Chapter 8 - The Light at the End
“Ari!” Sonata Dusk cried, “Slow down! I’m gonna lose my lunch!”
Aria Blaze snapped back, “At least you’re carrying her forward! I’m running backward here, and we didn’t eat lunch! You ate a tire!!!”
The two currently human Dazzlings had lost time for their sister, Adagio Dazzle, when that second wave of magical light had rocked the campsite and parking lot. They’d been dragging her huge, and decidedly heavy Siren body between them for minutes now, and it was exhausting work without the ground beneath them turning into corn-on-the-cob or having to dodge the local forest ranger, after he suddenly turned into a bear.
“Hold on Dagi!” Aria begged, her sister’s breathing having become shallower and shallower, “We’re almost to the lake!”
“… pon…” she managed to whisper back.
The lake was in sight. It was so close there was already water in Aria’s eyes. All they needed was to hoof it up to this little ledge over the bank and throw her in. Then she could breathe, and everything would be alright! This wasn’t even happening really!
“Aria!” Sonata’s panic mounted, “She’s not breathing anymore!”
“She’s a fish!” Aria screamed back, not thinking about whatever it was that Sonata had said because if that’s what she said then that meant… it meant…
They reached the ledge. Barely a six-foot drop into the water. Six feet and Adagio would live.
“Sonata, on three!”
“Right, one!”
“Two…! THREE!” Aria heaved Adagio’s bulk into the air on the count…
Sonata was still holding the tail, because she thought ‘Three’ and then throw. She landed, hard onto her stomach right on the lip of the bank, nearly dropping herself down into the pond as well.
Adagio, despite the off-kilter manner, seemed to fly once more. She sailed in a ragged, half-way arc, directly into where the water should have been.
Should have been. Aria watched, however, as the entire pond pulled back from the shore, just where Adagio was due to make fall. She hit the mud and the muck headlong, with a loud, sludgy blorp.
The pond chuckled. It thought it was hilarious. A comedian.
Adagio sat there, head in the muck, and tail in the air for a total of about ten seconds before a third wave of light swept over the region. At which point, the pond became a regular pond again, and Adagio… human Adagio was buried beneath the water.
Sonata and Aria lay down at the ledge, staring down six-feet of embankment, into the slurpy, green water, beneath which their sister had crashed into a pit of mud. To say that they were in much of a fit state would be a terrible, terrible lie.
Yet, just as the crushing realization was about to set in, the water nearest them burst! And a sloppy green pile of muck sputtered and gagged as it pulled itself up the sandy embankment… then slid back down the embankment, then clambered back up one more time with Aria and Sonata lending a hand.
Adagio heaved up an enormous amount of water and mud once she was laying on grass again. Her entire body burned in the worst way imaginable. Catching smallpox that one time a few centuries back wasn’t so bad, in hindsight.
Once the worst of the muck had been peeled off her, Adagio felt two pairs of arms pull her up and squeeze her. Looking to her left, Aria, and to her right, Sonata. Both had teared up, and both were hugging as tightly as she’d… actually, had she ever hugged them before?
She did now. She spun around and hugged her sisters like she almost couldn’t ever again.
“Thank you,” she managed, “Thank you… girls?”
Sonata opened an eye, “Yes?”
“I… I want to go to Canterlot now.”
Aria looked at her. “The… Equestrian magic?”
“No,” Adagio shook her soggy mane, “I think it’s time… we talked to Sunset Shimmer and her friends. I’m done,” she pulled herself back into the hug, “I’m done.”
“Awww!” Sonata beamed a smile so bright it might have blinded Adagio before today, “That’s so wonder- uh oh…!”
Sonata’s eyes bugged nearly out of her skull. She broke off the sisters’ hug and leapt for the ledge of the bank. She stuck her head over the side and began making the most wretched noises Adagio had ever heard.
Aria’s eyes flashed. She turned to her other sister and said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, “Oh, we might need to walk. Sonata ate the van’s tires.”
Well, Sunset thought as consciousness returned once more, third time’s the charm.
First, experimentally, she felt the grass with her hand. Alright, that was a hand, not a hoof. Good start. She was quite familiar with the differences by now. She followed up by opening her eyes, to see a small purple dog looking down on her with worry.
“Is… is it over?” he asked.
Sunset pulled herself up into a sitting position. Hands, good. Clothes… oh! Leather jacket! Awesome! And not a unicorn horn or… wings in sight. The grass below was green, and the sky above was blue, clear, and didn’t have a raging moon dropping out of it.
“Yeah… yeah I think so.” She gave Spike a warm smile.
“Fantastic!” he smiled back, “Time for a nap.”
And with that, he promptly curled up, and began to snore.
Sunset fully picked herself up and took a quick inventory of the world around her. Looked normal enough. The school building was a building again. The grass and sky were normal. And there wasn’t a pony in sight. People were back in business around here, if the masses of confused and nauseous human teenagers stumbling about were any indication.
As for her friends, Sunset first caught sight of the Trixies as the last bits of white light finished enveloping them. Within seconds, two human teenagers stood where once were ponies.
“You did it, Trixie!” one cried out.
“No, we did it, Trixie!” shouted the other. “Great and Powerful, on three!”
Sunset couldn’t tell which was which… and didn’t really care at the moment, so she left the two spinning around one another in a helicopter hug.
Rainbow Dash and Rarity were still sitting where Midnight had dropped them, and it was good to see they each had a complete, human body again. Though they were wearing each other’s clothes, which caused both of them some manner of distress, judging by the way they were spinning around and checking themselves and each other. Dash in hout-couture, and Rarity in a jersey… maybe the Chaos was here to stay?
Sunset laughed. She felt like she’d earned it.
Standing together, about center of the portal-plinth (still Wondercolt-less) stood… oh crud. Discord and Disqord, both returned to the obnoxiously dressed human form. Keeping them separated was going to be a nightmare.
They were speaking to Fluttershy. Human Fluttershy.
“Go on! I bet you can’t guess.”
“I bet she can. After all, who knows us better?”
Fluttershy spent a full three seconds glancing back and forth between the two tall, color-blinding humans before she leapt to the one on her right and gave him a great big hug.
“Disqord!”
Discord kicked the grass, “Drat.”
“Fluttershy! Discords!” Sunset raced towards her friends. As she reached them, Fluttershy exchanged a quick, tight hug with her. “All human again?”
“It looks that way,” Fluttershy smiled back. But there was something about her eyes…
“You already miss being a pony, don’t you,” Sunset smirked.
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide, “Sunset! Y-you don’t understand!” The usually shy nature-girl clasped her hands in front of her and let her hair fall in front of her eyes as she stared down at the ground. She whispered, sadly, “I was adorable.”
Disqord set one comforting hand down onto her shoulder. “What do you mean, was? You’re always adorable!”
“Discord!” a pair of voices cried out, startling the former-Draconequus, who had been watching his other half and Fluttershy. He turned to see Rarity and Rainbow Dash, outfits swapped, marching towards him.
“Ugh, girls!” he threw up his hands, “I think I’ve earned a break from magic for the moment, don’t you agree? You don’t need Chaos Magic to fix your problem, you need a dressing room and some privacy!”
Both girls planted their fists on their hips. And then, with uncharacteristic grace and refinement, Rainbow Dash said, “Oh Discord, darling? I think you may wish to reconsider that position.”
Rarity nodded, then slapped her hair out of her face with uncharacteristic annoyance. “What she said, draco-whatsit.”
Discord’s face scrunched up like he’d just eaten a whole lemon. With almost mechanical speed, he brought up a hand and snapped his fingers. A flash of white later, and the two girls had their outfits (and other things) swapped back to normal.
“Oh man,” Dash sighed, “That’s the second-best thing I’ve seen all day. Besides Rarity not being my butt anymore.”
“Yes, thank you Disc…” Rarity turned a visceral scowl on her rainbow-headed companion, eyes as wide as saucers, with pinprick irises to match. She slowly turned back to her fashion-savior. “Thank you, Discord. I do apologize for not believing you before. About being friends. We’d be honored.”
Discord seemed quite happy with this arrangement, if Sunset was any judge.
Vice Principal Luna approached Sunset herself, but seemed only to share a happy nod before directing her full attention to the Discords. There would probably be some long, long and angry discussions about what had happened today, which would be good for everyone.
More unfortunate, however, was that Sunset had been hoping for Luna to speak with her now… since there was just one person left she needed to check up on.
Midnight Sparkle stood apart from all the others, facing the stone plinth. She still had her wings and the rest of her mystical visage. It put her in stark contrast with the… well, everyone. Even Discord started to feel like a regular person once you got used to the eye-strain his outfit put one’s eyes through. But with Midnight, there was an almost palpable otherness to her. She was a being outside of reality, forced to conform to it.
And… she was talking to herself. As Sunset approached, she could see the creature that had stolen her friend fretting about with her hands, tilting her head this way and that, and generally silently talking with herself.
How was Sunset supposed to talk to her? She knew, at least intellectually, that she had to. She couldn’t just let Midnight go! She was still a threat to the… the entire multiverse, if Twilight had been right about her.
But was she? The Midnight they all knew, or thought they knew, would never have spared their lives or saved the world. She would never have made a deal for her freedom, at least not one whose terms she’d keep. How could Twilight just… hand over her body to this creature if that were the case? There had to be more to this than that.
Sunset just didn’t know where to start. Because intellectually, she knew she had to. But emotionally, her heart felt like there was a knife embedded in it, and Midnight was the one who put it there.
Midnight paused momentarily, and turned her head around. The fire replacing her glasses had flickered out, but her mystical eyes remained a deep electric blue with purple irises. She seemed to note Sunset’s presence with sullen contemplation. Like she had made a decision she didn’t care for.
She doubled over, wincing pain clear on her familiar-yet-alien face. She gasped, and it was her audible pain that made Sunset race to the girl’s aid. Whatever else she’d done, Sunset threw all that aside for a moment. Midnight wrapped her wings about herself just as the red-and-gold haired girl reached her.
“Twi- Midnight!” she gripped her by the shoulders, “Midnight, what’s wrong!?”
Blue fire, electric blue flared around Midnight, the arcane force of its ignition pushing Sunset back several feet in its wake. She watched as the flames wrapped around the girl who was once her friend, and with a terrible ache in her heart, Sunset knew a teleportation spell when it was charging. Why it hadn’t been an instant pop and nothing more, she couldn’t say, but she remembered slower forms practiced early on in Celestia’s school, and this had all the hallmarks.
“Please, don’t!” she cried, one last, desperate attempt to keep her friend with her. But just as the spell fired, and she expected to see no more Midnight nor Twilight…
She saw two Twilights, flying apart from one another. They each landed in the grass, mere yards apart, and lay still. Sunset leapt to the nearest one’s side, even as she could hear the rest of her friends rushing to the scene.
This Twilight Sparkle… had her usual blouse and skirt, glasses still on her face, and even her hair done up in a bun. It… it was just Twilight. Her Twilight. Who was rapidly coming to…
“Eh,” she shook her head, “Sunset? Are you alright? You’re crying…”
“I’m alright?” Sunset laughed, wiped at her eyes, “I’m alright!? Twilight, you just split in half!”
The nerd-girl smiled back, “It’s been a long morning, yeah. Oh!” She shot up into a sitting position, “Midnight!”
Sunset and Twilight swept their eyes over to the other Twilight… no, to Midnight Sparkle. She was in the spitting image of Princess Twilight when she’d first shown up in this world; long straight hair, a simple button-up shirt and skirt with tall boots. But… there was a brilliant aqua streak in her hair where there should have been pink, and her eyes were just as bright and blue as Twilight’s were dark and purple.
The new Twilight… Midnight Sparkle, slowly raised herself up from the grass into a sitting position just like the one Twilight had taken. She looked down at herself first, tracing her legs with her eyes, then one arm with the other. She seemed shocked to have fingers, and spent several seconds checking each one before she finally looked up at the group that had built around her.
She considered what to say… then said nothing. She didn’t trust her own voice. She tried again… and then turned away. Choosing your first words was more difficult than it…
“Midnight!”
She had no time to think as a thin, purple girl threw herself atop Midnight and wrapped her in a hug.
“Aargh!” were her first words, “Twilight! What is this!? Let me up this instant or I shall reduce Smarty Pants to ash!!!”
“It’s a hug, you goof!”
“You are the one who is a goof!!!” Midnight snarled with entirely too much venom in her voice for someone pinned to the grass, getting a hug from themself.
She didn’t resist much though…
Finally, Sunset offered a hand to both girls and helped them up. There was an awkward silence right away. Sunset and Midnight each looked away from the other, each with one hand sliding up the opposing arm… until they saw this mirrored trait and giggled together.
“I don’t understand,” Sunset managed to say first, “What is this? How did you two do this? Why?”
“It was a bit complicated,” Twilight began, placing one hand on Midnight’s shoulder.
“But necessary!” said Midnight, lightly shrugging off the comforting hand, “While Twilight may have been too weak to deal with my voice in her head, I wasn’t about to subject myself to lecture after lecture on ‘friendship’,” she said the last word in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “when I could remove the offending migraine before it began.” She smirked, in a way rather eerily reminiscent of Twilight herself.
Twilight adjusted her glasses, and smiled back, “So, we modified a teleportation spell…”
“Took a page out of Luna and Princess Twilight’s Dreamwalker magic…”
Rarity jumped in with an awed whisper, “And voila! Apparently… though, Midnight, dear, you must let me do something about your wardrobe!” she pinched at Midnight’s sleeve, “You’ll need your own look, especially if the Princess comes to visit us soon. I have a few emergency outfits in the band room for just such situations…”
Midnight recoiled from the touch, nearly tripping over herself as she fell back in a panicky flight. The only thing that stopped her was Sunset’s very physical body blocking her escape route. Midnight recoiled again, but only a foot or so, eyes locked onto Sunset.
Then they drifted to the other girl’s back…
“It’s… fine, Midnight,” Sunset managed after an awkward pause, “I’m not mad.”
Midnight bit her lip, then said, “I… I knew you had a hang-up about seizing power for yourself… for some reason. Still, I feel…” she wasn’t entirely sure what the appropriate response to this situation would be.
Sorry I might have made you into an immortal magical alicorn?
“…bad?” she finished, lamely.
Sunset set her hands onto Midnight’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes… her normal, blue human eyes. “It’s been a long, long Monday. And school hasn’t even started. We’ll have plenty of time to work through… what you tried to do and what you did.”
Twilight’s face erupted into a tremendous grin as Sunset pulled Midnight into another hug. “But,” Sunset whispered, “For what it’s worth? I know from personal experience that saving the world tends to earn you a lot of forgiveness around here.”
“Please,” Midnight sighed, but did not resist, “Please tell me hugs normally aren’t this common? Is this really my life now?”
Twilight met her… Midnight’s eye and smirked in a way that just screamed, I know you love it.
She managed to remove herself from Sunset’s embrace, only to find an athletic, cyan arm wrapped over her shoulder, and its full-spectrum-haired owner pressing her cheek to Midnight’s.
“Cool… we got another Egghead, right? You ever read Daring Do?”
Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Technically, yes? But Twilight…”
Rainbow near-shouted into her ear, “Awesome, right!?”
“She steals magical artifacts… what’s not to like…?” Maybe if she kept agreeing with these people Midnight might get out of here without any more hugs…
“So,” a commanding, feminine voice rang out across the school yard, “Who wants to explain what happened first?”
Principal Celestia was back to normal. Tall, pale, beautiful and graceful as her Equestrian counterpart, she strode across the grass with a near-perfect imitation of regality, not hurt by the ethereal mane which billowed behind her in the solar wind…
That last part was a bit unusual, actually. Once she stopped walking, Principal Celestia slapped at the flowing hair until it settled back down into its normal, nonmagical style.
Sunset, sweet and innocent smile on full display in a way that made both Trixies very proud of her, stepped forward, scratching the back of her head. “Um… it’s a bit of a long story Principal Celestia… and we have school in a couple of…”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” the pastel-haired woman shook her head, “Half the school is still trying to figure out if they should be walking on all fours, and a winged unicorn just destroyed all the computers in the office, which means the bell system… and probably everything else, is down.
“If anything,” she pinched the bridge of her nose, “morning classes will be replaced by the counselors wrangling whoever needs the most comforting and emotional support right now, followed by a school assembly to explain what just happened,” she narrowed her eyes at Sunset here, “and you can bet that all of you will be in my office helping me prepare that little explanation for the rest of the school.”
She sighed, and smiled. “Then, early release. It’s been a long Monday, after all.” Luna patted her sister’s shoulder at that.
And then the two trained their eyes on Midnight Sparkle, who wilted slightly under their scrutiny. Luna spoke first, “Now, as for you…”
Whatever she was going to say died in her throat as she noticed the statue-less plinth. Her mouth worked for several long seconds before she simply stopped trying to comprehend what she was looking at, nor what words could possibly transcribe the emotional anguish her soul was writhing in at that moment.
All those financial reports… useless!
Celestia was about to cover for her sister’s… understandable mental lapse… but whatever she was going to say was also cut short, as a white light flooded out of the portal.
The sparkling, flashing portal crackled to life, and in moments two figures strode confidently from its mystical glare. The first through looked to be an adult human woman with lilac skin and long, wavy dark-purple hair with a single turquoise streak through it. She dressed conservatively, with a bright orange blouse and wine-dark skirt and jacket. She could have passed for one of the teaching staff…
The second figure, however, defied expectations. It looked like Twilight Sparkle, the Princess from the other side of the mirror, the magical pony princess who had once come to save this world and her own from Sunset Shimmer, and again from the depravations of the Dazzlings. But this could not be Twilight Sparkle. She was entirely too tall, too regal. Dressed in a dark purple suit with a gold blouse, with such golden regalia she looked every bit the visiting monarch.
Her hair, briefly, seemed to wave in an ethereal wind as she passed through the portal.
“Sunset! We’re here!” She cried in Twilight’s voice, “Where’s Discord!? The Midnight alarm…” Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of Sunset, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, two Twilight Sparkles, two Trixie Lulamoons, two Discords, Fluttershy, Principals Celestia and Luna, a sleeping purple dog that looked like Spike… and she thought she saw Flash Sentry looking down at her from the roof of the school building.
One of the Trixies sighed, “Great. Now there’s three Sparkles…”
Starlight Glimmer glanced around warily. “I… I think we may have missed the crisis.”
“Princess Twilight?” Celestia was taken aback by the sight of… well, the gangly high school girl she’d met twice and had known the mirror-universe version of for nearly a year… fully grown, and taller than herself!
“Oh! Principal Celestia! Sorry about this,” Princess Twilight walked forward, hand outstretched, “We had some issues on our end of the portal, and were worried something had happened.” They shook hands, a little mechanically on Celestia’s part, then the Princess looked to Sunset.
Sunset nodded slowly, having the strangest sense of wrongness as she had to crane her neck back to meet her friend’s gaze. “Um… yeah, it’s been a long morning. How…?”
A Trixie stepped forward, “Why are you so much older looking, Twilight?” A note of anxiety marred her otherwise Great and Powerful poise.
Before Twilight could say anything, Starlight ran up and grabbed Trixie by her shoulders, tears forming in her eyes. “Trixie! Is it really you!?”
Panic setting in, Trixie did not allow her emotions to run wild, much, “Of… of course it is I, the Great and… what’s going on, Starlight?”
“Trixie,” Starlight swallowed, “Trixie, while only a few minutes have passed for you, whatever happened to the portal unmoored it from our end… you’ve been gone for thirty years!”
“WHAT!?”
The silence that followed, the horror, the sudden realization that…
“Gotcha,” Starlight flicked Trixie’s nose with her finger. “It’s been three weeks.”
“Three… weeks…” Trixie slid down to the grass, her eyes fixed somewhere into the distance.
Princess Twilight frowned. “Starlight, that wasn’t funny.” She ignored her friend’s giggles, turned towards Sunset again, a softer expression and sound to her voice, “We modified the mirror while it was reconstructing after… whatever happened here. It’s probably just reflecting the fact that I’m effectively the Ruling Princess these days, and Starlight’s fully taken over as Headmare of the School.”
Trixie snapped back to reality, “Three weeks!? Counselor Trixie has lost three weeks of pay!? How did her students last without her!?”
Luna, horror evident in her eyes, wordlessly mouthed ‘Counselor?’, to which Twilight and Midnight could only nod remorsefully in tandem.
“Ruling Princess!?” Celestia and Sunset said in perfect sync.
Celestia recovered faster, “Wait, you’re actually a Monarch? Like… running a country and everything? A… Principality? A Real Princess?”
“Of... of course I’m a real Princess,” she almost seemed hurt, “I told you that one of the times I was back here, didn’t I?”
“Well yeah! But I didn’t think you… you were…” the Principal started to wonder if it was illegal or otherwise a poor life choice for her to be taking such a tone with an actual, real, really real Monarch and National Leader of an entire dimension whose border happened to be her school’s front yard.
Should she have a diplomat present? A lawyer?
Luna, to the rescue once more, recovered, “We assumed that, due to your apparent age, the title was more honorary than it would appear to have been. Our deepest apologies, your Majesty.”
“Oh please, don’t do that!” the Princess tittered, “The coronation isn’t for months yet. And besides, you look far too much like the other Princesses for me to be comfortable with that.”
“Well, congrats,” Sunset decided to add something to the proceedings instead of merely standing around gawking like everyone else. “Sorry about that. I knew you were on route to become the next Princess… I guess it just hit me right now…”
The Princess smiled, “I only just got used to it a few months ago myself!”
Midnight Sparkle had been standing as still as stone this entire time. Maybe… maybe if she didn’t move, the Princess wouldn’t notice here. Yes, this was a brilliant plan. No need to involve the woman… pony… All-Powerful Alicorn Princess of Magic that she, a creature who had apparently destroyed hundreds of universes in different timelines, was now a real person, really here, and really, really easy to squash with her Goddess-like powers.
That is… that would have been her plan, had Disqord not slipped a small, yellow pegasus feather directly under her nose…
Accursed human nasal-nervous system!!!
Midnight didn’t know how much of her magic was still, well, accessible. What of her old power could she still tap into while trapped in a human shell? Still… she did not need her hyper-sensitivity to magical energies to know that a gaze had fallen upon her.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, alerted by the sneeze, had her in her sights. Eyes that, though not ancient, represented something truly beyond time, beyond magic. And all the weight of such majesty was weighing down on Midnight. She could not even help to look away. All she wanted to do is run.
But before Midnight could bolt for the hills, her traitorous progenitor hooked their arms together, and turned them to face the Principal and the Princess.
“Now is as good a time as any!” Twilight Sparkle giggled, “Principal Celestia? Princess Twilight? I’d like you to meet Midnight Sparkle! My sister.”
Midnight shot Twilight a murderous look, “Sister!?”
“Since I made you,” Twilight grinned mischievously, “I suppose I could instead refer to you as my daughter…”
“Sister is fine,” she snapped, “I am fine with this… arrangement…” Midnight slowed her speech as the shadow of the Princess’ gaze fell back upon her.
Princess Twilight Sparkle took several long strides towards Midnight, and there was nowhere to hide. Her… sister… held her tight. There was not one, but two Lords of Chaos behind her, smirking no doubt. Rarity on her left and Dash on her right, and despite one being half-conscious, more than enough Trixies about.
Midnight closed her eyes. This was it. The end. Banishment or destruction, it didn’t matter now. At least if she were trapped in the moon, it wasn’t currently falling down atop the school. She gripped her sister’s hand tightly, one last…
A hand. A soft, caressing hand settled onto the top of her head and lightly ruffled Midnight’s hair. She opened her eyes, and stared up at the Princess of Friendship.
“It’s nice to meet you, Midnight Sparkle,” she smiled so… serenely. It was intimidating in its own way. “I guess I have a new, and unique case study to write up, huh? Care to help me with an interview later?”
Midnight released a breath she hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. She took several gulps of air as quietly as she could while the Princess continued.
“We can have it here, or would you prefer Equestria? That way, you and Twilight could get in a few magic lessons as well!”
“You…?” Midnight didn’t trust her voice, but there it was jumping ahead of her, “You’re still offering…? To me?”
Princess Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed, like Midnight had started talking in tongues. “Of course. I’d be happy to help you both. You’re both… kinda me, right?”
Midnight eyed Vice Principal Luna rather suspiciously for a few seconds.
“Sis… Twilight?” she turned to the bespectacled girl who shared her face, “Hit me.”
Discord offered a baseball bat with a nail in it. Disqord held up a plumbing pipe. And Fluttershy pinched both their ears and began to lead them away, each loudly protesting their innocence.
“Yesterday? No hesitation,” Twilight said with all sincerity, “What’s wrong?”
“This is a dream, right?” Midnight didn’t like feeling powerless, and right now she was as powerless as she’d ever been, “People don’t act like this except in dreams and those Saturday morning cartoons Pinkie won’t shut up about. No one just… forgives someone for almost destroying the world!”
The Princess laughed, hard. “Oh, Midnight! More of my friends have tried to kill me than not!” Then, with a modicum more control, she added, “If all we did was hold onto grudges, nopony would get anywhere. So why bother?”
Midnight just could not understand. Or… maybe she did, but everything about this whole friendship business was very, very new to her. It would have been so much simpler to just… blast everyone right from the get-go. But maybe this was how it was supposed to work?
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Sunset! Twilight! Somebody!”
A high-pitched cry flew over the heads of the students and announced the sudden and unexpected arrival… of four ponies? Right in the lead and pounding up the sidewalk was an orange mare wearing a Stetson and very visibly resembling CHS’s very own Applejack. And right behind her, a regular mare with a dark mane and light brown coat and a bright yellow coated unicorn with a red mane followed closely on the ground, while a mottled white and brown pegasus flew just overhead.
All four looked like Tartarus itself might’ve been at their heels… hooves… whatever.
They skidded to a halt right as they reached the statue, Applejack speaking almost before she’d completely stopped even, “Sunset! Yeh gotta help me! It’s… my… family?”
For somepony who’d missed… evidently a heck of a lot judging by the amount of new and… duplicated faces staring back at her… Applejack simply shook her head and resumed her near-panicked speech.
“Sunset! I know you know all about whatever weird magical chicanery’s been going onabouts today, and I need your help! My horses have turned inta ponies!”
Applejack bolted right up to Sunset and tried, surprisingly successfully, to grab her shoulders with her hooves. “Ponies are People Sunset! It ain’t legal to own those!!!”
Cinnamon, the red-maned unicorn, snarked, “I’m pretty sure even as a dumb horse I knew that!”
“I couldn’t help but notice there ain’t nobody nor anything magical to fight,” said Oakley, the pegasus, now grounded behind Applejack, “Which is slightly disappointin’. I was rarin’ fer another fight.”
“Oh!” Cookie hopped up and down in one place, “Does that mean everypony’s alright? Haw!! That means we can hang out with Applejack all day!”
Applejack whirled back on her newfound kin. “No it don’t! If the magic hoodads’ passed, then that means…” she swallowed, then looked to the Princess Twilight, apparently unimpressed with the appearance of three Twilights, “Princess, please, can my… my family head over through the portal?”
Princess Twilight’s eyes widened considerably, though she was nowhere close to figuring out what this Applejack meant by that. “Wh- why? What’s…?”
“What!?” Cookie cried, “Why would you send us away…?”
“We don’t want to live away from the family,” Oakley stamped one hoof defiantly.
“Ya’ll fixed whatever magic problem was causing this ruckus, right?” Applejack asked.
Sunset nodded, “Eventually, but that doesn’t…”
Applejack raced ahead of the conversation best she could, “Well, that ole Equestrian magic is what made my horses smart, talking, magical ponies! And if that’s all over, then… then…”
Cookie’s eyes welled up, “But… but that means we’d lose our… no. No, no, I don’t want to go back to that!” She burst into full sobs as Cinnamon and Oakley went to comfort the crying mare, even with their own fear shaking each of them to their core.
A moment of silent dread swept over the assembled humans, ponies, and Draconequui. And then, in the next instant, action. Princess Twilight was already pointing towards the portal, Trixies and Sparkles already racing to grab the Apple horses to hurry them through, and Sunset already shouting a warning to get going…
When the white light began to glow again.
Applejack threw herself at her three family members, tears streaming, time slowing down. “Ah no… no!”
If she couldn’t get to them to save them, she wanted to be there with them when it happened…
The light enveloped all…
Snap!
Applejack slammed into what felt like six feet of pure muscle, and toppled over. She managed to get her hands out under her to stop herself from landing directly on her keister, but… wait. Hands? She looked down, and saw… no hooves. She was back to wearing her work clothes, and her riding boots, just like she’d done when…
When…
She couldn’t look up. She didn’t want to see them like that. Not after knowing them.
“Well,” a voice as sweet as chocolate giggled, “This seems awfully familiar.”
Applejack’s heart felt like it’d been torn out of her chest. She could even hear Cookie still talking. Poor girl. She’d never… uh…
She snapped her head up, and took in three teenagers who were the spittin’ image of Apples. Cinnamon really did look just like a fully-grown Applebloom, and Oakley could have passed for Big Mac except for the dappled skin and luxurious long cowpoke hair that poked out from under a mighty fine Stetson.
Cookie, the one who’d spoken first, except for the black hair and a light-brown complexion could have been Applejack’s twin.
Seemed like a lot of that going around these parts all of a sudden.
The Apples picked up their favorite cousin off the ground and held her in an intense, emotional hug, every one of them and her laughing their heads right off! None of them noticed the thumbs-up exchanged between the two Lords of Chaos twins over by Fluttershy.
“That was very kind of you, Disqord,” was all she said.
“I can’t believe it!” Applejack cried, literally cried, “I thought I almost…”
Oakley laughed, and cried back, “Same! But you know what they say? Almost only counts in horseshoes and…”
“Who cares who says what!?” Cinnamon leapt for joy, “We’re people!”
The Princess Twilight sighed happily. She’d only been here a few minutes, and she could already tell this had been an emotionally draining day… morning… half-hour? For everyone, apparently.
“Well,” Applejack and her family had finally calmed down a mite, “I’m gonna sorely miss you three.”
Everyone was quiet again.
Except for Cinnamon, “Oh fer cryin’ out loud will you stop doing that!?”
Applejack removed her hat and looked downcast, “I’m real sorry Cookie, Oakley, Cinnamon. I wish we could keep you at the farm, but ya’ll know we can’t afford to feed three new family members all at once. We can make do, fer a while, but without papers ‘n ID’s, none of ya’ll could get jobs or get schoolin’ done here. If the Princess can, I was gonna ask her ta…”
A golden arm wrapped in a leather jacket sleeve wrapped its way around Applejack’s shoulders. Sunset smirked as she brought her face in close and said, “AJ! Come on girl, you don’t think I’d leave you and your family high and dry on this?”
“Sunset? What in tarnation…?”
“Applejack, how do you think I got my ID and documents? I’m one of the best forgers around!” She smiled and brought up a thumb to indicate the… other Twilight, “And if I’m making Midnight Sparkle over there a real person, you can bet I’d do the same for your cousins. They’ll be legal and ready to go to school or hold jobs in a week, tops!”
Cookie cheered, “Alright Sunny! I knew you were awesome, despite the way you lean too far forward while riding…!”
A cough brought Sunset up short. “Um… Sunset? Forgery?”
The red-haired girl spun around, face plastered with a wide, fake grin that both Trixies found embarrassing to the acting profession. “Principal Celestia! That… that was a joke. I think I’m funny but…”
The pastel-haired principal just smiled and shook her head lightly, “It’s fine, Miss Shimmer. I suppose I’ll be spending the next few days enrolling the four new humans here? Making all that forgery pass muster will require a background check anyway, so we might as well get started.”
Cinnamon looked skeptically at Celestia, “You’d… you would do that for us?”
Even Midnight had to ask, “Why?”
Celestia sighed, “Well, we’re already keeping the whole ‘Magic Conspiracy’ thing under wraps… might as well toss forgery of official documents onto the pile of things we do here.”
Applejack nearly leapt for joy, but then settled for swinging her hat around with a yip and a yeehaw! “Ah thank’ee Miss Celestia! You come around Hearth’s Warming this year an’ I swear we’ll have so many apple fritters for you, ye’ll burst at the seams!”
A smiling Celestia turned back towards the Princess, and looked immensely apologetic as she said, “I’m terribly sorry about this your Maj- Twilight… but it looks like I’m going to be busy today.”
Princess Twilight sighed, “Yeah, it looks like things are… better? But you must be busy with all of this mess to clear up, and you don’t need a foreign ambassador underhoof. Still, it would have been nice to get to chat with everypony- I mean everybody again.”
“Well… what if you could?” Sunset’s eyes were… sparkling…
“Come again, sugarcube?”
Sunset spun around as she spoke, careful to get everyone’s attention. “I know this morning’s been absolutely crazy! But what if we all come back and meet up tonight? All us Rainbooms, the Discords, Trixies, the Princess and her friends, Principal Celestia and Luna, maybe even the Princesses back in Equestria!?”
Starlight, having taken a back seat to the strange happenings thus far, spoke up excitedly, “Oh! We could do a big dinner thing! And talk about what’s been happening! We’ve never actually tried to get everyone together before…”
Celestia… was having a very, very hard time coming up with an objection. She knew she should, but that Monday morning had been a whopper of a morning, and they probably did have a huge list of things to talk about…
“I’m in,” Luna said, simply. “With the statue gone, my whole weekend was wasted anyway.”
Applejack’s ears turned red. “Uh… did the Wondercolt statue happen ta turn into some sort of dragon-type creature and run down the road yonder?”
“I thought it was some sort of snake-pony,” Oakley offered.
Cookie tilted her head, “I thought it was a Draconequus.”
“Don’t be dumb, that’s not a thing,” said Cinnamon, very certain she was right.
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Miss Apple… did you happen to… ‘hogtie’ the statue? As opposed to smash it into bits of very, very expensive stone?”
“… no…”
“Then I’m down for dinner,” she turned, withdrew a whistle from her pocket, and let loose an ear-splitting peal, “Alright! Let’s get to class so we can destress ladies and gentlemen! Move it!”
The crowds of students jumped as the whistle sounded, and they immediately started off towards their classes, and the waiting comfort of the counselors’ offices. Twilight, Spike awake and at her side, eagerly raced off, with Rarity and Rainbow Dash dragging Midnight between them. Whether they got her to the band room for a wardrobe change, the library to pick up some Daring Do novels, or would simply tear her in half when they got part of the way there, Midnight did not know, though she prayed for the third option... but not too seriously.
Trixie and Trixie hugged one another as if they’d never been apart, and might not see one another again despite their assurances of future meetings and visitations. Starlight led her Trixie back towards Princess Twilight and the portal. Twilight herself gave Trixie a warm hug upon meeting her again, which confused the showpony more than it offended her sensibilities, so she allowed it.
Celestia led Fluttershy, Applejack, and the newest Apple siblings back towards the school, with only a brief word passing between her and Sunset, who assured the Principal she would be in her office inside of five minutes.
Finally, there was only the Princess, Sunset, Starlight, Trixie, and both Lords of Chaos.
Before the Princess could begin, however, Disqord snapped his fingers and produced a scroll of paper, which he handed straight to Sunset.
“What is this?” she asked, opening the scroll. “Wait… the spell!?”
“I might have gotten it in… the separation,” he grinned, a bit sheepishly at that, “And, well… it was so very important to you. Sorry again for my better half’s prank.”
Sunset hardly waited for him to finish before she wrapped her arms around Disqord’s neck in a quick hug, and then rushed to the portal.
Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie parted ways to allow Sunset room, and she eagerly began the casting:
“From mirror to mirror and across time and space,
Let this order prevail, and magic set apace.”
This time, instead of the crimson lightning, or blinding white, a soft, silvery mist drifted out from the parchment. It encircled the portal plinth in a protective layer, like a blanket, before fading away.
And like that, after so long searching for a way… the flow of Equestrian magic was stable. Finally.
Sunset was tired of tears this morning, but she let these last few flow. “Thank you, Discord,” he’d earned that much.
The Princess lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, but said nothing. Nothing was needed to be said now… well, except one more thing.
“So, Discord…” she began slowly, “I know you had something to do with this whole mess. What happened?”
The human Lord of Chaos smiled sheepishly, and seemed to have trouble finding his words, at least until the other one stepped forward.
And in the gentlest, kindest, almost quietest voice, said, “Oh, please don’t blame Disqord or Discord. They were just trying to make their friends smile, and things got a little out of hand…”
Princess Twilight’s hair, normally perfect, let loose a few stray hairs. “Fluttershy!?”
‘Discord’ reached up and gripped what appeared to be a zipper on the top of ‘his’ head, and with a quick stroke downward… the disguise vanished, revealing a slim, yellow-skinned girl with flowing pink hair and the gentlest eyes you’d ever see in your life.
“Um… sorry.”
“W-what is this!?” Twilight’s left-eye started twitching, “How…? Why? Who was that I saw walk into school!?”
Disqord took Fluttershy’s arm into the crook of his own, “Ah, my other half, the Draconequus you know so well. He’s doing me a solid.”
“A what!?”
Fluttershy smiled, “Well, we decided that today was Disqord’s birthday, and he’d be so bored at school with me. So, he’s taking me to see the rainforest instead.”
Sunset started laughing, and laughing, and laughing. Starlight and Trixie only giggled, but they were also exchanging what gossip they could on the subject even now.
Ignoring all that, Twilight continued to protest, “But you can’t! You have school!”
“Celestia even said school was a bit of a waste today,” Fluttershy said matter-of-factly, “Oh! And there’s a heavy metal concert in Rio de Janeighro right now! If we hurry, we can still make it before the opening bands are done.” She winked to Twilight, “I would have gone if we didn’t have school today…”
“But what about your record?” Twilight could not accept this, “You can’t just miss a day of school!”
“But she’s not,” said Disqord, smirking, “Remember? Discord is filling in today. Think of it like a substitute Fluttershy.” The two began to lift off the ground.
Twilight continued to sputter, not finding another means of halting this insanity. Who would go on a stupid date rather than engage in academia? What madness gripped these humans!?
“Don’t worry! We’ll be back in time for the dinner!” Fluttershy called down, then turned to her Disqord. “Ready, baby?”
“Ready, dear!” and with a snap, they were gone.
The Princess merely stood on the grass, staring silently into the empty air where the Lord of Chaos and her human friend Fluttershy had been not a moment ago. And who were now on a date to the rainforest, wherever that was, and going to a heavy metal concert, whatever that was.
“I just don’t understand,” was all she could say. She said it quietly to herself several times, in fact, before Sunset Shimmer walked past.
“Well,” she said, checking her watch, a tiny thing around her wrist the girls had gotten for her, “I got to be going Twilight, or Celestia’s going to be… madder. Is six hours enough time to get everypony together on your end?”
Princess Twilight seemed to come back to reality, “Oh, yeah. I guess that’s enough time. Should we readjust the mirror to keep us the same ages?”
Sunset smiled, softly, “Nah, you wear it well. Catch you later!” and she was off, racing towards the school, Celestia’s office, and a long, long conversation about magic, chaos, and all those other things she’d become the expert for around here.
With that, Princess Twilight, Headmare Starlight, and the Great and Powerful Counselor Trixie passed back through the portal, to make ready for a dinner to remember.
Seconds later, three human freshmen raced past the statue-less plinth, running pell-mell and gasping for breath.
“We can still make it!” Applebloom cried, ribbon held tight in one hand after it’d gotten loose on the run here, “I didn’t hear the bell! We’re not late!”
Scootaloo followed almost right on her heels. “I’m gonna pass out… how does Rainbow Dash do it…?”
“Slow down you too! I’m not as fast!” Bringing up the rear of the Crusader trio, Sweetie Belle ran completely shoeless, swearing to never again contemplate high heels. “I wonder if Rarity has any backup wardrobes with shoes in my size?”
“Keep going ladies!” Pinkie Pie called after them, she herself still prancing leisurely along, “You’re almost there!”
Pinkie stopped by the plinth and took a long, deep breath. It was so long and so deep, in fact, that her hair started to grow out. She released it all back out in a long, satisfied sigh.
Any minute now…
And just like that, the portal flared to life, disgorging an identical copy of Pinkie Pie.
“Hey Pinkie! How’re things…” she paused as she took in the Pinkie from Equestria. Well, technically she was the Pinkie from Equestria, at least originally. This Pinkie was originally from this reality. In any case, something was up, judging by this Pinkie’s mixed look of ‘everything’s-great’ and ‘we-goofed-up’.
The other Pinkie tried to hide it beneath a smile, “Oh, Pony Pinkie! Things are great! Things are…” she knew she wasn’t selling the act, “um… did some weird stuff go on over here?”
“Oh yeah,” Pinkie took a deep breath and began, “Discord tried to play a joke on Sunset, because of that whole ‘Midnight Sparkle’ deal going on back home, but then it backfired…”
“Yeah, yeah, okay!” Human Pinkie slapped a hand over Pony Pinkie’s mouth. “I get it! Okay, so Discord’s prank messed up the portal… and the Equestrian side of the portal is, like, three weeks ahead now.”
Pony Pinkie gasped, “Oh! But I was supposed to spend the week with Cheese!”
“He’s still in the castle, I convinced him to stay another couple of weeks…”
“Oh, thank you Pinkie! I don’t know what I’d do without…”
“… because he’s trying to propose to you.”
“…”
“… yeah, and since I’ve been dodging him this whole time, so I didn’t accidentally steal your special moment, he might be about to take off in a huff and you need to go chase him down for an epic Act 3 turnaround.”
Pony Pinkie set herself into a sprinting pose, aimed right at the portal, “Then I got no time to lose… except…” she turned her head to look at Human Pinkie, “Did you get it?”
Human Pinkie nodded so hard her head made a rattling sound, “Got it! You are officially the Princess Pinkie Pie, Official Gala Party Planner!”
“I knew I could count on you!” Pony Pinkie smiled, “And I hope you’re up to helping me co-plan the Gala?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, either of them!”
Pony Pinkie nodded, “Alright, I’ll see you in six hours for the epilogue!”
She leapt through the portal, vanishing into a flash of white light. Human Pinkie smiled, turned back towards the school, and began to skip on her way…
At least, until she saw Flash Sentry waving at her from the roof of the school. She supposed she would have to go fetch the janitor first to help him down…
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Alternate title "Twilight makes a tsudarea!"
Starlight is better in her punk clothes then an orange jacket also why orange?
It classes with her skin color and style
Magnificent
10044520
She’s trying out new Headmare outfit styles. It’ll take a while before she settles on her wine colored outfit from the finale.
10068126
Were you the one that up voted my never ending story song?
The fact, that both Pinkie switched place and stuff happened, than I guess. It's one of the reasons the coronation was a disaster. xD
They may act the same, but there is still differences between both worlds.
I can't believe I actually read that fast.
That sounds a lot like a reference from Pokémon when it happened to Brock from misty or max.
Poor Flash.
aww yeah i would be done, too. i mean, the universe couldn't make it more clear that it's time to give up on the whole world domination thing
the worst possible way Dash could have put it
hehe that is a fun interpretation of Daring Do
yeah that is a lot to take in!
hehe Starlight totally got me with that one
hehehe so true. doesn't Midnight know Sunset's whole deal?
love this throughline of Applejack's existential crisis
i mean there's always the fun headcanon that Sunset simply took human Sunset's place in life and identification papers, but this works
Sunset should've really followed her statement with "for legal reasons this is a joke"
aww poor Flash, that's all he did in this entire story!