For a Better Tomorrow - Part 1: The Fallen Crown
Prologue: From the Eyes of a Filly
It was a warm Autumn evening in Ponyville. On a normal night like this, the sound of little fillies and colts playing in the streets would have filled the air. This night was not normal though. There were no colts playing in the stream; no fillies laughing with each other. The only sound that came from the town was that of hurried galloping, as ponies quickly made their way into Town Hall. It was a combination of urgency and secrecy that could mean only bad things to come. One of the last in the streets were a mare and stallion quickly leaving an uncharacteristically quiet Sugar Cube Corner. Inside the normally boisterous store, the Cake twins were confined to their room. Her mother's parting words echoed through Pumpkin Cakes mind.
“Now dearies, I need you to stay in your room. Your father and I have something very important to do, and you have to stay here. Can you promise me that you'll behave?” There was such a tone of desperation in her mother's voice that she promised without realizing how strange it was for both her parents to leave without taking them along. The Cakes had left nearly 15 minutes ago, and the two foals had yet to move. Finally, Pound Cake broke the silence.
“Where do you think they went?” The young colt flapped his wings nervously, causing enough wind to blow his sister’s hair slightly. “And why did they look so sad. Did somepony die?”
“Nopony died.” Pumpkin stated, without even knowing if it was right. Though she was only older by 2 minutes, she took the role of older sibling very seriously; and this meant making her brother feel safe. “They probably just had to deliver a cake to somepony!”
“Then why did both of them go? They’ve never left us alone before. What if-” Pound Cake started, but Pumpkin interrupted him.
“I don’t know. But I’m sure that we will be ok.” Even trying her best to sound comforting, the words held no conviction. She didn’t know if everything was going to be ok. They were still just foals and now were on their own. Their room, which had always felt so large, began to shrink. Pumpkin began to channel magic into her horn without thinking, building up the best defense the little filly could; yet no threat came for her to challenge.
There was no clock in the foals’ room, giving them no way to gauge how long their parents had been gone. After a while, Pumpkin began to read one of her books. Even the fantastic tales of Clover the Clever couldn’t give her the escape she needed. Her mind continued to try and understand the situation at hoof. Pound started to get restless and began flying laps around the room. When that didn’t help with the stress, he began to do some tricks. He started with some corkscrews and flips, then began introducing dives with last minute pull-ups. After only a few minutes his usual enjoyment from flying faded, and he too continued to worry about his parents.
Time continued on for a small eternity before they finally heard the bell downstairs; somepony had entered the store. Was it their parents, finally returned from their dark errand? Or something else, something dangerous. The twins looked at each other and nodded. Without saying a word they both knew what the other was thinking. If their door opened, they would need to attack. Pumpkin began sending power to her horn, Pound lowered himself to a good launch position. The handle on their door began to turn, and as it was pushed open they launched.
Mr. Cake entered his foals room just be hit with a small magical burst that felt like an aggressive poke. He then had to catch the small colt that was speed toward him at the speed of a fast walk. Having foiled their strategic defensive strategy, he looked down into their faces. He felt bad at how scared they must have been but it was necessary; he didn’t want his children to know what was to come. With his wife unable to speak through the silent tears falling, he knew it was his job to talk to the children.
“Pound? Pumpkin? I need you to listen very carefully. We are going to go outside and Princess Twilight is going to take you and the other foals to the Everfree Forest.” At this statement, the twins gasped. They had always been told to stay away from the forest, but there was no time to give the explanation they needed. “You both need to stay with her and she will keep you safe. Your mother and I will be coming later tonight. We are going to find you and everything will be ok.”
Mr. Cake found his eyes starting to tear up; the weight of what tonight could bring dragging his normally high spirit down. He had to keep going though; he had too much to say to the foals that brought light to his life, and if he started to cry now he wouldn’t have enough time.
“You both need to promise me that no matter what happens - and no matter what you hear - that you do not leave the princess. Tonight might get scary, but I know you two are strong. So stay strong for me, and promise to not leave the princess.”
The twins paused. If they were scared of what was bothering their parents before, now they were terrified. They had never seen their father this upset, nor their mother unable to speak. As Pumpkin met her father’s eyes, she saw the start of tears forming. She silently nodded her head and saw her brother nod as well. Without another word her father picked them both up and gave them a hug. It was this hug that caused the tears to fall.
Mr. Cake held onto his children with all his might. He had one last thing to say, but his voice would not comply. He mustered his voice together and whispered to them “I love you both, more than words can ever say.”
With that, he released his hold on the foals and lead them out of Sugar Cube Corner. As was planned, Princess Twilight stood in the center of town and all the fillies and colts gathered around her. There was an unnatural silence to all this, not even broken by the children. After waiting for the preplanned 20 minutes, Twilight began to lead them all out of the town. The march was kept at a quick pace and in a short time they reached the edge of the forest and continued inside. As they were lead farther into the Everfree Forest, the sun began to set beside them. Day turned into dusk, and dusk turned into night. Still, the foals were lead farther and farther into the forest.
Without warning, the night sky was split open by a deafening explosion. The princess looked back to town, a face of somber understanding spreading.
“We need to run now! Everypony run as fast as you can to the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters!” The foals just stood there, not understanding what was going on. “Now!”
With that, the well-kept group shattered into organized chaos. The previous silence that hung over them like a spell was broken as they all began to scream. Everypony began running farther into the forest, towards the fabled castle; everypony except Pumpkin Cake. She ran in the opposite direction, fearing that something had happened to her parents in that explosion. She briefly heard a cry from her brother, telling her to come back, but Pumpkin just put her head down and pumped her legs for all they’re worth. Within 10 minutes she broke through the edge of the forest, and the sight before her broke the young filly’s heart.
Ponyville was on fire. She could hear the screams for the town as ponies were running to get away. She saw ponies she had known her whole life running with fear in their eyes. Farther into town, she could see shapes chasing after them. They were ponies wearing pure black armor. Where the mane and tail should have been sprouted uniform black tufts. Around each foreleg were rings of spikes. All this chilled Pumpkin to her core, but what pierced her soul were the eyes. Where the eyes should have been sat slits in the armor that glowed a sickly green. Those eyes showed no mercy as the chased down and attacked the fleeing citizens of Ponyville.
Of the ponies fleeing, she saw two that made her spirits rise slightly; it was her parents, both of them, running as fast as they could. Her father looked behind him, and she saw that they were running from one of the armored ponies. As they reached the edge of town, her father stopped and turned around to face the attacker. Pumpkin saw her mother stop and yell back, but her father seemed to urge her on. As the attacker fell on her father, her mother turned and ran. What Pumpkin saw in that next minute would stay with her the rest of her life.
Her father turned on his forelegs to buck the attacker in the face. His kick landed with an echoing ring, but the pony kept charging. With a swing of the armored leg, her father’s front leg was hit causing him to stumble. A scream of her name calling out through the night. Her mother picked her up roughly, never stopping in her dash to the tree line. As Pumpkin looked back she saw a final blow of the spikes that made contact with the back of her father’s head. The stallion that raised her, that tickled her when she was grumpy, that praised her with each progression in her magic, her own father, fell in a heap.
Author's Note
This prologue was unbelievably hard to write. The original plan was to have Pumpkin in a classroom, giving a small intro to some later plot points and introducing the OC that is going to appear in the next chapter. But it didn't match the tone I wanted to establish for the rest of the story. So I burned it with fire and vengeance, and this beauty was born from the ashes. While the story will not focus anymore on the Cakes, I knew that there would be an emotional attachment to them that I could use to solidify the gravity of the situation.
For a Better Tomorrow - Part 1: The Fallen Crown
------ Twilight ------
A small beam of light landed spread across Twilight Sparkle’s face. With a wrinkle of her muzzle and a gentle moan, she opened her eyes. Twilight sat up in bed and tried hard to hold onto the dream she had been having. Instead of her usual stress-induced dreams, this was a rather pleasant one. She had been back in her castle, asleep in her bed. She could hear the sound of her number one assistant, Spike, asleep in his small bed on the other side of the room. For that brief moment, everything had been right with the world. As she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and accepted the cold reality around her, she wished nothing more than to be back home. It had been 5 years since she had awoken to her castle, her life, her friends. She slid out of her bed, stretched her wings, and regarded her current surroundings.
Instead of the well-decorated room of her previous castle, lined with her favorite books and her mirror displaying pictures of all her friends, this room was almost barren. The room only held a bed and a small nightstand to hold her crown. The small room was decorated in the same cold colors as the rest of The Castle of the Two Sisters. Her light hoofsteps echoed loudly in the empty room, erasing what little joy remained after her dream. She was stuck in this reality and wishing that she was safe at home would not change anything. She affixed her crown upon her head before making her way out of her room. As she exited, she could see the two guards on either side of her door same as it always was. Ever since the citizens of Ponyville escaped from King Sombra’s march, her room had two guards stationed at all times.
“Good morning, Princess.” the guard to her left said. The orange pegasus saluted Twilight, brushing his blue hair in his speed to raise his foreleg. In another time and in another life, she might have said he looked familiar; she would have definitely said he looked cute. But here and now afforded her no time to daydream about what colts caught her eye. There was much more at risk.
“Have the scouts returned from Canterlot?” Twilight asked.
“Not yet ma’am. No message from them either ma’am.”
Twilight took a deep breath, letting her initial wave of anxiety drift away as she breathed out. She knew that worrying about the scouts would not help them get back and would just cloud her mind. Leading the resistance against King Sombra required her to think with a clear mind. Fear for her troops would not keep them alive. Besides, even if the scouts did not return they could still contact her with the messaging spell. Twilight just needed to wait and see how events played out.
“If that’s all for this morning, I will be in the meeting room. Please let the commander know I wish to speak with her before Council today.”
“Yes ma’am.” the pegasus saluted, then turned and flew off to find his commander.
Needing some time alone to prepare herself for the day ahead, Twilight told the other guard he was free to go. The white earth pony knew better than to try and insist on her protection; this was an all too common occurrence when poor news was delivered. The guard gave a bow, then retired to the barracks. Twilight began to walk the halls, allowing herself a moment to think about the situation at hoof. There were still a few hours before the scouts were expected to either return or call in. If they did not report in however… Twilight didn’t want to think about that. King Sombra could not be allowed to know where they were.
As she made her way through the castle, her mind returned to her dream from that night. It had been nice to see her old home again even if it was just a dream. A lot had happened over the past 5 years and her heart grew heavy thinking about it. The pain and loss that had filled her life here were like weights in her chest. As she walked she felt her mind start to draw back and think about the path that led her here.
When Starlight Glimmer sent the two of them back in time, there had been no way Twilight could have imagined what was to follow. She had no way to know that Spike screaming her name as she was dragged into the time vortex was going to be last time she heard his voice. When the time vortex had dropped Twilight off in the past, Starlight’s intentions became quickly apparent. They had been transported to the day that Rainbow Dash raced against the bullies to defend Fluttershy. Twilight chose a cloud to watch the race from, but when one of the bullies won instead of Dash, she knew something was wrong. She saw Rainbow Dash being suspended in mid-air by a turquoise magical aura that was instantly recognizable as Starlight’s. It was as this realization hit her that the vortex opened back up and pulled her in. As she was being dragged away, Twilight saw the scroll Starlight had used flip away in the wind.
When she had once again landed in Ponyville, she found her hometown almost unrecognizable. The normally joyful town was now somber and all the houses had been boarded up as if expecting an attack. She tried to find her friends, but she could find nopony. Rarity’s business looked like it had been closed for at least a year, the Cake’s said they had never met anypony by the name Pinkie Pie, and even Fluttershy’s cottage had been deserted. Twilight had figured that at least Sweet Apple Acres would be untouched by time as it always was but she was wrong. The once peaceful farm had been replaced with a factory used to produce food in massive quantity. After finding Applejack working on the farm as always, Twilight had begged her to explain what happened. It was with a sinking heart that Twilight had then learned about the war with King Sombra.
Once she learned of the war, she had made her way to Canterlot in order to confer with Princess Celestia. Thankfully the fact that Twilight was an alicorn princess that should not exist helped her gain an audience with the princess. In the end, Celestia accepted Twilight’s version of history. After a few days of discussion, the two princesses had formed a plan of action. Because Twilight had been certain that she would be unable to recreate the spell that Starlight Glimmer used, their plan needed to be focused on saving this timeline. Twilight knew she could not return to her old life.
Using her knowledge of the Crystal Empire from her timeline, Twilight had proposed creating their own Crystal Heart to repel Sombra and his forces. In order to create the Heart, Twilight had soldiers find the rest of her friends. Her hope had been that with the embodiment of the Elements of Harmony they would be able to create enough magic to create a powerful enough Heart to protect both Ponyville and Canterlot. While her friends were being collected, Twilight had set up shop in the Castle of the Two Sisters. After a few months had gone by all of Twilight’s friends but Rarity had been found.
Twilight flinched as she unexpectedly bumped her muzzle against something hard. She had been so lost in thought that she walked right into a door. This was the door that led into the meeting room; Twilight hated this room. Every time she entered it, she felt the ghost of every mistake made here. The poorly thought out Crystal Heart; the botched escape from Ponyville; the failure with the new farm; they all seemed to haunt her in here. She slowly made her way to the head of the table and to her appointed chair.
The long table stood in the center of the room. With nothing adorning the walls and ceilings that stretched high overhead, the solitary table drew the eye relentlessly. Twilight hated this table too. With the rectangular shape and her seat being placed at the head, she felt like ponies were marking her as more important. They always looked to her seat when the difficult decisions needed to be made. She wished they had a table like the one in her long gone castle. The circular design gave each pony at the table equal status.
She sighed again and took her seat. She looked to the chair on her right, where her commander would sit when the meeting began. Rubbing her temples, she worried what new disaster would need to be resolved today. More food shortages? Ponies getting suspicious of the shrinking barrier? She didn’t want to think about these things yet. There would be plenty of time to worry about these things when Council started. In an attempt to ease these worries, she let her mind drift back to the past.
Even without Rarity, the spell to create the Crystal Heart had come very close to completion. The spell had been written and all that was left was to anchor the spell to a physical object and supply it with enough energy to start. They had planned on using the Tree of Harmony as the anchor but providing enough energy would take time. Twilight had left to tell Celestia that they were ready to start the spell. Unfortunately, King Sombra took that moment to launch his attack on Canterlot.
With Sombra calling Manehattan the capital of his New Crystal Empire, both princesses had known it was a matter of time before he set his sights on the Equestrian capital. Princess Celestia had led their armies against Sombra as he claimed city after city, slowly surrounding Canterlot on all sides. There had been countless battles fought in the plains near Canterlot, defending the mountain against all odds. That all had been going on during that first year here, but his final attack on the city made all the other battles look like games.
Sombra took advantage of the naturally forming crystal caverns within the mountain. He had used his magic to manipulate the crystals to dig a tunnel that led him right into the throne room. Celestia and her guards had tried to fight back as Sombra’s forces spilled out, but to no avail. From the base of the mountain, Twilight had seen the once grand capital of all ponykind in flames. The guards that once could be seen on guard were now fleeing for their lives; the Equestrian flag now replaced with the black flag of The Crystal Empire. Twilight, now the last free alicorn princess, fled back to Ponyville.
Twilight had known that Ponyville would be attacked next and that the attack would come quick. When she had returned to Ponyville, she wasted no time in calling the entire town to an urgent meeting in City Hall. After quickly bringing the everypony up to speed on the state of affairs, including the fall of Canterlot and the development of a Crystal Heart, she proposed her plan. Twilight had felt that if Sombra simply found Ponyville deserted, then he would destroy everything until he found them. But if the town were to be caught by surprise he may leave it at that. Twilight knew what she had proposed was dangerous and that some ponies may die in the retreat, but this was their best hope of escaping. When the question of the children had come up, Twilight proposed bringing them into the forest early so as to avoid the fighting. Twilight would bring them to the Tree of Harmony so as to keep them safe when the Crystal Heart was activated. The Cakes’ were the first to agree to the plan. Mr. Cake stood up and spoke passionately, telling the town to do this for their children; they needed to do everything in their power to provide safety for their children. After this small speech, the rest of the town agreed to the plan.
Twilight knew the attack would come soon, but even she had not expected it to come that night. She was just over halfway to the Tree of Harmony when she could hear the screams echoing from the town. She quickly told the children to run to the castle ruins ahead as she teleported to the Tree. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie (now going by the name Mina), and Applejack were all there waiting. Twilight had simply said to start the spell and start they did. The incantation to create the physical relic was not complicated and had been finished within the minute; then came the energy to start the protection. Twilight had felt like she was participating in the Running of the Leaves as all of her muscles began to ache. As the Heart before them continued to consume their very life force, it had seemed as though they would not be able to fulfill the requirement by themselves. Twilight had looked at her friends as she began to cry. This was her foolish plan and she was going to fail in protecting the ponies she cared about.
Just then, Twilight saw a tender look being shared between Dash and Fluttershy. A soft tenderness that she had always know lay between them, though never stated nor acted upon. In that tender moment, Fluttershy had smiled at her best friend and walked closer to the Heart. Twilight had stood transfixed as the kind mare closed her eyes, wrapped her forelegs around the tree, and then seemed to sink into as if the tree was no longer solid. A muffled cry from Rainbow Dash had echoed out, but it was too late. With an explosion of life energy, the Crystal Heart they had placed within the Tree of Harmony began to activate. It wasn’t long until the barrier covered a 10-mile radius circle surrounding the Tree. As the drain on her strength had left Twilight, she looked up to see 3 of her friends but no sign of Fluttershy. The mare of kindness had given all her energy to power the protective spell.
Twilight and her friends had carried a sobbing Rainbow Dash out of the cavern to a sight of the citizens of Ponyville flooding into the clearing. The timing had been close, but they had gotten the barrier up just in time to shelter the fleeing ponies. What Twilight had seen as ponies came running in hurt her heart more than she could have imagined. The fear in everypony’s eyes had been so strong, the pain so real, that Twilight began to question if she made the right decision. What had broken her heart most of all was seeing Mrs. Cake carrying her daughter over her shoulder, falling down inside the shield, and then weeping the likes of which Twilight had never seen before. These had been the tears of loss; tears that no words could ever describe.
7 ponies had been lost that night. Mr. Cake, Rose Luck, Carrot Top, Lilly, Thunderlane, Flitter, and Cloud Chaser. All had been killed by Sombra’s men as they burned the town. Twilight looked out the small window in the meeting room and watched as the sun finished rising over the hills. The light helped brush away the dark thoughts surrounding that night. It had been her decision to keep everypony there until Sombra attacked and she felt personally to blame for such loss of life. As the blame tried to set in, she reminded herself of how many lives had been saved by the creation of this sanctuary. Every month, more and more ponies came from the surrounding areas to live away from the reign of Sombra and join in the fight against him. She knew back then that it was the right decision and she still believed it to this day.
Figuring that the guard would have found the commander by now, Twilight took one last deep breath and shook off the shadows of the past. Dwelling on her past actions would not give her the clear head she needed to properly make the decisions that were needed. As she finished settling her nerves, the door at the front of the hall opened. The pony that entered was not her commander as expected, but a light gray unicorn. The unicorn’s bright red hair was pulled back in a professional bun, with only a few strands poking out at the edges. She held a small collection of scrolls in her magic as she pushed her way into the room. At the sight of her assistant, Twilight couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“You’re up early, Ruby Light.”
