Paths of Fate

by LordLycaon

Reintroduction

No matter how much of it she saw, Twilight could barely stand it. Everywhere Pinkamena led her, she saw pain. Everypony's eyes were full of next to nothing but pain. They were all but dead, inside and out. She desperately tried to block it all out, to convince herself that this was just some grisly nightmare. But no matter what she told herself, she couldn't block out the sounds of pain, the smell of anguish, the feeling of perpetual sorrow. The only conclusion she could come up with was that this – as much as she wished to deny it – was all too real.

Then, a few more things came to mind. This was Equestria, to be sure, but it was clearly vastly different from the Equestria she knew. This world was bleak, with little apparent hope. A theory gradually came to mind, one that she'd only read about, but had also scoffed at the idea. These ponies recognized her, but said that she was dead. Everything was the same in placement, but vastly different in appearance and tone. There was only one theory that made any kind of sense: String Theory. She was in a parallel universe.

Even with that knowledge now in her mind, it brought up more questions than it did answers. How did she get here? Did somepony summon her somehow? If so, who, and why? Summoning spells required a lot of magic and concentration, even to move an apple from Manehattan to Canterlot (she knew this because she had once done it during her years under Princess Celestia's tutelage). To summon a living, sentient being from another universe entirely? She quickly surmised that only an experienced alicorn would have that much power and skill.

That at least narrowed it down to… two possible summoners. Either Luna or Cadence, most likely Luna, seeing as how she was the elder alicorn, and therefore had the most magical prowess and far more experience. But if that was the case, why didn't Twilight appear to Luna in the first place? This was rapidly only getting more and more confusing the more she thought about it.

And as she thought about this parallel universe theory of hers, another question came to mind, one that she had failed to inquire about earlier: what about her other friends? What happened to Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike? Where were they in all this? Had they suffered some horrible fate as well? And what about Cadence, too? Nopony had actually mentioned what she was doing, or where she was at the moment.

She looked over at Pinkamena, who was still unnervingly silent. "Pinkie?" she spoke up. The dull pink mare ignored her, only continuing down the hall. The young alicorn sighed in defeat. "Pinkamena?"

"What?" the other mare inquired in an annoyed tone.

"What happened to the others?" Twilight asked finally. "Our friends, I mean. Where are they?" Pinkamena stopped in her tracks, turning her head very slightly. She was quiet for several moments before turning to fully face Twilight.

"You really wanna know?" Twilight nodded, to which Pinkamena gave her an analytical glare. After a few seconds, she relented and said, "Follow me." She turned to her left and headed down another hallway, Twilight following diligently.

As they passed several doors, Twilight took notice of a few that bore red crosses on them. This was likely a makeshift hospital of some kind. At least these ponies had that much going for them. It still didn't look like much, though. The few doors that were open revealed old medical equipment that was gradually falling into disrepair, and occasionally were occupied by especially ill-looking ponies who didn't look like they would last for much longer. She had to force herself to keep her eyes ahead, following Pinkamena while silently giving sympathy to the suffering ponies, for whatever good that might've done.

Eventually, Pinkamena stopped at one door in particular. This door had the crest of the Royal Pony Sisters emblazoned on it. Pinkamena raised her hoof to knock, but paused to face Twilight briefly. She pointed to the right side of the door. "You'd better wait there for a moment. I'd rather they not see you until I ease them into it first."

Twilight was about to argue, but closed her mouth upon receiving a scathing glare from the other mare. The purple alicorn nodded submissively and stood beside the door so that she wouldn't be immediately seen by anyone in the room behind the door.

Pinkamena nodded at this and knocked on the door a few times. There was silence for a few moments as nopony responded. Again, Pinkamena knocked, a bit louder this time.

"Hang on!" called a mare's voice that bore a familiar southern twang to it. "Ah'm comin'!" A moment passed as the sound of several tumbler locks opened, and the door soon swung open. Twilight knew immediately who it was without seeing her.

"Oh, it's you," Applejack said. "Come on in, Pinkamena. Ah got some good cider in today if that's what ya want."

The pink earth pony shook her head. "That's not why I'm here. Are Rarity and Fluttershy here? I need to tell you all something. Rainbow Dash already knows."

"All right, then. Yeah, they're here. Rarity's helpin' Shy with her readin' again, but Ah guess they cut the lesson a bit short today."

'Fluttershy's having reading lessons?' Twilight thought, furrowing her brow in confusion and resisting the urge to peek past the door. Pinkamena only nodded and entered the room, closing the door behind her, basically forcing Twilight to wait outside.

She sighed as she sat down by the door, awaiting the moment it opened again. The seconds dragged on into minutes, and the minutes began to feel like hours. As time shambled on, she quickly began to feel antsy, tapping her hooves against the metal floor impatiently. Though she would often spend hours in one place with nothing but a good book most of the time, even she couldn't just sit idly with nothing to do.

There were no clocks around for her to track time with, so she had no idea how long it took for the door to finally open and for Pinkamena to step out a little. The pink mare nodded toward the room.

"They're ready to see you," she said flatly, immediately walking back into the room. Twilight instinctively nodded and followed Pinkamena, who closed the door as the alicorn entered.

The room was fairly spacious, just enough so that it could comfortably fit five or six ponies at once. There were three bunk beds organized neatly so that they wouldn't overtake the room. At the far end was a small kitchen and a door that led into what Twilight guessed was a bathroom, judging by the toilet-shaped symbol on the door. In the middle of the room was a fair-sized table that had five chairs, three of which were occupied.

Both Applejack and Rarity stared with wide, unbelieving eyes at Twilight, who stared back at them with equally wide eyes. They both looked as though they had been through the ringer countless times. Applejack bore several scars on her face and body, the largest of which was a nasty-looking wound that ran along her left side. Rarity's mane was disheveled and unkempt, completely out of character for the fashionista. Her left foreleg had apparently been replaced with a prosthetic limb, which just barely covered visible scars from what was left of the original limb.

Fluttershy, however, looked the worst out of all of them. Her mane was just a ragged as Rarity's, and she looked even frailer than she already was, but that wasn't even the most disturbing part. That honor went to the fact that her eyes were covered up by several thick bandages. There were at least nine scars poking out from under those coverings. She was facing down at the table, as if to hide her face from prying eyes. It didn't take long for Twilight to figure out why she needed reading lessons: the pegasus had obviously been permanently and violently blinded somehow, and was now learning brail.

Twilight wanted to say something to break the uncomfortable and extremely tense silence that had fallen upon them all, but she couldn't find the words. All that came out of her mouth were wordless mumbles. Seconds passed uncounted until a full minute of silence had persisted.

"Ah… Ah can't…" Applejack said, finally breaking the quiet. She closed her eyes and shook her head as if she were seeing things. "Ah don't believe it."

"But…" Rarity muttered quietly. "But we saw her…"

"Applejack? Rarity?" Fluttershy squeaked, still keeping her face down. "What… what's happening? Was Pinkamena really telling the truth? Is it really her?"

Applejack nodded. "It's impossible to believe, but… if she ain't Twilight, then she looks an awful lot like her." That seemed to be enough for Fluttershy to carefully push away from the table and shakily stand on her hooves.

"Careful, darling," Rarity said worriedly. Fluttershy ignored the unicorn's warning and approached Twilight slowly, reaching out with her hoof towards Twilight's face. The young alicorn hesitated for a moment, but walked just a step closer to let Fluttershy's hoof brush against her cheek a little. The pink-maned pegasus lowered her hoof again, a very small smile on her face.

"If it's really you, Twilight," she said, "then please… say something. Anything."

She hesitated once again, her mouth hanging open. Eventually, she spoke again, and said, "Fluttershy… your eyes. What… what happened to you?"

Despite the question, Fluttershy's smile only grew, if only slightly. She reached out again and wrapped Twilight in a tight hug. "I never thought I'd hear you again," she said quietly. "We all thought you were gone."

Twilight shook her head and gently removed herself from the hug as Rarity came over to guide Fluttershy back to her spot at the table. She looked over to Pinkamena, who only sighed and made her way over to one of the empty seats, motioning for Twilight to take the other right next to her. As she sat down, she studied her friends again. All of them had one thing in common now: beyond looking terrible, they looked tired, almost defeated, even.

"Okay," Applejack spoke up, still staring at Twilight with a strange mix of confusion, relief, awe, and suspicion. "Ah've got just one question: how did ya survive? We all saw ya get swarmed by them changeling bastards."

Twilight winced at the farm pony's language. She wasn't used to hearing anything like that come out of the orange earth pony's mouth. She hung her head low, thinking on how she should answer. Should she share her theory with them? They'd probably think she was crazy. Then again, at this point, she was already beginning to question her own sanity herself.

"I… I don't know," she said sheepishly. "I don't think I- I mean, I don't think she did. I don't think I'm the same Twilight that you all knew."

"Whatever do you mean?" Rarity inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"I think… I think I might be from a universe parallel to this one." There was a dull silence after that. Twilight doubted that they'd buy it immediately, but she figured it'd be best to be honest rather than make up some story, especially with Applejack around. That mare could pick out a lie with little to no effort. She looked up at the others. They looked to each other, then back to her.

"That's probably the craziest story ever," Applejack said finally, her face bearing an expression of obvious discontent. "If that's true, then Ah must be Princess Luna in disguise."

Twilight sighed in response to that. "I know it sounds ridiculous," she admitted, "but it's the only explanation I can think of. This feels too real to be a dream, and it's nothing like the vision I had in the Crystal Empire when Spike and I were going to get the…" She trailed off, suddenly looking around frantically. "Wait, where's Spike in all this? What happened to him?"

The other mares looked to each other, with Pinkamena looking relatively indifferent. Applejack was the one to answer: "He… he disappeared a while after our Twilight was killed. Nopony's seen 'im since we came to this here bunker."

The young alicorn's shoulders visibly slumped as the news hit her. "I… I see." Just then, one more thing came to mind. "What about the Elements of Harmony? Where are they? We could use them to-"

"I'll stop you right there," Pinkamena interrupted. "We have the Elements. Most of them, anyway. The changelings have the Element of Magic. Stole it right out from under Twilight's nose. A changeling had disguised itself as her boyfriend and convinced her to give it to him for safe keeping."

"Wait, I-" She shook her head. "She had a boyfriend?"

"Yes," Rarity confirmed. "Flash Sentry. Nice fellow, really, but… well, we still don't know whether he had been replaced or if he was just a changeling all along."

"Oh… I see…" There was a stark silence between the five ponies then for suite a while. Nopony really knew what to say after that. "And… where's Cadance? I was told that she escaped the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor. Isn't she here?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I'm sorry, Twilight, but… she went missing a few weeks ago. Nopony knows where she is anymore."

"She insisted that she go off on a reconnaissance mission," Pinkamena clarified, shaking her head, but whether it was in disappointment or sadness, Twilight couldn't tell. "Only one of her unit came back, and he didn't last long. He died while we were trying to save him. For all we know, Cadance is dead, or worse, being held prisoner by the changelings. Being the Princess of Love, she's like a living all-you-can-eat buffet for the bugs."

Twilight's shoulders slumped. She had hoped to see Cadance. She could've helped prove that Twilight was who she said she was. Maybe then, ponies would start trusting her again. She'd have to do this the hard way then. Until then, she'd probably be stuck with Pinkamena watching her every move.

Applejack yawned, stretching her forelegs over her head. "It's gettin' late, y'all. Ah say we get some shut eye and figure what to do in the mornin'."

"Agreed," Rarity said with a nod. She stood from her seat and led Fluttershy from hers, guiding her to one of the beds, where the blinded pegasus easily managed to tuck herself in. Rarity then turned to Twilight and motioned to another bed close by. "That bed there is free. Rest up, darling. We're likely to have a busy day tomorrow."

"Why's that?" Twilight asked as she approached the bed.

"Rarity is working as one of the nurses in the clinic," Pinkamena explained as she claimed another bed. "To be honest, I was pretty surprised how good she is at the job."

"I only do what I'm told," Rarity replied. "Applejack's cider is also very popular. It… helps ponies forget their worries. For a time, at least."

"Oh." Twilight didn't know what to make of that. She supposed that meant that Applejack had started putting actual alcohol in her cider. While not something she'd enjoy, she could see why ponies would turn to something like that in this world. She silently sighed and climbed into the bed that Rarity had indicated to her. She laid facing away from the others as they said goodnight to one another. This world was one that needed saving. She knew that, but she doubted that there could be anything she could do to help them. Would they even want her help?

'Probably not.'

She shook her head. She shouldn't be thinking such thoughts. She closed her eyes to try and go to sleep. To her surprise, it didn't take long for her do just that.

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

This story has much potential, where will you take it though?

[LordLycaon]

5195039 Sorry. No spoilers.

[Silentwoodfire]

5195103

Ah, so it WILL go places, most excellent

[Twilight978]

Oh wow wasn't expecting that well that's good I thought that it would be a cliche with Apple Jack as the leader and the rest as some part of the army you have done a pretty good job cant wait for more

[LordLycaon]

5198905 I try to avoid cliches if at all possible. Besides, Applejack has never seemed like the "leader" type to me anyway. It makes much more sense in my mind to have someone like Shining Armor, who has actual military experience, take the lead.

[Johndye]

Is this dead?

[Tali_The_Lamia]

8744340
But im pretty sure alicorns have the same power like wolverine.
Auto healing.