Summers of Change

by Silver Letter

Extra Chapter

Pixel Wavelength goes to bed after drinking too much wine one night at home. As soon as her eyes close, she falls in a deep dream, the kind where her whole body is totally relaxed. It’s something that’s happened to her a lot in her life. There are unusual dreams, not like the kind most ponies have. She would dream of Ferris before she even met him. When they were apart, she would dream of her future husband.

She’s a child often in these dreams. While many ponies stop reflecting on their youth, it only comes back to her stronger. Her dad is there more and more. Sometimes reliving their camping trips together or building a machine together. It’s always something she remembers. But this dream is different than the rest.

She can tell right away because she can’t recognize anything. She’s in some shed she’s never seen before. She also can’t control herself which is not something she’s used to. Her head looks around. There is a field of wheat off in the distance, golden in the sun. A house stands not far off. The shed –or is it a garage- is full of tools. A stallion stands before her. It’s her dad but he’s so young. Younger than she’s ever seen him, even in pictures. He scrapes a chisel against a piece of wood and blows dust away. Pixel tries to speak but her commands fail to move her lips.

Her dad picks up the piece of wood, a kind of curved thing like a crown. It has Pixel’s wavy emblem in the front.

“Princess…this is for you.”

He holds it towards her head with his eyes staring at her lovingly. She wants to scream at him to stop it but it is no use. She wants to resist what he’s saying. She wasn’t a princess! She was his daughter! It is put on her head and it is so heavy. There is a mirror behind her dad. In it, she sees a fuzzy image in one of the windows of the house. She tries to focus on it. A purple head and a long flowing mane just like the one Princess Luna has. It’s far and she can’t tell if it’s her or not. Suddenly, two mechanical hooves grips her shoulders and forces her to gaze into the eyes of Ferris Spark. They are black pools. Pixel is thrown back into the darkness of her bedroom. Her eyes are wide and unblinking. She sits up and takes a deep breath. Her dad was there….Ferris was there….what happened?

She gets up. Her heart is pounding and she has a terrible headache. Her husband is still sleeping like a foal. She goes to the kitchen and starts a pot of coffee.

The first thing she does is to turn on her computer. The blue screen lights up the family room at 4:30 in the morning. It boots up quickly and she types up the address to a major social hub on the internet. Ferris had made his most recent status update at 12:30. He’s still in dragon country apparently. Good for him, she thinks.

Satisfied that she hasn’t seen some kind of bad future, she decides to check up on Poniverse early today. She drinks her coffee and updates her blog. She does that every day to talk about the things she’s into and how her company is doing. Her internet company is one of the most popular in the empire and there is no shortage of praise towards her being the “princess of the internet” after all those years. She may be beloved in the industry and by ponies all over Equestria but she never lets it go to her head. Her updates are of things close to her. She loves it when ponies congratulate her daughter on passing a grade or being in the elementary school play. She won’t pass up an opportunity to do the same to her fans. She’ll show her love for them in more ways than one.

While she’s responding to a message on her forums, she notices that her mom has sent her a message on her personal page at the Poniverse social network. She had no idea that her mom would be up so early. She types back. One of the things Pixel never got into was shorthand texting on the internet. It makes sense in a way. Royalty always have to be proper.

Pixel sips her coffee as her mother types. The speech indicator moves.

Words appear. “Up early?” Smiley face.

Furious typing. “I had a nightmare. Aren’t you up early?”

“Nope…i’m ok. Older ponies like me don’t mind watching the sun rise…what do you mean about a nightmare? You ok?”

“It was just weird, mom. Never had anything like that before. I must have had too much to drink.”

“dad and I always told you to watch it”

“I’m almost 40, mom. Strangely enough, I was in this garage. Dad was there but he was really young. Did he ever have long bangs over his eyes?”

A few seconds pass and Pixel takes a long gulp of coffee.

“As a matter of fact he did! He must have told you”

“Nopony ever did. The oldest photo I’ve seen is after he met you. Anyway, he was carving his old wooden crown. It was totally weird. He always made practical stuff.”

Pixel waits for her mother’s reply but for some reason, it doesn’t arrive. She then notices that the little status icon has changed, telling her that her mother’s gone. She sighs and stares at her empty coffee cup. She doesn’t know why her mother left like that but she’s not going to worry. She replies to the pony on her forums then gets up.

A few hours later, the normal bustle fills her small kitchen. She has made breakfast for her family. Fried potatoes and eggs. Little Prism is eating some with a fork and her husband is reading the daily paper.

“Diamond is thinking about coming for a visit soon,” he says casually. “I haven’t seen her since the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Pixel barely hears him. “That will be nice, dear.”

After Prism eats, Pixel escorts her to the bus stop and she goes to school. Then she goes and cleans up after the family while her husband is getting his things. He still works for the school so he’ll be gone just like her daughter for most of the day.

After her husband leaves, Pixel cleans up around the house. She dusts the furniture, rubs oil over the wooden table, and mops the floor. She goes into Prism’s room and picks up a few toys and her pink blanket. Then she goes over some reports on the company’s expenses. She uses her computer to enter various figures on a virtual spreadsheet.

By then, it’s the afternoon. She wanted to get to cleaning the windows but that can wait until tomorrow. She’ll go pick up Prism in an hour. She decides to go and nap in her bed and catch up on some sleep. She lies in her dark room and sets the alarm.

When her head meets the pillow, she falls into a deep slumber. Pixel doesn’t even feel a transition. One second, she’s in the waking world and then it’s gone. She’s in her old house again and she’s no longer tall. Judging from her height, she must be about ten years old. The house is dark and there are no sounds of her parents. She can move this time and goes to lift one of the curtains from a window but she can’t look outside. The light is blinding. She lowers it and moves around until she comes across the door leading downstairs to the basement. The door is ajar and a faint blue light emanates from below.

Pixel is merely curious of the light and follows it downstairs. There, she finds her old workbench. The basement is like it used to be with her many tools and diagrams hanging from wires from a pipe crossing the ceiling. In the middle is the old box she had for her first significant invention, sitting alone like a gift.

The memories flood her mind. She lived her entire childhood in that basement. Her main companion was her dad and he’s nowhere to be found. But at least she can still see the precious device that helped to make her. She steps heavily on the stairs and reaches the table. The box is coated in dust. She lifts the lid off and is taken aback to see that wooden crown inside instead.

With all her strength, she shoves it away and it slides across the table like it could reach out and bite her. She backs up and stumbles on her hooves. She thinks she is going to hit the hard wall behind her but instead she is caught by a wall of warmth. But as she does, the blue light goes out and she can see nothing. She is held by two arms, their thick coat that prickles her soft body is like her father used to be. It shushes her but there is no breath from whatever it is. She screams into the darkness. The buzzing of her clock forces her awake. A blue light flashes like a strobe in her room until she turns it off.

Pixel is totally confused but she can’t sit and ruminate about that second dream of hers. She has to go and pick up Prism. She drives to the school and finds her waiting with some friends. She waits for Sapphire and takes them both home.

“How was your day, dear?” he inquires.

Pixel is still on edge even as she scans the road for foals. “It was normal. Not much happened,” she lies.

---

She asks Sapphire to make dinner today so she can go to a small appointment. He says it would be no problem to make something. Pixel drives to her mother’s house. She parks and gets out. It’s windy and leaves fly down the neat and repaired sidewalk. The house is surrounded by a yard full of flowers these days. Her mother spends most of her time gardening and talking about gardening. She’s always loved to take care of things.

Pixel opens the front door and sees her mother in the kitchen. She is wearing an apron.

“Hello, Pixel. It’s so nice for you to come and visit,” she says.

“I know. I’m sorry I haven’t come as much as I should.”

Her mother looks amused and her cheeks wrinkle as she smiles. “That’s nonsense, dear. You are the busiest pony I know.”

Her mother was always the cheery one in the house. She and her husband were like night and day sometimes. Every now and then, they would clash but not by anything like arguing or, Celestia forbid, fighting. It was just kind of by existing. Still, Pixel would be in the middle of it in her own solitary island of seriousness. It’s the same now even though Pixel’s father has been gone for years but she’s still a serious filly.

“Are you making pie?” Pixel looks at her apron that has flour on it.

“It’s for the bake sale,” her mother says. “I have extra if you want a piece.”

“I suppose that sounds good. Go ahead and cut me one. I’ll be right back.”

Pixel walks down the hall and creeps up to the basement door. It’s shut tight. She opens it and turns on the light so she can see down the stairs. It’s been given a light blue carpeting. At the bottom, she looks around at the renovated place that was once the home of her childhood. Her mother has turned it into a guest bedroom and a central coffee table and a potted plant lies where her worktable once was. A computer sits on a desk next to the far wall. The only thing left from the past is the metal pipe above her.

Later, the two of them are eating pie in the kitchen. Pixel uses her fork to stab through the flaky crust. Her mother always had a knack for baking. Pixel used to think that she should have been a chef but she never pursued anything like that. She had no ambition.

“How is the computer?” Pixel asks.

Her mother swallows then pats her mouth with a towel. “Well, I like it. I like talking to ponies on it.”

Pixel throws a pointed glance at her mother. “Well, you sort of stopped talking to me this morning if you recall.”

“I guess I was just a bit tired. That does happen to ponies my age, you know.” Pixel can hear a flustered tone in her voice.

“Sure but it’s just a bit strange that you did that right after talking about dad. But maybe it was just nothing. And again, there was this dream I had, remember? I talked to you about seeing dad and he was young. Do you have any pictures of him I can see?”

Her mother’s head sinks and she sighs. “I’m afraid not. His old photos were lost in an accident before you were born. He was a very strong stallion back then. He wanted to be rich in both wealth and life experience. At least one of those came to pass.”

Pixel can feel her composure weakening. She misses her dad a lot but she has to stay strong. “He used to talk to me about being a princess. Well, I wanted to when I was young. I think he just loved to humor his little girl at times but maybe it was something more.” Pixel looks at her mother’s sad eyes. “Did he ever make me a crown made of wood?”

To Pixel’s surprise, her mother shook her head firmly. “The crown was made for his first love and that would be me.”

“Can you tell me where that was?”

A nostalgic smirk grows on her face. “I can tell you the exact spot where I got it.”

---

Pixel knows that this is a very strange journey she is going on. She is going to find that crown. Ever since she found out it existed, she has thought of the many reasons why her father would have made it. If it belongs to her mother then in a way, it belongs to her too.
Sapphire and Prism are staying behind for this. They’ll be fine while she’s away. He was great at taking care of his daughter by himself after all. Pixel doesn’t plan to be gone long. She decides to fly to the town of Ponyville.

This town she sees is where her father was born. She never knew much about it other than it was a very lonely town where little happened. Pixel doesn’t believe it though. That has to be things ponies say about a place they’ve never been to. But as a carriage takes her through the town past town hall along Mane Street, she can’t be certain that there’s anything worth seeing in such a place.

It’s so rural that the carriage is all they had to take her from the regional airport to town. She feels hungry so she has it stop near a very lively looking bakery. She buys a couple donuts and coffee and consumes them on the way to her destination.

She figures that she has arrived when she sees it. Her mother didn’t know the address but told her what to look for. An old white house and a garage. She gets out and pays the carriage stallion. As it leaves, she takes in her surroundings. The garage is next to a crest leading up to a decayed stone wall a couple feet high and then a bare tree with thick and twisted limbs. She walks towards the house and knocks.
She talks to the owner of the place briefly. Her name is Cheerilee, a longtime resident of town. Pixel is granted permission to take a look at the old garage. She walks inside. It smells like urine and rust. There’s so much junk around that she has to step around it lightly.

“I last saw it in the garage,” her mother said. Pixel doesn’t know where to begin looking for it. There’s lots of places where something that small would be hiding. She first goes through places where a pony might overlook. She stands on a box and looks in the nooks next to the rafters then behind a steel cabinet coated in spider webs.

Pixel walks outside and breathes in the fresh air. She looks up and gazes at the old tree. She wonders if it’s still alive. She decides to walk up the stone strewn crest and steps over the wall. It is very peaceful up there so she sits and listens to the silence all around her.
Pixel thinks about her mother, father and Ponyville. The two of them, as young ponies, met here and walked the very streets that she had just traveled. They might have gone to the same bakery she went to. But she knows for sure that they first kissed under this very tree and it meant that love blossomed here even if flowers can’t. Her mother said plenty before she left. Her father had first started carving things in that workshop behind her. There is so much family history here and she had no idea that it ever existed.

She gets up. She doesn’t think that there is anything left to find in this place. It had all disappeared. But before she can turn to leave, something in the pile of rocks catches her eye. Kneeling, she pushes some of the rocks away and exposes a piece of wood. She hurries and rapidly uncovers what she was searching for. Her mark, the three waves, stares her right in the face. What an incredible find it is.

As a filly, she wondered what it would be like to wear a crown. Now, the same temptation is felt in her hooves. She picks up the crown and delicately balances it on her brow above her horn. It is cold and heavy. Suddenly, her entire body becomes stiff as if she is paralyzed. The world is consumed in blue and her horn charges full of electricity that courses through her. She begins to move against her will. There is a line of black smoke and she follows it like she is a bloodhound going on a hunt. It leads her away from the house and past the field. A forest she has never seen is in front of her.

It makes her walk through the forest, seemingly without end. She can’t stop, even for rest. Day and night comes but they barely make a difference in the blue infused light that she sees. There is no obstacle that gets in her way. She can see glowing eyes hiding out in the darkness but they seem to flee in terror.

She doesn’t know how many days pass. Maybe even a week is gone. Her body is absolutely frail by the time she comes across to a deep canyon. She doesn’t know if her body will drop off the edge and die. A bridge leads to ruins shrouded by fog. Her body walks down steep steps on its own, down to the bottom of the canyon.

Down there, at the very end, Pixel finds a cave and within it, her body finally collapses. Her lungs ache and she wheezes. Barely lifting her head, she sees another tree but not like any she’s seen before. It glows with a faint light. Trails of jewel-like orbs hang on glittering strings from its radiating branches. She can only gasp at its sight.

A star in the very center opens and a beam of light shoots towards the crown on her head and the world starts to spin.

---

Pixel blinks her eyes and her senses return. She staggers upward, bewildered. She is floating alone with rivers of light and stars all around. It is the most strange of worlds she can imagine.

“Pixel.”

She does an about face and there in front of her, is her father, the stallion she once knew and looked up to when things like that mattered most. He looks handsome, weathered, and strong. It is as if time has stopped for him.

Pixel can only beam at him. She could only ever beam since she feels no fear. “I have your crown, daddy,” she says.

“I can see and you look quite beautiful in it,” he says.

“It’s just a piece of wood though.”

He shakes his head. “It’s far more than that. It was made for a reason. Your mother was given it for a reason. Do you think it’s all been a coincidence? That your father would be a carpenter and would have made a crown and that his filly would grow to also become a princess but one born of good deeds, and not anything less. You are a self-made mare and have embraced your path in life. It’s the path of love, faith and the devotion that only a true princess carries.”

Pixel feels a sinking feeling in her chest as she stares at her father. His eyes are unusual, a shade of light blue.

“You never saw your granddaughter grow up or me going out on my own after I left Ferris,” she says.

He goes and takes her hoof in his. “Enough was seen. You can trust in the Tree of Harmony. If you didn’t think I was there for you, there wouldn’t have been enough love in your heart and where would you be then? Would you have wanted a daughter of your own? And the ponies…would you love them then?”

“I don’t know,” Pixel whispers. She closes her eyes shut.

“You have to believe. Believe in your crown.”

“I don’t know!”

“You have to. It was meant for you. Don’t believe it for me or your mother or anypony else. Do it for yourself.”

“The crown…yes.” She touches it with her hoof and removes it. When it enters her sight, she sees a brilliant silver crown. It barely weighs anything. Pixel is stunned. She’s never seen anything like that in her life. Even the wave symbol is made of diamonds.

“You are one of the chosen few to lead us in a new world,” her father says. “We will need you for this task.”

“Who has chosen me?”

“We have. You must understand that things were set into motion long ago. All it took was you overcoming the trials set before you.” He takes the crown and sets it on Pixel’s head. “A world without end or boundaries. A crown of silver, a throne of silicon, and a sword of knowledge. The line of Pixel Wavelength, the blood of a princess, shall continue on for an age.”

Her father then turns around and walks into the void. Pixel is smart enough to have realized that if the Tree of Harmony wanted to speak, it would find its own way to speak. She can’t lie and say that she wasn’t moved by seeing her father again but what was the tree and what was her real memories? They are one and the same in this strange dimension.

She finds herself alone in that cave with the tree. She feels strength flow in her veins and she stands tall. The tree is quiet. She’s seen Twilight’s coronation before. It was beautiful. If she is supposed to be a princess then it would have some kind of affair just like that. At least, that’s what she believes. Some princess she is. She walks out of the cave. The sun is setting. Pixel has no idea how to get out of the forest. She starts to worry that she may be trapped but she tries to get her mind off it. She would rather think of better things. She can see her loved ones when she closes her eyes. She thinks about her daughter. She imagines how it would be to just lift into the sky and go where she pleases. Her mind sends signals to wings she knows isn’t there and yet, there is a new feeling; something on her body moves without her saying so? It can’t be…wings? As it to try and prove herself wrong, she commands these wings to spread wide and as soon as she does, there is a whoosh of feathers and she can see them on both sides. They are as white and beautiful as her coat. It just can’t be true but it is! Only princesses have wings! Just like only a true father would call his daughter a princess even when he knows she isn’t. But those days are gone now. The filly she once was is just history. She probably can’t use her wings fully just yet. That would be naïve of her to think. But she’ll catch a favorable breeze. Ponyville is never that far away.