A mysterious force scatters Twilight's friends all across Equestria, no longer having memory of each other. Can Twilight get back her friends before a sinister plot destroys Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle, Princess and now mentor to Starlight Glimmer is having a great time at a party Starlight is throwing. After the party everything starts to snowball into chaos. As the cutie map summons everypony to it; all confused to the reason why the map needed them all the mane six look at each other. Till each one starts vanishing to the far reaches of Equestria, all but Twilight.
Can Twilight get her friends back before Equestria is destroyed by the princesses and Discord. Can Twilight even stop the pony behind it all or will Equestria fall into eternal chaos because of this pony.
Join Twilight on this endeavor to see if she fails in the quest at hand or over comes it.
It was a cool summer night; everything was still, only the creatures of the night were singing as the stars glimmered and twinkled. The tranquility of the night had its silence broken as a flash appeared near the castle of the two sisters. A mysterious unicorn appeared in a cloak as black as night and went towards the Tree of Harmony. The unicorn approached the tree and looked it over, she smirked and said, softly
“I see you gave the chest to the heir of your power. Well then, you know I must destroy this pony.”
She let out a little laugh into the night sky.
Twilight was so happy Starlight had decided to throw a party for the friends she made since becoming Twilight’s student. She had invited Trixie, Sunburst, some of the ponies from the village she ran, and Twilight’s friends plus Spike and of course Twilight. They were having the party at Twilight’s castle and Starlight spent all day getting the castle ready with help from Spike and Twilight. Sweeping, mopping and dusting the halls and rooms to make it sparkle. After the cleaning they decorated the castle with crepe-paper, swirl decorations, different colored balloons, fluffy decorations, bows and confetti of all colors. The food they had prepared looked amazing; it was set up on a long table, they had apple cider in a clear punch bowl for everypony and cakes and other pastries from Sugarcube Corner. Everything was set; after all the work they had done to get the party ready, they could finally say the preparations were done. Starlight let out a jovial sigh, before turning to Twilight with a grin on her face;
“Thanks for helping me Twilight, it looks awesome. I hope everypony has fun and enjoys the party.”
Twilight looked at Starlight, a smile on her face;
“You’re welcome, and besides, I’m proud that you decided to go through with this party, and that you planned it all on our own.”
Starlight blushed a bit, looking down at the ground.
“Yeah... I I was a bit against it at first, but Pinkie Pie really convinced me to throw my own party. I just hope she thinks I did well”
~~~~~~~~~~~~A few hours later~~~~~~~~~
The party was in full swing, Starlight and Sunburst were catching up and Double Diamond was really having fun meeting Sunburst. Trixie was chatting with Rarity and Rainbow while Fluttershy, Twilight and Applejack were all chatting away about the week they had. Pinkie was eating cake with Sugar belle and Party Favor, while Spike was jumping from group to group involving himself in every conversion he could. The party was going so well, everypony was happy.
The mysterious unicorn had walked into Ponyville around four o’clock that afternoon. Still undetected, the unicorn sat and looked up at Twilight’s castle, easily see able as it oversees the town. She shed a tear and then smirked; fire burning deep in her eyes. She was upset to see the castle that Twilight had called home but she just walked back to the Everfree forest. Right back to the Tree of Harmony, she sat down beside it and said
“The show will begin shortly, I already know how to get rid of Twilight Sparkle. Her friends won’t be able to help her... you know that right?”
She talked to the Tree like it could hear her and respond to her. She looked over the tree and said in a smug voice
“Everything will begin at sunset. Only a few hours till then.”
The party was coming to an end around four thirty; Sunburst had to catch the next train back to the Crystal Empire and the others had to get back to the Village. Trixie had to move on to Manehattan, she had a show to do in a few days. The friends Starlight had were leaving. They admitted to having a fun time, and after one long winded goodbye later they all were gone. The mane five all went home too because it was starting to get late and they had so much to do tomorrow, they all bid Twilight and Starlight goodnight and went home. Twilight and Starlight looked at the castle where the party was and it was messy; popped balloons on the floor, and decorations once hanging regally fell to the ground in clumps. The table had a large icing stain on it from where Pinkie smashed her face into one of the cakes; in all, there was a lot to clean. They dived into cleaning, and had cleaned for about three hours when Twilight’s cutie mark started to glow, and a little version of the mark lifted off her and went to the map. Twilight squealed in delight and followed it. It had been a while since the map summoned her and Starlight just followed behind her. When they got to the map they saw that everyone’s cutie marks where around Twilight’s, circling it like a fly does to it’s meal. Twilight and Starlight looked at the map confused though, because according to the map the friendship problem was at Twilight’s castle. Twilight spoke with a tone of confusion in her voice;
“Why would the map say I have a friendship problem? I know you don’t have a problem right Starlight?”
Starlight looked at her and said in surprise;
“No! I don’t have a friendship problem, does Spike?”
Twilight thought about that for a minute but she knew it couldn’t be Spike; he never had a problem, well... not a friendship problem at least. At that moment Rainbow came crashing into the throne room announcing her presence;
“I’m here where's the problem at?”
In a smug yet confident tone. Twilight looked at her, but before she could answer Pinkie appeared from nowhere, yelling at the top of her lungs;
“THE PROBLEM SOLVER PINKIE PIE IS ON THE CASE! So where is the problem. Oh am I teaming up with Rainbow Dash again I hope so. When we went to GriffonStone together we had a lot of fun. Or I’m I going somewhere else with Rainbow, me and you Twilight. Maybe it’s to go fight a monster or maybe--”
Then Rarity walked in, cutting Pinkie off and exclaimed in a much calmer tone;
“Pinkie Pie calm down, the map also summoned me here too, and at such a late hour of the day I might add. How rude of the map, but then again I guess this can’t wait till tomorrow.”
Applejack entered next and said;
“Rarity’s right Pinkie, besides I’m here too - it’s not just Rainbow from the looks of things, we're all going on an adventure.”
Fluttershy flew in quickly, slightly out of breath.
“I’m here! I’m sorry if I’m late, I was reading Angel a story. He really got mad I had to stop and---”
Rainbow cut off Fluttershy, her tone annoyed.
“So Twilight, where is this problem and why is the map calling us so late at night? Well sunset, but you get the point.”
Twilight looked at her friends, confusion on her face;
“I don’t know, but the map is saying the problem is here in my castle. I don’t know why though, there isn’t a problem here.”
Her friends looked at her oddly, but then Applejack interjected;
“Well that don’t make a lick of sense why would the map call us here if there ain’t a problem to fix?”
She sounded confused yet angry . The mane six started to argue amongest themselves, but before the argument could get to heated Starlight interrupted them and shouted with concern in her voice;
“Look; your cutie marks are moving away from each other and to different ends of Equestria! Is that normal?”
The mane six stopped arguing and looked over at the map. She was right - Rarity’s was now over Canterlot, Rainbows in Cloudsdale, Pinkies over her family’s rock farm, Applejack’s in Appleloosa and Fluttershy’s was way off in the village Starlight ran. Twilight’s remained in her castle, they all looked puzzled as to why the map would suddenly do that. The friends all looked at each other and before any one of them could speak they started vanishing one by one, in what looked like a teleportation spell. Twilight yelled in surprise;
“No! Wait, where are you all going!? Come back… Who’s doing this? Is it you Discord? Bring them back! This isn’t funny!”
But she got no response; only Starlight and Spike where in the castle with Twilight. Then Twilight heard the creaking of her front door opening; she ran towards the door.
Running into the foyer, she found that nopony was there.Twilight was getting angry, but after finding no pony at her door she walked back to the throne room in a huff; back to the map. When she walked back into the throne room she found Starlight passed out on the ground with Spike next to her, and a pony lounging in her throne. Already upset, Twilight snapped, and yelled at the newcomer,
“Who are you!? And what have you done to those two?”
Suddenly, something in Twilight’s brain clicked.
“It was you; you took my friends away, didn’t you!? Where are they!? Bring them back!?”
The pony that sat in her throne looked over at her and said calmly
“My, my you're a little rude for a princess aren’t you? Just look at your map there, that’s where your friends are my dear. Besides, I had to take them to those places, and alter their minds; because to play this game you’ll need to do things without them. At least for a while, you will have to do things without your beloved friends to help you.”
Twilight looked at the unicorn with a confused expression on her face and spoke,
“What do you mean, do what on my own?”
The unicorn eyed her with a smug look on her face; speaking in a smooth, silky voice,
“Well, your tasks would be stopping Celestia and Luna from arguing about the day and night cycle, they seem intent now to keep moving the sun and moon around at will. Then there would be having to stop Discord from spreading chaos all over the kingdom of course.Then finding and regaining your friends to your side. I mean, if you can’t stop them and find your friends, how will you ever stop me from killing the Tree of Harmony. I’ll make it a race against time, stop the threat of the three demigods and regain your friends in five days or let Equestria fall into despair and chaos for all eternity.”
She had a worryingly, threatening look on her face when she uttered that last sentence, and when Twilight met her eyes she felt scared; her eyes were the same shade of purple as her castle but they had a poisonous look to them. Like if she kept looking into them she would lose her mind. Twilight blinked and looked away from her eyes, and quickly built up the courage to ask,
“What do you mean? Celestia and Luna would never do a thing like that. And… and Discord- He’s changed. So bring back my friends and we’ll stop you here and now.”
The unicorn looked at her, closed her eyes and said with that calm tone of hers
“That’s not how this game works Princess Twilight Sparkle. You play my game and play by my rules. If you win the right way, you’ll get a chance to fight me, if you don’t,you lose. Lose everything you’ve ever known. You don’t get to order me around you foal- five days and that’s the limit. And don’t worry, I’ll always give you notice to when a day has been spent. You might need that information since the sky is going to be changing over and over again.”
Her tone of voice changed from calm to cold and angry.Twilight felt like a little child when this pony yelled at her like that and she said with suspicion in her voice,
“Tell me your name at least, and then I’ll play your game.”
She smiled and said
“I’m Dark Blitz, now let the game begin.”
She then got up off Twilight’s throne, and Twilight was able to see that she was a bit taller than Celestia. Not just that, but her horn was also a bit longer and thicker than Celestia’s too. In a flash of rainbow light she vanished.
Twilight didn’t even know where to start with this game that Dark Blitz was making her play; her motive to doing such things, was unclear. Twilight had to make a decision; find her friends or stop Celestia, Luna and Discord. Twilight couldn’t do this alone, but Starlight and Spike were still out cold. Outside, the sky was already changing from sunset back to day, and then the moon started to rise up from behind the mountains again, and soon the sky was becoming split. She quickly looked at the map, and she choose to get her friends. Memorizing all of their locations, Twilight decided to go get Fluttershy first since she was the further-est away. Twilight had to move fast, so she ran out of the castle to the train station to catch the next train out there. Twilight got to the train station in five minutes flat and yelled
“I need to take the train outbound to the end of the line, out to that village on the edge of Equestria!”
The conductor looked over and addressed her in a sassy tone,
"I’m sorry Miss, but the trains ain’t running right now, parts of the tracks were turned into balloons. So we can’t have the train move over them or all the tracks will be gone in a flash. We have to have them changed back, but it looks like a powerful spell so it’ll take some time.”
Twilight looked stunned and quickly thought
‘Discord probably did that, that trickster…. Oh no he’s started changing things already.’
Twilight realized that she needed a backup plan, but she wasn’t sure what. She spent the next few minutes quickly going through plans when she suddenly remembered she could fly now; she seemed to always forget that in a pinch. Twilight smiled, and in a flash she was airborne and flying in the direction of Starlight’s old village.
On the way to Starlight’s old village Twilight couldn’t stop thinking to herself;
‘What’s Dark Blitz plan? Why kill the Tree of Harmony, and how would she even kill it. And why do all this.’
Twilight thought this over for a long time, but about halfway to the village she changed her thoughts over to only Dark Blitz;
‘Why do this all, is she some other villain Celestia and Luna banished a 1,000 years ago too? Was her magic more powerful than Celestia’s? How else did she brainwash all three of the demigod’s of Equestria? Hmm, she was taller than Celestia and had a longer horn. Plus she was wearing a cloak; What was she hiding? ….Could she be an alicorn?’
But that thought quickly left Twilight’s mind; it couldn’t be possible. There were only five alicorns in Equestria; if there was another Celestia would have told her. Twilight couldn’t wrap her mind around Dark Blitz’s plan or why she was doing this to her. As she finally descended to the village her thought’s about Dark Blitz being an alicorn kept coming back to haunt her.
The gang didn’t know what to do now they had been kicked out of Pinkie’s home, and it started to hit home that she wasn’t joining them. Twilight felt hopeless as she kept going over that Pinkie wasn’t herself. She needed Pinkie, her friend that was always cheerful, that could make almost anypony smile, and she wasn’t coming along. Twilight was scared, and she felt like she failed already. She felt sick knowing that Dark Blitz had already won and Equestria was doomed. And she had failed on the very first day of playing the game Dark Blitz had made, and it added a feeling of embarrassment. Twilight looked at the ground thinking about how to fix this, how to get Pinkie to join them. Just then Fluttershy pointed a hoof, yelling,
“Look! In the window, it’s Pinkamena.”
Twilight looked up at the window and saw Pinkie; she was holding something in her mouth. She opened the window, took the item in hoof, and threw it out. Applejack watched it glide down, and grabbed it up in her hooves when it came close enough.
“It’s a paper plane. But why though?”
Twilight rolled her eyes
“Applejack, unfold it and see if it says anything.”
Applejack unfolded the paper, opening it out fully, before her eyes lit up.
“Well I’ll be. Twilight, you were right, there's a note in the plane; ‘stick around till nightfall and I’ll sneak out and join you guys. I really want to go, I’ve been going crazy stuck here all the time, just ask Madame La Flour, she will atest to that. Wait by Morty, I’ll meet you there. From Pinkamena.’” AJ finished, but blinked, scanning the note again. “Umm, who’s Madame La Flour?”
Twilight had a vague recollection. But rather than bring it up, she smiled.
“Who cares? Pinkie’s going to join us! Unfortunately we have to wait for nightfall so let's go and hide on the other side of Morty.”
They did as Pinkamena’s note said and waited till nightfall. They passed the time, only keeping track through a magical hourglass, as it was impossible to tell if it was actual nightfall from the constantly changing sun and moon.
~~~~~~~~~Hours later~~~~~~~~~
“That’s it, I’ve had enough. Twilight she ain't comin’. Lets just go, we’ve been here for hours.”
Twilight looked at her, her eyes slightly pained.
“No, we’ll wait for Pinkie no matter what. She's our friend and she wouldn’t lie. She’ll be here soon I-I just know it.”
“Twilight, Ah’m sorry, but you’re crazy; that rock head ain't comin.”
Just as Applejack finished her sentence, they heard somepony yelling.
“I’ll be right there, just wait ok.”
The group looked over in the direction of the shouting, and they saw Pinkie. Twilight smiled, and her smugness came across both her muzzle and her voice as she turned to the orange mare.
“And you wanted to leave.”
Applejack rolled her eyes and huffed.
“Whatever, she better hurry up ‘cos we gotta’ hit the road soon.”
Jogging the remaining distance, Pinkamena approached them all.
“Ok, I’m here. Let’s get going on this trip before anypony realizes I’m gone.”
Before they could even move they heard a boring monotone voice coming from behind.
“Pinkamena Diane Pie, where are you going? It’s two am. You should be asleep getting ready for tomorrow’s harvest.”
Pinkamena turned her head around and saw a gray pony with a light purple mane and tail. She looked at her and then put on a puppy dog face and said
“Maud, please don’t tell anypony. I really want to go on this trip with these ponies. Besides the purple one’s a princess. So don’t tell mom or dad.”
Maud looked at her with her plain face, her voice coming out the same as always.
“Are you sure you want to go?”
“Yes.” Pinkamena nodded.
“Will it make you happy?”
“YES!” Pinkamena nodded harder, almost jumping into a pronk.
Maud stared at Pinkamena thinking over what she said, while the tension was building in the air. She walked over to Twilight and looked her in the eye; turned back to Pinkamena.
“Ok, I won’t tell mom or dad, so go have fun.”
Pinkamena smiled and walked up to her. She hugged tight, saying thank you; Maud turned back to Twilight and droned,
“Listen, keep Pinkamena safe Princess. She is my very favorite sister, so she better get home safe and happy.”
Twilight looked Maud in the eye and spoke in a confident tone
“Don’t worry Maud, I will.”
“You had better. Goodbye Pinkamena.”
As Maud starting heading back to the farm house; Pinkamena walked up to Twilight and elbowed her on the shoulder.
“Haha good acting right. I always get what I want from Maud. I know everything will be ok even if she tells mom and dad. I’m her favorite sister, as she told you, so getting her to give me what I wanted was easy peasy.”
Twilight looked shocked by that statement, it made her uneasy.
“What do you mean? She loves you and cares about you, don’t you even care?”
Pinkamena looked at Twilight and blinked, before her tone became cold and harsh,
“I don’t really care that much, princess. Stay out of my family affairs.”
Twilight’s eyes widened.
“You really aren’t the Pinkie I know.”
Pinkamena moved to be muzzle to muzzle with Twilight.
“It’s Pinkamena, not Pinkie.” She backed off slightly. “Besides, I don’t know you personally, but I do know how to play my sister. I still love her, just in a different way. That ok, princess? So let’s just go already, and forget the whole thing.”
Twilight didn’t know how to feel about Pinkie right now, but she did as she said and started walking in the opposite direction to the farm house.
Leaving the now purple and vibrant landscape of the rock farm with Pinkie in tow, Applejack broke the icy tension between them all,
“Well I’m Applejack, the yellow pegasus is Fluttershy and the alicorn is Twilight Sparkle, princess of something. I don’t remember of what though”
Twilight rolled her eyes as Pinkamena looked over them again and started jumping towards the east; the opposite direction of where they were going and said
“Ok glad to meet you all but let's go. I want to get this quest over with so when I get back home I can eat some rock stew.”
Twilight called to Pinkie.
“Ummm Pinkie, I mean Pinkamena, we’re going to Cloudsdale now, we need Rainbow Dash. So we need to get you and Applejack a way up there, and that means we need a hot-air balloon. So we're heading to Ponyville, and that's in the opposite direction of where you’re going. ”
Pinkamena looked around and said
“Oh I knew that. So which way Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight yelled in a jovial tone,
“To Ponyville, I’m sure the pony running the hot- air balloon will let us use it.”
So the four of them started walking to Ponyville, a stepping stone on the road to getting Rainbow Dash.
Twilight landed in the town at dusk; or was it sunset again? She couldn’t tell anymore, the day and night cycle was too chaotic right now, all thanks to Dark Blitz brainwashing Luna and Celestia. Twilight walked into the town and looked around, trying to find Fluttershy. She didn’t see her anywhere, but she did spot Double Diamond. She ran over and and grabbed him.
“Double Diamond, have you seen Fluttershy? I need to know where she is!”
Double Diamond looked at her in confusion.
“Um... do I know you? I’ve never seen you here before, are you new to the village?”
Twilight looked shocked.
“Not to be rude, but you should.” She flared out her wings. “But that’s not important right now; where can I find Fluttershy? Please tell me - it’s important.”
He looked at her intrigued for a moment; he’d never seen a winged unicorn before.
“Well ok, Miss Fluttershy is probably at the schoolhouse, she teaches the fillies there about animals.”
Twilight smiled, her tone became more excited,
“Thanks!”
She ran off, but came back shortly, looking rather sheepish.
“Which building is the schoolhouse?”
Double Diamond rolled his eyes.
“Follow me.”
He said in an annoyed tone.
Twilight did so and they approached a building in no time at all. Surprisingly it was Starlight’s old house; they made it into a schoolhouse. Twilight went into the building and saw a class going on, with Fluttershy upfront working as the teacher. She trotted up to Fluttershy, calling out to her.
“Fluttershy, there you are, I was so worried. Now let's go, we have to get our friends back and save Equestria.”
Fluttershy looked around, blinking.Before she could say anything a little filly piped up,
“Who’s that Miss Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy didn’t want to give an answer to them. Instead she used her calmest and sweetest tone,
“Ok class, it’s play time. Go on outside to the playground Mr. Double Diamond will join you for me. Right Diamond.”
Diamond blushed a little.
“Oh of course Miss Shy.”
The fillies ran out, and Twilight watched as they did. But then she turned her attention back to Fluttershy.
“You're a teacher? I can’t believe it. We both know you hate attention. But that’s not the point I need you to help me---”
Fluttershy cut off Twilight and said a little annoyed
“Miss, I don’t know you personally, nor do I have to help you... but do you really need somepony like me to help you.”
Twilight looked at her shocked.
“What do you mean you don’t know me? We're friends. Don’t you remember Spike or Rarity, even Angel Bunny? We’ve been on adventures together and stopped monsters. You even helped tame the God of Chaos, Discord; you have to remember that. And of course I need your help you're a very important pony to me - you are the Element of Kindness.”
Fluttershy looked a little flustered.
“Me? No you must be mistaken, I’m a simple teacher. I don’t go adventuring, and as for the draconequus, Discord - I’ve never ever met that creature before. I’ve only seen the statue that’s at the palace’s garden. Well, was at the gardens, and is now a living creature again that Princess Twilight Sparkle befriended and tamed.”
Twilight looked dumbfounded, but she quickly recovered.
“Me, befriend Discord?! No that was you… oh I know, I’ll show you with a memory spell that’ll break the mind control cast on you.”
So Twilight walked over to Fluttershy, who was slowly backing away from her, but it was to late - Twilight was already upon her and had her horn on her head. The spell Twilight cast showed Fluttershy her friendship with Twilight, and the other element bearers. Fluttershy teared up, but when Twilight had finished casting the spell Fluttershy dried up.
“That was sad and interesting to see, but I still don’t know any of those ponies.”
Twilight was dumbfounded by that, and totally stumped.She didn’t know what to do now.
Under the Tree of Harmony, Dark Blitz was laughing as she watched Twilight in the mirror pond she created
“Oh Twilight, my spell is very powerful; something like that won’t break it… but you already know that don’t you.”
Dark Blitz looked back up at the Tree of Harmony and let out a little laugh, smiling to herself.
Twilight looked at Fluttershy and started to cry.
“You really don’t know me?” She sobbed.
Fluttershy looked down. Her tone low.
“I’m sorry. I know that you're a princess, since you're an alicorn, but I have never met you before. But I will join you. If one of the princesses needs me, how can I say no.”
Twilight sniffled, but her tone was happier.
“You will? Oh thank you Fluttershy. We’ll get your memory back to normal, I pinkie promise. But right now we need to go get the others, and Applejack is next. So we’re going to be headed west to Appleloosa.”
They walked out of the schoolhouse side by side and before they could even start out to Appleloosa, Fluttershy’s class ran over to them.
“Miss. Fluttershy are you done talking to that pony!?”
Another yelled
“Can we start class now!?”
Then a little filly with a bright pink coat and orange and blue mane said
“Yeah I want to hear more about the breezies.”
Fluttershy looked at them, a sad look on her face.
“I’m sorry little ones, but Princess Twilight here needs me, so I can’t teach for a while.”
She received a chorus of aww’s.
“Don’t worry though, you guys are really good students, so you’ll be ok without me for a while right?”
They all looked around at each other with sad faces but they looked up at her and smiled and yelled out,
“GO MISS. FLUTTERSHY GO! WE’LL CHEER YOU ON AS YOU HELP THE PRINCESS!”
Fluttershy teared up, and they had one big group hug as Twilight watched. She felt a bit bad for taking Fluttershy with her, but it had to be done in order to beat Dark Blitz. So they departed from the village flying in the direction to Appleloosa, hoping to find Applejack.
About halfway there Fluttershy asked,
“So who is Applejack anyway, Princess Twilight, Is she a friend of yours?”
Twilight nodded.
“Applejack is our friend Fluttershy, and she's a great one at that. She's helpful, honest and always willing to help out when she can.”
Fluttershy looked down.
“So when did you meet her, and when do you think you met me?”
Twilight looked back at her with an annoyed look.
“I met her and you the first day I moved to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, the one that saw Luna’s return.”
Fluttershy looked down and felt something deep inside her, almost like she knew that, but she didn’t know that. Just mentioning the Summer Sun Celebration made her feel so happy, but she didn’t know why. When she finally spoke back to Twilight she said
“Can you tell me more about me and you being friends? I mean your spell was awful and didn’t really work. But I can still see everything you showed me. But seeing it just hurts, yet when you talked about it…. it feels like I know what you are talking about, Princess.”
Twilight smiled and giggled a bit.
“Sure thing Fluttershy, and please, to you it’s just Twilight.”
Fluttershy smiled and said
“Ok um princ- I mean Twilight.”
They chatted the rest of the way to Appleloosa while the day and night keep on looping through.They flew through strange rain and past strange flying animals. Twilight did most of the talking, telling Fluttershy about her life and the friends they had
They landed in Appleloosa, hooves kicking up dirt, when suddenly a letter materialized in front of Twilight, floating just in front of her muzzle, a pink ribbon wrapped around it. She looked it over and opened it, noting that the letter was from Dark Blitz.
Well Twilight, you have got one friend with you, but it’s also been one day so far. Good for you, but the fighting between Celestia and Luna is getting worse, and now Discord is joining into their quarrel; it’s really is quite a show my dear. So can you try and stop me soon, you're really boring me now.
Yours Truly,
Dark Blitz’
Twilight growled, infuriated. She crushed the letter in her hooves.
‘She’s toying with me that, that… urgh she’s really pissing me off.’
She then set the letter on fire and yelled with anger in her voice
“That pony is really going to get it when we get all our friends back together Fluttershy! Now let's go find Applejack, and get her to come with us to!”
Fluttershy just followed, not wanting to piss Twilight off anymore than she already was. They walked around the twisted layout of Appleloosa with its building now made of hay. The ground was apple printed wallpaper instead of the dirt roads it had before, and the main town hall was now a big banana. Twilight spotted Applejack roping in a cow with seven legs and a pony's head. They looked at the strange animal but quickly bypassed it to get over to Applejack. As they approached, Twilight yelled in a angry tone;
“Applejack we need your help, please come with us.”
Applejack didn’t even look over at Twilight.
“I can’t help ya’ll right now, besides I got my own dang problems round here. Like these here animals changing and going nuts. We Apple’s pride ourself on helping folk, but I don’t know y’all, and with the sky going all crazy along with everything else, I don’t know if I can trust ya. That n’ I’m busy, so I can’t help y’all.”
Twilight rubbed her temple in frustration and looked over at Fluttershy for help. Fluttershy looked at her and said
“Oh umm, Applejack was it? If you come help us it’ll fix everything that’s going on around here. So umm can you please help us and besides we're friends I think.”
Applejack looked at the yellow pegasus blinking in disbelief, confusion on her face. She looked over at Twilight, weighing her options.
“I don’t know, there’s a lot to do round here and I can’t just plum ‘n leave Braeburn and the rest of the apples out here to do this on their own, they need some help. Besides I don’t know ya’ll ponies that well even if you say were friends.”
Applejack started to walk away as Twilight sighed and Fluttershy looked down and mumbled.
“Well you could ask to leave. To go and solve the real problem.”
Applejack’s ears perked up and she walked back over to Fluttershy and said in an angry tone.
“What did ya’ll just say to me?”
She was in Fluttershy’s face and Fluttershy was now scared. Gulping, she explained herself.
“I just said, ask if you can leave and help us stop the real problem.”
Applejack looked at Fluttershy and spoke in an angry tone
“I’m busy.I can’t just leave and go with you ponies... but do you ponies know what's going on with the sky cycle and these strange animals and well everything else? If so I want to know - I can tell y’all ain’t lying to me.”
Twilight looked at Applejack with a smile.
“Thank you Applejack, but it’ll take some time to explain everything, ok.”
Applejack looked at Twilight and then looked around at the chaos going on behind them arching an eyebrow.
“It’s important, so I got the time.”
Fluttershy and Twilight smiled, and Twilight started sharing about everything up to that point. As Applejack listened, she felt she could rely on this pony; almost like she knew this pony, but she couldn’t recall from where.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thirty Minutes Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight had explained everything to another friend of hers, Applejack looked over her, her face drawn into a thin line.
“I trust your story, I can tell that was the honest truth. But I can’t go with you’ll.”
Twilight looked at her in shocked and quickly changed over to rage and yelled
“Why not!?”
“Cuz I can’t leave Appleloosa like this, the animals are going crazy and the farms here need help - plus the town needs a lot of repairs. An cuz of the crazy day and night going on we have to figure out a new watering cycle for the crops.”
Fluttershy jumped in.
“But if you come with us we can make all this stop. Everything will be fine again and we’ll go back to normal.”
Applejack still wouldn’t go with them, but before she could walk away again a giant snake with wings and rabbit ears appeared behind Twilight and Fluttershy. Applejack looked at it, grabbed her rope, and started to wrangle it down. Braeburn and some of the other Apple’s ran in to help Applejack; Twilight and Fluttershy tried there best to help. They eventually wrangled it down fully, and Applejack looked at Twilight and Fluttershy. “See, I can’t go help y’all stop this - we got our own problems to deal with.”
Twilight looked at her and said in a sad monotone way
“If that’s your choice then I respect it Applejack. Thanks anyway.”
Twilight and Fluttershy started to walk off when Braeburn yelled
“Wait don’t go stay here, y’all can help us out. An it’ll be safer if y’all stay here.”
Fluttershy looked back. She spoke in a sad tone, her voice sounding like she was about to cry.
“We can’t, we really have to get everypony else and stop Dark Blitz, and everything else that’s going on. But I’m not sure if we can without Applejack to help us.”
Braeburn looked at Applejack and said
“Is that true?” Applejack nodded. “That being the case, go with them Applejack; we’ll be fine, we can handle our self’s here without you.”
Before Applejack could even protest Twilight rushed over and shook his hoof gleefully
“Thank you so much, we’ll fix everything I promise.”
She grabbed Applejack up with her magenta magic before hugging Braeburn. She motioned to Fluttershy, and the pair went on their way, a floating Applejack in tow.
On the road again, Twilight seemed rather jovial, her mood coming through her voice.
“We’ll get Pinkie Pie next, and I know you can help Applejack. They have a rock farm, and according to my research a while back, it is possible that you and her might be distantly related. Plus, you know a lot about Pinkie and farming, so you can get her to join us; then we will just need the other three, and we can stop Celestia, Luna, and Discord. Oh, and then stop Dark Blitz from killing the Tree of Harmony. I know we can do it!”
Fluttershy and Applejack looked at each other, Applejack taking a nervous but sarcastic tone.
“Well sure, I can get somepony I don’t know to help us out. After all, we’re supposedly kin - that will help everything go along smoothly. An’ besides, I just know it’ll help us stop some crazy spirit and two demigod princesses?”
Twilight either missed or ignored the sarcasm, still sounding confident
“I know you can, in fact I know we all can. Besides, we are the physical representation of the Elements of Harmony, so I believe in us.”
Fluttershy and Applejack looked at each other a little bit worried, but kept walking with Twilight. They walked what had to be ten to twelve miles, they couldn’t tell for sure, all the road signs had been turned into pudding cups. All the landmarks that should have been on their route were nowhere in sight, they guest that they had all altered into something insane.
They soon found a house on the edge of a large plot of land, surrounded by fields of rocks. Twilight cupped her hooves around her mouth and yelled.
“PINKIE, are you here?” Getting no response, she turned back to the others. “This has to be it, this is Pinkie’s home - she should be here.”
Fluttershy looked around, scanning the landscape.
“Are you sure this is right Twilight? You can’t just guess this is her house; what if it’s somepony else's?”
Twilight looked back at her, frowning at her distrust.
“I’m sure I’m sure. Besides, I don’t see any other houses in the area and you need a lot of land for a rock farm to function.”
Just as Twilight finished her sentence, one of the rocks got up on a pair of hidden legs and walked away. Following it with disbelieving eyes, it caused her to catch a pink colored mare as she ran out of the house. It was Pinkie but she looked funny, her mane was down and straight, her puffy, frizzy mane just wasn’t there. She looked a little off color, a grayish tinge on her coat and mane. It was almost like looking at a different Pinkie altogether. She shook a foreleg in the air and yelled at the rock that was walking away from the farm.
“COME BACK HERE MORTY! YOU CAN’T LEAVE THE FARM!”
The three of them looked on as Pinkie chased the rock. They wanted to say something, but then the rock called Morty fell to the ground again as the legs vanished.
Twilight looked at Pinkie, somewhat alarmed, before the three of them walked over to her.
“Pinkie Pie right?” Concern was detectable in her voice.
Pinkie Pie looked up at her and blinked.
“It’s Pinkamena, not Pinkie, and definitely not Pinkie Pie. Who are you?”
Before Twilight could say anything Applejack cut:
“Well, we're here to have you join us in some epic friendship quest.” Her delivery was deadpan, but her words true.
They smiled as Pinkie eyed them up and down, walking over to each of them and looked them all straight in the eye. She wanted to see if they were good ponies or not, so she looked over every inch of them. She eyed them carefully making decisions about them and why they needed her. After a few minutes, she finally spoke.
“Hmm, I don’t know. You all look out of place together.”
Twilight cocked her head at Pinkie, wordlessly asking her what she meant by that.
“Well, you’re all different tribes working together. Out here it’s only us earth ponies helping each other. To me, seeing a pegasus, an earth pony and an alicorn working together is strange. Especially the alicorn, shouldn’t you be in Canterlot ruling over Equestria with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. ”
Fluttershy looked at Applejack and then back at Pinkamena.
“So umm are you going to join us, or stay here on your farm. We really don’t have time to answer those questions and, umm... because we have to go soon and we really need your help.”
Pinkamena looked them in the eyes again.
“I guess so. But first, help me move Morty back to that hole over there.”
They all got behind Morty and pushed, with Applejack and Pinkamena doing most of the work. They moved him back and took a moment to breathe. Pinkamena turned to them, a slight frown on her face.
“So before we go I have to tell my family, I just can’t go anywhere without telling them.”
They looked at her and nodded, and they started to walk towards the house. Twilight walked up to Pinkamena and spoke in a whisper.
“So Pinkamena, you’re really joining us right?”
“Princess... what was it… Ah. Princess Twilight - I don’t know for sure. I need to ask my parents first before I can leave. I wouldn’t want them to worry.”
Twilight was impressed by how responsible Pinkie was being; the Pinkie she knew would just yell to somepony about where she was going, or she would just up and go. They walked into the plain farmhouse. It was bland and didn’t have much in it; some chairs, a table, one gray couch and a fireplace. Pinkamena walked into the house and looked over to her parents. They were also very bland looking, her father was a light brown pony with a gray mane and tail. Her mother was no better, she was all gray with a dark colored mane and tail in a slate gray color. She looked at them in and spoke in a monotone voice
“Mother. Father. Can I join these ponies here on a quest to save Equestria?”
They looked at each other, and her father replied ‘no’. Pinkamena looked at him and then to the ponies who had followed her into her house.
“You heard him, the answers ‘no’.”
Twilight’s jaw dropped, and she looked at Pinkie like she had three heads. Before she could say anything Applejack jumped in once again.
“Well, why in tarnation not?”
Pinkamena’s mother leaned forward, joining the conversation in a flat voice.
“She can’t go because she doesn't know any of you ponies. And besides, a big harvest is coming up and we need her here for the harvest to be successful.”
Before Applejack could protest Limestone Pie walked in from the adjoining room, and with the strength only a life on a rock from could provide, she pushed them out of the house, slamming the door in their face’s.
Dark Blitz appeared on Celestia’s throne, looking around the room at the stained glass windows that depicted Equestria’s history, her eyes lingering on Twilight’s coronation window,
“Huh, I never really did anything to help stop such a past, did I? I suppose giving up on the world wasn’t really right was it?”
She questioned herself, as she lit up her horn; teleporting Celestia, Luna, and Discord before her. Luna was stunned as she was pulled out of the dream world just as she was helping a with their nightmare, Celestia looked sleepy, although her mane was in pristine condition, she wasn’t in her royal garb. Discord surprisingly was just himself with nothing chaotic about him, Blitz looked at the three addressing them in a somber tone
“Hello, Celestia, Luna...Discord. I’m… Dark Blitz pleasure to meet you two. I’m here today to inform you all that MY plan for Twilight has started. I need you three to play your part in this tale, there is no refusing since I’ll be the resident villain this week. ”
Luna and Celestia were confused, they didn’t know what this pony was talking about, Twilight's destiny was already fulfilled. They looked at Discord as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, he didn’t have an answer for the two princesses.
“Also I can’t just have exposition or a magical McGuffin given to her, She needs to stop me on her own. Ok.”
Celestia spoke concern lining her voice
“I’m sorry but what do you mean? What do you want with Twilight?”
“I agree with my sister what are you talking about? Why are you in our castle, giving us such strange demands?” Both spoke in unions, confusion lacing their tone
“What part are you talking about!?”
Blitz ignored both of them as she processed to bewitch both of them, their eyes dulling from their usually bright color.
“I forgot, I never bothered to meet you two in person. I suppose I failed at that as well... Funny, you two first used the elements and I never meet you, but then again neither of you were right. I suppose it worked out since you two never could grasp the element of magic properly.”
She spoke flatly to neither princess in particular as her horn’s glow faded. The princesses looked at each other as Celestia illuminated her horn as the sun reappeared in the sky, causing it to become a purplish color, while Luna addressed her in the royal Canterlot voice to lower the sun. Discord looked at the two and laughed but quickly averted his attention to Dark Blitz,
“My, my how fun coming from you? Did Twilight really upset you this much Har-”
“Shut up Discord!”
Dark Blitz cut him off fury written on her face, and invading her tone
“You’ll be just like them soon too, you have to.”
“Oh then is Twilight your special little snowflake. You know the one you’ve been waiting for?”
He smiled as he spoke to Dark Blitz
“Well if I must play a part in Twilight’s REAL destiny then so be it. Go ahead enchant me Blitzy.”
She gave him a deadpan glare, Discords smile, transformed into a concerned frown
“So you're really going through with this plan aren’t you.”
“...”
“It’s a foolish plan you know.”
“...”
He shrugged and his smile returned
“Well ok just cast the spell on me, no use in wasting time right.”
“... Thank you.”
“Well, it’s the least I can do for you anyway.”
Dark Blitz horn illuminated as she cast the same spell on Discord, as she cast the spell tears rolled down her face. With the three demigods enchanted, Dark Blitz arose from the throne, looking at her work as she teleported herself to the tree of Harmony.
Dark Blitz was watching them from a mirror pond she had created with her magic, and what she saw angered her. Not only had Twilight collected another of her friends, she only had two more friends left to find; still was only on day two of their game. She couldn’t believe how quickly everypony was joining her, especially Pinkie Pie. She ruminates to herself.
‘Is MY spell not strong enough? Is it the power inside each of them, or is it the power that the tree gave them? This is an outrage! Is Twilight Sparkle really the one that I’ve been waiting for?’
She was puzzled and frustrated at everything that was happening, but she just let out a sigh.
“Well Twilight, we’ll see if you’re the one I’ve waited for, but for now I’ll just have to make my spell stronger for the last two. We don’t want the game to end so soon, now do we.”
She looked at the Tree of Harmony as she spoke, directing her words as if it could hear her. Looking back at the mirror pond, she changed the image from Twilight and the gang to Rainbow Dash and Rarity. As she looked at them in the pond her horn began to glow. She sent out a ray of magic to both of them, through the mirror, making her spell on them stronger. She then changed the image over again, this time to show the castle where the three demigods where. She smirked and walked through the pond, right into the throne room where the three were arguing. Celestia and Luna were yelling at each other, saying lower the moon and put the sun away, it’s time for night. Their horns illuminated to show that they were moving their heavenly bodies. Blitz rolled her eyes as Discord yelled at both of them saying something like I’ll put both away if you two don’t shut up; something about making all the houses in Canterlot out of cards. Blitz didn’t care for the petty argument they were having. She yelled over all of them in a equestrian shattering voice
“ALL OF YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN UP!”
They all stopped and looked in her direction; she smiled back.
“Thank you, now all of you are playing your part perfectly, but I need the fighting to increase.I need it get so much worse, and I need mayhem all over the land. So I’ll have to take matters into my own hooves, and just make you all mindless puppets now. Sorry my lovely’s.”
When she finished that sentence the three looked at each other, but before any of them could say anything a rainbow flash hit each of them and they started fighting more. The moon and sun stopped moving as Celestia attacked Luna and Luna right back at her. One of them quickly zapped Discord, which sent him flying back into the wall. The three were now in a fist and magic fight, they stopped messing with their powers and instead were using their magic to zap each other. Blitz just looked at them with delight written all over her face.
“Oh, Twilight will love this, I just know it. Things are going to get worse. Canterlot will suffer greatly because of them. The land will suffer as well, thanks to Discord’s magic changing everything.”
She looked out the window as things were no longer changing around anymore, and then back at her puppets. Her tone sounded annoyed as she addressed them.
“Hey, don’t forget to move around your heavenly elements Luna, Celestia. Discord, you had better still spread chaos and mayhem. Make everything go crazy, cause massive damage to the day, night and the land.”
She then teleported, and left the three behind, reappearing back at the Tree of Harmony in a rainbow flash of light.
She was standing in front of the tree when she got back, and she glanced at the tree with concern all over her face. She walked up to the trunk and rubbed her hoof on the trees main body, the rough area where Twilight’s element was lying dormant. She just looked at it thinking.
‘Oh Twilight, you better be the one, I’m so tired of everything; I just want it all to end.’
The more she looked at the tree, the more she felt like crying and tearing the tree apart at the roots in a fit of rage. But she couldn’t do such a thing, she made a promise with Twilight not to hurt the tree for five days and she would keep such a promise. Even if she wasn’t playing fair, she backed away from the tree and looked at it, staring it down with a glare.
“I’m sorry, but I must start putting my plan of killing you into action. Even if Twilight still has time left, killing you will take a long time. Your magic is very powerful after all, so I must start my spell to kill you. My ugly little friend.”
Finishing her monologue, her horn started to illuminate, but instead of the rainbow light, it gave off a black aura. The same black magic that King Sombra had used before; she looked at the tree and fired a black ray at it. After she had done this, the tree started to glow a little, but it stopped, and Dark Blitz stopped the spell she was casting. She smiled at the tree,
“Well I’ve planted the seeds to your death, you scab on the planet. You and I both know it’ll grow within those days that Twilight needs to stop me.”
She then sat down back in front of the Tree of Harmony, back in front of the mirror pond her magic had created. She looked as the pond just showed her, her reflection looking back at her. Her deep purple eyes looking back at her as she felt them looking at her, she felt hopelessness fall over her. She shook the feeling off and lit her horn up. She made the pond show her Twilight and the gang, and she glared at them with rage in her heart as they continued on there quest.
They got into Ponyville, and not a moment too soon. As they did, the ground turned into bright pink polka dotted carpets, and the sun had just moved really high into the sky, even higher than its natural peak when it was acting normal. Twilight looked at the sky, then back at the ground, a worried look on her face.
“We had better hurry up - things are getting worse by the minute. Let's go get that hot-air balloon.”
Applejack piped up,
“It should be in the center of town near Sugarcube Corner.”
They started to run in that direction and quickly got to the pony running the hot-air balloon rides. But when they got their the mare yelled
“Forget this I’m outta here.”
She grabbed the aviator cap from her head and threw it at the ground, before she ran away, leaving the mane four looking on in confusion. When they looked back, they saw what she ran from, it was a tidal wave... about 45 feet tall... of chocolate milk, coming straight for them. They gazed upon it, horror on their faces but Twilight yelling;
“We have to get the hot-air balloon in the air now!”
The others stopped looking at the tidal wave and turned back to the balloon in front of them. Pinkamena and Applejack jumped into the basket while Twilight looked over the balloon to try and figure out how to make it work in such a short period of time. But Fluttershy looked around and grabbed a rope she found on the ground. She gave it Applejack and yelled confidence in her voice “Lasso it around me and you can direct me where to go. Twilight get next to me and help!”
Twilight listened to Fluttershy and did as she was told, before using her magic to pull the heat level on the balloon. The basket quickly lifted, and they were soon in the sky just, before the wave crashed down on Ponyville. Twilight looked down and thought;
‘Oh Ponyville, We’ll fix this I swear. I really hope Starlight and Spike are ok.’
They started traveling northwest since at this time of the year Cloudsdale was near Canterlot. Twilight was happy knowing that since Rarity was in Canterlot and Rainbow in Cloudsdale, it meant they could stop everything soon. While they were on their way to Cloudsdale another letter popped up in front of Twilight. Following her as she flew; with it’s own little pair of wings, she looked at it and squinted. She rolled her eyes at it as she picked it up with her magic and opened it.
‘Twilight, I hope you don’t mind but I increased the difficulty in our game. It looked like the game was far too easy for you since you already have three out of five back. Oh and have you broken my spell yet? I bet not. Well, I also thought you should know it’s been two days now; three left, and I just made Celestia, Luna and Discord start to fight each other, so you may want to hurry.
As ever,
Dark Blitz’
Twilight was annoyed at the letter and she dropped it from her magic embrace. Then Pinkamena called from the basket,
“Who was the letter from? Was it a friend of yours Twilight.”
Before Twilight could answer, Fluttershy beat her to it.
“It’s from the pony that changed our minds or brainwashed us, umm I think her name was Dark Mits.”
Applejack gave a grunt. “Yeah that pony seems to be a might bit o’ trouble, I guess she altered our minds since we all seem to be friends with Twi over there. Besides I ain’t even seen that pony since I joined these two and that’s the first I saw a letter from this pony.”
Pinkamena laughed and looked at them.
“That’s ok, I can’t wait to remember you guys, you’re all fun in your own right. But I bet I’m the best when it comes to fun.”
Twilight smiled since Pinkie was right about that, and for the rest of the way to Cloudsdale the four of them chatted away like everything was fine and the world wasn’t in disarray.
They got to Cloudsdale at around maybe noon time on the third day, and Twilight looked back at Applejack and Pinkamena.
“I’m going to cast a spell on you two so you can walk on the clouds up here, and you know, not fall through them.”
Applejack and Pinkamena nodded and the two were wrapped up in Twilight’s magic as she focused to cast the spell. After Twilight’s horn was no longer glowing, Applejack and Pinkamena jumped out of the basket and landed on the clouds. To their surprise they were walking on the clouds, and it felt like pillows or cotton candy. That's when Pinkie said
“Hey this is nice I remember doing this to help Rainbow Dash once but I don’t remember what the event was for. Also rainbows are spicy so don’t taste any ok guys.”
Twilight smiled as one of her friends seemed to be breaking the spell they were under, slowly but surely. Applejack nodded in agreement. Fluttershy looked in deep thought, looking up with a smile.
“Rainbow used to live on Fluffy Street, but I don’t know where she would be now, since, well, everything is crazy.”
She was right; all the clouds were now pinks and blues instead of snow white like they should have been. The buildings were made of cotton candy, one of Discord’s favorites, and any buildings that were left untouched by Discord’s magic cotton candy were turned into trees with wings. Cloudsdale looked like a mass of chaos but it was next to Canterlot, and from up there Canterlot looked worse. With houses made of cake and street signs dancing down there - Twilight was glad they were up in the clouds first. So the group walked around for a few hours, trying to find Rainbow Dash with, no such luck. Applejack stopped, and called to the others.
“Why don’t we just ask some ponies if they know Rainbow Dash? We may find her quicker, and besides, it's been about two hours now and we haven’t found her ourselves.”
Twilight looked over at her and gave a nod.
“Applejack’s right, let's split up and look around if we still can’t find her then we have to ask somepony. Lets meet back here in, I don’t know, maybe an hour.”
Everypony agreed and they all went in different directions to find Rainbow Dash. Twilight went west, Fluttershy north, Pinkamena south and Applejack east. After an hour of searching, or at least it seemed like it was an hour, the gang regrouped at the corner they said they would meet at. Pinkamena was the first to say anything.
“I didn’t find anything about Rainbow Dash and nopony would really talk to me. They all just said it was strange to see a earth pony in Cloudsdale.”
Applejack nodded in agreement.
“I just got the same responses from the ponies I talked to, but some of them said they knew Rainbow Dash, but they didn’t know were she was right now. They think she may work in the weather factory.”
“The weather factory. That place isn’t that safe; right now it looks like it’s in overdrive.”
As she pointed in the factories direction, the four of them looked at the factory. Smoke was coming from the smokestacks in huge dense, gray puffs. The factory buildings also looked like they were in a state of disrepair, and it loomed over the city like it was a master and the ponies there were it’s puppets; just used to pump out the weather. Twilight and the others felt dread wash over them as they looked at the monstrosity, but Twilight pushed her fears aside addressing the group in a serious tone.
“Well if that’s the only lead we got, then we have to go to the weather factory and try to find Rainbow.No matter how creepy the place looks.”
The others looked at each other with scared faces as the very thought of going into the now decayed factory would kill them; but they had no choice - it was the only lead, so they pressed on forward to the factory.
They got to the factory in a few minutes and looked at the entrance to the building. The once clean and polished doors leading into the main building no longer looked like the first time they had visited as a group, now they were rusted and falling apart. Fluttershy opened the door, a loud creak came from it and a huge gust of wind rushed by them; it felt like a pony running for their life had gone by. Inside the facility was pure and utter chaos; the snowflakes had grow to twice their size and were walking around the factory with workers on their tail. The clouds were flying all around the factory letting rain, soda, apple cider and chocolate milk rain down on the workers who were trying to get rid of them. The rainbow vats had pure rainbow creatures of all shapes and sizes, walking out of the pools and lighting bolts were now rainbowed colors, and singing around the factory - Discord’s magic had hit the factory hard. The gang looked around at the chaos and didn’t even know where to start looking for Rainbow. That's when they heard a raspy voice yell down to the other workers
“Did you get the snowflakes under control yet? There causing a big draft since they are so cold. An did anypony check the lighting bolts yet, they're starting to mess with the machines in the factory.”
A green pegasus with a blue wavy mane and tail yelled back to the unseen speaker,
“Not yet boss, we’re trying!”
The gang looked in the direction they had heard the voice and started to walk towards it. Suddenly a giant cloud monster jumped in front of them, a dopey look on its face as it blocking their path. Before any of them could react, the cloud monster vanished in a puff of, well cloud puff. From behind the dissipating clouds was Rainbow Dash, in a white factory coat, and a hard helmet on her head hiding most of her rainbow mane. She yelled at the four
“Are you ponies crazy!? The weather factory isn’t for visitors, at least not at this time we’re having... difficulties!”
Twilight walked closer, smiling
“Rainbow Dash, we can help you out here, and then I need you to come with us and we can stop all this craziness together.”
Rainbow looked at her and just ignored what she had said, telling them off again.
“You can’t be here, it’s too dangerous for visitors to be in here right now.”
As she said that a lighting bolt hit her in the flank she screamed in pain, recoiling before looking back to them.
“See, so out you go.”
She pushed the four ponies out the doors to the factory and shut them. As they heard the doors slam behind them, Twilight had a look of disbelief on her face. The rest of the gang didn’t know how to feel about what had happened; but they were glad to get out of the factory. Pinkamena spoke up, breaking the silence.
“Well, we can wait for them to get things back under control in the factory. It can’t take that long can it?”
Twilight said in a sassy, irritated voice
“Pinkie, we don’t have time to wait and I can’t even tell if it's night or day.”
Before Pinkamena could correct Twilight, Applejack butted in.
“Sugarcube, calm down; we just need to wait a little. And besides, we still got time left so let's just wait for a while and see if things calm down by then, ok?”
Twilight wanted to protest but didn’t, and she took in a deep breath before speaking in a calm demeanor
“You’re right Applejack, lets just wait a bit and then we’ll try again.”
They waited for what seemed like forever since the moon bypassed them twice, and the sun flew by a few times as well. While panicking ponies ran by every now and then, they were the only ones in a peaceful mood despite everything else going on around them. After what had to be three hours, Fluttershy spoke up.
“Let’s try again now. I’m bored and Pinkamena already beat me in tic-tac-toe a hundred times already.”
Pinkamena gave a dark grin,
“What, I’m just good at tic-tac-toe I guess.”
Twilight and Applejack looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They turned around and looked at the now pink colored doors and reentered the factory. This time everything was just covered in rainbow juice, or was it rainbow paint? Whatever is was the whole factory was covered in it. Before any of them went further into the factory they snuck into the locker room and put on extra workers clothes so nopony could throw them out again. They walked around seeing other ponies mopping up the rainbow paint since it was in every corner of the factory. That's when Pinkamena walked over to one of the ponies mopping and said
“So, where did the bossy pony Rainbow Dash go?”
The colt looked at her with his lavender eyes that had dulled to a gray color and said
“On the second floor in her office. Duh. Rainbow Dash is there, she has to fill out all the paperwork about everything that's happened.”
Pinkamena nodded at him in said in a serious tone
“Thank you, now if you’ll excuse me I have a rainbow paint spill to clean in the snowflake room.”
She walked away from him and back to the gang and told them exactly what the colt had said to her. So the group went up to the second floor to find Rainbow’s office, but the second floor was a mess, and all the doors had rainbow paint on them.They checked out every door they saw till after about forty minutes and a lot of paint cleaning they found Rainbow’s door.
They knocked on the door, but got no response; so they opened it anyway. The door creaked as it opened, and they found Rainbow sitting at a desk, deep into her paperwork. Applejack spoke up, concern invading her voice,
“Ummmm Rainbow Dash.”
She didn’t respond, other than just letting out a grunt. Frowning, Applejack yelled
“RAINBOW DASH!”
The blue mare let out a little squeal and flew out of her chair. Once she recovered, she turned her head towards the direction of the noise, and wore an annoyed look on her face. She addressed them, her voice angry and tone serious,
“Why aren’t you ponies cleaning up the factory from that rainbow spill? Do you want to get fired, because I will fire you four.”
They looked at each other confusion on their faces as Pinkamena spoke with concern,
“Well no - you can’t fire us because we don’t work here, and neither do you Rainbow Dash. We need to go stop this crazy pony from destroying Equestria, and for that we need you. So come on and drop the paperwork and lets gooooo!”
Rainbow looked at her, a deep a scowl on her face as her eyes squinted
“If you don’t work in the factory, then why are you here?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes
“Pinkamena just said why we’re here, we need your help to stop Equestria from dying and falling into an endless wasteland of despair and chaos.”
Rainbow looked Fluttershy right in the eyes
“I’m busy with the factory; I can’t just stop what I’m doing, tell my staff ‘Oh hey, I’ve got to go to save Equestria from madness and chaos but you guys keep working’. That's not how I run the Weather Factory, I won’t just abandon my co-workers like that.”
The group all looked at Rainbow with concern, and Twilight stepped forwards, speaking up,
“Rainbow, I know you would never leave any pony you believe in behind, but we need you, I need you, to join us. We really need you and your element of harmony to stop Dark Blitz. If not for us as friends, then I ask you to do it as one of the Princess of Equestria.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight, as she unfolded her wings to show her that she was an alicorn. Rainbow sighed
“Look Princess, I’ll join you, but only after all the paperwork is done and I have to do it alone. So don’t even ask to help me with it.”
Twilight smiled
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash you--”
Rainbow cut off Twilight
“While I finish this paperwork go help my team clean up the factory.If you don’t mind?”
A smug smile crossed Rainbow’s face as she finished her sentence. Applejack started to protest,
“ Why in th--”
But before Applejack could finish Twilight put her hoof to her mouth and then said to Rainbow
“Ok, we can do that.”
They walked back out of the office the door slamming behind them, as Applejack stared to speak, in a huff
“Why would you’ll make an agreement like that Twi? We need to get going and we need to go now. Just look at Canterlot - it’s raining ice cream down there. Oh, and don’t cut me off again.”
Twilight looked at her annoyed
“I know, Applejack but I had to make a deal like that because she wouldn’t have agreed to come along if I didn’t. Plus I’m sick of wasting time too, and if we didn’t make a deal we would be wasting more time; also, sorry.”
Applejack seemed to accept it, the group standing still, somewhat disappointed with the whole situation. With a bounce, Pinkamena chimed in,
“Ok, well let’s get cleaning, it shouldn't take too long right?”
The others looked at the factory floors and all around at the walls that were covered in rainbow goop. They all sighed in unison as they grabbed mops and scrubbing brushes to clean up the mess that had been made by Discord’s magic.
What seemed like twelve hours went by and the factory was now mostly clean, only a few rooms still needed to be wiped down. That's when a note appeared in front of Twilight. She grabbed it up with her magic and looked at it as her face started to get a worried look to it. It only read
‘One and a half days left honey’.
Twilight’s eye twitched as she kept reading the note over and over, Fluttershy looked over at her and noticed the note in front of Twilight. She walked over and grabbed the note from Twilight's magical embrace, before tearing it up,
“Don’t worry Twilight, this is almost done and Rainbow Dash will be joining us soon; you don’t need to worry. You just relax and take a nap.”
Twilight looked at Fluttershy, her eye twitching more,
“I can’t do that; I can’t sleep now - we're down to just one and a half days. This is annoying. She... Dark Blitz is messing with us. She has probably made her spell stronger to make us move slower. Or she put another spell on Rainbow and Rarity. Ugh! What if we don’t make it in time?”
Applejack looked over and went back to cleaning but threw her two bits in while mopping up the floor
“Twilight calm down, I know you want to beat this pony but stressing ain’t gonna help us. An besides, Rainbow has to be done with that paperwork by now.”
Twilight looked over at Applejack and then looked up at Rainbow’s door; Twilight flew up to the door, opened it and walked in. The others just looked at each other confused as to why Twilight would do that since Rainbow would be joining them anyway.
Inside the room Twilight saw Rainbow napping on her desk, on top of the paperwork, drooling all over it. Twilight was enraged to see such a sight,
“WAKE UP!”
Rainbow jumped up and bashed her head on the ceiling. Dust and with some ceiling pieces swirled in the air, falling down around her, and once her eyes stopped spinning she looked at Twilight. She saw that Twilight’s face was red and twisted into a dark painting of anger and fear. As her eyes were somewhat small and her bottom lip was slightly over her upper lip. Rainbow quickly composed herself, her cheeks red an spoke in a slightly embarrassed tone,
“Oh ummmm, I was just umm looking over the paperwork.”
Twilight looked at her, rage building in her eyes and snapped,
“That's it! I’m helping you with this paperwork because you clearly can’t handle it, demonstrated by the fact you were just sleeping on top of it. No ifs, no buts, I’m helping you.”
Before Rainbow could even say anything the papers were scooped up in a magenta aura and all around Twilight. She divided the work in half between the two of them. Rainbow looked at her annoyed
“I don’t want your help Princess, I can do this on my own like I have for years.”
Twilight looked at the paperwork and snapped back,
“No, you haven’t been doing this for years. You just think that you have. You’re a Wonderbolt, and even you need the help every now and them. So far everything you’ve filled out is wrong. So shut up and fill out your paperwork and I’ll fill out mine.”
Rainbow was stunned; she never thought a princess would say something so cruel to one of her loyal subjects but she respected that she talked to her as an equal. So Rainbow looked at her paperwork, said sheeply
“Alright umm Twilight was it, well I’ll get this done quick and thanks for the help. Paperwork always bores me to death.”
Twilight looked over at her and gave a little smile,
“Well your welcome, but we have to get this done because we only have about two days left to stop Dark Blitz. So stop talking and finish that work.”
Rainbow looked at her half of the paperwork and started working on it just like Twilight wanted her to do.
They worked on it for about four hours but they finally finished it all; Twilight put it all in a large stack. Twilight looked over the stack and made sure it was in perfect order, and that nothing was missing. Rainbow Dash looked it over, her eyes constantly scanning it while she spoke.
“Thanks Twilight. No pony has ever really helped with the paperwork before, or really ever wanted to even ask if I needed help.”
Twilight closed her eyes, and smiled.
“Well Rainbow if you remember, I’ll help my friends when I can. Plus, everypony knows you’re not very good at paperwork.”
They giggled together at the comment, and walked out of the office, finding the factory clean and polished. The other four were waiting outside the doors to greet them but before they could say anything, the alarm went off. Rainbow looked at the alarm, stomped a hoof, and yelled;
“Whats going on now!?”
A pink pegasus in the work uniform yelled up to her
“BOSS, A HUGE MAIN BREAK JUST HAPPENED IN THE RAIN PART OF THE FACTORY! ALSO SOME OF THE MACHINES JUST CAME TO LIFE AND STARTED SINGING AND DANCING!”
Rainbow looked stunned to hear this, she looked at the pony with her jaw on the floor, Twilight was enraged when she heard this.Her face, painted red with rage, used a voice enhancing spell and yelled
“ATTENTION ALL WORKERS THIS IS TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP! NOW I NEED YOUR BOSS RAINBOW DASH TO COME WITH ME! I WILL USE A VERY POWERFUL SPELL TO STOP EVERYTHING, AND RETURN THE FACTORY TO HOW IT SHOULD BE. PLEASE COULD EVERYPONY EXIT OUT OF THE FACTORY! NOW!”
All of the ponies looked at her as she finished her speech, then they looked at each other, and then they ran out of the factory. Twilight looked at her friends and said
“You guys leave too. I don’t want to accidentally hurt any of you.”
But Rainbow interjected,
“I’m not leaving you. Plus I kinda run this factory, so I can’t just leave.”
Applejack jumped in;
“Twilight I wouldn’t leave you either. Besides, I feel that you need me here.”
Pinkamena nodded in agreement and Fluttershy chimed in too.
“She’s right. You also said that we were the living embodiment of the elements of harmony. So if you ask me, you need as much harmony as you can get, meaning you need your friends here, with you.”
Twilight teared up a bit and smiled at them.
“Oh girls.”
She walked between them, and they all shared a group hug, each mare latching onto Twilight, and she started to glow. They let her go and backed up a little as Twilight then address all of them;
“Ok, here goes the spell.”
Twilight’s horn lit up with her magic firing little sparks from the tip of her horn, as she concentrated and the magic around her grew ever stronger. Her friends looked up in wonderment as Twilight lifted off of the ground glowing even brighter. All the insanity going on in the factory suddenly stopped dead in it’s tracks, as the whole factory was engulfed in fuchsia magic. Then Twilight opened her eyes and released her spell, the whole factory glowed, and all of the workers gathered outside the factory and looked on in amazement. The magic light that engulfed the factory soon died out and Twilight was back on the ground, where she quickly passed out and collapsed. The four friends that stayed with her yelled in unison
“TWILIGHT!”
They picked her up and put her on Applejack’s back, while Fluttershy looked her over.
“She must be exhausted, that spell looked very powerful.”
Then Rainbow hoof bumped the air, spinning around mid flight.
“Yeah…, but it worked. And it looked like it came with a protective bubble too.”
Then Pinkamena looked around herself, staring out of the windows.
“Yeah she's right, look, there's a big pink bubble around the factory.”
They looked outside to see the bubble, obvious to the fact it was what was keeping the chaos out of the factory, the spell having cleaned everything up again.
All of the worker ponies came back into the factory and looked around in astonishment, many breaking out into cheers. The pink pegasus from early approached her boss.
“So Miss Dash, can we all go home now?”
Rainbow looked at her and smiled.
“All of you can go home, the factory can’t run right now with everything going on outside this bubble. An thank the princess when you leave.”
Every pony left and thanked the sleeping princess that was still prone over Applejack’s back; when everypony had left, only the five remained. Rainbow floated down to talk with the rest of them.
“Well Twilight fixed everything, so guess I have to keep my promise and go with you guys.”
Pinkamena smiled.
“Yay! One more pony to go and we can stop everything forever.”
Rainbow looked over at Applejack.
“So...where are we going next?”
Applejack was going to answer but stopped and put her hoof to her muzzle. She looked down puzzled. She didn’t know where they were going next because Twilight was the only pony that knew. Fluttershy turned an clicked her tongue.
“Well, we have to find Rarity next, and Twilight said she was in Canterlot. If I remember correctly, that is.”
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy and then out one of the factory windows. She looked through it down to the dystopia that was currently Canterlot. The roads where half soap and half blue dotted carpet, the building looked to be made of cards and pies. Rainbow turned away grimacing.
“You sure, cause Canterlot doesn’t look to good, it’s in pure chaos.”
Pinkamena nodded and shouted enthusiastically.
“Yup! We're going to Canterlot next we need Rarity. Besides it’ll be fu-”
Pinkamena stopped talking dead in her tracks as she started to fall through the floor of the factory, the same thing was happening to Applejack too. Applejack screamed in alarm.
“WHATS HAPPENING? WHY ARE WE FALLING THROUGH THE FLOOR?”
Fluttershy and Rainbow quickly flew over to grab them before they could fall any further through the floor, Fluttershy had Pinkamena while Rainbow had Applejack and Twilight.
“It must be Twilight’s spell she cast on you two,” Fluttershy said, “it's probably wearing off. We have to get you three to the hot-air balloon so you don’t fall.”
Before they could even leave the factory Applejack changed the plans.
“Somepony grab Twilight off my back and give her to me. I’ll carry her in my hoofs and you two just fly us down to Canterlot.”
Fluttershy quickly grabbed Twilight off AJ’s back before she fully slid off, and Applejack grabbed her up in her hoofs. The gang were soon out of the factory and on their way to Canterlot.
It didn’t take them long to land in Canterlot since it was now only a few hundred feet away, Cloudsdale having floated closer over the course of the last few days. Rainbow and Fluttershy flew down to the ground, close enough so that Applejack could put Twilight down on the blue striped part of the road. After she had deposited Twilight on the floor, the two pegasus let the earth ponies down to join her on the ground. They all looked around in horror as the moon was ever closer to the land, and the sun moved across the sky in an erratic pattern. The land was in no better condition as the houses were all made mostly of cards, the roads were soap and blue striped rugs. All the ponies that walked around were gray and acting crazy; Some were digging tunnels to nowhere, and others literally eating the road. The street lamps had come to life, dancing in pairs to an unheard song. Muffins with wings flew around like bugs and any food and wildlife were also dancing or singing. The girls gawked at each other, none of them knowing what to say. An almighty crash caught their attention, and looking up, they caught a glimpse of Celestia, Luna and Discord fighting each other around the castle.
Applejack stopped gawking at everything and broke the silence.
“Ok y’all, we better look for Rarity in this mess of Canterlot.”
Fluttershy shook herself to clear her mind, and looked over at her.
“Yeah we should do that soon. But, errm, I don’t remember what she looks like. I think Twilight said she has a purple mane, but I don’t remember anything else about her.”
Applejack just nodded and pitched in;
“I know she made clothing.”
Pinkamena just yelled;
“Didn’t she have a boutique in Canterlot somewhere?”
Rainbow hovered above, looking disinterested,
“Don’t ask me because I don’t even know who you’re talking about. So there’s no way I can help.”
They didn’t know what to do, so they just put Twilight on Applejack’s back and started looking around the twisted city, hoping their tidbits of information would be enough.
They looked around every corner for Rarity, and everypony with a purple mane they stopped to talk too. Everypony was either insane or brain dead, and the roads and buildings were moving around constantly, shifting so much that they didn’t even know where they were going anymore. Some building would become pudding, then change to cards in an instant and the sun and moon changing every minute, which was another pain they had to deal with. Every road they took either lead them back to where they started or to where they thought they started. That's when a note appeared in front of Rainbow Dash, before it fell to the ground. Rainbow grabbed it and opened it. She read it outloud to the rest of the group;
“Well I guess the game's over, but I’ll wait til the deadline is up. I hope the rest of you can make up for Twilight’s absence. Good luck, I hope you can find Rarity in this mess of Canterlot. Just know that you only a few have hours left to stop the gods, find Rarity all before I kill the tree. -Dark Blitz”
Rainbow just looked it over again and again confusion invading her face, till she threw it on the ground. She looked at the other four,
“Okay... so who's Dark Blitz and why does she want to kill some tree?”
The others looked at each other but it was Fluttershy that cleared her throat and spoke up,
“Well that note was from the pony that changed us, made us all different and took our memories. She also, well... um, it’s a long story Rainbow Dash, but we’ll sit down and tell you about it.”
So Fluttershy took it upon herself to get Rainbow Dash up to speed on everything.
~~~~~~~~ Thirty minutes later~~~~~
Rainbow didn’t know what to think, but she looked at the sleeping Twilight before looking back at the group,
“Well I’ll stick with you guys since I promised Twilight, besides you need me. But we need to find this Rarity, So where do we start?”
Applejack looked around, and stomped her hoof on the ground,
“Well why don’t we go down to the fashion part of Canterlot an look there. She is a designer after all, so she should be there.”
The rest of the group nodded and they headed towards the fashion part of town; or at least they thought they were there, mainly because it was full of striped and spotted clothing flying like birds. The buildings were all patch worked together in all types of fabrics while all sorts of pins and capes draped everywhere. Some buildings wore hats atop them and others were missing entirely, as if they had gotten up and walked away. The windows that decorated the buildings where dotted up with gems and beads. The gang didn’t even know where to start looking in this mismatched masterpiece of Canterlot. They looked through every building they could find, or at least make out, in the area in order to find Rarity. It felt like a never ending cycle of searching since most buildings where the same. That's when Pinkamena asked
“So does anypony have any idea if were even in the right part of Canterlot? Because if you ask me where lost and we’ll never find Rarity at this rate.”
Applejack looked at Pinkamena and spoke in a jovial upbeat tone,
“Oh sugarcube, I know we’ll find her.”
That's when Rainbow Dash flew over to the unconscious Twilight, picked her up, and yelled in her ear,
“TWILIGHT! WAKE UP WE NEED YOU NOW!”
Twilight just grunted and mumbled,
“Not now I’m on the C’s”
Rainbow and the rest of the gang felt hopeless as Twilight, the pony who brought them all together, was down and out. The gang just looked at each other, they didn’t know what to do any more. That's when Pinkamena suddenly yelled,
“I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to ask if anypony knows Rarity!”
Rainbow looked at Pinkamena and replied,
“Pinkie, what's the point everypony is acting crazy?”
“It’s Pinkamena, and I don’t care if everypony is nuts I can’t take it anymore; this new Canterlot is driving me nuts. It’s always changing and rearranging. I want to find Rarity, stop the princesses, and then beat the stuffing out of Dark Blitz. So I’m going to ask some pony if they know Rarity so we can leave.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as Pinkamena walked up to the first pony she could see; a mare with a gray body and mane. She had a sewing needle for a cutie mark so Pinkamena asked her,
“Are you the fashion pony named Rarity?”
The pony turned around and just looked at her; squawked at her and then said,
“I know that pony, she's such a snob. I think she’s in that building with the huge boulder on top of it. Or maybe it was the building with the fabric with the hearts on them.”
Pinkamena looked at her and thanked her as she slowly backed away from the pony, she told the rest of the gang.
Applejack said,
“Well it's worth a shot looking into this building I guess.”
Fluttershy then added in
“So which building should we look into first?”
Rainbow said to them “I think the fabric one since you know she apparently designs clothes..”
She flew up looking in every direction to see if she could spot the building, and about five minutes later she came back to the group. “I saw a building with a heart pattern all over it, two minutes from here.”
“All right we’ll head on over to that building. Lead the way Rainbow Dash.” Applejack yelled to the blue pegasus.
They arrived at the building in roughly two minutes, just as long as Rainbow had guess it would take. The building in question was covered in a soft fabric that was decorated in hearts. The hearts were a vibrant red color, and they covered every inch of the fabric, interspaced so as to leave almost no base color visible. As they walked into the building, they found that the inside was no better; fabric everywhere - from striped to spotted. The walls had all kinds of color decorated on them, but it was heavy in greens and blues. They were overwhelmed by all the color to notice a pony walking over to them.
“Hello? Can I help you, ladies?”
They stopped looking around at the decor to see who it was that had address them; a purple haired mare had walked through in front of them. She had a brilliant sapphire blue coat and emerald colored eyes. Her cutie mark was a large amber colored gem with a sewing needle around it. They all looked at her and thought to themselves was this must be the pony they were looking for; this must be Rarity. Rainbow broke the silence that was creeping in on them and answered the mare,
“Do we need help? Yeah, we actually need a lot of that right now.”
The mare looked at her oddly, but brushed the comment off and inquired,
“Does your friend need any help? She looks sick, or something?”
She pointed her head at Twilight, who was sleeping over Applejack’s back mumbling to herself. Applejack looked at Twilight and then back to the mare’
“Who her? She’s fine, just plum tuckered out.”
“Oh okay, if you say so. So why are you in my shop today? Do you ladies need a new dress or a necklace made?”
Fluttershy looked around and noticed some glass cases with jewelry in them and dresses hanging on some racks. Fluttershy noticed them and something in her head clicked.
“Umm, excuse me miss, but is your name Rarity?”
The mare looked at the yellow pegasus and hesitated before answering
“Well yes, my name is Rarity. But how do you know that? I was under the impression only Canterlot ponies knew of my brand of fashion? Are you high end fashion ponies here for my fashion?”
The five looked at her and grouped together, Fluttershy whispering’
“You think she's the right pony?”
“I dunno, I don’t trust her. Besides she hesitated to answer you Fluttershy.”
“True.” Fluttershy nodded.
Pinkamena looked over at their host, as the pony who was claiming to be Rarity looked at them like they had there heads. Pinkamena put her head down back into her circle of friends,
“Well she’s all we got after hours of searching. Besides, can any of you remember what Rarity looks like?”
They all looked at each other knowing what Pinkamena said was true none of them remembered what Rarity really looked like; just that her mane was purple and she was into fashion. Pinkamena said in a smug voice, “That’s what I thought.”
“Ok smarty pants, what do we do? Ask her to come with us. Or do we grab her and run.” Rainbow said, annoyance sinking into her voice
They thought out what to do, and both options were bad. The first one would have her turn them down, the second one was ponynapping, but they had to do something this, and this mare alone was who they needed. They broke apart and Fluttershy asked
“So um, Rarity, we need you to come with us. To help stop the princesses and Discord.”
Rarity looked at Fluttershy, her face was colored with concern as she answered her “Um stop the princesses from doing what? And that, that thing Discord I wouldn’t go near a ruffin like that. Besides why should I help you guys?”
“Well - we need you and we have to stop the princesses from fighting and changing the day and night cycle. What you said about Discord is just rude, he is probably a nice guy. Maybe.”
Fluttershy said in her defence, Rarity looked at her and turned away from them, walking towards her back room. Rainbow dash, flew in front of her and asked
“Hey where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going into my back room and getting away from you ponies. None for you are here for my shop. So I don’t have to help you with anything.”
Applejack yelled
“Wait! Don’t do that. If you come with us, we’ll buy everythan’ in your shop!”
Rarity stopped moving towards the back and looked at her wide eyed, she had to pick her ear a bit and asked,
“What did you just say?”
“I said we’ll...We’ll buy everythan’ you got in this here shop.”
Rarity’s jaw dropped as she looked at them as she mumbled to herself how they would buy everything in her shop. She fell over onto the teddy bear patterned floor, as the other ponies looked at her. The gang looked at her and sighed as Rainbow said “Pick her up Pinkamena and let's go to the castle before she wakes up and makes us buy everything, like Applejack said we would.”
Pinkamena picked up Rarity and put her onto her back, as Applejack defended herself against Rainbow’s comment. They left the heart patterned building, now with two ponies being carried on another ponies’ back.
A few blocks away from the shop they left they heard a scream a bloodcurdling scream that could make your skin crawl. Rainbow Dash bolted towards the building where the scream came from as Pinkamena yelled
“What are you doing we need to get to the castle not to that scream!”
“I can’t just leave somepony in trouble. Besides you heard that scream this pony really needs help.”
Pinkamena rolled her eyes as she saw Applejack and Fluttershy follow Rainbow Dash down the road to the scream. They came to a store that was striped on the outside and was covered in all sorts of fabric from silks to fleece in many different colors. A boulder sat upon the outside of the building, it was shaped like a diamond. They heard the scream again as they ran into the shop, the doors opened and they saw the inside of the store they saw it was in a total state of insanity. The clothing was alive and having a tea party in the center of the shop while a small group of cat hats where in the corner eating acorn bugs. They heard a scream come from back of the store, yelling
“Help somepony, anypony! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH”
Rainbow bolted for the back as the rest followed her with Applejack and Pinkamena bring up the rear since they was carrying extra weight. What they saw was something they couldn’t believe the boots and other shoes in the store had two mares tied up and was about to throw them into a boiling pot of hot water.
One of the floating shoe creatures then gagged the two unicorns that were tied up. Rainbow just looked over the scene again and before anypony could say anything Rainbow sprung into action. She slammed into all the creatures and pushed them into a corner of the back room, the shoes screamed in anger as they tired to fight Rainbow off.There little razor teeth showing as they tried to gnaw on her. Fluttershy took the opportunity and flew over, grabbed the two mares, and prevented the creatures from being able to cook up pony soup. They bolted out of the back room and into the front of the store, with Rainbow flying through and slamming the door behind her, so none of the little beasts could follow them. The gang looked at the mares they saved one had an orange mane with a blue coat; the other had a purple curled mane with a white coat.
Applejack waved her hoof to have the others to circle in around her, when they got in their huddled circle, Applejack said in a whisper
“Y’all think that mare with the purple mane is Rarity?”
Pinkamena stretched her neck above the group and looked at the mare, she brought herself back down to everypony's level and said
“Well what about the other mare that’s passed out on my back. I thought she was Rarity.”
“Well now we have to ponies with purple manes and tails so we have to check just to make sure, she ain't Rarity.”
Rainbow mused for a second;
“Well we’ll have to ask her, right after we ungag her that is. And the other one, how do we wake her up - she fainted?”
Fluttershy spoke up;
“Well, why don’t we just pour some water on her head? That might wake her up.” Just as Fluttershy finished her sentence the Rarity on Pinkamena’s back grunted and opened her eyes saying
“Where am I?”
Pinkamena looked at her and then bucked her off her back and said in a cold tone
“Good you’re up now tell us are you, are you really Rarity. The fashion pony.”
The mare looked at her and looked worried but coughed and said in a shaky voice “Of course I am. I’m, I’m Rarity. Didn’t you see my shop.”
As she finished the other purple haired mare groaned in a angry tone and started to yell under her gag. The group turned to the mares,that were struggling to get the rope off of them and spit the gags out of their mouths. They ungaged the purple mare who was in a huff; she yelled
“You’re Rarity? Har har har don’t make me laugh. You’re fashion line is nowhere close to mine, Emerald Stitching. Besides, I’m Rarity, right Sassy.” The orange mare nodded her head in agreement; Pinkamena looked at the imposter with a dirty look.While the others just looked at each other with concern. Applejack yelled with concern
“I knew you, couldn’t be Rarity you snake. Why did you’ll lie to us?”
The group's concern turned into anger as, Emerald Stitching just looked at them as they walked towards her with angry eyes and scowls upon their faces. She backed away slowly speaking in a scared voice
“I was...I just thought you wouldn’t buy my clothing if you thought I wasn’t Rarity. She’s a much better designer than me I-I…”
Before any of them could say anything Emerald Stitching bolted out of the door faster than Rainbow Dash and ran down the street. The gang huffed as they walked back to the real Rarity and Sassy. They untied Sassy, an as Pinkamena was about to untie Rarity she shoved the gag back in her mouth. She put her on her back while she was still tied up and then bolted out the door; the others looked stunned but quickly followed her. Sassy’s jaw dropped as she watched them run away from the store.Before she could even yell for any help more living cloths walked out of a closet much to her horror.
It wasn’t until they were somewhere in downtown Canterlot when they ungaged this ‘new’ Rarity, she coughed and yelled
“Are you ponies crazy! Why did you just ponynap me? Are you going to hurt me?”
Fluttershy looked at her and said in a kind, sweet tone of voice
“No, we’re not going to hurt you. Now Pinkamena why did you just regag her and run out of the building?”
“Well she wouldn’t join us just cause we saved her.Sooo I saw an opportunity and went for it. Now we have everypony all together again.” Said Pinkamena in a somewhat happy tone of voice. Applejack let out a sigh and said
“Ok well I’m glad we found the real Rarity. That other pony was a dirty no good snake So let’s just go to the castle and stop the princesses from fightin and put everythin back to normal. ”
Rarity looked at her, spitting out the gag (since it wasn't properly shoved back into her mouth), her jaw dropped yelling
“Are you mad!? The castle isn’t for us common ponies, and besides, the princess aren’t talking to anypony right now. They're dealing with that trickster Discord.” Rarity said in a horrified tone
Fluttershy looked at her and said
“Are you kidding me, you're happy with the way things are now. With the two princess fighting all around Canterlot and the castle while the land and ponies are suffering. I know you can’t be happy with the way things are now, so we're going there to stop them. An you’re coming along - we need your power. So no complaints Rarity. ”
Rarity just looked at them all and said
“Well I guess I have no choice in the matter do I?”
“No you don’t.”Said Rainbow Dash as a smug grin started going across her muzzle. They threw Rarity over Fluttershy’s back and started heading for the castle,the castle that was once beautiful and full of color now a danger zone and full of broken pillars and rubble.
On the way to the castle Rarity asked
“So what are you all going to do when we get to the castle? Surely you have some kind of plan to stop all this madness?”
“We...don’t really have a plan in mind.” Pinkie said in a really happy tone, jumping up and down.
Rarity’s eye twitched as she heard this come from the pink pony’s mouth, she yelled “SO, WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET US IN THERE AND THEN WHAT? WE ALL SING KUMBAYA!?”
Rainbow looked at her and said
“Well when you put it like that it's sounds bad.”
“OF COURSE IT IS! I’M GOING TO DIE”
Applejack butted in and said in a calm voice
“Noponies going to die, sides we just have to wake Twilight up before we get in there. Then she’ll make a plan an we’ll be just dandy.”
Rarity looked down at the ground and mumbled to herself
“Oh my sweet Celestia, I’m going to get killed by the gods themselves.” Rarity looked like she was going to throw up as her face turned a dark green shade, Fluttershy then said
“Don’t worry Rarity, Twilight can figure something out I know she can. Besides I know we can do it because deep down I feel that we've done stuff like this before.”
Rarity just looked up at the pegasus and sighed as she turned her head back to the ground; she just keep looking down the rest of the way to the castle.
The gang finally arrived at the base of the castle. Looking up, the castle had been twisted into shambles of it’s former glory, with bits of it falling apart from the fighting. Towers that had stood proud at the top of the castle, high above everything else, were now on the ground in shattered pieces. The girls looked at each other and felt their stomachs somersault as nervousness spread throughout their body, no one keen to enter the broken castle.
Applejack put Twilight down before they entered, and shook her violently to wake her up. This time she opened her eyes, blinking at Applejack.
“Stop shaking me,” she croaked out, “I’m up.”
Applejack ceased shaking Twilight and replied with her cheeks turning red,
“Sorry Twi, I just needed you to wake up.”
Suddenly Pinkamena bounced over, almost knocking Applejack down,
“Twilight, Twilight! We got Rarity to join us!”
Twilight looked at Pinkamena in confusion, before she looked at them all, and noticed somepony over Fluttershy’s back. She squinted as she looked closer at the pony to see that it was in fact Rarity; she was tied up and slung over Fluttershy’s back like she was the catch of the day.
Twilight’s brain took a few seconds to process the new information, with her face turning into one of confusion. “A, how long was I out? And B, why is Rarity tied up?”
Rainbow hollered, hoof-bumping the air.
“Yes! We got the right pony, haha. It’s also a long story, so it’s probably best if we tell you later.”
Twilight just looked puzzled as Rainbow finished her sentence. It was then that Twilight looked past her friends and finally took in their surroundings; the royal castle loomed behind them. She was sad to see it in such disrepair, with what looked like damage from the fighting, and an extreme passage of time. The fight that was going on between the three demigods was throwing out all sorts of spells. She couldn’t look at it and lament for long, they had a limited amount of time to stop them and save the Tree of Harmony. She cast her gaze across the others and decided it was time to move.
“Ok girls let's go into the castle and stop this senseless fighting. So let’s go, by my calculations there in the throne room.”
Rarity just laughed
“How do you figure that you’ve been napping this whole time, you can’t possibly know that just by looking at the castle.”
Twilight smiled an replied in a smug voice
“Good point but from all the disrepair it doesn’t look like they hit anything this low. So there fighting in a high place and since the towers are destroyed. That would put them in the throne room. It's also in the middle of the castle so it's easy to get to. Celestia is usually there so it's the most logical place to go.”
Rarity just rolled her eyes as they walked into the castle, inside they saw the effects of the fighting and all the magic being used around the castle. The pillars in the castle where all twisted up and were turned into a hard putty substance, the once shiny, clean floors were now covered in dirt and rock pieces. The walls were full of holes, the white walls were also stained and blackened by magic burn marks. Any doors that they saw where off the hinges and broken on the floor. They made their way through the broken castle to the doors right before the throne room. The doors were broken an the glass that sat in them were shattered all over the ground in front of the doors. Twilight picked up the doors and glass with her magic and throw it off to the side.
The inside of the throne room was destroyed all the stain glass that lead up the the throne was melted or broken on the ground. The throne that Celestia sat on during the day was torn apart and the pillars in the room where wrapped and cracked. Twilight and the gang felt dread wash over them as they looked around the room. At that moment Luna came crashing in through the stain glass window that depicted Twilight and the gang beating Nightmare moon. Discord came flying in after her as he landed in front of her, a ray of pure yellow light hit him, sending him into the wall. Celestia landed where he was standing and looked down as her horn glow to attack Luna, Luna retaliated before Celestia could. The mane six looked on at the fighting going on between them,Pinkamena piped up with a shaky voice
“So...How do we get them to stop Twilight?”
Twilight looked over at her and said
“We need to unite and use our Rainbow power that the Tree of Harmony gave us. Fluttershy put Rarity down and untie her.”
Fluttershy obeyed but as soon as Rarity was free she made a bolt for the door to escape the madness they threw her into. Twilight grabbed her with her magic and pulled her close to her,
“You can’t leave we need you, you’re the element of generosity.”
Rarity looked at her
“I’m not staying here to die, you must be daffy to stay here.”
Twilight looked down tears welling up in the corner of her eyes
“Of course you’d call me daffy but you’re our friend and we need you. So are you really going to leave when we need you the most?”
Rarity felt guilt wash over her as Twilight finished her sentence, She looked down and sighed
“I won’t leave if you need me, I’ll help. Now can you put me down.”
Twilight put her down and hugged her tight; Twilight then spoke aloud to the others
“Ok just feel your elements Applejack your honesty, Pinkie laughter, Fluttershy kindness,Rainbow loyalty, Rarity generosity. Concentrate on your element become one with them and you should activate your rainbow power.”
They closed their eyes and all did as Twilight said they embraced their element and thought hard about their element but after a few moments nothing happened, Rainbow Dash spoke up, agitation peeking through her voice,
“Twilight this isn’t working I don’t feel anything.”
Twilight opened her eyes, confusion apparent on her face,
“I don’t understand why don’t you feel anything I feel my element, the element of magic but I can’t use it. Is it because of the spell over your minds?....That has to be why.”
Fluttershy said
“Well if we can’t get our rainbow power to work, how are we going to stop them.”
She pointed in the direction of Discord, Luna and Celestia as Luna blasted Discord with a magical beam, their body’s were all bruised and bloody from their war. Twilight fell to the ground holding her head, she couldn’t think of anything as stress consumed her; her magic couldn’t break the spell on her friends. She pondered for sometime until something snapped in her head. She realized she couldn’t beat Dark Blitz she was going to fail, as she realized this despair washed over her. As she looked up at the demigods her despair slowly transformed into frustration,as she lit up her horn and cast a very powerful sleeping spell on them.
The three demigods fell to the ground asleep, and Twilight collapsed to the ground in a heap, crying and sobbing. The others looked shocked as the three most powerful beings in Equestria fell to the ground and remained motionless. Applejack broke the silence that had overtaken the room as she questioned Twilight,
“Did you do it? Did you really stop them without our help Twilight?”
Twilight replied through her sobs, tears raining freely to the ground,
“No... I didn’t. That spell I cast, it won’t keep them asleep for long; I’ve failed - we’ve all failed and Equestria is doomed.”
Fluttershy tried to placate her, compassion laced in her tone,
“Twilight you tried your hardest you did great, it was us who failed you.”
Twilight didn’t say anything as she got up and walked over to them; she hugged them tightly as she pressed her wet face into Rarity’s chest. Rarity looked disgusted by the fact Twilight’s face was pressed into her clean hair but she rolled her eyes and rubbed her back gently, and trying her best to console the young mare.
“There, there umm it’ll be okay, we did our best but it just wasn’t good enough.”
Fluttershy nodded next to her.
“Yeah Twilight, … if it makes you feel any better, there's still time in Dark blitz’s ummm game. Even if you didn’t beat the princesses and Discord the right way.”
Twilight pulled her face out of Rarity’s chest and looked at Fluttershy, her head rolling to the side slightly.
“Huh, the Tree of Harmony, there's still time to save it? We need to get to the tree, but we’ll never make it in time.”
Rarity tapped her on the shoulder.
“Twilight darling, you're an alicorn. Just teleport yourself to the tree, or fly there without us.”
“Yeah sugarcube!” Interjected the farm mare, “We’ll stay here and watch over those three, and you go without us. Besides Generosity... um... ‘Rarity!’ Rarity says it’s ok so its all ok with me too.”
Twilight looked between them wiping away her tears.
“But I--”
Pinkamena cut her off before she could finish.
“Just go ok, we’ll be fine. Besides, sometimes your friends can’t always be there to help. The most we can do is cheer you on from here.”
“Yeah.” Rainbow added,“ Pinkie is right. Go on ahead we’ll catch up to you somehow.”
Twilight didn’t want to go without them; it went against the rules of the game, but her friends were telling her to go. She looked at them, took in a deep breath before nodding to them.
“Ok I’ll go, but promise me you’ll watch them and that you’ll all stay together. I would rather have you all go with me but there's no time and those three may start fighting again. And we can’t just leave them like that; they might wake up and be their normal selves again. So promise me you’ll stay with them and not catch up to me.”
Twilight’s eyes were filled with determination as she finished her sentence. Applejack spoke next.
“I promise Twilight.”
Fluttershy joined her,
“Me too.”
Pinkamena yelled,
“Me three!”
Rainbow joined in her arrogant tone,
“Yeah, I promise Twilight after all you did help me out.”
All but Rarity replied. They looked in her direction and gave her a stare that screamed ‘agree or we all die’.
“I’ll stay with them, just for you Twilight.”
Twilight smiled at them all, and then illuminated her horn as she mouthed thank you to them and vanished in a flash of fuchsia light.
Twilight opened her eyes, finding herself in the cave deep in the Everfree. Dark Blitz was standing in front of the Tree of Harmony, and she turned her head at the noise of Twilight’s arrival. She was momentarily stunned, but it quickly turned to annoyance that Twilight was able to even teleport all the way to the tree after she had cast such a high-level spell to stop the demigods. Dark Blitz got up from in front of the mirror pond and address the interloper.
“So, Twilight; you abandoned your friends at Canterlot Castle to face me alone. What kind of Princess of Friendship are you?”
Twilight glared at her, anger filling her eyes,
“No, I didn’t abandon my friends to stop you, they told me to come here. They're cheering for me and helping me even though they aren’t here with me.”
Dark Blitz upper lip twitched as Twilight finished her declaration and she slammed her hoof into the ground,
“They can’t help you; it’s already too late. As you can see the tree is already dying I’ve won. You’ve failed!”
Twilight looked up at the Tree of Harmony and was disgusted to see it was being slowly entangled in black vines. The plunder vines that Discord created; Dark Blitz had revived them and was using them to kill the tree. Twilight looked back at the hooded unicorn and snarled,
“You fiend. If I can’t beat you with my friends help, then I’ll fight you magic to magic right here and right now.” Twilight then fired a light beam from her horn, which struck Dark Blitz in the chest causing her to fly back and fall to the ground. Twilight then yelled at her,“And drop the cloak - you aren’t fooling anypony about your appearance. You’re an alicorn aren’t you?”
Dark Blitz got up as she let her cloak fall off her body, Twilight smirked as she saw that Dark Blitz really was an alicorn. She had long curly bangs that parted right between where her horn started, she was taller than Celestia by a few inches. Her mane was long wavy and curly; her tail was long, waved and curled just like her mane. Her body hair was the same light blue color as the Tree of Harmony’s branches, except her knees down were dark purple like the tree's roots. Her mane and tail were a rainbow of blues and purples with rainbow colors sprinkled in. And her cutie mark was a seed that grew into a large pink and blue flower. She was wearing a necklace with little gems hanging from it, all of which looked like the elements of harmony but in their natural state. The front of the necklace was the flower from her cutie, with a little gem in the middle of the flower that was a little element of magic. Her wings were as big as Celestia’s and they ended in a rainbow with each end feather having a color on the tip of it.
Twilight then asked her, confused by her true appearance,
“Who are you, exactly?”
Dark Blitz looked at Twilight and didn’t say anything she just quickly shot at Twilight with a light beam of her own.
“Win this fight and then I might just tell you.”
Twilight huffed as she jumped out of the way of almost constant beams of magic, just missing her by a few hairs before she fired her own back at Dark Blitz. Their fight was just beginning as they fired a wide variety of magic spells at each other. Twilight was trying to hit Dark Blitz with spells that would immobilize her like the spell Starlight used to immobilize her when they traveled through time. But it was to no avail as the alicorn was quicker than she thought, and her magic was much stronger than Twilight’s, but she could feel that her magic was running out faster than her own. This was evidenced when Dark Blitz stopped using her magic and instead rammed Twilight. Twilight felt herself hurl back and impact into the wall. She spat out some blood but got up, shooting a smirk at Blitz,
“What’s the matter, are you getting tired? I know I am, and we’ve been throwing spells around for hours.”
Dark Blitz chuckled a bit and huffed and said in an arrogant tone “I’m just sick of using my magic; you're almost as skilled with your magic, so fighting it out with magic was an idiotic plan from the start. So I’ll beat you hoof to hoof; besides you're out of magic too.”
Twilight gritted her teeth; she was right - she was low on magic. She hated Dark Blitz being right, but she soon attacked the alicorn kicking her in the chest, the kick pushing Dark Bitz back. The fight between the two turned bloody fast as they landed blow after blow on each other; each having deep gashes where they were constantly hit or kicked. They kept at it for hours, neither one wanting to back down so the other could win.
The mane five were left sitting in the castle, just watching the three gods nap on the throne room floor as the spell Twilight cast on them was still having a hold on them. The new ‘friends’ looked at each other, not sure what to say to each other, even though they all felt that they knew each other but they weren’t all sure. Pinkamena looked at them all and yelled,
“I can’t take it anymore! It’s to quiet in here and we're all looking at each other awkwardly. We need to talk about something, anything.”
The rest of them just looked over at her and didn’t know what to say, before Applejack tapped her hoof on the floor.
“Well shoot I s’pose she’s right. We can’t just look at each other an say nothin. Those three aren’t moving yet. So umm Pinkie what do we talk about?”
Pinkamena was about to scold Applejack about her name but she just looked at her an said
“Say that again”
Applejack looked at her, confusion evident on her face as to why she had been asked, but she just repeated what she said anyway.
“So umm Pinkie what do we talk about?”
Pinkamena smiled widely and yelled
“Yes! Applejack that’s it! My name is Pinkie! Forget using my full name... I’m Pinkie Pie!”
She started jumping around and was singing a little tune about her name, her mane and tail then puffed up a frizzy mess. The others didn’t know why she was doing this until they slowly realized she was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow looked at Pinkie and laughed and said between bursts of laughter,
“Hey Pinkie remember when you scared Spike into getting the hiccups.”
She giggled and said,
“Do I ever, cause then I got the hiccups too!”
Fluttershy looked at Rarity and they quickly started chatting about the brief modeling job she had and their spa trips. The spell Dark Blitz had cast on them was coming undone over the course of time they were stuck watching the three demigods.
In their joy, they didn’t notice that one of the gods was starting to stir. Discord was the first of the three gods to awake, and he got to his legs, looked around and chuckled. His laughter broke the conversations the five were having as they looked over at him. He didn’t notice them though and said as he continued to look around’
“Oh, this is too funny. She really did it - oh that girl. I never thought she would go that far with her plan. Mindless puppets haha must’ve got it from me. Well, I’m guessing that right now her plan is in full fruition.” He chuckled again and then noticed the ponies before him with shocked faces. “My my, you all got doped didn’t you. Well, I guess she knew how to use ponies to her advantage as much as I do. Well, ladies, I have things to do places to be, so... bye bye. Oh, but Fluttershy, I’ll see you later for tea.”
He vanished in a flash of light, and the gang didn’t know what to say or do so they just let him get away. They looked at the other two started to stir awake slowly, but they knew they couldn’t let the princesses fight again. They readied themselves for what was going to happen next.
Twilight and Dark Blitz were exhausted, they had been beating the pulp out of each other for just an hour, however, it felt like several days. Both looked awfully, Twilight was bleeding from her head and hooves. Her wings were battered as feathers fell out; her left wing was broken, the bone poking through her purple hide. Her mane and tail were in a dirty mess they were knotted up and some hair was missing. Dark Blitz was in the same boat as her yet she still managed to look regal, her necklace hung around her neck but some gems were broken. Her mane and tail weren’t as knotted as Twilights. Instead, they were a bit fluffy and frizzy in appearance and her wings had missing feathers; hers, however, weren’t broken. She looked like she was hardly beaten, like Twilight hardly injured her.
Twilight didn’t want to fight anymore her exhaustion seeping in, as her vision blurred, however, she couldn’t lose either. She didn’t know what to do, the mare swallowed hard and looked right into Dark Blitz’s eyes her determination renewed to keep fighting. Twilight mustered up some strength and rammed Dark Blitz, she flew back a few feet. Her body fell over but she spoke in between huffs,
“Do.. you...give...up.. yet?”
Dark blitz slowly getting back up replied,
“Asks the one who's a few inches away from death. Not till I know for sure you’re the one! You got the tree’s chest but you don’t seem like the one it was meant for. Besides the tree is still kicking.”
Twilight looked at her confusion written clearly on her face by that statement and before she could say anything Dark Blitz rammed into her pushing the other alicorn into a wall. Twilight has never felt such agony as vibrations send waves of pain throughout her body. She coughed up some blood and pleaded,
“I don’t know what you want...but this isn’t the way to get it Dark Blitz. You can try something else, try a different approach. Anything else that doesn’t doom all of Equestria...”
Dark Blitz simply walked over to Twilight, in a slow manner, who was in a heap lying near the Tree of Harmony. As Blitz was stumbling along the way she yelled,
“No! There is no other way, no different approach! But you aren’t what I want, you’re not right at all… You can’t even use all the elements power without your friends! So you must be erased! I need to clean the slate and start again from scratch.”
With tears welling up in her eyes, her voice cracking between words. Twilight didn’t understand what Dark Blitz meant, but she could tell something was wrong with Dark Blitz. She gazed at the Tree of Harmony as she pushed her thoughts about Dark Blitz away, she instead thought about her friends, who were cheering for her back in Canterlot. She could almost hear them saying don’t give up; Twilight come on you can beat her. Their voices rang in her head over and over again till she bite down hard on her lip then begrudgingly stumbles up. She had to go all out against the villains she faced. She had to do that and give Dark Blitz a piece of her mind. Twilight spoke anger invading her tone, a tone that was filled with determination,
“I don’t understand what you want from me, why you're doing all this, however, I can’t lose to you. I don’t care what you say about me or why you want me gone... But I want to help you and understand your reasons for attempting this. In order to save Equestria, my friends, the Princesses, Discord, and everyone living here. I have to stop you no matter what,... I will restore the Harmony!”
Twilight finished her speech as the tree lit up, the plunder vines that plagued it was instantly incinerated. The Elements ignited creating a rainbow light which fell upon Twilight, bestowing onto her, the Rainbow-charged form. Twilight looked surprised but happy that the tree felt her resolve, that even if her friends weren't with her the tree still gave her the rainbow power. She felt the magic flow inside; her whole body was healed now she looked upwards as her wings lifted her off the ground. Dark Blitz gazed upon Twilight and yelled,
“What?! No, you’re not the one I want... You’re not right you… are...”
Her eyes fell upon the blasted Tree of Harmony, her face contorted with confusion as it laced her voice,
“Why now? Is she really the one...?”
Dark Blitz returned her gaze to Twilight, she stopped thinking about why the tree gave her, it’s rainbow magic. She just gazed at Twilight, a smile started to emerge on her face as happiness washed over her. Twilight flew up and unleashed a powerful friendship magic rainbow down upon Drak Blitz.
When Twilight opened her eyes she looked around at where she was but only saw the blue starry world around her. It went on for miles as she looked around and realized she was in the world where Celestia had turned her into an alicorn. She was confused and thought to herself,
Why am I here again? Is this some kind of heaven? Am I dead?
She heard a voice, it sounded like,
“Twilight you prissy princess. Didn’t you have fun beating up the bad guy all on your own? Haha!”
Discord chuckled at her as he approached her. Twilight got to her hooves and looked at Discord, confusion was written all over her face but before she could ask any questions she heard a regal voice say,
“Discord, you need to leave you can come back later; after I speak to Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Discord laughed and said,
“Fine party pooper but I’ll be hanging around.”
Twilight looked at him before he vanished in a flash of light, she looked in the direction of the voice she heard a few seconds ago. She saw Dark Blitz looking down smiling at her, however, she saw it was a warm smile, one Celestia would give her. Twilight noticed that Dark Blitz was no longer bruised and beaten but instead looked like royalty with her necklace around her neck and a crown upon her head. Her mane and tail were back to perfect order as well as her wings. On all four hooves she had silvery shoes, that looked like a three-point star leading up her leg with a brilliant sapphire on them, she appeared more regal than Celestia or Luna. Twilight backed away from Dark Blitz, she didn’t know what to do, she threw everything at her but she was back to pristine condition. Dark Blitz just looked at Twilight, as Twilight gawked at her until she noticed the look in her eye.
The venomous look was gone, like when they first meet it was replaced by a warm and loving appearance now. Twilight spoke confusion and hesitation in her voice
“Why are we here? What was your plan anyway…. And why do you look so so...”
Twilight's words failed her as Dark Blitz walked up to her and hugged her in a warm embrace.
Twilight couldn't comprehend what was happening, why was Dark blitz the pony that wanted her dead hugging her? Her mind was racing while Dark Blitz just held the fellow alicorn failing to notice her discomfort. Twilight then heard Discord yell,
“Oh get on with it, Seedy, you're confusing her! It's written right there all over her face.”
Blitz rolled her eyes and released Twilight before she could speak Twilight backed far away from her, the confusion plastered on her face. Blitz giggled knowing why she had backed away, a warm smile started to spread across her mouth as she started explaining herself,
“Twilight, you're right Dark Blitz was never my name. It is actually Harmony Seed. I’m the one who planted the Tree of Harmony many centuries ago. Similarly to how Discord is the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, I’m his opposite the spirit of Harmony and Order.”
Twilight’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open, she was baffled by this but quickly regained her composer, asking angrily;
“Well if that's true why did you want to kill me? Why did you send Equestria into chaos? Why would you ever try to kill the Tree of Harmony? A tree that you supposedly planted in the first place! What was the point of all this? If you’re just like Discord then why are you, his opposite causing chaos?! This just doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.”
Harmony Seed looked at her with a blank face, as a smile slowly bloomed across her lips. After taking a moment to think, she closed her eyes and starts explaining
“To simply make sure my tree, neigh my soul made the right choice... In choosing the heir of Harmony, for you see Twilight I’m quite ancient just like a certain Draconequus. In fact, you could say we are siblings in a sense.”
Discord’s laughter began interrupting Harmony Seed and as he yelled,
“Yeah! Whatever you say sis! Haha”
Twilight ignored Discord and instead of looking at Harmony Seed her anger shifted into curiosity,
“I’m afraid I don't follow… What are you trying to say? I’m pretty much lost by no--”
Harmony Seed put her hoof up indicating that she needed the alicorn to settle down to explain further.
“Twilight please settle down and listen as I tell you a very important story.” - - - - - For you see when this world had just been created, it was younger than even when Luna and Celestia were born. There was a God and Goddess who governed the world. Now you may question this, but please understand that in those times logic was very peculiar. Discord and I reigned over Equestria, not to sound like I'm boasting, we were both very important to the land. Depending on what we chose to do with our magic, we could make life harder or easier for ponies. Ponies back then never took charge if their world instead they allowed godly beings to make those decisions. Twilight, those days by now are quite long and forgotten for all but us two. Our brothers and sisters no longer exist we two are the very last because this world can't function without us. Harmony and Chaos these two traits became our chains to this world.
When we were both much younger, we couldn't directly interfere with the ponies lives. We could make subtle changes by spreading our magic in ways most would mistake for natural occurrences. For instance, bringing rain to a town in drought among other things. However, Discord couldn't resist the temptation to personally interfere with their livelihood. With each chaotic plan, I had to push back with my own magic to keep balance. Soon we descended upon Equestria from our heavenly realm. In Discord’s eyes, this allowed ruling the land to become much easier. While for me it was to maintain the balance like we were supposed to… You may have seen some of his mischiefs in the oast, but compared to then he is much tamer… I have heard and seen so many horrible things that normal ponies couldn't even fathom… - - - - - Harmony Seed finished with tears welling up in her eyes with a very shaky voice to boot. Twilight could see Discord look away in surprisingly deep regret their jobs as Gods must have required great sacrifice. But her thoughts began to wander to something else, Why is she telling me all of this now? Discord's reaction proves that she is telling the truth at least. What is her plan? Twilight stopped with this train of thought as the other pony wiped her tears away then continued.
“Eventually, Celestia and Luna were born around the time my mental fortitude had reached its limits. I was so tired of fighting against Discord I fell into what you call a depression. I only yearned to die… And abandon this world like so many others had chosen to. But, I chose to do something that really makes you question my sense of sanity and order. I believed that one day I would try to destroy myself slowly from the inside out. I concocted a crazy borderline insane plan to create a small seed…”
Twilight’s eyes widened as she yelled out,
“The Tree of Harmony! It's the seed, isn't it? But what kind of plan was this? Planting a tree to keep the entire world in balance seems quite crazy.”
Harmony Seed nodded in agreement and continued on with her story:
“The seed I created grew into a magnificent crystalline tree nearly the moment I planted it, due to being constructed from my magic. Only this came at a terrible price I had to give this a base. I split my soul in half to give my tree an understanding of what harmony truly is. In other words, I am the Tree of Harmony and I nearly risked losing all of myself.”
Twilight was clearly stunned and blurred out,
“What that’s insane using your soul to make something is forbidden magic? And only half what were you thinking back then!?”
Harmony looked confused at the outburst but just smiled and pressed on,
“Please do remember I’m a goddess, magic like that is actually quite normal for us. I noticed that my tree only held five main branches. With six gemstones full of magic that would continue to grow stronger like fruits on an apple tree. Strangely enough, carved into its truck were a sun and moon symbols. Instead of my cutie mark in the center, there was a six-pointed star with the Element of pure magic imbued inside. At the time, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I had no clue retaining to what your cutie mark would foresee. I do now.”
The purple alicorn didn't understand what she meant or why the Tree of Harmony wanted her. Harmony Seed continues once again,
“My tree was showing me two ponies who would use the gems first only that wouldn't last. With the sun higher than the Moon one would outshine the other leading to only temporary balance. But, the pony who has the star cutie mark would become my heir to harmony. I couldn't just die like all the others, ponies counted on harmony. This side needed to stay in Equestria with or without me ruling it. I only placed half of myself in the tree while I planned to watch over the world a bit longer. But, my tree managed to foresee a future pony who would allow me my freedom. That very special pony is you Twilight you have proven yourself worthy of it. By showing that alone you could spread the very powerful harmony or magic of friendship. Those elements are one and the same essentially…”
Twilight’s jaw fell limp as she gasped in shock,
“W… wha… what… what are you talking about?! Me replacing you that is impossible I'm not immortal or anything like that. An-and you tried to kill me an hour ago and even attempted to kill the tree with plunder vines. Wouldn't both your halves perish from that?!”
Before Harmony Seed said anything Discord’s voice rang out around them,
“Oh my dear Twilight, you always seem to have the same punchline, you're so funny… You need things to be explained for you then why do you think my sister Harmony Seed brought you here in the first place? She's going to hand over the reins to you, in other words, you're going to become the new Spirit of Harmony. Seedy will finally rest in peace while you take her place. Isn't that wonderful you have been upgraded from Princess to a Goddess not even Celestia has that title! She’s only a demigoddess. Besides, she was planning this for a very long time… Even if the plunder vines killed her tree the magic in it would just return to her with the other half of her soul.”
Harmony Seed looked down at Twilight and spoke in a sweet tone;
“While Discord may have put it more bluntly than I would have cared for. He is correct, you will be taking my place, my powers and my magic. I will finally fall into my internal rest among the others, but instead of joining them I'll become the complete Tree of Harmony. I have put much work into Equestria so I would like to rest here admiring my efforts, “ her tone shifts to one filled with remorse,
“ I'm truly sorry for harboring such killing intent toward you in that cruel test. I had to play the villain in this story for my plan to work out, I understand those actions can't be forgiven… This was all to make sure you were the right pony to replace me and spread harmony across Equestria. If that had failed then like Discord said my soul half within the tree and the magic in the tree would have returned to me.”
Twilight spoke, panic-laced in every word,
“But I can't do that! It would be like me indirectly killing you, this isn't right it is all wrong. It's… it's… it's ridiculous how do you know my cutie mark is even the right one, huh?!”
She clearly ignored the apology as paranoia overtook her senses, she couldn't accept being forced to kill somepony else. Her mind raced with how her mentor would react to this, the imaginary look of disappointment and disgust moved through her soul. Discord’s voice broke through those thoughts as he spoke in a soothing voice; which was rare for him,
“Twilight please try to calm down this was going to happen eventually… Even if Harmony Seed had to wait another thousand years, she has been fading bit by bit. Slowly joining the tree as we speak ever since your friends first used the elements. Only one reason kept her from ending it all year ago and that was because she just couldn't. Her position would never allow herself to die knowing full well there would be no harmony to balance out my chaos. Regrettably, she gave up on this world so many years ago that she failed as the Spirit of Harmony and Order.” Twilight's eyes dart to Harmony Seed to see if what he said was true. She was becoming partially transparent, the alicorn felt sadness well up in her core. Realization hit her that she had killed this Goddess a pony older than even her mentor without even realizing it. The wisdom and knowledge about spreading Harmony were fading because of her.
The slightly incorporeal alicorn embrace her smaller heir wrapping her wings around her for additional comfort. Twilight confided in this embrace continuing to cry her heart out. Harmony Seed spoke in a tender motherly voice,
“You didn't kill me, I choose to start this oh so long ago. My physical body will become one with my cherished tree and my consciousness will slowly slip into peaceful slumber. I'm no longer in any pain thanks to you yet I’ve caused you so much pain. Please know Twilight that no matter what form I take on as long as you take on my magic I'll live on in you… I would say don't cry, but ponies shouldn’t keep these feelings to fester. I can only offer you my condolences as immortality will soon feel like an unwanted curse. I want you to understand even if your friends pass on you can still meet them again. A body may die but you can't kill a soul they will be reborn in different forms.
Equestria needs you more than it needs me. I stopped spreading true harmony and allowed for false peace to set in as a soon to be the previous spirit this is the immortal mistake that I must bear even in slumber. You will do far greater than I because everypony I have seen with a star cutie mark. You are the only one who has proven themselves no others have even come close to looking like the Element of Magic in my eyes. No-one and I mean no one has been as understanding of emotions and friendship as you are. Besides, I failed long ago to defeat Discord’s chaos which through you indirectly managed to contain in some aspects. While I wanted nothing more than to escape this infernal eternal life I have. In my folly, you have spread harmony in ways I could have never dreamed of. You have saved Luna from her jealousy who was a fallen elements bearer. Reformed my brother into a better God allowing for balance to become more stable than ever. You ascended into a Princess through creating friendship magic. A feat that not even Starswirl the Bearded could accomplish…
I know you will become a great spirit after all this was all set in motion when you ignited the spark. It has all been apart of your destiny Twilight”
She continued to sob into the fading spirit's chest but pulled away to look up at her. Speaking through the sobs,
“Destiny is too cruel then… This is wrong in so many ways, Harmony Seed, if destiny meant for us to meant only to force me to accept your death. Then… it's probably the worst meeting I have ever been a part of aside from the first time I meet Pinkie Pie… hehe, She just ran away to plan a party I had no clue about while you managed to at least talk to me… I would rather become your friend and help you with this all. But, if you wish to die… then I-I'm ready to receive your magic, your role, and mistakes as a spirit. I want to look back to the time I knew Harmony Seed as a friend and not just the previous Spirit of Harmony. Right now were two alicorns who are able to understand each other until one finally gets to rest. Not the Princess of Friendship and the Spirit of Harmony.
Even if I lose my friends, even if I have to befriend them all over again: I wouldn't have it any other way I have to accept this… No, I choose to accept this. I'm not your replacement, nor a pony who was forced into this by something I had no control over… I want to show you this isn't just something as unpredictable as Destiny. I'll take over temporary until you decide when to come back… For now, just rest because you have definitely earned a vacation!”
Harmony Seed was surprised by how the next spirit put this but nevertheless hugs her.She whispers in the smaller alicorns ear,
“You've grown so much. When Celestia gave you your wings, making you an alicorn you didn't talk back to her. You accepted your destiny, but this time you choose to prove this is more than just that. Most would choose to take this over permanently yet you choose to do the opposite. Such an odd thing to say for somepony who has had their whole life mapped out for them until a special trip to Ponyville pushed the gears of destiny into motion. Maybe you're choosing this because of our new understanding of each other or another reason… Regardless, Twilight, as you can see while we've been talking to each other my magic has been transferring to you… I'll let you in on a little secret, haven't you ever wonder why we battled at the Tree of Harmony? I needed it's help to use my magic, the tree is a part of me.
The last time I used magic without help is when our desti… paths crossed when I set everything into motion. I will admit that you have been receiving my magic ever since the sonic rainboom, but haven't noticed its effects. Some of it is still sleeping inside of you, and you'll feel the full brunt when I disappear from sight.”
Twilight understood what she meant by this as tears continue to fall. She sat there letting Harmony Seed hold her tightly in this warm embrace. They waited as the taller one continue to lose color in her mane, tail, and coat. Discord just waited on the sidelines he secretly wants to say goodbye for now but can’t bring himself to ruin the moment. Right before she completely vanishes Harmony spoke a final message in a kind loving voice,
“Thank you, again Twilight. If what you say is true then I look forward to meeting you again someday… And Discord please go easy on her she is new to being a spirit, I would appreciate it greatly…”
As her form vanishes and her voice echoes through the Astral Plane, Twilight felt a warm feeling embrace her body. The magic begins to filly every vein and artery as the warmth continues to spread. She grows a few feet taller and her wings gained a rainbow color on the tips. Harmony's necklace appears on her neck just as it had looked when she owned it. Now only she and Discord remained in the starry blue plane of existence, Twilight stood up with tears still falling. She walks over to Discord then pressed her head against his chest. She softly spoke five words,
Twilight and Discord had left the starry blue word and returned to Canterlot Castle. When they got back to the castle her friends smiled at her, remembering who she was and their friendship, they hugged her. They didn’t seem to know about there fake past lives that Harmony Seed created for them. Twilight wept in their embrace as Celestia and Luna looked on, confusion written across their faces. They noticed that Twilight was different, taller, and her wings were colored rainbow on the tips. Before, either of them could ask what happened Discord pushed them out of the room taking on the responsibility to talk to the princess about what had happened. It was the least he could do for Twilight after everything that happened. Twilight just held her friends for what felt like forever but it couldn’t last, Applejack was the first to ask
“Twilight, are you ok sugarcube? Did that brute Dark Blitz hurt you anywhere?”
“Yeah are you ok? We knew you could do it but still are you ok?”
Fluttershy added. They all let Twilight go an backed away from her a bit giving her some space to relax. That's when Rarity asked awestricken
“Twilight, darling where did you get that lovely necklace. It looks so divine and all the gems on it look like our cutie marks. Did you make it or is it custom bought?”
Twilight looked down at the necklace; she hadn’t noticed it before, looking at it made her burst into tears. It was Harmony Seed’s necklace around her neck all the gems where now the present day Elements of Harmony with her cutie mark as the centerpiece with Harmony Seed’s cutie mark inside of Twilight’s. Looking at it made what Harmony Seed had done come flooding back to her and how she was now an ageless goddess. The others looked at Twilight with concern and tired to get her to talk to them but to no avail. ~~~~~~Weeks later~~~~~~~~ Twilight sat in her castle depressed thoughts about Harmony Seed haunted her mind. Her thoughts consumed her to the point where she didn’t leave her castle and just sat around. She hadn’t even talked to her friends in a while, they were getting worried about her. Twilight didn’t care she just let her thoughts rage on in her head, never being able to answer any questions she had. Twilight’s ear twitched as she heard a voice
“Twilight, you’re sulking.”
Twilight looked over to the sound where the voice came from and saw Discord in one of her chairs. She mustered up the effort to speak
“Discord, What do you need?”
Discord looked at her disappointed and spoke in an arrogant tone
“Oh, nothing but what do you need my dear?”
“What do you mean?”
“Twilight you can't-fool me. I know that all you do is think about her. You need to stop it, it wasn’t your fault she died.”
“But it is if I never used the elements then...She could still be here.”
Twilight looked down at the necklace that was a memento from Harmony Seed. As she put her hooves over her eyes an started to cry again. Discord breathed in and let out a sigh and spoke in a kind voice
“Twilight if you didn’t use the elements then Princess Luna wouldn’t be back to herself, she would still be Nightmare Moon. It would be nighttime forever an I would be ruling the land with my chaos everywhere. War would have been everywhere in Equestria because she wouldn’t have tried to stop me or Nightmare Moon. Now would that have made you happy? Would that have made Harmony Seed happy?”
Twilight just stared at him processing what he just said as tears fell down her cheeks, as he continued to speak
“Look Twilight you did something Seedly could never do. That's stopping a mighty foe, you befriended me, something she failed at. She gave up on being a goddess and failed at spreading harmony, where you did what she couldn’t. What do you think friendship is, it may be a hard thing to understand an may never be easy. But it is harmony in its purest form. That’s what you are the Princess of Friendship and spreader of harmony. The role you’re choosing to play and was destined to have. So go out an have fun with your friends they won’t be the same for long because immortality doesn’t stop them from changing, just you. I know that best.”
Twilight looked at him, color returning to her as she started to get up, wiping away her tears
“Discord, I’m surprised to say this but you’re right. I can’t sulk around my castle all day, I need to go do my job. It would make her happy, wouldn’t it? Me being myself and spreading friendship to everypony I know. Besides I need to talk to my friends, to tell them everything that's happened. I can’t let them keep believing Harmony Seed was a monster….Thanks, Discord who would have guessed you cared so much for me.”
Discord’s face turned a bright red out of embarrassment but before, Discord could say anything, Twilight got up and ran down the hall that leads to the doorway. Before, she left she turned back and looked at Discord and gave him a warm smile. She left the castle and went to all her friend's homes telling them to join her in her castle in an hour.
Everypony was there, they sat in the throne room in their respective chairs an looked at each other as Twilight walked out an sat in her throne an looked at everypony a smile creeping across her face. Applejack looked at Twilight and asked
“Ok Twilight were all here now you gonna tell us what’s been up with you or what?”
“Yeah! Cause I feel like we're celebrating a really important event, an I know it’s not your birthday.” Pinkie said eyeing Twilight, as Rainbow said
“Yeah, you going to tell us what's with you being taller and your wings gaining new colors on them.”
Rarity chimed in
“Yeah, and where you got that gorgeous necklace?”
Twilight closed her eyes breathed in and spoke
“I’m telling you all now so calm down all of you. Now before I started I want all of you to know your my best friends no matter what. Now then It all-”
Fluttershy cut off Twilight
“Umm Twilight what do you mean by that. Are you sick or something?”
Twilight looked at her annoyed but quickly smiled and replied
“No, I’m fine Fluttershy now listen to my story. So It all started after the party Starlight threw….”
