Worlds Apart: Unity

by MrBackpack

Chapter 3 - A Memory

“We happened, my dear little princess,” cooed Discord, still behind us. “Now, I believe that you have some catching up with you sister to do au revoir! Arrivederci!”

“Wha-”

The three of us were thrown bodily through the portal and onto the grass of Equestria. I was on my feet fast enough to see the portal slam shut, Discord laughing at his trick.

“Bastard” I snarled, pure and unbridled fury burning, roiling through my veins.

Michelle was still sprawled on the ground, staring at where the portal used to be, disbelief evident on her face.

Luna wasn’t the small human child she had just been, not anymore.

In her place was a navy blue filly with a full mane and tale of pure lapis lazuli.

She’s staring at Michelle and I, both wings fully extended, wonderment and confusion on her small face, and I didn’t know what she’s staring at.

Looking around, I saw the desolation that Ponyville had become. The crater where the library had once stood. Houses floating in the air, upside down. The remains of a large balloon looking thing draped over the town hall.

It was even more terrible seeing it in person. The reality of it had been distant when viewed through the portal and in the heat of things.

“Wha-” I start, my voice echoing oddly in the remains of the small town. “What happened?”

“D-d-d-iscord.” Luna stuttered, her eyes even wider than before. She leapt to her hooves and scamped around and behind my leg, clutching at it and peering out from around it, her wings fluttering. “He d-d-d-d-did t-t-this.”

“I should be surprised,” Michelle said after picking herself up off the ground and brushing the dust off of her clothes. “But I’m not, not anymore.”

I looked at my fiancée and she just shook her head.

I wanted to press her for a voal answer, but a twinge at the back of my neck stopped me, I rubbed at it with a wince.

“Wuh-wuh-what-t-tt d-do w-wwe d-d-d-do now?” Luna managed to say, her stutter getting worse.

Michelle and I shared another quick look before I turned and knelt down to the filly and put my hand on her cheek, smiling softly down at her.

“Now?” I said, gently brushing away a tear from her teal eyes. “Now we get you back to your sister, just like I promised.”

“Ruh-ruh-really?”

“Of course Luna,” said Michelle, leaning over my shoulder and giving the diminutive princess a pat on her head. “He did promise, didn’t he?”

Luna looked at us both before leaping into my arms and hugging me, now crying in earnest.

I rocked back with her and held her close while I sat down, my legs out in front of me, Michelle whispering soft, comforting words to her while I rubbed her back.

It took several minutes for Luna to regain her composure.

“Thuh-thuh-thank-k-k you,” she murmured into my neck, giving me one last squeeze.

“Of course little one,” I said as I set her back on her hooves, stood, and reached for Michelle’s hand. My fiancée grasped my hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go.

Together, the three of us made our way through the remains of Ponyville, quietly astonished at the level of destruction the poor town had taken.

Some buildings were on fire but not burning, some were frozen in smoking blocks of ice, others were inside out, there was even one that was upside down, on fire and frozen.

We climbed and clambered over upturned ground, carefully avoiding the multi-colored tears that fouled the town proper.

Michelle and I shared a look, we could hear voices coming from the tears, the small wince that crossed her face told me that her head was pounding just as hard as mine was.

Oddly, there was no one around. No ponies, no animals, not a single living thing other than the tree of us. Even after numerous disasters I had seen on the show, I had never seen Ponyville as deserted as this.

Eventually, Luna led us over a smallish building with a thatched roof next to train tracks, the location and the painted image of a train on a sign above the thatch told us that this was the station. Michelle hopped up onto the platform and went to look around as I lifted Luna up and onto the platform, hopping up after her.

“Is that Noodle?” I asked, looking down at the Princess and just now noticing the stuffed animal on her back.

“Yup!” she chirped, lifting the stuffed anteater in her magic and hugging it.

“I didn’t even know you had him with you,” Michelle remarked with a cocked eyebrow, she had just rounded the corner of the station and was looking down at the two of them, coming to a stop a little ways off to my side. I noticed that her voice sounded as strange as mine did, like there was a delay in the movements of her mouth and the sound reaching my ears; there was that same echo from earlier as well.

“Nuh-Noodle is always wuh-wuh-wuh-with muh-muh-me,” Luna stated simply.

“Hello?” called a voice from within the station before either Michelle or I could respond to Luna’s declaration. “Is somepony out there?”

Michelle and I whipped around, placing ourselves between this newcomer and Luna.

I was only just able to stop my recoil of disgust as what was supposed to be a pony, a stallion if I judged his voice correctly, lurched out of the station.

He was a misshapen and wretched thing, fused with what was probably some of his desk and a large clock. His head twitched in time with one of the four second hands on the clock face and his entire back half was a mishmash of carved legs, brass gears, and gold chain.

The four of us stood in silence for several minutes, him still twitching and bobbing to the timepiece and Michelle and I simply staring in horror.

Before I could stop her, Luna stepped around my legs and gasped, drawing his attention to her.

“Your Highness,” he gasped, a small dribble of ink or oil rolling down from the corner of his mouth. “Oh my goodness, we’ve been looking all over for you.”

Michelle and I looked at each other, he had forgotten about us.

“I’ll send word to the Palace immediately, wait here,” he continued, not letting Luna say anything before lurching back into the station and letting the door slam shut behind him.

A few seconds later there was the sound of glass breaking and the “woomph” of a small explosion.

“Should we, uh,” started Michelle, looking uneasily at the shut door after a long moment of bewilderment. “Should we check on him?”

“Don’t worry about me,” the stallion called from inside. “I just dropped my mug of warm ink. Please take a seat, the chariot should be arriving any moment to take you ponies to Her Majesty.”

“Ponies?” I whispered at Michelle.

“I don’t know,” she replied with a shrug. “I’m so beyond questioning things right now.”

“Muh-me tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-too,” squeaked Luna through her stutter.

With no better option, the three of us settled onto the shaded platform to wait and watch. Luna, cuddling Noodle to her chest, draped herself over my outstretched legs and hummed to herself as I ran my fingers through her mane.

Michelle sat down a little off to my side, and rubbed at her brow, scowling to herself.

“Headache?” I asked.

“Migraine.”

“Yeah,” I mutter. “Me too.”

“It’s like there’s a small construction crew behind my eyes, jackhammering at my sinuses.”

“I’ve got a timpani player going to town on my temples and a vice at the base of my neck.”

“Are you gon-nuh-nuh-a be alright-tt-t?” Luna asked, turning her head to look at the two of us.

“Nothing a good night’s sleep in a real bed won’t cure,” Michelle said comfortingly to the diminutive Princess. “That and a good cup of coffee.”

“Amen to that.”

Luna cocked her head to one side before shaking it and snuggling down into my leg again.

I put my hand on her head, just behind her ear, and leaned against the wall with a sigh.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

For the record, it wasn’t just two guards and the chariot, like I expected, that arrived to gather the Princess and her rescuers, but twenty guards and three chariots.

They fell out of the sky like a blazing comet, landing and deploying a phalanx of magical shields and very sharp spears, all directed at Michelle and I.

“Hand over The Princess!” Bellowed one of them, her spear directly at my neck.

“What the fu-” I start to say before the spear is against my throat, applying just enough pressure to emphasize the blade’s sharpness.

“Hand over The Princess! NOW!”

Staring wide eyed at the forest of blades, Michelle and I slowly raised our hands in front of us, showing these guards that we don’t have anything on us.

“Here,” I said quickly, looking down at Luna. “She’s right here. Perfectly fine. I swear.”

The guard pulled her spear back a couple of inches, her eyes darting down to Luna and then back up to me, confused.

“Not our fault,” I said quickly before she can ask. “Discord did it.”

I can tell he’s about to growl something at me by the way his jaw clenched, but he’s interrupted:

“HOW DARE YOU?” exploded Luna, her voice much too big to come from her tiny body.

Every single one of the twenty guards flinched back at the sound, their ears flat against their heads; my own ears rang with the echo as well.

The pain in my head increased ten-fold.

“THESE TWO SAVED ME AND YOU DARE THREATEN THEM?” The Princess continued, really laying into them. Calling their parentage and intelligence into question as well as a number of other vulgarities that really should not have come from the tiny filly’s mouth.

She stood between Michelle and I, putting herself between this lead guard and the two of us, her stuffed anteater astride her back like a knight.

Michelle and I shared a look as the spears are lowered and the shields pop under the tirade that Luna is volleying at them.

“THEY THREW AWAY THEIR ENTIRE LIVES ON EA- eep!”

Before she could go any further, Michelle leaned forward, snatched the little Princess off her hooves, dropped her into her lap belly up and proceeded to tickle her until she couldn’t breathe.

“No!” Luna cried between squeals of laughter. “No! I wasn’t done!”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing right along with Luna, I could feel the tension bleed out of the guards surrounding us, some of them even joined me in chuckling.

Finally, after several minutes, a wheezing and hiccuping Luna is carried into the large, ornate chariot at the center of the formation by Michelle, followed quickly by the lead guard and myself.

We took off shortly after more two pegasi hitched themselves to the chariot.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

Our arrival to the city of Canterlot and the Palace itself was much sooner than I expected.

As we approached the gleaming white marble city of Canterlot, several detachments of pegasi and bat-ponies dropped out of the clouds and fell into formation around us, each one of them in full battle plate and armed, literally, to the teeth.

Princess Celestia, apparently, was taking no chances with Luna’s safe return.

Michelle and I had spent most of the flight to The Palace grimacing and rubbing our eyes, temples, and the backs of our necks, the pounding in our brains getting worse and worse with every mile we covered.

I didn’t even notice our landing until Luna tugged at my hand with her magic, gesturing with her head at the white marble platform the chariot had landed on.

I give her a small smile through the pain beating a mighty crescendo behind my eyes and help Michelle out of the chariot, she looks as bad as I feel.

As we exited the vehicle, more guards approached, many of them with spears levelled at us.

The lead guard neighed at them and gestured with a series of quick head, shoulder, and hoof movements. The approaching guards immediately halted, hitched their spears to their pauldrons and formed a neat circle around the four of us.

Luna nickered softly at this and looked more than a little smug.

Around us, several of the pegasi and bat-ponies landed, the latter of which formed another circle around the first, putting yet another wall between us and everyone else.

Michelle and I stood there for several long moments, trying to get our wits behind us when both our hands were grabbed by Luna’s magic and were, unceremoniously, dragged through the doors and into the Palace proper.

The Palace itself passed by in a blur, Luna chattering and stuttering a mile a minute, prancing circles around between mine and Michelle’s legs, Noodle still riding on her back.

Word had spread throughout the Palace, ponies of all kinds were lined against the walls, watching our strange group march down the halls. I heard several gasps and whinnies of terror as they got good looks at us, but, through the ever increasing pain in my head and strange feeling suffusing my limbs, I didn’t pay them much heed.

I felt like lead. It got harder and harder and harder to put one foot after the other. There was fire where my blood was supposed to be. My head ached and the world swam every time we took a corner.

I stumbled more than once over numb feet catching the plush red runner. After one particularly bad fall, two of our encircling guards took pity on me and helped me to my feet, I could see the worry in their eyes, even as I tried to placate the Princess’s and their own worries.

As we approached two enormous doors of red-lacquered wood and gold inlays, the guardsmare made to stop Michelle and I from moving any further, only to be bodily shoved out of the way by Luna shouldering her way between her and me. The Princess then took both of our hands in her magic and tugged, almost needing to carry the two of us through the doors.

I felt, more than heard, the gasp that echoed through the massive chamber.

“Lulu!” cried Princess Celestia as she dove off her throne and galloped for the three of us.

“Tia!” Luna exclaimed in return, dropping her hold on Michelle and I and rushing at her sister.

The two of them met in the middle of the chamber, gloriously relieved smiles and tears of joy on both their faces. Celetia whipped Luna’s tiny body off the floor, twirling her sister around her head and neck for a few moments before crushing her in an embrace with her hooves and wings, crying.

I could see the two of them babbling and laughing at each other.

I wanted to smile, to do anything, but I had lost control of my body. There was a roaring sound filling my ears and the headache had gone from pounding to thundering. I held one of my hands before my face, I could see three hands, all swirling around and out of focus. My breath caught in my chest as my heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t breathe.

Then, Michelle collapsed as she stood beside me, her eyes rolling up in her head and seizing violently.

I was only able to get a half-choked cry of my own before I felt my legs go under my weight. My head cracked on the marble flooring and everything went black.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

Blinding and impossibly pure light floods my eyes, even through my attempt to clamp them shut.

Then, my vision returned as warmth suffused my entire being, every ache and pain that I had ever suffered fell away, leaving me more relaxed than I had ever been.

I could hear a voice chuckling, pleased and comforting.

“I am so proud of you.”

A thousand questions raced through my mind: ‘Proud? Where am I? Where’s my Mi-’

The warmth fled from me as I tried, and failed, to make her name appear in my thoughts. I could see it, spell it, even visualize her face and everything that I knew and loved about her, but the name would not come.

‘Where’s my fiancée? Where’s Luna!?!’

I felt the warmth return at the mention of the Princess, like great wings of the softest feathers that I had ever experienced. They held me close, enclosing my very essence within.

I realized that I was nothing more than a floating concept, no body, no physicality in this place.

I could feel panic and fear rise, threatening to overcome what little I had become.

“Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh,” the presence cooed down and into me, pulling me even closer to its breast. “You have nothing to fear.”

I could only think one thing: ‘Are you God?’

At first there was nothing, then a great rumbling laughter erupted. I could feel life bloom and flourish in the mirth.

“No small one, I am not god.” There was genuine, all encompassing love in the voice, soothing what little fear remained.

‘Oh.’

The laughter continued for several eternities.

“Your kind always surprises me, small one. So full of curiosity and wonder and the most excellent questions.”

‘Where am I?’

“You are with me.”

‘Why?’

“Your kind cannot survive in Harmony, small one. It would tear your very essence apart and cast you into the ethereal drift. I will not have one who has done so much for my creations suffer so.”

‘So you are a god.’

“In a way, perhaps.”

‘Are you going to send us home?’

“I cannot.”

I could feel the fear start to rise again as I thought my next question: ‘Am I dead?’

“In a way, yes.” The voice hummed, I could feel something stroking the top of me, like a gentle hand running through my hair. “In another way, no. I caught you, and the other. This is your reward for everything that you’ve done for me and mine.”

‘I just did what I thought was right.’ I could feel my fear slowly dissipate. ‘They didn’t belong in our world.’

“I know. You, the other, and still more have done everything that you could possibly do, selflessly and without thought of reward. All for my creations.”

I could feel the smile in the voice. She, for I could only think of the voice as female for some reason, really was proud.

‘What happens now?’ I thought-asked, relaxing even more into her embrace.

“I am almost done.”

‘Done with what?’

“Your reward, small one. A new life. A new purpose.”

‘What does that even mean?’

The joyful laughter returned to her voice, “That is something that you will have to find out for yourself, small one.”

I feel the unmistakable feeling of a kiss being pressed to my forehead as the light, and presence faded, her last words lingering in my head:

“All will be well.”

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

Things were tense in the first few days after we woke up.

My fiancée and I had been changed, transformed into ponies.

Learning how to walk again wasn’t fun, neither was learning how to use my hooves, nor any of the other little things that I took for granted as a human.

We changed shape often as well.

I spent a few days as an Earth Pony, then as a unicorn, a pegasus, griffon, back to unicorn and then on to other shapes. The few days that I had spent as a griffin had been awesome, I had opposable thumbs again.

I’d woken up one particularly dark and rainy day as an alicorn.

That hadn’t been pleasant.

Harmony rebelled against that change and I was stuck in the middle, in pure agony, for several hours before Celestia arrived and spelled me into a dreamless slumber.

Star Shine, as she’d taken to calling herself, eventually settled into a beautiful unicorn with celeste fur, grape and lavender mane, and turquoise eyes.

She’d held herself apart from me for a while and I had thought that she was just trying to cope with the change. After all, I wasn’t dealing with everything well either and she’d kept wearing the engagement ring that I had gotten her on a small gold chain around her neck.

I went through several weeks as a pegasus and, thinking I had finally settled, took the name Feather Stroke.

The next day, I woke up as a thestral, the proper name for bat-ponies.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

The three of us, Star Shine, Luna, and myself were sitting on the Princess’s balcony one night, gazing up at the night sky, Star Shine telling Luna the story of some of the constellations we had on Earth. After one particularly funny story about me trying to impress her on one of our early dates, a small flash interrupted us.

Star Shine had gained her cutie mark.

Luna, after realizing, had pranced and skipped around us, giggling and laughing while I looked at my fiancée, smiling warmly.

Star took it in stride and, after looking at the constellation that now adorned her flanks for a moment, grabbed Luna with her magic and plopped the Princess down in her forelegs and blew a massive raspberry into her belly.

Luna had positively shrieked with laughter.

Later that night, after tucking the Princess into bed, I had kissed Star Shine on the cheek, whispering to her: “I’m so happy for you.”

She refused to meet my eyes, instead she turned and trotted into our bedroom and threw herself onto the bed.

The changes in Star’s behavior had started small. Every now and then she would refuse the invitation to have a meal with the Princesses and I. She’d spend more and more time in the archives, and any gesture of affection I would give her, nuzzles and the like, she wouldn’t return.

After several weeks, Star would make excuses as to why she couldn’t go to sleep when I did, insisting that she had something to do or check in on.

Even her visits to Princess Luna with me to read bedtime stories became less and less frequent and they were her idea to begin with.

More than once, I had awoken to her missing from our bed only to find her, asleep, on a couch near our rooms’ hearth.

After a few nights of this in a row, I confronted her about it.

I was expecting anger or embarrassment. I expected tears or frustration. I expected anything other than what I got: Apathy.

Cold indifference.

No apology.

No attempts at apologizing.

No platitudes that she’d stop doing whatever it is that she’s doing.

Nothing.

There was a new wall between us and I didn’t understand what happened. Any time I tried to talk to her, I got one, maybe two, word answers.

It got so bad that I went to Princess Celestia for her opinion as to what I should do but found little assistance from the elder diarch. It was my problem, she wouldn’t get involved, even in the abstract.

I read books on relationships, talked to other ponies, sought counsel from the few therapist ponies that I could find within the Palace’s hospital.

I tried flowers, taking her on dates, gifts, giving her more affection, and anything else that I could give. I looked back at my parent’s marriage and tried to emulate them. Did my best to not be lazy nor selfish, to make sure that I put my best hoof forward every morning and to greet my days with her with as much positivity as I could muster. I got better at communicating with everypony, and did my best to pick my words before I said them. I even tried to get her to go to therapy with me. I dropped the physical side of our relationship and worked solely on trying to repair our emotional connection.

Nothing worked.

Flowers went uneaten and wilted in vases, gifts unopened, dates lackluster and depressing, and affection went unreturned. The offer of therapy, for the both of us, only had Star Shine walk away from me with a huff. All my attempts to improve myself were ignored and my positivity met with unfeeling apathy.

I fought hoof, tooth, and wing to fix things.

Luna asked after Star Shine often and it broke my heart to have to lie to her.

I told her that Star Shine wasn’t feeling well or was working on a project for her sister.

I just couldn’t tell the Princess what was really happening.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

Star Shine left Canterlot, and me, about eight months after our arrival to Equestria.

I woke up that day to her levitating a few trunks out of our rooms, dawn just barely speaking over the horizon.

“Are you really leaving?” I asked, feeling my world drop out from under me.

“Yes,” she replied, refusing to look at me.

“Where will you go?”

“Away.”

“Away?” I parroted back at her, climbing out of bed and approaching slowly and stopping a few feet away from her turned back. “Away from what? Canterlot? The Princesses?” Then, in a much smaller voice, “Me?”

“Everything.”

“Why?” I hated how small my voice was and the hitch that caught in my throat.

“Why? You have the gall to ask me that, of all questions! You took everything from me.” She rounded on me, her nostrils flaring and eyes blazing. I could still see the ring around her neck. “You took my choice, my home, my family, everything. Just so you could play with your fucking ponies. You never stopped to think. You never stopped to ask. You. Just. Did. Like everything in your miserable life, you just did.”

“I did ask, several time-”

“In front of Twilight!” She snarled, cutting me off, the magic holding her trucks snapping with an angry pop, dropping the luggage to the floor. “You put me in a lose-lose situation, I had no choice but to go along with your stupid plan.”

“You didn’t have to come.”

“Yes I damn-well did you fool. What do you think that the feds would have done with me?” Her words cut me as easily as if they were blades. “They would have wanted to know everything. What would I tell them? That a cartoon came to life and that’s why we kidnapped a child? I would have been locked up for the rest of my life.”

“You could have left me in Australia, we had more than enough supplies.” I tried to reason with her, I was desperate. “You could have taken the rest of the money and left.”

She growled at me, her lip twitching in a fierce snarl and her horn popping with barely restrained rage. Wordlessly she whirled around, snatched up her luggage, and marched out of our rooms.

“I love you.” I called after her, tears running down my cheeks.

My only answer was the door slamming shut.

“Please,” I whimpered, sobbing. “Please don’t leave.”

I told Luna that Star Shine just wanted to see the rest of Equus, to see if there was anything that she could really help with, and I didn’t know when she would be back.

Princess Luna didn’t believe me.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\

There was a plain brown box sitting on my desk, no address on it, just my name.

I reached for it, my hooves shook violently as I opened it.

There, with no padding, letter, or adornment, was the ring and necklace.

As I stared, shattered and unable to do anything, something shifted and the world broke.

Like panes of glass, everything around me fell away into nothingness, even the box and ring crumbled and vanished into the void, leaving me alone.

I could only hear my labored breathing, hitching and ragged as the memory of those days faded into a familiar dull ache in my heart.

Then, softly at first, growing louder and closer, came hoofsteps.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself, Feather,” said Princess Luna, Guardian of Dreams, as she finally broke one of my nightmares. “You can’t.”

Author's Note:

This chapter is dedicated to my friend and brother in all but blood: Josh.

Gone too early and dearly missed.

Comments

[Skyblazer9]

Poor dude, I can't even begin to imagine the emotional and mental pain he had to go through.

Great chapter detailing of what happened to Star Shine aka Michelle and Matt now called Feather Stroke.

[oddmin]

what a bitch