• Published 6th Apr 2019
  • 1,537 Views, 594 Comments

Distant Reflections - David Silver



Equestria and Everglow have brushed against one another through the course of their histories, each time fleeting, but memorable to those involved. Many many years later, the unaging Twilight captains a space vessel to explore the universe.

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72 - Into Darkness

Remington hit the ground with a thump, one fist down in a three point landing. She heard screaming with an intense doppler effect, growing higher and louder, then rushing past her to lower in octaves, carrying light that shone on the startled face of two fillies. Angry shouts echoed from behind them. "Found them," she muttered to herself, but that was only the first step of her task.


"Mom?"

The other children looked towards Kit. They had heard the door open, but it was too dark to see what was there for most of them. HarpGlitch's eyes were both on the incoming pony. "Correct." Shining with electronic life, the robot had other means of penetrating the darkness.

Octavia's voice could be heard, speaking strange words, a hoof raising as light spilled out in a bright cyan wave. "There we are," she announced, smiling at the children she could all see. "Is there no adult here?"

Under Score pointed at Octavia. "I believe I've found one."

Octavia narrowed her eyes faintly at the little imp that would one day become a wise seer. "Not funny. But you aren't wrong. If there are no other adults, I was right to come here. You are now my responsibility."

Fast waved a hoof at the adult that had joined them. "We were waiting for the lights to come on."

Steel nodded firmly. "We're in yellow alert."

Holly poked Kit in the side. "How'd you do that?"

"Yeah," agreed Trelly in question. "Can you see in the dark?" Not an impossible idea for an alien.

"I smelled her." He tapped his nose. "You don't know your mom's smell?" All the other kids peered at him befuddedly, except HarpGlitch.

Harp huffed. "I have the full database of my parent's signatures."

Glitch joined in the nod that Harp wanted. "I also have this. Neither are present within 30 feet. I hope they are both alright."

Octavia set a hoof on the withers of the metal foal, though foal they remained. "They're both fine, I'm certain. I'll keep you all company until we can be sure. Does that help?"

Harp's features softened to a grand smile. "Yes! Your status is well deserved."

Glitch looked more curious. "What did you do to get that anyway? None of the other adults are Responsible Adults; so what makes you special?"

Octavia considered how to answer that. "I need to speak to your mother first, to know exactly what I can say or not. Broadly, it is because I consider the consequences of my actions."

Glitch's eye narrowed a little before relaxing. "Huh, yeah... Kinda see it. Most ponies wouldn't of waited to ask Belle first."

"She is your mother, you don't call her by her first name," chastised Octavia with a hoof waggle. "Mind your tongue."

"If she doesn't like it, she can tell me herself." Glitch glanced away from the frowning adult. Responsible Adults came with baggage, clearly.

Kit didn't care about responsible adults. He hugged his mother firmly and nestled into her, little happy noises filling the small area around him in a series of rapid pants and little happy yelps. Octavia wrapped one arm around him. "Now son, don't make the others jealous. They may be missing their own parents."

He twisted in her grasp to look at the others, worry on his face. "Did I make you feel bad?"

GlitchHarp shook their communal head.

"Negative."

"Nah."

Little Wandering Note flopped forward with a silly grin. "It's funny t'think about, but we're heroes!"

Little Fast nodded in solidarity. "I can remember a long chain of heroism behind me, in the past. Do you think we have to?"

Little Steel huffed at that. "Doubt it. No one forced any of us any time. If we don't wanna, then that's that."

A debate broke out as the children champions discussed just how much enforcement there was behind them being champions, and how much was their proper will. That left Kit to look towards the least conventional of his friends.

Holly admitted in a downturn, "We do miss our parents."

Trelly grunted softly. "They wouldn't have understood. And now they never will, so there's--"

Suddenly they were being hugged. Kit had pounced them, but instead of fighting, he was just hugging them both firmly with a subtly different noise.

HollyTrelly shared in confusion at the display, Trelly reacting first, raising a hand to pat his back. "You alright?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you." He peppered their necks with little flicks of his tongue. "I would be so sad if mom was gone."

Speaking of her, her hoof came down in a gentle tapping on his head. "Show a little decorum, Kit."

"Deckowhat?" Kit blinked up at her owlishly, the word missing him.

Harp began to precisely dictate from his databank, "Noun. Behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety."

Glitch's eye rolled. "You just made him more confused. Kid."

"Kit." He raised a finger and began to grin in a goofy kind of way, his hands going to his lap, seated cross legged, attention squarely on the robotic twins.

"Yeah, Kit." HarpGlitch approached with little metal taps. "What your mom is saying is 'Licking people what you ain't got permission from might make 'em feel bad, and even people you do got permission from might feel embarrassed yer doin' it in front of everyone."

This did not entirely dispel the confusion. "Why?" He stuck out his tongue a little. "It's nice to lick."

Octavia pulled her child close, rocking them gently. "It is," she gently assured, silently chastising herself. Her small child was too young to drill about such things. Why didn't offspring come with an operating manual?


Remi slid in against a cold stone corner, peering around the edge.

"Where did they go?" demanded one male voice. "The instructions were simple. They're kids! Grab them, that's it."

A female replied in the darkness, "They're more talented than their age would imply. We got the main target."

A sound, a slap? "There is no main target! Find them!"

Hooves striking stone, retreating away.

Remi took a slow breath. Would hurting those guys frazzle the time stream even harder? All she was supposed to do was rescue the Equestrian fillies. Still, it was pretty obvious others were involved.

"Ignore them," came her boss' opinion in her ear. "Find the two, get them out. Nothing else matters."

But if he wanted that, he could have hired on just about any other time traveler out there! Remi darted from cover to cover with a determined expression. Each room she came across was eerily empty and quiet. For a forgotten old place, it was too clean, and too abandoned, like someone had specifically cleaned it out to be entirely empty.

She had to find them.


"Princess, I'm, like, really sorry." Silver Spoon had her hooves pressed firmly together. "In these dark times, we seek a friend. I know you, totally, provided a few... I'm sorry... Please..."

"Not sure she's going to help right now," scoffed Diamond with a weary sigh, huddling in closer in the little nook they had found to hide in. "Nice as that'd be."

Something darted in the darkness, missing them. Diamond drew away from it.

Silver leaned towards it, her eyes wide as she could make them. "No, there!" She pointed out into the gloom. "There!"

"You're kidding." Still, Diamond trusted Silver, peering into the darkness, to that form she could barely even know was there, penetrating it with her thoughts. "Who are you?" she whispered faintly.

The shape came up short. Surprised? "Just a friendly fox," came the whispered reply.

"A friendly fox?" repeated Diamond, confusion clear.

Silver Spoon grabbed her friend by the shoulders. "I knew it! Luminace be praised!"

"Come over here," whispered Diamond to the... friendly fox? "Not that way... That way, keep going..."

Suddenly a much larger form than they wriggled into their hiding spot. "There you are." Remi smiled at the two ponies that had the odd smooth features of Twilight. "You two are from Equestria, right?"

The two peered at her as if she had just said the strangest thing. "Do I have the wrong fillies?"

Silver suddenly pounced, grabbing the fox in a tight hug. "Thank Luminace!"

Diamond shoved Silver off Remi. "Excuse her. We've had a rough day, alright? Who are you and what do you want?"

Remington raised a finger to her lips, glancing over her shoulder. Several gloomy shapes flitted past, barely perceptible in the darkness. Only after they had gone past did she answer, "I'm a friend, like I said, and I want to rescue you. Now, tell me the situation."

"I thought I had everything under control." Through grit teeth, Diamond began to explain how everything had gone wrong. "It was a trap, of course it was a trap... I thought we were ready... So we got in here and they didn't come... quietly. It was like we..."

"Like a concert, for bad ponies!" Silver went red, realizing she had gone loud in that outburst, clapping her hooves over her snout.

"That," agreed Diamond with a slow nod. "They grabbed Blue, chased off Fast, and I don't even know what's up with Gneech."

"That's a lot of names I don't know," readily admitted Remi, but that they were friends seemed clear enough. "Any idea where they went?"

"I heard something!" One of those figures had returned. "In here!"

"Give me a second," whispered Remi, bursting free of the hiding place. The figure's eyes were on her, despite the dark. Did they have darkvision? Perhaps. No time to ponder it. Remi charged in and right past the startled searcher, drawing their attention away from the hiding fillies.

Fire and light erupted from her left side, a great ball of flames reaching out towards her far too quickly for comfort. She dived behind a pillar just in time for it to rush past her. They had spellcasters, good to know. Why they picked a stone place perhaps made a little more sense. The risk of setting it on fire was quite low. Her furry hide didn't have the same advantage. "You missed," she called out despite that. She needed them to focus on her.

Diamond shoved Silver and leaned in. "We gotta go." She led her friend out of their hiding nook, peering into the darkness, then turning away from the riotous noise that their new friend was creating. "Let's trust her."

Silver hurried along after her, a growing smile displayed. "Thank you." She dipped her head faintly. "And you, Diamond. I thought I'd have to, like... really put a hoof down about this."

"Now is not the time." She slowed just enough for Silver to catch up and thump into her from the side. "This chance isn't gonna happen twice!"

"Diamond!" Silver grabbed Diamond by the shoulder and pulled her roughly closer, pointing down a hallway.

There, tied up, in the light of a fire nearby, was Blue, wriggling but well contained. Their fluffy short leg friend, quite thoroughly captured. "We have to rescue her!"

"If we don't rescue ourselves, nopony gets rescued," hissed Diamond, glancing around into the shadows that surrounded them. "Remember where this is, we can ask that fox if she can help. Right now, we get out."

Silver kept looking back, not really breaking eye contact with her friend until there was stone in the way. "Do you... think maybe, like, Gneech did the same thing? He's hiding somewhere safe, hoping we get out?"

"If I see him, I will punch him." She clopped her hooves together in a little hop up to her hind legs before falling right back down to four. "He better be alright though..."

The conversation between them settled to just the labored breathing from keeping up their wild gallops towards safety and light. A door was closed before them and they were coming up on it fast.

But it had made the critical error of being made of wood. Diamond drew her axe seemingly from nowhere. Despite the need for stealth, she wreathed it in flames and rose to two legs, ready to smash the door to bits without a pause.

Author's Note:

Remember Diamond and Silver's adventure? We're back! Diamond remains ready to enact violence on things. Remi has no idea what's going on, but she's here to help!

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