Episode 48: "Happy Cake Adventure/Generation Transitions Part 2"
Pony POV Series
Generational Transitions Part 2
Optional-Canon
Hi, I'm Minty! Razzaroo says I see the world through green colored glasses! Yes I did paint the whole town green the night before my birthday but nopony complained! Hey! We're ponies! If we weren't over the top we wouldn't be ponies!
Cucumbers on my pizza, green candy, you name it, and if it's the color green I love it!
I love the color green as much as Pinkie Pie loves the color pink! This sure caused trouble that one time we were making a float for the Promenade (accidentally) together! But it all worked out at the end! Always does and always will!
What do I like besides the color green? Socks of course! Lots and lots of them! So practical, and yet so many different designs and styles! I have a huge collection, or I kinda used to.
You see, I . . . kinda sorta like things to be in order, I like to see details be right. And, I have this tiny, tinny little problem of sometimes making things worse when I take it too far.
When we made the Candy Cane Beacon for Santa Claus to visit Ponyville, it was, just a tiny bit out of alignment on the tree. So I got in a balloon (so what if I didn't really know how to fly) and got it fixed up just right. Then I realized it could have been a bit more to the left, then the right, and-- it fell and shattered into pieces.
I may have gone just a tinniest bit nutty and decided to play Santa and give everypony in Ponyville socks for Christmas so no one would know the difference.
It mostly worked out, until I went to Pinkie Pie's house and it turned out she was awake.
"What are you doing here Pinkie-?!"
She said, "Sleeping." What she meant was, 'I live here.'
So yeah, maybe I wasn't thinking straight.
I had never seen Pinkie so mad when I explained things, or any pony so mad.
She suggested I leave Ponyville. But I don't know what you're supposed to pack when you go into exile!
Then she explained I should just go to the North Pole and address Santa directly.
And . . . I found why it's a mean thing to say 'may you live in interesting times' because that Christmas Eve was really really interesting!
Long story short, nearly got killed at least twice with Thistle Whistle tagging along because I had no clue how to use a balloon (a pegasus scared to death of clouds following me on a cloudy night, you can't tell me that's not brave). Got saved by everypony else. Missed Santa. Got a forgive and forget by everypony because they were more happy about me being alive than not getting presents from Santa.
There was this funny light that came from each and every one of us, I still don't know what that was about. And when we got home, we found Santa had found the way anyway. Star-Catcher said it was the good-will in our hearts that called Santa to Ponyville, not a candy-cane light. She's so smart.
Oh, and those socks you hang on your fireplace every year? Santa got that idea from me! Ha ha!
After that I learned not to fixate on details so much. I don't know what, but that Christmas felt more, alive somehow than any we had had in a long time.
Me and Pinkie? I guess you could say we're two peas in a pod, hey, peas are green, so that makes it even better! How'd it happen?
We didn't really meet when we were small, or really small, we were both mares by the time we actually met! Pinkie I think feels I'm a bit of a klutz. So I kinda sorta accidentally organized her surprise birthday party a day early, it all worked out in the end!
We both have a passion for a single color! We both love to party (okay, not saying much in Ponyville but still-!). We both love mono-color designs! We both somehow end up in the confusion that trots through Ponyville every so often. And . . . she takes charge, she's not afraid, she's willing to lead ponies to help others. And of all the ponies in Ponyville . . . I dunno. Maybe we just hang out the most or something.
When she's not around, it's like there's a piece of me missing, but she's still whole without me around. I want to be a part of her, not just have her be a part of me.
I know I'm not part of her 'core seven' group of friends but, I don't mind. She's the friend I want, she's the friend I need, she's the friend I'm happy with. Yeah yeah I know what you're saying, 'the more the merrier' this is Ponyville we know that better than anypony!
I wanna break into song about it!
"Wake Up Ponyville and Good Dayspring!
I wonder what this morning will-
"Bring? . . why is everything gray? Where's all the greens? And, where's everypony?"
It was like I was looking at a faded photo of a ghost town. I was the only thing in full colors.
Was it nighttime? Did I sleep all day? I looked up at the sky and-look down, I look down, Ilookdown!
I shivered.
"See? I told you that they were going to miss one. And the best part? She's on the DELETE list! No Continues or Restart Button for her! This is what I'm talking about! Didn't you want an entire species of nocturnal ponies around to say how great you are every day? Well who's gonna miss this one? She's perfect! And the best part is that you're not disrupting the status quo! She's already scheduled for the trash bin! No one's gonna mind a nice custom pony being slipped in through the back door. Plus, you'd be making her unique! That's what we're here for, right?!"
"YOU HAVE A VERY BAD HABIT OF OVERSELLING YOUR POSITION."
"Sorry."
I see a thingie that look like a bunch of animals put together. And a really big pony with a body that kinda reminded me of a black swan with wings a a horn.
"I AM THE NIGHT. THE NIGHT WOULD KNOW YOUR NAME."
I shivered, I couldn't take my eyes off her.
"SPEAK."
"M-Minty," I squeaked out.
"MINTY? YOU ARE EXCESS. YOU ARE A SHALLOW AND IDENTICAL PONY WITH NO TRUE PERSONA OF YOUR OWN."
I quivered, too scared to verbally fight back. It was like just-just-being, being near her was scarey. I mean, uber-duper-super-very-special-really-scary! Like something that shouldn't exist. Or I wasn't.
"BUT IT NEED NOT BE THAT WAY. YOU NEED BUT SUBMIT YOURSELF TO BE THE BEGINNING OF PONIES FOR WHOM DAY SHALL BE FOR REST AND NIGHT WILL BE FOR LIVING."
I felt a tiny piece of me break through the fear's spell. "Are they gonna walk upside-down and speak backwards too?"
"Wha-?" The big pony's jaw nearly dropped away from her face as her wavy star mane seemed to settle down and she looked at me like that Christmas when I trying to explain I broke the beacon and Pinkie Pie thought I meant I broke Santa.
The pony sighed and lowered her head. "I am cursed to be surrounded by jokers and morons."
"Hey! That's not a nice thing to say!"
"Look, I've already been given a bad day by the height of pony wisdom, I really don't need this from you, her exact opposite."
"So she's red instead of green and-"
"WIL YOU PUT A LID ON IT? I AM IN A VERY FOUL MOOD!"
" . . . You really need to turn that frown upside down. You know what you need? A party! And not going around making things gray and lonely, uh, can you please please please please please please please fix that up and put everything back the way it was?"
The jig-saw puzzle looked at the big pony. "Aren't you going to give the whole 'we have no choice' speech?"
The big pony groaned, "If I have to say that gratuitous piece of noise one more time I swear I am going to scream my head off."
"Fair enough. So you still wanna create your own species of night going ponies? Come on, that was a good idea!"
"She's kind of a mood killer. Let's just clean up this mess. I've had it to up to here with your shenanigans today."
"As if I couldn't tell from your drop to normal volume. Fine. Just a tick'."
"No. I'm doing this. No games from you." A tiny black spark came into being at the tip of her horn, and it go bigger, and bigger, like a big black ball of . . . something.
"MINTY~!!!"
And like out of nowhere, Pinkie skidded in front of me!
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"
Was that Pinkie Pie? She looked, different.
"Sorry. BUT YOU HAVE CAUGHT ME IN THE WORST MOOD IMAGINABLE! AND I AM NOT IN THE MOOD ANYMORE TO HUMOR PONIES WHO CAN'T ACCEPT THEIR TIME IS OVER FOR THE HUNDREDTH MILLIONTH TIME TODAY! SO FORGIVE ME IF I SKIP INTRODUCTIONS AND DRAMA AND SKIP TO THE END CONCLUSION. SEE YOU IN THE NEW WORLD!"
The black ball of lightning shot off her horn, with Pinkie between me and it. She didn't move, she GROWLED! Suddenly a huge wall popped between us. The black lightning ball hit and blew it to bits! Pinkie used herself as a shield as bits blew past us.
"I suggest you run to wherever you're going to be running to," Said the jigsaw monster.
Pinkie Pie just nodded and in a flash and had me on her back and was running so fast that it was like she just taking town blocks one step at a time!
+++
"DISCORD!!! WHY-?!" She blew in one ear and out the other.
I shrugged. "Duh. They amuse me."
"AMUSE YOU-?!"
"That pink one. She's a disruption to the status quo. I like disrupting the status quo. She seems a little fun. There she goes, with someone she can't save whose already doomed, but is going to turn the world upside down trying to. My kind of pony. And did you see how she was moving? She's realizing that these silly rules of physics are the real nonsense. I can smell it on her, she's marked for deletion and yet she's been fixed up for the new version! I ain't letting something that contrary just get atomized by you. Anyway, the green one? She's set for the delete bin anyway, I can have as much fun with her as I want to before she has to go and no one is gonna care one bit. I'm not going to throw that chance away and let you ruin my fun. Maybe I'll get to play with them later now that I stopped you from vaporizing them into nothing-ow-ow-ow!" She magically began pulling on my ear.
"I HAVE FULL 'VAPORIZATION INTO NOTHINGNESS' RIGHTS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT! IT SAYS SO ON MY MISSION BRIEFING! IF I WANT TO BLOW ONE PONY WHO'S CAUSING TROUBLE AND ONE PONY WHO'S DOOMED ANYWAY INTO ATOMS ITS MY RIGHT!"
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-can't you take a little joke?"
"I've had enough of you! First I'm taking you to Our Elders and telling them every bit of stupidity and immaturity you've been up to today! Then I'm going to deal with those two chaotic DISRUPTIONS myself!"
Suddenly, the game wasn't suddenly so funny. Old Man Havoc's face suddenly filling my vision, including his teeth that were roughly twice as tall as I was. "Can't we please talk about this?!"
"NO!"
We teleported away.
+++
"This is all that remains. Once this is done, that'll be the end of it," Sighed Cadence, "This has gone on for far too long as is."
"I agree, Cadence. An entire timeline dying without any chance to fight for its survival or defend its right to continued existence, its like a nightmare for me. I'll deal with it myself. You can go."
"What? She's on that island! She's family! She's my responsibility!"
"And that's why you saved her home for last, isn't it Cadence?"
She had nothing to say to that.
"She wanted to learn the truth of what it is to learn to be born, to live and to die, like we all become curious at one point or another. So she'll learn. Tell me, can you carry out the final lesson she needs to learn from this?"
The pink Alicorn of music and harmony lowered her head. "No."
We stood in the air, at the edge of what remained of this world's shrinking existence, a small butterfly shaped island at its center.
"Do you wish to watch?"
"No."
"Then I suggest you go now."
" . . . I will be watching you Dispute."
"I have not gone by that name since I stopped sucking on my own tail encouraging microbes to eat each other. I am Strife."
"I'll see you at the Equilibrium."
She teleported out just as a younger Alicorn teleported at the edge of existence.
"WHERE IS SHE-?!"
"Where is who, Night Princess?"
"That little pink pony! My honor has been completely tarnished! The will of an Alicorn has been directly defied! This is a crime that our law says must be punished!"
She was livid. More so than normal for an Alicorn forced to endure my brother's presence for a prolonged period of time.
"Interesting." I observed.
"AND WHAT DOST THOU REFER TO BY THAT?!"
"If your sister wishes to learn, then let her learn the full lesson! I think I wish to learn something as well. And perhaps we shall not be the only ones to learn something from this disaster."
"LEARN WHAT? CAN'T YOU DRACONEQUI EVER BE CLEAR ABOUT ANYTHING?!"
"I've never had a chance like this before. I shall not waste it."
"SIMPLY STAY OUT OF MY WAY!"
"Temper temper, Alicorn. Anger is truly a beautiful weapon but it always waits for the chance to subvert its master. And its more destructive brother hate lays in wait to consume those it subverts. I foresee your anger one day will betray you. And you will lament it for the rest of your days."
The Alicorn of the concept of night growled at me. Yes, there was no way I was letting this opportunity pass.
I grasped her head.
"IN MY NAME OF COMPETITION AND SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST I SEAL THE LION'S SHARE OF YOUR POWER!"
She gasped as her size shrank to just a bit larger than that of the average pony. Her mane lost the tell tale sign of her massive magic. Her colors faded making her, in my humble opnion, cuter (pst, not that I care for such things).
Luna blinked and looked herself over in confusion and disorientation.
"YOU-how-dare-"
"Respect your seniors girl, you'll get further in life. Unless you think you can't possibly beat one mortal pony with only a fraction of your true power."
"Fine! I'll-"
"And your sister is on that island."
She startled. Her eyes dimmed. "What?"
"Don't tell me you were so focused on one gnat that you couldn't sense her."
"N-no-no! It's just, her power, it feels, stunted, crushed, restrained . . .. " She shivers. "It feels wrong. So horribly horribly wrong."
"That is your opinion, I do wonder what hers is, she may genuinely have enjoyed her life in this world. You can have your meaningless grudge match with one mortal pony to nurse your wounded Ego. But the rest are mine."
"No! My sister-"
"Will fight you unless I keep her away. . . . Unless of course you -want- to fight your own sister."
"NEVER!" She snarled.
"Pity. I'm sure it would be a glorious battle. So, I will keep your sister from fighting you. And you will have your fight with the disruption. But the rest are mine."
"What do you want from them?"
"The will to survive."
+++
"So when Pinkie Pie mentioned the dragon Whimsey Weatherbe she met as a filly, I instantly began looking up records, but to my shock I found not only where there no records of her, but no one in Ponyville seemed to remember her. I began to looking at MORE record and by chance realized there were several contradictions in Ponyville's history."
"But I still remember Whimsey," Pinkie Pie said.
"Yes and that's makes it another contradiction." Spike said. "But contradictions are not supposed to exist in reality. Even magic has to be self contained in its own rules. If what they're saying is true, that's the very problem, things have happened that hadn't happened."
"I'm sure if I was givin' a bit of time I could make it all fit." Pinkie
We were all in a circle. The nine of us who remained.
Thistle Whistle.
Sky Wishes.
Myself.
Wysteria.
Princess Rarity.
Kenbroath Gillspotten Heathspike "Spike" The Forth.
Pinkie Pie.
And Minty.
"I wish I wish I wish I knew what was going on," Sky Wishes lowered her head.
"I wish the colors were back." Minty sighed.
"I wish this was all a dream!" Princess Rarity cried. Wysteria do nothing but hug her fellow chosen princess.
"I wish those meanie heads put everything back the way it was and LEAVE US ALONE! I don't care if our world was gonna break in half or something! We'd just tape it back together!"
I laughed. Trust Pinkie Pie to do that.
"It's all so confusing! So confusing!" Thistle held her head. "I really wish it wasn't so confusing! And why does the sky now have to be one big cloud?! Why not a bunch of stars or a big purple swirl or a bunch of floating pony faces, why clouds?"
Pinkie Pie shuddered, "I think I prefer clouds."
"I don't."
"So what are they?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Those meanies?"
Spike said, "I believe from how you described them they are called Draconequi and Alicorns. Nature's fury and nature's law. They overlook the world and guide and protect it."
"THIS IS PROTECTING-?!" Minty stood up waving her arms like crazy.
Wysteria said, "It sounds like they kept saying they didn't have . . . didn't have . . . didn't have a choice . . ."
"If they really believed it they wouldn't be saying it every time they said somethin'," Pinkie Pie huffed.
I said, "It is normally liars or the uncertain who say what they believe over and over. Those who are confident in their beliefs feel no need to say them."
Everyone looked at me.
Sky Wishes looked at me, "How do you know that Star-Catcher? Are you a liar, no no no, I mean do you know a liar, I mean, did you know a liar, or-or-or you know what I mean!"
"I'm not sure," I said, the pressure at the back of my head that had been there all day was getting worse. "I don't think they're liars, if they were liars they'd not all be telling the same story with the consistency they are. I think they're uncertain, they're hoping this is truly their last resort and they haven't overlooked something. To them at least this is really their last resort and they're scared they're wrong. At least that's what it seems like."
Little pink Rarity said defiantly, "If they were really sorry they wouldn't be doing it in the first place! That's why Cheerilee would say."
Wysteria said, "It does seem rather pointless. If this is all going to 'break' anyway, why erase everything? Why not just let it break and pick up the pieces?"
"This can't be the end right?" Minty said, "I mean, come on! All the adventures we've been on! All the wonders we've seen! All the friends . .. all the friends we've made."
"The Breezies, Flutterponies." Pinkie Pie shuddered, tears came down her face remember the beautiful little pony. Small like dolls, so fragile, so innocent, so pure, like living glass. If any of the pony faces had a right to simply live out their lives in peace, it was them.
Yet they were brushed aside no matter how delicate they were, they had never committed a crime against anything anywhere. They acted as a swarm but each one had a name, a face, an identity. And now they were just gone? Just gone? Like they never mattered?
The fairy like ponies who never meant any harm to anyone. And simply, eliminated.
"So Pinkie Pie you have no idea how you got here?" Sky Wishes asked.
"No." Pinkie Pie shook her head, "I just knew I had to get to Butterfly Island, my Pinkie Squink showed me it was where I had to go."
"I'd say it was right." Thistle whispered as she looked around. "Or I hope so."
No one dared asked her to do another fortune telling dance, I think we were all scared it wouldn't show anything. Or show something far worse than any of us was thinking. So that was it then?
"The wand." Rarity spoke, "The wand won't work anymore." She held the magic wand in her hoofs. "It won't take me back to Unicronia to get Cheerilee back."
Pinkie Pie held her head, the name of Rarity's caretaker giving her a headache.
I sighed.
So this was it? We just wait to fade away too? I felt anger build up inside me. No.
Just watch them all fade away like my mother?
No.
Utterly helpless. Unable to do a single thing?
No!
"This is a grim and unfavorable outcome." Spike said.
"I want to remember my friends," Thistle whistled.
"I wish for my best friend back." Sky Wishes wished.
"What kind of princess am I supposed to be anyway if I can't do a thing about what happened to everypony?!" Wysteria snapped.
"I don't wanna die." Rarity cried.
"I want StarSong and Toola-Roola back," Pinkie Pie said.
Minty cried out, "I just want us all to go back to being happy and friendly with each other! With parties and celebrations and making new friends and learning new stuff! When everything was just happy and simple!"
Pinkie Pie hugged her, she hugged back, they nuzzled each other, taking in each other's scent. Feeling each other's warmth in a cooling world.
Just, watch, her, DIE-?!
"NO!"
I would not let this world die. I would not let anymore of my friends or their friends be simply washed away. I wouldn't let it! NOT EVEN IF I HAD TO DO WITH MY OWN HOOVES! "I'll trample any rule that stands in my way that says I can't!"
+++
Everyone was blown back at least a foot as Star-Catcher exploded twice. First the huge ball of winds that forced them all. Then the blast of solar light that shined in every direction. The sky became blue again. The ocean moved again. Butterfly Island had color again! The air was warm again!
Everyone slowly got up to see Star-Catcher glowing, the symbol on her forehead glowing white hot! Her wings were even longer, her height had increased by several inches. Scratch her forehead, all the strange unique symbols on her body she had been born with shined with an intense light all their own! Their cutie mark also shined with a light all it's own. It was like being present for the birth of a newborn star.
"I may I be as Genesis! Life everlasting and nothing but light and happiness to everyone I love and who they love!" She proclaimed in a loud almost thundering voice. Her tone then took an almost dark tone. "And May anyone who dares whisper 'No' face a Nightmare!"
Everyone stared in awe and love of her. Her maned moved with wind of its own.
"You may be the sun. But you shine upon a world that is already dead. You are nothing but the life-support keeping it from finding final rest."
Said a voice above them.
They all looked up.
A long brown snake like body. A horse's head. One paw was a wolf's. A rear leg was a tiger's. One limb was that of a Tasmanian devil. The final limb was a wolverine's. The tail was a killer whale's. One wing was an eagle's. Another was a dragon's. Her figure was feminine, but muscular.
Princess Rarity hide behind Wysteria, as did Spike. Pinkie put herself in front of Minty. Sky Whistles moved towards Star-Catcher. Thistle stood where she was shaking in her hooves.
"Who are you?!"
"So you don't remember? I guess that wasn't enough to push you fully over the edge after all." The monster said. "I am Strife. Draconequus of violence, conflict, fighting, competition, and survival of the fittest. And I am here to be your executioner. Vermin like you are not worthy of continuing to exist. Only fit to suffer one obscure meaningless death. This world deserves just to vanish! It has nothing of value!"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
Everyone startled. Everyone.
It was Princess Rarity who had spoken. The little pink unicorn was shaking all over. But she looked into Strife's eyes. Strife seemed to give an intrigued glance back, as if waiting to see where this was going. "This . . . this isn't about . . . not about Uncornia, or Ponyville or Butterfly Island or Breezy Way! This is about us! The ponies! The ones who LIVE HERE! This world is pretty! BUT-But it's just jewelry without anyone to wear it if we weren't here! And . . . and... and if we were still around but not this world! It would be okay! Because a place without ponies isn't a place at all! Because there's no one there to call it place! Home isn't where you live! You make where you live home!"
The floating monster was silent until she chuckled, "Don't be such a child. This part isn't even making it into the adaption."
"What?" Minty tilted her head in confusion.
Strife's shadow seemed to grow, and grow. "Let me spell it out for you. And all your hopes, dreams, and beliefs, are -utterly worthless-!!" Thunder cracked. "And so are you."
"I dare say that is the most grotesque blanketing statement I have ever heard!" Spike said.
"I've grown from how I was before!" Rarity snapped back.
"I'll decide if my dreams have any value!" Wysteria shouted.
"The editor changed his mind about including this story arc!" Pinkie Pie called out.
Minty looked at her. "Huh?"
"I dunno." Pinkie replied, blinking slightly in confusion.
"My dreams with my friend aren't worthless!" Sky Wishes shouted. "and . . . Twinkle Twirl . . . HER NAME WAS TWINKLE TWIRL!" She smiled.
"Balderdash from doomed ghosts looking for some brave words to say before the end."
"I'D SAY THEY SUCCEEDED! And this is NOT THE END! I WON'T LET IT!" Star-Catcher called out!
"Prove it if you can!"
Star-Catcher stretched out her wings.
Strife snarled and ball of violet light appeared in her hand that she threw down into the surf below. ALL of Butterfly Island shook as half the island sank into a box canyon. The defenders held onto each other as it rose.
"Now first claim what you wish from Pinkie Pie, then delete Minty."
A blue and black comet rocketed past her and slammed into Pinkie Pie dragging Minty along for the ride over the edge down below.
Strife whispered lowly, "And show for me the light of one heart that is strong enough to defy the Words 'You do not exist.' This isn't one of the problems you're so used to that is going to solve itself! If you believe you can solve it, you'll have to do it yourselves!"
"PINKIE! MINTY!" Sky Wishes and Wysteria shouted.
"You have enough to worry about." Strife said coldly. "But first to separate the chaff from the wheat. Rise shadows." She lifted her hand upwards as six transparent pony shapes rose from the surf. "Warm, living existences, take them for your own if you can!"
The shadows swiftly and silently galloped towards the five ponies and one dragon.
Spike wailed and pedaled backwards, tripping over his tail and spinning backwards multiple times before -almost- going over the edge. The shadow was almost on him as he breathed in deep and unleashed a torrent of green flames, the shadow mimed as if it was wailing in pain before it fell apart like burnt paper.
Rarity screamed as she fell on her hooves and knees and covered her head, her horn glowed brightly. The shadow dove head first for her but made contact with her glowing horn first, the shadow's 'eyes' widened and was gone like a photo-flash.
Thistle Whistle yelled and flew off with the winged shadow following her.
Sky Wishes tilted her head instead of running or screaming at the shadow came close to her. The shadow was wearing the illusion of a dancing skirt. Her eyes widened. She whispered, "Twinkle Twirl?"
The shadow stopped dead in its tracks as if confused.
"Sky Wishes! Get away!" Wysteria called out.
"Twinkle Twirl!" Sky Wishes called and hugged the shadow. The shadow dissolved into inside her. Sky Wishes fell to her knees. Her entire body was covered in sweat as she clutched her sides but then slowly up. She panted. "Twinkle Twirl . . . I . . I promise . . . we'll . . . we'll never be apart again." Her form shimmered, it was still a pony, but, her angles and structured seemed, different.
Wysteria had seen what touching these shadows could do, and she felt from the one tirelessly pursuing her. Rarity screaming her head off rammed her still glowing horn into the shadow's side. It fell on it's side and fell apart into nothing.
"Yes! Yes! Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger!" Strife clapped.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! These are our friends!" Sky Wishes screamed in dismay.
"Shadows of existences that were cast by your friends you mean." Strife said still simply floating above observing. "It's you or them. Not everything comes with a third option. And before you decide just merging with them is a valid one, remember not all of these shadows are as compatible with you as you may think, it was a simply slip on my part that it was one whose heart could connect to yours. I promise these will simply devour you or cancel you both from existence."
Star-Catcher ducked over the shadow that tried to tackle her and slammed her head up, for one moment, a shaft of light not unlike a unicorn's horn appeared from her forehead, impaling the shadow. The mimed gasping in pain as it continued it leap, landing hard on the ground, seemingly now a lot more solid, bounced one more, and then fell over the edge of the cliff behind them.
Thistle Whistle, without many options, tried every aerial maneuver she could think of (not many) to lose what she was pretty sure was going to leave her more dead than dead if it caught up with her.
Suddenly the shadow as if being pulled in puppet strings made a fast dive for the box canyon. Thistle just felt relief as she flew back towards her friend.
"We agreed which ones were our prey. How dare she interfere." Strife growled.
"THISTLE! Help Pinkie Pie and Minty!" Wysteria called out.
"RIGHT!" Thistle nodded and went into a dive, only to bump her head against a glass floor that appeared into being as she reached the edge.
"Sorry. If I'm afraid I can't let any unknown factors interfere. Your fight is with me." Strife began to float down.
Wysteria was besides herself, "You say that after sending those . . . them to fight us for you?!"
"Just an entrance examine. Now show me what you can actually do." Strife rear limbs touched the edge of the surf.
+++
As we were knocked over, I held onto Minty, the fall below would kill us both, in my mind I saw the ground rushing up, and visualized reaching it without hitting it. I twisted my body so my back was to the ground and Minty was on top. I hit the ground with a grunt several moments sooner than we should have. Though in my mind's eyes I couldn't see my bones broken, so how could anypony tell they were broken? Therefore, if no one could tell, then they might not be broken, and if it was up in the air, I decided naturally they weren't broken. I gently put Minty alongside me. She was unconscious.
She was bruised heavily in front shaped like a pony's head. . . there was a small round hole in her stomach, bleeding! I looked about in panic for something, anything to stop the bleeding. Wait. What if there was some bandages behind me? But I didn't know if there were behind me. But if there were, I could really use them, and if I could use them then it would be a good thing they were there. I reached behind me and took the bandages and tied up her wound.
"What in My Parents' name are you? What you just did, twice now, it's impossible." I recognized the voice, but it sounded smaller, younger. And it was laced with awe and . . . fear?
I looked to see the Alicorn from before, but, she was a lot smaller, had blue hair, and a lot lighter coat. She looked kinda cute, like a filly even though she was big.
"What happened to you?" I found herself asking.
The Alicorn struck a pose. "I realized using my true and full power on you was a waste. I will demonstrate the fool scale of your arrogance with but a trace of my power."
"You were going to hurt Minty."
"There is only so much room in the rope of fate, new threads appears, old threads need to be removed to make room for them, it's the nature of reality, it's the only way."
I made sure to be between the Alicorn and Minty. "Ya know, I'm getting really sick of hearing 'it's the only way' today."
The Alicorn surprised me by nodding, "Yes I know. Rather aggravating isn't it? Anything repeated enough times, like an apology for instance, loses it's force, becoming background noise to be skipped."
"And you still go along with it."
"Stand by your family. Because they are your family. It's a self evident truth."
"Everyone in Ponyville is everyone's family. Why don't you become friends with us instead of hurting everyone?"
"Because even while you were all given identical personalities, what you all -desired- remains mutually exclusive, but the magic cast over this world tried to make it all real anyway." The Alicorn yawned, "Sorry that's something else that's been said far too much this day. The short is that your world was becoming impossible even by its own rules, and a world that is impossible by its own rules, collapses."
"Then we should have been given a chance to fix it."
"The definition of 'fix' changes from pony to pony. What's a problem for one is a virtue to another. It was impossible." The Alicorn then rolled her eyes and said in the most bored, lifeless monotone imaginable, "'Do you think we'd have done this if we had another option, blah, blah, blah,' ugh. I sound like that idiot!"
"You mean the jigsaw monster who saved my life and Minty's life?"
"He's just a fool. Do you honestly think he cares about you anymore than a child cares for a shiny new toy?"
"I'd say he's pretty nice if he-" As if I had eyes several feet away watching myself and the Alicorn, I saw the shadow coming at me from behind diving down like a toy on wires. No. For Minty?! I pushed her out of the way and the shadow dove into me instead. It's details became clear. I saw it had a white coat with blond mane and violet eyes.
But instead of feeling like I was being invaded, I felt, familiar? Like some part of me that had been missing was coming back to myself.
Images flashed through my mind. Laughing, flying. A visitor from another world. A rainbow connecting this land with another. Coming close to extinction countless times. Turning a land full of greedy villains into a paradise. Seaponies. Friends. Ponies adapting the knowledge they gained from over the rainbow to build a true civilization instead of small separate hovels. Magic was forgotten in favor of the new and fantastic wonders from the other side of the rainbow. The three races slowly drifting apart, forgetting each other even existed in fiction books! Magic being recovered almost by accident. Realizing it could give ponies everything they wanted. A world without struggles, personal or as a species. Where everything was always given! Those who had been given eternal life by the Rainbow Of Light to watch over it gladly handed this gift over to all other ponies and-I WAS ABOUT TO BE ZAPPED BY A BLACK LIGHTNING BOLT!
I stepped to one side, but instead ended up on the other side of the valley. My head hurt. Confusion swam through it as I tried to figure out which memories were mine, no, they were both mine, but, ones that were much more recent.
"YOU BIG DUMB MEANIE! YOU WEREN'T INTERESTED IN TALKING! YOU WERE TRYING TO SNEAK UP ON ME!" My head spun some more.
"No? Really? Gasp. Oh my. I am a bad pony." The Alicorn said monotone.
"WHAT DID MINTY OR ME EVER DO TO YOU-?!"
"YOU GOT AWAY! AND ALL THANKS TO THAT MORON! AN ALICORN IS SUPPOSED TO BE PERFECT! IF YOU GOT AWAY THAT MEANS I'M NOT PERFECT AND THAT MEANS I'M NOT WORTHY TO BE A MEMBER OF MY FAMILY AND THAT MEANS I'VE HURT EVERY MEMBER OF MY FAMILY BY FAILING TO DO WHAT I MEANT TO!"
"Geeze. That's kinda silly. Nopony's is perfect."
"Alicorns are! So that means I'm supposed to be! Why can't you understand-?!"
"I understand that it sounds like you're putting a lot on yourself that you can't possibly keep up and you seriously need a hugs and kisses party!"
"Bah! Parties! Celebrations! It's all you lot remember how to do!"
My eyes narrowed. "And you know what I'm sick of hearing too? Being told that's all we do. We read stories. We go exploring. We have so many parities because EVERYONE celebrates when one of us has a birthday. Because we're ALL family to each other! And now that the tribes are back together again I know we can learn and grow more!"
"It wouldn't have happened."
"Yes it would have!"
"Not as long as the one most base desire remained in every pony's heart. 'I wish things could stay the same.' That wish rests in every pony's heart, they madly try to fulfill it, to protect what is, to protect what they know. Affect the status quo as little as possible, that's the creed of your most basic wish inside all of you."
"Are you still going to try and hurt Minty?"
"Not hurt. Delete. She'll never feel a thing."
I looked her in the eyes, and kicked her in the back of the head.
+++
With nothing left to lose and everything to gain, the six defenders charged.
'Pst. It's painfully obvious none of them had ever had to fight for their lives before. The best strategy they can come up with on the fly is to attack all at once. They don't think to use their numbers to their advantage by coming at me from multiple sides to divide my attention. I've demonstrated huge amounts of power out of their class but they hope to simply overwhelm me by sheer force.
'Perhaps they think they can catch me off guard this way and that if they engage me physically that I won't be able to concrete to use my magic and if they simply keep up the pressure that I won't be able to fight back. Not their fault really. If those stuffed shirts hadn't held me back in this world, it'd be different!'
Rarity forward flipped and vanished in sparkles.
'That is the only magic she really knows. Perhaps she realizes the rest of the world is gone. Or maybe she is simply that desperate to try to use her wand to teleport, but there is only way place any neophyte teleporter reappears in a fight.' She slapped with her orca tail behind her, and hit air?
Princess Rarity appeared on top of her head, hanging onto her horns like a child on a carnival ride.
'So she wants to try and use the trick she used to burn away two shadows to harm me? Not a bad plan really. It is the only real card she has to play.'
Brightly colored rainbows flared in Strife's vision, blinding her.
'Now I am impressed.' Strife thought as the others rammed her, or rather, Star-Catcher rammed her and the others followed suit. Strife grunted from the so-called Pegasus' impact.
She felt the shaft of light appear that had impaled the shadow now stab her main body.
Strife teleported away into the air again, damaged. The ground of six found themselves in a pile in the surf, Rarity landing on top of Thistle Whistle.
"Impressive." Strife called out passively. She swept a paw over the hole in her body which instantly healed. "Your combined efforts manage to actually harm me."
'Ironic, now that they're doomed to oblivion for being static and incapable of changing, they begin innovating and become dynamic.'
"We are going to do more than that!" Star-Catcher shouted.
"Do not feel too proud of yourselves amnesiac. You have shown the will to live, and the resolve to harm. Pacifists and those who are indifferent embrace their own end deserve to fade away to nothing. You have earned-AGH!"
With Thistle Whistle carrying them, Spike had blasted a mouth of flames into her face that she accidentally breathed in. She teleported away again.
Strife grinned in approval. " Yes! And you will give no quarter when you know you can not afford to! I will honor you final lot with a finale worthy of note. Now, I fight back. "
+++
"YOU CAN'T DODGE MY LIGHTNING BOLTS AND KEEP MOVING YOUR FRIEND FOREVER!"
"WATCH ME!"
Black lightning bolts struck down from random directions as dark clouds formed just over the top of the box canyon. Or so random as each one was aim at Pinkie, where she was going to be, should have been, or at the unconscious Minty who Pinkie had to keep carrying around.
"You'd do better without the dead weight."
"FRIENDS ARE NEVER DEAD WEIGHT! Don't you have any-?!"
"I have family. That's enough. Why would I want more?"
Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks in shock. " . . . How can you even ask that?"
Lightning struck Pinkie from several sides at once.
"YOU SHOULD REALLY WATCH YOURSELF!"
Pinkie Pie's body twitched as she coughed. The Alicorn looked on in disbelief.
"That should have finished you. How are you still breathing?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's because there's someone important I need to protect. And I know all my friends are fighting their hardest too. So I can't let go, I can't give up. Wouldn't you do the same for your family?"
"Huh?" The Alicorn startled, "You're not even related!"
"Spike said you Alicorns watch over the world, our world, but you don't really understand the world, do you? The Alicorn I talked to before at least understood what my friends meant to me. Family is more than just who's related to who. We share a bond that reaches past that. And it's as real and alive as the bond I'm sure you share with you family."
" . . . . . . Be that as it may. Your friend needs to go. And as for you, I'd never live it down if I just walked away."
Pinkie managed to stand up back on her four hooves. "Is just walking away, really so bad?"
"I've already brought shame to my family by having you get this far. The time has come for this dream to fade with the morning light. As the one who is dreams and nightmares, I can assure you that that is the way things go. The entire world, your entire life, was an unsustainable fantasy from the beginning, a child's simplification of how the world really works. It took time for it to begin collapsing, but its collapse was inevitable."
"It's real for me!"
She magically slammed Pinkie Pie into the ground. "It's time for you to accept the days of free cotton candy and perfect skies are over."
++++
Strife teleported away from the defenders. She lifted up her forelimbs, huge chunk of rock floated from the seabed, floating in front of her in a stairway pattern, then one or two at a time flew at one of the heroes. "Let's see you dodge this!"
Thistle yelped, and though the pegasus avoided the giant rocks, she accidentally dropped Rarity and Spike.
The two squealed as a boulder landed on top of them. Rarity's horn flashed at the last moment, and unicorn and dragon found themselves several yard away in a flash of light.
Sky Wishes shouted as she ran alongside of Wysteria, "I really really really wish we aren't hurt!" Herd instinct overruled the logic fallacy of grouping together to make an easy target. Magically the rocks -just- veered off course and showered them with sand.
Star-Catcher stood her ground as the boulder came at her. The boulder glowed blue, it slowed, it stopped, then versed course, flying right back at Strife, hitting her in the face!
"UGH! Impressive! But let's see how you handle this!" The rocks all clumped together into one huge one except for a few stray pieces and it fell slowly towards the defenders. It was the size of Princess Rarity and Ponyville's castle. Star-Catcher gritted her teeth, the symbol on her forehead glowing brighter!
"The power of a heart consumed by one thought and one feeling can't hope to overcome me!" Strife boomed.
Wysteria noticed the pattern that the remaining floating stones formed and nudged Sky-Wishes. She nodded, and she followed Wysteria as they jumped on the floating stones. Staying side by side, the two jumped harder and faster than they had their entire lives and leapt at Strife and the two rammed into her. It was like jumping shoulder first into a metal statue. The two bruised with cracked bones struggled to stay on top of her. "Will you get off me!"
"No way!" The two shouted together.
It was the distraction needed as Star-Catcher pushed the giant spherical boulder back, Wysteria and Sky Wishes dropped into the water below and swam back to shore. Strife got a much larger stone in the face this time as she turned around, this one sending her flying from the impact as the spherical rock created a giant pillar of water at the edge of the horizon. The horizon was closer. Everyone could notice it now. But none of them brought it up.
"Star-Catcher! How are you doing all this?!" Thistle gasped.
"I . . . I just am! It's, there's something at the back of my . . . my memories . . . just, something there!"
Strife teleported back to where she had been before, looking down at them. "What a sad and pathetic lot you are:
An Earth Pony who wished to reveal the truth of pegasus to her fellow Earth Ponies even if it disrupted the status quo.
A little unicorn princess to whom life was a game and whose laughter was infectious to all she met.
A dragon who'd give all his life in service of another in spite of the typical dragon ego.
One earth pony whose gentleness never wavered even when given power and rejected power for the sake of all those she loved.
A cowardly pegasus who faced her worst fear rather than abandon a friend.
And a pegasus who is willing to let go of everything she was if it means protecting her friends.
Yes. What a pathetic lot you all are."
Wysteria shouted defiantly, "YOU'RE DEAD WRONG! Those all the things that make us stronger!"
Strife crossed her arms, "Is that so? Is that really so? Then by all means prove it. Show me the true inner power that is in your hearts. If it even exists! If you want your happy ending so bad, it isn't going to produce itself! You're going to have to earn it!"
"We won't give up! I wish! I wish! I wish!" Sky Wish said.
"When this is all over and everyone is back we're gonna laugh all about it!" Rarity declared.
"I'm here for all of you!" Wysteria said.
"With you to end my princess!" Spike promised.
"I won't run away! I won't run away! I won't run away!" Thistle swore.
Star-Catcher closed her eyes, "Castles of Ponyland. Near and far. At the heart the foundations on which your were built. Pieces of the light of the rainbow that gives life to our world. Please. Hear my voice. I DOTH COMMAND! AID US TO CLENSE THIS EVIL!"
Seven glowing lights appeared around Star-Catcher. They floated around her, and then fused together at the symbol on her forehead. It flashed all colors, and the Rainbow Of Light tore through the air straight at the Draconequus.
+++
"WHY! Why don't you give up already?! Why are you delaying what you can't even change?!"
The Alicorn swore as Pinkie Pie kept coming out of the corner of her eye the moment she left her visual senses to appear in a completely different spot, ramming and kicking and head butting her. The Alicorn tried to strike her with another series of lightning bolts but-
"ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK!" Her skeleton became visible for a moment as the Alicorn's lightning bolts all hit where their target had been a moment ago but was no longer, right on top of the Alicorn.
The Alicorn's body twitched as electric sparks jumped from one part of her body to another.
"I told you, this is for Minty, not me!"
"And I'm telling you the fun and games are OVER! No more random bursting into song like puppets in a show! No more being in sync with each other like fun house mirrors! Knowing the lyrics like your entire life was just a play on stage! Such worlds can NEVER have true life!" The Alicorn used a good deal of her own magic to heal herself. "And I am done with you. Good bye."
She took a few trots forward, shadows spread out form her, many with pony faces, darkness came from her like the unfolding of wings, never ending, ever expanding, ever consuming.
Whatever life Pinkie Pie had left, she felt drifting out of her body as the growing darkness from the approaching Alicon grew closer.
She held her ground. "We burst into song, because all ponies everywhere love to sing. It's who we are! We're all in sync with each other, because we know each other at their center! We all know the words, because our hearts are all connected!"
The Alicorn's voice echoed off the canyon walls. "PISHPOSH!"
Pinkie felt her ears ring, she knew that had permanently damaged her hearing.
The darkness drew closer within and without.
"Even if you could beat me, which you can't, Minty is doomed to vanish into nothing. That is her fate. You can't change it."
She whispered. "Starsong. Help me."
"You plead for aid for somepony who never existed."
"No! She's still here in my memory and my heart,
and as long she's there she can't have never been!
There are some bonds that are stronger than simply kin!
Friends are for forever,
so don't you dare say her time was never!
Toola-Roola, Starsong, Kimono
to their nothing I say 'no'
Their Hearts Of Hearts are immortal
So I know they're waiting for me past that last portal
Call me stupid or a fool
This pony isn't going to lose her cool
Just know Minty soon or later I will be with you.
That much I know to be surely true.
You may say I'm a foal, feeling the way I do,
You can call me Ponyanna; say I'm crazy as a loon,
I believe in second, third, and seventh chances and that's why I believe in her too.
"BELIEVE WHAT YOU WISH TO BELIEVE BUT YOU BELIEVE IN VAIN."
"There will always be things you don't know if they're true or not unless you try." Another voice called out.
Pinkie turned and dared turn her glance away from the darkness slowly surrounding.
You can't just let life pass you by and by! Pinkie replied tearfully.
Minty slowly walked alongside Pinkie Pie. The darkness twisted around them like snakes.
"We won't fear the dark, because we know we aren't far apart!
"This is the end along with your friend!"
"This isn't the end, it's here we shall begin
There seems to be a lot you don't see the value in.
But that doesn't mean it isn't really there
You just don't see it, you silly mare!"
"You and your friend and blind to your own end!"
The darkness blacked out everything.
We won't fear the night! It's in each other we find our light!
Tiny points of light appeared in the blackness, they became a galaxy worth of stars! The blackness shattered like a bad dream at dawn!
Together forever, we will stay. Holding the last night at bay!
Green and pink go right together don't you think?
The Alicorn's jaw dropped in complete shock. " Impossible. That darkness was forged from the fear of the dark in the heart of every pony of your world! No pony could overcome!"
No one pony you mean. You thought it would it wouldn't matter if pink had green, but your prediction wasn't all that keen! Maybe there's other things you haven't seen.
No matter what you call from the nether, we'll face it together!
You say this is the end! But we know there's more around the bend!
Together we'll take whatever you can throw! Ready for another go?
The Alicorn sighed and lowered her wings and sat down. "I give up."
Pinkie Pie started, "Eh?"
"My design was for you to be erased when we first met, but the moron disrupted that. Then I show the deepest darkness and you pierce it with a duet. A song, something I'd just stated had no meaning at all and shatter my shroud with it. It seems music holds a magic all its own."
"Naw. It's just how we ponies let the stuff inside out! You know! Like drawing or painting! Do you like to do art?"
"I arrange the moon and stars every night," The Alicorn sighed.
"Really? They're very pretty. You must be one talented artist!" Pinkie Pie said.
The Alicorn started. "You . .. you really think so?"
"Yep! I think they're very nice! Arranging all of those every night? That's really impressive!"
" . . . Thank you." The Alicorn blinked away a single tear.
She stayed silent for a time before getting up on her hooves and standing up. "I have a lot of thinking to do. I'm not a perfect Alicorn after all. And I have a sister I have to welcome home. Perhaps I misunderstood her reasons for leaving in the first place, I have learned more about you mortal ponies in this fight than I've learned about you since this timeline was born... Take what time you have left in this world before it fades. I hope to meet the new version of you when time reaches this moment again. Good-bye."
She vanished in a swirl of dark blue mist and stars.
"Whao. It just hit me Minty, we never caught her name! Well we better go help the others! Right Minty? Minty? MINTY!" The green pony's eyes rolled in the back of her head as she coughed blood and fell on her side.
Pinkie saw the bandage she had wrapped around her was completely bright red. "Minty!" She was at her side.
Minty opened an eye. She cracked a smile. "Hey . . . don't you, don't you think it was nice that . . . that we got to sing together? Just . . just one last ... tim-e." Her eye closed.
"MIIIIINTYYYY!"
++++
TO BE CONCLUDED
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Strange. I know I started reading Mindgames all those years ago on Deviant Art, but I can't remember half of this.
And damn, this is one long running series.
We have so many parities
Really? I thought the whole reason for the rewrite was the lack of parity ;)
Cap
______________
what
____________
aimed
___________
Me reading most of this chapter: Woah this is crazy, aw no I liked Toola-Roola!
Me at the end: (for some context, Minty was one of my least favourite ponies in G3) MINTY NO WHYYYYYYYYY WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME *ded*
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
.
.
.
If we weren't over the top we wouldn't be ponies!
-Another of G4 Pinkie Pie's "components"? Possibly from a different generation? Also, I think that "over the top" is true of G4, but it isn't "always on". In other words it isn't a world of ham (let alone one-dimensional). And you have Fluttershy and Applejack who can be "over the top" in their quietness and stability respectively. None of this is to dispute what Minty is saying here, I just wonder if you are going to be contrasting it with G4, or noting its continuation?
Cucumbers on my pizza, green candy, you name it, and if it's the color green I love it!
-Not as complex/advanced a focus as "Apples (and also apples)", "Studying", "(aerial) athletics/winning", "making people happy via high-energy stuff"*, but still a place to work from.
*I know you have Pinkie turning off her 'high energy' sometimes, but that merely takes her from what human psychology would consider 'focused', rather than 'monomanical'... assuming I have the usage of that last word correct.
But it all worked out at the end! Always does and always will!
-Since I am not very familiar with this generation I wonder if this is good fortune built into the setting, or the type of character development (if only within one episode before the status quo returns) that would parallel the Friendship Lessons of G4.
You see, I . . . kinda sorta like things to be in order, I like to see details be right. And, I have this tiny, tinny little problem of sometimes making things worse when I take it too far.
-Okay, but what does that have to do with green and socks? Oh, wait... that flaw was how she ended up needing to give her socks away in "A Very Minty Christmas".
She suggested I leave Ponyville. But I don't know what you're supposed to pack when you go into exile!
-Drawing parallels to Rarity now, in addition to the earlier reference to Twilight's OCD? Or were you referencing Rarity's OCD when you said the previous thing I quoted?
There was this funny light that came from each and every one of us,
-Was that in the cartoon itself? Either way, this looks like The Fires of Friendship* v 0.1.
*From Hearth's Warming Eve.
Star-Catcher said it was the good-will in our hearts that called Santa to Ponyville, not a candy-cane light.
-Here is where I realized that both happen in snowy environments/at Christmas equivalents... Christmas is equivalent to Christmas because A = A.
Oh, and those socks you hang on your fireplace every year? Santa got that idea from me! Ha ha!
-And the traditions like the caroling in HWE. A really minor parallel, but I'm saying it anyway.
So I kinda sorta accidentally organized her surprise birthday party a day early, it all worked out in the end!
-Was that revenge for being looked down on for klutziness, or an example of a non-physical counterpart to klutzy-ness?
it all worked out in the end!
-Not familiar with this incident, but SOUNDS like luck rather than learning...
(okay, not saying much in Ponyville but still-!)
-I forget if they went into Pinkie... you might have removed the merging aspect for all I know.
-Here is where I note that chapter 47 appears to be out of order with the other chapters (it is possible to drag via the four dots next to the chapter name when editing the story as a whole).
(Pause, possibly to read chapter 47)
...Rarity?
Guess there wasn't enough time to deck her in the schnozz while her magic was busy elsewhere?
Well buck you, it's not HER law, she doesn't have to abide by jack diddly.
If it weren't a foregone conclusion that you fail, Star Catcher, I'd be rooting for you.
By that logic couldn't you close your eyes and just decide that Strife was dead?
By your metrics maybe, but that's still more than you've probably ever done as far as character growth and equinity as far as you're concerned.
Seven? Hmm, I'll just tuck this one away for later.
Yeah, happiness and fun is for children. Now, gritty, miserable suffering? That's the ticket! That's just what the world needs. Happiness is dead, hurray!
8959882
And that's what they get for not making Minty canon in G4!
Actually since she exists in her universe, that she works hard to maintain, it is her rule too.
And there's more to what Strife's doing than you can imagine. And... you don't want to wish that... you just don't, you really don't.
8959882
Also, spoilers, Strife NEVER heals from that stone paw... either because G3's harmony magic was that pure... or because she keeps it as a remembrance of such brave ponies.
3276816
You have no idea. Are you still with us?
5823763
Minty wasn't added to G4 canon sadly. :-( She was my favorite G3 pony, she deserved better.
3370898
Heh.
1082610
Happy when people NOTICE MY REFERENCES! :-)
By the time they met... likely...Of course... that Luna wasn't quite that Luna anymore.
That was explored at ONE POINT... but I sincerely can't remember WHERE!!!
I hope you enjoyed the story.