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Prologue3,904 words
Chapter One3,447 words
Chapter Two4,725 words
Chapter Three3,879 words
Chapter Four3,315 words
Chapter Five7,742 words
Epilogue2,554 words
Alternate Ending1,214 words

Chapter One

Author's Note:

Hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Comments are always welcome and appreciated and will be read. Thanks!

Chapter One

…

She could hear the sound of birds chirping above her head. She could hear the cool summer’s breeze whispering calmly into her ears. And she could hear the faint laughter of ponies, a short distance away.

A soft moan escaped Twilight’s breath as she gently lifted her eyes. Upon awakening, she found herself in a fresh grassy field, where a magnificent flowing river meandered from the far canyon down across under a sparkling rainbow. The morning skies were clear of clouds as the glittering rays from the glorious sun shimmered down upon the river’s fresh water, nearly blinding the baffled pony.

“W-where am I…?”

Twilight speculated. She rose to her feet and guided herself to the river to inspect her own reflection. She was relieved to know that she was still a pony. However, she jumped out of her skin when she noticed the change in her physical appearance.

“Well, what do you know? It actually worked!” Twilight murmured, amazed that she was back in the body of her previous incarnation, as Princess Luna stated. “I’m in the World Beyond!”

The good news was that she was a Unicorn pony, meaning that she must have still been able to cast magic… as far as she was aware at least. Although whether or not her level of magic in this world was on par with that of her future counterpart was yet to be determined. The not-so-good news was that she had no wings, which was disadvantageous for sure. Other changes she noticed was her cutie mark having changed to nine glittery purple stars, the color of her mane being white with purple streaks and her skin appearing now pink.

“I can tell this might take some time getting used to.” Twilight said, hoping that these apparent changes wouldn’t affect her adventure.

Her sharp ears picked up the sound of laughing ponies again. Looking around, Twilight discovered a huge apple orchard within reach. Her friends must have been there picking apples. Realizing that no time could be wasted, she sprinted immediately in search for them.

…

Twilight stopped on her tracks in the midst of the orchard, where she saw a baby purple dragon, exchanging sarcastic jokes with a yellow mane orange pony, bearing orange-red apples with green leaves as her cutie mark. They were happily conversing with each other, munching on their delicious apples freshly picked from the trees.

Judging by their appearances, it didn’t take long for Twilight to figure out who the two strangers were. She rushed to them both, shouting out their names.

“Spike…?! Applejack…?!”

Spike and Applejack noticed their close friend, Twilight, speeding towards them.

“Hmm…? Oh, hi Twilight!” Spike waved as he gulped down the last remains of his apple. “Don’t worry! We’ve saved some for you!”

“Yeah. We wouldn’t let our best friend starve while napping.” Applejack chuckled as she presented a basket of apples for Twilight. “Good to see you’re awake. Did you have a good rest?”

“Err, I guess.” said Twilight doubtingly. She stared at Applejack for a little longer than a moment; surprised of how different she appeared and spoke. “Applejack? Is that REALLY you?”

“Um… of course it’s me.” Applejack replied, looking sideways, feeling uncomfortable with Twilight’s awkward stare. “Why wouldn’t I be…?”

Twilight was in disbelief. “But look at you! How come you’re not wearing your favorite hat, you’re not talking in your funny accent, and come to think of it, where’s your whole Apple family?”

Applejack rolled her eyes over to Spike, who did nothing but shrug, just as perplexed as her with Twilight’s spontaneous change in behavior. She shook her head and hesitantly said: “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about, Twilight.”

“You’re acting kinda strange.” commented Spike. “Do you have a fever?”

“A fever? No Spike, c’mon! Don’t be silly! Why would you think that?” Twilight frowned. “And how am I acting strange to you guys? I’m Twilight, right?”

It wasn’t just her behavior that startled Spike and Applejack. It was her new personality as well. Neither of them knew what to make of this.

“Are you?” Applejack asked, peering and squinting at Twilight rather suspiciously.

“Of course I am!” Twilight insisted robustly. “Well, I was, except, I’m not now.”

She already saw Applejack and Spike raising their brows at her. Twilight then froze when she felt someone sneaking up behind her.

“BOO!” A neon yellow Pegasus pony, named Surprise, who was known to be rather loud and mischievous, sprung out from behind an apple tree and scared the living daylights out of Twilight. “HEE-HEE-HEE! I GOTCHA THERE!”

Twilight caught her breath as Surprise and a couple more ponies showed up, carrying their baskets filled with apples. A yellow motherly Earth pony, called Posey, and a white graceful Unicorn pony rolling on her skates, called Glory, casually greeted her. And not a second later did a fearless pink Pegasus pony called Firefly swoop down upon the apple trees and crash into Applejack’s own apple basket, spilling everything over her.

“Oh, not again!” remarked Glory, turning away in embarrassment.

“Whoops! Sorry, Applejack!” Firefly apologized, having not watched her landing.

“That’s okay.” Applejack groaned, licking off the mess. There was a bigger problem to worry about after all. “Listen everyone, Twilight here is acting… a little… funny today. I’m not so sure if she’s herself lately…”

“I AM myself...” Twilight had to reiterate. “… err, I mean, I’m not myself. I am, but I’m not. You understand? I AM, but I’m NOT. I AM Twilight, but NOT the Twilight I was a few minutes ago.”

Her friends were thrown into a muddle of feelings.

“So… who are you?” Spike queried, scratching his aching brain.

“Look, I know it’s complicated.” Twilight said. “But if you just hear me out and allow me to expl-”

“Complicated?! You’re sounding pretty complicated to us if you ask me!” spouted Surprise humorously.

Twilight was in no mood for jokes and shook her head in frustration. She might as well spill the beans and not hold anything back. “Listen to me, all of you! I come from the land of Equestria, from the future, thousands of years ahead from now! I was brought here by Princess Celestia, to save you from a horrible event that’ll wipe out the ponies and every life clean from existence! Your lands will be ravaged, your homes will be burned to ruins, and your friends and families will be hurled into the depths of a raging inferno! And it’s all going to happen tomorrow!”

Eyes widened fearfully as her friends were left flabbergasted. An apple rolled silently out of Surprise’s gaping jaw, bonking Spike on the head before dropping to the ground… but even he ignored the pain. Skepticism swept the minds of the ponies instantly amongst their finest companion. Twilight’s words seemed honest enough, but were her dire warnings actually true? Or perhaps had the heat from the sun frazzled her brain so badly that she was merely hallucinating and making up tall tales?

Twilight let out a sigh of grief. “I look into your eyes and I can’t tell if you guys are believing a word I’m saying.”

The ponies only answered her by shrugging vaguely.

“Twilight, are you feeling okay?” Posey asked, expressing a crooked smile. “Have you been eating rotten apples again?”

Twilight knew she hadn’t time to explain everything in detail with her friends. It was better to do so elsewhere, to someone higher up in charge. “Can I please speak to the Princess of… by the way, excuse me for asking, but what do you call this place?”

The ponies’ faces dropped; astounded when they learned that she was unfamiliar with the name of…

“Ponyland.” replied Spike. “But there is no Princess here.”

“Th-th-there’s…” Twilight hesitated as her eye twitched for a second in shock. “… no Princess…?! Are you kidding me?!”

The ponies shook their heads. Obviously they weren’t. Twilight knew for sure now that convincing her friends would be much tougher than she expected. Yet more especially, she had to convince the rest of the ponies of Ponyland as well.

“Ugh… there isn’t much time to waste!” said Twilight. “Are there any other ponies I can talk to?”

…

“IMBECILES!” The mad centaur, Tirek, snapped in his dark and desolate throne room. “INCOMPETENT FOOLS! Can’t you idiots do anything right?”

It had taken Tirek almost forever to build his new Midnight Castle, after the Rainbow of Light destroyed the first one. Having been stripped of his Rainbow of Darkness, a great source of power he once possessed, it had proven him difficult to enwrap the world into eternal darkness; something he had longed for in years. Discontented that his every attempt to do so had failed, thanks to the efforts of the ponies of Ponyland, he typically took his anger out upon his minions of armored gargoyles and dragons surrounding him. They stood there, cowering before their harsh superior, who continued to roar in his outburst of rage. A few of them took harsh beatings, which often happened at times like these.

“How many times must I…!“

A door creaked open, briefly silencing the room. A small and hunchbacked gargoyle concealed in a cloak, Grendel, stepped inside and made her appearance known. She carried in her old and frail arms an ancient but heavily massive book. This abrupt visit from her only fuelled Tirek with more fury.

“What do you want?!” he snapped rudely to his lackey. “I didn’t summon you here! How dare you show your presence before me without my permission! AWAY WITH YOU AND REMAIN GONE!”

Grendel, unfazed by his terrorizing voice, bowed submissively and said: “My most humble apologies for this disturbance, Master Tirek, but I was recently browsing through the Midnight Castle archives, searching deep through several of your father’s oldest books and records, hoping to find a solution to your… pony pest problem.”

“What’s that you’re holding?” Tirek pointed at the object in her hands.

Grendel advanced forwards, revealing the book to her master and presenting it to him.

“This I believe, as it is so written, dates back to your earliest ancestors… kept secret for generations, untouched and unread, until now. Perhaps there is something of use we could consider from their words of wisdom. Perhaps there is something here that could help us to achieve our goal of eternal darkness that you’ve yearned for so long.”

“Hmm… intriguing.” Tirek said, stroking his chin and accepting the book. He blew away the dust on the cover, examining it, before opening it up to reveal the contents. The book contained untold reports and detailed blueprints of a secret weapon that his ancestors designed centuries ago… something that grabbed his attention immediately. “Excellent work, Grendel. You’ve served well today, unlike my other subordinates.”

Grendel was at least relieved that Tirek wasn’t going to kick her again with his hooves. Tirek studied several pages of the book, seeking the information he needed about this secret weapon. It may have been just his ticket to rid himself of the pesky ponies.

“Yes, this is exactly what I needed!” he grinned and broke into a diabolical cackle, which echoed into the gloomy hallway. “At last, our key to victory is at hand! Soon, the ponies will cease to exist, and I shall proudly stand tall as the new Prince of Darkness in all of Ponyland!”

Before his minions could rejoice, however, Tirek continued to analyze the pages of the book carefully again. He came across a vital part of information that he almost missed reading. “Although it appears that I need to pay a little visit to some old friends at the Volcano of Gloom.” he slammed the book shut in his hand and shouted out: “Prepare my Chariot of Darkness! I’m off!”

“As you wish, Master.” Grendel bowed again and limped away, exiting through the door from whence she came.

“Yes, that is exactly what I wish.” replied Tirek.

…

Since its first creation, the grand and heavenly Paradise Estate had drastically expanded and transformed into a bigger property. Throughout the years, more and more ponies began to move in. It was far bigger now than their former residence: Dream Castle.

The estate was crammed and busy today. For a great mass assembly was taking place in the main hall. Every pony in Ponyland was gathered for an urgent announcement.

Twilight took the stage with her friends respectfully standing behind her. She cleared her throat and addressed to all of the ponies present:

“Listen and listen well, everyone!” she declared aloud. “Your lives are all in grave danger! Starting from tomorrow, Tirek will do the unthinkable and unleash a vast army of robots upon us, the Sentinels! And they’re gonna destroy everything in Ponyland that we know of. If we don’t act fast and do something about it, none of us will be safe from this impending onslaught and we will perish as our world crumbles! We gotta find Tirek and stop him from reaching the Sentinels… NOW! We’re a step away from being blown to Kingdom Come! Who’s with me?”

There was a hushed moment while the ponies were left disoriented. That was until a turquoise Unicorn pony called Fizzy, began to giggle. Then two Earth ponies, named Bubbles and Cotton Candy, followed her. A Big Brother pony called Tex quickly erupted into laughter. This only caused the rest of the entire pony community to do the same. Not surprisingly, they found Twilight’s hysteric performance most amusing.

“HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!” The voices in the main hall clamored.

Twilight was dumbstruck.

“I told you they wouldn’t believe your story.” Spike informed her for the third time.

The only pony not laughing was the yellow Earth pony, Magic Star, who took a rather leadership role amongst her kin. Even she couldn’t quite deem Twilight’s story to be true, and found it somewhat absurd. She knew well in her experience that Tirek never relied on advanced technology against them. His powers were far more based upon black magic.

Magic Star approached Twilight with concern.

“That’s enough, Twilight. I’m not sure what’s gotten into you, but this harebrained tale of yours has gone far enough.” she said, gesturing the audience to disperse and go about their daily business. “You look tired… have you been getting less sleep lately?”

Twilight was fed up of this. She couldn’t stand the ponies assuming that she was simply fooling around, feeling weary or under the weather. She was about to raise her voice until…

“You know, we already have problems to deal with.” Magic Star added sternly. “Last week, a few ponies mysteriously vanished and haven’t been heard of since. We’ve been searching for them everywhere in Ponyland. They’re good friends and I’d hate to find out if anything horrible has befallen them.”

Twilight would have loved to help look for the missing ponies, but that could evidently wait. There were bigger fish to fry. Far more lives were at stake and she wasn’t willing to dilly-dally in an expensive looking mansion and wait until the cows come home.

“Please. You have to believe me!” Twilight begged.

“Now is not the time, Twilight.” Magic Star turned her tail and began to leave like the other ponies. “You should probably get some rest. You’ll feel better afterwards.”

A question struck Twilight’s mind. “Wait, can you at least tell me where I can find three witches?”

Magic Star halted. She glanced round to Twilight and then slightly grimaced, saying:

“You wouldn’t happen to be referring to Hydia, Reeka and Draggle now, would you?”

“Um… maybe?” replied Twilight innocently, having no idea of who they were.

“Why would you want to see them? They’ve been nothing but trouble.” Magic Star wondered. “Look, whatever the reason, you should stay well away from them. Nobody knows where they live anyway. So I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

Magic Star disappeared out through the entrance, abandoning Twilight and her friends. Twilight was about to ask the same question to any other ponies still in the hall, but by this time they had already vamoosed. No one was keen to accept her story or offer any support.

Firefly walked up to Twilight and offered her a sympathetic hug. “Don’t worry, Twilight. We believe you… well, sorta at least.” she smiled with encouragement.

Twilight could slowly identify the relations of her friends to the ones waiting back in Equestria. Glory’s dignified elegance reflected that of Rarity’s, Posey’s generous and caring nature was reminiscent of Fluttershy’s, Surprise’s gleefully energetic behavior was obviously the spitting image of Pinkie Pie’s, and Firefly’s daring intrepidity was no doubt comparable to Rainbow Dash’s. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who Applejack and Spike resembled, although the former’s charisma was greatly lacking. Twilight could well acknowledge Spike’s sarcastic streak, which hadn’t changed.

In the World Beyond, Twilight was surprised that she and the ponies had already forged this special circle of friendship with each other. It was no coincidence that the same ponies would repeat this again in their future life and would reunite without ever knowing it. This inexplicable bond between them may have been what kept them together and why they weren’t willing to fully dismiss Twilight’s apocalyptic predictions.

“It’s strange that you didn’t know the names of those witches.” Applejack commented.

“You mean Hydra, Reaper and Dongle?” said Twilight.

“BWA-HA-HA!” laughed out Surprise. “That’s Hydia, Reeka and Draggle, silly!”

“Every pony in Ponyland knows about them.” said Glory.

“Sure. They nearly drove us out of here with their Smooze!” said Posey.

“What’s the… Smooze?” Twilight asked peculiarly, plainly having no clue to what her friends were talking about. “Is that a kind of hairspray or something? I hope it’s not anything contagious… or flatulent for that matter…”

The ponies gasped at her.

“Wow!” said Posey. “You really don’t know, do you?”

Perhaps they felt that Twilight was being truthful when she claimed she was from the future. It was beyond stupidity for a pony not to know about the Smooze incident that occurred several years ago. Then again…

“Are you suffering from amnesia, Twilight?” Spike asked.

Twilight was tired of these questions. She huffed but then peacefully smiled. “No Spike, I’m NOT suffering from amnesia. I still know that I have to stop Tirek from getting his crummy claws on those Sentinels. And I know he’s going to come after Hydia, Reeka and Draggle and he’ll be after… oh, did I get their names right by the way?”

The ponies nodded.

“Good… ahem, and he’ll be after some special artifact from them… and then he’ll murder them.”

The ponies gasped again.

“Murder?” Glory exclaimed.

“Oh, no! That’s terrible!” Spike cried shamefully.

“We have to find the witches as soon as possible!” Twilight demanded. “Is there anyone else who knows where I can find them?”

The ponies knew, but were reluctant to say it. That was all except for Firefly, of course. She wasn’t afraid to be a little outspoken sometimes.

“Yes, there’s one.” she softly replied. “There was somebody… a long time ago, I once went looking desperately for help when my friends were kidnapped by Tirek… that was when I first met her. She was always like a leader to us when we were in need.”

Applejack interrupted. “Firefly, maybe we shouldn’t tell her about-”

“She fought with the witches many times and might know where they dwell.” Firefly went on, ignoring Applejack. “Except…”

“Except what?” Twilight asked.

Firefly paused for a moment, rather tentative before continuing. “Six years ago… something terrible happened… she left us… and she never came back to see us again.”

“Why? What happened?” Twilight begged the answer.

“…”

“Do you know where she lives?”

“That’s another thing. She’s not from around these parts. She isn’t from Ponyland… she’s not exactly… a pony.”

Twilight was confused. “She’s not a pony… not from Ponyland? Then where is she from? What’s her name?”

Firefly gulped a lump down her throat. And without fear or regret, she told Twilight her name…

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