Prologue, Part 2: Come Morning
“No, thanks.”
When the princess told everypony who Might Rare Noon was—and before that, even—Pinkie’d had to fight pretty hard to stay in control. To not just run home and cry herself into a Pinkie-puddle.
“I appreciate the thought, dear, but I don’t think it would be best.”
She lost the battle pretty quickly. But today’d been a new day!
“We’ve, um. We’ve decided not to this year.”
Or that’s what she’d thought, anyway. Just hop headfirst back into the saddle—it did nopony else any good, her being all Weepy Pie. She’d feel better when she made sure everypony else was feeling better.
“From you? No, thank you.”
Pinkie was a pretty great planner, but that one fell apart kinda quickly.
“After what you and your little group pulled?”
She’d known ponies—plenty, plenty of ponies—who had a time when they just didn’t want to be happy. Usually it wasn’t too hard to get them to see how silly that is. This was gonna be a tougher nut to crack. Sting-y. A cactonut.
“No, Pinkie. Would you get a grip?”
But she’d do it. She had to. If she didn’t, she’d wind up just as grumpy as everypony else.
“Please get out.”
If she didn’t, what would that make her?
Rainbow was considering leaving town. Finding a new home again—maybe not even bothering to bring her house this time. But…
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said to the yellow-and-pink lump in her hooves.
The lump just shivered and kept crying.
Rainbow looked around the little cottage. Everything was moving even slower than normal. Mice trudged from hole to hole. Birds sat slumped on their perches. She sighed.
Fluttershy had done a lot for her, she knew. Always had two ears on offer when Rainbow came around with some sob story or dumb idea. Always had some soup when Rainbow was sick or just hungry. Always… made Rainbow feel important—like somepony worth all that. They didn’t fit each other, but they fit each other.
Rainbow didn’t know how to be Fluttershy for Fluttershy, though. That was all too clear.
She ran her hoof down Fluttershy’s mane again. “You did everything you could.”
She wasn’t brave enough to say, ‘More than me.’
Thunk.
Applejack was fine. Just fine.
She knew how that sounded, even in her head, but it was the honest to goodness truth! There was nopony she loved more than her kin, but stars above could they ever run her right into the ground with their worrying.
Thunk.
It had been awful, yes. She would remember it for the rest of her life and probably have a couple nightmares, yes. Would it stop her from keeping on? No!
They didn’t even know what happened past what the princess announced. They didn’t have a reason to be so worried. Not that they should’ve been like this even if Applejack had gone into the gor— the nitty-gritty details.
Thunk.
Why, if Applejack went and—
“Applejack?” said a little voice.
Applejack turned to Apple Bloom. “Yes, darlin’?” she said.
“Why are y’all, um…” She pointed past Applejack.
Applejack lifted a hoof and patted Apple Bloom’s mane. Rustled Momma’s old bow. “Just lettin’ out some stress. Don’t you worry none—the tree can take it.”
Apple Bloom frowned, saying, “Okay…”
Applejack patted her again, giving her a little noogie till she giggled. “Go on and do your chores, ’kay, hon’?”
Still giggling, Apple Bloom nodded and ran off.
Thunk.
That mare in Rarity’s mirror was far too beautiful. The way her perfect, richly colored curls played about her face. The way her coat—a white that sauntered over to gray, stroked it delicately, and left it speechless—not so much shone but caught and graciously gave back the light. The way her eyes gave that impression of sapphires drowning in thick cream.
The way they weren’t bloodshot.
Why weren’t they bloodshot?
Why wasn’t her mane frazzled and her coat unwashed?
Because this was a mare of impressions. Care and currycombs. This mare had had a sound bout of beauty sleep. A nice shower. A light, healthy breakfast.
As though she deserved—
Ugly thoughts breed ugly faces. Strive instead for stately graces. No matter what this mirror-mare had been party to, she didn’t deserve Rarity’s or anypony else’s wishes that she be as ugly as her soul surely was.
Everypony deserves to look their best.
It wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault, Dash said.
Fluttershy did everything she could, Dash said.
Everything she could.
Sunlight found its way through the curtains, thin as they were. Now was probably as good a time as any.
“Hey, Spike,” said Twilight.
A couple seconds, then from between her forehooves, “Morning, Twi.” Weak sounding.
“You didn’t, um.” Twilight told her brain to come up with something less blunt. It ambled back with, “You usually snore when you sleep.”
“You, too,” said Spike.
Twilight gripped just a little more firmly. “It wasn’t because I was holding you…?”
“No, that—” Not just weak. Twilight could hear the lump in his throat. “That helped anyway, you know?” He gripped her forehoof tighter back. “Like when we were littler.”
When they were littler.
When it was okay to forget to apply the safety precautions you’d learned because the worst you could really do was give your favorite assistant a tummy ache. And the worst that would happen was a scolding and a repeat lesson.
But now, if Twilight got up, she’d… She would just be some…
Twilight could almost feel her spent lachrymal glands trying to squeeze out a few more tears that wouldn’t come. “Spike,” she said, “I think I just want to st—”
“Me too.”
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A coin flip, huh? Intriguing. I always did love alternative universes branching off from the Summer Sun Celebration at the beginning of this series. And it seems that, though we're well into season five, people continue to make these types of stories.
I wonder what's in store . . .
6505581
You didn't misinterpret (I don't think), but a tragedy tag would imply that the story itself is technically tragic in nature, which it won't be.
6505807
There are going to be a great many liberties taken with grammar due to the nature of the perspective, and this is probably truest for Pinkie.
Thanks for your thoughts. I'd been a tad worried about the vagueness, yeah (and my pre-reader more so, though more about the bare fact that NMM actually dies), but I'm happy my not spelling it all out didn't ruin the experience or anything, at least for you.
Nice little collection of scenes, these are. Now I've got ideas swarming through my brain as to how things will proceed. I await more to this yarn most splendid, Burraku-sama.
Intriguing idea. Let's see where this goes.
6505836 Damn fimfic not notifying me of your reply.
I figured that was the case. It just threw me off because that's the only instance of it from Pinkie's section that I can recall.
And you're welcome.
I am so excited to see this story, I've been wondering about this exact premise for years. I hope to see more from Celestia in how she's handling it.
6507507 NMM's torc was loose and Twilight apparently got lucky and rammed her horn right through NMM's chest, even nicking someone's heart like that can kill them. The author is apparently going with the canon interpretation of alicorns as frequently beaten by other powerful foes, rather than the common fanon invention of them being invincible gods.
Okay, so if im getting this right. Twilight managed a nasty slasher smile/impalement on nightmare moon, and she asphyxiated on the scuffle. Or did I misinterpret where a torc would be here for sliding damage and she went for more a shot to the heart?
Wow, this is already off to a strong start. Definitely going to track this.
6993773
Hey, thanks, Denim. Frankly, though, finishing To Glimpse a Wider World is currently my major priority, slow as that also happens to be going—hasn't been a great quarter for me in terms of free time. But sure, when I finish some more (provided I'm able to remember this, by whenever that will be…), I'd love for you to have a look at it.