When Dash and Twilight reset time, the main 6 must work out why the Equestria they have found themselves in, is far different than the one they remember.
When Twilight Sparkles' latest magical test goes wrong, the main six find themselves back at the point where it all began.
Join the mini main 6 as they attempt to live their lives for the second time and work out why things seem so different. Oh, theirs just one problem, they’re all alicorns now, or kinda alicorns.
Inspiration. First off, I'm a huge fan of the MLP Time Loop and Infinite loops, this is my idea of a time travel story.
As for the time event and title, my first thought was Superman flying around the world so fast he turned back time, I threw in 2013's Flash Point Paradox for good measure (no I haven't seen the new movie)
In the highest tower of Canterlot Castle, overlooking the city, below, five mares and an adolescent dragon have gathered for the monthly council of friendship to hear about Twilight Sparkles' latest experiment. Two of the mares were incredibly lost. One mare was cooing over a young foal who was sleeping in her forelegs and another was desperately trying to understand exactly what was going on. The dragon, having been working tooth and scale for the last 48 hours with no rest, was showing signs of exhaustion and clearly wanted this current presentation to end, the fifth mare ... was fast asleep.
“So by monitoring the feedback and comparing that to the values recorded from the velocity charm, then taking into account time, we should be able to prove the circumference of Equs, once and for all proving that our world is spherical. I also believe that this will expand the cutie map, allowing creatures to go on friendship quests further afield from what we currently have.”
Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath. She’d been facing unexpected opposition in the recent month, first, the Stable of Lords attempted to restrict Equestria borders to other races, then they claimed her perfectly processed report on Equestria’s growth due to the new immigration and trade deals, was a lie. They claimed that had things been ‘the old ways,’ the kingdom would be achieving greater achievements right now. Then, there were the creatures who believed the ridiculous notion that Equs was flat, something had to be done, and after several nights, lots of coffee, and no small dent to the treasury, Twilight had come up with a plan.
“Ah ya sure this is a good idea sugarcube?” Applejack asked, Twilight didn’t blame her, after all a small part of Twilight's sanity told her that she’d spent way too many bits to get everything prepared, but, the line between crazy and genius was rather slim, but there was one other revelation she’d been holding onto.
“If those were the only reasons, perhaps, but theirs also one more test that Rainbow will be doing.” The purple princess walked over to a table covered by a sheet, below this sheet were her crowning achievements as a mage. With a flash of her magic, the sheet was removed revealing six objects. Four of Twilight's five friends gasped at what was revealed.
“Twilight darling, are those what I think they are?” *GASPE* “Oh my, they are so lovely.” “Whoa, nelly.” “ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz”
The year was 18 HE (Harmonic Era), which was convenient for Twilight since the calendar started with her ascension to sole ruler of Equestria. The kingdom had entered into a golden age shortly after, thanks to creatures of all shapes and sizes journeying to Equestria, for learning, trading or to make a new life and make new friends. While, as the Princess of Friendship, this brought her untold joy and pride in her subjects, the mage Twilight Sparkle, had aspirations of achieving what was once considered impossible, and she was not disappointed.
Levitating the golden crown embedded with a five-pointed amethyst star onto her head.
“Girls, I present you the foci of harmony, and with Dash’s help, we should get an idea of its limits.”
Having carefully set her foal down on her chair and giving them a gentle quick nuzzle before parting, Pinkie Pie began bouncing around the room. “This is, so, totally, awesome! We had so much fun when we got the elements the first time, then we got to have even more fun once we realized that we were the elements all along and that all the elements did was allow us to access our super duper friendship powers. If we have both now then things will only get even more superduperly fun!”
“I guess that is true” chimed in Applejack. “The elements brought us together, but ah’d like to know how exactly you plan to have bucket brain here do all this ... stuff. Theirs a couple a bolts shows comin up an the pear orchard needs a good waterin before she gets too busy.”
“Oh but darlings, look at the necklaces, if I didn’t know better I’d say Twilight had reclaimed the originals.” Rarity blinked, before considering what she’d said, and who she was referring to. “Twilight, please tell me these aren’t the originals.”
“No, of course not, that would be impossible, probably. These foci are new, they are designed to help us to focus the powers of harmony. The original elements helped us draw out what was inside us all along, though the necklaces themselves are the same the jewel is the important part, and completely different.”
“Oh this is wonderful, though Equestria hasn’t had a need for the elements, Zecora’s group in Zebrica haven’t needed to use their powers in almost ten years. Would you please go over exactly what you plan to do with them?” Fluttershy asked as she attempted to delicately wake up her fellow pegasus, “or rather, what you plan for Rainbow to do.”
The yellow pegasus flinched away from her blue friend as an orange hoof abruptly shoved the sleeping Rainbow Dash off her chair.
"I'm awake."
“With the foci, we should be able to channel the energy from five of us into one of us, it’s similar to how I used my element on the other side of the portal. I channeled magic from your counterparts to become stronger and cleanse Sunset Shimmer. I believe we can replicate the power boost we received when we defeated Tirek the first time, which empowered us to fly across Equrestia to return every pony's magic, but by channeling all that power into Rainbow Dash, and with Rainbow Sonic Rainboom, a phenomenon that has relevance to Harmony, the combined power should (in theory) boost her speed to record highs.”
“Whoa steady on Twi, I’m all for harmony powers and being the fastest pony ever, but I don’t do magic enhancement things. My speed is 120% natural, it's also against Wonderbolt code, it's big trouble if anyone gets caught doing that kinda thing just to set a new record.”
Five ponies, and one dragon all looked blankly at the Wonderbolt. It was Fluttershy who broke the silence. “Erm, Rainbow. This isn’t a contest, Twilight is trying to, erm, spread Harmony and using you as a focus, I think, sorry I didn’t quite understand.”
Twilight’s eye twitched as she leveled a glare at the blue pegasus, “Dash, did you not hear a single thing I was talking about?”
“Eeerm, I recall something about apple pie and wine in Prance and super rainbow powers?” To her credit, Rainbow did seem to be at least a little bit embarrassed, only Rarity did notice that Applejack was grinning like a love-sick filly at the comment.
"*Sigh*, Basically, I want you to go really fast in a straight line until you get back here, for friendship and harmony. It should allow us to make the Cutie map stronger and bring harmony and friendship to those beyond our current reach.”
“Okay, but when do I stop? If I go too far I’ll hit the edge of the world right?”
*********************************
Flying eastwards, with Canterlot now very far behind her, Rainbow Dash, wearing her neckless of harmony flew ever faster from the enraged Alicorn.
*Geez, you’d think Twi of all ponies would know the world was flat, or was it round?*
Rainbow sighed, it was a problem for another day, for now, she was going fast, faster than she’d ever gone before, and she hadn’t even created a Sonic Rainboom yet. With another lazy flap of her wings, she again shot forwards, but still no Rainboom.
*Twi did say to make a sonic Rainboom, so I guess going fast just isn’t good enough, time to see what this neckless can do*
********************************
“Wahoo, she did it, she’s made it around the entire world! Wahoo!” Pinkie celebrated, jumping around the other gathered creatures, even spike at this point had joined the mares to see the rainbow contrail now shooting into the horizon.
Rarity, who was checking the machines measuring the feedback from Rainbow spoke. “Something is strange darlings, Rainbow isn't slowing down, she's going faster than I’ve ever seen and accelerating, but I can't see anything indicating that she's done her Sonic Rainboom yet.”
“Hey Twi, I was just thinking, over the last few days, did you ever consider that you might need to stop the harmonic resonance between the elements? I don’t think Dash is slowing down until she hits that Sonic Rainboom.” Spike was smiling, mostly out of exhaustion and amusement that Rainbow Dash with the help of their enhancements, had traveled around the entire world in 10 minutes, making the last last two days somewhat worth it, but the prismatic mare had completely missed her stopping point.
He looked over to Twilight, a strand of her flowing mane now sticking out of place, as her eye started to twitch. He had a really bad feeling about what the mare was about to say.
“Don’t worry every creature, I have a plan, all I need to do is set a telepathic net above us so that when Dash comes back I can have a message relayed to her. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Every creature was worried.
********************************
Faster, Faster damn it!
Colors flashed ever faster past Rainbow, blue, green, yellow, and grey, however, the Sonic Rainboom was still out of reach, something was missing, and it was just out of touch.
Then several things happened.
First, her world flashed purple as she collided with something, though it didn’t seem to be solid as she tore through it with ease.
Second, she heard a voice, possibly Twilights.
Finally, and most importantly she achieved a Sonic Rainboom, and everything went white.
********************************
Flying over Cloudsdale, and past a checkered flag. Rainbow Dash began to slow down, though, something felt wrong. Making her way over to a cloud, Dash closed her wings and dropped the last few feet, only to fall further than she had expected. Her hooves were on the cloud, but she was much closer than she should have been to the cloud. After a quick examination of herself, Rainbow discovered why.
“Oh no, what the bu..”
********************************
“..cking Tartarus, what happened!?”
Twilight Sparkle, massaged her skull to relieve the horrible mana feedback migraine she was suffering. After a few seconds she managed to look around the room to check for any damage. First, while nothing was destroyed, everything seemed to be too larger, the exact opposite problem Twilight was used to. But why? Because she was now a small filly.
OK, checklist time.
The room is different, much less regal, and five potted plants in strange places.
Wings and horn? Both check, but she was a small filly now, at least her mane had stopped flowing in none existent wind.
Friends? None but Spike was there, and he was now a 30 ft dragon with his … baby-ish head sticking through the roof.
He looked exactly like he did the day he was hatched … The plotted plants, after a second glance, Twilight realised the plants she most likely her parents and examiners from the day she took the exam at Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. With a quick dispelling charm, three examiners and her parents poofed back into existence where the plants had once been.
She was back to the day she met Celestia, the day when got her cutie mark. The day Rainbow Dash performed her first Rainboom. Casting a quick illusion spell to hide her wings, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to meet Celestia for the first time, again.
********************************
Luna awoke.
For some reason, her bed was hard and her room was cold. If she didn’t know better she say she was back on the …
Her eyes shot open. Rocks and craters as far as the eye could see, and in the sky, was Equs.
Finally, Twilight managed to excuse herself from her family and went to bed. It had been the most confusing day she could remember, and she remembered far too many days for a foal of her age. This morning she had woken up as a unicorn foal, now not only was she an alicorn, but she was daily sure she’d been crowned as the princess of Equestria, or perhaps would be? Knowing events that had yet to occur, events that should have occurred but didn’t, and some things that she was sure happened but couldn’t have happened, was giving her the mother of all headaches. Oh, and she was an alicorn, years before her first ascension, had she already tried to process that? Flopping down on the pillow, the last thing Twilight thought was that this would be a problem for tomorrow, sleep was a solution for now.
At least, that was her plan, before abruptly waking up in a free fall. Acting on instinct and training, her wings shot out in an attempt to turn her fall into a glide, instead of gliding; however, Twilight came to an immediate stop and was now standing upon solid darkness. It was most curious, Twilight knew that her earth pony magic made her more resilient to physical trauma, but she didn’t even feel any discomfort from her abrupt landing. More concerningly, a flap of her wings told her that the area she was currently in, seemed to have no air for her wings to push against.
“Ok, checklist, six lavender foal-sized limbs, tail, and mane. Color view of myself disproves dark vision enchantment, however, no visible light source would imply some other kind of magical effect. Lack of air resistance implies a vacuum, however breathing, speaking, and hearing myself, disproves that motion, can an alicorn survive in a vacuum? Science for later, focus Twilight. Ahem, while an air spell would allow breathing, any sounds I would hear would be muffled. Conclusion, Luna? You got me, you can come out now.”
Silence.
Due to being nearly immortal, the most logical explanation for her current situation was that she was dreaming. Though she’d been brought into the Dreamscape by Luna several times, and into the Aether Sea during her ascension… First ascension*, her current environment was much too close to Limbo for her liking. At least the Pony of Shadows wasn’t here, but where was Luna?
There is no Luna. Twilight’s memories took over, remembering the last nightmare night, walking through Canterlot as a foal alongside Shining, chasing the supposed demons of the night away. But she also remembered hosting a haunted castle alongside Luna in the Castle of Friendship, in Ponyville. But she was a foal, not a mare, so Luna was still Nightmare Moon, and stuck on the moon, but then why did her memory with Shining lack any mention of Nightmare Moon?
“Rainbow?”
A voice? Looking around, Twilight could tell no one else was there, just her and the darkness.
“Discord?”
There it was again. With a flap of her tiny wings, Twilight sored over to where she believed she heard the voice. Flight in a vacuum? More proof of a dream.
”Twilight?”
Now she knew she heard some creature, and unless she was mistaken, they were calling for her.
”Somepony please help me”
Some pony was here and was asking for help, closing her eyes, she channeled magic through her horn, Twilight searched for the source of the voice, and when she found something among the nothingness, she pulled.
The realm flashed cyan, whatever Twilight had done, the realm was now filled with motes of cyan lights and the floor appeared to have streaks of magenta swirls just below its translucent surface. Observations of the new lighting had to wait, however, as whatever she had pulled was approaching her, very quickly.
********************************
She was falling.
Fluttershy was not the terrible flier she used to be but as she plummeted towards the ground in an uncontrolled spin, she found her wings had frozen to her side.
She’d been with her friends, sans Rainbow Dash who was about to complete her second loop around the world, when Twilight Sparkle had cast her spell to message Rainbow, her world flashed white, and now, maybe this was the end? She was falling so fast.
Or, wait, wasn’t she at flight camp?
Fluttershy’s eyes shot open, above her was the flight camp and a Sonic Rainboom. Of course, Rainbow was racing against those bullies, but they’d knocked her off her cloud. Whatever other thought Fluttershy was about to have was interrupted, as lots of tiny somethings, cushioned her fall.
********************************
In a clearing, Fluttershy was now surrounded by butterflies, ducks, frogs, and many other animals, including a rabbit who was a spitting image of Angel Bunny, didn’t Angel Bunny die surrounded by his children years ago? Fluttershy began to study her environment, and she recognised where she was, no pony forgets where they found their Cutie Mark.
She was back to the day she earned her cutie mark. She was once again a foal, and the sky above still shone with the aftermath of Rainbow’s first Sonic Rainboom, but why!? This wasn’t what Twilight was planning was it? But any further thoughts she had immediately came to a halt. A butterfly had fluttered closer to her, and settled down, just above her nose. Looking up, Fluttershy notices that the butterfly was perched on a small, yellow object protruding from her forehead.
Raising a hoof to the offending object Fluttershy eventually came to a conclusion. She had a unicorn’s horn, but still had her wings, only one type of pony had both wings and a horn … She’d become an alicorn.
“Oh, oh no.”
********************************
“After that I sort of … panicked. I ran deeper into the forest to get away from anyone who might find me, I didn’t want to be seen as an Alicorn, no offense. I knew I shouldn’t have been an Alicorn so to prevent any issues, I kind of decided to hide, once my animal friends caught up to me and calmed me down, I must have fallen asleep.”
After a chaotic entrance that resulted in a tangle of limbs, manes, and wings, Twilight managed to untangle herself from the yellow and pink invader, only to discover that it was none other than a foal-sized Fluttershy, who had also become an alicorn. It had taken a few minutes to calm down the ex-pegasus, and persuade her to recount what had happened to her immediately after “the incident” as Twilight was now calling it.
“I can understand, I hid my wings when I realised what was going on. I might be able to weave an enchantment to affect you on the mortal plane from here. If I cast the spell here, and channel it through you here, I should be able to have the spell take effect from your magic source in the waking world, or material plane if we’re being scientific.”
Twilight grinned, of course, the technique was theoretical, she’d never manifested strongly enough in the Dream Lands before to be cast magic like Luna could, until now at least, but it wasn’t like they had other options.
“Twilight.” Fluttershy asked, “What's going on? And how are we here?”
“Well, I don’t know, I just woke up here. I’m fairly certain we’re in the Dreamlands, a place Luna used to connect to ponies' dreams. I heard you calling out for help, so I thought you might be here somewhere, so I reached out with my magic and pulled a bit.”
“Oh, ok. But if we’re here, do you think the rest of the girls are here too?”
“Oh,” Twilight hadn’t thought of that, if the two of them were there, could the others be here too? Trapped, alone, and confused, just like Fluttershy had been.
There was only one thing she could do, once again she channeled her magic, and reached out in the hopes of finding her friends. She found something, the magical signature of four creatures, they were impossibly far away, yet if she repeated what she did with Fluttershy, could she bring them to her?
“Please be my friends.”
With a small prayer, Twilight grasped the four magical signatures, and once again, pulled.
********************************
If some pony looked up with a powerful telescope and happened to spy on a particular crater, they would be in for rather a large shock.
Instead of the usual slowed sides, this crater had been altered to have large steps in a semi-circle facing one side; that side had been flattened to create a perfect 90-degree surface. If the pony had studied ancient Ponish architecture, they’d probably say something crazy like, “It looks like somepony made an amphitheater on the moon.”
Sadly, no pony noticed Luna on her impromptu lecture stage, scratching against the rocky wall.
“Taking Alphas, Sirius, The North Star, and Faustas as focal points, we can calculate the angles connecting these four stars and attain a galactic measurement between these points. Normally this would need charts, but as the Alicorn of the night, I don’t need them, since it was I who set everything up to work perfectly. So, with these figures, we can use the Luna Drift equation to work out the change in time since I set the base point ... Or as with the last four attempts, we can prove that Celestia sucks at astronomy. At least the North Star is in the right spot.”
Taking a few steps back to check her work, she concluded three things, one, her math skills were indeed excellent, two, being back on the moon was not good for her sanity. Finally, Luna was fairly sure, that something had gone very wrong, hopefully, Tia, Twilight, Cadence, and Flurry would be able to handle it. They might even be able to bring her home.
Taking some time to relax, Luna took a seat on the front step where her audience would have sat, if there were other creatures else on the moon. After her first attempt to calculate how long she might have been stuck on the moon, Luna decided that a more suitable location was needed, maybe her next project would be a house or a “Send noodles” sign. Luna looked up toward Equus, or at least the place she was fairly sure was Equus, after all, she was fairly certain that …
*PPPPhhhhhhhhhhhtttttpp* something loud honked right into Luna’s ear causing the alicorn to jump off of the bench. Rounding on the offending noise, preparing to defend herself from the source, Luna sighed in defeat at seeing her new guest.
Rolling on the floor, clutching his sides, was the one and only Draqonaquees, Discord.
“HAHAHAHA, Oh your face, you should have seen it! If you’d jumped any harder, you might not be able to come back down. Oh wait you can see it, look.”
Luna stared blankly at the claw offering a photo of her shocked face. Any other time, and she probably would have found it funny.
“Discord! Tis neither the time nor place for such tomfoolery! I swear, if I'm stuck here because of you then ...”
Discord placed a talon on Luna’s muzzle, cutting the alicorn off before she could say something violent enough to ruin his mood,
“I’m afraid not, but trust me when I say that I wish it was I who was responsible. My work would be much easier to fix. I’m afraid that I didn’t have a claw or talon to do with this, I’m almost disappointed in myself, I’m losing my touch.”
Sighing to herself, and giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts, it would be poor manners to assault the one creature who she’d seen all day.
“If it was not thee, then explain what thou are doing here, please?”
“Ah, when I woke up this morning, to my horror I discovered that I couldn’t move, not even my tiny pinkie here was able to wiggle about, it was truly awful.”
Luna nickered in annoyance, Discord might have been answering her question, but did he really need to include his theatrics? At present, his smallest claw (which now had a pink poofy mane) had bounded up his arm and was currently weeping into his elbow.
“I also couldn’t see, now I’ve spent 1000 years as a statue before, but at least then I was vaguely aware of what happened around me, but this, absolutely terrible scenery. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone petrified me and threw me into Limbo.”
Discord looked at Luna expectantly. Luna looked at Discord with mild contempt. Sure the two were on amicable terms, some might even call the two friends, but Luna was in no mood for playing games.
“You were meant to say, where were thou if not in Limbo? But fine, I can see that you want to skip ahead to the boring part so, I’ve been sealed, encased in rock, and buried somewhere boring. It’s really quite horrible, who would have thought getting stoned would be so dull.”
“If that is your situation, then how have you appeared on our moon?”
“Now, please don’t overreact, but I felt a kindred spirit and was able to manifest here.” Luna’s eye twitched. “And when I saw that you were going a bit loony, I decided that I would leave you to it and check out what's going on before I interrupted you.”
Now this got Luna’s attention, while Discord did have his quirks, he was helpful and caring in his unique way, undeniably powerful, and knew how to avoid disintegration from overly stressed alicorns*. “Please Discord, if thou knows how we have become trapped upon our moon then say it at once.”
Somewhere in the aether, 6 ponies gathered. The place they had found themselves was aglow with, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and aqua motes of light illuminating the empty plane of existence. While any pony would have found this strange, they probably would have been more distracted by the members of this group.
The first interesting fact was that they were all alicorns, of some type. While every pony knew about the leader of Ponykind, a combination of Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus, these six were slightly different varieties.
Twilight Sparkle was surprised to find Fluttershy had become an alicorn like herself after disentangling themselves from the pony pile, Twilight discovered that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were similar to herself and Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie however … Swimming above and around the others, Pinkie was currently giggling as she swooped and looped around her old/ new friends. While the pink mare had lots of memories of being an earth pony, she knew she had been born as a hippogryph, though she had been born in Seaquestria and could freely become a seapony. While the pink sea-gryph now possessed a dragonlike coat of scales with wings to match, every pony else was very glad that the hyperactive bouncing pony lacked a horn to do magic with.
However, the others were too distracted to pay attention to her antics.
“I’M AN ALICORN TWILIGHT” Applejack yelled as she vigorasly shook Twilight.
“Yes AJ, I can see …”
“AH’M MEANT TO BE AN EARTH PONY, THAT MEANS NO WINGS OR HORN.”
“I remember.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO SPARKLE!”
“Erm, Applejack,” Fluttershy attempted to interject, but was either ignored or more likely, not heard.
*BAAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAAHHAAAAHHHHAA* laughed a blue alicorn, currently rolling around the … floor?
Whatever the surface the ponies found themselves standing upon, was as solid as stone, clear as water, and calm as water, at least on the surface. Beneath their hooves however was another matter, faint swirls of purple could be observed. Sadly, only Rarity who was silently sulking away from the other five, had taken time to notice the dance of purple swirls below their hooves. While the swirls showed no rhyme or reason to their movements, they were affected by ripples sent caused by the pony's hoof impacts.
“I. Don’t. Know,” whined Twilight between shakes “but. I. Can. Hide. Them.”
“Oh” Applejack immediately stopped shaking the purple filly, “why didn’t ya say so? Alright now Dashie fun over, Twilight’s gonna fix a few things.”
“WHAT!? No way, I’m an alicorn and you want me to hide my horn?” protested Rainbow Dash.
“Look, Sugar, do you really want all that attention.”
“Hay yeah! Just more proof that I’m an awesome pony.”
“There's also paperwork.” Came the defeated voice of Twilight who was currently slumped on the ground.
“The what now?”
“Paperwork, at this present moment in time, Equestria is basically a monarchy. Sure Cadence is around but as the leader of the anti-expansionist movement, there is no way Celestia would …”
Twilight stopped talking as five pairs of eyes landed on her, even Pinkie Pie, had stopped swimming through the air, resumed her hippogryph form (though with less fur and more scales), and sat down calmly.
Fluttershy was the first to break the silence. “Erm, Twilight, what do you mean?”
“I, remember Cadence, my foal sitter and sister-in-law, but I also remember hearing about her. My parents didn’t like her, they told me to stay away from the ponies that followed her. Other than that, all I know is that she’s part of a government faction who are opposed to Celestia. I’ll get to work hiding your alicorn features, but does anyone know anything else regarding Cadence?”
********************************
In a bad, bad wasteland. In a bad, bad mountain. Down a bad, bad tunnel. Was a bad, bad hall.
Throughout the hall, and the many connecting tunnels and halls, laughter could be heard.
Why wouldn't she laugh? The rainbow light, at first was a worry for her, it had come from Equestria after all. But then, the visions flooded in, and what visions they were.
She had been gifted with knowledge of the future and a solution to her problems.
Queen Chrysalis laughed some more, as she returned to her chambers. Soon, everything would be in her favor.
For she knew where to get all the love she would ever need.
Cadence walked through the castle's marble and gold halls, flanked by her unicorn guards. As she approached the throne room, the pegasi guards lowered their halberds to prevent her entry.
“Halt! Her Majesty has requested that no visitors are to see her at this time.” announced one of the guards.
Cadence, to her credit, did not back down from the challenge. “Then I will not be disrupting Day Court. Continue your duty, however as a princess of Equestria I am no mere visitor, so I request you cease barring my entry.”
Silence. As the pegasi and unicorns took measure of their counterparts, Cadence began to worry that another incident could happen, fortunately, the pegasi backed down, raising their halberds.
“You are correct, princess. You may enter, however, your escorts will remain here.”
That was the first hurdle passed, but to lose her guard here would mean no one would be able to witness her conversation with Celestia, at least no one on her side.
“Very well, Raven, Gleaming, please wait here, do not cause any trouble.”
“Ma’am” both her guards saluted and broke rank to await her return. Passing through the doors, Cadence was met by a common sight.
While the throne stood empty, a large table showing a map of Equestria was currently been circled by the elder alicorn of the sun, an alicorn who was clearly displeased.
“Your majesty.” Cadence unfurled her wings and bowed to show reverence. There were times when she needed to stand against Celestia, as the closest pony to being her equal, however, this was not one of those times, at least not yet. Ponies and creatures beyond Equestria were looking for answers to the recent colorful wave that emanated from the Equestria, and the longer the crown was silent, the worse the suspicion and speculation would become.
Silence, Cadence hated how the halls to Equestria's seat of power nullified as much sound as possible, it only made the sound of her racing heart that much louder in her ears.
After what felt like an eternity, Celestia turned to acknowledge Cadence.
“We ordered none to enter, and yet, thou stand before us.”
Cadence raised her head, though remained in her position of reverence. Before Cadence, stood Celestia, alicorn of the sun, guardian or order, and Queen of Equestria. At the elder alicorn's side as always, floated her weapon of choice, a greatsword, sheathed in enchanted bindings to protect those around from its ever-burning blade, what concerned Cadence however, was Celestia's choice of armor. Celestia was never seen without her weapon and some sort of armor, however, the black armor with gold trim she currently wore was like nothing she had seen before, and all her senses told her that whatever it was, she should be afraid.
“Forgive me for intruding, however after the rainbow incident, ponies have been looking for answers.”
“Just ponies?”
“No, ponies and emissaries from the other kingdoms.”
“The wave reached that far then?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I have received correspondence from as far as Olenia and new Mareland.”
“Did thee now. We are almost impressed at the speed of the other races, they did not waste a second to come begging for answers.”
“Indeed, Your Majesty, but it did originate from Avalon Castle did it not? They have reason to be concerned”
Avalon Castle, the largest cloud fortress of pony kind, the golden bastion of pony supremacy, and, its seat of power. It was also the home of Queen Celestia and the upper echelons of Pony Society, along with many knightly orders of pegasi. It was also a symbol of terror for any creature outside Equestrian borders. After all, for as long as memory could recall, when the golden towers of Avalon were seen on the horizon, no army or fortress had ever withstood its military might. If the other races discovered that the rainbow wave emanated from here, the mass panic would be disastrous, it would set her goals back decades.
“Allow us to correct you, Princess. First, it is of no concern what the other races think, for their concerns are not ours. As long as we are the sole custodian of Sun and Moon, their opinions mean nothing to us, they are safe, provided they do not get in our way. Second, the incident was not our doing nor did it start in Avalon, a trainee flight camp not far from here is the source.”
That was surprising, Cadence expected Celestia to disregard the other creatures, but for the Solar Monarch to divulge any information about the rainbow wave was unexpected, at least not without some arguing.
“Thou should not concern thy self with these trivial matters. We have another task more befitting of your station.”
“Your Majesty?”
“There has been an incident in Canterlot, an out-of-control unicorn. This filly is to be placed in your custodianship, you are to bring her magic under control and ensure another outburst does not happen.”
“But, Your Majesty?”
“Enough Cadence, this is not a request but an order.”
“May I ask why you chose me when others would surely do just as well?”
“You may, for we wish you thee to understand your place. This filly is a danger to the order that we protect, if unchecked or nurtured by the wrong hooves she could bring destruction to this kingdom. As a filly, she created a dragon from stone, and turned three instructors into plants, by accident. We should not have to explain the potential she might hold as a fully grown mare. You are to oversee her development so she may better Equestria with her gifts.
“So I am her caretaker then?”
“Indeed, the filly is also to be exiled from Canterlot, and any large city till her magic is stable. As her custodian, you are to be within a respectable range at all times.”
NO! If she couldn’t access the major cities, how was she to maintain her network, foster relations, and build a peaceful future?
“Queen Celestia, Please …”
“SILENCE!” The Royal Canterlot voice boomed across the hall. “Thy final task is that thou shall watch this filly grow, experience joy, find love, and suffer heartbreak before she eventually dies! It is time to learn thy nature Alicorn! Even if she lasts 100 years you will learn. Have I made myself clear, child?”
Disaster. Could it be worse? But there was always one other option.
“What if, I refused?” Raising to her full height, Cadence did her best to match Celestia. The older mare had at times relented on her decisions when she’d stood her ground, perhaps this time.
“Then we would have no choice. As the filly's family lacks the resources to make reparations, the horn of their filly, Twilight Sparkle would be sold to make amends.”
Twilight !? Why did she have to say that name?!
“That will not be necessary, Please forgive my insolence, I will do as you command.” She’d lost, but how? Cadence had worked so hard to have few vulnerabilities, she had steeled herself and sacrificed so much that now she only had two. She feared that the first, her lover would one day be discovered, but for Celestia to jump straight to Twilight …
“Very good, now leave, you have preparations to make.”
“May I ask, if an incident occurred near the training camp, does that mean a foal is responsible?” Cadence was defeated, but if she could gleam some small pieces of information regarding the incident, she might be able to alleviate her allies' nerves.
Celestia sighed. “Rumor suggests a filly caused an explosion and became an alicorn, a second filly however is also missing. We shall personally confirm if the rumors of this alicorn are true. Now leave, We have much to prepare.”
Without another sound, Cadence left the throne room.
She would return to Canterlot with her guards, and no doubt seek comfort from ‘Gleaming Shield’. Celestia was almost impressed at how well the two had kept their relationship a secret. After all, the house of Twilight had long been a strong supporter of her rule, and they’d produced some of the most competent mages in history. The scandal of Shining Armor being the paramour of her political rival would devastate the house.
And perhaps this Twilight Sparkle might finally be the solution to her problems. Regardless, she had removed Cadence and Twilight from Canterlot, and as long as Cadence did not break her orders, she would be away from any city for the foreseeable future. Away and safe.
Returning to the map, Celestia dismissed the illusion hiding the pieces she had delicately placed across the Equestrian map, revealing many pieces of white marble and black obsidian.
She did not understand how, for she had been certain that the cults were too weak to make any move of this scale, but she had been wrong. While the rest of the world panicked over a pretty light show, Celestia discovered a much darker truth. The seals on the moon had been weakened and breached. Nightmare Moon was no longer completely sealed within the moon, her influence was free to once again seep into the dreams of creatures, it was only a matter of time till she was free. War was coming, and she was not ready.
********************************
In the dreamscape, as Twilight had decided to call it, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Applejack had been glamoured to look like normal fillies. She was impressed with her work, weaving illusion and alteration together, with a base of conjuration to affect their physical bodies. It would be nearly impossible for any pony to discover their additional appendages, Short of knowing what to look for or dumb luck, her friends were safe from whatever was going on in Equestria.
After pooling their knowledge, from what they knew of Equestrian society: Pegasi were the nobles, not unicorns. Celestia was kind of an aggressive/ badass (Rainbow's words). The Storm King has already invaded the Hippogryphs. And fortunately, Pinkie had no ability to channel magic.
With three of her friends sorted, Twilight was about to turn to Rarity when she felt a tap on her withers,
“Oh hello Rarity, I was just about to come speak to you, are you ok?.”
Rarity leveled her most unamused stare at the purple filly before she began to gesture at her horn, wings, and mouth.
“I err, I’m not sure?”
Rarity gave an annoyed huff and attempted to express her displeasure with a hard stomp.
“Honest, I have no idea why any of this is happening, much less why you're a kirin.”
The off-white kirin, with a purple mane, was easily recognisable to Twilight, what was different however, were the purple scales along her back and a pair of webbed wings at her side, she wondered how Spike will react to meeting Rarity. Twilight was snapped out of her observations when said kirin began to gesture at her mouth and attempt to speak.
“Ooh that, if I remember correctly, the kirin silenced themselves to prevent their transformation into niriks.”
Rarity nodded and smiled, she hoped the purple filly was about to provide a fix for her vocal predicament.
“But, I have no idea how the silencing enchantment was broken.”
…
Before anything else could be said or done, an enraged Nirik exploded, shattering the realm around them, and waking the ponies from their slumber.
Twilight bid the yellow colt goodbye before running off to her next destination leaving him very perplexed. She’d hoped to recruit some allies, but it seemed that fate, destiny, and or reality were currently against her.
She’d hoped to spend some quality time in the royal archives, only to discover that did they not reside in Canterlot, she was also having a much harder time getting into anywhere useful as a filly. Had she had this much trouble entering archives or libraries when she was a foal before? Or had she been granted special privileges due to being Celestia's student?
After finding the archive failed, she attempted to see if any of her other friends were around, even if they were meant/ were currently/ in training to become villains she was sure she could gain their friendship. Maybe they even had a similar reaction to the Rainboom?
Her first attempt was to find Sunset Shimmer, if the commotion and rumors at the university were to be believed, she’d researched forbidden dark magic, and disappeared suddenly into the shadows after getting caught, or more likely, through the mirror.
“Note #23: Sunset may have a quantum diary, locate and open mirror before zombie teenager army”
Her next attempt was to find Starlight Glimmer, which drew her to Sunburst, while she didn’t have many memories of him, he was close friends with Starlight, or at least she thought. While Sunburst knew of Firelight, the stallion was foal-free, and her probing was beginning to make Sunburst nervous, so she decided that asking him if he had memories of a future that made no sense would have been a bad idea.
“Observation #15: judging by significant differences in locations of families, time travel event either significantly earlier, or not relevant to the current situation”
“Taa”
On the back of the disguised alicorn, was a baby dragon, who was currently entertaining himself with sucking on her mane.
“Don’t worry Spike, it's just a minor set back, let's go home and make you a gem shake”
“Taaa”
He really was adorable as a baby Twilight thought to herself, she had been so wrapped up studying in her memories that she had very few interactions with Spike at this age. But this time, she was a much wiser pony, she decided that being the big sister she could be the least she could do for hatching the dragon … Wait, was she a sister or his mother?
*****************
On a continent far away from Equestria, on a mountaintop some might call Perilous, a Chez Lounge floated, simmering with a blue aura. On what was currently her home, fainting couch, and transport deceive, Rarity (or Rare Hyakinthos as she was called by her parents back when they could speak that is), was sulking.
Yesterday, as the sky was bathed in multicolored light, the young kirin was hit by a searing headache, she felt her body begin to burn, and memories from a past life awake. When the pain and burning died down, she very quickly noticed a new pair of appendages on her back, a beautiful pair of wings, with small fluffy scales protecting the outer layer, they looked simply divine. Then she tried to share her delight with those around her but was only met by half-lidded stares from un-impressed Kirin, and the realisation that she could not speak, which was a silly revelation, she’d never been able to speak, had she?
Rarity went to sleep that night with lots of questions like, how had she been reborn as a Kirin, were those memories from a past self, or maybe visions from the future? What was she thinking making those awful dresses for a Gala, and a couple more less important things. Fortunately, she was pulled into a stunningly beautiful realm by a foal who looked a lot like the Twilight Sparkle from her memories, of course, she still wasn’t able to talk.
Twilight proceeded to help the others conceal their new nature, except for Pinkie of course, but when she then tried to get some help from the mage but failed to get the answer she wanted, Rarity would admit, she may have slightly overreacted. That overreaction also spilled over into the waking world, where she managed to accidentally burn down half the village, along with the best bakery the Kirin had.
With the smell of burnt bread in the air, it became obvious that the mob of Kirin offered her two options, re-enter the stream of Silence, and drain away her emotions, or leave the village until she changed her mind.
As the winged Kirin floated down the path off the mountain, she wondered to herself, “What kind of dress would work best with these scales?”
*****************
In Seaquestria, trouble was brewing.
Pinkie Pie, her Sea-pony name was not known for when Oracle Shell-seer tried to divine her name he was driven mad. She still serves in the mental brigade as their most veteran explosives specialist. In Seaquestria, crazy sea ponies are sent to fight in the trench against sea horrors until they calm down, at 8 years of service, Oracle Shell-seer is the longest-serving member, this alone made Pinkie Pie a very respectable Sea-pony.
The day before, Pinkie, (so nicknamed for she was pink, loved pie, and Shell-seer wouldn’t divulge her true name), looked upon the abandoned homeland of the Hippogriffs as a wave of rainbow light streaked across the sky.
In an instant, the filly’s mane poofed up, serpentine scales formed across her body, and even though she was in her Sea-pony form, her Hippogriff wings returned to her body, and as she looked upon the Storm King’s forces occupying her other ancestral home, she grinned.
All she would need were a few party supplies, 4 judges, and a cannon.
That morning, Pinkie decided that she would also need to make some of her special brew.
Trouble was brewing in Seaquestria, and while the Hippogriffs found shelter, the Sea-ponies could barely contain their excitement.
Applejack awoke on a cold hard floor, with aches and pains pinging across her body. Blinking her eyes into focus, she took in her unfamiliar surroundings, after a few moments, the events of yesterday came back to her.
After the sky exploded into a rainbow of colors, and memories of treasured friends and future family filled her head, she quickly noticed the new pair of wings by her side. AJ grinned to herself as thoughts of joining Rainbow in a tree or on a cloud for naps filled her mind, but why did she suddenly have wings?
Raising a nervous hoof to her forehead, she found the things she dreaded to find, a horn, a Sparkle damned unicorn horn, and if she had a horn and wings … Princess Applejack, the name filled her mind as she ran deep into Sweet Apple Acers and tears filled her eyes. Why was she an Alicorn, was it something Twilight did? Had the Alicorns experiment done this? What would happen now? Was she going to be taken away from her family to be raised in Canterlot?
Was she going to be taken away from her parents … Her parents? Bright Mac and Buttercup were alive … alive, and waiting for their Earth pony daughter to come home. What would they say? How were they alive? What was going on!?
She hadn’t given the shelter she’d found herself a second thought, Applejack had far too many other questions that needed answering, she was safe so the small room wasn’t relevant right now.
“Sugercube, you in there?” A stallion’s voice, her father's voice called from outside the room.
“Yea, hi Pa, yea I’m in here, but err, I'm busy”
“Too busy to see ya old Pa?” chuckled the stallion.
“Err, yea, it’s, err, filly stuff.”
“Ok Sugar, do you want me to ask Granny to come by?”
“NO, I mean, err, no thank ya Pa, I’m fine.” Applejack, for the first time, decided to check where she was. It didn’t take long to realise she was in her sisters' tree house, or more accurately her tree house. Applebloom was far too young to be left alone, so the tree house belonged to her and Big Mac, but why was it so well built before Applebloom met the other Cutie Mark Crusaders? Had her father fixed it up?
“Alright then, just don’t make ya Ma worry too much, she’s still weak so she won’t be able to come ta fetch ya if’n ya fall asleep again.”
Applejack rolled her eyes, “Yes Pa, I’ll be back when I’m ready.” It took her a few moments to realise what she’d just done. Her father, one of the two ponies she wished to spend time with more than any other was on the other side of the door, a family member she had so few memories of, was this before his death? But she had her Cutie Mark, nothing made sense.
Tears came to her eyes once again, if only her Dashie was here, she’d have made them do something stupid, but it was better than this. She curled up into a ball and wept to herself, not knowing what to do.
Then she’d woken up, the aches she had were from sleeping on the wooden floor of a tree house, but at least it was home. A nervous hoof checked her forehead, and to her relief, as Twilight had promised, her horn was indeed gone, just as the wings that last night were at her side. She might still have the innate magic of the three tribes, but for now, she could still be Applejack.
As she made her way back to the farm, she slipped into the door and crept past Granny Smith, Big Mac, and her father, who she could hear working in the kitchen. Making her way up the stairs she made her way to a room that was not used in her memories, but now would be different. Taking a moment to steady herself, she pushed open the door.
“Hey Apple bloom, Hi Ma.”
*****************
Making her way home had been a troubling experience for Twilight, if what she remembered was accurate, the memory Canterlot was much more crowded than the Canterlot she was currently trotting through, despite being fairly certain she had never taken her eyes off a book previously, she was having a hard time avoiding ending up under someponies hoof. One look at any pony’s face however and she could guess the reason, gone were the snooty, but carefree ponies of her memory, every pony here was in a rush, and clearly didn’t care for any pony around, it reminded her much more of Manehatten at its worst.
At least one thing had come from this walk. Passing a new stand Twilight had been able to glimpse the current date … 1146. Whatever had happened, reached so far back that Celestia didn’t change the calendar to line up with her sister's imprisonment, and since her memories of Nightmare Night differed notably, she would have to try to find records dating back over 990 years. And the Canterlot Archives weren’t even available to her!
Rounding the final corner, Twilight noticed that standing outside her family house, were two guards, both of whom were not in Royal Guard armor. She was about to turn around and scry on the area when she noticed the sigil on their armor, the mark of Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadence to every creature who didn’t have a stick up their rump. As she approached, she managed to get a better look at their armor, it was simple, practical, and lacked the ornate nature a princess's guard usually had, in fact, it seemed more like authentic light battle armor. Probably because it was battle armor, now that she was close enough to speak to the guards, she could tell their armor was made out of mainly leather, with segments of metal reinforcing their spine and flank, along with a metal helm.
As she approached her gate she finally got good luck with the guards. The first was a young white earth pony mare, with brown eyes and mane, she looked like a young Raven Inkwell, but why would she be a guard? The second guard was a pink unicorn mare with a blue mane, Twilight noted that she was younger still than ‘probably’ Raven, were ponies even allowed to be guards at that age?
It was then that something made the hairs on Twilight's haunches rise. She was close to the guards now, closer than she would have normally needed to be to notice that the pink guard was under a glamour, curse stupid foal magic.
Ok, checklist: What can I gather without lighting my horn; 1. Sloppy work, Twixie was better with Illusions than this. 2. It was unicorn magic, I doubt I’d have been able to detect a changeling with my current magic, 3. Find out if changelings are still alive.
Twilight hadn’t dared show her concern, or slow her step, and was now looking up at two unimpressed guards.
Wait, I recognise this aura
“Good afternoon little filly, would you be Twilight Sparkly?” said Raven.
It's warm, and filled with love, Cadence cast this spell! But why?
“Err, hello, miss?”Raven asked again.
She has light blue eyes, if I just focus, I could check her magic signature.
“It's her Sergeant, but err, I don’t know why she’s looking at me like that,” said the pink mare nervously.
It’s Shinings! But why was he hiding his identity?
“Hold the door private, I’ll take her inside”
Maybe he’s undercover? Or perhaps he actually wanted to be a mare? Or does Cadence prefer mares? Hey why am I being picked up?
Snapping back to reality, in time to realise she was been picked up by the scruff of her neck by the pony she decided was Raven and was been carried into the house, and straight into what appeared to be a one-sided shouting match.
“... She will absolutely not be going anywhere with you, you’re a traitor to all unicorns! We are blessed to live under the guidance of our benevolent Queen, and yet you openly oppose her at every turn.” Twilight heard the voice of an angry mare, it had been a long time since she’d hurt this tone, but it was definitely her mother's voice.
“Please, Lady Velvet, as Her Majesty's letter explained…” It is Cadence! smiled Twilight, But whats this about Celestia?
“You’re twisting the minds of our young into your rebellious movement, but I won’t allow it, I kept you away from my son, and I won’t let you near my daughter!”
Oh, that's why he’s a mare, I guess Cadence isn’t my babysitter.
“Honey, please, the demands are stamped with Her Majesty's seal, and you read the alternative, surely you wouldn’t want our daughter to live as a...”
That's Dad, at least he isn’t yelling.
“This must be a mistake, first thing in the morning I’ll…”
Whatever her mother was about to say was interrupted as Raven entered the living room, Twilight still dangling from a forehoof.
“Sorry to intrude, but Young Lady Sparkly has returned. If you will excuse me, I will return to my post.” After carefully placing Twilight onto the floor, Raven turned and left before any pony could say a word otherwise.
“Oh hello, my little Sparky, and welcome home, I hope we didn’t scare you, this Pony was just leaving.” Said her mother.
Her mother smiled warmly at her, every bit the image she remembered, but her eyes sent a shiver down her spine. She had the eyes Pinkie got when she had given herself to many parties to handle, the look Fluttershy had at their first Galla, or Harmoney forbid, when Discord and Celestia had managed to make the latest fashion trend plaid. She’d seen crazy, but the mare in front of her seemed to unsettle her even more, Twilight hoped it was just the height difference putting her off.
Cadence stood from her place on the settee. “Indeed, I shall take my leave.”
It's really her! But, I don’t remember her looking like this. Cadence, at least when she was my foal sitter, had a shorter build, but a more rounded figure. Certainly not fat, she was the picture of a young Pegasus beauty, just with a horn. Wait, her physique is closer to that of a Fleur, her horn is much longer than I remember, was she born a unicorn here? And why does she look so tired?
“Greetings Twilight, My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, due to yesterday's event, there is a chance that you and I will be getting to know one another. I shall leave the details to your parents. Good day, Miss Sparkle.” Said Cadence, and with a bow, she left the house.
Immediately, both her parents left the room, but only her father gave her a look, was it a look of sympathy? Before she could process what had happened, Twilight Sparkle was once again on her own.
Under her breath, she whispered, “What the buck is going on?”
*****************
Chrysalis gave her orders to the last of her drones, a notable number of hives numbers had dispersed now. She’d been careful, only a small group would be sent to an area, maybe even only a single drone if necessary, but her network would cover the majority of Equestria, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d have the entire Pony Queendom in her web.
But, why stop there, with what she knew, the entire plane was a playfield for her scheme. Passing an order for her last royal guardian to fetch their last infiltration team member, she was almost ready to start her own undercover mission in Ponyville, and what better cover story than a young couple raising their little nymph … Foal, curses, pony-isms are annoying.
Almost everything was ready, there was just one little thing that needed taking care of.
Chrysalis pushed her will through the hive mind ” Thorax, your services are required, come to my royal chambers this instant.”
Side Chapter 1 - You can run, but IT will find you
Breaking from the camp, a young mare escaped the debris and bolted towards the camp's opening.
Screams from her comrades filled her ears, but there was nothing she could do.
That thing was hunting them, it knew where they would be, and when they heard it, it was too late!
When the sun started to set, they realised something was wrong, two patrols had failed to return. Then the party sent to locate them disappeared, so the remainder of the battalion went into the woods, to search for our missing troops. Then we discovered that thing.
First, it was just something moving in the trees, always just outside someone's vision. If some creature checked behind a tree they knew if went behind, they would find nothing, just more shadows. Then a torch went dark, and the troops near it could hear shouting, they were demanding the lights be re-lit, and then the screams started.
We charged to the location as fast as we could, but out of the 5 soldiers who should have been there, only 1 remained, stuck to a tree, and covered in a hard substance, a sergeant tried to free him, but that was when we heard it.
It started with a laugh, it came from everywhere, above, behind, but always out of sight.
Orders were called, squads packed in tight for protection, if we were together, we’d surely be safe … We were wrong.
We heard a strange call, carried to us upon the wind. As silence fell upon us once more, a blast shook the area, and soldiers screamed as they were sent flying, only to land in motionless heaps.
Our formations made us easier targets for the monster … it was still laughing.
Another sergeant, younger than the last called for retreat, to fall back to camp, no one argued.
We ran, forgetting our allies, as explosions ripped through the night, I saw soldiers disappear suddenly from my sight, as if falling, only never to get back up. Horror rained down from the sky, large sticky masses, that truck my comrades, trapping them.
They could only cry for help.
We could only keep running.
When we finally made it back to camp, we believed, we hoped that we had finally found safety. But it knew we’d return here, it was already here. It had been waiting.
And so we ran, fleeing for our lives. I never even looked back.
For the first time, I had found a place where I wasn’t treated as 'something' lesser, but as my rank and station demanded. My superiors accepted me, and my subordinates respected me, but it was all over now. He even promised to fix me.
I could only flee.
And then I heard it.
“Shoo Be Doo!”
It was right behind me!
I turned my head as I galloped at full speed, and then I heard something else.
Something was hissing,
Step,
It was right in front of me.
Step,
It was below me,
Step,
My hoof landed on something hard.
My world slowed to a halt, I could see a light, entering the object below me.
Light began to emerge from it, and cracks appeared on what was a shell-like object.
It's going to explode and I’m going to die …
Another explosion rippled through the trees, as four Hippogryphs ooh’d, and aah’d.
Truly this was a magnificent night, it was a shame the Sea Ponies would miss it.
The four Gryphs then raised their scorecards as the explosion they were asked to rate detonated before their hidden viewing hut.
7, 6, 10, 10
Skystar admired the scores, she’d been confused when she’d been asked to go into the forest, but going with the flow was always the best option, especially when she was involved, said Gryph pronked into the hut, she decided now was as good a time as any to ask for an explanation.
“Hey Pinkie, I have a question?”
“Sure, shoot.” Replied the one known as Pinkie Pie, as the scaled hippogryph/ sea pony hybrid nudged some cushions with a talon into a new spot.
“I get that you wanted to break up the Storm King's forces, and I enjoy screams and explosions as much as the next Sea Pony.”
Pinkie nodded.
“But, why did you have us rate that explosion for how well it Fizzled, popped, berried, and Twisted? It doesn’t even …”
Skystar was cut off as a unicorn with a broken horn crashed down into their viewing hut, fortunately, the pony landed on the pile cushion Pinkie had just made.
“Oh, you know. Reasons.” Pinkie smiled and winked at no creature in particular, “But don’t worry, no creatures were excessively harmed in the making of this spectacle, they’ll just have very big bruises."
As Fluttershy sturred from sleep, her ears twitched to familiar and comforting sounds. Her ears twitched to better hear the bird song above her. Around her, she could hear various squeaks and purrs from various critters around her, if it wasn’t for the slow rising and falling of her impromptu bed, she would have thought she was back at her cottage, though Harry would not have made as comfortable a bed if she was a fully grown mare.
“Fluttershy!?”
A call on the wind, a slightly raspy voice calling out to her, while it was not the melody of the birds or the soft snores of the animals, the voice was still one that made her smile. Uncurling and leaping off the bear, Fluttershy stretched her back, limbs and wings to rid herself of the last remnants of sleep clinging to her body.
As if a silent alarm had awoken all the animals, the other critters began to disperse, leaving the temporary den they had shared with their Alicorn friend, all except Harry whose deep snores still reverberated from his maw, and a young white rabbit who decided who decided to cling to her back. Fluttershy scanned the sky looking for her prismatic friend, and it didn’t take long for her to find the filly creating the various rainbow contours.
“Rainbow, I’m down here” called the yellow filly, it was barely louder than what most ponies would consider a reasonable volume for polite conversation, but compared to what Rainbow was expecting, she might as well have yelled. Stopping her flight and looking for the voice she just heard, Rainbow quickly spotted her oldest friend who was waving up at her from a clearing, and began a gentle glide down to meet her.
“Hey Shy, you good?” Rainbow asked as she landed.
“Hi, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied and investigated her forehead with a wing tip. After confirming she was indeed hornless, just like Rainbow Dash was, she smiled and nodded “I’m good now, thanks to Twilight, what about you?”
She’d expected Rainbow to reply straight away, after all in the dream last night she seemed fine, but now, Fluttershy saw a flash of pain cross her friend's face.
“Everything is ok Shy, especially now we’re together. But I think we should find Twilight, and get this whole business sorted.”
“But Rainbow, we’re just fillies, our parents will …” Fluttershy stopped, as memories flashed before her, a timid mother ashamed of her daughter, a drunken father who had long since locked himself from the world, and then there was Zephyr. Her brother was always a bit useless, from before, he would just stay at home, or half-heartedly get a job before getting fired, but the memory of this Zephyr brought a tear to her eye.
Zephyr had joined the Clousdale Officers Academy, he’d even graduated and been given command of a small squadron of scouts, something yesterday she wouldn’t believe possible. But then it all went wrong, it was 2 months into his first deployment when that letter had arrived, a letter stating that Zephyr had deserted his command. Her father had been strong at first, he’d spent more time with her, telling her everything would be ok, he’d tried to help her learn to fly, but she just wasn’t a good flier, and when he gave up on her, that was when the drinking started.
She started to cry as she looked at Rainbow “No pony is looking for me, are they?”
“It's going to be ok.”
“OK!” Fluttershy shouted, “How is it going to be ok, this isn’t my family, my parents don’t even look after me, how can this be ok?”
“Because it's not real Shy, this is just some weird time thing, like what Starlight did with the cutie map, we’ll find Twilight, and together we’ll fix this, and get our old families back. We’ve always managed when we worked together, so we’ll get through this.”
“Yeah, you’re right, we’ll find Twilight, and get back to our own time. We just got to take this one step at a time.”
“Ok Rainbow, but how are we going to find her?”
Rainbow smirked, “Theirs only one place she’d go, she’s not a princess, and Tirek should still be in Tartarus, where else do you think she’d go?”
“The Golden Oaks?” asked Fluttershy.
“The Golden Oaks!” confirmed Rainbow.
*****************
Deep in the planes of Zebrica, something very strange was moving across the land. Bathed in a sapphire blue aura, a chaise lounge steadily floated along with a rather unimpressed Kirin as its sole passenger.
Rarity surveyed the landscape ahead of her, it was unlike anything she had ever seen in Equestria, she was fairly certain that she should be marveling at its beauty, but the truth was, she didn’t care.
She’d had a hard time caring about anything, at least since she’d woken up, she knew she should be upset that not even her parents didn’t chase after her, but she wasn’t. She knew she should be annoyed that the village wanted her to leave, but she wasn’t. There was only truly one emotion Rarity was feeling right now.
Rarity was an only child, and no one in the village had been called Sweetie. In this universe, Sweetie Belle either had no relation to her or didn’t exist.
Rarity didn’t feel much in the way of emotions, but the one she did feel was loneliness, not because she was the only living thing for miles of desert, but because she might never see her sister again.
The sun had finally set in Zebrica as Rarity set down her vehicle. Once again igniting her horn, she created a crystal dome around herself.
Curling up on her chaise lounge, Rarity readied herself for a night's sleep, allowing herself to drift off, and reminisced of better times, and the songs her sister would sing.
Twilight was finally able to get to bed, snores filled the room from the basket next to her bed, at least Spike was able to get some decent sleep. The last few hours had been an eye-opening experience for her, and a brutal wake-up call to just how different this life was.
Apparently, Cadence had delivered a letter demanding reparations for the damage caused the previous day, when she’d hatched Spike, although the figures quoted were beyond ridiculous since the reparations quoted could probably replace the entire roof five times over. What Twilight couldn’t believe was that the letter was signed by Queen Celestia, accompanied by a long list of titles that the Celestia she knew would have died of embarrassment to be called, even if they were true.
Of course, the sum of bits was impossible to pay, but two alternatives were given, the most palatable was that she was to be taken away by Cadence, to a remote town where Twilight could be taught to control her magic, and until judged fit by Celestia herself, she would be banned from stepping hoof in any Equestrian city, or seeing her family. The third option was still giving her bouts of nausea since she’s been told the final option, was her horn, or perhaps what made her nauseous was that her own mother was in favour of that option, as in her words “No child of mine will land in the hooves of that traitor. Anything else is a preferable price.”
If she found out that Shining was masquerading as a mare to guard Cadence, she would probably have an aneurysm.
As it happened, Twilight's family were part of a cult of fanatics, known as the “Sun Speakers”, and according to Twilight Velvet, they could trace their lineage over 800 years. If her mother's claim was true, it would be one of the most accurate Geneology charts she’d ever heard of.
After Cadence had left, Twilight had been subjected to an hour-long presentation of the greatness of Celestia, and how their family had always fought for her greatness, from notable military leaders to industrialists. 300 years ago, her ancestor, Violent Sun, had prevented a movement by unicorns to create something called, a ‘union’. As her mother put it, everyone should work as hard as possible for Celestia's greatness, such things as fair pay, and workers' rights was the lower class being greedy.
The worst thing was, that the “Sun Seekers” were a large political group, while they weren’t directly controlled by Celestia, Twilight Velvet mentioned the Queen praising them for their actions, the only exception, to her greatest frustration, was when Celestia had made it clear that they were not to harm or hinder the “heretical pegacorn who dared call herself a princess”.
Manipulating her mother had been easy, instead of losing her daughter to Cadence, Twilight had suggested a different view on the matter. If Cadence were to look after her, she could cause trouble, which would affect her ability to act in court and drastically weaken her position for decades to come.
That was when Shining came home, just in time to hear their mother paise her for the plan, she even gloated to him, that “their little Sparkle would be doing Celestias’ work, disrupting the pegacorns heresy.” Shining only smiled, but Twilight saw the sadness in his eyes, she could only hope she’d be able to make it up to him.
Nothing of the Mare she once called mother was in this pony, Twilight rolled over and hugged Smarty Pants a little tighter, hopefully, she’ll get her real mother back soon.
As she found herself in the eternal void that she’d come to call the dreamscape, she called out to her friend, seeking their magic, as she pulled, motes of green appeared around her.
“Howdy Sugarcube, you alright?”
*****************
On the balcony of her study, Celestia looked up at the ominous moon, floating in the sky, an eternal reminder that her greatest enemy was still waiting to return. If only she had been stronger, she could have killed the monster once and for all instead of simply sealing it away.
Celestia's gaze was broken by a knock at her studies door. Turning away from her adversary, she trotted into the room, followed by her ever-present blade, she sat at her table and gave herself a moment to gather her thoughts. Her desk was littered with reports that still needed reviewing, mostly the boring weekly or monthly forms that needed her approval. Most of today had been spent preparing accommodation and a training routine for Equestria's newest princess and a little something for Cadence’s ward, all that was left was to have attendants assigned to her, the boring humdrum of Yaks breaking their buildings, and guard patrols could wait.
Clearing her throat, she responded to her late-night guest, “Enter.”
Celestia frowned as a light blue aura enveloped the handle and opened the door to reveal Cadence.
“Thou art late Princess, the tea we prepared has grown cold.”
“I’m sorry your Highness, Twilight Velvet was less than happy with my presence.”
“Indeed, and her answer?”
Cadence flinched, unable to match Celestia's gaze, “She needs more time.”
“When ponies lie, they avert their eyes, just as you have now. Learn to control yourself or your enemies will walk over you. Now, since I misheard you, what did Twilight Velvet say?”
Cadence's ears drooped, she had to at least try, for Twilight's sake, but she couldn’t lie to Celestia. “Twilight Velvet has refused to release her daughter into my custody, though her husband is against taking ... against the other option.”
Celestia hummed to herself, she knew that Velvet would be unhappy but to be willing to go to such lengths to spite Cadence. The Sun Seekers were getting out of hoof, though what did she expect, they called themselves Celestial Berzerkers over 800 years ago, until she rained them in.
Culling their more militaristic tendencies had become a necessity 800 years ago, they grew too bold from her approval, and in their desire to please her they invaded the Diamond Mountains, dragging Equestria into a war with the Diamon Dogs that she was not prepared for. Sadly she could not risk another reprimand at this time, not with time running out, she would need them as insurance against Nightmare Moon.
“No matter, if she hath not changed her mind by sunset tomorrow, we will personally intercede in the matter. Now onto tonight's business.” Using a wing to open one of the tables draws, Celestia withdrew a satchel with her hooves and placed the bundle on the table between Cadence and herself. “We have prepared arcane material for young Twilight, thy duty is to ensure Miss Twilight is able to understand the contents and replicate the magics.”
Cadence opened the satchel with her magic, and brought out a single large tome, seeing the cover made her baulk, “You Highness, there must be a mistake, this book must be at least 1000 years old”!
“1204 years to be exact. The magic taught by unicorns in this age is insufficient, therefore she will learn from the one who taught us.”
Cadence was shocked, she’d never imagined such a book could still exist, Celestia had never shown it to her before, even when they were on good terms. “But, it's in Old Equish, a filly her age would certainly have trouble learning a second language.”
Celestia smirked, “Then tis good that thou studied Old Equish, instead of galavanting around with Colts.”
Whatever was about to be said was interrupted by frantic knocking at the door.
“Cease that racket and enter!” Barked Celestia.
Barreling through the door came a rather disheveled pegasus wearing a hastily thrown-on uniform. While most ponies would assume the mare was a simple clerk, a pencil pusher for the Equestrian Government, Celestia knew that only one branch would dare interrupt her at this hour.
“Your Majesty, and your Highness, err.” The mare stopped, looking between the two alicorns.
“If the missive thou bring is of such import, that an audience is required at this hour, then our present company may hear it as well, and for your sake Silent Sentry, it had better be important. Or your career in our Intelligence Service will end tonight.”
The mare gulped but gathered herself, and stood to attention. “Yes your Majesty, a situation has arisen regarding the Alicorn filly known as Rainbow Dash.”
That got Celestia's attention. Yesterday, her agents had made contact with the filly's parent, while not of reputable repute or class, the fact that his daughter had become an alicorn would soon change that, she’d be seeing to it personally if necessary. Studying the agent in front of her, she could tell that Silent Sentry was still hesitant to speak in front of Cadance, perhaps she had been too harsh in public about the younger princess in recent months if her agents were cautious about speaking around the younger alicorn.
“Continue Agent.”
“Well, as reported, we confirmed last night that the filly was indeed an alicorn, though unable to manipulate objects, she could produce a glow on her horn, but when we visited again this afternoon, we discovered her father was inebriated, and while mostly incoherent, we were able to ascertain that he had kicked Rainbow Dash out of his house.”
Celestia felt a migraine coming on. With all the chaos of the last few days, the discovery that the prismatic explosion had resulted in the apotheosis of a new alicorn had been nothing short of a miracle.
“What madness possessed this curr to ‘kick out’ a future princess from his house, who is also his daughter.”
“Well, Your Majesty, we sent most of our units to locate the filly, but, apparently Rainbow Dash awoke this morning as a pegasus, no horn in sight, from what we have pieced together, this caused a fight between Mr Hothoof any Rainbow Dash, he claims to have told her to, ‘get out of my house,’ afterward he started drinking. We have not managed to extract more information from Mr Hothoof at this time.”
Celestia felt an eye twitch, “Agent Sentry, has this claim been verified?”
A pointless question, she already knew the answer but her agents must have some news. Perhaps a cult had dared to snatch an alicorn for their own machinations, or a new changeling queen had cobbled together a hive large enough to infiltrate Equestria, and had managed to swap the filly out from under her nose? Maybe a local gang attempting to gain some ransom bits?
“Well, I'm sorry your Majesty, but as of the last check-in five minutes ago, we have yet to find any trace or leads in regards to Rainbow Dash.”
Celestia was stunned, one of the most powerful creatures in existence had been discovered on her doorstep, only to disappear within 24 hours, which also coincided with the seals on Nightmare Moon’s seal fracturing, and no pony knew how any of it had happened. To the horror of both Agent Sentry and Cadence, for the first time in almost 1000 years, Celestia’s sword fell to the floor.
****************
The moon had passed its halfway point in the night sky, however, that did not matter, after all, in the city that never sleeps, ponies always fill the streets.
Had any of the ponies been paying attention to their surroundings, they might have spotted a pony who was trying to blend in, sneaking from shadow to shadow, and wearing an oversized coat, despite the lack of rain.
To call this pony a mare would be generous, while technically she was an adult, she still had a bit left to grow.
Yesterday, she’d made a mistake, or perhaps she hadn’t. She’d wanted knowledge, or was it power, perhaps recognition, yes, it was a mistake, if she could undo what she did, life would be so much easier.
She slumped against a wall to try and steady her thoughts, she hadn’t slept for two days and her head swam with knowledge that didn’t make sense, of a time that couldn’t have been. After all, there was no friendship in Equestria, no one would ever care about an orphaned unicorn.
Making her way down to the docks while drawing as little attention to herself as possible, Sunset Shimmer was certain of only one thing.
The click and clack of the train brought a nostalgic feeling of comfort to Twilight, sure it wasn’t the Friendship Express, and the seating was more compact, but riding in a train was therapeutic, and much comfier than traveling by chariot. Fortunately, the last two days had been much calmer in Canterlot, with Twilight's “plan”, to hinder Cadence's work, her mother (loathed as she was to call her such), laid her change of heart on a bit thickly, then Cadence asked if there was anywhere she was interested in calling their new home, though she hadn’t expected an answer from Twilight, there was only one place she would ever answer.
She’d been back to the dreamscape twice since her first visit, Applejack was the only one to join her the first time, and no pony came the second. She was concerned but trusted her friends enough to know that they’d make it through any problems they were having and to find a way to contact her if they needed her, so since she only knew where one of her friends was, regrouping with Applejack was the only option, hoping to at least see old treebary was an added bonus.
As such, by royal decree, two days later Twilight, Cadence, and her retinue were on the train to Ponyville, sadly Shing Armor wasn’t among those currently accounted for, Twilight had even done a magic scan for his magic signature, just in case he was in disguise but no success. Hopefully, he’ later he would be joining them, though not having spoken to him yet she could only hope he would still be her BBBFF, sadly her memories of this time shed very little in the way of their interactions, and she didn’t think she’d ever called him Best Big Brother Friend Forever as she currently was.
Looking out the window, Twilight almost forgot that she was in a different time, as the hills rolled by and they traveled over streams it was almost as if nothing had changed. If only Cadence could enjoy the journey, though the Princess was putting up a good front, Twilight had technically known her for longer than either of them had currently been alive, biologically not mentally, as such she could read her like a catalog of emotions, sorted by emotion, severity, and need for cake. Currently, Twilight decided that Cadence needed lots of cake, hopefully Sugarcube Corner was waiting for them.
“Hey, Princess Cadence?”
“Hmm, of yes Twilight, is everything ok?”
“I’m fine, but I was wondering, have you ever been to Ponyville?”
“Just once, Her Majesty went to visit and brought me along, it's a rather excentric town. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you choose Ponyville to be our residence?”
‘Because I know an Alicorn is waiting for me there, and two more Alicorns will probably journey there soon, along with a winged Kirin and whatever my friend Pinkie Pie turned into, so together we can go back to our own time and forget any of this ever happened’ … heh, the thought of telling Cadence the truth had crossed her mind, but she didn’t want to find out if her old sister-in-law would support her changing reality just yet, so she’d prepared a much better answer, fit for someone of her unique insight and intellect, so she looked up at Cadence and gave her the most adorable foal eyes she could.
“I read a book claiming that they grew the best apples in Equestria!”
Cadence blinked at Twilight, her mouth agape, clearly shocked by the answer.
“Oh, that's a very nice reason Twilight, but did you hear anything about, The Everfree Forest in that book”
Cadence was anxious about the forest, of course, she was trying to hide her anxiety, but knowing her previously was just cheating when it came to reading her expressions, maybe she’d have some fun with her and Shiny once he turned up.
“I heard that it's dangerous and that foals shouldn’t go in there.” A safe assumption, unless Celestia burned the whole forest down, it was unlikely that the first improved thing about this world she encountered would be the Everfree.
“Yes, it is a dangerous place Twilight, I’m glad you know that, but I want to you promise me that you won’t go in there, even with an adult, it's a very dangerous place, and many guards get hurt every year containing the creatures found there.”
‘Of course it’s worse, why wouldn’t it be’ Twilight thought to herself, hopefully, Applejack and her family weren’t having to many issues with the forest.
“Ok princess, I won’t go there.”
“Thank you Twilight, I don’t want to see you getting hurt.”
Twilight smiled, the first good pony she’d spent time with, in this world at least, and some creature she loved as a sister, she was already planning to break the first promise they made, so she smiled because she didn’t want to reveal how sad she felt.
****************
Pain was the only thing the Tempest Shadow was aware of when she began to wake up. What had she done to deserve every muscle in her body aching, and her head wanting to split in half. If she didn’t know better, she’d say she’d spent the whole day training, only to immediately hit the bar, to drink herself into forgetting she was a damned unicorn.
But she did know better and immediately sprung to her hooves, a big mistake, as the pain in her head only got worse somehow.
Taking a few moments to collect herself, she admired her surroundings.
She was in a warm, but humid alcove, illuminated by some kind of plant growing, and glowing on the walls outside of the alcove, which seemed to be part of a corridor leading to either side of her little room, or should she call it a cell, since strange rock formations currently barred her exit.
Then she remembered what had happened, fire, explosions, and laughter. She looked at herself, checking each leg carefully, she remembered being engulfed by an explosion, however, she had somehow come out of it with no lasting damage, just a headache and more aches than she could count, which she hoped would go away sooner rather than later. But that begged the question, why was she still alive?
Boing, boing.
Some creature was coming, what horrible timing Tempest thought to herself, the least her captors could do was wait till she had recovered from her headache before interrogating her.
Boing, boing.
Whatever it was, was getting closer, and had a very bizarre way of movement.
Boing.
And whatever it was, it was here.
Tempest lowered herself into an attack stance, she might be in no state to put up a real fight, but she wasn’t going to make it easy for them. Slowly, and carefully the sounds of a heavy object being moved came from the other side of the stone bars, had she not been awake, she doubted it would have woken her up, maybe they didn’t know she was awake, since she was currently obscured by shadow, perhaps she could get the jump on them.
Slowly, part of the wall swung outwards, Tempest held her breath, she’d only get one shot at this after all, but then something happened that she did now expect.
A tray slid into her room stopping just in front of her. The tray held a bowl of some sort of greenish substance, a mug of what smelt like medicinal tea, and a slice of cake.
“I thought you might be hungry, and a bit sore, so I brought you some food and drink, it’ll make you feel better” Whispered some creature, a young feminine voice by the sound of it. Tempest was at a loss, she hadn’t expected to be given food and drink, but she’d only just woken up, how in the world did this creature …
“Oh I knew you’d be waking up about now, my Pinkie Sence told me that some creature was about to wake up in pain and in need of some tender love and care food, so I made some Mushroom Soup, prepared some herbal tea, added a bit of honey so it won’t be too bitter, oh and cooked a cake, it's Black Forrest Gateaux, I know you’ll love it … because reasons.” Whispered the voice again, with barely contained enthusiasm.
Looking at the offered food, Tempest felt her stomach grumble, she was really hungry, and despite how it looked, the soup smelt great. Lowering her mouth to the soup, she took a tentative lick … It was amazing! With all thoughts of escaping imprisonment and the strange creature out of her mind, Tempest devoured the meal before her, and before she knew it, the last crumb of the cake had been licked off the plate.
“Hehehe.”
Tempest froze, stood barely out of bucking distance, was a pink … creature.
She was rather large for a foal, but definitely, a child by her species' standards since she hadn’t quite grown into her dragon-like wings yet and her legs were far too short, much like what she expected to see from a ponjy foal. The creature had two horn-like protrusions that rose from her temples, the tips currently hidden between her pony-like ears, while most of her body was covered with fur, the sides of her neck and her back were covered with scales, and a thick limb-like tail with a flipper at the end.
“Wha … what are you?” Tempest finally managed to stammer.
“I’m Pinkie Pie”
“No, I mean, what creature, I’ve never heard of any creature like you.”
“Oh that's because I'm unique, basically I was your usual Seaquestrian/ Hippogryph with transformative magic, then when the rainbow passed us a few days ago, I grew Sea-Dragon wings, sprouted two doe horns, and got scales to protect my gills, not sure why I have scales on my back though, might just be aesthetics. So to sum up, I’m Pinkie Pie, hello!”
Tempest, was lost for words, after all, this Pinkie Pie, made no sense “So there aren’t any other Pinkie Pies? Pinkies Piecus?”
“Hehe, Pinkie Piecus, I need to abose that later, but nope, just me, I'm still part Hippogryph and Sea Pony, and there are loads of them. I also have five sisters, Maud, Cali-Carb*, Choral, and Sea-Pizza Pie”
Tempest suddenly became aware of a presence next to her, turning in alarm she realised, it was somehow Pinkie Pie, who while hadn’t moved, was suddenly next to her and whispering into her ear.
“We don’t talk about Pizza Pie though, she puts Pineapple and Hay-Ham on pizza, and I have a brother called Octavio Pie, but I really would rather forget him.”
With a woosh, the Pinkie Pie had disappeared from her current spot, and was back to her original spot, just out of reach but in front of her, almost as if she had never moved.
“Okay.” Was all Tempest could say, “Thanks for the food, and the family background, but why am I still alive?”
“Oh that's simple silly, since no one’s died, you have to be alive.”
“But the explosions, the traps, I saw Storm Creatures being swallowed by, something.”
“Oh that was just marshmallow, they’re fine, promise. You can meet them once we all agree to get along and be friends.”
“And why do you want us to be your friends? We invaded your home and forced you into the sea!” Tempest stated, she didn’t want to change her captives’ minds, but surely there had to be some other reason.
“Oh I'm glad you asked, and it's quite simple really. It’s because ….”
To Tempest's horror, the creature who called herself Pinkie Pie began to sing, fortunately, the headache medicine had dulled the headache, Pinkie is crazy, not a monster.
****************
Dear Diary,
It's Rarity again, I’m should get a real diary to write in one day.
I think I'm heading the right way, Equestria was to the north, so im heading north. I wish Twilight would create that dream place again, it would be nice to hear someones voice.
Nothing else to say, today was more floating and boredom.
The world spun around Tempest, the ringing in her ears certainly didn’t help her stomach settle. Over the last few minutes, she’d been dragged from her cell, danced and sang with her comrades from the Storm King’s army, along with the hippogryphs who joined in at some point. She then saw the two factions work together to decorate a barren hall into a colourful party venue, and finally, at the crescendo of the song, they all raise a drink in celebration of their new friendship as streamers filled the party hall. Where the cake came from was any creature's guess. Taking in the acts of unity and joy around her, Tempest looked at the pink creature by her side, who was vibrating with excitement.
“What just happened?”
“Weeelllllll, I used a heart song to let every creature know that we should be friends and encouraged the Storm-Kin to express the feelings they’ve been repressing since the Storm King went all meanie beanie conquest pants. After that the Hippogryphs had a verse to vent some of their pain of losing their home, they’ve realllllllly been suffering ya know, I almost lost the song at one point, but I got it back on track. Then we decorated everything, and have made the first steps towards friendship!”
Tempest blinked at Pinkie, “Why?”
“Why not?”
Tempest narrowed her eyes at Pinkie Pie, so with a sigh, the party pony continued.
“Because when those around me are sad, I want to help them smile, it's that simple. If the Storm-Kin and Hippogryphs can find common ground, they’ll be able to live together and fool the Storm King into thinking that everything is fine here. We could have harmed you and your friends, but then the Storm King would have sent more troops, the Hippogryphs would have lost their home again, and we’d be back to where we started. Doing this, we can make a change, and make the world a slightly better place.” Pinkie’s smile took Tempest aback.
“But all you did was sing.”
“That’s not all I did silly. I allowed them to open their hearts, and be vulnerable, to allow every creature to let others in. It won’t be easy, buuuut I know that if it's what they want, they’ll pull through.”
‘If they’ Tempest thought to herself before asking “You sound as if you won’t be pushing this, friendship business down their throats for the foreseeable future.”
“Nope.” Replied Pinkie flippantly, “It’s not my job to fix things here, presides, this was easy, what comes next is the hard part.”
Tempest checked over the celebration, noting each of the Storm-Kin, sure enough, every one of them was accounted for. Some still had bandages, but nothing that wouldn’t heal, they were also laughing, smiling, and sharing stories with the hippogrgyphs, creatures who last time Tempest checked, would have happily killed each other, and Pinkie called that easy. What could possibly be harder than that? Was this crazy creature thinking of befriending the Storm King?
“The Storm King won’t restore your horn Tempest.”
‘What!’ The statement shocked Tempest, her limbs began to feel numb, and her vision darkened.
The wind blew furiously across her face, her armour helping to keep her hooves on the stone balcony, as she overlooked a devastating storm created by her King,
“Yes yes you are every bit as powerful as I promised my sire, now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you.” Tempest found herself saying.
“HAHAHA” Laughed the Storm King, pushing Tempest out of his way, as lightning cracked behind him “Who cares about your dinky little unicorn horn.”
“But, we had an agreement.” Begged Tempest, she galloped in front of the King, she’d brought Equestria to heel, and captured its rulers, and all for one promise.
“Get with the program” The Storm King shouted, as he shoved his face into Tempests, “I used you, it’s kind of what I do.”
Backing away, the Storm King shrugged, before levelling his staff at Tempest, and the world flashed in blue light.
Tempest jumped in reflex, only to realise that she was not under attack, the Storm King was not present, and the stone balcony was once again a rocky streamer-filled cavern. Beside her stood Pinkie, though her jovial… thing was gone. In its place was a serious creature, emanating power, Tempest didn’t know why, but despite looking down at the pink menace, she felt like she was looking up towards a being who could change the world on a whim, and that she was merely a toy for her amusement.
“What are you?”
“I’m Pinkamina Diane Pie, Element of laughter, the pink one, party pony, baker, menace of the gala, Yak friend, and former Pony. I don’t think there has been a creature like me before, but I need to get a second opinion before I name myself.”
“And that vision was that you're doing!”
“I borrowed a memory from your possible future, and I’m sorry, but I won’t let the Storm King continue his rampage across Equs for much longer,” Pinkie said calmly. “The Storm King won’t be taking over Equestria.”
Tempest didn’t want to believe her, but she couldn’t deny what she saw, it was as real as the moment she was currently in, and worse, every instinct in her body knew that the creature in front of her was telling the truth.
“Why are you telling this to me, what do you want from me? I’m a broken unicorn, you completely dismantled my one chance of fixing my life, and now you’re aiming for the only one who is holding the Solar Tyrant in check, what's the point in telling me this, why didn’t you just kill me when you had the chance!” Tempest shouted she could feel her blood boil as she lashed out in anger.
Yet Pinkie stood firm, unfazed by her outburst. “Because while I want to make you smile, I also need your help.”
“My help? What can you possibly need my help for?”
“I’m going to Equestria, my friends there need me, and I need a responsible adult to help me get there.” Said Pinkie, whose eyes looked straight into Tempests.
Large blue eyes, and as Tempest stared into them, her anger faded, replaced by an understanding. Pinkie wasn’t playing with her, everything the pink one had done had been to help, to bring joy and laughter, as she looked around, her comrades hadn’t changed, they were still talking with the Hippogryphs, it didn’t seem that they’d heard her outburst. But there was something about them, it was almost as if they looked younger, or lighter. Tempest had seen them gather at campfires, drink, and tell tales before, and laugh into the night, but in those memories, she now saw shadows looming over each of the Storm-Kin, she saw that they only laughed to hide their sadness, drank only to make their situations bearable, and shared stories of better times to forget where they were.
Is this what Pinkie saw? What was she?
Tempest remained lost in thought for a while, when she returned her gaze to the pink ‘thing’, Pinkie spoke.
“This is my deal, help me get to Ponyville, to my friends, and I will give you what you truly want. Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake, in my eye.”
“... What I truly want? You just showed me that the Storm King would betray me, why would I believe you over him?” Cried Tempest, holding on to the last of her resolve. She wanted to believe Pinkie, some part of her knew that Pinkie truly just wanted to be her friend and that her promise to help was genuine, maybe trusting her wouldn’t be so bad.
“Believe me because you feel it’s right.” Said Pinkie with a smile, “And I never break a Pinkie Promise.”
****************
Twilight had been dreading leaving the train, and taking those first few steps into Ponyville, with everything that she had encountered so far, she was dreading what had become of the place she called home, so she feelings of trepidation, she, a sleeping Spike who was curled upon her back, and an incognito Cadence left the station. To her surprise, Ponyville looked to be doing slightly better for itself.
The small town was slightly larger than it was previously, and while the architecture was mostly the same, there were more tiled roofs in the town, though thatch roofs were still the most common roofing. Other than an increase in houses, there didn’t appear to be much else different, even the Quills and Sofas store looked identical.
It was when they were walking down Market Row that Twilight finally heard a familiar call.
“Fresh Apples, come get ‘em before they’re gone!” Called a young filly with a southern accent, even though a stack of apples, and a red colt, blocked her line of sight Twilight would never mistake the owner of that voice. Time to craft a masterful distraction.
“Look it's Sweet Apple Acers Apples! Please can I have one? Pretty please!?” Twilight begged, releasing her secret weapon, large foal eyes.
“I’m not sure Twilight, we should be getting to the library, we need to make sure our accommodation is sorted and get Spike settled, it's a miracle that he hasn’t woken up yet.” Said Cadence, though Twilight was a smart foal, and being a foal she had a unique talent, a talent she didn’t even realise she’d lost. The ability to sense when an adult was breaking and Twilight knew exactly how to push her old foal sitter over the edge.
“Please, Cady? Is it ok if I call you Cady? I know it might not be proper, but you’re hiding your wings, so I don’t think I can call you Cadence, but, maybe I could call you big sister Cady instead? PPllleeeeaaaassseeeeee”
Cadence froze, perhaps that had been just a little too much. To her credit, Cadence was attempting to keep her composure
“B-Big Sister? W-Well I wasn’t, or well, err, hmm, y-yes, that would be for the b-best, and as your b-b-b-big sister I shall go buy us some apples now!”
It took every ounce of will for Twilight not to break her composure and laugh. The Cadence she knew was legally her sister, and with the amount she doted on Twilight growing up, Cadence views Twilight as her little sister rather an a foal she sat for, having her previous knowledge was going to be something she’d be using to have a lot of fun with.
As Cadence stiffly walked up to Big Mac, who wasn’t that big yet, Twilight darted round the side to find the filly she heard before.
“Well Howdy Sugarcube, don’t think I’ve seen ya here before. My name’s Applejack, ya new to Ponyville?” Said Applejack loudly, as she looked around for any pony who might be listening, when she saw that Big Mac was busy with Cadence, she continued, “Hey Twi, good ta see ya, and Spike o’ course”
“Likewise Applejack, I’m glad the cloaking spell is still working, but I don’t think we can chat now, can we speak later?”
“Sure thing, Do ya remember AB’s old clubhouse from her crusadin’ days? I’ll wait for ya there after I finish work, we have a lot to catch up over.”
“Sure thing, I’ll see what I can do. Have you heard from Dash or Fluttershy?”
Applejack frowned and shuffled her hooves. “Can’t say I have, not since the first night, hopin' to see 'em soon.”
“I’m sure we will, I’ll see you later.”
“Later Twi.”
“bAaa” mumbled a sleepy Spike.
Leaving Applejack to her work, and adjusting Spike, she scurried back to Cadence’s side, just as the other alicorn received a large bag of apples from Big Mac.
“There you are Twilight, did you make a new friend?” Asked Cadence as the pair began to walk towards the library.
‘If you ignore that I was her wife's bridesmaid, and they helped me rule Equestria for over a decade …’
“Yeah! Her name’s Applejack, and she lives at Sweet Apple Achers, isn’t that cool!? She said I should come and play at some point”
“That sounds lovely, and erm, oh how to ask this. Twilight, this might sound strange, but I just wanted you to remember, that just because Applejack doesn’t have a horn, you can’t look down on her.”
‘Oh yeah, Equestria is racist, I hadn’t been reminded of that recently’ Thought Twilight. “Look down? But she’s taller than me, won’t I have to look up?”
“That, err, well, yes, but also no.” Cadence thought for a few moments, Twilight felt a bit bad, but at least Cadence’s heart was in the right place, unlike a certain Alicorn she was going to have words with, maybe she should stop making it hard for her new guardian… Nar.
“Oh, is this about what Mommy says about ponies being better than other creatures?” Twilight said, doing her best not to wince.
“Yes, Twilight, that-”
“But she never explained how. Like are we better at reading books or flying fast? Except unicorns don’t have wings, so I guess Pegasai are better fliers than Unicorns, is that it?”
“Well yes, but-”
“And unicorns have horns, but Pegasai and earth ponies don't, so unicorns are better at magic!”
“Yes, Twilight.” Sensing that this might be a critical moment in reaching the foal she once believed to be beyond saving from fanaticism, Cadence decided to test her luck, “do you know what Earth Ponies excel at?”
“Hmm, are they stronger than Unicorns?”
“Generally yes, though not always. Earth Ponies also have a stronger affinity for nature than the other tribes. Have you ever heard about the other Equestrian pony tribes?”
‘No, as Princess of Friendship, I sat around and read books all day.’ Thought Twilight, but she decided that a simple shake of her head would be a better response.
“Well, first there’s the Thestrals, they have wings like Pegasai, but instead of feathers, their wings are webbed, and they prefer to be active at night, then there are the Kirin, while we haven’t heard from them in a few decades, Celestia hopes to find them again soon.”
‘That's new, the real Celestia knew of the Kirin, but outside of a few ancient trade deals, she hadn’t kept tabs on them, though if this Celestia is looking for them, it might be best to warn Rarity’
“While both the Thestrals and Kirin look different, they are just as important as you and I, there is even another tribe, though they are extremely rare. They are the Crystal ponies …”
****************
The Golden Oaks (which was currently just an abandoned book collector house), was a place she didn’t believe she would ever see again, but after what she’d just learnt from Cadence, she was struggling to enjoy nostalgia.
As Cadence took her luggage down into the tree’s basement, Twilight began ascending the stairs to her old/ new room.
The poor Crystal ponies …
As she opened the door to her room, she levitated Spike onto the bed and began offloading the rest of her luggage on autopilot.
How could Celestria do such a thing, sure Sombra was evil, but the Crystal ponies weren’t!
She unfastened the saddle around her barrel, and along with a cloak, brought her only non-book luggage to a chest at the foot of her bed.
Around a thousand years ago, and still, the Crystal Ponies hadn’t forgiven the rest of Equestria, and she couldn’t blame them.
As she reached the chest, she used a hoof to raise the lid.
How could anypony forgive a nation that reduced their ancestral home to a molten wasteland?!
As she opened the chest, Twilight did not expect to find something staring back.
****************
Dumping her saddlebags onto the floor, and Telikineticly throwing her clothes onto her new bed, Cadence was finally free to stretch her wings. Fortunately, while looking for new residences for her and Twilight in the foal's requested destination for their new home, Cadence came across a home that had been sold to the crown, its previous owner passing away some years ago. The previous owner had been a rather eccentric pony, dedicated their life to growing Equestrias first true tree house, and she could certainly see the appeal, however, the decades it took to grow the residence made the project impractical, not to mention the maintenance, requiring monitoring, nurturing and careful grafting, if she and Twilight weren’t careful, they might end up with their living space slowly closing in around them.
As for their rooming situation, two rooms were ideal for bedrooms, above the trove of books and kitchen on the ground floor, the first floor had a spacious bedroom, washroom, and balcony which overlooked the centre of Ponyville, there was also the basement, while it was spacious, it certainly lacked the amenities of a living environment, at least for now, but it did have two significant advantages, resulting in her picking this room. First, the basement seemed to be almost soundproof, nothing a little magic wouldn’t be able to turn into completely soundproof, as for the second advantage …
Three rapid knocks rasped on the basement second door, which led to behind the Treehouse, Cadence waited in eager anticipation and was rewarded, as after a short pause, two slow knocks hit the door. Willing her horn to life, Cadence threw open the basement door, grabbed the silhouette of a pony she saw standing there, and yanked them into her basement and into an Alicorn hug*, before closing the doors, only slightly more carefully.
“Shiny” Cooed Cadence, as she nuzzled into the unicorn she grabbed.
“Can’t, breath.” gasped Shining Armor.
“But I missed you.” Pouted Cadence, though as a hoof began to tap her shoulder, she did relent and release the stallion who made her heart flutter.
“I missed you too Cady. “ Smiled Shinning Armor has he got back onto all four of his hooves. “How was the train, I hope Twilight wasn’t too bad.”
“I think so, but I get the feeling that she’s up to something.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, everything is just, too easy, despite how her mother was, and what you said about Twilight, she was a delight.”
“What?” Asked Shinning in disbelief. When Twilight was born, he’d done his best to look out for her, he even got his cutie mark while defending her from a falling stack of books, but those days didn’t last. Recently, their mother had begun filling Twilight's mind with her political views on how the pony tribes should be, and how they should be reverent to Celestia. When Shining had heard that Celestia wanted his sister to be given to Cadence, or have her horn removed, he truly believed that his sister would become hornless. At least before he heard his sister concoct a plan to sabotage Cadence.
“She even made a friend at the market, an Earth Pony.”
Shining mouth dropped, “How?”
“She wanted an apple from Sweet Apple Acers, so when we saw their stall she asked me to buy some apples, I think she met a filly who was working there. By the time I’d bought half a dozen apples, Twilight ran up to me and said she’d made a friend. She didn’t seem to understand what your mother meant when she talked about Earth Ponies being inferior. She was even excited about being invited to play”
“But, Twilight doesn’t do friends.” Shining said, as Cadence looked at him with surprise instead of shock he continued, “Twilight has never shown interest in making friends, the only things she’s ever shown interest in are Books and Princes Celestia, and Twilight hasn’t ‘played’ in years.”
Cadence’s mind went blank, had the filly really played her so easily, what was going on?
Before either of them could continue, the silence was shattered by a blood-chilling scream from upstairs. Thoughts of what Twilight was up to were forgotten as they both bolted towards the stairs.
As the couple entered the ground floor, Shining Armor took a defensive position at the base of the stairs, while Cadence leapt into the air, allowed her wings to propel her up the stairs, and with a fragment of Will, opened the door to Twilight's room, and landed in a combat stance.
Cadence swept her gaze over the room, looking for any threats, fortunately, the only occupants were the aforementioned Lavander filly, who was currently sitting atop a chest, and a crying baby Spike.
Slowly, Cadence began to relax her stance, “Are you sure Twilight? You sounded terrified, what happened?”
“Oh, errm, I thought I saw a really big ladybird, but it was just a spider.”
Cadence looked at the foal, but what she saw sent a shiver down her spine.
As Twilight took in a short breath, she smiled, and ever so slightly tilted her head to the side “I’m sorry for startling you, but nothing is wrong, I promise sister Cady..”
That expression, her mannerisms, and her tone of speech, it was as if Queen Celestia herself was speaking through the foal.
“Certainly, Twilight, I will leave you be, if you need me to deal with any spiders or ladybirds, please let me know.” Said Cadence as she left the room and closed the door behind her, trotting down the stairs, she began to break out into a cold sweat, where had Twilight learnt to do that!?
As she reached the ground floor, a white hood pulled her into a reassuring hug, “Sister Cady?” Asked Shining Armor.
****************
Not long later, dinner was served, though neither Twilight nor Cadence tried hard to fill the silence, after a few minutes of mostly silent eating, Twilight excused herself for an early night. As she got to her room, she cast a silencing spell around the room, a glamour to prevent any creature from seeing her magic outside, and allowed the illusion hiding her wings to disappear, unlike her friends, she had full control of her wings and horn, so didn’t need the enchantment to prevent any magical mishaps or accidental wing slaps.
Speaking of her friends, Twilight walked up to the chest that had given her a shock earlier, knocked on the lid twice, and slowly raised it. From inside, a pair of magenta, and aqua eyes looked up at her.
“Hi girls, it should be safe to come out now.”
“No girls here, only ladybirds - OW” Said Rainbow, who ended up on the receiving end of a butter yellow wing slap.
“Now Rainbow, Twilight did a good job distracting Princess Cadence, I’m sorry we scared you Twilight.” Said Fluttershy, as she carefully climbed out of the chest, and stretched her aching muscles.
“It's fine Fluttershy, I just wasn’t expecting to see you both so soon, Applejack didn’t even know you were in Ponyville.”
“Well, we only arrived here this morning, just before dawn.” Said Rainbow Dash, as she lazily flew around the room. “Didn’t want any creature spotting us, and the library seemed like a good place to bunker down before we attempted to find AJ.”
“Before dawn? Wait, have you two been travelling at night?”
“Eeyup” Replied Dash, “Wanted to avoid any Cloudsdale search parties.”
“I guess that explains why I couldn’t call you to the dreamscape, but what's this about search parties?”
“Yeaahhh, it's a long story, and I’d rather not have to answer like a bajillion questions and then explain it again to AJ, so can we hold off on the explanation?”
Twilight smiled, a wicked smile that made Rainbow regret what she’d said, she knew she’d just put her hoof in it somehow.
“Sure, sure,” Twilight said as she began walking towards her bed while casting a spell, within moments a unicorn version of Twilight materialised in the room.
“Hello, Good night.” Said the clone Twilight, who immediately settled into the bed, and began to snore.
The real Twilight turned back to Rainbow and Fluttershy, “So no questions until we meet Applejack? I guess we should go find her then.”
Fluttershy, realising what was about to happen, let out her breath, closed her eyes, and braced for what was coming, Rainbow, eyes wide, attempted to stop the Alicorn of magic, “Wai-”
She failed, and with a flash of lavender, the three fillies disappeared from the library.
****************
Footsteps echoed throughout the stone halls of the grand Cathedral, or at least the pony walking down the aisle liked to believe they did, sadly the current environment was not ideal for creating the desired atmosphere. Regardless, as she glanced at the many pews, arches, statues, and empty windows, it was hard not to be impressed. Indeed this Cathedral was a worthy monument to ‘The Bringer of Dusk and Dawn’, though the name was a work in progress, along with the windows, making stained glass windows was a lot harder than she’d imagined, probably due to the lack of sand.
But pondering would have to wait, her guest had finally arrived, though she was partially thankful that he’d allowed her enough time to finish her project…
She really was going crazy.
“I hope I didn’t ke *cough* keep you waiting too long” croaked Discord.
Turning around to view the Draqonaquis who had appeared on the pulpit, Luna was shocked at the state of the spirit.
“Discord, what in the Spark has happened to thee!”
Cough* “Oh, just some re-adjusting, but don’t worry, I’ve managed to get some more information, I even think I have a plan and a little gift. Just don’t tell anyone I’m going so far out of my way to be nice, I have an image to keep after all.”
Willing magic through her horn, Luna grabbed the Spirit and gently brought him next to her, he was so light in her telekinetic grip.
Slumping onto one of the pews, Discord continued, “Ah thanks Lu, I wanted to be dramatic, but it seems that I do need a seat, old age and all that, not that you’d know, you barely look a moon older than 100.”
“Enough Discord, something is wrong and thy attempt at drollery will not aid thee. Please, tell us what we can do to help.”
Discord sighed, he had hoped to have more time, but sadly reality wasn’t something you could argue back to without obscene chaos powers, just as well really, The Spirit of Reality would probably be a bitch.
Discord chucked at the notion, before replying, “I’m sorry Luna, but no, so please listen I have a fair bit to go through and a limited work count.”
“A what?” asked a confused Luna
“Never mind, I mentioned that someone had messed with reality last we met, what else did I say?”
“Yes, you mentioned that Equestria was vastly different, but Celestia was still in charge, and that Twilight and her friends were also present, along with some others whom you had yet to find, but you didn’t know why everything was so different, or what the buck happened to Equs!” Replied Luna, she would have shouted the last part, but without air, it would have been far too much effort and she didn’t feel like hurting the weakened spirit, at the moment.
“Ah yes, so, to answer, I managed to find out what happened to the other me when he met you and Celly.”
“Other you?”
“Yes, turns out that without the Elements of Harmony, you two were much more violent, and more methodical with putting me down, to the point where I died.”
“Wait what!?”
“Which part?”
“BOTH!”
“Ok, ok. No idea about the first, but it seems that one of you worked out how to kill me, and I was revived when good old Rainbow sent her pride parade across Equs, but you two did such a good job putting me down the first time, it killing me all over again.”
“No, Discord, please, there has to be something we can do! We art the Alicorn of the Dreams, by our whim the Moon and stars fly through the Sky, so please, tell me what to do!” Pleased Luna.
Smiling, Discord pated the trembling Alicorn, “Then let me speak, limited word count, remember. There is also nothing you can do.”
“Damn it, Fee on all this, why is this happening! How are we supposed to continue knowing we art the cause of thy death, what of Dame Fluttershy, how will we face her when we are the one who slew her beloved!”
“Please Luna, everything should work out, and if I've placed my faith correctly, I’m sure I’ll be back again.”
Luna sniffed but nodded to the Draconaquess.
“Good good, now then, The elements are on the move, a good number of them are already in Ponyville. A few others are journeying to Equestria as we speak, but there is an odd one who’s moving away.”
This shocked Luna, and while she was about to interject a talon silenced her.
“It’s not one of Twilight's friends, it's not even some pony I know, so they probably don’t even know about Fluttershy and the others, it's not like they would have any friends I wouldn’t know about after all. Then there is your … There is Celestia, she is not who we knew Luna, while I don’t think she has fallen, she may not be far off.”
“What do you mean Discord?”
“I don’t know much more than Ponies are viewed as warmongers, and Celestia is a symbol of pony superiority, I didn’t want to believe it either, but that’s the truth.”
Luna was struggling to handle the news, she knew things might be different, but there was no way her sister would ever consider such a path, not unless …
“Discord, hath thee discovered what is known of us on Eques?”
Discord deflated, “Sadly not, only that the echos of Nightmare Night have nothing to do with merriment if it even still exists.”
After a few moments to consider Discord's words, Luna was about to speak when the Spirit began to cough violently.
“Discord!?”
“Oh rats. Looks like that's the thirty-second warning, ok Moonbutt, final breakdown, wait for Twilight, her friends are the key to fixing all this, tell her that she needs all of them.” Discord snapped his talons several times, yet nothing seemed to happen. “Well that sucks, oh, and please pass a message on to Fluttershy for me.”
“Of course.”
“Tell her, Screw loose is a lovely name.”
Reaching out with his paw, Discord tapped the Alicorn's horn releasing a flash of light that enveloped the cathedral. In its wake, Luna had crumpled to the floor, succumbing to a dreamless sleep. Discord was nowhere to be seen.
The moon had slowly begun to rise over the orchards of Sweet Apple Acers, it had taken longer than Applejack would have liked to slip out of the family home, and while she loathed keeping secrets from her family, she couldn’t exactly say ‘I’m goin’ to meet ma alicorn friend, who just a few days ago was the princess of Equestria after Celestia retired, but that was all in another timeline.’ Yeah, honesty wasn’t going to help any creature here.
So when Applejack began to hear noises coming from the direction of the clubhouse, she was immediately on alert, had Twilight been followed? Had Twilight been discovered as an Alicorn? However, it didn’t take long before she heard a certain raspy voice, one she’d been longing to hear again.
“I’m telling ya Twi, teleporting shouldn’t do that to a pony, there is no way that mess was my fault.”
“Well, since Fluttershy didn’t need a magic cleaning spell, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree, miss can't-handle-faster-than-light-travel.”
“Hey, that's Mrs can't-handle thank you very much!”
‘Dash? And did Twi just mention Flutters?’ Without a second thought, Applejack galloped to the remaining distance to the tree, and after thundering up the ramp, threw open the door. Before her were three alicorns who looked like they’d been caught with their hooves in the cookie jar.
A pregnant pause overtook the tree house, as Applejack’s gaze was transfixed on Rainbow, while Fluttershy and Twilight looked between the couple, waiting to see who would speak first.
“Hey bae, miss me?” Rainbow finally said with a cocky grin.
“Hee hee, like the first drink in cider season.”
“Wow, that's like, 20% more than when I come back from tour.”
“Just shut up an get over here.”
Without waiting to be told a second time, Rainbow flapped her wings, launching her into the waiting hooves of Applejack. After a few spins, Applejack lowered Rainbow to the floor and broke their embrace, but flinched away as Rainbow moved in for a kiss.
“Err Dash, been thinkin', maybe we should keep things foal friendly since ya know, were foals.”
“Huh? What do…” Rainbow stopped for a moment and pondered to herself, “But we’re done way more than just hug, snugglings are still allowed right?”
Twilight and Fluttershy had to stifle their chuckles, the awesome, cool, and totally not-mushy Rainbow Dash, asking if snuggling was still allowed was something they would have struggled to imagine a few days ago.
“Course that's fine, and, yeah we have, but we also haven’t, if ya get my meanin'?”
“Yeah, totally,” Rainbow replied confidently, nodding her head. After a few nods she began to slow down, Applejack could almost see the cogs working behind her eyes. “Actually, no, you lost me.”
Applejack sighed, she’d been thinking a lot over the last few days about how her relationship with Rainbow had been affected, and while she was fairly sure she’d come to a logical, well-constructed, and reasonable solution, the only thing that description had in common with Rainbow was they were both well-constructed, at least Rainbow’s skull was.
“Look, Dash, I've been thinkin’, ah love ya, but we ain't married her. So till we’re of age and married again, we should just stick to innocent young stuff.”
“Yeah, yeah… But why aren’t we married?.” Replied Rainbow, confusion practically written across her face.
“Alright girls, sorry to intrude, but we’re burning time, and I want to get a few things sorted out before Spike wakes up and Cadence works out that the Twilight sleeping there only has three voice lines.” Interjected Twilight.
With a shared look that told Rainbow that the conversation wasn’t over, Applejack and Rainbow trotted over to where Fluttershy had made a comfy setting area using the blankets Applejack had left there the other night.
“Alright girls, first things first, I’m incredibly happy to see you all again. The last few days haven’t been fun, but seeing you three makes it worth it!”
Fluttershy let out a quiet “D’aaw”, Rainbow Dash and Applejack both rolled their eyes, but they both smiled nonetheless.
“Next up, I’m living with Cadence and Spike for the foreseeable future in the Golden Oaks, and no, I don’t think she has any memories of our previous timeline. I also haven’t heard from Rarity or Pinkie since the first night, have any of you had any more luck finding any creature with old memories or contacting Rarity and Pinkie?”
Three shaking heads was the response.
“Expected but unfortunate. I have a report on the changes in Equestrian politics, at least the changes that I've observed so far, I’ll leave it with you Fluttershy since I doubt any creature else is interested.”
With a lavender pop, several sheets of paper materialised neatly in front of a quietly giggling Fluttershy, as for the other two, at least Applejack had the decency to be embarrassed after being called out.
“Who cares about what a bunch of stuck-up ponies are saying? Once we work out who’s screwing with time, we’ll buck their flanks you’ll be back to being Equestria’s Princess, and we can go back to being friends with every creature right?” Replied Dash, as she took to the air, and began to throw a few practice jabs.
“While that is the goal, we need to find out how far back the changes go before we can fix anything. Any careless small change could have disastrous consequences for the future so we can’t act blindly.”
“What about small changes that we make carefully?” Applejack asked nervously. “Could ya, maybe, keep a few things the same?”
Three pairs of eyes looked at the apple pony, under the pressure of their stares, Applejack lowered her hat to cover her eyes.
“What could you want to keep from this world?” Cried Rainbow, “Celestia is a tyrant, Shy’s family is a mess, the pegasi want to kill everyone and we’re back to being foals, what could possibly be worth keeping from this timeline?”
“My Ma’s alive, and my Pa” Applejack replied solemnly.
A cold chill swept through the room, as the other ponies froze, even Rainbow dropped out of the air in surprise. In all the years they’d known Applejack, she’d seldom spoken about her parents, but they knew they both passed away before she got her cutie mark, for them to be alive now was an unexpected positive change.
“So that's why you were here and not in Manehatten.” Said Rainbow, “I thought you’d be there, which is why we went to the library.”
“Yeah, it’s hazy, but I think I was considering goin’, at least till the Sonic Rainboom hit. Ma’s not well, but she’s hangin’ in just about, is there any chance we can save them Twi?”
“I’m sorry AJ, I can enhance some potions with alicorn magic to help your mother, but when we restore the timeline, if this becomes a fully closed time loop, we might not remember any of this.” Said Twilight solemnly.
“Yeah, makes sense, if ya’ll excuse me, ah need some fresh air.” Avoiding looking at her friends, Applejack got to her hooves and left the clubhouse.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat in front of the tree, a while after she left she heard Twilight speak again, though she wasn’t listening to what was said. All she could think about was that her mother was dying all over again, and no matter how hard she tried to save her, it would inevitably be pointless when they saved Equestria.
Over time, she heard the telltale pops and zaps of Twilight’s magic, and then, silence. Her friends had gone back to the library where it was warm and they could stay hidden. Applejack couldn’t help thinking to herself ‘Sometimes, Harmoney can be mighty cruel’.
Her ears twitched as she heard the clubhouse door creak open, and hoof steps began approaching her, had Fluttershy remained behind? Dash would have flown over instead of walking down the ramp, by Faust, she needed Rainbow right now.
To her surprise, a light brown unicorn, with a red, yellow and blue striped mane sat next to her.
“Hey AJ, what do you think?” Said the unicorn with Rainbow's voice.
“Dash?”
“Yeah, Twi said that anyone was looking for me and Shy will be looking for pegasi, not unicorns, so, unicorn.” Said Dash with a small smile.
“Ah can see the logic in that, ya gonna be ok?”
“You know me, I'll be fine, Twi’s gonna let me have wings when we’re together and can keep hidden, she is also hoping I’ll teach you how to fly.”
“Heh, more likely you’ll finally get your dream of snuggling a cloud together.”
“Probs, but I'd love to share the skies with you.”
“I’d like that too.”
“I love you AJ.”
“Love you too RD.”
Applejack leaned into Rainbow, enjoying the closeness of her… what was Rainbow to her exactly?
“I need to correct you on a few things AJ?”
“Oh?” Applejack said as she sat up startled, as she looked at Rainbow, she was surprised at how determined the ex-pegasus looked.
“First, no creature says we’re not married, I don’t care if we’re in another timeline or another planet. I said those vows and I mean them.”
Taken aback by Applejack could only nod.
“Next, this isn’t just about your mother…”
Anger shot through Applejack, but before she could say a word Rainbow continued.
“She’s our mother, and I’m gonna do my best to bring her, and our Pa, back to our Equestria! You got that?”
Tears streamed down Applejack's cheeks, as she began to sob, but she couldn’t hold the tears back any longer.
As Fluttershy heard the wailing from outside, the cream-coloured unicorn with cyan hair quietly checked on her friends. Below her, she saw Applejack crying her heart out as Rainbow held her. With a sad smile, she closed the door, allowing the couple their privacy.
****************
Pinkie had forgotten how dull long treks could be, but at least one of her two companions was fun to be around. The three of them had set out that morning, and at Tempest's request, they had stopped early, with the hope of resuming their journey before dawn.
The plan was to gently change their sleeping pattern to acclimatise the three for nighttime travel since that would be when the Pegasai patrols would be the lightest.
Pinkie was bored, it was currently her turn to keep watch, even though she told Tempest they’d be fine, the unicorn had insisted, so the two of them agreed to take turns keeping an eye out for trouble. Taking a stone in one talon, she began to gently toss it up into the air in a game of catch, if she could use conventional magic, she might consider making some stones dance to amuse herself…
Pinkie had a thought as she caught the falling rock, and she snapped her talons.
“Hmm, Pinkie? Is everything alright?” Asked Tempest sleepily…
“Yeah, sorry, nothing to worry about so go back to sleep.”
Tempest grunted something under her breath and settled back to sleep. Pinkie smiled at Tempest while taking a bite of her cake, it might take some time, but the unicorn was warming up to her, a little bit at least.
Taking another bite of her cake, she stifled a chuckle, of course, if you turn a rock into a cake, you end up with rock cake.
