Finding A Hero
“Long ago in ancient Equestria there were two twisted emperors. First, there was Discord… the mad king. Discord ruled over central Equestria, everypony under his thumb was miserable. Discord headed an empire that ran on pure chaos. Some say he was the worst king ever recorded in history, but some disagree. The ponies who disagree turn to a different monster, one whose cruelty knew no bounds.
The second was the infamous tyrant, Sombra, who ruled over the northern crystal ponies with a cruel iron hoof. His heart was as blackened as his visage and his lust for power knew no bounds. Several centuries earlier he had seized control of the Crystal empire with his cunning and arsenal of unholy magic.
Things looked grim for Equestria and her inhabitants. There was no sign that the age of chaos would ever come to an end…until there was a shining light in the darkness, a beacon of hope, a dream of peace in a chaotic world. Two fabled alicorns, who would soon carve their names into history, stepped forward and challenged both legendary kings.
Discord was the first to fall. The mad king underestimated both alicorn princesses. He didn’t foresee the mighty power that the two ponies wielded. The two sisters possessed a power which had never been seen before throughout all of Equestria, the Elements of Harmony, a mythical force, with nearly omnipotent powers. Discord laughed and scoffed at the two ponies who dared to challenge his rule, but the draconequus was soon cut and turned to stone.
After Discord had fallen, Sombra, in all his paranoia holed himself up in his fortress at the heart of the Crystal empire. He was aware of the power of Harmony that the two alicorns wielded and desperately tried to find a way to ensure dominion over the crystal ponies. As a result, when he was felled by the might of the dual alicorns, the entire empire vanished along with him. Sombra was turned into a shadow and sealed deep in the frozen wastes of the north.
The two alicorn sisters had done it, they had defeated two of the most notorious leaders to ever set hoof in Equestria. The two ponies were crowned ‘rulers of Equestria’ and the age of harmony began.”
“Wow...that story gives me goosebumps every time,” marveled a lavender alicorn.
Twilight Sparkle closed the book and dragged a hoof across the old tome’s cover. The book was old and dusty, its pages were tattered and torn. Twilight carefully placed the old book onto a massive shelf. The pony gingerly lifted several other tomes off the shelves with her magic and placed them before her.
“Hmm..’Magic and You’? Nah, I’ve read that one like fifty times. Oh-oh! Maybe Star Swirl’s thesis paper on the constellations and what implications their arrangements may mean for magic! Ugh...no I read that one yesterday…” the Princess of Magic sighed as she paced back and forth in front of the grand bookshelves of the Canterlot library.
Twilight loved these books to death, but sometimes she wished that they were a little more...visceral. Maybe Rainbow Dash was right, maybe Twilight should read more adventure novels. Rainbow Dash had been pestering Twilight to read her Daring Do fanfiction and now that she had a little time she might as well give it a chance.
“Well it wouldn’t hurt I suppose. Afterall, Rainbow Dash did help me with that 10,000 word thesis on pegasus magic...and that experiment on teleportation. So I guess I owe her this.”
Twilight Sparkle sighed as she sat down at a nearby table and opened her satchel. The pony reached into her bag and pulled out a large heap of disorganized papers. Twilight Sparkle began to unfold and unscramble the mess of pages Rainbow Dash had given to her.
“It wouldn’t hurt her to be a little more organized,” mumbled Twilight to herself.
"FWOMP!"
The loud noise startled the young pony as she threw up the pages of Rainbow Dash’s work. Twilight’s eyes tried to peer through a blizzard of dancing papers as her eyes began to race around the room, but the startled alicorn saw nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly her eyes caught notice of a library book that had fallen off a shelf. Twilight got up and trotted over to the book, taking cautious hoofsteps.
“FWOMP! FWOMP!”
Two more books suddenly shot off the shelves and landed before Twilight’s hooves. Twilight raised an eyebrow as she took a step back.
“Could it be? Is the Canterlot library haunted? No, no, no, that would be silly… Ghosts don’t exist.”
“FWOMP! FWOMP! FWOMP!”
Again, more books shot off the shelves. After each book fell there were two more that would fall after it, then four more after them, and so on, and so on. Twilight soon found herself huddling behind a chair, watching as the library turned into a violent storm of books. As books continued to fly off shelves, bookcases began to topple over, crashing into one another. Twilight’s lantern began to flicker on and off as Twilight’s peaceful refuge continued to turn into a violent pandemonium. Twilight steeled her resolve and made a dash for the door. She never made it however as the walls themselves tore away, reveling a maelstrom of pure energy filled with contorted clockwork. The very tiles beneath her hooves began to shatter and fall away into the spiraling void beneath her. As the last tile disappeared, Twilight found herself drifting through the tunnel of bright lights as various pages and books scattered around her like leaves in the wind. Twilight looked around in a combination of shock, awe, and terror. The young princess’ ears perked up when she heard voices that were muffled by the magical energy surrounding her.
“ Forgive me Luna! I-I didn’t want to do this but I have no choice!” a sharp voice pierced the veil of magic.
“Celestia?”
“I am the G-r-r-r-eat and Powerful Trixie!”
“T-Trixie?”
“It needs to be about...20% cooler!” another voice echoed around Twilight.
“R-rainbow Dash? What is going on!”
Twilight continued to twist and turn around as she tumbled down the rabbit hole. Images of past, present, and possibly even future began to flash around her. She could see her friends in an image which was then abruptly replaced by a different image of a war torn battlefield littered with the bodies of various races. A robot wielding a samurai sword and telling lame jokes, ponies controlling furious magic, the construction of Canterlot itself, hundreds of familiar images and a thousand more unfamiliar images, violently spun around the alicorn.
“Our hero approaches! Champion, can you hear me?” A booming voice drowned out the other voices. The bright lights began to shoot past Twilight at an alarming rate. The alicorn made out what she believed to be a room at the end of the tunnel. There was just one problem. She was going waaaaaaay too fast.
“Hero! Slowdown you’re coming in too fa-” the voice was abruptly cut off as a lavender bullet shot into the room and bounced off the four walls before crashing into something hard. Twilight shakily stood up and brushed herself off, but something was stuck around her neck. Twilight looked down and saw a wooden cart wheel around her neck. The alicorn began to hop around, trying to pull the wooden circle off of her. The unfortunate pony didn’t see the crack in the floor as she was hopping backwards and tripped and tumbled into a wall.
“Ray, are you sure this is the hero the spell was suppose to bring?” a rough yet feminine voice asked.
“I too thought she would be...bigger and stronger, but the spell chose her, so she must be the hero that we are looking for,” responded a calm and strong voice of a stallion.
Twilight’s face was still planted in the floor, but popped her head up when she heard the two voices. The alicorn's gaze began to jump around the room. Twilight found herself in what seemed to be a cellar. An old ceiling of rotten wood rested above her head, the only thing holding up the dilapidated wood was two thick support beams that had not yet given in to their age. The walls were granite stone, with moss and roots growing in between their cracks. The floor was made of dirt, but most of the dirt was now scattered across the old farming supplies in the cellar. Twilight’s eyes continued to scan the room when she noticed two figures staring curiously at her.
“By the stars! Look at her, Gale Force! She has both wings and a magic horn!” shouted the stallion as he took a step towards Twilight.
The pony was a unicorn. He was encased in a thick steel plating that covered most of his body and hooves. The stallion had long, blue hair with streaks of pink running through it and a light, blue gray coat. His armor was made up of multiple layers of overlapping steel, with a thick plating that rose up behind his back and rested along his neck. Twilight looked for a cutie mark but his flank was concealed by a cloak that reached down to the dirt floor. The pony had a stern expression but had an amiable aura around him. Twilight noticed a second pony that stood slightly behind the unicorn, she assumed this one was “Gale Force”.
“Is she okay? She’s been staring at us silently for quite some time now,” Gale Force asked as she stepped closer to Twilight.
“HERO! CAN YOU HEAR US?!” shouted the stallion right in front of Twilight’s face.
“I can. I can,” responded Twilight as she backed away from the two strangers.
“Oh for crying out loud! She still has that silly wheel around her neck,” exclaimed Gale Force as she moved forward to help Twilight. When Twilight saw the pony approach her, she instinctively took a step back. She didn’t know whether these ponies were friend or foe.
“Don’t you dare think about running off,” warned Gale Force as she continued to approach Twilight. The pony’s stern voice froze Twilight in her tracks as she looked up at the stranger. Twilight managed to get a good look at Gale Force.
The pony, she now noticed, was a pegasus. She had a bright red mane that reminded her a little of Rainbow Dash with how messy it was, and she also had two metal earrings on the cartilage of her right ear. The pegasus’ coat was a yellowish tan color. Like the stallion, this pegasus also wore a dark steel armor that covered mostly the front of the pony and had overlapping metal plating that ran up her neck. The pony’s hooves were unarmored and seemed to be covered in scratches that resembled writing. Twilight couldn’t make out any of the words but Twilight could, however, make out a cutie mark that looked like a white tornado on Gale Force’s flank. Twilight caught sight of a bright silver object on the side of the pegasus and upon closer inspection she noticed it was a folded metal wing.
“Is that...a prosthetic wing? Made out of metal!?”
Lost in thought, Twilight didn’t pay attention to the pegasus who had grabbed a hold of the wheel around her neck.
“Hey she’s gone all quiet again,” the pegasus said before she gave the wheel a mighty tug. Twilight was nearly yanked up off her hooves by the surprising might of the pegasus.
“W-WOAH! WOAH! HOLD ON!” Twilight yelped as the splinters of the old wooden wheel dug into her neck. “Wait! I can just use my mag-” Twilight exclaimed as she tried to reason with the pegasus.
“Ah screw this…” grumbled Gale Force. In a flash of steel, Twilight felt the sharp pain suddenly vanish as the wheel broke into five pieces and scattered unceremoniously around her hooves. Twilight rubbed her neck as she watched Gale Force slowly fold the elegant silver wing.
“Thanks...but who are you, and how did I get here? Wherever ‘here’ is…” asked Twilight, not taking her eyes off of the two ponies. The armored unicorn stepped forward and bowed slightly before Twilight.
“Oh, how terribly foolish of us! We never properly introduced ourselves. My name is-” the unicorn stopped when a patch of dirt fell from above and hit the back of his head. The three ponies slowly looked up to the ceiling and heard a thud as another patch of dirt fell off the ceiling.
“Footsteps…? Here…?” whispered the pegasus.
“Were we followed?” asked the stallion as he turned to the red-headed pony. Another footstep was heard. Twilight could feel the tension in the air and had noticed that the other two ponies had grown worried.
“Hero, you need to get down,” whispered the stallion urgently to Twilight as he motioned for her to follow him. He then turned to his companion and pointed towards the stairs with a hoof. The pegasus nodded before spreading her wings and creeping towards the base of the stairs. The unicorn slowly followed after his partner and motioned one last time for Twilight to follow him. Twilight looked around the room one last time and reasoned that she had no better options.
The three ponies carefully made their way up the stairs, while making sure that they made as little noise as possible. As the trio reached the summit of the stairs, a loud crash was heard that sounded like somepony was throwing dishes on the floor. Twilight jumped as the two ponies in front of her remained quiet and calm.
“Hero, it appears that we will have a fight on our hands sooner than expected,” whispered the stallion as he threw a glance back at Twilight.
“What…?” asked Twilight, but it was already too late.
“On three! One...two...three!” shouted the unicorn as both him and the pegasus leapt into action. The pegasus sliced and bursted through the door, followed shortly by the unicorn.
“Anything?!” shouted the stallion as he slid across the wooden floor, looking in every direction.
“There!” shouted Gale Force as she pointed to a hulking figure in the kitchen. Twilight thought it would be best if she kept her distance and observed. Gale Force quickly unfolded her metal wing to its full length, like a samurai drawing his blade, and dashed towards the unsuspecting target.
Before she was able to strike, the figure turned around and revealed itself. It was a creature completely made out of mud, with a simplistic face consisting of two empty holes for eyes, and a wide gaping mouth. The mud-man was chewing on a plate with a childish expression. Gale Force came to a grinding halt as she planted her hooves in the floor. She came to a messy stop right in front of the mud-man’s face as the plate he was chewing on dropped from his mouth. Both Gale Force and the mud humanoid looked down at the shattered porcelain. As Gale Force looked up, she saw the mud-man reach for a stack of plates next to him and began to chew on a new plate.
“Uh, Ray? What the hell is this thing?” questioned Gale Force, who had expected something entirely different. The creature ignored her as it broke another plate and reached for a new one. Twilight stepped forward, curious as to what the creature was. It only took the alicorn seconds to identify the mysterious creature.
“Oh! This is a mud golem,” Twilight explained before she was cut off by the sound of another plate breaking. “They usually come-” started Twilight again, before she was interrupted by the familiar sound of a breaking plate. “As I was saying, these creatures are docile and harmless to ponies.”
“Aha! It must have come to life as a result of the excess magic from the spell,” stated the unicorn.
“Wait...what spell?” asked Twilight as she turned towards the unicorn.
“The spell that -” the sound of another plate breaking interrupted the stallion. “Gale?” he added.
“I’m on it…” mumbled Gale Force as she reached up and confiscated the stack of plates from the mud golem. She turned and headed towards the door. The creature reached out towards her and stumbled after her.
“Sorry about that. Where were we?” asked the stallion as he turned back to Twilight.
“You were talking about some spell…” Twilight said as she narrowed her eyes at the unicorn. Twilight was beginning to piece together how she got here.
“Ah, yes. Well, you see, um. Well, it’s kind of a long story. I think Gale Force would be better suited for explaining it to you,” the stallion responded to Twilight as he walked away.
“Wait, hold on. She’s Gale Force...what’s your name then?” Twilight asked as she slowly trotted after the pony.
“Oh, I’m Cosmic Ray, but you needn’t worry about that, hero. What is your name?” he said.
“Well Cosmic Ray, it’s nice to meet you...I think. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Just as the alicorn finished speaking, Gale Force bursted in through the door with an anxious expression on her face.
“Hey guys, if you’re done socializing in here we got a little problem on our hooves.” Right as the pegasus finished speaking, Cosmic Ray galloped over to the nearest window.
A wall of dirty orange covered the horizon. The three ponies could feel the floorboards rumble beneath their hooves as the dark cloud inched closer and closer. The sun was eventually wiped from sight as a sheet of sand washed over it.
“A sand storm!” exclaimed Cosmic Ray as he shut the window. The pony began to dash from window to window, confirming that they were shut tightly. “This is actually good for us, now anypony who’s been following us will lose our tracks. I’ll just make a barrier around the farmhouse till this thing passes over.”
As Cosmic Ray went about preparing the barrier, Twilight trotted over to Gale Force. The aforementioned pegasus seemed to not notice Twilight, since she was busy inspecting the strange scars on her hooves. Gale Force’s ears perked up as she heard the sound of Twilight’s hoofsteps.
“Do you need something?” Gale Force asked as she placed her hooves behind her back and glided away from Twilight on her wings.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry. I just wanted to ask you something.”
“Before you ask me, I never got your name...I don’t want to just call you ‘hero’ all day long,” the pegasus responded.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, and you’re Gale Force right?”
“Just call me Gale and I’ll just call you Twilight. Deal?” said the pegasus as she looked at Twilight with a bored expression. “Oh, and Cosmic Ray won’t mind if you just call him Ray. Now what’s your question?”
“Well, why did you two keep calling me hero? And why did you summon me here? Also, is there a reason why you two are paranoid about being followed? How come you don’t know my name, being the ones to summon me and all? Where am I? How do you-” asked Twilight in a flurry before Gale placed a wing on Twilight’s mouth.
“I’m going to have to stop you right there, Twilight, before my head explodes,” the exasperated pegasus said as she removed the tip of her wing from Twilight’s mouth. “Now, to answer your questions, we used a unique spell to summon you. More specifically, we used a spell that summons the greatest hero in Equestria to us. I don’t know all the mumbo jumbo and details of the spell but it looks like we ended up with you.”
“Wait, that only raises more questions!”
“Wonderful! The barrier is up and running!” shouted Ray as he closed a magical tome that he had been using. “Now then, if I may, I believe I have an answer to your question. You see Twilight, these past three years I’ve been creating a special spell. A spell that could save all of Equestria. A spell that would summon us a hero, who could deliver us from the darkness.”
“You know, kidnapping a princess is a serious offense,” Twilight said, looking back and forth between the two ponies.
“These ponies must not be right in the head...Equestria’s fine as far as I know...” thought the alicorn to herself.
“Wait, you’re a princess?” asked the unicorn as his eyes went wide.
“I don’t know what Equestria you’re living in but our Equestria has only tyrants and monsters disguised as kings,” scoffed Gale.
“W-Wait, what do you mean? There aren’t any princesses…?” asked Twilight with a bewildered look on her face.
“I can only recall one account of there being a princess in Equestria. A crystal princess… or at least that’s how the stories went, but that was hundreds of years ago. There are no more princesses in Equestria, Twilight.” Cosmic Ray took a deep breath as he waited to see Twilight’s reaction.
“Oh my gosh!... Cadence is dead! I must be in some type of war torn future!”
“You ok there?” Gale asked as she waved a hoof in front of Twilight’s shocked face. “What made you think you’re a princess?”
“Deep breaths Twilight, deep breaths…”
“Okay, so what happened to Celestia and Luna? “ she asked.
“Who?” Gale and Ray responded simultaneously.
“Y'know, the two ponies who raise the sun and the moon?”
“Preposterous! Two ponies raising the sun and the moon? Twilight, you jest.” Cosmic Ray raised a front hoof as he laughed a hearty laugh.
“I think ‘Princess’ Twilight has a couple of loose screws,” muttered Gale Force.
“Wait, then who’s in charge?!” shouted Twilight. Gale Force and Cosmic Ray shared a look before responding to Twilight.
“Sombra and Discord.”
“Oh my gosh! I’m not in some war torn future! I’m in the war torn past!”
A Hero's Begining
“Twilight, you okay?” asked Gale Force as she tooked a hoofstep forward. The alicorn princess was in a state of shock. Her legs visibly trembled as her eyes widened in realization. Twilight was huddled in a fetal position on the chilled and battered floorboards of the antiquated farmhouse.
“T-This can’t be happening. I can’t be in the past! I might permanently damage the timestream, or what if I accidentally become my own great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother! I have to get back to my own time as soon as possible.”
“Hey what’s your problem Princess Nutjob? What kind of hero are you suppose to be? Do you usually have this many breakdowns?” asked Gale Force with a harsh tone.
“Gale, please. I’m sure that our hero just had a frightening journey through time. No need to harass her,” said Cosmic Ray as he trotted over to Twilight. “You are alright after all, aren’t you?”
“No I’m not alright! You two summoned me to the past!” shouted the distressed alicorn. “I could be changing the future right now!”
“It’s okay. When I made the spell I took that possibility into account. Only your actions will remain after you are gone. All memories and information that you have left behind will be wiped from everypony's mind,” said Cosmic Ray.
“Alright, but how am I going to get back to the present? Who knows how long I could be stuck here!” shouted Twilight.
“Relax, you will return back to the same moment and place that you left… in six months time,” said the unicorn, saying the last part as fast as possible.
“It’ll be like you never left and like you were never here!” added Gale Force. She proceeded to give Twilight a rough slap on the back with her metal wing.
“O-Okay…” Twilight muttered as she processed all the new information she had just received. “So what if I refuse to be your ‘hero’? I already know that Equestria turns out fine in the future. Isn’t this just an exercise in futility?”
“What kind of shitty hero are you to refuse?!” shouted Gale Force.
“Hold on, don’t make me look like I’m the bad guy! You’re the ones who ponynapped me in the first place!” shouted back Twilight. Gale Force glared at the alicorn as she said this, but Twilight didn’t back down and challenged Gale’s glare with one of her own.
“I am not going to let these ponies push me around. If i’m going to be stuck in the past, it’s going to be on my own terms.”
“Think of it this way Twilight. Maybe you’ve already saved Equestria before, but there are no records of it because of previously mentioned details. Maybe refusing to be our hero will result in the destruction of the future that you know,” said Cosmic Ray.
“I suppose that could be one theory,” reasoned Twilight.
“Well, better safe than sorry...right ‘hero’?” asked Gale Force in a mocking tone.
“Wonderful, I’m thrilled that you came around in the end, Twilight!” Cosmic Ray prematurely stated.
“You didn’t even let me respond!” interjected Twilight.
“The spell wouldn’t have chosen you if you weren’t the right pony for the job...even though I have my doubts,” said Gale Force.
“Alright, alright! Fine, I’ll help you! I’ll be your hero…” sighed Twilight. “I’ll help you guys but I won’t hurt anypony.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that Twilight. Our Equestrias must be far different from each other. Here it’s a pony eat pony world. Kill or be killed. You can preach it all you want but you’re gonna find your hoof forced sooner or later,” Gale Force grimly stated.
“Cheerful as always I see Gale,” mumbled Ray as he sat down on a nearby chair.
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The three ponies waited in a comfortable silence, which was only broken by the occasional question and answer. The sound of sand grinding against the unicorn’s magical barrier filled the entire house. Half an hour passed by before the storm began to die down.
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“The sandstorm should finally be over.” Ray trotted over to the farmhouse door and stepped outside.
“Finally, I can stretch my wings!” shouted Gale Force. The pegasus spread her wings and bursted through the door and flew right into a giant pile of sand.
“Deserts tend to shift during sandstorms, Gale,” said Ray as he trotted by a mound of sand that had a pony’s tail sticking out of it.
Twilight popped her head out the door and took her first glance at ancient Equestria. Her gaze was met with a sea of yellow sand that stretched far beyond her field of vision. There was the occasional thatch roof that poked out from beneath the sand. Surprisingly there were a lot of farms for a desert.
“Wait, why are there farms in the desert?” Twilight asked herself.
“Hey, Ray? Why are there farms out here?” asked Twilight.
“This place wasn’t always a desert. It use to be the most lush land in all of Equestria...until Discord thought it would look better as a desert.” Cosmic Ray explained.
“Sounds like Discord,” Twilight replied.
“Wait, you’ve met Discord before? That means he’s still alive during your future? Wait, does that mean we fail?!”
“I probably shouldn't mention to these ponies that he’s kind of a friend to Equestria now…kind of.”
“No you do succeed! It’s just that when he was defeated he was turned to stone. In my time, he came back but we beat him again,” Twilight explained. As the two were talking, Gale Force pulled herself out of the pile of sand and began to shake her head in an attempt to get sand out of her red locks.
“What are you guys talking about?:” Gale asked as she tilted her head, pushing sand out of her ear.
“Nothing.” Cosmic Ray trotted on ahead into the desert, ignoring Gale’s question. Gale shrugged and followed after him.
“Wait for me!” shouted Twilight as she galloped after the two ponies.
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The sun shined brightly as the three figures trekked across the scorching sands. Gale Force used her wings as an umbrella and Twilight quickly mimicked her, not wanting to fall victim to the wacky temperatures of Discord’s desert. Cosmic Ray seemed to fare the worst of the Trio as he pathetically shuffled his hooves along behind the two mares.
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After seeing nothing but yellow for the past six hours, Twilight spotted, what was to her, the most vivid green she had ever seen in her life. As the band of ponies got closer, she could see that the green horizon was the beginning of a beautiful and dense forest. The desert abruptly ended where the forest began, as if a certain draconequus cropped and placed a desert at the heart of a forest.
“Stars be praised! We’ve finally reached the end of this accursed desert!” cried Cosmic Ray, nearly shedding a tear of joy.
“I’m guessing hot temperatures aren’t your forte,” said Twilight as the ponies trotted under the shade of a tree.
“What gave it away?” wheezed Ray as he unscrewed a bottle with his magic and began to rinse his mouth with water.
“Probably your constant bitching and moaning,” Gale Force casually said as she laid her back against the tree.
Cosmic Ray snapped up at Gale and gave the pegasus a stare that could kill.
“Impudent wretched little…”
“Guys, you shouldn’t be fighting!” Twilight said with a worried glance between the two. “Aren’t you two lifelong friends, or something of that sort?”
“Pffft, as if! I met Ray at some rundown bar like three days ago,” scoffed Gale Force. Twilight looked surprised.
“Oh...I see,” Twilight said, with a little embarrassment.
“Word of advice Twilight, don’t make friends with pegasi,” said Ray as he trotted past the alicorn. “I’m going to go see if I can find a cave for us to spend the night in. Twilight, you just watch after Gale for me.”
“Maybe Twilight should follow you in case you get another heat stroke in the forest,” shot back Gale.
“Maybe Twilight should teach you some manners while I’m gone!” shouted Ray as he continued to trot deeper into the forest.
“Maybe you two should just calm down…” Twilight whispered quietly.
“MAYBE YOU SHOULD MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, TWILIGHT!” the both of them snapped at Twilight. Twilight backed down and sat herself under a tree next to Gale Force.
“These two could learn a thing or two about friendship.”
Twilight and Gale Force sat quietly under their respective trees as Cosmic Ray ventured further into the forest. The birds chirped and the forest was calm and peaceful. The smell of flowers and taste of honeydew perforated the air. Twilight figured it wouldn’t hurt to try to start some small talk with the pegasus.
“Soooo...what do you like doing for fun?” Twilight asked. She quickly regretted it.
“That was a horrible question,” the alicorn thought to herself.
“Twilight, what kind of question is that?” the pegasus responded as she looked at Twilight with furrowed brows.
“Yeah, sorry. Nevermind.”
“But I use to enjoy playing hide-and-seek,” the pegasus answered anyways.
“Oh why hide-and-seek?” Twilight pressed further but she received no response.
“These ponies have lived rough lives, that was really dumb of me to ask what she does for fun…”
Gale rolled over and looked at Twilight.
“So what’s it like being a princess? Is it nice having people serve you and all that?”
“Huh?” Twilight didn’t even notice that the pegasus had said something to her. “Oh, I’m not really that kind of princess…I just hang out with my friends in Ponyville.”
“That must be nice, just having fun with friends,” the pegasus said with a distant look in her eyes. “Are you a good ruler, Twilight?”
“Like I said, I’m not really that kind of princess, but I guess I do like to help out my friends, and I consider everypony in Ponyville my friend,” Twilight responded.
“That’s good enough for me,” said the fiery-headed pegasus. Twilight thought that Gale Force sounded almost wishful or sad for a second.
“I found a cave not too far off from here,” said a familiar voice as Cosmic Ray pushed his way through a thicket of branches behind the two mares.
“Alright, finally!” Gale Force exclaimed as she jumped to her hooves. It seemed the previous conversation had already left her mind.
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Twilight could say she had never seen a forest as beautiful as the one she was current strolling through. The sound of animals filled the air and the giant trees had canopies that reached up to the sky. Twilight was certain that Fluttershy would have loved this place. The group continued to travel until the sky began to turn red as the sun sank slowly behind the horizon. They had finally reached a small cave opening in the side of a large mountain.
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“Well, here we are!” exclaimed Cosmic Ray as he laid out a fluffy sheet and plopped down on top of it. The unicorn began to unstrap the armor plating on his hooves as he dug in his satchel. “Twilight, I’ve been meaning to give you something,” said the unicorn as he continued to dig in his bag. “AHA!” Cosmic Ray pulled out a crumpled wad of papers and began to sort them. “These papers came through the portal before you did,” said the stallion as he handed the stack of messy papers over to Twilight.
“Oh, thanks. They must be some of my notes.” Twilight accepted the stack of papers and started inspecting them. Twilight’s eyes widened for a bit before her face flushed red in embarrassment. These were not her notes.
Cosmic Ray continued to unpack as he looked up at the alicorn.
“I gave them a quick peek. I hope you don’t mind. The story is quite good, extraordinary, to be completely honest with you. I’ve never read a story with such passion, and excitement as your story. It is your story, right? Surely Rainbow Dash is your pen name.”
“Well…” mumbled Twilight as she looked down and read the title of Dash’s fanfiction. In big, bold, black letters, the name “Daring Do’s Passionate Dares” sat on the title page.
“Hey if it’s so good, let me read it!” Gale Force exclaimed as she forced her way into the conversation.
“Oh, maybe another time…” Twilight said as she tried to hide the papers from Gale’s view.
“How come he gets to read it and I don’t?” Gale Force grumbled as she backed down. The pony went back to her corner of the cave and began to take off her armor. After she had removed her armor, she unstrapped her metal wing and delicately placed it against the wall. She turned back to Twilight. “Alright, now that we’re all settled in, lets get down to business.”
“Yes, let’s,” said Ray as he looked up from a book that he was in the middle of reading. The unicorn slowly closed the book and placed it off to the side before sitting up and turning towards Twilight. “Ok, hero. What should we do?”
Gale Force and Cosmic Ray looked at Twilight expectantly.
“Why are they looking at me...wait don’t tell me...these ponies don’t have a plan?!”
“I-I thought you guys would have a plan!” Twilight said exasperatedly.
“You are the plan,” Gale said with dead seriousness. Twilight sighed but put on a determined face anyways. The two ponies had complete faith in her so she might as well play the part of ‘hero’.
“Well...remember the two ponies I mentioned earlier today, Celestia and Luna?” asked Twilight.
“Yes. The mythical ponies who supposedly could raise the sun and moon. Right?” said Cosmic Ray.
“Right, well Celestia and Luna in the present time are the ones who originally beat both Sombra and Discord,” said Twilight.
“So where do we find these ‘mythical’ ponies?” asked Gale Force with a skeptical look.
“Well, that’s the hard part,” said Twilight as she scratched the back of her head with her hoof. “Recorded pony history doesn’t really begin until Celestia and Luna come into power...after they had already defeated Sombra and Discord. Discord thought history was boring and didn’t bother recording anything. Sombra, on the other hoof, wrote false history that glorified him as a supreme leader over all of Equestria.”
“So basically you have no idea then,” stated Gale Force.
“Well, she did give us some useful information,” reasoned Ray as he began to search his satchel once more. “We know the names of the two ponies that we’re looking for, but just have no idea where to find them.” The unicorn pulled his pack closer and began using his magic to rummage through its contents. “Here we go,” he said as he lifted out a small slip of paper. “I know somebody who could be of assistance to us. He kind of owes me a favor anyways.”
“Alright, so tomorrow we go find this contact of yours and he’ll tell us where to find Celestia and Luna,” said Twilight.
“Hey, Twilight...do Celestia and Luna defeat Sombra and Discord by themselves?” Gale asked. She had a look of curiosity on her face.
“I think so...why do you ask?” Twilight responded as she glanced at Gale Force.
“Well if they beat-” Gale Force began, but was interrupted.
“Shhhh,” shushed Cosmic Ray as he raised a hoof towards the two mares. “I think we’re being watched…”
The three ponies immediately tensed up as the sound of a twig snapping was heard near the cave entrance. Gale Force immediately plucked a metal feather from her wing leaning against the wall and placed it in her mouth, holding it like a dagger. Cosmic Ray slowly rose to his hooves as he trotted towards the entrance of the cave. Four old books slowly floated from out of the unicorns knapsack and began to orbit the pony.
“Twilight, you stay here. There’s no need for you to bother yourself with these pieces of trash,” said Cosmic Ray.
“Who?” asked Twilight.
“Bandits,” answered Gale Force as she clenched her teeth tightly around the metal feather.
Just as the words left her mouth, a group of ponies charged out of the darkness. The ponies wore light armor and carried crude looking weapons. They all wore masks that concealed their identities.
“Kill’em and take everything they got lads!” shouted one of the bandits as the ponies continued to charge towards the cave.
“I count no more than twenty,” stated Gale.
“This should be easy then,” said Cosmic Ray as one of the books floating around him opened up. “Book one, Earth!” exclaimed the unicorn as he raised his front hooves, creating a wall of rock. Cosmic Ray pushed his hooves forward, sending the rockwall sliding towards the bandits.
“One of em’s a damn unicorn!” shouted one of the bandits as he leapt over the wall. Most of the bandits managed to leap over the wall, but those unfortunate enough to be hit by the wall found themselves pushed back into the darkness of the forest. “Kill the unic-” the bandit began but was abruptly cut off as Gale Force had punched her hoof right into his face. The bandit’s face contorted before he flew backwards and crashed into another pony behind him. The peaceful forest had now turned into a violent, clamorous fray.
“Enough! It’s time we ended this childish conflict!” shouted Cosmic Ray as he extended a hoof outwards, towards the bandits. The ground beneath the masked ponies changed into a swamp of mud.
“Urgh, what is this crap,” groaned a pony as he tried to lift his hooves out of the gooey-like brown substance.
“Got you right where I want you…” whispered Cosmic Ray with a devious smile. The unicorn raised up his hooves as a pillar of earth rose behind him and shaped itself into a fist. “You attacked the wrong ponies today!” cried the unicorn as he threw his hooves toward the trapped bandits. The slab of earth swung itself back before hurling itself towards the helpless ponies.
“Oh my gosh, they’re serious! They might really kill them!” Twilight thought, worriedly.
As the stone fist shot towards the defenseless bandits, Twilight leapt into action. The alicorn shot a stream of purple magic towards the stone fist, turning it into a slop of mud. The mud projectile crashed on top of the bandits, completely immobilizing them, but ultimately leaving them unharmed.
On the other side of the battlefield, a red blur bolted around the bandits as they clumsily tried to catch her.
“Catch that damn pegasus already, she only has one wing for crying out loud!” shouted a frustrated bandit before another hoof smashed into his skull, knocking him into a tree. He shakily stood up and reached for his weapon, but stopped when he felt something cold press into his neck. His two shaky, beady eyes slowly looked forward and locked with two unsympathetic, cold green eyes.
“Looks like this end of the line for you, bandit,” Gale Force spat out as she continued to press the feather into his neck.
“N-Now hang on a sec, we was just kidding about all that killing and looting!” the bandit begged as he placed a hoof on her shoulder.
The pegasus shoved the bandit’s hoof against the tree and drove the razor sharp feather right through his hoof, nailing him to the tree. The bandit cried and writhed in agony as Gale Force twisted the feather, further opening the wound. The bandit’s eyes slowly looked up and locked with two demented, frenzied green eyes.
“I would warn you, ‘don’t ever touch me again’, but it would be pointless because you’re about to die anyways,” Gale seethed. The feather began to draw more blood as the bandit whimpered pathetically. Gale ripped the feather out of his hoof and swung it towards his neck. She was fully intent on taking his head clean off. The bandit closed his eyes, too cowardly to witness his own death.
“What...the?” Gale Force whispered, in a confused tone. The bandit opened his eyes and looked down at a soft, white feather pressing into his neck. Gale Force twisted her head towards Twilight.
“What the fucking fuck you fucker, Twilight?!” Gale ‘fucking’ shouted at Twilight.
“Don’t you two think you might be going a little too far?! For Celestia’s sake look what you did to that poor pony’s hoof,” said Twilight as she trotted towards Gale and the injured bandit. Twilight used her magic to rip off a piece of the bandit’s own clothing and made a makeshift tourniquet out of it. As Twilight wrapped up the pony’s hoof, she turned towards the pegasus and gave her a good lecturing. “You and Ray could both learn a thing or two about friendship. There’s no need for such levels of violence. Sure they may be bandits, but did you guys ever think about talking things through with them?”
The bandit, feeling protected from the murderous pegasus, stood up and hid behind Twilight.
“Thank ye kind saint! I reckon you just darn saved my life,” said the bandit. Twilight turned around to face the bandit.
“Now hold on a second, you’re not off the hook yet. Why are you out here in the forest robbing ponies? You should know better than that!” scolded Twilight with a disappointed expression.
“Twilight, you’re not going to try and reason with these low-lifes, are you?” asked Cosmic Ray as he stepped forward. Twilight’s head spun around and gave Ray a soul piercing gaze. “Nevermind, I forgot you’re the hero here. Please, continue, Twilight…” pleaded Cosmic Ray as he stumbled backwards.
“Are you serious right now, Twilight?! These aren’t just street rats who rob food vendors, these are career bandits who rob and kill innocent travelers!” shouted Gale Force. Twilight ignored both the pegasus and the unicorn and continued her conversation with the bandit.
“Now missus, I got a real good reasons for us being out here in the dead o’ night robbing ponies,” the bandit said as he removed his mask. The pony had a messy, unkempt peach mane that was cut short. The stallion had an orange coat that complemented his yellow eyes.
“You see, we was the farmers who once lived on those farmlands that is now a desert. Ever since Discord took away our homes, we had to turn to a life of crime. I had to single-hoofedly feed my thirteen brothers and twelve sisters,” explained the pony as tears swelled under his eyes.
The pony’s voice cracked as he continued his tragic tale.
“T-T-Then my young mare of a mama...s-she contracted the ‘strangles’! OH MAMA, YOU SQUARE DANCIN’ IN THE HEAVENS NOW!” the pony finished as he burst into tears.
Cosmic Ray leaned against a tree with his hooves folded, not caring for a word that the pony had said.
Gale Force scoffed and rolled her eyes.
Twilight couldn’t help but burst into tears after hearing the tragic tale.
“Y-you poor pony, you’ve been through so much,” said Twilight as she wiped her eyes with her hooves. “Here...maybe this will help you with all your problems,” Twilight said as she nudged Cosmic Ray.
“Huh, what?” asked the unicorn as he looked at Twilight.
“Give him some money,” demanded Twilight, trying not to raise her voice. Cosmic Ray sighed and reached into his satchel and pulled out a large sack of coins. The unicorn slowly turned the money filled bag on it’s side and jingled out a single bit, before handing it to Twilight.
“You could learn a thing or two from Rarity!” shouted Twilight as she used her magic to swipe the entire coinpurse from Cosmic Ray.
“Hey-” started the unicorn, but held his tongue when Twilight shot him another glare.
“Here you go, now you can feed your siblings and you won’t have to live a life of crime any longer. You find a new home far, far away from this place,” said Twilight with a sincere smile that could warm even the coldest heart.
“Well gee...no pony’s ever been this kind to me before. I guess I’ve never met a pony that’s as much a SUCKER AS YOU! AHAHA WE GOT EM BOYS!” the stallion cried, victoriously.
“W-What...b-but what about all that stuff about your siblings and your mother!?” asked Twilight, surprised.
“MY MAMA FINE! SHE RIGHT OVER THERE!” shouted the pony as he pointed a hoof to a bandit. The bandit ripped off her mask, revealing an old mare.
“GREAT JOB BOY! NOW LET’S DITCH THESE LOSERS! WE GOT KILLING AND ROBBING TO DO!” cried the senile mare as the bandits retreated into the darkness.
Twilight stood motionless with one eye twitching. She felt a wing wrap around her shoulder.
“Nice job, Twilight. You really taught those bandits a lesson,” said Gale Force as she held up the one bit they had left.
“No, I think she taught us a lesson, never let the hero touch the money...” said Cosmic Ray.
And from that day on, Twilight never got to touch the money.
