Against The Crowd

by Rowan Ex

Rating: teen
Tags: Anthro, Alternate Universe, Adventure, Crossover, Human
Length: 1454

[Book 4 of 19] Ponies from different worlds and stories come together and try to save Le Royaume-équestre Univers. Seven main characters, Three interconnected stories, two paths, one enemy.

Seven Main Characters.
Six Best Friends.
Five Anomalies.
Four Universes.
Three Stories.
Two Paths.
One Enemy.

Description: The Staff
A great danger lies upon the Multiverse.

And it's up to [spoiler]Opalescence Keyheart Gemstone[/spoiler], [spoiler]Twilight Sparkle[/spoiler] and her friends, and a bunch of [spoiler]Universe Jumping[/spoiler] ponies to save not just one universe, but all of the multiverse.

If only Opal didn't left too soon…

Description: The Crowd
Twilight Sparkle and her friends must find the [spoiler]Keys of Harmony[/spoiler] in each universe they pass. However, due to the fact that Rainbow Dash [spoiler]came from a universe where she was married to Twilight[/spoiler], Rarity [spoiler]came from a universe where a secret group of ponies try to keep aliens secret from her home society[/spoiler], Pinkie Pie [spoiler]came from a wasteland where she was the only one left[/spoiler], Applejack [spoiler]came from a nightmarish world[/spoiler], and Fluttershy [spoiler]came from a world where Princess Luna was the leader[/spoiler]…

Can she trust them?

Description: The Letter
Sunset Shimmer always knew that [spoiler]Opalescence Keyheart Gemstone[/spoiler] was a [spoiler]Universe Jumper/Juniper[/spoiler]. But now that Twilight Sparkle [spoiler]Jumped away into another universe[/spoiler], she must come back to Equestria and be [spoiler]Crystal Spinwheel and Twilight Sunshine[/spoiler]'s foalsitter and legal guardian. That is, if she could stop others from blaming her that [spoiler]she killed the Sparkle couple[/spoiler], which isn't true because she herself [spoiler]Jumped along with them a few times[/spoiler].

Book 4 of 19
Poniferan Era

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-09 09:00:53 UTC

1 - The Crowd

Act I

Twilight Sparkle felt something from her horn as she went towards bed. She smiled, knowing what would happen on this fateful night.

Ever since she married a wingless pegacorn and saved Equestria not once, but twice, she began to tinker with experimental technology, and in the process nearly blew up part of the castle. It was good times.

After their tests, they became a family with twins. The energetic yellow-green earth pony stallion named Crystal Spinwheel, and his twin sister, the elegant white earth pony mare, Twilight Sunshine. They were named so as they were different, both in color and personality. Crystal Spinwheel was more of a navigator while Twilight Sunshine reminds Twilight of Prince Blueblood. Not that Prince Blueblood, rather, Duke Blueblood, was really something too weird.

Twilight cleared her head as she lied down on her bed. She was now sure of the consequences of the poem they had made together. A consequence that would ensure she would live seven lives. And this one she was about to waste.

She could’ve lived longer. See her family grow into a family of world-wide geniuses. See her husband’s group, Anonymous Transmission and Communication Organization, discover more worlds, universes…

She sat. Why didn’t this idea enter her head a long time ago as she prepared for this moment?

Twilight called her family through a secret telepathic link she created. As soon as she finished the link, two faces had shown up on the bedroom door she forgot to close. She groaned as her forgetfulness and called them.

“What is it, Mum?” Twilight Sunshine first asked.

Twilight giggled for a few seconds before she answered, “did you both remember the promise I told you both?” And yes, I am about to die, she continued in her head.

“That when time comes,” Crystal Spinwheel replied. “you’ll have to leave us and inherit everythi— No! Not possible! Not this day!”

Twilight nodded as Sunshine slapped her brother. “Unfortunately, it is the day, my stars.” The two blushed as both their cutie marks were, coincidentally, compass stars. “Although I must tell you that we are not the only world here.”

“Like how the mirror in the library room was actually a portal to another world?” Blue pointed out. Red immediately glared at her like they were hiding something from Twilight.

Twilight tilted her head in a simple response. “You both know it? Tell me more.”

The twins stared at each other before they began to explain everything Twilight was trying to hide from them. As the minute pass, her chest felt more lighter. She should’ve expected it anyway. As the two arrived at the conclusion, Twilight secretly levitated a book closer to them.

“Oh, so you both discovered 98% of almost every little thing I was about to tell you,” Twilight realized.

“ninety-eight percent?” Blue noticed. “What’s the other two?”

“A secret group protecting universes and the poem,” Twilight pointed out as the book floated past them. Twilight grabbed it and opened the book to a page the twins were unfamiliar with.

Spinwheel scanned the poem. “It’s… hold on a minute.”

The two looked at Spinwheel who excused himself out, only to return with his saddlebag. He pulled out two business cards and threw it to the air. The cards form a v-shape as it float in the air, surprising Twilight.

As Blue wondered how Spinwheel did it without magic, Twilight decided to lie on the bed and draw figures on the air. The twins looked at Twilight in a rather strange way before notice sounds. Because so, they excused themselves out of respect and closed the door.

“Oh, Opal,” she called as her eyes slid into a close each breath. “See you soon.”

Making sure that the two are finally outside, Twilight closed her eyes and slept forever. Little did the Sparkle family know that an old friend of Twilight came through the mirror, knowing the fate of what happened to her.

The Poem of The Harmonist

With seven lives and six tries

All must not all fall to cry.

For the Magic bearer is first;

Less second return from the cursed.

From night to day, the events laid;

So five old friends will reform aide,

By power of friendship and magic,

The universe shall ne’er end tragic!

Twilight Sparkle woke up on a beach. She looked around to find Rarity, Fluttershy, and the rest of her friends who were still unconscious. She walked up and checked if everypony was fine. After doing so, she sat on the shorelines looking at the water. She sighed and wondered where her husband was as well as how her children were doing.

While looking however, the purple princess noticed a raft in the water heading towards them. She blinked and then noticed an orange dot riding it.

She cursed herself, not bringing any binoculars around.

As the raft landed on shore near them, Twilight looked towards the others to find that Fluttershy had awoken. Twilight sighed in relief.

“Twilight,” Fluttershy called as she nearly tripped on a rock. “So this is what that poem meant… right?”

“Well, yeah,” Twilight replied back, almost sounding like Rainbow Dash. “Sort of.”

Silence came. Twilight and Fluttershy decided to set up camp and wait for the others to awaken. As they waited, Twilight couldn’t help but notice how Fluttershy’s mane is shorter than the usual Fluttershy’s she encountered over her own travels. Might as well ask about it.

“Um…” Twilight began. “Is that how your mane really is?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Why? Doesn’t it look nice?”

“It’s just that…” Twilight paused and sighed as she stared at the other unawake. “You see, I came from a place where I’m the student of Princess Celestia, who is the leader of my home Equestria. Yours?”

Twilight expected a jawdrop because it wasn’t normal, and there were times when she was called crazy until she showed her proof; a crystallized scar in her chest shaped like a quill. But she didn’t expect Fluttershy to nod and reply.

“Princess Luna was my Equestria’s leader,” Fluttershy replied. “Her student was somepony… don’t want to talk about.”

“Okay...” Twilight frowned.

Fluttershy looked away for a few seconds before returning her gaze to Twilight. “Are we all in a dream?”

“Huh?” Twilight looked at a pebble and smirked. “Depends on what you think–” She threw the pebble on her flank and Fluttershy flinched. “–about this place, Reveur de Genévrier.”

Before Fluttershy could talk about anything else, one of the four unconscious ponies woke up and stared directly at Twilight. Twilight winced before cyan eyelids closed again. Fluttershy looked at her in confusion. Twilight stared back.

“Okay...” Twilight muttered.

She went towards the center of the island and came back with a saddlebag full of items which Fluttershy inspected. Fluttershy saw a few quills, a small axe, a knife, and a vial of mysterious liquid which Twilight immediately drank.

“Don’t ask about the vial,” Twilight warned. “I need it to live. Sort of.”

Fluttershy decided to be quiet for once as Twilight pulled out five saddlebags, each with their cutie marks. She took the one that had hers, and checked its contents. Fluttershy mentally noted the items and headed out to help Twilight prepare the other saddlebags and watched Twilight walk away into a secret base.

As she entered the base, the first priority she made was to tell Sunset Shimmer that she made it. Speaking of Sunset Shimmer, she must’ve seen Site C. The day before, she told Princess Celestia about her secret bases and told that Sunset Shimmer will have the most important one. Before she could start a channel, she had forgotten to fix the machine back in Equestria.

She sighed. That was the only machine that could connect both this island to the other universes. How could she have forgot that…

No matter, she thought. Looks like Pony Safe Zone will be a suitable camp while I wait for them to wake up. She walked outside and headed towards to the other five only to find Fluttershy staring at the same vial she had drank before. What the—

“Uh, Twilight?” Fluttershy stared right at Twilight. “Are you okay?”

Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, I just got a minor mental explosion. Side-effects of not drinking that for a long while. Long explanation short, it’s a serum which makes non-pony a pony and repairs a pony’s mind if exposed to this island for more than a week.”

Fluttershy stared at the vial and drank it, surprising Twilight.

“That felt so much better,” Fluttershy admitted.

“What does it taste like for you?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s something I want to know. It tastes like celery.”

“Well… it tastes like…”

“Like what?”