Stellar's story was sure an interesting one, but what about the stories in the backgrond. What happened in them?
It would be highly advised to read Living Nightmare first, so as to avoid any spoilers.
The story of Stellar Nova was a huge one. first a human boy going into surgery for a brain operation, then becoming the living prison of Nightmare Moon. then Luna's daughter and all the other adventures she had along the way.
But there were questions we never got answered.
Why did The Doctor know Derpy? Where and who is Dinky's birth father? How did Blueblood's capture play out? What were Pinkie's family's reaction to Pinkamena? How did Blueblood and Trixie end up together? Did ponies ever live on the moon?
All these questions and more will be answered in these side stories taking placing during, before and within the Living Nightmare universe.
Note: This is note a crossover with Doctor Who, even though The Doctor does have roles in some of the stories or the Crossover tag. I just wasn't allowed to upload this without said tag.
I hum the tune to the song Twilight sang the day she became an Alicorn to myself as I walk through Ponyville.
“Morning, Princess Stellar,” Davenport calls from the front door of Quills and Sofas.
I smile, waving back and continue on my way.
Things are going great. Derpy and Rich returned from their honeymoon a few days ago and the happy family couldn't be... well, happier.
Suddenly I stop, grabbing my head. My horn is throbbing. Somepony’s using a really powerful spell.
At once, I sense something is wrong. Powerful spells are not something normal in Ponyville. Explosions, monster attacks from the Everfree Forest, ponies bursting into random musical numbers, those are normal. Power spells, despite the town being the home of three Alicorns, one of whom raising the moon and another is pretty much the embodiment of magic, are not the norm.
Turning, I figure out where the spell is coming from by how much my horn pulses. The pulsing is strongest in the direction of Twilight’s castle.
Without hesitating, I turn into a cloud of stars and shoot off towards the castle.
Twilight isn’t reckless. Sure, she will practice with new spells, but she does it in safety, in a room in her castle meant for such things. The fact that I can feel this spell and just how powerful it is so easily means either she lost control, or somepony else is casting powerful magic in her castle. And, if it’s somepony else, this cannot end well.
I’m at and inside the castle within seconds, due to the fact the guards Twilight had gotten to protect the castle are all fast asleep. A quick check with my magic had revealed something worrying. They were asleep because of a Sleeping Spell. Somepony knocked them out on purpose and, realizing this, I flash across the cold floors towards the Map Room.
I slip under the door just as I feel another pulse. Become a pony again, I see some weird thing that looks like a ball cut in half above the map. Twilight and Spike are being sucked into it.
Without bothering to question what’s going on, only knowing the my big sister and kinda cousin are having something happen to them they clearly weren’t wanting, I turn into a cloud of stars again and shoot up, just slipping inside the thing as it closes.
Becoming me again is a lot more confusing than normal, though. The three of us are spinning in some kind of light-blue thing. The energy around me is strong, really strong. It’s raw energy.
“Where the hay are we?” I cry as I manage to grab onto Twilight’s tail.
“Stellar?!” Twilight cries, glancing back at me over her shoulder as she has her forelegs wrapped tightly around Spike. “What’re you doing here?!”
“I think we’ve more important things to worry about right now!”
When the light fades I can see nothing but sky around us and the ground VERY far below.
Quickly, I let go of Twilight and start flapping my wings, stopping my fall within moments.
Looking down, I notice Twilight is still falling... and screaming.
I roll my eyes. Dash was right. Twilight does keep forgetting she has wings at times.
Zipping down, I call out to her and indicate to my wings.
She takes a second, before getting my point and opens her own, regaining her station in the air moments later.
Spike, however, keeps falling. Twilight lights her horn right before he’d hit the road and we come down to land next to him as she lowers him to the ground gently.
At once, Twilight turns to me. “Stellar, what were you thinking? You could’ve been hurt!”
I look down, pouting. “I was thinking that my big sister and cousin were being sucked into a weird thing and tried to save them?”
She sighs, shaking her head.
It’s only now, though, that we look around and notice all the cloud structures around us, along with all the pegasi flying through the air or standing on clouds chatting to each other.
“Cloudsdale?” Spike says, looking confused. “Starlight doesn’t even have wings. Why would she come here?”
I blink, before frowning at the two of them. “Wait. Starlight? You don’t mean that Starlight Glimmer you told me about? The one who took all the Cutie Marks of the ponies in her village, forcing them to be the same?”
Twilight nods to me. “The same. She used some kind of spell and it seems to have led to here. As for your question, Spike,” she turns to the little reptile, “I dunno why Starlight would come here. But it seemed she could fly with just magic. Keep your eyes open, both of you. We don’t know what she has planned—”
Twilight’s cut off as a blur of blue and rainbow colours shoots passed us all, right through where we were standing, causing all of us to jump.
“Isn’t that Rainbow Dash?” Spike asks.
I look in the direction the blur is headed, seeing it heading towards what I can make out as three other pegasi on a nearby cloud.
“Did Rainbow Dash look really young to you?” Twilight asks, her voice filling with uncertainly. “And, I didn’t see a Cutie Mark.”
Focusing my sight more, I can make out the pegasi a bit more. Two of colts that I don’t know and the other is Dash and... What? She doesn’t have her Cutie Mark? And... Sweet Celestia, is that Fluttershy? Why are they so young? Where’re their Cutie Marks?!
“With this,” Spike’s grim voice pulls me from my thoughts and I look to see him holding a scroll.
Quickly reading it, I notice it looks familiar, but not in a good way.
Mama took me on a tour of Canterlot Castle shortly after I got out of the hospital and she’d shown me around the Starswirl the Beared wing. She even showed me a spell Starswirl had made that let you go back in time, but it wasn’t very good as it lasted too short a time, so I hadn’t thought much of it.
What worries me is this spell looks A LOT like that one, but different. Starlight must have changed the spell somehow. Question is, why and would reason could she have for being in Cloudsdale when Rainbow and Fluttershy were still fillies without Cutie Marks?
“Come on. Let’s go!” Spike’s voice pulls me back out of my thoughts and I see him putting the scroll with the spell in his backpack as he starts to walk away.
“Go where?” Twilight asks, voicing my thoughts.
“To watch the race,” the dragon replies. “I don’t wanna miss the Rainboom.”
He drops through the clouds the moment he steps off the raods, Twilight pulling him up with her magic.
I however, am suddenly feeling excited. The Rainboom? As in, the first Sonic Rainboom? Dash has only done it on occasion since she told me about it, but, if this is the past, could this be the day she performed her first Rainboom? I’m going to get to see Dash’s first Rainboom?!
Once Spike is on Twilight’s back, we hurry to where we can see fillies and colts gathering, it obviously being where the race is going to start.
When Fluttershy waves the flag to start the race, the colts and Dash zoom off, causing Fluttershy to spin and fall off the cloud she was standing on, towards the ground.
Twilight and I both move to fly and save her, but a tug on my left wing stops me and I glance back with narrowed eyes at Spike, seeing he has a claw on my wing and another on Twilight, stopping both of us from flying.
“Oh, whoops,” Twilight grins, then chuckles.
I glare at both of them. “Fluttershy’s falling to her death and you’re laughing?!”
Both of them blink, before Twilight shakes her head. “Stellar, we’re in the past. You remember how Fluttershy told you she fell from the clouds but was saved by butterflies.”
I nod, still wondering why we’re standing around when Fluttershy’s falling.
“Well, did she ever say a pony that looks like you or I saved her from falling before the butterflies caught her?”
I blink, then slowly shake my head.
She nods. “This event is very important, Stellar. If Fluttershy isn’t saved by those butterflies and on the ground when Dash makes the Rainboom, she won’t get her Cutie Mark. So, if you go and save her now...”
“She won’t get her Cutie Mark?” I ask, which is answered with a nod. I frown, looking down. “Okay.”
I don’t like just leaving Fluttershy to fall and, even if I know the butterflies will save her, it doesn’t make me wish any less to go and stop her from falling myself.
We turn out attention back to the race. Dash is pulling down, her speed increasing.
Suddenly, my eyes pick up something. Frowning as I focus, my eyes widen as a pony that looks a lot like how Twilight and the others told me that Starlight Glimmer pony looks floats out from a cloud near where Dash just passed, her aura glowing around her.
As Dash flies by, she fires a beam of her magic at her, just a second before Dash makes the Rainboom, causing Dash to halt in the air.
Looking to Twilight with worry, we get off the cloud and hurry towards where Starlight is.
She can’t stop the Rainboom! If the Rainboom doesn’t happen, Fluttershy will never learn how good she is with animals. Applejack won’t go back to her farm and stay in Manehatten. Pinkie won’t become the happy pony I know her to be. Rarity will never become the fashion-wise mare I met. And Twilight... Oh no! Twilight will never pass her exam and become Auntie Tia’s student and Spike will have never hatched!
“What did you do?!” Twilight demands as we fly up, all three of us glaring at the unicorn floating in the air.
She just smiles at us and not in a nice way. “You are about to find about?”
I hear a noise and feel a pull of magic. I look up in time to see that thing I saw above the map appearing directly above us.
Before I can warn Twilight, a wind pulls from within it, pulling us all in.
We drop out of what I now realize is a time stream, dropping onto the ground, Spike and myself landing on the ground itself whilst Twilight lands in one of the thrones surrounding the map.
“I don’t know what Starlight’s up to yet,” Twilight’s voice says Spike and I get up and I shake my head to clear it, “but we better figure it out, before it’s too late.”
I blink, frowning at what I’m seeing, before I gulp as Spikes, “Uh, Twilight? I think it already is.”
Something has clearly gone wrong. The castle... it... it’s gone. It’s just... not here anymore.
“Uh, Twilight? Where’s your castle?” Spike says just what I am thinking.
“The map pulled us back, but whatever Starlight did in the past changed things here.”
“But why?” Spike asks as I fly over to the throne closest to Twilight to look at the map.
Something weird's up with it. The Crystal Empire covers half of Equestria... and why does it look all dark and gloomy?
I half listen as Twilight says something about Starlight changing Starswirl’s spell (pretty sure we’d already figured that out, or is the five-year-old smarter than Celestia’s Personal Student right now), before saying we have to find her friends, my other sisters.
Well, this is unexpected.
I gasp, stopping and looking around.
“Stellar?” Spike asks, stopping and glancing back. “What’s up?”
I look back at him. “I heard Moonie.”
“Who?”
What did I tell you about that name?
My eyes somehow widen further and I look to Twilight. “Twilight! I can hear Moon— I mean, Nightmare!”
Twilight’s eyes widen and she hurries over, worry in her expression. “Are you alright? Do you feel off? Is she taking control of you?”
“Oh, please, princess. Stop being so over dramatic.”
My eyes widen, whilst Twilight and Spike frown in confusion. That was my voice and my mouth had moved, but I hadn’t said those words.
“Moo—Nightmare?” I ask, feeling really weird talking to somepony I can’t see that I know is inside me who could very well answer me with my own mouth. “Did... did you just talk with my mouth?”
“Yes, you fool. How else would those words have left these lips?” I feel myself snort-chuckle. “It’s not like you would say them.”
Okay. This is officially the freakiest thing that’s ever happened to me, and that is really saying something.
Twilight eyes widen as she seems to catch on, before she glares. “Nightmare, don’t you even think about taking over Stellar! How in Equestria are you even able to speak through her? Luna said you gave yourself up to keep Stellar alive.”
I feel myself frown in annoyance as I look to the larger Alicorn. “Yes. However, something bad has clearly happened to Equestria. I know there is some kind of great imbalance in the Harmony of our world.”
“And just how do you know that?” Spike asks, glaring at me... I mean Nightmare, I mean... This is very confusing.
Nightmare uses me to scoff. “As I told Luna and I know she told you all, I said that, to even be given a chance of freedom again, even in the smallest of ways, the very world would need to be out of balance in a way it cannot be.” My foreleg indicates around us. “Trust me. Something is very wrong with Equestria, or else I would not be speaking to you through Stellar right now.”
Twilight glares at... okay, I’m just going to say she just glares, because this is doing my head in, for several moments, before looking away. “Fine, Nightmare. But give Stellar back control of her body.”
My lips smirk. “I never took it away. I am merely using her to speak. I will not stop her from doing anything she wills herself unless it would be problematic.”
“Like that fills us with confidence,” Spike glares.
Nightmare shakes my head, tutting. “I do believe we were going to find the rest of the mares you worked with to defeat me, Twilight Sparkle, so that we can figure out what is going on, are we not?”
Both of them glare, before we head off towards Ponyville, Nightmare giving me control of my body again as we walk.
I would be wary, foal. If there is enough Disharmony that I am as strong as I am, you’d best be on your guard.
Ponyville does not reveal anything good. The place seems abandoned and grey, the only pony noticeable is Carrot Top and the moment Spike waves to her, she closes her curtains and doesn’t open them again.
Once we’ve confirmed that none of the others... or really anypony for that matter, are in town, Twilight leads us to Sweet Apple Acres, confident that it won’t have changed.
...
While she’s right that it’s there and clearly got ponies running the place... it’s nothing like the Sweet Apple Acres we know. If fact, it’s more like the factories I remember seeing back on Earth, with big pipes spewing smoke into the air, where it hangs like a dark cloud.
Looking inside the barn through a window after rubbing the grim off it... I can’t help feeling my heart break. Instead of the barn I’m so used to seeing with tools and equipment... it’s all a big converybelt with cans that have Granny Smith’s face on them as a machine spurts what I think is mashed apple into the cans, before they’re sealed and moved to other areas.
“What... what’s happened here?” I ask as I step down from the window, feeling... I’m not even sure how I’m feeling.
A question I’m honestly asking myself, Nightmare says inside me instead of using my mouth.
Twilight and Spike move away from the window as a pony come out from the barn, pushing a barrel and my heart leaps. She may be wearing some dreary brown uniform of some kind and her mane and tail are in netting instead of her usual ponytail style, but I’d know that orange coat and freckled face anywhere.
“Applejack?!” Twilight and I both cry happily, hurrying over and hugging her.
The response we get is... depressing to say the least. She doesn’t even react to our hug and steps out of it, asking, “What can I do for ya?”
I can’t help frowning. Her accent sounds... off. Almost like it’s not even there.
Never thought I’d rather hear her speaking the way she normally does, Nightmare responds to my noticing how AJ sounds.
However, my attention is returned to the farm pony when she says... she doesn’t recognize any of our friends/family’s names aside from Rarity, who apparently moved to Manehatten years ago.
“Probably to become a world famous fashion designer, I bet,” Spike said, shrugging.
“Not that Ah know of,” Applejack says as she finishes putting the barrels into her wagon. “Last Ah heard she went to help with the cause, just like everypony else.”
“The cause?” Twilight and Nightmare (using my mouth) say at once, voicing what I’d just been thinking.
“The war against King Sombra and Crystal Empire?” the orange mare replies in a tone that says we should know what she’s just said.
“WHAT?!” the four of us (Nightmare and I spoke in unison) ask, before glancing at each other.
Just how in Equestria is he waging war on Equestria? Nightmare asks, sounding confused. He was defeated in the Empire. There’s no way he could have survived and taken over, not with that Alicorn of Love ruling it.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Twilight says, clearly having been talking to Applejack whilst I paid attention to what Nightmare was saying. “And if you come with me, I’ll prove it.”
With the Twilight runs off, Spike following her. I remain, noticing Applejack is not following. I do follow, however, when Twilight’s magic grabs Applejack and drags her along.
We show Applejack the map, which she says she never saw before, even though she’d lived in Ponyville her whole life.
After some talk, Twilight asks how this all happened Applejack explains to us how this apparent war started.
When the Crystal Empire returned, it brought King Sombra back with him and he made his own enslaved subjects fight against Equestria for him by using his Dark Magic to make them all do it.
But, even with Auntie Tia leading the charge, it still takes everypony in Equestria, doing their part day and night to keep up the fight. It’s horrible.
Once she finishes, she and Twilight talk, but it doesn’t seem to lead to anything.
AJ sighs. “Look, I hope this all helped but, Ah really need to get back to canning those apples.”
She starts walking away.
“Thank you,” Twilight says, causing the orange mare to pause. “We’re going to set things right.”
Applejack sighs again, before looking back. “Ah hope ya do.”
She starts walking away again, when something about what she told us catches in my mind.
“Wait!” she stops again as I hurry over, stopping in front of her. “You said Aun— Um, Princess Celestia is leading the fight, right?”
She nods. “Yeah. That’s what Ah said.”
“What about Princess Luna?” I ask, trying to hide the anxiety from my voice, but doubt I did it.
Applejack’s face seems to sadden more than it already has, and she has seemed sad since we first saw her. It really isn't making me feel any better.
She looks away. “Well... seein’ as ya didn’ know about the war... guess ya wouldn’t know about that either.”
“What? What happened?” I plead. I know Twilight and Spike are watching, but I need to know. What happened to Mama?
“She died.”
...
...
“What?” I whisper.
Applejack sighs, before turning fully around and places a hoof on my shoulder. “Seeing as the two o’ ya are Alicorns, Ah’ll take it yer related to the princesses, correct?”
I don’t respond, but guess the others nodded, because she goes on, sighing.
“During the early days o’ the war, Princess Luna led another of the squads. However, Sombra found a way to lead her into a trap and, in trying to save her subjects... Luna was hit with a blast of Dark Magic. Princess Celestia’s had to raise the sun and the moon again ever since.”
I lower my head, my eyes wide as tears run down my cheeks. Mama’s gone? She’s... she’s dead?
So, Sombra not only dares to challenge Equestria for its throne, but dares to kill one of the mares whom was responsible for my creation?! Nightmare scowls from within me.
I’m not listening. I’m still reeling from learning Mama... the second mother I’ve ever had and the only one I can ever have again... is dead.
“Spike, that’s it!” Twilight’s cheerful voice cuts into my spiral of sadness. “The map’s connected to the Tree of Harmony. It must sense that something isn’t right. That’s why it’s still here!”
I turn to see the scroll with the spell that sent us back in time is floating out of Spike’s bag, held in Twilight’s aura.
“I’ll just use Starlight’s version of the spell and go back a little earlier and stop her before she even knows we’re there!”
“No.”
“What was that, Stell—AH!” Twilight cries out as my mane shoots out, grabbing the scroll and pulling it over to me before she can cast the spell.
I glare at them. “We’re not leaving.”
“Stellar, are you nuts?” Spike asks, hopping down from the throne he’d been sitting on. “We can’t stay here. Didn’t you hear Applejack? This world’s horrible.”
“Which is why we’re not leaving, yet.”
Spike cocks an eyebrow. “Yet?”
I turn my glare to Twilight, though the next words out of my mouth aren’t mine. “Twilight Sparkle, Celestia would be ashamed of you!”
Twilight blinks, before her eyes narrow. “What are you playing at, Nightmare? Give Stellar back control of her body, right now!”
My head shakes. “Stellar is currently giving me control, princess.”
Both Spike and Twilight eyes widen. “WHAT?”
My eyebrows narrow. “For somepony that’s such a big fan of Starswirl the Bearded and who has herself used his Time Travel Spell before, as well as Celestia’s student, I’d have thought you would understand.” My mouth scoffs. “Clearly she overestimates your abilities.”
“Hey!” Spike glares, stepping towards me. “You’ve no right to say that.”
“When she is about to do something beyond stupid that would haunt Stellar Nova forever, I think I do have the right, dragon!” Nightmare snarls with my mouth.
Said dragon hesitates, looking confused, whilst Twilight narrows her eyes. “What do you mean?”
"It is complicated, to say the least,” Nightmare replies, looking down at Twilight despite the height difference in mine and the purple Alicorn’s bodies.
“Twilight’s smart!” Spike growls, glaring.
“Tell me, Nightmare,” said Alicorn says firmly, her eyes lidded. “Tell me what would haunt Stellar, now!”
Nightmare rolls my eyes. “Fine. To put it simply, if one goes back in time and changes the past, they create an entirely new present, a new world, you could say. And that world will continue to exist, no matter if the past change is rectified or not.”
Spike looks confused, but Twilight’s expression shows she’s going over what Nightmare told her.
“So, this world will still exist, even when we return to ours,” she says, before frowning. “I don’t see how that could haunt Stellar, when she’ll be in the present that we fix too.”
Nightmare scoffs. “For a pony claiming to be her sister, you sure don’t think to clearly ahead, do you? Luna, the mare this filly considers her mother, is dead is this world and this world will continue as it is even when we fix what that blasted Starlight Glimmer did! Do you honestly think Stellar could live with herself, knowing this world still exists, that the monster that took her mother away from her, regardless of Luna’s well-being in the correct timeline, is still free to do as he wishes and harm the ponies she cares about that exist here?”
Twilight mulls that over for a while, before comprehension seems to dawn on her. Apparently Nightmare spoke in a way not to complicated, because Spike is wearing a similar expression.
However, Spike’s eyes narrow almost instantly. “Wait a minute. Why do you care about it haunting Stellar? I’d think you’d want to take advantage of her feelings to take over her.”
Nightmare uses my eyes to just glare at him, causing the little dragon to scurry behind Twilight and cower. “I was merely stating her reasons for why this world is one we cannot just abandon. As for my own reasons, Sombra dares to think he can take Equestria for his own. Only I may take it away from Celestia. Also, he killed my former host. I feel I should honor her in some way by taking revenge on the stallion that took her life.”
“Wait,” Spike looks confused again. “If Sombra wasn’t stopped by us, shouldn’t all the other bad guys you and the girls dealt with be around?”
Nightmare opens my mouth to speak, but Twilight beats her to it.
“Well, taking things into account, if the Rainboom not happening caused all this, it could have had other effects.”
“Like...?”
“Oh, please, dragon,” Nightmare scoffs at him. “The Rainboom was pure Harmonic energy. When it happened, the Elements were effected by what they sensed. When Celestia banished me to the moon a thousand years ago, I was torn from Luna and the Elements energies were the only things keeping me from taking over her again. However, when the Rainboom occurred, the Elements sensed the magical connection it gave to Twilight Sparkle and the other five and chose them to wield them. This, however, meant their energies faded from the moon, allowing me to take control of Luna’s body once again to use when the thousand years were over and the stars would aid in my escape to take revenge on Celestia.”
The two glare at her for what she said and I’m glaring at her to... sort of?
Nightmare rolls her eyes. “You wanted an explanation, so I gave it. As for Discord and Chrysalis... Discord only broke out because Tia and Luna’s bonds to the Elements broke when Twilight and her friends became their new Bearers. However, he could only break free thanks to the fight that broke out between those three fillies. The straining on their friendship in that single moment, though forgotten by them, was enough Disharmony to free him. As the Elements never bonded with any other mares, their power over Discord has not shattered. And, what with this war, I highly doubt the fillies have been brought near his statue. i doubt they even know it exists.
And, as for the Changeling Queen, she may very well have tried, but I doubt things went well. And, even if they did, she is not fighting this war now, not Celestia and the ponies of Equestria.”
“So... what does all this mean?” Twilight asks cautiously. “With you and Stellar, I mean.”
My lips form into a snarl that is unanimously made. “Our interests align in this,” we say together. “We will fight against he who took my mother and dares to try taking Equestria for his own.”
My mane moves over to Twilight, handing her the scroll. “You’re giving this back?”
We both glare at her as I turn, facing the sky. “You will use that spell only when Sombra and his army are no longer a threat to our kingdom. Understood?”
Looking over my shoulder, we see Twilight look uncertain for a moment, before her expression firms and she nods, leviateing the scroll back into Spike’s backpack. “Understood.”
I will now be giving you access to more power, child, Nightmare tells me as I feel new energy coursing through me. You have not been able to use all your power, as we were in Disharmony and fighting each other from within. Now, we have a common goal. Use this power and stop he who has earned both our ire.
Time Troubles part 3 Sombraverse: The Dark Pony of War
“With Sombra’s forces being reported several miles due est, placing platoons on the south-eastern and north-eastern areas will give cover to all sides, lessening chances of a surprise assault,” the general said, her eyes trained on the map of the area. Turning to her lieutenant, a grey maned Earth Pony with a scar across his mouth. “Be sure to inform Captain Dash and Shining Armour as to the likelyhood of the attack. We cannot allow Sombra’s forces even the slightest edge.”
The stallion nodded, taking a sheet of paper levitated in the mare’s magic, before saluting. “At once, General Sparkle.”
She watched him go through her good eye.
Twilight Sparkle had changed a lot since the time of the war. Back when she had failed to get into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as a filly, she had done her best to prove herself as a capable unicorn in other ways.
Though she never exceeded her magical limits, her mind became her greatest tool. She had studied science to the point it quivered in her wake, coming up with new theories and possibilities of application, both magical and non-magical.
When the war started, she was drafted in as an aid, having no fighting experience. This did not mean she hadn’t had to fight. The eye patch over her left eye, along with the scar visible past the patch, were proof of that.
During a raid of the camp she’d been stationed in at the time, she had come to the aid of a young orange Pegasus who’d been cornered by one of Sombra’s soldiers.
In saving the filly, she’d lost her eye, but had gained a drive to fight more than ever.
However, though she was not suited to being on the front lines, Twilight had proven herself a strong tactician in aiding the camp with removing the incursion.
Shortly after, she’d been made a strategist, quickly moving in the ranks to General. All battles she had a hoof in had been a success.
“Any word from Canterlot Fortress?” the general asked another solider, this one a unicorn wearing an eye patch.
He nodded, saluting. “Mi Amore Cadenza requests that she not be left out of the battle, expressing her desire to aid in the war.”
The purple unicorn shook her head. “Cadance is pregnant with an Alicorn foal. We cannot risk any harm coming to her or the infant. With Celestia on the front lines, we must keep a contingency plan in case she falls in battle. With her gone, Cadance and her foal will be the only ones with enough power to raise the sun and moon. My sister-in-law understands this, even if she keeps insisting on leaving the safety of the fortress.”
“General!”
General Sparkle looked up away from the pony she’d been speaking with as a young orange Pegasus with a short cut mane and tail galloped through the tent flap, stopping and saluting to her.
“What is it, Scootaloo?” the unicorn asked, her eye focusing through her rectangular spectacles.
The filly was the same one Twilight had lost her eye to save. The young pony had since that day dedicated herself to the general’s services, putting her all in, despite her age. She was a number one assistant General Sparkle could've asked for and served to the best of her abilities.
If it were a more peaceful time, Twilight Sparkle might have been amused at the idea and seen it as flattering. But, these were not peaceful times. If the filly wanted to follow her example, that was fine. Another strong soldier for the war could always turn the tide.
Scootaloo lowered her hoof. “Reports of an unidentified flying object approaching from south-west at high speeds, ma’am.”
The general frowned. “The south-west? I don’t recall anything being stationed in that direction. Could it be a trick by the enemy?”
“Unsure, General,” the filly replied, shaking her head. “But it’s approaching fast. If it’s a Pegasus, they’re moving faster than the average.”
“Any specifics?” General Sparkle, levitated over a list, ready to jot down any details as to get an idea as to what was coming their way. Time was of the essence to determine if it was friend or foe.
“All that has been identified is that it’s black, ma’am.”
Twilight's brow furrowed. Black. That wasn’t a good omen. Very few times had anything black been spotted coming towards any of the Equestrian Forces had proven to be anything but enemy hostiles since when the war began. When it wasn't Sombra's forces, it was Changelings. Whilst they're invasion had been ill-timed with the war happening shortly after, they'd had to flee.
Equestria hadn't even had a chance to fix all the problems the three day enslavement under the Changelings before word of the Crystal Empire and Sombra had reached the princesses.
Changelings were still proving a problem, though they mostly just caused small problems with a loss of soldiers. True, such loses were big in the long run, but, for the most part, the Changelings were a hindrance to the war efforts at best, though, on occasion, they did accidentally cause a shift in Equestria's favour during a battle.
But, if this was flying at a high speed... The only logical answer was a Pegasus, as, even disguised as pegasi, Changeling wings were not designed for speed like Pegasus wings were, but what kind of Pegasus was black that could move at such speeds?
Time proved less short than Twilight’s keen mind had estimated, for the sound of yelling from outside indicated whatever was coming their way was too close to be ignored now.
Hurrying out the tent, with Scootaloo right on her tail, General Sparkle stood with several guards at her side as the black object flew towards them, growing bigger at an alarmingly fast rate.
Twilight bit her lip. There was no time to form a blockade. No time to evacuate. They would all have to face whatever this unknown was without preparation.
Suddenly, the objected aimed down and smashed into the snow-covered ground. However, it did not stop. Earth and rock flew high into the air as whatever it was surged through the ground, it’s target clearly them.
They all braced themselves, Scootaloo flaring her wings and hunching down, ready to fight alongside her commanding general.
However, just inches from in front of them, whatever had barrelled through the ground upon impacted stopped.
They all stood in silence, waiting for the dust shaken up by the mass movement of dirt settled.
When their vision was clear, they all stared at the long groove that had been carved into the ground, stretching several hundred feet back from the sight of impact.
Whatever had slammed into the ground had burrowed so deep there was a giant crater in front of them where the groove ended.
Several soldiers moved forward, spears at the ready as they neared the crater.
Suddenly, there was a flash of dark-blue light and a field of what looked like stars shot out from the hole, flying up into the sky and coming together, taking the shape of a small pony, maybe a year or two younger than Scootaloo.
When it solidified, they all got a good look at what had crashed in front of their base. They all stared in confused an uncertainty.
It was a filly, definitely a year or so younger than Scootaloo. Her fur was a pure black and her Cutie Mark was of a blue crescent moon in front of a blue splotch.
Something was very different about her compared to Scootaloo, though. She had not only black wings, but a horn. She was an Alicorn.
The idea that another Alicorn could even exist was enough to stun anypony, but they were all held by her gaze. Her eyes were turquoise, yet, what should have been the whites of her eyes were a lighter blue. As for her pupils, that were slitted, like a dragon’s.
However, t appearance was not what held them all in shock. It was the look in her eyes. There was anger and sorrow and a drive for revenge.
The filly landed in front of them, the soldiers moving to stand close to the General in case they needed to leap into action.
The filly surveyed each of the soldiers with the eye of one unimpressed. “If these are your soldiers, no wonder the war has not been won yet.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed.
The filly spoke in a tone no pony her age should even understand. In a way, it was almost like hearing Princess Celestia when she and the princess had worked together on a battle plan and had spoken to the troupes. Only, this filly was so young, hearing her speak in such a way made Twilight realize even more just how much this war had effected even the younger generations.
The filly’s eyes fell on the general and she blinked in surprise, before her expression became as it had been before. “Who is in charge around here?”
General Sparkle stepped forward. “That would be me.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just who are you and what are you doing here?”
The filly’s lips curled into a snarl. “Learning all I can to take revenge on the monster that took my mother.”
“Keep up the attack, ponies of Equestria!” Princess Celestia shouted over the sounds of battle. “We cannot allow the enemy the chance to move forward!”
Suddenly, four of Sombra’s soldiers came out from the snow, surrounding her.
Her horn flared and a dome of white magic pushed out from around her, forcing them all back, knocking them out cold.
As she glanced at each of her downed attackers, she felt the air movment behind her. Glancing back, she saw another of Sombra’s forces had snuck up behind and was aiming a sword at her neck. She didn’t have enough time to charge a spell and knock them away—
At that instant, Celestia sensed a surge of magic that somehow felt familiar, before the sound of an energy beam being fired reached her ears, followed a split-second after a beam of blue energy slammed into the soldier who’d been about to end her, sending them tumbling away.
Looking up in the direction of the beam, she saw and flash of black shoot across the sky, heading further into the battle, before she recognized the aura.
“Luna...?” she whispered, her eyes widening. “But... no, but... how...?”
“It’s a long story!”
The white Alicorn turned as a flash of purple light blinded her, fading to show a lavender mare standing over several more soldiers from Sombra’s forces.
Celestia’s eyes widened at the sight of the mare. It... it looked like General Twilight Sparkle, expect, her injuries were gone and... she was an Alicorn.
“Yeah,” the purple Alicorn said, nodding. “Explinations later, Princess. Right now we need to get ready to help your niece when the time is right.”
As Lieutenants Pinkamena and Maud Pie saluted to her after saving her from being crushed by a massive boulder, Captain Rainbow Dash nodded, before flying back into the air to further the fight.
“Your wing!” Captain Dash turned in confusion, which only grew when she saw the pony flying nearby. She was a filly, who was staring in horror at Dash’s prosthetic wing.
However, before Dash could question this further, despite now noticing the horn on the filly’s head, the filly’s eyes narrowed, filling with rage as she turn and shot through the sky towards Sombra’s forces, screaming, “SOMBRA!”
“Captain!” Dash turned to see Commander Lightning Dust soar over, concern and confusion on her face. “Did I just see an Alicorn filly charge of screaming Sombra’s name in rage?”
“So I’m not the only one going mad,” Dash nodded, looking the direction the filly had gone. “Who in Equestria was that?”
“No idea,” Dash frowned in the direction the filly had gone. “Whoever she was, she clearly has it in for Sombra.”
“She needs to get in line,” Lightning growled, before shooting down from the sky towards several Crystal Pony soldiers, Dash right behind her.
Sombra cackled from atop the dark crystals he’d just grown from the ground as he looked down on the battle.
It was glorious. At the rate this battle was going, he would soon push Equestria even further back, gaining that much more of his rightful kingdom.
His destiny would soon be realized. The dark pony of war was destined to end the greatest battle in the world’s history and rise above all others.
When he was but a young stallion, he had come across a book that had foretold of a great warrior, a pony with a coat as black as coal who would rise up and defeat its enemy.
He knew he was that warrior, it becoming clear after reading through the pages and casting the spell that would show him the path. What had happened after was a little blurry, but he remembered finding himself amongst the snow and ice, feeling a power coursing through him, more powerful than he could have ever dreamed.
With this new power, he had set out to fufil the prophecy. Sure the Alicorn Sisters had stalled him for a thousand years, but now the future was coming to pass.
Soon, Princess Celestia’s little rebellion would crumble and he would stand triumphant as the King of all. Nothing would stop him now. Nothing could ever even hope to—
“SOMBRAAAAA!”
The dark unicorn turned, with only enough time to see a blur of black shooting across the sky, aimed right at him, before he was impacted and soared off his crystal perch, whatever had hit him pressing hard.
Gaining his bearings as best he could, his eyes widened. It was a foal, a little foal and she was glaring at him with a murderous look in her eyes. Eyes that he had only ever seen once before, and the realization shocked him so much it gave the filly the chance to slam him into the ground, before flying back up into the sky, her horn charging with an immense surge of magic.
Quickly getting a hold of himself, he charge his own horn, firing a blast at the foal.
She dodged, but lost her focus, her horn’s charge dying down.
Sombra glared up at the filly, his eyes narrowed. “How?” he growled. “How are you even alive? I took you life with my own hooves?!”
“You took my mother’s life, not mine!” the filly screeched, her eyes blazing with hate. “And you’ll pay with your own!”
The filly turned into a field of stars and shoot down. Sombra moved out of the way, but was grazed as the cloud shoot past, just managing to get his side.
He skidded in the snow, snarling, both in anger and pain. Somehow, the cloud had singed right through his armour, piercing the skin.
“We fought once before, you beast!” the filly snarled as she retook a physical form. “This time you won’t get off so easily!”
He snarled, charging his horn and firing a blast of Dark Magic in the filly’s direction.
She turned back into a cloud of stars, dodging around it with ease and shot forward, slamming into him.
The two soared across the ground, leaving a groove in the snow as they went. Soldiers on both sides had to move out of the way as they to moved in a firce struggle.
How can she possibly be so powerful like this!? the unicorn thought angrily as they stopped moving and separated, both standing off against the other. Even if Celestia managed to bring back the darker version of her sister, how is she so powerful in that state? And what in darkness did she mean by I took her mother’s life?
By now the battle had died down. Once it had become clear Sombra was actually fighting somepony and that pony was holding their own, all had slowed to see just what was happening.
Now, in the quiet chilled air, Sombra and the filly faced each other, pacing in a circle, the filly’s dragon-like eyes showing nothing but murderous contempt for him as she glared at him.
“So, little filly,” Sombra said as they paced, genuinely curious, and using the calm to learn more of his enemy, “just who are you and why do you wish my death?”
The filly snarled. “I am Princess Stellar Nova and you murdered my mother in your attempts to conquer my home! Now, I’m going to pay you back.”
He furrowed his brow slightly, then smirked. “Your mother? Hmm. I cannot remember all the mares who’s my forces have taken since the war began. Might I inquire whom she was? So many mare have died, after all.”
The filly growled. “Oh, you know her. You personally ended her life, forcing my Aunt to take on the duty she was forced to for a thousand years!”
Sombra blinked, confused... before dawning came to him, causing him pause.
It was all the filly needed. She shot forward, her horn charging quicker than he’d ever seen a horn charge with magic before, firing a blast of magic that slammed into him, sending him rocketing through the air.
She shot into the sky, a scream of bloody murder escaping her mouth as she zoomed into the sky.
Sombra recovered from the shock and attack and turned himself midair, aiming his horn.
“NOW, PRINCESS!”
Sombra’s head turned in time to notice two others in the air around him. One was Celestia herself, but the other was another Alicorn he’d never seen before.
Two more Alicorns, along with Celestia? What the in the name of Tartarus was going on?!
He didn’t have time to think as both Alicorns fired surges of magic at him.
Stuck in midair, he couldn’t avoid them, and was slammed by the blasts, sending him back towards the ground, and right in range of the black Alicorn who’d said she was Princess Luna’s daughter.
As Sombra watched in shock, his mind still working whilst his body tried to recover from the double spells he’d been hit by, he noticed something he hadn’t fully paid attention to before.
The filly... her coat was black. She was a black pony.
His mind locked up as a thought occurred to him, one that had never once entered his mind since reading the prophecy of The Black Pony of War.
Could... could he have been wrong? Was he not the pony spoken of in the prophecy... but this filly?
His thoughts were focused back on the present when he felt the filly’s fist connect with his chest, a surge of magic flowing from it, shuddering into his body, before he plummeted to the ground, smashing into the snow-covered Earth.
The force of his impact caused the nearby snow and upper soil to rise in an arch from the point of contact, pushing anything away as he drove deeper and deeper into the ground.
When the dust cleared, Sombra lay at the bottom of the ten metre wide and ten feet deep hole that had been created.
“Look at the all powerful King Sombra, now.”
He opened his eyes, seeing the filly was standing on his stomach, her hate glare in her eyes.
He smirked. “Go ahead,” he said as the full weight of it all sunk in. “Finish me, Dark Pony of War.”
“Your... mother?” General Sparkle asked, eyeing the filly with suspicion.
The filly nodded, giving a growl. “I need any and all intel you have on King Sombra and his forces.”
“Hold on,” Scootaloo said, stepping in front of the general and between her and the filly. “Why should we do that? For all we know, you’re a spy.”
The filly just stared back at her coldly. “For who, Sombra? Don’t make me sick. After what he’s taken from me, I’d never serve him. I’d sooner take my own life, making sure to bring him down with me.”
“Stellar!” a faint voice called out, sounding annoyed.
All present save the filly blinked, before shaking their heads. That voice had sounded like... the general.
At once they became alert, General Sparkle hurrying forward and moving to stand between the filly and the direction the voice had come.
There was only one logical reason the general’s voice would be heard when she had not be the one speaking.
A speck appeared in the distance, airborne.
“Be ready, soldiers!” the general yelled, holding up her foreleg. “On my signal—”
There was a faint purple flash and the speck was gone, followed a second later by a purple flash right behind them all, in front of the filly, who hadn’t even turned around.
“Stellar, what were you thinking, flying off like that?” a voice that sounded very familiar scolded. “What’s gotten into you? I realize you’re angry at Sombra for killing the princess, but that doesn’t mean you just rush off. Did you even have a plan?”
They all whirled around, ready to attack— but went stiff at the sight before them.
Whereas they had all expected to turn around and see either a Changeling or a double of the general, what they saw was part the latter, but at the same time, something completely different.
True, the mare before them had a lavender coat and a blue mane and tail with a stripe of light-purple through them, and even the same purple six-pointed star for a Cutie Mark... but there were two key differences that made the idea that this was a Changeling a little more confusing.
One, none of the scars the general bore thanks to the war were on this mare. Second, the mare had wings. For all purposes, she looked like an Alicorn. But, why would a Changeling take the appearance of the general, but make her not only have none of her war scars, but also be an Alicorn?
The reasoning behind it made no sense.
As they all came to terms with this, something hopped down from the mare’s back, causing more shock throughout those assembled. It was a dragon, about the same height as the filly, so a baby dragon. It had purple scales and green eyes.
It was now that the mare looked up from scolding the foal, turning her gaze to them. When her and the general’s eyes met, hers widened, before becoming a bit frantic and looked back down to the foal.
“What? But... How is there another me?”
The filly just groaned, before moving her head in a way that said she was rolling her eyes. “Please, Twilight Sparkle. Think. We were not present in this world when it was created. Ergo, we were at the centre of it all when the alteration occurred. We are anomalies, remnants from the previous timeline that were unaffected due to our absence. Surely Celestia’s student could have figured that out?”
The mare glared at the filly. “Nightmare, I was kind of just caught off guard with the whole seeing this realities version of myself when I hadn’t considered that there could be. I’m still reeling from what we’ve learned of this world, not to mention what you told me would happen to Stellar if we’d just left. So forgive me for not being able to focus on so many things at once without missing something simple.”
“What’s going on?!” both the filly and Alicorn-looking pony whom had been referred to as Twilight Sparkle turned to the general, who was glaring at both of them. “Mind explaining what in Celestia’s name is going on? Who are you two? Why did you call that filly Nightmare and Stellar Nova. Who are you?” she pointed a hoof at the Alicorn-looking mare at that. “Just what is going on?!”
The referred to mare glanced at the filly, then back to the general, took a deep breath and sighed. “Okay. It’s a long, very hard to believe story, but we’ll tell you.”
“You’re me, from an alternate timeline, where I became a princess?” the general asks, looking skeptically at Twilight, then at me after everything had been explained. “And she’s a filly version of Nightmare Moon, whom is also Princess Luna’s daughter and the dragon is what would have hatched from the egg during my exam at CSFGU?”
“Well... when you put it like that...” Twilight grins sheepishly, scratching her head with a hoof.
“What you believe is really of no consequence to either of us,” Nightmare says with my mouth as I glare at the lavender unicorn. “We will finish that cowardly unicorn. The fact he uses his own subjects to fight for him, when they need to be controlled by his own magic to do so, is pathetic. If he were a real warrior, they would follow him willingly.”
“No disagreement there,” a lieutenant said, before going silent again when I glanced at him.
“Regardless,” unicorn Twilight says, looking to me. “Your plan is foolhardy at best, and suicidal at worst, foal. Even if you posses the levels of magic you say you do, attacking Sombra head on will only lead to your death.”
“Which is why I need to speak with Princess Celestia,” my Twilight says, standing up and pressing her forelegs. “From what Nightmare has revealed, she and Stellar can hold him off long enough for Celestia and I to prepare the spell she suggested. It was one she used on Sombra when Luna and Celestia first confronted him over a thousand years ago. However, if Celestia and I use it together, we should be able to do what Nightmare could not.”
Unicorn Twilight growls, putting a hoof to her forehead. “Of all the harebrained ideas I’ve ever heard of since this war started, this one is too ludicrous for me to even know where to begin.”
I just shake my head, sensing it’s what Nightmare would do. “Whether you think this plan will work or not matters little to us. Once we have my aunt’s location, we’ll be gone.”
“Like Tartarus you will!” unicorn Twilight growls, standing up and slamming her hooves on the table. “You two are the first Alicorns we’ve seen since Princess Luna’s death. If you think I’m just going to allow you to throw away your lives for some shot at revenge, you’re crazy than you’ve led us to believe. We need stronger fighter if we’re going to win this war, and two new Alicorn might be just what we need to tip the scale in Equestria’s favour. And you think I’m just going to let you fly off with an idea that isn’t a proper strategy and relies mainly on a foal holding her own against a full-grown unicorn stallion? Alicorn Princess or not, you’re still just a foal!”
My Twilight slams her own hoof against the table. “I have been studying magic my whole life. The whole reason I became an Alicorn is because I finished a spell Starswirl the Bearded himself couldn’t. I know this spell will work, Twilight. When Nightmare cast it, she was on her own, using only Luna’s power. But, my magic is connected the Element of Magic and the Tree of Harmony itself and Celestia’s to the sun. It will work. You have to trust us.”
“Or are you willing to throw away a chance at defeating Sombra and ending this war once and for us, just because it sounds like there’s a chance it might not work?” Nightmare asks with my mouth. “Stellar herself has little fighting experience, but I do. I have Luna’s and my own from when I took over her over a thousand years ago. Stellar and I are united in this. We both want revenge on Sombra, her for him taking her mother’s life, I for him daring to even think he has a right to rule my kingdom.”
Unicorn Twilight groans. “Don’t you realize he has what he sees as destiny on his side?”
“If you are referring to the Legend of the Black Pony of War, do not bother,” Nightmare scoffs with my mouth, tossing my head to the side. “He knows nothing of the prophecy. Even Celestia and Luna, not even I ever figured it out. But one thing I can tell you, Sombra is not that pony. He is merely a foal with delusions of greatness who latched onto the fact the pony in the legend has a black coat.”
Several long, tense moments pass, with myself staring down General Twilight Sparkle, whilst my Twilight and Spike both look between us anxiously.
After what feels like hours, the unicorn is the one who breaks eye contact.
“Fine. We’ll give you everything we know. But I wash my hooves of this if you die when your plan fails, and I know it will.”
NOW
I glare down at the unicorn beneath me. His armour has been burned right off, revealing his Cutie Mark as a trio of black crystals, thanks to the spell Twilight and Celestia used and he will be unable to access his magic for a short time. It was how Nightmare had taken him down before. It was more than long enough to end this.
I raise my right hoof, it glowing with my aura. One strike, that’s all it will take. One strike and he’ll have repaid his debt for what he did. Blood for blood.
Suddenly, he smirks. Go ahead,” he says, leaning his neck back. “Finish me, Dark Pony of War.
I hesitate, my eyes narrowing.
“What are you waiting for?” Nightmare uses my mouth to speak. “We don’t have forever. Just end him now! Take our vengeance.”
I close my eyes and gently lower my hoof, my aura fading from around it.
“What are you doing?” Nightmare snarls with my mouth. “He’s just lying there, helpless. You can end it right now. Get revenge for your mother.”
“Mama wouldn’t want me to do that,” I say calmly. When he’d called me the Dark Pony of War, I’d realized what I was doing. I’d let my anger get the better of me, something Mama had always done her best to teach me not to do... and I’d almost taken another pony’s life.
“But it would be so easy!” Nightmare does a combination of a whine and a growl. “He isn’t even fighting back. We could strike him down now, without any resistance.”
I open my eyes, narrowing them at the smirking stallion beneath me. “That’s just it, Nightmare. Doesn’t this seem a little too easy?”
Easy? she asks from inside with disbelief. What part of that fight was at all easy?
“This,” I say, my eyes still narrowed at the dark unicorn. “You said so yourself, Sombra is a stallion with no honour, with soldiers who only obey him because he controls their minds with his Dark Magic. Would a pony like him really take defeat this easily?”
There’s silence for a moment.
You... have a point, she sounds as suspicious as I feel.
“Besides,” I say, my eyes glowing white as I channel my magic, “I refuse to kill an innocent host!”
My horn flashes with my aura, before a beam shoots from it, slamming into Sombra’s chest.
At once Sombra lets out a gut-retching scream of rage and agony and I feel something pulling back against my magic, trying to pull free of my grip.
“TWILIGHT! CELESTIA!” I scream with the Royal Canterlot Voice, focusing as hard as I can on what I’m doing. “I NEED YOUR MAGIC TO FINISH THIS TOO!”
After a few moments of struggling, I feel more magic joining my own from behind.
Focusing harder, I aim for the darkness within the stallion as he screams louder, not even sounding like a pony anymore.
With the aid of Celestia and Twilight’s magic, I could feel the darkness inching out as I pulled.
Nightmare seems to realize what I’m doing, because she starts adding something else to the spell. Whatever it was, it suddenly becomes a lot easier and the darkness starts to slide further out as I pull.
After several long, agonizing minutes, the unicorn lets out a final cry, before slumping, his body going limp. His Cutie Mark has changed from black crystals to red ones.
I don’t focus on that though. My focus is on the shadowy form that looks like the unicorn that is now held within a bubble of mine, Twilight and Celestia’s magic.
“How did I not notice it before?” Nightmare asks, shaking my head. “I should have seen it sooner.”
“Hello, Sombra,” I say coldly to the thing within the bubble of magic.
How? it growls, glaring at me. How could you know?
I scoff, pointing to myself. “I’m only here because of something like you. Something you pretty much created, I might add, back when you and my mother fought over a thousand years ago. When you called me the Dark Pony of War, it finally clicked in my head. The reason you weren’t fighting back is because you wanted me to kill you. You wanted to life of the body you were using to end so you could take mine, the only other black pony who seemed to fit that legend you think is all about you.”
He opens his mouth to shout something, but Nightmare casts a silencing spell on the bubble, so we don’t hear him.
She moves my head to look to Celestia. “Tartarus?”
She nods, her expression grim. “Tartarus.”
There’s another concentration of magic, before the bubbles shines with a bright light. When the light fades, it’s gone.
Silence rains for several long minutes, before it turn to the white Alicorn, smiling. “Thanks, Tia. Couldn’t have done it without... you...”
For some reason the world keels over to the side and goes dark.
I groan, slowly coming to as I open my eyes. I’m lying on a stretcher under a blanket, like those used in medical tents.
“Hey.” I turn my head to see Twilight and Spike sitting there, smiling at me.
I smile back. “Hey. How’d it go?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Stellar and Nightmare, if you’re listening, this goes for you, too, you are just crazy, you know that? Using so much of your magic like that, so quickly?”
I feel a smirk that isn’t mine cross my lips. “If we hadn’t gone all out, we wouldn’t be here talking about this, princess. Any real criticisms you have with our method are kinda gonna fall flat, here.”
“May I come in?”
Twilight turns her head, before her face softens and she nods.
The only other Alicorn I’ve seen since coming to this time where Sombra was waging war on Equestria steps through and comes over, sits down and looks to me with a sad smile.
“So, it’s true? You’re Luna’s daughter? Princess Twilight filled me in whilst you’ve been out.”
I nod, before closing my eyes. “How long was I out?”
“About a week,” Spike says, followed by a sigh. “You had us kinda worried. We couldn’t very well go back with you unconscious and we certainly weren’t going to leave you here.”
“Though she would be cared for and loved,” Celestia pipes in, to which I open my eyes and look to her. “All of Equestria is in your debt, Stellar Nova My subjects would be happy if you chose to stay and govern the night as you mother once did.”
I stare at her for several moments, before struggling to sit up, before shaking my head. “Sorry, Auntie, but... I can’t just abandon my own ponies. Twilight, Spike and I need to go back and stopped Starlight Glimmer from stopping the Rainboom.”
“Still find it hard to believe I actually did something like that.”
Glancing to the entrance, I see several ponies walk in. I recognize them from those I know back home, but Dash, Pinkie and Maud just look so different than I know them, it’s eerie. I can even feel Nightmare feels uneasy about seeing them like this.
Dash walks over to me and looks down at me. “So, where you come from, I make a Sonic Rainboom?”
I chuckle. “More than once.”
Dash scoffs. “And to think, my not doing it caused all this, the war?” She sighs. "Talk about putting the blame on somepony."
Twilight shakes her head. “It’s not your fault, Rainbow Dash. Starlight Glimmer’s the one who stopped you midair, right before the Rainboom would’ve happened. You couldn’t have done anything.”
Dash’s ears fall and she looks away. “If that was meant to make me feel better about this, it didn’t.” She then glares. “That Starlight. Does she even know that she cost the lives of countless innocent ponies, on both sides, just for some petty revenge?!”
Nightmare shakes my head. “Highly doubtful. But, worry not. We’ll make sure she understands the severity of just what she’s done after we stop her.”
“Not for another week, Nightmare,” Twilight looks to us with a firm expression. “Stellar needs time to fully recover and you’re going to let her.”
Nightmare scoffs with my mouth. “Yes, princess. Whatever you say.”
“So, the two of them share a body and can talk out of the same mouth?” Pinkie asks, frowning. It is... both disconcerting and disheartening to here none of the cheer I know Pinkie to have in spares in her voice. “Doesn’t that get confusing to listen to?”
“You have no idea,” Spike slumps in his chair. “We learned what happened to Princess Luna, they went back and forth several times.” He put his hands to his head. “Talk about a headache. Hearing somepony arguing with themself and knowing they’re actually talking to somepony else? Bleah.”
“Are you certain we cannot convince you to remain?” Cadance asks as they all stand a bit away from the map. “We’d be glad to have you here.”
Twilight, Spike and I shake our heads.
“We can’t, Cadance,” Twilight replies, moving over and nuzzling her sister-in-law. “We need to go back and stop Starlight Glimmer so we can return to the Equestria we know.”
“Been cool knowin’ ya, kid,” Rainbow says, holding her hoof out, which I pump. “Shame ya couldn’t hang around.”
“Twilight,” Applejack says, spending forward. “Ah... Ah can’t thank ya enough. Ya... ya gave us back our home. You gave me hope and ya didn’t disappoint. Thank ya.”
Twilight smiles to the orange mare, before looking to Spike and I, nodding. “Well, let’s go, guys. Time to stop Starlight and get back home.”
We both nod, moving over to the map.
“Safe journey, my little ponies,” Celestia says, looking to me with a sad smile. “And I am glad I got to know you, my dear niece, even if only for a short time.”
I smile back. This Equestria’s not completely out of the dark yet. Even with Cadance and Shining Armour now in charge of the Empire and trying to get everything there back to normal with Malecite’s (the unicorn whom Sombra had been controlling) help as he blamed himself for Sombra’s rising, and the war no longer around, there’s still a lot of work ahead to bring Equestria somewhat back to where it had been before Sombra returned. But we can’t be a part of it.
Twilight figured out whilst I’d been recovering that the reason the map was still here when we first arrived is because it’s connected to the Tree of Harmony. The Tree was sensing something was wrong, which is why the map remained, whilst everything else around it changed. The plan is that we're going to go back a little earlier so we can take Starlight by surprise and stop before she even knows we're there.
We look back at the gathered ponies. Fluttershy and Rarity aren’t here, but Cadance, Celestia, AJ, Big Mac, Dash, Pinkie and Maud and several others have come to see us off.
I look to Twilight and nod. She levitates the spell out of Spike’s bag and casts it. The sphere-like thing that appeared to take us through time before appears above the map.
We call our last goodbyes, before the spell sucks us in, taking us back to the past.
Wait a minute, Nightmare’s voice says from inside as the world becomes the blueish-green light of time energy. The moment the Rainboom happens, I’ll be stuck inside you like before. Aw buck.
Time Troubles part 5 Chrysalisverse: Not As They Appear
We drop out of the time portal, Twilight and myself using our wings to steady ourselves, Twilight grabbing Spike in her magic, keeping him aloft with us.
“Now all we have to do now is find Starlight and—”
Twilight doesn’t get to finish her sentence, as we’re suddenly engulfed by a blast of blue magic, and I find myself, along with the other two, trapped in a block of crystal that hits the clouds and very slowly starts sinking.
“Well, finding her will be easy,” a voice that sounded muffled due to the crystal says, and I glance to my right, on which Twilight and Spike are on to see Starlight floating over, “but stopping her’s going to be harder than you think.”
We really should’ve seen that coming, Nightmare says, sounding annoyed. She made the alterations to the spell. Pretty sure that’s not something we should’ve overlooked before Miss Princess of Friendship cast it.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” she says, floating over, “but I created that spell to send myself back in time. So even when you cast it, I still get sent back here.”
Told you.
“It wasn’t difficult to change Starswirl’s spell,” Starlight continues, not knowing she had somepony talking smack during her little bragging speech, “he’d already done the hard part. But figuring out I could use the map to go to any time or place and pull you along with me?” She laughs. “I even impressed myself with that.”
She smirks down at Twilight.
“I knew you’d try to stop me. You’re so predictable. Why else would I leave the scroll behind? Touching it triggered the map to whisk you here and watch me erase the one thing that linked you with your friends.”
Her sneer became just plan evil, then suddenly her expression became angry as she landed on top of our crystal prison. “My village was a sanctuary of equality, where nopony’s Cutie Mark allowed them to feel superior!”
More like didn’t allow anypony to be themselves. And, didn’t feel superior? Says the pony who put herself in power in the village and forced them to be the same and punished them whenever they did something wrong. I find myself agreeing with Nightmare, 100%.
Starlight looks up with what I can only guess is a wistful look? “It was a special place,” then she glares down at us, though her face disappears as we sink further into the cloud, “and you and your friends took it away!”
I’m glancing down, thinking, maybe, if she keeps talking, we’ll drop, Twilight can break us out and we can jump her. But that plan is kinda ruined when Starlight floats down in front of us again.
“Now it’s my turn to take something special from you!” she points at Twilight. “Without the Rainboom, you and your friends with never form your special Cutie Mark bond. Cutie Marks for Cutie Marks!” she shakes what would be a fist if she didn’t have a hooves at us.
Okay, she looks like a complete nutter right now, Nightmare says, sounding a little uneasy. And this is me saying that.
As the ground starts getting alarmingly close for my liking, Twilight charging her horn and shatters the crystal encasing us.
“TWILI-HI-HI-HI-HI-LIGHT!”
We both glance down to see Spike still falling.
You would think the lizard would not be so accident prone.
I ignore Nightmare as Twilight shoots down, grabbing him in a foreleg after he falls through several small clouds. Why she didn’t just grab him with her magic... I dunno.
I turn into a cloud and hurry after them as they fly towards where Dash and those colts will be racing.
We move from cloud to cloud, searching for where Starlight could be hiding in wait to stop Rainbow Dash again, whilst Twilight tells us we have to be ready to stop her the moment Dash and the colts fly by.
However, Spike spots Starlight, not hiding to stop Dash... but talking to Fluttershy and the colts.
Twilight moves faster than me as she hurries down. I follow, deciding not to turn into a cloud. Seeing as this is the past, doing that right in front of Fluttershy wouldn’t probably go well. Plus, with me looking like Nightmare, the last thing we want is to cause a panic.
I can only imagine the fear that would race through Celestia’s heart if she heard I’d come back before the thousand years were up, filly or not, Nightmare chuckles.
I hate to admit it, but that would be a little bit funny.
As I land, keeping a bit away so Fluttershy and the colts don’t notice me... my jaw drops at what I hear.
“Come on, Fluttershy. Maybe I can help you get through the course this time.”
“Well, I-I sure could use the practice,” filly Fluttershy says, then the three of them walk off.
Um... what just happened? Nightmare asks me the very question I’m thinking. I thought those colts were meant to be bullies?
“I know you only convinced those bullies to not tease Fluttershy to stop the Rainboom!”
Twilight’s words jerk me to the present, before I realize what she’s just said and glare at Starlight.
Starlight just smiles at her, waving off her words. “Aw, that’s not true. I convinced them not to be bullies because everypony should be equal.” Then her expression sours. “Stopping the Rainboom is just a bonus.”
And causing the deaths of Creator only knows how many of my subjects is a bonus to you too, I bet, Nightmare snarls.
I blink, only just realizing something. Nightmare, I thought you said things would go back to as they were before with us?
The Rainboom hasn’t happened yet, foal. Until it does, I’m still somewhat free. Though I can’t keep my freedom if I want my rule to even have a hope of happening.
“Look!”
Spike’s voice causes me to glance at him, then in the direction he is pointing to see filly Rainbow Dash flying through the skies.
“This isn’t over yet,” Twilight declares to Starlight, before flying off, myself hurrying over her.
We catch up to Dash, who gives us an uncertain expression.
Well, this is starting off well.
“Hi!” Twilight says, a little too cheerily for whatever plan she has to get her to do the Rainboom without Fluttershy’s honour being needed to be defended.
“Um... hi?” Dash says, sounding as unsure as she looks.
Yeah. This isn’t going to end well.
“You think you can stop for a minute?” Twilight asks.
“Sure,” Dash says, literally stopping in midair.
Twilight doesn’t so easily and crashes into a cloud, causing Nightmare to make me facehoof. How did I lose to this clutzy pony?
I decide not to answer and focus on the conversation Twilight’s having with the younger Rainbow Dash. She’s clearly buttering Dash up by mentioning her speed. I don’t know why Nightmare doesn’t think it’ll work.
“Okay. So, um, hey. You wanna race?” Twilight asks, nudging Dash.
Oh. Now I have an idea why this plan isn’t going to work.
“Uh, that wouldn’t really be fair,” Dash says, which I honestly agree with. Unless Twilight’s planning on me racing her, which, if she is, she really should’ve mentioned this at the beginning... not to mention told me about it at least a few seconds beforehoof. “I mean, you’re a full-grown pony and...”
Dash’s pause makes me see she’s looking at Twilight with shock, before I notice the problem.
“Wait.” She lowers herself, looking at Twilight with wide eyes. “Are you an Alicorn?” then she glances at me, her eyes widening further. “And you’re an Alicorn too! What’s going on?”
Wow. She really didn’t think that through, did she? Nightmare sighs. Again, remind me how I lost to her?
“Come on,” Twilight says, holding her hooves up, before wrapping a foreleg around Dash’s shoulder in what I think is meant to be an encouraging way, but just looks creepy if I think of it from Dash’s point of view, “I thought you were meant to be fast.”
Spike’s anxious smile due to having to currently hold onto Twilight’s tail to stop him from falling and the thumbs up does not look that encouraging to me and I’m Twilight’s little sister and Spike kinda cousin. If I’m finding them unreassuring, I doubt Dash will.
“Haah,” Dash says, before pushing away from the older of us two Alicorns. “Actually, I just remembered somewhere I need to be.” And she takes off, Twilight quickly hurrying after her.
I move to follow, but find myself unable to move. Moving my eyes, I can see I’m surrounded by a light-blue aura.
“Sorry. But you look like you actually an idea to save the little disaster Twilight is creating.”
Oh, she is dead. I don’t care how you feel about killing, Stellar. She is dead!
I blink, stunned for a moment. What’s stunned me is not that I could salvage the situation with Dashie, but Starlight is stopping me, or that Nightmare has just told me she is going to kill Starlight no matter what I do. No, what’s stunned me is that Nightmare called me by name. She’s always just called me “foal” or “child”. She’s never called me by my name before.
I’m pulled out of my stupor as I feel myself being flung forward, before I’m pulled up through the time portal.
We all drop out of the portal, landing on the ground with hard thuds.
At once, I’m up without my deciding to get up and whirl around, glaring at Twilight. “Way to go, Sparkle. You realize, had you let Stellar do the talking, we might have been able to convince Rainbow Dash to race? How in the wide world of Equestria did you think the way you handled that situation would work?! You didn’t even acknowledge when the filly realized you were an Alicorn.”
“I didn’t see you coming up with any ideas, Nightmare!” Twilight gets up, snarling back.
Huh. Seems she's getting used to talking to Nightmare through me and able to tell this is strictly Nightmare talking, even if i agree with her that Twilight handled the situation with Dash horribly.
“Hmm, maybe that’s because you just flew head-first into your own clearly unthought-through plan, without even considering that a full-grown mare is more intimidating to a filly than another filly. Stellar could’ve convinced Rainbow Dash to test her skills against an Alicorn her own age! She would have taken that challenge. But did you think of that? No! Didn’t you realize just how creepy you appeared to that filly?”
“Uh... girls?”
Twilight just glares into my eyes, looking at Nightmare. “I was kind of pressed for time. You try coming up with a plan on the fly like that.”
“Girls?!”
“I didn’t have to!” Nightmare shakes my head. “Stellar did! She realized when you talked about a race that, if you had meant her, it could work. But did you? No! You didn’t even remember Stellar was with you, did you? You sure didn’t notice when Starlight trapped us in her magic because she saw we had the right idea, while what you were doing was going to blow up in your face and it did!”
Twilight scowls, before lifting the spell out from Spike’s bag. “It doesn’t matter, now. We’ll just have to try again.”
“And what about the future with Sombra? You realize we’ll have to do that all over again now, don’t you?!” Nightmare scoffs. “Unless you want Stellar to be haunted by that future’s reality again?”
“I don’t think she’ll have to.”
Spike’s words cause us to turn, Nightmare asking, “Why—?” but it cut off when five long spears are sudden shoved in our faces.
Five ponies stand around us, each wearing some green face paint of some kind. Two of them, stallions, I don’t know too well, only having seen them around Ponyville, but never spoken with them. Another is Berry Punch.
But the other two? They shock me beyond belief.
“Pinkie? Fluttershy?” Twilight asks, looking from one to the other, before Pinkie thrusts her spear a little closer.
“Silence... Changeling!” Pinkie says, and a grave and serious tone that causing a shudder through my spine.
Okay. She is scaring me, more than she usually does. I find myself once more agreeing with Nightmare.
Wait a minute. Did Pinkie just call Twilight a Changeling? Oh, this is bad.
Fluttershy moves and my eyes turn to her. “All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be destroyed!”
Um... I’m actually scared of the timid one, Nightmare says uneasily. How is she scaring me?
I gulp. I dunno, but she’s right. Hearing Fluttershy says she’s going to destroy us, and sounding like she really means it? If I hadn’t gotten over my bladder problems as a pony ages ago, I’d probably be peeing myself with fright right now.
More ponies come out from the nearby foliage, including Carrot Top, Bon Bon, Noteworthy and several others, surrounding us, making it unlikely to escape.
We could technically fly out. You and Twilight both have wings, remember?
Yeah, but I’m not sure we’d get far before those spears go through them and ground us, most likely for good.
Point taken.
As the circle closes more around us, Twilight speaks in a panicked tone. “We’re not Changelings. She and I are ponies! And he’s a dragon!” she finishes by pointing at Spike.
Pinkie comes closer, pointing her spear at Spike. “A likely story. Do something draonish!”
Spike responds by belching a bit of flame and smoke in Pinkie’s face, causing her to cough.
“That works,” she wheezes, backing away.
Well. Maybe the dragon actually came in handy for once.
“The servants of Chrysalis would do anything to save their evil skins!” she punctuates this by her and several others pressing their spears very closer, making us each pull our neck back a little.
So much for that idea. And has none of them noticed the two Alicorns?
Considering they think we’re Changelings, I don’t think it would matter if we were mauls.
Again, point taken.
“STOP!”
My eyes widen. I know that voice.
We, along with the ponies surrounding us, look up to the trees to see a grey and black equine stepping along the branch, out of the shadows, her wearing the same face paint as the other ponies.
“If they are Changelings we’ll soon see,” she says before leaping down and standing in front of us. “Though I think they are not what they appear to be.”
Either she just told them we’re not changelings, or she just said we are. Nightmare groaned. This mare is so confusing.
“Zecora,” Twilight sighs with relief, before her face becomes concerned. “Please, you have to listen—”
A pair of spears thrust in her face by my two other sisters, both of whom expressions are really scaring me, stop her, before they back away, still giving us cold expressions, allowing Zecora to walk closer to us, holding a bowl filled with what looks like the same face paint as what everypony else is wearing.
“Beneath this sav no Changeling hides, for it reveals the truth inside,” she says as she dips her hoof in the green paste, before putting it all over us in specific designs.
At once, the three of us glow with a green light.
The other ponies all gasp, before zipping away; giving us some of the personal space I’d really started missing.
Zecora, for her part, looks a bit surprised, before putting a hoof to her chin in thought as Pinkie zipped back over asking, “What does it mean?”
I get the feeling it didn’t react as it should, Nightmare says uncertainly. We might have to worry now.
Like we weren’t already?
Zecora comes closer, like right in Twilight’s face close and studies her. “The meaning is far worse, I see,” she turns to look back at the other ponies, “for it is we who should not be.”
Wait. What? What does that mean?
Maybe it means she knows we’re...
“I think I can explain,” Twilight says as the glow fades from us.
“I’m sure you can,” Zecora says, glancing back at us. “But let’s not talk here. Chrysalis and her army will soon draw near.”
So, we head off, myself staying closer to Spike, who heads for the front of the group, whilst Twilight remains in the back.
After what Zecora said, Nightmare feels uneasy and her unease makes me uneasy.
Our travel group remain silent for a while, until one pony who is in the treetops nods, before I hear Zecora speaking with Twilight and guess it’s safe to talk.
“Um, Fluttershy?”
The mare I’ve always known to be the kindest around looks at me with an uninterested look, which really hurts. “Yes?”
“U-um,” I stutter, the lack of warmth in her voice causing my unease to double. “I...” that look just hurts so much I clam up and just look down, my ears folded back. “Never mind.”
She cocks an eyebrow and the depression in my tone; I guess that’s something. What has this world done to the kindest mare I know?
If you’re not going to ask her... though, with your connection to her and how she is currently treating you, I can understand, I will.
I feel my mouth moving without my control and my voice coming out. “What happened to the princesses? Luna and Celestia and Cadance?”
At once, Fluttershy’s eyes narrow. “How can you not know that?”
Nightmare makes my face deadpan. “Zecora just pointed out we’re not Changelings, nor are we normal ponies or a normal dragon. Is my asking such a question really that odd?”
Her eyes narrow further. “You don’t talk like a foal.”
“Like I said, not normal ponies,” Nightmare makes me face firm. “Now, what happened to the princesses? I just overheard that the Changleigns invaded, I’m guess Canterlot. What happened after that?”
Fluttershy growls, causing me to shiver, though Nightmare hides it. “The stories say that Queen Chrysalis used the love of the Captain of the Royal guard for Princess Mi Amore Cadenza by impersonating her and taking his love for the princess to fuel her power. It was too much for either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. As far as we last heard, which was over six months ago, they’re in cocoons, just like a lot of ponies these days.”
As long as they’re still alive, right? Nightmare asks me in a somewhat gentle tone. And it seems some things are still the same.
“Wh... what about Cadance?” I ask. “Mi Amore Cadenza,” I add at the confused look, which only gains me other confused look. “She’s my big sister-in-law. She doesn’t like me calling her Mi Amore Cadenza when we’re family.”
This seems to both satisfy and confuse her, before she glances at me wings and then more horn. “So, you’re a princess too?”
I nod, not meeting her eyes.
“Well, as for your question, nopony knows. There’s been no news of her since the invasion.”
Then, by logic, that means she’s still probably in the Crystal Catacombs under Canterlot, Nightmare whispers... even though Fluttershy wouldn’t have been able to hear her, so whispering wasn’t really needed.
Will... do you think she’s still alive? I whimper.
Most likely. Alicorn are resilient, remember? Her magic has no doubt been keeping her alive. But that will only help her for so long. I’m sorry.
“How are you part of the Royal Family?” Fluttershy asks, pulling me from that depressing news. “I’ve never heard of you before.”
“I’m... Princess Luna’s foal,” I whisper.
That actually stuns Fluttersy, causing her stop and for Pinkie to walk into her, causing a tumble.
After some time, we arrive at what looks like a pile of bushes, Zecora stepping forward and putting a hoof on the flora. “This part of the forest is dark and dump, but it has done well to hide our camp.”
She pulls them back to reveal a small village with simple wooden houses with leaves and such for rooves.
I blink, seeing one of the ponies walking amongst those in what could probably be called the village square. Her coat is mulberry coloured and she has three flowers with smiling faces for a Cutie Mark.
“Miss Cheerilee!”
Before anypony can stop me, I hurry forward and latch onto her barrel, causing her to jerk with a start.
I sniffle, rubbing my head into her fur. With Fluttershy and Pinkie being so hostile, it was nice to see a familiar face that always made me feel welcome.
At first, Cheerilee remains frozen in place, her body stiff. But, after a few moments, she seems to relax and wraps a hesitant foreleg around me.
The tender moment is broken by a cry that sounds too fancy for it to belong to anypony I know but one and I push out of Cheerilee’s hold to see Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack run out from the bushes, looking ragged.
“Please, you have to help us,” the white unicorn says, holding a forehoof off the ground.
“The Changelings attacked Ponyville,” Dash says, still panting. “We’re barely escaped with our lives.”
Wait. I could feel Nightmare frowning within me. Something is not right.
“Is it what Dash said?” I whisper, so nopony wondering why I seem to be talking to myself.
Yes. Doesn’t it sound a little... odd? They look like they’ve been ruffed up at best. Wouldn’t a Changeling attack do far worse than simply making them look like they’d had a tussle? And, how could these three specific ponies be the only ones to get away? Why nopony else? And why does the Element of Honesty not say anything? You’d think she of all ponies would speak up. Something is wrong here.
I see Twilight smile and move to greet our friends/sisters, but Zecora holds out a hoof, stopping her.
“The only attack I see, is the one that come lookin’ for me.”
Applejack starts walking out from behind Rarity and Rainbow. “It’s taken quite a while t’ find you, Zecora.” She grins, before laughing, her body being surrounded by green flames.
The other ponies respond to this by runing forward to be in a defensive wall with Zecora.
Hole ridden wings sprout from the orange mare’s sides. Her legs grow longer, the fur vanishing to be replaced with black chitin filled with holes. And a knarled looking horn grows out from her forehead, lifting up AJ’s Steston, before frying it into nothing. Standing where AJ once was is now the Changeling Queen. I’d only ever seen her in other ponies’ nightmares. Now I wished I could go back to those.
She laughs, though I notice that the distorted sound in her voice that she had in every dream I saw her in isn’t there. I can’t help wondering why.
I knew something was up!
How did you figure it out? I’m honestly stunned.
It was most likely because the Changelings use a type of Transformation Magic. Remember, we and Luna have a similar power. I used it when I was trying to trick Rainbow Dash to leave Twilight and the others behind to join the Shadow Bolts.
“What a lovely village you’ve chosen to stage your little resistance in,” the Changeling Queen says, stepping forward and tipping one of what I can guess are Zecora’s potions onto the ground. She then moves her head right up to Zecora’s face. “It looks absolutely delicious!” she finishes by licking her lips loudly.
Bon Bon and another pony, a brown Earth stallion with a blonde mane and tail stepped forward, pushing the Queen back with their spears.
“Oh, come now, Zecora,” she smirks as she rejoins Rainbow and Rarity, or I guess Changelings pretending to be them, “You’re vastly outnumbered.”
At this the two pseudo-ponies are shrouded in green flame, before revealing two simple Changelings wearing blue armour. At once, buzzing fills the skies and dozens of Changelings fly from over the treeline, hovering in place while others landed, surrounding the whole village.
One of the fillies in the village even turns into a Changeling, startling the stallion who’d been standing next to her, who then ran off to find safety.
Looks like Zecora’s security wasn’t as foolproof as she thought, Nightmare mutters.
“I know you don’t want your charges hurt,” Chrysalis says to Zecora, smirking. “Come quietly to the dungeons of Canterlot and I promise to leave the others alone.”
Oh, yeah. Because she’s so trustworthy, Nightmare snorts. And this coming from a being that tricked a pony to go against her own sister.
Yeah. If Nightmare doesn’t believe her, there’s no way I’d believe her either. Not that I would’ve in the first place.
“Why would she ever trust you?” Fluttershy asks firmly, stepping forward and jabbing her spear.
Well, whatever this world’s faults, at least it gave that mare some serious backbone.
“Even if there’s a chance Chrysalis will honour her word, shouldn’t you try?” Twilight asks the zebra.
Again. How did I lose to her?
“Race to the map while we hold off the attack,” Zecora mutters, before glancing over her shoulder at the Alicorn. “Stop Starlight and put the whole world back on track.”
Twilight nods, before running back to Spike, who hopped onto her back and hurried off.
Does she not even realize you’re not following her?! Nightmare asks in anger.
I frown, before turning my gaze to the Changeling Queen. Well, if Twilight might not care, but I’m not leaving this world as it is, not with Mama stuck in a pod somewhere and Zecora about to be taken away to the dungeons.
“Time to make your decision, Zecora,” Chrysalis sneers, saying the zebra’s name like an insult.
“Even if what you are saying were true, we’d never surrender to a creature like you!” Zecora then shouts a battle cry and she and the other ponies charge, the Changelings following suit.
Zecora charges at Chrysalis, who knock her onto her back, charging her horn with her green magic for what I can tell is a finishing blow.
Together?
“Together!” I nod, my horn charging quickly.
Then, to ease the confusion and perhapse strike more fear into our opponent, might I suggest a change in appearance?
Time Troubles part 6 Chrysalisverse: Down With The Queen
Chrysalis leered down as she fired the spell that would end Zecora once and for all, only to be blinded by a flash of blue light at the same time.
As she blinked the dots from her eyes, she heard the zebra speak.
“Why are you still here? If you remain it could become severe!”
“I’m not leaving you to die! Nopony will die today! Nopony!”
Her eyesight finally returned, Chrysalis turned her head in the direction of the voices within the commotion of battle, before she paused, her mind locking in confusion.
Standing alongside the zebra, her eyes filled with anger and hate, was a mare as tall as herself, with a black coat, a star-like filed for a mane and tail, wings, a horn and blue eyes with pupils shaped like dangers, similar to her own.
Her mind locked as she tried to process what she was seeing. The mare looked like what the pony princess, Luna, had turned into a thousand years ago, Nightmare Moon.
But, it couldn’t be Nightmare Moon. A quick check through the Hivemind told her Luna was still in a pod alongside her sister.
But, this mare looked so much like her and she clearly was not one of her Changelings in disguise.
For a second, she pondered if it was one of the other hives who, for whatever stupid reason after the invasion, had turned against her and sided with what was left of the ponies.
Of course, with her power so strong from the love she and her hive had gorged on, they far outclassed the other hives, so it couldn’t be one of them.
But, if not another Changeling pretending to be Nightmare Moon and not Luna having taken that form again, how could Nightmare Moon be standing before her with such hate in her eyes.
Her shock and confusion were so strong, it was leaking into the hive, causing her Changelings fighting to falter in confusion themselves, which was giving the ponies a bit of an edge.
“Stellar, what are you doing?!” Chrysalis was temporarily brought out of her stupor, only to enter another as a purple Alicorn mare a little taller than Zecora flew over and landed near the black Alicorn, glaring up at her. "I almost cast the spell without you! If Spike hadn't notice you weren't with us as I pulled out the scroll, we'd have left you behind and you'd be stuck here!"
“Like before, Twilight, I’m doing what I must for our kingdom, our friends” the mare replied, before turning her draconic, teal eyes onto the Changeling Queen again. “This. Ends. Now, Changeling!”
Before Chrysalis could even recover from the confusion spiraling through her mind at the sight of not only a pony that seemed to somehow be Nightmare Moon and another Alicorn that she’d never heard of, not even after sifting through both Pony Sisters’ memories, the black Alicorn turned into a field of stars and shot forward.
Chrysalis managed to charge her horn, but the world went dark around her.
When Chrysalis was able to think again, she was standing in what was seemed to be a void of blackness.
At once, she realized something that froze her blood. She couldn’t sense the Hivemind. She couldn’t even feel it, no matter how hard she reached out.
There was just... nothing.
Yeah, you’re not gonna be able to call your Changelings to save you, here.
She whirled around, only to blink in confusion. A filly version of the pony that looked like Nightmare Moon was standing there, looking coldly and smugly up at her.
Confusing, isn’t it?
She glanced over her shoulder at the familiar voice and her eyes widened. Nightmare Moon was standing behind her, wearing the same expression as the filly.
She glanced between the filly and the mare, her brain unable to understand what was going on.
Shall I explain it to her, or do you want to do the honour, Stellar? Nightmare Moon, looking passed the Changeling Queen.
The filly chuckled. Gladly, Nightmare. You see, Chrysalis, she spat the name, we’ve trapped you within... what was it called again?
A sub-demesion, the Nightmare replied to the filly.
Ah. Yes, you are in one of those. Or, at least, that’s how others might see it.
But you are merely inside your own head, where we have trapped you, Nightmare said as she and the filly began circling her. You see, we don’t take kindly to what you’ve done to Equestria.
Not kindly at all, the filly snarled.
What...? What are you going to do? Chrysalis snarled, trying not to show her fear. Not hearing the Hivemind was horrifying. What is going on outside? What are you doing to my Changelings if I cannot contact them?
I promise, we haven’t done a thing to them, the filly replied.
Our subjects, however? Nightmare smirked. Well, after what they’ve been through at your hooves, it’s not like we can stop them, even if we tried.
Chrysalis felt her blood boil and she bared her fangs, looking from the filly to Nightmare Moon.
The filly scoffed. Don’t act all wrong done by, Changeling. You’ve done far worse. Then the filly’s smirk returned as she looked at Nightmare Moon. Nightmare, how goes the freeing of everypony?
What? Freeing? How in Equestria could they free all the ponies she’d captured? There was no way they could do that.
Nightmare Moon chuckled. Like you need to ask? You know our minds are connected right now, Stellar. You can see everything I do right now.
The filly giggles. Yeah, but it was a nice little illusion I wanted to paint for her. She then sneered at the Queen. All our ponies are now being freed, by your own Changelings.
Her eyes widened. What? How? That doesn’t make sense!
You’re talking to a pony who is far better mastered in mind manipulation, Changeling, Nightmare said, looking a bit bored. True, I only ever did it to Luna, but, just looking at how this Hivemind of yours works, it’s foal’s play compared to what I had to do to manipulate Luna.
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the confirmation that this was indeed the same Nightmare Moon, but they widened as what else had been said sunk in.
The Hivemind? Nightmare Moon was somehow controlling the Hivemind?!
Nightmare Moon and the filly laughed together. It’s funny, Nightmare, isn’t it? Seeing all those Changelings helping ponies.
It is certainly making it easier for the other resistances, Nightmare Moon smirked. And, look, Stellar. Cadance is being saved and taken back into the castle to recover. I wonder, how does that sting, Changeling, knowing we’re using your own kind to save the pony you forced down there?
Chrysalis roared and charged at Nightmare moon, only to phase through the pony, causing her to laugh.
Should we let her know just how much time is really passing? the filly giggled. Or do you want to toy with her a bit more. I’m actually finding this fun. Must be because she's evil.
Nightmare Moon smirked, before turning to face the Queen. Despite the time you feel has passed, Changeling, it has been many hours since we started this little chat.
Her eyes widened. Hours? How? What was happening now?
It’s slow, the filly said, walking over to stand next to Nightmare Moon. Mama and Auntie Tia are still recovering a bit, but they’re doing well. Oh, and you’ve lost what control over the sun and moon you had thanks to draining them so often. She scowled. I should really hurt you for hurting my Mama.
Chrysalis was struggling to understand. Since she’d lost contact with the Hive, nothing made sense anymore.
The filly glanced to her right, before looking to the larger version of herself. Twilight’s calling. Seems things are somewhat in order. We can let her go now.
Nightmare Moon nodded, before leering. What you’re feeling won’t change, Changeling. You have no more link to your hive. The other Changelings have already dealt with them.
Chrysalis’ eyes widened and she rushed forward to attack, but the world keeled to its side and the two ponies and her senses left her.
“I wish you would stay,” Cadance said as we stood around the map.
Only a small number were here with the three of us, including Cadance, Mama, Auntie Tia, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Zecora and a few other ponies from the village, including Miss Cheerilee.
After Nightmare and I had released Chrysalis’ mind, several Changelings, a blue and red one, had taken her away to be dealt with by her follow Changelings.
It turns out Chrysalis and her hive weren’t the only Changeling Hive in the world. Their kind have lived among other species for longer than Mama and Auntie have been around, never drawing attention to themselves, only taking what they needed to survive.
However, what Chrysalis had done, invading Equestria and taking control of it, forcing ponies into pods to feed her hive and then trying to further her reach, was against the most ancient of Changeling Laws.
As such, Chrysalis had been branded a traitor among her own kind, which had led to the other Hives joining the fight against her, though, thanks to all the love she and her hive were consuming from the ponies, the other hives hadn’t stood a chance.
Once Chrysalis’ hive had stopped fighting though, thanks to Nightmare and myself taking it away from her, the fight had quickly turned and us making her hive help out hadn’t made matters any worse for the now Rogue Queen.
Whilst it’s only late afternoon, a lot of control the Changelings had over Equestria has gone. The other hives are going to help Equestria take down the overgrowth of forest that had grown due to Chrysalis’ Changelings and would help until Equestria could stand on its own hooves again.
It wasn’t all good news, though. Shining Armour had died weeks after the invasion, drained of all his love for Cadance, leaving him a hollow husk.
I shake my head, before looking to Twilight. “We need to return to the past and stop Starlight Glimmer. I don’t want her doing something like this again.”
Mama nods, before signing, her eyes misty. “In your world, you’re really my daughter?”
I nod, giving a sad smile. “Sorry I can’t stay, Mama. But, our duties must come first, right?”
A few tears well in her eyes and she nods.
I look to Twilight, who nods.
We step up onto the map and she casts the spell, the Time Portal opening and pulling us in as we wave to everypony, myself hoping things will work out in the end for them.
Time Troubles part 7 Nightmareverse: A Worse Nightmare Than Before
As we drop from the portal and land on the road of Cloudsdale, Twilight charges her horn before a dome of purple magic surrounds us, followed a second later by a beam of magic hitting it.
I turn to where she’s facing, crouching down, glaring at Starlight Glimmer, who’s looking at us from a nearby cloud.
Twilight leaps into the air, her horn still glowing with her aura, before she fires a blast at Starlight, who merely hops to the side, leaving the beam to slice through the cloud, cutting a piece clean off.
“Not bad,” she says nonchalantly with a light smirk, which grew. “But it’s gonna take a lot more than that.”
“Lucky for you there’s more where that came from!” Twilight growls
She flies up, before down a turning dive and flies at Starlight, firing several shots of magic, which Starlight deflects with a shield, small spicks of it flying at Spike and myself, but just falling short of touching us.
I brace myself to fly in and join the fight.
Wait!
I hesitate. Nightmare seems worried about something. What is it, Nightmare?
Look behind us.
I glance over my shoulder and notice a pair of pegasi fillies are flying over, watching the battle.
If we join Sparkle in this battle, we’ll only draw more attention.
I don’t see the problem.
With Starlight occupied, the race between Rainbow Dash and those colts is no doubt starting or has already begun. We might be able to be avoided being noticed by them if only Sparkle fights Starlight. But do you think it would go our way if two Alicorns are seen fighting a unicorn here, especially when the second of those Alicorns looks like a filly version of Nightmare Moon?
I blink, before my ears fall back. Oh. Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.
So, instead we watch the fight, myself and Nightmare becoming more and more anxious as more and more foals join the small crowd forming to watch the fight.
This is really bad. At this rate, Dash is sure to notice the fight. Nightmare, what do we do?
We can’t do anything! Nightmare’s sounding really, really worried and annoyed. We can’t let anypony notice us. We can’t let word get out that a pony that looks like you is around.
Twilight lands after several minutes, puffing and panting from exhaustion due to the fight.
How is Starlight not tired? Nightmare asks, sounding annoyed. Twilight Sparkle is an Alicorn and Bearer to the Element of Magic. How is she tired when Starlight is not?
Maybe Starlight’s cheating with some kind of endurance spell? I suggest. She did have to look through Starswirl’s spells to find the Time Travel Spell. Maybe she found something else in there that gives her stronger endurance?
“Whoa!”
At once my body goes rigid as Nightmare and I recognise that voice. We whirl around to see Rainbow Dash and the two bullies she’s meant to be racing sitting on a cloud block, Dash with a box of popcorn.
Twilight teleports in front of them, her expression as anxious as Nightmare and I are feeling. “What are you doing? You have to finish your race!”
“No way,” Dash smiles. “This is way more exciting.”
Spike and I hurry over to Twilight. Nightmare, we need to convince Dash. I know what you said, but maybe making her think Nightmare Moon is coming after her will make her fly fast enough to do the Rainboom?
Nightmare groans and would facehoof if she weren’t inside me. Fine. I guess we don’t have a choice. Let’s just do it before—
“See?!” We turn to see Starlight walking over with that damn smirk of her. “You can’t stop me, no matter what you do.”
Her horn glows and the portal opens, pulling us back in and sending us through time once more.
This time, when we drop out of the portal, it’s like we’re thrown out and slam into the table so hard we bounce off it, before hitting the ground.
However, I’m barely able to pay attention to the pain from impacting the table as my head is seized by a massive headache.
Argh! What... what in Equestria is this? Nightmare moans, feeling the headache too.
It’s not just any ordinary headache, either. It’s like my aura is pulsing uncomfortably, as if something connected to my magic is... wrong.
“That’s strange,” Spike’s voice says as I struggle to shake off this really bad feeling.
Something... is... wrong, Nightmare’s cringing, I can just feel it. I... I can’t tell what, but something is... just... wrong.
“Well, you obviously don’t mean us falling, because that’s becoming pretty routine,” Twilight voice says, snark clear within it.
“No,” Spike’s voice replies. “It’s just that the other times we’ve come back it’s been day. But look.”
Struggling through the headache, I look up only for my eyes to narrow. Spike’s right, it is night-time, when both times we came back before it had been day. Why is that, and why in Equestria is it giving me such a magical headache? And why does it feel like it shouldn’t be night right now and that it’s bad that it is?
Twilight turns to Spike. “What would the map bring us to a different time of day than when we left?”
As she’s speaking though, my ears twitch at the sound of rustling and Spike and I look behind us, before my legs lock in place and my eyes widen in horror.
A pair of Timber Wolves have come out from the brush, one hopping on top of the map.
“Um, maybe we should figure it out later!”
`The wolf on the table sniffs the air, before looking our way, growling.
`Oh, great. It had to be Timber Wolves, Nightmare groans. I’d suggest running, now.
`But I can’t. My legs are locked in place. I... I can’t move. My heart is pounding in my chest as I stare at the creatures that haunted my nightmares before Alchemist gave me something worse to dream about.
`Oh, for the love of... Nightmare growls and I feel my legs move out of my control. I realize you’re still scared of them after what happened, which I'll admit I played a part in reinforcing, but if you’re not going to do the logical thing and run for your life, then I will!
As Nightmare makes me run, a howl from the Timber Wolves follows after us. Shortly after we catch up to Spike and Twilight, who have stopped before a cliff edge with a small bridge leading to the other side.
Whilst my heart is still pounding from being so close to those walking pieces of wood with teeth, I’m able to take control of my body again as we all stare up in awe and confusion at what’s on the other side.
It’s a large, beautiful looking castle, with a glowing white crescent moon on the top most spire. I don’t recognize it.
“The Castle of the Two Sisters,” Twilight says, her voice filled with shock, awe and hope.
Wait. What? That’s not the castle. It should be in ruins, shouldn’t it? It was when I came to Equestria.
This is how it looked before, Nightmare says, sounding just as awestruck and confused as Twilight.
Before? You mean, before you and Mama got banished to the moon?
Before I took over Luna, yes, Nightmare says, making my head shake a little. But... how is it like this? Time cannot be that rewritten that somehow the castle was never damaged in our battle, nor abandoned. The battle that did that was before the Rainboom.
A howl from behind us causing my heart to leap into my chest.
“Let’s all question this later,” I shout, running to the bridge. “We can worry about it once we’re inside and not in danger of being eaten by living wood with teeth!”
“Good point!” Twilight and Spike say in unison and we all rush over the bridge, up to the castle, force the doors open and close them behind us.
“So, if the castle’s here and the Timber Wolves, the map brought us into the Everfree?” Spike asks as we all standing facing the door, panting. “Wh... why would it bring us here?”
We turn to look around, before I cock my eyebrow. The place has a night-time theme. There are tapestries of the moon and starlit nights and the torches seem to light with a blue flame as if responding to our presence.
I... don’t like this, Nightmare sounds unsure.
We walk up the stairs, not really paying attention to where we’re going as we look around, seeing more night themed decor.
“This place seems a lot cleaner than I remember,” Spike states as we walk through the doors of the throne room, still not really paying attention, at least until a tapestry that was on the floor glowing with a blue aura and lifts into the air.
Following it, I see a white unicorn with a purple mane and a trio of diamonds for a Cutie Mark.
“Rarity?” Twilight says in joy.
Said mare turns around to look at who’d spoken to her.
Oh, by the stars! Nightmare gasps, cringing. Just what is that mare wearing?
I have to agree. Rarity’s wearing a really ugly black blouse with a blue leaning at the front, purple shoes on her front hooves and her mane and tail are done up in a bun. It’s a horrible look on her.
That is the worst piece of clothing attire I have ever seen on a pony. Who in their right mind would make her wear something so hideous?
“The castle isn’t open for viewings today,” Rarity says, her voice holding a hoity tone I’d never have expected to hear from her.
Ugh. She sounds like some of the spoiled nobles, Nightmare says with disgust. How could the Bearer of the Element to Generosity ever fall that far?
Despite Nightmare’s words, Rarity is still talking, so I pay attention.
“The tapestries all need changing, again,” she says the last word as if she has had to do this more than a few times and is not happy about it.
As Rarity uses her magic to straighten the tapestry we saw her levitate, Spike rushing in front of her, a smile on his face. “Rarity! It’s me!”
The look Rarity gives him... I can even feel Nightmare is shocked. But what she says makes even Nightmare’s jaw drop.
“I don’t socialize with dragons,” she says the word like a swear or something, “I don’t know anypony who would.”
The way Spike deflating and the look in his eyes... it hurt me... and makes me want to hurt Rarity for hurting him like that, causing me to glare at the mare who is my sister.
“Rarity,” Twilight, rather rudely in my opinion, hopes over Spike and runs to get in front of and face the unicorn I’m pondering how to make suffer for hurting me big baby dragon cousin, “you have to listen t’ me. The future of Equestria is at stake!”
Rarity turns, her eyes narrowing slightly. “I don’t know how you know my name, but I am far too busy to entertain some tourists’ ridiculous fantasies.”
Tourist?! This is my castle, you little whelp! Nightmare snarls. Why, if it wouldn’t be horrible for Stellar, I’d make you sorry you opened that snobby mouth of yours.
I’m seriously starting to wonder if I wouldn’t mind that with this Rarity.
Twilight ears wilt. “But I have to get back to the map so I can stop Starlight from changing the past,” she waves a hoof to emphasise how bad it is, “because every present I come to is worse than the last.”
“Time travel you say?”
At once my legs freeze up, my eyes going wide by both mine and Ngihtmare’s will.
That voice. It... no. No, it couldn’t be!
We turn to the throne, which I now notice is shrouded in a dark vale and a pony is standing within it.
Quickly glancing around, I notice several things I hadn’t before. The tapestries in this room depict Nightmare Moon, so do the windows.
We turn back to the throne, my throat gulping.
Okay. Now I understand why we felt off when we arrived.
“Now, that's something I would like to see,” the figure says, leaning their head out enough for me to recognize a mare with a black coat, a star-like filed for a mane and tail, wings, a horn and blue eyes with pupils shaped like just like mine. It’s Nightmare Moon!
This... this could be a problem, Nightmare says uneasily.
Um, wouldn’t you be okay with this? I whimper, crouching closer to Twilight as several ponies with bat wings walk out from the shadows, lining up in front of the dark mare on the throne whilst she laughs. You get Night Eternal, right?
This... Nightmare gives me the impression she would be backing up if she could. This doesn’t... feel right. Something’s... off about this Nightmare Moon. By the stars, that is not something I’d ever thought I’d say, talking about Nightmare Moon as if she isn’t me.
Well, this one kinda isn’t. And I get a bad feeling her seeing us isn’t going to make things any better.
Nightmare shudders. She’d probably think we’re a clone of her or something, maybe even take us on as her daughter.
Technically speaking, she’s possessing Mama right now, so she kinda is?
Not helping, Stellar.
The bat winged ponies all move over, surrounding us, cutting off any chance we have of escape.
Nightmare Moon flies off her throne and lands in front of us. “Tell me how you came by this magic to travel through time.”
“The princess asked you a question!” one of the ponies shouts at us, in a very familiar sounding voice, before she pulled of her helmet to reveal a buzz-cut rainbow mane. “And unless you wanna end up in the dungeon, you’ll tell her what she wants to know!”
“Rainbow Dash?!” I gasp, my jaw dropping. Rainbow Dash is serving Nightmare Moon. No. No, that... that can’t be. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Yeah?” the cyan, somehow a bat-winged mare says, frowning at me. “Who wants to know?”
At once I feel Nightmare take control of my mouth, my face scowling at her. “Well, so much for a pony whose loyalty would never make her abandon her friends, let alone the princess.”
“What did you say, you little brat?!” Rainbow growls, her eyes narrowing. “Don’t ever question my loyalty to the princess.”
Suddenly, I get where Nightmare’s going with this and take back control, feeling my own disgust rising. “Oh, sure. Like your loyalty to the last princess was? Cos it looks like you totally stayed loyal if she,” I point at Nightmare Moon, “is running the place. Yeah, don’t see any reason to doubt how strong your loyalties are, Rainbow Crash.”
That makes her eyebrow twitch. “What did you just call me?!”
“You heard me!” I turn around, glaring back at her. “I bet Fluttershy doesn’t even wanna be your friend, does she? Or Scootaloo your little sister. Who’d want a friend of sister that turned her back on the ruler of our kingdom at the drop of a hat? I bet you don't have any friends after that! And, no. Nightmare Moon did not ask us a question. She just demanded Twilight tell her, so she can go buck herself for all I care!”
“Why you little—!”
“Enough!” Nightmare Moon says loudly, causing Rainbow Dash to fall back a bit. “Allowing a foal to get under your skin, Captain Dash? I’d have thought you were better than that.”
I’m not sure if it’s wrong that I find amusement in the glower Dash gives me upon being told off by Nightmare Moon. Serves that traitor right.
Nightmare Moon then looks to Twilight. “Nopony in my kingdom but me should have a magic powerful enough to change time.”
“Your kingdom?” Spike frowns, before Twilight looks down at him with an annoyed raised eyebrow.
“Who else?” Nightmare Moon asks expectantly.
Spike gulps, hiding behind Twilight’s leg. “Um, Celestia, of course.”
There’s silence for several moments, before Nightmare Moon laughs heartedly. “My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years!”
She indicates to the window, which we all look out of and my eyes widen.
The moon is out and on it is the imprint of a unicorn head, but with a pinkish glow around the lower left area.
No, Nightmare whispers, sounding horrified. She... she didn’t. She couldn’t.
Nightmare Moon leans down to Twilight’s eye level. “But it no less a fate than she sentence me to.” She stands up again and stomps a hoof. “Now, reveal to me the source of this Time Magic!”
She’s wrong. Oh, by the heavens she’s so wrong!
Why? I ask, my anxiety rising from Nightmare’s horrified tone. What’s wrong? Nightmare, why are you so worried?
When Celestia imprisoned myself and Luna on the Moon, it was not as horrible as I or she has led you or others to believe, Stellar, she says, sounding like she’s struggling not to freak out or something. The moon is Luna’s, and, by default, mine and your Celestial body. Whilst we were trapped there, the magic that binds us to it and the night kept us healthy and strong.
And... Auntie Tia? I ask, though I’m pretty sure I don’t want to hear the answer.
I can feel Nightmare shaking her head within me. Celestia’s Celestial body is the sun. Had Nightmare Moon imprisoned her in there, she would have been in a similar situation as myself and Luna. But she is not. She is imprisoned in the moon, our Celestial body. She cannot draw any energy from it to stay healthy.
You mean, I ask, mind filling with panic, Auntie Tia could die up there? Nightmare Moon has sentenced her to death?!
Yes, Nightmare sounds more horrified, as if my asking it made it that much more real. I bet she doesn't even know she has. Celestia's magic will keep her alive for a while, but, cut off from the sun, it will not last for long. If she is not freed soon, Celestia will perish, and I shudder to think what will happen if she does.
I quickly go over what I know about stars, both from before and after coming to Equestria. When a star dies, it explodes, sometimes creating a black hole, but not before wiping out anything within range of the star.
The sun is a star, just a really powerful one. If Auntie Tia’s is bound to it and she dies... it would die too, which means.
“We’ve gotta save Auntie Tia!” I shout, charging.
My sudden uproar takes everypony by surprise and I slam into Nightmare Moon, pushing a heap of magic into the blow.
She skids several feet along the floor. When she stops, she looks to me with a glare, one that turns to confusion as I stand braced, ready for her.
“You... you are an Alicorn?” she asks, glancing from myself to Twilight behind me. “Both of you. How are there more Alicorns and why does this foal look like me?”
“Wait, they’re really Alicorns?” Rarity asks from a little away, her tone uncertain. “I... I thought they were just tourists and the filly was dressing up as you, Your Highness.”
“Don’t you dare call her that!” I scream, glaring at Rarity over my shoulder, before returning to the larger mare in front of me. “She’s not the ruler of this kingdom. Or any kingdom!”
I whole heartedly agree with you, Nightmare growls. I never wanted to kill Celestia. For making that a possibility now, Nightmare Moon will pay!
Nightmare Moon blinks, before laughing. “Oh, this is amusing. I think I understand. You come from a time where you tried to change the past and the result is that filly, am I correct?”
I smirk. “Wrong. You’d think a being cunning enough to trick my Mama into letting her be taken control of would be smart enough to think of something smarter than that.”
Nightmare Moon blinks. “Mama?”
Um, why haven’t the guards done anything?
At Nightmare’s question, I glance over my shoulder to see Twilight has erected a barrier, stopping the guards.
“So, you wish to challenge me, do you, little foal?” Nightmare Moon smirks, amused, seeming to have put aside the who me calling the pony she’s possessing “Mama” thing aside for a chance to just brag. Knowing Nightmare’s attitude after having lived with her for so long can kinda help. “Very, well. Brace yourself!”
We’ll need to work together again, Stellar, Nightmare says firmly as I dig at the floor, as if I’m going to charge Nightmare Moon. But, it will be a lot harder.
No kidding.
Nightmare Moon leaps forward and I shoot up, flying at one of the windows depicting her and smashing through it, using my magic to make sure I don’t get hurt by the glass.
“You can’t get away that easily.”
The jeering voice makes me glance back to see Nightmares Moon flying at us, her horn charging with a spell.
Down right!
I follow Nightmare’s instructions, my change in movement taking Nightmare Moon off guard, causing her to miss.
This won’t be easy, Nightmare says as I turn around and fire my own blast, which the large mare avoids easily. We’re not simply fighting another villain from Equestria’s past. She is me. She has all my memories of fighting and spell control. Us simply working together isn’t going to be enough to have a chance against her.
“What do you suggest?!” I shout as I turn to a cloud of stars to avoid a charge from the older (or would that be younger since Nightmare is technically me and this Nightmare Moon is younger?) mare.
Nightmare sighs. Stellar, we need to become one.
“What?” I cry, firing a spell that, while it does seem to take Nightmare Moon by surprise, she recovers quickly and comes back around, barely missing me with those razor-sharp hooves of hers. “Nightmare, aside from since this whole Time Magic mess started and when I was held captive by Alchemist, you’ve had it in for me since day one. Why would you think I’d become one with you? You’d just overpower me and use me to rule Equestria like this Nightmare Moon is?”
“Talking to yourself?!” Nightmare Moon jeers as she takes another shot at me, which I barely manage to avoid.
I’ll admit, I was a wrong mare for all I’ve done, Stellar, Nightmare says, sounding somber. Believe me, spending time with you whilst that bastard of a stallion did what he did to you, I realized I couldn’t bring myself to be cruel afterwards. And, after seeing those other alternate timelines, working along with you, I’ve come to understand just how wrong a pony I have been.
“It would be a lot easier to focus on this conversation if I wasn’t trying to avoid being taken down by a mare that looks like an adult version of myself right now!” I cry, turning into a cloud of star and spinning around Nightmare Moon, confusing her for a bit before moving out of reach as she regained her bearings.
Stellar, when we become one, we won’t be separate being anymore. We’ll be one being, one soul. You’ll have access to all my memories, which I’m thinking is the only real chance you’ll have to beat this mare. You will also have my bravery, which will make it easier for you to fight as your fears will not hold you up. Your mind is young and you think in ways I’d be willing to bet the moon Nightmare Moon does not. Remember, she is like Luna was back when she first returned from the moon. She doesn’t know the modern times, nor the modern ways of thinking like you do. You can use that, blend it with my own ideas from my memories.
I frown, thinking about it, before nodding. She’s right. I don’t stand a chance against Nightmare Moon on my own. Sombra and Chrysalis were one thing, facing a pony that is in almost every way me will need something more than merely mine and Nightmare’s teamwork if I’m going to win.
“Okay,” I say, before glancing back at the busted window I flew out of. “But if we’re going to do this, we’re gonna give Twilight and Spike a hand.”
Time Troubles part 8 Nightmareverse: Rainboom Redux
“Twilight, what do we do?” Spike asked in a panic, staring at the window Stellar and Nightmare Moon had flown out of. “We can’t just leave Stellar to fight Nightmare Moon all by herself.”
“I know, but I’ve kinda got my hooves full here, Spike,” the purple Alicorn grunted as she used her magic to hold the guards, including sadly, Rainbow Dash, back.
The spell was blocking all the doorways and windows, making it so nopony could get to them. Not that it stopped Rainbow and the other bat-winged pegasi from slamming against the magical barrier, trying to get to the mare who’d brought the filly that dared to attack their princess.
Twilight did note with a little bit of joy that Rainbow was not actually one of the ponies pounding on the shield. She was, in fact, by Rarity, who’d back off at the first sign of danger, and the buzz-cut mare was now standing protectively in front of the unicorn.
Maybe I was wrong, at least in part, she thought, seeing this and giving the smallest of smiles. Dash seems to care about Rarity enough to stand protectively over her, at least. That means she isn’t too far gone from the Rainbow Dash I know... I hope.
“Twilight!”
The Alicorn looked back over her shoulder to see Stellar soar through the smashed-open window and land firmly on the carpeted floor, skidding for a second, before looking to her.
“Get everypony out of the castle, NOW!”
“Huh?” purple Alicorn and dragon asked, looking confused.
“I don’t know what’s about to happen, and I’d rather not risk anypony’s lives!” the black Alicorn said, before giving a piercing gaze, made all the more intimating by the way her eyes looked in general.
Realizing this clearly wasn’t up for debate, Twilight increased the charge of her horn, stretching her magical senses out all across the castle, sensing every living creature held within.
Once she’d gotten them all, she began to cast the teleport, but not before she saw a sight that would remain ingrained in her memory for a very long while.
As her horn’s charge increased to begin the teleport, Nightmare Moon slammed through the window, halting in front of Stellar, who whirled around to face her, Nightmare Moon’s face set between a snarl and malicious grin.
At that moment, however, Stellar shouted something odd, which caused Nightmare Moon to falter with confusion, whilst Twilight, the teleport already have been cast and starting, could only watch.
“Two now become one!” the filly screamed, her eyes shining completely white. "One mind, one soul, in perfect harmony!"
Suddenly, there was a pulse of magic that spread out from Stellar in and spherical pattern, before the filly lifted into the air and became surrounded by a sphere of black light, the filly silhouetted in white outlines within the darkness.
That was as face as Twilight got to see, however, before the teleport whisked her and all connected in her magic out of the castle.
Deep within the Everfree, the pair of Timber Wolves sniffed around, following the scent of the three meals that had recently come into their domain.
While two of them made their mouths eager to chomp down, the third one put them slightly on edge.
They knew its scent, but at the same time, it was different. The third one’s scent was one all creatures of the forest feared and prayed they would never come across the being it belonged to.
However, something was off about the scent. It was so subtle, it was hard to place. The fear the scent inspired was still nerve-racking for the wooden beasts, but the oddity in the scent also made them curious.
It was this curiosity that led them to the castle where the scent was strongest.
Every fiber of their wooden bodies told them to flee, to get away before the owner of the scent found and killed them, as she had done to so many of their kind foolish enough to come even to the edges of the trees boarding her castle in the past.
But, somehow, the oddity of the scent was confusion enough that they were ignoring their survival instincts, something guaranteed to get any creature killed.
A third had joined them, though, unlike they, it was being far more cautious. Not having been close when the group of three had been found by the duo wolves, it was far more wary due to the familiar scent, despite its oddness.
Whilst the other two were daring to get far closer to the castle than any creature of the forest knew was safe, it remained on the other side of the bridge, watching, whimpering as it continued to smell the oddness in the scent.
It filled it, not with curiosity, but fear stronger than the scent normally would. It could not place a paw on why, but the presence of the oddness in its scent felt wrong, like something was off.
The third found its precautions were not in vain as, suddenly, there was a flash of purple light in front of it, followed by a countless number of food.
However, the number of food told it it was too much for it alone and it began backing away, only to freeze at what it saw.
The castle shuddered, before the ground itself began to shake, followed by the castle taking on a black appearance, the castle itself being outlined in white.
All at once, the black shot like a beam into the sky, smashing through the heavens, spreading out until the whole castle was within the beam, its fellow pack members being consumed by the blast.
The Timber Wolf watched, its wooden jaw hanging agape at the sight. Whilst Timber Wolves were not like food, they could feel magic in other ways and the amount of energies pouring out from the castle were terrifying.
Whatever was happening, it wanted no part in it, no matter how much food it could get.
Turning tail, it ran, not daring to even look back. Whatever was happening, it had to warn the pack. The castle was no longer just a place of danger, it was a place where death would come to any of them should they tred near.
As the energy crackles around me, I heave heavy breathes. My memories are solidifying, fitting into place. Over a thousand years of experiences are running through my mind, but I only pay specific ones any mind.
I do not pay attention to the memories of feelings of isolation on the moon, nor rage long puttered out at the ponies of Equestria for ignoring the night, the fear as the rainbow energy of the Elements of Harmony rushed towards me that try to force themselves to the front of my mind. I focus only on what matters.
For the moment, those are my memories of combat and spell craft. If I am to survive this, those must be my priority for the moment.
I shuffle all other memories away to the back of my mind, allowing over a thousand years worth of combat and spell crafting knowledge to solidify at the forefront of my mind.
My memories are important, but I must focus on what matters to me most. And, right now, that means using everything at my disposal to end this tyranny that has corrupted my home.
Once all my memories have emblazoned themselves in my mind, the energies around me died down, lowering me onto the ground once more.
As the last ebbs of magical energy crackle and flicker off my body, I turn my eyes, the irises of white are brightly lit, on the taller mare, staring at me with confusion and slight uncertainty.
“This ends now, Nightmare,” I say, feeling the confidence I hear in my voice. Moonie and I are now one. Our thoughts are one, our goals are one. We are the same pony and will forever be that way. The only pony holding the title of Nightmare Moon stands before me. But even she won’t hold that title for long.
Nightmare shakes her head as her magical barrier dissipates, before looking around with a mixed of shock, awe, horror and rage.
The castle has been returned to a ruined state due to the energy flux that occurred when Moonie and I became one completely. Whilst there are no vines or any signs that were in the castle I’d first awoken in, it is a stark contrast to what Nightmare had turned this place into.
Upon hearing my voice, Nightmare turns to me, her eyes filled with rage.
I smirk. “Let’s dance, pretty mare.”
I turn into a cloud of star and shoot out the window, Nightmare following suit with a scream of rage.
Twilight, Spike and everypony the Alicorn had teleported out of the castle just stare, open mouthed at the ruin that was once the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters, or as several ponies murmured in shock, Nightmare Castle.
However, everypony’s stupor did not last for long. Mere moments after the castle was revealed in its now ruined state, two stream of star-filed clouds shot out from the area of the throne room and into the sky.
This snapped the ponies from the castle, specifically the guards whom witnessed Nightmare and Twilight’s confrontation, to turn their attention to the purple Alicorn.
Twilight reacted by teleporting Spike to the edge of the forest, her magic erecting a barrier around him, preventing anypony from touching the young reptile, before she moved on with the attack.
Having experience fighting thanks to the Changeling Invasion, Tirek and, most recently, her battle against Starlight Glimmer which had inevitably led to this present, she was no slouch when it came to fighting.
This seemed to catch most of the guards off-guard, causing them to be taken out quickly due to their holding back, thinking she wouldn’t require much effort and was an easy target, despite being an Alicorn (Seriously? Even in this alternate timeline her being an Alicorn was still so overlookable?). Several others proved a challenge as Twilight had to duck, teleport and shield in quick succession, just to keep on her hooves. She could only hope Stellar was faring better.
I manage to avoid another blast of magic are Nightmare and I clash in the skies.
I’m not sure how long we’ve been at this. It’s hard to keep track of time when the sky is a perpetual night; another reason Night Eternal is just so stupid an idea.
I’m caught off-guard when Nightmare suddenly teleports in front of me, grabbing me with her mane, her eyes boaring into my own. “I was considering sparing you, as you seem worthy of perhaps becoming my student or something of the like,” she snarls, her fangs bared. “But, after what you did to my castle, you will now di—AHH!”
Her little monologue is cut off when my mane lashes out, striking her in the eyes, the shock and pain causing her to release me, giving me a chance to back away and prepare another assault.
“That’s the problem with beings like you, Nightmare!” I shout, shooting towards her, spinning like a top, my magical mane surging around me. “You never shut up!”
I puncture my statement with a slam to Nightmare’s chest, sending her rocketing down and slamming through the now grumbling roof of her castle.
I use this moment of reprieve to catch my breath. This is a lot harder than I’d thought it would be, and I’d already known it would be hard, even now that I am whole.
The problem I face is that I’m not simply facing Nightmare Moon. I’m facing Nightmare Moon as she possesses Mama’s body. She has access to all of Mama’s power, which is so powerful thanks to the moon.
With all my memories now in place, I understand my own power far better. Auntie Tia gains her power from the sun, Mama gets hers from the moon, Cadance the love of those around her and Twilight the power of friendship itself.
But I get my power from the very night. True, Mama’s domain is the night, but it is what gives me my power, due to how my original existence, the Nightmare Moon of my own time, as a pony was born.
You would think, therefore, that I should have the complete advantage against this Nightmare Moon, but she is gaining her power from both the night and syphoning Mama’s power gained from the moon.
This gives Nightmare the clear advantage and the only reason I am yet to be brought down is thanks to my own knowledge of modern times and how I can mix it with my accident memories.
Without those, I’m certain Nightmare would have finished me off a long time ago.
But, I can’t keep this up. Even with the night currently lasting forever, Nightmare still has more power than me. I need something, or somepony, who could throw her off. I need something that can weaken her, but the only thing to ever stop her were the Elements of Harmony, which won’t even work because the Rainboom that connected Twilight and the others never happened.
If only Auntie Tia were here, she might be able to call out to Mama still trapped within Nightmare and Mama might be able to do something from within that might make it harder for Nightmare to fight.
But, how could I even do that? Nightmare Moon has trapped Celestia in the moon and the only way Nightmare had escaped from it after the Element sealed her inside were four stars, which are nowhere in sight in the sky.
Nightmare might have been able to break a spell created by the Elements, but how could I, a young filly, Alicorn or not, break a spell crated... by the...
Wait a minute. Nightmare said she’d trapped Auntie Tia in the moon. But, she couldn’t have used the Elements to do that. The Elements were about the balance of harmony in the world, which was why Auntie Tia had been able to seal Nightmare Moon in the moon with them a little over a thousand years ago. Locking Auntie Tia in the moon wouldn’t do anything to help the balance.
So, the Elements wouldn’t have helped Nightmare do it, meaning she couldn’t have used the Elements to seal Tia in the moon.
I can’t help grinning. If Nightmare didn’t use the Elements to seal Tia in the moon, the spell is far weaker than the one Tia used on her. It can be broken.
At once, my spirits drop. How can I break the spell? I may now be whole, but I’m still just a filly. Twilight won’t be able to help me, what with her handling Nightmare Moon’s guards and, even if we stopped her guards, there’s the problem of Nightmare herself.
We’d need a miracle, like the Rainboom is, to pull something like that off.
...
Hang on. The Rainboom. It was pure, harmonic energy. Maybe, if the Rainboom happened, it would release enough harmonic energy to break the spell all on its own, or at least give Twilight enough of a magical boast to give her the chance whilst I hold of Nightmare...
That joy drops as I realize something. I’m the only one of the two of us who knows how such a spell can work. I’d need hours just to try and explain the basics of it to Twilight, time we do not have.
ARGH! This is so frustrating! This would be so much easier if we had all the Element Bearers and, whilst Rainbow and Rarity are here, neither, from what I can gather, represent their Elements enough to even be able to connect with them, not to mention I’ve no idea where to find AJ, Pinkie or Fluttershy. Sure, they might be in Ponyville, but, then again, they could have fled to get away from Nightmare long ago and it’s not like we have anything that holds a connection to any of them. No blood relatives, no...
I blink. Blood?
No.
Could... could it really be that easy? It... it seems beyond foolish to think the answer could be so simple could work, but... it’s not like we have a lot of options and we need any hope we can of stopping Nightmare’s reign now.
“Insolent foal!” I glance down to see Nightmare soaring up at me, her eyes filled with bloody murder.
Thinking fast, I split a piece of myself apart, using the spell used to try and trick Rainbow Dash abandon her friends and send my clone soaring down to join Twilight.
I put that out of my mind, knowing the clone will do as I wish and turn my attention to Nightmare. I’ll have to keep holding her off until the plan works... if it works.
Twilight uses her magic to deflect another attack from a bat-winged guard.
Celestia, they just wouldn’t give up, would they?
She knew it would be so much easier to just use her magic to fight that all off, but she couldn’t bring herself to hurt these ponies. Sure, only Rarity and Rainbow had shown themselves as this reality’s versions of ponies she knew, but she hadn’t seen any of the other ponies under their helmets. For all she knew, she could be fighting some of her other friends from Ponyville, even Canterlot.
“Twilight!”
The Alicorn turned in time to see another guard being knocked aside by a whip of star-dotted mane, before Stellar landed next to her.
“Stellar?” she gasp in confusion. Had she beaten Nightmare Moon already?
Wait. Glancing up, she could still make out Nightmare Moon battling a small filly version of herself, both manoeuvring and trading blows, the smaller gaining the upper hand several times.
Looking back to the filly fighting next to her, Twilight frowned. “Clone?”
“Like the spell used to try and trick Dash back during the Summer Sun Celebration, yes,” the filly replied, lashing her mane out at another guard who chose to come too close to the little black Alicorn. “Anyway, I’m here to tell you the plan to stop Nightmare, or, the very least, free Celestia so we can work with her to stop Nightmare.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “How could you have figured out how to do that?”
“Stellar and Nightmare are now one,” the filly said firmly, turning into a small cloud of star and whipping around like a tornado, knocking several more guards aside. “That was the big explosion. Our memories our now one and the same.”
Twilight felt a small pit of worry at that thought. Nightmare and Stellar had chosen to become of one mind and body. That sounded like a Nightmare Moon idea to take control of Stellar.
However, the look in the filly’s eyes held no hesitation in the statement. This was not a clone of Nightmare Moon having tricked Stellar into giving her full control and pretending to be the younger filly. Whilst she now saw a wisdom within those eyes Stellar never possessed, she still saw the filly she knew within them.
This had been an agreement by both, with no hidden agendas. She would have to believe that for now, at least, until things were settled.
“Okay,” Twilight nodded, using her magic to push several more guards away. “What do we do?”
“We need the Raindoom!”
Twilight whipped her head, glaring at the black Alicorn. “Don’t you think I know that?! If it had happened, we wouldn’t even be in this situation in the first place.”
“No!” the Stellar clone cried, her eyes shining as all the guards were pushed back, giving them a few moments of peace before the fight began anew. “We need it now. If the Rainboom happens now, its harmonic energy release will be enough to free Celestia and possibly even stop Nightmare Moon.”
“How do I get the Rainboom to happen?!” Twilight asked incredulously.
The filly smirked. “Get Dash to race you, of course.”
With that the filly released another blast of magic, knocking out all be two ponies, even the non-guards, before turning into a cloud of star and shooting back towards where two night Alicorns were duking it out.
Twilight just stared up in confusion as the cloud moved higher and higher.
Get Dash to race her? How? She hadn’t even been able to convince filly Rainbow Dash to race her, how was she meant to get the adult Rainbow Dash to?
The only way she could maybe trick Dash into going fast enough to make a Rainboom would be if Dash had a drive. What kind of drive could she give to a mare who didn’t seem loyal like...?
Twilight glanced back to see Rainbow flying over to check on a very faint looking Rarity.
It came to her. It was underhoofed and wrong, and went against everything she believed in and stood for as the Princess of Friendship, but she had to do it if she was going to trick Dash into doing a Rainbom.
“Wow. And here I thought nopony would want to be friends with the lame Rainbow Crash,” she called out.
At once, the cyan mare’s ears twitched and she turned to glare at the Alicorn. “What was that?”
“I bet Rarity’s the only thing you’ve ever had close to a friend, am I right?” Twilight jeered, flapping her wings to get airborne. “I bet you’ve never had a read friend to be loyal to your whole life. That’s why you were so willing to betrayed Princess Celestia for Nightmare Moon.”
“Shut up!” the mare with a buzz-cut shouted, launching towards Twilight.
Twilight grinned. It worked. Now all she had to do was fly fast enough the Dash would need to do the Rainboom to gain enough speed to catch her, without causing a sonic boom of her own. Something she could easily do with magic.
She’d never do this is she were genuinely racing Dash, but this time was an exception.
Shooting off into the sky, Twilight poured her magic into her wings, increasing her speed.
“Fluttershy probably sees you as a monster!” Twilight called back, trying to egg Dash on more. “You remember her, right? The pony who’s honour you raced to defend, but stopped because you saw something else you thought was cooler. She probably cries herself to sleep every night, wondering how her best friend at Flight School turned into such a selfish cow, willing to serve under a pony like Nightmare Moon just to get what she wants!”
“I said SHUT UP!” Dash’s voice screeched behind her, filled with pure rage. “You don’t know a thing about me! I don’t know how you know about that race, but you don’t know anything about what I’ve had to do to keep my friends safe! Don’t you dare question my loyalty to them!”
Twilight blinked, a bit taken aback, but shook herself and continued. She had to keep up the act if her part in Stellar’s plan was to work. “Sure. Like I’d believe that. Just tell yourself whatever you need to make yourself get to sleep at night in you comfy room at the castle whilst Fluttershy probably is living in a hovel, crowded to the brim with other ponies because Nightmare doesn’t care about her subjects!”
“I SAID SHUT UP!”
Her magic having prevented her from affecting the sound barrier, Twilight’s ears picked up the unmistakable sound of an air cone forming. Just a few more pushes to catch her and Dash would do a Rainboom.
She didn’t like the idea of what Dash would do once she’d caught up with her, which she no doubt would do with the extra speed boast performing the Rainboom gave, but she couldn’t focus on that.
Instead, the angled herself downward and headed back toward the direction of the castle, taking her wings for less wind resistance.
As she got close enough to see Rarity’s shocked eyes staring up at the two of them as they passed over the treeline, Twilight heard it. The unmistakable booming sound of a sonic boom.
She barely had time to glance behind her, before she felt Rainbow Dash slam into her, sending the two of them rocketing towards the ground.
They impacted, Dash pressing her against Twilight as they skidded through the dirt, causing a deep gouge in the ground. they skidded for several moments, before they finally stopped, Dash standing over Twilight, her hooves pressing down against the lavender mare’s chest.
The hate-filled, enraged glare within those cyan eyes turned to confusion, however, as Twilight just looked over Dash’s head, a wistful smile on her face.
Frowning in confusion now, Dash glanced over her shoulder to see what her downed target was looking at... only for her jaw to drop at the sight of the expanding rainbow ring spreading across the sky and the quickly fading rainbow trail that ended where they were.
It had happened. It was several years late, but it had happened. The Rainboom had graced Equestria's skies.
Time Troubles part 9 Nightmareverse: The Nightmare Comes to an End
I barely manoeuvre to avoid another savage blast of Nightmare Moon’s magic.
She’s starting to read the patterns of my movements. My ingenuity thanks to the times I’d been raised in and the lack of modern times Nightmare possessed thanks to being on the moon for a thousand years is starting to lose its edge.
Come on, Twilight. Hurry up with that Rainboom, already. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up.
“I have had enough of this prattle!” Nightmare declares, spreading her wings wide. “I have allowed you to insult my power long enough, foal. Prepare to—YAHH!”
She winces as she recovers from yet another pot shot of my magic she has left herself open to.
What is it with evil villains and having to make such big speeches when they fight? I think, shaking my head. Does she honestly think I’ll just wait for her to finish blabbing about how she’s going to kill me before she actually does it? Oh, wait. Yes. And I know why.
“You’ll pay for tha—” she begins screaming as she charges at me.
Her voice is cut off, however, by the sound of an explosion.
Glancing away from the fight, my eyes light up at the multi-coloured ring of expanding across the sky. Twilight did it! She got Dash to do a Rainboom.
I turn back to Nightmare, who is taken aback and confused. “Now the show really begins, Nightmare.”
Moments later the energies released by the Rainboom wash over me.
At once I feel a surge of power flow through me, which seems to only increase over and over as I feel the magic of friendship and harmony activating within me.
I look to Nightmare and see she is grunting and struggling, murmuring something about being a weak foal. I can only assume Mama has started fighting back thanks to the harmonic energy surging through myself and Nightmare. The only difference, I’m not fighting against the body I’m using, so whilst I’m gaining power, Nightmare seems to be struggling to keep her hold.
But Nightmare is not my focus.
Using my new strength, I shoot into the sky, a rainbow trail flowing behind me until I’m a good distance from Nightmare as she flails in the sky.
Looking up to the moon, I charge my horn, feeling the multiple strings of magical energy coursing around it along with my own. My mind filled with the spell needed to free Tia from the moon, I aim my horn and fire.
Rainbow Dash just stared, slack-jawed up as she watched the ring of colour flying across the sky. So enraptured was she, she didn’t notice Twilight teleport out from under her and join her in looking up at the sky.
“That... that’s...”
“A Sonic Rainboom,” Twilight smiled, standing next to the cyan mare, chuckling at Dash’s expression. “And you did it, Rainbow Dash. It should have happened years ago, during that race, but you did it now.”
Dash glanced over to her, seeming to have forgotten her anger towards Twilight, or the fact she’d been ordered to deal with her by Nightmare Moon.
“But... why would you make me fly so fast as to...?”
Twilight just kept looking up at the sky, before her smile widened a bit with excitement and she pointed up with a hoof.
Dash followed the direction she was pointing in and saw another rainbow trail soaring up high, leaving a jerking Nightmare Moon behind. When the trail ended, a rainbow light shone from where it had stopped, before a beam of spiralling rainbow energy soared from that same point. It rose higher and higher, before slamming into the moon.
As both ponies watched, the sound of frantic hooves running, along with scaled feet, neared, before stopping.
“Rainbow Dash, why are you just standing... oh... my.”
“Twilight, what just happen... whoa.”
As the four watched on, the moon started to shine brighter, the eye on the unicorn lighting even brighter.
Rainbow turned to look at the purple Alicorn, remembering something she’d said earlier. “Wait. What did you mean I should have done that Rainboom during that race? What race do you mean?”
The other mare just gave her a small smirk. “Really, Rainbow? I know you were only nine, but it’s not like I’ve changed since we last spoke.”
“Huh?”
“I did tell you you needed to finish your race, didn’t I?”
Dash blinked, before at once her eyes widened and she looked, really looked at the purple Alicorn for the first time since she’d arrived at the castle.
“ You’re... you’re the Alicorn who was fighting that unicorn when I was nine?!” she gasped, staring at Twilight as if she were an impossibility.
Twilight nodded. “I tried to get you get back to your race so you’d perform the Rainboom, but you were more interested in watching me fighting Starlight, which I only did so you wouldn’t stop racing.” She chuckled sadly. “Look how well that turned out, huh?”
Rainbow took a step back. “Wait. Are you saying... because I didn’t listen to you as a filly, I did something wrong?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, Rainbow Dash. You not performing a Rainboom when you were nine is all to blame on the unicorn I was fighting, Starlight Glimmer. She went back in time to stop you from performing it and I failed to stop her... again, and Nightmare Moon taking control was the result.”
At this, Rainbow Dash glared. “Wait. If you knew Nightmare Moon was coming back, why didn’t you stop her?! You realize the shit I’ve had to do because of that mare?! The pain I and all those I care about have been through?! The friends and family I’ve lost?!”
Twilight shook her head. “I didn’t know this would happen and I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it. Once the timeline was set with you not performing the Rainboom as a filly that day, Spike and I were whisked to this time, mere minutes before we came to the castle. But, now, thing’s are going to be righted.”
“And just how, may I ask, do you expect that?” Rarity asked, giving the Alicorn a sceptical look.
Twilight merely smiled. “Stellar’s become the centre of harmony.” Then, her expression hardened and she looked to Rainbow Dash. “Do you want those you care about not to have to suffer under Nightmare’s hoof anymore?”
Rainbow’s eyes misted over for a moment at that thought. No longer having to fear for her friends lives? No having to push herself to her breaking point, doing anything she was ordered, no matter how she felt about it, just to be certain her loved ones’ safety was assured? She would give anything for that. Even her wings!
Twilight nodded, seeming to know the answer. “Then we have to keep Nightmare Moon from interfering with Stellar’s spell to free Celestia from the moon. Come on!”
With that, Twilight took off, not even looking behind to see if the Pegasus was following suit.
Nightmare struggled to keep the miserable Moon Princess under control. Whatever that rainbow light was, it has disrupted her hold.
“Be silent and remain as you are, you miserable foal!” she hissed as she fought to keep control.
No, Nightmare. That foal, whomever she is, has done something to disrupt your hold on me and I will not let her efforts be in vain, the little princess responded, her tone determined. I will not simply let you take control again!
“That foal will die, and then so shall her lavender chaperon, once I have the Time Magic she spoke of,” Nightmare hissed back. “The only pony whom ever stood a chance against me is lock in the moon, and shall never be free, leaving me to rule the night forever!”
I would not be so sure of that, Nightmare.
Was... was she smirking?! Nightmare could swear, locked within her own body, that little runt of a princess was smirking! What did she think she had to smirk about?
Suddenly, she felt it. A surge of magical energy the likes of which she could only compare to one power, though this was not nearly as powerful.
Looking up, Nightmare’s eyes widened in horror.
The filly that looked like herself was high in the sky, her horn aimed at the moon. Coming from her horn was a rainbow of magical energy, which was colliding with the moon, where the eye of the pony silhoute was shining brightly.
She could feel it. Her spell was being broken. Celestia would soon be free!
“No!” she roared, flying as fast as she could with Luna trying to wrest control of her body back and the discomfort caused by that rainbow light that had followed that explosion.
Her path was blocked, however, by the purple Alicorn from before. “Sorry, Nightmare. But I’m not letting you stop Stellar from reuniting with her aunt.”
Nightmare faltered. Aunt? Aunt? She was freeing Celestia, stars damn it, not her aunt.
Wait. Unless. That name.
She... she has the name I would have given my daughter, Luna’s voice grated on her ears, sounding hopeful. If... if Celestia’s her aunt, does that me her mother... her mother is...?
“Move aside, or you will be blasted to Tartarus for you treason, foal!” Nightmare snapped, glaring at Twilight with hate.
Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound, and Nightmare was knocking aside by a passing flying object.
Once she’d righted herself, her eyes widened before narrowing in rage as the cyan mare with the buzz-cut mane. However, there was something new about her appearance that threw the black Alicorn off.
“Captain Rainbow Dash, what are you doing and what happened to your wings?!” she demanded.
Dash blinked, before glancing at her wings, her eyes widening. “Huh? How did...?”
“The Rainboom’s harmonic energies must have gotten rid of whatever spell Nightmare was using to make your wings like that,” the purple Alicorn said, sounding irritatingly cheery.
“Alright!” the cyan mare cheered, pumping a hoof in the air, before folding her forelegs and smirking. “Oh, and Nightmare? I quit, you ugly, miserable, evil old hag.”
A vain above Nightmare’s right eye twitched. She... did she just dare—?
Her thoughts were interpreted when a flash of white light blinded them all.
As her eyes readjusted, Nightmare turned to where the filly was and both felt terror, along with malicious joy, especially the latter when Luna’s mournful cries rang out within her.
The imprint of a pony on the moon was gone. In the air, next to her younger double, stood a tall white-coated mare with a mane of pink, green, white and blue.
However, the state of said being brought only joy to the heartless mare.
Celestia was struggling to hover next to the small filly, who had leaped forward and hugged the mare’s barrel, which was unhealthily thin.
But, her joy was short-lived as the filly called out, “Twilight! Rainbow Dash! Get Auntie Celestia down to the ground safely, okay?”
Both mares in question glanced at each other, before they flew over to the two Alicorns and began helping Celestia towards the ground.
“As if I’d give them the chance,” Nightmare sneered, moving to fly down and stop the trio before they reach the land below, but was stopped as a field of star shoot in front of her, forming into the filly, who looked pityingly at her.
“You know, in my time, you and I became friends, Nightmare. We even joined together to fight a common foe later on. You? You’ll never be that lucky.”
“Oh, really, little foal?” Nightmare sneered, looking down at the foolish foal before her. “And just how to you know that?”
“In the time I come from, six mares came together and used the Elements of Harmony to stop you and free Princess Luna, returning her to Celestia.” Her expression saddened a little. “In this time though, they never did come together. But, there is still one thing bound together by those mares from that time, here, in this one.”
“Oh, really?” Nightmare laughed. While she could pass this off as a foal making up a story, she felt it was partially true, so why not indulge herself by giving the child hope for the future before snuffing her out? “And just what would that be, my little pony?” she leered.
The filly’s face became determined, her eyes fix on Nightmare as she cried, “ME!”
Her voice rang with power and echoed in the night all around.
Suddenly, a rumbling came from below.
Looking down, Nightmare saw the ruins of her castle shaking. At once, a bright flash came from nowhere and six dots of light shot up at them from Nightmare had no idea where.
The light flew up surrounding the filly.
Nightmare’s eyes widened as she looked at the five diamond-shaped jewels and purple, six-pointed star. The Elements of Harmony? But how? She had not been able to find them since her return. How had this foal just summoned them out of nowhere?!
“Inside me is the blood of all the mares whom embodied each of these Elements,” the filly stated firmly. “That means their, energies, their spirits, flow though me. I was broken when I first arrived, but now I can speak with honesty and say I’m whole, with no regrets about that. My loyalty to those I love with stay strong and I will keep them safe from you. I will bring laughter and joy back to those you stole it from for so long. And I will prove my generosity and show kindness by doing something you never could! That is what I am, Nightmare and with this magic, I’ll show you just what can happen when one’s heart is in the right place and not focused only on themself!”
As she’d spoken, each Element changed its shape. The Element of Honesty turned into what looked like an apple. The Element of Loyalty turned into the shape of a lightning bolt. The Element of Laughter took on a form that somewhat remained Nightmare of a balloon. The Elements of Generosity and Kindness took on the form of a diamond and butterfly respectively.
At the end of the filly’s speech, all the Elements began shining brightly and started spinning in a sphere around her.
Nightmare tried to move, but Luna chose this moment to use everything she had, forcing Nightmare to remain froze, with no chance of escape.
The filly’s eyes shone with a white light, before a blast of rainbow light exploded from her, surging towards and consuming Nightmare.
“NO!” she screamed as she felt the energies of the Elements envelop her once again. “THIS CAN’T BE HOW IT ENDS!”
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike and Celestia all shielded their eyes as they watched Nightmare Moon being consumed by the rainbow light of the Elements.
Celestia hung her head; her heart heavy with the knowledge that her sister had been bested once again, only this time, banishment was not what she had received.
Silence fell for a long while after the light had faded. Nopony spoke, wondering what had happened.
‘Hey!” Spike called out after what felt to all like hours of silence. “I see Stellar! And she’s got Princess Luna with her!”
Celestia head shot up. Sure enough, the young filly was floating down towards them, the Elements encircling her, a blue mare only slightly bigger than the young purple Alicorn floating in her magic.
The young Alicorn landed, gently lowering the other Alicorn down in front of her.
Celestia struggled to move forward, Rainbow Dash and Twilight quickly coming to her aid to keep her steady.
“I’ll leave you to get reantiquated with you little sister, Auntie,” the youngest Alicorn said, giving a small nod. “There are several more things I must do to completely reinstate harmony, but I will return. Twilight, stay with her. Rainbow Dash?”
The cyan mare stood straight and saluted, before raising an eyebrow in confusion at her own actions. “Whilst I am unaware as to how this world sees you, you must come with me whilst I announce Nightmare Moon’s fall and Princess Celestia and Luna’s return. Can I trust you to help me do this?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Dash responded, almost automatically, causing her eyebrows to scrunch in confusion and the filly to chuckle.
“Then we’ll be back soon. Twilight, I’m trusting our family in your hooves, okay?”
The purple mare nodded, giving a smile. “Sure, Stellar.”
With another nod, the filly Alicorn took to the air quickly, the cyan pony, now no longer hidden in any way under dark armour, flying along with her.
“If you say “I wish you didn’t have to go”, I swear I’ll lock you back in the moon myself, both of you,” I groan, knowing that is exactly what they had been about to say, either both or each separately.
They both blush, before nodding.
It has been about a month since Nightmare Moon was defeated. Using the Elements’ power, I had removed any of the taint she had spread across the world, as well as dealt with several group revering her as the True Princess.
Rainbow’s presence, telling all how Nightmare was gone and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were back was met with uncertainty, but joy at the same time. It seemed, somehow, the ponies of Equestria had known Dash’s displeasure towards Nightmare and that she’d been serving her against her will, putting on an act to keep Nightmare from thinking Dash would turn against her.
We ran into Fluttershy and Gilda in Trottingham. Somehow, during all the chaos of what Nightmare had enforced on the world, the two had wound up together and kept each other safe, even developed feelings for each other.
Applejack, as it turned out, along with the rest of her family, had moved to Appleloosa not long after Nightmare’s rein, Pinkie and her own family ending up there too when Nightmare Moon had deemed their rock farm worthless and had it torn down.
Celestia and Luna had recovered from their draining experiences with Nightmare Moon respectfully, Celestia taking a bit longer than Luna due to having been cut off from her own magic. I’d had to raise the sun myself whilst she and her sister were recovering.
Now, however, it was time to go. I had returned the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, after helping Celestia and Luna regain their bonds with them (Luna returning to how her regaler form with her dark-blue coat and summer evening star-field for a mane and tail) and using them on Discord’s statue to ensure he didn’t break out once I left and my own connection to the Elements was cut off.
“Okay, Stellar,” Twilight says, walking over to the map and stepping up onto it, Spike following suit and standing next to her. “Ready to go.”
I nod. “Just one last thing, Twilight.” I turn and walk over to Luna, who is looking forlornly at me. “One last promise I have to keep. When I told Nightmare I would show her kindness, I meant what I said.” My horn glows and something appears held in my forelegs.
Everypony gasps at what it is: a small sleeping foal, with a black coat, wings and a horn and a starry-field for a mane and tail.
I look up to Luna, whose eyes are wide. “Like I said, I meant what I said. I cannot be your daughter, Luna. I have called the other Lunas from the other alternate times Twilight Spike and I have been to Mama, but I cannot now do so for you. To show kindness, that honour belongs to this little one.” I levitate the little bundle out of my forelegs and over to Luna, who cautiously takes it and holds it gentle. “Take good care of her. Let her be the Stellar Nova she was meant to be and not the Nightmare she thought she was.”
Luna looks down at the foal for several moments, before tears form in her eyes and she looks to me with a soft smile. “Thank you.”
I nod, before moving to the map and getting up, joining Twilight and Spike as she casts the spell and we’re pulled back in time, determined to stop Starlight more than ever.
Time Troubles part 10 Tirekverse: There is Such a Thing as Too Much Magic
The moment we are let out of the portal, Twilight and I spread our wings and Twilight fires a beam, which impacting Starlight just as she’s coming out from hiding behind a cloud to ambush us again, trapping her in a crystal just like she did to us before we found ourselves in that world where the Changeling Invasion had succeeded.
We fly over, Twilight glaring at Starlight as hard as I am. “Now more than ever I know how important it is to stop you!” she growls.
I glare back. Now that I am whole, I can remember several normal ponies’ lifetimes worth of memories and, seeing all the peace in the past and knowing Starlight self-centred goals threaten that peace? Any hopes she had of redemption in my eyes is small at best. Even Discord never caused the havoc her actions have invoked.
I may have helped those three other realities into a much more peaceful time, but many died in those worlds before we got there, all because Starlight wants to get revenge on Twilight for only stopping her from forcing a horrible existence on others.
Suddenly there’s a bright flash and Starlight shatters the crystal, floating into the air with her magic. “Well, good luck!”
She flies off quickly and we move to stop her. We chase after her though the clouds, but lose sight too fast.
“The race!” I shout, turning into a cloud and shooting off towards where it’s happening, Twilight using her magic to keep up with me via teleports.
But, just as we reach where the race is happening, as Dash passes by a cloud, a hoof with fur the same colour as Starlight pops out and causing the rainbow-maned filly to lose her balance and go careening downward in a spiral.
We move faster, maybe we can reach Dash and get her in the air again in time to—
Twilight’s cry causes me to glance back and see she’s quickly being pulled into the time portal again.
Growling under my breath, I turn back and shoot over to her, returning to physical form as I’m pulled in with her, dreading what we might find next.
We drop out of the portal and I’m once again left feeling the wrongness of the world around us.
But my thoughts are quickly drawn to the shaking ground and sounds of destruction.
Looking up, we all pale. Tirek is a giant and using her magic to blast at the Everfree.
I pause for a moment, cocking an eyebrow. That’s honestly something I never got, even after Twilight explained how Tirek’s attack happened.
Why, after getting all the Alicorn magic, had he just started destroying things?
Then again, my new old memories from the centuries past show many would-be conquers who would just destroy stuff for the sake of destroying stuff.
“Let get out of here!” I glance back to see Spike holding up the rolled up scroll.
I glare at both him and the purple Alicorn he’s riding on. “Belay that action, Twilight Sparkle,” I say with an authoritive tone. “We will leave once I have dealt with Tirek.”
“What?” they both cry.
“How are you possibly going to stop Tirek?!” Twilight eyes widen at me. “Since I wasn’t an Alicorn in this timeline, the princesses never got a chance to hide their magic. He no doubt took it along with all the magic in Equestria!”
I smirk. “Indeed. He does have my mother’s magic inside of him. But, would his body cope with twice its power?”
“Huh?” they both cock an eyebrow.
“Just watch and enjoy the show,” I grin, before glancing back with a firm expression. “And that is a royal order, Princess Twilight, by the authority of my mother. Do not interfere with what I’m about to do. Equestria’s fate depends on it... probably. Unless I’m wrong, in which case, we can kiss our plots goodbye.”
With my piece said, and some trolling that would make Auntie Tia laugh proud done, I fly off towards the rampaging centaur. I’m going to enjoy watching this. Without Discord’s magic, as I doubt he has been freed, thus Tirek couldn’t steal Discord’s Chaos Magic, this will work for me.
Tirek couldn’t wipe the grin from his face as he destroyed the forest around him.
After he had taken the princesses’ magic, it had been trivial to take the magic from every single pony in Equestria. Sure, he didn’t have to destroy the forest, but he wanted them to witness his new power and know beyond a doubt that this was their reality.
He was now their ruler and would control their whole way of life and there was nothing they could do about it. In fact, when the other nations foolishly tried to come to Equestria’s aid, he would revel in defeating them and taking age of their races’ magic as well. One could never have too much magic, after all.
“Hey! Tirek!”
He blinked, before stopping his magical fire and turning, only to blink in confusion.
Hovering before him was a small black filly, with dragon-like blue eyes and a mane and tail that looked like they were made of stars. However, it was that, the fact that she was flying and that she had wings and a horn that took his attention.
“What?” he frowned in confusion. “There’s a fourth pony princess?”
The little filly smirked at him, she actually smirked at him. “Uh-huh. But you can’t take my magic. You can’t handle it.”
At once his eyes narrowed as he sneered, grabbing the filly in his magic and holding her in place, where she started squirming against his hold.
“Wrong, little princess,” he chuckled. “I have already taken the magic from every pony in Equestria, including the three princesses. A fourth Alicorn’s magic is nothing to that.”
He activated his spell, opening his mouth and breathing in, but he was not breathing air.
The filly grunted and whined as her dark-blue magic was drained out of her. Interestingly enough, once he had taken all her magic, her mane and tail disappeared.
Not caring, he grabbed her in his hand as he grew even larger than he already was, shuddering as he felt her magic flowing into him to join the pool of magic he’d obtained.
He laughed. “What made you think you could stop me from taking you magic, foolish equine?” he sneered. “Did you really think a foal like you could stop me, when even the older princesses, who have lived far longer than you, could do nothing to stop me?”
The now bald of a mane and tail filly struggled against him for a few moments, before she stopped, grinning at him. “You really are dumb for a centaur.”
He blinked. That was not the reaction he’d been expecting. Crippling fear and begs for forgiveness were what she should be experiencing and doing. Why was she still so cocky?
The filly just laughed. “Do I not look a bit familiar, Tirek? Another Alicorn, with a black coat and blue, dragon-like eyes? Does that not ring any bells?”
He blinked for a few moments, before his eyebrow rose a bit. “Nightmare Moon?”
The filly shrugged. “Eh, kinda. Sorta am, sorta not.”
He laughed. Her ease about the situation was rather amusing. “It would seem all those years on the moon and then separating from your host upon return has done a number to your mind, Nightmare.”
“At least I’m not the one dumb enough to put mine and my mother’s magic together.”
Her snark retort caused him to pause, before glancing down to her in confusion. “Mother?”
She sighed, as if in disappointment. “Wow. You’re lot thicker than I was told. It’s a shame. You could’ve been amazing.”
Suddenly, Tirek felt something churn lightly inside him. He glanced down at his stomach, where the well of magic he’d taken was pooled.
Twilight and Spike just gaped as they watched what was unfolding.
Tirek stumbled back, letting go of Stellar and clutching at his stomach, before letting out a gut-wrenching scream, before magic exploded from his mouth, pouring out into the sky, before separating into billions and billions of differently colours steams of magic.
Both dragon and Alicorn just stared, watching the fireworks displace the likes an beauty of which would never been seen by another soul, not its meanings felt so powerfully.
As they watched, Stellar landed before them, her mane and tail back to normal, her magic returned, just as the rest of Equestria was receiving its magic back.
“What... what did you do?” Spike asked, his eyes still on the countless sparkling, multi-coloured lights soaring across the skies.
Stellar rolled her eyes. “I’d have thought Twilight would’ve figured that out by now.”
“I... I think I understand,” Twilight said, though her voice was filled with uncertainty.
“Then, by all means, please enlighten our draconic friend, big sister,” the younger Alicorn smirked at the drake.
“Luna and Stellar are separate beings, so their magic is also separate. However, their magic is still very similar to each other’s own. When the similar powers collided, both recognized the other and wanted to get away, one thinking the other was going to corrupt it, the other confused by the first’s presence. This resulted in an unstable magical surge within the great pool of magic within Tirek, forcing his body to reject it all.”
Spike blinked, before he wore a cross between a deadpan and disgust. “You mean... Tirek barfed magic vomit?
“A... little more unsettling a way to think about it than I’d like to think,” Stellar said, looking a little green. “But, yeah, Spike. That’s the gist of it. Though Twilight isn’t completely accurate with her guess.”
The older Alicorn turned to the younger, cocking an unamused eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? Well, what did I get wrong; little miss I’ll Just Go Let Tirek Take My Magic Without Explaining it to My Big Sister, When That Could Have Ended Horribly?”
The dark filly smirked. “Are you forgetting the super charge my magic got thanks to the Elements back in that Nightmareverse?”
Twilight frowned. “No, why?”
Stellar rolled her eyes. “Come on, Twilight. You’re smarter than that. It means my connection to the Elements, despite moving to another timeline again, is really strong, because I share yours and all the other Bearers’ blood inside me. Sure, what you said about mine and Mama’s magic interacting the way they did is true, but it’s also that my magic was super charged thanks to the Elements and connected to them all. You really think Tirek’s body could’ve handled that kinda power?”
Twilight blinked. Then she blinked again. then she wilted a bit, shuddering. “Um... let’s just go back now to stop Starlight, shall we?”
Stellar nodded. “Yeah. This ain’t like before. From what I can guess from Tirek’s words, Mama’s not Nightmare Moon in this timeline, so we can leave them all no problem. Besides, after Tirek’s attack, learning about two new Alicorns, one with a Cutie Mark that looks like the Element of Magic and another that looks like Nightmare Moon, would probably cause more problems for us. So, let’s go.”
“Hey, Stellar?” Spike asked as they got onto the table and Twilight took the scroll, ready to cast the spell.
“Yeah, Spike?” the filly asked, looking to him innocently.
“What’d you do with Tirek?”
Stellar smirked. “With my magic freshly returned, I connected to the Elements here briefly and used their power to send him back to Tartarus. Cerberus will be keeping a very close eye on him from here on out.”
With that, the portal opened and they were whisked back in time once again.
What the three did not know, is that they had not gone unnoticed.
Though her magic had been taken when she and the other pegasi the Wonderbolts had assembled to stop Tirek, Rainbow Dash had made her way back to her hometown of Ponyville, hoping to warn her friends of the incoming threat.
However, when she got there, Tirek was already there and taking everypony’s magic. She’d watched helplessly as her friends all had their magic taken away right in front of her.
She was the only pony who remained outside as Tirek decided to just start destroying the Everfree Forest. However, when she saw a filly fly up and confront him, she’d feared for the filly, especially when it became clear her magic was being drained out of her.
What she hadn’t expected was for Tirek to scream as magic poured from his mouth. As the magic had left him, he’d shrunken until he was out of sight from the treeline.
With her Pegasus magic back, Rainbow Dash had taken to the air at once to feel the wind beneath her wings, never wanting to lose her ability to fly ever again, before she began searching the direction she estimated Tirek had been in.
As she flew over the partially destroyed forest, she saw no sign of Tirek. However, she did spot the little filly flying over to a pair of others. Looking closer, she was shocked. The filly and the mare were Alicorns and the other one was a small purple dragon.
At once, she went into a dive to get to them in time, but the purple Alicorn had cast some kind of spell after the three had hopped up onto what looked like a table with a map of Equestria on it. There was a flash of light and, as Rainbow landed, she had to blink.
The table and the two Alicorn and dragon were gone. Just, gone. It was like they weren’t ever even there.
“The princesses have to know about this!” she said to herself, before flying off in the direction of Canterlot.
Several hours later, Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance had convened in the location of where Rainbow Dash claimed to have seen the three strangers.
When she had described the Alicorns, Princess Luna had become very alarmed. The younger Alicorn had sounded a lot like Nightmare Moon’s description.
Cadance had been curious when the older Alicorn’s description was told. It reminded her of her sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, the librarian at Canterlot Castle.
“Are you sure this is the place, Miss Dash?” Celestia asked, glancing to the cyan mare as they neared the spot which seemed like any other bare spot in the area where Tirek had gone of a magical rampage.
The Pegasus nodded. “Affirmative, Your Highness. This is where they disappeared. I don’t know where they went, or why they were even here. All I know is, after Tirek took the filly’s magic, it all came pouring out of him and he wasn’t around when I went searching.”
"Interestingly, I checked in with Cerberus and it would seem Tirek is back in his cell in Tartaus. He was curled up in a ball, rocking back and fourth, mumbling something about never wanting to touch magic again."
“I don’t understand,” Luna shook her head, frowning at the ground. “If Nightmare Moon has returned, does it mean she has taken over another pony, a foal?”
The Pegasus shook her head. “I know the story of your transformation, princess, but that filly was definitely an Alicorn and there are no other Alicorns save the three of you and the one currently growing inside Princess Cadance.”
The pink Alicorn squirmed. “I wish you’d worded that differently. You made my pregnancy sound... icky.”
“Besides,” Dash went on as if Cadance hadn’t interrupted, “if that really was Nightmare Moon controlling another filly, she’d have lost her hold the moment Tirek took hers and the filly’s magic. On top of which, I know the Nightmare changed you, but I doubt it could turn a pony who wasn’t an Alicorn into one and give it the same Cutie Mark you did after she took over you, princess.”
Luna nodded, frowning. “True, the Nightmare cannot turn ponies into Alicorns. Such a spell does not even exist, save the failed attempt by Starswirl the Bearded. But, in that case, it stands to reason that, somehow, Nightmare has gained a physical body of her own. How? And, if she has her own body, why save Equestria when she could have simply killed Tirek, leaving nopony to stand in her way?”
“And why was she with an Alicorn that looked like my sister-in-law?” Cadance asked, frowning in confusion. “You even said she had the same Cutie Mark as Twilight. How is that even possible?”
Their little conversation was halted. Celestia had just stepped into the centre of where Rainbow Dash and said the table was, and her eyes were wide.
“Sister?”
“Auntie?”
Both younger Alicorns and the Pegasus moved closer, wondering what was wrong.
“The tree,” Celestia murmured.
Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow, but Cadance and Luna glanced at each other, an uncertain understanding entering their eyes.
“Sister, you do not mean...?” Luna asked, moving over to stand next to Celestia, but gasped herself when she felt the magical pull.
“I do,” Celestia nodded. “You sense it too, don’t you, Luna? Somehow, the Tree or Harmony’s magic is strong, but also faint in this stop. Whilst I cannot say what exactly has happened, the Tree of Harmony had a part to play.”
“Do you think they’re still out there somewhere?” Cadance asked, coming over to her aunts, Rainbow Dash just giving a raised eyebrow at the slightly three-sided conversation that she was being left out of.
Celestia frowned. “I am uncertain, my niece. However, I think it would be wise to find these three and thank them.” She turned and nodded to one of the Royal Guards, a white Pegasus with a blonde mane, that were all standing in a circle around the area. “Lieutenant?”
“Yes, Your Highness?” he said, stopping in front of her and saluting.
“I want a team assembled of several of your most skilled knowledge gathers. They are to be assigned to the task of finding these two Alicorns and their dragon companion at once. Equestria owes everything to them for stopping Tirek, however they did it.”
The Lieutenant saluted again. “At once, Your Highness.”
With that he left, flying off back towards Canterlot to arrange for the team.
“We must find them,” Luna said firmly. “I wish to know why Nightmare did not harm our subjects now that she has her own body.”
“And I wouldn’t mind speaking with this Alicorn double of Twilight,” Cadance said, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Whilst I do wish to thank them for what they’ve done, I’ll admit, I am mainly curious about the small dragon you said was with them, Miss Rainbow Dash,” Celestia gave a small smile. “From your description, it was a baby dragon. I will also be sending a time to speak with the Dragon King to learn if he has allowed anymore of his kind into Equestria. For a dragon to be so comfortable around two Alicorns, it is curious.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind testing my speed against that purple Alicorn, myself,” Dash smirked. “Maybe I finally found a pony who can keep up with me.”
With that, Dash returned to Ponyville, whilst the princesses returned to their castles, waiting to learn about these two new Alicorns and their dragon companion.
Time Troubles part 11 Discordverse: Outsmarted by a Foal. How embarrassing
Once again as we come out of the portal, Twilight fires a beam of magic at Starlight. But, it misses, hitting Rainbow Dash as she’s talking to the colts, entrapping her in a block of crystal.
I grind my teeth as Starlight gives a mocking clap and smile.
I lunge forward to attack her and then free Rainbow so that maybe the Rainboom can still happen, but I hear and feel the Time Portal opening up behind us and get pulled back in.
When we fall out of the portal this time, our landing is oddly soft... and squeaks?
We each push ourselves out of the pile of what I now see are... rubber chickens (?) and look around.
At once I can see Equestria looks horrible. It’s all crazy with nothing making sense. I can only remember one other time it was like this, my memories from when Mama and Auntie Tia’s battles against Discord over a thousand years ago.
Suddenly, something runs past us and I turn to see what it is... before I feel my blood boil.
It’s Mama and Auntie Tia and their manes and tails are poofed out like afros and they’re wearing red rubber clown noses. Chasing after them, riding a unicycle and wearing a crown and cape, holding a golden sceptre with his head on it is Discord.
Floating a little nearby is an upside down house that might be his (?), with a pink filly whose colours look very similar to Diamond Tiara is standing there, a simple happy smile on her face.
He dares... he dares to do something so humiliating to my family?!
Before Twilight can do anything I burst from the pile of rubber chickens and soaring at the mismatched creature.
Discord turns at the last second before my hoof, surrounded by my magical aura, collides with his face.
He goes flying off into the distance, making the shouting sound Goofy is known for in Disney cartoon, before a tiny lit sparkles like a star on the horizon.
Suddenly I find myself caught with a tail wrapped around me and Discord looking at me with curiosity. “Hmm? Well, this is unexpected. A time traveling pony? And where did you come from, little one?”
I’m not going to bother questioning how he figured out I traveled through time. I’ve other matters.
“Let the princesses go and stop all this Chaos, now, Discord!”
He looks blankly at me for a moment, before he bursts into laughter, rolling on the checked ground.
“Oh, you are hysterical!” he laughs, before calming down and giving me a sly smile. “Now, why would I do that?”
I glare at him. “Because, if you win a little game, I’ll be your faithful servant for all eternity.”
“No, little foal!” Celestia cries from where she and her sister have stopped running and are looking my way with concern.
“Do not throw your life away!” Mama cries, looking very scared. “He is too powerful!”
“Oh, quiet, you two,” Discord says, clicking his fingers, causing the two mares to now be balancing on a giant beach ball each and juggling vases with poison joke in them. “This deal is between myself and the filly here.”
“So, we got a deal then?” I ask, glaring at him. “If I win you stop all this craziness, put everything back the way it was before, exactly as it was and only use your magic to protect Equestria from threats to it, and never cause anything but small annoyances for any being ever again.”
He blinks. “You’re not just going to insist I stop altogether?”
“You really think you would?” I deadpan.
He shrugs. “Point taken. Now, since you challenged me, I believe I should get to chose the game. Doesn’t that seem fair?”
I nod. “On your word, Discord. Chaos Vow.”
His eyes widen. “How do you know about...? You know, what? Never mind. I can make you tell me when I win, not to mention learn just how you traveled through time. Oh, the Chaos I could create with a spell like that. Fine, by the laws of Chaos, I vow to uphold my side of the deal if I lose.” He smirks. “Though that is a big if.”
I just inwardly smirk. I know Discord pretty well thanks to all the time I’ve spent with him. Even if this is a different Discord, one who doesn’t know the importance of friendship, he’s still the same Discord.
And I’ve learned a few tricks about how to manipulate him, which has only been helped thanks to now being whole.
Even he can’t break a Chaos Vow. They’re tied into his very core. If he were to even try to break it, his magic would turn against him and never work for him when he wanted it to, stopping chaos and instead causing harmony.
All I have to do, is win.
“Ah-ha! A question!” he sneers. There’s a flash and I’m suddenly sitting behind a counter like in the game show Sale of the Century, whist Discord is sitting at a podium with flash cards in his hands. “Answer this simple, single question correctly, I you win the game.”
I nod, though I’m suddenly a little nervous, going over every memory I have, which now stretches far into the past. I sure hope whatever question he asks will have something to do with one of my long past memories.
He gives a fake-innocent smile. “On to the question then. How did I come to be me?” he then leans back in a hammock, grinning. “Only Sunpie and Moonpie know the answer to this question. Even if you had a century to think about it, you’d never guess—”
“Starswirl the Beared's incomplete Alicorn Spell.”
He freezes (literally) for a moment, before thawing out and staring at me blankly. “Wh... wha?”
“Originally you were a unicorn. However, after attempting to cast a spell Starswirl the Bearded created to make more Alicorns, you turned into the form you presently have and were shunned by society, though nopony ever learned you used Starswirl's spell nor know about it til this day aside from the princesses of the sun and moon, so Starswirl the Bearded is still revered by all, since none of them know he unintentionally created a being of pure Chaos,” I state, like reading of a flash card.
“I... but how did...? When could you have...?” he stutters, looking completely flabbergasted.
I smile innocently. “I win.”
At once there’s an explosion of white light. When it fades, everything looks normal again and we’re all standing in a field of flowers.
Discord’s lying slumped on the ground in front of me, looking annoyed and depressed. “How... how did you know? Nopony should know.”
I roll my eyes. “Discord, I’m a time traveler and you knew that right from the beginning. Didn’t you think once that I might have knowledge of stuff other ponies don’t? Besides,” I look to Mama and wink, “my Mama kinda shared it with me.”
“Huh?” the three of them say, looking confused.
“Well, that’s that,” I walk over to Twilight and Spike, both of whom have their mouths hanging open. “Twilight, let’s go back now.”
“Um... sure,” she says uncertainly, levitating the scroll out to cast the spell again (I give Discord a quick glare to remind him he’s no allowed to do anything to us either and he wilts under my gaze). “Um... what was the answer to his question? I didn’t quite hear it from over here.”
I shake my head. “Some things are better you not know Twilight. If you’re meant to know, you’ll learn so in the future.”
She frowns, pouting, before casting the spell.
“Don’t worry,” I call out to the other Alicorns as we’re pulled into the portal. “He literally can’t cause any big problems anymore. You’re welcome!”
Time Troubles part 12 FlimFlamverse: A Technicality Everypony Overlooks
For a third time we fly out of the portal, this time both Twilight and myself preparing a blast of magic, but halt when we see Starlight is levitating Fluttershy through the course, the bully colts cheering her own and joining the yellow filly in flying.
Starlight turns to us, sneering.
Damn it! If she knew what she was causing by doing this than...
Wait. Why didn't we think of this before? We just need to take her back in time with us. If she sees what she’s done (don’t know why she hasn’t seen the results before, has she not been sent back long enough to find out?), she’ll stop and we can end all this and get time back on course.
However, no sooner have I thought this then I feel the pull of the portal and deadpan as its light blinds me. Next time that portal opens up, we are taking her with us.
When we drop out of the portal it’s again on the table. However, we barely get a second to look at the normal-looking Ponyville in the distance before a large yellow crane arm grabs a tree that is right next to the map, before the tree is uprooted.
I stare in shock at the ponies operating the crane. Flim and Flam?! What in Equestria is going on?
“What the heck is that?”
Spike’s cry turns my attention to where he’s looking before my ears wilt, realizing just where we are.
We're on Sweet Apple Acres, but you wouldn’t know it from looking. I only recognize it because... well, I’ve got Apple blood inside me, so maybe that’s why?
Anyway, along with the entire field baron of trees, there are several factory looking places in the distance, all of them spewing large amounts of black smoke into the air, polluting the skies.
“Stellar, wait.” I pause, looking to Twilight. “Before you go off half-crazed, we should understand what’s going on first. Trust me; I want to hurt them just as much as you for ruining AJ’s farm.”
Growling at not being able to do anything, I nod and hop off the map with Twilight, who erects a barrier around the map. “Don’t want them accidently damaging it.”
“Nothing's an accident with those jerks,” Spike mutters. “So, where do we go first?”
Before Twilight can answer him, I feel a pull of something and turn towards one of the buildings spewing black smoke into the air.
“This way,” I say, before heading off in that direction.
“Stellar, what are you—?” Twilight begins.
“Something’s pulling me this way,” I say, glancing over my shoulder. “Something in my blood.”
They both look at each other, before sighing and following me.
Using my magic, I open the doors to one of the, I’ve decided factory is the best word, and enter, Twilight and Spike following behind me.
What’s before us makes my heart stop and my eyes widen in horror.
The Apples are all working on some kind of assembly line. It sort of looks like the one from back in that timeline where Sombra was waging war on Equestria, but there are some things that are vastly different.
For one, Applejack and Big Mac are standing by the conveyer like in the last world, but they’re not wearing the same clothing. In fact, they’re wearing what look like the Flim Flam brothers’ vests and they’ve had their manes and tails shaven horribly short.
Rarity is over by another machine, making designs for the cans.
Fluttershy is nearby another machine, sobbing as each of her animals is running in some kind of treadmill wheel.
Rainbow is hovering in the air, flapping her wings really hard to turn turbines on the machines.
However, the thing that causes me to see red is Apple Bloom in a treadmill wheel like Fluttershy’s animals, only she’s having to run more than five times as fast as them and looks more miserable than I have ever seen her. She has a look of hopelessness in her eyes that hurt and angers my very core.
“WHAT IN EQUESTRIA HAPPENED HERE?!” I scream in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
At once, everything halts, almost hysterically. Apple Bloom and the animals stop, causing them to be caught in the momentum of the wheels, which spin them around and around before they’re sent flying, Apple Bloom crashing into the conveyer where Big Mac and AJ were working, and most of Fluttershy’s animals crashing into where Rarity was working.
Angel Bunny’s the only one who doesn’t, but that’s only because he gets set flying into Dash, knocking her off-course and causing her to tumble.
When the dust finally clears, the whole factory looks more like a scrap metal junkyard.
“Now why in the hay did ya do that?” Applejack demands, glaring at me. “Ya’ll realize the trouble we’re all gonna be in fer this?”
“It’s worse than that time we got the wrong designs and sent thousands of cans out,” Rarity shudders. “I still have nightmares about what they said would happen to Sweetie if I made another mistake.” With that she bursts into tears, Fluttershy moving over to comfort the unicorn.
My right eye twitches. Flim and Flam... threatened Sweetie Belle?
I speak in a deadly calm tone. “What. Happened?”
Dash frowns. “What are you talking about? Look around!” she indicates to the trash dump of metal around us. “You can see this, right?”
“I mean how in tartarus did Flim and Flam get these horrible factories and get all of you working for them? And why in Celestia’s name are you working for them when they’ve been tearing up your farm, AJ?!”
The farm mare wilts, before looking down, her ears folded and sighs. “Well, guessin’ yer new here, or else ya wouldn’t be askin’. About a year back, they came t’ town and challenged us for the rights to sell cider here. We lost and they took the farm.”
“Why?”
“Ah just said: we lost,” Applejack frowns at me. “Ain’t that hard ta figure out—”
“No!” I shout over her. “Why are you working for them? Couldn’t you have gone to Appleloosa, or Manehatten or one of the other dozens of places our family makes a living? You could’ve found work anywhere!”
“Well, it’s because Mr. Flim and Mr. Flam—” she pauses, looking to me with confusion. “Our family?”
I groan, slamming my face with a hoof. “We don’t have time! We need to get you all out of here, now! I’m not leaving you all to—”
“We can’t,” Dash sighs dejectedly. “Sure, we could leave, but they’ve got our families.”
My eye twitches again. “What?”
“Mr. Flim and Mr. Flam used the profits from Sweet Apple Acres to buy out all of Ponyville,” Rarity sighs, gently pushing Fluttershy away. “They used all that wealth get butter up some nobles who would keep things quiet and then went about taking members of our families hostage.”
“They got Granny Smith for us, Scootaloo for Dash and Sweetie Belle for Rarity,” Applejack sighs.
“And Miss Cheerilee,” Mac says gloomily.
“Why hasn’t the princess done anything?” Twilight looks from one to the other. “Surely she’d have learned about this during visits.”
“The princess, visit here?” Dash snorts darkly. “Those stupid nobles keep her and Luna away from here.”
“What about my M— I mean, Princess Luna?” I frown. “She walks dreams, doesn’t she? She should have learned about this ages ago.”
Fluttershy shakes her head. “Flim and Flam have some kind of magical field around Ponyville. It gives ponies good dreams, so the princess doesn’t think she’s needed here.”
Oh, great. So, those stupid unicorns are even starting the trend of Mama feeling unneeded, the same thing that lead to Nightmare Moon. Just wonderful.
“Wait,” Twilight frowns, her expression one of deep thought.
“What is it, Twilight?” Spike asks and I look to her too.
“Something just occurred to me,” she says, shaking her head. “Applejack, do you have a copy of the deal between you and the Flim Flam brothers? Proof that they won?”
She nods sadly, before lifting the tiny square head atop her head and holds out a sheet of paper, which Twilight levitates over. “Ah keep it with me all the time, t’ remind mahself of what Ah’ve done and—”
“Ah HA!” Twilight yells, causing us all to jump.
“What?” Spike and I ask together, everypony looking cautiously at Twilight.
She holds up the paper. “This only says they had the rights to sell cider.”
“So?” Apple Bloom grumbles, looking downcast at the ground. “Jus’ meant they had the right t’ kick us off—”
“But they didn’t.”
We all look to Twilight, who has a huge grin on her face. “This only says they had the rights to sell the cider. What happened AJ?”
“Well, they took over the farm like they were allowed and...” she blinked. “Wait a minute. We never agreed to givin’ them the farm if’n they won, did we? They just took it, and we were so depressed about losin' the cider busniess and tryin'a figure out how we'd get by without it we didn’t even question it!”
Each pony stares with wide eyes at the three of us as they absorb that.
Quickly using my old memories of law and quickly looking over the form myself, I realize they’re right. Flim and Flam only gained the rights to sell cider in Ponyville, but they had no legal claims to the farm.
“Spike, write a letter,” Twilight says, which causes the others to cock an eyebrow.
Spike, most likely due to habit in my own opinion, quickly pulls a blank scroll (after making sure it was indeed blank and not the Time Travel Spell) and an inked quill, prepared to write.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight began, pacing back and forth. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. You do not know me, but I am contacting you about a horrible breech of the law. I’m sure you’ve heard about the rising FlimFlam Industries—” we saw the name on the crane the two had been driving— “however, they built this business by stealing another from ponies whom I’m sure you will remember: The Apples. The tricked the Apples into a contest a year ago in which the winner would gain all rights to sell cider in Ponyville.
However, Flim and Flam used the depression the Apple Family felt at losing such a big part of their business to take over the farm, leaving the Apples to not realize that the unicorns have no actual claim to the farm and have been forcing the Apples and several others in Ponyville to work for them illegally.
I would also like to inform you that they are holding family and loved ones of the ponies they have forced to work for them hostage to keep them from rebelling or going to the authorities.
For the Apples, the hostage taken from their family is Granny Smith Apple, a pony you yourself met when she was but a young filly and has lived in Ponyville since its founding.
To top it off, I have witnessed them forcing a young filly into horrible manual labor simply because they feel like it, along with having destroyed almost all the trees on the Sweet Apple Acres farm.
Please respond the moment you get this.
Signed, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship and Princess Stellar Nova.”
“Stell-ar No-va,” Spike said, finishing his writing.
“Better put a PS saying I’m Luna daughter,” I add, ignoring the gasps and “Whats” coming from the other. “That’ll get their attention.”
“Got it,” Spike said, putting what I’d said down, before rolling up the scroll and setting it aflame.
“Wait, what?!” Dash shoots forward, glaring at the little drake. “What the heck did you burn it for?!”
“Spike’s fire breath is magic,” I state simply. “Cos Twilight hatch him with her magic, he’s magical himself.”
“Wait he is?” Twilight asks, turning to me.
“I am?” the drake asks, looking just as confused.
“What in Euqestria?!” two angry voices shout from behind us.
Turning around, I see Flim and Flam are looking past us and at the wreckage inside.
“We warned you what would happen if you did anything wrong again,” Flam growls, looking at the mares and Mac with hatred.
“And, even after everything we’ve done for you ungrateful ponies, this is how you repaying us?” Flim indicates to all the damage.
“Oh, blow it out your ass!” I snarl, causing the two unicorns to look to me.
“How dare you, you little brat?!” Flam glares at me. “You dare talk that way to a pony superior to you?”
“Superior, huh?” I just snort and extend my wings, Twilight doing the same.
The two blink for a moment, glancing between the two of us, and I smirk as I watch it slowly dawn on them.
“Y-you’re Alicorns?” Flim squeaks, taking a step back.
“Eeyup,” I growl. “And, in case you can’t tell from the mane and tail, I’m Luna's daughter.”
“Princess Luna had a daughter?” Flam looks gobsmacked. “What? When? How? She was on the moon for a thousand years.”
“Yeah. I was born over a thousand years ago, technically,” I toss my head back. “Oh, and, speaking of my Mama and Auntie, they should be here in three, two, one...”
There’s a bright flash and both Alicorn sisters appear, causing both stallions to yelp. I notice something on the two Alicorns’ front right legs. They look like couplings.
A quick scan with my magic reveals they’re devices with crystal that allow for long-range teleports.
I smirk. No doubt those brothers made those. Oh, irony is so sweet, isn’t it?
Mama and Auntie Tia have a quick look inside, looking at all the damage and the state all the ponies are in, before they turn glares on Flim and Flam.
Before they tell teleport out, as I had just noticed similar couplings on each of their front right legs, I teleport them off them, whilst also casting a spell that prevents teleports for several hours.
“Luna,” Tia says in a deathly calm tone, “I shall take these two scumbags to Canterlot. Will you come with me or...?”
Mama shakes her head. “I... have something to look into, sister. As you know.”
Tia nods, before looking to Twilight. “I do not know who you are, Princess Twilight, nor how you sent me that message. However, your quick actions have likely saved many this day.”
Twilight bows, before Tia teleports away with the two retched unicorns in toe.
With her gone, I turn my attention to the mare who is giving me a very stern glare. “Um... hey, Mama.”
“Wait. She wasn’t joking about that?”
Rainbow’s question is ignored as Mama moves closer, looking down at me. “Nightmare?”
I shake my head. “Not... exactly. I’m what she became... and... your daughter. I’m sorry, it’s hard to explain.”
“Something tells me we’ll have plenty of time for explanations,” she replies, still just as sternly.
“Man, that took forever,” Spike grumbles as we step up onto the map.
Around us are our friends that we met up with in the factory and those of their family and loved ones whom were held hostage.
With what Twilight had brought to light, which I wasn’t surprised had gone unnoticed til now, what with how crafty those damn unicorns were, Flim and Flam are now in jail, serving life for enslavement, theft, foal labour and ponynapping among many other things. And the two nobles who'd been accepting bribes from the two unciorns? Striped of their rank and their assets frozen. They'll now be helping the Apples run their newly replanted farm whilst it gets back on it's hooves, which had taken a month two get somewhat ready.
It was nice, staying in this timeline for a while though. It almost felt like back on Earth, with all the industrial advancement this Equestria has. However, the princesses will be re-evaluating it and making changes so that it is more in harmony with the world around them.
What hadn’t been nice was the time it took to convince Mama I wasn’t Nightmare Moon given form and back to take over Equestria. That had taken a lot of explaining.
However, though she wasn’t motherly to me in any way, Twilight helped convince Mama that I wasn’t a bad pony.
Now, as much as I’ve enjoyed feeling a little like I’m back on Earth, it’s time to head home.
“Remember what we told you, Princess Twilight,” Celestia says as we get into position, Twilight levitating the scroll out to cast the spell. “It is clear this Starlight Glimmer has yet to see what her actions have rort.”
“If you should fail to stop her again, be sure to pull her along with you when the Time Portal opens,” Luna says firmly. “Whilst I have no idea what kind of world she will see, if your tales of your travels through alternate times is any indicator, it will be bleak at best.”
Twilight nods. “I will try to explain it to her. If she will not listen, we will show her.”
“I’m just annoyed I didn’t think that until right before we ended up here, myself,” I pout. “We could’ve saved this world from suffering those... those...”
Grr. Even with my memories now, I don’t feel right saying the really big curse words, even if those two unicorns deserve the worst I know.
Twilight nods again, before looking to everypony as she casts the spell. “Farewell, everypony. I wish you all well.”
“And wish us all luck,” Spike calls as we float up to the portal. “Trust me, we’ll need it!”
As we drop out of the portal we narrowly miss a beam of Starlight’s magic. We turn to see her on a cloud above us.
“Up for another race-ending fight, Twilight?” she jeers down at us.
We fly up; myself giving Starlight a death glare. I want to make her suffer so much for all the pain she’s caused to those alternate versions of the ponies I love. I want to hurt her so much!
As we land on the cloud opposite Starlight, giving us a good bird’s-eye view of where the race will happen, Twilight lowers her head.
“No.”
I almost fall of the cloud. WHAT did Twilight just say?
“You were right,” she goes on, lifting her head to look at Starlight. “I can’t stop you.”
Um... what? Can somepony please explain to me what the heck is going on? Why in Equestria is Twilight giving up?! That’s not like her, not like her at all!
Starlight charges her horn and fires a spell. Before I can do it, Twilight quickly erects a magical barrier around as, stopping the spell cold.
“But you can’t stop me from trying,” she says, glaring at Starlight.
Okay. So, Twilight isn’t giving up?
“And we could be stuck doing this for all eternity!”
Whoa, wait, what? We’re gonna have to do this for eternity?
Well, no. Now that I’m thinking about it, we won’t. Twilight, Spike and I are pretty much immortal. True, Spike isn’t immortal per say, but he’ll live for thousands, maybe millions of years.
The oldest dragon to ever been known to live was over four million years old and Spike’s the first real magical dragon in far longer than that time, plus, he's still just a baby dragon right now, so who knows how long he’ll live.
Starlight, however, is just a normal unicorn. An incredibly powerful and magically gifted unicorn, true, but still just a normal unicorn. She’d die long before we did.
Though, I’m not sure how Twilight, Spike and I will have dealt with the emotional trauma from each altered and horrible future we’d return to by the time Starlight was too old to cast the spell.
“If that’s what it takes to keep you and your friends from getting your Cutie Mark connection, then I’m game!” she finishes by firing a blast of magic at Twilight, who deflects it again with her magical barrier.
Did she seriously just say she was alright with going back and forth like this til the end of her days? She does realize she’ll die long before we do, right?
Every time she’s brought back by the spell when Twilight casts it and does her best to stop the Rainboom, those are more seconds and minutes off of Starlight’s lifespan. Sure, it doesn’t seem like much, but those small bits of time will eventually add up and whilst Twilight, Spike and myself are in technical terms for Alicorns and dragons, young, myself maybe as big as Mama by then, Starlight will become as old, if not older, than Granny Smith in time.
And she seriously just said she’s okay wasting her life away like that? Sweet Celestia, this girl really is bonkers.
“What you’re doing goes way beyond just Cutie Marks,” Twilight explains, pulling some nimbus over with her magic and shaping it like a hill, a small ball of cloud and a tiny house down the bottom of the cloud slop. “Everything we do here in the past, even the smallest change, can snowball into an avalanche of trouble for the future.”
As she says this, the little ball of cloud moves down the slop, quickly growing bigger, before it reaches the bottom, destroying the cloud house.
A blast of magic destroys the whole cloud causes us to look to Starlight in worry.
“Oh,” she scoffs. “Next I suppose you’ll tell the fate of all of Equestria hangs in the balance.”
“It does!” Twilight and I say in unison.
“Spare me your overblown ego,” Starlight rolls her eyes. “No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight’s is that important.”
She finishes this by firing a beam of magic which strikes a currently passing Rainbow Dash, suddenly her rocketing off into the distance.
“You idiot!” I yell, glaring daggers at the unicorn. “The only pony with the overblown ego is you!”
Starlight doesn’t answer as the Time Portal opens up above us and starts pulling, Spike flying off Twilight’s back.
I glance at Twilight. “Remember what we were told should we fail!”
She nods, before looking to Starlight with grim determination. “I don’t know how important other ponies’ friendships are to the future, but I can show what the world is like without mine!”
With that she leaps forward towards Starlight. The unicorn tries to move, but I turn into a cloud of star and wrap around her limps, giving Twilight time to jump her. Once Twilight has a hold on Starlight, I return to physical form and we’re pulled into the portal after Spike, myself getting a very bad feeling about the next altered timeline we’re about to face.
When my eyes adjust after the flash of Time Magic, I look around, only for my heart to sink, heavier than ever before.
We’re standing in a waste land, there’s literally nothing around save us and the map, save the odd dead tree and rocks. There’s a wind blowing, those it carries nothing back the felling of nothing.
I can’t even tell what time of day it is. The sky is dark, but it doesn’t look like night and there’s an eerie, sickly glow on the horizon.
Looking around, I see Twilight looking dejected as is Spike (him and I are currently standing on the map whilst the mares are on the ground), not that I blame them. Using my magic to try and sense anything nearby, I can sense no magic, none from anything living anyway. Starlight seems to be taking in what’s around her.
She turns around, glaring at us. “Where are we?!”
“The future,” Twilight says quietly, putting a hoof on the map, “or rather, the present.”
“But, there’s nothing here,” Starlight says, holding up a hoof and glancing around.
“I wish I could say I was surprised,” Twilight says, her voice still carrying the sadness and quietness that I feel within myself. This world just feels... dead and it hurts, “but every world I come back to is worse than the last. I don’t know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are.”
Starlight just returns to her glare, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “I don’t believe you!”
“You stupid foal!” I growl, causing Starlight to turn to look at me, only now actually seeming to take in my appearance. “You are just like the many spoiled nobles! Thinking only of yourself and want you care about that you don’t even consider the possibility that what you’re doing is going to hurt others!”
“Come on, Starlight, look around,” Spike says, indicating to our bleak surroundings that actually make me long for that timeline where Sombra was waging war against Equestria. Sure, it wasn’t a happy time, but at least it had life.
Starlight does look around again.
“You are so blinded by your own ambitions, Starlight Glimmer, that you have caused several timelines in which Equestria has faced disaster or ruin on some level,” I say, before teleporting off the map and reappearing in front of Starlight, glaring up at her. “Because of you, we have been to several worlds in which Equestria has suffered, all because of your desire for revenge. I have seen battles no filly my age should ever have any experience with knowing. It even became so necessary for our survival, that Nightmare Moon’s spirit and my own had to become one again, just to ensure our safety and return to try and stop you.”
She backs up a step, looking down at me as I glare up at her.
“Like I said,” Twilight says, taking a few steps closer, “everything in the past affects the future, even the tiniest act. And what you’re doing leads here.”
“This is the future you caused last time you stopped the race,” I snort, holding out a hoof to indicate around us. “Was it worth it, Starlight Glimmer? Was it worth Twilight and her friends never getting their special connection, even at the cost of Equestria becoming a dead waste land? You’ve felt it, haven’t you? You’ve tried to sense even the smallest hint of magic from another living being save the four of us and felt nothing, right? Is this what you wanted? Does this justify your stopping Twilight and her friends from ever becoming friends?”
Starlight looks up at the sky, then down at the group, uncertainty entering her eyes for the first time since this whole mess started.
“I know I can’t stop you,” Twilight murmurs, her ears lowering, “but I thought showing you all this might change your mind.”
At once, Starlight expression changes to anger again, taking me off guard as she turns, glaring at Twilight. “Change my mind? You don’t know anything about me!” She leaps forward, forcing Twilight back against the map. “I was perfectly happy until you and your friends ruined what I built.”
“You mean a town where nopony had freedom?!” I growl, teleporting onto the map again, standing in front of Spike in case I need to protect him. “You were the one in charge of that town you built, Starlight and you forced everypony, even those just visiting, to conform to your ideals, even against their will, just like with Twilight and her friends. They didn’t want to give up their Cutie Marks and live in your town, but you just forced them into it anyway, never even once asking them, not even giving them a choice! How is that fair?! How is that the equality you claimed to care so much about and that your town was founded upon?!”
“Like a child like you could ever understand something so important.” The unicorn turns her glare onto me, but I just return.
“Seeing as, thanks to you putting us in a situation where Nightmare and I had to become one just to survive, giving me more than a thousand years worth of memory, yeah, I think I can understand. What you did was wrong on more levels than I can even begin to explain, Starlight Glimmer. I’ve have memories of tyrannic rulers who did just the same and do you know how history remembers them? As monsters. Is that what you want, Starlight? To be remembered as a monster?! What would those you cared about and cared about you in the past say, huh? Would you parents or foalhood friends be happy, knowing the monster the little filly they knew has turned into?”
“I know that Stellar has a right in some of the things she’s saying, having memories she shares with Princess Luna,” Twilight says, shaking her head. “And I don’t know what happened that led you create your village without Cutie Marks, and I’m sorry my friends and I had to take it away. But Stellar makes a point. If you just enforce something onto somepony, it’s not really their choice. How many of the ponies in that village chose to live there before you took their Cutie Marks away and left them to listen to the things you forced us to, just to make us think we’d want to stay?”
Starlight’s glare becoming deadly and she teleports away, to appear on top of the map. “You wanna know what happened to me?!” she yells, casting the Time Travel Spell, causing the portal to open. “I’ll show you!”
When the light fades, I blink in confusion. We appear to be in a small village, a lot like Ponyville, only with a slightly more medieval look to the roofing of the buildings in tile design.
“Where are we?” Twilight asks the question on mine and I’m sure Spike’s mind.
“That map of yours is connected to every part of Equestria,” Starlight explains, moving towards one of the nearby buildings. “And this part is my home.”
Wait. We’re in Starlight’s hometown? But, what could have happened in this nice seeming place that could’ve caused Starlight to become the way she is? I mean, it's pretty much like Ponyville as far as I can tell.
The three of us glance at each other, before following to Starlight to look through a window. Inside it is a living room, where there’s a large tower of books in the centre. On either side is a foal. One, a colt with a yellow coat with a white patch on his nose and hooves and a redish-orange mane and tail. The other foal... looks like a younger, Cutie Markless Starlight.
I have to admit, she looks pretty cute, especially with her mane done up in those two pigtails like that.
Starlight explains to us how she and Sunburst, the young colt, would always play together and how she couldn’t remember them ever being apart... until today.
As soon as she finishes explaining, the younger Starlight tries to pull a book out from the tower, which causes it to start collapsing.
Instinct to save the younger Starlight almost makes me cast a spell to stop the books, but it’s like Starlight knew I would do so, because she holds a foreleg out in front of me, breaking my concentration.
At the same time, Sunburst’s horn glows brightly as he stops all the books, before they spin around him in a circle, before they all fly onto the bookshelves, fitting perfectly into place, followed by a bright flash.
When it fades, Starburst has a Cutie Mark like an orange sphere with a few blue diamond-like objects around it and lines coming from the sphere that make me realize it’s a sun.
The colt whinnies loudly, before running off... leaving Starlight behind as he goes and tells his parents who are outside. All the villagers congratulate him; a stallion that I can guess is his father levitating him into the air and carrying him off for them all to celebrate... whilst little Starlight just sits in the doorway.
I vaguely listen to Starlight saying how she never saw him again, but I’m watching her younger self cry softly and walk back inside.
Glancing at the others and seeing them caught up in a conversation, I turn into a cloud of stars and zip inside. I follow young Starlight to her room, where she falls onto the bed and starts crying into her pillow.
I... I feel bad for her. This... this isn’t fair. I don’t like Starlight, but nopony can watch a young filly crying like this and not feel bad about it. At least, not anypony with a heart.
“Stellar!”
I’m pulled out of my thoughts by Twilight’s terrified voice and shoot back through the house to catch up to them, only to return to my physical form and stare in horror as the portal finishes closing.
My legs give out under me as the full weight of that settles on my shoulders. Starlight took Twilight and Spike back to Cloudsdale. I’ve been left in the past, a past of was never meant to be a part of.
Suddenly I hear a sniffling from behind me and a small voice call out, “Starburst? Is... is that you?”
In a panic I turn back into a cloud and shoot out the window and hide in the bushes nearby.
Starlight walks up to the door, her face stained with tears.
She looks around, before her expression saddens again and she walks back inside.
I feel my heart twist with pain. I just made her feel worse? Damn it!
I put my head in my hooves, a try to stay calm.
Okay, Stellar. You won’t freak out. Yes, you’re a filly, but you’re now a filly with a lot more maturity thanks to the many years of memory you possess. You will stay calm and not freak out.
Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve every single right to freak out! I’m stuck in the past from crying out loud! Anything I do here will affect the future!
Damn it, Starlight! Why did you have to be so cute as a filly that I couldn’t help wanting to go see if I could comfort you and cause your older self to leave me stranded in your hometown, which I don’t even know the location of, in the past?!
“Is somepony there?”
I freeze up at hearing this new voice and quickly use a power I used back when I wasn’t whole to intimate Chrysalis and change myself to look like somepony else. The last thing I need is for news of a filly Nightmare Moon to go around Equestria before...
Aww, buck! I don’t even know when in time I am. Is the race with the Rainboom today, or is it several months into the future? Gah! I hate time travel!
The bushes are parted and I look up with worry, before my eyes narrowing. It’s an Earth Pony stallion with a chestnut brown coat, darker brown mane and tail and an hour glass for a Cutie Mark.
“Well, look at that,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “First on the moon and now in this little town.”
I blink, cocking my head. “Huh?”
He smiles down warmly at me, before winking. “Don’t worry, Princess Stellar. You’re secret’s safe with me.”
My eyes widen and my mouth drops. WHAT? How in Equestria could this pony know who I am?
I quickly conjure up a mirror before cursing as I look at my reflection. I only turned into a unicorn filly with a purple mane and tail. My eyes are still the same and so is my Cutie Mark.
I make the mirror disappear, before looking back to the stallion, who’s just smiling.
I frown, realizing something. “Wait. How do you know who I am? Nopony should even know I exist. How do you know my name, when it won’t even be thought up for over a decade or round about that?”
He just chuckles again. “Because this isn’t the first time we’ve met.”
I blink again. “Huh?”
“Well, I suppose it is for you, maybe,” he says, scratching his chin with a hoof. “By chance, have you come across a pony matching my appearance or with a similar Cutie Mark before?”
I cock an eyebrow, going over my memories of Ponvyille. If I did meet this guy before, it wouldn’t be in the over a thousand years of memories I have, just the last couple months or so, so I don't pay attention to those.
I blink, before frowning again. “Minuette?”
He just blinks a me. “Um, excuse me?”
I shake my head, before pointing at his Cutie Mark. “My big sister has a friend from her days in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns called Minuette and her Cutie Mark looks just like yours. I sometimes see her around Ponyville.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Her? You mean, a mare? But, for you to have a met a pony with my Cutie Mark that’s a mare that would mean...” His eyes bright and he leaps into the air, whinnying. “I’ve more regenerations? Yes! Mark my words, I’ll be ginger yet! Wait, why would I call myself Minuette? What’s wrong with The Doctor?”
I cock my head. “Um... what?”
He settles down, clearly his throat. “Ah, yes, right. You’re not supposed to be here, princess. But, not to worry, your ride will be here shortly. Just give it a few hours.”
“Huh?” What the heck is this stallion blabbering about?
“You’ll see,” he smiles, tussling my currently purple, non-ethereal mane. “Just change your eyes and go have fun at Sunburst’s cute-ceañera, but be sure to be around this house when he and his father leave the party, or you’ll miss your ride. Oh, and make sure not to be seen be young Starlight if you can.”
Before I can ask further, a Pegasus mare with a light-purple coat and red mane flies over, landing next to him. “Doctor, we need to get going? She just warped her way out.”
The stallion sighs. “Should’ve guessed. The Master always was a slippery one. I doubt Missy is any different.”
The Master? Missy? Who the heck are they talking about?
“Well, it was very nice meeting you again for the first time, Princess Stellar,” he says, bowing to me. “But I’m afraid this is where we part ways for now. Give my regards to Mr. Rich’s wife and her daughter.”
With that the two hurry off, the stallion running and the mare flying after him.
I sit on the roof of Starlight’s house, watching the path. It’s late now, the sun has set and clouds are covering the sky.
I’m thankful I can’t see the night, to be honest. I don’t want to see the moon, not whilst Mama and technically myself are still stuck up there.
The sound of laughter comes from up the path and, a few minutes later, I see Sunburst riding on his father’s back as the older stallion trots down the road, the two of them laughter lightly.
“I’m so proud of you, son,” Sunburst’s father’s voice carries up.
A sob-gasp, causing me to glance down. Starlight is standing in the doorway, watching as the two walk by, sobbing, tears trickling down her face.
I watch with sad eyes, looking from her to Sunburst and his dad as they move further away, neither even glancing in Starlight’s direction.
That actually makes me really angry. Starburst and Starlight are meant to be the best of friends, yet Starburst is so happy about getting his mark he hasn’t even questioned why his best friend wasn’t at the party.
I didn’t go, by the way. I couldn’t bring myself to, not with Starlight being so unhappy.
It aggravates me that I can’t comfort her without risking changing the past. Maybe, if she’d gotten some comfort, she wouldn’t have turned out as she did, but, to change that, I’d be changing the future and I can’t do that.
I have mentioned how much I hate time travel, right?
When Starlight closes the door, I turn into a cloud of stars and slid in through some cracks in the door, then remain hovering in the air as a cloud and watch Starlight from above.
“I’ll never see him again,” she sobs and I feel all the worse for not being able to help her. Damn it. Why does keeping all the other ponies I care about mean I have to let one filly suffer? It’s not fair. “Wh-where’s my Cutie Mark? M-maybe I’m just not special.”
Oh, for the love of...! Why? Why must I leave this filly to suffer like this! It’s. Not. Fair!
Suddenly there’s a flash of light, causing both Starlight and myself to turn. If I had eyes right now, they’d be bulging.
It’s Starlight, older Starlight. What in Equestria? Why is she here? Why’s she interfering with her own timeline like this? This could be more dangerous than anything else she’s done!
“Huh?” younger Starlight asks, confused. “Wh-who...? Who are you?”
Starlight moves forward and pulls her younger self into a hug. “I-I’m a friend. It’ll be okay.”
Little Starlight begins sobbing into her older self’s shoulder.
I slowly lower myself down and take my normal, physical form again.
Something... something’s different about the older Starlight. I... I don’t sense any of the animosity she had before. And... her voice sounds... it sounds... kind... and sad.
“You’ll see,” Starlight continues, stroking her younger self’s mane gently. “And you are special. You’re very special.”
I just stand and watch... feeling like I’m intruding on something as I watch this tender scene... my mind trying to understand what’s changed in Starlight since she took Twilight and Spike back to when Dash was racing. Just... what happened when they left?
After a long while, little Starlight has fallen asleep in the warm embrace of her older self.
I watch as Starlight stand up, holding her younger self close and moves off toward the direction younger Starlight’s room is.
I follow quietly and watch from the doorway as Starlight tucks her younger self into bed, before running a hoof through the filly’s mane.
“We don’t have to worry,” she says quietly, sounding sad. “My parents won’t be back from the party for another few minutes.”
I wonder why she’s telling this to her younger self this when she's already asleep. What’s going on?
Suddenly she turns around, smiling warmly and sadly at me. “Ready to go home, Princess Stellar?”
I almost topple over. “You... you knew I was watching the whole time?”
She nods, her smile becoming a little less sad. “You didn’t speak with my younger self, but you did watch over me whilst I was upset all day. Thank you for that.”
“Um... sure, Starlight,” I say, not really sure what’s going on.
"Come on,” she says, leaving the room and starting down the hallway. “Let’s go home.”
I follow after her uncertainly, moving through the home and out the door, which she closes behind us. We walk for a few minutes, until we’re a bit outside the village.
“Can’t have anypony see me cast the spell, can we?”
I just stand next to her, frowning up in confusion. “What... happened?”
She closes her eyes. “I finally learned what you three were trying to tell me,” she says, her horn glowing. “Now, let’s go. I promised your sisters I’d bring you back safely.”
The Time Portal opens above us and we’re pulled in.
Pinkie nods vigorously. “Yeah. I just didn’t realize who Starburst was until Twilight told us about him and then I was like, hey, Cheese told me about a cute-ceañera for a colt named Sunburst that he planned back when he was a colt. Then I thought, could that be the same pony? And then I was like, well of course it was! It’s rare for ponies to shares names when—”
Pinkie gets cut off when Applejack sticks her hoof in the pink mare’s mouth.
“Stellar!” I wilt at the stern tone in Twilight’s voice as she stands in front of me. “What in Equestria made you think it was smart to move away from us?! If Starlight hadn’t remembered the mare that comforted her that day and realized it was herself and I hadn’t remembered enough of the spell well enough to create it again with Starlight’s help, you would’ve been stranded in the past! Why did you do that? You had me worried sick! I don’t even want to imagine how your mother would’ve reacted!”
I look down. “I felt bad when I saw Starlight as a filly so upset. I... I wanted to comfort her.”
“And did you?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
I sigh. “No, ma’am. You called out if fear because you were heading back to when the race happened before I could.”
“So, how did you know to be in my old house when I came back?” Starlight asks, looking uncertain.
I shrug. “Some weird Earth Pony with Minuette’s Cutie Mark told me to be at Starlight’s house by evening, when Starburst and his dad would be coming by.”
Everypony looks at me with confusion, none more so than Twilight.
“You mean... another pony had Minuette’s Cutie Mark? That’s not possible! Nopony can have the same Cutie Mark as another pony.”
“Um... the Cutie Mark Crusaders have the same mark,” Fluttershy murmurs.
“Technically, they have similar Cutie Marks, not identical ones,” Twilight points out, in a voice that makes me worry she’s about to go into lecture mode.
“Um... can I say something?”
We all turn to Starlight, myself glad she saved us from a lecture about Cutie Marks. If I’d wanted to hear about that, I’d have gone with Twilight to Canterlot before this whole time mess started.
That’s when I frown, looking from the unicorn to eveyrpony else in the room. “Somepony mind explaining a few things to me about why Starlight was the one that brought me back?”
Twilight closes her eyes, her horn glowing and a fresh scroll hovering into the air, but i notice it has the altered version of Starswirl's Time Spell on it. "I'll let Starlight explain it to you, Stellar. I need to go put this in the vault so nopony else uses it."
With that she walks off, leaving us all to turn to Starlight.
The Doctor slowly walked around his TARDIS’ console, knowing it would be the last time he saw it with his current face.
He stood, lifting his hands and looking at them as the glowed with the golden energy of regeneration.
“I don’t want to go,” he whispered as the glow spread to his face, growing brighter and brighter, before his arms thrust out and his head fell back, golden regeneration energy streaming from him.
It was the biggest force from his regeneration yet and his TARDIS paid the price as pieces of her were blow apart by the force of the energy leaving his body.
Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked to one side and it was as if the interior was wobbling for a moment, during which The Doctor let out a loud scream as, after the healing had completed itself, his whole body shifted, warping into its new form.
The Doctor dropped to the floor, breathing heavily as the warning alarms blared around him.
“O...kay,” he grunted, struggling to push himself up, ignoring th heat from the flames burning where his regeneration energy had made contact. “Why... can’t I... feel my... fingers—?”
The TARDIS jerked again, tossing him against the wall.
The young filly sighed as she looked around her room. It was full of cardboard boxes yet to be unpacked. She and her father had just moved to Ponyville a few days ago and were trying to settle in.
But she hadn’t been outside once. She didn’t know any of the ponies in this town and she was certain they’d tease her for her eyes, just as they had in Cloudsdale. She didn’t know why her eyes didn’t look like everypony else’s. She couldn’t help it.
“I wish I had a friend,” she whispered, holding her teddy bear close as her eyelids drooped, if only to try and coax sleep to come.
Suddenly, a strange sound came from outside. It was a distant, wheezing sound.
Curious, the filly got out of bed and went to the window. She could see something in the sky. It looked like a shooting star.
She’d never seen a real shooting star before. Excited, she hurried out her room and crept down the hall and went outside, stopping in the front yard, watching the sky.
The star was flying across the sky in an odd way. She figured it was just because of her eyes, but it looked like the star kept changing the direction it was going in.
The wheezing sound was louder outside too. It rang across the still night air, making her certain everypony in Ponyville could hear it too.
Then, suddenly, the star turned and started heading right towards her. The filly panicked, running in the opposite direction as the star came closer and closer at high speeds, the wheezing sound seeming to grow louder and louder as it drew nearer.
The filly leaped through the front door, slamming it shut and pressing her body against it as the sound of an explosion rang out and she felt something trying to force the door open.
After several moments it calmed down and the pressure against the door stopped.
Cautiously, the filly opened the door and peeked outside.
Sitting on its side in the middle of the yard was a strange looking blue box.
Curious, she pushed the door open and walked closer, eyeing the strange thing as she walked around it.
As she reached part where there was a pair of doors, she noticed that the box was on its side.
“What in Celestia’s name is this thing?” she murmured.
At once the doors shot open, causing the filly to yelp and back away.
A stallion with a brown coat and a slightly darker brown mane and tail struggled out, heaving heavy breaths.
She blinked, then hurried over, helping him crawl out from the doors.
“Are you okay?” she asked once they’d gotten a few meters from the box.
“Not sure, yet,” he said shaking his head. “Only just getting used to—” he suddenly made a face and started spurting. “Uhg. Teeth. Gah. Huge teeth; really huge. Not nice. Really uncomfortable. Okay, let’s see how my legs are working.”
For some reason he got up on his hind legs, before wobbly frantically.
“Whoa, legs not working— on backwards!” he flopped to the ground, frowning. “Okay, so, just to check, huge teeth, no fingers... and my legs are on backwards. Wonderful start, Doctor.”
“Huh?” she glanced around. Who was this doctor? Did he need one?
He groaned, sitting up and looked down at himself. “Wait a minute. Well, this is new. No wonder I can’t feel my fingers, I don’t have any. Hmm, these look like hooves. Equine in nature, if I’m not mistaken. Never had hooves before. Well, let’s see.” He started looking around at his body. “Hmm, never had fur before. That is different. Brown, chestnut, I think.” He glanced up at his mane and sighed, looking very depressed. “That was my last one. Looks like I’m never gonna be ginger.”
Just as suddenly as he seemed sad he perked right up again.
“Alright. Mopping over. Let’s see what else there is. Ooh, I like the tail; short (that’ll be good for running). Very nice and— Huh? What’s this hourglass doing on my rump?”
The filly frowned. “Mr, it’s your Cutie Mark.”
It was only now the stallion seemed to notice her again. “Oh, my word. Another equine. Hmm, you don’t look like a horse. Your head’s too big and you’re a bit to stocky for that. That makes you a pony, yes? Yes. Huh? You've got wings? But that would make you a Pegasus!" he chuckled. "What do ya know; the human's were onto something for once. Wait a minute. You talked! You’re a pony and you talked! But what language is that? I speak pony and that is not pony.”
“Umm, I don’t understand,” she said, backing up a bit.
“Oh, dear me, where are my manners? Hope I didn’t leave them in my last self, though he was rude, so what kind of manners did he really have. Whoops, rambling. Anyway, give me a moment. It’s not quite clear.”
She cocked her head to the side.
“Ah, yes!” he suddenly exclaimed, making her jump, before he held out a hoof. “I’m The Doctor. What might your name be, little talking pony?”
“D-D-D-Derpy Hooves,” she said, returning the hoofshake. “Doctor who?”
“Oh, I do love it when they say that,” he murmured. “Just The Doctor, or Doctor, if you prefer, Miss Hooves. So sorry for crashing my ship in your yard.”
“Ship?” Derpy was very confused.
The Doctor indicated to the blue box. “Yep. My ship. The TARDIS.”
“TARDIS?”
“Yes, TARDIS. T-A-R-D-I-S. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. TARDIS.”
Derpy stood there for several moments, trying to understand how a small blue box could be a ship. It might float, being made of wood, but that didn’t make it a ship.
“Strange planet, this,” The Doctor said, pulling her attention to him as he looked around. “Almost like Earth; tastes like Earth too, but clearly isn’t. Hmm. And sentient ponies? I’ve never heard of such a planet before and I know my planets.”
He frowned at the sky for a moment, then blinked, his frown becoming curious as he looked back to Derpy. “By the way, why’re your eyes like that?”
Derpy wilted, lowering her head. “I... have strabis— strabis—”
“Strabismus?” The Doctor offered.
Derpy nodded sadly. “Ponies were teasing me about it in our old town, so Daddy moved us here. I hate my eyes.”
The Doctor shook his head. “You should never hate any part of yourself. Look at me. This was my last chance at being ginger, and yet I’m chestnut brown.” He tussled her mane. “Never hate any part of you, Derpy.”
Derpy looked up at him and gave a small smile. “Thanks.”
The Doctor nodded with a warm smile. “Not a problem, Derpy.” He blinked. “Wait. What did you call this hourglass on my rump?”
Derpy raised an eyebrow. “Your Cutie Mark. All ponies get them. Even me.” She turned a bit, showing her Cutie Mark of seven bubbles. “They mean what’s special about you; your special talent.”
“My... talent?” The Doctor looked at her a very puzzled expression.
Derpy nodded. “Well, yeah. Mine’s for my bubbly pero— perso— way I look at things.” She looked at his Cutie Mark. “Hmm. Hourglass, hourglass... Is your special talent time?”
The Doctor smirked. “Well, yes. I can time travel— wait a moment? My butt knows what I do?”
Derpy nodded. “Uh-huh.” Then she blinked, realizing what he’d just said. “Wait. You can travel through time?”
The Doctor seemed to recover from learning something even foals knew and smiled. “Why, yes, Miss Derpy. Indeed I can. Past, present, future; I can visit them all.”
Derpy looked down at the ground and began pawing at it. “Could you....? No, never mind.”
“What is it, Derpy?” he asked, leaning down, a kind smile on his face.
A few tears came to Derpy’s eyes. “My... my mommy died when I was really little. I... I never really knew her. Could... could you take me to go see her... before she died, so I can at least meet her.”
The Doctor’s eyes softened. “Of course, Derpy. However, I do have rules. Not that anyone usually follows them,” he muttered. “First, you cannot stop you mother from dying. If we do that then our meeting will have never happened and we’ll disappear... not to mention Time Reapers appearing out of thin air and eating everything in sight.”
Derpy eeped.
“Second, if I tell you to run, you run, got it?”
She nodded.
“Finally, do whatever I tell you, even if it sounds like a bad idea, okay?”
Derpy nodded again.
The Doctor grinned. “Very well, then. Let’s be off. First stop—”
He went quiet at the sound of a gonging sound from within the blue box.
“Oh, no, no-no-no-NO!” he cried, running towards it, kneeling down, opening the doors and looking in.
“What is it?” Derpy asked anxiously.
“I've got to get back in there,” he said, glancing back. “The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!”
“But it's just a box.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “It's not just a box. It's my time machine.”
Derpy’s eyes widened. “What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?
“Well, how else do you think I travel through time, walk through the vortex unprotected? But I won’t have one for much longer if I can't get her stabilized. A five minute hop into the future should do it.
Derpy grinned. “Can I come?”
The Doctor grunted as he pushed the box onto its back, making it so that the doors had to be opened upwards, then looked back to her and shook his head. “Not safe in here. Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back.”
Derpy frowned. “Promise you’ll come back?”
The Doctor nodded. “Promise. I’ll be right back.”
Derpy smiled. “Okay.”
The Doctor grinned, climbing up onto the box, struggling to push the doors open. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Derpy giggled. “See you in five minutes.”
“Count on it,” The Doctor nodded then jumped down, disappearing as he shouted, “Geronimo!”
Derpy noticed that his voice sounded like he was falling, followed by a splashing sound, before the doors closed on their own. The wheezing sound started up again and Derpy watched in amazement as the box seemed to fade away until there was nothing where it had been expect the big hole it made when it fell.
Grinning, Derpy ran inside, packed a few things into her saddlebags and hurried back outside and sat, waiting for the sound to return and for The Doctor to take her to see her mommy, just as he promised he would.
The yard was still and quiet in the afternoon sunlight, a few birds pecking at the ground, looking for worms.
Suddenly, a loud wheezing sound could be heard and a wind picked up from nowhere, startling the birds, causing them to fly away. Where the birds had been a blue box slowly faded into existence, standing up straight, steam coming off of it. Once it was no longer see-though in anyway the doors opened and The Doctor stepped out, coughing.
Cough, cough, cough. “Whoa. That was a bit much. Okay, Derpy, sorry, but we'll have to wait before we leave. We’ll give her about twenty minutes, give or take and we should be ready... to... go?”
He looked around. The yard was different. All the markings the TARDIS had left when it crash-landed were gone. That didn’t make sense. Also, it was daytime now.
“Derpy?” The Doctor glanced around. "Miss Hooves?"
The yard looked more lived with than it had before. There were some bushes of flowers he didn’t remember seeing before.
“Oh, dear. I don’t think it was five minutes.” He sighed. “Well, a few hours are alright, I guess.”
He walked up to the front door and knocked on it.
“Miss Hooves?” he called, not stopping his knocking. “Miss Hooves, are you there? Sorry I was a bit late. I thought it would just be five minutes, but I guess it was more like hours. Do you still want to come with me?”
The door swung open and, for a brief moment, The Doctor’s smile grew, before it withered under the harsh glare from the pony’s face that had come right up to his, filled with anger.
“Do I look like a Miss Hooves, buster?!” he demanded, his eyes telling The Doctor he’d be wise to leave.
The stallion (The Doctor took his physic and his memory of what the young filly had said into account and guessed the whole world was filled with ponies similar to her) was old, grumpy old. He had a dull brown coat and a cup for a Cutie Mark. His mane was grey and ratty, telling that he didn’t really care much for personal hygiene.
“Oh, I-I do apologize,” he began, backing away for some personal space. “Last time I was here a filly by the name of Derpy Hooves lived in this house. Could you please tell me where she is?”
The pony snorted, his glare not moving from his face. “Don’t know ’er, don’t care. If’n you wanna find somepony go inta town. Maybe you’ll find her there. Now buzz off!” and with that he slammed the door in The Doctor’s face.
He frowned at the closed door. “Well, that was unnecessarily rude.” He turned and walked back to the TARDIS and placed a hoof on her. “Just rest, sweetie. Once you’re ready we’ll head off, okay?”
After a moment he turned and, deciding to take the only good advice that grumpy stallion had offered, started off towards what looked like a town not too far off, walking wobbly.
The Doctor stared in fascination as he stumbled through the town, still getting used to being a quadruped for the first time in his thirteen lives.
“Amazing,” he murmured as he passed a forge, where he could see a tanned pony used his mouth to bang a hammer against some metal. “Sentient talking ponies with a society identical to humans in every way aside from them being ponies and everything with a bit of a pony theme. Fantastic.”
He was also surprised to learn humans were right about several myths. Not only were there pegasi, like Derpy, but unicorns as well! From what he could observe, the unicorns’ magics varied from pony to pony and the pegasi were able to somehow control the weather, he’d dropped to the ground when he’d seen several of them pulling and pushing clouds, something he knew shouldn’t be possible.
He shrugged. “Well, maybe it is possible. Shouldn’t judge a book by its—”
“Watch out! Coming in for a landing!”
“Huh? Wha—AAH?!”
The Doctor turned, only for a blurry grey something to full out of the sky, crash into him and tumble for several moments, before hitting a wall.
“Ow!” he said, rubbing his head with a hoof. “What just hit me?”
“Um, sorry, Mr,” a voice spoke.
The Doctor opened his eyes and saw a grey Pegasus get up in front of him. Her mane was blonde, as was her tail and her eyes were golden coloured. By pony standards he assumed she was about ten or so years.
“Oh, that’s quite alright,” he began, getting up.
However, no sooner had he gotten to all fours again then he found himself pinned against the wall, the Pegasus glaring at him. “You! How is this even possible?!”
“Um, excuse me?” he asked, very uncertain about this young filly’s sanity. She sounded female and her body structure was that of all the female ponies he’d been seeing as he walked through town, so he was going on the assumption she was female.
The young filly stepped back, shaking her head violently. “No, no, no-no-no,” she murmured. “This... this has to be a dream. You can’t be real.”
The Doctor frowned. “Now, hold on a minute. I can understand you being angry at me for... well, I suppose not listening when you told me to watch out, but telling me I can’t be real? Now that’s just rude.”
“You were rude first!” she snapped.
The Doctor shook his head. “Oh, really. And just how was I the first one to be rude.”
“You told me five minutes!”
The Doctor’s face went blank as he stared at the young filly. She sort of looked like... he moved his eyes towards her flank— before they shot open. On her flank, clear as day, were seven bubbles. Seven bubbles he’d seen before.
“What?” he said, glancing from the bubbles to the young filly’s face and back. “What?”
The young filly huffed and turned, starting to walk away.
“What?” he hurried after her, though she didn’t slow down. “Derpy? Little Derpy Hooves? The filly I met when I crashed? But how?”
“Five years.”
“Huh?”
Derpy whirled around, glaring at the stallion. “You told me you’d be back in five minutes, but you never did. My dad found me outside the next morning and I told him I was waiting for a stallion to come who'd let me see Mom again. Do you have any idea how that sounded to him?!”
“Um... with that wording... I’m guessing... bad?” he suggested, grinning sheepishly.
Derpy’s glared hardened. “He was horrified! He kept me inside for weeks and wouldn’t even let me go to school on my own! He even got the Town’s Royal Guard to keep an eye out for somepony like you!” She turned away and The Doctor heard a small sob escape the young filly. “I thought you were my friend, then you left me.”
The Doctor stepped forward and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Listen, Derpy, I’m sorry I didn’t come back when I said I would. I thought I was gone just five minutes, not five years. I’m so sorry. The TARDIS doesn’t always make an exact landing and she was pretty damaged when that happened.”
Derpy turned, confusion on her face. “She?”
The Doctor’s expression firmed. “Yes. She’s a she. Actually, that’s another rule I should have told you. Never refer to the TARDIS as an it. She’s a lady and deserves our respect.”
Derpy’s expression returned to the one from before. “You still think I want to go with you? How can I know you weren’t lying when you said your box was a time machine?”
“I swear on my life, she is a time machine,” The Doctor said, putting a hoof to his chest.
“Pinkie Promise?”
The Doctor blinked, then glanced down at the hoof he’d lifted. “Um, I don’t think I can make that kind of promise with hooves. No fingers.”
Derpy’s frown turned to one of confusion. “Fingers? What are fingers and what do they have to do with a Pinkie Promise?”
“Uh... right,” he said, scratching at his neck. “Um, maybe you could show me how you’d make a Pinkie Promise. I think it has a different connotation compared to where I’m from.”
“Conna-what now?” Derpy raised an eyebrow. “And how do you not know what a Pinkie Promise is?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Well, I am technically new around here, so...”
Derpy huffed. “Fine. But watch closely.”
The Doctor watched with his full attention as Derpy made a crossing motion over where her heart would be, flapped her forelegs like wings (though, since she had real wings The Doctor didn’t understand why she hadn’t just used them), then made a motion of putting a hoof to her eye.
When she’d finished, she looked firmly at The Doctor. “Now you.”
The Doctor nodded. “Very well. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye— ow!” he said, going through all the motions she’d shown, but pushed too hard on his eye in the haste.
Derpy nodded, her expression turning smooth. “Alright, Doctor. I believe you. Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.”
“No... pony?” he asked slowly, before he had to stifle his chuckles.
“What?”
“N-nothing. Nothing, Miss Hooves,” he struggled to say through his giggles. He managed to get control of himself and cleared his throat. “Very well, Miss Hooves. So, shall we go?”
Derpy looked sceptically at him, then nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Several minutes later they’d returned to where the TARDIS had landed.
Derpy hesitated before following, whispering, “This is Grumpy Lumpy’s house now. If he catches us...”
“Oh, yes. That angry stallion that answered the door,” The Doctor nodded. “Yes, I remember him. Not a very nice fellow.”
“You knocked on his door?!” Derpy’s eyes widened.
“Well, what else would I have done?” he replied. “I didn’t know it was five years instead of minutes. I thought you still lived here. Don’t worry, though. We just need to go inside and he won’t know any better.”
They crept through the yard to the front of the TARDIS and The Doctor knocked on its doors. A moment later he winced, reached back and pulled a golden glowing key from on his back.
“Well, looks like she’s ready.” He turned the key in the hole and the doors opened. The Doctor grinned. “Oh, baby. Looking good.”
Derpy followed him in to find a huge room coloured silver and looking like it was made of metal, with glowing circular lights around the circular edges of the room.
The Doctor grinned at the slack-jawed look on Derpy’s face, before she ran out the doors and the sound of her running around the TARDIS several times could be heard before she returned, her eyes wide.
“It’s... It’s...” she said, her eyes looking all around them.
“Go ahead,” The Doctor grinned, leaning against the console. “What d'ya think? You can say it. Most everyone does. I’ve heard them all before.”
Derpy looked right at him. “It’s... smaller on the outside.”
The Doctor’s face became blank. “Okay. That is a first.” Then he grinned, whirling around and started throwing switches. “Anyway, to make up for my being so late, how about an extra trip? Let’s say, over a thousand years into the future? Geronimo!”
He pulled a final leaver and the room began shaking as the TARDIS took its first trip with the new desktop.
The TARDIS stopped shaking and both ponies got their hoofing.
“Well, there we go.”
Derpy looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? But, all your ship did was shake around and make some noises.”
The Doctor nodded. “And we’ve moved. Now,” he opened a small compartment and started shuffling through it, “if I can just find something to carry my things we can go.”
Within moments he'd pulled out a blue suit and slipped it on, grinning. "Not sure what happened to the one I was wearing before i regenerated... Wait a minute, that was brown, and I have a brown coat. Oh, now that is fantastic— Aww. I could've been ginger if I'd been wearing ginger-coloured clothing? Wish I'd known that before."
He moved back to the console, a stick, his sonic screwdriver, popping out of it.
“Thanks, babe,” he said, taking the screw driver and putting it in his right pocket, along with his psychic paper and the TARDIS key.
“Babe?” Derpy looked uncertain.
The Doctor patted the console. “Her.”
“Oh,” Derpy said, glancing at the console. “Right.”
“Well, Miss Hooves, let’s be off. Outside those doors, somewhere you’ve never been before is waiting.”
He walked forward and opened the doors and stepped out, Derpy slowly following behind him.
“Here we are, Miss Hooves,” he said, waving a foreleg around at the area. It looked like almost any other town Derpy had seen during her time as a mailpony, expect for a few odd things. A lot of the houses looked like they were made of some type of metal, dome-shaped and there was what looked like glass thousands of miles high in the sky, surrounding the whole city.
“Wh-where are we?” she asked, glancing around at the odd surroundings, still finding it hard to believe that they’d somehow moved and, while it had been daytime moments ago, the sky was dark with stars.
The Doctor grinned. “The moon.”
Derpy’s head whipped back to him, her eyes bulging. “What? The moon?”
The Doctor nodded. “Glanced at the date counter before we came out. We’re about a thousand years from your time, give or take a few years and this is the moon colony.”
Derpy glanced around. “H-how did this all happen?”
The Doctor’s grin grew. “I have no idea. Let’s find out, shall we?”
With that he walked towards the nearest house, calm as if he did this everyday.
“D-Doctor, wait!” Derpy hurried after him.
The Doctor walked up to the nearest dome house and knocked on the metal door.
A few moments later it slid up, revealing a light-blue earth mare, with a red mane and tail with streaks of green through them. Her Cutie Mark was of a diaper and bottle.
“Yes?” she asked, glancing at Derpy as she stopped next to The Doctor. “Can I help you?”
“Ah, yes, you can, Miss...?” The Doctor began.
“Gentle Hoof,” she replied cautiously.
“Miss Gentle Hoof,” The Doctor nodded. “We were wondering if you could tell us a little about this colony?”
Gentle Hoof raised an eyebrow. “You... don’t know about it?”
“We’re new here,” he replied, taking out the psychic paper and holding it up to her.
The mare glanced at the paper, then smiled. “Well, Mr. Tick Tock, if you’re new, I’m assuming you’ve just moved here with your daughter.”
“Daughter?” Derpy said, glancing at him.
“Actually, this is my niece, Rose,” he continued, without missing a beat. “And, yes, we’ve just moved here. I was wondering if there were any special events happening tonight?”
Gentle raised her eyebrow again. “You know it’s only nine in the morning, don’t you?”
“In the morning?” Derpy cocked her head, looking around. “But, how can you tell?”
Gentle stepped out a bit of her door and pointed to a column of large lights which were shining brightly. “Those are our Sun Lights. They go on at about six in the morning and dim down at seven at night.”
“Oh, I see. That’s very efficient and makes so much sense,” The Doctor nodded. “Being on the moon the nights would work differently than they do on the planet below. Oh, that is clever.”
“Yeah,” Gentle said slowly, turning to walk back into her house. “Though, since you asked if anything is going on tonight, there is the Starlight Festival.”
“Ooh, what’s that?” The Doctor bounced in place eagerly.
“You really did just arrive here,” Gentle shook her head. “The Starlight Festival is held every year. It’s to celebrate Luna and Princess Stellar for watching over the night every evening.”
“Who and Princess who?” Derpy whispered to The Doctor.
“They must be the rulers,” he whispered back. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun.” He turned back to Gentle Hoof. “Um, where might we meet the princess, by chance?”
Gentle chuckled. “I can’t blame you for wanting to meet them. They are both so wonderful. Princess Stellar is the whole reason our ancestors were able to colonize the moon.”
“Really? How’d they do that? Oh, was magic involved?”
Gentle looked at the stallion as if wondering if he was joking. “She created the metal dome surrounded the colony.”
“Metal?” Derpy looked up, frowning in confusion. “But, that’s clear, like glass. If it were metal, wouldn’t it be, you know, metal-looking?”
Gentle chuckled again. “Surface kids today. So uninformed. Princess Stellar created that metal using some new metals found be Spike the Dragon, son of Princess Twilight Sparkle. She used a combination of magic and forging to create a clear metal that would withstand anything and protects as from the suns radiation.”
“Radi-what now?” Derpy cocked her head.
“Radiation. It’s a type of energy. The sun generates a lot of it and without the protection of that dome, nopony could survive here,” The Doctor explained.
“Getting back to your question, Mr. Tick Tock, I’m afraid Luna is not going to be attending the festival this year,” Gentle returned to their previous talk, looking slightly disappointed. “She’s visiting her grandniece in the Crystal Empire, so Princess Stellar will be handling the festival on her own this year, and she is very busy. I would suggest waiting until the festival. You should be able to see her then.”
“Thank you very much, Miss Gentle Hoof,” The Doctor bowed, taking her hoof and kissing it. “Much appreciated. Farewell.”
“Oh, um, yes, of course,” Gentle stammered, a deep blush on her face as the two started away. “Have a good day, you two.”
“We will,” The Doctor called back. “You too.”
Once they were a fair distance from Gentle’s house, Derpy stopped, motioning to The Doctor.
“Yes, Derpy, what is it?” he asked, uncertain as to why she’d suddenly stopped him.
“Well, Doctor, she said Luna and Princess Stellar,” she whispered, glancing around as if to make sure nopony was listening.
“Yes, so?” The Doctor cocked an eyebrow.
“There’s only one princess in Equestria and that’s Princess Celestia.”
“Hmm,” The Doctor frowned, putting a hoof to his chin. “I’ve just noticed the names. Luna, Stellar, Celestia. those are all to do with space in some way or another. Though, you’re right, Derpy. Some of the things that mare said were a bit off. I mean, she said this Luna and Princess Stellar watch over the night. Now that’s just ridiculous, no one can do that.”
“Yeah, they can,” Derpy nodded. “Princess Celestia raises the sun and moon, every day.”
The Doctor blinked. “Seriously? Well, that is odd. Where I come from the suns and moons move all on their own, but here ponies have to move them themselves? That is fascinating. I noticed you could control the weather, but celestial bodies like the sun and moon? Well, that’s just unheard of.”
Derpy eyed The Doctor. “Not... really.” She then frowned. "And why'd did you tell her my name was Rose? What about me says "Rose"?"
"It was the first name I could think of that wouldn't sound odd around here," he replied.
"Also, why'd that Gentle pony call you Tick Tock? I thought you said your name was Doctor?"
"Oh, yes," The Doctor reached into his pocket, pulling out the psychic paper again. "Slightly physic paper, my dear Derpy. Shows anyone anything I want it to. What Gentle Hoof saw was the identity I'll be now using while we're here."
Derpy smiled. "Oh, I see it. Doctor Tick Tock of—" she turned her head and frowned, "— no, it's blank. Oh, wait, now I see it— and it's blank again."
The Doctor frowned, taking the psychic paper and looking at it in confusion. "It works on one eye but not the other?"
Derpy shrugged.
“Well, anyway, we’ll get our answers about the whole princess matter when we speak to her at the festival,” The Doctor pocketed the psychic paper, turning and heading up the path they’d been going before.
“Wait. What?” Derpy hurried after him. “Doctor, I’ve never heard of this Princess Stellar before.”
“Well, it has been a thousand years since your time, Derpy. Dynasties change. She’s probably just a descendant.”
“What does dinning have to do with anything?” Derpy cocked her head to the side.
“No, not “dinning”, Dynasties... You know what, never mind. We’ll talking more about this when we meet the princess tonight.”
“And til then?”
“Look around, of course,” The Doctor grinned, bouncing as he walked. “I’ve already seen some of your hometown, Derpy. I wonder how pony society works on the moon. How does the weather work? I mean, it can’t be like it was where you live, can it? I wonder if pegasi have to do it or if science has advanced enough for non-pegasi to—”
And he was off, rambling without pause. Derpy couldn’t even tell if he was taking a breath between words.
Unbeknownst to the either ponies as they walked, a pair of Earth Ponies was watching them through high-tech binoculars from an alleyway.
“What do you think?” one asked, glancing from the ponies to her partner.
“Well, so good news, some bad,” she replied, lowering her viewing equipment. “The stallion’s no good.”
“Not enough energy, huh?” the first sighed, shaking her head.
“Quite the opposite,” her parent shook her head. “His energy readings are off the charts. We don’t even have a counter high enough to measure it.”
The first frowned. “Then why is he no good?”
Her partner sighed. “While his energy is strong, it’s different from any pony’s energy I’ve ever seen. We don’t even have a name for it. If we tried using him, it could contaminate the system and ruin everything.”
The first sighed, shaking her head. “True. The last thing we want is to contaminate the batches already produced. What of the mare? Is she no good either?”
Her partner shook her head, grinning. “No. Her energy, while nowhere near as high as the stallion’s, is very strong for a pony her age and race. She even seems to have strong traces of Artron energy.”
The first gasped. “Artron energy? But there hasn’t been Artron energy since before the founding of Equestria!”
Her partner nodded, her grin turning sly. “Just imagine the powerful batches we could get from her.”
The first grinned, nodding. “Let’s inform Command. They can assign some ponies to keep watch and wait for the right moment to capture her. That stallion will just think she’s run off, like all the rest.”
With that the two faded deeper into the alleyway, eager to add the grey Pegasus mare to their collection.
“Well, this has certainly been fun,” The Doctor said as he and Derpy walked amongst the other ponies in the crowd as they observed the stalls set up.
“Yeah,” Derpy agreed as she took a bite of the small star-shaped butter cake she’d just gotten from one of the stalls. “These moon-star cakes are almost as good as muffins.”
The Doctor glanced back at her. “Muffins?”
Derpy swallowed and nodded, smiling broadly. “Oh, yes. I love muffins. I love blueberry muffins, chocolate muffins, pope seed... I’d probably love coffee but Dad made me promise not eat them until I’m thirteen.”
“Yes, well,” The Doctor said, a little taken aback by the unexpected lecture on muffin flavours, “I don’t think they have muffins here. I’ve never heard of muffins at a festival—”
“Muffins, here!” a tanned Pegasus mare called from a nearby stand displaying a large number of muffins that were coloured like the moon-star cakes. “Get your Star Festival Muffins here.”
Before The Doctor knew it, Derpy had zipped over to the stall and was purchasing two muffins. He shook his head. “Well, open mouth insert foot— er, hoof, I guess.”
He glanced around, still fascinated by the advances the pony race had managed in just a few centuries. They’d met several ponies just arriving through some kind of transmat discs. These were clearly meant for long distance transport only, as the ponies arriving were laden with large amounts of luggage.
They spent several more minutes looking around the stalls, playing a few of the games, like Moon Ball and Zero Gravity Tag, before the sound of trumpets caught their attention.
They followed all the other ponies, including those running the stalls into the main square, where a podium had been set up. Several Thestral Royal Guards ponies, similar to the ones they'd seen scattered around the colony, were standing in front of it, stoic as any guard.
A dark-blue Earth Pony mare, with a light-blue mane and tail and a scroll for a Cutie Mark stepped up to the podium and spoke into the microphone.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, mares and stallions and all others,” she said, a huge smile on her face. “It is my great honour to present Princess Stellar Nova.”
All present cheered and stomped their hooves in applause.
The Doctor, only just now had taken notice of the non-ponies around them. He could see what looked like several griffins, some minotaurs and several dozen strange almost pony, almost bug-like creatures with hole-poked hooves, instectiod like wings and jagged horns and wondered what they were called.
His thoughts were returned to the podium as the mare stepped down and another stepped up to take her place.
This mare however, was far taller, more the size of a horse, The Doctor thought, with a black coat and a blue crescent moon for a Cutie Mark. What confused The Doctor, however, was she had both wings and a horn, both bigger than on any pegasi or unicorn he’d seen. Her mane and tail were odd too, unlike any other he’d seen. They seemed to be made of a field of deep-blue, filled with stars, which moved around in an ethereal wind. To top it off, unlike the other ponies, she had eyes that were more like lizard eyes, with strong turquoise irises, dagger-shaped pupils and, unlike normal eyes, the whites of her eyes were a light-blue than her irises.
“Greetings, my subjects,” she called out to the audience. “It is wonderful to see all of you enjoying the Star Festival this year. While my mother sadly could not be here this year, I am honoured and proud to host the Star Festival myself. Once again we celebrate how we have moved beyond the simple boarders of the planet and of races, to be one great world, united in peace.”
This was followed by cheers and stomping of hooves (clapping from those with hands, like the minotaurs).
“Now, enjoy the rest of the festival, my subjects,” the princess finished, nodded and stepping down. The Doctor could’ve sworn he saw one of her lizard-like eyes pause on him for a moment and small smile creep onto her lips before she’d stepped off the podium.
The Doctor blinked, shocked. “Well, that was a lovely speech. A bit short, but lovely, all the same. And, I must say, I never thought ponies could look like that. What about you, Derpy? Um, Miss Hooves?”
The Doctor turned to see Derpy had become frozen in place, her mismatched eyes centred, aimed at the tall mare on the podium.
“Miss Hooves?” The Doctor asked, slightly worried.
“It wasn’t just a ponytale,” she whispered, her body quivering. “Nightmare Moon.”
Several nearby ponies and a few of the insectoid creatures glanced at them, a few scowling at Derpy, before returning to the festival.
“Nightmare... Moon?” The Doctor asked, confused. “But, Derpy, you heard that mare. That’s Princess Stellar Nova.”
“No-no-no-no-no,” Derpy shook her head, looking to The Doctor, showing signs that she was panicking on the inside. “Doctor, that’s Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia banished her to the moon almost a thousand years ago.”
The Doctor cocked his head. “What? Why’d she do that?”
“Because Nightmare Moon tried to put Equestria under a Forever Night!” the shaking Pegasus whispered back. “She wanted to blanket my home in darkness.”
“Hmm,” The Doctor frowned, looking around. “That doesn’t sound good, though, look around, Derpy. None of these ponies or any of the other creatures here seem worried. In fact, if the princess banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, then why are all these other creatures here?”
“I...” Derpy trailed off, looking around. Everypony and other creature in the crowd were looking up at the dark Alicorn, not in fear and pretending to be happy, but genuine happiness and respect. “I... guess not their not. And, that is confusing. Why would ponies... or, any creature, I guess, come to the moon after Nightmare Moon was banished to it? it wouldn't be safe.”
The Doctor nodded. “Remember, Derpy, we’re more than five hundred years from your time. Maybe, during those centuries, something happened. Maybe Nightmare Moon reformed. She has been called "princess" here, so maybe she’s changed for the better.”
“I would hope so,” a voice said from behind them.
They both yelped, whirling around to see the tall figure standing in front of them, flanked by several guards. However, she wore the small smile The Doctor had seen creep onto her lips before.
“Welcome, Doctor, Derpy. It is good to see you both again after so long.”
The Doctor blinked at those last words, but Derpy spoke before he could question.
“Y-y-y-you’re n-n-n-not Ni-Ni-Ni-Ni-Nightmare M-M-M-M-Moon, a-are you?” she quivered.
The smile on the taller mare’s face became warm and understanding. “Yes and no, my little pony. My form was created from Nightmare Moon, but I am not her. I am Princess Stellar Nova, daughter of Princess Luna, Sister of Princess Celestia and ruler of the moon.”
All Derpy’s fear vanished in an instant, replaced with confusion. “Sister? Princess Celestia has a sister?”
Princess Stellar nodded. “My mother. Come. I will explain what I am allowed over there,” she indicated to an empty table.
The Doctor grinned, knowing he was going to enjoy this talk, while Derpy followed uncertainly behind.
“So?” The Doctor asked once they’d all sat down at the tables, the guards taking stances nearby. “Please, princess. I’m curious as to how you know us, yet we do not know you, aside from what Derpy knows of this Nightmare Moon business.”
The princes chuckled. “Well, I can’t say too much, Doctor. My mother told me after last time to not give away any spoilers.”
The Doctor’s face paused for a moment, before he frowned. “Oh, come on, Princess. Couldn’t you give us a little clue?”
She replied with another chuckle. “I will say that Derpy was one of the first ponies to treat me as another pony and not as Nightmare Moon.”
Derpy glanced at the princess, confused. “But... I didn’t. I...”
The Doctor shook his head. “Oh, no, no-no-no, Derpy. She means later, when she meets you for the first time.”
Derpy frowned. “But, I’ve just met her. How can she meet me for the first time again if this is the first time we’ve met?”
The Doctor chuckled. “Oh, my dear Derpy. You have a lot to learn about time travel.”
“Speaking of which,” the princess looked at The Doctor firmly. “I trust you will continue to keep the TARDIS out of the wrong hooves? After that last disaster, I’d rather not—” She stopped, putting a hoof over her mouth, a light chuckle leaving her lips. “Oops. Sorry, Doctor. Wow. Mother was right. I do find it hard not to give spoilers.”
The Doctor blinked, then slowly nodded. “Anyway, Your Highness, I—”
The Doctor was interrupted by one of the guards tapping the princess on the shoulder. She leaned down and he whispered something into her ear. From the expression on the princess’ face, it was not pleasant news.
“Forgive me,” she said, standing up. “There are some matters to which I must attend.”
“I’m coming with you,” The Doctor said, standing up too. “Something is amiss and I want to know what.”
The princess frowned. “And just how do you know this, Doctor?”
The Doctor shrugged. "The TARDIS usually brings me to places where something's wrong, so I've learned to be on the side of caution with every trip, just in case."
“Hmm. Yes,” she nodded. “Come then, Doctor. We might require your help in this matter.”
“But... what about me?” Derpy asked, standing as well.
“Oh, just enjoy the festival,” The Doctor grinned. “This shouldn’t take too long. Just a few minutes, tops. Enjoy the festival, Miss Hooves.”
And with that he trotted off with the princess and her guards, leaving Derpy alone to the festival.
Once they were out of Derpy’s earshot, the princess whispered, “I see things haven’t changed, Doctor.”
Derpy walked among the stalls, interested by it all. The culture the moon settlers had was different from what she was used to, yet so similar at the same time. She couldn't ingore that she was a little nervous, though, being on her own. But she was sure things would be okay. And, if she got too scared, she could always go back to The Doctor’s TARDIS.
Derpy looked down to see a small unicorn filly smiling up at her. Wait. No, not quite a unicorn filly. She hadf a pink coat and a teddy bear for a Cutie Mark like a filly, but her mane was the same as those strange insect creatures she’d been seeing. She also had wings like them and her hooves had holes in them. Maybe she was a mixed of pony and those creatures?
“Oh, hello, there,” the Pegasus smiled. “I’m Derpy Hooves. What’s your name, little one?”
“Plushy,” the little one chirped.
Derpy nodded. “That’s a nice name. Um, Plushy, what are you?”
Plushy giggled. “I’m a ponyling.” When Derpy raised an eyebrow, she continued with , “My mommy’s a Changeling and my daddy’s a pony.”
Derpy cocked her head. “Changeling?” She’d never heard that word before.
Plushy giggled again. “Dey’we bug-wike ponies who can change how dey wook. Watch.”
At that, the little ponyling, as she called herself, was engulfed in pink flames. Derpy moved to save her, but the flames quickly vanished and, in their place, instead of a burned Plushy, as Derpy had expected, she was looking at a filly version of herself.
Derpy’s mouth hung agape as the filly Derpy was engulfed in flames again and returned to Plushy.
Wow,” she finally managed after a minute. “That’s really amazing.”
Plushy blushed, then scuffed a hoof at the ground. “I’m not vewy good, yet. I can only change into tings my size.”
That would explain why she turned into a filly version of herself, instead of an exact copy, the Pegasus thought. She couldn’t actually make herself like she was now, only relevant to her own size, thus, a filly Derpy.
“Plushy!”
The two turned to see one of the (Plushy called them Changelings, didn’t she?) coming towards them, looking both relieved, flustered and annoyed.
When the Changeling stopped in front of them, she looked down at the smaller one. “Honey, what have I told you about running off on your own?” she asked, her voice having more of a distortion to it than Plushy’s.
The ponyling scuffed at the ground, keeping her head down. “Sowwy, Mama.”
The Changeling turned to Derpy. “I do apologize if my daughter has been bothering you, miss.”
Derpy shook her head. “Oh, no, no, no. She wasn’t bothering me. In fact, I was enjoying our little talk. You have a very sweet daughter, Mrs...”
The Changeling chuckled. “Chitin, dear. It was very nice to meet you. Come along, Plushy.”
Plushy’s ear drooped and she moved to follow her mother. However, they’d not gone too hoofsteps before something caused all three of them to turn their heads.
It had been faint, but they could have sworn they’d heard a young filly calling out.
Derpy and Chitin glanced at each other, nodded and all three headed towards the direction the sound had come from, Plushy riding on her mother’s back.
“So, Princess, what exactly is going on?” The Doctor asked as they walked into what was clearly a base for the Royal Guards.
“I believe it would be better if you heard this from the captain,” the princess said, looking towards a pony on the other side of the room. “Captain Light Wing?”
The pony turned and came over. She was a Thestral pony, like the other guards. Her coat was the same slate-grey and her eyes were bat-like, with pupils the same as the princess, but with white where the whites in her eyes should have been.
Light Wing nodded, then glanced at The Doctor. “And who is this, princess?”
“Somepony who might finally be able to help us solve this mystery, Captain,” the princes replied. “Tell him what we have learned thus far.”
Light Wing nodded, then looked at The Doctor. “Very well. For the past nine months ponies from the colony have been disappearing. It was unnoticeable at first, a few going away here and there. It could easily be assumed they just went down to the planet. However, after some time, several reports came in, and we started to investigate.”
“And you learned right away that these ponies weren’t just going down to the planet, didn’t you?” The Doctor asked, his mood serious.
Light Wing nodded. “Indeed. We started by checking the transport logs with the timing of the disappearances, going as far back as we could. There were no records of transports going to the planet from the colony at those times. And, seeing as there are only two ponies who usually travel without the means of the transmats, we know they cannot be involved, though we still had to check.”
“And who might those be?” The Doctor asked, curious. It was the princess who answered.
“My mother and myself. We are Alicorns, Doctor. The most powerful off all the pony races. Only I, my mother, my aunts, my sister and cousin have enough magical power to travel from the moon and back without need of the transmats.”
The Doctor blinked, then glanced up at the princess. “Your sister?”
“Well, more like half-sister, really,” the princess corrected herself. “Twilight and I share the same blood, though the circumstances of how it happened are not easy to explain and is a conversation for another time.”
“Got it, moving on,” The Doctor nodded, turning back to Light Wing. “So, there’s no records of these missing ponies leaving the moon?”
The mare shook her head. “My mares and stallions searched them very thoroughly, Doctor.”
“So, if there’s no record of them leaving, it means these missing ponies never left. They’re still here, somewhere on the moon.”
Light Wing nodded, her face grim. “That is both good and bad news, Doctor.”
“Yes, I can see why,” The Doctor rubbed his chin. “If they never left and are still here, it means they’ve been hidden. But why? Why kidnap so many ponies just to hide them?”
Light Wing’s face somehow became grimmer. “Because they’re not just being hidden.”
The Doctor blinked. “What?”
Light Wing indicated for him to follow her through another door. At once he took in the familiar settings of an autopsy room and, lying on one of the stainless steel table lay what looked like a mummified Earth Pony.
“This was found headed for an incinerator on the dark side of the moon several days ago,” Light Wing said, stopping in front of the body. “It was brought straight to the guard. It’s the first clue we’ve gotten as to what could be happening. This is Trend Setter. He was an up and coming fashion designer who’d been visiting relatives on the moon. He went missing five days later.”
The Doctor nodded, took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the mummified corpse. “This is odd. No signs of bruising or wounds. No internal bleeding. If not for the fact he’s dead, I’d say this pony is completely heathy—” The scan finished and he gasped.
“What?” the princess asked, her tone worried. “What have you learned, Doctor?”
He turned to her, his eyes showing deep worry. “This pony has been completely drained of all his magic and life force. He was literally sucked dry.”
There was an uneasy silence that passed through the room.
“So, the other missing ponies?” the princess asked, worried clearly in her voice now.
The Doctor nodded. “If we don’t find them they all may end up just like this poor fellow, and there’s no telling when that will be or how many more have already been like this.”
“Did you find anything else?” Light Wing asked, not bothering to ask just how The Doctor had figured that out. The princess trusted him, and that was good enough for her. “Anything that might give us a hint as to how to find them? Why they targeted him specifically?”
“Well,” The Doctor said, looking at the scan again. “The only thing I can make out is that he had an unusually large amount of Earth Pony magic for a pony like himself.”
Light Wing’s eyes flashed and she pointed at a nearby guard. “Check the reported missing ponies. Find out if they have anything about their magic, regardless of race, that was abnormal. If we can find a common link, we might be able to predict the next target.”
The guard saluted and hurried off.
“Thank you, Doctor,” the princess said, turning to him. “You may have help us more than I could’ve hope— Doctor, what’s wrong?”
The stallion’s face had gone very pale. “Whoever’s taking these ponies are going after those with unusual levels of inner magic.”
Light Wing nodded. “Yes. What about it?”
The Doctor looked to the princess. “Princess, Derpy came here with me.”
The princess cocked an eyebrow. “Doctor, I fail to... see... what...” Her eyes widened and she turned and barked, “Find Derpy Hooves at once! She’s a grey Pegasus with a blonde mane and tail, bubbles for Cutie Mark and mismatched eyes! She’s the next target!”
Derpy, Chitin and Plushy walked down the alley, looking for the source of the voice they’d heard. As they rounded another corner, Plushy cried out, “Over there!”
Sitting against a wall was a small brown unicorn filly. Her head was slumped, her eyes facing the ground.
Derpy moved forward, sat down and wrapped a wing around the little unicorn.
“Hey,” she whispered quietly. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“D-Derpy... get away from her!”
Derpy glanced up at the tone in Chitin’s voice, only for her eyes to widen at the horrified look on the Changeling face.
Derpy glanced from her to the filly, who still hadn’t made any indication that she’d noticed the Pegasus. “Chitin, what’s wrong?” she asked, turning back to the Changeling. She could now see Plushy holding onto her mother’s back, her expression of fear, just like her mother’s.
“She... she has no feelings,” Chitin shivered, as if even saying such a thing was wrong.
Derpy blinked, glanced down at the filly under her wind, then slowly removed her wing and started to back away, not taking her eyes off the filly.
In their short time together, Chitin had explained some things about the Changeling race to her. Changelings feed off of emotions. Though they could also eat normal food, it wasn’t as sustaining for them as emotions. Changelings could also feel the emotions of others. If Chitin was saying she felt no emotions from the filly...
Derpy had just reached the other two, when the filly’s head lifted, causing them all to finch. Slowly, the filly turned her gaze towards them, causing them all to shudder. Her eyes; they had nothing in them, no emotion, no sense of life, nothing. It was like a living doll.
“Mama,” Plushy whispered as she shivered on her mother’s back, “I’m scared.”
“We need to run,” Chitin whispered back, glancing at Derpy, who nodded.
Suddenly the filly’s horn glowed with a pale green aura. At once, Derpy felt like she couldn’t move. At the same time a cry came from her friends as they were tossed backwards into a nearby wall, slamming hard against it.
Derpy couldn’t see what happened to them, her eyes stuck looking at the filly as she slowly stood up and walked towards her until she was looking up at her.
“Target acquired,” she said in a vocie devoid of any emotion. “Returning to base.”
The filly’s horn glowed brighter and Derpy’s vision went black.
Derpy groaned as consciousness returned. She could hear somepony talking, but, in her dazed state, it was taking a moment to decipher what was being said from noise into words.
“... settled?” one voice, that of a male asked.
“Yes,” a female’s replied. “Both are being taken care of. They’ll have no memory of the mare... or the last few months for that matter, but what do we care, right?”
Derpy opened her eyes and, after a few moments, her side returned. Standing before her were two ponies, a mare and stallion, one a Pegasus with a brown coat, grey mane and an addition sign for a cutie mark and the other an Earth Pony with a red coat, black mane and a timer for a cutie mark.
She tried to move and became very aware of the two large Earth Pony stallions, one holding it of her forelegs, who’s strength made struggling pretty much useless, but she kept trying.
The other two ponies seemed to notice her struggling, because they turned, both grinned and walked towards her.
“Greeting, miss,” the mare said, stepping closer. Derpy didn’t like the smile she was wearing. “We’re so glad you could join us?”
“Wh-where am I?” Derpy asked, glancing around. “Wh-where’re Chitin and Plushy?”
The mare glanced at the stallion, a bored expression coming over her face. “Who?”
“I think she meant those freaks she was with when XX9356978 found her.”
The mare nodded. “Ah, yes. Well, while we don’t really see a reason for you to worry about them, they’re fine. They just won’t remember anything that’s happened in the last few months. Small side effect of the Memory Wiping spell XX9356978 used on them.”
“XX... who?” Derpy felt very confused.
“No concern of yours, mare,” the stallion said, grinning. “Now, care to tell us why you have Artron energy?”
“Ar-what energy?” Derpy cocked her head.
The stallion glared at her. “Don’t lie! You’ve met with her, haven’t you? The wonderful mare who started all this. Tell me, where did you meet her? When did you meet her?”
Her? Who the heck was this stallion talking about?
“Calm yourself, Watcher,” the mare said, her voice cool and gentle. “If she did meet her, I doubt she’s smart enough to even realize it.”
“Hey!” Derpy frowned. “I’m smart!”
“Yet, when the changeling told you XX9356978 had no emotions, you failed to do what any being with half a brain would have done and run. You slowly back away, as if doing so would be safer,” the mare sneered. “Fear not, mare. It is your energy we need, not your mind. Has a pod been readied for her?” she asked as she lifted her right foreleg to her mouth.
A small murmuring sound came from her leg and the mare grinned, nodded to the stallion’s holding Derpy and they started heading down what Derpy realized was a long metal corridor.
As they marched through it, Derpy tried to figure a way out. True, she wasn’t as stupid as these ponies clearly thought she was from how they’d spoken to her, but she wasn’t the brightest Pegasus and she knew it. However, that didn’t mean she wasn’t smart enough to know she needed to find a way out.
As they past windows in the steel walls, Derpy could make out what looked like strange greyish-green pods, inside which she could see ponies. Almost every room was filled with these pods, with ponies of different varying ages in each pod. Some were foals, while others looked almost full-grown. However, there was one constant. Every pony was a unicorn.
“Wh-wh-what’re those ponies doing in those pods?” she asked, trying hard and failing to keep the fear from her voice.
The stallion, Watcher, looked back at her over his shoulder and sneered. “They are our army.”
“Army?” Derpy knew that word from history in school. “But... why do you need an army?”
The sneer turned menacing. “To kill the princesses!”
Derpy’s breath caught in her lungs.
The mare scowled at Watcher. “Why are you telling this lowly peasant our plans?”
Watcher just gave her a deadpanned expression. “Oh, and you’ve never told our plans to any of the ponies as they were being podded, Calculus. What harm can it do? Not like she’s going to be able to tell anypony.”
The mare, Calculus, smiled coolly. “True. It is fun watching the horrified expressions on their faces. Very well, mare,” she glanced over her shoulder at Derpy, “we may as well tell you. We are the descendants of the greatest ponies to ever exist in this world, the Golden Chalice family!”
Derpy blinked. That name sounded familiar, but she wasn’t sure why.
“Over a thousand years ago, the Golden Chalice family spoke out against Nightmare Moon, or, as she had led them to believe she was called, Luna. However, when they voices were heard by Princess Celestia, the tyrant exiled them from Canterlot and stripped them of their rightful nobility.”
“Forced out, our ancestors had to toil like the commoners that had always been beneath them jsut to survive,” Watcher snarled. “Some, those weak-willed and small-minded, accepted this as their new life. However, those that didn’t kept the truth alive amongst themselves. But, with no means of taking their vengeance and regaining their rightful place over the peasants of the world, they waited, unsure what to do.”
A metal door opened and they went through as Calculus continued. “Until one among those that had settled into the idea of living among the commoners stood up. The wise and mighty Alchemist. He infiltrated the castle before the moon tyrant returned, with all intent of first taking out the one responsible for his ancestors’ banishment, but had to wait. Eventually, the moon tyrant returned, causing him to wait longer.”
“By which time, the moon tyrant had beget a monster of her own, a physical embodiment of the beast she had become, creating a second to join her.”
Princess Stellar, Derpy thought as she was led through yet another corridor lined with windows showing more pods of sleeping unicorns.
“It was then that Alchemist attempted to rid our world of those monsters. But, the tyrant princesses trick the ponies of Equestria into think they were innocent and that Alchemist was the evil one. They destroyed him, leaving nothing behind, all under the guise that it was to protect an innocent child.”
Derpy knew that had to be wrong. Princess Celestia wasn’t like that and, though she’d not met this Princess Luna, if she was Princess Celestia’s sister, she had to be just as kind and lovely as Celestia herself. And she’d met Princess Stellar. She was no monster.
However, she knew she wouldn’t be able to convince these ponies. They were too driven by something that made no sense, which had happened long before their time.
As Derpy saw yet another room full of pods, a question came to mind, one she had to ask. “Why’re all the ponies in the pods unicorns? And, how come you aren’t unicorns.”
They stopped outside another steal door, both of them glaring over their shoulders.
“A curse no doubt placed upon us when banishment first given to our ancestors,” Watcher snarled. “It started off small at first, but soon, none descended from the Golden Chalice family could beget a unicorn foal.”
“And, if we are to defeat the tyrant princesses, as they are Alicorns, we will need a lot of magic. And, since unicorns have the most magic of any pony race aside from Alicorns, what better than an army of unicorns? Not even the princesses will be able to stand against them.”
The door opened and Derpy saw two Pegasus mares dragging something towards a small shoot. When she focused on it, she almost lost the contents of her stomach.
It was a pony, a Pegasus from the looks of it. But its skin was pulled tight against its bones, to the point it was cracking. The skin was dull and lifeless. The body was skinny, so much so it was clinging to the bones.
Derpy shivered as it was tossed into the shoot and the sound of a fire erupting could be heard as it closed.
“Wha-wh-what was that?” she stuttered, now glad she was being held up, or else she’d have fallen.
Calculus sniffed. “An empty shell, now that we’ve taken all its magic and life energy.” She then leered at Derpy. “Aren’t you lucky? Her pod just became available. You get a room all to yourself.”
Derpy followed where she was pointing and shivered. In the corner was an open pod, like all the ones she’d seen before. Only this one had a tube leading from it into another pod standing right next to it. The second pod was filled with a greenish liquid that Derpy couldn’t name. Aside from that, it was empty.
Suddenly the stallions holding her began moving towards the pod. Derpy screamed and struggled with all her might to try and get out of their grasp, but they held firm.
Once they were close enough, they tossed her into the pod, which closed the moment she was in there.
Derpy turned and banged on the glasses, screaming. “Please! Please don’t do this! Whatever you’re going to do, please, let me go! I’ve got a family! Please!”
She felt something wet against her hooves and looked down to see a greenish liquid, like the one from the other pod slowly rising up.
Derpy’s pounding became more frantic, her cries more wailful as the liquid rose higher and higher until it had completely cover her.
She held her breath for a long as she could, but in the end it was too much. When she took a breath, however, she didn’t choke as the liquid went into her lungs. It did, however, make her feel a bit drowsy.
As the world around her began to blacken, she saw Calculus walk up to the pod’s glass and place a hoof on it.
“Don’t worry,” her voice was faintly heard. “Your Artron energy will give as the most powerful soldiers we could ask for. Your sacrifice will be for a greater cause, justice and putting the right ponies on the thrones, as it should be.”
And with that, the world went black and all sound faded away.
The Doctor, Princess Stellar and Captain Light Wing hurried down the streets, the bleeping of The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver getting stronger.
They’d been searching for Derpy for several hours now. The Doctor had become more anxious with each minute that past, as had the princess.
When the Guard had been sent out to go and protect Derpy, it was to find she’d gone missing. The Guard had asked all ponies who’d been present around the area The Doctor had last seen Derpy during the festival, but none had seen or heard anything about a mare matching Derpy’s description.
It got to a point where The Doctor started losing hope, thinking he’d caused the loss of another innocent life that had come along with him, not truly aware of the dangers that could come from traveling with him.
Finally, after several days of personal searching, the Princess and Light Wing joining him, they’d finally found a lead. Derpy’s energy signature had been faint, but trackable.
After the princess had called in a squad of guards, Thestral, unicorn, Earth Pony, Pegasi and even some Changelings, they’d followed after the trail the sonic had picked up. When it was at its strongest, they’d come to an alley.
“Hmm,” the princess said, her horn glowing. “I’m sensing some faint strange magic around here. Whatever happened, magic played a part.”
“Oh, come on,” The Doctor said, agitated as he slapped his sonic against his leg. “You’ve tracked living beings before, why have you lost Derpy’s signal? Hey, don’t you give me that.”
Light Wing glanced at the princess. “Is he really a sane pony?”
The Princess chuckled. “Oh, dear, Celestia, no. Mother help us the day The Doctor is sane.”
“Wait,” The Doctor frowned. “I’m getting another signal. It’s from a... Changeling? No, two Changelings!”
The two mares glanced at each other and nodded.
“Lead on, Doctor,” the princess ordered.
They walked deeper into the alley, the other guards following behind, the Changelings amongst them at the head, until the sonic’s light was blinking frantically. Lying on the ground was a Changeling and her filly/nymph.
“Oh,” The Doctor said, scanning them. “This is bad.”
“How bad?” Light Wing asked.
“The sonic says these two have had their memories of the last few months wiped clean with... well, I guess, since this world runs on magic, a memory spell of some kind.”
“Then step aside, Doctor,” the princess stepped forward, her horn glowing.
The Doctor stepped back as the princess leaned over the two, gently placing her horn between them.
As she stood there, he glanced at Light Wing. “I’m a little surprised how much she cares for Derpy.”
Light Wing nodded. “Mother always cares for her subjects. She treasures each and every one of them like her own and would do anything to help them.”
The Doctor nodded solemnly. “Living a life as long as she has I can understand... Wait, “mother”?” He turned to Light Wing.
Light Wing nodded, then blanched, as if realizing something. “Sorry. I shouldn’t refer to her that way when on the job. My apologies, Doctor.”
“But... you’ve bat wings!” The Doctor exclaimed, looking from Light Wing back to the princess. “How does that work? I mean, I can see the eyes, the princess’ eyes are very similar to yours, but how...?”
“My father was a Thestral,” she replied simply. “Enough said.”
“But—” The Doctor began, only to be cut off as the princess stood, turning.
“I have the location where these two were taken for their memory wipe,” she said, looking past The Doctor and Light Wing to the other Guard. “Changeling guards, remain behind and care for these two. Several unicorn shall remain as well, to aid should the need arise.”
The guards all saluted, saying, “Yes, your highness,” before the Changelings among them and several unicorns moved out of the group and towards the two unconscious Changelings.
As she past them, the princess looked to The Doctor, who recognized the look in her eyes. He’d seen it in many a caring beings before when those they cared about were threatened in any way.
Whoever took Derpy, I’d hate to be them, he thought to himself. They’re about to endure a living nightmare.
Watcher stood in front of the pod, grinning. From within he could see a small unicorn foal. Soon she would be ready to be moved into the other rooms and they could begin with the next one to be taken from this mare.
Suddenly the room shook as the sound of a faint explosion reached his ears. Moments later the lights turned red and an alarm sounded.
Watcher whirled around, and slammed his hoof against the intercom. “What in tartarus is going on?!”
“It’s The Nightmare, Lord Watcher,” a voice said from the other end as the sounds of explosions and shouts came from the background. “She somehow found our base and has brought an army of Royal Guards with her—” the line went dead.
Watcher stared at the intercom, his blood cold. No. It was too soon. The army wasn’t ready. They hadn’t all been fully programmed yet. They needed more time.
He waited for what felt like hours, wondering what was happening. Nopony was responding to his demands to know what was going on. the silence was defending.
A muffled cry from the other side of the door caused him to turn his head. Seconds later there was a slamming sound and the dor heaved, as if something heavy had been forced against it.
He frowned, taking a stance between him and the pods. He would not allow whoever was outside to stop their work. Not after the centuries it had taken for this to be possible. He would make whoever was outside pay for being blind to—
The door exploded forward and he ducked, the door flying over his head and slamming into the door. He whirled around, before he both froze in place and felt his blood boil.
“Stellar Nova,” he snarled as the black Alicorn stepped through, a cold expression on her face. “How did you find this base?”
The tiniest of smirks appeared on her face. “If you’re intention was to ensure your base’s secrecy by memory wipes, don’t use them on a species who’s main magical skill is mind magic. They retained the memories, even after you erased them.”
He snarled, then ran to a console and pressed a button, talking into the microphone. “All ponies A through M, awake and destroy the intruders.”
“Oh, that’s not going to work,” a cheery voice said. Watcher whirled around to see a stallion walk in and stand next to the Alicorn, twirling a small metal rode in his hoof. “Should’ve Deadlocked everything. Your systems were easy to hack. Those ponies aren’t waking up til I say so.”
Watcher glared at them, looking from one to the other, before he caught sight of the pod the Pegasus mare was in. At once he reached to his side, pulled up a plasma blaster and aimed it at the pod.
All the others tensed. “One move and I blast her to pieces,” he said, his expression wild.
Before he could respond, however, the Alicorn had turned into a field of stars, shot forward and engulfed him, before the world went black
When the cloud of stars moved away, returning to the form of the princess, the Earth Pony was lying unconscious on the floor.
The Doctor looked for only a second, before he hurried over to the pod and used the sonic. After a few moments the pod drained and opened, dropping Derpy into his waiting forelegs.
“Derpy?” he asked, shaking her a little, panic in his voice. “Miss Hooves? Miss Hooves!”
Suddenly Derpy jerked and began coughing, spitting out large amongst of some greenish liquid. Once she’d finished coughing it out, she gasped in air, breathing heavily.
She looked blearily at the stallion holding her. “Doc... tor?”
His expression softened into a relieved smile. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“Sweet Celestia!” They all turned to see Light Wing standing in front of the second pod. As they all looked, then gasped, shocked as she was. All aside from the princess, who, while still looking shocked, also had a look of understand on her face.
The princess moved over, her horn glowing over the consoles next to the tube. The liquid within drained until the small foal within was lying on the floor, before the pod opened, letting them see her clearly.
She had a coat almost the same colour as Derpy, only a little darker. Her mane and tail were blonde, just like Derpy’s, however, instead of Pegasus wings on her sides; on her head was a small unicorn’s horn.
“Derpy,” the princess said in a quiet voice. “Please, come here.”
Derpy had to lean on both The Doctor and Light Wing to stand, but made her way over. Once she was standing at the princess’ side, the Alicorn’s mane reached out, lifted the little foal and held her out to the Pegasus.
She hesitated, then took the unicorn in her forehooves. The moment she did, the foal stirred, slowly opening her eyes, where, while the same golden colour as Derpy’s, were normal and centred.
They were all still for several moments, waiting to see what would happen next. The foal gave a smile, made a small, cute yawn, then snuggled into Derpy’s barrel, going back to sleep.
“You have a wonderful daughter, Derpy,” the princess said, smiling warmly.
“Wh-wha?” Derpy asked, her head shooting up, eyes wide. “Daughter?”
The princess nodded, just as several Earth Pony guards came in through the door. “We’ve fully taken the base, princess,” the one of the far right said. “The ponies responsible have been captured and arrested. There seems to be no unicorns among them.”
The princess frowned. “None? Then why were all the pod ponies I saw unicorns? If there were none among those running this, it would stand to reason that they hated unicorns.”
“Oh, I can answer that,” Derpy said, then shied away a bit as all eyes turned on her. “Th-they told me, before they put me in that pod, that Princess Celestia had cursed their ancestors, the Golden Chalice family, so they’d never have unicorn foals.”
The princess’ expression hardened. “Even five hundred years passing hasn’t stopped them.”
“U-um... princess?” Derpy asked nervously. “They weren’t telling the truth, right? Princess Celestia didn’t really curse them, not to have unicorns, did she? A-and... they didn’t destroy somepony named Alchemist, did they?”
The princess’ expression softened a little. “No. Alchemist was a pony that did much evil. However, Mother did not destroy him. She imprisoned him in a way that he would learn from his crimes, both those he committed against his own family... and against myself when I was but a child.”
Derpy shivered. “Wh-what did he do?”
The princess shook his head. “One day you will learn, Derpy. However, now is not the time.” She turned to her guards. “Begin having the ponies within the pods transferred. We will need to break the programming this cult has put into them. Hopefully the youngest among them will only need a little help and we can start looking for families for them. Also, take this pony away and lock him up with others.”
The guards nodded. “At once, princess.” They headed off, one quickly grabbing the Earth Pony and tossing him onto his back before following the his comrade, leaving The Doctor, Derpy, Light Wing and the foal on their own.
The princess turned to Derpy, smiling. “So, what will you call her?”
“Uh...” Derpy said, looking down at the foal in her forehooves. “I... I don’t know. I never expected to become a mom, at least, not until I was older.”
The princess chuckled. “Then, if you wouldn’t mind, might I suggest Dinky Doo?”
“Dinky Doo,” Derpy repeated the word, rolling it around on her tongue, then looking down at the foal. She smiled. “Sounds wonderful. Dinky Doo it is.”
“Skidamarink a-dink, a-dink, kidamarink a-doo—” The Doctor began singing.
“Doctor,” the princess interrupted him. “Don’t. Just don’t.”
The Doctor pouted and grumbled, “It’s a nice rhyme.”
The princess shook her head and rolled her eyes, before indicating to the door with her head. “Let’s go. I do not wish to linger around a place like this longer than necessary.”
Dinky's Origins part 5 A Promise For a Final Meeting Kept
“It was good seeing you again, Derpy,” the princess said as the five of them, Derpy, The Doctor, Light Wing, herself and the foal, stood outside the TARDIS. “Good luck raising your daughter. I know you’ll do a wonderful job.”
It had been a few weeks since Derpy's rescue. The rehabilitation of the unicorns was well underway and the descendants of the Golden Chalice family had been sent down to Equestria to be judged by Celestia and Luna on behalf of the current ruler, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Now, however, it was time to say goodbye.
Derpy smiled, nodding. “Thank you, princess,” she said, looking down at the foal sleeping against her as she held it with a foreleg. “I’ll do my best.”
The Princess chuckled. "Trust me, I know you will."
“And you too, your highness,” The Doctor bowed, then frowned. “Though, are you sure you don’t want me around. I know you’ve explained how you have spells that can do similar, but that base was bigger on the inside and it didn’t feel like magic was behind that. That was Time Lord technology.”
The princess nodded. “I am sure, Doctor. I have lived for around five hundred years. I am certain I need not worry about it.”
"Alright,” he said uncertainly, turning to go inside.
“But, Doctor,” she continued, causing him to pause, “whilst I know I am forbidden to tell you exactly what is going to happen, I can warn you of this. The drums are not what drive her now.”
The Doctor glanced back, an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean?” he asked slowly.
The princess shook her head. “I cannot tell you more than that. But, please, be wary, Doctor.”
The Doctor was silent for a few moments, before he nodded. “Come along, Miss Hooves. I’ve still that visit I promised you.”
Derpy nodded and, after giving one last smile to the princess followed him inside.
Derpy stepped outside the TARDIS, carrying Dinky and looked around. They were in a hospital. Cloudsdale hospital.
“Doctor, remain inside the TARDIS,” she said, glancing back at him. “Non-pegasi can’t walk on clouds.”
“Taken care of,” he grinned, stepping out wearing something on his hooves. “Wore these back when I was visiting my niece on the cloud banks of Castalera 9. Lovely place. Never could get a good starfish there, though. Here,” he placed much smaller version of the things he was wearing over Dinky’s tiny hooves. “Now, as long as she wears these she won’t fall either.”
Derpy nodded. “Okay.”
With that they walked down the cloud-made hall, The Doctor marveling in everything he saw in the cloud-made structure, until they stopped in front of a door with the letters JH9 on the front.
Derpy hesitated for a moment, before she pushed open the door and they walked in. Lying in the cloud bed in the middle of the room, hook up to several medical devices was a Pegasus mare with a light-purple coat and red mane. Her mane was missing in chunks and her face was lined.
Derpy gulped, tears welling in her eyes.
The mare stirred, slowly opening her eyes. When fell on The Doctor and his Cutie Mark, she gave a weak smile. “Doctor,” she croaked. “You kept your promise after all.”
“Ay?” he asked, glancing at Derpy, who was looking at him with equal confusion.
The mare then turned her eyes to Derpy, her smile becoming warmer. “My little Derpy. Is that really you?”
Derpy gasped, then, her lips trembling, nodded. “Uh-huh. Hi... Mommy.”
Derpy’s mom nodded, then looked to The Doctor. “Thank you, Doctor. I’m glad I get to see my daughter as a big filly.” She looked to Derpy, lifted a hoof and brushed her cheek as tears ran down Derpy’s face. “Sorry I wasn’t there for you, sweetie. Mommy fought as hard as possible, but I lost this battle in the end. Just know that I always loved you and always will, no matter if death tries to separate us.”
Derpy sniffled, then held her forelegs out. “M-Mom... th-this is m-my daughter, D-Dinky Doo. Y-you’re a grandma.”
The mare looked at the sleeping unicorn in Derpy’s grasp and her smile seemed to warm even more. “You’ll be a wonderful mother, my little Derpy.”
Derpy sniffled again, then nodded, her eyes brimming with tears as more fell. “You were too, Mom. I love you.”
“And I you, my daughter,” she nodded, before laid back against her pillow and closed her eyes. “I love... you... too...”
A loud beeping rang out, seeming to echo through the hospital.
The TARDIS appeared on the edge of Ponyville and from its doors stepped Derpy, carrying her foal. She glanced back at the stallion smiling sadly at her from within.
He nodded, before the doors closed and the blue box faded away from sight.
Derpy took a deep breath, then headed towards her father's house. Her life was set. She was a mother now and she had to make sure Dinky had the best foalhood she could provide.
