What Shall be True

“What!? Rainbow would never do that! She’d never let her friends die and you know it! For Celestia’s sake, she’s the element of Loyalty for a reason!”

“Ah don’t mean she sold us out or killed ‘em all or somethin’. But if she hadn’t been so buckin’ dense and actually listened for once, we might’ve won and all those ponies’d still be alive!”

“Then it’s not her fault! She just made a mistake!”

“If you make a mistake like that, then it’s your own damn fault!” Applejack and Twilight just glared needles at each other, before AJ conceded slightly. “Ah guess you want the long version, huh?”

Twilight just nodded slightly, not letting go of the incredible frustration she felt that Applejack didn’t see how ridiculous she was being.

Sssssip.

“Fine. Ah’ll tell you, for old times’ sake. It was almost four years ago now, and a couple weeks after the Invasion. Luna and the rest of us had liberated a couple nearby cities, and we were planning the big shot. We’d slip into Canterlot through a secret passage that Luna knew about, and rescue Celestia to beat down Chrysalis with a two-princess war machine. She put the five of us in charge of various things. ‘Shy, Pinkie, and Rares would be in charge of intel-gatherin’, Ah’d be gettin’ the troops together, and Rainbow’d iron out the finer details of the plan.”

Ssssip.

“Everythin’ was goin’ great until a few days from when we’d planned it to happen. Ah couldn’t put my hoof on it at the time, but…somethin’ just felt wrong. Like it was all goin’ too well. Ah tried tellin’ that to Rainbow, but she just wouldn’t listen! Kept goin’ on an’ on ‘bout how I should be focusin’ on my job instead ah doin’ hers! Maybe she’d’ah been better about it if Luna hadn’t handed her that job in the first place. In any case, we went with her plan instead ah mine. You can probably guess what happened next.”

Twilight just nodded, putting the pieces together. “They knew you were coming.”

AJ nodded with her. “Ah dunno how they did, but they did. Ah was right to think somethin’ was off, 'cause when we got there, Chrysalis was waitin’ with her whole dang brood. We’d been set up, one hundred percent.”

She shoved a hoof at Twilight. “But’cha know what? We fought anyway. Made ‘em pay threefold for every one of ours they got. Luna took on Chrysalis personally, while we kept the horde off ‘er, and Spike and the rest of our troops cleared an exit. An’ the worst part is that Luna darn near won that fight!”

Twilight knew she should feel bad for her friends, but couldn’t help but swell with pride at the notion of her assistant and best friend being so brave.

Then Applejack just sat back into her chair, no longer looking strong or powerful or fiery, but just looking dead inside. “That was when Ah bucked up. Caught a sword in the leg, and lost a dang hoof to it. The hit gave the Changelin’s a chance to peg Luna, and turn the tide of that fight. Ah…Ah don’t remember much of it, Ah was…kinda gettin’ stomped on by a dozen drones or so. But Luna’s last act was to make Spike a full-grown dragon, to give us a shot at gettin’ home free. It worked, but we sure as shootin’ payed a price for it. Rares got hit with Dragonfire tryin’ to pull me outta the fray. ‘Shy lost her eyes when Spike hit ‘em with his tail, and that tail caught Pinkie in the shoulder twice. Still not sure why that cut ‘em up so bad, though.”

“Oh. Some dragons can get large bony protrusions on their tail-tips when they grow up. The bones are sharp enough to act like blades.”

Applejack nodded, then waved her hoof as if to dismiss the distraction. “Dash prolly got the worst of it. Spike’s tail crushed her up ‘gainst the cave wall, an’ cost her a leg, an eye, a few ribs, and darn near the rest of ‘er. It cost at least a few dozen other ponies either their lives or a limb or two, but Spike’s little growth spurt did the trick. He got wedged in the cave, blockin’ the Changelin’s from gettin’ in, which gave us all more’n enough time to run for the hills. After that…well, it’s prolly not hard for you to figure out the rest.”

Twilight didn’t nod that time, instead connecting the dots from that story to the others she’d heard. “But…that doesn’t sound like it was her plan that screwed you over. It sounds like either plan would’ve failed, since they probably had a spy in the mix.”

AJ shook her head. “Mah plan was to split our forces in secret, send half of ‘em through the front door while the rest kept the Changelin’s busy, so the spy wouldn’t know. But Rainbow didn’t like that, kept sayin’ there was no spy, an’ that Ah was just bein’ paranoid, so we went with her plan instead.” Applejack growled, as if the pegasus she was accusing could hear her, then just sighed into another sip of tea. “Not like it matters. S’all in the past now.”

Twilight grabbed for the tea, only to have her grip fill with air. A quick glance around showed Pinkie was no longer present, having taken her and Twilight’s mugs into the kitchen to clean. Probably so she didn’t have to hear that story again, poor thing.

Then Applejack just shook her head and put on a smile. “What am Ah doin’? Here you are, back from the dead, an’ Ah’m sittin’ here tellin’ mopey old war stories!?” She laughed again and playfully punched Twilight’s shoulder way harder than she should have. “Ah’ll go get Pinkie, and we can getcha a load of apples. Hay, Ah’ll deliver ‘em myself.”

Twilight forced a smile as Applejack got up out of her chair. “Just like old times?”

“Just like old times,” Applejack repeated as she vanished into the kitchen.

Twilight didn’t follow, partly to give them privacy, and partly because she was so lost in her own thoughts. She knew her friends had gone through a lot. She had filled in a lot of blanks herself after Pinkie’s story. But that…that was easily worse than most of the things she’d filled in those blanks with. The thought that they’d gotten so close…so close to victory…only to fall so, so far. No wonder everything went so wrong.

And Spike…

Twilight nearly collapsed, thinking about her baby-dragon-assistant. He had been so very brave, charging right into battle with the rest of them. She could almost see him on the battlefield, decked out in armor with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, spewing dragonfire at any Changeling that dared to touch him. He’d given his life to defend the others, and even though it was more Luna’s choice than his, she had no doubt that he would have done the exact same thing regardless.

And that…

She was so proud of him. She just wished she’d gotten a chance to show it more.

She felt a few tears fill up her gut, making their way up to her eyes, but the distinctive sound of Applejack’s hooves interrupted her.

clop, clop, clop, thunk! clop, clop, clop, thunk!

“Come on, Twi,” she said plainly, gesturing to the door. “Let’s getcher apples and getcha back to the Library.”

Twilight rolled out of her chair, forcing a little smile. “Isn’t it the Pharmacy now?”

“Aw, shucks Twi. It’ll always be your Library no matter what it’s called or who’s in it.”

Twi just laughed. It may not have been totally appropriate, given where her head was at the time. But that thought definitely lifted her spirits a little.

“You know, Applejack,” Pinkie started, reappearing next to AJ, “you really should call her Nightie in public.”

“Ah know, Ah know, but…Ah’m warnin’ yeh, Ah’m not the best’ah liars.”

“I know, but…just try, Applejack. Okay?”

Applejack nodded as she opened the door, motioning for the two of them to go out ahead of her.

“So how long you stayin’ in Ponyville, T--Nightie?” Twilight almost laughed, before she realized that AJ was giving their long conversation some validity to anyone in earshot.

‘AJ, you fantastically clever mare, you.’ “Oh, just until my horn heals. Won’t be more than a week or so. I just didn’t want to travel the roads again without my magic.”

“Certainly a good idea. And really, I don’t mind setting you up with a place to stay for that long.”

“Thanks. And I’ll try and help you out as much as I can in the meantime, Pinkie.”

The three of them rounded one corner of the house to be confronted with a large cart, surrounded by giant buckets of apples, all being arranged and rearranged by a grey pegasus with an olive-green mane and tail, and a cutie mark that showed a potted pine tree. He turned up to look at the three approaching mares, then just smiled at Applejack slightly.

“Howdy, Green Hoof! Y’done for the day?”

“Sure am.” His voice certainly didn’t match the image of a farm pony. It matched much more closely to some of the ponies Twilight had heard in Manehattan during Rarity’s fashion show last week.

Or, more accurately, five years, six months, two weeks, and two days ago. But one subjective week.

“Well, why didn’t you come in and say somethin’? Ah woulda handed you your pay for the day.”

He shuffled his hooves slightly. “Applebloom said you were with customers.”

“Oh, good, she did find you.” AJ glanced around suddenly. “Where is that little filly, anyway?”

“Oh! She said she was watering the Zapapple Trees.”

“What!? Oh, that little…” she stopped herself, presumably before spouting of a string of explatives. “At least she’s doin’ somethin’ productive, Ah suppose. Go ahead an’ put’cherself in the logbook for me, wouldja? You know which drawer the bits’re in.”

Green Hoof nodded, then smiled at Pinkie. “Always nice to see you again, Pink. And a pleasure meeting you too, miss.” He politely hoof-bumped Twilight as he walked by.

Applejack started hefting buckets of apples into the cart, and Twilight was amazed at how much she was able to carry these days, compared to her usual hauls.

Pinkie reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the little baggie of bits. “Whrrf shed ah poot his?”

Twilight and Applejack both had to stop themselves from bursting out laughing. “Just drop it on the dinin’ room table. Ah’ll handle it when Ah get back.”

Pinkie dashed off, leaving Twilight alone with Applejack as she lifted another bucket into the cart.

“Do you…want me to help?”

She just chuckled. “Twi, Ah don’t rightly see how you could be any help at this.”

The two of them stayed silent as AJ loaded in one more bucket, before crawling under the tongue of the cart and standing up straight to lever it onto just her back and two wheels. It didn’t look easy with that pegleg, but it looked like she had already solved that problem long ago.

The two of them started for the front of the house, but AJ stopped them.

“Listen, T--Night. Ah know whatcha must think’ve me, after everythin’ Ah said in there.”

“Applejack, Luna’s death was an accident. You can’t blame yourself. Believe me, if you blame yourself for every little mistake, you’ll never get through the day.”

“Ah meant with the whole pricin’ thin’, although…um…thanks. But Ah guess Ah wanted you t’know that…Ah am tryin’, Twi. Ah’m keepin’ my prices as low’s Ah can get ‘em. Ah drop as many favors as Ah can get away with. Ah just…Ah guess Ah just wanted you to understand that.”

Twilight leaned into the other mare’s shoulder (which felt like iron covered in skin and fur) softly. “I know, Applejack. I figured that was the case.” Okay, it was a white lie, but she was earnest when she added, “And I forgive you wholeheartedly.”

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief, then leaned into Twilight as much as she could. “It’s good to have yah back, Twi.” Then she paused for a second. “Sorry…Ah meant Nightie.”

They stayed like that for a brief moment, before Pinkie rounded the corner ahead of them. “Come on, you slowpokes!”

Applejack stood up straight, letting some of that inner fire of hers in Pinkie’s direction. “Ah’ll have you know Ah’m haulin’ three hundred apples with a peg-hoof. Keep that in mind when you go an’ call me a slowpoke!”

“Oh, I had it in mind. I just felt like calling you a slowpoke anyway!”

Applejack threw a hoof at her, one that Pinkie dodged very easily with the agility Twilight had come to expect from her. Then the two of them laughed, and Twilight joined in this time. Horrible future or no, it was a great feeling to have the three of them together again.

Twilight couldn’t sleep at all that night.

It wasn’t her stomach growling in protest to her hopelessly small dinner, or the way her skin felt kind of tight on her for some reason, or the way another of Pinkie’s customers came in and nearly recognized Twilight, or the creepily disturbing way that the sun went from its noontime position (where it had sat all day) to set in less than a minute. Nor did it have anything to do with the fact that the night was way, way too dark.

It was the notion of Sleepers that kept her from resting properly.

All night, she laid there, staring at the objects around her in the slightly-brighter-than-last-night-but-still-too-dark starlight. She could see the objects in the guest room around her, just enough to know their shapes and locations. None of them looked like Changelings, but Twilight just couldn’t convince herself that it was safe. Had she somehow messed up? Given her true identity away, or said something illegal? Were the Changelings coming to break in, and steal her away in her sleep? Wrap her up in a cocoon and feed off her love until her mind eventually broke down and she turned into a hollow shell of a pony?

She was never getting to sleep tonight, was she?

Twilight groaned angrily and reached a hoof out to her nightstand, where Star Swirl’s book sat like it had always been there. She’d spent the rest of the day reviewing her formula, trying to re-route it so it could bring her back into the past. But there were still so many questions she needed to answer before she could finish it. After all, if the other time spell had only lasted a few minutes, why did this one seem to be permanent? Why had it sucked her into the future in the first place, instead of making a window like it should have?

And what would happen if she did go back to her time? Obviously, if she made it back to when she left, none of the events leading to this future would ever happen. So did that mean that this timeline would go on without her? Or would it be obliterated by the paradox, and she would live out her life on one where she came back five minutes later instead of five years? If that happened, would she even remember this timeline, or would those memories be wiped from her mind as never having occurred? After all, if this timeline never happened, that meant she couldn’t remember it happening.

Twilight just growled at her brain to stop running around and rolled over. She couldn’t do any work, or even light a candle to read a good book to get her mind off things, without breaking curfew (a rule she had no keen desire to break). Maybe this was why Star Swirl abandoned those spells, because they were giving him such a bucking headache.

Thunk.

The sound was faint, barely even perceptible, but definitely came from outside. Twilight jumped up in her bed, immediately panicking, but other than the one or two stars visible through the Guest Bedroom window, there was nothing to see other than the faint outline of Ponyville around her.

Wait…

A dark shape suddenly swooped down from the top of her vision, then started getting larger and large—

Twilight ducked just before her window exploded with a cacophonous crash!. Something tore through the air just above her, and landed against the far wall with a sickening mixture of a thunk!, a crunch!, and a splat!. Then, as quick as it came in, it sped right back out, with the distinctive fwoosh of feathers slicing through the air like knife blades, accompanied by the tinny whistle of the actual knife blades at the leading edge of those wings. It wasn’t hard for Twilight to put the pieces together as she sat back up in her bed.

A pegasus, armed with wingblades and probably hoofblades, just crushed a Changeling against her bedroom wall.

There was another soft fwoosh in the distance, and another dark shape descended from the sky to attack some unseen target.

Then there was a shrill cry of pain and agony, one that was utterly unequine, and all Tartarus broke loose.

Pinkie Pie burst into the guest bedroom, flicking the light on, apparently not caring about curfew anymore. “Twilight! Twi, are you okay!?”

Twilight just nodded, covering her eyes from the sudden brightness.

“Oh my Celestia! What happened in here!?”

“Pegasi are attacking the Changelings. They’re armed, and they’re good.”

Pinkie made a noise that couldn’t decide if it was happy or scared, while Twilight uncovered her eyes to finally see…

…oh…

…so that’s what Changeling guts look like.

Pinkie dashed over to Twilight, grabbing her hoof and dragging her off the bed.

“Wait! Pinkie! The book! The disguise!” Twilight stammered, just as a distant explosion assailed their ears.

Pinkie looked like she was all set to tear into Twilight at that instant, before understanding crossed over her face.

“Well hurry up, then!”

Twilight pulled the book under her wing, zipping the bodysuit over it. She would have a weird bulge on one side, but that was excusable under the circumstances. Next came the contacts…oh, buck it. There were ponies screaming and buildings burning, she doubted her life would depend on some colored contacts.

Twilight sped downstairs, meeting Pinkie by the front door. When the two of them ran out, the world was lit by the harsh orange-yellow from people’s houses. Someponies were simply staring out their bedroom windows, but nopony was on the streets. Above the world, now-more-visible dark blurs sped every which way, and it took Twilight a split-second each time one did to tell which ones were Changelings and which ones were pegasi.

“PONYVILLE FOREVER!” somepony in the distance shouted, followed by a loud explosion.

Pinkie ignored all of it as she ran through the streets dragging Twilight behind her.

They jammed to a halt when a Changeling rounded a corner in front of them. And the minute it saw them, it hissed, bared its fangs, and charged full gallop.

Twilight stumbled backwards, her wings flaring in pure terror, tearing right through the bodysuit and stretching into full view.

She didn’t mean to do it. It was pure instinct, made even more ironic by the fact that she had no idea how to pull off sustained flight. All she had done was reveal her secret in her final few moments.

But it was enough to stop the Changeling dead in its tracks not six feet in front of them. After all, in its mind, it just saw a unicorn become an alicorn in the space of two seconds. Add in the fact that there weren’t any more alicorns…well, the look of shock and surprise and confusion on the Changeling’s face seemed appropriate.

And then fear landed on that face when Pinkie Pie pulled out her Party Cannon.

Twilight had no idea where she’d pulled it from, or where she’d put it in the meantime, or how she’d manage to keep it around with the Invasion. Nor did Twilight give a damn, because right now, she’d never been happier to see that infernal contraption in her entire life.

Bo-BOOM!

It didn’t fire confetti and streamers anymore, instead firing a single glass shell that exploded on contact with the Changeling’s hastily-erected shield. It was thrown back quite a ways, face steaming and body writhing but still very much alive.

‘Wait…when did Changelings make shields? That’s advanced magic!’

The Changeling ignored her silent question and flipped onto its porphyrous hooves, screeching in an unholy high-pitched scream of pain and anger. Then it charged again as Pinkie reloaded her cannon, this time flying over the ground at almost-unthinkable speeds.

Pinkie’s leg twitched, and she shoved the party cannon aside and tackled Twilight to the ground.

Not a half-instant later, a multicolored streak cut through the air above them, and the extended wingblade of that pegasus instantly liberated the Changeling’s head from its neck before Twilight could even blink. The force launched the pegasus into a flat spin, which became an awkward tumbling landing, which became a roll, which became a takeoff. And as Twilight and Pinkie got to their hooves to greet their prismatic flying savior, who was arcing back around to meet them, Twilight instantly recognized…

“Rainbow Dash!” she screamed. “Rainbow, it’s m-OOF!”

Dash hit her at full speed, knocking her right off her hooves as the two of them turned hard. Twilight was slammed against the wall of a building, and screamed in pain as it roared all over her body.

Then Rainbow pinned her against the wall with two well-placed wingblades, and jammed the sharp metal edge strapped to her one forehoof under Twilight’s skull and against her neck, drawing just enough blood to be threatening. And she stared directly across into one very angry magenta eye as Rainbow hissed a bloodcurdling greeting to her.

“Hey there, Changeling.”