White Sun

by The Psychopath

Hesitation

Applejack tapped the ground, lost in thought. The three had been placed in a guest waiting room and served fruit juice that was left in a pitcher on a small, wooden table. Four blue-gray couches were present which could sit two ponies each, but they were also long and deep enough that, if one wanted to sleep until they could attend to whatever they were waiting for, they could.

However, more important matters wracked the minds of the three elements. What were they going to do with Shining's sister? She was all about forgiving, but that first encounter with her wasn't exactly a good first impression. That said, she was a necromancer but didn't do anything to her, and that's twice the mare tried to run instead of using her magic. In fact, it was twice already that her undead dragon didn't actually directly harm her or her friends. It just threw her away when they first met and pushed Fluttershy away.

"How're we gonna do this?" she asked her friends. "Ain't got not idea how ta approach it."

"Why not ask around the empire and see if somepony is willing to show Twilight what they do? She might find inspiration somewhere," Pinkie suggested. "I know it's how I found my interest in baking when I left the rock farm."

"Huh." Applejack nodded to herself and faced Fluttershy. "And, uh, how'd you find yer callin', Fluttershy?"

"Um." The pegasus looked around nervously, unwilling to make eye contact. "I just didn't really like to be near others, so I just followed the feeling I got when I was surrounded by butterflies as a foal and started to take care of the animals," she said.

Applejack stared at her friend. "That ain't healthy, 'shy'." Fluttershy smiled sheepishly at Applejack's response. "Well, maybe we can try and ask the rulers about that plan?"

Pinkie side glanced the pitcher and pursed her lips. "Well, even though they're real neat and all, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Oh raght," Applejack realized despondently. "The necromancy thing. No pony'll want her ta be near 'em or corpses of any kind." She heaved a sigh and scratched her side. "This cold air is hurtin' mah skin sum'in' fierce," she complained. "Ah really just want ta go home at this point. Ah ain't one ta back down from challengin' work, but this all feels like a bit much."

Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Maybe we could disguise her?" she suggested. "Could ask to have her mane and coat recolored." Her vague eagerness dissolved rather quickly. "Oh, but Rarity isn't here. She would have been the best at applying make-up and redoing a mane and tail's styles."

"No no, that's a real good ahdea, Flutters," Applejack praised.

The pegasus seemed to perk up immediately. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie shouted. She started fumbling through her mane and pulled out eleven small cans of paint. "They have artists and stuff in the spire. Could even give them some of my paint supplies just for that." The mares stared at her paint, dumbfounded. "What?"

"Why do ya have paint with ya?" Applejack asked.

"In-case there's a party emergency and I have to paint a bunch of decorations and drawings and stuff, silly!" Pinkie answered while shoving the cans back into her mane.

"Oh, ha ha! Of course!" Applejack pretended to hit her head with her hoof. "Ah shoulda known." She turned to Fluttershy and rolled her eyes. "We're gonna have ta find either Emperor Shining Armor or Empress Cadance."

Fluttershy hummed pensively. "Well, Empress Cadance should be in her quarters with the foal considering she looked very sick, and Emperor Shining might be training with the other soldiers."

Applejack weighed in both options. "Both are occupied but the easiest one to reach right now would be Empress Cadance, I guess."

"Then it's time for me to use my Pinkie charm to get through the guards," the mare said while moving her eyebrows up and down.

"Lower them bros, missy!" Applejack ordered.

"But I was just going to--"

"Start a pastry or confetti fight. Y'always end up creating a pigsty when you use the 'party charm'," Applejack whipped.

Pinkie seemed upset. "But it's not the party charm, it's the p--"

"Renamin' it ain't changin' what it is. Y'ain't gettin' it past me," Applejack said sternly. "We're just talkin' calmly 'n trying' ta reason with 'em. We'll see what can be done."

Twilight, on her side, had set aside her concerns with Celestia's soul and had already begun working on her many other theories for restoring bodies to their pre-dead state. She had two full stacks of fifty papers each and grew upset that she couldn't just stack them all atop of one another. However, the mare took a short break to look outside the window of her room and observe everypony wandering through the streets. Far to the right she could see the smoke of a train getting ready to enter the city's limit and offload whatever cargo it possessed. Ponies coming and going, the quietness of the room due to its distance from the capital's existence, and nothing to worry about outside of her own work.

She couldn't take it anymore. Twilight was grateful that Shining and Cadance didn't immediately reject her and took her in, but Twilight couldn't stay in the spire for the rest of her life. It's exactly the reason she did her best to avoid getting caught: Being trapped and imprisoned for the rest of her life, or killed. This was a situation that was worse than anything she could think of when it came to solving her greatest dilemma concerning Celestia. However, it was also extremely difficult to let go of the luxuries she had been denied for so long. A warm bed, a clean showering space, readily available and rich foods, and a roof over her head that remained warm and relatively dry. Back in the cave, Twilight had to employ multiple spells within the rock itself to redirect water flow in the stone around the little house she found. She didn't want everything to collapse due to erosion or to get black mold everywhere.

The mare was getting angry and the lock around her horn was starting to burn again. She kept it on for her brother, but now...

"Spike, could you remove this lock from my horn, please?" Twilight asked. The undead took two steps forward when the door swung open, revealing Cadance. "Hold on," Twilight whispered. "What's wrong?" the mare asked.

"The Elements gave me a great idea: We'll disguise you and have you visiting a few places to see if you might find interest in them. You could use your skills for a..." The alicorn tried to find the right words. Telling Twilight that her endeavors were 'bad' in any way would likely already break the trust she developed in them. "A different sort of purpose. Maybe one that will help you relax when you're stuck on your...projects?" she asked with a giant smile.

Twilight pondered the idea. "And what if I don't like any of the things you propose?"

Cadance shrugged. "We can't force you to do anything, but staying cooped up in the spire isn't very good for your health."

Twilight dusted her mane and looked at Cadance with suspicion. "Let's say I accept. The guards that you assign to me are going to give my identity away, and no pony wants to deal with the 'icky necromancer' that you captured," Twilight stated derisively.

Applejack excused herself as she pushed through. "Well, that's where we come in."

Fluttershy flew over the pair and gave Twilight a warm, yet nervous, smile. "We'll be accompanying you and making sure nothing bad happens whether it's to you or somepony else," Fluttershy explained quietly.

"And we'll just say that you're somepony who fell on hard times and needs help with her rehabilitation into having a good, honest day's work!" Pinkie added from the side of the wall. "Y-y'know, but that's...technically the truth." She chuckled nervously.

Twilight leaned to the side and realized the pink pony had placed suction cups on her hooves and was using them to walk along the walls. "Where did you get tho--" She was distracted by Applejack shushing her and shaking her head. "But she doesn't have a bag. Where--"

"It's a Pinkie thing," Fluttershy interjected. "We find it's best to not think about it."

A confused Twilight looked back at Pinkie and reeled back in horror when she realized an unnatural smile was growing on the pony's face as her eyes looked into opposite directions at the same speed.

"Pinkie!" Applejack yelled.

Startled, the pink mare stuttered and shifted in place, causing her suction cups to detach and letting her fall to the ground. "What happened? I lost my train of thought and was imagining a bunch of stuff." She looked up at her friends and shrunk away. "Was I making faces again?" She chuckled nervously then cleared her throat and looked away as her ears flattened. "Sorry."

"Then where do you want to take me to first?" Twilight asked.

"First we need to figure out what to do with Spike," Cadance said. "We can't have it following you around everywhere, and disguising it wouldn't work because ponies would ask a lot of questions that it can't answer."

"That's easy." Twilight said with a dismissive wave. "Spike, wait here for me. If I'm in any real danger, I need you to come and help me like you did last time." She fiddled with the lock on her horn and grunted. "You'll know if I'm in danger or not." The mare waited a moment then looked at Cadance with a weak smile. "There. He'll, uh...he won't move from here," Twilight said nervously.

Applejack immediately picked up on the almost instantaneous loss of confidence but remained silent. She wasn't sure if the other three had or if even Twilight noticed it herself. Regardless, they had work to do.

"Well," Cadance started. Twilight felt her blood run cold for some reason. Then the pink alicorn pulled out a large, tweed box and opened it, revealing countless make-up products. "Time to put on your disguise."

Annoyed but ultimately powerless to stop them, Twilight relented and allowed the mares to work on her no matter how irritating and uncomfortable it felt. More importantly, she worried that Spike would physically assault them if she showed any immediate distress outside of her magical surges. It felt like hours had passed, but the light outside was stronger than ever. Pinkie and Fluttershy brought a small mirror up to Twilight for her to observe her new appearance and check every change made.

Her coat and horn had become bubblegum pink, and although her mane and tail were now pure white, they still both had a single vertical streak of purple running through them. Even her cutie mark had been disguised as six, five-pointed stars with five on the outside and one in the center.

"Huh?" Twilight scratched herself. "This stuff is really itchy."

Cadance held her hooves down and looked Twilight straight into her eyes. "You'll get used to it quick, but don't scratch. The powder will fly off." She clapped her hooves together, chasing off the errant powder. "Now, since Flurry Heart is being watched by a doctor, I think I can quickly bring you four to the guard barracks next to the spire."

Applejack groaned internally. She knew they couldn't have gone to the soldiers directly, but it was still a kick in the guts to be going directly to them immediately afterwards.

"Before we go, can you take this lock off of my horn?" Twilight asked nervously. "I don't feel comfortable with being unable to defend myself."

The mare's once 'proud' stature and derisive tone directed at the Elements had suddenly vanished. Now she was a nervous wreck that spoke meekly. Both Applejack and Cadance could see that, without the assurance of Spike being around nor her magic to defend herself, the pony had started regressing. Fluttershy herself recognized further issues that she had seen with the mistreated animals she had brought in.

The pegasus even noticed that Cadance's features had grown more severe when seeing the unicorn in this manner. There was deep-seated trauma wedged within this mare's mind, but she didn't know how to approach it without knowing the exact cause or source.

"Don't worry, Twilight. These three will keep you safe at all times, right, mares?" Cadance asked with a smile.

The three answered in affirmative tones.

The lavender unicorn, on the other hoof, groaned nervously. "If you say so."

"I'll ask Shining to take you to the barracks' infirmary," Cadance continued. "Should be able to use your talents with...Well, you know, to spotting and helping heal the wounded soldiers." The alicorn's smile faded. "Provided the ones Spike hurt aren't there," she realized in horror while passing a hoof through her mane.

Comments

[Dormi_san]

"Why not ask around the empire and see if somepony is welling to show Twilight what they do? She might find inspiration somewhere," Pinkie suggested. "I know it's how I found my interest in baking when I left the rock farm."

"Um." The pegasus looked around nervously, unwilling to make eye contact. "I just didn't really like to be near others, so I just followed the feeling I got when I was surrounded by butterflies as a foal and started to take care of the animals," she said.

WAIT a minute....that means that this this AU there was no Sonic Rainboom, that raises several questions for the future.

Her coat and horn had become bubblegum pink, and although her mane and tail were now pure white, they still bot hhad a single vertical streak of purple running through them. Even her cutie mark had been disguised as six, five-pointed stars with five on the outside and one in the center.

A curious choice of colors, there are not many characters with white manes and tails, did you use any character as inspiration or was it your own choice? I also want to believe that Twilight has the same cutie mark as the one that appears in the series, yes I am wrong, please someone correct me.

"I'll ask Shining to take you to the barracks infirmary," Cadance continued. "Should be able to use your talents with...Well, you know, to spotting and helping heal the wounded soldiers." The alicorn's smile faded. "Provided the ones Spike hurt aren't there," she realized in horror while passing a hoof through her mane.

Or worse yet, that they meet the relatives of the 2 guards that Twilight indirectly killed (Spike), I am being impartial since we must remember that the guards were just doing their job and died for it, it is understandable that the families of those dead ponies don't even want to see Twilight. Let's not forget how a guard told Cadence after her speech that she was being a little nepotism.... and it makes some sense, we just have to wait and see how this plan of Cadence's and the elements of the harmony

[Cozy Cottage]

I look forward to the next chapter as always.

[DarkSnowGaming]

Her coat and horn had become bubblegum pink, and although her mane and tail were now pure white, they still bot hhad a single vertical streak of purple running through them. Even her cutie mark had been disguised as six, five-pointed stars with five on the outside and one in the center.

Wait a minute, her cutie mark isn't the element of magic? Or did they just change the 6 pointed star to a 5 pointed star?

Also I can already sense a lot of things that could go wrong, I want to be clear, the 3 element bearer's AREN'T unicorn's, therefore if they do get into trouble, there going to have to fight with there hooves, making Twilight completely vulnerable.

Also there is a chance there could be a rescue attempt with Twilight, because Twilight is a valuable asset in bringing back Celestia and there are others who want her back.

11845050

WAIT a minute....that means that this this AU there was no Sonic Rainboom, that raises several questions for the future.

WAIT A MINUTE! NOW I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS BECAUSE THIS GOES AGAINST ATLEAST 70% OF ALL MY THEORIES!!

If the sonic rainboom didn't happen, and if Twilight's cutie mark isn't the element of magic..... Wait.... I just realized something.... When Starlight Glimmer went back in time, didn't she prevent the Sonic Rainboom from happening...? Okay that is something else entirely.

Anyways back to my point, if the sonic rainboom never happened and if Twilight's cutie mark isn't the element of magic, than that means she is not the bearer of any of the elements, this also raises the quastion on what Twilight's cutie mark is.

And because the sonic rainboom didn't happen, that means that my theory could be true that Starlight Glimmer messed with time and history, resulting the sonic rainboom not happening which also raises another quastion, is Rainbow Dash the elements of Loyalty? We haven't heard anyone mention her yet.

And if Starlight Glimmer went back in time, that's how the bearer's most likely found the elements, because Starlight knew where they were to begin with thanks to Twilight finding them originally, which also means she could have recruited Rainbow Dash but she could have a different cutie mark.

Could Starlight Glimmer also be the cause of Celestia's death considering her friend left her to go to the school for gifted unicorns therefore wanting revenge?

The sonic rainboom not happening just crushed a ton of theories I had but just resulted in multiple new theories to take place, if Starlight Glimmer is the element of magic than the possibility that my theories or atleast most of them are correct would be likely.

The map is clearly sentient, or has free will, could explain why the element of magic didn't want her to go to Twilight if it is Starlight Glimmer.

If the element of magic isn't Starlight Glimmer than I don't know what I'm gonna do.

[Lost_Data]

11845126
You forget the only other, though admittedly funnier, option. That the element of magic, could be Trixie. Either way we will see where this goes.

[DarkSnowGaming]

11845191
Hmmm, I don't know why it could be Trixie, but it is a possibility.

[The Psychopath]

11845050
I used this.