Prologue: The Journal of Friendship
CRASH!!!!
Lightning flashed across the stormy and dreary skies of Equestria and struck the ground below it in a powerful display of fury. The only source of light came from a barely visible patch of the Moon, which was hidden amongst the omnipresent darkness. Storms were not usually this powerful, but outside of the protected pony civilizations, nature knew no bounds and was free to do what it wanted. Ponies had no control over the weather here. This was uncharted territory for them and nopony dared wander outside the protections of their kingdoms.
Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and roaring thunder sounded in response as the clouds grumbled angrily. The surrounding trees and shrubs shuddered as every fiber of their being was rocked back and forth, side to side, and every which way from the strong wind.
Out in the unknown regions, atop the tallest mountain known to ponykind was Opaline’s Dark Castle, an imposing structure that commanded authority from its presence alone. There were many unoccupied castles throughout the land, including the famous Castle of the Two Sisters Ruins. However, this castle was not one of those abandoned structures forgotten to time. In this castle existed the one and only alicorn left in the entire world:
Queen Opaline.
The dark purple alicorn had once tried to rule Maretime Bay and drive the three pony races apart through orchestrating simple fights that would drive Earth Pony against Earth Pony, Unicorn against Unicorn, and Pegasus against Pegasus. However, the plan failed and she was defeated and exiled by the legendary Princess Twilight Sparkle, who banished her from Equestria and created the three Unity Crystals. This ended up dividing the ponies further, allowing the force field to weaken year by year until Twilight and the Guardians of Harmony became nothing more than a myth, and Opaline was finally ready to exact her revenge and retake what she felt was rightfully promised to her.
Opaline stood on the balcony of her castle, staring out into the far reaches of the realm with a sinister grin on her face. This was the moment she had been waiting for. Equestria was finally going to be hers once more.
One final fight.
She cackled with the sort of maniacal delight that only the craziest of ponies would ever have the capacity to let out as she thought of her rival Sunny Starscout and her friends lying before her. Oh how wonderful it would be to see them in her clutches, the last hope of harmony gone.
“Any moment now, Sunny…you’ll soon pay the price for taking in a liability,” Opaline stated cruelly, slowly walking back inside of her palace with a sadistic grin on her face. The anticipation she felt for the confrontation she knew would occur. She already knew the spell. She would raise her army. She would attack.
She was going take back what was hers. The scattered remains of Equestria would bow to her reign or face ultimate destruction. They would be no match for the full extent of her abilities. She was not an ordinary pony. She was an alicorn.
She was Queen Opaline, the future ruler of all of ponykind. It was her destiny, what she had been trained for. Any moment now, she was going to perform a forbidden spell that would raise an army of darkness from the ground. She would not fail.
Her horn glowed a dark aura and the ground began to quake and tremble beneath her. Her pupils sunk into the rest of her eyes, morphing into a pure black tar substance. Her face began to wither and decay as she began to recite the ancient spell to release her minions and destroy the Magic of Friendship once and for all.
Soon Twilight Sparkle’s greatest creation would be destroyed for good.
As soon as the mere thought of the Princess of Friendship passed through her mind, however, Opaline abruptly stopped the spell. She took a couple steps back, shaking her head in disbelief, and trying to regain her composure. A large green circle of fire had been formed around her, signaling the near completion of the spell. Why was she stopping all of a sudden? The spell was already more than halfway done.
Nothing made sense. She had thought of Twilight before, mostly in her lonely hours when Misty was away following orders and getting herself into trouble. Twilight had always been a fixture in the mind of the Shadow Alicorn since that fateful night of exile. So why was it now of all nights that the simple thought of her former mentor haunted her so? The thought of the only pony who saw potential in her now sow doubt and uncertainty where resolution and arrogance once stood and she was taken back to that fateful day, when she was but a small filly, staring up at the regal Princess, clad in pompous and gilded armor, who commanded immediate compliance, even hers.
“You know you don’t have the guts to go through with this…” the familiar voice of Twilight echoed through her mind.
Opaline was taken aback by the voice of her former mentor. This was impossible. She snarled. “Get out of my head. YOU’RE JUST A MEMORY!!!!!”
“Hm. Memory or conscience?”
“I’ve been without a conscience for a long time.”
“That’s clearly a lie. After all, you simply just can’t keep me out of your head for long now, can you? Always harkening back to the old times. You always drive ponies away with your petty grudges. Just like you drove Misty away. You feel bad, don’t you?”
“Get. OUT!!!!”
“You miss her, don’t you? You were never without a heart.”
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!! YOU DON’T EXIST!!!!!!” With a thunderous stomp of her hooves, Opaline let out a powerful roar of agony and fury that reverberated across the castle walls and corridors. The floor trembled beneath her weight, potions toppling to the ground and shattering into a million pieces.
Finally, her rampage ended. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and slow her heartbeat down. Though her questions were far from answered, she never wanted to think about that namby pamby pony princess ever again. The voice had done its job.
And now it was gone.
The circle of magic from where the forbidden spell was being cast had now vanished and the alicorn was now left alone once more.
Opaline took a deep breath before shouting: “Misty!! Get me a memory wipe potion!! I want to forget this moment of weakness.”
Silence mocked her. The booming command that would normally get the timid blue unicorn to come running to her in an instant now yielded no response, no immediate gratification.
“MISTY!!!” Opaline yelled. “Don’t make me drag you out of bed, you little bi-“ She abruptly stopped her tirade as her eyes suddenly focused on a certain part of the throne room. It was the corner where she and Misty had their fateful confrontation all those moons ago. The chains lay limp on the floor and the wall was stained with dried blood from where she had beaten her.
Suddenly it all hit her at once. Misty was gone and she was the cause of it. She had gotten so used to shouting orders and expecting immediate results that the moment there was nopony left to carry out her schemes, it hit like a ton of bricks crashing down during an earthquake.
Off in the corner lay the deceased body of Sparky Sparkeroni, all the life sucked out of his pale green body, lying motionless on the floor. His body was covered in dried blood and his eyes were wide open from screaming. It was like he had been frozen in time.
Staring at the body now, Opaline realized that she really had no one. Before that fateful night, she would always be somepony she could gloat to. But now, she had no one to share her anger with. Why did she drive Misty away? She could’ve just given her former subordinate the cutie mark she always wanted and she would be loyal to her forever. Misty had gone above and beyond in attempting to do what was asked of her. Sure, she almost never succeeded, but the attempt was still there. She used to not think much of Misty, but now that she was gone, she suddenly realized that she was better off with the unicorn at her side.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She could’ve had Misty’s loyalty forever. She could’ve had someone to rule alongside her. She could’ve…had a daughter.
A daughter…Was that what Twilight considered her? Throughout all of her training, the Princess of Friendship had always told her how much she loved her. What happened? The moment Luster Dawn returned to Canterlot…it all suddenly disappeared. All the love, all the adoration…it simply vanished.
She imagined that was what Misty must’ve felt like that night, to believe that everything she did was for nothing.
To feel the weight of a mentor’s scorn.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
The Crystal Brighthouse bedroom
Maretime Bay
“No! No! No! No! NO!!”
Zipp Storm rummaged through the bookshelves of the Crystal Brighthouse bedroom with her friends. The books all fell to the floor with a thud, piling on top of one another in rapid succession as the white pegasus dug more vigorously.
It had been two months since the fateful incident at the town square and things were only getting more dire. Zipp had been searching the small library with Hitch, Izzy, and Pipp for about five hours in search of a book that she thought would give her answers. So far, however, there was no luck in sight.
For days, she had stood by the Unity Crystals in hopes that the Twilight Sparkle hologram would reappear and give her all the answers she needed. Alas, no such message appeared and Zipp knew this deep down. After all, the only time the hologram appeared was when she was with her friends and the cutie mark magic combined. She knew that she would never get a result on her own, but she still tried anyways as she didn’t have anything to lose at this point.
After all, if she failed to find the answer to defeat Opaline, then…who would? She was the premier detective of Maretime Bay. If she couldn’t crack a case, then nopony could.
From underneath another pile of books, Hitch poked his head out. “Nope! Sorry, no luck. What, did you think something was going to be in here?”
“Um yeah Zipp,” Pipp remarked, sticking her head out from another bookshelf. “You didn’t quite say what you were looking for.”
Zipp sighed in exasperation. “Just something on what happened to the other creatures! If we’re going to fight Opaline and rescue Sparky, we’re gonna need an army. A massive army.”
“She does have a point,” Izzy chimed in. “I mean, you heard Twilight! She once tried to steal all magic from Equestria!! Who knows what she’s capable of now?! Yeah, we’re gonna need reinforcements. Anyways, back to looking!” With that, she buried her face in the bookshelf beside her.
“Not to mention she manipulated Sunny.” Hitch said bitterly. “I don’t care how powerful this Opaline is. She crushed Sunny’s spirit and made her susceptible to those little brats. She will die for that.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure…” came a familiar voice behind them. It was none other than Misty, walking inside the room with a concerned look on her face. Her mane was a disheveled mess, indicating that she hadn’t slept in days.
“Misty!” Zipp called her over. “Thank goodness you’re here. You can help us look! How’s Sunny?”
“Still not getting off the couch,” Misty replied sadly. “I sit by her side every morning and all I do is watch her cry into her pillow. I…I feel so bad.”
“Why? You have no reason to.” Hitch said.
Misty looked down in shame. “I was a part of the Filly Four at one point, you know. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“I’m sure everypony did that day.” Pipp answered.
At the mention of Sugar Moonlight and her clique, Hitch stiffened up. Unfortunately, Misty noticed this.
“Are you alright?” she asked worriedly.
Hitch shook his head. “No, I’m not.” He stomped his hooves on the ground violently. “Every time I hear the name of that bitch’s cult, I just want to head down to my office and kill them myself. Imprisonment is too lenient of a sentence for what they did to Sunny.”
“We all feel you, Hitch,” Zipp told him. “Honestly, if I knew that they were planning this…I would’ve…I would’ve told Sunny not to leave the Brighthouse.”
Hitch stared at her hopelessly. “You think she would’ve listened?”
“No. No, she wouldn’t’ve.”
“Her activism will be the death of her one day, I swear. If it isn’t already…”
“You think it is?”
“Guys!!” Izzy called from the top shelf. “I found something!!!” She was standing on top of a ladder with a purple book in hoof. As she looked at her friends, she suddenly lost her grip and fell over, falling to the ground on her stomach.
Almost instantly, Misty helped her up and took the book from her curiously. “Huh, I’ve never seen this book before. And I’ve checked all over yesterday.”
“It looks pretty ancient…” said Pipp, taking a look at the book herself. The cover was all dusty and worn out. She shook it as hard as she could, but the majority of the dust still remained. Fortunately, Zipp walked over and blew the dust off, studying it with her magnifying glass.
On the center of the cover was the symbol of the Elements of Harmony emblazoned in all of their glory. There was only one book in history that had this sort of symbol and layout, forgotten across the many centuries of paranoia and distrust.
This could only mean one thing.
“Did we just find what I think we just found?” Zipp asked.
“I thought it was only an old pony’s tale…” Hitch added. He held the book up. “I have to show this to Sunny!! We found the Journal of Friendship!!”
“But what’s it doing here?” Izzy asked.
“I don’t know,” Hitch admitted. “But I’m gonna find out. If anypony knows about what this could mean, it’s Sunny. I just hope she’s in the mood to talk.”
Without a second thought, he rushed out of the bedroom and down the ramp to where he knew his close friend would be. Thankfully, he was right. As Misty had relayed earlier, Sunny lay on the couch, sobbing softly into her pillow. It was clear that she had fallen into a deep depression since that fateful day. Nothing her friends said could get her out of it.
Her body was covered in cuts and scars, though thankfully she was no longer bleeding. The open wounds had turned into scabs which stained her coat and her skin barely covered the multitude of scratches across her body.
It was like she was barely recognizable.
Hitch cleared his throat. “Sunny? We need your input. I think we found a clue that could help us.”
Sunny didn’t move.
Hitch took a few steps closer. “Sunny, please don’t do this. We’re really worried about you and if you come with me, we can take your mind off it.”
Again, Sunny didn’t move.
“Sunny, talk to me now. This isn’t funny.” Hitch ordered.
That was when Sunny finally lifted her head up from her pillow and Hitch could see fresh tears flowing down her beautiful blue eyes. She stared at him with a mix of anger and sadness at the same time.
“What part of you thinks I’m trying to make a joke out of this…?” Sunny asked him softly.
“I’m not-Sunny, you haven’t eaten. You’ve barely spoken to anyone and you need to get up now.” Hitch told her. “Sheriff’s orders. Come with me.”
“I want to stay here…” Sunny replied. “Please…just leave me be, okay? I’m sorry I haven’t been there helping, I’m just-“
“I get it,” Hitch comforted her. “You’re upset. But trust me, you’ll be much happier once we look over this book. I…think it has something to do with your Dad’s research. Didn’t you say he liked to collect stuff?” He showed her the Journal of Friendship.
Sunny stared at the journal with wide eyes. She took it and felt the cover, marveling over it silently. Finally, she reached out with one of her hooves and turned to the first page. The writing was all faded from centuries, but it was still readable to the most keen of eyes. She flipped through multiple pages until finally settling on a bookmarked page.
“This is amazing, Hitch,” Sunny spoke, her voice a bit more clearer now. “I…don’t recall getting this from him.”
“Eh, you never know what secrets he has stored around for you. The same way you and Zipp accidentally stumbled upon the Wonderbolts book that one time?” Hitch joked.
Sunny giggled, a rare sign of happiness from her. But it was quickly gone as soon as it appeared upon examining the bookmarked page closer. “This section…this isn’t a friendship lesson.”
“You’re right,” Hitch glanced at the page in question. “The year…it’s completely different from the rest of them.”
“What could this mean?” Sunny asked.
“I don’t know,” Hitch said. “But we need to look at it together. Come.” He headed in the direction of the ramp.
Reluctantly, Sunny slowly got off the couch and followed him close behind. Her mind was far too curious to pass an opportunity like this up.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
“Aha!! I knew it!” Zipp declared triumphantly. “We got ourselves a major answer!!”
The ponies were all standing over the breakfast table, looking over at the Friendship Journal’s mysterious entry. Zipp had been examining it with her magnifying glass and she finally set it down upon her realization.
“So what is it?” Misty asked.
“This entry is titled a total of 10 years after the rest of them!” Zipp realized. “Meaning that this could’ve only been written by Twilight Sparkle herself at the very end of the Golden Age of Harmony. Read this.”
Pipp leaned over to read. “”Dear Journal and whoever is reading this in the future, my name is Twilight Sparkle: the Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria. It’s a lot to live up to and personally, I’m still trying to figure out if I’m ready for such a task. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve lived most of my life as a normal pony and it still feels weird being the sovereign of a whole kingdom. What was the term Pinkie coined? Oh yeah! ‘Twilighting.’ My friends coaxed me into documenting what goes on inside the castle walls for the benefit of future generations. And so, I am dedicating the remaining entries of this journal to you. We’ve learned all that we needed to, but now it is time for all of you to take the lessons you’ve learned here and apply it to your own life.”
Everypony gasped.
“This is incredible,” Sunny exclaimed in bewilderment. “We somehow found the actual Journal of Friendship!! Now we can find out the truth about what happened ourselves!”
“Assuming Twilight Sparkle documented that part.” Zipp deadpanned, earning her glares from the others. “What? We gotta prepare for anything, right?”
“That we do, Zipp. That we do.” Hitch agreed, still completely shocked at what he had just read. “Keep reading, Pipp!”
Pipp turned the page and cleared her throat. “Entry 1: October 12th 2029. Luster Dawn and I shared a little heart to heart where I relayed the story of my coronation. Luster is a highly studious pupil of mine, but as a result, she didn’t really understand friendship. However, I wanted to give her the push that would motivate her to take up friendship as a study. That was when my friends unanimously agreed on a solution.
We would send her to Ponyville.”
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Quite a way to celebrate the release of Chapter 4 next week.
First of all: HOLY CRAP! I didn't expect you would actually kill off Sparky! Hitch will not be pleased and he is already out for blood as is.
And I don't think ponies actually use the word 'hell'. They have Tartarus for the equivalent of that and if it's a profanity, they usually replace it with 'hay'.
But that's about the only criticism I can make. Great start! I'll be following. Keep up the good work!
Only through the prologue and things have already taken a dark turn
Sunny's a broken wreck...and Sparky's dead?!
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Yep. Sparky’s dead. While writing this story, I went back and forth in my mind as to whether or not I actually wanted him dead as the cliffhanger of Worthless promised a rescue mission. But with the way the Saga has progressed, I have no more use for him in the overarching narrative, so he had to go. It’s unfortunate, but it had to happen. Plus, I think it increases Opaline’s threat level to readers if one of the core characters is killed off, wouldn’t you agree?
As long as the tribes only fight among themselves and not against each other Harmony has a chance...
Yes, not even Misty had mastered it yet. (And she is learning from the best.)
Maybe a magic version of a Force Ghost?
And even that's still more than you had done...
Meanwhile, in an alternative timeline:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2022/10/16/2968417.jpg
Source.
Good premise!
I'm looking forward to see where it goes.
Small hint: If you want to create a horizontal line between scenes simply type
[hr].That creates a line like the one above these two paragraphs.
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Indeed even in the show (in the Ch 4 ep "Missing the Mark" from which your continuity starting with "Worthless" veers away) we all saw Opaline willing to drop the little dragon to his doom once he was of no use.
Btw will Chapter 4 of the show be canon with this, excluding "Missing the Mark" and the bit about Opaline and the Princesses as fillies, plus whatever else doesn't fit?
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I’m picking and choosing what elements from Chapter 4 I want to be a part of my canon. The backstory with the princesses obviously doesn’t fit here, so that’s out. But I don’t see how everything else in Chapter 4 can’t be canon. So Chapter 4 exists as a sort of “hazy continuity” if we’re using the words of James Gunn when it comes to the Misty Saga. Certain things happened, certain things didn’t. It’s up to my discretion and whatever elements that don’t contradict previous stories stays.
The only thing that I know isn’t canon to the Saga is “Missing the Mark” for obvious reasons. I hope that clarifies some things.
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Crystal!
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(Every fanfic writer: "Canon is my salad and I can pick out the tomatoes I don't like!" 😁)
. . .
TYT writers: /\
MYM writers: /\
IDW comic writers: /\
(C'mon u know it's true!)
(Sorta...)
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(I mean, you noticed the three are not consistent with each other at times? It's like they're in parallel but separate timelines!* Something shows up earlier in TYT that shouldn't be there until later in MYM, and they have their own tellings of events, like the Marestream origins, the magic show at the end of Winter Wishday, or certain details of "Missing the Mark" when TYT "recapped" it. And of course the comics are doing their own thing. Honestly seems like they're building off G4 more faithfully...)
*(Ooooh, that's getting the ideas churning! I wanna see the three timelines crossover! [You know of "Teen Titans Go vs Teen Titans"? That kind of idea!] Oh, and with G4 finale too! It'd be cool, and it could explain some things! C'mon Glimmy! Explain it all in the MYM finale "Secrets of Starlight"! It's up to you to fix G5 for all of us!) 😃
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No no, I get’cha. Sorry if you didn’t see my prior reply. FIMFiction can be a bit weird as to where they’re placed when I respond for some reason. I’ve definitely noticed some bizarre inconsistencies from time to time with MYM and TYT, but they aren’t separate timelines. From a story standpoint, these are meant to be the same timeline because of what Hasbro intended. Yeah, we have some weird continuity goofs from time to time, but they’re both meant to be connected to the same story in the same timeline.
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Mm, yeah maybe so. How it was *meant* to be. I'm just spitballing ideas to cover up these inconsistencies, these writer mistakes (IF they're mistakes), coming up with an in-universe explanation for them, cause I have to worry about these things! 😬
How are my ideas btw? Interesting thoughts regardless? 🤠
Btw looking forward to your review/analysis/defense video for G5!
(Also to why the Twilight stories are different between IDW and MYM, and why she's not in her Celestial form in the hologram...)
. . .
) are from different angles and have different styles, focuses, and purposes? (You know of the case of the Gospels in the Bible and our explanations for the apparent inconsistencies between them? That kind of idea! 😉) Maybe that's your angle on it all? Again, just trying to make sense of it for my sake. 😅
Wait, what if they are in the same storyline and timeline like you said but the "tales that are told" (Wink!