Revelations
After a while, Apple Bloom asked, “Twilight...? You okay?”
“I—” Twilight gulped, eyes snapping to the small yellow ponies. “I have to check my notes,” she said, standing up, “I have to—I have to check something my notes, be right back sorry,” and she fled the fillies, running back into her portable, closing the door behind her and turning on the light. Running over to the front wall and spreading out the map of the city.
“Wh—?” Sunset said in surprise at being awoken, not able to rise for something lying on top of her. “Spike?”
“No time to explain, Sunset!” Twilight said, “I need to do some geometric estimates!”
Sunset didn’t protest Spike’s place this time, as predicted. Spike climbed right off, while Sunset sat up in her bed, looking curiously Twilight’s way. Twilight got out her protractor, and ruler, and started measuring things on the city map. “Hmm... and if it took me ten minutes at a 13 mile per hour trot, then...” She made a red dot on the map in the city outskirts, labelling it “Town Hall” and then a line to the west, where she put a dot saying “The Library.”
“And then, if we cross the city... east by southeast...” Twilight said, counting steps with her ruler. “Hmm... Zecora’s...” she marked a point on the city labeled “Zecora’s hut.” “And if the trail goes west by northwest for three... then that means... here.” She put a red dot right on top of Canterlot High, labelling it, “The Castle of the Two Sisters.”
“Twilight, what the heck are you up to?” Sunset asked in confusion.
Twilight spun to look at Sunset, twitchy eyed, and said, “Don’t you see? This is a divergent universe! This was always a divergent universe! This universe doesn’t just parallel our own. They share a common past! Somepony’s been hiding it all this time, and they’d hidden it so well, but the pieces are all here.”
She paced back and forth in the front of the portable building they were in, located on a very iconic property. “Sunset,” she said, “We’re living on Applejack’s family farm. Not an imitation, or a copy. The same farm. The same ponies in Ponyville, are people here for the most part. All this—this human stuff, it’s been built right on top of what used to be Ponyville. Canterlot City is Ponyville, Sunset!”
“But the placing of the city is...” Sunset offered weakly.
“Around the high school,” Twilight declared. “Around the castle. I thought this was Canterlot, and it was Canterlot! The high school is the direct analog of the Castle of the Two Sisters, don’t you see?”
Sunset blinked. “...the what of the what now?” she ventured.
Twilight looked at her blankly, then her eyes widened in dawning realization. “You don’t know, do you?” she murmured.
“Know what?” Sunset said a bit taken aback by Twilight’s sudden serious demeanor.
“When my friends aided Princess Luna in escaping from the Nightmare,” Twilight said seriously, “We found the Elements of Harmony left petrified in an old, ruined castle. That castle it turns out is where the princesses Celestia and Luna reigned together over Equestria. When Nightmare Moon came, the... city was demolished, and rather than try to rebuild it, Celestia instead moved Equestria’s capital to the top of the mountain.”
“I’ve... never heard anything about that,” Sunset said cautiously.
Twilight nodded, “It was very restricted information. Princess Celestia didn’t want ponies to know what she had done, because Princess Celestia felt it was her burden alone to know why Luna was imprisoned in the moon. I only found out as a consequence of freeing Luna, and seeking out the resting place of the Elements of Harmony.”
She faced the map again, looking to where she’d scribbled over the high school. Shaking her head, Twilight sighed and said, “What I’m trying to say is that there is a castle right next to Ponyville. This must be a world where the... sisters never fought, perhaps? I can’t imagine how Luna would be free of the Nightmare otherwise, as clearly she is, despite this world knowing nothing of the Elements of Harmony. The reason Canterlot City here is displaced from our Ponyville is because it’s built around the Castle of the Two Sisters... just as it would have been in ancient times, before the princess moved Canterlot, and let the Everfree reclaim the old city.”
Tapping the map, Twilight said, “It all makes perfect sense! The secret passageways, the stonework, the library. Someone literally took the castle, and covered it up with a high school, and they took Ponyville, and put a city there instead. The only thing they didn’t try to make completely unrecognizable was... Applejack’s farm. Even there, they must have...”
Twilight got a little quieter as she said, “They must have cut down all the apple trees, just so nobody would recognize the similarities.”
“That makes no sense though!” Sunset said quaveringly, “Why would someone go through that much trouble to make us... to make us think that this was a derived universe, but not a divergent one?”
“The journal,” Twilight declared, staring at the map, “There have to be answers in that journal. It’s our only clue.”
“The journal that was lying out in the open, next to a sign that said ‘Here’s how to disable the trap?’” Sunset said skeptically. “If ponies or—or people went through so much effort to hide it, to make this land look like it was straight out of a work of fiction, then what do you expect to find in that? An explanation of what they were doing, telling us exactly what’s going on?”
“We might as well look,” Twilight said with a helpless shrug.
Some time later, Twilight and Sunset had gotten access to the journal again, deep beneath the high school. Twilight opened its worn cover, and flipped through it, searching for something to jump out at her.
Apr 13, 1376
Twilight is my best friend in the whole wide world, but she can be pretty silly sometimes! Today she told me she was going to play outside, but I caught her studying instead! Only she would get caught doing schoolwork. I love learning new things, and making the princesses proud, so I guess I’m guilty of it too. It was such a beautiful Wednesday today though, that I invited her to go flying with me! Oh flying is so much fun. I love every minute of it, even when I got stuck in that cloud, and Twilight had to help me out. What are friends for, right?
Well that’s what I wanted to say, and I just want to say that life is amazing and wonderful if you just get out there, and spend some time having fun! Cya, mysterious future journal reader person!
Princess Shimmer
“Why is my counterpart so fucking cheerful? ” Sunset growled in agitation, while Twilight kept thumbing through entries. “She’s like some stupid bubbly cheerleader,” Sunset sneered, “Not me! Grew up living a sheltered life, with nothing she wanted ever denied her? Born a princess? Is that even possible?”
“Oh,” Twilight said in surprise.
“What did you find? What does it say?” Sunset asked excitedly, leaning closer to read again.
“No I’m not talking about what it says. It’s just...” Twilight turned the journal to almost the end, where the pages fell apart naturally, revealing a small green card put into place.
“There’s a bookmark,” Twilight remarked.
“A bookmark, huh...” Sunset said, scanning over the next entry past it. Sunset’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and then she groaned, pinching her brow.
“Hmm?” Twilight said, looking curiously at the journal herself.
This is not a normal journal entry, because it’s written not to myself, my sister or my mothers, but to anypony who finds this. The following is a summation of what we have done, that will hopefully explain exactly what is going on. Please read the previous journal entries to gain context for all of this, and to learn how everything went wrong. And please believe us, when we say we’re truly sorry for what you’re going through.
Those were several signatures below that introduction, not just the signature of the one writing their journal entry. One in Twilight’s handwriting, one in Sunset’s, and one Sunset knew as Princess Celestia’s signature. She hadn’t seen the new princess Luna’s signature before, but Sunset figured that’s exactly what she was looking at, and finally a fifth signature that was next to, if not completely illegible. What followed, and preceded those words would challenge everything they knew about the world, and themselves.
Dinky’s first few weeks at the psychiatric hospital were kind of rough, but it wasn’t long before the last week of school had passed. This place they had him at was dreadfully boring, probably to keep people from being triggered in bad ways, but it had a sort of timeless quality to it, like it was a world in of itself, separate from the outside. Dinky wasn’t too beleagured by the sudden slow pace of things, because there seemed to be no end to the fascinating people to observe who gathered here together, and their creative ways to approach life. It was really, really boring in the facility grounds, but people watching was something Dinky loved to do.
There were some patients who insisted that their lunch was “outside” and refused to eat unless they ate outside, because it didnt taste right otherwise. An anorexic patient had to be fed liquids only, because solid food would send her into a fit and was seen as a choking risk. She ate a lot of milkshakes... and Dinky half suspected that her reaction was more of a self fulfilling prophecy than anything. He knew if he were traumatized by choking on something, he would throw a fit if that something ever started to happen again, which would make him even more traumatized. That was kind of odd actually, because Dinky was supposed to be suicidal. But focusing on these other people, his own problems didn’t seem to hurt as much.
In particular, one of the people close to his age was a peculiar sort, and it turns out he and Dinky shared something very uncomfortable in common. That poofy haired blonde and white boy had tried to commit suicide too, and was so curiously detached about it that Dinky started to wonder about his own detachment in that regard.
Dinky found this out at lunch one day, when the boy came to sit by him. Dinky had been sitting there, being ignored as usual, but this time the boy who was ignoring Dinky was talking with someone on his right, who wasn’t there. It was... strangely logical. Dinky suspected the other blonde boy only sat beside him today, because there were two empty seats next to Dinky, one for this boy, and one for his imaginary friend.
The first sign of trouble Dinky heard was the boy’s voice coming up behind him, distracting Dinky from his lackluster lunch. “Well here we are, another day, another breakfast,” the boy said resignedly in his bright tenor, sitting beside a nervous Dinky, and staring in the other direction at empty air. Dinky looked in befuddlement at the insane youth, and probably shouldn’t have been listening in, but the boy certainly didn’t object to Dinky listening in on his one-sided conversation,
“Oh no, please do sit down,” the other blonde boy said, “There’s not much you can do about that. I certainly hope they’ll have sausages tomorrow.”
“Who are you talking to?” Dinky asked, before he even realized he was talking. “Uh, I mean, you know...” he trailed off in embarassment. Dinky hadn’t even meant to say anything, only quietly listen, but then he just went and blurted out the first question that came to mind. The other boy didn’t seem upset though, and was even responsive!
He immediately turned to Dinky with startling purple eyes, smiling and saying, “They’re my team mates, duh! I would introduce you to them, but they’re dead so only I can talk with them.”
“Oh, um...” Dinky said, trying to find some way to avoid insulting this guy’s dead team... mates. Team? “What... team?” he asked uncertainly.
“Oh, I was on a superhero team!” the boy said excitedly, “Just like the Fantastic Four except there were six of us. It—” he abruptly stopped smiling. “It went poorly,” he said calmly. Too calmly.
“Well, um, you can still introduce them,” Dinky said carefully, “Even if only you can talk with them, you could tell me about your... thing here?”
“I can talk with them because I can still hear their voices calling to me,” the boy replied distantly.
“What?” Dinky asked weakly.
The boy focused on Dinky again, saying, “Neeever mind. Hey you’re new here, aren’t you!”
“I... sorta, yeah,” Dinky admitted.
“Well you’re new, and since you’re new maybe I can introduce you!” he declared with a bright smile.
“That’s what I was saying...” Dinky attempted, but the boy just talked over him now.
“This is Madame Fire,” the boy said, not gesturing anywhere, “She was the fastest and the best, and the loudest. She could catch on fire like the human torch and she always knew what to do. This is Captain Clipper, the husband of Madame Fire, and he had powers too. He could fly like Superman and had super strength! Oh and this is Flatter, who can make things flat, I think? She’s not really flat.”
Dinky was quickly getting overwhelmed by this boy’s sudden attention, so did what he did best: passively weathered the storm and tried to listen. At least the boy actually gestured towards the empty seat when he mentioned uh... Flatter. Apparantly she was the one sitting there.
“There’s Slowpoke, who’s like the Flash but she can go super slow,” he said, adding in a conspiratorial whisper, “She always finds some way to make that super useful! And there’s Silencer, who’s super quiet at flying and makes things silent by covering her mouth. And then there’s me! The Dizzitron!”
“Wait, no need to demonstrate,” Dinky shot out, holding up a hand, terrified that this boy was going to stand up and start spinning around or something. “It sounds really uh... cool? Where did you meet um, them?”
“Oh that was ages ago, I don’t remember,” the boy... the Dizzitron? said. “Do you remember?”
It took Dinky a moment to realize that the boy was asking Flatter back there. “Uh huh,” he said to her seat, “Yeah. Uh huh. Nope, no idea. Well maybe it was Clipper’s idea!”
“Sorry, she doesn’t really remember when we met,” the boy said, turning to face Dinky with a sheepish smile, “Being dead will do that to you.”
“How did—” Dinky choked on his words. He was not going to ask how they died. “You...” he struggled to find something innocuous to ask, “Get... to staying here?” he asked. “In the hospital?”
“Well, I really wanted to be with my friends again,” the boy stated, “And I tried to a lot, at first. There’s this trick you can do with shoelaces, that—”
“I’m familiar,” Dinky said shortly.
The boy regarded him a second, before going on, saying, “But the doctors wouldn’t let me, and I had to stay here, and finally I just realized I can only talk to the friends I have in my head, because the real ones are gone forever.”
Dinky was well on the way to panicking at those words, but the boy just stared off into space and solemnly said, “Dr. Redheart said my team wouldn’t want me to be gone too, and even if I died, I couldn’t follow them. I’d just be dead. So there’s no point in anything like that.”
“You don’t have to—” Dinky managed to squeak before getting interrupted.
“Aaaand,” the boy said abruptly more cheerfully, “The doctors want me to stay here because I still talk to my team, and they tell me things and they’ll always be alive for me just a little because my head keeps making them. So... that’s why I’m here. Why are you here?”
“I um... hurt someone, and I can’t take it back,” Dinky said uncertainly, “And everyone hated me for it, so I got sick of... it, and sort of did something... stupid.”
“Oh, you’re the boy who jumped off the school!” the other kid declared, eyes widening. Dinky’s eyes widened too.
As if detecting his surprise, probably because Dinky’s eyes were widening in surprise, the boy raised his hands appeasingly and said, “Some people have TV privileges, and your story was all over the news, so they told me about it. Total bummer, huh?”
“It’s dumb,” Dinky admitted sullenly. “I shouldn’t even be here. I don’t have um...”
“Dead friends?” the boy prompted, glancing aside a little self consciously.
“...yeah,” Dinky said reluctantly. “I don’t have trouble talking, or thinking or anything. I’m just a little... messed up, I guess. Don’t know how it happened.”
“I would feel bad for you,” the boy replied, glancing behind himself, “But Flatter says that people don’t treat me well because I talk to people who aren’t there, even if they’re there for me. So it’s actually good that you don’t have that.”
“It is,” Dinky agreed, “I just feel out of place. Just like everywhere, I suppose.”
“You shouldn’t kill yourself, you know,” the boy said evenly.
Dinky blinked in surprise at the abrupt change in topic to something he didn’t really agree with, saying, “W–why?”
“Because of what the doctor told me,” the boy replied, touching his plainly clothed chest with a smug grin.
“What’s that?” Dinky asked nervously.
“I’d like to go join my team again, but the doctor says that’s a bad idea, and she’s right,” the boy explained, “Because if I did, then there wouldn’t be anyone here to be me! So you need to stay alive, because nobody else can be you.”
“Well that’s true, but who cares if someone is you or not?” Dinky asked critically.
“I do!” the boy replied, “And the doctors do. And you do.”
“Me?” Dinky asked, surprised.
“You’re talking to me, even though I came here with Flatter,” the boy explained. “You really wanted to know who they are, instead of just thinking I’m weird and stupid, or instead of only caring about your own problems. You really—” the boy was... crying? He was wiping tears away from the bottom of those violet eyes as he said, “You really made my day a lot brighter, just by coming here and talking to me, and being so nice, and saying the things that you say.”
“You’re... welcome?” Dinky said uncertainly.
“So that’s why you should be alive,” the boy replied, smiling and dry-eyed once again, “Because you’re nice, and you let me tell you about my team, and you haven’t laughed at me even once.”
“You might think differently, if you know what I did to Diamond Tiara,” Dinky grumbled, disconsolately.
“I told you, it’s all over the news,” the boy said frankly, “So, do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Dinky planted his face on the table and groaned. He couldn’t even escape it, way out here. “Oh that’s why you’re talking to me. Fine, laugh at the stupid boy, ” he said, “Sorry I don’t even know, because I’m such a heartless jerk. Why don’t you just leave me alone if you’re just gonna make fun of me?”
“Well you are a jerk, because you don’t even care what’s going to happen to her, when it’s all your fault!” the other boy did not say. Dinky was ready for it, but he heard different words instead.
“I don’t remember what your name was though,” the boy said sheepishly, “I think the news couldn’t say your name out loud. Could you at least tell me that?”
Dinky lifted his head, looking at the boy skeptically. The other boy was looking at him with worry, but wasn’t trying to cut Dinky down. Or telling everyone what a terrible person he was, getting everyone to agree so they could work up the nerve to start shoving him. Dinky was starting to realize just how odd this situation was. This kid was... just not even caring about what Dinky did? He saw the news, and still wanted to get to know him?
Confused, Dinky told the boy, “Oh, it’s... Dinky. What’s yours?”
The boy smiled and said
Apple Bloom never felt more trapped than she had in a long time. Twilight said there was a whole world outside the city limits! Well, that’s not such a surprise, but it wasn’t the world that Apple Bloom had been taught was reality!
Twilight said Canterlot City was surrounded by some kind of magic barrier! There was no telling what could be on the other side, except it would be way, far in the future from her own magical land. Twilight said they were still trying to date just how long the time loop had gone and repeated, and all she could tell Apple Bloom is it was a real long time. So like, space ponies, or something! She seemed kind of ill when Apple Bloom excitedly asked about space ponies though, so probably not.
And here Apple Bloom had to sit with her cheek against her desk, listening to Ms. Harshvoice go on about some book about a war in a place that wasn’t even real. England? Shmeengland! Summer vacation couldn’t come fast enough! It was just finals week after this, and then freedom! Maybe less freedom because of all the ponies who needed help, and with being aware of her inability to leave this city’s limits. But for now Apple Bloom had to sit and stay still and couldn’t even run around outside. There really was a real mysterious world out there, and she couldn’t explore it!
The P.A. system came on unexpectedly toward the end of the period, which suited Apple Bloom just fine. Any break in the monotony was welcome in her books. She almost wished they hadn’t discovered that crypt, or whatever it was hidden in the principal’s office, because then she and her friends might have been suspended that day, and wouldn’t have to go to school!
“This is a reminder to all staff,” the principal said, “A faculty meeting about the summer school will meet directly in the faculty lounge after school. Please do your best to attend, as there are very important matters to discuss.”
Well that got Apple Bloom’s attention. After school, Scootaloo practically knocked over the two others hurrying together, charging up to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in a flash and shouting, at the exact same time as Apple Bloom,
“We gotta sneak into that faculty meeting!”
“We gotta sneak into that faculty meeting!”
The little white unicorn looked between the two before saying, “I think we should find out what they’re saying at that faculty meeting.”
“And you know how we’re gonna do that,” Apple Bloom said with a wink.
Applejack jogged up to an irate looking Granny Smith. Granny was standing her bulky, hulking form next to a cardboard cutout crudely scribbled over with the shape of three little horses, a white one, an orange one, and a yellow one. The yellow one had a crudely drawn smile on its muzzle and a speech bubble that said “Be back in a bit!”
Three saddlebags full of books were piled next to it.
“Reckon you might take a look around for your little sister?” Granny said dryly.
Applejack sunk her shoulders, saying, “Ah’ll check the cafeteria. You see if they’re in the library.”
Applejack was surprised to see Granny smile then, a big crinkly smile and say, “Yer a mighty fine Apple, young’n. Now let’s git er done.”
Meanwhile, in the secret passage that connected the west and east wing, no the other secret passage, the one they hadn’t told anyone about, the three fillies were creeping along another tunnel, this one with flat diases on the floor at even intervals. By jumping on a dias, it would swivel around and you could switch places with a table, or a bench. Or the faculty room’s coffee maker, as Apple Bloom discovered, thankfully not during a faculty meeting.
But by just leaning on it, the dias depressed and a space cracked open that the three fillies couldn’t risk going, or looking through, but they could risk listening through. Three pairs of conical ears perked as one as they heard the principal Celestia say, “It’s good to have you all here. I’m sure you’re aware of the current pony crisis. I have two things to discuss in that regard.
“Firstly, the rate of change seems slow now, but it is already overwhelming our support networks. We simply don’t have enough room reserved for helping all these people walk again. Now, the vice principal and I have worked out an agreement with the city by which the school can be reserved after the end of the current school year as an emergency pony training facility.”
There was a thoughtful murmur going up among the others there, but Celestia quelled it with her serenely commanding voice, saying, “The pony crisis will only get worse as time goes on. I regret to say that the school will have to take a more and more active role as this happens. Summer classes will need to be cancelled, because this simply must take priority. Students, and even faculty, need time to adjust to being a pony, as Professor Cherry Berry here can attest. In particular, many of the er... more skilled winged ponies seem to think the school gymnasium would be a good place to practice flying. It’s a controlled environment, with a lot of space to move around... vertically.
“The classrooms can be of use for training speech, writing ability, and how to manipulate the surprisingly dextrous hooves that ponies seem to have,” the principal said, “Other suggestions are welcome.”
“Hey, is anyone going to be teaching... magic?” said a thin voiced teacher, whom none of the three secret observers had a class with.
“Yes, especially those of us who become... unicorns,” Celestia said uncomfortably. “The unicorn magic seems very useful, but expert opinion is that it can only be mastered through practice and study. There are accomodations in the plan for part of the school to be dedicated to that. Part of the school will also be dedicated to the recovery of ancient literature, cataloging and transcribing it off of its crumbling medium. On that note...
Principal Celestia shuffled some papers around and announced, “The second order of business is the history of the school’s construction. I’m sure you are all curious what has been going on in my office. It so happens that I have been very thoroughly convinced that this school was built on, or from, the ruins of an ancient archaeological ...site. We have made some very strange discoveries that all seem to hinge on someone being changed into a pony. In my office, a girl named Sweetie Belle was able to open a secret passage with a mechanism that was clearly designed for a pony’s hooves.
“It led to an ancient underground library, and before any of you get too excited, I mean ancient in a bad way. What literature was in it, save a small section, has since crumbled into fragments and dust, along with the shelves. I wanted to ask if anyone had any ideas how we might go about recovering what information in it remains. Do you have any connections with larger universities or archaeologists, whose aid I could request in salvaging this ancient writing?”
A secret, ruined library, underneath the school? That was amazing! But what could it possibly mean? None of the three fillies had any clue.
There was another murmur, before someone spoke up, saying, “I had a roommate once who was an archaeology major in grad school. I don’t know if they graduated, but I might be able to track them down. Has anyone heard of an archaeologist by the name ‘Dr. Yearling?’”
There wasn’t a positive answer, and Apple Bloom certainly hadn’t heard of anyone like that.
“Let’s put that on the back burner for now,” Celestia stated. “If you do get ahold of your friend though, please let us know.”
There was the sound of papers shuffling.
“There is one request I have of you in particular, Ms. Berry,” Celestia said to the pony in the room.
“I told you before, I’m not an archaeologist,” Cherry Berry grumbled, no doubt with a frown on her scrunched up face. It wasn’t very effective.
“Through unknown means,” Celestia went on to the group at large, “Certain books were almost perfectly preserved. They are written in an ancient alphabet, but as luck would have it, two... specialists have approached me who understand it.”
To Berry specifically, she said, “I need you to learn this alphabet, so that you can work with them to begin translating these works. In particular, there is a journal left by... four ancient influential figures, including Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and... two people who may be ancestors of the vice principal and I.”
“Right, I know what you mean,” Berry could be heard to say. “It’s outright suspicious that they’re claiming two of the people writing in it were you, and the vice principal.”
“I’m merely concerned,” the principal said cautiously, “It may be no coincidence that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have offered to translate these works, only to find the authors of the journal include two authority figures named Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. They claim that the ‘princesses’ of long past are named Twilight, Sunset, Luna and Celestia. I’m concerned that they may be lying about this, as a rather shallow attempt to appeal to the ego of Ms. Luna and I.”
“That does sound awfully shifty,” Berry had to agree.
Celestia did not contest that, saying agreeably, “Your knowledge of real world history will surely aid you in determining whether they’re simply making things up and inserting themselves as heroic historical figures.”
“Oh, right,” Berry’s voice came, sounding nervous and somewhat disgusted. “That is totally a thing I know, is real history. No way I could get fooled by anything that was fake history.”
“Thank you very much for aiding me in this,” Celestia’s voice said in genuine, if clueless gratitude. “I will fill you in on the relevant details after the meeting.”
“Did you hear that??” Apple Bloom whispered excitedly. “They’re talking about the other Twilight and they have no idea!”
“They have her journal? ” Sweetie whispered in excitement and shock. “If we could read that to her, she’d get her memories back for sure!”
“I bet the library they found is her library,” Scootaloo also whispered, “The one she always dreams about!”
“What? No! Her library is above the ground, in the bright sun,” Apple Bloom whispered back, leaning her hoof down a little too firmly on the podium. With three surprised shrieks, the platform tipped up and in a blur of motion, yanked them all into the faculty room, where a coffee maker once stood. All the adults turned to look at the three of them, including Ms. Harshvoice, a pink haired yellow pony who hated teaching history, Vice Principal Luna, and Principal Celestia.
“I can explain!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.
Jan 7, 1394
More disappearances, and still no sign of the missing ponies. There had been a rash of strange disappearances lately in the Fillydelphia area, and petitioners are beginning to question what is being done to find them again. There certainly hasn’t been any syndicate claiming to have them, or trying to ransom them. I hope for the best, but I fear the worst, that perhaps the Divine Sun are rearing their heads again, or even those of the Imperium, who could have done something terrible to the missing ponies.
Fortunately, we have some good ponies on the case, ponies who have proven themselves diligent and effective, even in the throes of a crisis. I remain confident we can find the missing ponies, both privately and to the public, but here in this journal I can’t help but express my worries and concerns. There’s something not right about this. Why would farmers be vanishing from their fields, while the dense city remains untouched? Is this a guerilla invasion? Make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this.
Princess Celestia.
Rainbow Dash landed heavily on the roof. On a roof, rather. She had no clue which one. Her chest was burning and her lungs aching for air as she landed. She really should have thought this through before going off on her own again.
Dash had barely been flying for days, when suddenly this crisis came up. And now she was halfway across town, trying to remember the layout of the city streets that she was more familiar with from below. It was unbelievable that she could get all this way on her own, without even taking the bus, but somehow she’d managed it. After she got up into the air and could get a good glide going, it was simple to cover huge distances!
Hard, but simple.
Dash got to thinking about what made her unceremoniously abandon the farm and come soaring into the city. As her wings were tired there was plenty of chance to sit here on a rooftop of this random building and just ruminate, alone, on why she’d come here.
Rainbow Dash had been making a phone call earlier at the farm, feeling a lot better than the last time. She started to get the hang of flying, and Rainbow Dash just felt better about herself in general. The call didn’t go as well as it could have, though.
Hey Dad, it’s me again.
I was kind of not in the best mood when you started laying into me back then. I didn’t know if I was even going to be uh, flying. So that pony thing sort of... happened to me. So that’s why I said I’m quitting football, because I sort of don’t have feet anymore. Haha, lame joke sorry. But what I meant is I’m actually flying now, which you have to admit is pretty awesome. I’d just rather focus on that than on my sports scholarsh—
Rainbow Dash cut off then, because she’d been talking into the answering machine, only to hear an echoey clatter emit from the phone as her dad... as someone knocked the receiver off the hook. “Hello? Dad?” she asked the phone, but there was no answer after that, just the very faint sound of someone breathing. “Dad are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked worriedly. In response there was no words, but a huge staticky crash, that cut out suddenly for a second, then another second, and then a dial tone rang out.
Rainbow Dash tried calling back, but it didn’t even get to the answering machine, now! It just sat there ringing endlessly, with no one answering it. She wanted to talk to someone about it. No, she wanted to talk to Applejack about it, but Applejack was busy helping retrofit the school for ponies. The others of her friends wouldn’t have understood Rainbow Dash’s relationship with her dad, so as usual, she didn’t bother burdening them with it. Instead, she used the stylus to hang up her phone, and throwing caution to the wind, Rainbow Dash decided that it was a very good idea to start hurrying home.
In the present moment, atop a random building in the city, a lone pegasus named Rainbow Dash lifted a wing, looking at it worriedly as her muscles were aching just in spreading it. She didn’t feel too exhausted, though. The hairs on her rainbow tail fluttered in the breeze as she wrapped it conservatively around her hindquarters. The strap holding the fireplace poker that dangled beneath her belly was chafing the pit of her wing... arms, but the presence of that was non negotiable. Her cell phone was still taped to it too, in case her dad broke the home phone. Because he totally did. The rest of Rainbow Dash seemed fine, better than she expected. How many miles had she flown now?
Rested up as much as she was willing, Rainbow Dash took to the skies again. It was surprisingly hard to just glide, as the wind above the buildings blew her around quite a bit, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t get over the novelty that she was up here, flying! Not even in a plane, like her dad had tried to get her to do years ago. It was just herself up here, nothing between her naked body and the rushing, biting air. Nothing to stand on, while the world passed underneath her, she was actually flying!
The best Rainbow Dash could understand her feelings is that she felt like one of those Brainships from those old stories, where someone’s brain and senses were hooked up to the ship itself. She was in the sky, not sitting in a plane. That had to be why back in the day, Rainbow Dash hadn’t been able to get enthusiastic about a pilot program. Despite loving everything about the idea of flying, Rainbow Dash now knew how much she needed to fly on her own.
Her dad had been such a jerk about it though. Soon as Dash didn’t like something that he wanted her to like, he just blew up at her. It’s not like she could argue. At the time, she hadn’t understood her feelings about flight enough to even really argue with him, aside from just angrily yelling at him. But now, actually flying like this, Rainbow Dash understood herself better. She hoped she could use that to patch things up with him somehow. Much as Rainbow hated the guy, her dad had enough shit to deal with, without her letting him down all the time.
It was much easier than she expected to navigate from up here. From above, the roads actually looked like the map. She got a lot of strange looks when she had to check which road it was, but it was probably understandable, considering nobody had ever seen a pegasus pony descend from the sky to perch on a street sign, taking off into the air again after peering at it closely. People could just deal with it if they had a problem, because her dad was in trouble and she might be the only one he had to help him.
Descending in clumsy flutters that made her wings ache from the strain, Rainbow Dash finally landed in front of her house. The sun was shining overhead, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was even the tweeting of birds in the trees alongside the streets. It was a beautiful day, and there was probably a pony in that house. She figured that the pony thing might have happened to her dad. She hoped that’s all it was at least. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to him, like getting actually hurt.
Yet she had a hesitant approach to her house, because Rainbow Dash did not want to get outright trampled if her dad was out of control. Dash did not want to deal with a panicked stallion. The stallions back at the farm were big! Rainbow Dash was supposedly full grown, according to Sunset’s friend at least, and she appreciated how being smaller made her faster in the sky, but only foals were smaller than her. She had to look up to most mares, and compared to them, stallions were like mountains of beefy pony muscle. Rainbow Dash tried not to let it get to her, but she definitely was not going into this house to confront her dad, without a fireplace poker in her mouth.
And of course the front door was closed. Go figure! It was closed, and it had one of those stupid doorknobs. Doorknobs sucked. Rainbow looked instead for an open window, and there was one open... on the second floor. Crap. How was she supposed to climb the side of a house, without any hands? Oh wait.
Rainbow Dash let her weight fall away, and fluttered up to the open window of her house. She lived in a pretty rundown neighborhood, with houses of lots of weird shapes and sizes. It’d normally make sense to construct them all the same, but this gave the area a refreshingly rustic feel because they were so different. Her own house was on a tiny plot of land, not even room for a front yard, unless you counted the driveway. It was two stories though, and she had a pretty cool room of her own, even if her dad required she keep her door unlocked, so he could check what she was doing at any time.
It sounded abusive, but it was actually kind of hilarious, like the one time he came in and caught her doing... something guys don’t do. His whole face turned from green to red, and he slammed the door so fast it made the walls shake.
Plus without his nagging, Rainbow Dash’d probably never get her homework done.
It was into her own room she squeezed, having to toss the poker in beforehand to fit. She was a pretty small pony, but it wasn’t a very large window. The lights were off in Rainbow Dash’s room, but she could still see her bed: now gigantic. She could see her desk, dresser, pile of dirty clothes, and... no father.
Peering out to the hall, it didn’t look like there was any lights on in the house at all. OK, totally not creepy. Cupping the poker in the crook of her forehoof, Dash shouted out, “Dad?”
There was an immediate crashing sound, someone downstairs running around and running into things, with heavy hoof beats. Biting down around the poker, Rainbow Dash trotted out of her room and cautiously walked her way down the stairs—
Oh right.
Poker in mouth, Rainbow Dash jumped, gliding down the entire stairwell, using her wings to slow her landing just like when they were practicing jumping off the roof yesterday.
She landed... not horribly, but very noisily.
Down there on the first floor, Rainbow Dash craned around, looking for—yes! Her ear moved to the noise of a bottle falling over in the laundry room. Spitting the poker into her hoof again, Rainbow briefly cursed her somewhat quadrupedal form of locomotion, but then called out, “Dad? It’s okay. I already know you’re a pony.”
No answer.
“I’m coming in,” Rainbow Dash said confidently, despite the racing beat of her heart in her chest. Once again biting the fireplace poker, she slowly ventured up to the laundry room.
Diamond Tiara could not believe the irony of the situation. She stared up at the mental hospital, with its beautiful grounds, in its location way out on the edge of town so people didn’t have to think that crazy people even existed. Diamond’s belly was heavy, noticably weighing her down, and that only explained half of why she got so tired after the slightest exertion. The other half was that there was a baby inside that heavy belly of hers, and Diamond was dumbstruck at how hard her body was working to make the baby grow. But dumbstruck or not, it didn’t stop her from being tired, like, all the time.
She was the one who went and did this to herself. She was the one who was out of control and violent and crazy. She was the one who saw ponies! Yet she had to ask permission to enter the mental ward, while it seemed like everyone else besides her was in here!
Diamond only gave a grumble of acquiescence at the desk clerk, pulling the sign-in book over and writing her name into it. The orphanage caretaker with Diamond then signed it too: a light brown lady named Zipporwhill who was annoyingly cheerful, but had enough tact to avoid blabbing to the rest of the orphanage that Diamond Tiara was visiting the insane asylum.
“Are you excited?” the caretaker said eagerly, “You might be able to meet with your fellow, Dinky!”
“Yeah yeah,” Diamond said, not even giving her eye contact. But somewhere deep behind Diamond’s calm facade was a terrified little girl who almost lost her friend and really really wanted to see him again. She wasn’t like, 12 though, so Diamond Tiara was totally cool about it instead of flipping out with worry. She came during free time, which was the best time to visit at this hospital, and headed, flanked by her supportive adult caretaker and a rather burly looking member of the hospital staff, into the day room, to see if maybe she couldn’t catch Dinky in here.
What was she going to say to him? What he did was beyond dumb, it was stupid and didn’t make any sense, and Diamond couldn’t believe she didn’t see it coming. Were kids just not bullying him when she was around? Yeah, probably. They didn’t want Diamond Tiara to come kick their asses, and she had an unfair advantage now, what with being the fighting equivalent of two people. Okay, so that was a lie, but Diamond still felt pretty good, for what she... was.
Especially now that he knew the truth about her, Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure she wanted Dinky to see her again, and look at her like everyone does who knows. Thinking less of her, pitying her. But she’d been putting it off for long enough, and Diamond was determined to at least be there whenever he turned into a pony, if that was the last thing she did. Someone had to be there for him, after all.
Diamond Tiara still couldn’t believe what was happening was really real. She didn’t think she was crazy, but she just felt so... surprised to sit up after waking in the morning, and feel her own belly yanking on her in there, hanging a lot more heavily than it would if it was just fat. Diamond looked it up, and her baby wasn’t even 2 pounds yet, just like, football sized. So she didn’t think she’d be this big yet, but in fact her belly was round, not baby shaped. All that extra fluid that filled her to the point of tension was heavy! It’d get even more later, scarily enough, but she could already majorly feel the weight of it. She felt like a walking... fish bowl.
That was hard enough to believe, but she had to check every morning to see if her ears had begun to change into horse ears. She only did it out of dread, not with any hope for the baby. With her pregnancy only in the sixth month at most, no baby could survive outside of her womb after only the second trimester. The alien girls said they figured out what happened, what would happen. If you didn’t change into an adult, your pregnancy just... went away. Diamond would be okay, but... her baby would be gone. So here Diamond had an actual baby in her, and it would just disappear if she hadn’t given birth before she changed.
Diamond didn’t... really know how to feel about that, but it was definitely hard to believe. She could understand if things were so crazy, that it drove the sensitive, fragile Dinky over the edge. She just didn’t know what to say to him about... her... secret. She hated that it was secret, and there was no reason it had to be, but it... it was.
Dinky was there in the day room, and Diamond’s heart skipped a beat on seeing him. She was pretty sure it was terror, and not her hormones messing with her again. Dinky wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there watching people like he likes to do, though this time he was sitting next to someone else. It was that “Sixth Sense” boy: another blonde who had a much more gigantically curly hairstyle, and was much more white than Dinky. They were not directly next to each other, but it was obvious the one would talk with the other. Swallowing, Diamond headed over to her boy in particular, that beautiful blonde haired Dinky, with those careful, attentive lavender hands that she had some very intimate experience with.
“Hey, Dinky,” she said, as he looked over, and almost cartweeled flailing back against the boy he was sitting with. Well great, why was Dinky staring at her fearfully?
“D-d-d-diamond!” he squeaked.
“Well that’s a great way to greet your friend,” Diamond said, rolling her eyes at him dramatically. “I’m coming to visit you, or don’t you think I should? Didn’t they tell you I was going to be here?”
“Oh, i-it’s ten o’clock alread—sorry, I—” Dinky collected his wits enough to start apologizing to the boy he was with. Said boy just glared unsympathetically until Dinky yelped, “Right, right!” He shoved out of the spot he was sitting then, putting himself about a body length away from the boy.
Then Dinky apologized to the empty air saying, “Sorry for running into you too, Madame Fire.”
“Don’t tell me they made you crazy?” Diamond exclaimed in alarm. “What medication have they got you on, Dinky? You’re seeing things?”
“Please, just drop it,” Dinky said astonishingly firmly. “Even if I was, there’s nothing wrong with seeing things. It’s a bad idea for you to make fun of that right now.”
Diamond’s eyes widened as she recalled who Dinky was sitting with. “Oh, him! ” she exclaimed in relief. “You were just like, playing along.”
“Oh no!” the other boy exclaimed in anguish, “Why must you be so cruel to me, that I—”
“Can it, Surprise,” Diamond said flatly.
“Eheh, sorry,” the boy said sheepishly, twiddling with a lock of his curly hair.
“You two know each other?” Dinky asked incredulously, looking between Diamond Tiara and the boy named Surprise.
“Uh, yeah?” Diamond said tilting her head at Dinky, “How many other people here are like, even close to my age?”
“Yes but, I mean...” Dinky said in a fluster, “How did you... meet?”
“That’s really not important,” Diamond said leerily, looking around with worry. “I just wanted to come and say hi and... oh.” Oh right.
“Why the—heck didn’t you tell me anything was wrong?” Diamond accused Dinky, poking him in the chest with a finger. She was supposed to avoid asking about the jumping off the school thing directly, but she figured she was owed at least this. “You ended up here and I didn’t even know you were like, being bullied!”
“Not like they weren’t right to do so,” Dinky grumbled, then looked at Diamond and blushed, saying, “I–I mean, I’m really happy for you, whatever you want to do, and I’m sorry that I—I mean you know I’m not always sorry, but I want to be sorry, and—sorry.”
It was actually kind of adorable to see him trying futilely to cover up what he was clearly still torn up over, now that Diamond knew what to look for.
“Am I missing something?” a clueless Surprise said, looking curiously at the beet red Dinky, who looked like he wished he could go crawl under the couch and hide from reality. Well! Nice try, but Diamond wasn’t going to let that happen!
“Yeah,” Diamond said confidently, facing Surprise directly. “It so happens that I’m the girl that Dinky knocked up!”
“Oh?” Surprise said faintly, looking at her with innocent violet eyes. Then his innocent eyes moved down to her midsection, where he could see... it. “Oh. Wh—pffffahaahaha!” he abruptly erupted into laughter. Diamond watched incredulously as he gasped, “Rock hard... for...” in-between giggles.
“Hey!” Diamond said in offense, “That’s not... like, what you’re supposed to say to... like, someone!” She didn’t really know what to say to it, because whatever Surprise was thinking was probably true, technically true, but you can’t just... say that! And why was he finding it so amusing?
“Sorry,” Surprise said, wiping at his eyes, “Firey has a very inappropriate sense of humor sometimes. So you’re the one who drove Dinky crazy, huh?”
Both Dinky and Diamond Tiara protested “No!” at the same time.
“Eh close enough,” Surprise said with a shrug.
“Look, I just wanted to say hi to Dinky and catch up with him, before everything goes all to heck,” Diamond said grouchily, glancing around again, not that it ever helped.
“Why would it go to heck?” Dinky asked with golden eyes so free of judgement or ire.
“Well, like, because, like,” Diamond said, a blush creeping up on her face as she said, “Like, you know, my mom?”
“What about your mom?” Dinky replied cluelessly.
Diamond was going to answer, but her jaw dropped as the room seemed to shrink around her. “Oh my god you don’t know,” she said in horror to a wide-eyed Dinky. Of course he didn’t know because he was the stupidest, most clueless—
“Bubbles!” squealed a delighted, very familiar voice, right behind Diamond Tiara. After jumping out of her own skin, then using her psychic powers to reverse time so no one had to see that, Diamond Tiara turned around with a slight twitch in her eye. The woman she faced was an even darker pink than herself, with very similar purple and white hair, that curled in sworls rather than waves. She seemed... mostly lucid? It was about the best Diamond could ask for.
“Dinky, I’d like you to meet my mother,” groaned Diamond Tiara, as the older woman pulled Diamond into a crushing hug.
Lord Discord also thinks he might be able to alter the barrier, so it... provides for us, much in the way he can pull the things he needs out of thin air. I’m not sure this is a good idea because, for all our lord’s boasting of being all powerful, this sounds to me like a stretch, even for him. I can’t imagine how he’d keep his power, and still iterate over our time loop, and meddle with an AR barrier. He says the boundary between worlds is perfectly understandable, but I confess I struggle to grasp even a pale shadow of his great wisdom.
Princess Twilight
Deep beneath the earth, Twilight Sparkle stared down at the journal of the princesses. Then, she slowly, gently closed its cover. She stood, and turned to face the direction of the chamber that held statues of herself and Sunset. Then she screamed at the top of her lungs in frustrated rage.
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Why are you trying to say c2s name?
You know the stuff with Dinky is really starting to feel like filler, every time it interrupts the story I get a little more frustrated lol.
8131715
It surely is filler, but I think it's going somewhere interesting. A look at all these humans and their relationships (when it turns out they may have once upon a time been ponies all along?) has merit when stuff is revealed. Already we can imagine the kind of drama that would come around from Dinky and Ditzy starting a relationship that has been absent for so long, especially since it started off exactly on the wrong foot.
Plus, the angle of mental hospital might be exactly the right angle to see other humans who didn't adapt well to the time loop, and were immune on some level and how it broke them down over time, or how else they dealt with it.
8131460
I'm... not? What's c2s name?
8131715
Sorry to hear that. I mean, I thought the thing with Dinky was a pretty huge revelation. I'm not really sure where you expect this story to be going. You want more reading of the journal? Or do you think Rainbow Dash has any relevance to the plot whatsoever? Or I dunno, more about how people are adapting to going pony?
>>8131924
I just wish I could get into more of the stuff happening all over the place behind the scenes. Elias and her experiments, foal antics at the police station, Fluttershy's very interesting observations at the veterinary clinic, the dream princess's exploration through other pony dreams, Apple Fritter's fudge frustration, the subtle despair of the Flower Duo, what happened to Diamond Tiara's father, there's just so much stuff I have to omit because this fic is just getting too gosh darned long.
8132107 I don't know what to tell you man I just don't care about Dinky as much as the other characters. Not sure I could pin down an exact reason why, he just seems to be stuck at the bottom of my 'characters I care about' list.
Wow noobs no wonder everything is so ROYALLY MESSED UP.
After all, to err is equine, but to really foul things up, you need a draconequus. Or a computer. Same thing.
8132107 code geass ... I just thought oh well. Ive been loving your story so far its like four storys paced and balanced to be relivent to each other and the lengthy chapters guaranty a long story
8132124
Don't worry! This story is way too long to have everyone die of food poisoning in the second chapter!
8132132
Well, he's kind of quiet, and boring, and his sweet, sensitive side is sort of tainted by his "fuck everything" attitude these days. He's more of a tragic than a sympathetic character. I look at him and wince. He'll get better, but... you know, teenagers.
I can understand why you'd rather focus on someone who's nicer right now.
8132172
But in his kingdom, every day is Teacup Tuesday!
8132206
Never saw that, sorry. Thanks for liking my story! I definitely try to make things related, in some way. I might end up splitting this into 3 books after I'm done, though currently I don't want to mess with it too much.
"reigned together over Equestria together"
One too many togethers?
...Huh. Are you saying that both cities (around castle and on mountain) were named Canterlot? Interesting; I don't believe I've heard or thought of that before (like a number of features in your stories :)), but it would solve potential problems like the naming of the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Though I wonder why the mountaintop was picked?
"before the princess moved to Canterlot"
Oh, or, uh, nevermind.
"It all makes perfect sense! The secret passageways, the stonework, the library. Someone literally took the castle, and covered it up with a high school, and they took Ponyville, and put a city there instead. The only thing they didn’t try to make completely unrecognizable was... Applejack’s farm."
I... would not say perfect sense, Twilight. There still seems to be a bit of a leap, to me, between "I need to hide a castle" and "I'll bury most of it and build a highschool around the rest!".
"“The journal,” Twilight declared, staring at it."
From text before and after, I don't think that they actually have the journal present for her to stare at.
"Those were several signatures below"
"There were several"?
"if not completely illegible"
"if not completely, illegible"?
"like it was a world in of itself"
"in and of"?
"Apple Bloom never felt more trapped than she had in a long time."
...This sentence is making my head twist. What?
"Well, that’s not such a surprise"
"Well, that wasn't such a surprise"?
"the time loop went on repeating"
"loop had gone on", maybe?
"all she knew is it was a real long"
"knew was it was"?
"right outside our borders, and"
"right outside their borders, and"?
"She seemed kind of ill when Apple Bloom excitedly asked about space ponies though, so probably not."
Yeah... I mean, maybe, but I don't think that this chunk of the world was ripped out, surrounded by a realm of chaos magic and illusion, turned into ponies, mindwiped, and covered over because things outside were going just splendidly.
"Now, the vice principal and I have worked out an agreement with the city by which the school can be reserved after the end of the current school year as an emergency pony training facility."
A bunch of new, curious, stumbling ponies in the building full of secret pony-activated buttons? This cannot possibly go wrong. :)
"hadn’t heard anyone like that"
"heard of anyone"?
"you in particular, Ms. Berry."
"Berry,"?
"In particular, there is a journal left by... four ancient influential figures, including Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and... two people who may be ancestors of the vice principal and I."
Principal Celestia's leading hypothesis about the Twilight and Sunset responsible for the journal is that they're the same Twilight and Sunset she's been talking to, but she seems to be leaning towards the Celestia and Luna in it being merely ancestors of her and her sister? That seems a bit odd to me. Is she just having an easier time thinking of these two strange strangers having altered memories (or lying) than she is of the same being true of her and her sister?
Ah, and then she explains.
"barely been flying for when suddenly"
Missing timespan?
"In response there was no words"
"there were no"?
"Applejack was busy helping retrofit the school for ponies"
I'm imagining something like this, but with less death and more fun secret passages. :)
...Well what was Rainbow's father expecting to find in his random inspections?
"look like there was any lights on"
"there were any"?
"She was the one who saw ponies!"
...To be fair, she was, in fact, right. And not even in a "There was a cow in the field, but you were looking at a bush" sense.
Did I misinterpret, by the way, that scene earlier of (I thought) a not-yet-born baby transforming into an independent pony? I'm guessing I did, since it hasn't come up at all, but given the focus of the story, I wasn't sure just from it not coming up immediately.
How does Diamond already know I'm-guessing-it's-Surprise? Shared therapist at one point?
"Diamond said tilting her head at"
"said, tilting"?
Ah; I'm guessing that Diamond resided here herself at one point.
Ah, or that.
"crushing hug.
Lord Discord"
Missing section break/horizontal rule?
8132107
...And now you've listed those things, I want to know more about them too. :)
Particularly Fluttershy's observations, as I at least have some idea what the others are about.
8410425
To be closer to her sister.
The ancient stonework and secret passages also played a part. It's also in the exact same geographic location as the castle was.
It's the map.
She had never felt more trapped before, except she had.
But... but... y'all mean I ain't gonna see no space ponies...?
The CMC really should have fully disclosed just how many secret passages they found, besides just the one.
She has two hypotheses. The first is that Twilight and Sunset are not the same as in the journal, and since the time loop can't possibly be real, Princess Celestia has to be an ancestor of hers. The second is that Twilight and Sunset planted the journal somehow, and are trying to scam her for some reason.
Ah, yeah thanks.
In people who transform into adults and mares, yes.
Oh ho? Rainbow has excellent taste in sci-fi!