Redo's and Reckonings: Lost and Found

by Pinnacle Adventures

Chapter 1: Not So Humble Beginnings

Redos and Reckonings: Lost and Found

Chapter 1

Falling.

For how long?

There was no fear in my heart.

No great rush of adrenaline to tell me I was in danger or having the time of my life.

All I knew is that it felt like a dream, but it wasn’t in darkness.

There was light, softer than a cloud.

Everywhere including within me.

Filling me with the warmth of a small fire in my heart.

Then something started to form around me.

A scene, caught in the stillness of time, phasing into reality like a fog was being burned away. Then I saw it. A pair of alicorns, one male, one female, fighting for their lives against a dragon made of pitch. Its eyes alight with a red glow. The palace was aflame and every window shattered. Mirrors, grand and alien looking lined the walls, all cracked save one.

“GO!”

Suddenly the scene was alive. Moving slowly then quickly then slowly again. The male shouted at the female once more.

“He is our only hope! Go and bring him Celestia, he will listen to you!”

(Celestia!?)

Like a dream discovered the scene faded just as the secret was revealed. Closing on the image of the dragon destroying the mirror that Celestia was galloping towards. The shattered pieces fading away into nothingness from the billowing darkness of its breath.

Then I felt it. I heard it. The wish. The wish that was filled with hope, good and pure. The war, they wanted an end to the war. I reached out and pulled myself to them. I did what no other star would do.

Then there was a meaty THUD of a landing deep in my chest as the white void went black in an instant. The force of the landing and the darkness made me groan, my voice frail and weak. I opened my eyes and shouted in pain. The brightness of colors too much to bear after so long in the void of light.

“Ugh, what the f&%#?” I blinked a few times at what my ears heard, the desire to simply cuss out my frustrations still filled me, “F&@%... B*&%^....C(@!...” My eyes squinted, the world still too colorful and bright to make out as anything but blobs, yet I still wondered why my own voice was being censored.

My frustration manifested as a vain attempt to stand. I stood up on two legs… and immediately fell face first into a pile of mud. I sputtered and spat several times. “You know… I would swear about this but I obviously can’t for some frakkin reason…. HA soft swears still work! Now about these eyes.”

I held a hand up to my brow and… wow that wasn’t a hand. I clakked it against my head a few times and deduced by the course texture it was, “A hoof? Wait… Oh Sweet Celestia, was it the equestrians? Did the equestrians finally summon me!?!”

Joyous laughter filled the glade or whatever I was in at the moment. “I’m in Equestria! I’M IN EQUESTRIAAAAAA!!!” I tried to stand again, now knowing what I was it took some doing but I managed to waddle about on four legs.

“Oh good lord above I don’t know how i got here, my memory is a little fuzzy but dag nabbit nothing's gonna ruin this moment for me… wheres a mirror, i need a mirror! I wanna know what form they gave me. Oh wait the mud, where there is mud there is water!.”

The brightness had faded somewhat but most things were still a blob, including my snout. The only colors I could make out of it were a stark contrast of white and a dark, almost black, gray. I found a puddle but it was very muddy, probably stirred up from my faceplant.

“So what can I rule out?” I touched my forehead, “no horn,” I shuffled my back about and tried to feel for any extra limbs, “No wings. So either I’m an earth pony or HO! Am i a zebra! I always wanted to be a zebra! W-where am i? Oh it better not be the Everfree.”

“Howdy!”

The shrillest, most girly scream of all time erupted out of my throat at the sound of a dainty mare’s voice interrupting my moment.

“Woah woah calm down girl, are you okay?”

I was panting for a good ten seconds before I found myself and let out a deep sigh, “Well yes and no, my good… friend?”

“Well that depends on if ur gonna explain that half eaten barrel of zap apples next to ya.”

“Huh?” I squinted at the barrel the blob pony gestured towards.

“That's a tree.”

“Oh.” I squinted harder in the other direction and saw them. The brown cylinder blob with the rainbow blobs inside that. A few smaller rainbow blobs littered on the ground around it. “Well I don't know, maybe I did? I can’t see anything.”

“Wait exactly how much can’t you see? Eating one raw zap apple is bad enough but there are like ten on the ground over there.”

“Look I… I don’t even know how i got here. I just woke up, I can’t see now I'm covered in mud. I sound like a filly and… and… I think I need help. Like really badly need some help.” My eyes were starting to get watery.

“Okay okay, it's okay, just breathe. Can you see me at least? Can you follow me?”

She was a blob, a yellowey blob with a red mane and a pink something around her neck, but I could at least tell where she was. I took a step, shaky, then one more, and another, and then another- slip bang my head on the ground as some stick in the mud caught my hoof.

Sooner than i could think i felt someone touching me, “Hey hey, you alright, talk to me miss?”

“Miss?” My eyes went wide, “I’m a mare!?”

“Excuse me?”

I started giggling. Giggling grew to laughing. Then that grew to full on maniacal laughter, “I always wanted to be one! I did, I did, I DID!!!!” Flailing my hooves in the air as I cackled and shouted whoops and hollers.

“Oh yeah she definitely sauced up.”

I didn’t care, this kinda sucked on some levels but it was still the best day of my exstence ever. My first calling, my first summoning and I was in the world I had been a fan of since I first felt it enter my imagination.

“Just uh… keep having that party i am gonna go get someone to uh… get you a… certificate of uh… stuff… just don’t move!”

“Okay Applejack.”

The blob froze, “How do you know my sister?”

I gasped, “Applebloom!? You’re not a filly anymore! Oh I wish I could see you!”

“Okay this is getting into one of those weird ‘main six elements only’ type things applejack told me about, So you Better stay right there till i get her.”

“Oh I'll stay frozen solid for best pony.” I could feel her confused stare, “Just…. Go, it's not gonna make any sense to anyone except maybe Celestia, trust me.” She stayed frozen, “Do you want me to sing you the song you sang at that talent show before you had your cutie mark? Cause I can you know.”

“I’ll be right back!” She said in a hurry before disappearing in a cloud of smoke to gallop off through sweet apple acres.

“Haha… crap I hope I’m not freaking her out too bad.” I looked over at the zap apple barrel again, “Although I am wondering if I am just some zap apple addict zebra who wandered into town and-”

The barrel shifted.

My eyes went wide, my heart raced for a moment. Then like someone turned on a blender the barrels contents started ripping apart and firing off into the glade around myself. I shielded my head until the barrage stopped and I heard a familiar purring.

“Wait, I know that noise.” I watched carefully, and sure enough a small pink orb scuttled out of the barrel, “Oh it’s a parasprite. You guys were always so cute… and utterly terrifying.”

I heard its wings take flight and it hovered in front of my snout in moments. I started sweating slightly especially when it sniffed me… then it started to rub its cheek against my nose.

“Awwww-” then my nose twitched, “aw-aw-ah-AH!” A loud horsey snort ripped out of me that sent the parasprite into a spiraling dive to the ground, “Well i gotta get used to making weird horse noises i guess.”

Then the parasprite was at my snout again, except the buzzing was now at a much higher pitch and I could barely make out a scowl on its face.

“Look i’m sorry i didn't mean to-”

In a half second the parasprite vibrated and… let out a massive belch in my face. A belch enhanced by an entire barrel of zap apples that zapped me to my core. Oddly enough it didn’t hurt it just felt… weird all over for several excruciatingly long seconds of complete out of control full body seizures. Yet once again no pain. However I could feel my fur being charred and my mane getting spikey and staticy all at once.

The parasprite then started to hover away to another part of the acres.

(Hey wait, you’re my proof that I'm not insane!)

“Bluh bloo, bicka badda hic hoo ha!”

I blinked several times.

“Bleh bloo…. BLEH BLOO…. BLEH…. Ugh, krakka koo dissa F&#^uh yucca”

(Great, I can't talk. Sure won’t look like a drug addict with all these things going on around me. Nope. Not at all…)

I sat on my haunches and crossed my forelegs. A frown and a scowl on my face as an inflamed tongue hung out of my mouth.

On cue a trio of dust clouds, one large and red hauling what I guessed to be a cart, making headway toward me fast.

(3…2…1…aaaand)

“-and you’re sure she has Zap-apple-itis?”

“Well yeah she had like ten raw zap apples, but i think she’ll be fine as long as didn’t eat any more-”

The first one over the hill was Big Mac with the cart, and what came from him was a deep exasperated, “Holy Hayseeds!”

All i did was scowl and blow a raspberry at him while letting my eyes go crossed.

Then I saw her. That orange angel in the blobby flesh. I could feel that borderline maternal glare on me. Even if it was unwarranted I felt a bit of shame.

“Ah’lright get her loaded up Mac. She’s goin to the clinic asap. Gonna need alotta gumroot to wash that out of her system.”

Mac made a move toward me but I managed a “Nuh uh.” and got onto my hooves. I waddled my way over, shakier than a newborn foal I'm sure, but I managed to get into the cart without much of a fuss. With a bit of help anyway, but that scowl still on my face. THey shrugged, I think, and Big Mac re-hitched himself to the cart. Applebloom and Applejack watching me as we traveled along the road towards Ponyville proper. I leaned my head on the lip of the cart and managed a semi intelligible.

“Thowwy.”

And I think I saw a grin, but I wasn't sure. With Equestria being itself however, I liked to think there was some level of love and understanding in everything within that moment.

And so…

My life changing journey began. Not with a bang, or with trumpets blaring, but with a tied tongue, a weak body, and blind eyes. If I had known what was ahead I might have hid from our destiny, but looking back. I would do it all over again. It was just that needed… and it was just that awesome. For me and everypony we touched.

However…

Back at the site of my grand fall the shadows stirred. A portal of dark flame opened on the empty fields of the apple family farm and through it two figures stepped through upon two legs. Their faces and legs equine but their torsos that of a human. One wreathed in armor wrought form pure nightmare, and the other wearing robed finery adorned with runes of pure madness.

"Umbra you best not have been lying to me about your scrying of this area. The cease fire is shakey enough without us breaching it at the most critical of junctures."

The feminine pony of shadows in abyssal robes growled back at him, "Sombra if you doubted me you wouldn't have bothered. Now listen to me when I say a star did fall here. Just smell the air, it's thick with otherworldly power."

King Sombra smelled the air. She was right but there was something else in the wind. A mace, cruel and heavy, materialized in his grasp and he swiftly yet effortlessly deflected a lance of purple light that almost took off his head.

Umbra summoned a multi headed whip made of fire in one hand as her other conjured shadowed flame, "show thyself Sparkle! How dare you violate the treaty!"

"You're one to talk!" The purple alicorn of friendship showed herself after her lance darted back to her position. Still only capable of a form with four legs. "How dare you show your faces in Equestria after what you did to Cadence!"

Umbra smirked and readied her whip for a strike. Sombra however lifted his mace between them and lowered the heat of the situation.

"We simply wish to know if Celestia broke the accord and attempted to make a wish. So tell me Twilight sparkle, did your precious queen put the lives of all her subjects in danger just to chase a myth? And don't lie… I hate liers."

Twilight gauged them, then spoke carefully and slowly. "Celestia took no such action."

His eyes narrowed, his mace igniting in his hand with blood crimson flame. He closed the distance until he stood before her more than thrice her height… his aura alive and glowering with hate and fear.

"Leave… or should I tell Solaris you threatened one of his sisters students?"

Sombra furrowed his brow… then let his weapon evaporate back to the void. "The peace will keep. For now. But if one of us smells forbidden magic once more we will March on canterlot and burn Equestria to the ground." He turned and a portal of dark flame appeared at Queen Umbra's side. "We go. I have a few crystal slaves with my name needing branding upon them."

Umbra stayed for a moment. Eyeing Twilight for a time. Then followed Sombra out of Equestria and back to the Citadel of Shadows.

Twilight held her posture for a moment. Then almost collapsed onto the ground, "how did they sense it? We followed the ritual to the letter!"

A hidden equine shaped figure in a thick robe materialized from thin air and spoke, “We did, but it was foolish to think somepony wouldn’t notice.”

She almost had a panic attack but started breathing slowly until her heart stopped racing. “You’re right Dusk, i just…. That timing was too close. Another ten seconds and they would have found her.”

“But they didn’t.”

She sighed with a short laugh, “When you’re right, you’re right.”

Then she saw something out of the corner of her eye. A pair of saddlebags. White with black straps and sapphire blue pin locks upon them. She went to them and lifted them with her magic. A name printed upon them.

"Ellana Glacia?” Twilight said plainly, “this must be hers. we have to get them to her. Everything is important, don't forget that. Everything!”

“Let me do it Twilight, i didn’t get the chance to see her. Being in the planes between and all that.”

“Is that wise?”

“Wiser than forgetting to make your appearances before Princess Celestia to avoid suspicion when she finds out the whistle of Windy Breeze is missing? Let alone atomized from the ritual we cast?”

Twilight paused for a few moments.

“Go on, I'll cast a glamor, nopony will even suspect it's me.”

“Okay just keep that confidence in check it almost got you found out several times already.”

“Oh please, I wasn't Prince Solaris’ star pupil for no good reason.”

“And you have yet to become an alicorn for a good reason as well.”

“Lets not go there.”

“Fair enough. Now get moving, i gotta scrub the area of any magical traces before I go.”

“Good. Now remind me, was Ponyville general on the north or south end of town?”

END OF CHAPTER 1