Equestria Without Harmony: Mistakes

by EclipseSight

Mistakes of the Past: Preparations

Equestria Without Harmony: Mistakes

Mistakes of the Past: Preparations

A rough shiver down her spine roused Applejack into wakefulness. It was the middle of summer, and Celestia’s sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. Yet still she felt as cold, as if it were the middle of winter under Luna’s moon. Something really was not right here. Too many years being out in the fields told her that when the weather was wrong, then everything else was out of synch. This was especially true in a world where the weather was closely regulated by its denizens.
The farm pony dragged herself out of her bed. This was the time where she usually got up and about but today she wanted nothing more than to curl back up in her bed where it was safe, and more importantly at the moment, warm. However, Applejack had a job to do and the fields would not tend to themselves. Donning her trademark Stetson the orange earth pony made her way downstairs, planning on rustling up a quick bite before she started.

Chewing on the simple apple jam sandwich helped steady her nerves and convince her that this was just an ordinary day.

“Keep it together Applejack,” she muttered to herself, her thick accent coating every word. “Ya just… had a little case of the jitters that’s all. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Finishing the breakfast, Applejack walked outside to start the day. Only for a bouncing pink mass to bowl her over the second she opened the door.

“Pinkie!?” the farmpony yelled, bucking the bubbly mare off of her frame and getting to her hooves.
“What the hay are ya doin’ here so early?!”

“Oh that’s easy. I just knew that you were having a bad morning and decided to come and cheer you up!” Pinkie grinned, bouncing over and around the farmpony.

The incessant bouncing just caused Applejack to roll her emerald green eyes. How Pinkie knew she was feeling a little low, was something Applejack knew better not to try and understand. Pinkie Pie just seemed to know when something was wrong. It was an interesting phenomenon, though it could get overbearing at times.

“Well, I thank ya for the concern Pinkie, but I assure you I am perfectly…” Applejack started, only to trail off.

Pinkie blinked. “You’re perfectly what! Oh oh guessing games! I love those! Umm… you are perfectly, awesome, happy, alright, totally not scared of all those ghosts behind me? Yeah, I’ve been letting them secretly follow me all the way here. I hope you don’t mind.”

The ghosts, as Pinkie called them, were wispy white clouds of misty matter that were vaguely structured to resemble the form of ponies. Every one of them hovered a few inches above the ground, and they were completely ignoring the ponies, muttering intelligibly among themselves.

“Wait, so you’re telling me that you just… let them follow you? Without doing anything about it?” Applejack asked, staring at Pinkie Pie with a mixture of horror and incredulity.

“Pretty much, they seemed to enjoy it,” the mare grinned, not seeing the danger of the situation. She had simply found even more ponies to play with.

Any retort Applejack was about to throw her fellow earth pony’s way was lost in her throat as three ghosts suddenly joined the group, having come from behind the farm pony.”

“Those varmints were in my house?!” Applejack cried. “What were they doing in there?!”

Without waiting for an answer, Applejack had a rope in her mouth. Tossing an expert lasso, she roped the group of ghouls perfectly and tried to pull the lasso taut. All that happened was the thick rope passed straight through the transparent white bodies and Applejack ended up flat on her back. With a small thump the earth pony hit the ground, her Stetson falling off and landing a few feet from her. Now she was vulnerable, and had probably just irritated a bunch of crazy spirits with her failed attempt to grab them. Quickly scrabbling to her feet, she prepared herself to fend off any attack that would be forthcoming. They would not get anywhere near her family again without going through her.

However, while the rope did not have the desired effect there would still be no need for Applejack to defend anyone from the apparitions. As soon as they’d felt, or at least saw the rope pass through them, they had scattered. In a single instant the area was clear, except for a bewildered Applejack and a waving Pinkie Pie.

“Come back any time!”

“You’d best hope they don’t follow that advice… What was that all about?” Applejack grumbled, picking up her Stetson and jamming it back on her head. She hated anything weird, especially when it happened right on her own doorstep.

“Now… I don’t know about you, but if ghosts and ghouls or whatever are creeping about while I sleep, I want them gone.”

So saying, the earth pony marched to the one pony in town who would know anything about the subject: Twilight Sparkle.

The library was a picture of absolute chaos that even Discord would have been proud of. Books were lying wide open, littering every inch of the library floor. Applejack and Pinkie were not the only ones to get a visit from the ethereal.

“Where is that book? I know it was here!” Twilight screamed, rejecting another tome and throwing it into the pile. Spike was just standing back, fully protected with pillows and a hard helmet in case any books came his way. The door opening simply gave the tomes another avenue of travel, and several ended up whizzing past Applejack’s head. Ducking into the library, Applejack waited for Pinkie to bounce inside before promptly bucking the door shut. The loud slam as the wood snapped into its frame made Twilight look up.

“Oh, hello Applejack…” the princess greeted, leaving her frantic search for a few moments. “Can I help you with something?”

“Somethin’ tells me you already are,” Applejack replied, eyeing the stacks of books strewn around. “You ain’t by any chance had any unwanted visitors come see you this morning?”

“You too?” the alicorn asked, turning around to begin tearing through her library again.

“Yes, me and Pinkie, and probably the rest of our friends if not the whole of Ponyville.”

Twilight gave a sigh and threw yet another book away. Flaring her wings she stomped her hooves, displaying her disappointment for everyone in the room to see.

“I was so sure that I had a book on spirits and the like, but for some reason I can’t find it anywhere. Spike swears he didn’t sneeze on it so I’ve been hunting all morning with no luck.”

“That’s no good. I’d say we’d help, but it looks like you’ve got the whole library just about searched.”

“I do… this is my third attempt…”

“Did you sleep at all last night?” Applejack asked, narrowing her eyes at Twilight. For her to have searched the library three times already this early in the morning would mean that she had been awake when night still had a firm hold.

“Not really…” Twilight admitted, deciding not to lie to the Element of Honesty. She had honestly tried to get some sleep, but something had been keeping her awake. Then there was the ghoulish visitors to keep her attention.

“How long has this been going on?” Applejack asked.

“Just last night, I promise…” Twilight sighed. Her friends all knew that she sometimes decided to sleep a lot less than she did, but Applejack was probably the most adamant about her getting enough rest. As a farmer, she knew best about just how much a pony could take before they were hurting themselves. Though sometimes her pride won out and caused her to ignore her own advice.

“Well, okay,” Applejack nodded, deciding to take the princess’ word. “Just so long as you’re sure.”

“Yes… though that really doesn’t help us now… Can you go and check on the rest of our friends and see if they noticed anything?
I’ll send a letter to the princess and then we’ll need to check just how widespread this… invasion really was.”

“Gotcha!” Applejack nodded, tipping her hat. “C’mon Pinkie, we’ll go and get the others… uh… Pinkie?”

“Is this the book you were looking for?” the bubble-gum pink pony asked, bouncing down the wooden stairs that separated Twilight’s sleeping area from the main library. She was balancing on her snout a large black tome with dark red etching in the leather to form the title: ‘The Afterlife: All You Need to Know but Never Wanted to Ask’.

“B-b-but how? Where did you find that?!”

“It was under your bed,” Pinkie Pie grinned, as Twilight pulled the book towards her quickly and started flicking through the pages.

“What exactly are you looking for Twi?” Applejack asked, pulling open the door as she waited on a response. The chilly morning air ruffled the book pages, causing Twilight to groan as she lost her place on the page. Slamming the book shut, the princess closed her eyes and performed the breathing technique that Cadance had taught her. Now slightly calmer she re-opened the book and replied.
“Anything really, though hopefully something that will tell us how they got here. Ghosts may be real, but that doesn’t mean they roam freely like all the stories say.”

“Well, I’ll let ya get on with that and be back with the others lickity splick. C’mon Pinkie,” the farmpony tried again.

This time Pinkie bounced out eagerly, taking the whole rounding up of her friends as one big fun game. One did have to wonder just when Pinkie would draw the line between games and real life. Some ponies thought that it would never happen, but no one stayed carefree and innocent for long. Even if it took a thousand years, ponies changed.

“Have you located them yet Luna?” Princess Celestia asked as the soft steps of her sister echoed in the throne room. While it had been technically her sister’s turn on the throne until now, Celestia was using the chair as a resting place while she pondered. Luna meanwhile had been scouring the castle for a certain visitor that had interrupted the royal sisters during the night. The princess of the night was much more adept at such tasks between the two of them, being more interested in problem solving and the thrill of seeking answers.

“No my sister…” Luna replied,. “It is rather hard to find a spirit in a castle as large as this. I cannot even say if the spirit left or is hiding in the walls. Magical seeing spells brought up nothing, so the former is the most probable.”

“Thank you,” Celestia nodded. “I was not expecting them to linger after you threw lightning at them.”
Luna tried her best not to flush, guessing that her sister was teasing her for overreacting.

“How would you react if some twisted ghost appeared from underneath you,” the midnight blue mare snorted, stomping her ornamented hoof on the cool marble floor. "Even if they are harmless... these ones at least."

Stifling a rather out of place chuckle beneath her hoof, Celestia said, “Almost the same as you did.”

“Exactly.”

Her mirth vanishing instantly, the solar princess looked up at one of the stained glass windows, the one depicting the elements of harmony’s defeat over Nightmare Moon. Now that the elements were gone, how would they be able to defend against an equally dangerous enemy?

“You are thinking about something sister,” Luna muttered, sitting down on her haunches beside the throne and looking up at the older alicorn. The princess of the night too, knew what was coming, though Celestia refused to fill her in on all the details. The event in question had happened during her time on the moon as Nightmare Moon.

“I’m just thinking about how many more mistakes I will make to turn those I call close against me…” the white mare sighed.

Luna lowered her eyes to the ground, memories of the battle she had fought with Celestia before being sent to the moon coming to the forefront of her mind. Celestia was still blaming herself for it, and nothing Luna had said during the past year had appeased that guilt. Just as she was about to open her mouth to try again, her sister moved from the throne. The sun had been raised above the horizon now, casting it’s light upon the lands. Sweeping past Luna, the solar princess walked out from the door. “I must go write a letter, and then we must go to Ponyville… I would… prepare yourself my sister… for what we may have to do…”

Luna almost shuddered at the deliberately flat and emotionless tone. She could not see her sister’s face, but she could tell that it was set in stone and yet desperately fighting back tears. Those same tears that Luna herself was pushing back. Turning to the throne that she and Celestia now shared, the princess took a small moment to close her eyes and mutter.
“Why… weren’t we friends once? Why do this? What… what happened?”

Knowing she would not get an answer to those questions by just standing there, the younger princess followed her sister out of the room, closing the large doors behind her with a hollow boom.

Author's Note:

Okay, that's Chapter 2. It was a little more set up based than I was intending, sorry. It will get into the meat of this part soon I promise. Hope you all enjoy.

Comments

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Ooooooh. This is really interesting. Who are these ghosts? What happened while Luna was on the moon? This is setting up to be a really cool story.

The main cast seems to be in character and I'm finding myself immersed your writing style. Though, there were a few moments where the narration was kind of unclear. For example, when you said, "Her friends all knew that she sometimes decided to sleep a lot less than she did-". My recommendation would be to try reading what you've just written out loud to make sure it flows. Little nit-picks aside, really liking it.