When something went wrong during Twilight's flare, Harmony stepped in, resulting in a very different Twilight Sparkle when it was time for Nightmare Moon's return
Little filly Twilight's flare was so powerful that its magic echoed through time itself and woke up an entity. An entity that tried to help what it considered a young little mortal thing full of potential and magic.... An entity with only a vague sense of constant awareness, enough to know that the silly short-lived mortals who think itself only a concept, need a guide and peacemaker that won't be dust the next time it fully comes to awareness...
A very different pony is revealed when Twilight Sparkle steps up to defend Equestria from Nightmare Moon... after all.... things are bound to be different when an entity that represents Harmony and an entity of time itself choose to train and raise filly misplaced in time to become true guardian of Harmony and something more...
PS: this is my 1st story, so feedback is welcome
Prologue and Ch.1 (edited for hopefully the last time)
There are many myths and legends concerning the EverFree forest. Some say there's a witch living there, wild and dangerous. Others say a siren, whose haunting voice lures many to their death, and a rare few say that the forest has a guardian who governs all the creatures of the forest. Despite the conflicting details, all revolve around the mysterious figure living in the Ever Free Forest, yet none really touch the truth...
The truth of a little filly who had a flare so powerful that its magic echoed through time itself and woke up an entity. An entity that tried to help what it considered a young little mortal thing full of surprising magic and potential.... An entity with only a vague sense of constant awareness, enough to know that the silly short-lived mortals who think itself only a concept, need a guide and peacemaker that won't be dust the next time it fully comes to awareness...
It was the day before the 1,000th Summer Sun Celebration, and as Ponyville was chosen for this years festival, the town was bustling with preparations. On the edge of the forest, near a small cottage, a strange lavender coated cat appeared carrying a purple kitten by its scruff;both with unique colorful markings on their fur; stepped out from the forest under growth, looking around. The lavender feline's ear twitched, and she(for indeed the cat was a she) turned and saw the cottage the cat has heard about from the murmurings of the forest. With a brisk walk, she set off to the KindOne's cottage, rolling her eyes and ignoring the squirming of the kitten being carried by the scruff.Hopefully the KindOne will watch over him and keep him safe while I go settle a dispute between several Beings, check the forest boundary, do a census on the Timber Wolves to make sure that I'm keeping their numbers in check, and finally conduct a meeting with the many Being representatives of the forest. Just another day in thousands... As she neared the little bridge to the cottage, a few birds sang a distinctive tune that seemed composed and learned, especially when the bird singing out of tune was glared at by the apparent leader of the group. The feline sat down to wait after crossing the bridge, the kitten still protesting being at carried by the scruff. She didn't have to wait long as a mare of soft yellow stepped out and looked around; it wasn't until a particularly loud mew of protest from a certain purple kitten, that the mare saw them.
"Oh you poor thing; your mother not letting you play.... Don't worry you can play here, that is, if that is okay with you mama cat?" The feline nodded as she deposited her charge on the ground and ended up having to immediately reprimand him with a gentle swat when he made a dash for freedom. "Oh my," the pony gasped,"you must have your h-paws full with him, I'll put him in a safer place, is that okay?" The cat followed the mare as her kitten was placed in an enclosed area, jumping onto a post to see it better.
"So, if I may ask, why did you bring your little one here,um... I mean..., do you need help?" How do I explain this? Hmmmm.... Oh! I know! The feline jumped down to a patch of bare earth, pressed a paw in the dirt , previously hidden runic designs on her fur glowing, and lifted it, revealing an ancient symbol unrecognizable to the mare and moved her paw to another spot, repeating the process many times until the bare patch of earth had many different symbols surrounding a plain area. The mare looked on in awed confusion as the cat drew harsh markings between the symbols and then drew a six pointed star with smaller stars around it, in the plain area, continuing the drawing with calmer markings around it. The feline looked up with pride in her eyes as she waited for comprehension to dawn. "I'm sorry... I don't understand..." She huffed at the mare and pointed a paw at the collective symbols, exaggeratedly pointed to the forest, then pointed a claw to the drawn stars tapped that claw against herself, mimed talking and then started pointing out scars and the symbols of the beings that made those scars.............
"Oh you poor thing!", the mare cried as she scooped up a startled lavender feline," having to be peace maker between dangerous animals and getting hurt for it! I'll keep you safe..." Wait...What...No.No.NO!...It's the first time in two years that I'm able to work uninterrupted! I'll not be kept from my sworn duty!!!Runic designs glowed back to life on lavender fur, and the soft butter-yellow mare gasped in startlement as the cat disappeared with a flash.
Within a large, lived in cave, a lavender feline appeared with a flash of light and a soft pop only audible because of the room's silence. Once more, the runic designs started to glow, this time brightening until the light completely overtook her shape. Slowly, the brightly glowing shape grew and changed to a definite equine shape when the light started fading. "Ugh... Transforming is amazing but, I hate that my mane and tail gets undone in the process...," the tall and elegant mare smiled at the flecks of different colors among her magenta hued magic and focused on braiding her extremely long mane in a complicated pattern, twisting it into a bun, and doing the same to her tail as well. As she told herself many times before, "I really need to take the time to write out a spell to do this," and not for the first time she promptly forgot, after all it wasn't written on a list, so it couldn't have been that important. The mare checked herself in a bit of polished crystal cave wall, double checked her saddlebags and headed off to start her rounds...
Meanwhile....the KindOne, known to other ponies as Flutter Shy, was ensuring all her animals were okay with the strangely colored kitten staying in the cottage, while she went to research both the unusual cats and the images that the mama cat somehow made , which Flutter Shy later took pictures of....
A tall, lavender coated mare trudged into her crystal cave home, tugged off her saddle bags, placed her sleeping dragon baby into his crystal formed crib and collapsed onto her bed. "Okay Twilight, next time you need to schedule everything better as that.was.exhausting." As she muttered to herself, she tried to muster the energy to move,but quickly gave up. Undoing her elaborate braids, she brushed her mane and tail, re-braided her hair simply, and gratefully slipped into the world of dreams.
Invisible to the naked eye, two beings sighed in fond exasperation at their favored little one. She and her son were tucked in lovingly by the decidedly female entity, while the other cleaned up the spilled saddle bags and ensured that their child of heart could quickly get ready when she wakes up tomorrow, a very, very important day. The two beings slipped into Twilight's dreams to remind her about what needs to happen tomorrow and spend some quality time together as well....
Flutter Shy had spent the time not rehearsing her bird-friends entrance tune for the Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow; researching the strange event that had happened that morning. She had gone to the library to research and made very little progress in identifying what the interestingly colored cats are, on the other hoof, Flutter Shy did make headway in finding out what the strange symbols were. Since there hasn't been a librarian in a long time, every pony pitched in from time to time maintaining the library, and because of this, Flutter Shy knew to go to basement for books on languages. It took about two hours to find a book on symbols and to realize that the symbols in her pictures must be either an undocumented dialect or something else. It took another two hours to give up on identifying the strange cats and work on translating the symbols that the colorfully marked lavender feline had made to the best of her ability.
"Flutter Shy, darling. How are you? Oh, you look absolutely dreadful! Come. Come. You can tell me everything at the spa." The owner of the fashion boutique in town, dropped off her books of fashions of the past into the return bin and hurried the soft butter-yellow mare out of the library. "Um... Rarity? Don't you have to decorate the town hall for tomorrow?"
"Oh, I finished that ages ago. All I have left to for tomorrow is make sure that nothing was disturbed and polish off the finishing touches and then it will be Fabulous!" The white mare had stars in her eyes as she envisioned the Celestial Princess raising the sun in the place she decorated. She shook the image from her head before she nearly tripped," oh dear. Never mind that, darling, tell me what has gotten you into this state?"
Entering the spa, Rarity levitated ten bits to the receptionist, "our usual, please." Aloe showed them to a room and started on their hooficures while they waited to have a mud bath. "Don't think I didn't miss your distraction attempt dear," the elegant mare scolded."Now tell me, what's bothering you?"
So Flutter Shy, fidgeting, told her what happened that morning. ... ... ... ...
"What?!?!?""please tell me that you believe me, I -" "You got to talk with that gorgeous feline?!? I mean it was -" "Huh? Um...-" "-rather one sided on both sides I suppose. Oh! You just have to let me help with your research, I mean-" "I don't understand..." "- really I have an entire fashion line inspired by her colors! Of course I haven't released them to the public eye yet, that cat always gave me the feeling that she knows much more than a simple cat would and I feel like I should ask for permission to show something that she inspired. I mean really...." The mare then slowly noticed the stares she was getting and gulped. " I...was...rambling... Wasn't I?", she sighed at the nods and quietly asks if the mud bath was ready.
As they settled into the mud bath, Rarity decided to answer her friend's unspoken question. " It started about five years ago, I was opening up my shop when I noticed the cat that you met this morning, sitting on my modeling stage with a set of saddlebags in an absolutely dreadful state and a note asking for practicality. Of course I agreed. The poor pony must have saved every scrap they could, because in the pocket the note was pinned to, there were a dozen copper bits. Copper bits were about to be discontinued at that time of course, so they must have wanted to get their saddle bags mended as much as possible given the news.
"I must not have moved fast enough, for the cat had grabbed a spool of thread from somewhere,dropped it at my hooves and started poking me! I was honestly tempted to throw out the disaster of a saddle bag set but it must have had so many memories that I decided not to. That gorgeous cat watched as I made a new saddle bag set and try to make it as fitting as possible, which is hard to do when you only have the old ones to go off of. I didn't even know if it was for a pegasus, unicorn or earth pony for Celestia's sake! Each have something to take into account, like wings or the more muscled nature of earth ponies!" Rarity had to take a few moments to calm down after getting so worked up and Flutter Shy motioned for her to continue her story.
"Right. Back to the story. So, I made the mystery pony a new set of saddle bags and as I worked on it that cat would watch and hiss at me when ever I tried to embellish it. I had only wanted to add a bit of embroidery or change the colors a little, but no," the other mare had to duck the waved hoof," I had a little enforcer of practicality monitoring me! Hmph. I compensated for the lack of artistic additions by adding more storage and comfort, but still keeping it light mind you. It was an interesting project that challenged my creativity, especially considering the limitations I had to work with. When it was done, my feline supervisor checked it over and actually nodded in approval! Then she went over to where the copper bits were left and nudged them over to me! Well you know me darling, I tried to refuse payment for such an enjoyable challenge when it was clear that the poor pony needed it more. That feline look so upset when I went to pack up the bits in the new saddle bags, I made a bargain. I went around and gathered some books, small craft items with their instructions, non-perishables and the like,and packed them into the saddle bags, also packing the old set in as well. That persistent feline tried to give me the copper bits again and this time I accepted them. When I turned back around after helping a costumer up front, the cat and saddle bags were gone." By then, Rarity and Flutter Shy were in the sauna for the last part of their spa treatment, relaxed and feeling boneless.
"So then what happened?" The soft yellow mare was enraptured in the story that she had been listening to for the last hour. "Well after that day I would sometimes have a beautifully colored visitor with whiskers and paws sitting with something in poor condition and something else for payment. I would fix it or make a replacement and gather things for the feline to take back in exchange for whatever form of payment was given. I was one time given various flowers, though some were protected from touch, I remember that the note said that the flowers were for inspiration and the protected ones have nasty side affects. Well, enough about me darling,what did you learn from your research?"
The two friends later left the spa rejuvenated and ready to learn, gathering more books on language, history, and of course historical fashion. The strange purple, green, and light blue kitten was checked on through out the day and fed whenever he screamed in hunger. By the time his exhausted mother snuck in to pick him up and leave some bits to pay for his care, the de-transformed baby dragon was fast asleep.
A tall, elegant mare with an alabaster coat very faintly tinged pink, grudgingly rolled out of bed to raise the sun, industrial strength curlers still within her pastel mane and tail. Eons of practice had the mare sipping tea as she brought upon morning for her subjects. Still half asleep, Princess Celestia ambled slowly through the halls of her palace's private wing, heading towards the dining room for breakfast.
Her thoughts turned melancholy as she passed the alcoves containing shrines to close friends lost. Sunset Shimmer, her personal student; overtaken by greed for power, Flower Dream, a friend of the Royal Family; in an eternal cursed sleep from saving Princess Candace's life, Twilight Sparkle, Candace's favorite filly to foal-sit; so intelligent, so determined, so full of magic and potential, gone in a surge of out of control magic before she could save her... The Princess paused to pay her respects with a bow of head, continued on her way, her niece soon joining her.
"Good morning Auntie Tia!" Princess Cadence is, ironically, the morning pony that Princess Celestia is not. "Hmmguhg, guuhc umigh", the mare that the public idolize to the level of gods, slumped in a chair and promptly face-planted into a pillow placed on the table for that very purpose. "Huh, that was almost coherent this time. Aqua Lilly? I think I'll have waffles, hash-browns, a fruit cup, and a strawberry-banana-chocolate smoothie. You know to get Celestia her usual ultra strength tea and have somepony ensure that her regalia is polished, so I'll let you go on. Thank you Aqua Lilly." As the maid hurried off, the pale pink alicorn sighed and began to take out the curlers in Celestia's hair, wondering why the elder mare's emotions seemed gloomy.
Cadence's food had arrived and with it a much more coherent Sun Princess who ordered her own breakfast and put on her shining regalia. "So Auntie, why are your emotions gloomy?", Cadence not so tactfully prodded.
"The shrines made me think of Sunset, Flower, and... Twilight Sparkle...."
"Oh..." A somber silence reigned.
A knock on the dining hall door announced the entrance of the Captain of the Royal Guard and Princess Cadance's fiance, Shining Armor. Unknowing of the somber atmosphere he had broken, Shining Armor brought out of his bags, battle plans and maps with his pale rose colored magic and set up a spot on the table to go over the plan for the coming Summer Sun Celebration.
Elsewhere... At the Apple Orchard...
Apple Jack cored the apple on the machine, set the peeling blades in place and started cranking the arm. It was a mind-numbing part of preparing for the celebration tomorrow, but it was necessary. Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, Apple Fritter,Apple Bumpkin, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apples,Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp, Apple Cider, Apple Cobbler, and the rest of the Apple family were preparing along side her as well.
"Uuuuuggggggggggggghhhhhhh! This is boring! Does anyone have stories to tell? Its too quiet!"
"Apple Bloom! If ah tell ya'll a story would you be happy an' quit whinin'?"
The filly was nodding her head so hard that her large bow would have fallen out if it was anypony but Apple Jack that tied it.
Now... What story should ah tell? Hmmm... Ah know! Ah'll talk about that strange forest cat!
"Have any of y'all heard about the strange cat living in the EverFree Forest?" Apple Jack called out to her numerous family members.
"Ya mean the rumors that there's something more living in tha' forest? More than the usual monsters like Hydras, Timber Wolves, an' the like? The cat is new though..." Apple Cobbler replied back, taking a break from making pastry dough.
"It ain't just a rumor 'round these parts, Cobbler. Since our branch of Apples settled here way back then, we've had a great many o' encounters with the so called rumor. Why, Granny Smith saw tha' strange cat when she discovered the Zap Apples that started our town!"
Apple Jack was getting into the story telling role as she continued her task.
"We even keep a record book of tha' strange forest cat, and some entries are so old Canterlot didna' exist yet! Instead it was someplace called 'The City of Two Sisters', the EverFree didna seem so dangerous in those times. In fact! they called it peaceful! Can you imagine it? The forest was young and the City of Two Sisters was bustling, full of ponies of types and classes. Now, our ancestors were farmers even then, and they set up shop in the city square. There so many entries in that old book about sales, rude customers and praises to these... Sisters of the Sun and Moon. I didna understand that part but there were many mentions of our forest cat in that book too, well it was a kitten at that time, but it was the same one. "
Apple Jack stopped to take a drink of water.
"How do ya know that its tha same one?" Baked Apples asked.
"The colors of course! In the record book, every sighting of tha cat is recorded and the colors are mentioned every single time! The first pony that wrote about tha' darn cat was obsessed with finding the official color names! "Medium violet is such a odd eye color for a cat. Why, it's fur is a pale grayish mulberry color with purple and raspberry spots! It's been decades and somehow that strange cat has gained crystal blue spots!"" Apple Jack had to pause for a moment so she wouldn't ruin the apple she was working on in her frustration. "Ah had to ask our local seamstress Rarity what that all meant, ya'll wouldn't believe the fuss that caused.... Anyway this strange cat was a fuzzy kitten for years! Can ya'll imag-"
"Boring! Apple Jack, I thought this story would be cool, but its all nerdy!" a prismatic​ haired blue pegasus was oblivious to the glares she was getting for her interruption. She had been lounging on a cloud above the farm and ended up listening in on the Apple Family as they worked. "When are you going to tell the story about actually meeting her! The Forest Witch Cat is so cool! Who cares that she so old that your ancestors meet her in some old city! She bosses the the EverFree monsters around! How awesome is that!"
"Rainbow Dash! You are a close friend but ah am telling this story, mah way. Ahm sorry folks, this rude-""Hey!""- mare here is Rainbow Dash, part of the town's weather team. She's a bit brash-""Again, hey!""- but she makes sure tha' the farms surrounding the town don't suffer too much when a dry patch hits." The Apple clan nodded, a good weather mare was treasured among farmers.
"Anyway, whenevah there was a disaster like fires, outah control storms, or once there was an earthquake; folks would always say that the cat lead them to safety! In one of those rescues, our own ancestor Apple Luck was a little filly playing in tha city when a great big fire started! The Record Book says that the fire devoured half the city! Apple Luck was lead to a stone cellar under the city by that cat and it became a refuge to hundreds of others because of that strange cat." Apple Jack knew she was rambling, but she was fascinated by the honest history of the land around her. She didn't like most of the history books in the library in town, they felt slimy and twisted the truth of the topic to the writer's benefit. The family Record Book on the other hoof was an unedited look back in time by many different ponies and Apple Jack was proud to share what she had learned from it.
"That's awesome AJ! So does that mean that you guys wouldn't be here if Apple Luck wasn't rescued?" Rainbow Dash asked as she stole a fresh apple fritter off the table of finished treats for tomorrow's celebration. "Stop eating the food Rainbow! If you're gonna hang around, you might as well peel apples with me, and yeah its possible that we wouldn't be here if it weren't for that cat saving Apple Luck." Apple Jack pulled Rainbow Dash besides her and set up another peeling machine.
The Apple Clan and Rainbow Dash fell into light chatter about what they had learned and tomorrow's Summer Sun Celebration as they worked, unknowing of what it will bring.