“Even after waking there are just a few split seconds when memory can be confused for a dream. You really do worry about that time you walked naked into class or still fear the monster chasing you around in some ridiculous haunted house. Once the sun shines on your face, however, it’s all gone. Reality sets in and you can take that long happy sigh knowing it was all just some strange story your sleeping brain wrote for you.
So, why am I not awake yet?”
She stood with hands buried in her pockets, the tips of her smooth index finger drawing a tight circle along the inner lining of her jacket. She felt the cold past her boots and into her hooves. Padding and rubber all molded to a horse’s hoof wrapped around a thick shin. Legs covered in a thin insulating layer of spandex with a sleeve to run her tail through. Satyr-like hips shifting to an upright torso coated with a dense but short layer of lavender fur, all kept covered up in winter gear.
It all felt so real.
She pulled her right hand out of her pocket and looked at it. Thicker fingers than a human but still agile. The tips of her fingers felt heat, cold, and pressure, but they were hard and smooth like hooves. Each was carefully manicured to look as finger-shaped as they could, curved underside and flat on top. Each shiny and smooth like river stones.
Her own foggy reflection shifted under a layer of ice covering a tall monolith of silver etched with names of past Guardians. She ran her hand over the surface and left a streak clear enough to see somebody else looking back. Her face was soft and round like a pony’s but the nuzzle slightly shorter, the ears slightly lower set. Her neck was shorter, ideal for a human’s posture. She moved her head and so did the other. She blinked and so did she.
The grainy crackle of a mirror crumpled into a ball like a piece of paper.
“SciTwi, it’s getting worse on my end. How is it over there?”
“Not any better, MagLight”
“Why are you calling me that?”
“Okay, stupid nickname. How about me#2?”
“MagLight it is. We’re almost out of answers here. Maybe we should-”
The world grew very bright, then dark. Then here.
She shook off the memory-dream-whatever it was as fear crept in. This place was beautiful but it couldn’t be real. The snowflake that landed on her nose was cold, the fading stars in the dawn sky as clear as anything true. She looked around to see tall pointed roofs built to look as if they grew out of the tree’s hugging their walls. Stain glass windows and high balconies, pastel wood she somehow knew wasn’t painted to be the that color.
This was her school.
She as nervous, horrified. She was barely seventeen and dressed up like some school teacher. No. She -was- the school teacher. In just a few moments that bell would ring and a group of hick ponies would be spilling into her classroom and snicker at the fact their instructor was the same age. Why in the world did Celestia trust her to teach the fundamentals of magic to a bunch of ponies that had no use for it?
One hid in the far corner, one had her hooves on the desk, one was covered in sweat, one seemed to have far too much energy, and the last obsessed with makeup.
The wind blew through her wings yet her back wasn’t cold.
“Oh… that’s right.”
“Ponies 101. Each of the three kinds of ponies are gifted with their own phantom limb.”
“I can tell you one limb I would-”
“Rainbow Dash! One more ‘limb’ joke out of you and I’ll send you straight to Celestia herself! Now, as I was saying. Unicorns have this starburst on their forehead to indicate a high concentration of magic. When focus is applied an energy construct shaped like a horn will form. This allows us to forge our will into spell all carefully written to keep our focus. Pegasi have markings on their shoulder blades that manifest wings and allow control over buoyancy of gases. This is what allows Fluttershy to walk on clouds and fly despite not being built like a bird.”
“So that’s why I don’t look like my Ducky Carl?”
“Y...yes. That’s why you don’t have a breast twice as big as your hips and your bones don’t need to be hollow in order to maintain flight. No jokes, Rainbow.
Last but not least are the Earth ponies. You have diamond markings on your calves and forearms because that’s where your magic is focused. Your unique connection to the earth gives you powers that few even realize are powers. Pinkie, your ‘Pinkie-sense’ is probably a wide awareness of your surroundings, and Applejack, your talent with growing is probably a lot more than mere intuition.”
She closed her eyes and focused all her energy into her back. Lavender light bled from past the thick fabric of her jacket like ghosts emerging from a wall. Two bright sails quickly shaped themselves into wings, rose up high, and shot downward. The wind kicked up snow and send it swirling in her own personal flurry as she rocketed upwards. She closed her eyes and simply felt the freezing wind through fur and hair. She opened them when the school was just a few amber dots in a whirling white landscape.
In the distance she could see that ragged emerald sea of trees called the Everfree. Just beyond the forest was a lonely mountain dotted with faded amber and white lights. From here it simply looked like a model of a castle, but miles away was her mentor.
“Please! I can Help you!”
The same day she lectured the new students was the thousandth anniversary of Princess Luna’s banishment. After class she attended the celebration only to see her mentor kidnapped by some crazed figure with a fetish for black smoke. She chased the kidnapper all the way into the Everfree Forest, nearly dying several times. Every time something terrible was about to happen one of her students would pop up and save the day. Then she faced Princess Luna herself.
The former Princess was tainted by her own magic. It seemed hopeless until something amazing happened. Those hicks from school stood by her even though everything seemed hopeless. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack. They helped summon a power that most forms of despair couldn’t resist. The Elements of Harmony.
“What the-”
Twilight gasped and fell back through the sky, folding her wings to drop and just barely miss an orange blur. Laughter filled the sky as someone else shot up higher and barrel-rolled back down towards her.
“Names Sunset.” she said taking a bite out of an apple before tossing the mostly-wasted fruit onto the ground. Her dress was ratty and her hair hadn’t been cleaned in what looked like years. Her wild eyes danced with red glow like the amulet around her neck.
Twilight took a step back to keep her distance and the other five did the same. The red haired mare was radiating greed and lust yet something made a pause in her motions. A hat store lay in ashes behind her and yet Sunset Shimmer could easily do so much more.
“Why are you-”
“I want your hat.” she said flatly as she walked towards Twilight, her eyes focused on the Element of Friendship mounted in Twilight’s tiara.
“No, -you- don’t”
The laugh was sour but Sunset paused thanks to that reaction. “Oh? Are you a Princess already?” she said mocking Twilight. “If so, then bring out your wings and lets have a decent fight.”
Sunset’s grin showed every tooth in her mouth as black light sprouted from her back and shaped themselves into bats’ wings. She took to the sky and swiped her arm. An invisible hand slapped Twilight’s face. She only dodged as Sunset sent fireballs and swipes her way.
“Now, Applejack!”, Twilight ran towards the buff farmer and lept feet first at her. Without needing any other indication Applejack caught her feet and tossed her up into the air. On orders the other five sent their powers coursing through Twilight as her hand wrapped around the amulet. The Alicorn Amulets’ chain shattered and a very bewildered orange pony was all that remained.
“Earth to Twilight”, Sunset clacked her fingers to get the daydreaming lavender one to wake up.
Sunset looked into her eyes and felt something odd. She was remembering a life that didn’t belong to her and yet this was something deeper. Her eyes moved up to a crown set on that wavy hair of hers. She was greeted with a look of sympathy and love as Sunset reached to run her finger tips against Twilight’s cheek.
It was just supposed to be a gift from Celestia. Twilight now owned the journal of the one and only StarSwirl the Bearded. Like every book she owned she read this from cover to cover, yet one particular entry stole almost all her time. Eight hundred years ago Twilight’s idol worked on ways to revive the Elements of harmony. Now that the elements had returned it wasn’t an especially useful spell, but Twilight was determined to finish the life’s work of a great stallion.
The spell backfired and twisted the fates of her friends. Their destiny, their lives, and their elements were warped into something terribly wrong. Her new student, Sunset Shimmer, offered her help but Twilight shut her out. She was determined to fix this on her own.
A thousand years ago jealousy turned Luna into Nightmare Moon. That night hopelessness and a desire for more understanding turned Twilight into Midnight Sparkle. One failed spell after another led to dark magic leaking into her casting. That built up and eventually took root inside a panicked unicorn.
Her corrupted form attempted to corrupt the other five in hopes it would ‘fix’ them. Without any other options it was up to Sunset to save Twilight from herself. Twilight could still see through her eyes but her body had a will of its own. She watched as Sunset put on the Alicorn Amulet. She girl cried out but grit her teeth as the dark magic of the Amulet infested her again.
“Twilight! You’re stronger than me! Snap out of it!”
Sunset shot off the ground with bat’s wings and grasped Midnight’s shoulders. A light was trying to break out of that swirling red and black that made up Sunset’s wings.
“You saved me. Let me save you.”
Twilight watched as the Alicorn amulet began to warp into the symbol of a sun, into Sunset’s mark. She felt the power surge in her legs, her back, her forehead.
First it was dark, then very bright.
“Come on, let me show you something.”
Sunset’s voice broke through the haze and Twilight was flying in the sky once again. Hand in hand they returned to that silver monolith. Sunset’s hand stroked the surface and it rippled like water. Twilight would see the inside the her castle… Princess Twilight’s castle.
“And if you come over here..”, Sunset pulled Twilight behind the monolith to see more writing and another flat surface. Sunset stroked it and an image of the highschool her human counterpart attended.
“But it cracked! I heard it. I tried to run but I was pulled into it.. We.. Maglight.. Sci…”
Sunset put a finger to Twilight’s lips. It made her cheeks blush.
“Schrodinger's cat.”, and in a nerdy bit of clarity it all made sense.