PonyFall: Australia

by Thunderbug80

Do You Believe in Magic?

Do You Believe in Magic?
April 28, 2012

---

"What's that amazing smell?" Twilight asked as she peeked her head around the corner to peer into the kitchen.

"Stir fry," I said, giving the pan a shake to mix the rice and vegetables. "Vegetarian for you and the girls. Beef for myself." I turned and held up a finger. "And before you say anything, I know you've already had the whole "meat" discussion with Matt. So, you know, no trying to make me feel guilty."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. I get it," she said with a small giggle. She stepped into the kitchen and contented herself with watching me cook. After a while she asked, "So what do you think?"

"About what? You already said the food smells delicious, so I think it probably will be," I said with a laugh.

"No, no. Not the food," She said. She wrapped her arms around herself and lowered her gaze to the floor. "I mean what do you think about this? Our whole... situation."

Bloody hell. Just the kind of topic I'd been trying to avoid. I retrieved four bowls from an overhead cupboard and started dishing the rice into them. "I think," I began, choosing my words carefully, "that if anyone can work out how to get you and your friends home, it's probably you." I turned and smiled at her.

The smile she offered in return didn't reach her eyes. She walked past me, put her hands on the nearby windowsill, and gazed out the window.

"It's not always easy," she said quietly. "Knowing things."

My hand froze midway through dishing up the final portion. Twilight turned around wrapped her arms around herself again. With visible effort, she looked me in the eyes.

"Portal spells have existed for most of Equestria's modern era," she said. "It was a natural progression from the advent of teleportation spells, but for centuries they could only be produced by the most powerful of unicorns, and even they were severely limited in what they were able to accomplish. It wasn't until Mage Meadowbrook hypothesized that concentrated magic could be funneled into specially-prepared objects, thereby enchanting them, that portals came to be more widely used. But even to this day, artifacts enchanted with the magic necessary to create portals are exceedingly rare. They're just too difficult to control.

"This, of course, only relates to localized portal use. Scholars had long suspected that alternate dimensions existed, so it was only natural that those who could harness the power of portals would attempt to one day bridge that gap. And then, one day, they did."

I realized my mouth was open and took a moment to swallow. This was diving into stuff that the show had never touched on before. I listened intently as Twilight continued.

"The discovery of Tartarus was, for all intents and purposes, an accident. Opinions vary on who holds claim to its discovery. All that's certain is that whoever discovered inter-dimensional travel had somehow combined chaos magic with his or her own. Some propose that they knocked over a jar of concentrated chaos magic captured during Discord's initial reign over Equestria. Others suggest they were somehow able to conjure it themselves. Whatever the case, there was only enough chaos magic left in the world for a single attempt at duplicating the spell. It succeeded, and the realm of Tartarus now serves as a prison for Equestria's strongest enemies."

It took a moment for everything to sink in. Tartarus? I remembered it to have been mentioned recently in the show, but hearing it mentioned here was a sobering reminder that there was indeed a "pony Hell". But that wasn't the most important thing Twilight had revealed.

"So you're saying inter-dimensional portals can only be created with a combination of chaos and, what, harmony magic?" I asked. At Twilight's nod I said, "But isn't Discord the only known being capable of creating chaos magic?"

Twilight gave another melancholy smile. "That would be correct. The cold truth of the matter is that we'll never be able to return home." She held my gaze with a forlorn expression. "Without Discord's direct assistance, we're trapped here. Forever."

---

Twilight and I were sitting at the table, aimlessly picking at our food, when we heard Pinkie and Fluttershy return from their exploration. Judging from Pinkie's excited—and loud—tone of voice, the hike had been an interesting one, and we could hear them even before they made their way inside and up the stairs. As soon as they arrived, Pinkie's attention turned to the food on the table.

"Oooh, something sure smells good," she said, eyeing the bowls and making a show of inhaling the aroma. She and Fluttershy each sat down at the table, grabbed their utensils, and prepared to tuck in. Then Pinkie looked up and noticed the demeanor Twilight and I were sharing. "Um... did it not turn out so well? I mean, it can't be that bad, right?"

Allowing Pinkie and Fluttershy to find out that they weren't going home any time soon was something that none of us were ready to face yet, so I changed my expression and, eyeing Twilight, took a big bite of rice. A moment later Twilight, catching on quickly, did the same. She chewed quickly, swallowed, and gave Pinkie an almost-genuine smile. Pinkie, her eyes darting back and forth between Twilight and I, scrutinized us for a few seconds, then offered her own smile and dug into her food. Fluttershy followed suit soon after, though she continued to eye us with apparent unease.

"Sooo, what have you two been up to?" Pinkie asked casually. It was an innocent enough question, but her calm demeanor unnerved me. Was she actually engaging in small talk, or was she digging for info on why Twilight and I had looked so glum? With Pinkie, it was impossible to tell.

"I read some books," Twilight replied honestly. "I found several useful texts on flora and fauna that are native to Australia, as well as some on a place called New Zealand." She looked at me. "I assume you're familiar with it?"

I nodded. "My wife was originally from New Zealand. It's an island country to the southeast of Australia."

"Have you ever been there?" Twilight asked. "The photos in the book make it out to be quite beautiful..."

"Oh it is. I've been there a few times," I said. "Lots of family over there on my wife's side, so we visit from time to time. Very beautiful, but bloody cold in the winter time."

"Well, duh!" Pinkie said. "That's like one of the defining characteristics of winter."

"Not in Sydney it isn't," I said. "For one thing, it never snows in these parts, though you do see it to the south every now and then. And for another, it doesn't really get that much colder than it is now."

Pinkie considered my words for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully. Then, abruptly, her eyes narrowed and she said, "That's very interesting. Now what were you two moping about earlier?"

Twilight's back stiffened and she looked over at me, then back to Pinkie Pie. "What? Who, me?" she said, looking very uncomfortable. "I wasn't... we weren't—everything's fine!"

Pinkie put both hands on her cheeks and widened her eyes in feigned shock. "Wow, I'm completely convinced!" she said with more sarcasm than I'd ever heard out of her before. She looked my way and said more seriously, "Haven't we already been through this before? I thought we were done with keeping secrets from each other."

Unfortunately, Pinkie had a point. Trying to hide Discord's identity from her and Fluttershy had done nothing to improve the Equestrian's mental health. It had probably made it worse, actually. So why was I trying so hard to make the same mistake all over again?

I sighed and idly pushed my bowl away. "You're right," I admitted, trying to ignore the incredulous look Twilight gave me. "I said I wouldn't keep anything from you two. It's bloody difficult, you know? The truth hurts sometimes, and I don't want to put you through any more pain than you've already had to deal with."

Pinkie's expression softened. "Aww, you almost sounded like Applejack just then. Honestly, I know you'd never purposely try to hurt us, so you can tell us anything, Captain!" she said warmly. Then she gave a small shrug. "Besides, it wasn't exactly hard to tell that something was wrong"

"It was pretty obvious," Fluttershy chipped in quietly.

I looked at Twilight, who held my gaze a moment, then reached across the table and put a hand on Pinkie's shoulder.

"Actually, Pinkie," Twilight said with a sigh. "It was me who was keeping something from you all. Something I've thought about since—well, since I first began to make sense of this world. I realize we've only just been reunited, but I've kept this knowledge from Matt and Michelle as well. It's not that I don't trust anyone with it... it's more that I honestly can't conceive of any way of telling you that isn't calamitous." She stared down at the table while Pinkie and Fluttershy, their attention wholly on Twilight, looked on. A moment later she looked up and said, "I... I don't think it's possible for us to get back home."

For a moment, I feared what must have been going through Pinkie and Fluttershy's minds. Everything was quiet as the two former ponies absorbed what had just been revealed to them. No returning to Ponyville. No visits to Cloudsdale or Appleoosa. No possible reunion with anypony other than those unfortunate enough to have also been trapped on Earth. With everything the girls and I had already been through, and to discover it was all for nothing...

I was prepared for another set of emotional breakdowns. I was prepared for a long night of trying to help the girls cope with the sudden, jarring news. What I wasn't prepared for was what happened next.

"Oh. That." Pinkie said. Then she laughed. "Yeah, we already knew that."

"You—wait, what?" Twilight asked, her mouth slightly agape.

I stood up from the table and stared, disbelieving, first at Pinkie, then at Fluttershy. My mind swam with questions. "Wait a minute," I said, blinking to try to clear my head. "I can almost admit that maybe I should have expected Pinkie to somehow figure all this out, but you also knew?" I looked at Fluttershy and raised an eyebrow.

Fluttershy nodded and suddenly became interested in fidgeting with her spoon. "Pinkie and I... we've discussed it."

"When?" Twilight and I asked in unison.

I didn't notice the sudden change in Pinkie's demeanor until she looked away and became silent. Fluttershy seemed to notice as well, because she looked straight into my eyes and said, "Just after Sweetie Belle lost control of her magic at the hotel, and although I know this may seem hypocritical, I would very much appreciate it if you don't ask for any more details about that right now."

I'm not sure why, but something told me it was best not to challenge the girls for keeping secrets despite the conversation we'd just had about not keeping them from each other. Perhaps it was Pinkie's very sudden mood swing, or perhaps it was because I trusted Fluttershy's newfound confidence. Maybe it was because whatever was bothering Pinkie was apparently worse than the knowledge that they were probably trapped on Earth forever. Whatever the reason, I nodded, and even Twilight seemed content remain silent.

The rest of lunch was uneventful, and the girls all helped me out with wiping down the table and cleaning the dishes afterward. It was still early afternoon when we finished, and I really didn't want the rest of the day to be spent with everyone either upset, or too afraid to talk for fear of making someone upset. We were supposed to be relaxing, not coming up with new ways of depressing ourselves.

Despite Twilight's revelation about portal magic, I was still determined to look into ways of getting the Equestrians home. Though they'd probably deny it, I also suspected that the girls each held onto a small sliver of hope that we'd somehow find a different way to get them home as well. It was something we'd need to discuss, but now wasn't the time. Right now was relaxation time, because despite multiple attempts to do just that, everyone was still tense or upset!

"Who wants to go swimming?" I suddenly cried out, half-angrily. I felt my cheeks grow warm when I realized how petulant I sounded. Worse, I realized too late that if I wanted to patch things up with Victoria, suggesting an activity that required the Equestrians to put on bathing suits was probably the wrong way to go about it. I was about to say, "Nevermind," when Fluttershy stood up from the sofa and spoke.

"Well, I never got a chance to the last time we had access to a pool. I'll come!"

---

It was about twenty minutes later when I hung my towel over the glass fence that surrounded the pool and stepped over to test the water with my toe. The water had warmed up a bit from the quick swim I'd had earlier, which was great because I hated having to adjust to cold water. The girls emerged from the house soon after and began sorting out their gear.

As soon as Fluttershy had agreed to come swimming, Pinkie had decided to join in too. Twilight initially thought she'd be left out, seeing as she didn't have a bathing suit, but Pinkie happened to 'find' one that fit her perfectly—because of course she did—and so Twilight came along as well. There was a bit of confusion at first when I tried to explain to the girls the importance of using sunscreen, especially in Australia, but it turns out they actually use sunscreen as ponies, so they were already aware of what to do. I tried not to imagine how pony sunscreen worked and just let them do their thing.

I was just putting my foot into the water to slowly ease myself in when Pinkie leaped from the edge toward the center of the pool.

"Cannonball!" she cried. A moment later her impact sent water cascading everywhere. I tried to raise my hands up but it was no use, I got soaked. So did Twilight and Fluttershy, from the look of it.

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted, though from the tone of her voice it seemed like she was only partially annoyed.

"Well, since you're all wet anyway—" Fluttershy said before giving Twilight a little shove towards the pool. "In you go!" Her cheeks reddened slightly and she put her hand over her mouth to hide a giggle when Twilight splashed into the water and resurfaced, blinking in surprise.

Fluttershy wasn't paying attention to me, and when I saw Twilight look my way I knew what she had in mind: revenge. I nodded and slowly made my way over towards the completely oblivious Fluttershy. When I got into position, Twilight gave me a barely-perceptible nod, and I raised my hands.

Only, I couldn't do it. It just felt wrong to shove her into the pool, and she turned and jumped slightly when she noticed me standing just behind her.

"Oh, my! You scared me. Were—were you about to... push me in?" she asked.

I held my hands up. "No, no. I thought about it, but I just couldn't bring myse—hey!" My words were cut off as I, too, got pushed into the pool.

Pinkie's raucous laughter didn't make me feel any less foolish for letting my guard down. I made a mental note that Fluttershy had an undocumented mischievous side as she dove into the water beside me. When she emerged, she gave me a sympathetic look, then smiled and swam to the other side of the pool.

"You know, I would have thought that you would know better than to leave yourself wide open like that," Twilight said as she swam over next to me. She was doing very little to hide the amused smirk on her face.

"What can I say? The show never showed that side of her before," I replied.

Twilight laughed. "Well even so, haven't you ever heard that it's always the quiet ones you need to be wary of?" She casually dodged a random splash of water caused by Pinkie flailing around nearby. "And the noisy ones too, I guess." She regarded me for a moment, then said, "I really appreciate what you're doing. It's nice to be able to have a quiet bit of fun with my friends."

I knew when she said quiet she wasn't referring to noise levels, especially with Pinkie splashing around everywhere. I also had a feeling that Twilight wasn't the only Equestrian who knew that today was just meant to be a distraction, and that was okay.

Her words gave me an idea, though.

"Do ponies have a version of the game, Marco Polo?" I asked.

---

Minutes later, after explaining the rules to the girls, I found myself quietly tiptoeing through the pool in an effort to evade Fluttershy, who was blindfolded and heading right for me, arms outstretched.

"Marco?" she asked quietly. Crap, I was right in front of her!

"Polo," everyone called out. Despite Pinkie's voice being much, much louder than my own, Fluttershy still heard me and launched herself forward. I was easily caught, much to her delight.

"Damn," I muttered. I was usually quite good at the game, but I'd been defeated in just minutes. I took the blindfold from Fluttershy and put it on over my eyes. "Don't think I'll go easy on ya," I warned the girls as I stood in the middle of the pool and spun around in place. After a count of twenty, I stretched my hands out and slowly moved forward.

I almost expected the girls to giggle or splash and give away their positions, as was usually the case when I played Marco Polo. Thankfully, they were each quite adept at remaining silent. Even Pinkie, when she wanted to be, and I appreciated a good challenge. I usually didn't utter the titular "Marco" when I played, either, and this time wasn't an exception. I preferred to hunt the other players by the sounds they made alone.

I had a feeling someone was close behind me as I moved, so I made a bit of a show of lurching forward from time to time to put whoever was back there off-guard. An occasional giggle sprang up somewhere ahead of me after these performances, but they were quickly stifled back to silence. Using this to my advantage, I pretended to advance toward where I'd heard the laughter. A moment later, however, I turned around and lunged back the way I'd come. I heard a surprised gasp, unmistakably from Twilight. The next moment it was my turn to gasp as some kind of force impacted my body, and I was hurled backward through the water.

Before I could even begin to wonder about what had just happened, Fluttershy swam over and pulled the blindfold off me. "Oh my goodness, are you okay?" she asked. Pinkie was by her side a second later.

"Um... yeah," I said, and it was true. Other than a bit of shock, I was fine. "What even happened?"

"I'm so, so sorry," Twilight said quietly. I looked over to see that she was staring at her hands for some reason. "I didn't mean to, it just... happened."

"She totally blasted you!" Pinkie said, grinning. "You were heading straight toward me and Fluttershy, then all of a sudden you turned around and swam straight for Twilight, and she was all 'Oh no, I'm gonna get caught' and she totally sent this purple wave of energy at you!" She stopped to breathe for a second, then continued.

"Isn't this great? Twilight has her magic back!"

Comments

[Regreme]

Another great chapter.^^

[Thunderbug80]

10066016
Yes, new chapter,

or Yes, Octavia's been found?

[Arthurian_Legend]

This getting 2020 updates? Bro~~~ to this day i remember this fics cover art from lots of years ago kind of scary and cool

[Flint Easthoof]

Wow... You actually kept at it. Good on you, man. I thought all of this just kinda up and died 4 years ago, yet here you are, still hammering it out. Keep it up, if not for you, than for the rest of us who gave up and didn't have the balls to keep going.

[Thunderbug80]

10459488
You ever write anything again, I might have to make time to read it.

You know MrBackpack is back writing again, yeah? And I'm still updating every 6 months or so
Even managed to finish a few stories!

Anyway hit me up sometime, I'll give you my Discord. FMP, Backpack, and some others are in there. Would be good even for a quick chat now and then.

[deathtap]

11387643
'Tap', not 'Trap'.

[AuburnSky]

I love this story but coming back to it is so bittersweet. I miss the golden age of MLP. I just finished reading Onward Valiant Crusaders save for the closing chapter 'Rise'. Is there any chance that the story will be finished between this chapter and that closing final chapter? I just miss this story so much! Whats the status of the PonyFall story. Wanna find out how they get home and what happens so badly.

[Thunderbug80]

11468479
Honestly I should get around and finally finish this.

Sooo much has changed since I was writing this. For one, I'm no longer with "Victoria," so having her as a character in this story is a bit awkward (A *lot* awkward). Work is usually crazy too. But I've always wanted to finally sit down and give the characters the ending they deserve, and give the readers who have waited so long an ending as well.

I can't make promises. I learned to stop doing that. But it's something I'd like to complete if given the chance.

[AuburnSky]

11468495
That’d be phenomenal! Definitely don’t want to you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. I’d love to find out who that mysterious man is who can stop time