War of the Unfoals

by NPP6

Chapter 15 - Picking up the Pieces

“Uh… What just happened?”

Twilight answered for all of them, “I have no idea Rainbow.”

Diamond just stared into space, wondering if she should be worried that Death didn’t seem to want her anymore.

---

The Time Pirate and Distra were waiting for her when Black Diamond arrived at the clearing. “How’d things go?”

The Pirate grinned. “Swimmingly. Even managed to keep Silver Spoon in the dark about the Doctor.”

“And the fragments?”

Distra gave a soft smile. “Crated up and sent by dragonfire to Celestia. They’re caught in the dimensional barrier right now, but they should be able to complete the journey once we pop back into reality.”

“That shouldn’t be too long now. Does the Doctor know about the Time Lock failing?”

“No, it is a side effect of the combined magic that he would have no way to predict. We decided it was best he not know about what we just set up.”

“True… What we just unleashed on Canterlot… I don’t like it. I…”

“I know, it isn’t right. It isn’t fair. But you know what happens if Founder’s Day doesn’t.”

“Yeah, but… I still don’t know how I’m ever going to face the Spectres again, knowing that we killed Flint and Lace.”

“They choose their deaths Diamond, you know that.”

“Still though, she’s got a point. Remember when we were the good guys ‘stead of the ‘bad guys on the right side?’”

Diamond barked a laugh that was somewhere between sad and angry. “Yeah, welcome to the night Pirate.”

Distra looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure if having to deal with shades of gray is a part of being Nightborn, or just part of growing up.”

---

A little over an hour had passed, and (detouring along the way to pick up Applejack and her tormentors) the group that had gone into the cave had made their way back to Nightstone Castle. Starlight had recovered enough to move, and all of the unfoals except the one that had fled with Demon Blood had been rounded up.

Nyx had regained consciousness and was off in a corner of what had once been her throne room sharing a slightly-less-tearful-than-the-first-few-times reunion with her mother and brother. After the first couple foalnappings desensitization set in quickly, but there was still a need to express relief and verify health.

Starlight in the meantime was explaining the situation as best she could to Twilight’s advisors, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Black Diamond, the unfoals (all of whom except Applebloom’s husband were in magical restraints courtesy of the Nightstone armory and Rarity’s capacity for design replication), and the extradimensional reinforcements they had called on.

“Alright, this portal behind me is unstable, which is why Midnight has to stay inside it to keep it open. Once it stabilizes – probably when we reunite with the rest of the universe – everypony not native to this dimension needs to go into it. Those of you who came to help us should be able to get home from there… although to be honest I have no idea how Midnight set that up to work.

“You unfoals will be able to turn right around and come back in. From what Midnight’s notes say, once you do it should alter the way this universe recognizes you and stabilize your… I think defining these terms might take longer than anything else.” The stack of papers was set down next to her. “Basically once you come back through the portal it will alter you to belong to this universe, regardless of your universe of origin. Or lack thereof.

“Congratulations, you’re going to be real foals.”

---

“Righto, ready then?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Let us finish this.”

Distra’s horn flared, her magic channeling the time and space energies within her into a spell. One which was then joined by Diamond’s Dream and Shadow magic, and shortly thereafter by the Pirate’s own time-related energies combined with the dimensional travel magic of the glowing gold dust in the phial he held up.

For a moment, they all felt electricity shooting through the air around them without touching them. Then, there was a “kcilc” and it felt like the heartbeat of the world around them restarted as the pocket they were in reconnected with the universe.

---

Fate, Destiny, Luna, Celestia, and Discord were sitting in Twilight’s throne room. They had felt that should a message or messenger be sent through, none of their mages within the pocket dimension would want to risk sending them near whatever Midnight had done earlier.

They felt it, though it was different for each of them.

For the alicorns, it was an elemental tingle, starting at the focuses of their magic and then racing from there throughout the rest of their bodies.

For the draconequus, it was something akin to having the uncontrollable urge to sneeze. Rather like what he got when Pinkie Pie was on a caffiene binge, only moreso.

For Fate, it was the mildly uncomfortable feeling of having several dozen threads violently forced into the half-woven fabric on her loom. An odd sensation, given that events around Midnight that influenced her domain tended to have the opposite effect.

For Destiny, it wasn’t a feeling, but the sight of the deck of cards on the table before her bursting into flames. Not the first time, she simply called them again, the new set appearing in her hooves. As she spread them in the air before her however, her eyebrows began climbing her forehead.

There was a rolling pop as air raced into the spaces previously occupied by the five beings that had teleported out in near-unison.

---

Protections placed on Nightstone during the Nightmare Nyx event and not yet removed since the new tenants had taken up residence prevented three of them from simply teleporting in. So, Celestia, Luna, and Discord arrived in the throne room a few minutes after Fate and Destiny.

The first thing each of the three did was a head count of the ponies they were hoping Death hadn’t gone for. Luna nearly had a heart attack before Midnight stepped out of the gate in the archway that would likely never be decorative again.

Because of the anxiety of the situations, they could be forgiven the few moments it took them to realize that the room was filled with foals of varying ages ranging from at least four infants to a few that were as old as the Crusaders.

When she did notice the foals however – the reports she’d insisted on receiving since the Blood’s Eye event letting her state with confidence that they were neither Ponyville natives nor foalnapping victims – Celestia decided it was a good time to even the scales a bit for her sister’s earlier pleasure at her expense.

Thus, she stepped forward, clearing her throat to draw the attention of all in the room, and asked in a voice of innocent curiosity that she had spent centuries perfecting, “Dare I ask who the mothers are Midnight?”

It would long be debated whether the better imitation of a fish’s first exposure to the stratosphere belonged to Luna or Twilight.

---

Celestia’s joke had earned her the responsibility of following through on it. Luna cheerily helped her with this while Discord was forbidden from doing so after he had to be stopped from blinking in the not-parents of the first foal interviewed. (The protections stopped teleporters from pushing in, but not from being pulled.)

Pinkie had commandeered the Draconequus and with Fluttershy to help keep him in line, they were popping back and forth between the throne room and kitchen to bring everypony snacks. Few suspected she was also covering as she bought time to try and figure out what kind of party she was supposed to throw for the seventy colts and fillies who had just been not-born.

Applejack was being rather effectively distracted by Rainbow Dash, who was doing everything she could to subtly keep the other mare away from the trio and Applebloom’s unintentional spouse.

Said Crusaders were trying to set a speed record for recruitment drives, though with better intentions than siblings at first assumed. They were operating under the very valid idea that having a purpose and talent could be rather important to these ponies who had spent so long as literal nothings.

Spike, Nyx, Button Mash, Lily Longsocks, and a rather tired Silver Spoon (Who had shown up with Spike but gone unnoticed until now since she was taking a nap behind a pillar) had taken it upon themselves to stand guard, just in case an enemy decided that now was a vulnerable enough moment to attack.

Twilight and Starlight had sequestered themselves in the library, teleporting books over from Twilight’s library as needed. Nopony but Midnight could get a straight answer out of them about what they were researching, but the stallion could be seen to occasionally shift to Inkwell before writing something on a scroll and teleporting it to the pair.

Featherdown was everywhere. The unicorn filly had decided that since she was the oldest female permanently residing at Nightstone, she was a hostess and these were her guests. (This would eventually give rise to the nickname of “Lord/Lady of Nightstone Castle” which would forever after belong to the eldest “Ward of the Star” in residence at Nightstone. Many a weary traveler would be greeted and fussed over personally through the years by one of Featherdown’s successors.)

Midnight had offered to let his apprentice rest after the tiring battle he’d heard she’d been through (Though full details were yet to come), but she’d refused, insisting that her place was by his side. The pair had then grabbed the colt the unfoals still looked to as a leader, and were having him sort through the no-longer-unfoals, sending most of them to Celestia and Luna for interviewing while setting a few aside that would need to be handled more carefully than the others. (Two from a divorce, one whose not-mother had died, and another whose not-parents were siblings)

The three were currently working their way through those who couldn’t communicate their own stories. The mute pegasus was quickly discovered to be able to read and write very well, so he bowed out to have his interview with the princesses and let them get to the infants.

“So what’s the story with these four?”

“Well… The first one here’s easy enough. Her not-parents have actually been trying for a foal for a little while now. They don’t know it yet, but it won’t work.”

“Oh?”

“Her not-mother’s parents are tribal purists. When their pegasus daughter married an earth pony, they took exception. Upon realizing they couldn’t change her mind, they took measures to preserve the integrity of their bloodline. They slipped their own daughter a potion that sterilized her to prevent this filly from existing. Please get me a picture of the looks on their faces when they find out how badly it backfired.”

“Done. In fact, you might have to be there depending on what Twilight and Starlight find out about how we need to deal with this legally.”

“Oh, is that what they’re doing?”

“Among other things. Honestly, they’re only doing research for five projects, why is everypony having such a hard time understanding?”

Diamond groaned. “Well, at least now we know why none of us could understand what they were trying to do.”

The colt coughed nervously before changing the subject, “Anyway, her not-parents’ll probably take her in a heartbeat. The twins are complicated, so I’ll tell you about this one next. See, his not-parents aren a pair of teenagers who actually aren’t romantically involved at all.

“His not-father was split two ways trying to figure out which of two fillies he had crushes on to ask to a dance, and naturally neither of them realized he liked them. He asked one and they hit it off pretty well. They’ve been dating for five months now.”

“Wait… So this colt shouldn’t even be born yet?”

“We have four foals who seem to have just come out of the womb except for the fact that they aren’t demanding to be fed. Obviously they couldn’t all have coincided that exactly, so I’m assuming that those who wouldn’t have been born yet have simply been aged up?”

“Seems like it, these are the only four who wouldn’t have been born by now at least.”

“Alright, so teen parents who are dating other ponies. Yeah, we’re gonna need to be delicate there.”

“I will not be offended if you consider me too blunt.”

“Oh no, not at all.”

“I need to change that before you drag me into any of the more awkward conversations.”

Diamond gave the colt a curious look. “You know, I can’t figure you out. Your personality… it seems…”

“Mercurial? I’ve noticed it too. In my more intellectual moods I tend to conclude that after spending so long with my personality being ‘nothing,’ it’s trying to sort itself out by cycling through options until one sticks. Really hope it doesn’t last long, I’d like to know what sort of pony I am.

Midnight nodded, remembering another pony who had said something similar to him once. “Anyway, you said that these two were twins?”

“Yes, and… this is where things get… complicated.”

“How complicated?”

“Um…” He furtively glanced around to locate Applejack and Rainbow Dash before replying, “Their not-parents are Rumble and Scootaloo.”

“Oh.” Midnight’s reaction could be best described as a lack of one. There were no changes physically, it was simply like he missed a heartbeat of time and then continued. “Are you aware of exactly how that complicates things?”

“I’m aware that if Applejack’s reaction to my stunt and its consequences is anything to go by then you’d better get Rumble in protective custody before Rainbow gets her hooves on him.”

Midnight’s stillness held a moment longer, and then he smiled. It was a dark grin, an evil smirk that only those closest to him knew to fear. Luna and Celestia, feeling the spine tingling sensation of his scheming look steadfastly refused to glance in his direction – plausible deniability had served them well in the past when it came to Midnight’s schemes, so it should help them now.

---

In the kitchen, Discord and Pinkie both spasmed as their connections to Chaos jerked hard on them. Being the more experienced with the sensation and having learned the painful way what it usually meant, Discord turned to Pinkie and offered her the best advice he could.

“He’s a genius mage with two hooves in the mortal realms and two hooves beyond. He is both Alicorn and Star, and plays the two roles for or against each other as he sees fit. He has purportedly achieved unity between the trichotomy within his soul on two occasions. Most importantly, he is an Agent of Harmony with a talent for Rebellion. He is perfectly and completely sane right up until he comes up with a plan that makes you and I look like we’re following all the rules. I’m honestly surprised that with Twilight and Starlight at his disposal he didn’t break reality before tonight.

“Simply put, the best response to encountering Midnight Star’s wild side is to find a seat outside the blast radius and make sure to bring extra popcorn.”