Chapters 2 The Equestria of Tomorrow
Twilight opened her eyes slowly, her head pounding as she tried to remember what had just happened. As the previous events snapped back to her; she quickly snapped back to reality and looked around her for her friends. She found no-one. She checked her surroundings and her jaw dropped. She was on the side of some kind of building, but everything was different. Everything was white; not a stain on anything. There were ponies walking down on the ground below her, all were shades of grey and white, matching the scenery. She saw some hovering things with ponies in them which reminded her of the chariots they had back home, except they ahead no wheels, they were shaped more like a pod and they needed nothing to help them fly.
She stood up, finding this all difficult to take in. Her breathing became faster and faster as she began to panic. What could have become of her dear friends? Were they ok? Did they even get sent here as well? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of sirens; the sound piercing her ears and making her head ache all the more unbearable. That was when another filly, an earth pony with white fur and a black and purple spiked mane with the cutie mark of a Phoenix landed next to her. The strange filly's eyes widened as she saw Twilight.
"What is this? How do you still have your colours? Not to mention those wings, that horn and that cutie mark! Who are you?" The filly continued eye her with suspicion, them her attention was drawn away from the Princess and to the sirens; which seemed to be getting closer and closer. "Never mind, we'll talk about it later. Come with me."
She ran and leapt onto the next building, gracefully soaring through the air and landing without any damage to her person, Twilight could tell that she had skill with climbing in all it's forms. She snapped out of her dazed and kicked herself into gear; flying clumsily to the next building using her wings. The strange filly led Twilight from rooftop to rooftop, it seemed to last forever. Them finally the sirens died down and they arrived at an abandoned building; far away from the other buildings. They went inside and the strange filly moved to the centre of the room where she lit a fire and sat beside it. "C'mon, sit down. I've got a lot I wanna ask you."
Twilight paused for a moment; trying to figure out what was going on here. When she found that she didn't have sufficient information to understand the situation she joined the strange filly by the fire, hoping she could get some information from her.
"So, now you have some explaining to do. How did you keep all of your..." She motioned to her body with her head. "Y'know."
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I do know. I'm not from here; wherever here is. I've never seen this place before in my life. I was just showing my friends a new potion I'd made and then it turned into some kinda portal. We were all sucked into the portal and then I woke up on that building you found knew on. What's with this place anyway? It's nothing like Ponyville."
The other filly froze. "D-did you just say Ponyville...?" Twilight nodded. "But that's impossible! Ponyville and all of it's inhabitants where destroyed fifteen years ago, at the beginning of the Fall of Celestia."
"The Fall of Celestia? Did something happen to her?"
"Yeah, something awful. When Celestia found that the wielders of the Elements of Harmony had gone missing, she kinda went crazy. She had her royal guard burn Ponyville to the ground and then began turning everything bland and white. She built a terrible machine which saps a pony of their horns, wings, colours and cutie marks. Turning them into bland zombies. She them uses the energy she gets from that magic to power herself to unimaginable proportions. Do you know anything about that?"
Twilight said nothing for almost a minute; amazed that Celestia was capable of such a thing. She then regained her composure and spoke again. "Back where I'm from everything's normal. I'm one of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony and we all just got sucked through a portal and arrived here."
The mysterious filly gasped. "Does that mean you're from the past then? You must be on the very beginning of the Fall of Celestia. You going through that portal and coming here, to the future, is what drives Celestia over the edge. We've got to find your friends and get you back to the past to prevent all this from happening."
"How are we going to do that though? This place seems big."
"This place is Canterlot. It's swarming with cops; the royal guard robbed of their colour and cutie marks and reduced to emotionless thugs which enforce Celestia's crazy laws."
"Is there anyone else who managed to keep some of their cutie marks and stuff?"
"There's two others that I know of; my friend and fellow anarchist Golden Shine. We try and mess with Celestia's plans together. Plus our friend Gear Shift, he helps us with computers and intel and stuff." Twilight pulls a confused face, and the mysterious filly pauses for a moment, before realising why she was confused. "Oh, there's no more magic. It's been replaced by this stuff called technology. It's a long story. Uh, anyway I'm Del Vira, it's nice to meet you." She offers a warm smile and Twilight smiles back.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, it's nice to meet you too!"
Rainbow Dash groaned as she slowly regained concioussness. She felt herself being dragged along the ground by her front two hooves. She opened her eyes to see a pristine white hallway with beautiful statues of Celestia at either side of the hallway at regular intervals. She was being dragged by two plain white stallions in matching blue uniforms. They dragged her for several minutes before they arrived at a pair of golden doors with another white stallion stood in red beside it. He opened the door and they dragged her inside. The room was filled with luxurious treasures with every colour of the rainbow. Celestia was sat on a multicoloured throne, her eyes wide, her mane ruffled and a manic smile on her face.
"Rainbow Dash! My beautiful little Rainbow Dash! Where have you been?! I have been waiting for sooooo long!" She cackled with glee, throwing her head back as she laughed.
"Celestia...? What's wrong with you... are you ok...?" Celestia pointed her hoof at the door and the guards that were holding Rainbow Dash dropped her to the floor and left the room. Dashie slowly climbed to her feet and looked up at Celestia, who was staring down at her from her throne.
There was a minute of silence before Celestia began talking again. "Ok, you are going to tell me exactly what happened when you left me all those years ago, and were the rest of you are right now."
"I have no idea what you're talking about Celestia! All I know is that I drank this potion that Twilight made and the next thing I know I was being dragged through this weird place by those strange ponies!"
"Hmm, it seems you're going to just start making up information to avoid telling me anything. Very well. DITZY!!! TAKE HER TO THE DUNGEON!!!"
The doors opened once again and a colourless Ditzy Doo with no cutie mark entered and walked up beside Rainbow Dash. Dash stared in horror at her stern face.
"Derpy? What did Celestia do to you?"
Ditzy turned to Rainbow Dash and struck her across the face with a hoof, sending her crashing to the ground with a rather nasty gash in her cheek. "I no longer go by that name. Celestia has made everything better here." She tied down Rainbow's hooves and wings and grabbed the long rope attached to her hooves and began to drag her.
Rainbow Dash wept silently as she was dragged along several identical hallways. After what seemed like forever they arrived in a room full of cells. These cells contained ponies who still had their colours and cutie marks. Dash's bonds were removed and she was thrown into a cell with a silhouette of a large pony in the shadows. Ditzy locked the cage door and left.
Rainbow Dash slowly picked herself up, staring at the shillouette. After an eternity of stillness, the shadowy figure left the corner and revealed themselves; it was Princess Luna.
"Rainbow Dash, you're back! What happened to you all?!" Rainbow Dash explained all that she had experienced to the best up princess of the night. "I see, well. I'd best full you in on what has happened while you've been gone. After you left, something inside Celestia snapped. I was unaware of how much emotion she had welled up inside of her, though I suppose she has been put through a lot.... After you left she got her elite mages to create some form of device which can steal a pony of their individuality; stripping them of their colour and cutie marks. She did it to just about everyone, except a select few."
"How come she hasn't done it to you yet? I would've thought you'd be the first target."
"She must wait, there is one night each year when the sun and the moon both appear in the sky at the same time. She is going to use her magic to create a lunar eclipse, then she will use that energy to steal everything that makes me, me."
"Wait, what's a lunar eclipse?"
"A lunar eclipse is basically what occurs in a solar eclipse, except the moon travels in front of the sun."
"I don't listen to Twilight often when she spouts her science stuff, but I've heard her enough to know that the sun and the moon are way too far away from each other for that to happen. Plus, wouldn't that destroy everything?"
"Celestia has the power now, she has the power of everypony she's sucked the life out of to add to her own; and yes, a lunar eclipse would surely mark the end of everything and everyone we know and love."
Rainbow Dash walked up to the small barred window and stared out into the city. Everything looked white and clean, the inhabitants emotionless; as if they were under some sort of trance. A small tear appeared in the corner of her eye, the whole situation beginning to catch up with her. The most stable and reliable pony she knows had gone crazy and was about to bring about the end of Equestria and everything else through her insane actions. She wiped the tear away and took a deep breath; her friends were still out there and she knew they'd help her out of this prison. Together they had been through many hard times, and their bond they have created with one another had proved to be a force which was near unstoppable.
They had stopped many villainous beings in the past, and Rainbow was sure that Celestia was going to be one of them.
It was a sunny day in Ponyville when Twilight and Spike sat in the living room of their home, waiting for their friends to arrive so they can show them one of Twilight's new inventions. Twilight hopped off he couch and began pacing, unable to be patient. She trotted back and forth, glancing out of the window every now and again, hoping to see her friends in the distance.
About half an hour later, she finally saw them.
"They're here, Spike! It's finally time!"
"That's great, Twi." Twilight glared at Spike, his unenthusiastic tone of voice irking her. She quickly forgot about that and skipped to the door. She opened it just as Applejack was about to knock.
"Hey guys! Come on in!"
She trotted back inside, her friends quickly following. "I'm glad you could make it, this new spell that I've designed should be able to give the user the ability to bend time to their will." She continued to lead her friends through corridors and downstairs until they finally arrived in her laboratory. The air was cold and there was a strange smell in the air which nopony could identify. The place was a mess, papers and test tubes strewn across the room. Twilight walked over to the counter furthest away from her and picks up and chemical which was glowing green.
"Here it is. Once we ingest this we should gain the ability to control all of time. We'll become the best at what we like to do!"
Rainbow Dash smirked. "You mean we could stop and start time and all that kinda stuff? I call first dibs!"
Twilight hovers the potion closer to Rainbow Dash, she grabs it out of the air and gulps it down. "Well, did it work?"
Rainbow's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell to the ground. Everypony else gathered around her, trying to figure out what was wrong with her. A large green sphere grew out from Rainbow's body, bathing the other six friends in it's glow. Once it had enveloped them all, it began to recede; taking all of them with it until it was finally reduced to nothing. There was not a sound to be heard apart from the screams of the ponies echoing off of the walls of the laboratory. A small shadow which had been viewing the chaos from the door of the laboratory fled the scene; their appearance masked in shadow.
