Chapters Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
Fluttershy hid in the corner of the Doctor's office, slowly shrinking away from the pony who was getting closer and closer to her. It wasn't a surprise to Applejack that when she was told to bring Fluttershy to the Doctor's that she'd have problems, but this was out of control. The Pegasus has been under the influence of serious migraines for the past few weeks, ever since The Royal Wedding. At first, it only lasted a day. Then it lasted two. Then five. And the number kept going up. Eventually it got to the point where the animals were needing to take care of the poor Pegasus, as she could not walk nor fly, or even speak.
Twilight had begged Applejack to take her to the Doctor's Office, in worries that Fluttershy could be experiencing side effects of the Changeling invasion. And as Applejack took Fluttershy to a large, blue building she had never seen before, Fluttershy lost it when she realized it was the Doctor's office.
She hid behind every counter she could see, challenged Foals and Fillies to doggie pile on top of her, in hopes she could become invisible, so she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of the Doctor's Office. Applejack was sympathetic for the poor doormat, and understood why she would be spooked by the place. But it was quite obvious Fluttershy's destructive mood was caused by the migraines.
The Pegasus had finally snapped, and began to swing chairs around and smash them into walls, counters, or even other ponies. She shouted at the top of her lungs as she destroyed the office, so loud that the words were barely comprehendable. Eventually, one of the doctors got a sedation needle and swiftly injected it into the Pegasus' thigh, calming down the raging pony and putting her to sleep.
“Is she 'right, Doc?” Applejack asked, sitting across from the table where the sleeping Pegasus was laying. The bland, white room was obviously a Doctor's Office, with posters of xrays and catscans, and layouts of a Pony Body.
“She's perfectly fine, physically.” The doctor mumbled, distracted by his fancy papers. “If not, better than usual. The Xray shows that she's growing, slowly streching upwards. If she was still young, I'd say she was going through puberty.”
Applejack thought. She had to agree, Fluttershy had been getting taller lately, almost starting to look as lanky as the Pegasus looked as a Filly. Extremely long legs, and extremely thin body.
“There is one thing though.” The doctor said, letting go of the papers, and laying them on the counter behind him with his magic. “She's experiencing even more growth near her forehead. Directly above the snout. The Xray shows that there's a small lump forming. Whether it could be a simple bump or a tumor, we don't know. I'll take the results in to the lab, you keep an eye on her.”
“Will do, 'Doc. Glad yah could halp.” Applejack responded, getting up and bending over so the Pegasus could be slipped on to her back. She kept a decently slow trot back to Fluttershy's home, careful not to wake the cranky doormat on her back. She kept thinking about what the doctor said, how it could be a simple bump or a tumor. If it was a tumor, Fluttershy would most likely have no hope for living, as the easily-frightened doormat probably wouldn't let them near her with a popsicle.
When Applejack got in close proximity of Fluttershy's Animal Farm, the animals slowly surrounded her, and some birds began to pick the Pegasus up off of Applejack's back, and into the house.
“Tha' was easy.” Applejack said, to nopony in particular, then started to gallop back to Sweet Apple Acres. If anything, Applejack didn't want to be anywhere near the nuclear Fluttershy radius when she woke up.
Fluttershy slept peacefully, resting her wings around her body and letting her mane get incredibly scrunchy. The curvy pink mane was now frizzy and jutting out everywhere, almost like Twilight on a bad hair day. But the Pegasus kept sleeping, and slept through the next day and night.
Fluttershy dreamt of Canterlot, the beautiful animals in the Castle Garden, the Alicorns living in the majestic castle, performing grand duties and bestowing the wishes of their people, raising the sun and the moon per night. The dream was happy, peaceful, neutral. Luna rose the moon, Celestia rose the sun.
But slowly everything began to fade. The Royal Court closed, the castle burned, and the sun and moon collided in the sky, creating fiery infernos raining from above and chaos slowly destroying both celestial objects. Alicorns slowly ascended from the heavens, bringing with them mass destruction and death.
Fluttershy tossed and turned as the scenes only got worse, the land slowly flooding and flattening from rains of fire and rock, and Equestria began to fall apart. Mountain ranges slowly sank into the ground, leaving gaping ravines to slowly fill with lava and eject plumes of smoke out towards the sky. And in the middle, of all the chaos, stood a cream colored Alicorn, her pink flowing mane rippling in the wind generated by the destruction.
This Alicorn stood, watching the kingdom of Equestria destroy itself. Tears flowed freely from the face of the brave Alicorn, as her species slowly destroyed Equestria. They were bringing back Hevana, the Land of the Alicorns. Fluttershy didn't know what this knowlege flowing into her mind meant, or what Hevana was, but she continued to dream.
The land quickly flourished with tree growth and terraformation, as it began to turn into a giant, forested valley, with tips of mountains touching the edge of their atmosphere, to the deepest of the valleys reaching to the depths of the known world. And slowly, as the cream Alicorn continued to weep, a mountain was erected around her, keeping her locked up as lava slowly flowed up from under the plateau she stood on.
The Alicorn continued to weep, as slowly she was consumed by magma.
Fluttershy's dream went black, yet she continued to toss and turn in her sleep. A voice, warm and friendly, yet female, and strangely familiar, began to speak to her mind.
“Fluttershy, my daughter. It's beginning. I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am to finally be able to claim you. Become your destiny. Do not let your dreams come true. For this is a dream that will destroy you and all you love.”
Fluttershy woke abruptly after the voice finished speaking. She didn't know what it meant, who it was, or where it came from, but she felt strangely... Calm. She was not enraged, she was not scared, she didn't want to find a jar and hide in it for the rest of her life, she was just, calm. Her head no longer pounded from migraines, and she saw a small note, sitting beside the bed she woke in.
Dear Fluttershy,
“What.” Fluttershy asked blankly. She reached for her face and felt the bump in her forehead.
He said it's almost impossible, and only a 0.01% chance, but he seems to believe you indeed have a tumor growing there, if the 0.01% chance is correct. If it isn't, it's a fluke and you shouldn't worry about it.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle.
Fluttershy sat there and continued to stare at the parchment.
“A tumor.” She said out loud, her head slowly beginning to pound at her skull once again.
PS: Princess Celestia wanted a personal audience with you whenever you woke up. Just ask one of the Royal Guards hanging around town to give you a ride, and they'll be sure to let you.
Fluttershy quickly burst out of her home with gusto. She tore around Ponyville, looking for a Royal Guard. All she could see was Pegasus, Pegasus, Pony, Unicorn, Pony, no Royal Guards. Fluttershy was overwhelmed at the moment, unable to think, letting the pounding against her skull do the work and searching for her, while she felt like she was mentally asleep.
Finally, she found a Royal Guard, and let her usual Fluttershy kick in. She sunk down to her lowest height and slowly tapped the Colt on the shoulder, revealing that the man in the armor was actually Shining Armor, Twilight's brother.
“H-h-hello, Shining Armor.” She stammered. Even after meeting the Colt at the Royal Wedding, she was still very nervous around the newlywed.
“Oh, hey Fluttershy! Twilight told me you'd be needing a ride to Canterlot, for a private audience with Princess Celestia. You should feel pretty honored, in my opinion. Are you ready to go?” He asked, joyfully smiling at the shrinking Mare.
“Yes...” Fluttershy squeaked, and then was gently placed into a chariot and flown off into the direction of Canterlot, without even a “Goodbye” from Shining Armor.
It took a long time, but finally Fluttershy was standing in the Royal Canterlot Garden, where a very nervous Princess Celestia was waiting for her.
“Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy asked. She wasn't nervous around the Princess, as the Princess knew her better than anyone. They had many conversations in the dark confines of Non-Society, and therefore were quite close compared to most other ponies.
“Hello... Niece.” Princess Celestia said, turning around with a smile. Her eyes teared up as she waited for the words to sink in to Fluttershy. “Welcome to The Royal Canterlot Castle. This will be your new home, Alicorn.”
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
The Royal Extended Family
Fluttershy was at a loss for words. Surely she couldn’t be of Royal Blood, could she? She doubted the wise words of the Alicorn Princess, yet the tears forming in Celestia’s eyes only helped to confirm it. Fluttershy figured the doctor was right. The lump on her forehead was a tumor of sorts, growing from inside of her. It was a horn.
Fluttershy did what she knew best - Run and hide. She didn’t want to be royalty, she didn’t want to change. She didn’t want the attention this new life would bring to her. She wanted to continue to care for the animals, and hide from society whenever she could. She wanted to be known at most when she was performing with her Bird Choir, not running councils and debating with the other Princesses for whose turn it was to raise the sun in the morning, and who would be stuck with the moon.
Fluttershy hid in a bush on the other side of the castle and cried. The most important change she knew this would bring was her friends. She would lose her friends, them stuck in Ponyville while she was being princess-like for Equestria. Sure, Fluttershy had the grace and beauty of an Alicorn Princess, as well as the speaking ability when she was enraged. But to be a princess herself? She didn’t want it. She didn’t want the stupid horn growing out of her forehead, she didn’t want to believe she was part of an Alicorn family, and most importantly she didn’t want to lose her friends.
Fluttershy continued to weep in the bushes as her Alicorn Aunt slowly came up beside the bush. Not like it was obvious Fluttershy was in it, it’s not every day Canterlot has a crying bush on the Royal Grounds. Celestia slowly sat down beside the bush, and removed her golden crown, letting her usually-flowing hair droop down slowly beside her.
“Fluttershy, I know it’s hard news. It’s hard realizing you’ve lived half your life believing you were a Pegasus, to have it revealed that you aren’t, and your Pegasi family was a cover up until you grew your horn. I understand. But please, for your Mother’s sake, please give it a chance.” Celestia told her, prodding the bushes with her hoof until the small Alicorn slowly crept out of it.
Fluttershy wiped her face of tears and slowly gave Celestia a solemn nod, agreeing to give being an Alicorn a try.
“Thank you, dear. If you choose to not live in the Royal Palace, I am fine with it, if you prefer to live in Ponyville as an Alicorn.” Celestia mentioned, before putting on her crown to let her hair flow, and adding a “Follow me, I’ll show you around the castle.”
Fluttershy slunked into pursuit behind the Princess, as she went on about their family history and where Alicorns originated. Apparently, where Equestria is now, there used to be a lush, green, valley land. The name has long been forgotten by history, yet Fluttershy knew of the name. From her dream, Hevana. Fluttershy didn’t say anything, as she was far too nervous from the looks the Royal Guards were giving her.
“And finally, here is where you would be staying, if you choose to.” Celestia said, opening large, blue doors to a decently sized room, big enough to fit Fluttershy’s Animal Farm inside. It had bright pink walls, and white laminate floors, with an overhang floor above a small kitchen, and a staircase leading up. It was almost like a full Mansion inside of the castle, with multiple rooms leading off the overhang floor and the lower one as well.
Fluttershy took a few steps in to marvel at the room. Celestia gave a small chuckle, obviously impressed with Fluttershy’s reaction to the size. A large window beside the staircase gave view to a large garden, most likely the Canterlot Garden. Fluttershy was in awe, amazed that such a place could be her home, if she chose. She took one more step before wincing, holding her face with a hoof then toppling over onto the ground.
“Fluttershy!” Celestia cried, trotting over to the Alicorn, laying on the ground, still holding her forehead. “It’s growing in, isn’t it?”
Fluttershy simply nodded, the pain becoming unbearable. She knew what Celestia was talking about, the horn slowly beginning to protrude out of Fluttershy’s skull.
“You’re very near the stage of becoming a full Alicorn. It’s going to hurt, a lot. But stay with me. Just, hang in there.” Celestia’s tone was very compassionate, as she had most likely gone through the process before.
Fluttershy could feel her bones, her tendons, slowly stretching apart, as she grew an extra inch on her once petite figure. The pain was slowly subsiding, while she could still feel herself growing in size, and her forehead becoming numb with pain. Slowly, Fluttershy began to glow with a pink magic, but not Celestia’s.
Fluttershy finally passed out from the pain. Celestia simply nodded to herself, taking the growing Alicorn to a bed, and laying her gently in a position where she can grow her necessary sizes. A small nub the size of a Filly’s Horn was proceeding to appear on her forehead. It pulsated with gentle pink magic, giving off a faint glow to the dark room.
Her wings gently flapped as she slept, slowly growing to the size of a Teenage Alicorn. Only two hours later, and Fluttershy was done growing. Completely. A full horn was protruding from her forehead, and her doubled size was graced with beautiful wings, large enough to carry her new form. Although it was light and Aerodynamic, as well as incredibly skinny, the wings still needed extra help, as Fluttershy could hardly fly before.
Fluttershy woke the following morning to a muffin on a silver platter, joined by a small cup of water and a note. She tried to stand to reach the food, but found she was like a baby. She finally realized her new body, her added height, slight color change by the feet, and her horn. She thought. She began to focus on the glass of water, imagining a pair of hooves grabbing it and bringing it over to her. And with relative ease, it began to float. The sides of the glass cracked a few times, and Fluttershy lightened up on the pressure. ‘Magic is easy. Why does Twilight make it seem so hard?’ She thought, bringing the glass up to her face, and sipped out of it, still using her magic. ‘I could get used to this.’
Fluttershy wandered the castle, hiding from every window that would cast her shadow, and trying to make her way to the Courtroom, where Celestia was probably dealing with somepony. It probably wasn’t hard to hide as an Alicorn, just imagine yourself as completely invisible, almost nonexistent and you’re done.
Fluttershy wandered into the courtroom, still pretending she was invisible so she wouldn’t cast a shadow. Shadows were scary stuff.
Princess Celestia was undisturbed, calmly waiting for somepony to walk in to begin court. ‘Poor Celestia. She must have to go through this a lot.’ Fluttershy thought, still invisible, but slowly wandering up the steps towards the princess. Fluttershy wanders. It’s her favorite past time, except for being the world champion at the quiet game.
Celestia heard the sound of hooves against stone, and figured Fluttershy had begun to use her magic. Slowly, as Celestia figured, her niece began to fade into view beside her, slinking into the shadows she cast against the walls.
“He-hello Celestia. Is it fine if I call you that? I don’t want to offend Royalty, even if you are my family and I’m your niece but still you’re Royalty and I guess I should treat you like a princess but -”
“It’s fine, Fluttershy. Here, come sit with me. I closed the Royal Court for today due to... Family matters. So I could introduce you to a little spice of life living in the Royal Family. I should also mention your Blood Sister is going to be coming by later, she’s a little older than you but you should recognize her. Princess Cadence?” Celestia asked. Fluttershy let a small bit of recognition cross her face, then continued to slink away from the sunlight, to avoid casting any scary shadows.
They sat there in silence for a while, Celestia’s multi colored mane flowing in the imaginary wind. They continued to sit there until a few muffled voices began to reach their ears, bringing a small smile to Celestia’s face.
“Fluttershy... Meet your Family.” Celestia said, as Cadence, and two other Alicorns Fluttershy had not seen before came through the entrance to the Royal Court. The taller, obviously Mommy Alicorn was very similar to Cadence, flowing pink hair that kept a strict style to the form of her body, with a blonde highlight coursing through it. The father Alicorn looked more similar to Fluttershy, but instead of Fluttershy’s loops, his were kept shorter up top and scruffier.
Fluttershy felt a wave of fear wash over her, and she quickly used her newfound magical abilities to go invisible as the 3 Alicorns got closer.
“Hello, Cadence, Liberta, and Lues. It’s a pleasure to see you!” Celestia greeted, sitting up and casting light onto Fluttershy’s now transparent figure.
“Hello, Celestia. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I’d love to be formal, but I heard you have... My daughter with you?” Liberta spoke up, her blonde highlight almost seeming to writhe in her flowing mane.
Fluttershy squeaked, and it wouldn’t have been heard if Liberta had continued speaking for just a few more smidge-a-seconds.
“Honey? Is that you? Come on out, Venus. We just want to see you.” Lues spoke up, stepping out from behind his wife and looking around the Court Room.
“She’s a little shy, just so you know. Twilight told me a little about her. Great Mare.” Cadence spoke up, taking a few steps in a circle. “Probably using magic to turn herself invisible.”
Fluttershy gave up the charade, and slowly began to fade into view in front of the three ponies. Liberta slowly gave off a familiar -SQUEEE- sound, probably hereditary. Fluttershy flipped her pink mane a few times before settling, still unbalanced in her new form. Liberta and Lues quickly galloped up to her, and nuzzled the Alicorn.
No matter how friendly the ponies were, Fluttershy couldn’t help feel that they weren’t her family. They weren’t her friends. They were complete strangers, who had disbanded her as a child.
“Venus? Is something wrong?” Liberta asked the slinking pony.
“Venus? My name is Fluttershy.” She responded, in a semi annoyed, semi scared tone.
“Um, okay. Fluttershy, is something wrong?” Liberta then asked again, stepping away from the Alicorn and giving her a look of concern.
“Well, um, I know you’re like, um, my parents and all. But, I wasn’t raised by you and, um, It’s just... I feel awkward around you. Like Cadence, you’re my sister. But I feel like you’re just an acquaintance. I just...” Fluttershy’s newfound Alicorn confidence finally gave out, and she ran back to her room, sobbing and fading into invisibility while running.
Fluttershy sat in a corner of her bedroom, of her fancy suite. She didn’t like this. She didn’t want to be an Alicorn. She wanted it to all be undone. She wanted her normal body back, her flightless wings, her animal farm, her friends. She wanted her old life back.
Fluttershy became enraged. The main cause was probably her Alicorn Puberty Hormones, but she managed to gather the strength to grab a stool and whip it out the window. She leapt out the window, hoping she could actually fly, and began to plummet towards the ground.
Fluttershy slowly flapped her wings, trying to slow down her plummet. She now realized how high she was in the castle, pretty much the top floor of the castle. She fell for a while. She was slowly decreasing in speed, she admitted, but she had to flap harder to be able to fly. Her hooves grazed the ground, and she propelled herself into the sky.
Fluttershy flew faster and faster, gaining speed who could rival RainbowDash. She headed in the general direction of Ponyville, off to the side where her Farm was. She could hear faint voices crying her name, and Venus, but she didn’t turn back. She didn’t want to. She wanted to find Twilight, and see if there was a spell to transform her into a Pegasus again.
She didn’t want to be an Alicorn. She longed for her normal Pegasus body, not even caring for her now sexy, sleek, aerodynamically light form. She wanted to be her normal, average, Fluttershy. She wanted her old wings back, the ones that could barely carry her average weight.
Fluttershy wanted to be Fluttershy again. Not Venus the Alicorn Niece of Celestia.
Fluttershy finally arrived at the Library where Twilight was living. She was deciding on turning invisible and sneaking in, but her Alicorn Royalty confidence had forced her to simply knock on the door with her horn.
“Hello? Who is it?” Twilight’s voice cried out from inside. “Spike, I think it’s Fluttershy. Get the door!”
The door quickly opened, and the first thing Fluttershy recognized was the startled faces of Spike and Twilight in the doorway.
“He... Hello Twilight. It’s... Fluttershy.” She managed, almost choking on her tears.
“Fluttershy! You’re.. An Alicorn! Come in, quick!”
Fluttershy floated into the library, admittedly beginning to like the new wings. Twilight, still dazed at her old friend’s new look, slowly closed the door. Spike still hadn’t moved.
“Twilight!” He whispered in her ear, “She’s... She’s better looking than Rarity now!”
Fluttershy turned a bright pink and let out a small chuckle, and Twilight smacked the baby dragon across the face. Shoving the drooling dragon into a closet.
“Fluttershy... What happened!” Twilight asked, turning to the Alicorn who was towering above her, and then scanning her bookshelves for a book on Alicorns.
“Well, it started with those migraines, you know, the ones you sent me to the doctor for? He figured I was hitting a massive growth spurt, and there was a tumor-like object growing out of my forehead. Celestia asked for that personal audience with me, and told me I was her niece, or Cadence’s sister. So I’m your half-sister-in-law, or something similar. But I don’t want to be!” Fluttershy sunk onto the ground and began to sob. “I want to be a pegasus again, the wimpy doormat pegasus who can’t fly, who loves to take care of animals, not an Alicorn of the Royal Court! Do you have ANY magic that could fix me? Turn be back into my normal self?”
Twilight comforted the sobbing Alicorn, who, even sitting, was still taller than her.
“I do, but it’ll be a little risky. It’ll take some time to prepare, but I can do it. Feel free to wait here.”
An hour later, Twilight came back with a book labeled “Alicorn Magic” and set it in front of Fluttershy.
“I need you to focus on your old self for me. While I work on making it real.”
“Twilight, my magic is as strong as yours.”
“Which will work better. You might be able to go invisible” She said, nudging towards Fluttershy’s unknown invisible hoof, “But we need an extreme amount of power to completely transform a pony.”
They began the process, both focusing on Fluttershy’s Pegasus form.
“That’s good, keep going!” Twilight yelled over the turbulent magic flowing around the room, sending books flying.
But Twilight’s voice had distracted Fluttershy’s mind, and she began to imagine Twilight as an Alicorn.
And so it happened.
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
Celestia was disappointed. She thought that her niece would’ve taken to the news lightly, and had tried to be as calm as she could for the young Alicorn. She was hoping that Fluttershy would take the news joyfully, and bask in her new abilities, and history. But instead she took the pessimistic side, and regarded her life as a lie, her parents unreal and refused to believe the reality.
Celestia’s disappointment grew when Fluttershy left her family in the Royal Courtroom, running and crying. She had blatantly refused to believe that Liberta and Lues were her parents, and Cadence her sister.
“I’m sorry, I thought she would take this better.” Celestia said, to the saddened family.
“Take this better? Take this better!” Liberta exclaimed, waving her horn in fury, “Please tell me, ‘your highness’ that you expected my daughter to take this lightly! Do you not remember YOUR changing years, how moody and powerful you become? The poor mare, she’s probably ruined! You should’ve let her into our society slowly!”
Liberta stormed out of the room with a ‘Hmpf’, followed by her obedient and slightly resilient husband. Yet the words still rang through Celestia’s head, like a bell had just smacked her and she flew across Equestria. Cadence slowly bowed her head and marched out of the room, probably to go meet her husband somewhere waiting for their honeymoon.
Celestia was slowly met by the darkness of Luna’s moon, the only companion she had in the stiff, cold Royal Courtroom. She slowly let out a few tears, letting go of her royal appearance and settling in to the Alicorn phase. Celestia slowly trotted down the halls of the castle, past the royal guards, who gave each other confused looks.
Celestia slowly walked up the spiral staircase, in one of the corner turrets of the castle. Her mind wandered about what she would say to Fluttershy when she got up there, if she’d say she was sorry, if she’d say she wanted to apologize, if she should just give the crying Fluttershy a friendly hug or... She opened the door.
Celestia’s eyes dropped and her mind spun when she found Fluttershy’s room empty. Celestia quickly galloped up and down the room, looking for the young and confused Alicorn. Then she saw the open window. Then a bright boom and a flash from the direction of Ponyville.
“Oh no...”
Fluttershy woke with a jolt, looking around the once-was Ponyville. She was in a brown, earthy crater, filled with hunks of rock and debris raining from the sky. She slowly paced herself, getting up one hoof at a time, and eventually rose out of the barren hole. What she saw wasn’t pretty, making her wish she hadn’t even woke up this morning.
Ponyville was in ruins, fires burning down towns, large rocks thrown directly into homes, practically totaling them. It looked like someone had taken a perfectly good pastel colored rainbow and dragged it through a gravel road, snagging it on huge rocks and carrying them along.
Fluttershy could barely remember what had happened, it all went so fast. She had left the Royal Court running and weeping, and then leapt out her window and flew to Ponyville, to talk to...
“Twilight!” Fluttershy screamed out, bringing attention of a few ponies scurrying through the wreckage. They took double takes when they realized that she was an Alicorn, before resuming their work of sifting through wreckage.
The once-was Ponyville Library, home to Twilight and Spike, was nowhere to be found in the giant crater where it used to be, and nor any remains of the owners. Nothing to show where they had gone, where they are, if they died, if they lived, injuries, nothing. It made Fluttershy sad. One of her last pieces of being a Pegasus, her FRIENDS, was now destroyed, by her hope to return her youth to her.
She let the tears flow, staring at the presumably dead remains of Twilight. She had killed her friend, who was only trying to help her. Fluttershy had just killed one of Equestria’s most powerful non-Alicorn Unicorns, if not the most powerful. Just to return to what everything used to be. Fluttershy let it go. She let her Alicorn instinct run wild. The rocks and dirt in front of her began to spin in her whirlwind of magic.
The earth turned and twisted, bringing along all of its stones and minerals with it. She began to make a mould of Twilight’s face, in stones, above her and the crater. The rocks slowly bent and twisted, cracked and melted, until finally Fluttershy was satisfied. She rose the earth from under her, letting beautiful green grass lock around her hooves and saplings pounce from the ground.
She laid the statue of her deceased friend in the middle, as a memoriam of the great unicorn. ‘Life is over. There is no more Fluttershy.’
“Over here!” A female voice cried out, soon followed by a speeding pegasi in a blue uniform. It was a wonderbolt, most likely Spitfire by the hairdo. “What’s your name, Princess?”
“My name is Flutter-” She cut herself off. She gave her act up. She gave up trying to give rebirth to her old Pegasi self. “My name is Venus.”
“We’ve got a princess over here!” Spitfire then shouted, bringing the attention of 2 other wonderbolts. They slowly carried the Alicorn over under a tree, where they had a few stations set up for people saved from the wreckage.
“Princess... Venus was it?” One asked. Fluttershy simply nodded. “Okay, what were you doing in Ponyville? No offense, but didn’t you have some special duty to do in Canterlot?”
Fluttershy began to weep. Staring down at her hooves. Long, sorrowful, sobbing. The Wonderbolts gave each other solemn shrugs and backed away, leaving the crying princess be. She looked up at the remains of Ponyville. She had caused this chaos. She had killed hundreds, probably thousands of ponies. And why?
Fluttershy couldn’t answer the last question. The one that rang through her mind the most. Why did she do it? Why did she want to give up a main part of who she was, to bring back an imaginary part of her? Did the truth hurt her that much, that she was willing to live her life as a lie, to suit her dreams?
The only part of her that remained from her past was her name. Fluttershy. She could take a move like Princess Cadence, and use Fluttershy as her unofficial name, while being Venus Cadenza in royalty. They both had a nice ring to them, but Fluttershy didn’t care. She didn’t want change. She wanted everything to be normal. But now, she had just slaughtered her hometown in the quest to find her past self, and most likely killing her friends with it. There was no more Fluttershy. There was only Venus Cadenza, niece of Celestia.
But what if she didn’t want there to be a Venus Cadenza? What if she wanted to keep Fluttershy, and her friends? It was too late to change. Fluttershy finally zoned back to reality, out of her comatose thinking state. Slowly, the towering town hall in the center of the town collapsed. And with it, Fluttershy’s soul. Her princess-ly instincts had taken the body and mind.
“Fluttershy!” An old voice called to her, snapping her out of her zone, again. “Fluttershy! What happened to Ponyville? Are you alright?”
Celestia stood, towering over the sleek form of Venus.
“I’d like it if you do not call me that, Aunt. I’m trying to forget the past, and live in the
“Fluttershy, what happened?” Celestia let go of the princess-ly attitude. Normally she
“I just can’t do it! I know I have no hope of returning to my old Pegasi self, especially after...” She took a long, deep, sorrowful sob and began to explain slowly. “I... I went to Twilight to try and see if she had a spell that could return me to what I was before. But the spell went wrong and...” She began weeping again, crumpling up into a small ball in the shade of the tree, glancing off into the distance.
Celestia understood. A freak accident spell had... Killed Twilight Sparkle, and ruined Ponyville. Glancing in the direction Fluttershy was staring, she saw the statue of Twilight’s head, surrounded by natural beauty.
“Fluttershy, did you make that?” She sat herself down beside the still crumpled form of Fluttershy.
“Ye...Yes. I made it when I realized Twilight was gone. I... I just let my horn take over.” She managed to choke out through wheezing sobs.
Celestia simply sat there, admiring Fluttershy’s work on the statue. The grass spread out equally, slowly rising up around the head of the statue, which had lavender flowers growing around it, and vines rising up to the top.
They sat there for hours, in the shade of Luna’s moon. Celestia hoped Luna could handle the responsibility of raising the sun, as she didn’t want to leave the side of the poor, broken Alicorn.
They watched the Wonderbolts scurry left and right, as wizards from the Canterlot Court proceeded to lift debris of homes and buildings up and around. They carried hundreds of ponies out on stretchers, some covered by blankets, others not. It continued forever, the searching. And all the Royalty could do was watch.
“Celestia, what do I do?” Fluttershy finally asked, breaking almost 5 hours of silence and watching.
“Well, I suppose you could live in the Canterlot Castle if you wanted, but that decision is all yours. I realized I may have been too pressing on you to live there, but it is honestly your choice.” Celestia answered, patting Fluttershy’s shoulder.
“Do I have a choice? My home is most likely destroyed. My friends are most likely dead. I have no choice but to start out fresh.” Fluttershy retorted, slowly beginning to cry again.
Celestia never had to go through this as a filly, and had no clue where to start for comforting her niece. She simply sat there, and stared at the statue, her royal subjects, who must’ve by now noticed that she was sitting there with a weeping Alicorn. In the next few hours, they continued to sit. Fluttershy’s mind raced and repeated with questions, arguing with her inner self. Celestia simply continued to sit there, until Fluttershy had finally stopped crying, and began to sleep.
“Princess, I can take it from here. You have a kingdom to take care of.” Cadence had appeared behind them, and was already slowly shifting Fluttershy’s weight on to her own shoulder.
Celestia simply gave a thankful nod and flew away, back to Canterlot, where she had to continue her royal duties, no matter what horrifying devastation was going on below. Celestia had to live in the present, not dwell on the chaos of the past.
Cadence began to softly sing, a lullaby sung to her by their mother when she was a filly.
“Here you are sleeping on my shoulder, Auntie’s sun is gleaming dimly from your hair. Your life suddenly upside down, your smile randomly turned around, and you just don’t know that all you’d need is love~”
Fluttershy stirred in her sleep, causing Cadence to stop. She watched her younger sister nuzzle her face into her shoulder, and then stop stirring. Cadence had to admit, their mother might’ve been a little pessimistic, but she knew how to make some good kids. The Alicorn Princess of Love and the Alicorn Princess of Nature. Niamore and Venus. Or Cadence and Fluttershy.
She smiled at her little sister, proud of what she’d become. Fluttershy might not remember it, heck, Cadence would be surprised if she did, how young she was. Cadence had brought Fluttershy over to Twilight’s so they could have a playdate, while the big brother and the foal sitter made out on the couch. Those two were the best of friends, since they were just little toddlers. And now, one was dead, while the other hit puberty. Cadence’s smile faded.
Rainbow Dash almost made her cloud go brown when she heard the deafening boom come from Ponyville. She definitely knew it couldn’t be good, as a shockwave soon came and tore apart her perfect little sleeping cloud. What worried Rainbow Dash the most is that Ponyville was on the other side of the horizon, and it couldn’t have been some pretty sonic rainboom to cause that earth shattering boom.
She flew in place and watched the horizon for a while, looking for a mushroom cloud. She expected the worst from Ponyville, and considering Fluttershy had gone all Alicorn on her, she figured it was about time something exploded. She sat there for 10 seconds after the explosion, when another shattered the earth, this time uprooting trees and sending rocks, birds, and water up into the sky.
‘Ponyville just exploded twice. Maaaybbee Spike was onto something.” Dash thought, then with a burst of speed, a dash of awesome, and a sprinkle of rainbow, began flying mach 5 into the town, setting off a few rainbooms. ‘No time to be egoistic, your town just exploded.’ Simple, to the point, and true. Rainbow approved.
When she arrived to the scene, her eyes began to water. Ponyville was all but decimated, the epicenter being Twilight’s Library. Rainbow landed on the ground gently, placing her wings to the side, and sorrowfully walked over to the crater. It was a terrifying sight. She walked through streets she’d grown up in, pastel colored buildings left and right. She’d even been able to label a few of them as she passed their remains.
Some burnt, some were falling. Some were missing supports, and most looked like swiss cheese, from high speed boulders crashing through them. The town was a complete disaster. And most likely, Rainbow assumed, Twilight had caused it. ‘Twilight, what in the hoof did you do this time?!’
When she finally stepped foot on the barren soil around the crater, she looked down and recoiled. Inside was Fluttershy, in a very awkward position, slumped up against a rock, her wings bent off the the sides and her forehooves behind her back. Rainbow teared up. No matter how much the Athlete pony tried to keep her cool, she was looking at a most likely dead body of her friend. And she hated every minute of it.
“Going somewhere, Rainbow Dash?” A familiar voice whispered, almost as if it was right in her ear.
“Twilight?”
Rainbow looked over her shoulder, and gasped.
She wasn’t looking at Twilight, she couldn’t have been. It looked like Twilight, mane colors and all, but... She was staring at a sleek, deep lavender Alicorn, with a horn that stood a few feet off her head. Her wings were almost the same size as her towering body, most likely taller than Celestia herself. Her sleek legs and long neck reminded her of Chrysalis, but yet, it seemed so close to Twilight. Around her neck hung a golden pendant, that seemed to have some form of Obsidian artwork on it. A closer look, and Rainbow realized it was an exploding star, with rubies depicting flames.
“Hello, dear Rainbow Dash. Answer my question?” The Alicorn asked again, taking a menacing step towards the blue pony, causing Rainbow to back up and fall in the crater, spraining one of her wings.
“Um... No?” Rainbow replied, getting up and brushing off her sprained wing.
“Didn’t think so.”
And she snapped the neck of the small, fragile, blue pony.
Fluttershy jolted upwards from the dream. It seemed so real, as if she was Rainbow Dash herself. Did that really happen, or-
“Fluttershy! Calm down, what happened?” Cadence asked, pushing her little Alicorn sister to the ground, brushing her wild mane.
“I.. I..” Fluttershy began to cry again. “I had... A dream... And Rainbow... Rainbow was killed by... Twilight killed Rainbow Cadence! Twilight’s not dead, Twilight is an Alicorn, but she’s... Evil. A big, evil, mean, scary Alicorn!”
Cadence pondered. It didn’t make sense to her. Surely it didn’t have to do with the Old Alicorn Lore, did it? The stories of the Sight-Seeing Alicorn and the Princess of Darkness? Surely no, that would mean the return of the dormant Alicorn Republic. That couldn’t happen, could it?
“Fluttershy, have you had any other weird dreams lately? Of Alicorns, in particular?” Cadence asked, whistling to a few guards, to prepare the chariot back to Canterlot.
“Um... Yes..? There were... Alicorns and they...” Fluttershy’s Alicorn self seemed to stammer a lot more than she wished, especially through torn sobs. “They took over Equestria, and... Re shaped it?”
“Fluttershy, you’ve just become the single most important Alicorn in history.” Cadence whispered in her ear, before turning to the guards and yelling: “HEY! Hurry it up! We need to get to Canterlot, now!”
Celestia wandered the halls of the Royal Canterlot Castle. She wished she could be there for her niece, who desperately needed some loving, but she had important matters to stop. She had cancelled the Royal Court, and any other activities that might involve her, or her nocturnal sister Luna. She had to wonder though, did Twilight really die? She had to doubt it. The Alicorn species is immortal. Was it a simple miscommunication, and Twilight rose from the crater in the early morning, as an Alicorn?
And more specifically, what would Twilight be doing with that kind of power? Her Unicorn self had almost as much power as a regular Alicorn, but if that power was transmitted to an Alicorn’s body?
Celestia shuddered to think. The last time something like that happened was Luna and the Alicorn Republic. She didn’t want to have to banish her student to the moon, but that kind of power can corrupt a pony quite easily. Especially an Alicorn, the only immortal species in Equestria. She had to wonder, how was the Alicorn Republic doing, having been banished into deep space, where only fate could decide their end?
Celestia tiptoed past Luna’s room. Round 97 around the castle. She’d paced around the whole castle 97 times. All thinking about what was going on. This was her kingdom, Equestria, why did she not understand what was happening in it? Why couldn’t it be the Griffins or the Changelings who got the problems? Why was it always Equestria that got the problems?
Celestia finally sighed, and shoved open the door to her room. She walked past the pastel white walls, and into a golden room, with a blanket that seemed to almost be made of the sun itself. Celestia closed her eyes, and thought of a happy kingdom, with a Queen and King, complete and total harmony, no need for the citizens to wield the Elements of Harmony...
Her room burst open, revealing Cadence dragging Fluttershy along behind.
“Aunt Celestia, show her the Old Alicorn Testaments. Book 218.”
Celestia nodded. She figured it was time for this. The rise, the fall. The end.
BOOK 218, ALICORN TESTAMENT.
Prophet Whooves, Year 190
"It is time for the land to cool down. Peace can live, surely, for 1000 years. But then, only three warnings will be given, until Lord Crisis will rise again. The Alicorn of Foresight, the Princess of Mars. Creating the sole destruction of all she loves. The Princess of Power, dark as the sky, will rise from the earth, and bring back Time's old Enemy. Royalty will lose, time will stop, all for the love, of a lifeless rock."
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
Twilight Sparkle, called by many nowadays Princess Chaos, or simply Chaos, sought cover from Equestria’s big happy family. She wanted the end. She would bring the end. And Equestria, or Hevana, would be hers. Either would do. Nopony would care, everyone loves a change in government every now and then. Whether good or bad, they just want a good laugh. And she would make them laugh. Or cry. Both were pretty similar.
She was thankful for what her old friend Fluttershy had given her, the gift of being an Alicorn. She approved of the sexy, sleek form, and couldn’t even begin to wonder why Fluttershy wanted to rid herself of it. It was amazing. Maybe it was because Fluttershy knew Twilight would make a better Alicorn. Pfft, the pathetic pony. Couldn’t even survive the transformation blast.
She carried a small brown bag with her through the forest, inside, a writhing Rainbow Dash with a sore neck and a broken wing. It was going according to plan, of course. Twilight used a bit of black magic to revive the dead Rainbow Dash, and fuel hatred into the young Pegasus’ heart. She would then transform Rainbow Dash into an Alicorn as well, and then the others. Soon, she would have an elite squad of four Alicorns, who will abide by her will and destroy all who stand in her way.
At the edge of the EverFree Forest was a small cove, one which Twilight had begun brainstorming of whipping Spike inside on the way there. She was quite the twisted Alicorn, overcome by power. Too bad the small dragon was gone, most likely de-atomized in the explosion. Or thrown into the stratosphere. More pleasant thoughts from Twilight!
Twilight pranced into the cove, using her newfound powers to cover the entrance with leaves, and then proceed to burn a small rose, left in a pot by some pony who most likely had a fun time in here. The dim cave walls began to dance with orange flames, as the magic-fueled flaming rose burned eternally.
Twilight dumped her gagged luggage on the ground, and proceeded to lay the burlap sack on top of the burning rose, making even more flames dance in the corner of the cove. The small, pitiful form of the blue pegasus writhed in pain, attempting to grasp her neck through her bound hooves. Twilight smiled. This was going to be easier than she thought.
She clamped a long leather strap around Rainbow Dash, who was more like GrayBow Dash, considering the cave floor had made her colourful mane seem dull and gray, and used a bit of magic to let the ground swallow up the straps and tighten around Rainbow. Twilight then sat in the corner, and focused all her energy on the blue pegasus whimpering on the ground.
She imagined the blue pony stretching, to a magnificent size, not as tall as the Twilight Princess herself, but still larger than most Alicorn Republicans. She had to keep her elites towering over all the others, after all. Can’t have them looking wimpy, when their job is to erase Equestria of all Royal Blooded Alicorn folk. She smiled cruelly as the blue pegasus began whimpering louder, feeling her bones stretch, and her tendons pull.
Twilight and her Elites weren’t royal blooded Alicorns, hell, they weren’t even Alicorns! But they were the best of the best. And that’s all the Twilight Princess needed to take over Equestria. Hire 4 ponies to kill off any Royals? Easy enough, they’ll be cowering in their castle as soon as they discover who the Twilight Princess is. The deranged folks up in Canterlot won’t stand a chance against their army. Long live the Alicorn Republic, as they say.
The whimpering finally erupted into muffled screams, deranged and distorted, as the blue Pegasus began to grow her horn and take her final shape. Slowly, Twilight began to pump the feelings of hatred towards Equestria into her, just as Discord did, a year ago. Twilight smiled, ‘Discord will be here soon enough.’
The leather bindings on the young Blue Elite loosened, as Rainbow’s form began to shrink and become extremely aerodynamic. Rainbow Dash would be the Aerial Attack Force, the one to bomb any opposition with incredible force, speed, and strength. Rainbow’s beautiful pink eyes slowly dyed themselves a deep red, and her mane ignited with great contrast, almost turning into a bright rainbow fire blazing from her head.
‘Rise, Rainbow Pyre.’ Twilight bellowed, as slowly the bindings around Rainbow’s hooves and mouth broke, under Twilight’s magical suppression. She gave a wicked smile, and chuckled as her obedient Elite Slave rose from the cave ground, her flowing multi colored mane painting the walls of the cave bright colors. Rainbow’s eyes almost poured hatred, but not hatred for her master. She would be good to her master. She would make Master happy.
Rainbow Pyre stood majestically, waiting for an order from her master. She would do anything and everything she could for her master, and she would do it gruesomely. The thought let a smile creep across her face. Gruesomely, what a sadistic word. She liked it.
Rainbow Pyre rejected her past self as an ‘Imperfection.’. She was now perfect in every way, an Alicorn. She would help the Alicorn Republic in any way she could. Although her name should still be Rainbow Dash, she will call herself by her master’s wishes.
“Pyre, find Rarity. Kill her and bring her to me.” The Twilight Princess ordered at her Elite. Rainbow darted through the leaves blocking the cave, faster than any Alicorn or Pony could’ve before. She was about to get her next Elite, and that would be all she needed to take down the Cadenza family. The Twilight Princess gave off another wicked smile.
Fluttershy read the small piece of paper. Why the hoof was it called “Book 218” if it was just a small paragraph on a piece of parchment? She didn’t care. She cared more about the fact that it was indeed true, and Twilight, her best friend, was going to bring back the Alicorn Republic, and destroy Equestria. She also cared about the fact Twilight had killed her best friend Rainbow, who may or may not have survived the encounter.
“So you say Twilight killed Rainbow?” Celestia asked, peering over Fluttershy’s shoulder as they sat on Celestia’s bed. The fiery sheets slowly writhed, as if they were true flames.
“Yes.” Fluttershy simply responded, distracted in her thoughts.
“And you saw the rise of Hevana, in a dream you had while in the castle?” Celestia asked again, hoping to milk the young Alicorn of any and all information on this threat to Equestria.
“Yes.”
Celestia rose from the bed, and left the room. Fluttershy was being given some time to ponder her thoughts, while the Royal Family raised security in every corner of Equestria. This was a Level 5 Threat, whatever that meant. The only reason Fluttershy knew of its existence was from Luna muttering it under her breath as she broke through the windows of Celestia’s outer Dorm.
The air was so tense in Equestria you could cut it with a knife. Ponies were being kept in their towns, blockades were being set up around Canterlot, and most ponies were being tracked by at least 1 Royal Guard. Equestria’s Finest had always prepared for this moment, doing constant drills and exercises preparing for a threatening Alicorn Uprising, but when it actually came, nopony was really ready.
They scrambled left and right, searching for extra supplies to make their barricades, while the citizens watched. Most were confused, some were startled, and some panicked. But there was one Mare who was startled the most. She had heard that not one, two, but three of her friends, had died the other day. And when the alerts went out, Rarity couldn’t help but wonder if she was next.
She had heard from Applejack about Fluttershy’s tumor, and had gone over to her house to see if there was anything she could do to help. But Fluttershy wasn’t there when she arrived, instead, Fluttershy was out in Canterlot. And when the town exploded, Applejack came to gather up Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Twilight, but she could only find Rarity and Pinkie. The three ponies went up to Canterlot, to take refuge in a small apartment building.
The room they had bought was colorful, with a bright blue floor, and Fluttershy-Yellow walls. There was a golden trim around the bottom of the walls, giving off a faint gold glow to anything inside. It was the most luxurious apartment in Equestria, and they got it for free, for knowing the Royal Family personally.
Rarity paced on the bright blue floor, Pinkie was making cupcakes from a stove shoved in the corner of the room, and Applejack was rooting through her bag of stuff she brought. Since Ponyville was basically destroyed, the three didn’t have much to bring with them, Rarity bringing the most, as one of her closets of her newest fashion line was spared from the raining boulders.
Applejack was still in contact with Big Mac, Granny Smith, and AppleBloom, who had come along to Canterlot, and were staying in the same apartment. Sweetie Bell was also with the Apple family, and Scootaloo somehow managed to find her way into the apartment with them.
Rarity finally stopped pacing and trotted over to her bag of stuff, pulling out three canisters.
“Rarity, what in god’s name are those?” AppleJack asked, getting up from the floor and trotting over to Rarity.
“Experiments. I don’t always spend my life making clothes, you see. These are prototypes, but they work. They’re canned Sleeping Bags. Quite simple, really.” Rarity said, throwing the canisters up into the air.
As the first canister hit the ground, a magnificent, fuzzy sleeping bag exploded out with a small ding, unfurling perfectly, and then the corner opening up just slightly, so a pony could tell which way was up. A small inflatable pillow then rained on top of it, right by the furled corner. The other two canisters repeated the exact same process, just with differentiating colors.
Rarity gave a small grunt of triumph, walking over to the purple sleeping bag on the ground. Pinkie pulled out her cupcakes and shoved them all down her throat, before hopping over to her sleeping bag and crawling in, head first. Rarity sighed at the scene. ‘There’s no use, Pinkie probably doesn’t use a pillow at home anyways.’
Applejack snuggled under her green sleeping bag, and then slowly drifted off into dreamland. She dreamt of a mountain, surrounded by a valley, covered in fog. Luscious green foliage covered the sides of the valley, with huge trees sticking off the tops of the other mountains. Behind her, a small Filly Cello Player played a solemn tune, accompanied by a small Lyre Player. Applejack smiled in her deep sleep. It was truly a tranquil scene. Not like the real world. Not at all.
Applejack woke in the early morning, to the sounds of birds chirping, and sunlight beaming on her face. It didn’t startle her at first, the sun and birds, what startled her was Pinkie’s face. The normally happy and ecstatic pony was now staring blank faced at a wall. And that was when it hit Applejack. The apartment had no windows. Applejack slowly rose and turned to see what Pinkie was staring at.
A slight breeze emanated from the gaping hole in the apartment wall, where birds continued to chirp and sunlight beamed ever onwards. And Rarity was nowhere to be found.
Rarity tried to scream, but her scream was muffled by the gag that was shoved in her mouth. It felt like the Young Fliers Competition all over, being held thousands of feet above the ground, being carried by bright blue hooves. But these weren’t Rainbow Dash, it couldn’t be her.
Rarity was being carried by a large, blue Alicorn, whose rainbow mane rippled in the wind. They were going very fast, so fast Rarity had to close her eyes to keep the wind from hurting them. She couldn’t get many other aspects of her kidnapper, except the fact her large wings could go very, very fast.
Rarity felt the speed gain as they flew. She began to feel pressure against her skin, as her kidnapper continued to rise in speed. She could no longer hold her head up, and her neck cracked a few times as it dangled in the speeding wind. She opened one of her eyes to see her kidnapper, and saw the wicked grin on her face.
BOOM, The Rainbow Alicorn let off a sonic rainboom, shattering many bones in Rarity’s body. She let go of Rarity, letting her fall. Rainbow stopped and watched, as Rarity attempted to scream through the gag. 20 seconds later, there was a small cloud of dust, as Rarity hit the ground, bouncing off of rocks on the way.
Rainbow flew down and picked up the limp Unicorn, who was dangling in awkward positions, from all the broken bones and limbs. Rainbow smiled. Master would be pleased, Master WILL be pleased. Her Earth Elite was here, and ready to kill. She just needed a bit of... Alteration.
“Ah, Pyre, you are here. Do you have Rarity?” The Twilight Princess asked, who was meditating in a corner of the cave when Rainbow waltzed in. Rainbow dropped the limp body on the ground, letting Twilight do the rest. Twilight’s horn glowed, and she nudged Rainbow to do the same, getting a puzzled look in return. “Imagine her as an Alicorn, Rainbow. Let your magic do the rest.”
The two Alicorns slowly brought Rarity to life, getting whimpers of pain from the small Unicorn. They had not bothered to fix the bones, making it easy. No need to bind what cannot move. Slowly, Rarity began to whimper louder and louder, just as Rainbow did. Wings sprouted from her sides, and her bones stretched. Her purple hair began to flow, emanating deep purple flames.
When the process was done, Rarity stood. Her bones were fixed as they grew, giving her more tolerance and strength. Her sleek white fur matched greatly to her tall Alicorn form, just as sleek and aerodynamic as the others. Her wings were smaller, yet her horn as large as Twilight’s. The Twilight Princess nodded in satisfaction, as Rarity’s eyes began to dye themselves a deep dark red.
“This will do. Go, kill the Cadenza Family.”
Cadence, Liberta, and Lues were in their home, on the outskirts of Canterlot. It was a grand pastel pink mansion, almost a smaller replica of the Canterlot Castle. The Cadenza Mansion was filled with Royal Guards, and being watched profusely by the two Elites.
“Right there, that guard.” Pyre ordered, as Rarity focused her magic. They had practised the technique on many other guards, who were wandering through the forest. The guard began to feel sick, as he slowly fell to the ground. Three other guards came to help him, while five guards took their place and kept watch. That made Rarity smile.
The sick guard began to morph, his limbs growing at random rates, and his wings shrinking back into his body. He was the first of the Elite Army. His wings bursted out his sides, as a small horn formed on his face. His eyes then dyed themselves a deep purple, and his fur as dark as night.
The guards around him gave each other startled looks, and before they could react, the three guards had their necks snapped. The Elite Officer bounded around the outside of the house, using teleportation magic and continuing to snap the Royal Guard’s necks.
“Now, Elites.” Pyre ordered, as twenty elite officers flew above them and dove in onto the house. The Cadenza family most likely hadn’t heard the ruckus outside, as there was nothing to hear. They probably thought they were snapping a few sticks, in boredom.
Slowly, the ground began to be littered with dead Royal Guard bodies. These bodies were slowly added to the collection, Pyre and Rarity both using their magic to transform the Pegasi into small Alicorns.
Slowly the army began to clump around the door, in a V formation. Rainbow and Rarity emerged from their hiding spot, and flew up to the door. Pyre blasted down the door with a bolt of rainbow magic, and Rarity began to spray beams of magic at the Royal Guards on the inside. The Elites rushed into the home, quickly and swiftly killing all opposition. Cadence and Liberta stood above the living room, on a small balcony, attempting to help their Royal Guards from the attackers.
Cadence tried to spread love into the Elite hearts, but the hearts rejected this action and instead, began to fill Cadence with hate. Liberta was shooting beams of magic directly at Pyre and Rarity, who simply shrugged the magic off of their shoulders. It was a warzone, beneath the balcony, hundreds of Royal Guards versus thirty Elites. And the Elites were winning, with not a single casualty.
Rarity focused her magic, as she pointed her horn towards Liberta and Cadence, then released a large amount of magic, creating a purple explosion that obliterated the roof and side of the mansion. Liberta and Cadence fell into the warzone, where they were swiftly killed with no deviation from the Elites.
Lues hid in the cellar, hearing the screaming and shouting from upstairs. All of the Royal Guards were now killed, along with his daughter and wife. He silently let out a few tears, as began to focus his magic. He focused all of it on one thought; Explosion.
Rarity and Pyre began ransacking the mansion, while the Elites took the casualties of the small confrontation and burnt them in a bonfire outside the front door. The Elite Alicorns would not let Lues escape, and they knew he was still in the home somewhere. Cadence and Liberta were taken and stored off to the side, for the Twilight Princess to get hold of some time later.
Lues was holding in so much magic that his horn was giving off a loud, high pitched frequency. He was getting ready to release it, even though he wouldn’t be able to see what it looked like after. If the release of energy didn’t kill him, the explosion would. And he would not let the Alicorn Republic get hold of his body. He didn’t want to endanger their world any more.
Pyre began to hear a loud high frequency, as did Rarity. They both grimaced as they heard it, then began to find where it was coming from. In the middle of the war torn room was a carpet, with the symbol of Equestria on it. Pyre blew a bit of rainbow fire on it, and the carpet quickly burned. Underneath was a trap door, most likely to a cellar. The two Elites grinned.
They fumbled with the door, before deciding to just blow the thing apart. The focused their magic, as the high frequency grew louder and louder. The two Alicorns nodded, and before they could release their magic to open the door, an explosion completely decimated a 2 mile radius, larger than what had happened to Ponyville. Everything inside was flung outwards. Wood burned, ponies burned, Lues burned.
But Pyre and Rarity did not.
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
The Twilight Princess flew gracefully over the EverFree Forest, her wings outwards like a glider. She was going be meeting the leader of the Alicorn Republic today. She didn’t know much about the leader, not even the gender, but she knew the leader was a powerful being. Maybe not even Alicorn. But she knew it was going to be the final deciding element on Equestria’s fate.
The Elites had brought Cadence and Liberta back to the Cave, and those two were now Elites as well. Twilight had Pyre, the Elite of Air, Rarity, the Elite of Earth, Liberta, the Elite of Water, and Cadenza, the Elite of Fire. She was set to completely demolish Equestria, hell, Earth itself, if she truly wanted.
The Changeling Queen had already bowed to Twilight, as well as the Griffin King. She was already in control of the Griffin Province and the Changeling Territories, and basically in control of Equestria, whether Celestia liked it or not. The student was now in control of the master, and the new Master wanted to destroy the new student. Elites VS Equestria. Pleasant idea, definitely a show worth watching. Twilight smirked at the thought.
Twilight continued to glide over the dark green leaves of the EverFree Forest until she felt rumbling. Now, usually when the air is vibrating, something huge is happening. That shouldn’t even be physically possible, vibrating air. But when she saw the spherical planetoid coming from the sky, she figured her meeting was here.
The planetoid continued to fall from the sky, ever slowly, ever menacingly. It made Twilight grin like a fool. The power of the Alicorn Republic was definitely greater than she had imagined. The coalition between the two forces could mean total global conquer. Everything. All theirs. Twilight continued to grin as the planetoid grew red hot, and finally smashed into the EverFree Forest.
Equestria’s Finest would have to be complete fools to not see this, the EverFree forest completely decimated by a planet. Or a moon. Or something. Maybe an earthy brown Moon. Twilight continued to grin. Maybe there were other species out there they could conquer. She could remember reading about something called a Weeping Angel in one of her Alicorn Folklore books. Those would be fun to have.
Twilight landed on a small landing platform on the flat top of the brown planetoid. There were crude tents set up, and Alicorn Republic Officers roaming the surface. The rumbling turned into a solid boom as the Planetoid settled down, crushing the vast majority of the EverFree Forest. Many of the Alicorns on top of the planetoid began to bow, and the rest followed after. Power felt good.
A tall, sleek, white Alicorn began to walk up the steps to the landing pad. She had deep blue mane colors, with bright blue highlights mixed in. Her cutie mark was that of 2 eighth notes. She didn’t really seem like the type of Alicorn to be ruling over the Alicorn Republic, but then again, strength comes from where you least expect it. Twilight gave a smile and a quick bow. This was going to be the beginning of something great.
“Hello, Twilight.” Vinyl said, trying to be as forceful and leader-sounding as she could. It was hard, trying to act like a friend when really you’re out to destroy who you’re facing, but that’s just the point of being with the Doctor. Nothing really goes to plan, and nothing really goes right.
Vinyl was surprised by Twilight’s acceptance of Vinyl as the leader of the ‘Alicorn Republic’. Vinyl looked more like a DJ than anything, magenta goggles or not. But when Twilight bowed to Vinyl, she realized the Doctor’s plans worked a little, Twilight believed the false claims.
After Vinyl and The Doctor had broken out of the Changeling Territories, they had gone to the Alicorn Republic Planetoid, where they were banished by Celestia and Luna. Their leader was a nice guy, too bad he had to get thrown off into a black hole somewhere. Vinyl’s Alicorn magic wasn’t very strong either, but it was strong enough to convince 200 Alicorn minds that she was their leader.
“Hello, Leader. It is quite an honor to meet you.” Twilight responded, giving off a graceful tone that gave Vinyl shivers.
It was impressive, that the young unicorn she knew in her other life, had become a monster of an Alicorn. Honestly, the Alicorn Republic shouldn’t have existed, if not for a few disrupting sequences in the fabrics of space and time.
As a Time Mare, Vinyl was extremely fragile when it came to space and time. She could feel the slight changes in the flow, and then hunt them down and regulate them. So far, her and The Doctor hadn’t had much luck. Weeping Angels still roamed the universe, Alicorns were popping up left and right, and Equestria was doomed. Her and The Doctor needed to step up their game, to keep up with Space and Time.
“The feeling is mutual. I have read your letters, are we ready to agree on this?” Vinyl responded, pulling a few pieces of parchment from a metal bin.
“Yes, quite. The offer is simple. Hevana can return, under my control.”
Vinyl had to think about it. Getting rid of Equestria, and in effect, remodeling it into Hevana wasn’t really a good idea for her. It would kill all of the ponies she was trying to save, not to mention the world she was trying to save. She’d need a bit of help. Royal help.
“Deal.”
The Doctor burst through the doors of the Royal Court, and was not opposed by and of the Royal Guards standing outside. The Doctor was basically Royalty himself, having helped Equestria in so many of their desperate times, even having re-written the universe for them. He deserved their respect, and that’s what he got.
He galloped through the halls, up the towers, and across the bridges, until he finally reached the room of Princess Celestia. He barged through, to find not only Celestia and Luna, but an Alicorn that looked an awful lot like Fluttershy.
“Ah, Doctor. You’ve arrived. Come, sit. This is Fluttershy. She’s my niece.” Celestia said, using her magic to pull up a chair to the table where they were discussing.
Celestia’s... Niece? He broke more than he thought when Vinyl re-wrote the universe. Fluttershy was supposed to be a Pegasus, not an Alicorn.
“Hello Fluttershy. It’s been a while. So. Let’s get down to business. We have a race of Alicorns that are threatening to return and destroy Equestria, to recreate their home, correct?”
The table of Alicorns nodded.
“And the Twilight Princess is Twilight Sparkle, correct?”
Once again, everypony nodded.
“Alright, well this will be easy. I’ve had Vinyl infiltrate the Alicorn Republic ranks, and is currently their leader. I’ve been informed Twilight has four “Elites”, named Rainbow Pyre, Rarity, Cadenza and Liberta.”
Looks of recognition flashed across the Alicorn faces.
“Yes Fluttershy, they’re not dead. But they’re close. Twilight has mutated them into Alicorns, and struck pure hatred into each heart. As we speak, or as I speak I guess, they’re coming to Canterlot to destroy the Royal Family. This is Twilight’s first step to ruling over Hevana. But when she figures out Hevana won’t happen, she will destroy the Alicorn Republic and then... What was it... Oh, then she’ll just take Equestria, then the world.”
The Alicorns were silent, staring intently at The Doctor to say more.
“What you guys need, is The Alicorn Republic. They’re going to war against Twilight and her Elites. Me and Vinyl will handle that, you gather the other Elements of Harmony, and kidnap Rainbow and Rarity. Cadenza and Liberta are doomed I’m sorry to say, but if we can get the Elements of Harmony together we can still fix this. Allons-y!”
Applejack and Pinkie finally decided to stop, after running for three days straight. Once they realized that Canterlot wasn’t safe, they had to run. And run fast. Applejack was surprisingly easy to keep up to, with Pinkie’s bounding of happiness. The two ponies had gone straight through the EverFree forest, and off to the very side of Equestria. They had run through mountains, valleys, more forests, even through Manehattan, all the way up a small mountain with a cottage on top. The log cottage was old and rustic, and seemed to almost flicker in and out of existence.
Out behind was a farm that could rival Sweet Apple Acres, with hundreds of apple trees blooming and revealing green apples. It looked like a house from long ago, even before Celestia, except for one part. The box.
A blue box, with vines growing up and out the sides, slowly pulsated with blue energy. It seemed otherworldly, with POLICE BOX written on a blue frame around the top.
“Uh, Pinkie? Wha’ in tarnation is this?” Applejack asked, as the pink pony bounded around the house and to her side.
“A party house?” She asked, bounding around the box.
Applejack felt something weird about the box. The area, itself. The cottage, trees, mountain, box, everything seemed to flicker in and out of reality. As if it wasn't supposed to be there, but some form of a paradox left it there. She felt memories flooding into her mind from the blue box, memories of mothers, fathers, djs, and a pony named Doctor.
These memories quickly left her mind when a familiar BOOOM shook the ground. Looking towards the EverFree Forest, she saw that a huge, dirty, ball of some sorts had just landed right on top of the EverFree, and was being occupied by hundreds of ponies.
“Um, Applejack?” Pinkie asked, staring in the opposite direction of the big ball.
“Yes Pinkie?”
“Look.”
Applejack turned, and staring right at her was Rainbow Pyre and Rarity. She almost didn’t recognize them, but it’s pretty hard to miss their personalities. The bright blue rainbow one was clearly Rainbow Dash, and the white one with a purple mane was obviously Rarity.
“Rainbow? Rarity? Wha’d they do to yah?” Applejack asked, taking a few steps back and bumping into the semi-existent house. The blue box began to thrum, pulsating with even more energy.
The tension rose as Rainbow began to alter Applejack, she could feel it. The magic began to twist her brain, filling her with hate, ripping apart her tendons and shifting her bones. Applejack was being turned into one of them. An Elite. She opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them, and saw that they were doing the same thing to Pinkie. They were becoming the slaves of their best friends.
“Doctor!” The Royal Guard burst into the Doctor’s room, startling the pony. “Doctor! They found Applejack and Pinkie! They passed the EverFree Forest and went to some cottage in the mountains with a blue box.”
‘Blue box.’ That struck the Doctor hard. He glanced to the closet where he was keeping the TARDIS safe, yet apparently there was another. ‘Great. Fabric corruption.’
“There’s one problem though.” He added, making The Doctor turn from his seat quite suddenly. “They were found by Pyre and Rarity. They’re Elites.”
Boom. Right to the heart. The Doctor’s plan failed. As figured. But the news of this, Blue Box, had him interested. Maybe...
“Guard, take me to the cottage.”
Vinyl was getting bored of the act. Pretending to be the leader of a ruthless rebellion. That’s not how history should’ve remembered it, after Vinyl took over hundreds of years ago. Vinyl’s been running this Alicorn Republic, whilst travelling with The Doctor. Her mother would be proud, Octavia. She hasn’t seen her mom in a while, since the Ponyville explosion. She hoped she was okay.
Vinyl and Twilight have been discussing for a while, while the Alicorn Republicans began to set up the trap for her and her Elites. They weren’t about to let Twilight rule over Equestria. And they weren’t going to bring back the Hell Lands of Hevana. They were going to keep Equestria as is, and not let anything change.
History’s version of the Alicorn Republic was made up, in reality, the Alicorn Republic are protectors of the Universe. To keep everything stable. Their founder went corrupted, and they elected Vinyl to rule. They’ve been keeping track of history for as long as history has existed, and will continue to as long as Vinyl lives. Which will be forever, as a Time Mare never dies unless killed during regeneration.
An Alicorn Republican popped into the room in which Twilight and Vinyl were speaking, and silently gave the signal.
“Come, Twilight. It’s time to meet our secret weapon.” Vinyl said, getting up and leaving the room, followed by Twilight.
They marched down the halls, with Alicorn Republicans giving false bows of gratitude to Twilight. Oh, the look on her face when she realizes she’s been deceived. It was going to be priceless to Vinyl.
Vinyl opened the silver door to a large containment chamber, and welcomed Twilight inside. Twilight was quickly struck with lightning, and bound with obsidian chains, the one sole material to keep an Alicorn’s magic from working.
“You... What is this?” Twilight bellowed, her voice rattling the planetoid.
“You’ve been deceived, Twilight. The Alicorn Republic does not want Hevana. We want Equestria. We are not what you think. We, are truly your greatest enemy.”
Twilight struggled to use her magic, which was rendered useless by the obsidian chains. Vinyl left the room, and shut the silver door, keeping the Twilight Princess contained.
The doctor knew what the problem was as soon as he got to the cottage. He could feel the energy of space and time pulsating from the area, and could visibly see the cottage, box, and everything else flicker in and out of reality. He recognized his baby easily though, the big blue box, pulsating with blue energy. It was old, vines and grass growing around and rusting it.
“Oh TARDIS...” He muttered, before smashing his hoof into the box.
Whoever owned the cottage somehow got hold of his TARDIS. Is that how he met Vinyl? He remembers Equestria being re-written, and stories of Vinyl and her parents, living in a mountain cottage... Octavia. Octavia his old companion. This was her home. Vinyl was her daughter.
The Doctor quickly hopped back in the Pegasus Carriage and they flew back to Canterlot. A piece of parchment magically appeared in his hooves, probably from vinyl.
Doctor,
Simple and to the point. Definitely Vinyl.
“Guard, to the Planetoid in the EverFree Forest.”
The four Elites roamed the skies, searching for Twilight. They were promised they’d get the order to take Canterlot, from her, in person, yet she was not at the cave.
“She must still be in the Planetoid.” Pyre said, leading the group to the giant ball of dirt. Beams of magic shot at the Alicorns, letting them in on the fact they were deceived.
“It’s wartime, Elites.” Pyre said, leading the Elites on to the surface of the planetoid.
Four versus 200, it was decently even. The Elites smashed necks and created massive explosions on the planetoid, ripping it apart with magic. The Republicans blasted the Elites, with double their power. Pinkie fell first, taking a blow to the horn and flying off of the planetoid in to the trees. 25 Republican casualties later, Applejack and Pyre were blasted off as well, shattering many bones. Rarity was the only one left, and decided to use a technique she learnt from Lues. She focused her magic to her horn, closing her eyes and letting it build up inside of her.
“Goodbye, Republic.”
The earth shattering explosion almost knocked The Doctor and his guard out of the sky. There was a blinding flash of light, and then the planetoid began to crumble under itself. And The Doctor could only watch. He hoped Vinyl was fine. He was hoping Twilight was contained. He hoped he could round everypony up to the TARDIS.
He watched as the planetoid slowly rose from the ground, leaving a crater and hundreds of boulders in the once-was EverFree Forest.
The Doctor collected the bodies of the Elites, and Twilight, who was directly under the blast, and decided to bring the unconscious bodies to Canterlot. He could keep them contained in an obsidian cell. But of course, The Doctor saw yet another explosion from Canterlot. The guard faltered as they saw half of Canterlot dissipate, into nothing, leaving a hole straight through the planet.
“Guard, back to the cottage.”
When he got to the cottage, he quickly pounded open the locked TARDIS, and threw the unconscious bodies inside the golden room. He stored them inside, and activated the Magical Dissipation Field, which he needed when his Alicorn Girlfriend Time Mare got mad. He left the bodies inside, while he went to deal with the Universal Corruption.
Re-writing a universe always has some sort of awkward side effects, and in this case, the side effect was parts of other versions of this universe colliding. Examples are the cottage, and half of Canterlot. Sometimes, when the same universe tries to meld with itself, it will erase the parts that are colliding.
It’s like a computer, if a virus attacks, it will try to revert to an area before. In this case, the re-written universe is the virus. Everything The Doctor, Octavia, Starburst and Vinyl had worked towards was being reverted by the old Universe. And it was only just going to get worse from there.
Fluttershy was trapped in the Canterlot Castle, awaiting news from The Doctor. It was boring, being inexperienced. But it was probably safer. Celestia had been filling her in on what happened, and at the moment, the Planetoid just exploded.
The Elites were injured or killed in the fight. Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity. But...
“Princess! Princess!” Fluttershy cried as she burst into Celestia’s room.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, getting up from her chair.
“Liberta and Cadenza. They’re elites. And they’re not dead.”
A boom came from the Royal Court, and the two princesses dashed down the halls. The scene they came upon when they got down there, was not the prettiest. Half of the Royal Court, half of Canterlot itself, was now a flaming crater. And in the middle, stood Liberta and Cadenza.
And then, Canterlot ceased to exist.
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
The Doctor watched in awe as the explosion engulfed Canterlot, stealing away any entities in the general area. He’d seen a lot of stuff in his past, but this stole the pear. Scratch that, The Doctor hated pears. This stole the cake. or the muffin. Or any other damn food on the table. Maybe the table itself. Hell, it stole the universe for all he cared. Eventually it could, if this issue isn't fixed.
He hopped off of the Pegasus drawn carriage (Which he still found a little strange) and landed in a tree, to the disappointing glare of the Pegasus, who then landed beside him and popped out of the shackles.
“You, what’s your name?” The Doctor had, then proceeded to pick an apple off of the tree he landed in.
“The name’s Brush.” He said, brushing off his shoulder. It was his signature move, and he loved gloating about it.
“Well alright Brush, you get to help me. Can you go get all the Alicorn ponies you can and meet me by that cottage?”
“Sure thing Boss.”
Brush flew off into the general area of the dissipating Planetoid, while The Doctor went off for a stroll in the forest. A kind of pleasing stroll, considering the circumstances. Nature was peaceful, birds soaring over trees, small blue dots flying past the sunset. How, the hoof, was Celestia putting down the Sun? Her and Luna shouldn’t exist at the moment, just thinking.
The Doctor continued through the forest, passing a clearing. He took a peek in, and saw that the house there was a good pleasant memory from when he traveled with Octavia. Her parents house, before the Re-Write, was right here, in front of him, flashing in and out of reality. He was getting closer to his destination, where he had admittedly stashed a companion of his for emergency. A small grimace popped on The Doctor’s face at the thought.
The Doctor took a hop skip and a leap off of a small cliff face, and turned to face the earthy cave in the side of it.’Oh I hope she’s still alive, after 10 years.’ He thought, before taking a few daunting steps into the cave. He felt for a second, seemingly waiting for nothing. Then the small ripple of... Feeling passed through his body. There wasn’t really any way of describing it, except Feeling. It rippled through his body, tickling every part it touched as he passed the temporal wall. Indeed it hadn’t faded, and it was still keeping Rose alive.
“Hello Doctor. Finally found a use for me?” Rose said, turning from her dark, musty corner. Her happy, short pink hair was now covered in cobwebs, and her skin was gray with dust. If The Doctor hadn’t left her here, he'd have thought that she was a completely different pony.
He frowned, “Rose. You know why I left you here. I figured you didn’t want to be destroyed by the Re-Write.”
“Then you kept me here, for a month, while you went and got with that mare!” Rose exclaimed, kicking a rock at The Doctor, who simply stepped to the side to avoid it.
“Rose, understand.”
“Try me.”
The Doctor sighed. Rose was his longest companion, yet he never really felt feelings for her. Not like he could’ve, being a Time Colt, and her a simple Earth Pony. Vinyl was a Time Mare, they were the same species. But Rose, there was something else bothering Rose. She wouldn’t be this moody over Vinyl.
“What else is there, Rose?”
She turned and gave him a quizzical look.
“Nothing.”
He glared. There was something else bothering the Pony. He could see it in her eyes.
“Come, Rose. We don’t have time for acting like kids. Equestria’s being re-written from the re-write.”
“Then let it.” Rose countered, a threatening tone to her voice. Something was seriously wrong. This wasn’t Rose.
The Doctor took a closer look at Rose’s eyes. They were usually an earthy green, the color of grass just before the pegasi decide to roll in some snow. But now they were a bland gray, and filled with nothing. He took a hard look at her coat, and saw that there wasn’t a speck of dust on the pony. Gray and gray... Last time he remembered, that only happened when Discord came.
“Rose, did Discord come?”
“You’re the only insufferable pony in this world who knew I was here.”
He took that into consideration.
“Then, has anypony at all even stumbled across the cave?”
“Yes. An Alicorn Princess, she called herself the Twilight Princess. She stopped by regularly. She was using the next cave over as a torture chamber for her alicorn buddies. Nice gal.”
The Doctor gulped. Rose was out of help now, under the spell of The Twilight Princess. He should’ve figured, the discoloration was a dead giveaway.
“Aha, you see now. Your universe is out of luck. The Twilight Princess has seen more than you will ever know. I have been gifted with that knowledge. How do you think I knew of that Vinyl dip you’ve been dragging around?”
The Doctor was offended by Rose’s choice of language. Vinyl was his Mare, his one and only, and he wasn’t about to let that slip away from him. He knew what she was trying to do, bring up false information, to bring down his security. Let alone Vinyl’s security.
“You’re too late, Doctor. I know how your mission ends. It doesn’t end well. Nothing ends well. For you, or your happy little bunch of Ponies. The only water in the forest is the river, Doctor. But what if your river has a stream, running off into the deep unknown? What if your life is that river, and everypony you know is that stream? Your use is coming to an end Doctor. And good riddance.”
Rose quickly grabbed a rock in the corner of the dimly lit cave with her mouth, one bound with string and ready to bash against a pony. The swung it in the direction of the fleeing Doctor, who toppled to the ground and dodged the ballistic rock. ‘Rose is gone. There’s no use being here. Gotta go, Allons-y to the Cottage.’
Rose smiled, then began to morph into a sleek, black form. Her blue transparent hair glimmered through the holes in her hooves.
“It’s time.”
Brush had finished gathering the Elites, and rounding them up into a cage. He took a look around at the Alicorn Republic Soldiers, zooming through the sky and bashing down Elites. It was a total warzone, explosions and falling bodies left and right. He was impressed, with the determination of these Alicorn Republic folk. If he hadn’t joined the Royal Guard, he wouldn’t be used to this kind of stuff, and he’d be running for the hills. Then again, that’s where he’s going with the Elites.
He threw the unconscious ponies in the back of his carriage, hooked up, and flew off. He didn’t know what The Doctor wanted with these bodies for, but he owed The Doctor his life. When Brush was a child, there was an invasion, something called a Vashta Nerada. Brush can’t really remember it too clearly, but The Doctor did save him. And he wasn’t about to let that debt go to waste.
Brush did a quick head count. Pink, Yellow, Purple, Bright Purple, Everything-colored. He had them all. Brush raced off to the side of Equestria at breakneck speeds, rivaling the speed of Rainbow Dash, as he fought to keep control of his carriage. It felt like there were some serious winds picking up, sweeping away his carriage and the bodies along with it. He tossed and turned, churning through the dense green foliage as he raced towards the Cottage. ‘I hope I’m not too late...’
Vinyl opened her eyes slowly. She wasn’t sure where she was, but it was dark as hell. She blinked a few times, and began to acknowledge the sharp pain in her back. She tried to shuffle to avoid the protruding object lodging itself into her spine, but was greeted with the realization that her legs were indeed stuck as well. She sighed. The sounds of explosions and magic glancing off of metal and bodies still echoed and rang, distorted by the amount of debris she was stuck under.
She began to furl and flap her wings, in a desperate attempt to dislodge some of the debris. She quickly flashed her head to the right, as a sharp pole glanced off of a beam and landed directly where her eye socket was a second earlier. She sighed again.
Her horn began to glow deep blue, as she focused her energy into the thoughts of hundreds of rescue ponies, digging and clawing at the debris to save the Alicorn DJ. To her surprise it worked, and the chunks of debris began to fly out from the pile and land with an earth shaking BOOM. In a few minutes, she would be free.
A beam of light quickly flashed over Vinyl’s eye, before turning into a great heavenly beacon. She bolted out of the rubble, dodging magic left and right from Twilight’s minions. The poor Elements of Harmony. Corrupted and tortured by Alicorn magic. That shouldn’t have happened to them, they shouldn’t even BE Alicorns! ‘I guess that’s what I get for re-writing the Universe off of my mind.’ She thought, as she barrel rolled to the east, where the Cottage and Doctor were waiting.
Her majestic form cast a deep shadow over the EverFree Forest, which was currently in ruins and burning. ‘I hope Mom’s okay. I didn’t get to write to her and Dad.’ She thought, thinking of the imaginary cottage where she spent her imaginary childhood growing up with her BIOLOGICAL parents. Yeah, no sense there. Oh well.
Vinyl passed over a small log cabin, fading in and out of reality. She landed in the small clearing in front of the abandoned cottage, and smiled sadly. This was where her mother, Octavia grew up. Where her parents were killed by Weeping Angels. But now Vinyl’s grandparents lived happily in Canterlot, where they owned a music shop, and sold many different instruments.
“Stop living in the past, Vinyl! Well, not the past, stop living in the imaginary past!” Vinyl muttered out loud, then facehoofed hard and sat down.
The Doctor was definitely getting to her, she was starting to mutter and stutter just like her Colt-Friend. Then again, they were the same species. Time Ponies, or Time Colt and Time Mare. Whatever. It didn’t matter. The universe has changed, and that’s final. There’s no way to bring it back.
Vinyl began to fly again. She grazed off of the roof with her hooves and began to glide through the air, still heading east to the Cottage. It was about to get very dangerous, very fast. And Vinyl could only hope that she had missed the worst of it in her under-the-debris nap.
Fluttershy blinked. Well, at least she thought she did. She could’ve blinked in her dream, and really she could be imagining all this while she was dead, but that was really hurting her brain to think about. She looked around the room she was now inside of, which was dome shaped, with beams rising up the golden walls. Large round holes dotted the walls, filled with wires and electrical components. She was laying on an octagonal glass platform, beside a mess of switches and wires. She was in some sort of... control room.
She slowly rose to her feet and took another glance around, taking in every detail of the room. The first thing to catch the young Alicorn Princess’ eyes was the pair of navy blue double doors, at the end of a 5 step copper stairway. She had heard of something like this when her, The Doctor, and the Princesses were discussing. Oh what’d he call it... The Terp? The Trade? She couldn’t remember.
She slowly walked over to the double doors, swaying as she walked. She couldn’t remember what had happened in Canterlot. Or anything, for that matter. Maybe Pinkie gave her some amnesia cupcakes. It seemed like a Pinkie thing to do. Where was Pinkie? Where were her friends? Fluttershy gave a soft whimper and began to cower beside the doors. She wasn’t used to being away from her friends like this. She hoped they’d come find her soon.
Brush arrived at the Cottage just in time. He dumped his luggage in front of the pacing Doctor, who gave him a slight nod and continued pacing. ‘Just as I remember him. Always focused on the task at hand.’
“Brush, bring the Elites in front of the TARDIS. Have you seen Fluttershy or Vinyl?” He asked, stopping to turn towards the TARDIS.
“Right here, honey.” A voice called, as a soft wind came and Vinyl landed right beside him. “No sign of Fluttershy.”
The Doctor nodded solemnly. “I guess we’ve got to continue without her.”
While Brush and Vinyl were carrying the bodies over to the doors of the TARDIS, The Doctor decided he’d go into the second version of his TARDIS. Or was it the first? Maybe it was the 1.5th or the 0.5th. He didn’t care. He only cared about the fact his TARDIS, the one he knew and loved, was stashed in Canterlot when it dissapeared. This one would have to do.
The Doctor opened the door and tripped.
“Now Honey, you really should watch where you’re going!” Vinyl cried out, barely able to contain the giggling. Brush meanwhile, had fallen over laughing. She stopped laughing, and heard the whimpering. “Fluttershy?”
Vinyl and Brush dashed over to the doors of the TARDIS, where The Doctor was comforting a crying Fluttershy. They smiled.
“Are you ready Fluttershy? You can choose. Stay in the TARDIS, and you can stay as an Alicorn. Or you can wait out here, where you, your friends, and Equestria will be returned to a more normal state.” The Doctor whispered.
Vinyl understood it perfectly. This TARDIS was the TARDIS she grew up with, almost like a guardian angel. It watched over her as she grew to 15 years old, and it brought the end of that version of Equestria. So obviously, if it was activated, it would bring a.. Backup, per say, of Equestria, and bring it back to a better state.
What Vinyl didn’t understand was the fact that The Doctor had decided to actually use the Backup. This would bring back everything they had sought to destroy, which was Octavia, her mother, bringing the end of Equestria.
Fluttershy slowly stood, and took a good look outside and in. Her nose was scrunched, focusing hard on what to choose. While she was focusing, a slightly startled Octavia and Starburst bounded out of the Cottage, making a happy reunion while Fluttershy tormented herself on the inside.
The Scratch/Philharmonica family quickly pushed past her and into the TARDIS, followed by a very confused Brush. The Doctor gave Fluttershy a comforting hug, before the Alicorn stepped into the doors of the TARDIS, closing them behind her.
“I’m sure my friends will understand if I... um... Come with you for a bit. That is if you don’t mind!” She blurted out the last part as fast as she could. The Doctor let loose a wild grin and quickly galloped to the Control Panel, pulling a lever and yelling out “Allons-y!”
The TARDIS began to rock and shake, emanating deep dark blue energy outside. Then, just as Fluttershy’s final tear of joy graced the glass platform, the TARDIS exploded with blue energy.
Cadence for a Shy Alicorn
Epilogue: Re-writing the Re-Written
You might have me contained,
The Doctor stared at the red text, dripping from the bleach white walls of the asylum’s padded cell, above the lifeless body of Twilight Sparkle, the ruthless Twilight Princess. He didn’t expect the TARDIS to do this, revert only half on Equestria back to normal. All goods for the world were reverted, meaning Fluttershy was now a normal pegasus, and the Alicorn Republic had never existed. All the while keeping the tragedies, such as the death of the Royal Family, and the Elites.
And now, Fluttershy was stuck as her normal self, yet without her friends. She had been adventuring with Vinyl and the Doctor for the past month, before they got to the point they are at now, having received a call from the Asylum, indicating that Twilight had indeed committed suicide, and used her horn to write a cryptic message on the walls, allowing the Elites to escape. She was mortified.
Vinyl attempted to comfort the shaking Pegasus, who was burying her body into her wings, weeping and sobbing. The Doctor continued to analyse the scene, unable to make any sense out of it.
“There’s not enough.” He mentioned, attracting an unwanted glare from his mare-friend.
“What do you mean, there’s not enough?” She whispered, still calming the poor Pegasus.
“Blood. Twilight wouldn’t have died of losing so little blood. In fact, I don’t believe she is dead at all.”
Vinyl sat there and stared at him with utter disgust.
“You see,” He continued, “Remember hearing that Alicorns do not die?”
Vinyl nodded, beginning to understand what he was saying.
“Even if Twilight had tried hard enough to kill herself, she would be in a Comatose state, at most. What this means, is in fact, there is still a chance to fix this. We just need to umm...”
Vinyl sighed. Obviously, what the Time Colt was about to say wasn’t going to be very enjoyable.
“We need to sacrifice the TARDIS.”Atmospheric Music
Vinyl blinked. And again. Her eyes teared up.
“Doctor... The TARDIS... She’s everything you’ve ever lived for...”
“And I’m about to put it on the line for Equestria.”
Fluttershy finally stopped weeping and looked up from her small ball in the middle of the floor, her eyes pleading guilty.
“No... It wasn’t your fault this happened! If I hadn’t gone to Twilight-” She began to choke up.
“Contrary. It was my meddling in the first place that caused Equestria to cease existance, and it’s me who needs to fix this.” He now had a tear or two streaking down his cheeks, as he struggled to tell his friends he was about to meet his death.
“Doctor no!” Vinyl screamed, as she pumped out her wings and took flight, knocking over the Ball-o-Fluttershy.
“Vinyl, listen. I’m about to bring back another timeline. Give Equestria a little reboot. There’s only one way to bring me back. It’s going to kill me, Vinyl. Not peacefully either.” He was dragging Twilight out the doors of the Asylum, “Frankly, it hurts quite a bit to be completely wiped from existence. Not to mention, you won’t be an Alicorn anymore. You’ll still be a Time Mare, but just not anything from after you grew up in the hills. This isn’t the timeline we’re returning to, we’re returning to the Original timeline.”
He mouthed ‘Remember Me’, then sealed the padded door of Twilight’s asylum cell, leaving Vinyl and Fluttershy to weep openly.
The Doctor took a deep breath, before continuing down the halls of the Asylum, undoubtedly receiving strange, yet understanding looks from the workers. They removed their hats and gave a small bow, honoring the brave colt who saved them from the Vashta Nerada before. This didn’t help his uncharacteristic mood, as he continued to cry silently.
His weight was aided, as 3 gray workers proceeded to use their magic to help him carry the body to the TARDIS. The orange light beamed softly through the dense foliage, onto the navy of his TARDIS. Leaving the comatose corpse outside, he took a quick gallop inside, and placed a small book in the bag lying beside the TARDIS.
‘Vinyl’s bag.’
The book was blue, with four white outlined boxes in the middle of the cover. It was a symbol, a symbol of the TARDIS. On the second page, with a small hole cut into the middle for a few pages deep, were the words REMEMBER ME. He gently placed a locket inside, with a picture of Vinyl and himself inside. He let a tear graze the brown burlap bag.
He once again grabbed the body, and set it on his back. Pushing open the doors of the TARDIS, he heard a second set open from behind him.
“DOCTOR!” Cried Vinyl, as she broke through the doors of the Asylum. As soon as she hit the grass though, she lost her hoofwork and began an impressive impression of a barrel roll.
He turned back to look at Vinyl, who was resting on her belly somewhat near 10 feet from the TARDIS. She was followed by Fluttershy, who was follow by 145 employees of the Asylum.
“Don’t do it...” Vinyl begged, sobbing and crying.
Slowly, all of the ponies behind the white Alicorn began to bow, lowering their heads and giving the Doctor their utmost respect. They owed him their lives, after all, and now they would owe them to him a second time.
“Vinyl...” The Doctor started, before running back into the TARDIS.
“Vinyl, listen. This is important.”
She opened her eyes and found him standing above her, a small metal disk in his mouth.
“Will you marry me?”
Her jaw dropped. Her eyes flooded like never before. She hopped up and gave the Doctor a long embrace, before solemnly removing the ring from his mouth and putting it in her pack.
“Get the wedding prepared for when I come back, Vinyl.” He said, before walking back to the TARDIS. He once again scooped up Twilight onto his back, who groaned and twitched in her comatose state. He turned to the ponies bowing before him, behind the weeping Vinyl and (slightly) comforting Fluttershy.
“Remember me.” He whispered, before turning and walking up to the console of the TARDIS. He left the door open, letting them watch as he pushed a few buttons, and the TARDIS screamed to life. He then took an axe, and smashed the middle glass cylinder in the middle, exposing the Time Matrix. It began to envelope the TARDIS, before once again, exploding into a fiery inferno of blue energy.
THREE YEARS LATER...
Vinyl opened the doors to her apartment, revealing a cluttered mess of dishes, socks, and DJ vinyls. She set down the paper bags, using her magic to carry a full 5 with ease back to her home. In the corner, under the dim light of a lamp, was a brown burlap bag. For a reason she couldn’t remember, she had vowed to never touch that bag again. Maybe it contained a few of her childhood fears, from up on the mountain cottage. But she was intrigued by it today.
She threw her keys onto the counter, which slid them into the sink and down the drain.
“Buck, not again!” She cried out, dropping her food all over her floor, tripping on some apples and crashing her into a wall. When she opened her eyes, she was staring into the heart of the burlap bag. Slowly she opened it, letting the tension rise as she pulled off the top cover.
“What?” She thought, as the small blue book and ring revealed themselves. She opened the book, and flipped a few pages, but saw nothing written in it. Blank. She flipped to the front page, and almost fainted as memories flooded back to her. ‘Remember me.’ Was still written in large letters on the page, and the locket had broken open, revealing the small picture of her and the Doctor.
She began to remember it all; the Vashta Nerada and the asylum, the Weeping Angels, the creepy humanoid dolls that had turned her into a singing stuffed animal, it all came back to her in one giant flood of nostalgia. She remembered. The Doctor. The Doctor! THE DOCTOR!
“DOCTOR! DOCTOR PLEASE! WHERE ARE YOU?” She cried out, sobbing and throwing her forehooves to the air. She waited for a few minutes, before giving off a long sigh.
“Doctor, the wedding...”
She was interrupted by a familiar sound. Almost like a continually wheezing old lady, mixed in with the sound of blippity blops and timey wimey space sounds. It started off at the frequency of a grain of rice hitting some carpet, and began to escalate until it began to shake the room. Lamps fell over, apples rolled across the ground, the TV flickered on and off, and her keys rattled themselves up and out of the sink. There was a lot of smoke and an audible -THINK- before she opened her eyes again.
She was staring up at a familiar face. Her childhood hero. The large box that she had grown up beside, hearing stories of how it had helped save Equestria many times over. In front of her, was the very thing that had destroyed itself to save Equestria. She was staring at the open doors of the TARDIS. And in that doorway, was the Doctor.
“Hello, Vinyl. How long has it been?” He asked, brushing of his mane and stepping out.
“Three years.” She responded with glee, hopping up and embracing him.
“We’re terribly late for our wedding, aren’t we.”
