Chapter 1: Two Tickets
“And when Ah got home, it just appeared. That’s how Ah got mah cutie mark,” Applejack finished as she gave the apple tree she was working on an extra buck to make sure all the early ripe apples had fallen. As a skilled apple bucker, she would normally only need one, but Francis was a might ornery and usually needed an extra knock for good measure.
Much to Applejack's surprise, the unicorn Twilight Sparkle didn’t have some witty comment or anything to say about how the farm pony had given up high society life. In fact, she just stood there staring at the apple farmer for a few moments. It was quite a change from the trot over, where the purple unicorn had just asked one question after another in such rapid succession Applejack had tried looking for a zipper to see if she was Pinkie Pie in disguise.
The kinds of questions she asked also surprised Applejack. From what she knew of Canterlot ponies and unicorns in general, they didn’t know a sprout from a weed. Twilight had dived right into a conversation with questions about the acreage of Sweet Apple Acres, to the types of apples, quantity of cider production, and a dozen other things before moving onto questions about Applebloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith. Applejack was rather impressed that Twilight had even remembered their names after just hearing them once during the reunion before the Summer Sun Celebration.
Then again, she is the princess’s student, Applejack reasoned. That probably meant she had a whole mess of knowledge up inside her head about everything, and a curiosity to match if past few hours were any clue.
When she noticed Twilight was still just staring at her, Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Somethin' wrong Twilight?”
The question snapped the unicorn out of her daze. “What?” she asked, "oh right, um…you said you came home where your family was waiting, and then your cutie mark appeared?”
“That’s right,” she told Twilight proudly as they gathered the apples into baskets before Applejack reattached them to her back. “That’s when Ah knew sure as shootin' that Ah was meant to be an apple farmer.”
Twilight smiled and let out a light chuckle and shook her head before she walked past Applejack, headed towards the road. “Can’t believe I never saw that before,” the unicorn mumbled barely loud enough to hear. “Hehehehe, Applejack’s cutie mark. Three apples.”
The odd comment earned a frown from the farmer. “Something funny about my cutie mark?” All her family had apple cutie marks. Well...except for the Oranges, but they were a might strange.
Twilight froze mid-step and looked back up at the farmer with wide eyes. “Did I say that out loud?” she asked in a small panic. “Shoot! I forgot I started talking to myself when-GAAH! Stop talking Twilight!” The unicorn clutched her head long enough to lose her balance, then she fell forward into the dirt and quickly found her face covered in dust. “And…nothing to keep me up when my front hooves are off the ground either. That’s going to take some getting used to again.”
Her ire gone in the face of the unicorn apparently freaking out, Applejack took Twilight's measure, then hesitantly reached down to help the talkative pony up. A second later, as the purple pony dusted her off, Applejack asked, “Uh, Twilight, you okay?”
“Sorry, I just have this habit of talking to myself when I make a discovery. I guess I picked it up since I don’t…have many ponies to talk to. Back in Canterlot, I mean,” she said with a pitiable expression as he ears drooped, followed soon by her whole body. Whatever the unicorn was remembering, the earth pony could see it weighed heavily on her.
Applejack rolled her eyes at what she knew was a huge overestimation. An outgoing pony like Twilight not having friends was as impossible as Pinkie Pie. “Oh come on Twilight, a friendly mare like you? Ah bet you had so many friends you couldn’t even shake a stick at em all. Then there’s Princess Celestia. Ah can’t imagine a better pony to be friends-”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Twilight’s whole demeanor changed. The smile on her face shattered and was replaced with a scowl that managed to cow the bravest pony in the town. “Celestia is not my friend,” Twilight told Applejack in no uncertain terms.
Still in a huff, Twilight stormed past Applejack, who quickly followed her down the path and towards their storage barn. “I mean seriously? Friends? With her? You were there for that whole Nightmare Moon thing,” she ranted on before switching to a mockery of the princess’s voice. “Oh Twilight, I know I’m the ruler of Equestria and I it's my duty to protect my subjects from this insane goddess that will doom every creature on the planet to a slow death by starvation, but I’m going to go hide somewhere and let you deal with it. What was that? You’re smart enough to figure out what happening before this whole thing started? Here, have some vague hint about how to use these ancient artifacts that you may have a tiniest chance of finding because your cutie mark resembles the base form for the Element of Magic and your life was bound to five other mares who saw a rainbow!”
Then, the unicorn took a deep breath and looked back to Applejack with an angry frown on her face while she poked the mare in the chest rather forcefully. “If it wasn’t for all of you bursting into the library, I would have probably charged off on my own and gotten killed!” she exclaimed before throwing her forelegs up in exasperation. “You saved my life, Pinkie kept us from getting so scared we had heart attacks, Rarity gave up her tail to let us across a river safely, Fluttershy kept us from being mauled by a manticore, and Rainbow Dash-”
“Somepony call my name?” the chromatic pegasus asked as she stuck her head out of a nearby apple tree, bringing Twilight's rant to a halt.
Twilight stopped in mid sentence, her mouth hanging open for a minute before she clamped it shut. “-caught me before you lost your footing and I became a stain on the grass. That’s what friends do,” Twilight grumbled as she finished her conversation. A second later, she put her hoof to her own chest and let out a long breath as she extended her foreleg.
Once the calming exercise was done, it seemed Twilight became a whole ‘nother pony. The scowl disappeared from her face, her mouth twisted back into a smile and she even seemed to brighten in color somehow. “Hey Rainbow. What’s up? Besides you I mean,” she added with a giggle.
“Twilight, you okay?” Applejack asked before Rainbow could answer. She gave the purple unicorn a good look-see to try and figure out what was the matter with her. Her cheerful attitude seemed nice enough, but…nopony just switched their frustrations on and off like that.
Well, no sane pony anyway. But from what Applejack could see, Twilight was just a little kooky, which was a long way from crazy.
Even Rainbow seemed to catch on to the unicorn’s odd behavior, judging by the discerning look she was giving the mare. “Yeah, yesterday you were going on and on about how awesome it was to be Princess Celestia’s student.”
For a moment, Twilight gave the pegasus a confused look, then frowned and looked away. “Well now that I got out of the sun goddess’s presence, I can take the blinders off and see the whole picture,” she grumbled as she turned her head off to the side and shot Canterlot a dirty look.
Unsure how to respond to that, Applejack just stood silent and looked over to Rainbow Dash for ideas, but found the pegasus was just as clueless. Before AJ could even start some real ruminations, Twilight’s stomach grumbled and caused both the ponies to look back towards her.
“Sorry, I skipped breakfast,” she apologized before a sparkling pink glow covered the sacks on Applejack’s back and they flew over to where Twilight was standing. “Let me just drop these off. I need to run back to the library and get lunch going for Spike. Thanks for spending time with me Applejack. Bye girls!”
Before Applejack could ask what the hay Twilight thought she was doing, the unicorn disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the two ponies in the middle of the road with empty hooves.
“So uh…she can teleport now?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Ye-Hey hold on a cotton pickin minute!” Applejack exclaimed before she whirled to face the pegasus. “You said you were too busy to help me with the early apple harvest!”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as if what she was about to say was obvious. “Uh yeah! Too busy napping. I took the night shift on weather patrol duty, need to get my rest before my shift starts in a few hours.”
Alone in the library, Spike looked up from sorting through the several boxes that the moving company had delivered while Twilight had been out. So far, everything he’d managed to find all belonged to Twilight. Please don’t tell me the princess forgot to send my comic book collection.
As much as he hated to think it, old ponies always undervalued comics, and Celestia was the oldest pony around by far. Well except for Princess Luna, Spike reasoned. Although, he had to wonder if the smaller princess was anywhere close to Celestia in age since she had looked so young when the sun goddess came rolling into town a few days ago with her sister.
The sound of a door opening drew the young dragon out of his thoughts, and he watched Twilight walk into the cluttered minefield of stuff that the dragon had made in his quest for the graphic novels. She took a look around and raised an eyebrow at Spike. “Our stuff from Canterlot finally arrive?”
Spike looked down at the unorganized mess, then over to Twilight, and back to the mess Spike had made. “I’ll clean it up!” he promised before the unicorn could comment on the state of the library’s entrance.
“It’s okay Spike, I’ve got it,” she told him without a hint of unpleasantness before the entire assortment of things were surrounded by her magic’s sparkling purple aura and lifted into the air.
The calm expression on Twilight’s face changed to one of annoyance as some of the packages started to wobble. “Ugh, I was afraid of that,” she grumbled before nearly a fourth of the items floated back down to the ground and the others became still in the air. “Okay so, need to start working on my horn again and check my mana pool while I’m at it. Least I don’t need to waste time with spell theory.”
Spike raised an eyebrow at the unicorn nonsensical ramblings. “Twilight?”
“Hm?” she asked before looking back down at the dragon. “Oh! Sorry Spike, I was just talking out loud again. Let’s get all this stuff into my lab, then we can go get some lunch.”
“Lab?” Spike asked, more than a bit confused. He didn’t know the library had a lab. Was it some kind of super secret hidden lab? A mental image of Twilight dressed like some kind of mad scientist pony wearing a white lab coat and dark goggles passed through his mind and… Okay…it’s kind of creepy just how much that fits her, the dragon told himself.
“Basement!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise before she looked back to Spike with a bit of statement in her eyes. “I meant basement, but I was thinking of turning into a lab to work on a project I’m doing.”
She started to canter towards the stairs down to the aforementioned area, then looked back to Spike, hesitancy showing in her eyes. “But…well, you do need your own space…I think. I don’t want to smother you. Oh no! Am I smothering you?”
As was the norm since this morning, Spike could only scratch his head at the unicorn’s antics as the clip-clop sound of Twilight’s hooves resonated through the library while she quickly paced back and forth, the speed of her trotting increasing along with her crazy ranting. “Uh, are you okay Twilight?”
“Oh my gosh! I did smother you!” she partly shouted, in an almost whiny tone. “You slept next to me in a basket for crying out loud!”
“Twilight-”
“That’s not just me smothering, you, I was neglecting you too!” she exclaimed as she got right back into Spike’s face with wide eyes and a downcast, pitiable expression.
Spike’s confusion could only grow upon hearing the unicorn’s statement. “Uh, how can you pay too much attention to me and not enough at the same time?” he asked with trying to wrap his brain around just how Twilight could come to such an odd conclusion.
The question actually seemed to knock Twilight out of her panic as she actually needed to stop and think. The purple unicorn raised her head back and she tapped her hoof in through for a moment, then looked back down at Spike. “Your bed is right next to mine and it’s just a basket. Most of the food you consume is pony-centric and I never really looked into the proper dietary habits of a dragon. I-”
Spike managed to cut Twilight off with a loud belch that exuded a gout of green fire and deposited scroll on the ground. “Hey a letter from the princess!” the dragon said as he snatched it up before Twilight could. Thank Celestia! Literately!
When she gave him an annoyed look, the dragon pointed towards the things that were still in Twilight‘s telekinetic grip. “Uh, shouldn’t you go put all that stuff up before grabbing something else?”
For a moment he thought Twilight was going to argue, then she sighed and looked back to the basement door. “As much as I hate to admit it, I do still need a place to work theory on the array and recreate my notes in privacy,” she grumbled before whirling around to face Spike with a frown on her face and a scrunched up muzzle that the dragon knew Twilight only got when she had become extremely set in her ways. “But as soon as I’m done, you’re getting your own room!”
“But-”
“And I need to order a real bed for you,” she mumbled as a pencil found its way out of a box along with a note pad. “And I really should look into a proper dragon diet. I think there’s a dragon in the woods west of here, spike tail breed if I recall correctly. I wonder if he’d be willing to-”
As he had stopped paying attention to Twilight’s ramblings a minute ago, Spike just held the letter from the princess out for Twilight to take and read. If there was anything that was going to make her stop going on all crazy, then it was words from her mentor, Celestia. “Here, just read it.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, then took the parchment in her magical grip. “Thank you, and don’t talk that way to your mother,” she scolded him.
Spike looked away to hide the roll of eyes that came from Twilight’s words. The dragon really hoped Twilight would get off this mothering kick she seemed to be on lately. The attention was nice, but any more of it and she really would be smothering him. “So, it anything important?”
As he walked around to Twilight’s side to get a look at her face, the dragon caught the tail end of an angry frown that changed into a disgusted cringe. “Ugh, Grand Galloping Gala tickets,” the unicorn grumbled. “Doesn’t she know I hate the…right, first time.”
The information that Twilight had been given tickets to the most awesome party in Canterlot made a shiver of excitement run through Spike’s spine. “You got tickets to the Gala? That’s great Twilight! We-hey, what’re you doing!?” the dragon shouted as the tickets flew into the library’s trashcan.
“I hate the Gala,” she told him simply before heading down into the basement. “Now come on, the sooner we get this stored away…hmm, you want to go out to lunch today? We could check on Rarity to see if she’s free to join us.”
Spike frowned at the obvious yet tempting bribe to simply drop the conversation or at least move to a more interesting topic. But then again, it is Rarity, Spike reasoned. Another thought also occurred to him. Hey if Twilight doesn’t want to go, and we have two tickets, then…
“Hey Rarity, guess what? Princess Celestia sent Twilight two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and-”
“THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA?” Rarity shrieked in excitement at Spike declaration, as she jumped up and down while completely ignoring the dress she had been working on a moment ago. Sure it was unrefined, unladylike, uncouth, but… IT WAS THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA! The social event of the year! The place where the cream of the crop of upper society met!
Besides, there wasn’t anypony else in her shop other than Twilight and Spike, so she could be afford to be a little excited without absolutely killing her reputation. They had shown up just as she closed for lunch, and Rarity counted herself extremely lucky for it.
No, luck had nothing to do with it. It was fate! An act of Destiny!
“Oh I’ve always wanted to go to the Gala!” she exclaimed as she looked over to Twilight, her mind awash with all the possibilities. “Oh please say you’ll take me! You and I at the Gala, we-”
Twilight cut her off. “I’m not going.”
“That means you and I can go!” Spike told her with a grin plastered on his face despite the glare Twilight was giving him.
“SPIKE!”
“What?” he asked with a bit of annoyance that formed into a frown on his face. “You threw the tickets away.”
Rarity felt herself nearly collapse as Spike’s words hit her like a sledgehammer. The very…inconceivableness of somepony not wanting to go to the Grand Galloping Gala. The only thing that kept her standing was the fact that the floor was so dirty.
Why was the never something clean to collapse on when a pony needed it?
“Which means I did not give them to you!” Twilight responded.
So, Rarity‘s mind decided on another course of action: figure out just what was wrong in the mind of Twilight Sparkle. “YOU THREW AWAY TICKETS TO THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA?”
Twilight locked eyes with Rarity for a moment the surprise in them evident. Then Twilight’s expression changed to a frown and Rarity felt as if she was being taken apart, as if she was some puzzle Twilight was trying to solve. The two of them stood there for a good two minutes before Twilight broke the silence.
“Spike, I need you to go get Applejack and the other girls.”
Gathering up the five ponies didn’t turn out to be as much of a hassle as Spike thought it would be. Rainbow Dash had been back in town working on a storm, and had flown out to deliver the message to Applejack for him. Fluttershy was also in town, so the long walk to her cottage was also unnecessary.
As soon as he had gotten the word out, all the ponies gathered at Twilight’s place not ten minutes later. All in all, Spike wasn’t too surprised at what Twilight did next, if anything, it was the most ‘normal Twilight’ thing she had done since waking up in the morning.
She had asked each pony why she wanted to go to the Gala and said that the best two would get the tickets. Of course, each one had their own reasons for wanting to go that each pony thought was better than all the others. All things considered, Spike wasn’t too thrilled about Rarity’s and her wanting to meet some snooty unicorn Spike had only heard about back in Canterlot. And not much of it was nice.
As for the others, Applejack wanted to set up an concession stand at the Gala to sell food, Rainbow wanted to meet the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy wanted to play with the animals, and Pinkie Pie just wanted to party.
Twilight rubbed her forehead as all of the other ponies in the library looked on in eager anticipation. “Girls…look, you’ve all got…okay, I really can’t lie to you girls,” she mumbled. “No offense, but based just on your arguments, Rarity and Fluttershy should be the only ones going to the Gala.”
The farmer pony frowned and stepped forward. “How in the hay does kissing up to some snooty unicorn and playing with a bunch of critters even begin to measure up to taking care of mah family?” she demanded with a bit of anger in her voice. “Ah got the best reason here by far! The rest of these yahoos are just being selfish!”
“Oh so it’s selfish to want to actually live my dream?” Rainbow Dash demanded as she floated up into the air and glared down at AJ. “Oh I forgot who I’m talking to, ‘Hey Rainbow, help me with these apples! Hey Rainbow, I need some extra rain this week even though it’s not scheduled! Hey Rainbow, take time out of YOUR job give me a hoof with MINE, cause I can’t do it on my own and friends is just another name for good workhorse’!”
Not a minute later, Rarity and Pinkie Pie joined in, arguing with each other about parties in general, and Fluttershy backed away before she fell in on herself and looked at the four arguing ponies in fright.
Spikes eyes widened as he watched Twilight looked on in horror at the growing argument, her head darting back and forth between the mares as each one shot their mouths off. As the fight continued, tears began to form in her eyes and the beginnings of a panic attack was evident in her breathing.
“Stop it…just…STOOOOOOP IT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs before a purple magical glow surrounded everypony’s mouth to stop the sound from coming out. “This is why I didn’t want to give anypony a ticket! Look at what you’re fighting over! It’s just a stupid party! One lousy night out of your entire lives! AND IT IS A LOUSY NIGHT AT THAT!”
The unicorn looked over to the orange pony. “Applejack, you wanting to take care of your family is nice, it’s…it’s what you live for! But…you’re not going to sell anything at the Gala! They have a free buffet, and no matter how good your food is, when it comes to a choice between good food and free food, they’re going to pick the free option!”
“Rainbow Dash! Do you honestly think the Wonderbolts are going to like any pony who just buts into their airspace while they’re doing a show? How would you feel if somepony just showed up and interrupted you during a performance?” she demanded before her expression softened. “And I’m sorry but, neither of those tickets is VIP, which is where the Wonderbolts go to hang out during the Gala.”
She took a breath and looked over to Pinkie. “Pinkie Pie, your parties are the most wonderful in all of Equestria,” she said with a smiling face before it turned to a frowned. “But you didn’t plan the Gala, and in comparison, it’s horribly boring!
“Rarity…I’ve met Blueblood,” Twilight told her, although Spike couldn’t remember when that ever happened. “He is a complete egotistical plothole that only cares about himself! The last mare that was with him was treated more like a servant, and that sorry excuse for a stallion ignored the poor filly after rutting her! To be honest, the Gala may be your scene, but I hope you don’t attract his attention because you deserve a million times better!
“Fluttershy,” Twilight paused and took a deep breath. “Well…if you want to go play with animals and look at flowers all night…I got nothing. But…if you do get a ticket and the others don’t…do you really think you could enjoy yourself? Do you think I could stop myself from feeling bad for putting you in that position?”
The magic around the others vanished and everypony in the room turned to look at the cowering pegasus.
“Well…”
“Look Twi, none of us are going to be all resentful if you pick one of us,” Applejack assured her.
“I’ll resent me!” Twilight exclaimed as she swept her gaze over her friends. “You’re my best friends, my first friends ever! How can I pick one or two of you over the others? I’d rather just choose to just burn these bucking tickets altogether and forget about the whole thing!”
“You know Twilight, deciding not to choose isn’t really a choice,” Rainbow Dash told her.
Twilight stared at the pony floating in the air for a moment, then lowered her head and shook it while grumbling to herself. “I knew somepony was going to throw that back in my face one day, I just didn’t expect it to be her,” Spike heard the unicorn grumble to herself.
Then she looked back up to her friends with their expectant faces and sighed. “Look, girls…”
Twilight stopped herself and looked over to her tickets. “The Gala isn’t…” She paused and looked at her tickets, then to Spike, the girls, back to her tickets...and then back to the girls again. “…do you all still really want to go?”
Applejack poked the unicorn in the chest. “Twilight, you can’t tell me ponies ain’t gonna like my food,” the hard headed apple farmer told her. “Just you wait and see.”
“Well, now that you put it that way,” Rainbow Dash said, “I really wouldn’t like it if another pony interrupted my routine…and you said they’re not VIP? I really don’t want to go to the Gala if I can’t meet the Wonderbolts. But…I could still see them, right?”
Pinkie tilted her head as if trying to wrap her mind around an alien concept. “How can a party be boring?”
“But…he’s the most eligible bachelor in Canterlot,” Rarity mumbled as she tapped a hoof to her chin. “Which does raise the question as to why he’s still a bachelor if he attends social events all the time. Hmmm…oh! He’s obviously just looking for the right mare!”
“Well…I guess I would feel guilty,” Fluttershy mumbled barely loud enough for even Spike‘s dragon ears to hear.
A thought occurred to the dragon as the unicorn looked around the room with a growing sense of hopelessness becoming evident on her face. With his caretaker in such distress, he doubted the rational part of her mind would switch back on anytime soon to try a rather obvious answer. “Hey Twilight, can’t you just ask Princess Celestia for more tickets?” She was the princess after all, it shouldn’t have been too hard on her to get a few more.
“VIP tickets?” Dash asked in earnest.
Twilight blinked at the questions, then she looked down at Spike, and back up to her friends before turning her attention over to the writing desk and grabbing a parchment as well as a quill. “Well…I…that means asking Celestia,” she grumbled.
The dark tint to her voice stopped and she gave them all a sad smile. “Sure. Anything for you girls,” she mumbled to herself before she began writing.
“Dear Princess Celestia.
“Thank you, for the Gala invitation and tickets,” she said, practically growling the first two words as the pen copied her words onto the page. “However, my five friends would also like to attend the event. I would…humbly like to ask that you send a few more tickets to accommodate them; along with a VIP pass for Rainbow Dash to meet the Wonderbolts. Prin-oh wait, remove that. Ahem, Twilight Sparkle.”
She looked up at Rainbow Dash, then over to Applejack, and back to her letter. “PS Expect a report on the correlation between friendships and its effects on the causation of favors within the next few weeks.”
A minute later, the sealed latter was being consumed by Spike’s fire, and Twilight was looking over to her friends with a hint of worry in her eyes. “Do you girls want to go grab a late lunch? I think we all need to have a long discussion about-”
“BURP!”
Twilight blinked as the scroll suddenly appeared in a blast of flame and the letter dropped into Spike’s waiting claws. A second later, he opened the letter to read it aloud. “Dear Twilight, of course I’d be willing to accommodate your friends, all you had to do was ask.”
“Wait a minute,” Twilight said quietly as she looked up at the clock. “That wasn’t even two minutes! What the hay? Did she just sit around with four extra tickets waiting for a letter saying I…oh Harmony, she did!”
Spike frowned, unable to follow Twilight’s logic and broken speech. “Uh Twilight, what’re you talking about?”
The unicorn’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the four extra tickets in the scroll that her magic levitated in front of her face, hiding her expression from anypony else in the room. “Nothing Spike, just thinking about the lesson Celestia just taught me in regards to the nature of our old relationship.” Then, she gave one of the tickets to Spike.
A second later, Twilight’s face brightened and she walked up to the girls with her remaining tickets and passed them out. “Here you go girls!”
“Twilight, what about you?” Rarity asked as she took her ticket.
She simply shook her head. “I keep telling you girls I don’t want to go. It’ll be fine,” she said before smiling at the other unicorn. “Besides, that’s Spike’s ticket and-”
The dragon let out another belch of flame and grabbed a scroll. A moment later, he had it opened and was reading what had been written inside. “And here’s one for Spike.” He looked down at the golden ticket that dropped onto the ground and snatched it up before putting it with the other one in his possession. “Huh…guess this one is yours then Twilight.”
“I’m not going to-”
“Oh no you don’t sugar.”
“Indeed, it would be uncouth to allow the friend who gave us admittance to the Gala to waste her night alone in this place.”
“Yeah, I think I can stand you being an egghead, but an antisocial egghead is where I draw the line.”
“A party wouldn’t be a party without all my friends!”
“And I would feel pretty guilty about enjoying the Gala if you were stuck back in Ponyville Twilight.”
“But…I…you all…fine,” she moaned in defeat before the ticket was snatched up by her magic and she hung her head in defeat. “I really can’t say no to you girls. Umm, but can we leave the tickets here? I’m afraid we might get mobbed if we show them around Ponyville.”
As soon as her friends agreed, the purple pony gathered up the tickets and trotted back to the writing desk to place them in storage. “Oh, that’s where I put that list,” she mumbled as she looked at the parchment, then back to her friends. “Everything huh? Rainbow and AJ, Pinkie and Rarity…Pinkie and AJ…looks like I won’t have as much lab time as I thought.”
I am really liking this unstable Twilight. Trixie may be in for a beating. I feel bad for her though. Maybe this time she doesn't let Snips and Snails be idiots.
Also, what about Applebuck Season or are you only going to do select episodes?
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Episodes where Twilight really didn’t do much beyond talk will just get a quick mention with something like Applejack remembering a short speech Twilight gave her in the next chapter, while things like Boast Busters that had heavy Twilight involvement will get a chapter and other chapters that just have common sense changes that completely alter the plot will also get a short chapter.
Quick TS line from Dragonshy chapter: “Princess Celestia wants me to take a baker, a seamstress, a farmer, and animal caretaker to go slay a dragon. Yeah…not gonna happen.”
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Ha! I used pretty much same line in another story.
When will the Future Princess explain her hatred for Princess Sunbutt?
I thought Spike didn't want anything to do with the Gala, either...
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Probably at the next to last chapter if all the readers haven't figured it out by then that is
This is awesome!!!! It now must be faved.
The premise of this story intrigues me
I guess our future Twilight finally saw Celestia for what a devious puppeteer she had been, eh?
I think you meant "rational"?
Oh Faust... Twilight is going to smear the floor with Trixie and that Ursa... isn't she?
Also... I think that you're portraying Twilight as a bit too... panicky.
True, she was lied to most of her life and lead on a "leash" but...
some of those lessons were pretty important and Twilight long
learned how to relax a bit...
Did she come back in time after all of her friends died, including Spike?
Is that why she keeps talking to herself and acting so... unhinged?
Will she do something to... Celestia?
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That's a perfect team for a D&D session!
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Panic isn’t just a mental function, it’s also biological. If a person is stressed out or panicky about stuff for a long time, that becomes their biological norm even when its stuff they know she shouldn‘t be stressing out about. It takes a lot of work to fix, you don't just flip a switch. While Twilight’s consciousness is old, her subconscious and body are back to being Twilight classic.
The other problem is that Twilight knows the Elements of Harmony friendship is an absolute, like a law of the universe and it has been for some time. Twilight doesn't have a perfect memory and actually remembers Ponyville with some pretty heavily tinted rose colored glasses. To see her friends all fighting amongst each other over something as ridiculous as the 3G would be the equivalent of someone turning the gravity off in our world. It freaked her out.
4034386
Ah, indeed.
This looks promising, but I'm wary... very wary of the dislike for Celestia and what it might imply. She seems to miss the loss of her wings and magic—at least in the sense that she keeps expecting them to be there—but she's also pretty accepting of the loss. The vagueness makes it hard to tell at this point if her resentment of Celestia extends to her alicornhood, which would kind of kill it for me. If this is inspired by that one fic where she survives until the heat-death of the universe, I'll be really disappointed
On the bright side, it does seem well enough written to not just be "snarky Twilight snarky snarks all the fridge logic in the show," though only just (no offense). With stories like these, it's extremely important that the "solutions" cause their own unique problems. Twilight freaking out about her friends arguing is good! If it wasn't there, though, I think you'd have a problem. It's just so very, very difficult to cover canon events without boring readers out of their minds.
All that said, I do have one out-and-out complaint, which is the description. I very nearly passed this by because the description makes it sound like a first-person background pony account of the show. The only reason I didn't pass it by was because I scrolled down to the comments to see if I could figure out who the protagonist was, as they didn't appear to be tagged.
Chapter 2:
...
Nope. I still have no idea what I just read.
I love how whatever cataclysm happened that led to Twilight Quantum Leaping like this didn't cure her of her more adorable neurotic tendencies. I'm also very interested to find out exactly what happened to make Twilight hate Celestia this much. I very much look forward to more of this.
There are a plethora of minor errors that need fixing. Get a prereader.
A couple of less minor errors:
Uhhhh...think you meant "the acreage of Sweet Apple Acres" there.
So Spike WANTS the Princess to forget to send his comic collection?
Wonder what celestia did to piss Twilight off? Also can you have her kick her brother in the place where the sun doesn't shine? As his sister he should have told her he was dating Cadence and even marrying her, but he did not he did. In my opinion, twilight has all the right to kick her brother there.
I think you meant " rational" not "national" for the part of her mind
When i watched season1 episode 3, I was 100% sure that celestia was already preparing 7 tickets and send just 2 to make twi hget in trouble
I don't want to alarm anyone - but it's possible future Twilight is completely bonkers.
clutched her head long enough to loose her balance
she said with a pitiable expression as he ears drooped
Why was the never something clean to collapse on
Twilight locked eyes with Rarity for a moment the surprise in them evident
1. Lose.
2. Her.
3. There.
4. You should put a comma between these words.
So... future Twilight went to her past. Oh the alternate realities that can occur from just her memory of the events alone
Uhh... Twilight also never did that when the Mane Six all traded cutie mark stories at the end of "Cutie Mark Chronicles" and Applejack didn't bat an eye.
Quit gawking at everything Twilight's doing remember something, Applejack: You all showered her with attention, family members, apple-themed dishes and other apple accessories on her first day. For hours on end. Plus, you defeated an evil goddess of darkness together with long-forgotten artifacts of magical power. I think that would stick is anypony's memory for a good while.
I take it back. Her memory is as inconsistent as a Matrix sequel.
[Edit] This seems to be intentional, since it's not the last memory inconsistency to pop up. Is this suppsoed to be a new character flaw? Because it's only bringing up plotholes. Observe:
Is that supposed to avoid ruining the Gala, Twilight? Because you still have five friends who have a lifelong dream of going there. What's stopping Celestia from sending another round of tickets next year? What's stopping those tickets from belching out of Spike right in front of somepony else? That's exactly what happened in the first loop, you know. Why not go all Best Night Ever and tell why your friends' plans won't work (or possibly one of the billion other ways Blueblood tried to address the problem)?
See Twilight, now it's blowing up in your face. LordBrony, it seems 4461935 was right about that flaw (oh, of course he's right. He spoiled for me). You both get a gold star and my sincerest apologies. Meme was a dick on that front.
In fact LordBrony, do yourself a solid and include that Future!Twilight only makes things worse in the description. It's more of a promise of story and conflict than the question whether Twilight's the same or not. In fact, imply that everything's going to hell. I've got a feeling that it is, especially in this chapter.
HOLY SHIT YOU TOOK MY ADVICE FROM THE FUTURE.
I love this.
That whole paragraph needs a good looking over.
Really? You really went there? lol I'm surprised nobody else commented about that.
Rush begs to differ. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!
Think I'm done, get an editor.
This is good so far, I'll read more later.
I like how Twilight has a national part of her mind. I only have a state of mind.
Er... She was able to teleport (and even teleport spam) since very beginning (s01e02), i.e. before Crazy Twilight arrived.
This story makes me so happy! *hops in a circle*
HA-PEE! HA-PEE! HA-PEE! *falls head first*
But then, of course, Twilight's know them and their farm for years. In her own worldline of experience.
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Future-Twilight's had plenty of time to consider the dangers inherent in such a plan. I've always thought that Celestia was counting rather heavily on destiny in doing it.
For what it's worth, I discuss Celestia's reasoning in An Extended Performance, which is primarily about Trixie saving Manehattan from the Nightstallion's Shadow Coven on the morning of Luna's Return, but whose Storyline B involves what Celestia does instead, and why. Part of Celestia's plan involves Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash having been known to Luna from a past life, and Celestia's own awareness that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie have some fairly awesome powers. And, of course, Ponyville being Celestia's planned "potato patch."
But even with all that, Celestia's far from sure that it will work. She just sees this as her best hope for getting Luna back alive.
You will note that this is not a mare who is entirely confident of victory. And Celestia has one thing on her side that is definitely non-canon -- that an earlier Aspect of Luna loved an earlier Aspect of Twilight Sparkle.
But she didn't have many other good choices. Fighting Nightmare Moon directly would have caused mass devastation, and probably resulted in her own death, leading to a protracted civil war. It would have been a long time before Celestia reincarnated and got up to full power again, and the Earth might have died before she could manage it. And if she hadn't died, it probably would have been because she'd succeeded in killing Luna -- which is not a "success" Celestia really desired.
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Not only did Twilight teleport, but she did so with the cargo -- far beyond her actual powers at this point. Even though she's not an Alicorn in this time, she remembers her future skills.
Ah -- Rarity hasn't yet thought of the fainting couch trick.
Ouch. That's gotta be a blow to Rarity's hopes and dreams. But maybe kinder than letting her find out for herself, as actually happened. The worst plausible outcome would be, of course, if Rarity had met him and not found out what a jerk he was, fast enough.
Oh, and it's occurred to me that Twilight might have known about Blueblood's reputation or even had dealings with him personally. She's a native of Canterlot and spends a lot of time around the Palace.
... and Rarity maintains her self-delusion. Which is in character for her, actually, on this topic. In fact, Twilight may have made matters worse, since now Rarity's stubborness is engaged.
Namely, that Celestia is highly manipulative.
I don't think you know wht a plot hole is
fyi, looping-verse twilight once went and got tickets for the ENTIRETY of ponyville. glorious hilarity ensued.
Sometimes, you have to let your friends learn things the hard way. You can tell them time and time again not to touch a hot stove, but really the only way they'll learn is by touching the stove themselves and finding out why.
>she said with a pitiable expression as he ears drooped
*her
>Why was the never something clean to collapse on
*there
>Do you honestly think the Wonderbolts are going to like any pony who just buts into their airspace
I'm pretty sure that's 'butts'
I can just see this version of Twilight doing two things at the Gala after ditching Celestia with a "Talk to the Hoof!" comment: Visit with Luna and follow after Blueblood and Rarity to make sure all his selfishness backfires him and not Rarity... heck, Luna would probably enjoy helping.
Celestia is a monster of epic proportions
and the mane 5 are fools for not listening
this is a weird fic. not the bad kind, it is just kind of jarring. we know what happened that made twi like that but to everyone else it makes her come off as… weird. sorry there is no other word I can think of. still is a great fic!
Drop the 'I'
Okay.... how exactly did these mares become the Elements? I mean, they are thick as hell! Twilight just gave them perfectly good reasons andthey didn't even listen! Some friends!
But I wanna see how the wedding goes!
At the point in the story where rainbow first appears and says "did sompony say my name" I imagined that she was just hovering and twilight jumped into the air and yanked her down, saying, "and you get a hug" in reference to that thing opra does.
It's time for a speech I call "Of rotting horses and beatings." It is about good writing.
Observe the following sentence.
"I went to the store to by eggs from the store which were stored at the store."
This sentence is grammatically correct but it is way longer then it needs to be. When you read a word you assume it has meaning and so you try to use every word to increase your understanding. Since you already knew most of the information in the above example after the first 1/3 of the sentence, the rest of the time is just spent restating things you know.
My point is, you said "in defeat" twice. You didn't need to say it at all. "Hanging your head" is an action which expresses a feeling of defeat and, often, so is moaning. Once information has been clearly communicated, you don't need to keep restating it. Also, showing is preferable to telling. Describing her actions is better then outright telling us that we are supposed to interpret her actions as signs she feels defeated.
purple
[since in the rest of the chapter you have it designated as purple]
____________
Technically it was RD's and AJ's fault. Like Twilight said in this chapter.
And then Rares added Vandalism to the mix ... not to mention negligent parents that make old Twilight look like mother of the year. *goes to read*.
Might: Strength, power, force.
Mite: small, speck, (a type of insect), little.
Wrong homophone.
4966467
Okay.
Hmmm. I see.
Eenope.
by, buy, bye
beside, purchase, farewell.
Gotta love them homophones.
5612478 I have an irrational fear of homophones. Such a thing is called a phobia. Does that make me homophobic? <-- and thus I justify my fear.
*wriggles around the floor*
GEWDDDDD. EET SO GEWWWWWD!!!!
5658167 I'm rereading too. *brohoof?*
5658167 It's better then molten butter, it's like double molten butter with cheese!
CHEEEEEEEEEESSEEEEE!
As a Trixie fanboy, this has me very nervous.
4966381 I think that would have drawn out the TwiDashers and/or caused the explosion of many a D'aww meter.
Considering how twilight's talking about the sun princess, the gala's going to be very... interesting for them.
Much better, now I'm curious as to what happened between her and Celestia. Did another Canterlot Wedding happen or something between them? Nah, it'd have to be far worse than that.
I love it when things come full circle like that.
I'm gonna go ahead an say something obvious and most likely stupid. This reminds me of "Second Chance"
SHE JUST MADE AN INSULT TOWARDS PRINCESS CELESTIA! RUN APPLEJACK!