Two is Better Than One
“This is it?” Nightmare grunted as she surveyed the food in front of them.
“Yes,” Twilight snapped, feeling the need to groan.
Strewn about before them was what little food they had left. A few wrapped sandwiches that Shining had brought and the half dozen remaining cinnamon muffins that Bon Bon had baked.
Twilight wanted to deny it, but she was a little disappointed as well. Of all the things she had prepared for, a food shortage wasn’t one of them.
“Sorry,” Bon Bon said as if reading her thoughts. “Had I known we’d be gone for more than a day, I would’ve baked more.”
“And I would’ve brought more had I known all of you girls would be joining us.” Shining poked the nearest sandwich. “But we’ll just have to be careful with what we eat and exercise a little restraint.”
“Hm.” Vinyl tapped her hoof. “Restraint is more Tavi’s thing than mine.”
Octavia sighed. “Sadly, that’s true, but if restraint now means we get dinner later then I’ll make you restrain yourself, Vinyl.”
Twilight surveyed the food again, running up some quick calculations in her head. “If we each take a quarter of a sandwich and a third of a muffin then there will be plenty left over for tonight, assuming we’re out here that long.”
Cadance nodded and picked up the food with her magic. It only took a few seconds for her to dice the food into relatively even portions and start to pass it out to everypony. As the food made it to each destination, the receiving pony offered a smile and a "thank you". That is, until Cadance got to the last one.
Nightmare grumbled and let her food fall into her waiting hoof. Her eyes looked disdainfully at the tiny amount of muffin in her grasp, as if she’d been offered a mere crumb. “This is unsatisfactory.”
“So is being stuck in the Everfree with you,” came Twilight’s retort.
Nightmare Moon responded with the sum total of all her maturity and stuck her tongue out at Twilight. Before the gesture could be returned with something equally childish, Derpy stepped in between them.
“Okay, enough.” She turned to Nightmare, extending her partial muffin as a peace offering. “Here.”
Nightmare dubiously looked from the muffin to the mare. “Is it poisoned?”
“No!” Derpy cried, offended.
Nightmare tilted her head. “Really? Because I can’t think of any other reason you would offer me this.”
“I didn’t poison it!” Derpy insisted. “How could I? I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Yeah, try telling that to the cragodile whose eye you almost put out,” Vinyl called, injecting herself into the conversation
Derpy nodded her head, unable to argue. “Okay, but it wasn’t a fly.”
“I’m not a fly either,” Nightmare pointed out.
“For Celestia’s sake just eat the muffin,” Twilight groaned.
Nightmare scoffed. “If it’s for my back-stabbing sister’s sake, then I will not. Even if it is one of those delicious… fluffy… mouth-watering…” She shook her head, clearing her throat. “Upon further consideration I’ve decided to accept your potentially deadly offering.”
Derpy frowned. “But I didn’t—”
“Just give it to her,” Twilight suggested. The sooner Nightmare Moon was done being petty about eating a muffin, the better. Derpy didn’t argue and turned over her treat. Nightmare inspected it a bit, as if she could judge its poison content solely on looks, then decided to throw caution to the wind and popped it in her mouth.
Everypony else settled into their own meals after that, though it really didn’t last long with the tiny portions. Twilight didn’t bother trying to make hers last and merely put all of her sandwich in her mouth, taking a seat next to her saddlebags.
“So, should we expect any more inanimate objects to come to life or was that pile of rocks it?” Lyra asked.
“It wasn’t a pile of rocks, it was a cragodile,” Twilight explained after she finished eating. She quickly ran through a list of Everfree creatures. “And no, I don’t think so.”
Vinyl swallowed her sandwich. “You sure? Cause last time those trees came to life.”
“Pretty sure that one was me,” Nightmare Moon said through her mouthful of muffin.
“Oh yeah, that’s right, I remember now. Makes sense; they were pretty pathetic.”
“What?” Nightmare’s eyes were livid as they drilled into Vinyl.
“I thought I asked you to stop messing with her,” Shining said before more insults could be flung.
“Fine,” Vinyl groaned playfully. She scooted closer to Shining and nuzzled her head into his neck. “I’ll stop, Pretty Boy.” The gesture surprised him enough to make his face a little pink.
Twilight was surprised too. She knew Vinyl found her brother… attractive. As weird as that was for her, she had been perfectly willing to follow Octavia’s advice and let her interest wither away. However, she’d noticed that Vinyl had actually become more attached to Shining, especially after he saved her life.
And judging from the uncomfortable look on Shining’s face she could tell he wasn’t all that overjoyed at this development.
And judging from the frown on Cadance’s face as she looked away from the two, neither was she.
Octavia cleared her throat. “Well, considering we don’t have another run in with a monster, present company excluded—” Nightmare smiled mockingly. “—when do you think we’ll be at the Tree, Twilight?”
Twilight swallowed her sandwich. “Hopefully in the next few hours.” She shot a glance back toward Shining and Cadance. “You guys still need some time to rest?”
They both nodded. “If you don’t mind,” Cadance said. “Sorry if we’re holding everypony back.”
“Don’t be. You’ve already been a pretty big help so far.”
Cadance smiled. “That’s a relief. I’d hate to mess up my first real royal job.”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, what?”
Now Cadance blinked, surprised by her slip. “Oh uh… well you see I…” She looked to Shining, hoping he would lend a hoof in explaining. He merely shrugged, mouth still full, and gave her a you-said-it-not-me kind of look. Cadance sighed. “Okay… I guess you all should know. Auntie Celestia… hasn’t really let me do anything as a Princess.”
“What do you mean by that?” Bon Bon asked.
“Well… outside of overseeing the Rainbow Falls Trader’s Exchange once and managing a few petty complaints from citizens, I’ve haven’t been allowed to do any royal jobs.”
“That’s it?” Twilight asked. Surely Princess Celestia had allowed her to do more than that. Just based on the workload she’d seen the Princess of the Sun take on she had assumed Cadance would be up to her neck in politics and paperwork, or at least diplomatic work. But nothing?
Cadance nodded. “I… I think maybe she just thought I couldn’t handle it all or something.”
“Uh, has she even met you?” Lyra asked. “Seriously, the way you fought that cragodile was amazing!” Twilight and the rest nodded their agreement.
“Heh, thanks.” Cadance smiled slightly, though it didn’t last. “I just wish she would let me help her out a little more. And I really hope I don’t mess this up.” She looked to Twilight. “No offense, I know this is your mission and all, but I really want to get a chance to prove myself to her.”
“Of course you will,” Twilight assured her. “I’m sure the Princess will be amaz—” She stopped short, ears flicking.
Shining tilted his head. “Uh, Twily? Everything okay?”
“I thought I heard something,” she whispered. Everypony snapped to attention, but Twilight held a hoof to her mouth, silencing them before they could speak. They all waited with bated breath, listening for any irregularities. It stayed deathly quiet for a moment, almost convincing Twilight that she’d heard wrong. Then…
Rustle rustle.
Twilight’s head snapped around, just in time to catch the fading motion of leaves in a bush not to far from her.
“That’s definitely a something,” Vinyl aptly observed.
Narrowing her eyes, Twilight stood up. “I’ll go check it out.”
“Need some help?” Shining asked, likely looking for an escape route from Vinyl’s snuggling.
The bush rustled again, knocking a few leaves down onto the ground. The disturbance didn’t look all that big, in fact it was probably just another ferret. “I think I have it, you just focus on resting up.”
Twilight lit up her horn in preparation and parted the leaves of the bush. Nothing
Pinching her lips together, Twilight peered in for a better look. As she did, the leaves of the bush directly behind hers began rustling. Arching her eyebrow, Twilight turned back to the group. “Hang on a second, I want to check this out really quick.”
“Need help?” Lyra asked.
Twilight shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”
“Be careful,” she heard Octavia say.
She nodded and stepped into the bushes. The rustling sound didn’t fade as she approached closer. Cautiously stepping forward, Twilight prodded the bush with her magic. She held her breath as the rustling stopped, but for a moment, nothing happened.
Curiosity reaching its peak, Twilight parted the leaves with her magic, but only found empty forest on the other side.
Huh… Twilight bit her lip, pondering the odd occurrence.
“Hey, Smart Mare, everything okay in there?”
She turned to the sound of Vinyl’s voice. “Yeah, it looks like it was nothing after all. I’m coming back out.”
Turning the rest of her body, Twilight made for the first bush. With a flick of magic, she spared herself most of the leaves and branches, but a few crafty ones slipped through her grasp. They gave her a few light, yet irritating, whacks to the face as she left, leaving a couple of leaves in her mouth.
“Gah.” Twilight came out of the bush spitting. When she was certain no more leaves were hanging around in her mouth she looked up, only to be greeted by eight sets of wide eyes.
Everypony was looking at her oddly, or rather, in her general direction oddly. Their attention seemed divided between her and something right next to her. With a raised eyebrow, Twilight turned her head.
And then nearly passed out.
Standing right next to her, covered in leaves of her own, was an identical her. Twilight did a double-take, watching her double take the same initiative.
Is that a… mirror?
“Wha—” Twilight cut herself off. Her duplicate mimicked her right down to the voice. Twilight swallowed and turned back to her friends, the copy to her left doing the same. “Guys, what’s going on?”
The group looked just as confused as she felt. Vinyl was the first to break the silence, leaning off of Shining’s body to do so. “Geeze Twilight, you know, I can forgive you not mentioning that you have a hot brother, but not mentioning that you have a twin? Come on now.”
“She doesn’t have a twin,” Shining stood up, followed quickly by Cadance and everypony else, save Nightmare Moon, who actually looked a little bored right now.
Twilight looked back to Twilight, narrowing her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked the double, earning the same response back. She looked from it to her acquaintances.
“Uh… who’s the real Twilight?” Bon Bon asked.
“I am!” Twilight said.
“No you aren’t, you faker!” The other accused. “I am!”
Twilight narrowed her eyes and lit up her horn, ready to attack her double. Unfortunately, it looked ready to do the same. Twilight paused, not sure of the magic capabilities of the… thing in front of her. If it had her skill in magic along with her appearance and voice, then the last thing she wanted was to get in a magic duel with it.
“Enough.” A pi—light magenta barrier appeared between them. Shining Armor’s face was creased in a frown. “Both of you calm down; we’ll figure this out.”
“Uh, to be honest, this is a little confusing,” Lyra admitted. “Does anypony know how we can tell them apart?”
Octavia looked them both over. “Same mane, same voice, even the same Cutie Mark… It’s clear we can’t go by appearances alone.”
“Oh, I have an idea!” Derpy looked at them both. “Whoever’sthefakeTwilightraiseyourhoof!” she yelled suddenly.
Twilight blinked, and left her hoof down. Her duplicate looked equally confused, but didn’t raise her hoof either.
Derpy frowned. “Oh come on guys, it doesn’t work if you aren’t honest.”
“Stop being stupid!” Nightmare yelled.
“I, uh… think your plan was doomed from the start, Derpy,” Octavia explained.
“So how are we going to determine who is Smart Mare and who’s the Fake Mare?” Vinyl asked. “And follow up question, can we beat up the fake one?”
Shining clenched his jaw and tapped his foot. Cadance looked from him to Spike. “Well, we’ve known Twilight the longest, if anybody can tell her apart from the fake one, it’ll be us.”
Spike smiled. “Yeah, let’s see who’s the most Twilight of the Twilights!”
“Sounds good to me,” Shining said, letting the barrier between the two drop. “What about you two?”
“Absolutely.” Twilight was about to breath a sigh of relief, but stopped and wondered just how effective that might be. If her duplicate copied her memories along with her appearance, she could be in for a difficult time trying to prove herself.
She looked over to herself, noting the confident grin on it that she usually wore when she knew she was right.
“I actually have a better idea,” Fake-light replied.
Shining raised his eyebrow. He looked to Cadance and Spike, who shrugged in response. “Okay, what?”
Fake-light smiled wickedly and turned to her, horn sparking to life. Twilight only had a second to be surprised before a burst of magic energy slammed into her.
“Ah!” Pain exploded in Twilight’s chest as the blast forced her back. She landed on her back, several feet away, hearing her doppelganger cackle maniacally.
“Twilight!” Her acquaintances all rushed over to her, now certain she was the real one. Octavia and Bon Bon reached her first and started helping her up.
Shining and Cadance stood between her and Fake-light, horns blazing.
“All right, you… thing.” Shining narrowed his eyes. “Start talking. What are you? What do you want?”
“Oh, you want to know who I am?” A swirl of green magic enveloped Fake-light. Everypony shielded their eyes from the glow. A moment later it died down, revealing Fake-light in an entirely new form
Shining’s eyes widened. “Holy…”
“...crap,” Cadance finished.
Twilight felt every hair on her head stand up at once. She felt Octavia go stiff next to her, with Bon Bon not far behind. Standing before them, clad in armor, fang teeth curled in a smile, was Nightmare Moon.
“I’m your worst nightmare,” it said, voice perfectly matching the demonic alicorn’s.
Shining shot a glance to the right at the Nightmare still stuck in her restraints. “So does this mean you’re behind this?”
Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, just because something bad happens in the Everfree Forest, that immediately means it’s my fault!”
“To be fair, that’s how it worked last time,” Vinyl pointed out.
As Nightmare Moon glared a few daggers in Vinyl’s direction, the other Nightmare Moon grinned wickedly. “I take it you're not so eager to fight now, are you?”
Shining tensed up while Cadance clenched her jaw. Their horns were still flaring, but Twilight could tell neither wanted to go up against Nightmare Moon… assuming this creature had copied Nightmare’s strength.
Come to think of it, the pain she felt from being blasted back had already faded. If that thing had been as strong as her, then that shouldn’t be right. Twilight knew she had more magical power than that. So that meant…
“Guys, it’s bluffing!” she shouted. Shining and Cadance looked back at her, confusion dotting their faces. “It’s only as strong as an average unicorn.”
“Obviously,” the real Nightmare grunted. “If she really was me, then you’d all be dead by now.”
“Is that right?” Shining turned back to the creature. “Well then.”
For the first time since it appeared, the copier showed hints of nervousness. It was subtle, but Twilight noticed the slight furrowing of its brows.
“I think you were pretty accurate before; you are the worst Nightmare,” Nightmare Moon told it.
“And that is a really low bar to break,” Vinyl threw in, earning herself another angry glare.
Shining and Cadance moved towards the creature and it took a step back.
“Well then.” the fake Nightmare took another step back. “It would seem I’m no longer welcome here.”
“You were never welcome,” Cadance deadpanned.
The fake Nightmare spread her sharpened teeth in a wide grin. “In that case…”
A blinding green light overtook them again. Twilight slammed her eyes shut, grunting in pain and surprise, with everypony else not far behind. Just like last time, the light died down a moment later, revealing the creature’s next form: a cross-eyed gray pegasus.
“Hey, it stole my face!” Derpy cried.
Fake Derpy took to the air and gave them a mocking wave. “See ya.” With that, it took off into the forest.
Shining glanced back at Twilight. “I have no idea what that thing is or what it wants, but I don’t like it. You want to go after it?”
Twilight looked in the direction of the disappearing copycat and then to the path towards the Tree of Harmony on the opposite end of the forest. If they went after that… thing, there’s no telling how long it would take. At the same time, the existence of such a sinister creature, coupled with unknown motives, left a bad feeling in her stomach. She didn’t want it popping up again further down to road just to be a hinderance. Besides, with her mental map they couldn’t get lost.
She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”
“Face-snatcher is gonna get it,” Derpy agreed. “Nopony hurts our friend and gets away with it.” The rest of Twilight’s acquaintances nodded their assent. She smiled, grateful enough for their compassion that she didn’t even feel the need to correct them.
“Right, let me just grab the Elements and we can—”
“Way ahead of you, Twilight.” Spike held up her saddlebags right in front of her. In her peripherals Twilight saw that Lyra had already grabbed the rest with her magic and was passing them out to everypony.
“Thanks, Spike.” She wrapped her lavender aura around the pack and strapped it on. “All right, let’s go.”
They took off running, Twilight levitating Spike onto her back so he wouldn’t have to try and keep up. The only one who didn’t seem so eager, however, was Nightmare Moon. Cadance paused as they were running and shot her a glare.
“Aren’t you going to come too?”
Nightmare held up her chained legs. “Maybe if somepony were to cut me free so I could—”
She didn’t get to finish the thought as Cadance groaned and surrounded the demonic alicorn with her blue aura. The second she took off running again, Nightmare Moon found herself dragged along, chains still intact.
Nightmare grunted in annoyance as she whipped forward. “Well it was worth a shot.”
Cadance quickly caught up to everypony else as they chased after the creature. Twilight could barely see it zipping through the Everfree. She was able to watch as it deftly dodged all the low hanging branches, as if it had flown this path a hundred times before.
“I don’t get it,” Derpy said as she struggled to avoid the branches herself. Eventually she realized how far behind she was falling and landed to switch to a gallop. “If it wanted to get away, why not just fly up and out of the trees?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “But if we want to find out we’re going to have to catch it.” ...But it is kind of weird. Not to mention it could probably disappear into the forest easily if it wanted to, but instead it’s staying just in view.
They kept hoofing it over the next several minutes, Twilight mulling over the creature’s confusing behavior the whole time. Was it just playing with them? Or was it purposely luring them away from the Tree of Harmony?
She shot a quick glance back, looking past her acquaintances, towards the direction her brain was telling her the Tree was. They were going pretty far off the path, but at the same time it wasn’t like they couldn’t get back on it.
Curious, Twilight shot another glance over to Nightmare Moon, who had her hooves crossed as she floated nearby Cadance. Could she actually be behind this somehow? They were getting distracted from the goal of reforming her… but then again, how?
Twilight filed the thought in the back of her head and focused her attention back to the shape shifting creature as it… slowed down?
She blinked in confusion, watching as the creature in front of them become closer and closer as it slowed its flight. Twilight looked slightly further ahead, noticing that the dense foliage was rapidly giving way to a clearing.
Shining also took notice of the fact that the gap between them was closing and lit up his horn. He fired off two bolts of magic, each missing the creature as it swooped behind some tree branches.
“Better save it for the clearing,” Twilight suggested before he could get off a third. He nodded his agreement, knowing it wouldn’t be a long wait.
They spilled out into the opening a few short moments later. Twilight, who wasn’t built for exercise and had never tried to remake herself as such, found herself gasping for breath as they all slowed down.
She caught the shape shifter out of the corner of her eye slow it’s flying to a crawl before coming to a complete stop and landing in the middle of the field.
It turned around, offering them all one of Derpy’s trademark goofy grins. “Congrats! You managed to keep up. Unfortunately, the prize isn’t what you’d—”
“Stop stealing my face!” Derpy interjected.
The creature blinked, annoyed at the interruption. “Fine.” With another flash of light, it changed shape again, this time into Octavia. “Now then—”
“Well, that doesn’t give you the right to borrow my image,” Octavia said with a huff.
The creature pressed its lips together in aggravation. It begrudgingly transformed again, this time reverting to its Twilight Sparkle form. “May I continue?”
“Sure,” Twilight decided.
“Thank you.” Fake-light cleared its throat. “As I was saying, it’s unfortunate for you that your prize isn’t exactly what you were hoping for.”
“I didn’t even know there was a prize,” Derpy admitted.
“Nevertheless, you’re going to get it anyway.” Fake-light grinned.
Cadance narrowed her eyes. “Would you stop being cryptic and start making sense?”
“Certainly.” Fake-light clapped its hooves.
Twilight raised her eyebrow, not convinced that the crypticness had ended. The shape shifter smiled, looking quite pleased with itself. Concerned, Twilight tried following its gaze and looked back towards the forest.
She immediately wished she hadn’t.
Looking back into the dark expanse of the forest, Twilight saw several sets of glowing blue eyes appear. Glancing all around, she noticed more of those same eyes appear all around them, surrounding the clearing.
Twilight’s eyes widened as it dawned on her what was happening. “Ambush!”
Fake-light laughed at her realization, bursting into another flash of green light. This time, as the light died it hadn’t taken the form of any of them, but rather something Twilight had never seen before.
It was… vaguely equine in stature, but at the same time it seemed to resemble insects more so. It had the diaphanous wings of a bug, a carapace made of chitin and the same eyes as the things in the forest.
She felt Cadance stiffen next to her. “Do you know what that thing is?” Twilight asked her.
“No,” Cadance admitted. “But it’s giving me a pretty bad feeling.”
The sets of eyes in the forest started moving forward. As they came into view, Twilight saw that they were the same species as the thing in front of her. They drew closer and Twilight felt Spike grip her mane.
“Just stay close to me,” she whispered to him.
“Don’t have to tell me twice.”
“It looks like we’re going to have to fight our way out of this,” Shining told everypony. Five horns lit up simultaneously as the creatures slowly stalked towards them. Twilight’s eyes darted around, her guard heightened.
Nightmare grunted. “Now how am I supposed to defend myself?” She indicated her nullified horn and restraints.
Shining rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, why don’t you complain in their general direction? I bet it’ll send them running.”
Nightmare glared at him, but before she could fire off a retort, Derpy slinked beside her. “Don’t worry; I’ve got your back.”
Grunting, Nightmare looked at the creatures closing in. “I feel safer already.”
“So are we just waiting for these things to completely swarm us or something?” Vinyl asked. “Because I feel like we should’ve attacked a long time ago.”
Shining narrowed his eyes. “Just a little closer.”
The creatures were almost within spitting distance. Twilight tensed up, wanting to fire off a few bursts of magic, but she held back, trusting that her brother had a plan.
Just as the bug ponies were about to pounce, he suddenly threw up a shield. The entire group found themselves surrounded in a bubble of magic. The creatures slammed into it and bounced harmlessly off, hissing with displeasure.
“Nice!” Vinyl grinned.
“Don’t celebrate just yet.” Shining grunted, his horn glowing even brighter. The magical shield pushed outward, sweeping up the shape shifters before they could recover. He pushed his magic out as far as he could before popping the bubble, sending the creatures flying. “Now!”
Twilight didn’t need anymore encouragement beyond that. She charged up her horn and let a beam of magic fly, making contact with the first shape shifter she saw. It flew back, but three more got up to replace it.
To her left, Shining and Cadance were firing off one attack after another, but faced a similar problem as Twilight. The creatures had an overwhelming numbers advantage and slowly boxed them in.
Lyra and Vinyl each fired off beams of their own, but had much less impact on the battle. Each of their attacks only served to stagger the shape shifters they hit, instead of flinging them back or wounding them. Luckily, Bon Bon and Octavia were able to take full advantage of the brief seconds their opponents were disabled and landed quite a few kicks, turning the tide in their favor.
Derpy hovered near Nightmare Moon. While most of the creatures that got close were shot away by Cadance, a fair amount managed to trickle through. One such trickler managed to leap onto Nightmare’s back.
“Urgh!” Nightmare recoiled and attempted to fling the creature off. When it held fast, Derpy flew up and socked it in the jaw.
“You okay?” she asked.
Nightmare frowned and looked away. “I’m fine.” Derpy smiled sweetly and kicked away another bug pony.
From there, the tide of battle quickly shifted.
Twilight fired off several more shots, but the creatures started dodging and closing in. She bit her lip and backed up. The shape shifters were almost on top of her when a sudden burst of fire shot from her back, forcing the creatures to withdraw. Twilight looked behind her to Spike, who gave her a thumbs up.
“Ah!”
Twilight’s eyes widened and she looked past Spike to her acquaintances. Bon Bon was pinned down by one of the creatures, while Vinyl grappled with another. Lyra and Octavia were fighting their way towards them, but were being overwhelmed.
“Girls!” Twilight rushed towards them, horn ablaze. She grabbed the bug pony atop Bon Bon and threw it into the air. It snapped out its wings and started flying a second later, only to be hit in the face by Spike’s fire. She blasted the other bug pony for good measure before helping Bon Bon to stand up. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah… fine…”
“That’s—” Twilight never got to finish her sentence. A group of the bug ponies rushed her from behind. She felt Spike get knocked from her back as she fell to the ground. She saw Bon Bon immediately go to help, only to be brought down again by more of the swarm.
Twilight struggled in vain to wriggle free of their grasp, but without being able to aim her horn at them it was a useless effort.
“Twilight!”
She looked over to see her brother rushing forward only to be overtaken by a dozen of the shape shifters at once. Twilight grimaced as he went down, noticing that Cadance and her acquaintances weren’t far behind.
She continued struggling though, even as another changeling came and stood over her. It smiled, fangs bared in delight. It leaned in and whispered to her, “now, it begins.”
“Wha—” Twilight didn’t get out any more than that before the bug pony brought its hoof down on her head, forcing her into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.
Princess Celestia walked through the palace gardens, her steps casual but her eyes darting around intently. So far nothing appeared out of place, but one could never be too careful. Besides, they had yet to get to the point of concern.
Beside her, Inkwell trotted to keep up with her pace. She fumbled with several papers in her hoof, trying in vain to keep them all organized.
“...and there have been growing complaints about the drought in Fillydelphia, but the weather workers are still on strike and refuse to do anything about it.”
“Okay, tell them I’ll mediate a discussion between the mayor and the head of the union and see if we can’t work out a raise in their wages.” Celestia took a sharp left, heading for the plethora of stone statues that dotted the open field. “Is there anything else on the agenda today?”
“Uh, well…” Inkwell shuffled the papers around. “That was only the second item for the day.”
“Ah… right.” Celestia ground her teeth. It didn’t really matter to her what Inkwell had in her papers, it all seemed trivial right now.
“Now then, there’ve been some concerns coming in from Cloudsdale about…”
And just like that, Celestia zoned out again. Her attention turned back to the statues around them. Many had been commissioned from local stonesmiths to depict key points in pony history. All except one, in fact.
She saw it approach on the horizon. The back half of a once powerful god of chaos. Celestia chewed her lip anxiously as they approached.
There really is no reason to worry, Celestia assured herself. Discord has been sealed away for a millennium. It would take more than a slight imbalance in the world’s harmony to set him free... Even if said slight imbalance would kill us all if given the chance.
“Princess, please wait up!”
Celestia blinked and looked back to see Inkwell running up to her. She must’ve been walking faster than she thought. “Sorry about that.” Forcing herself to a slower pace, Celestia allowed Inkwell to continue walking next to her. They were almost at Discord’s statue anyway, she’d be able to quickly check it and head back inside before too long.
Inkwell huffed. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s got you so distracted today.”
“That’s because it’s best if you don’t know,” Celestia replied simply.
There was a pause as the information sank into Inkwell. “I-is something bad about to happen?”
Celestia took her next few steps in silence. “I don’t… believe so.”
Inkwell’s pupils shrunk. “Mother of you, something bad is about to happen!”
“No, that’s not what I—” Celestia sighed. “I don’t think anything bad is about to happen.” The reached the front of Discord’s statue and her eyes focused on it. “I just feel that—Oh no.”
“I knew it,” Inkwell whimpered. Her eyes folded down. “What is it? Did Nightmare Moon escape again? Is Equestria being invaded? What?”
Celestia couldn’t respond. Her mouth was currently frozen in an ‘O’ shape as she stared down at the tiny cracks forming on Discord’s statue. Inkwell followed the princess’ line of sight, noticing the problem.
“Oh… one of the statues seems to be falling apart.” She wiped the sweat from her brow. “Phew, from the way you were acting I could’ve sworn there was actually a problem. Don’t worry, Your Majesty, I’ll be sure to let the groundskeepers know and—”
Celestia ignited her horn, enveloping the statue in her aura. She gritted her teeth, pouring as much harmony magic as she could into keeping Discord’s prison from breaking. “Inkwell,” she grunted.
Her assistant backed up, having no clue what was happening. “Uh… yes, Princess?”
“I need you to write a letter to Twilight Sparkle for me.”
“Um… sure, Princess.” Inkwell began digging through her supplies for a fresh sheet of paper.
Celestia furrowed her brows. “I just hope she’s found the Tree by now. If not, we're all doomed.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
998 users online
73,894 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh dear.
DundunDUNNNNNN. We got trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with D that stands for Discord.
Chrissy's plan in this chapter is even worse than her plan in canon. At least in canon she deceived everypony for more than a minute.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
"Yeah, trying telling that"
"try telling"?
"and manage a few"
"managing"?
"take it your not so "
"you're"
"as it slowed it’s flight"
"its"
"of an once powerful"
"a once"?
"No that’s not what"
"No, that's"?
...
Well.
This is going just splendidly, isn't it? :D
6865524 The purpose of her plan in canon was to deceive. Here her plan was to trap everyone.
So, Celestia refuses to let Cadence assume any actual governmental responsability, because her "mother knows best" policy. Didn´t she learn anything from Luna´s fall?
Nightmare Moon vs Chrysalis or Discord would be interesting to watch either way. Celestia might even rethink turning her back to Luna, if she starts kicking evil booty.
That was stupid of them, following the changeling...
Anyone else hoping Nightmare and Chrysalis hit it off?
All right, who wants to bet Sombra or Tirek's next chapter?
I was thinking that Derpy would probably remove the restraints from Nightmare Moon so that Nightmare would wipe out the changelings. But if she did that, Nightmare would escape from the group and would start wreaking havoc. Whatever the case, Twilight and the group needs to take out Chrysalis and the changelings ASAP, because they don't have a lot of time left....
It´s funny that, at this point, Vinyl has lost any respect for Nightmare Moon.
Admitely, Luna behaves like a typical teen in her gothic, rebellious phase.
Twilight screws up again, although leading the Changelings to the Tree of Harmony probably would have been just as bad.
That was the most half-assed trap ever. It's a good thing she ran into these guys in particular, because wow, Chrysalis really isn't even trying, is she?
6865976
Luna's -trapped- in there. Of course she wouldn't leave Nightmare in possession of her sister's body.
Not much...
DAMN! SHOTS FIRED! Shots have been fired!
Twice in a row! DAMN!
Changeling.
Oh yeah. Wait wait wait, hold the phone, shouldn't the double's magic be Changeling green? I mean, that was how it was with Chrysalis and Cadence so, shouldn't the same apply here?
Oh shit.
You shouldn't have said that.
Ouch!
DAMN! Triple kill!
intact. One word.
It's a trap.
Whenever the villain stops being cryptic, it ends poorly. Always.
Called it.
Your forgot to add a period after doomed.
ah yes. CHangelings. The STUPIDEST shapeshifters in fiction. I mean, REALLY, Chrysalis barely put hers to good use, and of the changeligns we see, they're even WORSE. and they ;re most useful tactic is the Zerg Rush.
At least Sombra was crazy prepared and genre savvy (at least, prior to beoming some shadow monster) but the best the changeligns can think of to break through a shield is to LITERALLY HEADBUTT IT AND HOPE IT BREAKS.
I REALLY hope the author has the characters mock the changeelings for being SO stupid. Like the rat creatures.
6868290 To be fair, the ponies tend to set the bar so low that they don't really have to try to outsmart them. Chrysalis's Cadence impersonation was absolutely terrible and she blatantly fucked with Shiny's head, yet she still managed to trick everyone including Celestia. Similarly, the ponies fell into the most painfully obvious trap I have ever seen in this chapter despite the fact that Twilight could have easily grabbed the fleeing changeling at any time just like how we have seen her grab Rainbow on several occasions in the show.
6868517 Actually, Chrysalis' plan in Canterlot Wedding was brilliant if you think about it.
Just watch this:
6868827 Yeah, definitely, but that doesn't change the fact that the ponies set the bar painfully low for the changelings, especially in this chapter.
6868911 True, but let's face it:
Most people in real life would likely do the same thing the ponies did in the chapter
6868911
Wait there's a bar? That's strange I thought the bar was non-existent.
But yeah, the stakes got upped, and I'm honestly a little sad. We're getting 3 villains at one go. With only 2, possibly 3 show Big Bads left [if you count Communist Pony as a Big Bad.].
I wonder what will replace the seasonal villains after this first arc. Still yeah, if there is a bar, it's set to the lowest settings allowable by nature.
6868975 Eh, maybe, but those people tend to get killed very quickly in a real fight. I just know I wouldn't fall for it and I wouldn't expect a trained soldier like Shiny to fall for it either. I would have also expected Twilight to think of grabbing the changeling with her telekinesis because that is something that she has done on screen on several occasions, but instead we get everyone falling into the obvious trap that I saw coming the instant it flew away.
6869037 Keep digging, the bar has to be down there somewhere.
That said, I'm very much with you on Discord and the way things look to be going with Chrysalis based on the fact that Derpy wasn't trying to deescalate things like she did with Nightmare Moon. There was plenty of conflict to drive the plot with just Nightmare Moon and Twilight's obliviousness so throwing in more heavy elements will most likely just make a mess of things, especially because the sensible thing for the changelings to do is gather information before they make a move. I would have let things play out with just Nightmare Moon until the story reaches its conclusion and resolves the main plot threads of this story, ideally with an ascension for the Element of Magic to troll everyone. Chrysalis would be saved for a sequel where she abducts Derpy to initiate friendly contact based on the reports of her scout who saw how she interacted with Nightmare Moon, but the story would follow the others who are trying to figure out what is going on and save their friend who they think is in danger.
Moments like this prove that Luna really is still in there somewhere.
Yeah, the youngest princess always gets stuck with that job.
6869393 To be fair:
1. There are several times in the show where Twilight could actually have used magic to solve the problem, but didn't.
2. Shining Armor is probably partially distracted with thoughts on whatever happened between him and Cadance.
3. It's been a long day for the ponies, plus they had to deal with the cragodile anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours ago.
4. They're also partially distracted from their attempts to befriend Nightmare Moon.
6869393
Maybe it's down near the MolePonies in the center of the earth?
And yeah, that would have been a better story plot line. I mean what they did here makes no sense really. They see the Princess of Food, the Element of Magic giving friendship to NMM [a mere snack compaired to Cadance's Love power], and instead of trailing them and learning how to best infiltrate they attack?
Then Discord breaks free?
I mean as is. I agree that there was enough with Nightmare Moon and Twilight's obliviousness. That was a large bit of conflict and humor. Nevermind Tribalist Princess about to eat a few tons of crow. I mean heck there's "eating crow" and there's what Tia's going to be doing. And introducing the Lings as stcoking them was a good foreshadow ... and introducing them as a threat. Risky but might have been interesting if it was to simply introduce them as a threat for later on. But Lings kicking their butts; On top of NMM Arc; On top of Twilight not discovering she's the Element of Honesty and igniting the EoH; Now Discord ... that's quite a bit of juggling and really detracts from an otherwise pretty cool story.
I just hope the story recovers from it. There's plenty of potential adventures and stories for this. Just as long as Sombra, Tirek, and Starlight Glimmer don't pop up any time soon. Give, like the show, some down time where the ponies can bond without throwing everything at them and the kitchen sink. Then slowly introduce a new threat. *Sighs* but we'll see what we'll see.
6869501 Yeah, but the trap was still so painfully obvious that I saw it the instant the first changeling ran. Even if the ponies didn't pick it up that promptly, they had several minutes to think over the situation between when they started the chase and when they were ambushed so at least one of them really should have figured it out.
6869609 That seems likely.
And yeah, I am fully with you on the rest of this to the point that I would honestly recommend rewriting the chapter in spite of my general belief that rewrites are a very dangerous death spiral that should be avoided whenever possible. It might still be recoverable if things take a positive turn with Chrysalis and Discord stays put until the girls make it back, but both of those would be major cuts against the foreshadowing the author has done so I really do not expect either one to happen, let alone both.
6869679 By that point I think they were too focused on chasing the changeling down to think rationally. Not to mention they had some anger flowing through them already, clouding their judgement.
6869679
Yes, usually re-writes are a death spiral, but sometimes a fic actually does well with them. It all depends on the story, author, and if it's a single re-write, or one of those a multiple re-writes over and over again, Like with Ascension. That was originally a good story, then it went through six unneeded re-writes before dying in Hiatus Limbo.
6869037 well it depends on how far the author wishes to take this story. its possible after this arc he'll finish the fic and be done with it. Don't forget this was originally going to end with during the nightmare moon thing.
also, starlight glimmer does count as a big bad, especially since she's the only one to be the main antagonist in both the opener and the season finale.
6870096
Yes, but she started off as just a communist. If it wasn't for the Crystal Map sending them to her village, and if it wasn't for her getting outed as a liar, and if Canterlot didn't have such lousy guards letting her get into the restricted section of the Castle [when she was already a fugitive]. Then she would never have reached Big Bad status.
Since she wasn't a villain of the series until various conditions were met, that wouldn't realistically be reached in this fic.
Still, even if the fic was supposed to end with the NMM Arc. That would have been good, or if he ever wanted to pick it up, could have had plenty of material later on. Seeing as this had the potential to be a rather interesting to follow AU like the ManehattenVerse. I mean we had the Musicade, Luna's redemption, Celestia eating crow, Shining's relationship with Cadance / Vinyl's crush, Cadance getting princessly duties, etc. Many possible stories that could have been made from this, and collaborative fan works.
Idk. It just feels like to many things are being thrown in and in a way messing with the story. Especially since it was largely unneeded. We had plenty of plot threads and possible plot arcs sprung up before this chapter. With plenty left for others to pick up on, or the author to return to if and when it tickled his fancy.
Tossing almost every villain at things, while in the middle of a rather intensive and huge series of plot threads is too much at once as well as taking a rather good story and adding inappropriate extra force and conflict into things. While not completeing or giving closure to any of the prior plot threads.
6870226 I do agree that introudicng crysalis here like this retty much came out of nowhere and is basically unnecessary, but he's the author and if he wants to do it then he is entitled to.
I just hope he doesn't give the shining/cadance thing an easy resolution.
6870850
Oh I know he's entitled to it. After all it's the author's right to do as he pleases with a fic. I'm just kind of realing that all of this came from nowhere. Sure the Changeling thing was kind of foreshadowed, and depending on how it was handled could have been a decent foray into introducing them for later. But the fic went from an awesome and honestly a very enjoyable AU. To ... well this chapter.
Nonetheless, I'll follow it till the end. Although if this chapter did get a re-write it'd be for the best. If not, well we'll see what we'll see.
6869679
6870850
6871168
Well this conversation has mostly died down and all, but I'd like to point out/clarify a few things really quickly.
Firstly, I wrote the entirety of the second arc's outline at the same time, so Chrysalis' appearance in it was planned from the beginning and her involvement in the fic will affect and further along other aspects of the story and spur on character growth, etc.
Secondly, yes it was a dumb move for them to follow the changeling, however you guys know this because you are aware that there is a swarm of changelings all being led by a Queen, but Twilight and the gang in this story don't know that. All they are aware of is one shapeshifter that appeared out of nowhere attacked Twilight, and ran off. I even had Twilight put up a small internal debate about following it to make her decision seem a little more reasonable. If I had written the chapter where a changeling appeared disguised as one of them, assaulted Twilight and then ran away, only to have them all shrug it off like it was nothing, then you'd probably be complaining about that instead.
Thirdly, the changelings making a move this early will be explained in the next chapter, and as for them winning fairly easily, well besides and overwhelming numbers advantage, Shining and Cadance had yet to recover all of their power from the fight with the cragodile, which I had thought I'd made clear earlier in the chapter.
Lastly, if you guys really are concerned that the story is taking a nose dive in quality, then I ask you to wait another chapter or two before making that call. As it stands, it won't devolve into a clusterfuck of half-formed ideas and writing.
6872106
For me it wasn't about them being defeated by Lings. After all I do agree that they them chasing after them after getting attacked. Nor the fact that they got thrashed after getting there [they are low on food, sleep, and after the dealing with the Cragodile].
My weariness was about that while in Cannon the Lings were incompetent, they at least attempted subtly. Here lings see the Princess of Food, and not only attack without any sublty. But who's whole infiltration strategy relied on "Attack! Attack! Attack!", and "Tag you're it!"
But even that could have been dealt with rather simply. Or even could have been waylaid a few chapters. My problem was just as Changelings were making an appearance, While dealing with NMM, we get Discord. Even the show gave us an entire season between Discord and the end of the Season for the Lings [a whopping 22 episodes to build character development], and had a little bit of time to let character deal with a character arc before adding a new one. Here we have 4 huge Story Arcs [5 including the Lings [6 if you count Celestia's reaction when Ditzy / Derpy solidifies herself as Element of Magic as a separate arc]] that have yet to have any resolution and still are being worked on for Character Development. Then you top a 3rd villain on top of the 2 big ones, with all those other arcs.
Still I can wait at least two chapters to see what you do.
6872106 I noticed that you failed to comment on Discord which is a big part of our problem. Chrysalis was foreshadowed and while I think she would work better as a standalone main plot after they have dealt with Nightmare Moon, it is not unbelievable that she could motivate interesting developments and work well here if handled properly. Discord on the other hand is coming out of nowhere for no reason besides what looks like an unnecessary, clumsy, and ineffective way to ratchet up tension so I cannot see any good reason for bringing him into the story at this point.
As for following the changeling, my point stands without that foreknowledge. The best solution was still to have Twilight grab it with her magic to prevent it from escaping in the first place and let them interrogate it to figure out what is going on which does not involve any chasing at all. Failing that, it was still acting very suspicious by flying away slow enough for them to chase it and there are lots of other bad things it could be leading them into in the Everfree so blindly chasing it was still unforgivably stupid. Also, we most definitely would not have complained if they avoided the obvious trap, especially because someone would have pointed it out to the rest of the cast and by extension any readers too dumb to see it.
Also, I want to point out that my foreknowledge of the changeling swarm actually makes chasing it smarter because I would know that it won't be leading me into a hydra or something similarly deadly because they want me alive. After all, Chrysalis can be reasoned with unlike most of the dangers of the Everfree.
Finally, I don't think anyone ever said them loosing the fight was in any way unexpected. Shiny and Cadence were still clearly not back up to full power and it was very clear that there were a huge number of changelings involved so capture was the expected outcome.
6872201 You don't have to worry about Discord just yet. I'll admit it may have been a little early for me to put in the part about Discord starting to break free, but he's only starting to. Celly's using her magic to slow him down. I know the show has a lot of character development, that was the point of the earlier chapters of the arc. Everything's more or less coming to a head now because the story itself is nearing completion.
6872221
I just talked about him a little with my reply to TheGreatEater, but I will say that I have been foreshadowing Discord for even longer than Chrysalis, so he isn't coming out of nowhere. In pretty much every Interlude chapter there has been some mention of him. Not to mention, he isn't in the story yet. The urgency surrounding his situation has simply increased drastically.
True that would have likely been the best solution, but the thought didn't cross her mind. If she had, they then the rest of the changelings who were in hiding would have still come after them, making the end result the same.
So it's smarter to run into an ambush that you likely know you can't beat? Sure you probably won't run into any monster barring random chance, but you still know there's a swarm waiting for you. And what evidence is there that Chrysalis to be reasoned with? That never happened in the show.
I could've sworn someone did. I'll have to go back and check the comments.
6872333 Discord has always seemed more like a theoretical concern in this story because it is just people worrying that something might happen but didn't impact the actual plot. In fact, by showing that Celestia was worrying about him and keeping an eye on that situation, you actually made his return seem less likely because he seemed to have been forgotten about in the show which is why he was able to break free. The changelings on the other hand were taking direct action by following the ponies so they were actually registering as important.
So you deliberately gave her the idiot ball. Got it.
The fact of the matter is that she has shown that exact reaction several times in the show, usually with Rainbow Dash, so her not doing that stands out strongly here, especially when it is the most logical response.
As for the changelings in hiding, there is no way they would have been in position for that. They were set up for an ambush a significant distance away (you explicitly mentioned several minutes of running after Twilight noticed it was baiting them) so they could not possibly have been close enough to provide that kind of support to the one running bait duty.
Yes, it is less stupid to run into a known live capture ambush than a probable lethal ambush. It is still smarter to avoid both, but that requires someone to have a working brain which is clearly not the case here.
Also, based on this comment and the fact that Derpy decided to beat up the changelings without hesitation after being sympathetic to Nightmare Moon who she had more reason to dislike, I am getting serious doubts about the direction of this story so I am switching to a thumbs down for now. I will still read the next chapter or two because you could surprise me, but you will have to earn my thumbs up again after this.
6872292
Ah ... nearing completion ... although this would be great if like some other AU series, it was open up for future continuation. As I said, there's quite a few story arcs that are still a long ways off from completion. That'd be good with their own fic some day [even if it was by someone else adding onto AU cannon].
Still, we'll see what we'll see.
6865742 I think I prefer her plans where she doesn't incidentally doom the world...
6872469
While I know I'm not going to change your mind, I would like to clear up a few final things before moving on.
Well, he hasn't been. I've dropped several hints specifically to build up his escape.
If that's the bottom line you want, then fine. My bottom line is this, even if she had tried that, I would've found a way in story for it not to work. She could have been focusing on the spell so much that she tripped over some underbrush, the changeling could have fired off an counterattack at her, it could have been out of her range, etc. I didn't do it because it wouldn't have added anything to the story and would have been a pointless throw away moment over all. Just because I had her not think to do it this one time doesn't make her an idiot.
As for the ambushed changelings not being able to provide support, if the bait never showed up they would've gone looking for him, found the ponies and the result would have been the same.
The situations are completely different.. She's had time to bond with a subdued Nightmare Moon, but the changelings are an immediate threat that are attacking them. She fought back to defend herself and her friends.
Nevertheless, I get that you are unhappy with this chapter. I may not agree with the reasons behind your unhappiness, but I understand you are all the same. This chapter as a whole was a pretty big transition for the story with a lot happening in it, and I'm glad you're going to give the fic at least another chapter or two for things to slow back down. If, in the end, you decide to stop reading it all together, then I'll at least be happy that I managed to entertain you as long as I did.
Nightmare Moon, Changelings and Discord all at once.
Wow Twilight really did screw up more than usual didn't she?
6874808 Well, I wasn't going to respond to this, but then you tried to refute my idiot ball comment by going into detail on exactly why I was right so I'm just going to drop a link to the trope for you so you can learn from your mistake.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall
6876652 more like plot induced stupidity. Like in the show, twilight forgets about her abilities.
6880955 Well, they are basically the same thing so I used the better known and more immediately recognizable trope, but if you want to get picky both were in play here. Twilight and the other unicorns failing to grab the changeling was "Forgot About His Powers" because they failed to do something that should have been simple and routine for them, and them following the changeling into the painfully obvious trap was "Idiot Ball" because they did something painfully stupid for no good reason.
6872106 Another great chapter--am eager to see what happens with Chrysalis and how it'll affect the broken relationship of Cadence and Shining.
I thinking it'll be Derpy who must face off against Discord to restore calm to Equestria...unless he manages to summon muffin-rain...
There is a slight flaw in the story, but it's more of a flaw in the characters than a plot hole.
If the original mane 6 (minus Twilight) were to scared to help Twilight, then why are they worthy of the elements?
Just look at Rainbow Dash, THE ELEMENT OF LOYALTY
SERIOUSLY?!?!
Why are you best pony again?
If anything, the new mane 6 is more deserving of the elements. ESPECIALLY VINYL <--(ACTUAL BEST PONY) AND DERPY <--(ALSO ACTUAL BEST PONY)
Tales of Twilight's true talent of screwing up has apparently even reached the Changelings. All the one Changeling had to do was basically give Twilight a zap and change forms a few times before running off, and Twilight decides to pursue it, in a goddamn forest.