Cja[ter AAAAAA. Fillies in the Wood
The band of five took in deep gasping breaths as they touched solid ground again.
“I have never… winked out that far before in my life!” Rarity heaved, her mane and tail poofing out dramatically as they usually did upon being winked out.
“This was… hard for me, too,” Twilight said with heavy gasping breaths. “I’ve never winked out here myself… never mind with four other ponies… in tow.”
“So yer pa’s taken ya here b’fore, then, Twilight?” asked Applejack, already having recovered from the intercontinental wink-out and standing high above the other four.
Twilight nodded, “That’s right, Applejack. Me, Mom, Vati, and―” She practically bit her tongue as she cut herself off. “Yeah, just… just my parents and me.”
Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a knowing look.
“So, where exactly are we, Twilight?” Rarity asked, looking about.
The band of five stood in a round circle of bare hard earth about half as wide around as the main library section in Golden Oaks back in Ponyville, surrounded by bushes slightly higher than Applejack’s eye-level. The sky above was a deeper blue, almost purple with the sunset. A weathered but sturdy wooden sign beside a trail leading out of the circle of bushes read Willkommen zu Heuburg, Herdeland.
“‘Welcome to Hayburg, Germaney’,” Twilight read aloud for her non-Germane-speaking friends. “The hometown of my father Nachtlicht. Here we’ll be able to find passage to the Edelholz, and Brisarheim.”
“Mmmm, sounds like a tasty place~” Pinkie piped in, licking her lips.
“Yeah, just like hayburgers,” added Rainbow Dash, sniffing the air. “Just smells like grass and plants, though, if you ask me.”
“Well, just because Hayburg is the namesake for the hayburger doesn’t mean that―”
Twilight’s explanation was cut off by a loud raspberry from Rainbow Dash immediately followed by raucous laughter.
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash choked out after she’d finished having a laugh. “Why would they name it after this place? Why not something like the Cloudsdaler or the Canterlotter?”
“Well, if you’ll let me explain without interrupting my explanation,” Twilight began crossly, giving Rainbow a withering glare, “Hayburg is a major exporter of wheat, hay, and carrots to nations throughout the continent of Aspicia. So naturally, somepony who lives here would have concocted a food source that is derived from a combination of them.
“But,” the lavender Unicorn raised her voice, “don’t assume that just because hayburgers trace their roots back here, don’t assume that that means this is the hayburger capital of the world. Germane ponies have a prouder heritage than just burgers. And, we also have our shames.”
“Shames?” repeated Rarity.
“Are ya sure ya wanna talk about this while we’re here crowdin’ this here circle?” Applejack queried. “Doncha think we might wanna find an inn ‘r sumthin’ before we start yakkin’ about one thing or another?”
“Here,” Twilight insisted. “Here is where we discuss it, because it is still a sore topic that could see you purged from Germane society.” Her ears flopped. “Especially with how close my family is to it.”
“You’re sounding like you’re gonna tell a sad story, Twilight,” Pinkie said morosely. “Promise me that I get to tell a happy story when you’re done.”
“I promise, Pinkie,” Twilight said with a slow and firm nod, before taking a deep breath and beginning:
A long time ago, about two-dozen-gross years before any of us met, a particular Earth Pony came to power through… questionable means. There was an explosion which took out half of Herdeshall and killed at least half the Parlament. This Earth Pony legislator, calling himself Fylfot, declared that this was the action of Unicorns and Pegasi attempting to stage a coup against the Earth Ponies of Herdeland. And so he abolished the parliamentary system, and instituted the Orden des Tetraskelion, or ‘Order of the Four-Legged’, in its place.
Nopony can prove whether or not Fylfot staged the explosion in the Parliament of Herdshall, but there’s no denying that he took cruel advantage of it. For the dozen-and-three years of his reign, Pegasi and Unicorns were treated atrociously, tortured and subject to equine experimentation and extermination. Non-pony races from the surrounding kingdoms, like the Centaurs of Magnesia, the Yaks of Yakyakistan, the Harpies of Stamfani, the Goats of Capra, and the Caribou of Hrenway, were similarly demagogued against. Although, this ‘Earth Pony master race’ extremism did end up like an arrow in Fylfot’s hoof. The oppression of his tyranny led to the intervention of the surrounding nations in a cooperative Cosmic Council declaration of war to overthrow him.
But the fall of the Orden des Tetraskelion didn’t mean that Germaney was in the clear. Many Earth Ponies themselves faced war crime tribunals for being part of Fylfot’s machine. Fylfot himself was set in an oubliette for the remainder of his life, but his daughter was let off when it turned out she unequivocally had no part in the regime. And by mandate of the Cosmic Council, Germaney would not display any insignias or creeds resembling Fylfot’s Hakenkreuz or the beliefs of Tetraskelionism, as an olive branch of sorts back to Unicorns and Pegasi.
Applejack and Pinkie Pie both looked quite astonished, no doubt repulsed by the actions one of their own could have taken, while Rarity and Rainbow Dash exchanged uneasy looks. Although Twilight was fairly certain that Rainbow Dash’s genealogy was almost exclusively Pegasus blood, that did not automatically mean she was predisposed towards resentment of her Earth Pony contemporaries just for the actions of Fylfot. And Rarity being the daughter of an Earth Pony and a Unicorn clearly would have made the Order of the Four-Legged a touch closer for her.
“Aspician history lessons were not necessarily my forte, Twilight,” Rarity said, “but it would be remiss of me to use that lack of familiarity to make assumptions as to where this story could be leading. Nevertheless, would you kindly proceed on towards the more pressing reason for this impromptu history lesson?”
Twilight ground a cloven hoof nervously against the dirt.
“Well, you see… Fylfot’s daughter is my father’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.”
Applejack nodded slowly, “Ah thought Ah could tell where yer line a’ thought was headin’, Rarity. Ah still don’t know if Ah can wrap mah head around you bein’ related to somepony so bad, though, sugar-cube.”
“Wait, so… does that make Twilight… part-Earth Pony?” asked Rainbow Dash suddenly.
Twilight sighed heavily, “Yes, yes it does, Rainbow. But that is not even remotely the point. The point is that Germane ponies will not hesitate to censor anypony who speaks too openly of Fylfot or his regime outside of an educational context. So I’m letting you girls know this to impress upon you how close the issue of Tetraskelionism is for some even still.”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity nodded, but Pinkie Pie seemed to be looking… down? It was plain that her head was tilted toward the ground, but what exactly her eyes were trained upon didn’t entirely register in Twilight’s mind. Something in the back of her head began to tickle slightly.
“Pinkie Pie? Ya still there?” asked Applejack.
Pinkie looked up all too quickly, wearing a smile far too wide to be casual.
“Oh geez, sorry, everypony,” she replied with a surprisingly forced attempt at seeming light. “I was… well, you know, just looking forward to meeting all the new ponies here in town! Nothing wrong with making new friends, you know!”
Twilight felt one of her eyebrows start cocking upwards and kept it in place. She strongly suspected that Pinkie was making use of her bizarre abilities that no pony should have been able to have or use. Here was neither the time nor the place to raise the issue with Pinkie, though, so Twilight decided to let it rest unspoken.
“Well, you better not get too cozy around Hayburg, Pinkie,” she cautioned. “We’re not here on a casual visit. We’re here as a rest-stop on the way to Edelholz. And remember: this isn’t Equestria. Ponies here are less open and friendly, but obviously not to Fylfot’s level. This is a very Earth Pony-heavy nation, after all, my father and his family notwithstanding.”
“Oooooh, are we gonna meet your grandparents here, Twilight~?” Pinkie asked eagerly.
Twilight’s ears flicked slightly.
“No. My father’s parents died before he and his sister emigrated to Equestria.”
As soon as the S-word left her mouth, Twilight regretted it. Pinkie’s bright-blue eyes swelled to the size of dinner plates, the pale spirals in her irises almost seeming to glow.
“You have an AUNT, Twilight? Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We have to throw you a ‘Twilight has an aunt’ party~!”
Twilight put her hoof to Pinkie’s mouth, the pink party pony’s cheeks puffing out comically.
“Yes, Pinkie, my dad does have a sister, which does indeed mean I have an aunt,” she said dryly. “But I haven’t spoken with Tante Sonnig in years. Last I heard, she’d settled down with a Unicorn stallion off in Sire’s Hollow. And I’m fairly certain that they’ve had a foal as well, but I’ve never spoken to them. I do know I was named after Tante Sonnig somewhat, at least the latter half of Sonnig Funkeln, which means ‘Sunny Sparkle’. Although, I’m fairly certain that she hasn’t gone by either the Germane or Equus names; I think she’s wanted to differentiate herself from her life back here in Germaney. I think it was ‘Stellar something’…
“In any case,” she continued in a softer tone, removing her hoof from Pinkie’s muzzle, “we really should find accommodations here. I should have enough bits with me to cover exchange rates into hotel rooms for all of us.”
“Goodness, Twilight, please don’t expect to shoulder this fiscal burden all upon your own shoulders,” Rarity interjected, indicating her own saddle-bag with a slight shimmy of her barrel, a slight jingling indicating the presence of bits on her own person. The dimming lights of Celestia’s sun caught in her changed cutie mark and dazzled Twilight’s eyes.
“I appreciate your offer, Rarity, but I couldn’t ask you to.”
“Oh pish-posh, darling, it’s nothing, really. We’re all in this together, so it makes sense.”
“So you’re really saying that we should all pony up, then, aren’t you?” Rainbow asked sourly.
“Well, not necessarily,” the alabaster Unicorn replied with an attempt at airiness. “It’s… all quite the same if you choose to or not. It’s merely my own choice to do so.”
Twilight balked.
“Well, if you insist, Rarity.”
“You sure about leaving those out in the open, though?” asked Rainbow Dash, indicating the diamonds glistening on Rarity’s flanks. The Unicorn glanced at her left flank, then her right, with an apparent sense of unease.
“I’m not entirely sure, Rainbow Dash, dear,” she said haltingly. “I would ordinarily wish to cast a good first impression towards ponies who’ve never seen me before, but these are… rather rough and unpolished. I simply must find a jewellers at the earliest opportunity.”
“They look mighty shiny already to me, Rarity, what’s th’ point in shinin’ them up even more?” asked Applejack with a raised eyebrow. “An’ ain’t we already pressed enough ta find the other four Elements a’ Harmony?”
“I’m well aware of the ordeals we have ahead of us, Applejack. But I have a fine eye for detail, and I can tell that the light cast from these diamonds is not so brilliant as it can be. Their cut goes deeper than they seem.” She froze for a brief moment. “They… might actually go quite deep into my flesh. And I don’t feel any pain from their presence…?”
Pinkie reached with a trepidatious hoof and tapped one of the diamonds on Rarity’s right. Rarity recoiled at the Earth Pony’s touch.
“Oooh, warm~”
“Pinkie Pie! Do you have no concept of personal space?”
The pink party pony shook her head.
Twilight cut in, “But if they’re warm like Pinkie says, then there must be something alive about your diamonds, Rarity. Did you feel her touch when she touched them?”
“Well… yes, I did, actually.”
“So, it stands to reason that you could also feel pain from the act of faceting or polishing these diamonds. Would it be worth it to take yourself to a jewellers if it could be like removing a layer of skin from their being faceted? That has to worry you, doesn’t it?”
Rarity bit her lip. “Well… a teensy bit, I admit. But beauty has never come at a small price, and if it means showing the most beautiful light from my new mark… I will have to accept it.”
“Do we even know if these are permanent?” asked Rainbow Dash, poking Rarity’s left flank. The alabaster Unicorn flinched in Pinkie’s direction, so strongly that she bowled the pink party pony over and became wrapped up in Pinkie’s legs.
“R… Rainbow Dash!” Rarity shouted indignantly. “What is it with everypony and their interest in my flanks?”
“Wer da? Sprich!” came a strong voice of a mare from past the trail leading out of the circle of bare earth, where the trail met with a wider and better-kept path that evidently led to and from Hayburg.
Upon hearing the voice, the five mares gave a start. That was a bolder voice than they had heard from anypony back in Equestria save for members of the Royal Guard. The hoofsteps that came from the path were heavier than they were used to in Equestria as well. Twilight stepped to the fore of the band at the mouth of the trail.
“I know the language of Germaney, so I’ll take the lead for us, girls,” she instructed. “Try to let me speak for us, and don’t get too far apart here.”
The four mares nodded at Twilight’s advice, although the lavender Unicorn had reservations that Pinkie truly grasped the gravity of what she asked.
The Germane pony who barked the command turned onto the path.
She was much larger than most mares back in Equestria save for Pinkie’s sisters Maud and Marble, almost as large as Applejack. Her neck was bowed, though, so if she stood with her neck erect she would likely have even dwarfed the palomino apple-farmer. Her color was duller and earthier than most Equestrian ponies, and her features squarer and harder. There was a certain hardness to be seen in her eyes as well: world-weariness. Her cutie mark was that of a stein brimming with some sort of foaming drink.
Pinkie let out a great unearthly-sounding gasp not unlike the sort when she’d seen Twilight for the first time, propelling herself into the air and literally floating.
Twilight let out an exasperated sigh, “Down, Pinkie.”
The pink Earth Pony froze like an image projected on the silver screen when the film-projector had locked up on a single frame, before plopping down to the ground faster than gravity.
Satisfied, Twilight cleared her throat.
“Hello, my friend from across the Pasturic,” she said in flawless Germane, the burly mare in question twitching her ears. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, or Zwielicht Funkeln if you prefer. My friends and I come from Equestria and we seek room and board for the next day or so. Would you please tell us of the best accommodations Heuburg has to offer?”
The native Germane mare raised her neck up to appraise the five mares from her full height, and Twilight felt a gulp pass down her throat; she was huge, nearly as large as Maud Pie. She furrowed her brows together, breathing in and out deeply through her nostrils.
“Ich heisse Locanda,” she answered curtly. “Und wenn ihr eine Unterkunft suchst, werdet ihr in der Feuerfest Familienschenke immer fündig.”
Twilight bowed her head gratefully. “I thank you on behalf of me and my friends, Frau Locanda.”
“Für einen gewissen Obolus. Niemand bleibt kostenlos, versteht sich.”
“Of course not, of course not. We’ll pay upfront and I will not spare on the tips. We shouldn’t be in your hair for too long. Thanks in advance!”
“My name is Locanda. And if you seek accommodations, you can always find some at Feuerfest Family Tavern.’ And then I said, ‘I thank you on behalf of me and my friends, Frau Locanda’. And she replied ‘For a price, of course. Nopony stays for free’.”
Applejack nodded slowly at Twilight’s translation. “Fair’s fair. We ain’ exactly in our element, an’ it’s not like we’re on some international mandate or nuthin’.”
The earthy-brown mare named Locanda led Twilight and her band down the path. The further it led from the winking point, the more cared-for and solid the path became as it could more readily be classified as a road. Trees of pine, beech, and spruce speckled the fields on either side, along with the odd cottage with a vegetable garden set near to a lantern along the path. The sky had turned from orange to red, the first hints of the moon appearing at the east.
Rainbow gave a cocked eyebrow at Twilight, “We sure that they’ll accept our money? I don’t entirely like the idea of a girl like her on our bad side if we can’t pay.” She glanced sidelong at the mare at their head.
“Hayburg should have a bank at which we can exchange our bits for however much in the way of Rappen that we’ll need,” Twilight replied.
Pinkie cocked her head like a curious dog, “Can’t we just pay them back in hugs and smiles? That’s how I would run things~”
Twilight found herself laughing, “Well, of course that’s how you’d run it, Pinkie. But that’s not how it works on either end of the Pasturic. But it would be nice if the world was so simple and kind.”
Applejack only nodded.
“So what was this ‘Locanda’ pony doing all the way out of town? Now, it’s not like this is walking very far − well, I’m flying, so it’s not a big deal to me − but you guys gotta wonder what that’s all about.”
“If I had to guess,” Twilight replied, “she was most likely visiting family at a local farm when she overheard our voices.” Rarity’s cheeks flushed pink at that statement.
It wasn’t very long at all before the six ponies came to the town of Hayburg. A sign over the path indicated the Germane name of Heuburg and the year it was established. The air was filled with the heady scent of fermented drink. The streets were lined with ridge-post framed homes and buildings, flickering lights and raucous laughter coming from the windows.
Ponies milled about with their various goods, and Twilight’s four present friends noted that she was quite correct; very few Unicorns and Pegasi could be seen about town. Locanda was apparently about on par with the average Hayburg pony as far as height and build came, and coats, manes, and tails seldom deviated from the guide’s earthier colors. Every one of them wore a stoically stern expression, and only acknowledged the party’s passing with a short nod at Locanda. It was far from the varied colors and eager greetings of the ponies back in Ponyville.
In short time they came to gardened path through a large plot of land between two larger buildings, leading to a gabled building of timber frame partially set in the hill behind it. A grand sign over the front door that read Feuerfest Familienschenke and gave a foundation date of some six-dozen-and-a-gross years before.
Locanda held out a large hoof to halt the five ponies she led. Her horseshoe was bare steel, and quite worn.
“Fräulein Zwielicht, lasst mich euch meine Familie vorstellen. Auf mein Signal kommt einfach herein, dann werdet ihr sehen wie die Ponys von Heuburg ihre Besucher empfangen.”
The large brown Earth Pony pushed open the door and entered, the sounds of mixed singing and laughing growing louder at the opening. Pinkie’s ears perked up and the pink party pony prepared to gallop through the closing doorway.
“No, Pinkie!” Twilight said forcefully. “She’ll introduce us ahead of our entrance, and she’ll cue us for when to come in. She said that we’ll ‘see first-hoof how the ponies of Hayburg welcome their visitors’.”
“Awww… :(” Pinkie sank, crestfallen. “But everypony sounded like they’re having so much fun…!”
“For what it is worth, I would like very much to avoid too much in the way of festivities,” Rarity said warily, glancing up and down the streets. “I don’t feel that this place is nearly as friendly as Ponyville.”
“You’re not wrong,” Twilight answered. “But the people of Hayburg value their loyalty to each other above all else. You heard the songs through the open windows, right? And smelled all the hard cider in the air? Germaney is not a dispassionate country.”
A window none too far from the front door opened, and the sounds of revelry were joined with the clattering of utensils, plates, and steins. The sound of pounding wood cut through the joyous din, and the Feuerfest Family Tavern went quiet inside. Twilight and her friends perked their ears.
“Meine werten Stuten und Hengste!” rang out Locanda’s strong voice. “Es ist mir eine große Freude fünf Besucher aus Equestria in unserer Mitte begrüßen zu dürfen. Zeigt dem Boden woraus eure Hufe gemacht sind und helft mir Fräulein Zwielicht Funkeln und ihre Freunde willkommen zu heißen!”
“That’s our cue!” Twilight hissed, her dwimmer shimmer pulling the door open and waving her forehoof inside. Taking up the rear behind her friends, Twilight Sparkle entered the Feuerfest Family Tavern.
The aroma of at least a dozen fermented drinks struck the five ponies’ faces with all the strength of a pillow-fight at a sleep-over. The braziers on the walls cast a warm orange glow about the room, the shadows of the dozens of ponies in the tavern soft around the edges on the plastered walls. Each of the ponies were seated at either a round table set with porcelain plates and tall wooden steins, or at the bar at the far-right end of the room.
And every single one of them was facing Twilight and her band with a broad and inebriated smile, a stein held high in each hoof.
“WILLKOMMEN ZU HERDELAND, FRÄULEIN ZWIELICHT UND FREUNDE!"
Twilight nearly felt herself bowled over by the force of the yell; it was like a room full of Pinkie Pies once Germane ponies got their spirits up.
Applejack rubbed one of her ears, “Ya weren’t lyin’ when ya said ‘not a dispassionate country’, Twi.”
“No kidding,” Rainbow muttered. “I think some ponies back in Cloudsdale might have heard that.”
Rarity looked nervously down at her raised hoof, “Well, this is… certainly more friendly than first impressions would suggest, but don’t you suppose that this might be a bit overstimulating for… Pinkie, darling, are you quite alright?”
Pinkie… ’s mane and tail were practically straightened out behind her, as if she was caught in a photograph taken during a gale. A grin was growing on her face, almost literally touching her ears, and… were the spirals in her irises pulsing? “I… love this place…!”
Twilight laughed nervously, “Well… welcome to my father’s kin, girls.”
In short time, they were seated at a table not far from the bar. From this angle, Twilight could see a number of barrels stacked behind the bar, each fitted with a tap and labeled with a number of Hayburg’s famed beer brands. The door to the kitchen flew open every minute or so as one Earth Pony or another trotted out with trays of food balanced on the back and the crown of the head, bringing with them a myriad of enticing scents.
Locanda set down a stein for each of the five mares, a loud wooden CLACK! filling the room as foam sloshed out onto the table.
“On the Haus,” she said in rough Equus.
“What?” Twilight protested, at first in Equus before switching to Germane. “But, we really couldn’t! We were going to pay!”
But as Twilight finished her protest, it occurred to her that the rest of the ponies in the tavern were all raising their steins with expectant looks on their faces, an expectant silence replacing the former rowdiness.
“First taste is free,” Locanda explained, and there was a small hint of a softening on her face as she produced a stein of her own.
One by one, each of the five took a stein in between their forehooves ー except for Applejack, who was able to handle it with a single forehoof, the closest of the five to the size of a native Hayburger.
Feeling a prescient boldness from the liquid courage in her stein, Twilight raised the drink to the ceiling and cried “PROST!”
The tavern echoed her toast, and the ceiling may have risen at least a hoof.
Quaffing the stein, Twilight felt a deeper kinship with her father than she ever had since her fillyhood. This was the life that Nachtlicht had lived before he had come to Equestria. As he had told her and… just her… with a certain daringness that he would not have shown to his wife, he spent more time than he would like to admit at taverns and bars than at his astronomy. He would quip that he counted the stars at the astronomy, and then down steins until he was counting stars again. This… this was his life.
Twilight sighed internally. One day, Vati, I’ll bring you back so you can have this again…
Bringing herself back from her own thoughts, it came to Twilight that the tavern was once more filled with song and jubilance. The ceiling and walls were almost bursting at the seams from the tavern songs being belted out at the top of everypony’s lungs. Some ponies were telling stories to their mates and some were laughing at the stories, and others still were so drunk that they were half-babbling the songs and degenerating into laughter themselves. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight sighted Pinkie dancing atop another table singing along to Everyone Knows Johanna with the ponies over there. Twilight was positive that Pinkie didn’t know Germane.
Eh. It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie, the drink was telling her.
Rarity coughed emphatically. “It… it burns going down! How strong does Germaney like their beer?”
“Die ganze Welt kennt Johanna~!” sang Pinkie delightedly, taking it from the top.
“Ya know what? Ah could really go fer sumthin’ like this ev’rynow an’ then,” Applejack said, looking inside the stein at what sounded like only half of the drink she’d received.
“You said it, AJ,” Rainbow grumbled, not even bothering to wipe the foam from her muzzle. “I could REALLY go for a tall stiff one right now.”
“Ein Auge grün und eins hellblau…!” Pinkie continued.
“About the Pies’ and their blessing?” Twilight asked, and Rainbow nodded into her stein.
Rarity made a faint scoffing sound.
“Oh what I wouldn’t give right now for a blessing. After that charmless cad Blueblood, I could really quite do with the blessings of a lovely young mare’s family…!”
“Exactly what kinda mare would float yer boat, Rare?” asked Applejack.
“Die Zähne schief und ein Doppelkinn~!”
“I have scarcely given it much thought. I was always enraptured with the fancy of being swept away by a handsome Prince Charming, even when I was a foolish little colt who didn’t know any better.”
“Tha’s fine, sugar-cube, ya jus’ gotta take yer time ta figger things out. Seems ya got yerself figgered out plenty fine as is.”
Rainbow Dash nearly choked on her drink, sputtering out flecks of foamy beer. “Wait a second, you were a colt, Rarity?”
Rarity flushed red.
“I’d… rather not speak of who I was before Rarity.”
“But you’re Rarity! You’re, like, the marest of all the mares in Ponyville! You always dress in style, for Celestia’s sake! How could you be a―?”
A hiccup mercifully ended Rainbow’s line of questioning, and it was the cerulean Pegasus’s turn to turn crimson.
Rarity sniffled.
“I don’t want to talk about him. I’m Rarity Belle, resident couturier of Ponyville! And maybe I dress in style and I’m gonna be the marest mare in Ponyville because I don’t want ta be a colt or a stallion! I wanna be a pretty lady an’ I wanna wear dresses an’ be the lady that princes would fight drakonakises for, don’cha know…!”
“Girls, girls, we gotta calm down!” Twilight cried, lifting away all five steins in her dwimmer shimmer. “This drink is clearly too strong for us. We’re supposed to be friends, and we’re letting it bring out bad blood between us! We shouldn’t be making such a fuss over little things like KING LEO WAS DISCORD’S CHILD TOO?!”
The steins clattered to the table, spilling their remaining contents to the floor. The tavern around them went silent, eyes roaming from every pony quizzically at Twilight’s outburst. Even Pinkie had stopped midway through a lyric that would be quite inappropriate to sing around foals and turned to look at her lavender friend.
“He told me that his father and brothers always stirred up such a fuss!” Twilight shouted, her forehooves slammed down into the tabletop and leaving imprints of her shoes. “He was talking to me about bad blood and that I wouldn’t want to hear about what a fuss his father and brothers would stir up and… good gracious, how many world leaders are descended from Discord? Koriel of the Qílíns? Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs? Duchess of the Abyssinians? Tiamat of the Dragons? Is my little Spike related to Discord? Is even the Breezie Queen Rosedust a child of―?!”
“Twilight!” Applejack cried, firmly planting a hoof on the lavender Unicorn’s shoulder. “Yer goin’ into a spiral! Ya need ta git yer head back on yer shoulders!”
“I can’t just overlook this, Applejack! We can’t just stupidly assume that Celestia and Selena are Discord’s only children! There have to be more out there! But how many are there? I don’t know! Nopony knows how long the Age Of Discord was, so Discord could have had only two children or scores of them…!”
“Twilight, darling, you really must keep yourself under control,” Rarity said, a hoof to her forehead. “For one thing, it’s quite disagreeing with me regarding the drinks we’ve been provided. And for another, you seem to have attracted a fair bit of attention.”
Eyes flitting about the room, Twilight took account of the scores of ponies about the tavern, all of whom had trained their eyes upon the foreign band’s table with their steins and plates left untouched. With ragged breath, she turned to Locanda who approached with curious trepidation.
Twilight laughed nervously.
“I… think that we’ll turn in early for the night. I just need to… make the monetary exchanges at your nearest bank.”
“Die kosten für eine Nacht in der Feuerfest Familienschenke betragen zwei Rappen pro Pony,” Locanda explained, indicating through the doorway into one of the lodging rooms. “Wie ihr sehen könnt, hat ein Zimmer drei Betten. Wenigstens zwei Paar werden sich ein Bett teilen müssen.”
“Two Rappen per pony per night,” Twilight explained to her friends, taking a slow breath in between each sentence. “Two pairs of us will need to share a bed.”
Applejack flushed, as did Rainbow Dash when Pinkie Pie threw herself onto the cerulean Pegasus into a firm embrace.
“I call dibs with Dashie~!”
Rainbow sighed, “Of course.”
“I… volunteer to share a bed with Applejack.”
The palomino farmer gave a double-take at the alabaster fashionista.
“Rarity, Ah… Ah don’ rightly mind sharin’ a bed with Twilight, ya don’ have ta − ”
“Applejack. I insist.”
Twilight was relieved. Rarity’s determination to share her bed with Applejack meant that she would not have to share
“I will be taking a bed on my own. My friends Applejack and Rarity will take a bed, as will Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained, indicating each pair.
Locanda nodded with a faint smile.
“Sehr gut. Wie viele Nächte möchtet ihr bleiben?”
“Just this one. Tomorrow after breakfast, we five make for Brisarheim.”
At this, Locanda balked.
“In den Edelholz? Ponys die den Wald betreten kehren selten unversehrt zurück. Einige kommen gar nicht zurück. Die Brisechen sind eine fragile Rasse, aber das kann nicht von Das Biest behauptet werden. Ihr solltet von formidabler Zucht sein, wenn ihr es hinter der Gartenmauer des Edelholz schaffen wollt.”
“My father hails from this land, and his lineage was… quite strong. Plus, we’re five of the ponies who helped defeat NightMare Moon. I think we can handle this.”
Locanda blinked.
“Die Nachtmäre Mond? Dies waren schreckliche Monate in denen wir unsere magere Ernte fast verloren hätten. Dafür soll euch die Übernachtung nur einen Rappen pro Nacht kosten.”
Twilight shook her head, “No no no we couldn’t do that. I’m worried about your livelihood all the more now.”
Locanda actually beamed, “Ich bestehe darauf. Bei meinem Namen, ihr werdet ein Dach über eurem Kopf brauchen wenn euch eure Reise durch den Ebenholz führt.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Twilight nodded before passing along five Rappen, the black metal coins emblazoned with Germaney’s current Minister clinking from one hoof to the other.
“Thank you so much.”
The bar- and innkeeping mare inclined her head in response, pocketing the Rappen in a leather pouch on her leg.
“Gute Nacht, und viel Glück.”
The door closed behind Locanda, leaving the five lodgers to their own devices.
In a moment, Twilight’s composed demeanor evaporated, her legs spreading and going stiff as she began to hyperventilate.
“King Leo − actually the Queens’ brother − or half-brother − maybe more of them − still has so much of a grasp on leading the world − ”
She felt herself suddenly being hoisted up, her barrel being squeezed tight in the vice grip of a horrific eldritch abomination from beyond the firmaments of reality.
It was called Pinkie Pie, and she was holding Twilight with both forelegs, voiding the Unicorn’s lungs of air.
“Pinkie…! Can’t… breathe…!”
“You need to get all that bad breath out, Twilight, then take slow good breaths!” Pinkie explained. “All those bad thoughts are giving you bad breath and you need to get it all out and make room for the good breath again!”
Pinkie’s vice-like grip released in an instant, and Twilight took in sharp deep breaths. As each breath came and left, though, she found her breathing slowing down and her heart’s pounding also grew softer. After a dozen seconds, she was inhaling through her nose and exhaling out her mouth.
Once more, Twilight breathed in deeply, and then she sighed.
“Thank you, Pinkie Pie,” she said with a slightly ragged voice. “I don’t know quite how you do it, but thank you.”
That’s a lie, she thought. I think I know exactly how you do what you do.
“Anytime, Twilight~”
“Just… remind me in the future, Pinkie: The next time Queen Celestia, Queen Selena, or anyone in a position of power says something about no one needing to hear such old tales, we insist that we listen to it, and we pay extra attention to it.”
Pinkie blinked, “What if it’s just Granny Smith doing one of her ‘back in my days’ speeches?”
“We listen,” Twilight persisted, deciding to ignore that Pinkie’s ‘back in my days’ statement was accompanied by her doing an impeccable impression of Applejack’s grandmare, even down to the wrinkles and liver-spots.
“Don’t you think that you’re taking this a bit too seriously, Twilight?” Rainbow asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Ah don’ know, Rainbow,” Applejack interjected. “Ah’m gittin’ the feelin’ that this ain’t such slim pickin’s anymore. Ah mean, if it were jus’ the Queens… but now it might be a lot more a’ the rest of the world leaders that’re… ya know, all drakonakis-like.”
“AJ, don’t tell me that you’re cracking up too.”
“If you think that I’m cracked up now, Rainbow Dash, you really don’t know me.”
“Ah’m not crackin’ up, Rainbow, Ah’m just tryin’ ta think this through reasonable. Or don’cha bear the Element a’ Honesty?”
“Well, yeah, I do, but − ”
“That raises a perhaps pertinent question, Applejack,” interrupted Rarity. “Exactly what are the Elements Of Harmony?”
“The Elements Of Harmony,” Twilight began automatically, “are a collection of six magical artifacts created by the Queens Celestia and Selena in order to defeat Discord. But,” she faltered as the automatic information flow ceased, “how exactly they created them is… still not clear. The Queens did say that they had other companions who also bore the original Elements, one of them apparently a Griffon named Grizelda, but… who was Grizelda? Who were the other three original Bearers? And what part, if any, did they play in creating the Elements Of Harmony?”
Rarity blinked.
“I was just wondering if the Elements represent a total concept or just a single pony’s notion of that concept.”
“Urgh, all this talk about what the Elements are and who made them is making my head hurt. I need more of that hard Germaneian stuff.”
“It’s Germane,” Twilight insisted crossly, “not Germaneian.”
“Same difference, right?”
Twilight gritted her teeth.
“You’re not wrong…”
“Heyyy~y, why is everypony being so fussy all of a sudden?” Pinkie Pie cut in. “We’ve just had some of the strongest happy-drinks anypony’s ever had, and we should be feeling all 
but instead everypony is all 
and that makes me ”
The pink pony was… fluctuating? Pulsing? Shifting? Her voice was distorting as well, and it was… not entirely clear what she was trying to say on some words. It seemed like her muzzle was moving, but the exact movements were not clear, and it was like she was communicating a concept rather than an actual word.
All told, it wasn’t something even Pinkie Pie should have been able to do.
The tickling in the back of Twilight’s head almost felt like claws inside her skull.
“Are you… feeling quite alright, Pinkie, darling?” Rarity asked, raising a hoof either in concern or in preparation to flee out of the tavern.
Pinkie turned to face Rarity… or was she already facing the alabaster Unicorn? Or was she facing all four of them at once?
“Ooh yes I’m alright, I’m better than ‘quite alright’, 
~~~” she squealed while imitating Rarity’s voice impeccably on the last two… words… that she had spoken. Her grin stretched far wider than should have been physically possible, more teeth being bared than were actually inside a pony’s mouth, some looking like they had no business in equine jaws…
Okay, they definitely felt like claws now. And the honey-sweet voice was back, but far louder than before, almost like a sixth pony present in the room.
Do not question it, they said, but their tone was almost laced with… worry? It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie. Please don’t question it. You’ll be happier if you don’t question it. It’s nothing important. Don’t panic. Come on and smile.
Pinkie’s head seemed to be twisting around now, unmistakable from the sounds of cracking bones. If Twilight wasn’t mistaken, the two ends of Pinkie’s grin had nearly met but for her mane.
Please just don’t question it, Twilight.
Twilight recoiled. That voice just addressed her by name. It had always seemed so removed before, like a sweeter version of her own voice. Just a piece of her own mind offering some base common sense.
Twilight and Applejack shared a knowing look. Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked at them quizzically.
“You two know something about this,” the cerulean Pegasus said. It was not a question.
Twilight raised a hoof, “In my defense, myself and Applejack do not know something. I merely have a very good idea.”
“And, what would that idea be, pray tell?” Rarity asked.
“Ah don’ know if we can rightly say,” Applejack replied, ears drooping and tracing an idle circle with one of her forehooves.
Rainbow Dash brought a hoof to her forehead.
“In case you haven’t noticed, Twilight, Pinkie’s head is literally spinning like a top and her grin is practically wrapping all the way around and touching itself. If you have some idea what’s happening to her, then you need to tell us about it!”
Rainbow Dash’s tone and expression started angry, but the more she spoke the more her voice began to crack and her eyes began to shimmer, her ears flopping down.
Twilight’s heart ached.
Good gracious, this is affecting my friends a lot more than I thought that it would. I forgot how much Rainbow Dash cares about us. Admittedly, she doesn’t make it easy to spot that. …Nein. I should know better as her friend. I still have so much to learn about friendship.
The lavender Unicorn sighed, before turning to her partner.
“Should we tell them, Applejack?”
Applejack looked down at Twilight.
“Ah… reckon that we should. Ah mean, they’re awful worried about Pinkie same as us. An’ if there ain’t no harm in tellin’ ‘em, then we oughta.”
“And… Pinkie?”
“I’m… h… a… p… p… y…”
The pony in question was almost practically a coiled-up spiral at this point. Her eyes and mouth swelled to practically smother her muzzle out of existence, and her neck bones must have been ground to dust by now.
“Ah don’ think that Pinkie’s in a right state ta ‘ppreciate much a’ what any of us gotta say at the moment.”
“So, we leave her in the dark? The one pony who has to know this better than the rest of us? Ah don’ like it.”
“Only for as long as she’s in this…” Twilight cleared her throat. “‘Twisted’ state. I know that that sounds horrible, but…”
“Ah understan’, Twilight. Ah think we all do.”
Somewhere far off, Discord was in hysterics.
Twilight and Applejack faced Rainbow Dash and Rarity, across from Pinkie Pie.
“Me and Applejack… we’ll tell you what we think we know about Pinkie and the Pies.”
“I swear, Pinkie, one of these days you’ll run out of surprises for all of us.”
“I sure hope not, Dashie, or my parties won’t be any fun anymore!” She giggled. “Careful, Dashie, I’m ticklish there!”
“On the inside of one of your joints?”
“Isn’t everypony?”
Rainbow Dash groaned slightly.
The discussion of what Twilight and Applejack had figured out led to Pinkie coming back to her senses… and then literally going to pieces from the tension of her episode. Her efforts to pull herself back together were fruitless, and she ended up asking for help from her friends.
The cerulean Pegasus held up one of Pinkie’s disembodied flanks, “Which side is this cutie mark for again?”
"I'm pretty sure her spots are more numerous on the left side, darling, so this is her left leg."
"I was gonna get it eventually!"
“How exactly do you manage this on your own, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, levitating Pinkie’s right eye in her dwimmer shimmer and looking into the pupil.
Sat on one of the beds, Pinkie’s head had had her muzzle and her left eye set into place, while her ears flopped about on either side. “I usually ask for Maud and Marble to help me when I’m home on the rock farm, since Limestone is too crabby about handling my pieces. And Mr. & Mrs. Cake help me out at Sugar Cube Corner. I could help them help me out normally, but I’m all pooped out right now because of the thingiemajiggie, so I really appreciate the help, everypony.”
“Anything for a friend, Pinkie,” replied Rarity, setting Pinkie’s completed right foreleg down in her dwimmer shimmer.
Applejack weighed Pinkie’s detached neck in one hoof, “How does this work, Pinkie? Like, how do ya breathe or get yer blood flowin’ when ev’rything’s… apart?”
Pinkie’s two forelegs, one laying on the second bed, one on the floor, both flexed in an apparent shrug.
“It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie, I guess, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said, holding Pinkie’s barrel under one foreleg and attaching her tail with the other. “I thought that’s what you and Twilight were explaining about before.”
“Sorry about all that, everypony, I was just scared that… you know…”
“We understand, Pinkie,” Twilight said, placing Pinkie’s ears in place atop her head. “We all worry about a lot of things.” As Twilight set Pinkie’s forelegs upright in front of her standing hind legs, her lavender face wrinkled. “My parents… Spike…”
“Ahh dangit, Twi, I plum near forgot about your parents in all this hullabaloo,” said Applejack as she set Pinkie’s neck on her torso, which Rainbow set down onto Pinkie’s legs.
“It’s alright, Applejack, they made it through the Longest Night, I can only hope that they can outlast this Age of Discord, and good gracious Pinkie that is terrifying.”
Pinkie’s headless torso reared up and then did a double-buck into thin air, flexing each of her leg joints as she did so. Then she performed a series of overly complicated dance moves atop the floor mat in front of the two beds.
“Sorry, Twilight, just making sure that everything is in its proper place~” trilled Pinkie’s head, as her body pronked over to the bedside, picked up her head in her forehooves, and spun it into place atop her neck. Once her head had settled into place facing forward, she grabbed her mane from the floor and gingerly set it back on her head, adjusting it slightly before it seemed to lock in where every single hair follicle belonged. Finally back together, the rosy pony pirouetted in place before posing on a foreleg and hindleg.
“No more Pinkie Pieces, only Pinkie Pie~”
“‘Pinkie Pieces’?” Rainbow Dash asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Something that Limestone said the last time she helped me out with this,” answered Pinkie, shaking out one of her forelegs with the sounds of creaking joints. “I don’t really think that she likes helping me all that much when I go to pieces, ‘cause she always looks at me with her big bright eye.”
“Well, at least Maud ‘n’ Marble are decent enough kin ta help ya put yerself back t’gether,” Applejack offered, “though Ah’m not doubtin’ Limestone at all, mind ya.”
“Are you sure, AJ? ‘Cause she seemed to have a real stick up her − ”
“Now now, Rainbow Dash, let us not belittle the family that took in and raised dear Pinkie Pie here,” Rarity cut in, offering a gracious smile to the rosy pony.
Twilight cleared her throat against her forehoof.
“Alright now, girls, I think we’ve gotten quite off-track from what we were talking about before.”
“Which you kinda started, to be honest, freaking out about King Leo like that.”
Twilight scowled at the cerulean Pegasus.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash, I had very nearly forgotten that little detail.”
Feeling the tension building again, Applejack interceded, “Ah just remembered, Twilight, it kinda looked like ya only paid half a’ what that Locanda ‘pparently asked fer. Ah feel like we missed somethin’ on her end a’ th’ conversation.”
“Thanks, Applejack,” Twilight smiled. “I’d nearly forgotten that after everything else that’s happened in this room. But yes, Locanda did give us a discount, on account of our having defeated NightMare Moon and preventing even further damage to her family’s barley crop. It was only one Rappe for each of us for the night.”
Rarity counted idly with a forehoof, “My, that is generous of her.”
“It was. I tried to pay the full amount, but she insisted.”
“A good deal, I gotta say,” Rainbow Dash said, flopping down on one of the beds… and almost immediately being set upon by Pinkie Pie. The cerulean Pegasus rolled her eyes, but Twilight couldn’t help but note a faint pink beneath the fur on her cheeks.
“Maybe, but there’s still the issue of the Element of Kindness and the Edelholz Forest that stands between it and us.”
Applejack held a hoof against the scar on her other foreleg. “What… sorta forest is th’ Edelholz?”
Twilight bowed her head.
“Now may not be the best time to talk about that, girls. We’ll need our rest for the journey to the forest, and especially through it to Brisarheim.”
Despite Twilight’s assurances, the band of five by and large rested fitfully. Twilight herself was wracked with invasive thoughts about the myriad of different scenarios that involved any and every world leader secretly being Discord’s children and secretly enacting any one of a dozen-dozen secret plans to rule over the miserable masses under their father.
Rarity laid with her back to Applejack’s, staring out the moonlit window. Her greatest secret had been laid bare in a drunken fit, and though nopony was likely to forget from the alcohol they’d imbibed, it was still not the ideal manner in which she’d have liked to let them know, if they came to know at all.
Applejack stared across the space between the beds at Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. While she could figure exactly why Rarity had volunteered to keep her and Twilight in separate beds, it was still a matter that was like a thorn in her hoof. It helped to keep her mind on the goal of their quest, but it was still… just plumb tarnation…!
Rainbow Dash had long since given up on the forelegs and hindlegs which Pinkie had wrapped around her barrel. If she & Fluttershy were going to be roped into a love-herd by Pinkie’s crazy parents, now was not the time to nag about it. But still, the notion was not entirely unacceptable to her…?
Pinkie Pie slept like a log, her legs cuddled snugly around her little bug Dashie. It was nice to be back in one piece and accepted by her friends for being herself.
Passing through Hayburg from the Feuerfest Family Tavern the following morning brought with it a fresh reminder of the stolid nature of Germane ponies when outside of a tavern. The herds trotting to and fro along the band’s path were filled with impassive faces and minimal conversation. It was remarkably different from Ponyville, a much more openly cheerful town. But as Twilight explained, this was not because Germane ponies didn’t care. They just had a different way of expressing themselves.
“It’s like a whole country full of Mauds~!” Pinkie declared cheerily.
As Twilight and her friends reached the eastern edge of Hayburg, they took note that they had seen only three Unicorns and two Pegasi in the entire town.
“As I said before, Earth Ponies are the most numerous race of ponies in Germaney by quite the large margin,” Twilight explained. “There are still Unicorns and Pegasi, to be sure, but they tend to be related to each other to begin with, so they end up marrying Earth Ponies. And their kids aren’t always Unicorns or Pegasi, so…”
The eastward path Twilight chose leading to the Edelholz was one of the smaller and less-traveled roads leading to and from Hayburg. The edges were uneven and marked by intrusive bundles of grass or the odd patch of flowers, and the path itself rougher than most. Far ahead, following the horizon, was a line of rough mountains, slightly blue from the distance. Along the base of the mountain range were what seemed to be dark hedges… or were they trees?
“That,” Twilight said, pointing, “is the Edelholz Forest, nestled into a concave section of the Adler mountain range. The Brisarheim reserve for Breezies lies at the base of Mount Geldberg, between its sheer cliffside and the trees of Edelholz. At our current pace, we should reach the edge of the forest by day’s end.”
Rarity sighed lightly, “Thank Celestia that we shall not need to travel as far as we had to the Crystal Mountains. I still feel as though my legs are far too thick for an aspiring lady…”
“They look just fine to me,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her forelegs while narrowing her eyes at Rarity’s. “You’ve still got freakin’ twigs for legs.”
“Ah don’ see what the big deal is, Rare,” Applejack adjusted her hat against the sun ahead. “If some mare ‘r stallion’s gonna turn their nose up atcha just fer keepin’ up yer stamina, then they ain’t worth yer salt. Could ya imagine how that Blueblood fella would’ve reacted to findin’ out ya’d walked nearly two-dozen-gross miles?”
Rarity nodded her head to the side for a moment, “I suppose, Applejack. And if he would find that objectionable…”
“That Blueblood was just a big old meanie-pants!” Pinkie cut in, looking quite livid. “He used Rarity as a shield against Trixie’s bad magic, and he didn’t like anything about Ponyville either! Somepony should go right up to Canterlot and give him the biggest party of his life to cheer him up!”
“Good luck getting so close to him, Pinkie,” Twilight warned. “Duke Blueblood’s family have come into Queen Celestia’s good graces every since a grossentury ago, when his great-grandfather Vladímir proved quite decisively that he and his family were her kin, specifically descended from Queen Celestia’s aunt Majesty.” The lavender Unicorn bowed her head slightly. “So we can at least be sure that the Queens were ponies on their mother’s side.”
Applejack and Rarity nodded slowly. A dark silence fell over the band once more.
“Awww, come on guys,” Pinkie jumped in with a bright smile, pulling the four others in for a great big hug. “We don’t have to be so glum about where the Queens came from. They’re still the Queens of Equestria, aren’t they? After we’ve beaten Discord, we should throw a ‘We Still Love You Queens No Matter What’ Party~”
Despite her face being squished in between Pinkie’s and Applejack’s, Twilight found herself smiling, uplifted by Pinkie’s optimism.
“You know what, girls? Pinkie’s right. We can’t afford to let ourselves get brought down. Queen Celestia and Queen Selena have always meant the best for all of us in Equestria, no matter what.”
“Except for the Miasma, you know.”
Twilight smiled sheepishly, “Well, of course except for that, Rainbow Dash. But regardless, they’ve truly earned the crowns that they wear, even if they’re just there as glamours to keep them in their pony forms.”
“Eeyup, that they have,” nodded Applejack. “Fer now, though, we gotta keep on keepin’ on. The Element a’ Kindness ain’t gonna git to us on its own or anything.”
“Right,” Twilight answered. “Now, if Pinkie could let us all go…”
“Oop, sorry!” Pinkie said with a short nervus giggle.
The five mares continued down the path towards Edelholz, passing by a tree that was in no way shape or color Discord, and which was not in any way chuckling darkly to itself…
“So, what exactly is this thing in the forest that we should be so scared of?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Nopony is entirely sure,” Twilight explained. “My Vati told me horror stories about it since I was a filly, but he and other Germane ponies like Locanda refer to it as The Beast. Evidently made from the wood of the trees of the Edelholz itself, this ‘Beast’ has been lurking in the Forest for as long as Germaney has been a country. It will seek to mislead those that enter the Edelholz, forcing them to wander lost in time until they drop exhausted… and then… the stories differ, but suffice it to say that its victims aren’t seen again afterwards.”
Applejack shuddered, “And Ah thought that Equestria was the only land in the world with a cursed forest like that.”
“Don’t be silly, Applejack,” smiled Twilight. “There are no such things as curses.”
“Damn.”
“… very funny, Rainbow Dash.”
“I know, right~?”
“I was being sarcastic, Pinkie Pie.”
“I know~”
Twilight sighed heavily. Even when Pinkie was just being Pinkie…
“In any case,” she continued, “there are many countries around Harmonia that have their fair share of disenchanted lands, not the least of which is our own Everfree Forest. It just so happens that the blight cast upon the Everfree leaves it completely outside the control of our pony magic, or so I’ve read.”
“You got that right, sugar-cube,” agreed Applejack. “There ain’t a lick a’ Earth Pony magic that can change the way that plants grow in Everfree land. An’ there ain’t anythin’ tameable by pony smarts in there, either.”
“And it’s been growing, too,” Twilight added darkly. “There was a time prior to NightMare Moon’s banishment when the edges of the Everfree Forest laid a fair bit away from the Queens’ old castle, and the village nearby. This selfsame village was home to those twelve unfortunate foals who were taken away by Queen Selena, presumably in an early feat of domination by the Miasma.”
“Wait a minute,” Rainbow Dash stopped in midair, suddenly looking serious. “So, you mean that the Everfree might one day cover Ponyville?”
“Not in any of our lifetimes, to be sure. Even Applejack and Pinkie Pie might not have to worry about that, with their Earth Pony longevity. But unless the blight of the Everfree is lifted, it will be grossenturies before Ponyvillagers need to think about finding new homes.”
“That’s encouraging.”
“Chin up, Dashie~” Pinkie Pie dropped onto Rainbow Dash’s back directly between her wings, despite having just been pronking away at Applejack’s side. “We can’t be belly-aching about stuff in the future that we can’t control. What we gotta do is laugh and enjoy life now. It’s why the now is called the ‘present’~”
Twilight chuckled lightly at Pinkie’s assertion.
“Well, we really better enjoy the ‘present’ that is the now while we can, because the Edelholz is less than half an hour away.”
The dark row of trees against the Adler mountains was far larger now, filling an alcove on the western side of the range. A waterfall ran down from the gap between the Geldberg and its companion the Bramward into the depths of the Edelholz, the noontime sun’s rays scattering into a rainbow over the dark forest.
“Those falls,” Twilight said as she pointed, “lead down to the Brisarheim reserve. So they are our compass. We’ll have to remember our bearings once we enter the Edelholz, since the canopy of the forest completely blocks out the light of the sun.”
“So I guess this is where I step up to go on the offensive, right?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Twilight blinked. “Offensive? We’re not looking to start a fight here, Rainbow.”
The cerulean Pegasus rolled her eyes, “It’s a buckball reference, egg-head. It means…” She sighed frustratedly. “You really aren’t a sports pony, are you?”
“We’ll have time ta give Twilight th’ third degree ‘bout buckball later, Rainbow,” Applejack cut in. “Fer now, we gotta keep our eye on the ball.”
Rainbow smirked sidelong at the palomino. When Applejack realized what she said, she put her face in her forehoof.
“Let’s… let’s just git on with it.”
The path, which had formerly been relatively smooth and earthy, became gravelly and rough. The Edelholz Forest was upon the five before they knew it. The trees’ canopy was exactly as Twilight had described. Even from a few scores of hooves’ distance, the inside of the forest and the innumerable leaves were nearly nocturnal even with the sunlight shining down. The pale bark of the trees did little to brighten either the forest interiors or the band’s prospects within.
Twilight sighed. “We might as well rest now while we’re at the edge of Edelholz. Day and night won’t matter while we’re inside. We’ll have to keep on as straight a path as possible from where we are, to keep as short a path between us and Brisarheim.”
“Lookie, that tree’s got a knothole in it!” Pinkie said cheerily, pointing at a tree in front of them, directly in line with the waterfall.
“Well spotted, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “Let’s just hope that the stories of Edelholz’s moving trees are exaggerated and that it stays there after our rest.”
Applejack’s ears pressed flat against her head.
“Ah don’ like this. Mah hairs are standin’ up on the back a’ mah neck.”
Rainbow Dash eyed a cloud passing by over the forest.
“That cloud’s being guided by Pegasus magic. I can tell. This ain’t no Everfree we’re dealing with here.”
“Maybe not, Rainbow Dash, but we should still exercise caution,” warned Twilight. “I haven’t read as much as I could on the Edelholz or its Beast, so we really should stick together.” She stared at her hooves. “I wish that Fluttershy and Spike were here.”
“So do we all, darling,” Rarity said with a consoling hoof outstretched. “They’re our friends, and… Spike is your son.”
“Not just that, Rarity… Fluttershy would know a lot more about the fauna of the Edelholz than I would, maybe even more about The Beast than me. This is the territory surrounding Brisarheim, and her enthusiasm for the Breezies was… quite self-evident.” Her ears drooped. “I’m not a bad pony for thinking of Fluttershy mostly as being ‘useful’, am I?”
“Hey. Egg-head.”
Rainbow Dash floated up to Twilight and tapped her sharply on the head.
“Quit belly-aching about things like that. It ain’t helping you at all. We got a goal in our sights, so all we gotta do is to go for it. Yeah, we got our setbacks, but we gotta keep going regardless.”
Twilight looked up at Rainbow. Was that it? Was it really that simple? Was she really over-thinking this situation?
“But, Fluttershy could be useful here, and…”
“Nopony here is arguin’ that, sugar-cube,” Applejack said, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Ah mean, we really coulda used some a’ Fluttershy’s animal smarts right about now. There’s a whole bunch more reasons we wish Fluttershy could be here besides from her just bein’ our friend.”
Rainbow Dash had flown apart from the group and settled facing away to the west. Twilight gave a glance her way, her heart feeling heavy. Little did she know, that the cerulean Pegasus bit down on her lower lip, feeling her own heart breaking in her chest for every moment she was apart from her Fluttershy…
The evening sky cast a golden rainbow on the Adler mountains beyond the Edelholz Forest. The grass was longer and wilder by far than it was by Hayburg. This occurred to Twilight as she stirred from her afternoon rest, and it unsettled her. The Beast’s dominion over the Edelholz had not only driven the forest itself to an empty and lifeless silence, but also frightened off the fauna even some distance outside of its domain.
Twilight also noticed that Rainbow Dash had not moved from the spot she’d settled down at after she had given that small pep-talk. The cerulean Pegasus was still hunched over, and she had been joined by Pinkie Pie who was laying on her back and seemed to have fallen asleep on the spot.
Applejack raised her head and shook out her legs from their stiff sleeping posture.
“Yer up already, Twi,” the palomino commented. “Ah musta really been sawin’ logs.”
“Not really,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I just woke up myself.”
Applejack nodded vaguely, herself turning towards the place where Rainbow and Pinkie were.
“Poor Rainbow… She ain’t exactly facin’ happy times right about now.”
“You’re telling me,” replied Twilight. “And I thought that I was hurt by Fluttershy’s absence. They are − err, were fiancées, after all.”
“Might be more’n jus’ two fiancées there now, sugar-cube.”
Twilight rubbed her slightly stubbly chin.
“Well, if it makes all three of them happy. Which it was rather plain that that alter of Fluttershy’s wasn’t. But I have confidence that Fluttershy can make her see reason, and that they can all work it out. I have faith in my friends.”
A throat lightly cleared itself beside the pair, and Rarity came into view.
“May I join this conversation?” the alabaster Unicorn asked politely.
“We’re all friends here, Rarity, there ain’t no high-society decorum ya got t’observe.”
Rarity chuckled shortly and nervously.
“Yes, I do suppose we are out in the middle of nowhere at the moment.”
“But yes, we would be more than happy to allow you into our present discourse, Mademoiselle Rarity.”
Twilight blinked, and then shivered. It was the same stately accent which Applejack had affected in Harthind. Now the Earth Pony stood with a perfectly straight back parallel to the ground beneath her, bowing her head to the alabaster Unicorn. Rarity recoiled slightly, taken aback.
Applejack blew a raspberry and winked at Rarity.
“Didn’t reckon that Ah had that up mah sleeve, didja?”
Rarity blinked rapidly in bemusement.
“N-No, to be quite frank. When did…?”
“Applejack’s tutoring under her Aunt & Uncle Orange, apparently,” Twilight explained. “They seem to have been social climbers for at least as long as they’ve lived in Manehattan.”
Rarity narrowed her eyes at Applejack, as if she had just watched the palomino farmer confess to being a chupacabra. She shook her head furiously for a moment and then cleared her throat.
“Th-that’s lovely, Applejack. Really truly quite lovely. I honestly had no idea you had that in your… past.”
She smiled serenely at Applejack.
“Thank you, darling.”
“T’weren’t nothin’,” Applejack said brightly, crossing her left legs across her right legs.
“It makes me feel better about my own… slip-up last night. At the tavern.”
“Ah know. Ah don’ judge. Yer still th’ same Rarity as Ah’ve ever known.”
The alabaster Unicorn blushed pink.
“Your mother and father would be proud of you.”
It was Applejack’s turn to flush.
Twilight coughed softly but sharply, before continuing in a hushed tone, “Weren’t we going to discuss the Cyclops in the room, girls? Rainbow Dash’s… Pie predicament?”
Applejack and Rarity looked at the cerulean Pegasus and the rosy Earth Pony.
“It’s… certainly quite the conundrum that Rainbow Dash has found herself in,” commented Rarity. “I myself am not a mare for love-herds, but I am perfectly happy for those who find the right ponies. As for Rainbow Dash, though… I’m not entirely sure. Pinkie certainly seems enthusiastic enough about being together with two ponies to make up for it, but if Rainbow & Fluttershy are not open to a love-herd, nevermind Fluttershy’s alter, then what other recourse does Pinkie have for this… blessing?”
“I can hear every word you’re all saying, you know.”
The trio jumped at the flicks of Rainbow Dash’s ears.
“Oh, of − of course, we’re terribly sorry, Rainbow Dash, darling,” Rarity said nervously.
“It’s rude to talk about people who are listening, too,” the cerulean Pegasus added.
“Rainbow, quit it,” snapped Applejack. “We jus’ weren’t thinkin’.”
“Of course you weren’t.”
Twilight brought a hoof to her face.
“Look, can we give it a rest? Bickering like this won’t stop Discord faster.”
“Easy enough for you to say. You’ve got your special somepony with you.”
Twilight felt her heart leap in her ribcage, and her face felt like it was on fire. Pinkie stirred, staring up between Rainbow and the nearby trio.
“What’s shakin’, Dashie? You look a little red.”
Rainbow looked down at Pinkie with contempt.
“How can you be so happy right now? You like both me and Fluttershy, right? And Fluttershy isn’t here, so how can you be happy without her here?!”
Pinkie rolled over and scrambled to her hooves, looking a little less pink than usual.
“It’s… because I got you here, Dashie. I really really really really love you and just because Shysie isn’t here doesn’t mean that I can’t be happy because I got you here.”
“Well, I really love Fluttershy, Pinkie, and I don’t like you like that, and being hurried into a love-herd like this with you and Fluttershy has got my head all twisted around like I really don’t need right now. And now Fluttershy’s half the world away from us right now, locked in some sort of Staring contest with an alter that I didn’t know existed a day ago! How can I possibly be happy with all that happening?”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. “You’re not helping us at all right now! Look what you’re doing to Pinkie!”
The rosy Earth Pony was no longer rosy at all. She had shifted entirely to blue, her ears flat against her head and her mane and tail slack and wavy. Her lips were quivering and her forehooves pulled up to her chest.
Rainbow drew in a sharp gasp, biting her lip.
“Oh jeez, Pinkie, I didn’t mean to―”
“It’s okay, Dashie,” Pinkie sniffled. “It’s just my heart, it can heal from being broken.”
“Pinkie… you’re gonna make me cry too.”
Pinkie flipped her tongue out along each eye to sop up her own tears.
“Wh-Who’s crying here, Dashie? I’m alright.”
“It’s okay to be sad, Pinkie,” said Twilight, putting a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “It can’t be healthy to pretend not to feel a certain way.”
“I know what you mean, Twilight,” added Rainbow Dash. “I kinda just tell it like it is, you know?”
Twilight glowered at Rainbow.
“You’re not off the hook, you know. Just because you don’t feel that way for her doesn’t mean you have to throw her feelings back in her face. There’s honesty and then there’s just being tactless.”
“Why would I have tacks anyway? It’s not like ponies can be domesticated or anything.”
Twilight growled through gritted teeth. Rainbow Dash could be so impossible sometimes.
“What Twilight means is thatcha need to mind how yer words affect other ponies, sugar-cube,” Applejack cut in. “Some ponies are a mite sensitive and might not like whatcha got ta say.”
“We’re all friends here, though, darling,” Rarity said. “If something is bothering you, don’t keep it inside, or it might come out horrible and ugly and hurt somepony you love. All of us miss Fluttershy, you know, so please don’t act like you’re suffering alone.”
Rainbow Dash swallowed the lump forming in her throat. She was definitely not crying. She was too awesome and cool to cry. She… had just caught something in her eye, and it was definitely not tears. It was just… spontaneous salt-water forming from the air. Still, she found herself wiping away her eyes with one of her primaries.
“I’m sorry, Pinkie,” she said to the rosy Earth Pony. “I don’t know if I like you the same way. I don’t even know if I’m a love-herd kinda pony. But in hindsight, it shouldn’t be surprising that you like me like that. I am pretty awesome like that.”
“Rainbow Dash!” growled Twilight.
“What? I’m not wrong.”
Pinkie chuckled lightly.
“She really isn’t wrong, Twilight.”
Applejack took in and let out a deep slow breath.
“So, Ah reckon that once we’ve sorted ourselves out from this little episode, we’re gonna mosey on through the Edelholz by that… didn’t there used ta be big ol’ knotholed tree over there?”
Twilight spun quickly back to the forest. The nearest line of trees looked completely different than they had been before the five of them had settled down… didn’t they?
“I’m… I’m not seeing things, am I? Those branches look off from how they were when we first showed up, right?”
“It’s difficult to say, darling,” Rarity said with narrowed eyes. “I have a fine eye for details, but not necessarily for trees.”
“Ah don’ like the looks a’ this at all,” said Applejack in a low voice. “Ah know trees, but Ah’m not gettin’ a good feelin’ from these trees.”
Rainbow blinked at Applejack, “How can you get a feeling from trees? They’re just trees!”
“When you’ve worked with trees all yer life like Ah have, you begin ta git a feelin’ for how trees should be. The roots a’ these trees don’t seem as dug in as before. An’ Ah feel somethin’ in the air… somethin’ Ah can’t rightly figger…”
“Isn’t that just the fog, AJ?” Pinkie asked, her complexion back to normal.
Twilight paused.
“Fog?”
As the five of them had come to discourse over Rainbow Dash’s feelings about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, a pale fog had risen up around them. The sun and sky vanished, replaced with a thick haze. They could have been in an endless field of wild grass engulfed in clouds.
Twilight swallowed nervously.
“Well,” she said, trying to sound braver than she felt, “this day is going great.”
Rainbow stood on her hind legs and flapped her wings fiercely several times.
“My Pegasus magic isn’t affecting this at all!”
“This can’t be right, the sky was as clear as anything when we came to,” said Rarity.
“It has ta be the trees,” Applejack said. “Ah’m tellin’ ya, it has ta be.”
“Killer trees, Applejack?” Rarity replied, skeptical. “I highly doubt that plantlife can be deadly.”
“Remember that treant on the way to the Crystal Mountains, Rarity? Flora can be quite lethal. But even this… this is not how plants should affect things with their magic.”
“Can’t Dashie just fly up and see what way to go through the forest from here?” asked Pinkie.
“I’ve been trying, Pinkie!” cried Rainbow, fruitlessly beating her wings. “Something is keeping me from taking off!”
Twilight breathed heavily out through her nostrils.
“So… we have to move forward, then. Assuming that the grass didn’t move us while we were asleep, we should still be in line with Brisarheim. If we just… go in perpendicular to the line of trees…”
“In Equus, please, egg-head.”
Sighing, Twilight said slowly, “If we just go straight forward through the trees, we should still be on the right course. Everypony behind me? Let’s go!”
And Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow followed her through the gaps between the trees into the Edelholz.
Crossing the threshold brought a sharp and immediate change. The light of the sunset completely died, leaving only dim ambient light. The air went oppressively quiet, pressing into the ponies’ ears.
The Everfree was not this quiet.
No forest was this quiet.
Twilight gritted her teeth, “Well… from here on, we should try to stay as straight as possible. Brisarheim should be almost directly ahead of us.”
Applejack pulled her hat back, “We’ll be right behind ya, sugar-cube.”
And the five trotted forward deeper into the Edelholz Forest in silence.
Or rather, in near-silence.
“So, Rarity,” began Rainbow Dash, “about that thing you were blubbering about at the tavern―”
“It stays between the five of us,” Rarity replied hotly. “Tell Fluttershy if you must, but I am not who I was. Element of Honesty or not, that does not make it your business to tell others my secrets.”
Rainbow pinched her lips shut around each other, eyes nearly crossing on her muzzle.
By the light of Twilight’s horn, the band made hopeful progress through the Edelholz for a time. There was no clear path through, but cutting around the odd tree and keeping as close to a straight line as possible was a paramount priority. The pale bark of the trees reflected the pink glow of Twilight’s dwimmer shimmer quite well, but the light seemed to die in a much tighter circle around the band than it should have.
Applejack bit her lip at the feel of the earth beneath her hooves.
“Ah’m likin’ this less an’ less the deeper we get in,” she said. “This earth don’ feel alive. There ain’t no energy in it.”
“This truly is a dreadful place,” said Rarity. “It’s like there’s something here… but you can’t hear it.”
“I knowwww!” Pinkie squealed. “It’s like a jack-in-the-box that just won’t spring out no matter how much you wind it!”
“That’s… not an inaccurate description, actually,” Twilight replied.
For the Edelholz was devoid of life save for one being, one which was as old as the trees and the mountains themselves. The local fauna had long since left the forest for other climates and other niches, long since leaving the nameless forest to the beast within.
And The Beast was all too aware of where the band was.
The light by Twilight’s horn became dimmer and dimmer, despite her efforts to keep the way clear. The path ahead became harder to follow in a straight line, with bushes and brambles and low-hanging branches proving to be especially hard to part even for Applejack, but proving more pliant to the left or to the right.
“This ain’ right,” commented Applejack, her scarred and freckled face wrinkling with deep thought. “Maybe Ah’m jus’ better with apple trees, but these here plants don’t seem rightly cooperative. An’…” Green eyes narrowed. “If there ain’ no life to be drawn from th’ earth, how can any of these trees an’ bushes an’ creepers be alive?”
“The air doesn’t feel right either, AJ,” Rainbow replied, her feathers bristling slightly. “There’s something there, alright, but it’s not… answering to my magic or something. I’m not a words pony,” she added defensively.
“It’s not receptive to your magic, I imagine is what you mean,” Twilight offered.
“Yeah, what you said.”
“There’s more to this forest than… wait.” Twilight’s ears flicked about. “Did any of you hear that?”
It was the quietest, most distant thing, but in the dead silence of the Edelholz, it cut like Queen Celestia’s legendary sun-sword through stone. It was low and thrumming, but there was a harmony to it as it rose and fell like a metronome.
It was singing.
Twilight grit her teeth, matrices aligning instinctually in her alicorn.
“It’s The Beast!” she hissed to her friends. “Stay close, and keep your ears down! I’m casting the sound-muffling aura now!”
The distant song gave way to a faint buzzing, and Twilight increased her pace to a canter. Even the sounds of her friends behind her became more muffled, but the lavender Unicorn dared to take her eyes off the path ahead. The light around her became dimmer still, the trees and bushes seemed closer still in the straightaway, and Twilight was sure that there were peripherals that she saw something move in the dark.
“Remember, girls,” Twilight explained lowly, “that if we get separated, keep trying to move in the direction that we’ve been heading. Keep your ears low, don’t listen to the singing, and don’t make eye contact.”
It was too quiet. Even their hoofsteps had left her.
Twilight would chance it. She stopped and looked askance over her shoulder.
Her heart clenched.
She was alone.
Biting her bottom lip, let the sound-muffling spell drop.
“GIRLS!” she shrieked immediately, her ears flat against her skull. Twilight continued to scream out for her friends, calling their names, even as she was sure that she’d damaged her vocal chords. But even as her horn’s light faded to darkness entirely, and even as her throat and lungs screamed their pain in protest of Twilight’s screams, she still called out for her friends.
And in between her screams, a low song tried to reach her.
Twilight looked over behind her and cried desperately for Applejack, turning forward to ascertain the clearest path ahead…
Eyes in the dark filling her vision… disgustingly pale and unnaturally pastel colors, the like of which shouldn't be on such a creature… pale melon-red pupils ringed by sickly fading yellow leading to a milky cataracted blue… They glowed and bulged outwards while pulsating and shifting sizes, as if maggots wriggling in the sockets…
Reason left Twilight. A pink blast of light and energy bowled The Beast over, and Twilight galloped at full speed over screaming faces frozen into its bark. The lavender Unicorn pressed onwards past dark trees and black bushes, driven only by the instinct called survival. The song rose and tried to force its way into her skull, to lull her into its captivity. The darkness tried to close in, but she pressed on. Twilight’s heart and breath pounded in her ears, blocking out all else in a way that magic could not.
How long did Twilight Sparkle run through the Edelholz? Had it been minutes? Hours? Days? She could not say for certain. All of her books didn’t matter. The Queens and their true nature didn’t matter. Even her friends did not matter. All that mattered was keeping out of the clutches of The Beast for even a moment longer.
The light broke over her before she knew it, and a sweet smell of flowers and the sound of falling water came to her, and the relief was so overwhelming that Twilight fell back into blackness before she registered the scores of tiny eyes taking her in.
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I'm sorry... but what?
9471159
Rarity is transgender; specifically a trans woman.
A trans woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth.
9471635
I know what a trans is, but this seems really out of left field and... kind of shoehorned.
9471712
That is a very fair assessment. I had done some very faint foreshadowing in the past -- mostly in the past book when Rarity was Discorded and speaking in a raspier sort of voice than usual -- but this was the most blatant that I'd ever gotten. In my defense, Rarity has had some Feuerfest brew which has loosened her tongue a bit about what is apparently a closely guarded personal secret.
9471712
Actually, this has been foreshadowed since AT LEAST 'A Mystery Wrapped In A Riddle Wrapped Inside an Igneous!
And in 'She Who Lies At The High Eyries', it's both subtly AND non subtly referenced.
Only male peacocks have tail feathers like that; in fact, having peacock feathers at ALL means that logically she has to be trans; otherwise it would be 'peahen-like tailfeathers'
Self affirmation on her current name and gender identity.
The most absolutely BLATANT reference is in 'The Deepening Discord'
She cuts herself off, but given the rest of the information; she's also still an explicit user of false eyelashes in this universe.
In 'Crusading Among Chaos' he gets even more and more blatant about Rarity's gender identity; not only is Rumble (or as she now goes by, Tumble) revealed to be thinking about her own identity, but this exchange occurs;
The reason there are no pictures of Rarity before her cutie mark is because she transitioned after getting her mark and did not want her old photos around; her parents and Sweetie both know this and are respecting her privacy by not outing her unwillingly.
From the same chapter, another reference is made
In 'Back on Track', Fluttershy's alter's possible gender identity is discussed and Rarity is not subtly involved.
Note the emphasis on crossing her legs and her near nervous response.
So, no, this absolutely didn't come from nowhere; it was decided upon by at least early December, 2015, if I recall. (I talk regularly with Amras Felagund and serve as somewhat of a proofreader/idea bouncer/best friend who talks endlessly with him, if you're wondering how I know the specific date).
9471846
Wow, a lot to unpack with this chapter. First of all, excellent work on this. I didn't you add in a pony version of Adolf Hitler.Nor did I expect you to make Twilight a descendent of him. And I also notice that you reference both Queen Novo and the Abyssinians from the MLP movie , so I'm going to assume that the Harpies of Stamfani are the same species as the bird pirates that the Mane Six met in said movie, am I right?
Hold the phone and the mayo, Rarity was a colt?!
And I see you are setting up for Starlight and Sunburst , nice.
And why do I get the feeling that the Beast is actually a Timber Wolf?
9472376
Rarity was always a mare; she just didn't always know it, is the more polite way of saying it. Already commented on the amount of foreshadowing that went into this, so it should make it easier to put it all together
Also, knowing what The Beast is is really dependent on knowing where he comes from
9471864
it kinda makes it feel obvious in hindsight... (albeit probably not as obvious as the romance between Korra and Asami in Avatar...)
Doesn't make it any less shoe-horned in. Though that makes me wonder, is
heshe actually a biological male that decided to be an apache helicoptermare?9479626
Oh, clever. like no one's heard that joke before. That joke absolutely isn't so overplayed that I definitely don't immediately think of you lesser for not being clever enough to even come up with an original joke, definitely not. You are a comedic genius, Mr/Ms. 'Using the 'I identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter' joke in 20-fucking-19 like a complete fucking hack'. Seriously, it's 2019. That joke is 5 years old and rotting; you can't come up with a better joke than that cheap ass beaten into a pulp dead horse? If not for you, then for everyone who has to listen to your jokes; they deserve better comedy.
You already had 770 days to jump ship when Tumble announced she felt more like a girl back in 'Crusading Among Chaos', at this point, you should've gotten the hint that this story is pretty damn pro trans; hell, they briefly brought up the concept of having a different gender than your physical sex with Fluttershy's alter, again, you've had more than a year to decide to jump ship.
If you aren't anti-trans, what more do you want from Amras to make it not shoe-horned in? It's been planned for four years, taken into account for literally the rest of his plans for the series, is an integral part of Rarity's story and has been for, again, one year shy of half a decade. What more do you want, for him to tap dance to a musical number about how while unplanned, earlier story elements can fit this interpretation? Want me to? I may not be able to tap dance and I'd have to find a decent song, but I can.
Rarity has/had a penis. She grew up uncomfortable in her own body until she 'decided' or rather, as most people in polite, civilized society, or at least those who aren't living in the 20th century say, 'understood/recognized' that the discomfort she felt was called dysphoria, and began transitioning to appear as feminine and female as she was on the inside, so she would not experience the legitimate medical condition recognized by actual, qualified medical professionals and biological scientists as body dysmorphia.
And as to why I'm so angry/care so much? I have transgender friends. People who I consider part of my family and I would protect with my life.
Loving the story. Looking forward to what happens next, I love the somewhat darker nature of Harmonia and the way you expand the world to well beyond the show's parameters. I do occasionally have minor issues like the part with Lyra and Bon-Bon the descriptions seemed a bit off, as I don't remember either of them being apple-green. aside from occasional things like that, I give this at least an 8/10. Happy Writing!
Also is there going to be at some point in your blog or in the author's notes a thing for all the cryptogram things in this story and 1.5?
9483031
I've been going by the Friendship Is Magic Wikia's descriptions of the colors, and "light apple greenish gray" is the description of Bon Bon's coat color. I must have cut it down a bit too much and thus made it confusing.
9483095
The codes to decipher are hidden letter by letter in Book II's chapters, but by my own admission they can be really difficult to parse out. I will try to amend this in later chapters, and I will release the deciphering codes for the first half of Chaoskamπf in the near future.
9483031
he uses the mlp wiki for his coloring guide and it used to describe Bon Bon's coat as light apple green cause she is technically the color of apple flesh, but now it says cream, and he's a slave to the wiki. He's incorrigible, I know XP. But as long as it doesn't seriously detract from the story, I usually let the minor color things like that slide. He likes big words.
9483164
Looking at the wiki, I can kind of see where you got the color, it's more akin to the inside part of an apple. When you said apple green I was thinking more around a Granny Smith color. Anyways, it wasn't that big of a deal, it had me scratching my head for a bit before I moved on. Frankly, I found your description of her special talents to be more interesting than her coat color, reminded me of a fan character called Bubblegum Kiss who is, shall we say, very flexible. Anywho, I am not very smart with codes, being as the last time I did anything with a code of this sort was around 15+ years ago. Enjoyed the story to this point, and will look forward to updates as they come along, might even do some fan-art, as I like the semi-realistic style that you borrowed from EarthSong on Deviantart.
Prost!
9483164
you gonna update this again?
is this getting updates?
IT LIVES
Well, I took a lot longer to get back to this than I ought, so know you’re not the only one.
Man, these mares have got to work on their timing for discussing personal issues.
I was just thinking about this series. It's been over two years since it was updated :(
Can you summarize everything that happened in this story? I had a vision problem and I have about 100 stories to read, I won't have time to read the big ones anymore
9483164
How's it going?