Twilight had finally finished reading all 8000 books her library was stocked with when it grew itself up. There were a few rooms, however, that had yet to be mapped, but Twilight had figured she could get to it eventually, and so went back to reading before heading to canterlot to host the first-ever Friendship Festival.
The mirror in one of the thus unmapped rooms had quietly activated. Its surfaced rippled slightly now and then as it waited for someone to pass through it so it could do its duty. It’s duty of sending someone into the far past to bring Celestia and Luna so that the present would stay on course.
Twilight sighed as she put down a book on portal theories again, after having read it 30 times already, before heading towards the kitchen to get something to eat. Spike may be a fantastic cook, but with him currently hanging out with his new friend Ember, Twilight had to make her owns meals.
The mirror rippled yet again as it sensed a pony moving by the room where it was in. It let out a faint haunting melody designed to lure a pony to it and get strong enough to cause them to enter the mirror. So the tune flits through the air till it reached Twilight on her way to the kitchen.
“Huh?” Twilight said as one of her ears twitched. She thought she heard a faint sound, and so started actively listening in case it was just her imagination. Sure enough, on the very edge of her hearing, there was a soft chime-like sound coming from one of the rooms up ahead.
The chiming sound kept on growing a bit lower the closer she approached the room. It sounded like one of sadness. Like there was something inevitable that would happen that couldn’t be stopped. One of deep sorrow. And along with the chiming sound, another sound entered her hearing; a small foal was crying softly. Twilight upon hearing the little whimpers, almost tore the door off its magical repairing hinges, only to find nothing there. Looking around the room, Twilight took note that there was no indication anypony had been in the place. No dust had been disturbed, no furniture moved for a pony to hide behind, nor any whimpering or chiming sounds. It seemed like whatever had been in this room was gone.
The whimpering could be heard again, but it seemed to be coming from an old mirror that was leaning up against a wall in the room. And still, it was one of abandonment but also of hunger and pain. The sorrow could be heard in the whimpers. Walking over to the mirror, Twilight noted that it looked like it had been moved recently, most likely by the foal that had to be hiding behind it. However, Twilight had to scratch her head in confusion, as when she looked behind the mirror, again nopony was in the room, yet she could still hear the cries and whimpers of the foal.
The mirror in front of her rippled slightly to draw her attention, and then the reflection of the mirror changed to show the foal that was whimpering. She was small and bundled up with her forelegs feebly reaching out towards nothing and slowly moving. It was cold and snowy wherever the foal was at, and it looked like she was slowly freezing to death.
Twilight brought a hoof to her mouth to stifle a gasp when she saw the foal looked to have been quote-unquote, thrown away as it was trying to get warmth next to a trash can. Though as she watched, she could see some creature near the end of the ‘ally’ the foal was in. It looked like a cross between a snake and a badger, and as deadly. Without thinking, Twilight leapt forward, forgetting about the mirror in her haste, unaware that she would have no way back until the two celestial sisters were found, nor that she passed through the mirror without realizing it.
The creature hissed as it moved closer towards where Twilight and the foal was. It seemed to be very hungry as it neared and got closer to a strike. Once it got close enough, the snake badger struck forwards with its fangs and a great claw meant to slice Twilight to ribbons so it could get at the foal. The foal’s wails grew louder as it heard the scary creature come close and lash out for a strike. Its fangs tried to bite deep into Twilight’s shoulder while the paw attempted to burrow into her side.
Its strike was halted, however, when Twilight lit her horn and formed a shield around herself and the foal. Before it could regain its bearings, it found itself lifted up in Twilight’s magic and, after uttering a small apology to Fluttershy, flung as hard and fast away from the area skywards in an arc.
It landed far away in a forest that looked pretty much like the everfree forest. Now Twilight was left alone with the foal that was still crying and wailing. Its little forelegs were weakly moving as it cried. It was still somewhat bundled up in the ratty old blanket around it. From the looks of it, Twilight could make out, ‘she,’ Twilight found out after seeing the blanket fall off as she picked the foal up, was about four or five months old. Old enough to not need to be breastfed, which Twilight was grateful for.
The foal looked up at her with teary eyes as it finally stopped moving its forelegs and just looked up at her. It let out weak cries, and one of the calls Twilight could make out was Momma. The poor foal started to close its eyes. Twilight ended up picking the filly up and bringing her close to her chest to warm her up and thus how Twilight ended up meeting a little foal she named Sunset. Time passed as Twilight and Sunset moved from one town to the next, living off scraps, and small moments of generosity that came her way. She knew where she was though, as what appeared to be a newspaper showed the date, 1/13/201 B.N.M.
five years later
Sunset rushed through the door to her home and closed it behind her gasping for breath. She called out with a terrified voice, “Mommy!” She hoped to hear her mother reply as she leaned against the counter scared. It took a moment to calm her breath, but as she did, she heard a pounding on the door. Backing up, Sunset, wished she could make a shield like her mom to keep the mean ponies away.
Sunset cried out again in fear, “Mommy. The bad ponies are trying to get me again.” She moved back away from the door towards her mother’s study as she shivered in fear. She tried to get her horn to work yet again. The pounding was increasing in noise. The door shuddered as it started to crack. Sunset screamed for her mother yet again in fear, “Mommy!”
It wasn’t until Sunset heard a slam that her magic reacted and sent a beam of energy towards the door. The good news was that the pony who caused the slam was Twilight, the bad news was that Sunset’s spell was on a direct collision course with her. The beam struck Twilight right in the face, sending her sprawling. Again the good news was the spell wasn’t overpowering, the bad news was that now Twilight was sporting a new Fu Manchu mustache. And the worse news was that the spell made Twilight drop the hot soup on herself.
Sunset whimpered as she backed up away from Twilight afraid she’d made her mother very angry. She shivered and rubbed a foreleg with her other one in nervousness after she realized what she’d done. She whimpered, “I’m sorry, mommy. I didn’t mean to do that to you. I was being chased by some of those strange ponies again.”
Twilight sighed as she used her magic, painful as it was, to remove all the hot soup from herself and levitate it to the sink. ‘Good thing I made plenty’ she thought before turning to sunset. “It’s alright Sunset; I’m not mad.” Twilight said as she pulled Sunset into a hug, “Sometimes I wish my friends were here, they’d make all the bad ponies go away.” she said as she stroked her daughter’s mane. She could remember how just three years ago, she met the ancestors of all her friends, only to be horrified by how they were. They acted like her friends did when discords influence had corrupted them. Applejack was a Lier; Rarity was greedy, Rainbow was disloyal, Fluttershy was cruel, and Pinky the tormentor. Granted that wasn’t what their names were, but the near-perfect mirror image of her friends made her think that. She was glad that she didn’t have the unfortunateness of running into who the town called ‘Cupcake Pinkie’ or rather Pinkamena.
Meanwhile outside of their home said Pinkamena had just finished wrangling the pony that had been chasing Sunset into an alley. She threw the pony easily further into the alley as she growled, “and just what do you think you’re doing going after that little filly?”
“PInkamena.” the pony growled, glad that he already knew his number wasn’t up, thanks to it being only a day after her last lottery. “Why are you protecting that filly? We already know that she’s on your menu-to-be board, so why?” he said as he started to move past her to head home.
Pinkamena growled and bared his way with a hoof before throwing him back again, “Because she’s mine to kill not yours. I’ve already warned you about this twice before. This was your third strike. And do you remember what I told you would happen if you got three strikes?”
The stallion looked puzzled as he tried to remember what she had told him. When it clicked in his head, it was already too late, as Pinkamena had already jammed her knife deep in his chest. “I said that if you keep trying to take what is mine, I’ll make you a fresh batch of cupcakes.” She said as she yanked the knife out of the now dead ponies chest, before giving it a little lick, “Mmm, licorice flavor.”
Pinkamena frowned in thought for a moment before nodding to herself. She’d go ahead with baking him into cupcakes and then delivering it to the dead stallion’s wife. She grinned evilly at the thought of it all. She set about doing her physics-defying powers to get herself to her secret basement with the dead body in tow.
Sunset meanwhile was still crying into her mother’s chest softly, “I want it all to go away, mommy. There are too many scary ponies out there. Please don’t make me go outside to play again.”
Twilight meanwhile had already been hard at work trying to find any clues to where Celestia and Luna could be. But at the same time hoping an answer would come to her, otherwise, Sunset might lose another mother. “I won’t Sunny. I won’t.”
Author's Note
if you wish for me to continue this story, pm me.
I wrote this with some help from Greymon. If you see any issues or want to have some input on what I should change pm me, please.
