Friends and Fairy Tales

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 12: To Ponyville!

Author's Note:

Again, I'm not sure about the quality of this chapter, at this point with all these interruptions for the past several days, my brain is exhausted.

(Note to self: think about sisterly bonding between Dorothy and AB, along with Zecora (and Shining?) talking with Scheherazade (and Cinderella too) about having a "Am I real" crisis.)

“Great, just great!” Twilight paced around the Royal Library. Her mane was curling cowlicks as her stress levels climbed higher and higher. “How come I’m just learning about those emergency tunnels now? That expands to all over Equestria no less!”

“Twile,” her brother spoke but her sister didn’t hear it.

“So what do we do now? There’s a fictional character that’s running around with the most powerful Alicorn in existence and nopony know’s where exactly she’s gone to!”

“Twilight,” Cadence started but was too ignored.

“Not to mention that my own friends are in the same state too! Come to think of it, did any of them have the personality of a villain? What would Equestria do if a monster from a book I’ve never read were suddenly to pop up while we’re looking for Celestia’s body?”

“Uh Twilight,” the pink Alicorn said a little louder before her sister-in-law started to fly up to the ceiling.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that Luna is pretty much out cold at this point with being so sleep deprived? How are we going to find anypony at this point where I don’t exactly have a spell to even locate where any of them-”

“TWILIGHT!” the couple screamed before the Princess of Friendship could impale the ceiling.

Cadence was the one that help lowered the Alicorn back to earth. “Twilight, I know perfectly well how stressful this is on everyone and that we have so many problems. But let’s deal with them one at a time. And Twilie,” she had her use the breathing technique of drawing her foreleg close to her withers before extending it out.

“Right then, priorities first,” Shining said, turning to the map of Equestria. “We can look for your friends later, but for now we ought to focus on where Cinderella has gone to.”

“But did you forget the part when I specifically mention about ‘tunnels’ and ‘extending all over Equestria?’” Twilight deadpanned, “How are we going to find her if she could have taken any route to anywhere?”

“She has Celestia’s memories,” Cadence pointed out. “Maybe that would give us a clue.”

Both Shining and Twilight looked to her, “What do you mean?” they inquired.

“Think about it, if you were tossed into an alien world where you’ve gained the memories of somepony that knows that world like the back of their hoof – and not to mention that you’ve grown up in a household that treats you like a slave, that you want to avoid from ponies as much as possible, where would you go?”

The siblings turned to the map once more in deep thought. “She would most likely avoid the cities or the national parks,” the white unicorn said.

“And she would certainly want to keep away from anyplace that’s dangerous too…” Twilight added. “What if she goes someplace that’s rarely visited yet, familiar?”

“So that only leaves…”

Both brother and sister pointed to the only part on the map that matches up their deductions, “The Castel of the Two Sisters!”

Twilight turned to Cadence, “Do you still have that crystal train of yours? I think we need to make a stop in Ponyville.”

_*_

“Huh, this certainly gotten out of hoof pretty quickly,” Scootaloo said to herself at what was unfolding before her.

It wasn’t uncommon to see a creature or a supervillain try to take over the world starting from Ponyville. Nor was it uncommon to see some chaos going on every now and again that had nothing to do with Discord. This however took the cake.

Apparently from Peter, he suddenly decided to play a game called: “Pirate Raid.” In which the goal of it was to capture as much treasure that the foals valued as possible. Although the adults tried to stop them, colts and fillies were running off with bags and carts full of toys, candy, comic books, crayons, just to name a few.

Some of them have somehow either trapped the adults or tied and gaged them while the others made off with whatever they wanted.

Then she found the Rainbow mare as she was ransacking Sugar Cube Corner.

“Rainbow Dash!” the orange filly called out, “What are you doing!”

“Ah! Just what we need,” Peter sloop down to her scooter, “I see that candy maker has gotten loose. Go have her chase you while the others get the good stuff.”

“Have you gone insane?” Scootaloo questioned. “Rainbow-”

“Peter,” the blue Pegasus corrected.

“Whatever! Do you have any idea how much in trouble you’re getting yourself into? Don’t get me wrong, I like doing risky things as the next filly, but out right robbery?”

“We’re playing pirate-”

“This isn’t pretend!” Scootaloo shouted, in which several foals turned their heads to her. “I mean look around! Kids are robbing from their parents and their friend’s parents? Tying them up? At what point do you think that maybe, just maybe that this is going too far! For Celestia’s sake, I don’t care what or who you say you are, YOU, ARE, AN, ADULT! This isn’t you Rainbow and I know it!”

Once the filly was finished with her rant, she took noticed at the wide-eyed audience that heard her. She looked up at Peter who blinked.

“I couldn’t say it better myself,” a voice said before Peter got smacked over the head with a ruler.

“Ow! What the-” Peter covered his aching head, looking for who hit him. And he wasn’t surprised when he found Mary and Cheerliee behind him.

“Peter Pan,” the white unicorn scolded, “I thought we’ve already talked about stealing this morning. So it’s clear that you haven’t learned anything from it, apart for leading a mob too.”

Cheerliee step forward, “All of you should be ashamed of yourselves; following a blind leader into doing all of this. Now, all of you return what you’ve stolen, give the owners an apology, and untie all the parents as well.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Peter cried, “She’ll undo all we- OW!” another smack to the back of the head.

“Come along Peter,” the nanny said as she started to walk off, taking the blue mare by the ear with her new magic. “You young man, are going to the schoolhouse, and I’m not going to allow you to leave until you write the phrase: ‘I will not steal or start a revolution,’ One hundred times.”

“But I can’t write,” The Neverland boy protested, “or count for that matter.”

“First I teach you, and then you’ll wright ‘I will not steal or start a revolution,” a hundred times.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Neither is leading a rebellion, now come along!”

It was then that a piercing stretch was heard and it was coming from the railroad tracks.

_*_

The Crystal Train pulled up to the tinny station in which the passenger car opened up to let three ponies out. Twilight was leading Cadence and Shining as they galloped towards the town. “There’s a path that goes into the Everfree,” she said. “I think if we’re lucky, we might be able to find Cinderella.”

“But what do we do if we find her?” Shining asked. “She broke through my shield for crying out loud!”

“Don’t worry,” she said as they entered into the town square. “I still know a few spells we can try to catch her.”

“Okay, and Cade, you do you have any idea where exactly she might be popping up? Cadence?” Shining looked around to find that his wife stopped a little ways behind, so taking notice, that siblings went up to her. “Hon, why are you standing around for?”

“I think I found Bluey,” she said, pointed down one of the streets to where a white unicorn was dragging a fussing blue Pegasus behind by the ear. The Princess of Love trotted over to the stallion, calling out, “Blueblood!” The blond unicorn looked to see who was calling. “Bluey, what are you doing way out here?”

Marry blinked, “You seem familiar, have we met?”

“What are you talking about? It’s me, Cadence. Your cousin?”

The nanny tilted her head, “I think I’ve seen you in my other memories. The optimistic one I think that goes around with a white knight by your side. But at the moment, I’ll have you know that I am not Prince Blueblood. My name is Mary Poppins, and this child is in desperate need of discipline.”

“Rainbow?” Twilight trotted behind, “Why are you covered in leaves?”

The Neverland boy groaned, “For the last time, it’s Peter Pan! Why can’t anybody get that righ- ow!” there was a tug on the ear.

“That’s enough from you,” Mary scolded, “You’ve already caused enough trouble for one day.” She turned back up to the trio, “Now if you’d excuse me, I have to take him to the schoolhouse.”

“Why the school?” Shining inquired.

“So I can make sure he writes out, ‘I will not steal or start a revolution,’ two hundred times.”

It was then that Twilight got an idea, “Actually, why not you go to the castle over there.” She pointed over, “There’s a huge chalkboard that I’m not using over there that’s a good deal bigger then what they have at the school.”

Mary raised an eyebrow, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, I use it to solve some complicated mathematics, but since I’m busy today, I could let you borrow it for as long as you need to. All you have to do is go right in and turned right to the first hallway until you go into the library.”

The nanny considered this for a moment, “Very well. At least it will be a shorter walk then the school. Although I still need to pick up the two other children as well.”

“What children?” Cadence asked.

“They’re two little girls that are in the same predicament as we are. There’s a yellow Pegasus name Alice and an orange pony name Dorothy. Those two should be going towards a farm called Sweet Apple… something. I hope you know what I’m referring to?”

“Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight said.

“That’s the one. If one of you could fetch them sometime and bring them over to the castle, that would be much appreciated.” The unicorn started to walk towards the Crystal structure in the center of town, dragging the rainbow mare along.

“I wish I had my dagger with me now,” Peter muttered.

“And for that, you’ll be writing three hundred.”

“Ugh!”

“Four hundred then,” Mary said as she made her march.

As for the trio, Twilight commented, “Well, at least that mostly takes care of one problem. Now come on, the path towards the ruins are this way!”

_*_

Cinderella pushed against the false stone wall until it started to crack open. Pushing away the caked on dust and cobwebs until there was enough room to slip through. Although she knew that she never been to this place in her life, part of her looked on at the vast room in familiarity. Looking up, she can see that part of the tall stone roof has been long collapsed, opening itself to the sky.

One of the things she noticed was how quiet it all was. The ruins of the abandoned castle had an odd tranquility among the light and shadow. As she walked further in, she took notice of both stonework and vegetation that continuously die and regrow over the years. Here and there, she spotted tapestries from long ago still hung, still move in the breeze.

But for the maid, she had an idea where she was going. With the help of her wings to propel her up some of the shattered stairs, she came up to a door that with on tap had disintegrated. Jumping over the sawdust, she was inside of a bedroom in which she found that the ceiling was still intact. Not only that, but she was thankful that there was still a bed, ancient books, and a fireplace. Of course, it was in desperate need of dusting and the bed needs to be stuffed with fresh straw, but otherwise, it was a good hiding place.

“What a perfect place to begin a new life,” she said to herself as she went to the window. “I do believeth that a forest such as this would yield plenty of food to gather, and a river to carry water from. With this new knowledge of magic also, my daily tasks shalt be an ease of a burden upon my shoulders.”

Yet, what she didn’t know that at the gate of the castle, three ponies were preparing a plan for her.

Comments

[Skye Mist]

"Sweet Apple Archers,” Twilight said.

Silly Twilight, you should know it's Sweet Apple Acres.

[CrackedInkWell]

7300295 Stupid spell check!

[Skye Mist]

7300307 And this folks is why I double check my chapters before posting... Or send 'em off to an editor.

[CrackedInkWell]

7300317 If you have one that is.

[Skye Mist]

7300318 True.
(Don't worry, I don't have one either.)