhere Celestia slammed into the room. "I heard what she said... is it really her?" her concerned voice asked in a worried whisper.
"I... I think so sis, i-i remember the someone hitting us with a spell, then 'blank'" she went on.
after all this time, they had their mother back.
<~>
"The author sincerely apologizes for any actual climatic ending, as he quote 'burned out', we hope you enjoyed your viewing experience and we hope to see you again, thank you very much."

Author's Note:

criticisms are welcome, but the constructive kind is more welcomed.