Dust and Dawn: Stagnant Space

by Blue Blaze {COMET}

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 6371

Twilight gets an invitation to a party for a Ponyville newcomer, but that newcomer may as well spell darkness and disaster for the entire town.

Twilight Sparkle couldn't be happier. Ponyville has set a new record for the length of time between disasters that have occurred in the otherwise quiet little town, there are no new evils rising in the horizon and her new telescope just arrived in the mail. Then, she gets a party invitation for a pony that just arrived in town. Twilight soon learns that the new pony isn't as she thought she was, and she may be more trouble than she seems. Answers seem to evade Twilight, as she can't pin any information from the newcomer. But in the background, darkness is rising, and the only way out of the danger is through cooperation and perseverance.

Meanwhile, the new mare struggles to fit into her new home...

AUTHOR'S DISCLAIMER & NOTES:

I know "Adventure" is tagged with the story, but halfway through it's gonna slightly shift towards slice of life. Why? Because that's how I plan it to be. I'm warning all of you this now because I can't have both "Adventure" and "Slice of Life" tags at the same time. So just be aware of that.

I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to tags.

Also, this story is rated teen for violence, broken bones and possibly a little bit of blood.

Published 2014-07-06 04:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-12-02 03:43:37 UTC

Between The Cracks

Sad.

That was the emotion that she was experiencing. Sadness. The power of negativity. It swirled and churned around her like a misty black smoke, filling her pores and tainting them with sorrowful energies. Her body was a tangled web of agony and longing. She felt the burn of deep, non-existent cuts sting along the length of her barrel, throwing her heart into overdrive as pain seeped into her spinal cord. She wanted to remember. She tried to remember. It was something important that she’d forgotten and could not recall. Her brain was a stagnant space between crippling torment and a waning focus to recall. Her first breath filled her lungs with gaseous anguish, and as her body tried to expel the element, she coughed up a liquid that stuck at the top of her mouth and the rim of her lips. It tasted strongly of iron. She tried to open her eyelids, but the haze hovering over her form assaulted her pupils. Her eyes began to bite and itch, tears trickling out of the corners.

Then, she felt the ground. A sense of direction overcame her and she found her ears orienting her position. Gravity was applied on her right side, while the left met a cold, unknown surface. The storm of torture dissipated abruptly and she could no longer feel the pain attacking her. The comparison of sensation between before and after left a numb feeling on her skin as her coat stood on end. She was left alone on the floor, chilled and distraught. The mist left her, but she could not stop crying. Why could she not stop crying? She could not recall.

“Ah, there you are. I’ve finally found you.”

She opened her eyes for the first time and newfound light burned through her retinas like a newborn waking to the outside world. Her body was suddenly upright and she found the strength in herself to keep still in a sitting position. Her hooves were positioned over her face for some reason, and she found them wet with her own tears as they trickled down her cheeks. The lack of soreness from before made her a bit uncomfortable, and she shifted her haunches side to side against the surface she was on. When she peered up to meet her speaker, her mind stopped. All logic and common sense was disregarded when she regarded her current situation.

There was an abnormal being floating in front of her, sitting in a wooden throne with red backing and steel headpiece that had certain flourish cut into its design. It had its legs crossed with both hands held together on its lap, its thumbs twiddling with each other like twin brothers bickering over a glass of milk. The creature had its ancient yellow eyes on her, watching her like a hawk and scrutinizing her soul through the window of her pupils. She sniffled and looked back at it, not able to control the hiccups that came with her sobbing. She wondered what it was. A draconequus. Yes, that’s what it was, a draconequus. The name just appeared right out of her head. Abruptly remembering that single word was a strange and foreign sensation to her, as most of her memories were still on hiatus. How did this one get through? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Hadn’t she seen that draconequus somewhere before?

“You’re quite troublesome, you know that?” the draconequus said, lifting one paw up in the air. “Appearing in one place and arriving dead in the other. It’s difficult to keep track where you’re ending up. How you managed to find this realm in the first place still baffles me.”

She choked back a sob and tested her voice, unsure if it would work. It returned light and soft, if not a bit scratchy. “W-Who are you? Where am I?”

The corner of its mouth curved upward an inch. “Oh? So you don’t remember? How peculiar.”

She shut her eyes and shook her head, tilting her skull downward. Looking at her hooves, her mind remained stagnant. “I remember… I remember…”

“Hmm, I was a bit afraid this would happen,” continued the draconequus, scratching the bottom of its chin with a long skinny finger. “Pulling you from death’s row is no easy feat, I’ll admit. But as long as you’re still alive, I’ll count it as a victory.”

Her gaze trailed back to her speaker. “W-What do you mean? Death’s row?”

It shook its head. “Tsk tsk, you seem to be a bit more aloof then I thought. No matter, you’ll get through this one. Eventually.”

A blank expression slid over her face and the shine in her eyes seemed to disappear. “Where… I…”

The dragonequus uncrossed its legs and leaned forward, resting its head on its knuckles as its arms were posted near its knees. “Look, we’re running out of time. I know your head’s a little bit empty at the moment, but we need to get moving. And when I say ‘we’, I mean you. You’re getting the second chance we agreed on, and a little extra, courtesy of moi. But considering how brain dead you are at the moment, you really don’t have a choice in the matter, do you?”

Her ears drooped. Then, she looked up at the draconequus expectantly. “Who… Who am I?”

“I am sending you off, my dear,” it concluded, sitting up straight in its seat. “Just remember, stay in Ponyville. Don’t attract too much attention and stay in Ponyville. That is your one and only shot to keep away the evil little miscreants that might follow you through the stream. The signs will come sooner or later, you just have to wait, watch and be patient. With some luck, and perhaps a little bit of work, your memories might come too.”

“Stay… in Ponyville…” she repeated dimly. Her head tilted slightly to the right. “My… Memories?”

It smiled sadly. “Yes, my dear. Your memories.”

Then, the draconequis lifted its arm, snapped its fingers and her vision was filled with light.

Author's Note

This story was conceptualized by playing Skyrim. Modded Skyrim. Wayyyy too much modded Skyrim.

Also, the draconequss's first line was originally "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" I couldn't help myself.

Everything you see here is self edited. Everything you will see in the future is also self edited until further notice.

On that note: CLICHES!

Chapter 1

“The cake’s done,” Spike announced, peeking into Twilight’s study from the stairs of the Ponyville Library. He had a small pink apron tied around his stomach. “I’m finished with the icing and everything. Do you want a piece?”

Twilight peered up from her books, which were all scattered neatly on her desk. “Did you remember to not include gemstones?”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t put any gems in the batter and instead put them on after the icing was done. I could cut a piece for you that doesn’t have any if you want.”

Twilight smiled. “That was a good idea Spike. Yes, I’d love a piece of your cake.”

“You got it, Twi.” Spike said as he gave a thumbs up and zipped down the stairway.

Twilight took a deep breath in, detecting the faint odor of tree leaves in the background and exhaled slowly, enjoying every single second of it. Birds chirped up in the branches of the Library and their songs could be heard inside through the open window in the wall. Sunlight flooded through the split glass and fresh noontime air quaintly drifted inside the building, bringing a certain Ponyville quality with it. Particles of dust could be seen through the rays of light, and the tiny specks spiraled upward until they graced the ceiling and spread apart, just to fall back down again. Twilight tried to keep her home as tidy as possible, and both she and Spike had weekly sessions of simply dusting the place out to try and get rid of the extra residue that lingered from the aging books around them. But no matter what the two did, they seemed to end up with more dust then they started with. Still, Twilight was glad that she wasn’t sneezing every time she wanted to pull out a book that hadn’t been used in a long time.

The magician turned her attention back to her work. She had a sprawl of books, tomes, scrolls and other various reading materials set along her workplace. A stack of books tall as herself was sitting beside her, ready to be grabbed for reference at any time. She shifted in her seat a little, and inwardly was thankful that Spike got her a bright red cushion for her desk chair to be sat on so she didn’t have to study on a hard wooden surface for hours on end. Her focus returning to her, she lifted up her quill with her telekinesis and examined it. The end was still pointy and fine enough to write with and the feather was still in fine condition. It was nice to have her own personal supply of quills, especially since she didn’t have to send Spike off to that terrible, terrible store of Quills and Sofas, which by contrast to its name, never seemed to have any quills in stock. Her ink pot was still full of black liquid, so she was good to go. She found the last line she was working on when suddenly a voice from behind her made her jump.

“By the way Twilight, the mail just got in,” Spike said, appearing once again. Twilight frowned, a bit peeved that he didn’t mention it twenty seconds ago, but quickly shook it off when she heard what he had to say next. “I think your new telescope arrived. Ditzy came along and had me sign for this big box. I dunno what’s in it, but considering that the shipment was from the Royal Starlight Sanctum, I think it’s safe to say what it is.”

A wide grin appeared on her face. She pushed her chair back and got up, trotting over to where Spike was. “Thanks Spike. I’ll go see what it is right now.”

Making her way down the stairs, Twilight had to hold herself back from flinging herself down the steps out of excitement. She’d been waiting for her new telescope for two months now, and it finally arrived! Now she could see four times as far as her old one could, and the modern, sleek design of the 400 model could just make her squeal in joy! It was an astronomer’s dream come true! Well, she didn’t consider herself to be a true astronomer in the sense, but she always did like to broaden her studies as much as she could, and she had been interested in the night sky and its details ever since she was a little filly. When she originally moved to Ponyville, she was already sad that she wouldn’t be able to access Celestia’s private (except for Twilight) telescope in the Canterlot Observatory. But, when she learned that there was a telescope already placed in the Ponyville Library, her worries all melted away. It seemed that the Princess thought of everything.

Her hoofsteps rang out clearly as Twilight made her way down to the front door. There, she could see a lengthy box lying beside the bookcases. She rushed over the last few feet and took a closer look at the object, placing her two hooves on the top while giddy like a schoolfilly on the last day of the school year. There was no doubt that this was her new telescope.

But then, something squeaked to her right, followed by the sound of hinges swinging to and fro. She peered off to the right and looked to see a black envelope with white trimming on the floor right beneath the door’s mail slot.

“What’s that?” Spiked asked behind her. Twilight didn’t say anything and instead walked up to the object and picked it up with magic. She stared at it, squinted and frowned, flipping it forward and back. She opened it and inside was a tiny piece of paper folded up neatly to fit the space of the envelope.

GRANDEUR MEETING OF INDIVIDUALS SCHEDULED FOR TODAY AT 265 ACORN ST.
BE THERE BY 2:00 P.M. ON THE SPOT. OCCASION: ARRIVAL OF DISCOVERED UNKNOWN VARIABLE.
THIS MESSAGE IS CONFIDENTIAL. DO NOT SHARE IT WITH OTHERS.

Twilight shook her head and smirked. “It’s just Pinkie Pie again.” Twilight explained to Spike.

Spike made an “o” shape with his mouth. “Another party?”

“Another party.” She confirmed. “I just hope that you’re won’t be sick of cake by then.”

It was Spike’s turn to grin. “Trust me Twilight, I’ll never get tired of cake.”

Twilight eventually brought up the box of her new telescope to her study and cleaned up some of her books. She decided when she was leaving the Library later that afternoon that she could set up the telescope after she got back home from the party. As she made her way through town, Spike was chatting up on her back, pondering what kind of pony was the guest of honour at the party. Pinkie threw parties almost every day of the week, but she would rarely throw one for a new pony that had moved into town. There would only be a celebration for a newcomer once every two months, which was not that much considering the rate of which Pinkie Pie pumped out parties. Twilight and Spike could only guess who they would meet at the occasion, but every single time they made a new friend in some shape or way.

As the two made their way through Market Square, Twilight couldn’t help notice that the air around the streets were a bit more tense than normal. Sure, everypony was making their way around the stalls, buying and searching for the best prices they could get as usual, but they did it with a bit more urgency. There were tiny, quiet conversations that customers and shop owners alike were making between each other and the once loud hubbub of debate and business was slightly muted to more personal conversations. Twilight spotted ponies sitting in a patio for a local café talking to each other in a hush. She almost wanted to linger and listen to what they had to say, curious as to what was going on in the town. Was danger afoot again? It had been so long since Twilight had to solve a dangerous crisis in Ponyville that she was constantly expecting some kind of evil to pop up one day. Was this is? Or was the town in another fad where they made mountains out of molehills again? She couldn’t tell, and she willed herself to walk right on by towards the party, because as far as she knew, it was none of her business.

Twilight finally arrived at 265 Acorn Street. The house was located near the edge of town, which made a lot of sense. Most of the inner buildings already hade owners and the newer citizens of the town moved either into old houses around the rim of Ponyville or went into newer, more modern apartments that had been recently built. Since passing the café, Spike had gone quiet once he sensed Twilight’s unease. The two had approached the building from the back, and as Twilight rounded the corner of the street something went off in her mind. There was something very, very wrong that happened here. She could feel it in her gut, her instincts firing off in the depths of her consciousness that there was serious danger afoot.

And then she saw it. There were a multitude of royal guards and police ponies surrounding the front door of the house, or rather, what used to be the front door. There was a large hole that was blasted out from the entrance, and you could see clearly into the building through the gap. Police tape was wrapped around the hole and ponies garbed in blue uniforms and caps were stalking throughout the compound searching for clues and speaking with one another. Twilight peered across the street and saw that there was a hole in the house directly opposite of the first one that had exactly the same size as the other and was at the same level. She could also see a paramedics cart set up at the street near the house, but no paramedic ponies handling it. Twilight could only guess that they were inside already. Her mind suddenly recognized the shape of the gap in the wall and her eyebrows rose. She tried to calculate what kind of power would be needed for an object of that size to travel that far and break through two solid barriers of wood. Her head reeled back when she made predictions of what kind of creature – or pony – could ever do such a thing.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but this area is closed off for police investigation.” an officer told her when she tried to approach the house. Twilight couldn’t understand it. Wasn’t this the house that Pinkie told them to go in the invitation? Did Pinkie have an accident with the Party Cannon? What the hay happened?

“Twilight! Spike!” a voice called out from behind the unicorn. Twilight reversed direction and saw Rarity running up to her along with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack following closely behind. Twilight was half expecting Spike to go into one of his ogling stupors again, but in reality he was still in shock at the scene previously to really notice the love of his life quickly approaching him.

“Oh, thank goodness you are here, Twilight,” Rarity said in a sweeping breath as she slid to a stop in front of her friend. “Do you have any idea what’s going on around here?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, we just got here. I’m guessing none of you have a clue either?”

Applejack turned her head towards the two houses nervously. “No. We ain’ got a single clue.”

The party stopped to stare at the scene before them. It seemed so surreal to Twilight. Almost like a dream. She wasn’t a stranger to crime scenes, and Ponyville did get a few petty crimes and robberies once in a while, but she had never seen this many police in such a small area before with this much destruction. Normally when houses get wrecked a monster or some kind of extended evil was the cause of it, and Twilight and her friends would have been there to save the day before it got too far. But here, it was different. Much different.

“I’m not crazy, am I?” Rainbow Dash said aloud. “I mean, this is the place that Pinkie Pie told us to go, right? I didn’t expect her to host a party in the middle of a police investigation. I know Pinkie can be a little bit nutty, but this?”

“It’s not like her at all…” Fluttershy agreed.

‘It’s time we had a look of our own and see what’s going on.’ Twilight thought to herself as she spotted another police officer nearby. She trotted over to the young stallion while her friends behind her watched in confusion.

“Excuse me sir,” she began with a curious tone. “Have you figured out what happened here yet? Or are you still investigating?”

The officer was already on his path to denying her, but then realized who he was talking to. Twilight Sparkle, protégé of Princess Celestia, Bearer of the Element of Magic and Sister-in-Law to royalty from the Princess of the Crystal Kingdom was inquiring on the situation! He shouldn’t even have been the one to be asked! He was new to the job! This was only his first week! He paused with his jaw unhinged, searching for the right words. Twilight could see the inner conflict on his face.

“W-we’re still picking up the pieces here and there,” the officer stated, pulling at his collar a tad. “As far as we can tell, there was a scuffle at the house, over there.” He pointed to the house Twilight noticed first. “It was a matter of trespassing and personal safety. The trespasser broke into the house and the occupant of the house, who was a unicorn, claimed to have panicked and punched her magic into overdrive. A very strong blast of psychokinesis drove the trespasser through the front door and into the neighbouring house across the street. There no signs of violence except for that otherwise isolated incident. From what the occupant has told us, the trespasser appeared in her house all of the sudden with no warning and no permission to be there. She was not expecting any visitors at the hour and didn’t know anypony else in town. She just moved in Wednesday.”

‘But that would mean just three days ago!’ Twilight realized as she scanned the remains of the entrance to the house, mulling over his words. It made sense that a unicorn could freak out enough from an intruder to use powerful magic like that. But who in Ponyville would trespass in the first place? What were they doing there?

“According to her neighbours, she doesn’t come out much during the day and she doesn’t talk to anypony else. But anyways, the wave of magic was accurate enough that it hit the trespasser and only the trespasser. The door was shattered, but the rest of the front of the house was left unharmed.”

‘Then the caster was in enough control of her magic to aim and direct it properly when she shot it, even if she was panicking!’ Twilight concluded.

“Aaaand that’s all we have. But before you go, you know, that all was somewhat classified information, heh, so could you please not tell my boss? Please?” the officer mentioned, his sight searching left and right for his superior.

Twilight smiled. “Your secret’s safe with me. Thank you, officer.” Twilight said, turning around to leave. The officer tilted his hat, grinned, and walked away in his own direction. Twilight didn’t realized that her friends were behind her the entire time. They were all still staring at the scenery, their emotions varying.

“Where is Pinkie Pie, anyway?” Spike asked. Twilight almost forgot about him on her back. That happened sometimes when she was deep in thought. Her friends all swapped looks at each other, shrugging and not knowing the answer. They couldn’t believe that they hadn’t thought of Pinkie’s location previously. Twilight’s gaze went directly towards the neighbouring house. The paramedic ponies were pulling out a stretcher through the hole from the inside of the building, and on top was a body of a poor injured pony who was caught in the blast of the telekinesis.

The body of the prone pony was female, Twilight realized. The paramedics blocked the view of most of the figure, but a curly tuff of mane stuck upwards from the flat of the stretcher. She was also pink too.

A very familiar shade of pink.

“PINKIE PIE!”

Author's Note

The first 4-5 chapters are going to contain a lot of action. But don't worry, because after that the story slows down a little.

Also, I apologize for the moot chapter. I know that the description mostly covers this chapter already, but I needed my description to have a hook and enough information to know what the reader is getting in to. That is the description that I came up with and I am sticking with my guns.

P.S. YAY! Suspension of disbelief!

Chapter 2

The waiting room outside the ER was tense and quiet. The soft hum of the long lights above Twilight made her even more nervous as she fiddled with her hooves on her seat. The four other girls were sitting beside her, not willing to talk to each other. They were too jarred to be able to speak. Doctors and nurses occasionally trotted down the nearby hallways and trolleys sometimes rolled with them, their wheels squeaking against the cold flat floor. Rarity was fussing over herself in a hoofheld mirror she brought, worrying about the deep wrinkles beneath her eyes. Applejack’s hat was tilted forward enough that Twilight couldn’t tell whether or not she was asleep. Fluttershy sat in silence, unmoving, and Rainbow Dash had a silent fury emanating from her. The chromatic Pegasus was already gritting her teeth, punching her hooves together while her pupils were shrunk considerably.

“Rainbow…” Twilight began even though she didn’t really want to talk to anyone at the moment. “I thought we already talked about this back at the crime scene.”

Rainbow didn’t move her head. “I failed, Twilight. I failed to protect her and I was helpless to bring the stupid pony who did that to her to justice. I was completely helpless. And I bet Pinkie was helpless too.”

Twilight rubbed the side of her temple. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what happened, but we were all helpless. You should just let the police handle the investigation. We didn’t even see the culprit there. She has already been arrested and taken to the police department. We’ve gone over this. The police can handle the situation better than we ever could.”

Rainbow Dash turned away. “Still doesn’t make me feel any better about it.”

Rarity finally lowered her mirror and faced Rainbow Dash. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped when something touched her shoulder. She looked behind and met Twilight’s eyes, which were giving her a silent “Give her time.” look. Rarity frowned but still nodded, trusting that Twilight knew better than she did.

Just then, the Operation light over the room turned off with a ‘ping’. All the mares jumped to attention and glued their sights on the sliding doors. A doctor with a black mane and surgeon’s garb on top of a brown coat soon came out of the entrance. He immediately saw the four and smiled, a sharp curve forming under the crease of his grin.

“That ain’ a good smile.” Applejack noted as she, along with the other girls, got off her seat and approached.

“So, doctor, how’s the news? Did the operation go well?” Rarity asked, being brave enough to break the ice first.

“Well,” the surgeon began. “There’s good news and bad news.”

Twilight’s stomach churned. Fluttershy visibly paled while Applejack and Rainbow Dash bore their teeth in preparation for what was to come.

“The good news is that your friend is not dead. She didn’t take enough damage to warrant a death.”

The mares all took sighs of relief, just glad that Pinkie was still in the world of the living. They all looked at each other, smiling that a huge weight got taken of their shoulders. But there was still one thing to get past.

“But what’s the bad news, doc?” Rainbow inquired.

He held back a sigh. He hated telling bad news to friends or families of patients. It never got easier the more he did it. “The bad news is that your friend is in a coma. She took a heavy blow to the head and the lower part of her brainstem got knocked around. It wasn’t fatal, and she should be able to walk again and have all of her motor functions working once she wakes up, but we don’t know how long it will be until she does.”

Twilight’s heart dropped. Rarity fainted. Fluttershy started crying and Applejack let her jaw slack, unable to form words.

“CELESTIA DAMN IT!” Rainbow shouted in a fit of rage as she got up into air and blasted down the hall flying, swinging wind in everypony’s faces.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out as Rainbow turned the corner. But Twilight didn’t have it in her to chase after. She didn’t have anything left.

“Sweet merciful Luna!” the doctor cried out as he rushed to Rarity’s side. He quickly checked her head to see if it hit the ground hard enough to cause skull damage. “Applejack! Get me a nurse! Twilight, help me carry Rarity to a bed!”

Applejack said nothing as she turned tail and ran down the hall to find some assistance. Twilight on the other hoof shook herself out of her stunned stupor as much as she could and picked Rarity up with her magic, following the doctor as he led her out of the room. As she left she peered behind herself to see Fluttershy, still sitting there, weeping quietly in place. Twilight could feel some bile rise up in her throat.

“Fluttershy, c-come follow us! We need you to help us with Rarity!” Twilight called out. Fluttershy seemed to dimly acknowledge the command, as she turned towards Twilight’s voice and began slowly shuffling towards it. Twilight forced a weak smile and turned around the corner.

Later, Twilight rested Rarity on a hospital bed in an empty room. The doctor got some ice and lightly applied it to her head while she was under the covers, mentioning that they could only have this room until another patient with a more serious condition needed to commandeer the space. Twilight nodded, feeling dizzy as if she was going to faint herself. Applejack came with the nurse and a few minutes later Rarity woke up in bed, holding her hoof to her forehead and complaining that her head hurt terribly. She told the others that she just experienced one of the worst nightmares she had ever been in, where Pinkie Pie went into a deep slumber after getting inflicted with a serious injury and never woke up. The pain did not subside when the truth was told to her. Fluttershy never came to the room Rarity was led to, even though Twilight thought she would. Twilight didn’t have the energy to look for her. She didn’t have the energy to search for Rainbow Dash either. All her friends were in a mess, and for once Twilight didn’t want to fix anything. She just wanted to sit there and let the storm swirl all around her, sending relentless rainwater onto her unsheltered body. She didn’t even get to see Pinkie Pie once after she entered the ER. None of them did. Maybe they would be able to later.

“It could be anywhere between a week to two-to-three months.” the doctor explained in more detail. “We’ll try our best to wake her, but this isn’t something we can force. Using magic to try and reverse the coma will probably make it even worse. That I can tell you, and that I can guarantee that we won’t even try.”

Afterwards, the surgeon had to leave for more business somewhere in the hospital. He told Twilight and the others to go get a nurse if they needed anything else. Then, he left. Twilight was left in the room with Rarity resting on the bed trying to forget what just happened and Applejack, staring endlessly into the floor. The sunset outside of the window burned the sky to a crisp golden orange and it flooded through the cracks of the blinders of the windows in the room. Twilight couldn’t believe that it was already that late in the day. She could have sworn that it was only a few minutes ago when she and Spike were having lunch in the Treehouse as she expectantly waited for her new telescope to arrive.

“So,” Applejack said, surprising the daylights out of Twilight. Twilight thought that she was asleep, considering she couldn’t see her eyes from the way her hat was tilted. “When’s the trial?”

“Uh,” Twilight uttered as she got her thoughts together. That was the first thing Applejack wanted to know after all of this? “The trial for the assault?”

“Yeah. That one.”

“Don’t you think that we should worry about Pinkie at the moment?” Twilight requested, annoyance carefully dribbling out of her tone.

Applejack snorted. “Ah think Pinkie will be just fine. Ah bet she’s been through worse. We just need to give her some time to get back together, that’s all.”

Twilight’s brow creased. If Applejack wanted to know about when the trial for the crime was, Twilight wasn’t one to withhold that information. “I think one of the officers told me it would take at least three days to process everything. They’re still doing questioning over at the police station and gathering evidence from the neighbours around the house of the incident. I’m not even that sure. I’ll go to the station later and ask. That also reminds me, I need to tell Fluttershy and Rainbow later.”

“As soon as I find them.” Twilight thought to herself.

“Three days, huh?”

Twilight tilted her head. Applejack raised her chin enough so that Twilight could see glowing emerald pools beneath her Stetson.

“Well, whenever it is, you bet your sweet flankin’ flank ah’ll be there.”

Author's Note

This chapter was short, but I originally planned it to be. I don't want to get hung up on descriptions of locations when I'm writing this story. If it's Ponyville, it's Ponyville. If it's a hay-thatched house, than it's a hay-thatched house. If it's the Ponyville Hospital, than it's the Ponyville Hospital. To me, this story is more about the characters and their experiences, not about their surroundings. I will describe the scenario if I want to get a particular atmosphere across, like the library in the first chapter, but otherwise I'm completely dodging that stuff. I've had enough with descriptions in my HiE story, Chronicles.

I also made a lot of mistakes this chapter. I must be more tired than I thought. The dialogue was difficult to write too. That's something that I'm not quite good at yet. There's a certain flow of conversation that's hard to put on paper without making it good too fast or slow. It all depends on the reader, really. But I really toned Applejack's speech down so that her words aren't too different from Rainbow Dash's or Twilight's. My reasoning behind this is that people with a southern accent who talk to people with southern accents on a daily basis don't think they have accents. Thus, they wouldn't write with the mindset that they have accents, they would write like any other English writing person would write, with "I"s being "I"s and "you all" being "you all". Unless they were consciously aware of the way they spoke or they genuinely thought that the way they pronounce words were the proper spellings of the words they wrote, they would write normally. Also, it's easier for the readers eyes to read. Some stories have Applejack's accent so pronounced it's an eyesore to read. I don't want to do that to my readers. You all deserve better than that in my book.

Cancelled

I'm cancelling this story.

I originally wrote this to pass the time until I got an idea for my next big project, and now that I have that, I have no reason to work on this anymore. This story didn't really have much going for it anyways, and I didn't have much planned for it.

Since I'm not going to work on any future chapters, I'm just going to spoil what I had planned for you right here:

The mysterious pony that landed in Ponyville was Twilight Galaxia, Twilight's daughter from the future. In the future, Equestria is taken over by an evil Unicorn overlord only known as Burnout Blackfire. There are rebel groups fighting Blackfire, but they are slowly losing. Galaxia manages to re-awake Discord after he got trapped in stone again by a trick Blackfire pulled on the original elements of harmony and breaks a deal with him that should she ever fail her kingdom and fail to save it from Blackfire, he will send her to the past to stop Blackfire to coming into power in the first place. During a final assault against Blackfire's stronghold, Galaxia dies, so Discord, who is sitting in the background refusing to interfere with the war because of all the joy the chaos is giving him. But because she dies, he could not grab the entirety of her mind fast enough. Cue the prologue, where Galaxia is waking up during her time traveling as future Discord is telling her instructions before she arrives outside of Ponyville. She has lost all of her memories except her instinctual fighting skills that she learned growing up fighting against Blackfire. Discord does not reveal her name to her because it because he is afraid Blackfire will follow her through the time stream if he said her name out loud.

Galaxia arrives in Ponyville, only with a fague sense of what to do there. She causes trouble when Pinkie Pie arrives in her house to throw a party and gets Pinkie Pis injured. Pinkie Pie gets hospitalized and the mane 6 are all in a disarray, pissed off at Galaxia. Galaxia is taken to court but nothing comes out of it. Then, a minion of past Blackfire invades Ponyville, attacking it and setting it ablaze. The Elements of Harmony cannot be used, as Pinkie Pie is incapacitated, inadvertently causing a Time Paradox because of Galaxia's appearance. Galaxia appears and fights the fire monster, taking it down and gaining the respect of Twilight Sparkle as the mare watches Galaxia defend her town out of honour. Galaxia says sorry to Twilight for all of the trouble she has caused and she gives it. The two become close friends over a series of slice-of-life chapters, even though they don't know of each others family relations. Meanwhile, Blackfire is gathering up his power and forces in the background.

Sometime later, Blackfire gets contacted by his future self in vague messages, the story's climax takes place in the old Royal Sisters' Castle Ruins, where the mane 6 and Galaxia fight against Blackfire's monsters. In a final fight against Blackfire, Galaxia regains her memories as he transforms into a demon and changes Equestria forever.

And that's all I got. Sorry for those of you who cared.