Chapters 1. Aw, ####, here we go again
Alex was not okay with this. Not okay at all!
“What is going on?!” she shouted, standing in the middle of the decaying throne room. “What. The. Hell!”
Well, it was kind of a baffling situation. One moment she was minding her own business, and the other she appeared in the old castle in the middle of the woods with no living being in sight.
Obviously, her first decision was to pinch herself. Surprisingly, she felt pain. However, it was not a proof of a dream not being involved; she had felt pain in dreams before. Frankly, it was a misconception that you can’t feel pain in a dream.
While trying to come up with another way to test reality on fakeness, Alex noticed that something felt kind of different. Well, many things felt different, really, but this one was very obvious one.
She had wings on her back. White, angel-like wings.
“Well, that, is sure to be a dream.” She decided. “After all, being knocked out and dumped in the old castle is still possible, but wings? Nuh.”
Sadly or not, that was not the only change that occurred to her. Glancing back over her shoulder made her aware of the strange weight on top of her head.
“Uhhh...”
Lifting hands to her forehead she discovered long and pointy bony stick jutting from her forehead just above the eyes, at an angle that was almost out of her range of vision.
“Horn?...” Confused, she felt the thing around, following spiral ridges to the tip.
“Agh !”
Said horn turned out to be surprisingly sharp, and Alex put her hurt finger in her mouth, while squatting down in deep thought.
“Why do I have horn? Why do I have wings? Am I an angel now? Am I a demon? Am I some kind of chimera or failed government experiment that was abducted and kept on memory erasing drugs until I escaped?”
“Yep, I’m totally dreaming.”
There was no way that she was going to believe that something like this could happen, right? After all, it’s not like it was possible to be teleported god knows where and instantaneously be transformed into some weird kind of half-human half-whatever-this-is creature, right?
“Well, at least wings look nice.” Concluded Alex, standing up and heading to the exit of the room.
“Since I have wings, it would be a crime not to use them!” And since jumping out of the window before learning how to fly was kind of a retarded idea, she tried to find an exit out of this place.
Navigating the castle proved to be a bit more of a challenge that Alex expected. Old stony fart was full of collapsed rooms, still working traps right out of the adventure stories and was generally build like some kind of a maze.
“Well, sure. As far as I remember from history lessons, castles were actually build in such a way to confuse attackers. Without memorizing the layout, navigating one was a big challenge. There was also something about staircases turning anti-clockwise because that made fighting with the right hand difficult for invaders...”
Distracted in her thoughts, Alex didn’t notice a hole in the floor and went tumbling right in.
Fall was short, however, and in a few moments she successfully landed face first into the stone floor.
“Auuugh !”
Tears veiled over her eyes, but stubbornness quickly took over. Hugging her poor nose and giving ground a hard kick (and immediately nursing newly hurt leg), she eventually calmed down and looked around her.
It was dark.
Like, very, very dark.
Hole in the ceiling was already in the pretty shady corridor, otherwise she wouldn’t have fallen in so easily, and down here it was even worse.
“Ehhh... Anybody? Does anyone has a lighter?” She nervously whispered the old joke, wishing she had the ability to see in the dark.
Suddenly, it became much brighter.
Alex’s first reaction was generating short, but stone-grinding squeak, after which she tried to pretend being part of the room furniture.
It wasn’t very successful.
Thankfully, nothing appeared in front of her, and she managed to unlock her stiff joints enough to try and pinpoint the source of light.
Climbing out of the cocoon made out of her own wings, she discovered it pretty quickly.
“Is it... Me?”
After figuring out that light seemed to move together with her head, considering she could never actually look at it, she understood that the source of light appeared to be her own horn.
“Wow... It’s that... Magic?”
As much as she felt like looking at it with glittering eyes and enchanted expression that they always presented in cartoons, she found it difficult looking that far up without appearing like a victim of possession. Besides, magic wasn’t that big of a deal in a dream.
Although, to be honest it wasn’t often that she had chance to control it while being lucid.
Sadly, concentrating on magic seemed to unveil the thing, as she suddenly became plunged into the darkness again.
“Eeep !”
Okay, Alex was fairly proud that second time wasn’t nearly as loud and glass-cracking as previous.
Which made her pause for a second.
“Since when do I have such a squeaky voice? Eh, I mean high vocal range. Yep, nothing squeaky about my voice. That actually sounds kind of weird now that I think about it.”
“Well, who cares, it’s not like that has any meaning anyway, right ?”
Deciding to completely disregard any dangerous thoughts, Alex concentrated on making light appear again. Sitting down on a dusty remains of an ancient carpet, she collected her will and started furiously thinking about the light on the tip of her new appendage. Was it appendage? It wasn’t something she could move, after all... Or was that about limb?...
Despite distracting thoughts, she managed to concentrate and finally achieve nothing.
Yep.
Nothing at all.
“Well, would you look at that?! Rebellious type, aren’t we? Or maybe you one of those that never work when one tries, but turn miraculously strong when one is not paying attention? Hmpf. I will control you, you just wait!”
Alex thought for a moment, that it might work if she tried to behave a bit childish with her magic, but even that did not help her much.
With a sigh, she closed and opened her eyes once again.
Light was on.
“Oh, you little...! ”
Fifteen minutes later she managed to defeat her unruly magic, somewhat, and locate the door. Which wasn’t locked, surprisingly, against all laws of horror games.
Well, she wasn’t actually in a horror game, but she was kind of a fan of playing them sometimes, and it wasn’t really rare to have a dream about one either. And this creepy dilapidated castle was pretty much best location for one, too.
Forest as well, so to think.
Thinking about going through the forest after leaving the castle and the fact she couldn’t see anything from the window before, aside from the trees, trees and some more trees, almost made her wish to stay in the castle, but she was sure that whatever might appear in it wouldn’t be something that she couldn’t handle.
It was not because she was some sort of a martial artist or from her confidence in her newfound magic (which she totally could use instantly, and not only on light spell, yes), but simply from the fact that she never had nightmares.
Like, ever.
It wasn’t like she couldn’t get spooked or hurt in a dream. It was more like her dreams were incapable of spawning anything threatening, really. If there was something she could be afraid, that belonged to a real world.
But it wasn’t a real world, right?
Nevertheless, looking at the orange and quickly darkening sky, Alex decided that walking through the forest could wait until morning.
The only question was, in this place full of cold stone and dusty decaying canvases, where exactly she was going to sleep?
Thankfully, she wasn’t feeling any chill, and she thanked dream for that conventionality.
One of the rooms she stumbled upon appeared to be a recently cleaned study.
That was kind of cause for concerns, but it had clean and soft sofas, so it didn’t matter much in Alex’s mind. She preferred to think that her dream finally decided to play along, so she entered and choose one of the sofas. She laid down, closed her eyes, and prepared to meet the morning...
... Well, time skip didn’t happen.
Opening her eyes, Alex was annoyed to find that dream didn’t want to change to the morning even if she was ready for it.
Laying down (she spent quite some time to figure out how to do that, having additional pair of limbs jutting out of her back), she noticed a book on the reading table.
Just short of reach.
Too lazy to get up, Alex tried to pick it up with magic powers. Said magic powers successfully lifted the book up, and lifted it so successfully, that it appeared to be stuck in the ceiling.
Now, now. I know that book can’t normally be harder than stone.
That book , was.
It was a gilded book with a woman’s face on it, fairly simplistic and symbolic one. Name on the cover said: “The history of Humestria.”
Alex snorted at her dreams half-assed attempt to create a name. She was sure she was better than it at naming when she was ten.
That said, it was her dream, made by her brain, so...-
She fell from the couch. Because reading title of the book that was stuck in the ceiling, while balancing on somewhat small couch, required some truly serpentine poses, and she wasn’t a snake. As far as she knew, anyway. After all, she already got horn and wings, what else could there be?
“Hopefully nothing.” decided Alex, and pulled the book back down.
Due to her paying more attention to it this time, she managed not to kill herself by bringing the book closer, and started reading.
“Blah-blah, eternal winter, blah-blah, wendigoes, blah-blah... Wait, what? I thought wendigoes were monsters that appear when miners ate other humans from hunger and stuff... Since when did they turned into frost ghosts?”
Book looked very regal, but actually was pretty child friendly. It had quite a few simple but elegant pictures and looked generally pretty new.
“Two sisters petrified chaos god with magical artefacts and taken over the whole land, huh? Sounds like typical hero story of you ask me. Except for two siblings. There is even written that they started to control sun and moon after that. Man, those mythology books are getting to me.”
“Older sister was loved by everyone and young one became envious, so she turned into the monster version of herself and tried to bring eternal night? Kind of retarded, but I guess still better than having Loki turning into a giant horse and having a wolf son, or Zeus turning his wife into a fly and eating her... Ugh, I really should stop reading those old books.”
Alex wiped her face, trying to get rid of the images stuck in her head.
“Yeah, anyway. She got blasted by the same artifacts that they found all the way to the moon. Truly, wonders of planning. I also wonder why she didn’t bring herself back, considering that she was supposed to be able to control the thing she sits on... Oh, nevermind, it says that she will return after one thousand years. How classical.”
Alex started to feel a little sleepy by now, so she placed a book on the table, and closed her eyes to take a little nap. She was finally starting to fall asleep, and was pretty sure that she was about to wake up in her bed, sad for missing out on flying, but ready for her favorite yogurt on breakfast that she bought yesterday evening just for that... Oh, that yummy-yummy yogurt!
Boom!
She one again fell from the couch, as something exploded deeper in the castle, followed by maniacal laugh.
Author's Note
Oh, hi there. Sorry for my awkward English. Have you ever read fics about being transported to Equestria in a body of a villain? Concept is cool, you should agree.
Anyway, i decided that i have to show you what my human in the villain would do.
2. Awkward first impression, as always.
You might have thought that first thing Alex would do after waking up in a creepy abandoned castle due to explosions and crazy laughing would be going out and checking it all out, right? That what they always do, after all.
Protagonists of horror stories, I mean.
Well, thankfully, she was smarter than that, she...
.... Oh, who am I kidding , she totally stood up and left the room after waiting for mere two minutes.
As much as staying in the study seemed like a safe choice, ultimately, there wasn’t even a lock on a door, and the only source of light was herself.
Granted, she really didn’t need it right now, now that her eyes adapted to the darkness after a period of laying in the it and trying to fall asleep, but it still felt nicer to have one in such situation.
The fact that crazy laughing seemed to be getting closer wasn’t helping.
Alex quietly opened the door and peeked into the shadowy corridor. Nothing seemed to be in the direct vicinity, but after waiting for a few seconds she opened the door fully, stepped one step outside, froze, and returned back into the room. Picking up a heavy tome from the shelf with the boring title “Obligatory math textbook for middle schoolers by Dr. A. L. Zebra ” she took a deep breath and left the room again with fortified confidence.
Although heavy textbook might have been not the most efficient weapon, that was all she could find, unless she planned on throwing quills at people like some sort of magician or ninja.
Meanwhile, laughter in the background changed into an angry rant, responded by another, younger voice.
Alex was not sure what they were talking about, but having someone in the opposite camp from the “cheerful” villain presented a good opportunity to find an exit from her current predicament.
Having any people around at all was already useful in her situation, but Alex preferred to ask questions from someone she was sure was not going to murder her without any particular reason. She was still confident to try - after all, her dreams never put her into a truly dangerous situation before, but expecting everything to magically resolve itself was not very immersive nor exciting experience.
Either way, as she got closer, she noticed few additional voices joining into the conversation, although echo was making it pretty hard to understand what exactly they were talking about.
Surprisingly, the action seemed to take place all the way back in the throne room that she appeared earlier in, and she stopped right near the entrance, intending to spy on the people inside first, before taking any actions. After all, what idiot would just barge in-
“Who dares to spy on us?!”
"Well, there goes my plan." Thought Alex while blue magic aura covered her completely and dragged her into the room right in front of the shouting villain.
Alex did not have any time to think of a smartass line, as she was hanged in the air before the black-skinned woman with an incredibly wavy hair and intensely stared at.
I don’t mean black-skinned as you would talk about human; I mean literally, as if she was dunked into a pool of paint, except color did not seemed to be artificial in any way. Skin aside, her hair was wavy in the unconventional way as well: it was straight, yet it also was constantly moving in the air, as if she was a heroine of the love story when male lead sees her first time. Yeah, I’m talking about wind in the hair, except slowly, as though underwater. On top of that, her hair seemed to have glitter in it, as it looked like a sky filled with twinkling little stars.
Oh, also she had fangs and draconic demon eyes. You know, usual stuff. Villain must have. Moving on...
As much as Alex was shocked to be suddenly kidnapped from her little hiding spot, the villainess seemed to be shocked more. She looked at Alex stupefied.
As much as she wanted to ask her what was so shocking about her humble persona, Alex wasn’t going to watch gifted horse in the mouth. Without thinking twice, she lifted heavy book in her hands and smashed the villainess over the head.
*Thump *
Thankfully, latter did not expect such a cunning move from the person in front of her, and immediately ragdolled her way to the ground.
Taking a sigh of relief, Alex calmed herself after taking a look on a fainted woman, and turned to the people behind her, who seemed to be in trouble before her timely “help”.
“Now, now, no need to thank me, I know that it was an incredible performance, but I just need to ask you... Some ... Questions ...”
Alex nearly dislocated her jaw at the sight of six teenage girls flying in the air and shining light from their eyes like a dozen spotlights. Purple-haired girl was talking something about elements of harmony and stuff, but Alex did not pay this any attention.
Now, flying wasn't the thing that got her so shocked. They were charging some sort of super attack! In her direction!
“Ahh, girls? Can you stop? Please?” She called out. "The fight is over! I won! Hey!”
Sadly, they did not seem to be able to hear or see anything right now. Which was understandable, considering that their eyes turned literally white, and they generated a powerful hum like an industrial fridge array.
Alex immediately darted out of the way only to smack her face into the invisible barrier. The darn spell had restricted her in place!
As much as she wanted to be able to smack the girls over the head as well, the barrier prevented that easy solution. She also didn't want to leave any girl with a concussion. (And not because she couldn't reach them in the air, obviously.)
Attack was incoming, so there wasn’t much choice in the matter. Alex squeezed her teeth, and dived under the laying villainess on the floor.
She was so conveniently lying here, might as well serve some good purpose for once.
Rainbow beam smashed into both woman moments later, mostly blocked by the black woman’s body. Nevertheless, quite a few rays hit Alex as well, and she felt them scolding her skin like a boiling water.
Something deep inside her seemed to respond negatively to the abuse, however, and soon a new source of heat, like a gushing river seemed to explode from her chest and out through the horn.
The fact that villainess’s body was shrinking wasn’t helping.
Time seemed to go on forever, at least for the first five seconds. After that, beam started to run out and, feeling seriously weakened, but still pretty much alive, Alex dared to open her eyes.
Her sight was greeted by a group of girls staring at her in a deep shock. She also spotted another girl lying in front of her, where black-colored woman was before.
Everything else seemed to be fine, until flickering outside of her field of vision attracted her attention.
“Hey! You set my hair on fire!”
With that, classy looking girl with a curly purple hair fainted.
Author's Note
Two chapters in, and we hadn't even got her to speak with someone!
Today was a special day.
Twilight Sparkle looked over the edge of the hot air balloon basket.
She was sent by the princess Celestia, her mentor in life and magic, to do her first serious task. It didn’t mean that she was never tasked with anything serious before - although her definition of serious might have been a little skewed after living in the royal castle for several years.
But in such a place nothing that was truly considered serious could be assigned to an overly eager teenager, despite being princess’s personal student. You wouldn’t want to allow kid deal with foreign ambassadors or distribute country's tax money. Even if you do, that and many other things were simply prohibited for anyone without royal blood or administrative position.
Well, Twilight didn’t mind too much. She was happy to keep learning, even if only theory. It was slightly weird that princess, aside from other things, also seemed to be trying to teach her how to, essentially, rule the country, but maybe she just wanted to preserve her ages-worth of experience. Twilight never said no to a new knowledge anyway.
“Twilight! Are we there yet?”
Young voice interrupted her train of thoughts, and reminded her that her little brother couldn’t actually reach the edges of the basket - so he had to sit, bored, the entire journey.
“Not at all, Spike! I can already see it.” She answered, feeling a bit guilty about his situation. However, royal guard behind her directly warned her in the beginning of the journey to not lift her brother up under no condition. After all, one strong gush of wind was enough to lose balance - and Spike might receive a quick and bone-breaking trip to the ground.
Things might have been different if any of them had wings, but they didn’t, so sticking to the rules was the safest option, and frankly, Twilight’s favorite.
“Twilight.” Spike’s voice did not sound amused at all.
“We could see town from the balcony from the very beginning. Telling me that you can see it now does not help at all.”
He was right, in a way.
Their trip, although considered small journey, was just one train stop away from home, or twenty minutes of straight flight on the balloon.
Which is in no way lowered its importance, of course.
“I mean, we leaving the forest already. I think we will land very soon.”
Twilight prepared mentally to go over all possible things she might need to fulfill her mission.
Checklist... Check.
Pencil... Check.
The copy of world-ending prophesy she found in the old book that mysteriously appeared in her room this morning... Check.
All done.
It might be important to note that the mission she had here had nothing to do with the prophesy, and she has been very disappointed in the princess for ignoring or deflecting any attempts at conversation about it.
That said, this book did appear mysteriously just before she was sent here and although it was placed in a way that might have made other person not notice anything strange about it, Twilight could easily spot it right away. Twilight knew her books. And maybe, just maybe, she might have had OCD. Anyway, this one was placed there intentionally.
Bearing all things in mind, she just might have formed a theory that princess wanted to send her away to safety, while she would herself deal with the problem in secret. Twilight didn’t know why she would give her the book though. That, or she expected her to deal with it somehow. But that wouldn’t make much sense, would it?
Place where they were heading to was called Humanville. It might not sound very original, but it was simple and rolled off the tongue well. Twilight could really see it all the way from her room in the castle, mostly because castle was built on top of the highest mountain in the vicinity. Together with the city. It was quite an impressive architectural wonder.
Basket touched the ground, shaking Twilight out of her thoughts again, and she cleared her head and hopped out. She stretched her stiff legs while casually looking around.
“Earth... I had missed you.” Depressingly mouthed Spike behind her, jokingly patting the ground with clawed hand.
“Right. Mr. Guard, you can return for now. We will stay until the end of the celebration.” Said Twilight to the guard in the basket and received nod in response.
Honestly, it felt like guards had some hidden rule that they were prohibited from talking too much. If Twilight didn’t have her older brother serving with them, she might have actually believed so.
“Anyway, back to the business. Princess expects me to oversee this year’s Summer Sun Celebration in this little town. Doesn’t seem like a very hard task. Let’s check out those who are responsible for preparations.”
She fished out a piece of paper with a series of names written on it.
“First... Pinkie Pie.”
“Yes?”
Twilight jumped back from the sudden sound. While she was looking into the list, girl with a curly hair, dressed in bright the three-colored dress somehow managed to sneak right before her. Twilight could swear she didn’t hear any footsteps.
“Ugh. You scared me.” Complained Twilight, holding onto her racing heart.
“Sorry. I just wanted to surprise you! Anyway, what are you doing?” Answered girl in a cheery tone.
Although Twilight wasn’t agreeing with her methods, she decided to let it go. Girl seemed so happy, scolding her felt like kicking a puppy.
“Um. Well, we were planning on finding certain people.”
“Oh!” Girl seemed to like the idea. “And who are you searching for?”
“First, Pinkie Pie.”
“Yes?”
“No, I mean, we searching... Wait. Why did you say “yes” just now?”
Girl seemed amused by Twilight’s confusion.
“Because I thought you we talking to me, silly!”
“You mean...” Twilight felt a bit like like an idiot. “You are Pinkie Pie?”
“Yep.” Followed cheery response.
Twilight held her head.
“I can’t believe you just showed up when I said your name.”
“Well, many people told that to me.” Pinkie made a confused face. “I have no idea why.”
“Don’t you have stuff to ask her?” Suddenly interrupted Spike. “I know you girls love to talk and stuff, but c’mon. We standing in the middle of the street, under the sun. In the middle of summer.” He pointed at her accusatory.
“If you keen on continuing, I’ll be off for the ice-cream.”
Twilight nervously chuckled. “Excuse my little brother. Even though he has draconic blood, he still hates hot weather.”
“Don’t worry! I don’t like hot weather too! I thought today was going to be cloudy, but it seems like weather workers are slacking off today again.” Pinkie answered with an almost apologetic expression.
Naturally, Twilight had to answer to that. “Why are you acting sorry? It’s not your fault, after all.”
Pinkie shamefully looked away. “Maybe not, but I don’t like how it portraits our town to the newcomer.”
“Wait, how did you know that I was new to town?” Curiously asked Twilight.
Pinkie seemed to lit up with pride.
“Obviously, because I know everyone in here! I know their names, I know where they live, I know when their birthday is, I know what they like, and when they wake up and go to sleep, I know...”
As much as impressive it was, Twilight couldn’t help but find it just a tiny bit creepy. Thankfully, she wasn’t exposed to the wonders of the internet, or otherwise, “creepy” would have instead turned into “Ad provider”.
When Pinkie finally finished showing her incredible intelligence gathering abilities, Twilight decided to applaud and change direction of the dialog into the safer path.
“Yeah, anyway, I was searching for you, to...” She looked at the paper again. “... To check how goes preparation on baking... Stuff.” She finished, looking unimpressed in the description’s detailing.
“Well, yeah. I volunteered to be responsible for the baking most delicious cakes for the celebration Humestria has ever seen! I hope princess tries one. I heard she is a big fan of baked goods!”
'Well, you can see that from her figure, no matter how much she tries to hide it.' Flew though the Twilight’s mind, before she suppressed the disrespectful thought.
“Yeah, well... So how it’s going?”
“Just fine! I got a new bag of flour yesterday, and I’m already nearly out. You just have to try something tomorrow; I really went all out...”
When Twilight was finally done with checking for preparations, exhausted by going all over the town and meeting all sorts of people, she took her ice-cream cone from Spike and pushed open the door to the house that was reserved for her.
She was greeted by an unnatural darkness.
Before she managed to fully process what was going on, lights blinded her and confetti exploded into her face.
Ice-cream ball landed on the floor with the wet *splat *.
“Hey, Twilight! Welcome to Humanville! What do you think about my surprise party?” Shouted Pinkie Pie, standing in the crowd in the party-decorated room.
Holding her heart, Twilight only managed to squeeze a weak smile.
“I think that you should open a haunted house, Pinkie. You’ll do great.”
Author's Note
A little change of Pov, before we talk to characters on the opposite side.
After all, Alt. Reality tag and stuff.
I have literally fallen asleep writing this. Not because i was bored, but because it was friday evening.
Alex curiously poked her flaming hair.
It was... Kinda cool.
At first, she of course, freaked out quite a bit. After all, who wouldn’t? That said, she calmed down pretty quickly. Flame on her hair wasn't actually hot in any way. It looked decorative.
In fact, it would be more correct to say, that her hair wasn’t on fire - it was fire.
Thankfully, that fire was quite opaque, otherwise her bald head would be seen through. The thought scared her, so she decided to try to avoid water until her hair became normal. Who knows, if she will become permanently bald after fire was put out.
There were a lot of things that she expected happening from being hit by rainbow laser beam of doom, but turning her hair into the fire wasn’t one of them.
Although she probably should think about all this later; currently, there were things that required her attention.
“Can you stop staring? It’s rude!” She complained to the five girls that were unblinkingly glaring at her with an expression of loss and extreme confusion.
Sixth one was still relaxing on the floor for whatever reason.
Finally, purple haired one broke the silence.
“Princess, what happened to you?”
“You happened!” Grudgingly answered Alex. “I told you to stop so many times, and you still fired when I was in way!”
Girl appeared befuddled.
“But... You weren’t there when we started! Nevermind, I’m sorry! What are we gonna do now?”
She quickly corrected herself.
“Well, first of all, I want to know what do you mean by prin...”
“I knew you could do that, Twilight. I believed in you.” Interrupted sudden voice from the direction of the window.
Everyone together turned to look at it and noticed a dignified looking woman in a royal dress, with motherly air around her. Alex though, found her a bit familiar.
“I see that you managed to find the elements and free my sister from the night...mare?” Woman stared at Alex with a mix of shock and some other complex emotion. Alex thought that she noticed a trace of fear, for some reason.
Girls turned back to her again with more visible confusion.
“Who... Are you ?”
Girl, who was presumably, named Twilight, looked completely lost.
“Rather, who are you .” Answered Alex, not wanting to explain anything since she was as confused as the others.
That woman looked almost exactly like her!
The only difference was in a small age gap, as Alex wasn’t really that much older than these girls, and lack of flaming hair, apparently. She even had wings and horn as well!
At that moment, a detail jumped to her attention.
Judging by the girls’ group it looked like aside from having both types of these appendages you could actually have one or none at all! At least, in that group there were at least two of the same type. That seemed awfully artificial, as if that “hero” party was carefully selected to appease every side of the population. It might have said something about it all, but Alex was too lazy to analyze anything right now.
“Princess, is that your evil long-lost twin?” blurted out pink-haired girl.
“No, I don’t know her! Who are you? Why are you pretending to be me?” Demanded “princess”.
Alex didn't like her tone.
“Hey! Maybe it’s you who pretending to be me! I say, I looked like this my whole life!”
“She appeared after we defeated Nightmare Moon. She said we blasted her accidentally.” Said Twilight to the princess.
“Wait, and who is then on the floor?” Asked orange haired one.
Princess finally noticed the girl lying on the floor unconscious, and brought her towards herself in a hurry with a magic flash. She seemed not willing to approach Alex for some reason.
“It is my sister, princess Luna.” She answered.
“Wait, your sister? What do you mean?” exclaimed Twilight. "Why haven't I found any reference about her existence in the history books?"
Princess caressed the cheek of the unconscious girl with motherly care, her expression pained.
“Long time ago, I ruled together with my sister, instead of alone. But over time, I neglected her. Until... She was tempted by a monster from the Nightmare realm, and turned into a Nightmare Moon.”
“Wait, that just like that book said!” Exclaimed/Thought Twilight/Alex. Later turned toward the former with a surprised expression.
“You might have guessed already. It was me who ordered to leave that book in your room.” Said princess, who was apparently, named Celestia, according to what Alex remembered from the book.
'What is this timing?' She thought. 'I just finished reading the book about those characters, and they appear before me. My dream really doesn’t care that much about continuity.'
“Today is the day right after one thousand years since I accidentally banished my sister to the moon. She returned after her prison unveiled, and you successfully stopped her. I’m so proud of you, my student.” Finished Celestia with a smile.
“But... Who is she , then?” Asked Twilight, pointing at Alex, who sat with crossed legs in the middle of the room, bored.
“I... Do not know...” Answered Celestia, looking at her too.
“I was here from the beginning, okay? Took a nap in one of the rooms, was woken up by all that shouting.” Explained Alex. " Came to look at all this, and instead was attacked by both sides!”
“I find it hardly believable that you would just happen to be in the castle at night of Nightmare Moon’s return and just happened to look like a demonic version of princess Celestia!” Accused blue-haired girl.
Alex was feeling helpless.
“So what if I was? Maybe it was fate. I helped in the fight.”
“How did you helped in the fight?” Questioned princess.
“I can believe that it was fate! After all, wasn't it fate, that we all just happened to meet yesterday and became friends and turned out to be bearers of the elements, right?” Exclaimed pink one.
Alex was inclined to agree, even if she had no idea what she was talking about.
“That doesn’t excuse you from looking demonic!”
Blue shot back.
“Well, I looked perfectly fine before you blasted me with your death beam!”
"It’s a friendship beam!”
“It hurts!”
" It means that you are a bad person!”
“Let’s test it on you!”
“I know I’m good, because I was chosen by the element!”
Watching fiery dialogue unfold between her friend and unknown woman that looked like her teacher, Twilight was lost.
“... What is going on?...”
Girl in Celestia’s hands chose that moment to wake up.
“Luna!” Exclaimed latter.
"Finally! Little sister, I missed you so much! Can you ever forgive me?”
“I dunno. I feel like I have a concussion. And the last thing I remember is you face before receiving a mighty blow across my head with something heavy.” Grumbled Luna.
Celestia looked shocked for a second, before glaring angrily toward Alex.
“Hey, I said I helped in the fight. Without me, your student would have probably lost. I dunno. Maybe. I am the one who knocked out Nightmare Moon so the girls could shoot her. You asked my name, right?”
She looked out of the window.
"Since without me, morning wouldn’t return, I guess you can call me..." 'A MorningBringer?’
‘No, wait. That sounds lame. What synonyms there are for the morning? I know!’
“I guess, you could call me... A Daybreaker!”
She giggled in her mind.
‘Because morning is a daybreak and Daybreaker sounds like a DayBringer, but cooler!’
No one seemed impressed with the joke, although pink one seemed to like it.
However, no one noticed Celestia’s face turning dark for a second.
Author's Note
Now i too can experience what it feels like to get downvotes and not know the reason. Sweet.
Fun fact, i have never downvoted a fic yet. Despite criticizing many.
Say, should i slow down and get longer chapters, or go like this with short ones?
Do i know where this fic is going?
P.S. I was tempted to call her Daybroker.
“I just had a horrible nightmare.” Said girl with a purple hair getting up from the ground.
“I dreamed about seeing something so horrible, so unforgivable and ugly, I simply couldn’t handle it!”
She said to her friends, in a tone, suitable for a drama actor. Then she noticed Alex.
“It wasn’t a dream!” She shouted, and attempted to lose conclusions once more.
This time, however, she was caught by her friends and shaken back to reality.
“You know, that was incredibly rude of you.”
Said Alex, unamused.
“What do you mean, rude?” Girl seemed shocked at her reaction. “Just look at you!”
"..."
“Listen here, I...”
“How can you even dare to showed up on people wearing this horrible mess?!”
“Waaah?” Alex’s brain lagged for a second here.
“Just, look at those colors! This terrible, edgy design, that mess of splats and dusty patches!” Continued girl.
“And worst of all, it full of burnt holes! This thing was horrible as it is, but now it’s unsalvageable damaged! How could you do this to you clothes?!”
Only now Alex noticed, that her jeans and shirt were full of small holes and scorch marks. Thankfully, her body seemed to be fine behind them.
“What are you even talking about?!” Exploded Alex.
“This is normal everyday clothes! So what if they are a bit dirty! It’s a dirty old castle, you know! And those holes, it’s your guys fault all along! You set me on fire with your friendship laser!”
“It doesn’t hurt bad people!” Interrupted blue one again.
“Are you saying my clothes are evil? And how would you even know that? Didn’t your friend say that you just met yesterday, and just learned about all this stuff?” Deflected Alex.
“Her clothes seem fine!” She pointed at Luna in Celestia’s hands.
“Actually, that is very interesting question. Why did princess Luna got cleaned from dark magic and ended up completely fine, but you were turned, as you insist, to look evil and even had your clothes burnt?” Said Twilight.
“What, simple “laser burns things” is not enough to answer that? Although I don’t know why exactly my hair turned into fire, but it’s magic, after all.” Grumbled Alex in return.
“It’s not just your hair that we talking about. Your eyes look draconic like Nightmare Moon’s were. " Said orange girl.
“My eyes? Then why don’t I see any difference?”
“Although my eyes looked draconic as well, they did not work much different, aside from giving me a night vision.” Finally said Luna, seemingly, getting over her grudge about the way she was defeated.
“And I can, I fact, vouch for her looking normal before she knocked me out.” She glared at Alex again. “I really thought that I saw my sister in front of me, except she was a bit younger somehow and looked kinda dumb.”
“Hey!” Alex indignantly shouted.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t even be so shocked if I hadn’t locked her up myself just a few hours ago. Uhhh... I mean Nightmare Moon, not me. I just saw it all from first perspective, so I remembered as such.” She hastily added.
“And why would she look like me then?” Questioned Celestia with a steely expression.
“What? Seriously? Can’t it be a coincidence or something? I mean, I always looked like that, I swear."
"Everyone has doppelgangers, after all. It’s that so hard to believe that I look like you?” Said Alex helplessly.
“Of course, not.” Agreed Twilight. “But...”
She looked skeptically at Alex and lifted her eyebrow.
“Do you really think that is possible to have another Original to look like her?”
‘Original?’ Alex was befuddled. ‘What the heck is that?’
“...Yes?” She answered unsurely.
“Theoretically, maybe. But considering that there are only two... Now three originals known in the history, I don’t believe in it one bit.” Concluded Twilight.
‘...Now three? Is she... Implying...’
“Wait a second. By original, you mean, this?” She pointed at her wings and horn.
Everyone looked at her like at an idiot.
“Hey! ...We don’t call them like that where I’m from. We say... Arbiter!” Tried to lie her way through Alex.
“Arbiter?... Huh. That... Kinda makes sense.” Said Celestia. “But are you implying that there is another country of humans that we don’t know about, with more... Arbiters in it?”
“... Yes?” ‘Please don’t ask, please don’t ask, please don’t ask...’ silently hoped Alex in her head.
“And where is it then? How did you get here? Is it over the great sea? Or behind the badlands?” Kept questioning princess.
" How would I know? I got here by accident” Alex decided to play idiot.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed, but she did not comment.
“What do you mean?” Asked Twilight instead. “How can you not know?”
“Uhh... Well, I think I was teleported or something...”
Surprisingly, this sentence wasn’t a lie. Not because of being true or false, but simply because by saying “I think” she was not telling what actually happened, but what she thought about it... Granted, she also was pretty much sure it was all a dream, but “or something” was also a good way to hide other explanations. After all, theoretically, it could be either one. Theoretically.
“Hey, I have a theory!” Suddenly barged into uncomfortable interrogation pink girl.
“What are you talking about, Pinkie?” Asked her irritably Twilight, who thought she had entire new civilization dangling just out of her reach.
“I mean, why Daybreaker turned demonic while Luna got better!” Excitedly said Pinkie.
“Huh? Let’s listen.” Urged her Alex, and others agreed.
“Well, where did you think all the evil magic went when we used the elements on Nightmare Moon?” Continued Pinkie.
“You don’t mean...”
“What if it went to the only other person in close proximity - DayBee, and now she looks like Nightmare Moon, except with a different color scheme!”
“First of all, DayBee? Why did you shorten up my name?
And second, I don’t have any of your evil magic. Look.” Alex lifted the book she was carrying with a golden aura.
“See? What so evil about it? Looks normal to me.” Although she didn’t know If it might help, she hoped that they had some means to check her aura or something.
Her hopes were dashed.
" I don’t see how levitating an object might help us see anything.” Deadpanned Twilight. " But nevermind that, it’s pretty good theory, Pinkie. I’m surprised.”
“That said, it might mean that you are innocent, but we will need to clear this magic out of you too then.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Questioned Alex, afraid of the answer she predicted.
“Let’s shoot her again!” Shouted blue haired girl, whom Alex was starting to hate a bit.
“No friggin way! This thing hurts!”
“That just confirms her theory even more.” Answered Luna. “That must be a dark magic in you reacting. Don’t worry, I went through that as well.” She chucked darkly.
“Easy for you to say! You were unconscious the entire time!” Outraged Alex.
“Either you are allowing us to cleanse you, or we will force you. Interrupted Celestia darkly.
“If you want to shoot me, then shoot them first!” Exclaimed Alex, pointing at Celestia and blue girl.
“If you right, nothing should happen. I’m not risking my life because a bunch of strangers told me so!”
“I’m Rainbow Dash, she is Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Twilight you already know.” Quickly said blue girl, pointing on girl behind her, orange, purple and pink girls respectively.
"Now stand still while we charge the elements!”
“That’s it!” Shouted Alex in return. " I’m leaving this idiocy! I helped you, and this is how you repay me?”
She stood up to exit the room, but was blocked by golden-colored force field that appeared in her way.
“Alright then. We are going to fight.” Declared Alex
Author's Note
Sorry, it took a while.
I wanted her to be pissed at natives, but not have directly bad relationship straight away.
Author's Note
I was too engrossed into a new novel i found recently, that i had no time to write anything. Sorry.
I feel that this chapter is weak, but i made a dumb joke at the end, so it's probably fine.
5. Dust, i guess
“Cheaters! Dirty cheaters!”
Grumbled Alex under her breath, laying on the ground. She was completely bound with a ropes, like an insect inside of a cocoon.
Naturally, the reason being, she lost. Not a big surprise. She never really fought before, and although she managed get a cool pose in the beginning, she was dogpiled by a bunch of girls and received a stun beam in the jaw.
Celestia just pointed at her and the thing fired instantly.
Well, thankfully, seeing her fold immediately did help to lower her threat level, so she did not receive any beating on top.
Still. That was unfair. Where was gradual rise in power level? Why enemies did not attack one by one? Games are so untrustworthy...
Being oneshotted by a single spell did make her wonder, when she woke up, that is.
‘Maybe I should have thought a little, before challenging a whole crowd and current country ruler on top in a battle, before learning how to fight or use any serious magic...’
Seriously. As much as logical that outcome was, she expected more from her dream.
Currently, she was trying to test whether her flamey hair could set the ropes on fire.
No such luck. It was as heatless as it felt before. In a process she painfully flopped on the ground with her face, and was forced to wiggle her way back into more comfortable position.
They also put some sort of ring on her horn, that seemed to take away her ability to use magic. Not that it mattered. She could lift a thing. But she severely doubted that she would be able to untie the ropes with it. She would rather tear them apart together with her clothes. Still a pretty good solution, but not available anymore.
She resolved to gnawing on the ropes with her teeth.
“It’s useless. They are enchanted.” She heard someone say nearby, and wriggled her way around in order to find the speaker.
It turned out to be a depressed looking young boy with a skin partially covered in scales. He wore dark-green themed clothes and had a snake-looking irises that she was recently informed to have now as well.
“Where did you came from?” She questioned the boy, in still irritated tone.
“It’s Spike.” Boy was unphased. “I was always there. Just waited outside. Not like I would be any help against evil flying goddess who can control the celestial body.”
“Heh. Celestial.” He chuckled, but continued. “But who are you - that’s the question. You look just like princess Celestia, budget version. Smaller, weaker, also you really suck at fighting.”
“You wound me.” Answered Alex with a straight face. “I think I have a self-esteem fracture and severe confidence loss. Please, someone, call me an ambulance.”
“So what’s your name?” Repeated Spike.
‘Should I continue with this farce?’ Questioned herself Alex. Stupid question. ‘Totally. It’s not like I have anything better to do.’
“It’s Daybreaker.”
“That’s a pretty... Unique name for a human. Usually you guys go with two words.” Commented boy. “So far only princesses had such a short name.”
“Why do some of the girls have short ones, then?” Asked Alex.
“They don’t. Rainbow just omitted their last name, since she is too lazy to speak them fully... Or remember.”
“What are you then, to say that?” Asked Alex.
“You don’t know? That’s weird... Or maybe not.” Spike showed surprise for a moment, then shrugged.
“Anyway, I’m a dragonborn. You know, dragon blood, all that stuff.”
“Actually, I don’t. I kinda expected to see two of your kind here, since everyone today came in pairs.”
“Well... I don’t really have a place in that party of theirs... They all bearers of the elements, and I’m just here because I came with my sister, Twilight.”
“Although you won’t find second like me either way.” He added after a few seconds.
“I’m kinda unique here. Since you don’t know, we dragonborns usually live in Dragon Lands. Well, I don’t really know, because I spent my entire life with my sister, but I pretty sure all other dragonborns are not at very good relationship with humans right now.”
Oh my, things are seemed to get more complicated as the time passed. If last hour had anything to go by, she might as well get into that place too soon. After all, things don’t just pop up without reason. That was what Chekhov said.
“And you are... Kind of my jailer now?” Asked Alex. " Did they left you to look after me, so I won’t escape?”
“Wow, how did you guessed?” Spike’s voice totally wasn’t sarcastic.
“I dunno, maybe the fact that I am bound and you seem totally okay with not helping me out.” Said Alex with the flat expression.
Boy shrugged again.
“Listen, I don’t know exactly what you did, but when I came here, you were already like that. And I trust Twilight, so you must deserve this, right?”
“Wrong.” Interrupted Alex. “They just attacked me because I «look evil» “. She tried to make air quotes, but lack of free limbs made it an insurmountable task. She had to make do with the eyebrows.
Spike scratched his chin in an exaggerated way.
“Isn’t that what all bad guys say?”
“Name the last bad guy who said that.”
“...”
Spike took a while to think.
“Well, in comics, Mad...”
“Real bad guy.” Interrupted Alex again.
“I don’t know, okay! However, it would be safer to wait until girls come back and decide for themselves. I’m not used to making such important decisions by myself.”
“So...” Alex desperately searched for a solution to free herself.
“Where is everyone?”
“Where are we, even?” She asked, looking around finally.
Room she found herself in wasn’t too spacious, but it was filled with old empty boxes and dust. A whole lot of dust.
“I dunno. It seems like a storage room to me. I don’t live in this castle, don’t ask me.” Answered Spike, looking around too.
“Anyway, girls just left to discuss princess Luna’s return... And you. In that order.”
“Are you trying to make jab at me?” Wondered Alex.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to see how would you react.”
“Well, little psychiatrist, why don’t you give me obligatory comfortable chair first, before analyzing me? Because this floor is not warm at all.” complained Alex.
Spike chuckled.
“I can give you a box.”
“Better than nothing.” She agreed.
Spike approached the pile of dusty old boxes and lifted one of them up in order to move it.
Sadly, they were so dusty that box slipped between his hands, while all that he managed to hold was a thick layer of dust.
Dusty box fell on top of other boxes, and they did not seem to be able to take that abuse at all. Maybe it was rot, or maybe dust was once the part of the box itself, but it folded down like a card house. And brought several neighboring boxes with it.
Did I mention how dusty they were?
Huge cloud of dust filled the room, and enveloped both people inside it.
“Ahh... I feel like I’m about to sneeze...” Said Spike.
“Wait, tell me first, do dragonborn breeze fire?!”
“Acho-ooom!!”
Loud explosion shook the old castle again.
"Ouch..."
Said Alex, lifting her face from the floor again.
After explosion broke out, she blacked out for a minute.
"*Cough* Are you alive?" Asked someone in the darkness. Oh, right. There was a boy... Spike or something.
She tried to move and discovered that she was no longer bound by ropes. How convenient.
So far, everything was really action-packed, so it wasn't strange that her dream let her out from this boring position... In such a ridiculous fashion.
She remembered Luna saying that draconic eyes should have given her night vision. So where it was?
The moment thought appeared in her head, it was like a switch flipped on: entire room lit up, albeit it was completely grayscale. She also noticed Spike. He was looking around, trying to see something. Strange. He had draconic eyes as well, by default.
"Hey!" She called him. "I'm here. Why can't you see me?"
Spike's head snapped in her direction.
"Oh. I thought... It was a violent explosion. I don't know what happened here. And what do you mean? It's dark."
"Well, yeah. But you have draconic eyes. I have them too. And I can see." Answered Alex.
"Huh?" He seemed genuinely confused. "I don't know what are you talking about. It's cat's eyes can see in the dark, not lizard's."
"You know what? Nevermind. Just remember not to set on fire any dust in the future."
"What was that? Why did that happen?" He asked.
"I really can't explain, I'm not a scientist. Just know that this can happen. I'm surprised that we seem unharmed actually." She wasn't really surprised; it was a dream after all.
"Well..." Said Spike. “I’m a dragonborn, and dragons are immune to flames. So I can't be harmed by fire. I am more concerned about you."
"Nevermind the fact that explosions harm mostly by air pressure. I think I am also must be immune to fire... Probably. I have flaming hair... Which I can't see right now. Why can't I see my hair? It should be very bright in the darkness!"
Alex panicked. 'Does it mean that fire went out from the explosion? Am I bald now?!'
She hurriedly felt around her head, and oh, horror -...
...It wasn't there. Oh, wow. You expected me to say it was? Pff. I won't do the same thing trice.
Anyway. She was really glad that Spike couldn't see in the dark now. Otherwise he would notice her shining (not really) bald head. That would be embarrassing as hell.
"Did you find it? Your hair, I mean." She heard Spike ask her. Right. She freaked out loud a moment ago.
"Ahah... Ha. Of course." If she was a TV character, she would be visibly sweating right now. "It... Went back to normal."
"Oh. Good. Let me create a fire, so I could see."
"Wait wait wait! No. Give me a second!" She hurriedly stopped him, trying to find a solution to this predicament.
How to light her head again? Set it on fire? What if she just burns herself? Then it would be shiny and scarred.
Magic? She only knew how to make light, and it was the least wanted thing right now.
She decided to risk it. But how to get fire?
"So..." Alex asked. "How are you going to lit fire?"
Spike chuckled. "Did you forget why we are like this?"
"Oh." It dawned on her. "Fire-breathing. Right. Uhh... Wait a second...."
She moved closer to Spike and positioned her head in front of his face.
"Go!" Alex commanded squeezing her teeth.
Boy shrugged, not understanding the problem and took a deep breath. Then he let it out.
Bright green flames surged out of his mouth, and although Alex found it a bit disgusting, it indeed worked. While scurrying away so Spike wouldn't see her actions, she commanded her eyes to turn off night vision mode. While fire temporarily blinded Spike from seeing her doing, she actually nearly took critical damage because of it. Thankfully she squeezed her eyes nervously before, so it wasn't so bad.
"Hey." Said Spike. "Why is your head on fire again?"
She decided to ignore that question.
"Where are we, anyway?" She asked him.
In the flickering light of her hair, that somehow again turned barely warm, she looked around again, this time concentrating on her surroundings.
"This place really has flimsy floors..."
Above their heads there was a hole. Hole, filled with big boulders, blocking it. Thankfully, no boulders went through, otherwise it wouldn't be just a concussion to catch one on the head. Or anywhere on that matter.
"It looks like the ceiling had crumbled, too. We are stuck." She noticed.
"I hope Twilight will find a way to dig us out." Worriedly said Spike.
"Well, let's not sit right under it, in case she tries to move those." Answered Alex, and Spike agreed. They moved to the edge of the room.
"We can try to get out ourselves." Alex pointed at a hole in the wall, leading somewhere. The entire room looked like some sort of half-cave, half-dungeon. "I wonder where we had fallen into..."
"We can, but I think it's better to wait. That was a loud explosion, there is no way they didn't heard it. I bet they will come to rescue us soon." Objected Spike.
And so they decided to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
"It's been half an hour. It's starting to get boring." Complained Alex. "Where are your friends? Did they forget about us?"
"No way! Twilight wouldn't leave me. Maybe something happened..." Spike seemed bothered by the situation.
"Well, I'm not waiting anymore." She stood up. "I'm going to go and see if we can get out ourselves. In any case, if they dig this out, that can just follow us."
With those words, Alex entered the hole and disappeared from view.
Left in the darkness again, and alone, Spike shivered.
"Wait for me!"
Author's Note
So, i am still very busy, but it's your Christmas gift. Nothing substantial, bit still.
I put in explosion just for fun, and now I'm a bit at loss at how to unveil this.
Anyway, see you.
