Spectrum

by Ponky

Day's Dark Secret

Rainbow Dash flew far from Ponyville into the darkest regions of the forest before crashing through the upper branches, scratching my face and arms on our descent. Her powerful wings slowed us enough to safely land at the trunk of a twisted tree. I don’t know why I was so surprised to see Pinkie Pie already there squeezed between two protruding roots.

“How did you…?”

“I thought you said you knew us, David,” Rainbow joked, leaning against the trunk to catch her breath. “I may be the fastest pony in Equestria, but Pinkie Pie makes the least sense.”

The frizzy pony beamed and pulled herself from the wood with a loud pop. “Are you okay, David?” she asked, donning a genuinely concerned look. “I’ve never seen the princess get so angry before. I hope she didn’t hurt you!”

“Not physically,” I said, patting Pinkie’s mane affectionately. “I was so excited to meet her, though. I can’t believe she acted like that.”

Pinkie gasped. “Maybe she’s actually the Queen of the Changelings!”

“Or maybe all those Trollestia memes are right on the money. Eh, David?” Rainbow Dash winked and plopped onto the ground to rest.

I sat on a stump across from the pegasus, unable to take my eyes off her as she pulled twigs and leaves from her feathers with her teeth.

“So it is true,” I said. “You really did live on Earth for fifteen years.”

Rainbow spit out the debris in her mouth and looked at me with shock. “You know about that, too?”

“It’s a pretty popular story with us bronies,” I said with a smirk. “I didn’t think any of it was real, though.”

“How did it get on the internet?” she asked, exasperated.

I shrugged. “I have no idea. It doesn’t make sense. The story would have to be from the future.” With a heavy sigh, I picked a cartoon pebble from the ground and rolled in between my fingers fascinatedly. “None of this makes any sense.”

“And that’s why I like it!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing right next to me. “Don’t worry, David. I’m on your side, thick or thin!” She poked me on the word thick and herself on the word thin, laughing shrilly at her own pun. Rainbow and I laughed, too, more at Pinkie’s reaction than her joke.

“I need to thank you, Pinkie Pie,” I said. She turned to me with an adorably surprised expression and asked, “For what?”

“For lots of things,” I started. “For the party, most recently. But also for being so happy all the time. And for all the great songs you’ve written. They really helped me out during some pretty… dark times… in my life.”

It was true. One of the reasons I latched onto Friendship is Magic when I did was due to its goodness. In an otherwise dismal world, it was a source of laughter and happiness. It was a ray of light, a beacon of hope during an otherwise very difficult time for me.

“Whenever I felt scared or uncertain about what would happen,” I told the pink pony, “I would sing your very first song. Or, the first one on the show, anyway.”

“Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears!” she sang, beaming with pride.

“Yes!” I confirmed with a delighted laugh. “That’s the one!”

“Sing it with me, David!” she encouraged, placing her hooves on my lap and leaning up toward my eyes. “Please, oh please, oh please sing it with me!”

“Can we do this later?” Rainbow asked, just as music began to drift through the wood. I glanced around for a source of the noise; it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooooown!” Pinkie sang to the music, twirling around on her hind legs. “Your turn!”

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frooooown,” I sang timidly, still trying to identify the source.

“You got it!” Pinkie encouraged before bursting into the next line. “I’d hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw, but Grammy Pie said that wasn’t the way to deal with fears at all!”

Struck with the spirit of the moment, Rainbow Dash offered her own line in the song with a smile and an eye roll: “Then what is?”

“She said…”

I took over, rising to my feet. “Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears!”

“You’ll see that they can’t hurt you…” Pinkie sang, and together we crooned the next line: “Just LAUGH and make them disappear!”

The music continued as we toppled over with laughter, rolling on the leafy ground. Even Rainbow Dash cackled with glee, pointing a ridiculing hoof at our silliness. Once again I was electrified with the wonderful reality of it all: I was singing with Pinkie Pie herself! Happy tears leaked from my eyes as we finished the song loudly, bouncing around the forest like sugar-crazed children. I had never felt such indescribable joy.

The music faded away and the three of us sat against the massive tree trunk, recovering from our gut-wrenching laughter.

“Thank you, too, Rainbow Dash,” I said gratefully, “for saving me from Celestia.”

“No problem, David,” she said, tease-punching me in the shoulder with her hoof. “I always look out for a friend, even brand new ones.”

“Now what do we do?” Pinkie asked in a much livelier tone than I thought appropriate.

I wrung my hands together anxiously. “I don’t know, Pinkie. We have to find a way to convince Princess Celestia to let me stay, I guess.”

Rainbow guffawed. “Like that’s gonna happen! I say we get Spike to grow huge again and have him throw Celestia into Tartarus.”

I realized only then that I was with the two least capable ponies when it came to problem-solving. If we were going to come up with a plausibly helpful plan, it was up to me.

“Seems like what we have to do first,” I noted, hoisting myself up from the trunk and pacing the area thoughtfully, “is find out why Celestia is so keen to get me out of here.”

“Isn’t that obvious? She hates anypony to be happy.”

“I don’t think that’s true, Rainbow Dash. You might have a slightly biased opinion there.”

Rainbow snorted indignantly, but didn’t disagree.

“Then let’s spy on her!” Pinkie suggested enthusiastically.

“How?” Rainbow retorted. “She’s Princess Celestia, Pinkie Pie. She’s the most powerful pony in Equestria! She sent her sister to the moon!”

“I don’t think Celestia is as powerful as she’d have us believe,” I offered quietly. My companions’ pupils shrunk as they waited for me to continue. “In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think Celestia isn’t that powerful at all. Have you ever seen her do anything Twilight can’t do? Or even some of the things Twilight can do? Whenever there’s a problem, she sends your group to fix it.”

“Because we’re connected to the Elements of Harmony,” Pinkie acknowledged wisely. I felt my own eyes grow wide with realization.

“Of course! It’s the Elements that have the power, not Princess Celestia. Without them, she’s just another alicorn. That’s why she brought all of you along to get to Earth. That’s why she can’t send me back without your consent, Rainbow. The Elements feed her power. No… the Elements were her power.”

“But I wasn’t there when she traveled to the third dimension,” Rainbow reminded.

I bit my lip in thought for a moment and snapped my fingers when it clicked. “You weren’t connected to Loyalty anymore,” I realized. “When the accident happened, it reversed your age, remember? You must have lost your connection to that Element. Princess Celestia was using it until Twilight gave you all your memory and experience back. Without all six on her side, Celestia’s powers are as basic as Rarity’s.”

“But she raises the Sun, David!” Another good point from Rainbow Dash. “That must take an awesome amount of power.”

I grunted and kicked at the ground with my shoe. “I don’t know, girls. It just seems to me like she’s hiding something.”

“Then let’s go spy on her, for goodness’ sake!” Pinkie said again. “I’m sure she’s with Twilight in the library right now! You and Rainbow Dash should sneak up and listen to their conversation. She’s sure to give something away, right?”

I looked to Rainbow Dash for her opinion. The winged pony shrugged. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

I grinned. “Me, too. Come on, Rainbow Dash. But make sure you’re quiet.”

***

Rainbow Dash wasn’t very quiet. From the flight back to Ponyville alone, we both decided it would be impossible for her and me to successfully and undetectably reach the library. Instead, with me hanging limply from her powerful forehooves, we whisked through the night sky and stopped at Fluttershy’s cabin, hoping she had already come home.

I knocked quietly at the front door, prepared to jet at the first sign of a trap. Celestia may have already anticipated our visits to the mane six.

A soft voice whispered through the wood. “Who is it?”

“Rainbow Dash!” the pony at my side breathed loudly. “Let us in, Fluttershy! Quick!”

“U-us?”

“I’m with David! Hurry up, the princess could be anywhere!”

The yellow pony let out a little squeak. “Go away, Rainbow! I… I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Come on, Fluttershy! We’ve been friends forever! Just do me this one favor! Pleeease!”

There was silence for a long time. Finally, the door cracked open and Rainbow dashed into the cottage. I followed quietly, especially nervous to finally meet my favorite pony under these circumstances.

She was standing behind the door, quaking with fear. Her pink hair covered most of her face; one eye focused on me for a split second and then shut tightly. I closed the door as silently as possible and knelt by the terrified pony.

“It’s all right, Fluttershy,” I whispered, reaching out my hand to gently touch her shoulder. Especially compared to Rainbow’s coarser fur, her yellow coat was short and soft, just as I had always imagined. “I don’t want there to be any trouble, either. I’m just trying to find a way to make sure everypony gets along.”

She cracked her unhidden eye open and gazed at me with a wary, shiny squint.

“I don’t want to leave Equestria,” I said in a calm, even voice. “I want to stay and learn from all these wonderful ponies, especially you. I’ve already learned a lot from you.”

Fluttershy perked up just enough for her hair to fall away from her face. “You have?”

“Yes, Fluttershy,” I said with a relieved smile. I had feared that after the princess’s decrees she would never talk to me. “I learned to be kinder to everyone around me. I learned to be brave and stand up for myself, and my friends. You taught me that it’s okay to be scared, and that as long as you face your fears with your friends, you can overcome the most terrifying and difficult obstacles.”

A flattered smile crept over the yellow pony’s mouth.

“Remember when you stood up to that dragon?” I asked. “Or when you helped Rainbow Dash get water to Cloudsdale? You weren’t the fastest pony, but you did your best, and it was more than enough. To me, you’re the bravest pony of them all. You’ve always been my favorite.” Suddenly, I remembered the iPhone in my pocket. I pulled it out and clicked the lock button, lighting up my Fluttershy background. “See? I carry you around everywhere.”

Her eyes grew wide at the picture. She pointed and asked, “Is that the window? The window in a box?”

I stifled a laugh. “Sort of. Televisions are a lot bigger. But this is the same idea. You can put any picture you want back there, and I chose one of you. Because you inspire me.”

She grinned proudly. “Wow, David. I… I don’t know what to…” She bowed her head in embarrassment. “Thank you, I mean.”

I ran my hand through her silky pink mane. “Thank you, Fluttershy.”

It was a better first meeting than anything I could have imagined. But Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to think so.

“Okay, now that we’re all through the mushy stuff,” she complained, “about that favor we need you to do.”

“A… favor?” Fluttershy’s nervousness returned quickly. I shuffled closer to her on my knees, trying to stay serious and calm.

“We think Celestia is hiding something,” I paraphrased. “Something about her powers. We need to spy on her for a while, just to see if she reveals anything helpful.”

“And I can’t sit around and listen to ponies talk forever. I get antsy and loud,” Rainbow Dash confessed with a careless shrug.

Fluttershy swallowed. “You want me? To spy on the princess?”

“With me,” I added. “We’ll be together. I know you can do it, Fluttershy. You’re perfect for the job. You can be brave for your friends, and you’re naturally quiet. She’ll never know we were there.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Come on, Fluttershy! You have to! Or else she’s gonna find a way to kick David out of Equestria forever!”

I didn’t know if that was Rainbow Dash’s genuine belief or if it was a ploy to encourage Fluttershy’s participation. Either way, we eventually coaxed the pegasus to help out. In the still of night, Rainbow Dash carried both of us high into the sky to the furthest clouds.

“Where did everypony go after I grabbed David?” Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy as we climbed.

“Princess Celestia chased you for a while,” Fluttershy relayed. “Not for long, though. She came back and yelled at Twilight. The rest of the ponies ran home, like me. I don’t know where the princess went.”

“Pinkie’s betting on the library,” Rainbow said. “I agree. Unless she took Twilight back to Canterlot with her.”

“Only one way to find out,” I said. “Fluttershy, Rainbow’s gonna drop us here. You’ll need to glide down with me and land as quietly as possible in the library’s branches. Are you ready?”

“No,” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Then you better hurry up!” Rainbow yelled, and dropped us both into the open air.

It was, up to that point, the scariest moment of my life. I had never free-fallen before; I went indoor skydiving with my dad once, but that didn’t count. Dropping like a rock toward a dark, unforgiving ground whisked away every drop of breath from my lungs. They refused to allow passage to the sweet Equestria air until Fluttershy swooped in from behind and tucked her arms beneath mine.

She wasn’t as strong as Rainbow Dash and I winced at the sounds of her strain, but she kept her wings open and out, carrying us noiselessly toward the great tree at Ponyville’s center. Just as I expected, her natural grace ensured a quiet landing amidst its branches. I flashed her a congratulatory grin before we scaled ape-like through the treetop, searching for a worthy window.

Before long, we found ourselves hugging the trunk outside Twilight’s room, peeking through the very window I used to watch the party grow. To our relief, both the malicious princess and her faithful student were directly in our sight. Pressing our ears against the wood just outside the pane of glass, we listened to their muffled conversation.

“But Princess,” Twilight was saying, “I don’t understand. Why let him escape? Why not use your magic to send him back to his world?”

Fluttershy and I exchanged disbelieving glances. Either this was too good to be true, or we had arrived just in time.

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle,” the princess sighed, turning away from her student and hanging her head sorrowfully. “If you are to help me expel him, I suppose you ought to know.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Know what, Princess?”

Celestia sighed. I thought I saw a single tear trip from her muzzle.

“The realm from which he came is not only his world,” she continued forcefully, as if every word was a wall to break down. “It is also mine.”

Twilight took several surprised steps backward. Fluttershy and I leaned away from the window; she had to use her wings to steady herself.

“Princess?” Twilight wheezed in disbelief.

“I was not born in your world, Twilight Sparkle,” the princes began, “but in his. I was created, you could say; designed by a human scientist. He was called a geneticist, I remember. But I was not the result of a dedicated experiment. I was a gift for his stupid, spoiled daughter. I won’t even pretend I remember her name. She was a rotten child, and all the ponies could sense it. She owned many of us, but I was different. I always knew I was different.

“I don’t think the scientist meant to make me so intelligent. I was designed, as far as I understand it, to be a show pony. His daughter demanded that he make her something to win every competition, and he produced me. How I hated those events; that awful little girl dragged me around in circles like some kind of new toy while humans gawked and pointed and judged me. I won several of them, somehow. But as soon as an event disqualified me—something about abnormal additions, I think—that wretched little girl thought me useless.

“Her father disagreed. I seemed to be his crowning jewel. When his daughter lost interest in those petty competitions, he took me to other sorts of shows. Thousands of humans paid money to pass by me, locked inside a cage. Word spread quickly and we traveled over much of the world. Some called me a miracle, others an unnatural freak. I was always frightened by them. Always scared… always alone.

“Then one night, when the crowds had been gone for a long time, I discovered a spectacular talent. With much concentration, I could make sparks fly out from the tip of my horn. You can’t imagine my excitement, Twilight Sparkle. In that world, there is no magic. I thought my horn was only an ‘abnormal addition.’ That it had some sort of power ignited my interest.

“With much nightly practice, those sparks became a steady streak of electricity. I didn’t know how it was possible; it certainly was not an intentional gift. But my horn could produce energy, and the more I used it, the more powerful it became. Only weeks after I discovered my talent, I used it one night to break free from my cage. By that time, the energy my horn produced was enough to blow away an entire wall of the steel prison. I was free.

“It was raining that night. I galloped through the mud of an unknown land, desperate to get as far from the scientist and his freak show as I could. I ran all through the night. When the morning came and the rain stopped, I beheld the glorious sun paint a rainbow over my head. Overjoyed, I reared up on my hind legs and released a burst of energy into the sky.

“It hit the rainbow, and with a great flash of light, the world around me disappeared. I wandered for what seemed like days in the darkness. I wondered if I had died. But, eventually, I was discovered by a group of creatures who spoke with the kindest of voices. I had never heard such harmless tones from humans, though I recognized the language. One of the voices was much lower than the others, and the kindest of them all. ‘I know this creature,’ I heard it say, and then something pressed against my forehead. And all at once, I could see.

“Before me stood a pony I would come to know as Star Swirl the Bearded. He had already encountered creatures from my dimension and learned to correct their vision, as you did with the human boy. With his magic, Star Swirl taught me to learn, to speak, and to understand as his kind did. I was much larger than the ponies in this world, but I no longer felt so alone. There were even other ponies with wings, and others with horns… but only one other with both.

“Star Swirl introduced me to Luna when she was a young filly. She was the first and only alicorn in all of Equestria. Star Swirl believed our presences were a sign. Luna’s father was never known; her mother died giving birth to her. Despite our different appearances, we were both thrilled to discover another pony like us. We became the best of friends—as close as sisters.

“Luna grew into a powerful young mare with incredible magic, unlike anything Star Swirl had ever seen. I longed for powers as great and praiseworthy as hers, but my energy blasts were the limit of my so-called magic. Despite our physical similarities, I never forgot that Luna and I were of different worlds.

“Then came Discord. Equestria had only recently been founded, but any trace of national order fell apart at the chaotic draconequus. Star Swirl believed that Discord, like me, was from another dimension, one beyond the third. He had grown very old and could do nothing to stop Discord’s reign. Before he died, he told Luna and me of an ancient legend: the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful relics in all of ponydom. He believed that Fate had chosen us to locate the Elements and use them to defeat Discord.

“Oh, Twilight. The story of our quest is a grand and treasured one, but it would take far too long to relay it tonight. Suffice it to be said that we did find the Elements, and together we did defeat Discord. And something marvelous happened when we did; along with granting both of us immortality, the Elements transformed me into a being of the second dimension. When Luna and I harnessed the elements, my body changed into the form it bears today.

“The ponies of Equestria were so grateful, they appointed us as the nation’s rulers. She took upon herself the duties of the Night, and I of the Day. You know the rest of the story very well, I believe. She grew jealous and tried to suppress the Sun, but I had grown strong in the Element’s magic. Luna learned her lesson: everything has its place. Nature must remain in balance. And now, the human plaguing our magnificent country must soon learn the same.”

Comments

[MyLittleBurger]

Dun dun Dunnnnnnnn

[dashers3]

Celestia was a human! But the stained glass in the show showed pony-celestia defeat-ING discord

[Ponky]

570947

Actually, she wasn't human. She was a genetically engineered alicorn from the third dimension. So she and Luna were both horned, winged ponies--one was "cartoon" and one was... uh... "thick."

[Ponky]

628557

Good observations, though it's obvious you didn't read very thoroughly.

To your comment on Chapter One, Rainbow Dash does recognize David as a human, as seen in the second chapter (don't jump to conclusions). The other ponies have had their memories altered by Celestia; just like her existence was erased from Earth other than the narrator's memories and the scrapbook, her rescue was erased from the memories of her friends while she was allowed to keep them.

To your comment on Chapter Two, I imagine that all matter in the universe is made of the same stuff and can reflect every spectrum of Light. It's David's eyes and mind that have trouble perceiving a spectrum they were not meant to see, rather than the light reflecting off his body differently.

[Luigi-fan 470]

628938
Hehe..... shut up, I'll jump to as many conclusions as I want, like how I will conclude that this story will be awsome!

Also thanks, this has Inspired me to get back to my own MLD crossover thing. It to relies heavily on Prismatic effects and travel through muliple dimentions.

[Ponky]

630312

Yay! I'm so glad! Thanks for the good questions, it makes me want to go back and clarify better.

Keep writing yours! I'll be sure to read it. My Little Dashie is an inspiring story, and this kind of stuff is SO much fun to write... whether or not everypony enjoys reading it.

[Luigi-fan 470]

631094
Don't hold your breath, I'm still a shity writer so it's going to take half past forever until the first chapter is done.

[Disciple of Luna]

So...may I ask why this one's on hiatus? It's quite good so far - the sudden cut-off is all the more jarring for the relatively fast pace and the twists that have happened so far. Celestia's revelation in this chapter is particularly shocking, though it does seem to explain her unusually cruel behavior. In short, I hope there's more to come at some point.

[Ponky]

867889 Aww... thank you!

This was my very first attempt at fanfiction. I wrote it on my iPhone during a very, very long drive. There is, indeed, an completed epic story arc in my head that spans several "books," each 7 chapters long (7 colors in the rainbow...). But after learning more about FiM fanfiction cliches and receiving so many "Thumbs Down" I sort of tossed it aside. I wrote it when I was a very new brony and have since grown in my understanding of the show and its amazing fandom.

But perhaps I'll finish it one day. After one of my 4 current projects is completed. Silly, frivolous Ponky...

[Disciple of Luna]

...so, no chance of this ever being finished?

[Ponky]

1876433 Well... not in the next two years, anyway.