Chapter 18: Regrouping
“No. No. No. No. This isn’t happening!” Twilight panicked. Her hair had become frazzled and messy despite still being wet from just emerging from the pool in front of us.
“Why would you even bring something like that?” I demanded as I began to panic along with the purple mare, who was now darting left and right at the edge of the luminescent spring.
“”Princess Celestia wanted us to bring them in case something happened, and now mine’s lost forever!” she wailed in despair.
“Like what? All we were going to do was pick up a rock. A stupid rock!” I shouted in frustration. “I don’t understand. Why would Celestia want you to bring the Elements with us? From what I know about the forest, there isn’t anything in here that the Elements would even work on anyway; so, why?” I inquired as I got to my hooves with a grunt of discomfort from my shoulder.
“I don’t know! When the Princess tells you to bring an ancient magical artifact with you, you bring the ancient magical artifact with you! There is no questioning it. You just do as she says!”
Alright. Alright. Calm down. There’s nothing we can do right now. Once we’re done with getting this gem and get Blueblood from my mind, we can come back here and take our time to dig up the Element of Magic. Not all is lost. It’s not like this is anyone’s fault, after all.
“This is your fault!” exclaimed the unicorn, pointing an accusing hoof at me.
“What!?”
“If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened. The Element of Magic would be safely sealed in the royal vault, and I’d be in the library studying the magic of friendship instead of being lost under the Everfree Forest, trying to understand why I fell in love with somepony who isn’t even a pony. Why couldn’t you be…”
Quietly sitting near the pond, I let Twilight continue her rant. The initial accusation stunned me, and I was worried that she hated me at first, but when she mentioned loving me off of the cuff like that, I guessed that she just needed to vent her frustrations. Allowing her to do just that, I simply watched her pace back and forth not taking anything she said too seriously. Wincing at a few choice words, I waited patiently for her to calm down enough for me to try to comfort her without getting any backlash in return.
“… it’s just so maddening!” she exclaimed. “Ever since I met you, nothing but problems follow in your wake. Each one driving me closer to my own death, yet I follow you? I must be going insane. That’s the only logical explanation. I am going completely and utterly insane.”
Rather than allow the purple mare to berate herself further, I decided to step in to brave an attempt to calm her. “Twilight. Come on. Deep breaths. You need to calm down.” I instructed as I inhaled a big breath to display what I meant, then letting the air out of my lungs with a sigh in an attempt to display calm.
She glared at me for a moment, before closing her eyes, and breathing in deeply with her hoof pressed to her chest. Shortly after, she let it out, pointing her hoof straight ahead of her. Not feeling any change, she proceeded to do this a couple more times in fast succession. The last of her breaths came much slower, and when she opened her eyes once more to look at me, she seemed like a completely different mare.
“Whoa.” I muttered as I took in the drastic changes in her appearance.
Her mane straightened out and fell into place on its own accord, her eyes no longer twitched at a steady pace that a clock would be able to tell time by, and her gaze was focused on nothing but me now. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be buried with my element under all that rock right now. There’s no way we can recover it from down there.”
“I’m not going to lie. It won’t be easy, but we can still dig it up. It may take awhile, but we can still dig it up. What’s important is that we’re okay. At least… for the moment anyway.” I assured as I gazed about the small room.
Most of the cave was lit by the luminescence of the pool before us, but what the light from the pool didn’t reach, a torch positioned next to a staircase illuminated on the far wall.
“I guess the only way left is up.” I stated motioning towards the stairs leading up.
“Wait.” Twilight called out with the application of her hoof to my good shoulder. “Before we go any further, there’s something I need to know.” Turning to face her once more, she continued with her line of thought. “You haven’t told me the entire truth yet; have you? You know more than you should about my friends, me and this world. There’s even evidence that you know about the Elements. How is that possible?”
“Oh! … um… I… uh.”
Crap! She knows! I’ve been too lax with my information. What should I tell her? I should tell her the truth, but I don’t think Celestia would be happy about that, and I doubt Twilight would take the news that she’s famous well. But at the same time, she has the right to know, and I really don’t want to lie to her anymore.
I let out a breath of resignation.
I guess there’s only one thing to do then.
“Twi. What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this cave. Alright?”
The mare in front of me hesitantly nodded her head, clearly unsure if she really wanted to keep what I had to say a secret.
“I mean it Twi. I’m going to need you to Pinkie Promise. I don’t think your friends will be able to handle this. Well… Pinkie probably already knows, considering she’s Pinkie, but someone like Fluttershy would be mortified.”
“O..Okay. I.. I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony.” She promised warily. Her uncertainty had changed to slight fear for the knowledge that I held.
Shifting uncomfortably on my hooves, I began my explanation. “Okay. Um… You kind of exist in my dimension.”
“Oh! Well…” she perked up with the revelation. “I suppose that makes sense. Considering there are countless realities with an untold multitude of possible outcomes to choices and stimuli that could create an endless amount of duplicate personalities and situations. That’s not that bad. I thought that you were going to say you were watching us in our day to day lives or something.”
I inhaled through my teeth.
Noticing my reaction, her eyes narrowed, and she had to ask the inevitable question on her mind. “You… you weren’t spying on us. Were you?”
“Well…” I started as a used my hooves to mimic a scale. “…yes and no?”
“What!? That’s… That’s disgusting! That has to be the most depraved, immoral, shameless, profligate...”
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! No! Not like that!” I interrupted with my hooves raised in defense from the angry approaching mare. “You were a TV show on something we call a television. It works kind of like a movie does, by projecting images.”
Twilight stopped her approach to look at me expectantly to continue, but didn’t let up on the frown she had.
“You didn’t physically exist in my world. You were imagined by someone and drawn out on paper, and turned into a cartoon. Which are drawings ordered to work kind of like film does. You were just something someone imagined to entertain little girls.”
Her face changed to confusion and uncertainty. “Assume I believe you. Are… are you saying that you were a little girl?” she asked.
“What? No! ‘Sigh’ Look. The show became really popular with men for some odd reason that most can’t even explain properly. It was just a good cartoon. It started with the first day you went to Ponyville, and continued following you and your friends from there. Each episode would usually end with you or your friends sending a letter to Celestia on what you learned about friendship. There was nothing bad or perverted about what was shown. Alright?”
The purple mare in front of me lowered her head, and focused on the ground in front of her as she thought. All I could do was sit there and wait for her reaction, as well as any questions that she might have. Silently, she began to mumble to herself. I couldn’t quite catch what she was saying, but I think I heard the words ‘Pinkie’ and ‘Spaceponies’ before her focus shifted up to me again. “So… you know everything about me?” she asked, moving ever so slowly closer to me. Twilight’s eyes darted across my face for any inkling of a clue that I might not be telling her the truth, or withholding information from her.
“I… I doubt I know everything,” I hesitantly answered, “but I’m sure I know more than I should. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner, but you can understand why I didn’t. You would have thought I was crazy, and never would have agreed to… date me.” I mumbled the last two words in shame.
Even though she agreed to go out with me, and stated that she loved me on a couple of occasions, I still felt like anything could shatter our newfound relationship to pieces. She hasn’t known me for very long, and I haven’t given her any reason to trust me, so how could she truly love me like that? I didn’t want my knowledge of a show to mar our relationship any further.
“If… If we can...” I started. “Can we start again? I pinkie promise to always tell you nothing but the truth from now on. You can ask me anything, and I’ll answer you truthfully. I swear.”
Looking up in thought, the unicorn in front of me tapped her chin as she contemplated her options. Leveling her gaze back to me, she asked her question. “Is that why you decided to come here? To ask me on a date?” There was no stuttering or hesitation in her voice, just the yearning to know my answer.
The way she asked it brought a small smile of hope to my face. “I can’t say that it was the only reason for coming here, but it was definitely at the top of my list.”
“You know? That is either the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard, or incredibly creepy.” She stated, causing me to wince at the vocalized fears I had before actually coming to Equestria. I would have been a little more worried if not for the smile that adorned Twilight’s features. “Do I have to get a restraining order on you?” she joked, poking my chest lightly with a hoof.
My smile grew slightly with her playful attitude. “I don’t think you can.” I answered. “I have a royal letter ordering me to live in the same house as you. Remember?” Sadly, my worries quickly came crashing in to the forefront of my thoughts. “So… we’re alright. Right?” It was a simple question, but it weighed heavily on my mind.
Twilight frowned slightly, but answered. “You’re on thin ice, but…” she gave me a comforting smile. “Yeah. I think we are. We can just take things slow, so I can get to know you as well as you seem to know me. Okay?”
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
“And don’t worry. I won’t tell the girls about this. After all, I made a pinkie promise, and I’m sure you know what that means; don’t you?”
I chuckled a little. “Yeah. You get a really pissed off Pinkie Pie if you break that promise.” I answered.
“No. Well… yes, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about.”
“I know. I’m sorry I lost your trust Twi. I’ll do what I can to earn it back.”
“You’ve made a good start so far, and I know you’ll do what is right. After all… losing a ponies trust is the fastest way to lose a marefriend.” she said with a grim grin, emphasizing the last word to make her point.
From up the stairwell behind me, the far away voice of a pony yelling a single word came echoing down the passage. The word gave both Twilight and me hope that an exit was close at hoof. That word being, “Forever!” in a drawn out shout.
“Please tell me you heard that too?” I asked the wide eyed mare in front of me.
Not even taking the time to answer my question, Twilight took flight up the stairs with me following shortly after. I was able to keep a steady pace, but my shoulder was still sore from the trauma that was inflicted upon it making me to limp slightly. Normally this would be a huge hindrance to my ability to run, but being on four legs, I was able to shift most of my weight onto my other hoof to prevent any major pain.
The stairwell spiraled upwards to the left at a lazy incline. This allowed us to move quickly without stumbling or sliding along the stone surface that it was made of. After a few short minutes we came to a door at the end of our path and burst through it without any hesitation as to what might have been on the other side.
Skidding to a halt, the eyes of seven ponies shifted their attention to Twilight and I. From what I could gather with the quick glance that I got, we had just interrupted a confused and irritated fashionista chewing out a pink party pony for yelling in her ear.
Silence reigned for a short moment as everyone took in who just burst through the door that they had been resting near. In unison all of the Elements of Harmony cried out Twilight’s name with elation, and charged, crushing her in a big group hug. Each of the mares battled for dominance in an attempt to dislodge the most oxygen from Twilight’s lungs.
Pinkie Pie was the clear victor in this endeavor.
“I was so worried that I would never see you again!” she shouted while she clung to Twilight’s torso. “My pinkie sense was going off like crazy when you went into the woods with Honor. It was mostly the twitchy tail, which was the ‘lookout for falling objects’ one, and I remembered that you always had a problem with that, and as soon as you disappeared it went off, but when we got to where you should have been, and all we found was a small hole in the ground. After that, I got another twitchy tail that was stronger than the first, and then the ground began to shake, and made my voice sound all silly, but it stopped shortly after, and I was all sad, but everypony said to ignore it and to keep going to the ruins to find you and help you. Well… Everypony except for Trixie. She came anyway because your brother told her that if she didn’t help she would be thrown in the dungeon, and…”
The mentioned blue magician used her magic to forcibly silence Pinkie’s rambling. “Silence! The Great and Powerful Trixie will not stand for such slander! She decided to volunteer her services out of the goodness of her heart.”
Rainbow Dash made a move to make a snide retort, but Trixie interrupted the attempt by restating what she had already said with a meaningful glair at the pegasus. “Out of the goodness of her heart.” The venom in her voice was palpable through her gritted teeth.
“Yes… Well… Anyway,” Rarity began in an attempt to defuse the situation, “with Trixie’s direction, we were able to make it here to the ruins much quicker than anticipated.”
“Indeed. Was there ever any doubt?” the showmare agreed.
Without her noticing, all of the other mares nodded their heads to Twilight to signify that, yes, there were in fact doubts. While Trixie’s attention was distracted, Pinkie Pie had found that her mouth was once again free to move as she wished it, and continued with her rant like nothing had stopped her in the first place.
“Anyway, we made it to the ruins, which was a good thing because soon after I got a doozy! I was a little confused as to why the doozy seemed to be focused under us, but soon after the ground began to shake again, but not in the good way, more like the explody kind, but down. Implody? What’s it like when something explodes but it goes down? Implode?”
“Ah think the word yer lookin’ for is a sinkhole, Pinkie.” Applejack helped.
“Sinkhole! Yeah! But that’s not explody...” she paused for thought.
“Just get on with it.” the farmer facehoofed in exasperation.
“Anyway, out of that flew two dragons. Isn’t that cool! We ended up watching them fly off when I had the urge to shout ‘Forever!’ for some reason, and then you showed up. It’s so good to see you!” Pinkie exclaimed as she squeezed Twilight one more time for emphases.
The two stallions in the area sat by, not quite sure as to what they should be doing at that moment, though Shining Armor decided on taking the initiative when he noticed me on my own. Approaching calmly, maybe a little too calmly, he trotted up to me with a slight smile on his lips that worried me.
Welp… here comes the beating. I’ll keep my word though. I’ve endangered Twilight enough as is. He can punch me all he wants to.
Closing my eyes in order to not see his hooves coming, I stood my ground, ready for whatever injuries he wanted to inflict. I listened to his hoof beats until he stopped in front of me. The next thing I knew, his hoof lightly came in contact with my bad shoulder, causing me to inhale sharply and shy away from the offending object. He didn’t let me, his hoof keeping me in place for what he wanted.
“Shining! Don’t hurt him.” Twilight’s voice sounded in my ears. Clearly worried at what might happen between me and her older brother.
The royal guard ignored his sister’s pleas as his head inched closer to my own. I could feel his breath on my face. The hot air that he produced shifted the fur on the end of my muzzle.
“I… I’m sorry.” he hesitantly apologized.
“Huh?” I asked, confusion clear on my face as I opened my eyes to look at the stallion in front of me. “You… You’re not going to hit me?”
“No. I’m not going to hit you.” He confirmed.
The processes in my mind had completely seized up with the inability to comprehend why Shining Armor would not want to cause me bodily harm. This would explain the incredibly stupid question of, “Why?” that came from my lips shortly after in disbelief. Like the only natural thing for the hulking colt to do was to damage me relentlessly.
Closing his eyes, the royal guard inhaled, and let his breath out in a long sigh. “Because.” he stated. “Because Twily chose you over me. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t care for you. I guess my little Twily is growing up.” He mentioned as he took a quick glance to his sister. They both shared a meaningful smile with each other, until he turned back to me.
Leaning in closer to me, he whispered so none but I could hear him. “And if I find that you’re just using her, then I will hunt you down, I will find you, and I will cut off that part of you that makes you a stallion and mount it on my wall as a trophy. Do I make myself clear?”
Letting him beat me up is one thing. Letting him cut my nuts off is something completely different. Do not want!
“Crystal.” I affirmed, shuttering slightly at the image that he had painted in my mind.
Note to self: stay as far away from Shining Armor as possible in the future.
Shining’s expression changed immediately. He removed his hoof from my shoulder and exclaimed, “Great! Glad that’s taken care of! So… Trixie. Which way to the temple?” he inquired while rubbing his forehooves together in a show of cleansing them of the dirty business he concluded with me.
All of us were still clearly confused with the results of Shining Armor’s light tone, but it was only his little sister to question his motives. “Wait! That’s it? You’re all of a sudden fine with going to the temple?” she asked. “I thought you wanted nothing more than to take us back to Ponyville?”
“Oh don’t get me wrong, I do. Honor Bound and I will continue to the temple alone. The rest of you will go back to Ponyville where it’s safe.”
The bearers of the Elements of Harmony erupted into a cacophony of objections to the idea. The royal guard didn’t even bat an eye at the mares; he just sat there unmoving as they yelled their opinions.
He still wants to send them away? Wait… if they leave… it’ll just be me and him… alone… with no witnesses…
“Don’t leave me alone with him!!!!” I begged as I threw myself onto the ground at the feet of the group of mares. Said mares blinked at me in surprise.
A white hoof caressed the side of my face to comfort me. “Perish the thought.” Rarity eased. “I promise you, I’ll never let you out of my sight ever again. Nopony is going to steal you away from me.” She stated with a cold tone, taking a quick glance over to Twilight to see her reaction. The look was returned with gusto.
I looked between the silently warring white and purple mare in thought for a moment, before pleading once more for a different reason to Twilight. “Don’t leave me alone with her!!!”
The fashionista pouted, but didn’t say anything to sway my wishes on the matter. Instead, soothing words came from somewhere I didn’t expect they would. Rainbow Dash. “Hay, now. We won’t leave ya hangin’. We started this journey together, and we’ll finish it together.” she comforted. “Right girls?”
Each mare gave their agreement in their own way, from a simple nod to a rib crushing hug, but all were welcomed with delight as I felt the friendship they had for me, and in one case; love. Shining however, did not like this decision one bit.
“I am the captain of the royal guard, and prince of the Crystal Empire, and I will not stand for this!” he shouted in irritation. “I am the highest ranking official here, so when I give an order, I expect it to be followed!”
Silence reined. Everyone just stared at Shining Armor as he panted in exasperation. Only one pony dared to speak after such a scene, and it was actually the meekest of the mares here.”That’s… um… not completely true.” Fluttershy corrected. The attention shifted to her, and she paused to hide herself behind her mane before trying to reword her previous sentence. “I mean… um… that… I don’t think you are the only prince here?” she decided to make the statement a question to keep from sounding too disrespectful.
It took a moment for everyone to slowly connect the dots as to what she was referring to, but it seemed to dawn on everyone at the same time when it did.
Pinkie Pie was the first to respond with an, “Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that.”
Dash decided to follow up with an over exaggerated bow at my hooves just to rub it in the guards face. “What are your orders, my liege?” she asked.
My eyes shifted from the pegasus who had prostrated herself before me and the confused stallion to my right. The whole situation made me uncomfortable.
“What are you talking about?” Shining inquired. “He’s a noble, not a prince.”
“Nu uh.” Pinkie denied popping up in front of the guard to boop his nose. “Honor Bound replaced Prince Blueblood, so that makes him a prince now too.”
“That’s not how it works!” the stallion rejected. “Besides, that just means there are two princes here of equal authority.”
“Sorry, adopted nephew trumps married into royal family.” Dash stated. “You still lose.”
Shining raised his hoof to object, but Applejack interrupted what he was about to say. “That sounds about right ta me.” she agreed.
Another movement by him was interrupted by the blue showmare this time. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would prefer to follow a pony who doesn’t threaten her with prison.” she decided to add.
The guard lowered his hoof and slumped down in defeat. “Fine. You all can come along.” He grumbled under his breath.
“Yay!!!” Pinkie jumped up in the air shouting her joy to the heavens with confetti flying up behind her. “We’re off to find the temple! This wonderful temple of ours!” she sang with an eerily familiar tune as she led us onward in a random direction. That is, until Trixie magically picked her up, rotated her into a new direction, and placed her back down to continue with the proper course down a side street to an ominous looking building.
The two siblings stayed behind for a moment, out of earshot of the others.
“Thank you, B.B.B.F.F. It’s what the princesses would want.” Twilight showed her appreciation with a sisterly hug.
“I still don’t trust him.” he confided to her.
“I know. But you trust me, don’t you?”
He nodded his affirmative. “Of course I do.”
“Then trust me to make the right decision. Okay? He’s special, if a little misguided sometimes.”
“I don’t care how special he is. It doesn’t mean I have to like him.”
“At least try. Please? For me?” Twilight pleaded with a pout.
“I could say he’s a changeling in disguise, and smite him.”
“Shining!!”
“Alright! Alright. No promises though. If he hurts you…” he left the last words unsaid.
“I know, but I don’t want you to chase him off. He’s come a long way to be here.”
“Hay!? Are you two coming, or what?” Pinkie exclaimed from the top of the ridge that we had disappeared over.
“Coming!” Twilight answered, but turned back to her brother. “Just think about it, okay?”
Shining Armor simply grunted as he plodded along with his sister to catch up. “No promises.” he reiterated.
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Now lets see Honor Bound propose to Twilight... wonder what Shining will say about that
So many malapropisms... Are these intentional or is it auto-correct?
I swear, auto-correct is Satanspawn.
2274342
I'm not planning on having Honor propose in this fic, but if it were to happen only Princess Celestia would be able to hold Shining at bay.
2275453
If there are any malapropisms in this chapter they are purely accidental on my part. Though, if you like, you should read my other fic where all of them are on purpose. And there are a lot of them.
Seriously, you use that explanation...
Really, all the episodes you see start out as a story on a piece of paper first. So, technically the cartoons are just recreations of written stories. So, its not like he was spying on anyone it was more like him sitting down and listening to a storyteller.
2280244
True, They were just stories someone imagined in the human world, but considering that's how things actually played out in this world, it would be like watching an edited down, animated version of someone's life, scene by scene. In effect, spying on them.
Though that part of the story does seem off to me, I thought that it was because Twilight seemed to accept it so readily.
Do you have any advice on how I could improve it?
2280450 I think it was a little cute her reaction to the information. I also, think she would have a hard time imagining what it would be like to watch videos in a box. You did a fine job on it. I was just a bit irked about seeing and inferior explanation (Cause of course my theory are infallible
). 
Another thing, Please oh please don't let Rarity, Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy think people are watching them.
2282451
Okay, I did some editing. Mostly adding a bit of a better description on how a show works. Basic stuff, but it's better than what was there.
Also... God, no! Those three should never learn the truth. Dash would handle it better than Rarity and Fluttershy would. Fluttershy would hide in her cabin for the rest of her life,
Rarity would probably flaunt her looks in random directions for her fans,
same with Dash, but I would think she would get tiered of it after not actually receiving any attention she could actually see. 
Those three were the main reason for the Pinkie Promise to begin with. They shall not know. Ever!
"...The purple mare in front of me lowered her head, and focused on the ground in front of her as she thought. All I could do was sit there and wait for her reaction, as well as any questions that she might have. Silently, she began to mumble to herself. I couldn’t quite catch what she was saying, but I think I heard the words ‘Pinkie’ and ‘Spaceponies’ before her focus shifted up to me again. “So… you know everything about me?” she asked, moving ever so slowly closer to me. Twilight’s eyes darted across my face for any inkling of a clue that I might not be telling her the truth, or withholding information from her..."
fim.413chan.net/fim/src/129923751541-MLP_I_see_what_you_d.jpg
Yay! I got a shoutout!