A Royal Insanity: Act II - The Six Trials of Friendship Disaster

by Fluttersnake31

Chapter 4 - Sweetie Belle's Quest for the Fates of Equestria and Ninsoare

Chapter 4 – Sweetie Belle’s Quest for the Fates of Equestria and Ninsoare

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle worked laboriously to finish the portal they began to build back when Solid Snake was helping them. They managed to get it done fairly quickly, the only reason it wasn’t already finished was because they lost interest in the project. Then they put in the coordinates Snake gave them before his disappearance. That part gave them the most trouble, as they were slightly unsure themselves what the place was supposed to look like. Once the coordinates were finally punched in and the machine was fully functional, Sweetie Belle prepared to enter. Apple Bloom was to stay behind and open up the portal every five minutes to give Sweetie Belle a way back.

The portal opened up to a snowy, cold field in front of a small fort. To Sweetie Belle, the place looked abandoned. Sweetie Belle had brought some emergency supplies in her saddlebag just in case something went awry. She looked back towards where the portal would appear and waited the ten minutes for Apple Bloom to open the portal. Ten minutes went by and still no signs of Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle looked at the clock she carried in her bag and it read normal time, and it had been eleven minutes since she got here. Instead of panicking, she just decided maybe time worked differently here and would talk to anypony she sees about the time. She decided to head over to the fort. She went up to the door and noticed it was locked, but she could hear faint voices from inside, so she decided to knock.

“Um… Hello? Who are you? Do you have the password?” A young girl with messy brown hair answered, much to Sweetie Belle’s surprise, as it wasn’t a pony and that there was someone here.

“I’m Sweetie Belle and I’m looking for somepony important, do you think you can help me?”

The girl had her head towards the ground but now looked up into Sweetie Belle’s eyes, then continued to examine the rest of her. “Leader had a prophecy saying someone like you would come here, come meet Leader.”

Sweetie Belle was intrigued. Nopony should know me here, unless Solid Snake was here. Or maybe Solid Snake is from here? Although, I don’t really believe that… These ‘people’ things are somewhat different than him in some way. Sweetie Belle followed the little girl inside the fort. The fort on the inside looked like a tiny town almost, although all under a roof. This is some interesting place, they must be here to avoid the cold outside or something. She was led into a littler room which looked like if the place was still here for military forces, it would be some sort of planning room. There was an older girl in there. Oddly enough, she seemed to look similar to Fluttershy in some ways, with pink hair and a yellow dress, she even had wings, however they were white ones. From what Sweetie Belle could perceive, she definitely wasn’t shy like the Fluttershy she knows, but still just as kind.

“Leader, we’ve had this um…. Pony.. Visit us saying she’s looking for someone. I think this might have something to do with the vision you had.” The young girl spoke calmly and bowed her head a little, looking somewhat nervous as if the older girl was an equivalent to Princess Celestia.

“Thank you for bringing her, your duties for today are finished, you may go play with your friends.” The ‘Leader’ as she has been called had a soft voice that to Sweetie Bell, reminded her of Fluttershy and Cheerilee acting like Princess Celestia in one voice.

“Oh thank you Leader, I hope I did well.” The nervous girl said as she began to leave but was stopped by the Leader.

“Silly child, you don’t have to call me leader all the time, just call me Willow.”

“Ok, Leader Willow!” The girl happily replied before leaving.

“I’m sorry about all that... Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Willow and I’m one of the last few faeries left on the planet of Ninsoare. The reason I’m here, is that a year ago, the Tungl Queen returned, but I think that she has turned evil and caused this long lasting winter. The Tungl Queen is this planet’s goddess and she helped form this world and the great republic we had, however one day she left us knowing we could take care of ourselves. Everything was fine until she returned however. Things started to freeze and grow cold, many have died, monsters that lived in peace now roam freely, and everything is falling apart. I have built a resistance here to stand up against this new Tungl Queen. However, you’re part in this worlds fate is small, but I had a vision that will give my world hope, and in turn help protect yours too.”

“So that must be why the Mane 6 were here! To defeat Nightmare Moon! Am I in the past?” Sweetie Belle was starting to understand a little more of what the Mane 6 were sent to do, and was more curious now as to what happened.

“I don’t know anything about these ‘Mane 6’ you speak of, but let me tell you of my vision which will answer your other questions. I had a vision of a tall blue unicorn, like yourself, who told me that the Tungl Queen that returned is a fake and that in a ditch effort has sent a warrior to take down the evil Tungl Queen to save Ninsoare and in turn, your homeworld. The thing that confuses me however is that there are rumors of four warriors here trying to defeat the evil Tungl Queen… Maybe they are the Mane 6 you speak of… But that’s not the point, the unicorn also told me that as a backup plan, she will guide another unicorn, a very young one, named Sweetie Belle, here in some way. When that happens, I need to take her, which is you, outside to the back door of this fort and wait. At that point, the unicorn will know what she needs to do to save her homeworld.”

“That’s weird… And I don’t know any tall blue unicorns… Oh well, I guess that all makes sense… But it still doesn’t answer if I’m in the past or not.”

Willow went over to a desk and grabbed a clock and brought it over along with a calendar.

“Compare to these? Do you have any time telling device with you?”

Sweetie Belle pulled out her clock. It didn’t help at all, but the date on the calendar is what shocked her. It was two weeks prior to the day she went through the portal, It was the day Snake disappeared. Sweetie Belle was now slightly upset at Apple Bloom, she had to wait about two weeks and ten minutes until she can go home. Apple Bloom must’ve changed the clock as soon as Sweetie Belle left or it just reset to the current time after the portal being opened once… Grrr… After the initial shock and explaining to Willow the situation, Willow offered Sweetie Belle some food before going out the back door to find out what the vision is talking about. After eating, they went out to the freezing cold to wait for whatever was supposed to happen. They stood there for fifteen minutes, with nothing happening.

“Do you think that something went wrong? Maybe it’s supposed to happen like, right before I need to go? I mean we can’t wait outside for two weeks, we’ll die.” Sweetie Belle noted.

“*sigh* I guess you’re right, I’ll have some sentries keep watch for anything unusual. They are usually more weather ready than us anyways.” Willow replied.
They went back inside for a while, with some people outside in the back keeping watch. Sweetie Belle talked with a bunch of the people there, asking if any of them knew Snake, all of them with the disappointing answer of never hearing his name before. An hour passed of boredom when one of the sentries ran inside to Willow and Sweetie Belle.

“There’s a guy out there! He just randomly appeared out of nowhere! He’s seriously injured and needs immediate medical attention!” The guard said, panicked slightly as if he never seen an injury that bad in his life.
Sweetie Belle and Willow rushed outside. When they got out there, they could hear a man’s loud cries of pain. Willow yelled out some commands and some people ran out and picked up the body and brought him inside, rushing him to a doctor’s room to be worked on. Sweetie Belle hardly knew what was going on. She recognized the man that was pulled past her on a stretcher. It was Snake, but he looked different, older, by at least twenty or thirty years. When she collected her thoughts, she ran to the room he was taken into. There were two doctors in there working furiously. They had Snake strapped down so he couldn’t hurt himself. Sweetie Belle saw the injury, a large hole in his chest, where his heart would be. The hole had some kind of electricity jumping around it. The little strands of electricity coursing through the wound were mainly colors of purple, green, but occasionally some tiny bits of pink, teal, and light blue.

Sweetie Belle knew that there wasn’t enough doctors or equipment to save Snake and yelled at them to stop and went up and hugged Snake.

“Sweetie Belle…. Thanks for stopping them; I need to tell you some…Thing…”

“What is it?” Tears were coming to Sweetie Belle’s eyes.

“You…Need... To be careful…. Don’t go to the castle… I have some notes in my pocket, they explain…. How to destroy…. Metal Gear...”

“Who did this to you!? Please don’t die on me Snake!” Sweetie Belle was crying hard now.

“Watch… Out… For Princess….Celestia…” Snake then was still. Sweetie Belle was extremely confused about all that Snake had said in his last words but didn’t worry about that now. She was a tiny bit happy she got to see him one last time, but overwhelmingly sad it was in this way. After a long amount of time crying and sobbing, she went to the room she was allowed to stay in until she could leave. Willow stopped by to give her the little notebook that Snake had on him. Sweetie Belle thanked her and Willow left, knowing Sweetie Belle wanted to be alone. Sweetie Belle looked through the notebook. It was a little journal of Snake’s life after his fight with Liquid Ocelot. She spent the rest of the two weeks learning about Snake and his friend Hal Emmerich and the little girl Sunny. On the last day, she got to the pages about the Metal Gear in Castle Celest. She read about how it was covered in ice and was firing beams of pure cold into a portal, which according to Snake, was a waste of what the machine was capable of, but unfortunately was being run by magic. It explained all the other ways Snake took down various other Metal Gears and that this was the last one in existence and needed to be destroyed.
When it was time to leave, Sweetie Belle said goodbye to Willow and her little resistance, which she still didn’t really understand what it was all about. She waited at the point she entered this planet waiting for Apple Bloom, carrying Snake’s body in a large bag. Don’t worry Snake, once we make you into a pony, we can destroy that Metal Gear and fix all this crazy stuff! And find out what you meant by ‘beware Celestia’. Right on time Apple Bloom opened up the portal, exactly ten minutes past the time Sweetie Belle left.

“Well that was quick, how’d ya’ find Snake so fast?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It turns out that you sent me there two weeks in the past! And did you reset the time after you sent me in!?” Sweetie Belle replied, acting angrier than she was.

“Oh, yeah… Oops, I shoulda’ known that changin’ the time to normal would alter when the portal would be open over there. Sorry ‘bout that Sweetie Belle.”

“It’s ok… Well let's hurry to Zecora’s with this thing. And I have a lot to tell you about what I heard there.”

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The two fillies went to Zecora’s and stayed the night. In the morning, Fluttershy arrived with a jar of a pieced together wing. After she spoke with Zecora about the wing feathers being her late brother’s, Zecora empathized with Fluttershy and explained what she and the fillies needed to do. Fluttershy decided to donate all the feathers to help their cause. Scootaloo arrived around lunch time, much to everyone’s annoyance as they all needed the last feather that Scootaloo had. The fillies and Fluttershy all had to wait outside while Zecora worked, so that none would get in the way of this mysterious dark magic.

After about an hour, Zecora came outside and requested that Sweetie Belle come inside the hut. Sweetie Belle was told to pour some magic energy into the potion, because without some magic energy, it would only remain a potion. Sweetie Belle focused long and hard, after a few tries of no success, Zecora suggested that Sweetie Belle sing. Sweetie Belle was confused but decided to give it a shot, who knows, she might get a cutie mark in ponymaking (Zecora was hoping this would be the moment she realized her talent was singing). Sweetie Belle sang a song that featured Zecora about making a pony to help save Equestria (Sweetie Belle was happy that Zecora didn’t mes up the choreography). The song gave her the focus she needed to pour just enough magic energy into the potion to make it work. There was an intense long lasting flash of light that could be seen even from Ponyville. Zecora and Sweetie Belle ran out of the hut from the brightness. It shown brilliant colors of yellow, pink, rainbow (in Equestria, or at least Cloudsdale, this is counted as a color), blue, and green.

After a few minutes, the colors meshed and turned into purple, blue, and a light blue. When the light finally died down, the five ponies outside went over to the hut curiously. There was a thud on the door

“Ouch! Stupid… What is this? Feels like a door? Stupid door!” Is anyone here? Or anypony? Hello? I can’t see.” The voice inside the hut said.

“Don’t worry you soon will be able to see, just close your eyes and count two times to three.” Zecora said.

“Huh? Rhyming? Well, I guess I can try.” The pony closed her eyes and counted to three twice and opened them. She now could see, but it was still a little hazy and would be fine in a few minutes. She managed to come outside where everypony else was waiting to meet the new pony. She was purple with two shades of blue for her mane and tail. Her mane was blue and flat Pinkie’s when it was straight, but shorter and messier with a light blue stripe. Her tail was also blue but was similar to Fluttershy’s with a stripe of light blue in it. The one thing none of them expected however, was a cutie mark.

Zecora was the most surprised as her potion book had said that a cutie mark already being on a pony formed this way was extremely rare and the book wasn’t even sure if it was really possible. The unexpected thing for everpony else was what the cutie mark looked like. It was a lavender heart with a single closed eyelid on it, with teardrops under the eyelid. They’ve never seen such a depressing looking cutie mark ever.

“What are you all starin’ at? Is it my awesomeness?” The pony asked. She had a very Rainbow Dash aura around her as she spoke that everypony could sense.

“It’s just… Your cutie mark, it’s so….. Sad…..” Fluttershy said.

“Well, I don’t know how I got it, or how I got here, but it probably means something important.” It seemed as if the whole air around them just switched as soon as this pony replied to Fluttershy’s statement, the whole Rainbow Dash feeling completely gone, replaced by something new.

“So does this mean you’re my new pet? Since Snake was kind of my pet?” Sweetie Belle asked, but the question seemed more for Zecora to answer rather than the new pony.

“I am no ponies’ pet! And anyways, who’s this Snake you’re talking about?”

“That doesn’t matter, what matters is that Equestria is in danger and you’re here to help us.” Scootaloo said, changing the topic.

Fluttershy, ignoring what Scootaloo said, went up to the new pony to ask a question of her own, “Do…. Do you remember me at all? Zecora said you might have memories from your other lives…”

“Um…. Maybe? I don’t really know… My mind is hazy enough as it is, I might remember something in a few hours-“

Fluttershy started to cry and dashed off as the mare tried to finish her sentence. Zecora ran after her but Fluttershy just yelled that she needs time away from everypony and ran off. Zecora came back and explained, in rhymes, the whole situation that the new mare needs to reunite the Mane 6. She explains of how: Applejack lost her memory and went to Appleloosa to try to gain a fraction of it back; Pinkie Pie left to visit her sister because of some bad nightmares; Rarity has a new job in Fillydelphia; Rainbow Dash is busy in Cloudsdale and hardly ever sees anypony at all except Scootaloo occasionally; Twilight has locked herself in her library, making it basically an impenetrable fortress for reasons nopony knows; and that Fluttershy just ran off.

“So I’m supposed to find and convince like, six ponies to come back here ‘cause Equestria is in danger? That’s going to take forever! And I have no idea where they are anyways!” The pony pleaded.

“But ya’ gotta’ at least get mah’ sister and Sweetie Belle’s sister back, at least! Please? We can’t go out there on our own, we’re just fillies and we got school! Please, ah’ need Applejack back at the farm, even if she ain’t got her memory, ah’ still miss her!” Apple Bloom pleaded.

“Yeah, I miss Rarity… She doesn’t even write to me or anything and I bet Celestia won’t be too mad if Rarity turns down the job to come back here. The Princess will understand.” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“Alright, I’ll at least help you with your sisters, I mean, it’s not like I have anything better to do. Who knows... Maybe I’ll remember some stuff about my past and figure out who I really am?” The purple mare replied.

Scootaloo spoke now, “Um… About your past, well you kinda don’t-“

“Don’t say a word little Scootaloo, about the conditions she came to us. If you do she’ll hate you, and all the evils will become victorious.” Zecora interrupted.

“Meaning, don’t tell me anything, I want to learn on my own. It could make my cutie mark make sense. I mean, I don’t know how I got here, or where I’m from, but all I want is to understand why my mind is so… Hazy... And confused… Like I don’t really know what my purpose is. I feel like I shouldn’t exist… But enough of that, I need to find your sisters, so I should get going.” The deep words confused the fillies a little, but understood that she’s really confused and will be fine once she got used to things. Zecora slightly pitied this pony; she was made using magic instead of natural ways. Zecora knew that there is a three way battle in this pony’s heart between the fractions of souls mixed together in one body, and it could even make the quest for her harder, but Zecora had faith that things would turn out fine, and didn’t show her pity and sorrow for this pony, to make sure the fillies have faith too.

“Well, I guess you’re right, you should get going, but we need to give you a name so we can contact you with my magic radio thing.” Sweetie Belle pulls out a modified version of the radio she used to contact Snake. She had the normal radio and a special headset for herself. “Here, take this radio, we can use it to keep in contact if you get lost or anything.”

“Oh, thanks, that may come in handy.” The pony took it along with an extra saddle bag Scootaloo gave to her.

“And before you are on your way, I have something that’ll make Applejack’s day.” Zecora adds as she went to grab a small vial. “When the time is right, and you see it is night, give this to Applejack, and she will get her memory back.”

“I think her name should be Fluttery Dash, you know, ‘cause of the feathers?” Scootaloo said to Sweetie Belle.

“No, that’s a ridiculous name, how ‘bout Thunderrunner? That one sounds kinda’ cool” Apple Bloom added.

“That has nothing to do with anything! And it might even be considered a colt’s name. I like Solid Dash.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Hey, I already have a name… It’s Rainchaser, Rain for short…. And I need to go save your sisters, so I don’t have time for all this. I promise you’re sisters will come back and be back to normal.” Rainchaser then grabbed her things and left in the direction of Appleloosa using a map she found in Zecora’s hut.

“Well, she’s quite interesting...” Sweetie Belle commented.

“Is it just me, or is she kinda' like a more serious version of Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked.

“Maybe at first, but she seems to have slight mood swings if you ask me. Did you see how her stance completely changed after the whole ‘I’m awesome’ thing, right when she responded to Fluttershy?” Sweetie Bell noted.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, she had the exact same Awesome pose as Rainbow Dash, and then it disappeared and was normal, as if nothing happened…” Scootaloo replied.

“Well, ah’ think we should get home an’ get ready for school tomorrow. We just gotta’ hope she can get AJ and Rarity back soon.” Apple Bloom added.

The three fillies left Zecora’s and headed home. All three were hopeful for Rainchaser, but were also confused about her weird nature. Only time would tell if their decision was a good one.

Comments

[Fluttersnake31]

Wow this story was weird lol xD Hmmm, perhaps I should come back to it sometime