Tempora mutanturby Tallow and PortChaptersTwilight miscalculatedI wonder where the other five areOh, there they are, these parents are weirdLife continuesThe all powerful dump of ‘how my version of Alicorns work’ informationI think you can all guess what’s going to happen nextCutie marksThe word Angst used the wrong wayAftermathTwilight miscalculated“Discord!” Fluttershy yelped as she ducked under a rampaging pillow, down belching from its rip of a mouth in an imitation of fire. “What?” The draconequus asked, turning from where he was currently engaged in an epic battle with a feather duster and spork. The yellow pegasus released a quiet sigh to steady her temper before gently replying “I know you need to cause chaos because it helps balance the worlds and such... but would it really be so inconvenient to maybe, I don’t know, take it outside? Just a little bit?” “Oh, fine,” Discord relented, swan diving into the floor and swimming out the door “honestly, the restrictions these ponies place on good fun!” Fluttershy let out a breath before sitting down in exhaustion “Oh, Angel, the god of chaos sure can be a handful, can’t he?” The aforementioned rabbit growled in agreement as he tried to pull his foot from the once more solid floorboards. “Oh dear, l-let me help you with that.” She hadn’t even noticed a purple light start gathering into a ball behind her as she worked. And she certainly didn’t have time to hear Discord running back into the house with a cry of warning on his lips. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Criminal, Fire breeze, inbound. Prepare to intercept” the lead pegasus called, adjusting his flight path to begin a steep dive. “Roger!” Rainbow Dash shouted along with the three other squad members. As they dove towards the target, an orange and blue pegasus carrying a stolen red diamond, Rainbow couldn’t help wondering why Fire Streak was shouting at her, he should know that at this speed, sound was rendered nonexistent! However, she never got the chance to signal her lack of comprehension as a ball of purple magic engulfed her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Is it not simply gorgeous?!” Rarity swooned, stepping back from her masterpiece in awe. A smooth, ghost white dress with navy blue trim and dozens of tiny cuts of gem that, when catching the light, would make it look like an artwork fit for the night sky, stood before her. “It sure is” Sweetie Belle breathed, marvelling at the dress from over the top of her music stand. “Oh, I can’t wait to present it to princess Luna! Oh, do you think she’ll like it? Oh no, what if she HATES it?!” Rarity was in the middle of a dramatic gasp when she disappeared quite suddenly due to a flash of purple light. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Naw what in the hey do y’all think yer doin’?” Applejack accused, trotting up to a frozen Applebloom and Scootaloo. “We weren’t doin’ anythang, big sis. Ah swear!” Her little sister fretted after spitting something out of her mouth. “Uh huh, And that there lump of seeds wasn’t just in yer mouth right then and there, I dare to presume?” The orange mare continued, raising an eyebrow in challenge. “We weren’t gonna do anything bad with them, honest!” Scootaloo piped up, fluttering her wings in a sign of nervousness. “Right, and ahm sure that was a totally honest word ya just spoke to me?” Applejack pressed on. “Ahlright, ahlright! We were takin’ ‘em to Zecora! Cen we please go naw?” Applebloom gave in, staring up at her sister with big eyes and her ears pressed back against her head. Applejack sighed, gosh darn those puppy eyes to the sun “alraht, but only because you were so honest with me.” But just as the two fillies began to cheer, a flash of purple light whisked the older pony away somewhere. ::::::::::::::::::::: And, there! The cake was complete and pinkie pie couldn’t be happier about it. “Oh my Celestia, it’s perfect!” She cried, scooping up a toothless reptile to show her masterpiece to “don’t ya think, Gummy?” Gummy blinked slowly. Pinkie giggle “I know, right?!” Suddenly, her hair deflated and the balloons of her cutie mark all burst and then rebuilt themselves “ooo~ that’s a new one! I wonder what this pinkie sense means!” Gummy jumped from her grip and she disappeared in a purple flash. ::::::::::::::::::::::: “Ok, spike, let’s do this!” Twilight declared, pacing around the map room of her home. “Yes, ma’am,” spike declared, before pausing “are you sure this is a good idea?” “Absolutely, spike, I’ve done so much research and preparation for this that even I’m sick and tired of it, and I love research!” She exclaimed. “I don’t know about this, Twilight, you know how badly it almost went the last time we-well-I messed with time travel” Starlight Glimmer piped up from the sidelines. “Oh, relax, Starlight. It’s not like I’m physically going back in time-erm, this time,” Twilight winced at her own choice of words before regaining her confidence “but with the adjustments I’ve made to this spell, I’ll be able to view the events of the past! I’ll be able to get a firsthoof view of what life was like back then!” She gasped in delight “I might even be able to spot a few pieces of history that we missed, and then make my own history book!” “Right, um, yeah, ok, I’ll leave you to it, then. Scream if you need me, Spike” Starlight sighed in defeat, trotting out of the room. “Will do!” Spike called after her. “Remind me again, how you hope to get this spell working?” He queried. “I’m going to use the elements of harmony to power the spell, whilst I use my own magic to balance it and pick the time period I wish to study” the alicorn stated. “And, um, what do you intend to study first?” The dragon continued to press. “Oh, don’t be silly, Spike! You know perfectly well what I intend to study first!” Twilight grinned before her horn lit up with magenta pink magic. “A-and that would be?” Spike stuttered, dread starting to weigh down in his stomach. “Why, The first alicorns to exist, of course!” And then she cast her spell. Everything flashed purple in front of her eyes and she lost her smile. Something had gone terribly wrong. And she suspected that whatever happened next wouldn’t be exactly what she’d hoped for. Author's Note Please tell me of any mistakes you find. Because as the writer, I can only spot so many and I have no beta readers. :1 I wonder where the other five areWarmth was the first thing that greeted Twilights senses as she reawakened to the world. It was not unlike the feeling of a mothers warm embrace; holding her close and protected in its practically infinite amount of love. “... kle... ght Sparkle... wake up my little twilight Sparkle...” That didn’t sound like her mother. And yet, she felt drawn to this being with a voice like warm honey. She yawned, stretching out like a cat before blinking her eyes open to see what was goi-... The alicorn; because, no, she didn’t need to check, she could feel her wings and horn just fine, found herself gawking at the sight in front of her. She was perched atop a nest of rich purple mulberry silk with a giant female alicorn sprawled out beside her with a huge, incredibly detailed in design, room encompassing them. Wait-ALICORN?! Twilight stared up at the mare beside her: a silk smooth coat of deep forest green; an ethereal, eternally undulating, wine red mane and tail scattered with golden streaks and filled with glimmering blue nebulas; silver eyes and the picture of a pair of wings cradling six tiny different coloured stars as a cutie mark. And definitely in possession of a horn and two wings. The older mare giggled at her, leaning down to nuzzle Twilight happily “rise, my daughter, see the world you have just arrived in.” “D-dauher?” Twilight attempted to repeat, confusion clouding her face as she failed to talk properly. “Oh my! You are a smart one!” Her apparent mother laughed “do not worry, my child, your vocal cords shall strengthen to full use fast enough.” There was a tiny knock at the door the now very confused little pony finally noticed, and her... ‘mothers’ horn glowed a soft, snow white as she opened the door to let in yet another alicorn. This one, twilight noted, was slightly bigger than her ‘mother’, and was definitely male. She could only assume it was her new-she mentally grimaced-‘father’. He had a light brown coat, pretty blue eyes and a golden mane and tail with streaks of cream white in it, green nebulas forever glinting in the masses of undulating ethereally hair; His cutie mark seemed to be a shield protecting six little multicoloured stars. “Is it safe to come in?” He called, eyes focused on the floor nervously. “Yes, my dear, it is safe. Now why don’t you come in and greet your first daughter?” The stallion walked in, eyes slowly widening with joy as he took in the newly re-filly-fied alicorn before freezing in alarm “wait, our FIRST daughter? You can’t seriously be suggesting that we go through that magical depletion a SECOND time, Emerald Glimmer!” The newly discovered Emerald Glimmer smiled pleadingly “it only took so much magic because we were creating an alicorn, Smoky Skies, what if we just create some normal ponies and ascend them afterwards?” Smokey Skies stared at his mate in astonishment “why didn’t we think of that when we created Twilight, here?” “I, ah, DIDN’T think of it” Emerald chuckled in embarrassment. Twilight had had enough of this conversation, she knew she’d messed up the spell, but she had no idea how this scene related to how the spell backfired! Yes, two alicorns now seemed to be her parents, but how did that relate to-. Oh. OH! ‘Why, The first alicorns to exist, of course!’ Sweet Celestia, why had it taken so long for her to think of that? Of course she’d end up in a place like this if she’d been looking for ALICORNS! But did that mean the spell had actually worked? She debunked the thought, if it had worked, she wouldn’t be able to interact with these two like she was right now. Now she wondered, were-ARE these the first alicorns to have existed? And what’s this about ‘creating’ foals with magic to the point of depletion? That’s not how the birthing process worked as far as she knew! She didn’t question how she could understand the old ponish these two were talking as if it were still the modern day, though it was rather strange as she tuned back into the conversation. “It would still take at least a week to gather enough magic to create these other five children you wish for, Emerald” Smokey was saying, sounding mildly exasperated. “I know, but it would be worth it, I swear, I mean, don’t you think that the stars on our flank might represent these children? The purple star DID shine as we finished making Twilight, here” Emerald countered as she pulled said alicorn up to her side, the silk nest rippling around them as they moved. “Now let’s allow our new daughter to rest for a bit, I think she deserves it.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight had been here for three days so far, and the experience was both nerve wracking and awe inspiring. Granted, she couldn’t really TALK yet, being only a filly, but at least she could walk, read and was permitted to wander the castle grounds almost as much as she wanted to. Speaking of which-. The palace was huge, far bigger than the Canterlot palace and the old castle of the two sisters combined, filled with floor to ceiling arched windows covered in intricate glass designs so that when the sunlight streamed in, the halls would be filled with golden light depicting great scenes of battle and peace alike. Holding many great libraries, it was, to her delight, filled with many tomes that looked fairly new; but Twilight remembered as being battered and barely held together in her own time; which only solidified her thought that this was very early on in the existence of ponies. Most of the castle was painted in various shades of cream; but some of the more populated areas, as well as the public areas of the place, had swaths of purple and gold to liven things up. It also held many gardens of exotic and strange plants and animals Twilight had never seen, despite the fairly arid climate of this new-well, old-land for her to explore. A gentle breeze brushed through the sheets of organdy cloth that hung from the rafters, apparently being placed there as some strange old fashioned building design fashion thing. Twilight shook her head, she’d never fully understand what made something beautiful, that was up to Rarity, even if she... wasn’t here right now. She trotted up and sprawled out on a bench beside an open window overlooking the city that her parents palace resided in. Watching the many common folk ponies going about their day as the sun slowly sunk closer to the horizon. It was weird to think that the sun and moon moved on their own in this time period, but twilight knew that the only reason Celestia and Luna had started to move the celestial bodies was because of Discord meddling with the cycle and causing it to weaken over the skies of Equestria in the days of chaos that were yet to come in this time. If they hadn’t moved them, the land would have been stuck in either a never ending night, day or in between and the rest of the world would’ve suffered the opposite in more or less varying degrees of bad, though Luna decided to forget about that for a time-which Twilight was wondering if she’d need to help fix this time around-well, if she survived that long. She sighed, resting her head on her hooves as she prepared to take an afternoon nap before her... mother sent a maid to bring her to dinner. Author's Note Please inform me of any grievous errors you may find. Oh, there they are, these parents are weirdOn the eighth day of her new... ‘life’; for she still had no idea how to get back, or even if she COULD get back, to her original time; as she was sitting in one of the larger royal gardens, she was approached by one of the guards. Now, everything in this ancient time was quite strange, and the physical build and fashion sense of ponies was no exception. Everypony was quite lithe and tall, almost as tall as the few horses that would occasionally come to trade with them; though they never stayed long, horses having a rather large contempt for the smaller equines as they constantly called them ‘the offsprings of runt horses who should’ve been killed before they could get a chance to breed’; even though Twilight knew for a fact they were literally the same subspecies of equine, and were actually generally stronger and tougher than horses. But, alas, it was still ancient times and not every race was friends yet. And the clothing the ponies wore was like a mixture of paint and cloth. They walked around with intricate, vine like artworks painted in black ink twisting around one or two legs, sometimes even all four. And were never seen without some form of intricately designed cloth draped over their back to avoid sunburn whilst also upholding a certain beauty about them. And the guards were no exception to this code of fashionable conduct either; constantly decked out in shiny black metal armour with menacing spikes and snarling beasts for helmets, though also showing off hints of gold in between the joints. “Your parents wish for you to join them in their bedchamber, your majesty” this current guard stated, his muffled voice snapping Twilight out of her whirlwind of thoughts. As she nodded in understanding, shutting her book and levitating it beside her as she began to follow him to her parents, she remembered how it had been quite a pain re-familiarising herself with her magic, but also quite enjoyable if she was honest; refreshing, even. Especially when she got to see the looks on Emarald and Smokys faces. She shook her head dismissively, ah well, time to go see what those two wanted from her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight blinked. The two alicorns blinked back, smiles still beaming from their faces, though also looking close to fainting from exhaustion. The sleeping pile of alicorn fillies lay sprawled on the same mulberry silk that Twilight had first awakened on. Twilight blinked again before raising her hoof to point at the pile “sisterth?” She was still working to get her words out properly, but at least she was understandable. “Yes, Twilight, these are your new sisters, do you want to come and say hello?” Smoky asked. The purple filly frowned uneasily before trotting forward, she could easily tell that they were her five friends; oh, she hoped they weren’t too mad at her. She stopped and leaned over them to see how different they looked. It seemed their wings were based more of birds than normal Pegasi wings now, she thought, briefly glancing back at her own albatross like wings before refocusing on her friends. Applejack was the closest, so she studied her first; with a long sharp horn poking out of her blond locks and two wings that looked a lot like they belonged to a harpy eagle, and of course no cutie mark yet, Twilight was scared of what the used-to-be farmer would do when she awoke. Rainbow Dash was next, and aside from the new horn on her head, she looked relatively similar, except her wings were shaped more like a hummingbirds, now. Fluttershy had a rather rounded horn and budgie like wings. Rarity still looked regal, especially with her now long and curved back horn and fantail looking wings. And Pinkie Pie had a strangely zigzagged horn and wings shaped in the likeness of a parrots. Twilight was conflicted. She was scared that her friends would all hate her for dragging them back in time, yet she was also ecstatic that they were here and she wasn’t alone. She mentally face hoofed as she realised that of COURSE they were here, their connection to the elements must’ve dragged them along with her. She turned to give her parents a happy grin when she found them both just sleeping on the floor; boy, they must have used a lot of magic to be asleep so quickly. Man, this was starting to feel like a scene from some cheesy book she hoped never to read. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: Smoky Skies awoke from a wonderful nap, magic fully restored and the light of dawn glowing behind his eyelids. He smiled contentedly, slowly opening his eyes to see-a blur of purple flash by him, soon followed by an orange blur angrily babbling filly talk. “What-?” He uttered, head shooting up to watch his first born daughter being chased by his second born daughter. His horn lit up with sky blue magic and he swiftly levitated both children over to hover in front of him, Applejack wiggling in his grip. “What is going on here, girls? Twilight, what did you do to your younger sister?” He asked in bafflement. Applejack froze and looked over at her older sister in horror, only confusing Smoky all the more; whilst Twilight merely shrugged from where she hung limp in the air. Smoky sighed, shaking his head as he lowered them back to the ground “ok, you two, play nice please, we have to wake up your siblings and head to breakfast now.” Smoky hid a frown as his oldest daughter shuddered in fear. ::::::::::::::::::: Twilight shifted awkwardly at the long and very extravagant table that morning, staring at her honey covered pancakes in an attempt to avoid her... ‘siblings’ insistent glares. The dining hall doors creaked open and a maid stuck her head in “your highnesses? The meeting with the bison traders from the south will be starting soon.” Emerald smiled gratefully, dipping her head to the six fillies before leaving the room with Smoky. After Rainbow Dash made sure they were gone, she slammed a hoof on the table and pointed it at Twilight accusingly, growling lowly as she held back from trying to speak, considering she wouldn’t have been able to with her now very young vocal cords. “I kno, I kno, I’m thorry iss happnd” Twilight managed, ears pressed back as she lowered her head and placed her hooves over her eyes. Rainbow Dash’s glare softened-before she shook her head stubbornly, Twilight may be a filly again, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still at the mental age of her original self! She was about to smack the table again when a terrifying thought occurred to her, leading to her insistently tapping it instead. Twilight looked up to see Rainbows horrified expression in confusion “wa? Wa? You tryn to asg if we’ll be able to go bak?” The blue coated filly shook her head frantically before pointing at the other four as if counting them. The purple alicorn grew dumbstruck for a second before responding “welly?... Oke, den; I’m th oldest, Appweldak ith the thecond oldetht, Wawity is the third born, then you, then pinkey pie and den fwutterthy Id de yongetht.” Twilight scowled at her own abhorrent pronunciation, but it seemed Rainbow had understood enough to be relieved that she wasn’t the youngest. Author's Note I remember reading something about pancakes dating back to Ancient Greece. Tell me of any terrible errors. I do think I might of used ‘Twilight’, ‘back’ and ‘head’ too many times. :/ Life continuesTwilight shivered as the servant applied another stroke of cold ink to her right front leg, curling vines of artwork already adorning her other three legs as she was prepared to be revealed to her parents subjects. She stared into the mirror apprehensively, a white sheet embroidered with gold thread rested lightly across her back and a golden ring sat at the base of her horn, connected to a smaller ring at the tip of her horn by a silver thread dotted with tiny shards of crystal. The primary feathers of her wings were wrapped in thin golden chains beaded with lapis lazuli, and her mane was pulled back into a bun, loose strands of hair threaded with red gems. She would admit it looked amazing on her, but she was still quite nervous about this. She glanced over at her sisters, noting how they were all similarly dressed up, except for the different colours used, as it seemed important that they wore colours that complimented each other, their hair and their coats; though the ink paintings all remained an obsidian black. Rarity squealed in adoration as she took in her own appearance, spreading her wings out as far as they could go to show off the jewellery and sheer magnificence of them and Emerald laughed from behind her. “Oh, you’re going to be the fashionable one, aren’t you” she smiled, her own dressing already having been finished as she just slipped into her golden hoofwear studded with white diamond. Rarity laughed ‘if only you knew’. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “The six daughters of Queen Emerald Glimmer and King Smoky Skies!” The herald proclaimed, sweeping himself aside to let said foals through so as to begin stating their individual statuses. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, first born!” Said purple filly waved gracefully, practiced smile firmly in place as she sat down in her little throne next to Emeralds own, bigger seat on the balcony overlooking the main square filled with their subjects. “Princess Applejack, second born!” The former cowgirl gave an awkward grin and wave as she went to sit on the other side of twilight, wings shuffling nervously. “Princess Rarity, third born!” The white alicorn swept past him and gave off a dazzling smile for the crowd as she placed herself beside Applejack. And then the process repeated itself, Twilight growing too bored to really listen anymore, focussing more on the setting sun and wondering about why her cutie mark hadn’t just reappeared back the way it had been, yet. Could it be that she would get a different one? No, that’d be impossible... Right? If she was honest, though, no one had gone back in time quite the way they had, but-. Could it be possible? This was something she was going to have to think further on at a later date. ::::::::::::::::::::: Applejack kicked open the doors to the sixes shared room; a large space with ceiling heigh glass doors along one wall that opened out onto a vast veranda giving them a clear view of the sunrise and moonrise equally, three beds lined up against both walls in between the glass ones and the now open ones the angry country girl stood between and filled with an appropriate amount of children’s toys; and stormed over to her gold sheeted bed. Rainbow pranced in next, flicking her tail in contempt as she threw off the fancy cloth on her back. Plopping down on her black velvet covered bed, that had a rainbow sheen to it when hit by the morning light, to start trying to lick the ink off her fur. Rarity and Fluttershy came next, both quietly just going to sit on their respective silk covered beds and relax before Pinkie jumped in happily. Twilight poked her head in, winced and then promptly shut the door behind her as she slunk to her bed. “Look... I kno yur mad abowt dis, and pwobabwy in denial... But untiw I find a sowuton, we’re sduck hewe, so why not make de betht of id?” She reasoned, taping her hooves together nervously. She heard a collection of sighs before Rarity caught her attention. “I... Ifff-if yoo don mind me athging, darwing... wad cawsed dis to happn?” The white filly managed to strangle out of herself. Twilight cringed back, ears flat against her head and she hid behind her wings “I wuz onwy tryn to SEE th past, bud de spewl backfiwered.” “Of orse it did” Applejack muttered, pulling up her blankets and turning onto her side to watch the moon make its slow ascent into the sky. The former student of Celestia felt terrible for dragging her friends into this, especially Applejack, considering she had the most to lose; it wasn’t everyday you found a bond of family as strong as that of the Apples. “I wuz dis close to cadching th wolds biggetht cwiminaw, Twi, dis close... but den I wazn’t der anymow, I was here, a fiwy again” Rainbow spoke up, angry expression scrunching up to suppress tears “and ah cowden’t do anyding abowd it.” Rarity didn’t say anything, merely rolling over so she wouldn’t face the moon, still quite distraught that she hadn’t been able to give Princess Luna that dress. Pinkie Pie just went to sleep and Flutershy still couldn’t really talk, as she was the youngest amongst them. Twilight stayed up the longest, wondering why the elements of harmony had actually allowed the spell to backfire... could it be that they had seen that this outcome would lead to more harmony than they could’ve done in their original time? Or did the spell create such a disturbance that even the elements couldn’t control it? :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight stared down at the wet sand, horn enveloped in its rich magenta glow as she chose her next move carefully. She allowed her magic to take hold of a small lump of the grains, lifting it into the air before placing it on top of a tower and shaping it into a spire, grinning triumphantly. And then it got stomped by Pinkie pie as she fell out of the sky above her, pout clear on her face as she looked back at her wings “man, thewe’s tho much flapping invowved when fwying!” Twilight groaned, allowing her head to drop into the sand as she viewed her destroyed masterpiece. Author's Note I suddenly had an evil idea... and I’m going to use it in this story later. If there’s any terrible errors in my writing, inform me. Also, I’m going to start taking a lot longer to publish chapters for this, considering I’m starting my last year of school tomorrow, so I’m sorry if anyone’s patience snaps because of it. The image below is just so you can get an idea of what these ancient times looked like and what I meant by the ink paintings on their legs and cloths on their back. The all powerful dump of ‘how my version of Alicorns work’ informationAuthor's Note Warning: a lot of information about Alicorns I made up because I wanted to make my own history for them and never found an opening to put them in the previous chapters. Also, I hate OCs, but they’re all I have to work with at the moment considering everyone they ever knew hasn’t been born yet. Inform me of any greivious grammatical errors, please. The all powerful dump of ‘how my version of Alicorns work’ information Why was she such an idiot sometimes!? Twilight smacked herself in the head, why hadn’t she thought of this before?! “What ever is the matter, my child?” Smoky enquired, putting down the fairytale he’d been reading to the girls. “Nothng, nothng, I dust wnted to athk... Whewe do Alicornth come fwom?” She asked. Smoky Skies blinked a few times before laughing “you’re a curios one, aren’t you? Hmm. Well, I suppose I can tell you this story in replace of a fairytale... A few quadrillion millennium ago, there was no Equus, just an empty void in the vast expanses of space; “and in that vastness, a spark of consciousness stirred. It had no real knowledge of what it was suddenly doing here... existing all of a sudden, so it did what any self aware thing would do, it explored. “And as it explored, it came across this void amongst the universe, this... empty pocket of space. “And it felt sad. “It didn’t know why it felt sad, it just knew that it felt like there was something missing. “So it fixed it; floating into the centre of the nothing and compressing itself into a sphere of scorching hot and bubbling magma-like magic and dragging passing meteoroids into it until it had developed a thoroughly condensed shell of rock, steam already rising to condense around the magical shield the being had put up around the lump of dirt surrounding it. But something was still missing. “Life, The being didn’t know what this word meant, it had merely created it. And so it spread a small piece of magic thinly over the surface of its self made tomb in hopes to encourage this ‘life’ to appear. “And appear it did. Creatures and plants springing up everywhere, oceans and rivers forming, this ‘life’ it had thought of now becoming real.” Smoky Skies smiled warmly at his now very attentive children “and then other consciousness woke up and found themselves drawn to the first beings creation, growing so interested in it that they allowed themselves to take on forms closer to the sizes and shapes of an especially interesting group of animals known as ponies. “They could not fully contain their power, of course, so they always ended up in forms that were slightly taller than the aforementioned creatures, with traits of all three races as a type of side affect. “They expected to be shunned, as we all know how much earth ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns hate each other, but instead they were hailed as gods for being able to move Celestial bodies and preform unbelievable feats. “They eventually just adopted the positions of rulers over the different ponies in different places as part of being Alicorns, as they had been so lovingly named, and lived on. “And when they wish to have children, they merely have to coalesce as much of their magic as they can into a single point, allow it to form its own consciousness and then build its Alicorn form from there.” He finished, leaving the fillies in awe. “Tho... we’we gods?” Fluttershy piped up. “Yes, dear, we’re gods.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: It was dusk, the sunlight flooding into the throne room and bathing it in a fiery orange glow when the door creaked open and a little purple filly trotted nervously in. “What is it, my daughter?” Emerald enquired. “I just wanted to kno... can Awicowns die?” Twilight replied, acting skittish but being genuinely curious on the inside. Glimmers laughter filled the room, not dissimilar to the sound of the tolling of a deep, beautiful bell. “Not in the traditional sense, my dear” she assured the filly. “Bud what dose dat mean?” The little Alicorn persisted. She raised an elegant green hoof “it means, child, that we cannot be... killed. We can be sealed in an object with a strong enough spell, and we can be forced to dispel into our original state of giant floating masses of consciousness and driven back into space; but we cannot have that consciousness that is us destroyed completely. “And even then, usually only a fellow Alicorn can do these deeds, unless there is a truly massive horde of unicorns that wish to destroy us lurking around” she finished, giggling lightly. Twilight nodded slowly, backing out of the room to head to bed. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Sweet Shell! Pearl Flower! Oh, it’s so good to see you again after so many centuries!” Emerald gasped in delight “and is this the little princess of the hour I’ve been hearing so much about?” The evening shadow grey Alicorn with an etherial undulating sky blue mane and tail laughed as she embraced her “we’re happy to see you doing well, too, Emerald.” The other foreign Alicorn; with a red coat and firey golden mane and tail; smiled as he nudged his daughter forward towards the older Alicorn “say hello to the nice queen, dear.” The black coated teen with green eyes and fiery orange hair that was yet to grow ethereal shuffled a bit before stepping forward and smiling “hello, I’m Fire Steam.” “Oh, hello darling! Aren’t you just the most elegant thing?” Glimmer chuckled wryly “far more so than most of my daughters...” before pointing towards an arching doorway “but I’ve got some important business to attend to, would you mind staying with the princesses for a while?” The 16 year old nodded “sure, I’ll stay with them.” :::::::::::::::::::::::: In a sandy courtyard with a pond shaded by palm trees, the six daughters of Emerald and Smoky lounged around. A ball of sand dropped onto Twilights head and Rainbow Dash; now at the age of 20, laughed from above “HA! Catch me if you can, Twi!” Twilight; now 21 years of age and finally as big as she was in her original time along with her sisters, even if she knew that they were going to keep growing; released a put upon sigh before spreading her now truly massive albatross like wings and flapping heavily to rise into the air “you know that as soon as I start to glide I’m going to catch you, right?” “Please, it doesn’t matter that you can go 600 miles per hour and I can only go 60, what matters is your SKILLS whilst traveling those speeds that will determine if you catch me or not!” Rainbow shouted before buzzing off. How they could still reach the speeds that the birds their wings represented could go even with their much bigger sizes, only the Pegasi part of Alicorn magic could explain; though it was to be noted that whilst that is the fastest said birds could go, it was the normal speed of the two ponies; as, being Alicorns, their fastest speed was undeterminable due to the fact they were now literally living gods and could basically go as fast as they pleased. Just as Twilight was sinking into a glide to catch Rainbow with her other four sisters watching, someone cleared their throat. “Wha-?” She started, turning her head and then promptly crashing into a palm tree and landing in the pond beside it. As she rose from the deep and shot out of the water, sodden feathers spraying water everywhere until she allowed herself to release a pulse of magic to dry off from deep within her core, she frowned in displeasure at the intruder “you could clearly see I was about to make a critical wing adjustment, so why did you interrupt?” “I’m sorry, Princess, I actually hadn’t noticed you up there, I was directing it towards princesses Rarity” a teenaged Alicorn replied, having the decency to look apologetic at least. “Ooo~ where do you come from?” Pinkie Pie asked, fluttering down from where she had previously been pretending to be a bird on the rooftops to stand in front of the smaller mare. “The north” she replied as she rested a hoof painted in gold against her breast “I’m Fire Steam, by the way.” “And we are happy to see you, darling, but that does not change the question; what are you doing here?” Rarity interrupted before anything could get out of hoof. “My parents are in a diplomatic meeting with yours” Fire replied, jumping up to stand posed on a bolder in a corner of the garden shaded by a wall “now, what do young Alicorns who haven’t received their cutie marks yet do around here?” Rarity frowned as she was reminded of that dreadful fact, to think that it took longer for an Alicorn to receive her cutie mark! It did not help her patience when she also knew that you were raised to king or queen hood after doing so because it showed you were ready for it, she was beginning to pine for those three cut gems missing on her flank “Oh, I wouldn’t know dear, I’m usually far too busy discussing fashion with the nobles to need many distractions.” “But you’re not with any nobles right now, so what do you do in this time?” Fire pressed on, lowering herself to rest on her stomach atop the rock. “Right now I am spending some quality time with my sisters before we’re all pulled away to continue our princess duties and learn how to be queens, but if you really wish for more excitement, why don’t you take a flight with Pinkie Pie over there?” Rarity gritted out before ever so eloquently sticking up her snout and flying over the pond to sunbathe next to fluttershy. “What? Someone wants to fly with me? Yay~!” the aforementioned pink god laughed before scooping the teen up and flying away. I think you can all guess what’s going to happen next“I’m so glad you could make it, Fire” Twilight beamed before her eyebrows shot up “and it looks like whilst we’ve been slaving away to get this party started, someone forgot to invite us to their crowning ceremony!” Fire Steam smiled apologetically, her once silky mane and tail of normal hair now swaying in a nonexistent wind as they both gave the appearance of strong blazing fires cracking around her “Sorry, it was a ‘Mum and dads kingdom only’ sort of ceremony.” “Can I at least see the cutie mark that gave you this inferno of a hairdo?” Twilight continued with a smile as to lighten the mood. “Sure” Fire Steam said, turning sideways to show off a picture of a green heart surrounded by orange fire rising out of a pile of ash. “Wow, I wonder what it means! Looks sort of like your gonna rise from the ashes like a Phoenix” Pinkie exclaimed as she popped up beside the two “so when are you going to leave your parents place and find your own kingdom to rule?” There was a brief flash of intrigue and curiosity in Fires eyes when Pinkie Pie said what she thought it looked like, but it was gone when she had asked the second question “hmm, I don’t know, pretty soon I would say; well, that is if I manage to gather a big enough herd to follow me, of course.” Pinkie nodded in understanding “yeah. Whelp! Good luck!” She grinned and bounced away, snatching a glass of punch up in her strawberry red magic as she passed the dining table. Twilight rolled her eyes “she can fly, yet she still bounces.” “Hey, cool cutie mark, Steam! How’d you get it?” Rainbow called as she flew overhead with at least a dozen champagne glasses of cider floating behind her in the lime green glow of her own magic; man had it been difficult for her to get said magic under control when they’d been learning, but now she took full advantage of it. “Oh! Yeah, I got it after I discovered a new form of transmutation! Don’t exactly know why it gave me a cutie mark that looks like this instead of something that more resembles the new magic, but hey, a cutie mark’s a cutie mark” the new queen chattered enthusiastically. Twilight was now very interested, new form of transformation? Of course, it would definitely not be a ‘new’ form to her considering she was from the future, but there was still the chance that this could have been one that was lost to time and never made it to the future at all! “Oh? Can you show me?” Fire grinned before raising a hoof “now, of course, I haven’t gotten it down to a fine art yet, but look at this!” Her horn lit up and then, with a flash, her hoof and mane had changed colours, her hoof now looked like it had been dipped in purple paint and her mane more resembled Twilights own at that moment. Twilight felt a twinge of uneasy familiarity with the type of transformation that was, but couldn’t quite place where she might’ve seen it before “amazing! That must take a lot of concentration!” “Oh, it does, but with enough practice, anyone could do it” Fire waved off the compliment. “Well then, Miss modesty, we’ll discuss this later, right now, on with the party!” Twilight cheered. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight really was getting a bit of a bad feeling about the type of transmutation Fire Steam was talking about as they sat in a private study over a book of object manipulation. It was starting to sound far too similar with something else the princess had dealt with in the past, but she held back her speculations and merely discussed for now. “So you’ve found a way to basically shift your whole mass into the shape of something else? Amazing! Well, when you’ve completed it, anyway” Twilight chuckled. “Yes, it’s just so fascinating! And, oh, I haven’t even thought about the possibility of turning into something that isn’t a pony. Imagine being able to turn into a dragon!” The Queen breathed in excitement. “Now that would be impressive!” Twilight nodded before pausing. There was just something off about Fire Steams expression as she looked down at her cutie mark in contemplation “‘rise from the ashes like a Phoenix’ eh? I wonder what it could mean...” Twilight heard her mutter. Twilight pursed her lips in worry for a second before smiling brightly when the black Alicorn looked back up “well, shall we get back to our chat?” ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Just a little more, Applejack, you can do it!” The pink Alicorn cheered, jumping around her second oldest sister as her horn flared a soft baby blue and she lifted the cup into the air. Applejack merely grunted and continued to strain as the cup began stretching in odd ways, when suddenly, with a pop, it was turned into an orange “Oh for the love of-! An ORANGE?! What’s wrong wit’ APPLES ya good fer nothin’ horn!?” “Can you stop complaining and just see if it worked?” Rainbow shouted from the top of a particularly tall palm tree. “Ah’ll rhat, fan!” The orange princess snapped, glancing down at her rear “nope, not a lick ‘o difference, ah don’t think mah cutie marks gunna appear like this, Dash.” “Then how do YOU think it’ll appear?” The multicoloured mare responded. “Ah don’ know, probably bah doin’ somn’ honest and leadership like?” Applejack suggested. “So what are you still doing here? Go make someone tell the truth about something or something!” Dash exclaimed. The orange Alicorn sighed before trotting off to do just that. :::::::::::::::::::::::: “Hey new queen, whatcha doing here? Ah thought you’d gone back wit yer parents?” Applejack called, trotting up to Fire Steam as she spotted her in one of the many hallways. The fiery maned queen froze for a second before looking back at the princess with a smile that set off a dozen dishonesty bells in her head. Applejack smiled back, she found that when someone was lying to her was the only time she was able to lie right back successfully, and continued “ah could’a sworn you’re not meant to be here.” “Aha! Yes, well, I merely returned to talk with Twilight some more, I completely forgot to mention a certain detail about my new discovery” Steam replied. Applejack allowed the queen to see her smile strain as she narrowed her eyes slightly “I don’t rightly appreciate it when someone lies to me, yer majesty.” “Ahaha ahahahaha” the queen laughed nervously as she turned around and continued walking to wherever she was going, the orange mare not following her as she went. “There’s something mighty suspicious goin’ on with that one.” The princess muttered as she watched the queen pick up and study a vase with her acid green magic before failing to casually walk around a corner and out of sight. Author's Note Oh, I think you ALL know where this is going. Please inform me of any terrible grammar. Cutie marksFluttershy sat on one of the many spires of her parents castle engaging in a simply delightful conversation with a sparrow. “Oh, and did your friend see the flowers again?” She gasped in anticipation, it may just be a casual conversation, but sometimes simple things were the best things. The bird chirped an affirmation ‘yep! Even managed to carry one home for the missus this time, said she looked the happiest he’d seen her since their first egg hatched.’ “How wonderful! I hope they stay that happy, please send them my regards If that’s ok with you?” The princess asked. ‘Certainly! I’ll just be off then, a pleasant time talking to you like always, dear fluttershy!’ The sparrow chirped happily before flitting off. She smiled, it was so nice to have a regular conversation for once, without anyone pestering her to continue royal studies or sign paperwork... The yellow Alicorn was content. Until she heard a scream. Her head shot up, ears pricked forward and stiff as she listened for further disturbances. They started twitching as another equine squeal sounded down in the streets of the kingdom. “What in Equestria could be happening down there?” She murmured before shaking her head defiantly “no, no, the guards will handle it.” Another voice joined the first with a loud snort, presumably just spotting something new and more troublesome approaching; or, at least, that’s what Fluttershy decided to presume after hearing the original screamer change tactics and release the bellowing roar of warning only an equine could ever hope to release. Fluttershys tail was clamped down between her legs, but she still found herself subconsciously leaping down towards the source of distress. She gasped when she got close enough to see what was happening, snapping open her wings to descend into a hover over the heads of the four adults and two fillies. A sooty blond stallion with a dusky purple mane with some mean pink eyes was snarling at a slightly shorter male of dusty red with a salt and pepper mane and green eyes standing over the two fillies. The other two were a pair of fighting mares, reared up on hind legs and biting at each other near instinctively; both seemingly half blind with some kind of rage. One mare, with a washed out pink coat and white mane, managed to snag a chunk of the others red mane only to let go after receiving a caramel brown hoof to the jaw. The two fillies, one mint green with a pink mane and the other orange with a purple mane, huddled closer together as the blonde stallion reared at their protector. Fluttershy saw red. Her horn fizzled with silver light and a flash blinded all present for a few seconds. Next thing anyone knew, she was standing in front of the protector of the fillies and the attacking stallion was frozen with an expression of tranquility on his muzzle before he slowly started dispersing into a cloud of yellow and purple butterflies. And the two mares on the side were reduced to just one as pink and white butterflies also dispersed from the scene. “T... thank you, your highness...” the stallion behind her uttered. The Alicorn smiled serenely and waved it off “it was no trouble at all, sir, but I really should be off now. Good day!” ... ... Oh, what had she just done?! She thought as she basically crash landed back onto the rooftops. It was nice that she’d saved those fillies, but why had she done it? Why couldn’t she have let the guards get there first? Oh, who was she kidding? she just hadn’t been able to stand by! “Oooo, the NERVE of those ponies... wait, what did I DO to those ponies?!,” she gasped “I hope I didn’t kill them! No, no fluttershy, they looked pretty happy when they started turning into butterflies, it was probably something harmless... maybe?” She felt a tingling against her flanks and looked back. An ascending swirl of soft, pastel coloured butterflies looked to be her cutie mark this time around. There was the sound of a gentle breeze and faint wind chimes behind her and she turned her head the other way, only to get a snout full of ethereal undulating pink hair with the vague shadows of butterflies fluttering through it. It appeared that she had just received her cutie mark and magic mane. And with that, she promptly fainted. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Rarity was pretty happy with her life as a princess; the fashion, though very old, worked surprisingly well with her new appearance. And she could hardly wait until she was as tall as her parents, everything looked better on tall figures, more space to add more decoration and not as squashed together. And by Celestia if being an Alicorn didn’t grow her gem finding abilities to astonishing heights! She could practically see every single precious stone in the entire kingdom with how strongly they resonated with her magic. She sighed, brushing her hair thoughtfully as she stared out into the sandy bush covered landscape around the kingdom. She wondered how long it would take for Equestria to come into existence, she missed the place, and Sweetie Belle... Oh, she felt bad for saying it, but she hoped this back in time business had erased any trace of their future, she couldn’t bear the thought that Sweetie Belle was currently all alone and wondering where she’d gone back in the present, so to speak. One ear pointed forward and the other backwards as she slumped to the floor, wings fanning out on either side of her, resting across plush pillows as she relaxed. How was she going to get her cutie mark? A thought she’d been dwelling on since she became aware of Fire Steams crowning, she couldn’t let a sixteen year old beat her like that! And also a thought that had been bugging her ever since Fluttershy rose to queen hood, too. She could raid the royal dressmakers closet? No, no that wouldn’t work. She could make some dresses? No, too plain... Oh... OH! She could go out and retrieve the rarest gem she could find! “Right, off we go then!” She announced before flying right out the window, feathers shimmering in the sunlight. :::::::::::::::::::: The cool afternoon air slipped past Rainbow Dash like liquid silk as she gently glided far above the palace rooftops. The setting sun casting the ground beneath her in glowing shades of burnt orange, amber and gold. The sky above her ranging from gold to purple to navy blue speckled with stars. She smiled, flying always gave her a sense of freedom, as if she didn’t have any problems in the world. Which was an especially nice feeling when you’d just pulled off a stunt like that and earned your cutie mark; thus making you a queen. Of course, she’d had a suspicion that if she pulled it off, she’d get a cutie mark, but she’d wanted to preform one too much to resist. She frowned in equal parts disappointment and satisfaction at the rippling circles of a sonic rainboom that now rested on her flanks, brushing a strand of her ethereal rainbow mane that was now literally made out of a rainbow, water particles and all. An air current caught under her wings and she adjusted herself accordingly, now facing towards the mountains that belonged to Fire Steam and now where her new kingdom resided. She couldn’t place it, but there was something... off about that kingdom of the new queens; It exuded a slowly growing sense of wrongness with each passing day. But, Fire seemed like an ok mare, so she didn’t give it much thought, especially when she spotted Rarity winging her way back to the castle carrying a giant red diamond in her front legs and wearing the biggest smile she’d ever seen her wear. Ignoring her flashback to when she was about to catch that criminal with a red diamond, she made a smooth dive down to fly alongside her sister. She noticed the mane and tail first, as both were billowing out and ethereal with shards of diamond and the shadow of needles threading through the air visible in its wavy depths. And then the cutie mark, which was the depiction of a very intricately carved red diamond. “Hey, Rares, looks like your a queen now!” Dash observed. The white queen then decided to hug her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Applejack and Pinkie Pie were making pies, simple as that. Pinkie was working with the doe and AJ was preparing the sweet apple filling. “I’ve figured out my destiny, it’s to be an apple farmer and be as honest as possible” Applejack droned. ... Nothing happened. She sighed heavily “welp, so much fer that plan, got any ideas, Pinkie?” “Nope!” The orange pony frowned in disappointment “how are we gunna get our marks? Ah’ve already lost mah bet with RD, but this is gettin’ ridiculous.” “Oh, c’mon silly, you don’t HAVE to do something extravagant to get your cutie mark, ya just gotta realise what your destiny is and sometimes preform said destiny,” Pinkie reasoned “soooo, we just gotta think in queeny terms! What was your destiny before hand and how can you apply said past destiny to the role of a queen?” Applejack stared at Pinkie “that was the most understandable thing ah’ve ever heard ya say, sugar cube.” She put a hoof to her snout “hm, how would I incorporate the cutie mark of an honest apple farmer into the role of a queen? Add an orchard to the palace grounds?” She shook her head “no, no... wait a diddly darn second! Honesty! How does that sound, Pinkie? Queen of honesty!” “It looks like it works!” The pink mare replied with a giggle and pointed down. AJs flanks now possessed the images of three golden apples, her hair becoming ethereal and if she listened closely, she could hear it whispering small truths. “Hey, what do you think mine will be?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “Pinkie, you’ve already got yours, remember? It appeared last week when you threw that orphan a ‘congrats on getting adopted’ party?” The other mare rolled her eyes in amusement. Pinkie Pie giggled as her ethereal mane tickled her neck, tiny balloons ascending from its depths and popping once they breached the surface; looking down at her mark, a ballon twisted into the shape of an ancient pony rune that stood for celebration. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight frowned as she looked up at the vast night sky, following the patterns in the stars as she thought about everything. Magic was a complex power, it disobeyed every fibre of reason and rhyme, but also WERE said reasons and rhymes at the same time. It thrummed through the very pillars of existence and nonexistence. She sighed; dark magic wasn’t so much a thing that existed... but more of a thing that didn’t want to be done. It was like trying to use a cloud walking spell to stand on lava, it wasn’t designed to do that, but you force it into the position anyway. You could’ve invented a spell to achieve what you wished for, but instead you tried to use an already made spell instead. That’s where dark magic came from, because if you used it the wrong way, it would fulfil your desire in a terrible way. As an Alicorn, she didn’t really get tired or need to drink or eat and such, but she found it comforting; she yawned and stretched out her wings before pushing off from the balcony and gliding smoothly through the cold air. Batting her ethereal mane filled with galaxies, nebulas and stars out of her eyes as she passed over the kingdom, cutie mark of a shimmering golden version of her original hexagram like star and sparkling silver smaller stars and backdrop. She decided she might actually be ready to take a throne this time. Author's Note Sorry, this one does read a little rushed, doesn’t it. I have also started incorporating some actual equine communication into their behaviour, like pricking their ears, using roars when angry and such. Please inform me of anything terribly horrifyingly wrong. The word Angst used the wrong wayFluttershy smiled serenely at the young filly with a mint green coat, gold eyes and a pink mane and tail “arise, little ones, and tell me your wish.” The other filly, orange with purple hair and blue eyes was the first to obey “we... merely wished to thank you, your majesty.” “Oh, it was nothing, really” the mare giggled, trying to convey the motherly aura that situations such as these required. She could’ve sworn she saw a small cloud of green powder rise from one of the twos hooves as they merrily trotted out of the room. “Must just have been some dust.” :::::::::::::::: Twilight was striding through the palace at a steady gait, book suspended in front of her expertly positioned to keep the floor in clear view-when she heard a muffled sound. She halted, last hoof step echoing down the hall ominously as she pricked her ears up searchingly, raising her head to scan the nearest doorways for activity. The faint sound of something heavy getting slowly dragged across a polished wooden surface fluttered past her ears from four doors down. Twilight frowned and spread her wings, feeling slightly disappointed that she hadn’t gotten owl like wings instead; as they would have been far easier to eavesdrop with. She resolved to just put some silencing spells on her feathers as she half glided half floated over to the door and flapped in place. With an ear pressed to the door, she heard the thing being dragged suddenly get cut off with the sound of rustling paper and- the sound of a book hitting the ground ricocheted through her skull. A high pitched curse reached her soon after, and she could just hear someone whisper “you idiot, what if someone catches us, we have to get this to the queen!” Twilights ears pricked forward, which queen? “Yeah, yeah, ‘we need the book to reverse this accident and ensure it doesn’t happen again’ as she puts it,” another high pitched voice grumbled “I just don’t understand why she didn’t take this book as well, or was she really so arrogant to think that there wouldn’t be consequences for messing with transformation?” Twilights ears shot up, taught as bow strings, and she released an alarmed snort, which was unfortunately heard by the two thieves. “Shade of the mountains! Sound the alarm, execute command T4k30v3r” one of the voices cried, and the other released a barely audible combination of magic and sound that vibrated the very walls around Sparkle. The purple unicorn kicked open the door with a snarl, coming face to face with two fillies who both looked to be half disintegrating at this point, revealing hole ridden charcoal black chitin. “Changelings!” She spat. :::::::::::::::: Love. Nectar of the soul. And she was the bee that collected that nectar to make honey. Honey to feed to her subjects. Her poor, helpless, innocent, USELESS subjects. Her useless, victimised, loveless, soulless subjects. Her poor subjects who couldn’t feel anything anymore, who she made feel nothing anymore. If they had felt anything more they would’ve devoured each other, so she took that option away. A sharp ping of magic shot passed her and she snarled from where she stood pretending to be a maid; soon dropping the disguise and sinking her fangs into the nearest ponies throat, fiery mane singeing the stallions snout. The battle was far earlier than she would have liked, but there was no time to dawdle, only an Alicorn could ‘kill’ an Alicorn after all. :::::::::::::::: Chaos. Utter chaos and death had broken out in the kingdom. Streets getting swarmed by millions of black beetle like ponies hissing and screeching. Rainbow Dash had cornered a few of them in an ally way when another group dropped in, pinning her to the ground and breaking her wings with sickening cracks. The mares scream could be heard far and wide, before she began squirming furiously underneath the heap of scuttling bodies. Glowing soulless blue eyes streaked around her from every direction and she began to hear them snapping off barely audible words at her in between biting at her and re-breaking her wings every time they began healing. “Useless””pathetic””tiresome””a bother!””pitiful””sad””coward””un-loyal!” She released a snort and wiggled again before the bugs began shifting into a multitude of copies of herself; all smirking quite viciously. “You’re USELESS””so LAZY””What? Lonely little brat gonna cry?””such an egocentric wimp!””doesn’t deserve fans””mocks her friends””nothing but a BULLY””WEAKLING””DEAF””IDIOT DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE ABLE TO PREFORM A RAINBOOM!” The multitude of voices that sounded just like her... the pain over her whole body... She gritted her teeth and continued to struggle. :::::::::::::::: Applejack and Rarity cantered through the castle at full tilt, firing spells at every enemy they could find as they made their way to the throne room. “Why did this have to happen just as I was planning to leave for a new land?” Rarity bemoaned between attacks. AJ didn’t have time to answer as she tackled yet another bug pony and shook one loose from a wing. She heard a scream, causing her to stop short and look around. Spotting fluttershy being dog piled down a side hall, she flew towards her “hang on, Sugarcube!” “Appleja-!” Rarity cried in confusion before getting tackled by a particularly big swarm; and since none of the new queens were very good at combat, she gave out fairly easily. Said orange pony had reached the mass of buzzing critters and was about to stamp down on them when the fluttershy she’d seen burst out of it and smiled wickedly at her; inevitably turning back into a changeling and dragging her into the throng. :::::::::::::::: Pinkie and her parents, who had just been having an innocent lunch together, where now under attack from millions of changelings. She didn’t know how they’d gotten there, she didn’t know why they were there, she didn’t even know how they’d infiltrated so well. But she did know one thing. She wasn’t going to let them ruin her day! Her mane and tail flared up in response to her anger, ears pressed back in fury; she pounced. :::::::::::::::: As was fitting, a storm had rolled in and now hung heavily over the kingdom, burning buildings adding a terrible smog on top of all this mess. Screams and wails rung out through the murky shadows that had engulfed the streets below Twilight as she glided far above, fur standing on end due to the close proximity to the storm clouds. The winds were rough, causing her to sway and wobble through her flight path; the occasional beat of her wings only throwing her off even more. “Girls? Girls?! Applejack! Rarity! Pinkie Pie! Fluttershy?... Rainbow Dash?!” She desperately called down to the throngs of chaos. She never got a response. A ringing cackle of laughter, like glass being dragged across concrete, pierced her ears and she spun around- “F-... Fire Steam?...,” Twilight started in defeat “heh... hehehahaha... I should’ve known it was you.” The black Alicorn with holes riddling her legs and wings that glittered translucent in the fire light of her still burning hair, smirked. “Like a Phoenix born from the ashes, I have risen stronger than I ever was before! I shall rule the ponies and we shall become the most feared species in the world! Yes, the changelings shall conquer all!” She ranted, sick grin full of fangs and saliva flashing in the darkness. “No! You’re sick! You’re so very sick! This isn’t the way!” Twilight wailed. “There is no other way! I have already rid the world of your parents, and I intend to do the same to you and your sisters!,” her crooked horn glowed a sickening acid green “and NO ONE will get in my way!” :::::::::::::::: Fluttershy was surrounded by the fake versions her sisters, and they were teasing her. “Aww, little chicken gonna cry? Run along to your parents now, oh wait, the queen already KILLED THEM! I guess you gotta die too if you wanna see them again, then! HAHAHAHAHA!” A Pinkie Pie sneered. “Hey, guess what?” Another started, before turning into one of the two fillies Fluttershy had saved “we were LYING!” A Twilight clone stomped down on one of Fluttershys wings with a crack “cry chicken! Cry like the little hatchling you are!” The yellow Alicorn was now very much blind with terror. :::::::::::::::: “That’s ENOUGH!” Twilight bellowed, and then-with a crack of purple magic-silence reigned. And the sky broke, rain pelting down like tiny rocks. :::::::::::::::: Rainbow Dash wheezed, puffing air out her nostrils like a steam engine as her eyes darted around in a frenzy, ears stiff and twitching with a clamped-down tail. She staggered back, snorting as a purple figure-Twilight-landed in front of her and carefully manoeuvred around the dead insects to carefully approach her. Twilight winced and held out a tentative hoof; to which the blue Alicorn squealed at, tail switching hard and fast and ears beginning to fold back. “Dash, please snap out of it, this is me, I’m Twilight. The others have already fled and you’re the only one I’ve found. Oh please calm down?” The purple mare inched forward. Rainbow stomped her front hooves down and flared her wings, roaring like only an equine could as she reared back up. Ears pressed back completely flat and tail flicking angrily, Dash stomped at the other mare. Pain roiled through Twilights skull, and she fell under her sisters hooves; muzzle being slammed into the blood soaked earth as the blue Alicorn used her as a launch pad to shoot into the sky... and then keep going up. Author's Note Inform me of all terrible errors, please. Sorry, very rushed. AftermathThe patter of rain against already damp dirt echoed through the desolate valley, storm clouds as pitch as night covering up any sign of the setting sun besides a few piercing rays that shone like lava between the descending water droplets. A stunning blue feather fell from the sky, slowly fluttering down to rest at the mud-spattered hooves of a slouching figure; who barely even shuffled her wings at first when she caught sight of it. Slowly, muscles and bone creaking, she extended a hoof and scooped the feather up, raising it to her mud-covered snout and viewing it closely with blurry eyes. A silvery streak escaped down her cheek, leaving a clean line of purple fur in its wake. She lowered her head, mane lacking its ethereal state and now saturated with enough water to make it feel heavy, sticking to her forehead messily. A few magenta sparks sputtered from the tip of her horn as she attempted to locate her sisters, but they didn’t want to be found, blocking her out and continuing their separate journeys to who knows where. The young Alicorn sank onto her barrel and rested her head on the mud; after all, there wasn’t much else to do, was there? Everything may as well have stopped existing for her, her friends-sisters-might as well have been her whole world, as she couldn’t see anything left for her without them. No... They HAD been her whole world, she corrected herself in utter hopelessness. And now they were gone. And she really didn’t think they’d be coming back. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: A blur of orange, a gust of wind. Her feathers rustled as they passed so swiftly through the air, the mare they were attached to not caring if they stayed or fell out due to the pressure. All she currently cared about was getting away. Her eyes streamed with baby blue light, sometimes even crackling out of control and sending little arks of blue lightning into the surrounding clouds. Getting away from that terrible turn of events. Getting away from the rest of her sisters. Getting away from all that remained of those lying pieces of scum. She knew that they would reform in the future, she’d been there when it happened, but those creatures were the descendants, not the actual beings that created the species. They could be forgiven, but the catalysts could not-could NEVER be forgiven. She snarled through gritted teeth, horn flickering as she deflected her older sisters searching probe, stab of guilt almost enough to turn her around and go back, but her refusal was so strong she almost fell out of the air, her wing muscles so stiff in their gliding position they barely avoided snapping their own bones. She wouldn’t go back, not yet, perhaps not ever. She needed time, she needed space, she needed somewhere quiet. With nothing better to think of, she continued to fly, wingbeats causing great gales to form below her. :::::::::::::::::::::::: Darkness, stars, space. And a lot of blue. Her wings refolded themselves onto her back when she noticed the blue, as they were the ones causing it and she currently couldn’t stand to look at anything blue. The planet below her was blue, it had so much blue on it. She turned away from it, horn flickering as she shoved her eldest sisters tracking magic away from her, appreciating that it wasn’t blue but still not wanting to be found by her at the moment, if ever. She just wanted to float around here in space, it was nice and not blue up here, well despite the planet bellow her, but she wasn’t going to look at that thing. She was just going to be up here. She winged over to the moon and inspected it for a time, before deciding it reminded her too much of blue and went to take a nap on the sun instead. She looked out at space and saw some of the blue stars, she growled and turned onto her stomach as she refused to start shivering. This was the sun, she shouldn’t be shivering. Why did it have to be blue? Why couldn’t it have been grey or something? She shook herself, fluttering her wings to disperse her jitters, but she had caught sight of the blue feathers again, she couldn’t stand it. Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, her teeth bared in a furious and silent growl, her ears flattened and her horn started buzzing with her green magic. She screamed and shot a beam at the nearest blue star, snuffing it out within seconds before moving on to the second, and then third-and fourth-and fifth- :::::::::::::::::::: The white Alicorn shot so fast through the air the wind whistled between her primary feathers. She didn’t know where she was going, she just knew that she was going somewhere and that it was thankfully in the opposite direction of where she had come from. She didn’t even feel the pelting rain smacking into her like tiny boulders as she whizzed through the overcast sky, didn’t even feel her ethereal mane growing heavy as it collected water in its mist like grip. All she was thinking was that she needed to LEAVE, and leave FAST. She skittered through the air as she felt her oldest sister reach for her with a searching strand of magic, violently severing it with a bolt of her own as she continued to fly in a blind frenzy of terror. A wing dipped too far and she was sent careening into the side of a hill, the slick clay on said hill she’d struck staining her legs near black and sending her down a natural slide to the bottom where she flapped sodden wings and scrambled shaking legs in an attempt to keep getting away, forgetting to magically dry herself in her frenzy enough that she was now very much grounded under a ton of rain soaked fur and feathers. She got a glance of her now stained legs and froze. As dark as they had been, as dark as their forms, the colour of those disgusting hides of theirs! Due to sheer horror, she regurgitated what little food remained in her stomach before collapsing. She needed to get away. She scrambled to her feet and immediately set off at a gallop, using sheer Alicorn willpower to destroy any obstacles in her way as she resumed her retreat. ::::::::::::::::::::::::: Her mane and tail were strait as steel, all ethereal aspects gone from it as she ran at full tilt, occasionally flying over obstacles too big to jump. Eyes glowing strawberry red, she bucked her biggest sisters’ magical tracker doohickie away from herself, snarling wordlessly as she crushed any rocks she came across to dust. She needed to run away. She just couldn’t be around them right now. Not right now. Hopefully not forever, but definitely not right now. She ran on. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: She had to RUN. She had to ESCAPE. She had to GeT oUT Of HERE! She couldn’t look back. She mustn’t look back. She destroyed all traces of the eldest’s tracking magic and ran on. She spread her yellow wings and took off into the sky. Diving into a giant forest. Staying there. She would NEVER go back. NEVER.
Twilight miscalculated“Discord!” Fluttershy yelped as she ducked under a rampaging pillow, down belching from its rip of a mouth in an imitation of fire. “What?” The draconequus asked, turning from where he was currently engaged in an epic battle with a feather duster and spork. The yellow pegasus released a quiet sigh to steady her temper before gently replying “I know you need to cause chaos because it helps balance the worlds and such... but would it really be so inconvenient to maybe, I don’t know, take it outside? Just a little bit?” “Oh, fine,” Discord relented, swan diving into the floor and swimming out the door “honestly, the restrictions these ponies place on good fun!” Fluttershy let out a breath before sitting down in exhaustion “Oh, Angel, the god of chaos sure can be a handful, can’t he?” The aforementioned rabbit growled in agreement as he tried to pull his foot from the once more solid floorboards. “Oh dear, l-let me help you with that.” She hadn’t even noticed a purple light start gathering into a ball behind her as she worked. And she certainly didn’t have time to hear Discord running back into the house with a cry of warning on his lips. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Criminal, Fire breeze, inbound. Prepare to intercept” the lead pegasus called, adjusting his flight path to begin a steep dive. “Roger!” Rainbow Dash shouted along with the three other squad members. As they dove towards the target, an orange and blue pegasus carrying a stolen red diamond, Rainbow couldn’t help wondering why Fire Streak was shouting at her, he should know that at this speed, sound was rendered nonexistent! However, she never got the chance to signal her lack of comprehension as a ball of purple magic engulfed her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Is it not simply gorgeous?!” Rarity swooned, stepping back from her masterpiece in awe. A smooth, ghost white dress with navy blue trim and dozens of tiny cuts of gem that, when catching the light, would make it look like an artwork fit for the night sky, stood before her. “It sure is” Sweetie Belle breathed, marvelling at the dress from over the top of her music stand. “Oh, I can’t wait to present it to princess Luna! Oh, do you think she’ll like it? Oh no, what if she HATES it?!” Rarity was in the middle of a dramatic gasp when she disappeared quite suddenly due to a flash of purple light. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Naw what in the hey do y’all think yer doin’?” Applejack accused, trotting up to a frozen Applebloom and Scootaloo. “We weren’t doin’ anythang, big sis. Ah swear!” Her little sister fretted after spitting something out of her mouth. “Uh huh, And that there lump of seeds wasn’t just in yer mouth right then and there, I dare to presume?” The orange mare continued, raising an eyebrow in challenge. “We weren’t gonna do anything bad with them, honest!” Scootaloo piped up, fluttering her wings in a sign of nervousness. “Right, and ahm sure that was a totally honest word ya just spoke to me?” Applejack pressed on. “Ahlright, ahlright! We were takin’ ‘em to Zecora! Cen we please go naw?” Applebloom gave in, staring up at her sister with big eyes and her ears pressed back against her head. Applejack sighed, gosh darn those puppy eyes to the sun “alraht, but only because you were so honest with me.” But just as the two fillies began to cheer, a flash of purple light whisked the older pony away somewhere. ::::::::::::::::::::: And, there! The cake was complete and pinkie pie couldn’t be happier about it. “Oh my Celestia, it’s perfect!” She cried, scooping up a toothless reptile to show her masterpiece to “don’t ya think, Gummy?” Gummy blinked slowly. Pinkie giggle “I know, right?!” Suddenly, her hair deflated and the balloons of her cutie mark all burst and then rebuilt themselves “ooo~ that’s a new one! I wonder what this pinkie sense means!” Gummy jumped from her grip and she disappeared in a purple flash. ::::::::::::::::::::::: “Ok, spike, let’s do this!” Twilight declared, pacing around the map room of her home. “Yes, ma’am,” spike declared, before pausing “are you sure this is a good idea?” “Absolutely, spike, I’ve done so much research and preparation for this that even I’m sick and tired of it, and I love research!” She exclaimed. “I don’t know about this, Twilight, you know how badly it almost went the last time we-well-I messed with time travel” Starlight Glimmer piped up from the sidelines. “Oh, relax, Starlight. It’s not like I’m physically going back in time-erm, this time,” Twilight winced at her own choice of words before regaining her confidence “but with the adjustments I’ve made to this spell, I’ll be able to view the events of the past! I’ll be able to get a firsthoof view of what life was like back then!” She gasped in delight “I might even be able to spot a few pieces of history that we missed, and then make my own history book!” “Right, um, yeah, ok, I’ll leave you to it, then. Scream if you need me, Spike” Starlight sighed in defeat, trotting out of the room. “Will do!” Spike called after her. “Remind me again, how you hope to get this spell working?” He queried. “I’m going to use the elements of harmony to power the spell, whilst I use my own magic to balance it and pick the time period I wish to study” the alicorn stated. “And, um, what do you intend to study first?” The dragon continued to press. “Oh, don’t be silly, Spike! You know perfectly well what I intend to study first!” Twilight grinned before her horn lit up with magenta pink magic. “A-and that would be?” Spike stuttered, dread starting to weigh down in his stomach. “Why, The first alicorns to exist, of course!” And then she cast her spell. Everything flashed purple in front of her eyes and she lost her smile. Something had gone terribly wrong. And she suspected that whatever happened next wouldn’t be exactly what she’d hoped for. Author's Note Please tell me of any mistakes you find. Because as the writer, I can only spot so many and I have no beta readers. :1
I wonder where the other five areWarmth was the first thing that greeted Twilights senses as she reawakened to the world. It was not unlike the feeling of a mothers warm embrace; holding her close and protected in its practically infinite amount of love. “... kle... ght Sparkle... wake up my little twilight Sparkle...” That didn’t sound like her mother. And yet, she felt drawn to this being with a voice like warm honey. She yawned, stretching out like a cat before blinking her eyes open to see what was goi-... The alicorn; because, no, she didn’t need to check, she could feel her wings and horn just fine, found herself gawking at the sight in front of her. She was perched atop a nest of rich purple mulberry silk with a giant female alicorn sprawled out beside her with a huge, incredibly detailed in design, room encompassing them. Wait-ALICORN?! Twilight stared up at the mare beside her: a silk smooth coat of deep forest green; an ethereal, eternally undulating, wine red mane and tail scattered with golden streaks and filled with glimmering blue nebulas; silver eyes and the picture of a pair of wings cradling six tiny different coloured stars as a cutie mark. And definitely in possession of a horn and two wings. The older mare giggled at her, leaning down to nuzzle Twilight happily “rise, my daughter, see the world you have just arrived in.” “D-dauher?” Twilight attempted to repeat, confusion clouding her face as she failed to talk properly. “Oh my! You are a smart one!” Her apparent mother laughed “do not worry, my child, your vocal cords shall strengthen to full use fast enough.” There was a tiny knock at the door the now very confused little pony finally noticed, and her... ‘mothers’ horn glowed a soft, snow white as she opened the door to let in yet another alicorn. This one, twilight noted, was slightly bigger than her ‘mother’, and was definitely male. She could only assume it was her new-she mentally grimaced-‘father’. He had a light brown coat, pretty blue eyes and a golden mane and tail with streaks of cream white in it, green nebulas forever glinting in the masses of undulating ethereally hair; His cutie mark seemed to be a shield protecting six little multicoloured stars. “Is it safe to come in?” He called, eyes focused on the floor nervously. “Yes, my dear, it is safe. Now why don’t you come in and greet your first daughter?” The stallion walked in, eyes slowly widening with joy as he took in the newly re-filly-fied alicorn before freezing in alarm “wait, our FIRST daughter? You can’t seriously be suggesting that we go through that magical depletion a SECOND time, Emerald Glimmer!” The newly discovered Emerald Glimmer smiled pleadingly “it only took so much magic because we were creating an alicorn, Smoky Skies, what if we just create some normal ponies and ascend them afterwards?” Smokey Skies stared at his mate in astonishment “why didn’t we think of that when we created Twilight, here?” “I, ah, DIDN’T think of it” Emerald chuckled in embarrassment. Twilight had had enough of this conversation, she knew she’d messed up the spell, but she had no idea how this scene related to how the spell backfired! Yes, two alicorns now seemed to be her parents, but how did that relate to-. Oh. OH! ‘Why, The first alicorns to exist, of course!’ Sweet Celestia, why had it taken so long for her to think of that? Of course she’d end up in a place like this if she’d been looking for ALICORNS! But did that mean the spell had actually worked? She debunked the thought, if it had worked, she wouldn’t be able to interact with these two like she was right now. Now she wondered, were-ARE these the first alicorns to have existed? And what’s this about ‘creating’ foals with magic to the point of depletion? That’s not how the birthing process worked as far as she knew! She didn’t question how she could understand the old ponish these two were talking as if it were still the modern day, though it was rather strange as she tuned back into the conversation. “It would still take at least a week to gather enough magic to create these other five children you wish for, Emerald” Smokey was saying, sounding mildly exasperated. “I know, but it would be worth it, I swear, I mean, don’t you think that the stars on our flank might represent these children? The purple star DID shine as we finished making Twilight, here” Emerald countered as she pulled said alicorn up to her side, the silk nest rippling around them as they moved. “Now let’s allow our new daughter to rest for a bit, I think she deserves it.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight had been here for three days so far, and the experience was both nerve wracking and awe inspiring. Granted, she couldn’t really TALK yet, being only a filly, but at least she could walk, read and was permitted to wander the castle grounds almost as much as she wanted to. Speaking of which-. The palace was huge, far bigger than the Canterlot palace and the old castle of the two sisters combined, filled with floor to ceiling arched windows covered in intricate glass designs so that when the sunlight streamed in, the halls would be filled with golden light depicting great scenes of battle and peace alike. Holding many great libraries, it was, to her delight, filled with many tomes that looked fairly new; but Twilight remembered as being battered and barely held together in her own time; which only solidified her thought that this was very early on in the existence of ponies. Most of the castle was painted in various shades of cream; but some of the more populated areas, as well as the public areas of the place, had swaths of purple and gold to liven things up. It also held many gardens of exotic and strange plants and animals Twilight had never seen, despite the fairly arid climate of this new-well, old-land for her to explore. A gentle breeze brushed through the sheets of organdy cloth that hung from the rafters, apparently being placed there as some strange old fashioned building design fashion thing. Twilight shook her head, she’d never fully understand what made something beautiful, that was up to Rarity, even if she... wasn’t here right now. She trotted up and sprawled out on a bench beside an open window overlooking the city that her parents palace resided in. Watching the many common folk ponies going about their day as the sun slowly sunk closer to the horizon. It was weird to think that the sun and moon moved on their own in this time period, but twilight knew that the only reason Celestia and Luna had started to move the celestial bodies was because of Discord meddling with the cycle and causing it to weaken over the skies of Equestria in the days of chaos that were yet to come in this time. If they hadn’t moved them, the land would have been stuck in either a never ending night, day or in between and the rest of the world would’ve suffered the opposite in more or less varying degrees of bad, though Luna decided to forget about that for a time-which Twilight was wondering if she’d need to help fix this time around-well, if she survived that long. She sighed, resting her head on her hooves as she prepared to take an afternoon nap before her... mother sent a maid to bring her to dinner. Author's Note Please inform me of any grievous errors you may find.
Oh, there they are, these parents are weirdOn the eighth day of her new... ‘life’; for she still had no idea how to get back, or even if she COULD get back, to her original time; as she was sitting in one of the larger royal gardens, she was approached by one of the guards. Now, everything in this ancient time was quite strange, and the physical build and fashion sense of ponies was no exception. Everypony was quite lithe and tall, almost as tall as the few horses that would occasionally come to trade with them; though they never stayed long, horses having a rather large contempt for the smaller equines as they constantly called them ‘the offsprings of runt horses who should’ve been killed before they could get a chance to breed’; even though Twilight knew for a fact they were literally the same subspecies of equine, and were actually generally stronger and tougher than horses. But, alas, it was still ancient times and not every race was friends yet. And the clothing the ponies wore was like a mixture of paint and cloth. They walked around with intricate, vine like artworks painted in black ink twisting around one or two legs, sometimes even all four. And were never seen without some form of intricately designed cloth draped over their back to avoid sunburn whilst also upholding a certain beauty about them. And the guards were no exception to this code of fashionable conduct either; constantly decked out in shiny black metal armour with menacing spikes and snarling beasts for helmets, though also showing off hints of gold in between the joints. “Your parents wish for you to join them in their bedchamber, your majesty” this current guard stated, his muffled voice snapping Twilight out of her whirlwind of thoughts. As she nodded in understanding, shutting her book and levitating it beside her as she began to follow him to her parents, she remembered how it had been quite a pain re-familiarising herself with her magic, but also quite enjoyable if she was honest; refreshing, even. Especially when she got to see the looks on Emarald and Smokys faces. She shook her head dismissively, ah well, time to go see what those two wanted from her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight blinked. The two alicorns blinked back, smiles still beaming from their faces, though also looking close to fainting from exhaustion. The sleeping pile of alicorn fillies lay sprawled on the same mulberry silk that Twilight had first awakened on. Twilight blinked again before raising her hoof to point at the pile “sisterth?” She was still working to get her words out properly, but at least she was understandable. “Yes, Twilight, these are your new sisters, do you want to come and say hello?” Smoky asked. The purple filly frowned uneasily before trotting forward, she could easily tell that they were her five friends; oh, she hoped they weren’t too mad at her. She stopped and leaned over them to see how different they looked. It seemed their wings were based more of birds than normal Pegasi wings now, she thought, briefly glancing back at her own albatross like wings before refocusing on her friends. Applejack was the closest, so she studied her first; with a long sharp horn poking out of her blond locks and two wings that looked a lot like they belonged to a harpy eagle, and of course no cutie mark yet, Twilight was scared of what the used-to-be farmer would do when she awoke. Rainbow Dash was next, and aside from the new horn on her head, she looked relatively similar, except her wings were shaped more like a hummingbirds, now. Fluttershy had a rather rounded horn and budgie like wings. Rarity still looked regal, especially with her now long and curved back horn and fantail looking wings. And Pinkie Pie had a strangely zigzagged horn and wings shaped in the likeness of a parrots. Twilight was conflicted. She was scared that her friends would all hate her for dragging them back in time, yet she was also ecstatic that they were here and she wasn’t alone. She mentally face hoofed as she realised that of COURSE they were here, their connection to the elements must’ve dragged them along with her. She turned to give her parents a happy grin when she found them both just sleeping on the floor; boy, they must have used a lot of magic to be asleep so quickly. Man, this was starting to feel like a scene from some cheesy book she hoped never to read. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: Smoky Skies awoke from a wonderful nap, magic fully restored and the light of dawn glowing behind his eyelids. He smiled contentedly, slowly opening his eyes to see-a blur of purple flash by him, soon followed by an orange blur angrily babbling filly talk. “What-?” He uttered, head shooting up to watch his first born daughter being chased by his second born daughter. His horn lit up with sky blue magic and he swiftly levitated both children over to hover in front of him, Applejack wiggling in his grip. “What is going on here, girls? Twilight, what did you do to your younger sister?” He asked in bafflement. Applejack froze and looked over at her older sister in horror, only confusing Smoky all the more; whilst Twilight merely shrugged from where she hung limp in the air. Smoky sighed, shaking his head as he lowered them back to the ground “ok, you two, play nice please, we have to wake up your siblings and head to breakfast now.” Smoky hid a frown as his oldest daughter shuddered in fear. ::::::::::::::::::: Twilight shifted awkwardly at the long and very extravagant table that morning, staring at her honey covered pancakes in an attempt to avoid her... ‘siblings’ insistent glares. The dining hall doors creaked open and a maid stuck her head in “your highnesses? The meeting with the bison traders from the south will be starting soon.” Emerald smiled gratefully, dipping her head to the six fillies before leaving the room with Smoky. After Rainbow Dash made sure they were gone, she slammed a hoof on the table and pointed it at Twilight accusingly, growling lowly as she held back from trying to speak, considering she wouldn’t have been able to with her now very young vocal cords. “I kno, I kno, I’m thorry iss happnd” Twilight managed, ears pressed back as she lowered her head and placed her hooves over her eyes. Rainbow Dash’s glare softened-before she shook her head stubbornly, Twilight may be a filly again, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still at the mental age of her original self! She was about to smack the table again when a terrifying thought occurred to her, leading to her insistently tapping it instead. Twilight looked up to see Rainbows horrified expression in confusion “wa? Wa? You tryn to asg if we’ll be able to go bak?” The blue coated filly shook her head frantically before pointing at the other four as if counting them. The purple alicorn grew dumbstruck for a second before responding “welly?... Oke, den; I’m th oldest, Appweldak ith the thecond oldetht, Wawity is the third born, then you, then pinkey pie and den fwutterthy Id de yongetht.” Twilight scowled at her own abhorrent pronunciation, but it seemed Rainbow had understood enough to be relieved that she wasn’t the youngest. Author's Note I remember reading something about pancakes dating back to Ancient Greece. Tell me of any terrible errors. I do think I might of used ‘Twilight’, ‘back’ and ‘head’ too many times. :/
Life continuesTwilight shivered as the servant applied another stroke of cold ink to her right front leg, curling vines of artwork already adorning her other three legs as she was prepared to be revealed to her parents subjects. She stared into the mirror apprehensively, a white sheet embroidered with gold thread rested lightly across her back and a golden ring sat at the base of her horn, connected to a smaller ring at the tip of her horn by a silver thread dotted with tiny shards of crystal. The primary feathers of her wings were wrapped in thin golden chains beaded with lapis lazuli, and her mane was pulled back into a bun, loose strands of hair threaded with red gems. She would admit it looked amazing on her, but she was still quite nervous about this. She glanced over at her sisters, noting how they were all similarly dressed up, except for the different colours used, as it seemed important that they wore colours that complimented each other, their hair and their coats; though the ink paintings all remained an obsidian black. Rarity squealed in adoration as she took in her own appearance, spreading her wings out as far as they could go to show off the jewellery and sheer magnificence of them and Emerald laughed from behind her. “Oh, you’re going to be the fashionable one, aren’t you” she smiled, her own dressing already having been finished as she just slipped into her golden hoofwear studded with white diamond. Rarity laughed ‘if only you knew’. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “The six daughters of Queen Emerald Glimmer and King Smoky Skies!” The herald proclaimed, sweeping himself aside to let said foals through so as to begin stating their individual statuses. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, first born!” Said purple filly waved gracefully, practiced smile firmly in place as she sat down in her little throne next to Emeralds own, bigger seat on the balcony overlooking the main square filled with their subjects. “Princess Applejack, second born!” The former cowgirl gave an awkward grin and wave as she went to sit on the other side of twilight, wings shuffling nervously. “Princess Rarity, third born!” The white alicorn swept past him and gave off a dazzling smile for the crowd as she placed herself beside Applejack. And then the process repeated itself, Twilight growing too bored to really listen anymore, focussing more on the setting sun and wondering about why her cutie mark hadn’t just reappeared back the way it had been, yet. Could it be that she would get a different one? No, that’d be impossible... Right? If she was honest, though, no one had gone back in time quite the way they had, but-. Could it be possible? This was something she was going to have to think further on at a later date. ::::::::::::::::::::: Applejack kicked open the doors to the sixes shared room; a large space with ceiling heigh glass doors along one wall that opened out onto a vast veranda giving them a clear view of the sunrise and moonrise equally, three beds lined up against both walls in between the glass ones and the now open ones the angry country girl stood between and filled with an appropriate amount of children’s toys; and stormed over to her gold sheeted bed. Rainbow pranced in next, flicking her tail in contempt as she threw off the fancy cloth on her back. Plopping down on her black velvet covered bed, that had a rainbow sheen to it when hit by the morning light, to start trying to lick the ink off her fur. Rarity and Fluttershy came next, both quietly just going to sit on their respective silk covered beds and relax before Pinkie jumped in happily. Twilight poked her head in, winced and then promptly shut the door behind her as she slunk to her bed. “Look... I kno yur mad abowt dis, and pwobabwy in denial... But untiw I find a sowuton, we’re sduck hewe, so why not make de betht of id?” She reasoned, taping her hooves together nervously. She heard a collection of sighs before Rarity caught her attention. “I... Ifff-if yoo don mind me athging, darwing... wad cawsed dis to happn?” The white filly managed to strangle out of herself. Twilight cringed back, ears flat against her head and she hid behind her wings “I wuz onwy tryn to SEE th past, bud de spewl backfiwered.” “Of orse it did” Applejack muttered, pulling up her blankets and turning onto her side to watch the moon make its slow ascent into the sky. The former student of Celestia felt terrible for dragging her friends into this, especially Applejack, considering she had the most to lose; it wasn’t everyday you found a bond of family as strong as that of the Apples. “I wuz dis close to cadching th wolds biggetht cwiminaw, Twi, dis close... but den I wazn’t der anymow, I was here, a fiwy again” Rainbow spoke up, angry expression scrunching up to suppress tears “and ah cowden’t do anyding abowd it.” Rarity didn’t say anything, merely rolling over so she wouldn’t face the moon, still quite distraught that she hadn’t been able to give Princess Luna that dress. Pinkie Pie just went to sleep and Flutershy still couldn’t really talk, as she was the youngest amongst them. Twilight stayed up the longest, wondering why the elements of harmony had actually allowed the spell to backfire... could it be that they had seen that this outcome would lead to more harmony than they could’ve done in their original time? Or did the spell create such a disturbance that even the elements couldn’t control it? :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight stared down at the wet sand, horn enveloped in its rich magenta glow as she chose her next move carefully. She allowed her magic to take hold of a small lump of the grains, lifting it into the air before placing it on top of a tower and shaping it into a spire, grinning triumphantly. And then it got stomped by Pinkie pie as she fell out of the sky above her, pout clear on her face as she looked back at her wings “man, thewe’s tho much flapping invowved when fwying!” Twilight groaned, allowing her head to drop into the sand as she viewed her destroyed masterpiece. Author's Note I suddenly had an evil idea... and I’m going to use it in this story later. If there’s any terrible errors in my writing, inform me. Also, I’m going to start taking a lot longer to publish chapters for this, considering I’m starting my last year of school tomorrow, so I’m sorry if anyone’s patience snaps because of it. The image below is just so you can get an idea of what these ancient times looked like and what I meant by the ink paintings on their legs and cloths on their back.
The all powerful dump of ‘how my version of Alicorns work’ informationAuthor's Note Warning: a lot of information about Alicorns I made up because I wanted to make my own history for them and never found an opening to put them in the previous chapters. Also, I hate OCs, but they’re all I have to work with at the moment considering everyone they ever knew hasn’t been born yet. Inform me of any greivious grammatical errors, please. The all powerful dump of ‘how my version of Alicorns work’ information Why was she such an idiot sometimes!? Twilight smacked herself in the head, why hadn’t she thought of this before?! “What ever is the matter, my child?” Smoky enquired, putting down the fairytale he’d been reading to the girls. “Nothng, nothng, I dust wnted to athk... Whewe do Alicornth come fwom?” She asked. Smoky Skies blinked a few times before laughing “you’re a curios one, aren’t you? Hmm. Well, I suppose I can tell you this story in replace of a fairytale... A few quadrillion millennium ago, there was no Equus, just an empty void in the vast expanses of space; “and in that vastness, a spark of consciousness stirred. It had no real knowledge of what it was suddenly doing here... existing all of a sudden, so it did what any self aware thing would do, it explored. “And as it explored, it came across this void amongst the universe, this... empty pocket of space. “And it felt sad. “It didn’t know why it felt sad, it just knew that it felt like there was something missing. “So it fixed it; floating into the centre of the nothing and compressing itself into a sphere of scorching hot and bubbling magma-like magic and dragging passing meteoroids into it until it had developed a thoroughly condensed shell of rock, steam already rising to condense around the magical shield the being had put up around the lump of dirt surrounding it. But something was still missing. “Life, The being didn’t know what this word meant, it had merely created it. And so it spread a small piece of magic thinly over the surface of its self made tomb in hopes to encourage this ‘life’ to appear. “And appear it did. Creatures and plants springing up everywhere, oceans and rivers forming, this ‘life’ it had thought of now becoming real.” Smoky Skies smiled warmly at his now very attentive children “and then other consciousness woke up and found themselves drawn to the first beings creation, growing so interested in it that they allowed themselves to take on forms closer to the sizes and shapes of an especially interesting group of animals known as ponies. “They could not fully contain their power, of course, so they always ended up in forms that were slightly taller than the aforementioned creatures, with traits of all three races as a type of side affect. “They expected to be shunned, as we all know how much earth ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns hate each other, but instead they were hailed as gods for being able to move Celestial bodies and preform unbelievable feats. “They eventually just adopted the positions of rulers over the different ponies in different places as part of being Alicorns, as they had been so lovingly named, and lived on. “And when they wish to have children, they merely have to coalesce as much of their magic as they can into a single point, allow it to form its own consciousness and then build its Alicorn form from there.” He finished, leaving the fillies in awe. “Tho... we’we gods?” Fluttershy piped up. “Yes, dear, we’re gods.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: It was dusk, the sunlight flooding into the throne room and bathing it in a fiery orange glow when the door creaked open and a little purple filly trotted nervously in. “What is it, my daughter?” Emerald enquired. “I just wanted to kno... can Awicowns die?” Twilight replied, acting skittish but being genuinely curious on the inside. Glimmers laughter filled the room, not dissimilar to the sound of the tolling of a deep, beautiful bell. “Not in the traditional sense, my dear” she assured the filly. “Bud what dose dat mean?” The little Alicorn persisted. She raised an elegant green hoof “it means, child, that we cannot be... killed. We can be sealed in an object with a strong enough spell, and we can be forced to dispel into our original state of giant floating masses of consciousness and driven back into space; but we cannot have that consciousness that is us destroyed completely. “And even then, usually only a fellow Alicorn can do these deeds, unless there is a truly massive horde of unicorns that wish to destroy us lurking around” she finished, giggling lightly. Twilight nodded slowly, backing out of the room to head to bed. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Sweet Shell! Pearl Flower! Oh, it’s so good to see you again after so many centuries!” Emerald gasped in delight “and is this the little princess of the hour I’ve been hearing so much about?” The evening shadow grey Alicorn with an etherial undulating sky blue mane and tail laughed as she embraced her “we’re happy to see you doing well, too, Emerald.” The other foreign Alicorn; with a red coat and firey golden mane and tail; smiled as he nudged his daughter forward towards the older Alicorn “say hello to the nice queen, dear.” The black coated teen with green eyes and fiery orange hair that was yet to grow ethereal shuffled a bit before stepping forward and smiling “hello, I’m Fire Steam.” “Oh, hello darling! Aren’t you just the most elegant thing?” Glimmer chuckled wryly “far more so than most of my daughters...” before pointing towards an arching doorway “but I’ve got some important business to attend to, would you mind staying with the princesses for a while?” The 16 year old nodded “sure, I’ll stay with them.” :::::::::::::::::::::::: In a sandy courtyard with a pond shaded by palm trees, the six daughters of Emerald and Smoky lounged around. A ball of sand dropped onto Twilights head and Rainbow Dash; now at the age of 20, laughed from above “HA! Catch me if you can, Twi!” Twilight; now 21 years of age and finally as big as she was in her original time along with her sisters, even if she knew that they were going to keep growing; released a put upon sigh before spreading her now truly massive albatross like wings and flapping heavily to rise into the air “you know that as soon as I start to glide I’m going to catch you, right?” “Please, it doesn’t matter that you can go 600 miles per hour and I can only go 60, what matters is your SKILLS whilst traveling those speeds that will determine if you catch me or not!” Rainbow shouted before buzzing off. How they could still reach the speeds that the birds their wings represented could go even with their much bigger sizes, only the Pegasi part of Alicorn magic could explain; though it was to be noted that whilst that is the fastest said birds could go, it was the normal speed of the two ponies; as, being Alicorns, their fastest speed was undeterminable due to the fact they were now literally living gods and could basically go as fast as they pleased. Just as Twilight was sinking into a glide to catch Rainbow with her other four sisters watching, someone cleared their throat. “Wha-?” She started, turning her head and then promptly crashing into a palm tree and landing in the pond beside it. As she rose from the deep and shot out of the water, sodden feathers spraying water everywhere until she allowed herself to release a pulse of magic to dry off from deep within her core, she frowned in displeasure at the intruder “you could clearly see I was about to make a critical wing adjustment, so why did you interrupt?” “I’m sorry, Princess, I actually hadn’t noticed you up there, I was directing it towards princesses Rarity” a teenaged Alicorn replied, having the decency to look apologetic at least. “Ooo~ where do you come from?” Pinkie Pie asked, fluttering down from where she had previously been pretending to be a bird on the rooftops to stand in front of the smaller mare. “The north” she replied as she rested a hoof painted in gold against her breast “I’m Fire Steam, by the way.” “And we are happy to see you, darling, but that does not change the question; what are you doing here?” Rarity interrupted before anything could get out of hoof. “My parents are in a diplomatic meeting with yours” Fire replied, jumping up to stand posed on a bolder in a corner of the garden shaded by a wall “now, what do young Alicorns who haven’t received their cutie marks yet do around here?” Rarity frowned as she was reminded of that dreadful fact, to think that it took longer for an Alicorn to receive her cutie mark! It did not help her patience when she also knew that you were raised to king or queen hood after doing so because it showed you were ready for it, she was beginning to pine for those three cut gems missing on her flank “Oh, I wouldn’t know dear, I’m usually far too busy discussing fashion with the nobles to need many distractions.” “But you’re not with any nobles right now, so what do you do in this time?” Fire pressed on, lowering herself to rest on her stomach atop the rock. “Right now I am spending some quality time with my sisters before we’re all pulled away to continue our princess duties and learn how to be queens, but if you really wish for more excitement, why don’t you take a flight with Pinkie Pie over there?” Rarity gritted out before ever so eloquently sticking up her snout and flying over the pond to sunbathe next to fluttershy. “What? Someone wants to fly with me? Yay~!” the aforementioned pink god laughed before scooping the teen up and flying away.
I think you can all guess what’s going to happen next“I’m so glad you could make it, Fire” Twilight beamed before her eyebrows shot up “and it looks like whilst we’ve been slaving away to get this party started, someone forgot to invite us to their crowning ceremony!” Fire Steam smiled apologetically, her once silky mane and tail of normal hair now swaying in a nonexistent wind as they both gave the appearance of strong blazing fires cracking around her “Sorry, it was a ‘Mum and dads kingdom only’ sort of ceremony.” “Can I at least see the cutie mark that gave you this inferno of a hairdo?” Twilight continued with a smile as to lighten the mood. “Sure” Fire Steam said, turning sideways to show off a picture of a green heart surrounded by orange fire rising out of a pile of ash. “Wow, I wonder what it means! Looks sort of like your gonna rise from the ashes like a Phoenix” Pinkie exclaimed as she popped up beside the two “so when are you going to leave your parents place and find your own kingdom to rule?” There was a brief flash of intrigue and curiosity in Fires eyes when Pinkie Pie said what she thought it looked like, but it was gone when she had asked the second question “hmm, I don’t know, pretty soon I would say; well, that is if I manage to gather a big enough herd to follow me, of course.” Pinkie nodded in understanding “yeah. Whelp! Good luck!” She grinned and bounced away, snatching a glass of punch up in her strawberry red magic as she passed the dining table. Twilight rolled her eyes “she can fly, yet she still bounces.” “Hey, cool cutie mark, Steam! How’d you get it?” Rainbow called as she flew overhead with at least a dozen champagne glasses of cider floating behind her in the lime green glow of her own magic; man had it been difficult for her to get said magic under control when they’d been learning, but now she took full advantage of it. “Oh! Yeah, I got it after I discovered a new form of transmutation! Don’t exactly know why it gave me a cutie mark that looks like this instead of something that more resembles the new magic, but hey, a cutie mark’s a cutie mark” the new queen chattered enthusiastically. Twilight was now very interested, new form of transformation? Of course, it would definitely not be a ‘new’ form to her considering she was from the future, but there was still the chance that this could have been one that was lost to time and never made it to the future at all! “Oh? Can you show me?” Fire grinned before raising a hoof “now, of course, I haven’t gotten it down to a fine art yet, but look at this!” Her horn lit up and then, with a flash, her hoof and mane had changed colours, her hoof now looked like it had been dipped in purple paint and her mane more resembled Twilights own at that moment. Twilight felt a twinge of uneasy familiarity with the type of transformation that was, but couldn’t quite place where she might’ve seen it before “amazing! That must take a lot of concentration!” “Oh, it does, but with enough practice, anyone could do it” Fire waved off the compliment. “Well then, Miss modesty, we’ll discuss this later, right now, on with the party!” Twilight cheered. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight really was getting a bit of a bad feeling about the type of transmutation Fire Steam was talking about as they sat in a private study over a book of object manipulation. It was starting to sound far too similar with something else the princess had dealt with in the past, but she held back her speculations and merely discussed for now. “So you’ve found a way to basically shift your whole mass into the shape of something else? Amazing! Well, when you’ve completed it, anyway” Twilight chuckled. “Yes, it’s just so fascinating! And, oh, I haven’t even thought about the possibility of turning into something that isn’t a pony. Imagine being able to turn into a dragon!” The Queen breathed in excitement. “Now that would be impressive!” Twilight nodded before pausing. There was just something off about Fire Steams expression as she looked down at her cutie mark in contemplation “‘rise from the ashes like a Phoenix’ eh? I wonder what it could mean...” Twilight heard her mutter. Twilight pursed her lips in worry for a second before smiling brightly when the black Alicorn looked back up “well, shall we get back to our chat?” ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: “Just a little more, Applejack, you can do it!” The pink Alicorn cheered, jumping around her second oldest sister as her horn flared a soft baby blue and she lifted the cup into the air. Applejack merely grunted and continued to strain as the cup began stretching in odd ways, when suddenly, with a pop, it was turned into an orange “Oh for the love of-! An ORANGE?! What’s wrong wit’ APPLES ya good fer nothin’ horn!?” “Can you stop complaining and just see if it worked?” Rainbow shouted from the top of a particularly tall palm tree. “Ah’ll rhat, fan!” The orange princess snapped, glancing down at her rear “nope, not a lick ‘o difference, ah don’t think mah cutie marks gunna appear like this, Dash.” “Then how do YOU think it’ll appear?” The multicoloured mare responded. “Ah don’ know, probably bah doin’ somn’ honest and leadership like?” Applejack suggested. “So what are you still doing here? Go make someone tell the truth about something or something!” Dash exclaimed. The orange Alicorn sighed before trotting off to do just that. :::::::::::::::::::::::: “Hey new queen, whatcha doing here? Ah thought you’d gone back wit yer parents?” Applejack called, trotting up to Fire Steam as she spotted her in one of the many hallways. The fiery maned queen froze for a second before looking back at the princess with a smile that set off a dozen dishonesty bells in her head. Applejack smiled back, she found that when someone was lying to her was the only time she was able to lie right back successfully, and continued “ah could’a sworn you’re not meant to be here.” “Aha! Yes, well, I merely returned to talk with Twilight some more, I completely forgot to mention a certain detail about my new discovery” Steam replied. Applejack allowed the queen to see her smile strain as she narrowed her eyes slightly “I don’t rightly appreciate it when someone lies to me, yer majesty.” “Ahaha ahahahaha” the queen laughed nervously as she turned around and continued walking to wherever she was going, the orange mare not following her as she went. “There’s something mighty suspicious goin’ on with that one.” The princess muttered as she watched the queen pick up and study a vase with her acid green magic before failing to casually walk around a corner and out of sight. Author's Note Oh, I think you ALL know where this is going. Please inform me of any terrible grammar.
Cutie marksFluttershy sat on one of the many spires of her parents castle engaging in a simply delightful conversation with a sparrow. “Oh, and did your friend see the flowers again?” She gasped in anticipation, it may just be a casual conversation, but sometimes simple things were the best things. The bird chirped an affirmation ‘yep! Even managed to carry one home for the missus this time, said she looked the happiest he’d seen her since their first egg hatched.’ “How wonderful! I hope they stay that happy, please send them my regards If that’s ok with you?” The princess asked. ‘Certainly! I’ll just be off then, a pleasant time talking to you like always, dear fluttershy!’ The sparrow chirped happily before flitting off. She smiled, it was so nice to have a regular conversation for once, without anyone pestering her to continue royal studies or sign paperwork... The yellow Alicorn was content. Until she heard a scream. Her head shot up, ears pricked forward and stiff as she listened for further disturbances. They started twitching as another equine squeal sounded down in the streets of the kingdom. “What in Equestria could be happening down there?” She murmured before shaking her head defiantly “no, no, the guards will handle it.” Another voice joined the first with a loud snort, presumably just spotting something new and more troublesome approaching; or, at least, that’s what Fluttershy decided to presume after hearing the original screamer change tactics and release the bellowing roar of warning only an equine could ever hope to release. Fluttershys tail was clamped down between her legs, but she still found herself subconsciously leaping down towards the source of distress. She gasped when she got close enough to see what was happening, snapping open her wings to descend into a hover over the heads of the four adults and two fillies. A sooty blond stallion with a dusky purple mane with some mean pink eyes was snarling at a slightly shorter male of dusty red with a salt and pepper mane and green eyes standing over the two fillies. The other two were a pair of fighting mares, reared up on hind legs and biting at each other near instinctively; both seemingly half blind with some kind of rage. One mare, with a washed out pink coat and white mane, managed to snag a chunk of the others red mane only to let go after receiving a caramel brown hoof to the jaw. The two fillies, one mint green with a pink mane and the other orange with a purple mane, huddled closer together as the blonde stallion reared at their protector. Fluttershy saw red. Her horn fizzled with silver light and a flash blinded all present for a few seconds. Next thing anyone knew, she was standing in front of the protector of the fillies and the attacking stallion was frozen with an expression of tranquility on his muzzle before he slowly started dispersing into a cloud of yellow and purple butterflies. And the two mares on the side were reduced to just one as pink and white butterflies also dispersed from the scene. “T... thank you, your highness...” the stallion behind her uttered. The Alicorn smiled serenely and waved it off “it was no trouble at all, sir, but I really should be off now. Good day!” ... ... Oh, what had she just done?! She thought as she basically crash landed back onto the rooftops. It was nice that she’d saved those fillies, but why had she done it? Why couldn’t she have let the guards get there first? Oh, who was she kidding? she just hadn’t been able to stand by! “Oooo, the NERVE of those ponies... wait, what did I DO to those ponies?!,” she gasped “I hope I didn’t kill them! No, no fluttershy, they looked pretty happy when they started turning into butterflies, it was probably something harmless... maybe?” She felt a tingling against her flanks and looked back. An ascending swirl of soft, pastel coloured butterflies looked to be her cutie mark this time around. There was the sound of a gentle breeze and faint wind chimes behind her and she turned her head the other way, only to get a snout full of ethereal undulating pink hair with the vague shadows of butterflies fluttering through it. It appeared that she had just received her cutie mark and magic mane. And with that, she promptly fainted. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Rarity was pretty happy with her life as a princess; the fashion, though very old, worked surprisingly well with her new appearance. And she could hardly wait until she was as tall as her parents, everything looked better on tall figures, more space to add more decoration and not as squashed together. And by Celestia if being an Alicorn didn’t grow her gem finding abilities to astonishing heights! She could practically see every single precious stone in the entire kingdom with how strongly they resonated with her magic. She sighed, brushing her hair thoughtfully as she stared out into the sandy bush covered landscape around the kingdom. She wondered how long it would take for Equestria to come into existence, she missed the place, and Sweetie Belle... Oh, she felt bad for saying it, but she hoped this back in time business had erased any trace of their future, she couldn’t bear the thought that Sweetie Belle was currently all alone and wondering where she’d gone back in the present, so to speak. One ear pointed forward and the other backwards as she slumped to the floor, wings fanning out on either side of her, resting across plush pillows as she relaxed. How was she going to get her cutie mark? A thought she’d been dwelling on since she became aware of Fire Steams crowning, she couldn’t let a sixteen year old beat her like that! And also a thought that had been bugging her ever since Fluttershy rose to queen hood, too. She could raid the royal dressmakers closet? No, no that wouldn’t work. She could make some dresses? No, too plain... Oh... OH! She could go out and retrieve the rarest gem she could find! “Right, off we go then!” She announced before flying right out the window, feathers shimmering in the sunlight. :::::::::::::::::::: The cool afternoon air slipped past Rainbow Dash like liquid silk as she gently glided far above the palace rooftops. The setting sun casting the ground beneath her in glowing shades of burnt orange, amber and gold. The sky above her ranging from gold to purple to navy blue speckled with stars. She smiled, flying always gave her a sense of freedom, as if she didn’t have any problems in the world. Which was an especially nice feeling when you’d just pulled off a stunt like that and earned your cutie mark; thus making you a queen. Of course, she’d had a suspicion that if she pulled it off, she’d get a cutie mark, but she’d wanted to preform one too much to resist. She frowned in equal parts disappointment and satisfaction at the rippling circles of a sonic rainboom that now rested on her flanks, brushing a strand of her ethereal rainbow mane that was now literally made out of a rainbow, water particles and all. An air current caught under her wings and she adjusted herself accordingly, now facing towards the mountains that belonged to Fire Steam and now where her new kingdom resided. She couldn’t place it, but there was something... off about that kingdom of the new queens; It exuded a slowly growing sense of wrongness with each passing day. But, Fire seemed like an ok mare, so she didn’t give it much thought, especially when she spotted Rarity winging her way back to the castle carrying a giant red diamond in her front legs and wearing the biggest smile she’d ever seen her wear. Ignoring her flashback to when she was about to catch that criminal with a red diamond, she made a smooth dive down to fly alongside her sister. She noticed the mane and tail first, as both were billowing out and ethereal with shards of diamond and the shadow of needles threading through the air visible in its wavy depths. And then the cutie mark, which was the depiction of a very intricately carved red diamond. “Hey, Rares, looks like your a queen now!” Dash observed. The white queen then decided to hug her. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Applejack and Pinkie Pie were making pies, simple as that. Pinkie was working with the doe and AJ was preparing the sweet apple filling. “I’ve figured out my destiny, it’s to be an apple farmer and be as honest as possible” Applejack droned. ... Nothing happened. She sighed heavily “welp, so much fer that plan, got any ideas, Pinkie?” “Nope!” The orange pony frowned in disappointment “how are we gunna get our marks? Ah’ve already lost mah bet with RD, but this is gettin’ ridiculous.” “Oh, c’mon silly, you don’t HAVE to do something extravagant to get your cutie mark, ya just gotta realise what your destiny is and sometimes preform said destiny,” Pinkie reasoned “soooo, we just gotta think in queeny terms! What was your destiny before hand and how can you apply said past destiny to the role of a queen?” Applejack stared at Pinkie “that was the most understandable thing ah’ve ever heard ya say, sugar cube.” She put a hoof to her snout “hm, how would I incorporate the cutie mark of an honest apple farmer into the role of a queen? Add an orchard to the palace grounds?” She shook her head “no, no... wait a diddly darn second! Honesty! How does that sound, Pinkie? Queen of honesty!” “It looks like it works!” The pink mare replied with a giggle and pointed down. AJs flanks now possessed the images of three golden apples, her hair becoming ethereal and if she listened closely, she could hear it whispering small truths. “Hey, what do you think mine will be?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “Pinkie, you’ve already got yours, remember? It appeared last week when you threw that orphan a ‘congrats on getting adopted’ party?” The other mare rolled her eyes in amusement. Pinkie Pie giggled as her ethereal mane tickled her neck, tiny balloons ascending from its depths and popping once they breached the surface; looking down at her mark, a ballon twisted into the shape of an ancient pony rune that stood for celebration. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight frowned as she looked up at the vast night sky, following the patterns in the stars as she thought about everything. Magic was a complex power, it disobeyed every fibre of reason and rhyme, but also WERE said reasons and rhymes at the same time. It thrummed through the very pillars of existence and nonexistence. She sighed; dark magic wasn’t so much a thing that existed... but more of a thing that didn’t want to be done. It was like trying to use a cloud walking spell to stand on lava, it wasn’t designed to do that, but you force it into the position anyway. You could’ve invented a spell to achieve what you wished for, but instead you tried to use an already made spell instead. That’s where dark magic came from, because if you used it the wrong way, it would fulfil your desire in a terrible way. As an Alicorn, she didn’t really get tired or need to drink or eat and such, but she found it comforting; she yawned and stretched out her wings before pushing off from the balcony and gliding smoothly through the cold air. Batting her ethereal mane filled with galaxies, nebulas and stars out of her eyes as she passed over the kingdom, cutie mark of a shimmering golden version of her original hexagram like star and sparkling silver smaller stars and backdrop. She decided she might actually be ready to take a throne this time. Author's Note Sorry, this one does read a little rushed, doesn’t it. I have also started incorporating some actual equine communication into their behaviour, like pricking their ears, using roars when angry and such. Please inform me of anything terribly horrifyingly wrong.
The word Angst used the wrong wayFluttershy smiled serenely at the young filly with a mint green coat, gold eyes and a pink mane and tail “arise, little ones, and tell me your wish.” The other filly, orange with purple hair and blue eyes was the first to obey “we... merely wished to thank you, your majesty.” “Oh, it was nothing, really” the mare giggled, trying to convey the motherly aura that situations such as these required. She could’ve sworn she saw a small cloud of green powder rise from one of the twos hooves as they merrily trotted out of the room. “Must just have been some dust.” :::::::::::::::: Twilight was striding through the palace at a steady gait, book suspended in front of her expertly positioned to keep the floor in clear view-when she heard a muffled sound. She halted, last hoof step echoing down the hall ominously as she pricked her ears up searchingly, raising her head to scan the nearest doorways for activity. The faint sound of something heavy getting slowly dragged across a polished wooden surface fluttered past her ears from four doors down. Twilight frowned and spread her wings, feeling slightly disappointed that she hadn’t gotten owl like wings instead; as they would have been far easier to eavesdrop with. She resolved to just put some silencing spells on her feathers as she half glided half floated over to the door and flapped in place. With an ear pressed to the door, she heard the thing being dragged suddenly get cut off with the sound of rustling paper and- the sound of a book hitting the ground ricocheted through her skull. A high pitched curse reached her soon after, and she could just hear someone whisper “you idiot, what if someone catches us, we have to get this to the queen!” Twilights ears pricked forward, which queen? “Yeah, yeah, ‘we need the book to reverse this accident and ensure it doesn’t happen again’ as she puts it,” another high pitched voice grumbled “I just don’t understand why she didn’t take this book as well, or was she really so arrogant to think that there wouldn’t be consequences for messing with transformation?” Twilights ears shot up, taught as bow strings, and she released an alarmed snort, which was unfortunately heard by the two thieves. “Shade of the mountains! Sound the alarm, execute command T4k30v3r” one of the voices cried, and the other released a barely audible combination of magic and sound that vibrated the very walls around Sparkle. The purple unicorn kicked open the door with a snarl, coming face to face with two fillies who both looked to be half disintegrating at this point, revealing hole ridden charcoal black chitin. “Changelings!” She spat. :::::::::::::::: Love. Nectar of the soul. And she was the bee that collected that nectar to make honey. Honey to feed to her subjects. Her poor, helpless, innocent, USELESS subjects. Her useless, victimised, loveless, soulless subjects. Her poor subjects who couldn’t feel anything anymore, who she made feel nothing anymore. If they had felt anything more they would’ve devoured each other, so she took that option away. A sharp ping of magic shot passed her and she snarled from where she stood pretending to be a maid; soon dropping the disguise and sinking her fangs into the nearest ponies throat, fiery mane singeing the stallions snout. The battle was far earlier than she would have liked, but there was no time to dawdle, only an Alicorn could ‘kill’ an Alicorn after all. :::::::::::::::: Chaos. Utter chaos and death had broken out in the kingdom. Streets getting swarmed by millions of black beetle like ponies hissing and screeching. Rainbow Dash had cornered a few of them in an ally way when another group dropped in, pinning her to the ground and breaking her wings with sickening cracks. The mares scream could be heard far and wide, before she began squirming furiously underneath the heap of scuttling bodies. Glowing soulless blue eyes streaked around her from every direction and she began to hear them snapping off barely audible words at her in between biting at her and re-breaking her wings every time they began healing. “Useless””pathetic””tiresome””a bother!””pitiful””sad””coward””un-loyal!” She released a snort and wiggled again before the bugs began shifting into a multitude of copies of herself; all smirking quite viciously. “You’re USELESS””so LAZY””What? Lonely little brat gonna cry?””such an egocentric wimp!””doesn’t deserve fans””mocks her friends””nothing but a BULLY””WEAKLING””DEAF””IDIOT DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE ABLE TO PREFORM A RAINBOOM!” The multitude of voices that sounded just like her... the pain over her whole body... She gritted her teeth and continued to struggle. :::::::::::::::: Applejack and Rarity cantered through the castle at full tilt, firing spells at every enemy they could find as they made their way to the throne room. “Why did this have to happen just as I was planning to leave for a new land?” Rarity bemoaned between attacks. AJ didn’t have time to answer as she tackled yet another bug pony and shook one loose from a wing. She heard a scream, causing her to stop short and look around. Spotting fluttershy being dog piled down a side hall, she flew towards her “hang on, Sugarcube!” “Appleja-!” Rarity cried in confusion before getting tackled by a particularly big swarm; and since none of the new queens were very good at combat, she gave out fairly easily. Said orange pony had reached the mass of buzzing critters and was about to stamp down on them when the fluttershy she’d seen burst out of it and smiled wickedly at her; inevitably turning back into a changeling and dragging her into the throng. :::::::::::::::: Pinkie and her parents, who had just been having an innocent lunch together, where now under attack from millions of changelings. She didn’t know how they’d gotten there, she didn’t know why they were there, she didn’t even know how they’d infiltrated so well. But she did know one thing. She wasn’t going to let them ruin her day! Her mane and tail flared up in response to her anger, ears pressed back in fury; she pounced. :::::::::::::::: As was fitting, a storm had rolled in and now hung heavily over the kingdom, burning buildings adding a terrible smog on top of all this mess. Screams and wails rung out through the murky shadows that had engulfed the streets below Twilight as she glided far above, fur standing on end due to the close proximity to the storm clouds. The winds were rough, causing her to sway and wobble through her flight path; the occasional beat of her wings only throwing her off even more. “Girls? Girls?! Applejack! Rarity! Pinkie Pie! Fluttershy?... Rainbow Dash?!” She desperately called down to the throngs of chaos. She never got a response. A ringing cackle of laughter, like glass being dragged across concrete, pierced her ears and she spun around- “F-... Fire Steam?...,” Twilight started in defeat “heh... hehehahaha... I should’ve known it was you.” The black Alicorn with holes riddling her legs and wings that glittered translucent in the fire light of her still burning hair, smirked. “Like a Phoenix born from the ashes, I have risen stronger than I ever was before! I shall rule the ponies and we shall become the most feared species in the world! Yes, the changelings shall conquer all!” She ranted, sick grin full of fangs and saliva flashing in the darkness. “No! You’re sick! You’re so very sick! This isn’t the way!” Twilight wailed. “There is no other way! I have already rid the world of your parents, and I intend to do the same to you and your sisters!,” her crooked horn glowed a sickening acid green “and NO ONE will get in my way!” :::::::::::::::: Fluttershy was surrounded by the fake versions her sisters, and they were teasing her. “Aww, little chicken gonna cry? Run along to your parents now, oh wait, the queen already KILLED THEM! I guess you gotta die too if you wanna see them again, then! HAHAHAHAHA!” A Pinkie Pie sneered. “Hey, guess what?” Another started, before turning into one of the two fillies Fluttershy had saved “we were LYING!” A Twilight clone stomped down on one of Fluttershys wings with a crack “cry chicken! Cry like the little hatchling you are!” The yellow Alicorn was now very much blind with terror. :::::::::::::::: “That’s ENOUGH!” Twilight bellowed, and then-with a crack of purple magic-silence reigned. And the sky broke, rain pelting down like tiny rocks. :::::::::::::::: Rainbow Dash wheezed, puffing air out her nostrils like a steam engine as her eyes darted around in a frenzy, ears stiff and twitching with a clamped-down tail. She staggered back, snorting as a purple figure-Twilight-landed in front of her and carefully manoeuvred around the dead insects to carefully approach her. Twilight winced and held out a tentative hoof; to which the blue Alicorn squealed at, tail switching hard and fast and ears beginning to fold back. “Dash, please snap out of it, this is me, I’m Twilight. The others have already fled and you’re the only one I’ve found. Oh please calm down?” The purple mare inched forward. Rainbow stomped her front hooves down and flared her wings, roaring like only an equine could as she reared back up. Ears pressed back completely flat and tail flicking angrily, Dash stomped at the other mare. Pain roiled through Twilights skull, and she fell under her sisters hooves; muzzle being slammed into the blood soaked earth as the blue Alicorn used her as a launch pad to shoot into the sky... and then keep going up. Author's Note Inform me of all terrible errors, please. Sorry, very rushed.
AftermathThe patter of rain against already damp dirt echoed through the desolate valley, storm clouds as pitch as night covering up any sign of the setting sun besides a few piercing rays that shone like lava between the descending water droplets. A stunning blue feather fell from the sky, slowly fluttering down to rest at the mud-spattered hooves of a slouching figure; who barely even shuffled her wings at first when she caught sight of it. Slowly, muscles and bone creaking, she extended a hoof and scooped the feather up, raising it to her mud-covered snout and viewing it closely with blurry eyes. A silvery streak escaped down her cheek, leaving a clean line of purple fur in its wake. She lowered her head, mane lacking its ethereal state and now saturated with enough water to make it feel heavy, sticking to her forehead messily. A few magenta sparks sputtered from the tip of her horn as she attempted to locate her sisters, but they didn’t want to be found, blocking her out and continuing their separate journeys to who knows where. The young Alicorn sank onto her barrel and rested her head on the mud; after all, there wasn’t much else to do, was there? Everything may as well have stopped existing for her, her friends-sisters-might as well have been her whole world, as she couldn’t see anything left for her without them. No... They HAD been her whole world, she corrected herself in utter hopelessness. And now they were gone. And she really didn’t think they’d be coming back. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: A blur of orange, a gust of wind. Her feathers rustled as they passed so swiftly through the air, the mare they were attached to not caring if they stayed or fell out due to the pressure. All she currently cared about was getting away. Her eyes streamed with baby blue light, sometimes even crackling out of control and sending little arks of blue lightning into the surrounding clouds. Getting away from that terrible turn of events. Getting away from the rest of her sisters. Getting away from all that remained of those lying pieces of scum. She knew that they would reform in the future, she’d been there when it happened, but those creatures were the descendants, not the actual beings that created the species. They could be forgiven, but the catalysts could not-could NEVER be forgiven. She snarled through gritted teeth, horn flickering as she deflected her older sisters searching probe, stab of guilt almost enough to turn her around and go back, but her refusal was so strong she almost fell out of the air, her wing muscles so stiff in their gliding position they barely avoided snapping their own bones. She wouldn’t go back, not yet, perhaps not ever. She needed time, she needed space, she needed somewhere quiet. With nothing better to think of, she continued to fly, wingbeats causing great gales to form below her. :::::::::::::::::::::::: Darkness, stars, space. And a lot of blue. Her wings refolded themselves onto her back when she noticed the blue, as they were the ones causing it and she currently couldn’t stand to look at anything blue. The planet below her was blue, it had so much blue on it. She turned away from it, horn flickering as she shoved her eldest sisters tracking magic away from her, appreciating that it wasn’t blue but still not wanting to be found by her at the moment, if ever. She just wanted to float around here in space, it was nice and not blue up here, well despite the planet bellow her, but she wasn’t going to look at that thing. She was just going to be up here. She winged over to the moon and inspected it for a time, before deciding it reminded her too much of blue and went to take a nap on the sun instead. She looked out at space and saw some of the blue stars, she growled and turned onto her stomach as she refused to start shivering. This was the sun, she shouldn’t be shivering. Why did it have to be blue? Why couldn’t it have been grey or something? She shook herself, fluttering her wings to disperse her jitters, but she had caught sight of the blue feathers again, she couldn’t stand it. Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, her teeth bared in a furious and silent growl, her ears flattened and her horn started buzzing with her green magic. She screamed and shot a beam at the nearest blue star, snuffing it out within seconds before moving on to the second, and then third-and fourth-and fifth- :::::::::::::::::::: The white Alicorn shot so fast through the air the wind whistled between her primary feathers. She didn’t know where she was going, she just knew that she was going somewhere and that it was thankfully in the opposite direction of where she had come from. She didn’t even feel the pelting rain smacking into her like tiny boulders as she whizzed through the overcast sky, didn’t even feel her ethereal mane growing heavy as it collected water in its mist like grip. All she was thinking was that she needed to LEAVE, and leave FAST. She skittered through the air as she felt her oldest sister reach for her with a searching strand of magic, violently severing it with a bolt of her own as she continued to fly in a blind frenzy of terror. A wing dipped too far and she was sent careening into the side of a hill, the slick clay on said hill she’d struck staining her legs near black and sending her down a natural slide to the bottom where she flapped sodden wings and scrambled shaking legs in an attempt to keep getting away, forgetting to magically dry herself in her frenzy enough that she was now very much grounded under a ton of rain soaked fur and feathers. She got a glance of her now stained legs and froze. As dark as they had been, as dark as their forms, the colour of those disgusting hides of theirs! Due to sheer horror, she regurgitated what little food remained in her stomach before collapsing. She needed to get away. She scrambled to her feet and immediately set off at a gallop, using sheer Alicorn willpower to destroy any obstacles in her way as she resumed her retreat. ::::::::::::::::::::::::: Her mane and tail were strait as steel, all ethereal aspects gone from it as she ran at full tilt, occasionally flying over obstacles too big to jump. Eyes glowing strawberry red, she bucked her biggest sisters’ magical tracker doohickie away from herself, snarling wordlessly as she crushed any rocks she came across to dust. She needed to run away. She just couldn’t be around them right now. Not right now. Hopefully not forever, but definitely not right now. She ran on. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: She had to RUN. She had to ESCAPE. She had to GeT oUT Of HERE! She couldn’t look back. She mustn’t look back. She destroyed all traces of the eldest’s tracking magic and ran on. She spread her yellow wings and took off into the sky. Diving into a giant forest. Staying there. She would NEVER go back. NEVER.
