Haywire: Originsby Skai ShineChaptersChapter 1 - The First Festival of the Two SistersChapter 2 - Festival FriendsChapter 3 - Butterfly EffectChapter 4 - Low MoraleChapter 5 - FinaleChapter 1 - The First Festival of the Two SistersAuthor's Note A long journey begins... With a Twilight style panic attack, no less. Chapter 1 - The First Festival of the Two Sisters [Starlight] I trot back and forth, panting and muttering about all the many things that could go wrong today. Usually I’m not nearly as stressed as this, but today provides some… Unique circumstances. With the School of Friendship, keeping up the Castle, finding time for all my friends, and now I get to add Festival Preparations on top of all of it. Yay. I continue panting and trotting around the castle hall again and again, not even noticing Trixie until she finally yells out my name, “STARLIGHT!” She yells out, giving me an angry pout afterwards I shake my head out of my freakout, “Oh! Hey Trixie!” I walk up and give her a tight hug, “What’re you even doing here, shouldn’t you be helping Sunburst get the school ready for after the summer break?” Trixie smirks, “I know Sunburst can handle it just fine, besides I had a feeling you might need my Great and Powerful help.” She pats my head a bit, “Didn’t exactly expect you to be Twilight-ing out, though.” I roll my eyes, “Trix it’s not that bad. I’m just… Okay it’s a little bit that bad but I’ll be fine. I’m just having a hard time handling everything…” I trot off a bit and look up at a large portrait of Twilight, sighing heavily. Trixie huffs behind me, “Look, Starlight, whatever trouble you’ve got with the Festival it will be fine. Just give a big smile and feel the confidence soar through you!” I take a deep breath and a deep inhale, turning around and giving the best smile I can muster right now. “H-How’s this?” I ask through my smile, as Trixie slams her hoof into her face. “You really are quite the Mini-Twilight.” She says with that irritated tone of hers, slapping her hoof against her face. I let out a deep sigh, “You’re right, Trix, I just need to calm down. But I just…” I turn around and look back at Twilight’s portrait. “...I have so much to handle with the School, and you, and just my life in general, and now I also need to make time for the Festival on top of everything else and I’m just not sure how I’m gonna handle it all…” I say, sitting down and looking down at my hooves. Trixie sighs, trotting up and sitting next to me, “You’re right. You do have a lot to handle, and you do it all so great! The School is running great, you’re keeping up with me and all your other not so great and powerful friends, and I get why this might be too much to handle on top of it all.” I droop my head with a sigh, as she chuckles, patting my head. “Which is why your greatest and most powerful friend, Trixie, is here to help!” She says as she stands up and pulls me up, throwing a hoof over my back. “You’re really gonna help me out with all this Trixie?” I meekly ask with a light smile. She laughs, throwing her head back a bit before tapping her other front hoof on my chest, “Of course! Who else deserves help more than you?” I sigh happily, “Thanks Trixie. You're a lifesaver.” She grins, “Eh, don't mention it. Alright now what’s first, Mini-Twilight?” I roll my eyes and use my magic to pop a scroll in and unravel it, “Well according to the list from Twilight, like the Summer Sun Celebration it seems that Sweet Apple Acres is handling the Catering and Food Prep.” Trixie laughs, “Well that’s obviously step one done! Why even check on it? No one can get it all done better and sooner then-... Uh, Apple… Apple-... Hat?” I sigh and back up with a smirk and teleport the scroll away, pointing at the Palace door, “We still gotta go check. Now let’s go Trixie, wouldn’t want to keep ‘Applehat’ waiting.” She trots past me with a smile, “I knew I got it right.” I groan and roll my eyes, smiling a bit. Trixie might be… Well, Trixie, but at least she is helping. And she does have a point, Applejack no doubt has the Food Prep handled. I trot down the castle steps, holding onto Trixie and teleporting us just outside Sweet Apple Acres. Trixie looks around, “Uh, Starlight? I think you missed the mark a bit.” I sigh, looking around at the apple trees with partially filled barrels around them, the barn visible in the distance. “No, Trixie, I did just fine.” I tell her, walking on past her, “I sent us just outside Sweet Apple Acres because Twilight told me about her first time in Ponyville. Whenever the Summer Sun Celebration, which is now the Festival I’m handling, the entire Apple Family likes bunking up at Sweet Apple Acres, so I didn’t really want to scare anypony.” “Well that was… A very specific description, but I’ll take it.” She says with a smile. We head up the hills along the path and after a while I can finally see Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. Okay maybe just a smidge too far. Trixie groans heavily, “You couldn’t have popped us in any closer?” She whines. I sigh rolling my eyes, “Too late now, Trixie, and it’s not like I can just pull Sweet Apple Acres any closer to us.” “Well it certainly isn’t an impossible feat.” An annoyingly familiar voice called out behind us. I turn around and peer up at Discord, floating and grinning down at us with a cheeky smile. I huff, “What is it, Discord?” I say, and he scoffs, dramatically offended. “Why, I can’t have a fun time and hang out with friends? I seem to recall a certain particularly purple pony saying once-” He snaps his fingers and suddenly he’s puppeting a tiny crude doll of me, “‘Discord and I are old ‘Save Equestria’ Buddies!’” He says with a very poor attempt at my voice, then stares at us with a grin on his face. He was about to say something else as I use magic to clamp his mouth shut. “Seriously Discord. What are you doing?” I ask with annoyed glare. He huffs, snapping his claw and transforming back into himself. “Fine. I’m here because her Royal Highness, the one and only ruler of allllllll of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle called me here to help you with the preparations.” Trixie groaned, “Well you can go back to Canterlot, and-” I cover her mouth with my hoof, “-Actually kind of helpful! Thanks, Discord.” He gives a bow, and Trixie shoves my hoof off her mouth, “Well since you're helping, mind getting us done with this sometime before the next moon?” He smirks, snapping his fingers and with a flash of white light we’re standing right outside the main entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. A blur of red and black zooms past us and Discord rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers, causing a black and red colt to tumble out speed and crash into Trixie and I. “Discord!” Trixie cries out and he huffs in annoyance. “I thought you wanted this to go faster?” He replies as I use magic to lift all three of us back up onto our hooves. “I’m sorry for our… friend. Are you okay?” The pegasus flies back up into the air, brushing himself off, “Yeah I’m fine! Hey wait… One of you mares wouldn’t happen to be Starlight Glimmer?” I clear my throat, “Uh yes, I’m Starlight. Why?” He grins, “Well because I’m supposed to tell ya how the food is turning out for the Festival! By the orders of my cousin AJ no less.” He says as he flits up into the air, slowly descending and then hovering in mid-air. I raise an eyebrow, “What do you mean, isn’t Applejack supposed to be telling me how it’s going? Where is she, anyway?” I ask as I look around. The pegasus slowly stopped flying and landed onto his hooves, “Er… She didn’t tell you?” I start getting really worried, “Tell me… What?” “She and her friends were all called by Princess Twilight! They’re all in Canterlot right about now.” He says, and in the corner of my eye I see both Trixie stare at me nervously and Discord hovering around with interest and a box of popcorn. I fought the urge to scream. The literal last thing I wanted him to say. I then took a deep inhale and exhale, “I’m- I’m fine. Let’s just finish up here and move on, mind showing us around Mister- Mister, uh…?” He bows a bit with his front legs, “Burnt Apple, but my friends call me ‘Ash’. Don’t worry about the name or my Cutie Mark, I’m almost as good at handling apples as Applejack, but then again nopony is as good as my cousin!” I tap my hoof to my chin, “Her cousin? I feel like I would’ve heard about you sooner…” He shakes his head, “Nah, I don’t come around too often seein’ as I'm from Appaloosa. And we aren’t directly cousins, as his pop Bright Mac and my mom Scarlet Apple were cousins, and-” Discord groans, “Ah yes, Apple this, Apple that, can we move things along? I want to get back to Canterlot and see Flutte-” I roll my eyes using magic to clamp his mouth shut yet again. “Don’t mind him, show us around!” I say with a semi-forced smile. Discord turns his bird claw into a fan and blows my magic off his face, “That’s rather rude, and after all the help I’ve given you in the past.” I roll my eyes ignoring him and follow behind Ash as we trots towards the main barn. After some time tasting all the many treats made by various members of the Apple Family, we left before we got too full or before Discord mentally or emotionally scarred one of the Apples… Or started bringing apples to life. Other than Big Mac, he really doesn’t have a great track record with Apples. I burped slightly and covered my mouth as we trotted down the dirt path, “Oh Celestia, that was a lot of food…” Trixie chuckled as she patted her stomach, “It was all super yummy, think we can maybe have more Festivals?” She says tapping her chin with her hoof. I roll my eyes with a smile, bumping her in the side, “No, Trix. We can’t-” “Wait up Miss Starlight!” I heard behind us as Ash ran up to us. “Ash, what is it?” I ask him, raising an eyebrow as I can see Discord snicker in the background. “I almost forgot to give this to ya!” He says as he holds out a scroll with his wing, and I grab it with magic. “Uh, thanks!” I say and he grins and gives a nod as he bursts off in a stream of red and black light back towards the barn. I give the scroll a once over and groan, “Ah great, another thing Discord could’ve just said sooner.” Discord chuckles, “Ooopsie.” He says sarcastically. Clearly Discord is up to something. I roll my eyes, “‘Since we’re all heading to Canterlot, Twilight asked me to make y’all a list of the new Festival team: You’ve no doubt already met mah cousin Burnt Apple, next up taking over Rarity’s decorations is a unicorn named Skai Shine.’” I tap my hoof to my chin, “Hm, never heard of them before.” Trixie laughs, “Now my Great and Powerful expertise comes in! I know him. Rarity is a master of designing and creating fashion, but Skai is a whole different playing field. When he isn’t making all kinds of bits and bobs from plush toys to cloth decor, he fixes and mends anything that can be handled with a sewing needle.” Discord laughs, “Oh so that’s where you go when a trick goes so poorly your cape goes up in flames.” Trixie snarls, “No… Maybe.” She ends with a slight blush. I groan, “Can you two stop arguing so we can just get to this ‘Skai’ in time?” Discord laughs heavily, “Your wish is my command Miss Glimmer!” He snaps his fingers and we burst off in a flash of white light before I could even get the chance to argue. Chapter 2 - Festival Friends[Skai] I pull a sewing needle through navy blue cloth using my magic, finishing up the final seam on the banner. I set down the thread and needle, lifting up the twin banners and making sure there aren’t any mistakes or errors. I tap my chin, “Hm… Hey Rosegarden, do you think these look-” I look over and see her struggling with a spell, kneeling slightly and groaning heavily as her horn glows even brighter than ever before. I look around her at all the various floating instruments, still not sure how she even has the magic strength to lift all of them at once, much less play all of them at once. “Uh… Are you okay?” She sighs deeply as she lays down all the instruments, standing up straight and brushing off her coat. “Yeah, I’m fine, I just am having an oddly tough time with this spell. I’ve never done a musical spell like this before, and I’m kind of struggling.” I set down the banners, trotting up to her and patting her side, “To be fair, do you really need all of these instruments? I doubt Princess Twilight is going to mind something less than a Bridleway orchestra.” Rosegarden scoffs as she pats my head, “Skai, dear brother of mine, of course I have to have all these instruments. This is not only the first official Festival since Celestia and Luna left, but it’s also the first one in Ponyville. It absolutely has to be completely perfect for the Princess!” She trots over to the shop counter, “Speaking of… Oh wow!” She says as she lifts up the two banners I just finished, both modeled after the visage of the Royal Sisters and their Cutie Marks. “These are fantastic! And- Wait, is this even more?!” She looks behind the counter and sees the many banners I’ve made. “Maybe I went a bit overboard too.” I say with a chuckle and a blush as I tug on my neckerchief, “But since I’m done, maybe I can help you with your spell?” She sighs as she stands in the center of the room again, digging her hoof at the carpet, “You can try but I really have no clue what I’m getting wrong. I’m recounting the spell in my head, sending out my magic to the instruments, but nothing happens.” She says with an angry little stamp of her hoof. I tap my chin, “Hmm… Maybe it’s like a transfiguration spell? Like imaging the object, just with music instead?” I think aloud, tapping my hoof against the counter a bit. She turns around raising an eyebrow, “Wait- How do you know how transfiguration spells work?” I scoff and roll my eyes, “Well you leave your magic books everywhere and spout magic nonsense 24/7, so I pick up a thing or two. Now just focus.” I trot up and pat her side with my hoof, “I think how it works is you gotta imagine the music. The tempo, the beat, the melody, which instruments play when, when do some stop, when they start again, et cetera.” Rosegarden blinks a few times, staring at me in awe. “I- Wow. That’s- actually amazing. You know if you had a better control of your horn, you probably could-” She quickly quiets herself and covers her mouth with a hoof. I turn around and look down at my hooves, “Rose, you… You know I can’t. And you know why I don’t wanna practice using my horn, either.” I say dejectedly, going back behind the counter and stacking up the banners and boxes of decorating supplies with my magic. Rosegarden sighs and walks up to me, patting the back of my head, “Skai you’ve gotta try sooner or later. If you don’t try-” She’s cut off by a spark of magic behind us, and we both turn to see several creatures, all of whom I mostly recognize. “Discord! Can you stop doing that!?” The purple mare cries out. The one giving me the most worry was the draconequus in the center: Discord, the self proclaimed Lord of Chaos. He’s not only turned Ponyville upside down in recent years, but he’s also infamously ambiguous between good and evil, usually leaning on the chaotic good side. Then there’s Trixie, a seasonal customer of mine when she’s in Ponyville and a master of stage magic, as well as her best friend Starlight Glimmer, an overall kind and empathetic pony as well as the Headmare of the nearby School of Friendship. Starlight gallops up to me, “Uh yeah sorry for the intrusion. I’m assuming one of you is Skai Shine?” She says with a meek smile. I raise my eyebrow, “Uh… Why?” I say while nervously eyeing up the unnerving draconequus. Starlight steps in front of my view of Discord, “Well I’m Starlight Glimmer and I’m sent by Princess Twilight to oversee the decor of the Festival! How are they coming along?” I gasp with a grin, using my magic to lift up all the many banners and twirl them around her, “Fantastic! I was just about to head over to the Castle of Friendship and hand them over to the decorator, Crimson.” Trixie trots up, “And what's with all the instruments? There’s quite a lot of ‘em.” Rosegarden nervously laughs, “That’s for me! I’m handling the music which is coming along- er… Decently.” She says with a nervous smile, causing Starlight to grow a bit visibly unnerved. Trixie rushes in front of her, “We’ll uh get to that later! You said something about a decorator?!” She cries out with a nervous smile, her minty blue hair fraying a bit. I cleared my throat, “Uh, yeah, Crimson. She’s a newcomer here to Ponyville, but she has a surprisingly fantastic eye for decorating and interior design.” Trixie laughs nervously while patting Starlight’s head, who still looks a bit unnerved. “Great! Discord, get with the snapping!” She cries out as she turns her head back at the draconequus. He groans, “I thought I was explicitly told not to-” “DO IT!” Trixie angrily screams out at him while still softly patting Starlight’s head. He groans, visibly irritated, “Indecisive equines.” I yelp, “Wait you can’t forget all the banners and decorations and-!” It was too late, as a snap of his fingers and a burst of magic engulfed all of us in a flash of white. [Starlight] We popped in just outside Twilight’s old castle, and either by sheer luck or Discord just being nice, all the instruments as well as Skai’s custom made decorations popped in around us. I sigh in relief that presumably nothing got lost or forgotten, swinging my horn and tossing open the castle doors. Inside an earth pony mare is trotting around, seemingly planning things. I guess this ‘Crimson’ must’ve shown up while we were at Sweet Apple Acres… She turns around in surprise at us, and her coat pattern reminds me a bit of Ash, with the grey hooves and snout line, but her main coat is a deep red with an amber mane and bright orange eyes. She runs up to us, “Oh hi! Can I-” She then gasps deeply, her eyes practically twinkling, “Oh. My. STARS! Are you THE Starlight Glimmer?!” She says, her muzzle practically right against mine. I step back nervously, “Uh… Y-yes? Do I… Know you?” I ask, confused and somewhat nervous. She gives a loud laugh and then snorts, “As if! I mean, I WISH but it makes sense you don’t, most of my kind hasn’t ever met you personally.” I raise an eyebrow, “Your… kind? Aren’t you a pony?” She snorts again, “About that….” In a swirl of bright orange light a little amber and red Changeling appears. She gives me a massive, semi-fanged, grin. My eyes widen, “Oh! Sorry, duh, that makes so much sense.” She giggles with yet another snort, “Once again, makes sense. Most of us have never met you personally, but you’re like a Changeling celebrity. Thanks to you, King Thorax, and your friends, you freed us all from the ways of Queen Chrysalis! As you can guess, things are much better for us nowadays.” Discord scoffs as he teleports between us, “Just her friends?! Not the all-powerful Lord of Chaos? The One and Only Draconequus in Equestria?” Both of us just stare at Discord and he sighs, “Fine. You may resume.” He says as he teleports back to the front with Trixie and the others while Skai and Rosegarden sort out their various supplies. I tap my chin, “Hm, I don’t really remember about any Changelings living away from the Hive, other than Ocellus at the School of Friendship of course.” She nods, “It’s something very new! With such positive input from Ocellus, Princess Twilight and King Thorax have recently established ‘The Equestrian-Changeling Exchange’ where a volunteer Changeling, me, moves to Equestria and a volunteer Pony moves to the Hive.” She says with a smile, and I tap my chin again. “I think I might’ve seen a letter like that on my desk… I'm sorry, running a School is a bit new so I’m still working on organizing myself. Anyway, I’m glad you're here and that things are working out!” She nods with a smile, “And the planning for the decor is coming along great, just waiting on- Oh nevermind, he’s here!” Skai trots up with a nervous smile, “Yep! Got them all right here!” He levitates all the boxes and banners around her as she smiles with a light sigh. “Ah, these are all so lovely! Yes, yes, these will all do perfectly!” She says with a big grin, twirling many different banners and streamers around her with a thin orange glow around her Changeling horn. I nervously laugh, “Er, so, the decorations will be done by tonight? With not only all of Ponyville but also ponies from all over Equestria and Princess Twilight-” Crimson shakes her hoof at me, “Don’t worry a hair on your curly mane, it’ll all be done by tonight!” She turns around lifting up the boxes and banners with Skai and leading him onward to the main event hall. I sigh and hear Trixie huff behind me as she walks up, “Discord is finally gone. Thank Celestia for that.” She sighs as she trots up to me, using magic to pull numerous banana peels off herself. She then eyes me up, “What’s wrong, Starlight? Those ponies have everything handled and you don’t gotta worry about anything. Yay?” I sigh with a light smile, “Well yeah, but… I’ve still got a bad feeling something is gonna go terribly wrong…” Trixie sighs, patting my back, “Hey, it’s all gonna be fine. Twilight should be here anytime, so why don’t-” In a burst of purple magic, Twilight pops in front of us. “Alright just gotta take care of this, and-” She then darts her eyes over to us, “Oh! Hey girls! Did you guys get everything taken care of?” She asks before looking at the other ponies and Changeling carrying a myriad of instruments and decorations. “I guess so!” She says, grinning and turning back to us, “Sorry for such short notice changes, but there was an emergency in Canterlot to take care of.” Trixie looks around, “Where are the other ones? Don’t you usually bring your ‘besties’ everywhere with you?” Twilight shakes her head, “No, they’re still in Canterlot. I’m actually heading right back once I’m done with the moonset and sunrise. Now everypony, follow me and let's get to the Event Hall!” She calls out as the others trot behind her as they head down the halls. Chapter 3 - Butterfly Effect[Starlight] I sigh as I give my mane one last brush before setting it back down, walking past my mirror. I smile as I look at all my friends, and I realise Twilight was right: It is pretty great to look over at my friends all the time. I hurry out of my room, turning around to shut my door with magic and turning back to find myself muzzle against muzzle with Trixie. I push her back slightly, “Trixie! What’re you doing up here? Shouldn’t you be down in the hall to find us a good seat at the viewing for the Sunrise and Moonset?” She nervously trots in place a bit as she peeks down both ways of the hallway, “Starlight, don’t you think Twilight has been a bit strange since back from Canterlot? Why wouldn’t she have brought her friends with her?” I roll my eyes with a groan, “Trixie if you’re once again worried that something is up with Twilight, just don’t. I tested her with every spell in the book, and nopony has magic powerful enough to block me out from being able to know for sure if it’s really her or not, even just a hint of concern would’ve set me off.” Trixie bites her lip, “I just have a really bad feeling. Maybe we should just watch from outside, or maybe-” I quickly walk and hug Trixie with a soft sigh, “Look Trix. Twilight’s only here for the sunrise and moonset part of the Festival, and then she’s heading right back to Canterlot afterwards. It’s not like I drag you out of town whenever I head to some random corner of Equestria for a day or two. If you don’t trust her, then just trust me?” I say as I back up with a hopeful smile. She thinks for a moment and then groans heavily, “Fiiiiine. But if something goes wrong, I get to tell you I told you so.” She says with a light smile as she starts trotting ahead of me, and I sigh as I trot behind her. She’s just worried over nothing. I checked everything, and there is absolutely nothing that could be wrong. Everything is gonna be fine, especially now that the master of perfection herself is here. We make it down the main staircase, making our way down the light up pathways for the incoming crowds and find ourselves outside the massive doors for the Event Hall. Already the main standing area is crowded with ponies from the stage all the way to the door. With a large stage, alcoves in the wall both for ponies to sit in and to hang banners from, and lastly the large round skylight with Twilight’s cutie mark in the ceiling, this was the only logical place to have the event take place. Trixie groans heavily, trying to squeeze past the crowd to no avail. “Greeeeat… Maybe you were right, and I should’ve gotten us those seats after all...” She says looking down dejectedly. I roll my eyes with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I had a backup plan.” I lean in close and then teleport us behind the main stage curtains, peeking out and looking at the large crowd of ponies of all kinds from all over Equestria, with a couple other creatures sprinkled in here and there, as well as the student group from Twilight’s School that helped save it and Equestria from Cozy Glow. I hear a yelp behind me, and I turn to find a startled Rosegarden Shine, clearly not having seen us here a minute ago and suddenly standing here. She groans in annoyance, slamming her hoof against her forehead, “Can everypony just stop teleporting in front of me or around me, or maybe just in general?!” I grin nervously, “Yeah, sorry Rosegarden. How’s the music coming along?” I ask as I rub my front left leg with my right hoof. She lifts up the instruments with red magic and floats them all around, “Fairly good. I’m just about to get started in fact, so if you don’t mind me…” She canters past us and stands just behind the curtains, her horn glowing bright as she begins to play a very grand, orchestral melody. I’m impressed she managed to master that spell, I’ve never been able to get it that great. Maybe it’s just that I’m just not a very musically talented pony in general, better to leave that kind of thing to more experienced ponies like the violinist Octavia or DJ-Pon3. I hear a laugh behind us, “Oh there you girls are! Starlight, Trixie, how are you two doing?” Twilight says with a smile. Trixie narrows her eyes at Twilight as we turn around, growling as she steps behind me. I laugh nervously as I brush my neck with my hoof, “Oh yeah just fine! Don’t mind her, she’s just a bit…” I think for a moment, “...Trixie, today.” Twilight laughs, “Well I haven’t exactly been myself today either. Sorry I won’t be able to stay long, I gotta get back to Canterlot to take care of a few more things with the girls.” I look around a bit, “Speaking of heading back to Canterlot, is that what Discord did? I haven’t really seen him around since I left to get ready earlier, and he isn’t really the one to… You know, stop.” Twilight shrugs, “You know how Discord is. He could be halfway across the world or right behind you, and neither of us would know.” I laugh a bit, “Yeah, that’s true. Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you busy before the big show. Good luck!” She smiles and gives me a hug, “Thanks, Starlight. I’ll do my best to put on a great show for you guys.” She says with a wink as she trots off. She then waves at Rosegarden, who begins playing triumphant music as Twilight steps out onto the main stage. I turn around as Twilight begins her speech, “See Trixie? Nothing to worry about.” Trixie mumbles a bit, and I raise my eyebrow. “What did you say?” I ask while holding my hoof up to my ear. She groans heavily, “Fine! I was wrong and you were right! Are you happy?” I groan, patting her back, “That was never my point. Look, let’s just focus on the Festival and the very beautiful sunrise, hm?” She rolls her eyes with a ‘hmph’ as we peek our heads out of the curtains and listen in to Twilight’s speech. “...and last but not least, I’d like to thank both all of my past students, as well as my first student, Starlight Glimmer. She’s taken over my School for me, and taken charge of teaching far and wide the magic of Friendship, and for that, I’m very grateful.” She says with a smile as everypony starts to clap their hooves. She uses magic to summon the pendant Celestia and Luna gave her to control the sun and moon, “And now, everpony, without further ado…” She lifts it up high in the air as everypony watches in awe…. Except nothing happens. The crowd begins to murmur as Trixie and I look at each other with equally concerned looks. Twilight then begins to laugh menacingly, which is never a good sign. “...Hm? Do you all like that? Waiting? Do you all enjoy how it feels? Because I have had to wait for this day for far too long… To finally have my revenge on ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle’ and her stupid friends and her stupid student!” She cries out as she whips around and looks directly at me, teleporting the pendant away and gripping me with magic, flinging me right over the stage as everypony begins crying out in fear, shock and surprise. “You.” She snarls out, her eyes turning a deep violet with dragon-like pupils, reminiscent of Nightmare Moon or that Daybreaker I dreamt up. “You’re just as guilty as Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her annoying friends.” She says, as the curtains begin to burn away in purple flames, revealing Twilight and her friends all encased in stone statues, even Discord. I glare down at ‘Twilight’, “Who in Equestria are you? Because I can clearly tell you’re not Princess Twilight!” The figure scoffs, “Of course I’m not ‘Her royal highness Princess Twilight Sparkle!’ Bleh. I am here to help take vengeance for the common filly and foal, and the last thing I want is ponies like her or you in charge.” She says as she tosses me back against the backstage wall, and I groan in pain. As she walks up to me, a swirl of purple flames soar around her, revealing a dark pink and grey pony with a long, sharp horn, swirling and flowing black curls and black and purple armor, with a matching purple amulet on the front. She grins with sharp teeth as she taps her cheek and looks down at her other front hoof, “Ah yes… That’s much better…” She then walks up to me, using her magic to lift me up and pin me against the wall. “Hm… Should I turn you to stone like the rest of your friends? Or should I get creative with how to torment you? Make you really pay for what you’ve done…” I glare at her as I attempt to blast her with magic, which she deflects with a force field spell. “Who even are you?! What did Twilight or I ever do to you?!” I cry out angrily, as she pins me harder against the wall, causing me to groan slightly in pain. She laughs, “You really don’t recall? I suppose the messes you make really aren’t that big of an issue for you, are they?” She snarls out before blasting me with magic, causing me to blackout. [Rosegarden] I watch in fear and terror as Starlight is slammed against a wall and then zapped with magic, inevitably falling unconscious. I narrow my eyes at the mare, dropping the instruments and lighting up my horn, quickly trying to think up any of the combat spells I’ve learned. She notices, turning with a devilish smile, “Awe, well isn’t that adorable. No offense, but I think you were more entertaining as a musician.” She zaps me with some spell, causing my horn to act on its own, lifting up all the instruments and playing a dark symphonic melody. I try to stop, but my horn just wouldn’t respond to my own commands. In the background, I notice a group of pegasi fly up as the crowd begins charging up numerous different spells. The evil mare sighs, “Oh it’s so sad how many of you are clinging to this false story the royalty and the ‘heroes’ have told you…” She charges up her horn, sending out a shockwave of dark pink magic and knocking down the entire crowd, also knocking the pegasi out of the sky. I feel my magic finally fade as all of the instruments quickly and suddenly drop with a crash on the stage floor. I groan as I fall over, struggling to keep myself up and staying coherent. The mare trots onto center stage, “All of the ponies you call heroes… All of them have made terrible mistakes and caused permanent and irreparable damage, that none of them have ever cared to look back on and fix. Luckily those days are over, and you can take comfort knowing a pony who cares not for these filthy mistakes is in charge. My name is Onyx Moonshade, but you can all call me your Queen.” She grins, baring her fangs and her eyes glowing bright with power. She turns around, lighting up her horn as she slowly trots towards Starlight, “And now watch as I correct yet another mistake of the ‘heroes’ of old…” She readies to do Celestia knows what to her before Trixie begins screaming in an incoherent rage, leaping on top of Onyx, who begins yelling, “GET OFF OF ME YOU NOISY PEST!” She grabs Trixie by the tip of her tail with magic, ripping her off and smiling as she recognizes her, “Ah, look what I have here… Starlight Glimmer’s little ‘friend’. What a nice catch I’ve made today… Did you honestly think you can stop me by yourself?” “Good thing she isn’t alone!” I hear my brother yell out as I turn around to see Skai, Crimson and Burnt Apple. “None of us are gonna stand by as you attack whoever you want!” Burnt Apple yells out at her. Onyx laughs as she throws Trixie against the wall above Starlight, causing her to yelp in pain but she quickly stands back up weakly. “Oh and how are you going to stop me? You’ll be too busy attacking your friends!” She cries out as she zaps Skai with a spell, presumably the same one as she blasted me with as suddenly she inexplicably causes a blast of electrical energy from both her own horn and Skai’s. Skai quickly shakes his head with a light grin, “Luckily for us, I can’t do magic. Unfortunately for you, it seems my magical backfire affects you too when you try that!” He says as they all run up to us, Skai helping me up as we walk over to Trixie and Starlight. Onyx shakes her head, her eyes quickly beaming on us with her ominous purple glow. “Little pests. Clever and unique as you may be, I can just handle you all the old fashioned way.” Her horn begins to glow and we close our eyes and huddle close, prepared for the worst. At least I thought so until I hear Trixie scream: “TELEPORT!” And then all of a sudden, we’re gone in a pink flash. Chapter 4 - Low Morale[Skai] In a bright flash of pink, suddenly we’re out of the castle and in the middle of the forest. And, by the look of the sky above and the types of trees and plants around, we’re in none other than the Everfree forest. So, in a rush, Trixie must’ve teleported us out of the castle. Great! Outside in the middle of the Everfree forest, one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. Not as great. I groggily shake my head and hop up onto my hooves, looking around at the others, who all seem pretty upset. I sigh, brushing myself off, “Is everypony okay?” Rosegarden shakes her head with a heavy sigh, “I still don’t know what just all happened. Who even was that mare? Where did she even come from? How could she even defeat the Princesses and her friends? Or Discord?” She says as she brushes off her red coat, which is now slightly caked in mud and dirt. Burnt Apple groans and rolls his eyes, “As if that matters now! We gotta find our way back to the Castle, come up with a plan and stop her!” He says bumping his front hooves together as he lowers down to the ground. Crimson slumps against a tree, covering her face with her hooves, “We can’t just go back! We barely managed to get out! We shouldn’t just risk everything and put ourselves right back into that!” I hear a groan, and I turn to see Starlight trying to stand up, “We have to…” Starlight says as she continues struggling to stand up, as Trixie tries to help her up. “Starlight, no, you need to rest! I’m not a doctor or anything, but I’ve messed up enough tricks to know you’re definitely hurt!” Trixie says, rubbing her head, using magic to summon her iconic magician cloak and wrapping it around her. Starlight shakes her head, pushing Trixie back and tugging the cloak off, “No I’m okay… We have to find a way to stop Onyx, because she was able to turn not just Twilight and her friends, but also Discord to stone. She just managed to beat the most powerful ponies, and creature, in Equestria!” I sigh, walking up to her and patting her head, “Starlight, Trixie is right, it’s not gonna help anypony if you’re not resting up. Trying right now isn’t-” “But we have to try!” She cries out, pushing past me, “We can’t just give up when things seem tough! Twilight wouldn’t stop against her countless enemies, Celestia wouldn’t stop against Discord or Nightmare Moon, everypony strong enough to be a hero wouldn’t stop trying! If I had stopped when Chrysalis took the Princesses, the Changelings wouldn’t have found their true way, and Equestria would’ve been doomed!” She says, sitting down and planting her hooves against her face. Trixie shakes her head, patting Starlight’s side, “Look, Starlight, just rest! Besides, it’s not like there’s somewhere for us to go.” Starlight thinks on that for a moment, and then gasps as she jumps up and then winces in pain, “Ow...Except there is! I have an idea, everyone just gather close.” She says as we all huddle up with Starlight. She begins to strain as her horn lights up, and in a flash of bright purple we’re suddenly teleported outside some massive treehouse with blue crystals, with massive tufts of pink crystals shaped like leaves. Everyone gasps in awe, and I look around, “Uh… So what exactly is this?” Looking around at the massive treehouse, surrounded by what appears to be an old decrepit castle. Starlight trots in front of the group, waving her hooves around, “Welcome to the, uh, Treehouse of Harmony! It’s no doubt the safest place in all of Equestria. Not only is it hidden behind the Everfree forest, but it’s also got some kind of mystical ‘Spirit of Harmony’ protecting it.” She says with a smile, as swirls of light dance around behind her, slowly twirling upward. She notices everpony staring in awe, as she laughs, “Pfft, come on everyone I haven’t even seem this ‘Spirit’ before, but from what I’ve heard there’s nothing to be scared of.” All of us keep staring in awe causing her to turn around with a gasp. She backs up, watching with the rest of us as the light forms a vague outline of a pony, made of pure white light, specks of multicolored specks of light dancing around it. “Fear not, dear friends. I mean no harm to you.” It says. Starlight gasps as her eyes widen, “Wait… No way, are you… The Spirit of Harmony? I thought the students described you as some sort of ethereal version of Twilight?” The Spirit tilts its head, “The form they met was the first of many. I am the Spirit you speak of, and the one you didn’t know you were seeking. I am the same Spirit, yes, but the next incarnation. As the Tree of Harmony evolved into this Treehouse to protect the friendships across Equestria, I evolved as well. As Equestria and it’s needs change, as do I and what I provide. And what it now needs are new attributes to strive for, new Elements, new Pillars, a new group to spread the Light, the Hope, the Harmony.” It looks around, as if to study us. “You’re all nearly ready. You’re just missing your final piece, the last light to shine, the last Element of your Harmony.” Starlight shakes her head, “I-I don’t understand, what do you mean?” The Spirit’s light disperses, melting out into six orbs of white light, floating upward and twirling in the air. “Like with the Pillars of Equestria and the Elements of Harmony, six attributes, six heroes, six Elements. Courage, Empathy, Sympathy, Optimism, Harmony...” The Spirit says, all around us in a disembodied voice,“But like before, there are only Five true among you. Find your sixth, your Balance, your Trust, your Truth. You must find your sixth, for all of Equestria and the many lands beyond hangs in the balance.” As it finishes speaking, the light disappears, forming six different grey pearls, slowly twirling down and laying down on the stone ground. Burnt Apple clears his throat, “So uh… What in the name of Celestia’s famous pancakes just happened?” Starlight lifts up the orbs with magic, seemingly studying them. “Hmm...I’m… Not entirely sure. But I think… I think this is some kind of passing the torch.” We all look at each other confused. She turns and looks around at the rest of us, “I think we’re the new spirits of the Elements, like how Twilight and her friends became when Nightmare Moon attacked during the Summer Sun Celebration all those years ago...” Rosegarden just stifles a laugh, “Uh, that’s funny. Great, yeah totally, but um… Not to be rude to anypony here, but we’re not exactly the best shining examples of being ponies. Besides, who exactly is supposed to be each Element? Do we do little acts of kindness? Make our friends laugh? Be honest?” I wish I could argue, but she has a point. It’s a bit of a stretch. Not to mention I’m not exactly the kind of pony most would look up to. Starlight shakes her head, tapping her chin, “No, I don’t think it’s like before… the Spirit really highlighted some of it’s words… ‘Courage, Empathy, Sympathy, Optimism, Harmony’... But it’s only five, and it said one was missing, and that we gotta find it.” Trixie scoffs, “Uh, not to break the mood, but there are already six of us here. Unless maybe it’s supposed to only include ponies.” Trixie points out at Crimson, causing her to back up and shift into her pony disguise. Burnt Apple scoffs, “Or maybe it’s talking about the worst, most inconsiderate pony here. ‘The Great and Stuck Up Trixie’!” Trixie scoffs, “How dare you! I-” “Everyone just stop!” Starlight yells out. She sighs, turning around and levitating the pearls, “We need a plan to stop her. And maybe if we knew what she wanted, or why, we could maybe stop her, but without knowing we’ll have to figure out some other way to-” “Wait!… Maybe we can find out why!” Rosegarden says with a gleam in her eyes. Everyone turns to her, and I clear my throat, “Uh, sis, what do you mean?” She sighs, “I think we can find out what’s wrong with her, why she’s so upset as to do all this. There’s a spell I was studying, and it searches the mind of the pony to find what’s upsetting them. Usually it’s just for small situations and therapeutic type things, but I think it can help us here and now figure out why Onyx is doing all this and maybe we can use it to stop her.” She says as she massages her chin with her hoof. Starlight grins, “Great! After a few, um… Mistakes with mind control, I stopped studying magic that dealt with ponies minds like that. What do we need for this spell?” Rosegarden strains as her horn flickers and summons a book, as she quickly flips through it, “Aha! We don’t need much, but there is one possible issue.” Trixie groans, “And that would be…?” She says with a raised eyebrow. “We need something of importance to her, something that could be considered a focus for her energy, a focus for her essence so to speak, something she’d think about a lot and very intensely.” Rosegarden says as she taps the book. Trixie groans, “Well great! We have no idea who she is, so finding that will be so-” Starlight covers Trixie’s mouth with her hoof. “What about me? If you use the spell on me, it could work. She seemed… Pretty eager to make an example out of me, making kind of a big show out of knocking me down.” She says, and I do recall how harshly she looked at and talked to Starlight. Rosegarden flips a few more pages, “I mean… In theory it could work, but if we use the spell like that, you’d be the only one who could go in.” Starlight nods, “It’s the best we have, so I say we get started. What’s the first step?” After a couple of minutes using a stick to dig a spell circle in the mud outside the decrepit castle, Starlight stands in the center. Rosegarden has Trixie look over the spell one more time, being the only Unicorn left with enough magic strength to cast it. “Do you think you have it fully down now Trixie? We wouldn’t want to trap Starlight’s psyche in a mental Limbo.” Starlight grows very nervous at that as Trixie laughs, “Of course! So I just think of those words, big mean queenie’s face, and then zap the circle?” Rosegarden nods and she turns to Starlight, “Are you ready?” Starlight gives an unnerved nod with a nervous smile as Rosegarden nods to Trixie. Trixie takes a deep breath, her horn lighting up as she cries out, “Doin’ magiiiiiic!” She says as she zaps the circle, causing Starlight to visibly, but calmly, panic. The circle lights up, swirling around Starlight as she begins to float into the air, the air curling around her like mist as it flows into her eyes, causing them to glow white. [Starlight] I look around, seeing nothing but endless white light. Until finally I see a stream of green, swirling around with circles of stars and clock symbols with a loud ticking coming from all directions. Oh no… I think to myself for a moment before tumbling out of the Time Portal. I didn’t really ever want to think about any of this again. I land down on the clouds, looking up and seeing my past self arguing with Twilight, partially tearing up Starswirl’s scroll. I sigh, turning around and finding myself muzzle to muzzle with a pegasus stallion looking up and watching the two of us. Suddenly, the rainboom shoots outward, and the Time Portal opens up, sucking Twilight and I back to the present- er the previous present? Time travel is weird. As the portal closes, a boom of magical energy surges out and the scroll floats down and lands next to the pegasus, who lifts it up and reads it a bit. He was about to talk to himself when suddenly everything freezes. “How cute.” I gasp as I turn around to the voice, seeing Onyx’s sharp horn tear through the world, clawing her way in. “You really thought you could enter mymind and I wouldn’t notice?” She looks around, “Awe... How sweet. Trying to figure out how I could have ever grown to be such an ‘evil villain’?” I narrow my eyes at her, “You say that like you aren’t. You just took over Equestria, turned the Princess and all her friends into stone! How are we-” She runs up to me, “You ARE terrible. Each and every one of you.” I tumble onto my back, looking up as she towers over me. I get an up close look at the pendant on her chest, which seems very familiar, something Trixie told me about. She lifts up my chin with her hoof, “It’s irritating how you're still too inept to figure out the damage of your own causing. But if you must know…” She trots over and past me, looking down at the distant ground below the clouds, “My father witnessed the confrontation between you and Twilight. He told my mother, who thought nothing of it until Twilight’s coronation. And then you became Twilight’s very own student. She became obsessed with figuring out how it was all possible, and it eventually grew too much of a strain on our family and my father left her, and took me with him.” She sighs, grabbing a piece of cloud with her hoof, “I never did see my mother again, not even after the destruction of Canterlot Castle during the Fight for Equestria, when he got injured and I eventually lost him.” She says, sitting on the edge of the cloud, looking down with a blank look in her eyes, shifting away from the dragon-slitted purple eyes to a tame light grey as the cloud in her hoof blows away. I stand up, walking up to her and sighing, “I’m sorry that all happened. But you can’t just do all this just for-” She knocks me back and snarls, “I lost both of my parents because of you and Twilight Sparkle and all her annoying ‘friends’ and allies. Without you, my father might still be around and my mother wouldn’t have become OBSESSED with finding out how you did it. But you didn’t care, did you? No, you didn’t even KNOW. Because that’s all you all do. You make messes, and never care about the consequences.” I try to back up as she knocks me down, “The Pillars pushed out Stygian, and he caused untold damage as the Pony of Shadows. Celestia pushed out her own sister, and she pretended LUNA was the reason she had to be banished for a thousand years. And YOU…” She walks up and knocks me down again, her eyes glowing with both hatred and power. “YOU nearly destroyed all of Equestria for a petty grievance with Twilight and her friends. How are YOU any better? As a matter of fact, you’re WORSE. And that’s why I want you to suffer SO MUCH more. So come, attack me, ‘befriend me’, whatever you wish to try. But you won’t win. And I will watch with GLEE as you all fall.” Her horn blasts out a shockwave, clearing away the clouds as I fall down to the ground, about to land down painfully as I suddenly am knocked into the white nothingness again. And then, quite suddenly, I tumble out of the white onto the real ground, getting slightly caked in mud in the process. Everypony runs up to me, Trixie being the one to reach out and pull me up, “Are you okay?! Did it work?” Trixie asks anxiously. I cough, “It… It worked. And I know exactly why she hates me, but I don’t know how that’s gonna help us stop her.” I think, trying to figure out some kind of way to help her as I brush the mud off of me. Skai clears his throat, “So… What’s our plan?” I look down at the six pearls, and I feel a surge of lightning course through me. “I think I know exactly what we need to do… But I’m going to need you all to trust me, because this is gonna sound weird.” They all look pretty concerned as I say that, but I turn around, levitating the pearls. There’s only one way this all ends, and it’s going to happen one way or another whether Onyx wants to accept it or not. Chapter 5 - FinaleSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 1 - The First Festival of the Two SistersAuthor's Note A long journey begins... With a Twilight style panic attack, no less. Chapter 1 - The First Festival of the Two Sisters [Starlight] I trot back and forth, panting and muttering about all the many things that could go wrong today. Usually I’m not nearly as stressed as this, but today provides some… Unique circumstances. With the School of Friendship, keeping up the Castle, finding time for all my friends, and now I get to add Festival Preparations on top of all of it. Yay. I continue panting and trotting around the castle hall again and again, not even noticing Trixie until she finally yells out my name, “STARLIGHT!” She yells out, giving me an angry pout afterwards I shake my head out of my freakout, “Oh! Hey Trixie!” I walk up and give her a tight hug, “What’re you even doing here, shouldn’t you be helping Sunburst get the school ready for after the summer break?” Trixie smirks, “I know Sunburst can handle it just fine, besides I had a feeling you might need my Great and Powerful help.” She pats my head a bit, “Didn’t exactly expect you to be Twilight-ing out, though.” I roll my eyes, “Trix it’s not that bad. I’m just… Okay it’s a little bit that bad but I’ll be fine. I’m just having a hard time handling everything…” I trot off a bit and look up at a large portrait of Twilight, sighing heavily. Trixie huffs behind me, “Look, Starlight, whatever trouble you’ve got with the Festival it will be fine. Just give a big smile and feel the confidence soar through you!” I take a deep breath and a deep inhale, turning around and giving the best smile I can muster right now. “H-How’s this?” I ask through my smile, as Trixie slams her hoof into her face. “You really are quite the Mini-Twilight.” She says with that irritated tone of hers, slapping her hoof against her face. I let out a deep sigh, “You’re right, Trix, I just need to calm down. But I just…” I turn around and look back at Twilight’s portrait. “...I have so much to handle with the School, and you, and just my life in general, and now I also need to make time for the Festival on top of everything else and I’m just not sure how I’m gonna handle it all…” I say, sitting down and looking down at my hooves. Trixie sighs, trotting up and sitting next to me, “You’re right. You do have a lot to handle, and you do it all so great! The School is running great, you’re keeping up with me and all your other not so great and powerful friends, and I get why this might be too much to handle on top of it all.” I droop my head with a sigh, as she chuckles, patting my head. “Which is why your greatest and most powerful friend, Trixie, is here to help!” She says as she stands up and pulls me up, throwing a hoof over my back. “You’re really gonna help me out with all this Trixie?” I meekly ask with a light smile. She laughs, throwing her head back a bit before tapping her other front hoof on my chest, “Of course! Who else deserves help more than you?” I sigh happily, “Thanks Trixie. You're a lifesaver.” She grins, “Eh, don't mention it. Alright now what’s first, Mini-Twilight?” I roll my eyes and use my magic to pop a scroll in and unravel it, “Well according to the list from Twilight, like the Summer Sun Celebration it seems that Sweet Apple Acres is handling the Catering and Food Prep.” Trixie laughs, “Well that’s obviously step one done! Why even check on it? No one can get it all done better and sooner then-... Uh, Apple… Apple-... Hat?” I sigh and back up with a smirk and teleport the scroll away, pointing at the Palace door, “We still gotta go check. Now let’s go Trixie, wouldn’t want to keep ‘Applehat’ waiting.” She trots past me with a smile, “I knew I got it right.” I groan and roll my eyes, smiling a bit. Trixie might be… Well, Trixie, but at least she is helping. And she does have a point, Applejack no doubt has the Food Prep handled. I trot down the castle steps, holding onto Trixie and teleporting us just outside Sweet Apple Acres. Trixie looks around, “Uh, Starlight? I think you missed the mark a bit.” I sigh, looking around at the apple trees with partially filled barrels around them, the barn visible in the distance. “No, Trixie, I did just fine.” I tell her, walking on past her, “I sent us just outside Sweet Apple Acres because Twilight told me about her first time in Ponyville. Whenever the Summer Sun Celebration, which is now the Festival I’m handling, the entire Apple Family likes bunking up at Sweet Apple Acres, so I didn’t really want to scare anypony.” “Well that was… A very specific description, but I’ll take it.” She says with a smile. We head up the hills along the path and after a while I can finally see Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. Okay maybe just a smidge too far. Trixie groans heavily, “You couldn’t have popped us in any closer?” She whines. I sigh rolling my eyes, “Too late now, Trixie, and it’s not like I can just pull Sweet Apple Acres any closer to us.” “Well it certainly isn’t an impossible feat.” An annoyingly familiar voice called out behind us. I turn around and peer up at Discord, floating and grinning down at us with a cheeky smile. I huff, “What is it, Discord?” I say, and he scoffs, dramatically offended. “Why, I can’t have a fun time and hang out with friends? I seem to recall a certain particularly purple pony saying once-” He snaps his fingers and suddenly he’s puppeting a tiny crude doll of me, “‘Discord and I are old ‘Save Equestria’ Buddies!’” He says with a very poor attempt at my voice, then stares at us with a grin on his face. He was about to say something else as I use magic to clamp his mouth shut. “Seriously Discord. What are you doing?” I ask with annoyed glare. He huffs, snapping his claw and transforming back into himself. “Fine. I’m here because her Royal Highness, the one and only ruler of allllllll of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle called me here to help you with the preparations.” Trixie groaned, “Well you can go back to Canterlot, and-” I cover her mouth with my hoof, “-Actually kind of helpful! Thanks, Discord.” He gives a bow, and Trixie shoves my hoof off her mouth, “Well since you're helping, mind getting us done with this sometime before the next moon?” He smirks, snapping his fingers and with a flash of white light we’re standing right outside the main entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. A blur of red and black zooms past us and Discord rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers, causing a black and red colt to tumble out speed and crash into Trixie and I. “Discord!” Trixie cries out and he huffs in annoyance. “I thought you wanted this to go faster?” He replies as I use magic to lift all three of us back up onto our hooves. “I’m sorry for our… friend. Are you okay?” The pegasus flies back up into the air, brushing himself off, “Yeah I’m fine! Hey wait… One of you mares wouldn’t happen to be Starlight Glimmer?” I clear my throat, “Uh yes, I’m Starlight. Why?” He grins, “Well because I’m supposed to tell ya how the food is turning out for the Festival! By the orders of my cousin AJ no less.” He says as he flits up into the air, slowly descending and then hovering in mid-air. I raise an eyebrow, “What do you mean, isn’t Applejack supposed to be telling me how it’s going? Where is she, anyway?” I ask as I look around. The pegasus slowly stopped flying and landed onto his hooves, “Er… She didn’t tell you?” I start getting really worried, “Tell me… What?” “She and her friends were all called by Princess Twilight! They’re all in Canterlot right about now.” He says, and in the corner of my eye I see both Trixie stare at me nervously and Discord hovering around with interest and a box of popcorn. I fought the urge to scream. The literal last thing I wanted him to say. I then took a deep inhale and exhale, “I’m- I’m fine. Let’s just finish up here and move on, mind showing us around Mister- Mister, uh…?” He bows a bit with his front legs, “Burnt Apple, but my friends call me ‘Ash’. Don’t worry about the name or my Cutie Mark, I’m almost as good at handling apples as Applejack, but then again nopony is as good as my cousin!” I tap my hoof to my chin, “Her cousin? I feel like I would’ve heard about you sooner…” He shakes his head, “Nah, I don’t come around too often seein’ as I'm from Appaloosa. And we aren’t directly cousins, as his pop Bright Mac and my mom Scarlet Apple were cousins, and-” Discord groans, “Ah yes, Apple this, Apple that, can we move things along? I want to get back to Canterlot and see Flutte-” I roll my eyes using magic to clamp his mouth shut yet again. “Don’t mind him, show us around!” I say with a semi-forced smile. Discord turns his bird claw into a fan and blows my magic off his face, “That’s rather rude, and after all the help I’ve given you in the past.” I roll my eyes ignoring him and follow behind Ash as we trots towards the main barn. After some time tasting all the many treats made by various members of the Apple Family, we left before we got too full or before Discord mentally or emotionally scarred one of the Apples… Or started bringing apples to life. Other than Big Mac, he really doesn’t have a great track record with Apples. I burped slightly and covered my mouth as we trotted down the dirt path, “Oh Celestia, that was a lot of food…” Trixie chuckled as she patted her stomach, “It was all super yummy, think we can maybe have more Festivals?” She says tapping her chin with her hoof. I roll my eyes with a smile, bumping her in the side, “No, Trix. We can’t-” “Wait up Miss Starlight!” I heard behind us as Ash ran up to us. “Ash, what is it?” I ask him, raising an eyebrow as I can see Discord snicker in the background. “I almost forgot to give this to ya!” He says as he holds out a scroll with his wing, and I grab it with magic. “Uh, thanks!” I say and he grins and gives a nod as he bursts off in a stream of red and black light back towards the barn. I give the scroll a once over and groan, “Ah great, another thing Discord could’ve just said sooner.” Discord chuckles, “Ooopsie.” He says sarcastically. Clearly Discord is up to something. I roll my eyes, “‘Since we’re all heading to Canterlot, Twilight asked me to make y’all a list of the new Festival team: You’ve no doubt already met mah cousin Burnt Apple, next up taking over Rarity’s decorations is a unicorn named Skai Shine.’” I tap my hoof to my chin, “Hm, never heard of them before.” Trixie laughs, “Now my Great and Powerful expertise comes in! I know him. Rarity is a master of designing and creating fashion, but Skai is a whole different playing field. When he isn’t making all kinds of bits and bobs from plush toys to cloth decor, he fixes and mends anything that can be handled with a sewing needle.” Discord laughs, “Oh so that’s where you go when a trick goes so poorly your cape goes up in flames.” Trixie snarls, “No… Maybe.” She ends with a slight blush. I groan, “Can you two stop arguing so we can just get to this ‘Skai’ in time?” Discord laughs heavily, “Your wish is my command Miss Glimmer!” He snaps his fingers and we burst off in a flash of white light before I could even get the chance to argue.
Chapter 2 - Festival Friends[Skai] I pull a sewing needle through navy blue cloth using my magic, finishing up the final seam on the banner. I set down the thread and needle, lifting up the twin banners and making sure there aren’t any mistakes or errors. I tap my chin, “Hm… Hey Rosegarden, do you think these look-” I look over and see her struggling with a spell, kneeling slightly and groaning heavily as her horn glows even brighter than ever before. I look around her at all the various floating instruments, still not sure how she even has the magic strength to lift all of them at once, much less play all of them at once. “Uh… Are you okay?” She sighs deeply as she lays down all the instruments, standing up straight and brushing off her coat. “Yeah, I’m fine, I just am having an oddly tough time with this spell. I’ve never done a musical spell like this before, and I’m kind of struggling.” I set down the banners, trotting up to her and patting her side, “To be fair, do you really need all of these instruments? I doubt Princess Twilight is going to mind something less than a Bridleway orchestra.” Rosegarden scoffs as she pats my head, “Skai, dear brother of mine, of course I have to have all these instruments. This is not only the first official Festival since Celestia and Luna left, but it’s also the first one in Ponyville. It absolutely has to be completely perfect for the Princess!” She trots over to the shop counter, “Speaking of… Oh wow!” She says as she lifts up the two banners I just finished, both modeled after the visage of the Royal Sisters and their Cutie Marks. “These are fantastic! And- Wait, is this even more?!” She looks behind the counter and sees the many banners I’ve made. “Maybe I went a bit overboard too.” I say with a chuckle and a blush as I tug on my neckerchief, “But since I’m done, maybe I can help you with your spell?” She sighs as she stands in the center of the room again, digging her hoof at the carpet, “You can try but I really have no clue what I’m getting wrong. I’m recounting the spell in my head, sending out my magic to the instruments, but nothing happens.” She says with an angry little stamp of her hoof. I tap my chin, “Hmm… Maybe it’s like a transfiguration spell? Like imaging the object, just with music instead?” I think aloud, tapping my hoof against the counter a bit. She turns around raising an eyebrow, “Wait- How do you know how transfiguration spells work?” I scoff and roll my eyes, “Well you leave your magic books everywhere and spout magic nonsense 24/7, so I pick up a thing or two. Now just focus.” I trot up and pat her side with my hoof, “I think how it works is you gotta imagine the music. The tempo, the beat, the melody, which instruments play when, when do some stop, when they start again, et cetera.” Rosegarden blinks a few times, staring at me in awe. “I- Wow. That’s- actually amazing. You know if you had a better control of your horn, you probably could-” She quickly quiets herself and covers her mouth with a hoof. I turn around and look down at my hooves, “Rose, you… You know I can’t. And you know why I don’t wanna practice using my horn, either.” I say dejectedly, going back behind the counter and stacking up the banners and boxes of decorating supplies with my magic. Rosegarden sighs and walks up to me, patting the back of my head, “Skai you’ve gotta try sooner or later. If you don’t try-” She’s cut off by a spark of magic behind us, and we both turn to see several creatures, all of whom I mostly recognize. “Discord! Can you stop doing that!?” The purple mare cries out. The one giving me the most worry was the draconequus in the center: Discord, the self proclaimed Lord of Chaos. He’s not only turned Ponyville upside down in recent years, but he’s also infamously ambiguous between good and evil, usually leaning on the chaotic good side. Then there’s Trixie, a seasonal customer of mine when she’s in Ponyville and a master of stage magic, as well as her best friend Starlight Glimmer, an overall kind and empathetic pony as well as the Headmare of the nearby School of Friendship. Starlight gallops up to me, “Uh yeah sorry for the intrusion. I’m assuming one of you is Skai Shine?” She says with a meek smile. I raise my eyebrow, “Uh… Why?” I say while nervously eyeing up the unnerving draconequus. Starlight steps in front of my view of Discord, “Well I’m Starlight Glimmer and I’m sent by Princess Twilight to oversee the decor of the Festival! How are they coming along?” I gasp with a grin, using my magic to lift up all the many banners and twirl them around her, “Fantastic! I was just about to head over to the Castle of Friendship and hand them over to the decorator, Crimson.” Trixie trots up, “And what's with all the instruments? There’s quite a lot of ‘em.” Rosegarden nervously laughs, “That’s for me! I’m handling the music which is coming along- er… Decently.” She says with a nervous smile, causing Starlight to grow a bit visibly unnerved. Trixie rushes in front of her, “We’ll uh get to that later! You said something about a decorator?!” She cries out with a nervous smile, her minty blue hair fraying a bit. I cleared my throat, “Uh, yeah, Crimson. She’s a newcomer here to Ponyville, but she has a surprisingly fantastic eye for decorating and interior design.” Trixie laughs nervously while patting Starlight’s head, who still looks a bit unnerved. “Great! Discord, get with the snapping!” She cries out as she turns her head back at the draconequus. He groans, “I thought I was explicitly told not to-” “DO IT!” Trixie angrily screams out at him while still softly patting Starlight’s head. He groans, visibly irritated, “Indecisive equines.” I yelp, “Wait you can’t forget all the banners and decorations and-!” It was too late, as a snap of his fingers and a burst of magic engulfed all of us in a flash of white. [Starlight] We popped in just outside Twilight’s old castle, and either by sheer luck or Discord just being nice, all the instruments as well as Skai’s custom made decorations popped in around us. I sigh in relief that presumably nothing got lost or forgotten, swinging my horn and tossing open the castle doors. Inside an earth pony mare is trotting around, seemingly planning things. I guess this ‘Crimson’ must’ve shown up while we were at Sweet Apple Acres… She turns around in surprise at us, and her coat pattern reminds me a bit of Ash, with the grey hooves and snout line, but her main coat is a deep red with an amber mane and bright orange eyes. She runs up to us, “Oh hi! Can I-” She then gasps deeply, her eyes practically twinkling, “Oh. My. STARS! Are you THE Starlight Glimmer?!” She says, her muzzle practically right against mine. I step back nervously, “Uh… Y-yes? Do I… Know you?” I ask, confused and somewhat nervous. She gives a loud laugh and then snorts, “As if! I mean, I WISH but it makes sense you don’t, most of my kind hasn’t ever met you personally.” I raise an eyebrow, “Your… kind? Aren’t you a pony?” She snorts again, “About that….” In a swirl of bright orange light a little amber and red Changeling appears. She gives me a massive, semi-fanged, grin. My eyes widen, “Oh! Sorry, duh, that makes so much sense.” She giggles with yet another snort, “Once again, makes sense. Most of us have never met you personally, but you’re like a Changeling celebrity. Thanks to you, King Thorax, and your friends, you freed us all from the ways of Queen Chrysalis! As you can guess, things are much better for us nowadays.” Discord scoffs as he teleports between us, “Just her friends?! Not the all-powerful Lord of Chaos? The One and Only Draconequus in Equestria?” Both of us just stare at Discord and he sighs, “Fine. You may resume.” He says as he teleports back to the front with Trixie and the others while Skai and Rosegarden sort out their various supplies. I tap my chin, “Hm, I don’t really remember about any Changelings living away from the Hive, other than Ocellus at the School of Friendship of course.” She nods, “It’s something very new! With such positive input from Ocellus, Princess Twilight and King Thorax have recently established ‘The Equestrian-Changeling Exchange’ where a volunteer Changeling, me, moves to Equestria and a volunteer Pony moves to the Hive.” She says with a smile, and I tap my chin again. “I think I might’ve seen a letter like that on my desk… I'm sorry, running a School is a bit new so I’m still working on organizing myself. Anyway, I’m glad you're here and that things are working out!” She nods with a smile, “And the planning for the decor is coming along great, just waiting on- Oh nevermind, he’s here!” Skai trots up with a nervous smile, “Yep! Got them all right here!” He levitates all the boxes and banners around her as she smiles with a light sigh. “Ah, these are all so lovely! Yes, yes, these will all do perfectly!” She says with a big grin, twirling many different banners and streamers around her with a thin orange glow around her Changeling horn. I nervously laugh, “Er, so, the decorations will be done by tonight? With not only all of Ponyville but also ponies from all over Equestria and Princess Twilight-” Crimson shakes her hoof at me, “Don’t worry a hair on your curly mane, it’ll all be done by tonight!” She turns around lifting up the boxes and banners with Skai and leading him onward to the main event hall. I sigh and hear Trixie huff behind me as she walks up, “Discord is finally gone. Thank Celestia for that.” She sighs as she trots up to me, using magic to pull numerous banana peels off herself. She then eyes me up, “What’s wrong, Starlight? Those ponies have everything handled and you don’t gotta worry about anything. Yay?” I sigh with a light smile, “Well yeah, but… I’ve still got a bad feeling something is gonna go terribly wrong…” Trixie sighs, patting my back, “Hey, it’s all gonna be fine. Twilight should be here anytime, so why don’t-” In a burst of purple magic, Twilight pops in front of us. “Alright just gotta take care of this, and-” She then darts her eyes over to us, “Oh! Hey girls! Did you guys get everything taken care of?” She asks before looking at the other ponies and Changeling carrying a myriad of instruments and decorations. “I guess so!” She says, grinning and turning back to us, “Sorry for such short notice changes, but there was an emergency in Canterlot to take care of.” Trixie looks around, “Where are the other ones? Don’t you usually bring your ‘besties’ everywhere with you?” Twilight shakes her head, “No, they’re still in Canterlot. I’m actually heading right back once I’m done with the moonset and sunrise. Now everypony, follow me and let's get to the Event Hall!” She calls out as the others trot behind her as they head down the halls.
Chapter 3 - Butterfly Effect[Starlight] I sigh as I give my mane one last brush before setting it back down, walking past my mirror. I smile as I look at all my friends, and I realise Twilight was right: It is pretty great to look over at my friends all the time. I hurry out of my room, turning around to shut my door with magic and turning back to find myself muzzle against muzzle with Trixie. I push her back slightly, “Trixie! What’re you doing up here? Shouldn’t you be down in the hall to find us a good seat at the viewing for the Sunrise and Moonset?” She nervously trots in place a bit as she peeks down both ways of the hallway, “Starlight, don’t you think Twilight has been a bit strange since back from Canterlot? Why wouldn’t she have brought her friends with her?” I roll my eyes with a groan, “Trixie if you’re once again worried that something is up with Twilight, just don’t. I tested her with every spell in the book, and nopony has magic powerful enough to block me out from being able to know for sure if it’s really her or not, even just a hint of concern would’ve set me off.” Trixie bites her lip, “I just have a really bad feeling. Maybe we should just watch from outside, or maybe-” I quickly walk and hug Trixie with a soft sigh, “Look Trix. Twilight’s only here for the sunrise and moonset part of the Festival, and then she’s heading right back to Canterlot afterwards. It’s not like I drag you out of town whenever I head to some random corner of Equestria for a day or two. If you don’t trust her, then just trust me?” I say as I back up with a hopeful smile. She thinks for a moment and then groans heavily, “Fiiiiine. But if something goes wrong, I get to tell you I told you so.” She says with a light smile as she starts trotting ahead of me, and I sigh as I trot behind her. She’s just worried over nothing. I checked everything, and there is absolutely nothing that could be wrong. Everything is gonna be fine, especially now that the master of perfection herself is here. We make it down the main staircase, making our way down the light up pathways for the incoming crowds and find ourselves outside the massive doors for the Event Hall. Already the main standing area is crowded with ponies from the stage all the way to the door. With a large stage, alcoves in the wall both for ponies to sit in and to hang banners from, and lastly the large round skylight with Twilight’s cutie mark in the ceiling, this was the only logical place to have the event take place. Trixie groans heavily, trying to squeeze past the crowd to no avail. “Greeeeat… Maybe you were right, and I should’ve gotten us those seats after all...” She says looking down dejectedly. I roll my eyes with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I had a backup plan.” I lean in close and then teleport us behind the main stage curtains, peeking out and looking at the large crowd of ponies of all kinds from all over Equestria, with a couple other creatures sprinkled in here and there, as well as the student group from Twilight’s School that helped save it and Equestria from Cozy Glow. I hear a yelp behind me, and I turn to find a startled Rosegarden Shine, clearly not having seen us here a minute ago and suddenly standing here. She groans in annoyance, slamming her hoof against her forehead, “Can everypony just stop teleporting in front of me or around me, or maybe just in general?!” I grin nervously, “Yeah, sorry Rosegarden. How’s the music coming along?” I ask as I rub my front left leg with my right hoof. She lifts up the instruments with red magic and floats them all around, “Fairly good. I’m just about to get started in fact, so if you don’t mind me…” She canters past us and stands just behind the curtains, her horn glowing bright as she begins to play a very grand, orchestral melody. I’m impressed she managed to master that spell, I’ve never been able to get it that great. Maybe it’s just that I’m just not a very musically talented pony in general, better to leave that kind of thing to more experienced ponies like the violinist Octavia or DJ-Pon3. I hear a laugh behind us, “Oh there you girls are! Starlight, Trixie, how are you two doing?” Twilight says with a smile. Trixie narrows her eyes at Twilight as we turn around, growling as she steps behind me. I laugh nervously as I brush my neck with my hoof, “Oh yeah just fine! Don’t mind her, she’s just a bit…” I think for a moment, “...Trixie, today.” Twilight laughs, “Well I haven’t exactly been myself today either. Sorry I won’t be able to stay long, I gotta get back to Canterlot to take care of a few more things with the girls.” I look around a bit, “Speaking of heading back to Canterlot, is that what Discord did? I haven’t really seen him around since I left to get ready earlier, and he isn’t really the one to… You know, stop.” Twilight shrugs, “You know how Discord is. He could be halfway across the world or right behind you, and neither of us would know.” I laugh a bit, “Yeah, that’s true. Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you busy before the big show. Good luck!” She smiles and gives me a hug, “Thanks, Starlight. I’ll do my best to put on a great show for you guys.” She says with a wink as she trots off. She then waves at Rosegarden, who begins playing triumphant music as Twilight steps out onto the main stage. I turn around as Twilight begins her speech, “See Trixie? Nothing to worry about.” Trixie mumbles a bit, and I raise my eyebrow. “What did you say?” I ask while holding my hoof up to my ear. She groans heavily, “Fine! I was wrong and you were right! Are you happy?” I groan, patting her back, “That was never my point. Look, let’s just focus on the Festival and the very beautiful sunrise, hm?” She rolls her eyes with a ‘hmph’ as we peek our heads out of the curtains and listen in to Twilight’s speech. “...and last but not least, I’d like to thank both all of my past students, as well as my first student, Starlight Glimmer. She’s taken over my School for me, and taken charge of teaching far and wide the magic of Friendship, and for that, I’m very grateful.” She says with a smile as everypony starts to clap their hooves. She uses magic to summon the pendant Celestia and Luna gave her to control the sun and moon, “And now, everpony, without further ado…” She lifts it up high in the air as everypony watches in awe…. Except nothing happens. The crowd begins to murmur as Trixie and I look at each other with equally concerned looks. Twilight then begins to laugh menacingly, which is never a good sign. “...Hm? Do you all like that? Waiting? Do you all enjoy how it feels? Because I have had to wait for this day for far too long… To finally have my revenge on ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle’ and her stupid friends and her stupid student!” She cries out as she whips around and looks directly at me, teleporting the pendant away and gripping me with magic, flinging me right over the stage as everypony begins crying out in fear, shock and surprise. “You.” She snarls out, her eyes turning a deep violet with dragon-like pupils, reminiscent of Nightmare Moon or that Daybreaker I dreamt up. “You’re just as guilty as Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her annoying friends.” She says, as the curtains begin to burn away in purple flames, revealing Twilight and her friends all encased in stone statues, even Discord. I glare down at ‘Twilight’, “Who in Equestria are you? Because I can clearly tell you’re not Princess Twilight!” The figure scoffs, “Of course I’m not ‘Her royal highness Princess Twilight Sparkle!’ Bleh. I am here to help take vengeance for the common filly and foal, and the last thing I want is ponies like her or you in charge.” She says as she tosses me back against the backstage wall, and I groan in pain. As she walks up to me, a swirl of purple flames soar around her, revealing a dark pink and grey pony with a long, sharp horn, swirling and flowing black curls and black and purple armor, with a matching purple amulet on the front. She grins with sharp teeth as she taps her cheek and looks down at her other front hoof, “Ah yes… That’s much better…” She then walks up to me, using her magic to lift me up and pin me against the wall. “Hm… Should I turn you to stone like the rest of your friends? Or should I get creative with how to torment you? Make you really pay for what you’ve done…” I glare at her as I attempt to blast her with magic, which she deflects with a force field spell. “Who even are you?! What did Twilight or I ever do to you?!” I cry out angrily, as she pins me harder against the wall, causing me to groan slightly in pain. She laughs, “You really don’t recall? I suppose the messes you make really aren’t that big of an issue for you, are they?” She snarls out before blasting me with magic, causing me to blackout. [Rosegarden] I watch in fear and terror as Starlight is slammed against a wall and then zapped with magic, inevitably falling unconscious. I narrow my eyes at the mare, dropping the instruments and lighting up my horn, quickly trying to think up any of the combat spells I’ve learned. She notices, turning with a devilish smile, “Awe, well isn’t that adorable. No offense, but I think you were more entertaining as a musician.” She zaps me with some spell, causing my horn to act on its own, lifting up all the instruments and playing a dark symphonic melody. I try to stop, but my horn just wouldn’t respond to my own commands. In the background, I notice a group of pegasi fly up as the crowd begins charging up numerous different spells. The evil mare sighs, “Oh it’s so sad how many of you are clinging to this false story the royalty and the ‘heroes’ have told you…” She charges up her horn, sending out a shockwave of dark pink magic and knocking down the entire crowd, also knocking the pegasi out of the sky. I feel my magic finally fade as all of the instruments quickly and suddenly drop with a crash on the stage floor. I groan as I fall over, struggling to keep myself up and staying coherent. The mare trots onto center stage, “All of the ponies you call heroes… All of them have made terrible mistakes and caused permanent and irreparable damage, that none of them have ever cared to look back on and fix. Luckily those days are over, and you can take comfort knowing a pony who cares not for these filthy mistakes is in charge. My name is Onyx Moonshade, but you can all call me your Queen.” She grins, baring her fangs and her eyes glowing bright with power. She turns around, lighting up her horn as she slowly trots towards Starlight, “And now watch as I correct yet another mistake of the ‘heroes’ of old…” She readies to do Celestia knows what to her before Trixie begins screaming in an incoherent rage, leaping on top of Onyx, who begins yelling, “GET OFF OF ME YOU NOISY PEST!” She grabs Trixie by the tip of her tail with magic, ripping her off and smiling as she recognizes her, “Ah, look what I have here… Starlight Glimmer’s little ‘friend’. What a nice catch I’ve made today… Did you honestly think you can stop me by yourself?” “Good thing she isn’t alone!” I hear my brother yell out as I turn around to see Skai, Crimson and Burnt Apple. “None of us are gonna stand by as you attack whoever you want!” Burnt Apple yells out at her. Onyx laughs as she throws Trixie against the wall above Starlight, causing her to yelp in pain but she quickly stands back up weakly. “Oh and how are you going to stop me? You’ll be too busy attacking your friends!” She cries out as she zaps Skai with a spell, presumably the same one as she blasted me with as suddenly she inexplicably causes a blast of electrical energy from both her own horn and Skai’s. Skai quickly shakes his head with a light grin, “Luckily for us, I can’t do magic. Unfortunately for you, it seems my magical backfire affects you too when you try that!” He says as they all run up to us, Skai helping me up as we walk over to Trixie and Starlight. Onyx shakes her head, her eyes quickly beaming on us with her ominous purple glow. “Little pests. Clever and unique as you may be, I can just handle you all the old fashioned way.” Her horn begins to glow and we close our eyes and huddle close, prepared for the worst. At least I thought so until I hear Trixie scream: “TELEPORT!” And then all of a sudden, we’re gone in a pink flash.
Chapter 4 - Low Morale[Skai] In a bright flash of pink, suddenly we’re out of the castle and in the middle of the forest. And, by the look of the sky above and the types of trees and plants around, we’re in none other than the Everfree forest. So, in a rush, Trixie must’ve teleported us out of the castle. Great! Outside in the middle of the Everfree forest, one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. Not as great. I groggily shake my head and hop up onto my hooves, looking around at the others, who all seem pretty upset. I sigh, brushing myself off, “Is everypony okay?” Rosegarden shakes her head with a heavy sigh, “I still don’t know what just all happened. Who even was that mare? Where did she even come from? How could she even defeat the Princesses and her friends? Or Discord?” She says as she brushes off her red coat, which is now slightly caked in mud and dirt. Burnt Apple groans and rolls his eyes, “As if that matters now! We gotta find our way back to the Castle, come up with a plan and stop her!” He says bumping his front hooves together as he lowers down to the ground. Crimson slumps against a tree, covering her face with her hooves, “We can’t just go back! We barely managed to get out! We shouldn’t just risk everything and put ourselves right back into that!” I hear a groan, and I turn to see Starlight trying to stand up, “We have to…” Starlight says as she continues struggling to stand up, as Trixie tries to help her up. “Starlight, no, you need to rest! I’m not a doctor or anything, but I’ve messed up enough tricks to know you’re definitely hurt!” Trixie says, rubbing her head, using magic to summon her iconic magician cloak and wrapping it around her. Starlight shakes her head, pushing Trixie back and tugging the cloak off, “No I’m okay… We have to find a way to stop Onyx, because she was able to turn not just Twilight and her friends, but also Discord to stone. She just managed to beat the most powerful ponies, and creature, in Equestria!” I sigh, walking up to her and patting her head, “Starlight, Trixie is right, it’s not gonna help anypony if you’re not resting up. Trying right now isn’t-” “But we have to try!” She cries out, pushing past me, “We can’t just give up when things seem tough! Twilight wouldn’t stop against her countless enemies, Celestia wouldn’t stop against Discord or Nightmare Moon, everypony strong enough to be a hero wouldn’t stop trying! If I had stopped when Chrysalis took the Princesses, the Changelings wouldn’t have found their true way, and Equestria would’ve been doomed!” She says, sitting down and planting her hooves against her face. Trixie shakes her head, patting Starlight’s side, “Look, Starlight, just rest! Besides, it’s not like there’s somewhere for us to go.” Starlight thinks on that for a moment, and then gasps as she jumps up and then winces in pain, “Ow...Except there is! I have an idea, everyone just gather close.” She says as we all huddle up with Starlight. She begins to strain as her horn lights up, and in a flash of bright purple we’re suddenly teleported outside some massive treehouse with blue crystals, with massive tufts of pink crystals shaped like leaves. Everyone gasps in awe, and I look around, “Uh… So what exactly is this?” Looking around at the massive treehouse, surrounded by what appears to be an old decrepit castle. Starlight trots in front of the group, waving her hooves around, “Welcome to the, uh, Treehouse of Harmony! It’s no doubt the safest place in all of Equestria. Not only is it hidden behind the Everfree forest, but it’s also got some kind of mystical ‘Spirit of Harmony’ protecting it.” She says with a smile, as swirls of light dance around behind her, slowly twirling upward. She notices everpony staring in awe, as she laughs, “Pfft, come on everyone I haven’t even seem this ‘Spirit’ before, but from what I’ve heard there’s nothing to be scared of.” All of us keep staring in awe causing her to turn around with a gasp. She backs up, watching with the rest of us as the light forms a vague outline of a pony, made of pure white light, specks of multicolored specks of light dancing around it. “Fear not, dear friends. I mean no harm to you.” It says. Starlight gasps as her eyes widen, “Wait… No way, are you… The Spirit of Harmony? I thought the students described you as some sort of ethereal version of Twilight?” The Spirit tilts its head, “The form they met was the first of many. I am the Spirit you speak of, and the one you didn’t know you were seeking. I am the same Spirit, yes, but the next incarnation. As the Tree of Harmony evolved into this Treehouse to protect the friendships across Equestria, I evolved as well. As Equestria and it’s needs change, as do I and what I provide. And what it now needs are new attributes to strive for, new Elements, new Pillars, a new group to spread the Light, the Hope, the Harmony.” It looks around, as if to study us. “You’re all nearly ready. You’re just missing your final piece, the last light to shine, the last Element of your Harmony.” Starlight shakes her head, “I-I don’t understand, what do you mean?” The Spirit’s light disperses, melting out into six orbs of white light, floating upward and twirling in the air. “Like with the Pillars of Equestria and the Elements of Harmony, six attributes, six heroes, six Elements. Courage, Empathy, Sympathy, Optimism, Harmony...” The Spirit says, all around us in a disembodied voice,“But like before, there are only Five true among you. Find your sixth, your Balance, your Trust, your Truth. You must find your sixth, for all of Equestria and the many lands beyond hangs in the balance.” As it finishes speaking, the light disappears, forming six different grey pearls, slowly twirling down and laying down on the stone ground. Burnt Apple clears his throat, “So uh… What in the name of Celestia’s famous pancakes just happened?” Starlight lifts up the orbs with magic, seemingly studying them. “Hmm...I’m… Not entirely sure. But I think… I think this is some kind of passing the torch.” We all look at each other confused. She turns and looks around at the rest of us, “I think we’re the new spirits of the Elements, like how Twilight and her friends became when Nightmare Moon attacked during the Summer Sun Celebration all those years ago...” Rosegarden just stifles a laugh, “Uh, that’s funny. Great, yeah totally, but um… Not to be rude to anypony here, but we’re not exactly the best shining examples of being ponies. Besides, who exactly is supposed to be each Element? Do we do little acts of kindness? Make our friends laugh? Be honest?” I wish I could argue, but she has a point. It’s a bit of a stretch. Not to mention I’m not exactly the kind of pony most would look up to. Starlight shakes her head, tapping her chin, “No, I don’t think it’s like before… the Spirit really highlighted some of it’s words… ‘Courage, Empathy, Sympathy, Optimism, Harmony’... But it’s only five, and it said one was missing, and that we gotta find it.” Trixie scoffs, “Uh, not to break the mood, but there are already six of us here. Unless maybe it’s supposed to only include ponies.” Trixie points out at Crimson, causing her to back up and shift into her pony disguise. Burnt Apple scoffs, “Or maybe it’s talking about the worst, most inconsiderate pony here. ‘The Great and Stuck Up Trixie’!” Trixie scoffs, “How dare you! I-” “Everyone just stop!” Starlight yells out. She sighs, turning around and levitating the pearls, “We need a plan to stop her. And maybe if we knew what she wanted, or why, we could maybe stop her, but without knowing we’ll have to figure out some other way to-” “Wait!… Maybe we can find out why!” Rosegarden says with a gleam in her eyes. Everyone turns to her, and I clear my throat, “Uh, sis, what do you mean?” She sighs, “I think we can find out what’s wrong with her, why she’s so upset as to do all this. There’s a spell I was studying, and it searches the mind of the pony to find what’s upsetting them. Usually it’s just for small situations and therapeutic type things, but I think it can help us here and now figure out why Onyx is doing all this and maybe we can use it to stop her.” She says as she massages her chin with her hoof. Starlight grins, “Great! After a few, um… Mistakes with mind control, I stopped studying magic that dealt with ponies minds like that. What do we need for this spell?” Rosegarden strains as her horn flickers and summons a book, as she quickly flips through it, “Aha! We don’t need much, but there is one possible issue.” Trixie groans, “And that would be…?” She says with a raised eyebrow. “We need something of importance to her, something that could be considered a focus for her energy, a focus for her essence so to speak, something she’d think about a lot and very intensely.” Rosegarden says as she taps the book. Trixie groans, “Well great! We have no idea who she is, so finding that will be so-” Starlight covers Trixie’s mouth with her hoof. “What about me? If you use the spell on me, it could work. She seemed… Pretty eager to make an example out of me, making kind of a big show out of knocking me down.” She says, and I do recall how harshly she looked at and talked to Starlight. Rosegarden flips a few more pages, “I mean… In theory it could work, but if we use the spell like that, you’d be the only one who could go in.” Starlight nods, “It’s the best we have, so I say we get started. What’s the first step?” After a couple of minutes using a stick to dig a spell circle in the mud outside the decrepit castle, Starlight stands in the center. Rosegarden has Trixie look over the spell one more time, being the only Unicorn left with enough magic strength to cast it. “Do you think you have it fully down now Trixie? We wouldn’t want to trap Starlight’s psyche in a mental Limbo.” Starlight grows very nervous at that as Trixie laughs, “Of course! So I just think of those words, big mean queenie’s face, and then zap the circle?” Rosegarden nods and she turns to Starlight, “Are you ready?” Starlight gives an unnerved nod with a nervous smile as Rosegarden nods to Trixie. Trixie takes a deep breath, her horn lighting up as she cries out, “Doin’ magiiiiiic!” She says as she zaps the circle, causing Starlight to visibly, but calmly, panic. The circle lights up, swirling around Starlight as she begins to float into the air, the air curling around her like mist as it flows into her eyes, causing them to glow white. [Starlight] I look around, seeing nothing but endless white light. Until finally I see a stream of green, swirling around with circles of stars and clock symbols with a loud ticking coming from all directions. Oh no… I think to myself for a moment before tumbling out of the Time Portal. I didn’t really ever want to think about any of this again. I land down on the clouds, looking up and seeing my past self arguing with Twilight, partially tearing up Starswirl’s scroll. I sigh, turning around and finding myself muzzle to muzzle with a pegasus stallion looking up and watching the two of us. Suddenly, the rainboom shoots outward, and the Time Portal opens up, sucking Twilight and I back to the present- er the previous present? Time travel is weird. As the portal closes, a boom of magical energy surges out and the scroll floats down and lands next to the pegasus, who lifts it up and reads it a bit. He was about to talk to himself when suddenly everything freezes. “How cute.” I gasp as I turn around to the voice, seeing Onyx’s sharp horn tear through the world, clawing her way in. “You really thought you could enter mymind and I wouldn’t notice?” She looks around, “Awe... How sweet. Trying to figure out how I could have ever grown to be such an ‘evil villain’?” I narrow my eyes at her, “You say that like you aren’t. You just took over Equestria, turned the Princess and all her friends into stone! How are we-” She runs up to me, “You ARE terrible. Each and every one of you.” I tumble onto my back, looking up as she towers over me. I get an up close look at the pendant on her chest, which seems very familiar, something Trixie told me about. She lifts up my chin with her hoof, “It’s irritating how you're still too inept to figure out the damage of your own causing. But if you must know…” She trots over and past me, looking down at the distant ground below the clouds, “My father witnessed the confrontation between you and Twilight. He told my mother, who thought nothing of it until Twilight’s coronation. And then you became Twilight’s very own student. She became obsessed with figuring out how it was all possible, and it eventually grew too much of a strain on our family and my father left her, and took me with him.” She sighs, grabbing a piece of cloud with her hoof, “I never did see my mother again, not even after the destruction of Canterlot Castle during the Fight for Equestria, when he got injured and I eventually lost him.” She says, sitting on the edge of the cloud, looking down with a blank look in her eyes, shifting away from the dragon-slitted purple eyes to a tame light grey as the cloud in her hoof blows away. I stand up, walking up to her and sighing, “I’m sorry that all happened. But you can’t just do all this just for-” She knocks me back and snarls, “I lost both of my parents because of you and Twilight Sparkle and all her annoying ‘friends’ and allies. Without you, my father might still be around and my mother wouldn’t have become OBSESSED with finding out how you did it. But you didn’t care, did you? No, you didn’t even KNOW. Because that’s all you all do. You make messes, and never care about the consequences.” I try to back up as she knocks me down, “The Pillars pushed out Stygian, and he caused untold damage as the Pony of Shadows. Celestia pushed out her own sister, and she pretended LUNA was the reason she had to be banished for a thousand years. And YOU…” She walks up and knocks me down again, her eyes glowing with both hatred and power. “YOU nearly destroyed all of Equestria for a petty grievance with Twilight and her friends. How are YOU any better? As a matter of fact, you’re WORSE. And that’s why I want you to suffer SO MUCH more. So come, attack me, ‘befriend me’, whatever you wish to try. But you won’t win. And I will watch with GLEE as you all fall.” Her horn blasts out a shockwave, clearing away the clouds as I fall down to the ground, about to land down painfully as I suddenly am knocked into the white nothingness again. And then, quite suddenly, I tumble out of the white onto the real ground, getting slightly caked in mud in the process. Everypony runs up to me, Trixie being the one to reach out and pull me up, “Are you okay?! Did it work?” Trixie asks anxiously. I cough, “It… It worked. And I know exactly why she hates me, but I don’t know how that’s gonna help us stop her.” I think, trying to figure out some kind of way to help her as I brush the mud off of me. Skai clears his throat, “So… What’s our plan?” I look down at the six pearls, and I feel a surge of lightning course through me. “I think I know exactly what we need to do… But I’m going to need you all to trust me, because this is gonna sound weird.” They all look pretty concerned as I say that, but I turn around, levitating the pearls. There’s only one way this all ends, and it’s going to happen one way or another whether Onyx wants to accept it or not.
