> Big Brother > by Cool writer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A trip to Canterlot > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuga chuga chuga chuga... The train's engine chugged on. Princess Twilight was sitting in the train, on her way to canterlot. These months were always gloomy. For some reason, Celestia and Luna always got super depressed this time of year. Rainbow had always said, "something about this time of year made controlling the weather REALLY hard," and not just for her. Most of the town's pegasi complained about the same thing. It was like the clouds wanted to rain all day. Twilight had noticed (as she was packing for her trip) that the sky's uncooperative disposition mirrored the time of witch, the princesses were in an unhappy state. In equestrian that means: the clouds were hard to control at the same time the princesses were sad. Spike had stayed behind in ponyville to look after the library, so it was up to Twilight to raise the princesses out of the dumps. "I just wonder how I'm going to do it... maybe I should have brought Pinkie Pie on this trip, she'd know what to do." Twilight pondered. "I know!" Pinkie said. "That's why I came!" Twilight looked at Pinkie. "oh hi, Pinkie." Then Twilight registered what she had just said. "Gah! Pinkie? What are you doing here?!" Good thing Twilight and Pinkie were alone in the car for this outburst. "Rainbow Dash told me you were going to Canterlot to cheer up the princesses and I was like GHUUUUU!" Pinkie gasped. "The princesses are sad and I'm not there to fix it?!? So I got on the train with my party cannon and now I'm planning out Celestia and Luna's cheer up party!" Surprisingly, that was the most normal reason Pinkie had to throw a party. Twilight sighed and began to "help" Pinkie to do her life's calling. The train pulled into Canterlot Station and out stepped Twilight and Pinkie Pie. "Bye Twi! Gotta go get streamers and cake!" Pinkie shouted, racing away from the Station to the shopping district. Twilight took a different route to the Castle. She walked, thinking about what she was going to do to cheer up the royal sisters. Twilight wasn't very good at cheering ponies up. She sighed. 'What am I gonna do?' She thought to herself. Soon, she reached the castle. "Here we go." Twilight gulped. > How Are You? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ah, hello Twilight," Luna said, perking up a tiny bit. "How hath, thou been?" "I've been good." Twilight responded. "But I'm not here about me, I'm here about you," Twilight said, thinking about how Rarity would do it. "I'm here to... get you outa' the dumps. So... what do want to do?" Twilight asked. Luna smiled a sad little smile. "Thank you, Twilight. But it will be quite difficult to lift my sister and I from... 'the dumps'." Luna replied. "But I am not against you trying." Twilight nodded. "Have you ever been bowling?" She asked, as if undaunted by Luna's statement. Luna shook her head "no." Twilight frowned. "Well, bowling is a pretty hard sport to pick up..." Twilight began to trail off. "So, maybe we could go... flying? No no," She muttered to herself. She didn't even notice Luna had stopped listening and was looking out the window. Twilight was now lost to her thoughts and was pacing around. She eventually paced out of the room, and down the hall. Luna didn't try to stop her, she wanted to be alone anyway. Twilight's thoughts had followed a rabbit trail and were now focused on "Why are they sad?" rather than, "How can I stop them being sad?" The trail was too long and complicated to explain. She eventually paced all the way to the Canterlot archive. Then, she had an idea. 'Maybe if I can find out what's causing them to be sad... I can fix it!' Twilight thought to herself. "UGH! I can't find anything!" Twilight groaned. She had been searching for hours and found nothing. She checked her saddle bag to see if she brought a book that would help. What she found, was the journal of the royal pony sisters, which she had procured in (the events known as "castle-mane-ia") a trip to the everfree forest. She decided to give it a read to see if she could find the reason for the princesses despair. She then noticed something about the book. "Why are there a few pages ripped out?" Twilight asked herself. The last page had a scrap left on it. She began reading aloud: Me and Luna miss Harmony and Amy dearly. It has nearly been a month now since Amy passed, revealing to me one of the prices of immortality. Starswirl (in his old age) was not able to prepare the everlasting youth spell in time. I have begged him to finish the spell and cast it on himself, but he wishes his life to have a natural end, for it was his destiny. He implores me not to weep, for my destiny is to rule as queen one day. I also fear mother may not recover from planting the tree. WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL!?! Twilight looked away from the book, slamming it shut. She couldn't bare to look at it. Tears began to cover her eyes. She looked back at the book: "Tree? As in, tree of harmony? Maybe there's more." Twilight looked at the book, and flipped past the page she read. Starswirl's journal has a spell that could bring back Harmony, and possibly Amy, but it requires the elements to cast, and with Luna gone... Twilight stopped reading, she could probably bring this harmony back! So, Twilight went off (after stealing one unicorn's note book) to gather the ingredients for the spell. > Spellunking > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was the middle of the night, and Twilight was wandering the castle by horn-light. She remembered a room that Celestia had locked before she was born, and always grew sad when Twilight brought it up. She made the connection to this room, and the "dreadful months" as the princess's annual depression had been called. Twilight approached the locked room, and steeled herself. She tested the latch, and she knew she had the right room. Her magic senses told her that there was a strong ward on the door, keeping out above average unicorns, master lock-picks, though no-pony really knew how to lock-pick, there never really was the need. But, Twilight wasn't just some "above average unicorn" any more, now, she was an alicorn! Dis-enchanting the ward would be easy, foal's-play! Twilight aimed her horn at the lock, and willed it to open. The ward fought back, but was no match for Twilight's raw power and direction. The lock clicked, and the door opened. Stepping inside, Twilight found a strange and ancient thaumitergical device... that had starswirl the bearded written all over it! Twilight had to stop herself from squealing at the device. It looked like some kind of portal, like the one in the castle of friendship, only more versatile, meaning it wasn't limited to one dimension. Twilight, not being able to help herself, began to fiddle around with it, trying to see how it works. "Ok... so I think this needs a specific spell to activate it. If only I knew the spell..." Then, she remembered the notebook. She had already located the spell mentioned in Celestia's diary, and prepared the spell for casting. She cast then spell... Then everything went wrong. The device was activated. The two claw like rings protruding around a disc began to emit pulsing waves of energy into the center, where the waves fused together into an orb. "What's going on?!?" Twilight shrieked. Meanwhile... Discord was sitting was sitting in his thinking tree, doing his deep thinking, when he suddenly detected an anomaly. "Well, that's strange!" Discord exclaimed. He then pulled out a styrofoam cup, and ate the hay burger inside. Twilight struggled, trying to cut off the flow of power to the machine. Bolts of energy began to shoot from the orb. The orb began to pulse, as if about to release something. Then, one massive bolt shot from it, forming into something she couldn't see. Twilight then fell to the ground, depleted of all her magic. > Introductions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sat upright, feeling her hair singed. "What... happened?" Twilight asked. She heard a groan. Getting to her hooves, Twilight walked to the source of the groan. It was too smokey to make much out, but she heard a gasp, then a sputtering, choking cough. "What the hay happened?" A voice called out "St- Star Swirl? Yo' beard face, where are you? Pond? Amy? Tia, Luna? Celaria? Is anyone there?" The smoke cleared, and a creature (vaguely reminiscent of the creatures in the other world Twilight went to) was on it's knees looking around. It then saw Twilight. "Who- who are you?" He then saw her wings, "You're... an alicorn? I thought they were the only ones!" He said. "Yes, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and... who are you?" She asked. "Twilight... Sparkle?" He asked. He shook his head, dismissing any questions he had. "Have you seen my friends? Two alicorn fillies, one adult alicorn, and a pegasus named Golden Pond." He asked. Twilight shook her head. "You... must be Harmony." Twilight asked. He gritted his teeth. "No, but I was." He hissed. "Then... I did it! I'm not sure what I did, but I brought you back!" Twilight cheered. The creature was confused. "Brought me back? Brought me back from where?" Twilight looked at the machine. "I don't know... where ever this thing sent you, I guess." Twilight explained the best she could. "But... it didn't send me anywhere, I was walking to the portal... then some lightning hit me... and now they're gone." Harmony said, looking around. "Hey... how did I survive that anyway?" Just then, some guards burst in, wielding spears and swords. "I detected a magical disturbance!" A unicorn shouted. "Princess! Are you alright?" He asked Twilight. Harmony turned to Twilight in shock. "Princess? How come I've never heard of you?" He asked. Twilight took on a grave face. "It's because you've been lost in time," She said. Harmony shook his head a bit. "I'm sorry... what?!?" "Yes, I'm fine. I was fiddling with this machine here, and it went off." Twilight said to the guards, she then turned to Harmony. "You remember the princesses as fillies... yes?" "I would say 'because they are'... but I'm getting a sneaking feeling they aren't." Harmony said. Twilight nodded. "Your from the past, long before Nightmare moon, Discord, the crystal empire... any of it!" Then, Twilight remembered the creator of the machine that had caused this in the first place. "Did you... know who made this?" She asked. He nodded. "You mean beard face? Oh yeah! He's a jerk." "How could you call him... a jerk!" Twilight shrieked. "He was one of the greatest unicorns of all time! He created-" Twilight's lecture was interrupted by Harmony. "Was?" Harmony asked. "He's... he's been dead for centuries." Twilight explained. Harmony looked shocked. "He.... he's dead... and I insulted him... after all he did for us..." He started tearing up. "So... if Star Swirl is dead... then that must mean that Pond's..." He shook his head, and started smacking the ground. "No! She's gotta be here!" He exclaimed, he then shot up, ran past the guards and out of the room. "AMY!" He called. He looked left. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called again. "AMY! AMY WHERE ARE YOU?!" Twilight rushed to him. "Hey!" Twilight shouted. He looked at Twilight. "Is... is this 'Amy' also known as Pond?" Twilight asked. He laughed, tears in his eyes. "Yeah! That's her pony name, she has it so she could go to school and have a normal life." Twilight looked somber. "Then... I'm sorry..." Twilight began. He shook his head angrily. "No." "I'm so, so sorry." Twilight said, grabbing his hand in her hoof. "No!" He shouted again. "She's dead." Twilight said. He lifted his hands to his face, and feel to the floor, sobbing. "NO!" He said between sobs and gasps for air. "AMY!" He cried, mournfully. Twilight knelt beside the crying monster. "Hey there... it's ok," Twilight reassured him. "No! It's not!" Harmony shouted. "Everyone I've ever known is long dead! I have no life here, and no life there!" Twilight realized something. "Not everyone's dead! There's still the princesses!" She exclaimed. Harmony sighed, getting to his feet. "Come on! They'll be so happy to see you!" Twilight bounced off happily, Harmony trailing behind. > Back > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harmony trudged silently along, following Twilight. "Perk up! Do you know how happy the princesses will be to see you?" Twilight asked. Harmony grinned a bit. "Yeah... at least that make up for... Amy..." A single tear rolled down his face. He shook his head, and forced himself to look up. "Any way... what all has happened when I was gone?" "Well, Nightmare Moon resurfaced and was defeated, as well as Discord, The Crystal Empire, Discord's chaos se-" "Nightmare Moon? Who's that?" "Evil princess Luna." "WHAT!?! WUNA'S EVIL!?!" Harmony exclaimed. "Not anymore, we used the elements of harmony to change her back to good." Twilight explained. "Elements of wha?" "You've... missed a lot." Twilight sighed. "Let me explain, me and my friends are the element bearers, wielders of the elements of harmony: six powerful magic artifacts. They were originally used to stop Discord-" "Discord? The little dragon thing? He wouldn't hurt a fly!" Harmony laughed. "He grew up." Twilight mono toned. The two had reached the court room, where Luna's voice drifted out. "I am aware that I am needed, as I am sure you are aware that my sister has done this alone for over a thousand years! Surly, she can manage one moon without me." Luna exclaimed from inside. Harmony gave a side-long glance at Twilight. "Who's that?" Harmony asked, nodding his head toward the door. "That, would be prin-" Twilight was cut off by by the door bursting open, and Princess Luna standing on the other side of it. Luna and Harmony gasped at the same time. "No!" Luna gasped. "Tis' impossible!" "Wuna?" Harmony said in the same manor. "Twilight wasn't kidding when she said I was gone a long time!" Luna's horn began to glow, and Harmony was thrown into a wall. "What changeling knows of my brother's appearance?!?" She asked. "WUNA! Wuna, It's me!" Harmony exclaimed. "Prove it!" Luna shouted again, this time more angry. "Ok," Harmony said, thinking fast. "When I was feeling down, right before I left, I was sitting on my own, and you asked me about my world, and I told you about it, about video games and other things." Luna looked shocked. "It... it is you!" The princess of the night exclaimed, letting Harmony down and throwing her forelegs around him. "I thought you were dead!" She cried, the water works flowing, "Wow you're big! And strong!" Harmony gasped... presumably for air. "Just wait till' sister sees you! Come! We must go see her now!" Luna levitated Harmony onto her back, and raced off, leaving Twilight to wonder what the heck just happened. Luna pranced down the hall, giggling and squealing the whole way, Harmony confused as heck, and Twilight laughing at the princess' behavior. They soon made it to the main court room, where Celestia was leaning on a table, and blowing a pencil away, and magically bringing it back, only to blow it away again. Harmony was sitting in a way that he was invisible from the front of Luna. "Sister! Guess what I've got!" Luna chirped in a sing-song voice. Celestia looked up at her. "The will to work the night court?" Celestia asked dejectedly, taking a sip from a mug of coffee. "Nope! I'll give you a hint, though... Finish this sentence, element of..." Luna sang again. "Harmo... what?" Celestia mono toned. "That's right!" Luna said, levitating Harmony off of her and up to Celestia. "Um... hi?" Harmony said, unsure. "You... got big." Then Celestia screamed. ... A lot... > Sisterly Sobs > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "BACK! BACK I SAY!" Celestia hissed, levitating the chair and poking Harmony with it like some sort of lion tamer. "Tia, it's me!" Harmony said again, only to be blinded by another flash from Celestia's horn. "Would you stop doing that?!" He asked angrily, rubbing his eyes. "Sister, it is him!" Luna exclaimed. "He has memories no other could know of, especially now!" "Then prove it!" "I didn't ask for a whole year about your father, and I learned about it from you crying in the forest. I comforted you by telling you to let go on some things." Celestia gasped. "That's..." She stuttered. "Impossible? That's all I've been hearing all day." Harmony laughed. Celestia laughed, then began to cry. Harmony slowly approached, and hugged her. "I... I missed you so much!" Celestia sobbed. Luna began to tear up, and joined in the hug. Twilight grinned, and sighed. Now, the easy part was out of the way, all that was left was the hard part. > Integration > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Today, we'll be having a new student joining us!" The teacher announced cheerfully. Harmony groaned silently, and entered the room. "This," She continued. "Is Harmony. He's been... what was it again?" She asked. "Set adrift through time." Harmony said passive-aggressively. The teacher looked at him a moment. "... Right... While he's adjusting back into Equestrian life, he'll be going to school here. Does anyone have any questions for Harmony?" She asked. Every single hoof in the room shot up. Harmony sighed. "I'm called a human, you've never heard of them because they're from another world." 3/4 of the hooves sank. Harmony face palmed and said: "No. I don't eat ponies." Every hoof but one feel. "What's your question?" He asked, nasally and annoyed. "If humans are from another world, how did you get here?" A little turquoise filly with the mane of filly Luna asked. Harmony paused. "That's... actually a good question. It all started-" He looked at the Teacher, who looked at the clock and back at him. "... some other time." He said "Good, Now, take your seat Harmony and we can begin class." "...What." Spike said in monotone, standing outside the classroom. "Celestia and Luna had a sibling from another world named 'Harmony' and he was lost in time, but I brought him back." "Duh!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I thought that was obvious." She giggled, taking a look at the strange creature that was apparently the brother of the princesses through the open school door. About 4-and-a-half hours in, if you were absolutely silent, you could hear Harmony mentally screaming at hearing the same stuff he'd already heard. Though history was interesting... until he heard about the Nightmare moon incident. "... At which point, Luna transformed into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare moon." "WHAT!?!?!" Harmony shrieked. The teacher (clearly a descendant of Mrs. Learnbudd) looked mildly annoyed, but continued. "She vowed to shroud the land in eternal night-" "She tried to WHAT!?!" He shrieked again. "This is all ancient history, Harmony." The teacher explained. "Well it's news to me! She's my little sister!" "Actually..." The teacher began. "You were always the little one. I did some reading up on you, and it turns out that the princesses were already hundreds of years old when you got there." She said. "Now, if we could get back on track-" "My life is a lie..." Harmony muttered, dropping his head on the desk. Before the teacher could try again to restart the lesson, the bell rang signalling the end of the school day. "Class dismissed," the clearly P@@ved teacher said. Harmony stood up and walking, staring straight ahead, toward the palace. Luna was finally about to dose off after another long night. About to, that is, until Harmony burst in. "WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME?!?" He shouted. Luna's ears flopped backwards. "Um... about what?" She asked, sitting up. "You know what!" He said, angrily. Before Luna could continue, Harmony did. "You were older than me, I thought I was your big brother the entire time, but I was the LITTLE one all along!" "..." > SHORT: Luna's Revelation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestia took a sip of tea, admiring the flavor. Enter a vacant looking Luna. "Are you ok sister?" Celestia asked. Luna sat down across the small table from her sister, though not looking directly at Celestia. "Harmony apparently never learned he was younger than us during that time." Luna said, voice sounding hollow. "I'm sure we told him at some point..." "No... he only realized it recently... and it apparently took precedence over my little 'tantrum'." Luna sighed. Celestia began to snicker. "Oh is that what we're calling it now? Because it's quite an apt. name." Celestia joked. Luna returned to reality, and glared at her sister. "No, that is not what we're calling it." Luna shouted. "I seem to have hit a nerve..." Celestia said. Luna pouted, and folded her fore-hooves. "No, I don't think it would have hit a nerve. After all, it's not like I was completely alone for 1,000 years, or anything- oh wait..." Luna sarcasm-ed. "You tried to end the world." Celestia monotoned. "I did not!" Luna retorted. "You do realize, that without the sun, there would be no light for crops to grow. Without crops, all life would starve. And if by some miracle crops did grow, there would be no warmth from the sun, and within days, it would be as if the windigos had returned, only during an argument separating everypony in Equestria from every other pony. Within weeks, we would all freeze to death. Within years, the very air we breath would freeze into a liquid." Celestia explained. Luna's mouth dropped open. "But your telling me that. in the thousand years you were gone, none of that ever crossed your mind?" Luna slowly shook her head. "That's what I thought when Nightmare foalnapped me, instead of taking it all back. Good thing I had the foresight to create a back-up plan, or we wouldn't be here right now, isn't it?" Celestia smirked. "We'd be DEAD if Nightmare won... Well, I'm off to day court. Haaaaave fun with thaaaaat..." Celestia chirped, leaving the room. Outside the room was Cadence, barely containing her laughter. The two (once out of earshot) began laughing. "Did you see the look on her face?" Cadence asked, in-between breaths. Celestia just nodded. "And you said I couldn't play any practical jokes." Celestia snorted. "I can't believe she fell for that!" Cadence laughed again. "Yeah, It's not like she was going to destroy the sun, or anything." Celestia sighed, calming down. "Wait, what do you mean by that?" Cadence questioned. "Well, everything I said would have happened, had she destroyed the sun, instead of leaving it beyond the horizon." Celestia explained. Cadence's eyes widened. "So... she really did almost end the world?" "Yep." Celestia snickered. "TROLLESTIA STRIKES AGAIN!"