All the Waaaay, all the Waaaaay to the Friendship Games!
The war had ended with an Equestrian victory. Nearly half a million dead on both sides, making it the deadliest war in our country's history. Either way, we came out on top, and now we were helping rebuild Schunie. We wanted to keep the newly formed minotaur nation relatively intact so that they didn't take several steps back in unification. We would still keep a close eye on them, but the newly elected King Grorim didn't seem like the type to start up another war six months after we finished the last one.
But I wasn't thinking of that. I was more basking in the glow of some rather fun things my wife and I had done the previous night. Thankfully our newborn daughter had slept through the night and didn't interrupt us. Still, I needed to take a shower if I didn't want to smell like sex for my day court.
That would be awkward, especially given what a lot of ponies were coming in for. Always stuff about the war. There were ponies asking for veteran benefits, especially for families of ponies who had died during the war. Ponies were asking me about their loved ones that were MIA. Some even came in to yell at me for sending their loved ones off to die. I hated those the most. When those ponies came in, I wanted nothing more than to just take a few days off so I could recharge and be fresher to deal with the tragedy of post-war Equestria. The royalty had been discussing it. You know, alternating days off so that we could recharge a bit. Pretend that we were off on business or talking with the newly formed nations. You know, a "we need to talk to Empress Kathyrine to improve relations between our countries" sort of thing.
I quietly slid out of Celestia's bed and went to her bathroom for the shower. I took a quick five minute shower and dried myself off with a spell afterward. I snuck out of Celestia's room and gently opened the door to our daughter's room. Little Nymeria was still sleeping when I glanced into her crib. She was twitching in a way I'd come to associate with dreaming. Wonder what she was dreaming about. Maybe I could get "Aunt Luna" to find out sometime.
The door opened behind me, and Celestia walked over to look down at our daughter. She smiled lovingly and draped a wing over my back.
"I never thought I would see the day when I would give birth to a beautiful daughter," Celestia whispered.
"Yeah, I thought I could never have foals once I became an alicorn. Back when I was human I always planned to have a family, but I always figured my ascension ruined those plans."
"It is good that I could not get you pregnant when you were female," Celestia joked. "I think that would have been slightly awkward."
I snorted. "You're telling me. I'm still not sure if I would technically be classified as a lesbian when we started dating because I was a mare still attracted to another mare."
Celestia tilted her head and hmmed. "It's something to think about, yes. Regardless, you are a stallion now. I do not think that you will have to endure that again."
"Better not," I grumbled. "But you never know with the Elements of Harmony."
Before Celestia could respond, Nymeria began shifting, and her eyes fluttered open. Her jaw wobbled and I heard a few quiet sobs from her. Dang. Not good. We already found out the hard way that when baby alicorns cry it wasn't pretty. Hence the myriad spells we had over the crib. Even baby alicorns magically surge from time to time. Suffice to say, this wasn't her first room.
"Oh, are you awake?" Celestia said lovingly. "Are you hungry little one?" She lit her horn and gently levitated Nymeria out of her crib. She laid down on her side and levitated Nymeria over to her.
"And that might be my cue to leave," I said, backing away from my wife. "Nursing is something for you two."
"Oh do not be so dramatic, Antares. Remember: if you were still a mare, we would alternate this for her."
"Aaaand that would be horrible for me and traumatic for Nymeria once she got older. Good thing I'm not still a mare."
"Yes, that is unfortunate." Celestia flinched when Nymeria latched on. "Her fangs do not lend themselves to comfortable nursing."
"I'll bet. At any rate, I need to head on back to Baltimare. My court should be starting in about an hour, and I need to have breakfast before I do that, otherwise we might have a grumpy Prince Antares." I stuck my tongue out at the idea. "And I need all of the energy that I can so I can deal with the ponies asking about the war."
That and if I stayed much longer, I'd be asked to burp Nymeria, which really meant getting vomited on. My wife was so brave to deal with that more than me. I loved her.
Celestia's eyes narrowed. "You just want to avoid burping her."
And she could see right through me.
"Yep. Good luck with that. I love you and I will see you later."
"You cannot avoid it forever," Celestia said as I backed away to the door.
"Nope, but I can avoid it today. K thanks love you bye."
"Antares--"
I rushed out of the room and flew through the first open window that was large enough for me. I teleported a few times to cut down on the travel time back to Baltimare. As such, it only took me an hour or so to make it back to my palace. More than enough time to get some breakfast before my court. I flew through one of the open windows and was instantly greeted by Tulip and two of my guards. I guess one of the guards manning the perimeter of my palace noticed me fly in and contacted a few others with his comm gem. Gotta say, those things are a big help. Too bad we had to invent them during wartime.
But hey, nothing advances technology quite like a war, right?
"Prince Antares. How was your meeting with Princess Celestia?" Tulip asked with a bow.
Heh. Meeting.
"Very good, I think. It seems we are recovering as well as we can from the war. But, you know, time for court to deal with more of that."
"Of course, Prince Antares. And how is your daughter?"
I managed a smile at that question. "Oh, she's very good. A touch colicky at times, but that's what all of the magical wards around her are for. Her last cranky surge didn't destroy nearly as much of Canterlot Castle as the last few."
"Well, that's very good, I guess."
"And how are your foals, Tulip?"
Tulip shrugged. "Pretty good. They've moved on to solid food completely now." She grimaced. "Thank goodness."
"Yes, Princess Celestia is having similar problems that you had." I began making my way to my dining room so that I could actually get some breakfast before I started court. "That aside, is there anything to know before I start court?"
"Nothing beside the usual, Prince Antares," Tulip said as her and my guards followed me to my dining room. "The one thing to really report is that your magic book that lets you contact the other dimension buzzed."
I paused at that. Sunset wasn't someone who would contact me just to see how I was doing. Even once I let her know that Celestia and I had married and Celestia had foaled, she sent me a few token notes about that. I'm not even sure if she knew the war had ended. Long story short: if she was calling me, something was up.
"Okay, if you could get me that, I would appreciate it. I'd rather find out sooner than later what the problem is."
Tulip gave me a quick bow. "Of course, Prince Antares. I will get that for you at once."
"Excellent."
I entered my dining room where Blaze and Rapids were waiting for me. Guess they'd drawn court duty for the day. I smiled and nodded at both of them as I sat down on my chair.
"Captain Blaze, Lieutenant Rapids, how are you today?"
"Doing alright, I guess," Blaze said. "How was your sex with Princess Celestia?"
"Must have been pretty good since I heard it from here," Rapids said.
Oy. They'd been making that joke since Celestia and I had started dating.
"War heroes or not, I can still give you latrine duty," I grumbled.
Rapids's smile faded and she self-consciously brushed the side of her helmet that covered up her missing ear. "Yeah. Right. Sorry, Prince Antares."
"Don't worry about it." I speared a bit of scrambled eggs on my fork. "At any rate, we might be going back to the human universe."
Blaze and Rapids exchanged a look and a frown at that. "Why?" Blaze asked.
"It's not for sure. I just know that Sunset contacted me. I doubt she'd do that unless there was a problem on her end that she needed our help with."
"Hopefully nothing as bad as the sirens," Rapids said. "That was kind of painful."
I shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe it's just her giving us an update on them."
"They never did find Adagio, right?" Blaze said.
I grimaced and shook my head. "No. They didn't. I'm not sure what's going on with her. She could be dead for all I know. I'd rather that not be the case, but I can't say for sure. We'll find out what she wants when Tulip delivers the book."
As if on cue, the door opened and Tulip walked in with the book floating beside her. I grabbed it and flipped open to the page she had bookmarked.
Prince Antares,
Things are going fairly well over here. Aria and Sonata have adjusted to human life fairly well. Still haven't found Adagio. There's no trace of her around town, so I can only assume she's somewhere out of town. Maybe even out of state. That aside, I think we may have a problem. Yesterday Pinkie and Rarity saw someone sneaking around the school. She was scanning the portal with some unknown device. I'm not sure what she was up to, but I think she might suspect that the statue isn't what it seems. If she destroys or disables the statue, the portal between our worlds would disappear. I don't need to tell you why that would be a problem. My friends and I haven't seen her since, but I doubt she is finished studying the statue. I wanted your input on the situation.
Sunset.
Damn. That's just... damn. Sunset was right: damage or destruction of the portal would be a huge problem. Given the other world's odd frequency of having Equestrian problems show up, and yes, I count two as odd for a non-magical world, it would be best if we didn't lose contact with them forever. That meant me going over to at least have a look at who was investigating the portal.
Ducky. Just ducky.
"Alrighty, then." I turned back to Blaze and Rapids. "Looks like we're going back to the human world."
Rapids tilted her head questioningly. "Really? What's going on there?"
"Someone is messing with the portal between our worlds. I don't need to explain why that would be a negative thing for both sides. Given how much Equestrian magic has shown up there, I'd rather not leave them on their own."
"Yeah, because we always deal with things quietly without disturbing the locals," Blaze pointed out. "Just like the last few times, it'll be like we were never there."
"Uh-huh," I muttered. "Right. I'd rather we pull that off this time. Hopefully we just go, talk to whoever is snooping around and convince him or her to not snoop around anymore. I dunno, we have millions of dollars there. Maybe we can try bribery."
"Thereby letting him or her know that we are, in fact, hiding something and they were right to be suspicious of the statue," Rapids said. "They could take the money, then start investigating again once we leave."
"True. We'll get more details from Sunset once we get over there."
"Sounds like a plan, Prince Antares," Blaze said. "So when are we leaving?"
I shrugged. "Don't see any reason why we can't leave right after court is over."
* * * *
Court was hell, just like it's always been since the war started. Every time ponies come to ask about the war or the aftermath, I feel like they leave without me having really helped them in any meaningful way. Sure I point a few of them towards counselors or the office we've set up for veteran's benefits, but on the whole I feel like they leave feeling disillusioned. Like this whole war, and by extension the death or severe injury of their loved ones, was completely pointless and a senseless waste of equine life.
Well, I felt like that sometimes, too.
Eventually it ended, leaving Blaze, Rapids and me to go back through the portal. Seeing as how I was the only one to use it, I'd had it moved to my weapons bunker so nopony else could actually get to it. And if anything untoward came through the other side, it couldn't actually get out of the room. Not to mention the fact that a dozen alarms would go off, letting me handle it quickly. Thankfully nothing like that had happened. After the end of the war, that was the last thing we needed.
After giving the guards the new passwords based on quotes from The Night of the Hunter, the three of us entered the room, where the mirror portal to the other dimension rested. I quickly got to work plugging the book into the mirror so that we could actually go to the other world.
"Alrighty, loyal soldiers. You ready to travel back to the world where we're not under all of this pressure and we're millionaires?"
"More than ready, Prince Antares," Rapids said, patting her mane to make sure it still covered up her missing ear. "I hope it's nothing too serious this time."
"Hopefully nothing as serious as last time, that's for sure. If it's just what Sunset said, and somebody is messing around with the portal who probably shouldn't be, then all we have to do is find some way to dissuade this person from continuing to do that, without letting them know that we are hiding something."
"Hey, remember when you told us about that Star Trek show?" Blaze asked as I finished plugging the book in. "That prime directive thing? Don't interfere with other cultures or something like that?"
"Yeah, something like that," I muttered as the portal fired up. "What's your point?"
"My point is that I think Captain Spock or Captain Piccolo would be very disappointed with you."
I turned my head and glowered at him. "Firstly, it's Picard, not Piccolo. Secondly..." I grunted and turned back to the portal. "Secondly, I'm not totally sure that it applies in this situation. We're not adding new technology to their culture to speed up their advancement."
"Except maybe Equestrian magic, right?" Rapids mused.
"We've let a few locals know that there's a portal between our world and theirs. I hardly count that as introducing Equestrian magic. It's not like I can cast any spells over there. Besides, Sunset got there first."
"True, I guess," Rapids said. "One of these times, though..."
"Hopefully this is the last time." I cracked my neck and rolled my wings a little bit. "Alright, you two. Let's get back to it."
* * * *
Psychedelic, man. I don't think I'll ever get used to moving back and forth between our worlds.
"Alrighty, then," I said, standing up and brushing off my jeans. "Let's get to it." I look around and try to gauge the time of day as Blaze and Rapids get up. "From the looks of things, school should still be going." I spot a bus with the words "Crystal Preparatory" on the side and frown. "Crystal Preparatory? Is that some other school?"
Blaze shrugs as he comes up beside me. "Who knows? I'm sure a local will let us know."
I'm about to respond, but I hear Rapids cursing behind me and I turn around to see what's up. When Rapids went through the portal, it appears the magic of the portal changed her hairdo to a ponytail. A hairstyle that completely revealed her missing ear. Darn. I'd hoped that coming over here would heal that and her facial scars for at least a little while. Seems like that didn't happen.
"You okay, Rapids?" Blaze asked.
"I'm fine!" Rapids snapped, tearing the scrunchie out of her hair and adjusting it to cover her ear. "Just a little startled is all. Don't worry about me."
You say that, but I worry about you all the time. It's not healthy, how you're just shoving all of your hurt and fear down.
"Anyway," I continue. "I suppose we'd better get inside, then. No sense wasting the whole day standing outside."
"Roger, Prince Antares," Rapids said, snapping off a weak salute with an equally weak smile.
Without further ado, we make our way into the school. When we get in, we spot one or two students who let us know that the rest of the school is in an assembly in the gym. As we walk, I see posters all over the school welcoming Crystal Prep and something about the Friendship Games. Huh. Odd. Looks like we caught them in the middle of something.
We enter the gym and position ourselves in the very back, out of the way of everybody. Principal Celestia is standing up on stage with a rather nasty looking woman whom I can already tell doesn't have the sunniest disposition. Unfortunately, Celestia notices the three of us come in, and she slowly facepalms.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
The other woman doesn't seem to notice, though. She merely steps up to the microphone situated on the stage.
"Good afternoon, students of Canterlot High. As your principal said, I am Principal Abacus Cinch. I thank you for your warm, if unconventional welcome."
The students politely applaud her, I allow myself a grin when I notice that there are balloons and confetti all around the gym. Pinkie Pie's doing, no doubt.
"Now, then, I do like to think that this year you will actually attempt to give my school some form of challenge." Holy geez, I think I saw her stick her nose in the air a little. "However, given the obscenely abysmal showing your school has turned in the past few Games, I highly doubt that will be the case. It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students. It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."
Yeah, no polite applause for that little remark. In fact, the students are all standing around in a state of quiet shock. The only noise I hear is a little quiet snickering from a few people I don't recognize, so I can only assume they're from Crystal Prep.
Oh dear, this is one of those schools, isn't it?
The school remains in stunned silence for a few more seconds, completely unsure of what to think of such a blatantly dickish comment. Finally, one student can't resist putting her opinion out there.
"Holy shit, lady, you're kind of a cock, aren't you?"
The half of the school immediately starts laughing, while a few of the others back away from the perpetrator. She has greyish blue skin and dark purple hair. It looks like she's wearing contact lenses that make her eyes look like cat's eyes. She's dressed in all black and looks like a goth.
Cool.
"Comet Screech!" says this world's Cheerilee, who strides up to the girl and grabs her by the ear. "What have I told you about this?"
"Oh come on, Mom!" Comet says, following Cheerilee out of the gym with a completely unrepentant grin on her face. "It was just a joke!"
Hmm. I didn't know Cheerilee had a daughter.
When the laughter dies down, Cinch doesn't look any happier than she was during her rude little speech. Seriously, though, what was she expecting to happen? I might have said the same thing if I'd had a mind to. I'd imagine that Blaze and Rapids thought the same thing.
"I see that things at Canterlot High are far worse than I thought," Cinch said, glaring at the students before turning that nasty look to Celestia. "I cannot imagine how you can allow your students to be so disrespectful."
"I must apologize for Ms. Screech. Our Ms. Cheerilee brought her daughter in for work. She can be a little... blunt at times."
"I see. Regardless, I expect better behavior from your students during the games themselves. You can at least accept defeat gracefully."
I saw Rapids open her mouth, but I put my hand on her shoulder. As much as I'd love to do the same to Ms. Cinch, it would be best to keep a low profile for as long as possible.
Which, if my past experiences were any indication, would probably be about five whole minutes once I actually ran into Sunset and her friends. Hopefully this would be a quick little affair, and we'd be back in Equestria within a day or two. Back to dealing with war fallout.
Could be worse I guess.
I begin scanning the gym for Sunset and her buddies. I spot Sonata and Aria standing next to Pinkie and Fluttershy, which triggers a little smile from me. Good to know that they're seeing a little success here. I spot Rainbow and Applejack talking to each other, but before I can see Sunset, my eyes land on somebody quite unexpected.
Twilight.
I raise an eyebrow and tilt my head. It definitely looks like Twilight, but there are some small differences. She's wearing glasses, and she looks far too nervous to be our world's Twilight. Add in the fact that Twilight would have to do some impossible things and we have this world's Twilight here. Considering she was in what appeared to be a Crystal Prep uniform and things just got a lot more interesting. She was looking around the gym like something would pop out at her at any moment. Can't imagine what she's worried about. Unless she knows something we might want to find out. After a few moments, her eyes landed on me. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went as wide as dinner plates. We stared at each other for a few moments, then averted her gaze to the ground.
Yeah, she's who we're after. I smirked and leaned in close to Blaze and Rapids.
"Target acquired."
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BUSTED!
Ah, overlapping of timelines always makes me smile.
Typo!
They.
Good chapter, keep it coming!
Woo-hoo. Another movie time.
Poor Rapids! I do hope she gets some closure in the near future. Also, I was expecting either her or Aria to be the one to call out Principal Bitch, but Comet Screech! Wasn't expecting her to show up here, but not an unwelcome addition! I am wondering what Twilight knows about Antares, though.
Wow, Comet Screech is awesome. Really love how she insulted Cinch for being a dick. Thanks for the chapter.
7758578 is... is that Carl Stefanovic??
7758746 Indeed it is. It's Karl's face right after seeing footage a big shark, before declaring he'd never go near the water again.
O this is going to be a good story ark. Target acquired.
Guess who's the dad?
Hang on, wasn't Mr Antares getting it on with Principal Celestia in this continuity?
7758970 He was, yes.
7758996 Hmm... Makes me wonder whether there's going to be a TD analogue in this story, since he's the one who ended up with Cheerilee.
I mean, two variants of TD in one spot are bad enough. But three?
Oh MAN, I was not expecting Comet to be here! BEST EASTER EGG SO FAR!!!
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/295/561/d99
I'm rather curious how this could have much of a plot. There's not enough Equestrian Magic here for Midnight Sparkle to appear, and there shouldn't be any magic randomly showing up at events.
That said, you haven't disappointed me before. I'm sure you have a great plan for it
Yay for Comet!
Also, I found a typo
The correct word here would be me, because what you are basically saying is
While the correct form would be
Great chapter nevertheless!
Cue the discussions with Sci-Swi....
as well as a good talking to...
....presumably after punching Cinch in the face so hard she flies across the room....
7758746 guys a Bloody legend
Can't wait to see how TD reacts to the portal being gone
7759086 "Was" wonder if we should be worried
7759329 Well, there is a full power alpha alicorn there so if she has her device then that could be the plot device to have her go midnight. But that would mean that a random cobbled together bullshit tech made by a teen in a high school lab is equal in power to some of the greatest magical artifacts in existence on the Equestria side in order to take out an alicorn. I'm genuinely hoping that there is just normal shenanigans instead of technomagical deus ex shenanigans.
7759086
Maybe they are twins? There could be a TD Antares Powell and a TD Powell II. Or, maybe Celestia NTR'd Cherilee and now she's a divorced single mom basically living out a RomCom with her boss and ex husband. Lord knows that I'd read that!
7759086 7759639 7759947 Considering the was, and Celestia's hate of Equestia TD, they might have broken up over a rift.
Aww does Sci-Twi have a school girl crush on TD?
see now we need to know about comet screech in the Antares Timeline
7761216 I wouldn't worry about not seeing her in the canon Alicornverse.
7761235
I didn't think I would after this recent little cameo... I imagine that things won't turn out well for her birthparents in Antares' Court as much the same as things did not go so well for them in NonBrony Timeline.
Or with Princess Luna as a prank on your birthday. Now I really want to see him get trolled by the blueberry with a fake dream of gender-rebending. Maybe throw in some nursing nightmares.
I'm sure that if any human were to ever accidentally pass through the portal, a large collection of tanks, machine guns, explosives and napalm directly on the other end would not cause any kind of concern or presumptions whatsoever. Nope.
7759947 TD seems too aware for that
Crazy alternate timelines.
7760597 what?
Hum......
Comet is here. Which is surprising. Something seems suspicious...
7758655
Who's Comet Screech?
Oh boy this is going to be good. I wonder what little twist you have in store for us.
7767337
TD's adoptive daughter from Life of a Non-Brony.
7767526
Hm. I don't remember that....must be from one of the chapters I haven't read yet.
7767698
The adoption thing starts halfway in Ch 33 but Comet doesn't appear until the very end. She appears fully in Ch 34.
7767735
Yup, haven't read those yet.
Bit disappointed the view-point character is still TD, given the (The Prince spoiler) bomb-shell ending of The Prince.
Would have been interesting to see some shake-up from that. Twilight having to go through all that minus the support network of two previous visits, a Celestia having to go rush of in the middle of Discord just in case that's where her husband is... Something like that.
Not that the chapter is bad, It was completely OK, I just wish it took a few more risks.
7769689 Well this was always non-canon to the Alicorn-verse.
7769819
...Really? Could have fooled me.
Still, fair enough in that case, I guess. Thanks for answering.
7769829 it's a slight deviation but it's not canon.
7767217 Maybe teacher TD gets around.
YAY! Comet is back!
Quick question: If court was going to start in about an hour and it took Antares an hour to get back wouldn't that mean that he wouldn't have had time for breakfast since court was about to start?
7777852 Maybe a story about someone's life where they show up. Who knows?
geez, Cinch sounds like she's a real dick XD
Wait a minute, if RD lost one of her forelegs in the war, does this RD have a prosthetic arm too?