Memories
In her old home in Ponyville, Rarity, Duchess Lipizzan, Minister of the Arts and Sciences and Knight Elemental of Generosity seemed to positively flicker with nervous energy. She’d been that way since she’d woken up this morning. “How do I look, dear?” she asked her beloved husband Silversteel.
He chuckled; though he was no less nervous, he at least had the ability to hide it a little better. “Dear, you look positively radiant,” he told her, looking at her with the same eyes of love that he’d first done when he was just a guard who had worked up the nerve to talk to the “unspeakably beautiful” Knight Elemental. His dark gray form leaned into her smaller one, as he kissed her gently. “Just relax.”
“I know, but….” She paused for breath; she’d long grown out of the theatrics of her youth, but today she was positively bouncing with nervous excitement. “Today our Sandalwood comes back to us,” she said with all the love of a mother having not seen her foal in ages. Twilight had sent her a note yesterday evening that she had returned to Equestria and that Sandalwood was with her. The letter said that they would be there as soon as practical.
It was nothing less than a miracle. Twilight and Pinkie had promised her so long ago that she would be reunited with her lost foal, and at today 11am sharp, the culmination of fifteen years of pain, sorrow and hurt would end in glorious triumph.
“Mother,” Minty said, still yawning from having woken up so early, “Would you tell me and Elusive what’s going on and why we had to miss school today?”
“Yes,” the white unicorn said, her face positively radiant, “but we will wait until your aunts arrive, okay?”
At that pronouncement, Minty’s attention was piqued. She knew she came from a large extended family, but it was rare when all her aunts and uncles were in the same place. “So everypony will be here?” she asked.
“Not everyone,” Silversteel replied. “The princesses must unfortunately remain at the castle due to their duties; Spike is on a diplomatic mission to the Dominion of Dragons, so he won’t be back until later tonight. Shining and Soarin’ are searching for the changeling stronghold, and we could not get word to them in time. Noteworthy is on the way back from his performance in Las Pegasas, but he won’t make it back in time. And you know Macintosh is about the farm and Thundermane about weather duty.”
“Fortunately, all your aunts will be here,” Rarity said, proudly. Her closest friends, all present for this most special of moments. Though, in truth, they’ve become to me more like sisters now. Even Celestia and Luna; we have definitely become a family. But there was a time when none of those would have come to pass, when Rarity was just a young mother with a newborn foal and not knowing about the trials she would have to see over the next few years. Closing her eyes, she recalled that time:
“Rarity, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked. “The doctor said you shouldn’t be out of bed right now.”
“I spoke to Dr. Stethoscope, and he said as long as I didn’t go all the way back to Ponyville, I should be fine,” the somewhat exhausted unicorn said, as she released her magic. The aura gone, the pram came to a stop, its contents safe. “Besides, I’ve sent you four magical letters and you weren’t answering.”
“Sorry,” Twilight told her dear friend. “Been working on an important project, and I wanted to get it finished before Soarin’ and Rainbow’s wedding next month.”
“Hi sis!” Sweetie Belle poked her head out from her position under the strange contraption. She held a sextant and a few other things that Rarity had never seen before, but then again Rarity had only the basic level of magic spells and a few lapidimancy spells she’d created on her own; she wasn’t a member of the Mage Guild, unlike Twilight or Sweetie, much less had the expansive understanding of the mystic arts that either of them had. “Is that…?”
Rarity nodded, dragging over a settee for her to plop down on. “I thought Sandalwood could use some fresh air, so I thought I’d take her out to come see some of her favorite aunts.”
Twilight grinned. “I thought Luna was her favorite aunt?”
Rarity, using her magic, gently lifted her newborn daughter out of the stroller, wafting her over to Twilight. “It would be unladylike of my young Sandalwood to play favorites. Besides, what other foal has a panalopy of the world’s most powerful ponies as her aunts and uncles? I wouldn’t want her to be spoiled by her advantages.” Rarity looked at the object. “So, what is this?”
The object in question looked, at first, like a giant doorframe against a huge slab of quartz Twilight had conjured into the room. The slab had dozens of mystic runes and spellscript glyphs across its expanse, and connected to the doorframe was a set of cables that trailed off across the floor, snaking down the length of the room until they headed down a set of stairs leading to the basement where Twilight’s usual workspaces were. Various pieces of machinery, tools and magic artifacts littered the floor here and there; to any common pony, what they were doing was absolutely mind-boggling but Rarity had known her friend to tackle and defy the impossible on a regular basis, from defeating demons and chaos avatars to rescuing princesses – such was the life of a Bearer, the duty that had consumed most of their lives since they met six years past.
Twilight floated a cloth over to her face to dab the sweat from her damp coat before it got into her eyes. “It’s a Panoramic Operational Remote Temporadimensional Access Link, or ‘Portal’, for short. What it should do is to allow us to study other dimensions and understand them, maybe even access other realities.”
“Twilight, dear, I think those Daring Do novels are starting to get to your head. Granted, I don’t have the wealth of knowledge you do, but even I know that other realities are just theoretical. Though I’ve read a couple of them, I assure you Daring Do and the Quest for Queen Faust is not a non-fictional document.”
Sweetie frowned. “Rarity, wouldn’t be great if we could meet other civilizations? What if we found, for example, humans?”
The fashionista laughed gently. “My dear, dear little sister,” she drolled, “humans are nothing but a myth; something some delusional pony bard from a time long gone deliriously dreamed up in a salt-and-alcohol induced fantasy. And I assure you, if the truth is anything like the myth, we very much wouldn’t want them visiting our world.
The unicorn apprentice had a downcast look on her face, but suddenly there was a crash at the location where the wires all met, followed by the cry of “Whoops, my bad!”
Both unicorn mages laughed good-naturedly while Twilight yelled, “Derpy, you okay?”
Derpy came walking up the steps from the basement. She was smudged in various oils and fluids, but she had a smile on her face, the kind that said she was in her element. Her eyes seemed to assume a normal position before they went in different directions. “Twilight, the calculation on the formula for the thaumaturgial restrainer was off by a bit so I corrected it.”
“You did?”
The pegasus grinned; it seemed like the smile of an airhead even though the eyes reflected something far different. “Check your numbers. The correct calculation should be ‘[(-6.5) - (-1.2)]/1500 = -0.0035’, right? You had it at “(-1)”. That could be really problematic.”
Twilight floated a very worn notebook over to her, flipping through the pages until she got to the right formula. “And you did the numbers in your head?”
“Well…you were busy with the other stuff, so I didn’t get a chance to ask you for a notebook to write down with. I hope it’s okay.”
“Derpy, you just prevented the power crystal from being turned into a rocket that would punch through my home and who knows how many different houses in Canterlot!” She willed into existence a pad and pen, floating them over to the pegasus. “If you see something wrong, by all means let me know!”
Derpy took it and stuck both in the tool belt she was currently wearing. “Thanks!” The pegasus then pushed some of her blonde mane out of her eyes as she asked Rarity? “Is that your new foal?”
Rarity nodded. “Very much so. She’s a beautiful little thing and she’s going to be the first in our family.” At those words, a sudden sob came over Derpy and the trio noticed. “Derpy, dear, is there something wrong?”
“Just, what you said. I…I miss her…my first daughter. I see her all the time,” Derpy said, burying her face in her forehooves, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes. “I shouldn’t have done it. I did what was right, but I shouldn’t have done it.”
“You mean you had another foal before you adopted your daughters?” Rarity asked as she went over to Derpy, Sandalwood in her forehooves. She proffered the foal over to Derpy, the two-day old newborn gurgling as Derpy took her into her own cradled forelegs.
“I…I need to talk about this to somepony. It’s eating me up inside, and I feel like I’m lying everytime I say I’m happy knowing I can never really be as close to my daughter as I want to be.”
“Derpy, we’re your friends,” the fashionista commented, nuzzling the pegasus. “Whatever it is, we are always here for you.” And it was true. While, granted, Derpy’s usual nature regularly confounded and confused the fashionista, it didn’t make her any less of a friend.
She nodded weakly. “Thanks. I need to get this off my mind,” she moaned, “but you have to promise me you won’t tell another soul.”
“I’ll Pinkie Promise,” Rarity said solemnly. “We all will.”
“Pinkie Promise and Muffin Promise?”
Rarity was about to ask for an explanation when Twilight commented, “Absolutely, Derpy.” With that, the three unicorns performed the sober yet silly ritual that was the Pinkie Promise, followed by the extra parts of the Muffin Promise, with the fashionista attempting to keep up with the magic users:
“Muffin Promise I thus make,
A solemn vow to never break.
If I cannot keep this wish,
No muffins e’er grace my dish!”
Derpy wiped her eyes, looking at her friends with nothing less than absolute gratitude. “You gals are the best in the world, you know that?” she said, wiping her eyes as Twilight conjured up some drinks and snacks while Sweetie brought seats for them to sit down. Rarity took her foal again, glancing at Sandalwood briefly before looking at the heartbroken pegasus.
Looking over the edge of her cup of tea, Twilight began. “So what happened?”
Derpy sighed; this wasn’t going to be easy by any means. She then went into detail into everything: from how she and her twin sister Ditzy Doo met Autumn Breeze, and how though he was attracted to both sisters, he ultimately married Ditzy; to how her frequent infidelities caused her to have foals with other stallions and pushed him to the breaking point; how he finally went to Derpy for advice, but instead they ended up on a three-week tryst but let him go out of love; how she became pregnant with his foal; how she gave birth to Hazy Jane and eventually followed his suggestion; and how her daughter was being raised (if you could call it that) as Ditzy’s own; to her moving to a new town, adopting her current foals and finally moving to Ponyville the year before Ditzy and Autumn moved nearby.
The three unicorns were very quiet for several minutes before Rarity said, “I suppose that explains why Hazy is so dear to you. I mean, I’ve seen you with your nieces and nephews and you clearly love them all, but everypony that knows you knows that you’ve always had a special place in your heart for your lookalike niece. Now we know why.”
“Why would you do that?” Sweetie asked, unable to understand.
“Because I couldn’t do to Autumn what my sister’s been doing,” she answered, a unusual guilty look crossing the pegasus’ face. “To have Hazy around would have been a reminder of that, something that my sister could use against him. I honestly don’t know if she loves him or not – maybe she does, considering that every time one of her affairs ends she always goes back to him – but just because she chooses to be that kind of pony doesn’t give me the right to be one.”
She looked at her friends, and only Rarity came closest to understanding what kind of bucephalean task the pegasus had done. “Every time I see her, or hear about how Ditzy’s screwed up something again, or when they all get sent from their home because Ditzy and Autumn are fighting, I wonder if I made the right choice.”
“Knowing you,” Twilight said, “I’m sure it was. You never do anything lightly, not that I’ve ever seen.”
“Twilight’s right, you know,” Rarity pointed out. “You’re a remarkable mare and what you did took an extraordinary amount of courage. If I ever lost my precious Sandalwood, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“You never will,” Derpy assured her with the promise only one mother could give another. “If she’s ever in danger and I can do something to protect her, I’ll do everything I can.”
“Hey, Rarity,” Applejack drawled, “you awake there?”
The white unicorn blinked. “Oh…sorry, Applejack. I was lost in thought. Thinking about poor Derpy and what she did for me. I can never repay her kindness for that day.” Her features became etched in sorrow as she admitted, “She shouldn’t have had to die to save Sandalwood – none of them should have.”
“Not’cher fault, sugarcube,” the earth pony said with an understanding look in her eyes. “Derpy lost sumthin’ special, Ah guess. Can’t hardly reckon whut it wuz, but it made ‘er fight them bandits like she wus a dragon. An’ Ah’ll betcha bits t’ bushels that ‘er daughters did th’ same. They all gave better’n they got, Ah’m shure, an’ Ah know Celestia agrees, havin’ given her family that title ‘n all.”
Rarity, of course, knew. Hazy Jane had grown up to be a fine and upstanding mare, and Derpy’s twin sister had changed her ways after the incident. She’d become a mother to her foals finally and had patched up her marriage to her husband, the six fillies and colts between them finally a family at last, though, interestingly, not a one of the foals shared blood between both parents. Perhaps, most importantly, Ditzy had never assumed her sister’s posthumous title of Baroness Campolina, instead insisting on being the Steward to the House until the day came that a new head would be chosen – did that mean that the mare was waiting until the day that Hazy was old enough to know the truth?
“Quite so,” was all that Rarity could say to her old friend. AJ would have to find out the whole story on her own; Rarity had long since given up the bad habit of gossip – and plus, she’d made both a Pinkie Promise and a Muffin Promise, and neither was to be taken lightly.
“Rarity, c’mon! Put a smile on that face! Turn that frown upside down!” A bouncy blur of pink said as she literally waltzed into the room, a manic grin on her face. “You know the rules! Smile, smile, smile!”
Seeing the cheeriness on Pinkie’s face, Rarity couldn’t help but to smile slightly, chuckling as she wiped tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry,” Rarity commented, overcome with emotion for a moment. “It’s just…everypony has done so much for me and I can’t even begin to thank you all.”
In a rare case of seriousness, Pinkie smiled warmly and said, “Rarity, you’re family. Which means she’s family. Which means Twilight and I will do everything to make sure she comes back. And we did! Right? Right?” The party pony threw her forearms around her in a hug, squeezing tightly. “In just a few hours, Sandie’ll be back and we’ll spoil her rotten – we’ve got all those years to catch up with, right?”
Rarity said nothing, not wanting to ruin the moment. After all, today was the culmination of what Twilight and Pinkie had both promised her, and though they’d kept their word, back then it seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream:
Silversteel, his face a mask of pain, stared at Twilight in disbelief. “If this is a joke of any kind, Twilight, it isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking, Silver. Can I come in?” He nodded slightly and she stumbled as she came into the carousel house, the look on her face bleak; the stallion moved forward to catch her. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “Not exactly at my peak.”
The guardspony looked at his wife’s close friend and noticed something: Twilight was a disheveled mess herself, looking as though she hadn’t slept in weeks and was running purely off her magic. “You don’t look good,” he commented.
“No…I’ve been a little…um, obsessed lately with my research,” she said weakly. Silver blanched a little when she mentioned that; he’d heard about Twilight’s legendary bouts of obsession, including the case where all of Ponyville was held under her thrall because she’d abused her magic in one particular case. “I’ve been running on nothing but my magic for the past few days,” she added.
“Are you crazy?” Silver nearly shouted. He didn’t know much about the theory of subsisting on magic save that it had a strange name for the theory – praecan-something or other – and that it was ridiculously dangerous. The magic would eventually start pulling from the pony’s life force and cause them to kill themselves in the long run; for someone as powerful as Twilight, it could be completely dangerous.
“I know. Even the princesses don’t do it, even though they could safely,” the unicorn mage slurred as he helped her to a couch. “But I needed to take the chance while the trail was still hot, so to speak. But please, get Rarity. I want you both to hear this, the full explanation.”
A few minutes went by as Silversteel convinced Rarity to come downstairs into the lower residential part of the home. Rarity looked gaunt, haggard, as though she’d been crying non-stop since the funeral. Both mares looked at each other and then fell into each other’s forelegs, waterfalls of sorry raining down Rarity’s cheeks.
“Twilight, dearest Twilight, I’m sorry that I haven’t been in touch with you as much as I should be, but I’ve been hurting so.” No drama queen theatrics this time; the Element of Generosity looked as though she was ready to die. “It hurts…I just don’t want to go on without my little Sandalwood.” Rarity buried her head in her hooves, crying for the daughter she’d lost just a little over two weeks prior, killed by a destructive lightning bolt from a magic storm. The same storm the brigands were seeking shelter from when they raided Derpy’s home.
“But that’s the thing, Rarity.” Twilight paused as if trying to pull the right words from her sleep-deprived mind. “I’ve reason to believe that Sandalwood isn’t dead. That the lightning bolt transported her somewhere else.” Rarity’s head bolted up from her crying position and Twilight took that as a sign to continue, looking at both of Sandalwood’s parents. “The day after the funeral I went to the site, because I…I needed to say something to Derpy and her daughters. I don’t know why, but I was carrying the testing device that she built with me, maybe because I wanted to leave it with her at the grave. But when I got there, it started to flash and beep.”
“Flash and beep,” Silversteel deadpanned, not understanding how this had anything to do with Sandalwood.
Twilight nodded. “I then looked at the device and noticed it was giving me some kind of reading. The readings match the magic signature given off by my portal device,” Twilight said.
Rarity’s eyes grew wide, grabbing onto Twilight’s words like a lifeline; granted, she was no student of magic but even she understood what it meant. “That means that Sandalwood might not have been killed….”
Twilight nodded eagerly, fighting her exhaustion. “We’re going to start looking into other realities now, Pinkie and I. We’re going to find her and bring Sandalwood back, Rarity, Silversteel. You have my word on that. We’ll bring her back.”
There was a flash in the air, followed by the appearance of a magical letter; pulled back to reality from her thoughts, the fashionista took the scroll and unfurled it immediately. After a few seconds, a grand smile lit upon her face. “Twilight said they just left her place via chariot and will be here in thirty minutes.”
“Are you ready for this?” Rainbow Dash asked, walking towards her with Scootaloo following close behind. Both of them, as opposed to everypony else present, had stoic, unreadable looks on their faces, very much unlike either happy-go-lucky pegasus.
“Ah dunno ‘bout y’all, but Ah got ‘nuf nervousness for everypony,” the farmer pony commented.
“Everything will be fine, I’m sure,” Fluttershy said as she approached; a beatific demeanor on her face as she approached the others. Rarity looked at the yellow pegasus and a slight smile came to her face as she remembered once again how very much her dear friend had changed throughout the years. Of course, it hadn’t been without hardship: Fluttershy and Big Mac’s first foal, a pegasus colt named Butterscotch, died shortly after birth; the pair had tried to have another foal since, but had yet to happen. Fluttershy was probably the only one present who understood the loss of a foal.
“Thank you, Applejack, Fluttershy,” Rarity replied as she gave a smile to her friends. “I’m sure there’s nothing to be worried about. My daughter survived all these years, so it was clear that she was taken care of by a wonderful family, I’m sure. I guess ponies, even in other realities, are as caring as we are here in ours.”
At that, Rainbow and Scoots looked at each other before turning back to Rarity, looks of trepidation plastered on their visages. “Um…you don’t know…about who took care of Sandalwood?”
“Now that you mention it, that never came up,” Silversteel answered.
“You mean they’re not ponies?” A sudden thought flashed across Rarity’s mind, before she laughed, waving it off. “Okay, so perhaps they were zebras, then. If so, that would be interesting, as Sandalwood would learn the zebras’ native language, though it will be difficult to communicate with her if she uses a rhyming patois like our dear friend Zecora.”
“Actually….” There was a pregnant paused before Rainbow spoke up. “Um, based on what we know, she was, uh…raised on a world where ponies don’t exist. Or any equines whatsoever.” Another pause. “So, she, uh, wasn’t exactly raised by zebras.”
“So, who’s been takin’ care o’ th’ li’l darlin’?” Applejack ventured. As she spoke a sudden pit sank in Fluttershy’s stomach as she looked at the fashionista with concern.
“I…well….” Scootaloo began, not sure if she should speak further.
“Humans,” a voice called from across the room. Everyone looked to turn and noted Sweetie Belle walking into the home, Apple Bloom close behind her. “Sandalwood’s been raised on a world populated by humans – and they’re the only sapient species on that Earth.” The younger mare went over to hug her sister, and then her brother-in-law before continuing with, “So she’ll need time to adjust to being back here in Equestria amongst ponies, because she’s been raised as somepony of an entirely different species.”
“Humans?” Rarity asked, eye twitching suddenly.
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah. But from what we know, they’re not like the myths.”
Rarity was about to say something when Silversteel intervened, looking at all three mares who knew. “How do you know about that?”
The look on Scootaloo’s face was as if she’d been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. “I…uh, well….”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Rainbow piped in. “Uh, Soarin’ gave us a report a couple of months ago on it; apparently it was hush-hush so there wouldn’t be a public panic or anything,” she commented. “Um…sorry for not mentioning it sooner, but several of us were promised to secrecy. I mean, you know how Twi can be when it comes to government stuff an’ all.”
Silversteel chuckled uneasily; Celestia’s protégé was certainly overbearing when it came to that sort of thing, but he knew overall that the unicorn mage must have meant well; if Twilight had a good reason to keep it under wraps, then there had to be a good reason. Even still….humans?
Rarity’s mind, however, went somewhere else, somewhere much darker.
Rarity was back in Canterlot for her regular duties. It was the day after the funeral for the dead foal Rarity had so heartbreakingly named Toola-Roola. Now buried in a small grave next to an apple tree sapling, that Applejack had planted, the grave would forever be with a family to watch over her, as it was just outside the door to Rarity’s old home. Furthermore, Tom, the old rock that Discord had ensorcelled the fashionista into thinking was a diamond, was appointed to be the filly’s guardian for eternity. Considering the boulder had been there since the day she moved it by her home, she couldn’t think of a better “friend” to watch over the foal.
However, today, she was meeting Twilight and Sweetie for lunch at the former’s place. Unfortunately, she showed up much too early, as she knocked several times only to find no one home. Knowing her old friend wouldn’t mind, Rarity keyed the spell triggers for the door lock and then went in the house.
As she entered the house and plopped down on a convenient settee, she noticed a bunch of reports sitting on the coffee table in front of her. A casual glance at them revealed that they were various reports that Twilight, Pinkie and their respective teams while traveling to these various realities.
Five years now. Twilight and Pinkie and her teams had been searching on a regular basis for five years now and the first sign they came upon was the remains of a dead foal, one that sent Rarity into utter despair. Thankfully, forensic spells had already been cast on the bones, revealing that the foal had been transported to her fate well before the Fall of the Moon, making the bones closer to Celestia’s and Luna’s age rather than everypony else. Rarity wished the young filly would have survived, as Rarity would have taken her under hoof. Even now, with her second foal, Minty, now born to the family, the soft-green earth pony could never take the place of her missing older sister.
A few minutes went by before Rarity became bored with waiting. Before she was about to say something, Twilight sent a flamefax scroll letting her know that both mages were caught in an overly long meeting and would have to miss lunch but could make up for it with dinner. Rarity quickly responded that it would be fine, but that she’d just stay at Twilight’s place until they arrived. Planning to take a nap now, the Knight Elemental was about to lay down when she saw a report entitled REALITY 34156H – Report on discovery of pony posthumously named “Toola-Roola”.
Rarity opened the report, reading the first page:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Location: 47° 3’ 42” N, 104° 41’ 2” W. Series of tents made of animal hide placed over poles by a riverside dividing a grassy plain.
Objects: Bones, pony. Bones determined to have been present for quite some time in the largest tent. Based on structure, determined to be an earth pony, female, approx. 5 months in age.
Location Discovered: Dwelling. Dwelling is primitive, far less advanced than what is used by diamond dogs. Dwelling could be considered pre-historic, but unknown based on history of owners.
Owner: Bipedal species. Plantigrade, two walking limbs, two limbs used as “arms”, similar to minotaur species. Species appears to be primate in nature, similar to that of apes in the Southeastern Continent, near Zebrababwean and Gazellisean lands. Rudimentary clothing, primitive weapons. Attempted to attack party initially, though warned off via guards.
Presumed that creatures are human. While I understand that “humans” refer to a mythical species on our world, these creatures fit the general description. Request that someone with a working knowledge of cryptozoology look the attached pictures over. For the remainder of the report I will refer to them as “humans” for the sake of clarity. Full description of attacker is documented in Appendix B.
Contact: Brief skirmish in retrieving bones. Four casualties on Guard side: pegasus guard, Flying Diamond, seriously injured; pegasus guard, Stormy Clouds, killed by spear to neck; earth pony guard, Deep Forest, beaten to death by humans’ clubs; Beta Team Leader, Pinkie Pie, light concussion and minor injuries. Fifteen casualties on human side: all humans knocked unconscious by mages defending on site, save for spear thrower, whose arm was broken by earth pony guard Deep Forest’s bucking.
Recommendation: Strongly recommending the guard and guild contingents be doubled for further investigations of other worlds.
- Harmony Grass
Assistant Team Leader
Project SANDALWOOD Team Betacc: Archmagus, Mage Guild
Captain of the Guard, Royal Guard
Office of Princess Celestia
Office of Princess Luna
Office of Princess Cadance
Written underneath the main part of the summary was Harmony Grass’ handwriting: Twilight, we barely survived that mess! I thought Pinkie was a goner, for sure! Next time, if we run into anything like that again and we don’t have protection? I’m going to start ordering the casting of weapons-grade attacks with the intent to kill! Those things were MONSTERS!
- Harmony
Rarity gasped when she read Harmony’s writing, unbelieving. She’d met the unicorn stallion on several occasions, and he was a gruff but caring mage who looked out for everyone in a paternal sort of manner, certainly not the kind of pony that would suddenly fly off the harness and recommend the slaughter of innocent creatures! What manner of beings were these things if they made somepony as calm as Harmony come to such a conclusion?
Rarity’s curiosity got the better of her. Any thoughts of beauty rest gone, she dived right into the report like a madmare. By the time it was over, and having looked at the three appendices, the fashionista wanted to cry and tear out the heart of any of those filthy creatures at the same time. Cut marks on Toola’s bones indicated that she’d been eaten by the creatures, possibly and paradoxically as some sort of sacred animal. The battle had been described in detail in the main report, and what she saw repulsed her; she was by no means a stranger to combat, having faced off against Nightmare Moon, Discord, changelings and other creatures, but still, there was a difference between battle and a brawl – and the humans brought the latter.
And then there were the looks of these hideous, unwashed creatures! Bearded faces, primitive culture and backwards ways, these savages had destroyed the life of an innocent little filly, one Rarity would have loved with all her heart had they found her alive. And somewhere out there, beyond the paries quartum that separated the realities from one another, was her daughter. Was Sandalwood still alive? Was she being cared for by a loving, wonderful pony family, or was she being devoured by savage humans? Or worse?
Rarity cried herself to sleep and morosely picked at dinner with Twilight and Sweetie, feigning illness. Neither of them suspected that she’d seen the report, and it was certainly something that she was never going to voice to either of them.
No, it can’t be true about humans, Rarity decided for herself. Rainbow and the others must have misheard, that’s all. I highly doubt that if my beloved daughter is still alive that she’d have survived this long being raised by predatory monsters. Rarity smiled weakly to the others; so lost in thought was she that she’d missed just about everything that had been said, as well as the note Twilight sent five minutes ago that they had just landed and were now here.
But now, Twilight was opening the door, coming into the home, a nervous look on her face. Rarity picked up on that and moved forward. “Twilight!” she practically screamed in joy. “Thank you! Thank you so much for what you’ve done for me!”
“Absolutely,” Silversteel said, coming up towards them, a wide smile on his face. “I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done for us.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Twilight said, an unreadable look on her face. “Rarity, before we start, I should te—”
The white unicorn turned. “She’s outside! Places, everypony!” she sang out. “Minty, Elusive, come here, please!”
“Yes, Mother?” Minty said as the teen and her younger brother approached.
“I’ve got a surprise for you both – your sister has finally returned!”
“I’m…not sure I would….” Twilight began, but was drowned out by the squealing of delight of Rarity.
“Our little family will finally be whole again!” she cooed to her husband and foals, embracing them all. “We’ll have our Sandalwood back and she’ll never leave us again.” Looking at the lavender unicorn, she said, “We’re ready!”
“Rarity, I really think we—”
“I’ll just have to get her size so I can fit her for a dress!” Rarity said, absently. “The Gala’s in a few weeks, and that would be a wonderful opportunity to present such a beautiful lady to eligible young bachelors, don’t you think?”
“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, love,” Silversteel chuckled. “We’ll still need to give her time to readjust to being home.”
“Oh, hush – she’s our daughter! Of course she’ll take to being home again like a duck to water. This is, after all, where she belongs.”
Twilight sighed; she wasn’t going to get through to Rarity like this. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see AJ and Pinkie looking at her briefly; if they caught her hesitation, both seemed to presume that now was not the time to bring it up. Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way. Walking towards the door, Twilight poked her head out the door and said, “Okay, everyone come in.”
To Rarity’s barely concealed horror, several humans walked into the door, males and females, including two probably around the same age as she. And then, last of all, was Sandalwood. And upon seeing her daughter, Rarity felt both sorry, shock and horror: her daughter was walking, probably quite painfully, on her hindlegs, dressed just like a human and carrying herself like one. There was no sign of her cutie mark, as it was covered by pants; likewise, she was dressed in a formal shirt and her hair was done up in a docktail.
The first touches of anger welled in her; she could also feel the same in her husband as she looked at him briefly. Oh, Sandalwood, what have they done to you?
Standing roughly between both groups, Twilight cleared her throat and began, “DJ, in order against the back wall are your aunts Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The filly here is your younger sister Minty, and the colt is your brother Elusive. And last, but not least, this is your mother, Rarity; and your father, Silversteel.”
Rarity looked for a sign of the foal she’d spent so many years obsessing over, trying to see if there was any sign of her in the human-like pony before her. Was she nervous about being freed from these humans? Was she anxious to return home amongst her own kind? Rarity’s eyes welled up at the thought. Words came to mind, but she couldn’t find her voice to say anything. Finally, closing her eyes and focusing for a second, she asked with teary eyes as she looked at her daughter, “Are you really my precious Sandalwood, come back to me?”
Sandalwood looked back at the two older humans, as if nervous – was she afraid that they were going to take her and deny her a return to her own people? She then looked at another human, a male, and the look in his eyes…Rarity shuddered at what that meant. How deep had the abuse run? The younger male said something Rarity knew clearly had to be some kind of threat or warning: “Go. We’re here for you.”
Sandalwood stepped forward, cautiously, unsure, before she raised a foreleg like an arm and waved, saying “Um, hi.”
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Let me just say:
Foregone conclusions suck.
954378
There ya go!
good chapter cant wait for the next
I love it that we see part of the meeting from their point of view.
Still doesn't excuse Rarity for being a bad pony.
961983
FOOOOOOOORRRREEEEVVVVEEEEERRRRRR!
It seems that Rarity cannot tell the difference between neanderthals and modern humans.
962040
And that much is true, yes. Plus, she doesn't see "DJ", per se, all she sees is, as DJ accused just about everypony, the image of a Sandalwood she could never be and had no interest in being to begin with.
Ah. we'll this chapter at least shows us rarity's POV. It's definitely nice to see both sides of the story. Frankly I wouldn't mind more stories from Rarity's side. It's definitely interesting reading. Are there going to be more stories from the rest of the family? Like apple Bloom, for instance? (I can't seem to remember what happened to her after she sided with rarity though.)
This is great, the big moment as told by the other side.
Now I want a chapter or two just with scouting reports of a few of their many visited worlds. Ponies versus Neanderthals sounds exciting.
And as they say "the rest is history".
my 5 day internet black out is rewarded by THIS? i lobe you (no homo)
And they all lived happily ever after...
So that's why she acted the way she did. Still, it doesn't excuse her attitude (or the others for that matter).
I can't help but think that, despite Rarity's intentions, it was better for everyone that DJ not be forced back into being Sandalwood. As mentioned numerous times in the main story's first chapter; it would have been impossible for DJ to have been able to have eventually become seamlessly reintegrated into pony culture, and that would have been the source of many, many problems due to Rarity and Silverblood refusing to believe that their daughter is only acting that way because that was how she was raised and not through some kind of hostile brainwashing.
I would like to see what happens next in raritys pov as with the trial that followed
Ow. My heart. When I was reading the main story, I felt that I really hated Rarity for her actions, but this... this is just painful to read.
I can't blame her any more, and I'm glad I decided to check these side stories out, I feel like they add so much to the world of the main story, giving us insight into everyone involved.
Out of curiosity, the creatures that attacked Pinkie and killed Toola-Roola, what were they? Were they humans? Or were they something else that was vaguely humanoid?
962029
TO BE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT FAIR, Most modern humans are technically hybrids. Mostly Homo Sapian, but there is a touch of Neanderthal DNA in most of us. And a touch of Homo Erectus, for some.
This scene really made me interested to see a hypothetical what-if scenario: Celestia does not intervene, the court rules in favor of Rarity, and DJ finds herself struggling in her own personal pony hell.
They can't keep her forever, in a couple years she gets the right to leave, but until then she has to deal with her pony parents trying to force a culture assimilation she doesn't want. And that's a lot of heartache potential.
It's crazy to think how different things might have been if Twilight and the others had actually taken the time to sit Rarity down and explain everything to her before setting her up to meet DJ. Really enjoying these side stories so far. Don't know why I didn't read them sooner!
I wonder how it would have played out if DJ had been successfully "foalnapped" and they had to deal with her then? I get the feeling that she would have been a whole lot worse.