Starting Your Questby ArDeeChapters1 // Makes Ya Feel Stressed2 // The Ruins of Friendship3 // Heart to Heart4 // Power Overwhelming5 // Evolution & Acceptance1 // Makes Ya Feel StressedThe following morning after their wonderful night together, Izzy was the first of the pair to awaken. The sharp notes of birdsong roused her at first, and as she began to stir, the shine of sunlight through the window did its job of waking her the rest of the way up, despite her soft groans of protest as she shielded her eyes with a forehoof. A hazy lethargy filled her, far beyond that of ordinary morning grogginess; a full-body ache that made every movement she made a trembling struggle that sent numb tingles through her limbs, no doubt a reminder of last night's blissful activities with her friend-turned-lover. For being a first-timer, she sure had gone all out to rock her world... Said friend-turned-lover was draped peacefully across her chest, Izzy's hoof holding her close beneath the covers. A wide smile graced Sunny's sleeping muzzle as her soft breaths added to the gentle symphony of a crisp summer morning. Izzy felt like she never wanted to leave such a perfect moment behind...but much like Sunny yesterday morning, there were things she had planned for today. Important things - not for the future of Equestria or anything (well, probably not...she hoped) but personal ones...which made them even more important! If she and Sunny were going to be an item from now on - her father had a right to know. E-err. Well. Not technically her father, but...the closest thing she had to one, at any rate. "Sunny-bun...it's another beautiful day in Equestria...wake up, sweetie~" Izzy singsonged softly, nuzzling down into Sunny's mane as the smaller mare began to stir atop her. The unicorn's eyes widened as her earth-pony sweetheart caught her off guard, tipping her head back as she captured the unicorn's lips in a surprise half-upside-down kiss. It was left chaste, rather than anything provocative or intense - an adorably impulsive reminder of the love they'd shared with one another...not that either of them would be forgetting for a while, after all of the firsts they'd now shared. But any excuse to kiss was nice, all the same. "Mmh...beautiful because you're in it, Izz..." Sunny complimented groggily, effortlessly alighting Izzy's face in a blush as the other mare's horn alit, bashfully twirling a strand of her own gorgeous sapphire mane in her magic. "Heehee~! You really know how to make a mare feel special, Sunny-bun! You sure you're new to this?" Izzy shot back, giggling playfully. "Well, about as new as magic is to today's Equestria..." she trailed off, a worried aside glance souring her mood as thoughts of less-understanding ponies barged in and muddled her good vibes. Sensing her marefriend's dourly drifting mind, Izzy brightened up as she sense her opportunity. "Speakin' of once-separated Equestrians, whatcha say we pop down to Bridlewood for the day? I've got some unicycled stuff I wanna bring over and some ponies back there to talk to. Considering I'm gonna be living here with you, I might as well make the lighthouse even more of a home for myself!" "Heh, more of a home?" Sunny inquired, cocking an eyebrow up at Izzy's smirking face. "Well, yeah! Because wherever you are is home to me, Sunny. Duuuh~" Izzy opined as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Her carefree grin shifted into a soft smile as a single tear rolled down Sunny's cheek. "N-now who's making who feel special, huh?" The earth mare croaked out, voice trembling with emotion as she felt what must've been her "sparkle," shining brilliantly from within like a hot-burning star. "I love you, Izzy." "I love you too, sun to my moon~! C'mon, let's get ready to go." It was one thing to visit the droll, lifeless village that Bridlewood had been without magic. It was another thing entirely to see it restored to its vibrant, shimmering, sparkling self, thanks to the efforts of herself and her friends. It seemed she wasn't the only tourist - already she could see other earth ponies and pegasi slowly ambling around the place, gazing open-mouthed at each sparkling crystal and glittering leaf as the sheer beauty utterly captivated them, much like Sunny herself had been. "Soooo. Bridlewood's looking...a lot more cheerful than last time..." Sunny noted breathlessly, smiling bashfully and waving whenever a passing unicorn cheerfully recognized her as the one who'd returned their home to its former glory. "No kidding! I've never seen this much sparkle in one place...it's overwhelming..." It seemed that not even Izzy was immune to the effects of a reinvigorated Bridlewood...at least if the way she'd been tottering around in a starry-eyed daze, investigating every glowing crystal and sparkling leaf that caught her fancy, was any indication. It might've had something to do with that unique sparkle-seeing talent of hers - without magic, it must've been not too much to deal with, but now that the magic of everything had returned, all at once... Hurriedly guiding Izzy towards the cafe before the poor dear collapsed to the street in a daze, the two of them stepped through the doorway - and were greeted by a place so different from what they knew, it was almost comical. Peals of laughter, the thrum of conversation, and an overpowering aura of energy rattled the establishment from wall to wall, ponies of all three kinds engaging in drinking, socializing, and other merriments as a crowd cheered, encircling the Just Prance machine that had been set up as a permanent fixture against one wall - this time magically-motivated, rather than using those overworked little armadillos. It was a stark transformation from the muted, saloon-like atmosphere of their previous visit, but with magic returned it made sense - who could stay mad after getting their magic back, for ponies' sake? As the entry doors creaked shut behind them, some curious ponies glanced over to investigate the new arrivals - chief among them, the bartender himself. Fresh bouts of excited chatter filled the establishment as the gossip spread like a wave, all eyes turning to them...like something out of a horror movie...! "WELCOME, HEROES!" The crowd roared, laughing uproariously among themselves at the slack-jawed expressions on the two mares' faces as each pony returned to what they were doing before. From amongst the throng, a vast, familiar shape began jostling its way through them, leaping from the crowd and sweeping up both of them in a bone-creaking hug before either of them could even react. "Izzy! Sunny! Glad to see you two come by," Alphabittle greeted warmly, releasing them from his enthusiastic glomping before either mare could accidentally pass out, "I can't thank the two of you, and those other three friends of yours, enough. It's done more for this town than I ever have." Alphabittle said with a bitter, self-chastising edge to his voice as he glanced at the surrounding patrons. "Aww, c'mon, you know that's not true, daddy..." Izzy whined as she softly guided Alpha's gaze to her with her forehoof, "You gave everyunicorn a way to keep going, even when times just kept gettin' more depressing. That definitely counts for something, I'd say!" she reassured cheerfully, giving him a playful salute. "Y'know, ordinarily I'd get mad at you calling me "daddy" during business hours, but..." Alpha trailed off, glancing meaningfully around at the cheery, carefree ponies around him before continuing, "I don't really have to uphold that "tough guy" image anymore, haha! No thanks to you!" He belly-laughed as he tussled Izzy's mane. "Something told me taking you in was the right choice, kiddo. I'm glad I was right! Ahahahaha!" Izzy wriggled her way out of the noogie her paternal figure had begun giving her, scoffing playfully as she adjusted her mane with her magic, making a show of putting everything back how it'd been before. "Dad, c'mon...not in front of Sunny..." she whined plaintively, rolling her eyes like a bratty filly. Giving the earth-pony mare a furtive glance, his eyebrow rose as she began to get shifty-eyed and blush beneath his scrutiny. "Mmh...I don't think she minds," Alpha said smoothly, grinning smugly at his daughter. "But that's enough out of me. I'm guessing the two of you aren't just here on a friendly post-reunification visit?" Izzy winced, "Darn, was I really that obvious?" she bemoaned, scuffing her hoof against the floor as her bracelet rattled. "You forget you're a terrible liar, Izzy. Your tail hasn't stopped twitching since you came in here..." he observed, gesturing to Izzy's rear end - sure enough, her flowing sapphire tail flicked as he pointed at it. "So what is it, hun?" His eyebrows knit as Izzy gestured for him to bend down, and she put her hoof next to her mouth as she whispered in his ear. Sunny watched the way his eyes widened in surprise, finding herself wondering what she was telling him - before she got her answer as his eyes narrowed dangerously when they focused on her. As Izzy pulled away from her father's ear, he cleared his throat imperiously. "Sunny, from everything I know about you, I'm sure you're a wonderful mare. But so is Izzy - as I'm sure you know from traveling with her. It's because of how wonderful my darling daughter is that I'm not just going to let her get swept off her hooves by the first non-unicorn she's ever met. You're going to have to prove yourself to me, got it?" Alpha said sternly, his attention squarely focused on the tense, nervously-sweating Sunny as she trembled under his gaze. "Alphaaa, I am NOT a little filly anymore~! I'm a grown mare, I know what I'm doing! Sunny, c'mon, tell him I know what I'm doing!" Izzy exclaimed, pouting in annoyance as she made puppy-dog eyes at her foster father. "Izzy, it's alright! Really. If doing this “test" is what it takes to get the only family you've got to accept us, I'll do whatever I have to." she said with an ironclad conviction, not wanting to jeopardize Alpha and Izzy's relationship as she accepted his terms without argument. "Hah! I wouldn't expect anything less from the mare who saved Equestria. You two, come with me. It's best if we discuss the terms of this deal someplace more...private." Inclining his head to indicate his surroundings, the three of them glanced around surreptitiously at the other ponies in the room...every single one of whom was staring wide-eyed with ears tilted forward. Even the Just Prance players had stopped to stare... "The hay are you all looking at? Mind your own business!" Alphabittle groused. The shuffle of bodies answered him as the surrounding noise steadily returned, everypony hurriedly going back to what they'd been doing before. Alphabittle's residence in the rear of the tavern was far smaller and more homely than Sunny had anticipated. The walls were carefully crafted to look like the home was carved from the inside of a tree, much like the other homes she'd seen around Bridlewood, including Izzy's. Hanging plants hung near the windows, lit by sunlight as it shone through. A shelf of various items was mounted on the wall above the couch, among them a series of picture frames. Sunny's eyes widened as a brief gasp escaped her. 'Those are...!' A much younger Alpha and filly-age Izzy were smiling brightly at the camera, looking like they'd been playing around in the forest on a bright spring or summer day in that moment. The pictures next to it were similar in tone, but chronicled the march of time for both of them - Izzy progressively grew taller and longer-maned as Alpha's mane whitened and shortened, with a grizzled beard growing out in the most recent few photos. "Dad...before you tell Sunny to run to the ends of Equestria and back, there's something I really need to ask you. I didn't just come here with Sunny to tell you about our relationship - we both want to know this one. Together." Sighing heavily as she held a hoof to her chest, she gave herself a moment to build up the courage to ask, "Alpha...dad...can you tell me about my birth parents?" Alpha froze mid-stride, sighing heavily as he turned to face her, ears flagging downward, "Sigh...well. I suppose my test for Sunny can wait a bit longer. It's about time you knew. If there's one thing that's earned you my honesty by now, it's helping save Equestria." Leading the two mares over to his sitting area, the three of them quietly took a seat, both mares waiting patiently for Alpha to begin. "Izzy...your mother was named Sweet Moonbeam. One of the sweetest, loveliest unicorn mares I've ever seen trot into my bar, she was. Y'know there was once a time I was jealous of your father? Asking myself what he had, that I didn't?" As he saw Izzy's sharply raised eyebrow and Sunny's suspicious squint, he hastily added, "I-I got over it, though. Those two were so perfect for each other that I could never live with myself if I came between love so pure. But, well, your father...wasn't a unicorn, Izzy," A pair of shocked gasps resounded through the room, but Alpha beckoned them to stay quiet. "Didn't take me long to figure out, either, what with the way he was so darned optimistic and charming despite not having magic. Only Izzy can pull that off and actually make it convincing...and the fake horn was also pretty obvious once you really looked at it. Even so, I'd seen how good and smart a pony he was by the time I realized he was an earth pony, so the prejudices I had didn't rightly matter to me, nor did any lingering attraction to the pony who'd eventually become your mother. Plus, both of them were the most loyal customers I'd ever had, so I kept my mouth shut about it and just let the two of them have their fun. But then...that fateful night arrived. Stars know where the two of 'em scurried off to afterward, but all I know is, they left you behind in my care, my little moonshine. And I couldn't be more proud of what you've become." Izzy blushed bashfully as she nodded her head, but a realization quickly came to her as she mulled over what her foster father had told them. "Thank you, dad. I'm really glad to know where I've come from. But...you, uh, haven't said who my birth father was, yet." "Yeah, yeah, I'm gettin' to that. Hold your horses, sweetie. His name was Argyle Starshine." "...WHAT?!" Izzy and Sunny screamed in tandem, staring in bewildered shock at one another. It just couldn't be, could it...? A riotous, wide-eyed blush filled both of their faces as hazy, moan-filled, steaming memories of last night bubbled to the forefront of their thoughts, unbidden. Was that why they'd "gotten along" so well...?! "Uhh...something I said?" Alphabittle interjected in a state of absolute confusion, clueless of the gigaton-sized atom bomb he'd just dropped into their laps. "N-nope, just...super surprised to finally hear it, is all! T-thank you, dad. I-I'll have to write that down! Sunny, get the notebook, look busy!" Izzy said hurriedly, doing her best to regain her composure as she quietly grumbled the last part in Sunny's ear through her clenching smile. She couldn't let Alpha know that her marefriend had turned out to be a long-lost sister - there was no way he'd support the two of them being romantic if he knew that! Still in a daze, Sunny pulled the notebook out of her saddlebag and plopped it onto the coffee table in front of her, gripping a pencil in her mouth as she sloppily wrote Argyle Starshine's name in the back pages. Not that she really needed to, considering it used to be his notebook... "Dwnh." she mouthed past the pencil in her teeth, before dropping the writing tool onto the table with a wooden clatter. "Greeeat. Alpha, daddy, can you excuse us for a moment~? Thaaanks~" Izzy singsonged, leading Sunny towards her old fillyhood bedroom. As they passed through the threshold, she quickly closed and locked the door behind them. Sunny was in too much residual shock to even notice the importance of the room she was in - the abundance of plushies and bright decorations only added to the background noise in her mind as she stared at the front cover of the notebook she held in her hoof. She used to feel a sense of wonder at seeing her father's mark - a sense of pride and admiration, a sense of pain and longing. But now...all she could feel was disillusionment. Hurt. Betrayal. "Dad...you had another mare...another daughter...and you didn't even tell me? What kind of pony does something like that, huh? What the buck?!" Angry tears rode in hot trails down her cheeks as righteous rage filled her chest, glaring at the star on the cover in the vain hope that it could provide the slightest reply. "The kind of pony who loves his little filly too much to tell her the whole truth," Izzy answered on Argyle's behalf as she embraced the other mare in a hug, Sunny's frustrations serving as a stark mirror of why it'd taken her this long to get an answer from Alpha about her origins - his stubborn insistence on protecting her innocence. A whole lot of good that had ended up doing both of them, though. Waiting this long for answers had only made hearing them hurt even more, and for somepony as outspoken, blindly optimistic, and young as Sunny...she could imagine the ache the filly firebrand must've been feeling; the deep-seated pain of loss and helplessness that had already assailed Izzy many times before. The kind of scars that never fully healed. A chill tide of apathy washed through her, the calm acceptance of a pony who had already "lived" far too much for her age, the only thing keeping her calm in the shock of the discovery as she rationalized Argyle's actions in an attempt to calm her marefriend - her sister - down. "Because it was easier for you to live in blissful ignorance than to know what it was like to pine for the family you didn't know you were missing." "O-of...of all the selfish--rrragh!" Sunny roared as she buried her face in a pillow from filly-Izzy's tiny bed, chest wracking with angry, confused sobs as Izzy caressed her shuddering back with her forehoof. "It mighta been a little selfish, Sunny-bun...but he loved you, there's no doubt about that. If Maretime Bay or Bridlewood knew that he'd been sleeping around with a unicorn, and even had a foal by her...how do you think that woulda gone over? From what you've told me, he was already the town outcast...would the two of us be sittin' here talking about it if he hadn't kept his double-life a secret?" Izzy asked warmly, holding up Sunny's chin to lock eyes with her even as the younger mare attempted to retreat back into her easy-to-feel storm of sorrow and rage. "...Sigh. Yeah, I guess...I guess you're right, Izz. It doesn't make it hurt any less, but at least he had a reason. Although..." she felt a fresh ember of animosity kindle within her at Izzy's apparent lack of reaction, "Why the hay aren't you screaming your rage into a pillow along with me, huh?" Izzy chuckled maturely in response, shaking her head as she tutted. "Sunny, baby, light of my night...do I seem like the kind of pony that cares what other ponies think? It doesn't matter to me, Sunny-bun. I live for the moment, not the consequences! For all anypony else knows, including Alpha out there, we're just two heroes of Equestria who love each other. Whether or not we're sisters doesn't change the fact that you're the kindest, most impassioned, and most wonderful mare I've ever met." "It...doesn't bother you at all, what we've done together? Even though we're sisters?" Sunny asked incredulously, her prior feelings of frustration giving way to astonishment. "Why would it? I mean, seriously, we wouldn’t be the first! I know unicorn sisters who've "helped" each other through their heats every year...what we've got is just a li'l more serious, y'know?" Izzy purred, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, "Besides, with populations this low, what're the odds that everypony isn't bangin' a close relative to keep their tribe going? We're probably the least related couple in Equestria!" "I-I'm kinda new to the whole relationship thing, alright? I guess I just never really thought about it...hahah~" Sunny trailed off, giggling into her hoof at the realization of how overzealous her fear had been. "If you're worried about the sister thing getting in the way...we could always test that, right here, right now~" Izzy said slyly, moving towards the other mare's muzzle until each of them could feel their breaths on the other's snout. "W-with Alpha in the other roo-mph?!" The beginnings of hesitant protest weren't given a chance to form as Izzy's lips softly met hers, the pair's eyes sliding shut on reflex as they lost themselves to the calming, blissful expression of their romantic love. It was just as magical as the first kiss they'd shared together; a spark of electricity that tickled her brain and made butterflies flutter in her stomach, a blush brightening her complexion as she was swept up in the intimacy of the moment. If there had been any doubts in Sunny's reeling thoughts before, they disappeared in a hot rush of dopamine as she was reminded why she loved the unicorn as much as she did. If she ever had any reason to doubt herself, or lose herself to panic - Izzy would be right there to give her a hundred reasons not to, even with the simplest of gestures. Where other ponies might prejudge her or brush her aside for her naïveté, Izzy would attentively listen to her every step of the way, offering a voice of reason and guidance that she'd pined for, ever since the loss of her father. Her father...had he known, somehow, that the lantern-letter they sent would make its way into the hooves of his lost unicorn daughter, all those years ago? Known that they would meet, and that their instinctual, indescribable familiarity with one another would lead them to become fast friends...and even faster lovers? How far did this chess-playing go, if Argyle had somehow planned out all of this? If one-hundred and fifty questions had seemed a lot to ask Izzy, that paled in comparison to the number she wanted to ask her father, especially after this revelation. And yet...she never would be able to ask them. Fate had seen to that. For the questions she could still ask, though, she knew Izzy would be right there alongside to help her answer them. And that...was enough for her, she realized peacefully. With Izzy by her side, the two of them could accomplish anything. With the storm of emotions within her successfully quelled by her lover's kiss, a giddy realization came to her mind - she had a sister! She wasn't the last living member of her family! A carefree giggle escaped her as she broke away from her smooch with Izzy to hop excitedly around the room, the unicorn watching from the sidelines with a knowing smirk. After indulging her for a moment, Izzy saw a good moment to interrupt. "Hey, sooo...as much as I love seeing you jump around the room for me like a lovestruck filly, we probably shouldn't keep Alpha waiting. Wouldn't want him to get any ideas about what we're doing in here, hmm~?" she teased, giggling as Sunny stumbled to a halt with a fierce blush on her face. Straightening out her mane and the saddlebag looped around her neck, she gave the other mare an embarrassed smile. "Heh, yeah, I guess you're right about that. Let's do this." The door unlocked with a click and swung open, doorknob enwrapped in the unicorn's twinkling magenta aura as Izzy sidled past her marefriend to rejoin Alpha in the sitting room - but not before flicking her gorgeous sapphire tail across Sunny's muzzle as she strutted past. The heady mix of candyfloss, lavender, and mare assaulted her senses, making her stumble as she attempted to follow her larger unicorn lover. It brought to mind the wonderful things they'd experienced last night - things she had to stop thinking about if she didn't want to end up spreading her own scent through Alpha's home wherever she walked! "Besides, there'll be plenty of time to try out any ideas you're getting after we're done with my dad's test, hmmhmm~" Izzy chuckled demurely, enjoying the way her marefriend's eyes dilated in aroused interest from her well-practiced teasing. "G-guh...wha...buh…I wasn't...” Attempted rebuttals fell clumsily out of her mouth as she fumbled for a counterattack, before giving up with a defeated sigh as she shook her head. Attempting to put her devious marefriend’s flirtatiousness out of her mind, she followed Izzy’s swaying rear into the sitting room. As she entered, she cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes as she glared at Alphabittle with determination. His gaze locked onto her expectantly, his expression unreadable. "Alright, Alphabittle...I'm ready for your test." Author's Note I thought of this headcanon the other day, and heavily second-guessed including it in Questions once I realized what implications it'd have on an IzzyScout story, the kind of implications that many of you didn't sign up for...but then I said "screw it" because it's my story and I make the rules. The M-rated chapter was a good endpoint for Questions, and the opportunity for a dramatic opener to the sequel was also too good to pass up. I just couldn't resist mashing the two ideas together like some Frankenstein of G5 headcanons...I guess it's fitting that it's October in that case! ~RD 🦈 Pre- and proof-reading by spikls, n3k1sk1llz, and Dustchu! 2 // The Ruins of Friendship"Alright, Alphabittle...I'm ready for your test." Alphabittle grinned widely at the spunky attitude in Sunny's voice and didn't waste any time firing back. "My test for you is this: journey into the heart of the forest, bring me back a piece of a very special crystal. I've heard rumors for a while now that there's a towering, jagged formation hidden in the deepest reaches, and I want you two to find out if that rumor is true. If it is - I want you to bring me back a piece of it. Shouldn't be any problem for two heroines of Equestria, hmm?" "But...how will you know we didn't just chip a bit off of the first crystal we saw?" Sunny asked, muzzle scrunching in confusion at the strangeness of the request. Alpha's eyes narrowed, making Sunny gulp. "Oh, trust me. I'll know." Eyeing both mares for a moment, he gave her a lopsided grin, "Besides, we both know you're not stupid enough to try tricking me again. Not when she," he inclined his head towards Izzy, "Is on the line, anyway." Scuffing her hoof against the hardwood floor, Sunny had to concede that point. Maybe lying for the good of Equestria was alright before, but she had little to gain and an awful lot to lose by doing so here. "Ooh, ooh, we can use these fancy phones that Pipp gave us to take photos and videos as proof!" Izzy realized, pulling her phone out of her mane as she held it up for Alpha and Sunny to observe, "They can't reach the Zephyr Heights network while we're here, what with all these crystals and trees around, but the basic functions still work as long as it's charged." "Good thinking, Izz. Alphabittle, is there anywhere we can stock up on supplies? Cargo saddlebags, food, water...?" Sunny prompted expectantly. "I'll grab you two some things from the storeroom. Should be plenty I can spare. Follow me," Alpha replied, gesturing for the two mares to follow. Freshly outfitted with twin saddlebags and enough supplies to last a day's excursion, the two mares set out into the deepest parts of the woods. Pointedly ignoring the signs with such welcoming messages as "TURN BACK!" and "[skull and crossbones]" and "SERIOUSLY, DON'T GO IN HERE!", Sunny followed behind Izzy with no small amount of trepidation as the unicorn levitated her phone in front of her with her magic, the compass app obediently pointing them towards the rough direction Alpha had said to investigate. For a period of time that seemed to drag on forever, the trek passed without much incident; although, as the underbrush began to thicken and the ambient light grew dimmer with the dense tree cover, both ponies felt as if they could feel the fur on the back of their necks standing on end. "Wow, Sunny, can you feel that? My horn gets tinglier the deeper in we go...there's a lot of ambient magic here." Izzy observed, shivering in trepidation for reasons she couldn't quite fathom, but could certainly feel. "I...yeah, I can feel it, actually. Mostly in my hooves, but there's this...phantom sensation, at my forehead and on my sides...it feels like static," Sunny muttered, reaching a hoof up to grasp at the space that, some time ago, had been home to an ethereal yellow horn. "Everything about this feels really wrong, but...we have to keep going, if we want to have your dad's approval." she conceded to herself, eyebrows knitting in frustration. Izzy nodded solemnly, giving her marefriend a comforting smile as she hip-bumped her, "I don't really like this either, but we're close to something now. I can feel it. Hang in there, Sunny-bun, we're almost there!" As if on cue, the treeline ahead of them began to break away into a clearing...and what greeted them left them speechless. The shattered remnants of two purple stained-glass windows adorned either side of a yawning, dark entryway, its tall golden doors discarded to either side, as if they had been blown off of their hinges by some immense force from inside. It seemed like there should have been more of the structure above, but all that was left was the jaggedly broken edge of where the second floor likely began, blackened and heat-warped - the aftermath of an explosion of tremendous, incalculable force. "Are the crystals scattered around Bridlewood...actually chunks of whatever the hay this place used to be?" Sunny mused incredulously, snapping multiple pictures of the wrecked building with her phone camera. What they had was clearly already enough to satisfy Alphabittle's request...but what was wrong with a little curiosity? This was a massive find, after all! "The crystals that this place is made of do look familiar," Izzy noted as she led the two of them into the haphazard, ghastly ruin. "But it must've been a pretty big place to scatter so much debris when it exploded. Imagine what it must've looked like in its prime..." she pondered with a wistful tone, eyes tracing the weathered and nondescript hallway as they neared an intersection. A door directly ahead of them beckoned them forward, though a hallway also stretched to either side of them in a circular pattern - clearly, the room at the center was the focus of the first floor, so it was there that they'd explore first. At Izzy's first push, the door stubbornly refused to budge, presumably frozen in place from untold years of disuse and foundational settling. As Sunny touched it, though, it swung open like it'd been freshly oiled, with nary even a squeak of its hinges. The tingling feeling on her head and sides briefly flared up again. In a moment of wide-eyed befuddlement, Sunny stared blankly at her own hoof, then at the opened doorway, before shrugging as she stepped into the next room. What greeted her was beyond anything she could've anticipated. An immense circular slab of crystal, one that might've been a table in past ages, rested in broken chunks in the center of the room. Of the six tall-backed thrones that encircled the huge table, only two of them remained upright - the others had fallen back and shattered against the hard crystalline floor during whatever cataclysmic event had sundered this once-glorious castle, becoming nothing more than meaningless sparkling rubble. A noticeable layer of dust and pulverized crystal blanketed the floor, sparkling like gem dust under the light of their phone flashlights. The clatter of crystal-on-crystal greeted Sunny's hoof as she stepped forward; with a curious hum, she bent down to pick up what she'd kicked - and was befuddled to discover a nearly-intact rhombus-shaped blue gem with an incredible, unbelievable inclusion captured within it. As she stared into the crystal, a video resolved itself. Six ponies, a group that had to be the Guardians of Harmony based on where this crystal was found, were seated together at a table along with a small purple reptile and a huge, white...alicorn with a flowing tricolor mane. The cutie mark, recognizable from notes in her father's study, gave away the alicorn's identity as Princess Celestia - a mythically powerful, ancient figure she never thought she'd see a picture of, let alone a video. The Guardians were clothed in beautiful dresses that seemed to match their individual styles perfectly; doubtlessly these were their usual outfits when walking among the populace of Equestria, as mares of such heroics deserved. They appeared to have been filmed amidst a shared bout of laughter; a scene of wonderful camaraderie that reminded her of her own group of friends, even as it made an uncomfortable ache start to build in her chest. Sunny wiped a tear from her eye as she scooped the intact memory crystals off of the floor and into her saddlebag. "Izz, help me pick up some of these jewels. Don't drop them or chip them, they're...important. Really important." "Sure thing, Sunny-bun! What's so special about 'em, though? They just look like normal ol' - woooah." Izzy replied cheerily, though she trailed off as she caught sight of the scene in the yellow gemstone she was levitating - the yellow-and-pink Guardian pegasus appeared to be talking to a tall...creature, composed of an indescribable mishmash of parts; it looked like the kind of thing a particularly imaginative filly or colt would dream up as a Nightmare Night costume. The creature looked surprisingly apologetic as the mare tossed away a set of ice skates and turned around in a huff. It didn't seem like a particularly pleasant scene... Izzy quickly became so enraptured by the mysterious, context-less scene that she completely failed to respond when Sunny asked what she was doing. The earth-pony sighed as she snatched the crystal out of Izzy's magical grip and stowed it in her bag, glancing at her surroundings uneasily as she spoke, "They're...memories, from the Guardians, I think. It's strange that they're in a third-pony perspective, but...we can look at them more when we get back to my - our - father's lab. This place feels...wrong, somehow. I don't really want us to be in here any longer than we have to. I keep getting these weird tingly feelings..." Izzy nodded hastily in agreement as she glanced warily at the shadows in the dark corners of the room, her hornlight brightening up as she fed more power into her illumination spell. An involuntary shudder ran through her. It wasn't like her to be scared of the dark, but the vibe she was getting here was profoundly uncomfortable, no matter how positive she tried to be. With the matter of the crystals sorted, Sunny's attention turned to the tall-backed chairs that surrounded the shattered table. Of the two that remained upright, the shorter one had the vaguely familiar cutie mark of two blue balloons and one yellow balloon, beneath the untold layers of dust that muddled its appearance. It stirred something in her, the vaguest epiphany...until it came to her in a flash of recollection. The various post-its she'd seen dotted around Argyle's study held the answer to which pony this mark belonged to - Pinkie Pie, one of the Guardians! But...that would mean that the taller throne belonged to... Sunny glanced across the table, to the throne roughly facing Pinkie Pie's, and felt her heart skip a beat before plummeting into her stomach. Six purple points, surrounded by five white stars. The cutie mark of the last ruler of Equestria...Princess Twilight. The very same unicorn her father had told her bedtime stories about...she was real. Really real. There was no denying it anymore. All of Argyle's efforts, the research that the ponies of today thought futile and decried as foolish ramblings, really had been onto something. Everything until now had felt like her father's most idyllic stories come true...but this confirmed it. There was so much more to it than she'd ever thought, and nopony left alive from that era to even ask about any of it. Only the lost ruins of a once-great harmonious society. Sunny felt like she should've been jubilantly excited by the revelation; vindicated, even. And yet...her father would never know just how right he was about the past. Her orange legs began to tremble harshly beneath the weight of her realization, and with a strangled sob, she collapsed to the dusty crystalline floor, Izzy yelping in surprise next to her at the suddenness of her lover's loss of composure. The unicorn glanced over to what had made Sunny so distraught, and muffled a stunned, disbelieving gasp behind her forehoof as her eyes locked onto the ancient symbol, recognizing it from Sunny's journal and the disused Zephyr Heights transit hub. Her ears flopped down sadly as she realized the source of her marefriend's sorrow, and she plopped down onto her haunches next to Sunny - suppressing a pained wince as bits of crystals dug into her flanks and delicate bits, quietly sweeping them away with her magic - and pulled the smaller mare into a tight hug. Trails of moisture began to stream down her own cheeks as she embraced her younger sister in her vulnerable moment of intense catharsis, their closeness leading to a contagious sadness that muddled her own thoughts with depressing memories. "J-just when I think I'm over it, sniff, I f-find something else to make me wish Dad were still here to see it..." Sunny gasped out between choked sobs, chuckling sardonically as she felt the tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'm sorry I'm such a wreck, Izz. It's times like this that I wonder why I'm the one whose destiny it was to reunite all of Equestria...I'm just one pony, an earth pony. I don't have wings like the pegasi, or magic like you. I'm-" The breath was driven from her lungs as Izzy's hug tightened around her, forcing her to stop her self-destructive breakdown. After a few moments of that bone-crushing embrace, the unicorn's grip on her relaxed as she was held at hoof's length. "Sunny Starscout, you stop that right now!" Izzy exclaimed firmly, the beginnings of tears welling in her own eyes, "You aren't just an earth pony. You don't need wings or magic to be special, Sunny-bun. Sure, something out there chose you to become this big hero pony, but so what?! You didn't have to campaign for pony unity when nopony ever listened to you. You didn't have to trust me the day we met. We didn't have to go all across Equestria on some crazy quest without even knowing if it would fix anything!" As Sunny's expression began to brighten with a hesitant smile, Izzy continued, emboldened, "And it wasn't just you that saved the world, y'know? Me, Hitch, Princesses Zipp and Pipp...Queen Haven...Alphabittle...Phyllis...we all believed in you, in the end. It takes a pretty extraordinary pony to bring the three races back together, Sunny, and I couldn't be happier to call you my friend. And my sister. And, well, a lot more than a friend or a sister..." As Sunny giggled into her hoof from her marefriend's little joke, sniffing away her tears, Izzy pumped her own hoof in triumph. "That was a laugh! Haha, yes! Score one for Izzy Moonbow!" Shrugging Izzy's hooves off of her as she stood upright, Sunny gave a long, slow inhale and exhale as she recollected herself. "Thanks, Izz. The ever-supportive unicorn saves the day again~" Sunny teased, smiling brightly at her marefriend's adorable bout of celebration before she looked around the room, "Well, it seems we've seen all there is to see in the central room. What d'you say we see what else we can find, and then head back to Bridlewood?" "Sounds like a plan to me, Sunny!" Izzy cheered, practically tap-dancing through the building as she rode on the emotional high of her uplifting pep-talk to Sunny. It didn't take the two of them long to find the next room of interest, and it was one that Sunny had silently been praying she might find - a library. "Okay, woah." Sunny said breathlessly, craning her neck up to stare into the dark abyss of bookshelves that lined the walls of the room, so tall that Izzy's hornlight couldn't even reach their peaks. A thick, musty scent hung in the air as they trudged through the thick layer of dust that lined the floor - the remnants of the thousands of books that had once inhabited the library intact, but had long since disintegrated to dust with the passage of time. Izzy held her hoof out to signal Sunny to stop, as a strong magical signature tingled her horn the moment she walked in. The thick crystal walls had blocked her from sensing it before, but... "There's something enchanted in this room, and I mean big-time enchanted. I...don't know how I know that, but I know." Much like how the pegasi who got their flight back had mysteriously also learned how to use it, Izzy had knowledge that she definitely didn't have before magic had been restored...not that she was complaining. It was already proving itself useful. Sunny's expression brightened noticeably at the news, having dipped sharply when she'd noticed the shelves seemed bare of ancient tomes. "Really?! Do you think you can pinpoint what it is, maybe float it over?" Closing her eyes as her brow furrowed in concentration, she felt her magic latch onto a rectangular shape on one of the shelves far above them; she had to assume it was a book, though the aura she felt from the enchantments that protected it was...powerful unlike anything she had ever experienced before, yet with a welcoming air of friendliness to it. If she had to describe its sparkle as a color, it would probably be...lavender. "I've got something! It's coming down to us now." Izzy exclaimed; even with her eyes closed, she could sense the excitement in Sunny from how she began to anxiously shuffle her hooves against the floor next to her. A thick, hardcover book with a deep purple coloration, shimmering gold-leaf horseshoe emblem, and most strikingly, a crystalline form of Twilight's cutie mark on the cover slowly floated down to them in Izzy's twinkling magenta aura, depositing itself securely into Sunny's outstretched forehooves. "Oh my gosh..." Sunny mouthed breathlessly. The book was impossibly pristine, despite having sat for an untold number of years in the depths of this destroyed building in the woods, though the earth mare glossed over this incongruous detail in favor of the fact that she was holding an actual, tangible relic of ancient Equestria! Finally opening her eyes, Izzy took stock of what she'd plucked from the higher shelves, focusing her horn-light on the cover as Sunny held it in shaky, reverent hooves. "Sheesh, no wonder I was able to find that book no-problem. It's lit up with so many enchantments that it's making my horn go crazy!" "Which means...maybe the pony who left it here wanted it to be found? Wait a second," Sunny theorized, a thoughtful look of confusion growing on her face, "If unicorns lost their magic, wouldn't that mean enchantments like the ones on this book would've disappeared and left it to crumble away like the rest? Something doesn't add up..." While Sunny was busy monologuing to herself, Izzy's attention trailed off to a second horn-tingling enchantment on another shelf of the library. Lighting her horn as she focused on the source, a second book resolved itself in front of her - and she had to struggle not to burst out in a fit of giggles as she read the title to herself: 101 Ways to Please Your Lover. 'Well hellllooooo, ancient Equestrian sex-book...definitely gonna be reading you later~' Izzy thought mischievously, quietly slipping the lewd tome into her saddlebag. The unicorn finished her clandestine acquisition of erotic paraphernalia the very same moment that Sunny finished talking to herself. "...But I guess we can't really investigate that right now, so it's probably best to make a note of it and move on. Sigh. Alright, Izz. We've got enough ancient artifacts to give a museum a run for their bits, and the sun's starting to get pretty low, so what d'you say we leave?" Sunny asked, carefully slipping the decorated book into one of her saddlebags as she glanced in the unicorn's direction. "Totally! I think if we stick around here much longer, the fur on my neck is gonna stay standing on end forever!" Izzy replied cheerily, leading the way with her horn-light as the two of them left the once-grand palace, her phone floating in front of them as its compass led the way. Sunny gave a lingering glance back to the yawning blackness of the entryway as they left, let a creeped-out shudder roll through her, and then focused on following Izzy. By the time the two mares walked through the entry of the Crystal Tea Room for the third time that day, they were thoroughly exhausted. Hours of walking and the emotional weight of their discoveries in that dead place rested heavily in their minds, leading both of them to drag their hooves. Alphabittle noticed both of them as soon as they entered, wordlessly waving them over to the bar with one hoof. Some ponies gave them a passing glance as they trudged by, though they made awkward attempts to look anywhere else once they were hit with the palpable aura of exhaustion that the two mares exuded. "Head on into the back. I'll debrief the two of you once I make sure my customers are taken care of." Alpha said lowly, a towel and kettle floating in his magic as he dried out the interior of the freshly-washed container. Sunny and Izzy nodded with utterances of "thanks," weaving their way past tables before passing through the doorway into Alpha's living area. Both mares shared in a relieved sigh as they plopped down onto the loveseat beside one another, shrugging off their saddlebags onto the floor nearby as Izzy floated over a pitcher of water and some drinking glasses. Izzy levitated over the last two snack bars from her saddlebag, depositing one of them into Sunny's hooves as she began to scarf down her own. After a few minutes, Alpha trotted into the room, taking a seat in a chair facing them as he eyed the saddlebags sitting on the floor. "So, what've you two got for me?" Quickly swallowing the bite she'd been chewing, Izzy was the first to answer him. "Oh, you are gonna flip once you see what we found!" she said excitedly, clopping her hooves together as the memory crystals and purple book floated onto the table in her aura. Both mares shared a knowing, ecstatic grin at the way Alphabittle's eyes lit up upon seeing the book. "You two really found this out there in the woods?" he asked incredulously, taking the book into his own magical grip as he opened the front cover to check the title page, "Well, I'll be..." he added, causing both mares to get up from their seats and take a look. The Journal of Friendship Princess Twilight Sparkle & Friends "Stars above..." Sunny gasped, her eyes boggling out of her head at the discovery. "You can say that again..." Izzy agreed, delighting in the way Sunny's eyes sparkled as they hungrily poured over every square inch of the title page. It was a look of genuine, heart-melting joy; the sort of thing that Izzy found herself wanting to see as often as possible... The two mares were drawn out of their reverie as Alpha continued speaking. "...So! Heh, this is going to sound bad, but I didn't actually expect the two of you to find much out there. Like I said, it was just a rumor I wanted you two to investigate for me...but..." Looking down at the book once again in his magical grip, he gave a faux sigh of defeat before laughing heartily, "Hah! I should've known that two of the saviors of Equestria were too special to avoid stumbling neck-deep into another adventure!" Thumping Sunny on the back with almost enough force to stagger her, he gave her a respectful smirk. "No doubt about it. You're definitely the right mare for my daughter--" With a shared gasp of excitement, the two mares embraced each other with wide-eyed smiles, the larger unicorn glomping her onto the couch as the two of them fervently snuggled one another. At a loud hoofclop from Alpha, though, both of them broke apart with fierce blushes as they refocused on the stallion in the room. "A-hem! I wasn't finished. Anything serious happens to her on your crazy adventures, you're gonna have to answer to me. Do we have an understanding?" Alpha said firmly, his gaze narrowing as he addressed Sunny, "This history you two are starting to uncover is shaping up to be quite the big discovery, and we all know how your "big discovery" ended up last time. Izzy was nearly killed more times than I can count, and all I could do was watch...I can't bear the thought of her being hurt. Or worse." "Okay, to be fair, one of those near-death experiences was kiiinda Hitch and Zipp's fault..." Izzy muttered under her breath, though neither of them acknowledged the commentary. "You have my word as a savior of Equestria, as your daughter's mare, and as your friend, Alphabittle. I would do anything to prevent Izzy from getting hurt." Sunny replied firmly. "Mmmmh...although I hope it never comes to that. Alright, then. You have my blessing, Sunny," he said with finality. ...And with that, the two mares squee'd with delight as they excitedly glomped one another, sharing a quick kiss - that didn't advance any further, not with Alpha right there in front of them - as they delighted in an exploration well done, and the well-deserved reward for their efforts. As the two of them trotted out of Alpha's cafe, leaving the warm atmosphere and excited chatter of the townsfolk behind them for the shimmering crystals and sparkling sky of a Bridlewood night, Izzy glanced over at Sunny as they cantered down the street. Hesitantly, she began to speak, "Hey, Sunny..." Tearing her eyes away from the beautiful crystals to answer her marefriend, Sunny was struck speechless by the way the moonlight and the bright glow of the crystals seemed to make her shimmer in the night, like a gorgeous fae specter who'd come to spirit away her heart and soul, never to release them back to her. Though...she supposed that wasn't exactly untrue... Shaking her head to clear her thoughts as a healthy blush lit her cheeks, she answered, "Y-yeah, Izz?" "D'you wanna come back to my place?" As Sunny's eyes widened, Izzy quickly continued with a hint of embarassment, "Not for anything like that! Gosh, Sun, get your mind out of the gutter~...It's just, it's probably too late to head back to Maretime Bay tonight." Izzy noted as she nuzzled into the other mare's mane, taking in the citrusy, earthy notes of her scent as she did so. "Mmh, you're just saying that 'cause you want me in your bed~" Sunny fired back with a rare burst of flirtatious confidence...which didn't last long as her blush intensified. 'D-did I really just say that? This mare is such a bad influence!' "Ohoho, I think you're projecting~ And I didn't hear a no~" Izzy singsonged, booping Sunny on the snoot as she smiled impishly, much to the other mare's further embarrassment. Sunny's attempt at a rebuttal was cut off as the unicorn held up a placating hoof. "Lead the way, Sunny-bun!" And so, grumbling and blushing to herself adorably all the while, Sunny did as asked. Author's Note The next chapter in the saga is complete! A plot is developing, a relationship is advancing...where could it all lead~? And, this chapter's been completed not a moment too soon... You guys are awesome. With all my heart, I thank each and every one of you. ~RD 🦈 Pre-read by spikls and n3k1dsk1llz! 3 // Heart to HeartIt had been about a week since Sunny and Izzy's excursion to Bridlewood, and the two of them had taken an...extended vacation away from their other friends. It had offered them plenty of time to indulge in the multitude of ideas that Izzy's book had provided to them... Sunny had experienced more in the past week than most ponies did in months or even years, and it had made her closer to Izzy than ever before. The two of them were utterly inseparable, and they expressed this fact shamelessly, hanging off of each other like lovestruck fillies wherever they walked around Bridlewood. For the sake of the younger unicorns, they'd had to keep things reasonable in public, which made them all the more eager to get right back to it each night together in Izzy's home. If those walls could talk... As days passed, though...her friends had, rather understandably, started to wonder what'd happened to them. As the two of them trotted through the doorway to Alpha's tea room and took adjacent seats at the bar, the immense grey unicorn slipped a letter in front of the two of them as his two armadillo assistants served them their favorite morning teas. "Morning, Sunny. Izzy. Got a couple of letters for you two." He indicated the two letters, depositing the letter with a sheriff's badge emblem on it in front of Sunny, and the letter with the royal seal of Zephyr Heights on it in front of Izzy. After he did so, he started talking to another customer seated at the bar to give the two of them some privacy. Sharing a meaningful glance with each other, the two mares hastily broke the seals on their respective letters and started to read them. "Sunny, where the hay are you? The repairs on the lighthouse have been complete for almost a week now, and I haven't seen you in over two weeks besides that! What is going on? Ohh, boy. Hitch is mad." Sunny said, cocking her head worriedly as a thoughtful frown graced her muzzle. "I guess I should've let him know where I was going...oh stars, he doesn't even know the two of us are together yet, and that happened weeks ago! Some friend I am..." She realized, her ears flopping down in shame. "Yeah...Pipp and Zipp's letter is pretty much the same. And you deeefinitely should've told him what was going on, yeah." Izzy noted, squinting as she read the bottom of the letter. “Real supportive, Izz…” Sunny groaned, thumping her forehead on the bar as Izzy continued to read, blissfully unaware. The unicorn’s eyes brightened happily as she read the postscript scribbled on the end of the letter. "Ooh, they say their schedule’s finally free enough to visit the lighthouse today to see how the reconstruction turned out! Sounds it'd be a good time to head back to Maretime Bay and meet up with all three of them!" She offered, smiling as bright as the midday sun at the thought of seeing her pegasus friends again. Sunny lifted her head up from the bar, doing her best to brush off her moment of self-loathing as she nodded affirmatively. "Yup, sounds like a plan. It'd also be nice to get back home...not that your place isn't lovely in its own way, Izz, but it's just not quite the same as my lighthouse." "No worries, Sunny-bun. I understand." As the pair of them emerged from the tree line outside Maretime Bay, they were greeted by the blinding radiance of Sunny’s home—standing tall and proud, in all of its fully-reconstructed glory. The red-and-white stripes that adorned the spire seemed to glow in the afternoon sky from how fresh and shiny the paint was, which nicely complemented the polished and sparkling silver metal that supported the observation dome at its peak. Her home now looked better than it ever had, even before it’d been damaged—she supposed she had her newfound status as “savior of Equestria” to thank for such a swift and well-done job by the construction team. “Woooah…it’s beautiful!” Izzy exclaimed breathlessly, eyes and smile wide in equal measure as she watched her marefriend tremble next to her. The very next moment, Sunny was off like a bottle rocket. “H-hey! Wait for me!” Izzy hollered, panting with exertion as she struggled to catch up to her friend’s sudden gallop. She was an artist, for ponies’ sake, not a sprinter! Charging through her front door in the excitement of seeing her restored home, Sunny gasped in awe as her gaze pivoted to take in the changes. Though much of it remained faithful to how it had looked previously, which she certainly appreciated, her attention quickly focused on a new addition to the ground floor. The elevator that ascended to the second floor and spire section now looked completely different, and far more elaborate. Gone were the flimsy ropes that had failed under the stress of the spire’s prior destruction and nearly injured Pipp; they had been replaced by a sturdy pair of rack-and-pinion gears on either side, with a pair of control buttons built into the elevator’s surface. Its fit-and-finish clearly marked it as a contribution from Canterlogic’s engineering department, which she’d have to thank Phyllis for later. Mending fences with the influential old mare was already showing its benefits. As Sunny nodded to herself in approval of the sleek installation, her front door swung open behind her as Izzy finally caught up, panting heavily. “C’mon, you know I’m not as athletic as you, bun…” The unicorn wheezed, allowing herself a moment to recover while she looked around at the restored interior. As her eyes settled on the shiny new elevator, she whistled sharply. “Whoa. Talk about an upgrade!” “I know, right? It seems like Canterlogic really outdid themselves on this restoration,” Sunny agreed. A series of knocks on Sunny’s front door cut off any reply that Izzy might’ve been about to give. “Looks like we got back just in time. That must be Zipp and Pipp already!” Sunny said eagerly, bounding over to the door and pulling it open. Sure enough, the pegasus sisters’ friendly faces greeted them, their expressions brightening in recognition as Pipp eagerly wrapped Sunny up in a tight hug. “Sunny! It’s so good to see you again. It feels like it’s been ages! Things have been going well with Izzy, I hope?” Thoughts of all that she’d done with (and to) her unicorn paramour during their stay in Bridlewood flashed in her mind, her face heating up as she tried to keep her cool. The knowing wink that Pipp shot Izzy’s way certainly didn’t help her efforts, to the point where she felt like she might just die of embarrassment! “Y-you could, umm, you could say that, yeah…” Sunny stuttered. “I bet~! Don’t worry, Sunny, your secret’s probably safe with me.” Pipp teased, breaking away from the conversation as she took wing and enthusiastically fluttered around the interior of the lighthouse, taking in every new detail that she could. “Absolutely wonderful! I really have to hoof it to those construction ponies, they’ve done exceptionally well.” As Zipp walked over to the contraption and eyed it up and down, she nodded approvingly once she noticed its precise engineering. “Impressive. All those old pegasus stereotypes about earth ponies were way off—they’d have you believe that earth ponies spent their time banging rocks together and growing crops, not building stuff like this…” She said, rapping her hoof against the elevator’s metal supports for emphasis. Chuckling to herself, she added, “Earth ponies were probably making pegasi engineers feel insecure. Heh!” While Zipp continued to wax poetic about Sunny’s shiny new elevator, Izzy continued to wander around Sunny’s home. She hadn’t had much time—any time, really—to check things out the last time she’d been here, what with them having to run out of town to avoid getting caught by Canterlogic’s latest ‘civil defense’ products, so she appreciated the opportunity. When her gaze came to rest on the small table by the elevator, however, her feelings of wonder chilled into stunned shock. A photo of Argyle stood upright on the little table, capturing him in the midst of crafting a figurine of Twilight Sparkle. Next to the portrait rested a stack of books about ancient pony history, a clamshell glasses case, and an old wooden pendant with a blue neckband—the same one that Argyle was wearing in the photo. The meaning behind the juxtaposition was clear. “S-Sunny…?” Izzy whimpered, shaking where she stood. Hearing her marefriend’s plaintive, vulnerable whimper cut through the conversation she’d been having with Zipp like a shock to the system—and one look at the end table told Sunny all she needed to know. Her hoof darted up to her mouth as the stark realization hit her. She’d wanted to give Izzy a closer look at the pictures she had of Argyle on her own terms, but she’d forgotten about the memorial she kept on the table. “Is that…” Pipp started to ask, then hesitated, unsure how to phrase it. “My dad?” Sunny sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. Argyle Starshine…the reason we’re all standing here in this room together.” “Argyle. Daddy…I…I never…” Izzy whimpered breathlessly, flopping onto her rear as her eyes pored over every detail in the photo. He seemed so close, so real, that it was easy for her to forget that she was separated from the Argyle in the photo by at least two decades. Sunny quickly came to Izzy’s side, offering her a shoulder to lean on. It was somewhat awkward with Izzy being a good bit taller, but they managed. Zipp and Pipp took the gesture it at its face value of Izzy empathizing with Sunny’s plight, but if only they knew the real reason she was so distraught… Looking over at the two pegasi as they, too, sat down in front of the photo, Sunny offered, “Do…do you want to know what kept me going for so many years? Even when everypony around me treated me like I was insane? When I’d say “good morning” to a pony and all they’d give me in return was a funny look?” She gestured sharply to the photo, tears beginning to well in her eyes. “My dad. The pony who gave so much of himself that he set off for parts unknown one day, on a quest to fix Equestria, and never came back. And Maretime Bay never did a damn thing to try and save him.” Sunny was unable to hold back the bitter edge in her voice as she spoke, a worrying tonal shift that gave Pipp cause to intervene before things got out of hoof. “Hey,” Pipp softly interjected, resting one of her downy wings across Sunny’s back in a comforting gesture as one of her hooves wiped at a tear that Sunny hadn’t even felt running down her cheek. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I may not have lived your life, but…I get it.” She offered, giving her a weak, forced smile. Looking into Pipp’s emerald eyes, Sunny was started by the unabashed pain and loss she saw within them. At that moment, she no longer saw “Pipp the media icon” or “Pipp the princess”—only “Pipp, the pony whose father was just as absent as hers.” Pieces clicked into place in her head, more clues as to why Pipp was so reliant on social media—the public affirmation served as a replacement, albeit a paltry one, for the adoration and praise of a father who could never know the beautiful and kind pony his daughter had become. If Sunny were more creative, it’d be tragic enough to write a theater production about. At least, she assumed it was tragic. That simple statement—“I get it”—was loaded with so much sadness that there was no way it couldn’t be, really. Especially not with the way Zipp’s body language tightened up, leaving the proud pegasus trembling in her periphery—but Sunny didn’t have the heart to open up scarred emotional wounds just to sate her own curiosity. She felt Izzy wrap her hooves around her barrel from the other side, the unicorn burying her face in Sunny’s long, unrestrained purple mane as she tightly embraced her marefriend for support—although that wasn’t the only reason, considering the telltale shudders she felt from the unicorn against her. Seeing Argyle’s portrait, as plain and unadorned as it might’ve been, had thrown Izzy for a loop. Even though she never knew what he’d been like, she had gleaned quite a bit from how much her marefriend still sang his praises (figuratively and literally) and told stories about him to this day. On top of that, the very sight of him had triggered some sort of instinct within her, a twinge of recognition for the stallion who’d sired her—an all-encompassing ache that tore at her heart. Despite her usual cheerful demeanor, there were times when things became too much to bear, even for her. The true scale of what she had lost—of what she had never really had to begin with—had never really registered with her until this moment, and the profound sorrow of that revelation broke her composure. Her strength of character, that indomitable mask of cheerful humor, trembled for a moment—then shattered. For the first time in many years, Izzy Moonbow became lost in catharsis, the weight of her sorrows streaming down her cheeks. Bereft with memories of their own parents, Sunny and Pipp swiftly joined her. Loss. It was a funny thing. Not in the humorous sense, of course—merely that it was terribly and curiously difficult to pin down the true nature of the emotion unless it was being felt in the moment. Evasive, mysterious, disheartening…many adjectives could be used to describe that terrible four-letter word. Much like Zipp’s investigations and research into why the pegasi had lost the power of flight. Her wings shuffled uncomfortably at her sides as she loitered outside of the lighthouse, doing everything in her power to maintain her composure as her three friends inside recovered from their sudden bout of crippling, communal sorrow. She wouldn’t cave to emotion like them…she couldn’t. She’d long since overcome the loss of her father—or at least, she thought she had. With her mother’s repeated insistence to “move on,” it was tough to say where her mother’s thoughts on the matter ended and hers began. She’d become queen of the pegasi before she knew it, and then… And then…what? Become just as much of an aimless figurehead as her mother? Smiling and waving at other ponies day in and day out, faking her laughter, sleeping with her freakin’ crown on? Would she end up getting branded as a “phony pony full of baloney” the moment she went out of line, just like her mom had been? A glorified scapegoat for everypony to pin their worldly troubles on the moment things went south? A pony who can do few rights and many wrongs? Ugh. The more she thought about her royal fate, the more she despised every facet of it. Her calling was research for pony’s sake, not politics! Why couldn’t Pipp have been the one born 5 minutes earlier?! Zipp shook her head, banishing those thoughts. She’d already traveled the path of resentment and it hadn’t ended well. They had enough of their own problems to deal with, let alone each other’s. “Hey Zipp, it’s been a while. You good? What brings you out to Maretime Bay?” Hitch suddenly said from beside her, startling her out of her thoughts as her wings flared wide at her sides. When had he even gotten there?! “Stars, Hitch, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Zipp grumbled, trying to fold her unruly wings back up. “I’m just fine, Sheriff, at least until you came along and spooked me out of my feathers. Hmph.” she added, huffing as she attempted to regain her composure. Unfortunately for her, Hitch noticed. “Nice attempt at deflecting, but I didn’t become a sheriff by being easy to fool. It’s not my place to pry, but…you seemed like you were pretty frustrated about something when I arrived. Keeping things bottled up for too long doesn’t end well,” At Zipp’s noncommittal shrug, he rolled his eyes and continued, “Not trying to boss you around like your mom, Princess. Just…don’t let things get out of hoof, alright?” A thin smile spread across Zipp’s countenance, and she nodded, if only faintly. “Sure thing, Hitch. Thanks. It’s just, me and Pipp noticed the photo of Sunny’s dad on her table, and Sunny got to talking, and well…” “Oh, she’s back, is she? Could’ve at least told me. I swear she gets blinders on whenever she sets her mind to something." Hitch grumbled to himself, shaking his head with a sigh, "The photo, huh? I knew this day would come, once Sunny made friends with you three…” he added, muttering to himself as he gathered his thoughts. “I took it almost as hard as Sunny did. When he…when Argyle never came back, I mean. I love my dad, I really do, but Argyle was…different. There was just...something special about him, I never could put my hoof on it. He had an eye for truth and justice like nopony else I knew…it’s just a shame that his idea of “truth and justice” was a whole lot different than everypony else’s. His search for the truth made him a hero to a few—just me and Sunny, really—and a pariah to the rest. There was a time I’d’ve been angry about that, but…” Glancing first at the threads of magic still swirling in the sky above, and then to the gorgeous prismatic wings folded on Zipp’s back, he chuckled. “It’s safe to say a whole lot of things have changed since then. His whole philosophy of “truth and justice” was why I trained for law enforcement, actually. Figured I could try and make a difference from the inside, or something. And maybe I got it into my head as a colt that a filly might like a guy in uniform…” Trailing off, Hitch rubbed the back of his neck and glanced back to the house as a faint blush colored his cheeks. Zipp’s rapidly raising eyebrow chronicled her reaction as she realized what he was getting at. “You…and Sunny? B-but—!” “—Yeah, yeah, I know, alright? I know she’s not…into stallions. Things were different back then, or maybe they just felt different for me. Call it coltish optimism, I guess. With how close we grew up together, and with how much I looked up to her firebrand attitude when I was a colt, can you blame me?” “Izzy's a lucky mare,” Zipp said, nodding to herself, "She's got a good heart and a heap of optimistic idealism, just like Sunny. I can see why those two go along so well.” “…Umm. Y-yeah. Right,” Hitch said quietly, eye twitching. “Twist the thorn in my hoof a little deeper, huh?” he grumbled to himself, scuffing his hoof against the ground. Zipp’s expression softened as she locked eyes with Hitch, forcing her way through the awkwardness that had surged to the forefront. “Listen, Hitch…if you need somepony to talk to, I’m here for you. Remember that. Whether it’s about something small that’s troubling you, about the past, or about Sunny…I’ve got you.” “Thanks, Zipp. That means a lot to me.” Glancing back to the entryway, he stiffened his shoulders in a heroic stance. “We’d better go in there and calm those three down. C’mon.” “Trust me, live with Pipp long enough, and you get used to this kinda thing. Seems like every other day she’s upset about something new…” With a chuckle and a shake of her head, Zipp left it at that as the two of them entered Sunny’s home. Author's Note Bit of a delay on getting this out, but I've got a justification (or maybe it's more like an excuse): I moved to a new PC (a server-based beast!) and the Scrivener project file I was using for this must've saved its most recent version to a different location or something since I lost several hundred words and a lot of time was spent trying to recover them, to no avail. It's not quite back to where it was before, so I'm not quite happy with it, but I've got to move on or it'll never get released...I've been sitting on this mostly completed for a few months now as it is. It's a shame because I remember handling the emotional aspects of this discovery a lot better in the old version, but that same spark just hasn't come to me again. Hope you enjoyed it regardless! I promise I'll stop trying to make the main cast into a pity circlejerk and actually get onto more adventure-y stuff with meaningful plot advancements in the next chapter. 4 // Power OverwhelmingAs Hitch and Zipp reentered, they were glad to see that the other three members of their friend group had calmed down, speaking quietly to each other as they hugged tightly. “Ahem…if you’ve gotten all that out of your system, fillies, I’d say it’s about time we got to work,” Hitch interjected authoritatively, prompting Pipp to part from the group embrace and return to Zipp’s side. Sunny and Izzy held their embrace for longer but eventually shared a brief kiss as they separated. “So, Sunny, where’re all these artifacts you’ve told us about?” Zipp asked. “From what you’ve told me, we’re going to have our hooves full going through all of them.” Sunny nodded. “Mmhmm, that’s right,” she began, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow as she walked towards Argyle’s study room. “My dad spent years searching through ruins for answers about Equestria’s past, and he picked up a lot of little things along the way,” Arriving at Argyle’s book- and trinket-laden desk, she picked up the first thing that caught her eye — an impression of what appeared to be some sort of reptilian foot. “Huh. Didn’t know my dad was into fossil collection, too. Wonder what makes this so significant that he kept it around," she mused to herself. “Does everything your dad did have to have some kind of significance? What if it’s just a cool rock he found while he was out adventuring?” Pipp asked, rolling her eyes a bit. She appreciated a good mystery as much as the next pony, but there were definitely times where Sunny could read too much into things… Squinting at it, as if trying to discern a deeper meaning of some sort, she sighed to herself as she placed it back down atop a stack of books. “You’re probably right. Let’s keep looking…I’m sure we’ll find something.” “What the heck is this thing?” Zipp muttered to herself as she took notice of the ominous-looking crystalline staff propped up in the corner. The pointy blue crystal that adorned it seemed to call to her, a feeling of electricity tingling at her hooves before spreading up through the rest of her body as she stared at it, entranced. “Whatever the hay it is, just looking at it makes me feel all tingly. That’s definitely something dangerously powerful.” Glancing at each of her friends in turn as they gave her a worried glance, she frowned to herself. “We should be careful. With Equestrian magic restored, it looks like these artifacts have regained whatever power they had before, too. And with how long it’s been, with nopony able to maintain the integrity of these enchantments, some of them are bound to be…unstable.” Held high on a shelf, a triangular black-and-red amulet with the visage of an alicorn caught Izzy’s attention. Encased within a protective glass container, Izzy carefully floated it down from the shelf and rested it on a nearby table, eying it with childlike wonder and intrigue as the gem at its core crackled erratically with red lightning. Something about it beckoned to her, imploring her to put it on…how it’d look just lovely as a part of one of her crafting projects… Just as Izzy grabbed the glass dome of the container, intending to lift it up and release the artifact contained within, Hitch gripped her forehoof. “Up bup bup! Really, Izzy? Just look at that thing! It practically screams ‘Hey, look at me, I’m a super-evil piece of costume jewelry, put me on if you wanna turn evil and zap everypony with your horn lasers’!” Rapidly shaking her head to clear her mind of the foreign thoughts guiding her actions, Izzy’s eyes widened. “Woah. You’re right, Hitch, it was totally telling me to put it on and use its power to subjugate everypony!” Izzy said with far too much nonchalance and enthusiasm, leading everypony else to freeze in their tracks and stare at her worriedly. “…Kidding! C’mon, ponies, it was a joke!” Chuckling to himself, Hitch set the artifact aside, pointedly avoiding looking at it as he covered the container with a piece of cloth. “Riiight. Ooo-kay, that’s definitely one for the ‘ancient evil artifacts’ section.” Glancing over at his childhood friend, he called her name, “Sunny? We should really be keeping a list, here. CanterLogic needs to know how big they’re going to have to make their new artifact vault, and what precautions they’re going to have to take. Mark this thing up for ‘mental manipulation’ and ‘extremely dangerous levels of power amplification’ while you’re making that list. I can already feel something in my head just from glancing at it for a moment...I really don’t want to find out what it’d do if somepony actually put it on.” As the others gathered around the encased amulet, discussing plans for how to properly contain it, another mysterious trinket on the shelf caught Izzy’s attention. A cracked and chipped bronze bell, with a strange eye-like design on its surface, sat innocuously on top of a stack of books. The design on its face flickered erratically with an eerie white light as she stared at it, and arcs of magical lightning shimmered and danced across its surface, colored the eerie twinkling navy of a clear night sky. The barely-restrained power she felt emanating from it was so oppressive that it nearly left her breathless, leaving her to wonder how nopony else had noticed it yet. Worries about what her friends might be doing fell by the wayside — a serene, articulate voice echoed inarticulately in her mind, crying out in heart-wrenching agony for her to pick up the bell. Despite having never heard the voice before in her life, it felt unerringly familiar to her, tickling some distant corner of her mind. Before she even realized what she was doing, Izzy held the bell aloft in her magic, bringing it down from the shelf to hover in front of her. ‘We beg thee, my little pony! Whomever thee are! Ring the bell that thou holdest, and grant us release from our eternal torment!’ The voice in her head demanded with regal authority, figuratively pounding on the walls of the prison that contained it. “Uhh, Izzy, what do you think you’re doing with that?!” Zipp interjected, alarmed, before Izzy had a chance to respond to the voice. “Didn’t I just get through warning everypony not to touch the crazy artifacts? Seriously, does anypony ever listen to me?” Hitch grumbled, cautiously approaching Izzy as he eyed the mysterious old bell held aloft in her magic, “set it down, Izzy. We don’t know what that thing’s capable of.” ‘Do not listen to them! Prithee, ring the bell! We’ve waited so long to be put to rest, and we fear that we do not know how many more centuries we can wait!’ “Centuries?!” Izzy parroted, much to the confusion of everypony else in the room. “Izz? Is it…is the bell talking to you?” Sunny asked, her brow knitting with worry. “Oookay, yep, another artifact that talks to you in your head to try and convince you to use it? No siree.” Hitch stated firmly, reaching for the bell…as Izzy pulled it up out of his reach. “Hold on a minute, here, ponies. This isn’t like that creepy amulet. It doesn’t…feel like a simple enchantment behind the voice. It feels like…like a pony. There’s an enchantment on the bell, and it’s a really strong one, but I don’t think it has the same mind-bendy stuff as that amulet.” As Hitch started to speak up again, Sunny interrupted him. “Hitch, wait a sec. Izzy…can you ask the voice who they are?” "Sunny, are you seriously indulging this insanity?" Hitch scoffed. Sunny waved him off, causing him to roll his eyes in exasperation. ‘We are Princess Luna, Lunar Diarch of the Princessdom of Equestria, Steward of the Night, Blade of the Shadows, and Protector of the Dream Realm, you uneducated whelps! The most diabolical of nightmare creatures cower beneath our might!’ The diarch's regal voice thundered in her head, nearly loud enough to give Izzy a headache. Izzy’s eyes got wider and wider as the trapped voice from within the bell listed off their formal titles, a hoof flying up to her mouth as she sat back onto her haunches. “S-sunny?” She whimpered, head spinning from the revelation. “I think somepony really important is trapped inside this bell…” “I’m no expert on creepy magical artifacts, but it looks a little too small to fit a whole pony inside,” Pipp pondered skeptically. Zipp facehooved, shaking her head admonishingly as she launched into an explanation. “It’s not the whole pony, Pipp. If there's one thing I've learned from reading about old artifacts like these, it’s more like…their magic? Their essence?” She mused to herself, searching for the right words, “The connection between a pony’s magic and mind isn’t very well understood, mostly because all the books that would’ve known more about it aren’t in any modern libraries. It’s obvious now that there’s something to it, given how a lack of magic has put unicorns into a depressive state that’s lasted as long as any of them can remember, but without magic itself to study for so long, the best that anypony’s probably been able to use has been guesswork. Pegasi and earth ponies have been able to cope without their magic since it isn’t as important to them, but for unicorns…it’s a huge part of their identity.” ‘Your well-spoken friend is correct, Isadora Moonbow. A pony’s magic is indeed a tremendous portion of their identity, whether or not they possess a horn. We are saddened to hear that magic has been lost to Equestria for longer than current generations can remember, but it is not an unanticipated outcome given the events preceding our imprisonment within this blasted Bell.’ The voice answered within Izzy’s head. “Why are you talking like that? And…wait, how the hay do you know my full name? I’ve never told anypony else that!” Izzy replied aloud, visibly alarmed. ‘When you are as old as we are, you learn many things about magic. As to our manner of speaking…in the early years of Equestria, before my sister banished me to the moon, it was commonplace for royalty such as us to address our citizens in this manner.’ “Your sister banished you? To the moon? How does that even work?!” Izzy exclaimed, growing increasingly confused. The group’s eyes collectively widened, eying the bell with a new sense of apprehension. Was the pony trapped within deserving of their prison, and would it be unwise to release her? Luna’s exasperated sigh filled Izzy’s thoughts. ‘We tire of retelling such times in our history, as they are the years we wish most to forget…perhaps we may tell this tale another time, Miss Moonbow, but it is not important now. What is important is releasing us from this bell and ending the suffering that we have endured for more years than we can even express.’ Izzy hummed to herself, unconvinced for a moment, but her trusting nature won out in the end, and she nodded approvingly to herself. “Izzy, let’s not do anything rash, now…” Hitch said, tone full of authoritative warning as he reached for his hoofcuffs. “Oh c’mooooonnn, Hitch, don’t you wanna meet one of the lost Princesses of Equestria?” Izzy teased, hefting the bell side-to-side in her magic as her eyebrows wiggled imploringly. Pipp and Zipp glanced at each other for a moment. “Princesses? Like us?” Pipp whispered to her sister, who shrugged and shook her head in response. Sunny’s eyes brightened noticeably at the mention of ‘Princesses’, an unreadable expression on her face as she looked at the spot on her back where her phantom wings had previously appeared. “You mean…like the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle? That isn’t just an inspirational old bedtime story for young ponies?” The bell shuddered in Izzy’s grip, a palpable aura of sadness emanating from within it. ‘Oh, Twilight…’ Luna bemoaned, sounding at once nostalgic and heartbroken. “You…you really are from old Equestria, aren’t you? You aren’t trying to fool us,” Izzy asked softly, her ears lowering in along with her mood at the revelation. ‘It has been so long since we thought of our beloved…we thought we had gotten over her, but hearing her name spoken upon somepony’s lips again is nearly too much for us to bear.’ ‘Beloved…’ Izzy mouthed to herself, eyes widening. Her gaze shifted towards Sunny for a long moment, imagining what it might be like to be forced apart from the love of her life for countless eons. It was impossible to imagine the depth of Luna’s loss…even the thought of being away from Sunny for a single day sent unpleasant shivers down her spine. Taking matters into her own hooves, Izzy gripped the bell strongly in her magic as she stared into that cold, swirling white eye on its face. Its inner workings came to her as if she had always known them, and she merely had to imagine pushing against the vast wellspring of power she could feel within it before it responded to her mental command. She aimed its aperture towards her face, and it hummed ominously with building power, eldritch light spilling through the growing cracks that spiderwebbed across it. “IZZY, NO!” Her four friends shouted as they realized her plot, diving toward her in an attempt to halt the process that Izzy had started. Just feet from reaching her, their reaching hooves met a swirling yellow-and-black barrier that flashed to life as they neared it, blocking them from interfering. The bell jerked within Izzy’s sorcerous grip, and its clapper rang out one oppressively loud, dull note that only seemed to grow in magnitude as time passed, like some horrifying magical feedback loop. ‘You FOOL! I did not yet instruct you on the proper means of freeing me from my prison! You’ll kill us both, and all of your friends, just to free me?!’ Luna’s third-person narrative slipped for the first time since she’d begun talking to Izzy; a poignant metric of her distress. “I’ve got this, Luna! Just trust me! I’ll get you outta there soon, I just know it! I just...“ Izzy’s teeth clenched hard as waves of searing pain racked through her body, the grooves of her horn glowing brightly as the process ran its course. She felt her mane and tail become weightless as her entire body began to levitate off of the floor, her friends watching in anguished, impotent horror as they could do naught but watch. "I...can't control it, now! What's it going to do to me?!" ‘You haven’t triggered the command to RELEASE me, you’ve triggered the command to ABSORB me! An alicorn’s power within a mortal body will DESTROY you!‘ Luna had nearly gone into the full Royal Canterlot Voice now, both out of anguish and out of a desperation to be heard over the building roar of the Bell. Wisps of deep-blue, star-filled magic began to reach out from the inside of the eldritch artifact, grasping at the air as they grew towards Izzy’s horn. Izzy’s eyes snapped wide, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she realized her fatally impulsive error. Overwhelming, existential horror filled her as she witnessed Luna’s power searching for its next soon-to-be host. ‘Can’t…maintain our connection…while being pulled out…’ Luna advised, her voice growing choppier and quieter as more tendrils of magic exited the bell. ‘You must…tell your friends…to RUN!’ She screamed with her last figurative breath, the connection fading away entirely as the first tendril made its hesitant touch upon Izzy’s horn. Her every nerve flared with searing agony as her senses failed her. An unstoppable torrent of power filled her reserves to overflowing as that forbidden connection grew in strength, despite her every wish to stop what she’d begun. Her last sight was of her beloved Sunny, her ethereal wings flared wide, slamming her hooves on the barrier to no avail as tears streamed down her cheeks. She felt a tear roll down her own cheek in return as her vision became pure white, and within moments, she knew no more. Author's Note I just can't resist ending with cliffhangers, can I? I really should kick this habit but it's just so fun to do, heh~ ANYWAY! I'm sorry it's been so long since the last update. The second semester of grad school happened, combined with a lack of inspiration and motivation, and then after the end of the semester, I went to Whinny City Pony Con in Schaumburg, Illinois... ...aaand got COVID. As fun as the con was -- getting to see old friends after a few years apart, and meet face-to-face with new friends that I'd made on Discord during the pandemic, was super awesome -- it does absolutely suck that my friend group and I comprised the majority of the reported attendees to get COVID as a direct result of the con. All of us have recovered fairly well by now, aside from some lingering exhaustion, but I'm still in Milwaukee (graciously hosted by some old friends, who as previously mentioned also got COVID) for another week until I can catch a (relatively) cheap flight to Burbank. Time away from home and a fresh environment has given me more inspiration to work on writing, as evidenced by this update, so...I'm taking Ws wherever I can get them. This week has been a HELL of a rollercoaster, to say the least. I'm going to be avoiding LAX like the plague (and travel in general) from now on if this experience has taught me anything about the "new normal" in a post-COVID society. Don't know when my other stories will be updated. Obviously, I haven't been in "the mood" for much with everything going on...I really want to do something for Shark Week but I don't have an idea nailed down like I've had for the last 2 years. ~ RD 🦈 P.S. here's a fun and interesting bit of trivia that I learned while writing: The name "Isadora" means "gift of the goddess Isis." Isis happens to be the Egyptian goddess of not just magic, but also the moon! 5 // Evolution & AcceptanceSunny’s powerful hooves connected with the bell’s protective barrier just as the flash of brilliance consumed her, latent alicorn instincts rising to the fore as she quickly cast a protective barrier around her other friends in response to the flash. Her instincts were right to be concerned. The blinding burst of light was followed swiftly by a powerful shockwave, sending books and papers flying off of the shelves as small objects were sent hurtling through nearby windows in showers of broken glass. The entire lighthouse seemed to shudder from the force of the blast, sending everypony hurtling into walls and furniture as they lost their footing. The bell flickered and shuddered as it hovered above a charred spot on the floor right where Izzy had been standing, the very last dregs of its enchantment exhausted as it fell out of the air. The cracked, chipped, millenniums-old bronze, no longer held together by magic, exploded into fractured, crumbling pieces as it was dashed against the hardwood floor of Sunny’s lighthouse, only a faint wisp of residual magic rising from its smoldering remains. “No, no, no, nonono…” Sunny wailed desperately, scrambling to pick up the pieces of the bell as a flood of tears obscured her vision. “NO! I can’t lose you, too, Izzy! I can’t!” Her hooves scuffed against the charred spot on her living room floor in futile, inarticulate, sorrowful desperation, pleading for some sign that her best friend, sister, marefriend, and lover was still alive. “Sunny! Sunny, stop! She’s…she’s gone.” Hitch said in a shocked, hushed tone, pulling Sunny back from the spot as the color drained from his face. “IZZZZYYYY!” She cried out, one final time, before collapsing into Hitch’s hooves. Sobs wracked her frame as her chest heaved with unsteady, hiccuping breaths. Zipp and Pipp silently embraced her from either side. As the bright light in her eyes faded away, Izzy felt weightless. The pain that had incapacitated her was gone, replaced with an eerie numbness. Wherever she was now, it was empty, utterly devoid of any defining features or floor for her to stand on. And yet, as she pushed against it with her hooves…she stood. On, as far as she could tell, nothing. “Hello?!” she cried out, utterly confused, tapping her hoof experimentally at the ‘floor,’ testing its strength. “Is anypony there?!” When nothing answered her call, aside from the suffocating, oppressive silence that permeated wherever the hay this was, her desperation grew, alongside her intuition screaming at her that something was very, very wrong. “SUNNY?!” She called again, nearly reduced to sobbing as tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes. “We are afraid that thou hast arrived within a plane that no mortal pony can reach, Isadora. Though perhaps, given enough time, thy beloved might as well.” A prim, regal voice answered her from behind. With a startled yelp, Izzy whirled around on the spot to face the speaker…and froze like a deer in the path of a speeding carriage. The mare’s dark blue coat stuck out like a sore hoof against the shimmering, bright void that surrounded them. The mare’s mane and tail flowed around her in an invisible wind, dancing in the air like an amorphous blob as stars, nebulae, galaxies, auroras…an entire night sky was held impossibly within the depths of her mane, making Isadora’s head hurt harder the longer she gazed into it. “T’would be best if you were not to gaze into our mane for too long, mine little pony. During our years upon Equus, such a thing was known to cause existential crises among the weak-willed. Or perhaps that was simply a tale told to young ponies on Nightmare Night…who is to say? Ah, it does not matter. Excuse our tangential muttering, the years have not been kind to us.” “Y-you’re…y-y-you’re…” Izzy stuttered, trying and failing to comprehend the enormity of her situation. “We are Princess Luna of Equestria, yes,” the lunar diarch replied matter-of-factly, waiting patiently for Izzy to take stock of her predicament, “The very same as the one within that accursed Bell that thou hast been conversing with.” “But if you’re dead…and I’m with you…then that means…” Izzy trembled, flopping onto her rear as the dam broke. “I’ll never see Sunny or any of my friends ever a-gaaa-haaa-haaaain! And it’s all my faaa-haaa-haaault!” She sobbed openly, her short life flashing before her eyes. All she’d accomplished, to be brought to her end by one careless decision…it was profoundly unfair. “Isadora!” Luna shouted, startling the mare out of her crying fit for a moment, “Prithee, do not resign thyself to despair just yet. There may yet be a way to return thee back to the mortal plane, and to thine friends in turn.” Her regal demeanor faltered for a moment, grimacing as if she’d just licked a particularly strong lemon, “However…thy might find it unpleasant.” “Where the hay even am I? What happened?!” Izzy exclaimed, growing increasingly desperate. “Well, thy latter question has a simple answer, if that is any comfort. Thou performed an extraordinary feat of magic that triggered thine ascension. We must add that thou cheated a bit by absorbing the last remnants of our power, and it is normally nowhere near as simple…” Luna explained, a dour edge to her voice as a hint of annoyance bled through her regal demeanor. Izzy whimpered, retreating into herself a bit. ‘What the hay is an ascension?’ She chose not to voice her mental question, as Luna continued her explanation unabated. “The answer to thy former question…is not so simple. We are…Elsewhere, Isadora. There is truly no other way to describe it. Elsewhere is far from any place you know, but in a manner that transcends spatial relations. It is a place that few know of, even among immortals, and fewer still have entered. Our sister and her prized pupil visited it once, countless ages ago, as did our sister’s niece. It has no name, existing beyond the boundaries of mortal comprehension and senses, so it is simply referred to as ‘Elsewhere.’” Her expression hardened. “We are sure that thou knowest, by now, what this means for thee and thine reckless, impulsive actions.” Her lip trembled, thoughts of her friends flashing by her as the obvious conclusion crystallized. “I’m…I really am dead, aren’t I?” Luna sighed to herself, massaging her temple with a shoed hoof. “Yes and no. Much like our current plane of existence, it is…complicated. Consider yourself fortunate. It is through sheer force of will that I was able to stop your essence from being completely obliterated by my own during the transfer, as the full brunt of my power is difficult even for me to control.” The unicorn’s lip tremble had evolved to a full-body shudder, not sure how to process the explanation. “So…I survived, right? I can go back to Sunny and the rest of my friends?” “…Yes.” As Izzy grew a wide grin and shot up to all four hooves, Luna raised a hoof to forestall the inevitable celebration. “However…there will be complications going forward. We will share one mind and one body once we leave this place together. This is, regrettably, an unassailable fact. It has taken all of our effort to nudge the leylines towards a solution that will preserve your existence, especially as those veins have shifted and weakened since we last touched them.” “S-share…a body? And mind?” Izzy felt lightheaded with dizziness, much too far out of her depth to truly understand what was going on. Talking to old ponies and messing with ancient magic was supposed to be Sunny’s or Zipp’s thing, not hers! “We know it is a difficult concept for thee to grasp. We implore thee to trust us…even though, as we are no longer truly thy regent in these modern times, thou hast no reason to do so,” Luna pleaded. “We feel a great measure of responsibility for not adequately warning thee of the risks of tampering with the Bell in its unstable state, and it was our own foolish, selfish desire for freedom that brought both of us to this point.” “If…if it’ll let me see Sunny again…” Izzy whimpered, “then I’ll do anything,” she said with finality, eyes squeezing shut as she awaited Luna’s actions. Luna nodded softly, horn shimmering like the night sky as her immense power began to coalesce. It swiftly grew in brightness and intensity as the spell siphoned off more and more of her magic, powerful enough to make the hairs of Izzy’s coat and mane stand on end just from being near her. “We shall speak to thee again soon, Isadora. Thou shalt need guidance to control thy strength and abilities.” Luna said with finality, before releasing the buildup of magic directly at Izzy. It slammed into her with the force of a speeding carriage, sending her tumbling backward as a tingling sensation spread through her entire body. Her limbs sagged like lead as her thoughts grew fuzzy before she once again lost consciousness. Crackles of purple energy began to dance around the blackened spot on the floor where Izzy once stood. A low hum built in volume as a white sphere of light coalesced there, growing in diameter until it looked like it could contain a rather large pony. Stunned out of their despair by the blinding spectacle before them, a surge of hope welled in Sunny’s chest as the features of a pony became recognizable from within the sphere’s fading light. The long, wavy blue mane and pale, elegant, grooved horn were unmistakably Izzy! And yet…something wasn’t quite right… That something quickly revealed itself as a pair of immense wings, which flared out from within the sphere with a great gust of wind. While mostly clad in the familiar pale purple hue of Izzy’s coat, they faded to a regal blue-and-purple gradient towards the wingtips, and their pinions glittered like stars in a lonely midnight sky. As the pony within the sphere was fully revealed, the group found themselves stunned into silence. She was, unmistakably, still the Izzy they knew and loved…but many things had changed. Her long, wavy mane had grown even fuller and more radiant than before, cascading down her chest and side in a curtain of shimmering cobalt hues. Her stunning orchid eyes had grown even more enthralling, stars twinkling within them in dazzling, hypnotizing patterns, leading down to a slimmer, curvier, more elegant muzzle. She had been the tallest in their friend group before, but now she was practically Alphabittle’s height, if not even larger, with a slim build and lean, slender legs that, despite their dainty-looking length, were visibly far more muscular than they once were. Despite her shock, Sunny felt a heat growing in her cheeks the longer her eyes wandered. Especially once an errant glance at her marefriend’s undercarriage revealed an even more shocking addition…surely she must have been hallucinating? The group’s jaws hung lower and lower the longer they stared, especially once they realized who they were looking at. Sunny stared in slack-jawed amazement at their newly-transformed once-unicorn friend, even as some deep-seated instinct urged each of them to bow in her presence, brought about by an oppressive aura of imperialism far grander than that of the so-called “Queen” of Zephyr Heights. At a glance, it certainly seemed that little was left of their friend’s old form or personality. And yet, as the unicorn—nay, the alicorn—opened her eyes for the first time, she was greeted by Sunny’s wide-eyed, smiling face…and any semblance of propriety was swiftly defenestrated through the nearest already-broken window. With wings flared wide and eyes alight with passion, the huge alicorn mare tackled Sunny to the hardwood floor with a house-rattling thump before pressing her slender, regal muzzle into Sunny’s own. Sunny’s wide-eyed astonishment morphed into doe-eyed, passionate smooching as their lip-lock progressed, the two of them quickly forgetting anypony else around them as Izzy’s elongated tongue pushed past her lover’s to quest straight down her throat. Her overenthusiastic ‘reunion’ was cut short by this, as Sunny coughed and sputtered violently from the sudden triggering of her gag reflex, pushing the other mare away with both forehooves. Despite her discomfort, her heart fluttered in her chest as her cheeks pinked. Goodness gracious, if Izzy’s tongue were that long, then it could perhaps even…oh gosh… Her thoughts turned lurid as a wave of torrid daydreams crashed through her mind, eyes practically bugging out of her head as a wave of heated lust made her face go aflame. She quickly chased away such thoughts with an embarrassed shake of the head, doing her best to try and regain her composure. There was a time and a place for that kind of thing, and in front of the rest of her friends was certainly not it! After a moment’s reprieve, Sunny threw her forehooves around Izzy’s neck, and the rest of her friends joined her in subduing their alicorn friend into a relentless cuddle-pile. “We’re so glad you’re alright, Izzy! You’re really the life of the party, you know? Our group just wouldn’t be the same without you…” said Pipp, barely withholding a bout of sniffles as her soft-spoken voice wavered. “I’m glad you’re alright, Izz, but…” Hitch said with a pause, breaking apart from the hug to point an accosting hoof at the wavy-maned demigoddess, “you have got to work on that impulse control of yours! You nearly got yourself killed just now! Don’t make me write a law preventing you from endangering yourself, little lady!” Sunny chuckled to herself as Izzy grimaced, rubbing the back of her neck with a forehoof self-consciously. “Relax, Hitch. It won’t need to come to that. I’d tie her to a bed if I had to!” The moment Sunny finished that sentence, she already realized she’d made a mistake. Hitch and both of the Princesses flinched, eyes wide, while an adorably vibrant blush grew on Izzy’s cheeks as everypony in the room stared straight at Sunny. “Wow. I…ahem…uhh, okay. I’d say you’ve got her…well under control, then! Ahahah…” Hitch responded with painfully forced enthusiasm. Police training had prepared him for many things, but it was safe to say an earth pony threatening an alicorn with bondage was not one of the scenarios he’d practiced in the academy. “NotwhatImeant, notwhatImeant, notwhatImeant…darn, friggin’, stupid brain…” Sunny muttered to herself repeatedly, shaking her head in her hooves. Helpfully, Zipp interjected just then, providing a much-needed escape from the awkward corner that Sunny had backed herself into. “Are we gonna address the fact that Izzy’s a buckin’ alicorn, by the way? As in, long-dead-ruler-of-Equestria style, capital-a Alicorn?!” “Sunny’s crazy glowing wings and horn are one thing, but you’re the real deal!” Pipp exclaimed. “Do you have any idea what this means, Izzy?!” “It means my life just got a whole lot more complicated…?” Izzy whimpered, raising her hoof questioningly. “It means you’re gonna BLOW UP the ponynet like never before!” Pipp exclaimed, grinning widely as she held up her phone and pointed it at Izzy…just as Zipp snatched it out of her hoof. “H-hey! I was using that!” “We’ve been over this, Pipp, c’mon. Did you learn anything from the incident with Sunny and Izzy’s relationship before? We can’t just drop a bombshell like this onto the Ponynet like it’s nothing, sis! This is really serious. The fate of the whole nation is at stake, ponies can’t just find out that an alicorn has come back by watching a viral video!” Zipp barked, stowing Pipp’s phone into her own saddlebags. “Just…please trust me, alright? I’ve read the stories in the old, dusty sections of the Royal Library that nopony visits anymore. They don’t talk kindly of the alicorns who ruled before. It’s a series of their failures that have brought Equestria to where it’s at now, and it’s only thanks to us that things are getting better…how do you think most ponies would react if they saw a real live alicorn in front of them, in the flesh, just when things are getting better for everypony?” She ‘tch’ed, shaking her head. “B-but, I’m an alicorn, aren’t I?” Sunny interjected, desperation evident in her pleading tone. “You saw how ponies accepted me after my transformation. What makes Izzy’s transformation any different?” “Having those glowy alicorn bits isn’t really the same thing, Sunny. Having the flesh-and-blood traits of all three pony races just means you’re set up to be distrusted by all three of ‘em equally. Those grudges run deep, real deep. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve already made amazing progress with the ponies in our hometowns, but we’ve got a long way to go before an alicorn can just waltz through anyplace in Equestria unquestioned…if we ever get to that point again.” Pacing the room now, Zipp’s thoughts continued. “It really doesn’t help her case that, if whatever possessed and transformed her isn’t lying, she’s got one of the ponies directly responsible for the collapse of Equestria living in herhead.” Zipp said, shuddering at the thought. “I…I’m scared…” Izzy whimpered, holding her head in her hooves. Sunny quickly embraced her, running a hoof through her mane as the alicorn’s wings ruffled up in anxiety. “Everything’s going to be okay, Iz. I’m sure this Luna pony isn’t that bad,” Giving Zipp the stink-eye, she continued, “Somepony just isn’t that good at reading the room.” The pale princess sighed, holding her hooves up. “Yeah, you got me there. Sorry about that, everypony. Sometimes I don’t know when to shut up about something.” Sunny’s glare softened, and she gave Zipp a small smile. “Apology accepted, Zipp.” Glancing down at the mare trembling in her hooves, her smile grew lopsided. “I think it’d be best if we carefully boxed up all these artifacts and examined them someplace where they won’t randomly go off and permanently alter somepony. Or tear down my house…again.” Hitch nodded sharply in agreement. “Which is what I would’ve suggested in the first place, but alright. I’ll get in touch with Phyllis and see if those crazy testing rooms of hers can be retrofitted to handle experiments with magical artifacts.” Zipp scoffed, shaking her head. “Rrright. I’m sure she’ll only go slightly insane at the thought.” “Phyllis seems like a good pony, if a bit misguided. She did support what we were doing by the end of things, after all.” Pipp pointed out. “She didn’t use to be so prejudiced. Sure, she and Dad rarely got along, but…” Glancing at the photo of her father, her eyes misted a bit. “She did care about him, more than she let on. She was one of the first ponies to hug me at his funeral, and I wasn’t the only one of us who was crying. I think she knew a good pony when she saw one, even if her closed-mindedness wouldn’t let her admit it.” The rest of the group went silent at that, bowing their heads out of respect. Sunny, desperately trying to get things back on track, was the first to speak up. “But enough about old grudges, ponies. We’ve got some artifacts to wrangle, and I’ve got my cute unicorn—err, alicorn!—marefriend here to comfort afterward. Let’s get to work!” The remaining cleanup continued in an orderly fashion, all five ponies managing to resist their deep-seated urges to touch and manipulate the artifacts as they carefully loaded them into boxes, taking great care to load them without damaging them. “Phew, that was a lot of work. I don’t know about you all, but I could really use a good spa treatment and a nap right about now.” Pipp groaned, working out a kink in her forehoof as she mussed her sweat-slick mane with a grimace of disgust. Izzy looked to have scarcely broken a sweat from the heavy lifting she’d been tasked with — and while the mare had already been capable of some spectacular feats without magic, Sunny highly doubted the unicorn version of the mare would’ve truly had enough stamina to do what she’d accomplished today. Lost in thought, she eyed Izzy’s wings as they ruffled at her sides, the once-unicorn still unable to control them outside of those unconscious social gestures that her freshly-transformed body somehow just knew how to do. Those long, slender limbs, made even more elegant by her transformation, roiled with incredible physical strength, a testament to the way she alone had tugged the cartful of artifacts all the way into town and into CanterLogic’s loading dock. Sunny had made herself busy giving the stink-eye to the many earth-pony stallions (and mares) who eyed the surprisingly strong, cloaked “unicorn” with unabashed arousal. The specifics of Izzy’s transformation were a topic that the rest of the group had pointedly avoided discussing for hours prior, pouring all of their focus into the day’s project to avoid stressing the overburdened unicorn out. Now, however, with little else to focus on since coming back to the lighthouse, the topic of discussion inevitably strayed. “Soo…Izzy…aside from the whole ‘pulling a cartful of artifacts over a mile into town without sweating or stopping,’ how has the change been treating you?” Hitch asked. Bright blue flashed in Izzy’s eyes for a moment as she regarded him sourly. “You mean aside from feeling like a freak with a voice in our head who’s been through more emotional and physical trauma in the past day than most ponies deal with in their lives, being run like a draft horse, and being ogled like a two-bit strumpet? Terrific.” Izzy sniped. “Izzy!” Sunny admonished, taken aback. Where had that come from? Hitch backpedaled, eyes wide. “Woah! Sheesh. No need to bite my head off.” “L-let’s…” Pipp interrupted, placing a hoof on both ponies’ shoulders. “Let’s just settle down a bit, get something to eat, take a bath, and go to bed, alright? We’ve got another long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I’m sure all of us could use the rest.” The rest of the night passed with little fanfare, the five ponies bedding down for the night in various rooms of Sunny’s lighthouse; Sunny and Izzy shared the bed, while Pipp and Zipp slept on a pair of large beanbags in Sunny’s living room. Hitch, as could be expected, had to make do with the couch. Izzy’s fluffy new appendages certainly had their charm, but that was much less apparent when one tried to sleep in a bed with them. Sleep was fitful, and more than once Sunny found herself rudely awakened by a faceful of feathers, but eventually, the pair found a happy medium and drifted off to the land of dreams. As they slumbered, though, a shimmering blue light coalesced around Izzy’s horn… There it was again. That shimmering, beautiful, yet chillingly empty void. Izzy groaned as she got to her hooves, cricking her back as her wings ruffled out in discomfort. “Mmh, Luna, I’m really tired. Can this wait at all?” As her eyes opened, the visage that greeted her confirmed her suspicions — deep blue coat and speckled black flanks, with a mane that anypony could get lost in. It was the lost Princess of the Moon, all right. “Not particularly, we’re afraid. Harmony has doubtlessly already taken notice of the resurgence of our magical signature, and it will come calling soon enough. You and your friends must be made aware of things before that happens.” Luna replied, and her horn shimmered with power as Izzy’s own horn tingled in sympathy. A chorus of confused, familiar groans filled the echoing vastness in an instant — one moment, it was empty, and as she blinked, her other four friends simply appeared around her! It was enough to make her stumble back in surprise. She hadn’t even felt the air shift with their sudden appearance. “Groan…wha…where am I?” Zipp mumbled, smacking her lips as she got to her hooves. As her eyes fixed on Princess Luna, her jaw nearly hit the floor. “Woah. Okay, what?” “Y-you’re…” Sunny breathed out in a reverent gasp, feeling herself get lightheaded as all she’d read about the mare in her father’s research came rushing back to her. She was the Mare in the Moon, a former ruler of Equestria, one of the most powerful ponies in history… “P-Princess Luna!” She exclaimed, stumbling forward in a hasty bow of respect. The moon-mare merely giggled behind one hoof, thoroughly amused. “While I am both surprised and flattered by your recognition, the formalities are unnecessary. I lost the right to rule over anypony when I was sealed within the Bewitching Bell as a magical fragment of my former self.” Izzy had to force herself not to glomp Sunny as the mare blushed and stammered, rubbing her foreleg self-consciously as she averted her gaze. “S-sorry, Pri—Luna.” The beatific smile the moon-mare wore was at once both understanding and calming, and Sunny found herself unable to stay nervous for long under her gaze. It made her heart skip a beat, though she chalked it up to nerves and nothing else. “That’s better, dear Sunny. We find thy nervousness unbecoming — thou deservest the highest of praise for taking such grand steps to reunite the Equestrian territory, though thee must forgive us if we find the intent to be dearly misplaced. Those who follow in the hoofsteps of the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes.” “What exactly do you mean by that, Luna?” Zipp asked, a harsh edge to her tone. “Oh, nothing particularly dire, at least not yet. But we would caution thee against making hasty steps toward reunification. Twilight made the same miscalculation, believing that her and her friends had saved the day like any other time a great evil threatened Equestria…they were not prepared for its collapse from within rather than without. The seeds of doubt that those damnable three planted took root like a plunderseed, though proved far more difficult to remove.” Noticing the confused glance towards group historian Sunny, who shrugged, Luna added, “Pardon our wandering mind, we forget how long it has been since those times. Plunderseeds were a…horticultural inconvenience dreamed up by Discord long ago, as a ‘failsafe’ to threaten the Tree of Harmony should his chaotic reign unravel,” Ignoring the increasingly confused stares of the five ponies, her expression brightened. “Which, we believe, serves as a convenient segue for the task at hand. There will be plenty of time to discuss ancient history when the future of Equestria does not hang in the balance.” A map of ancient Equestria materialized out of thin air behind Luna, floating in her magical grasp along with a pointing stick. Surreptitiously, the pointer aimed at a spot left-of-center of the map, within the Everfree Forest that blanketed the southern foothills of the towering Canterhorn, near the town of Ponyville. “Regrettably, we do not know of any of your modern landmarks as they relate to our era of Equestria. We are quite sure of one thing, however — once Harmony realizes that an alicorn walks upon the ground of Equus once again, it will contact you, by means that only it can predict.” Sunny’s brows knit in confusion, eyes scanning over the map and poring over every detail as she considered Luna’s statement. “But what’s…Harmony? How is it still here, after Equestria went so long without magic? Why would it care about the existence of alicorns?” Luna raised her forehoof, forestalling further questions. “The means by which Equestria lost its magic were not entirely organic, suffice it to say. It was less of a dissolution and more of a sealing — anything magical became inert after the event and has reactivated in the wake of its passing. We are talking to each other in a shared dream now, after all. Our last remnant would have faded away into the aether with the rest of ancient Equestria if the loss of magic had been gradual and natural.” “So somepony did all of this deliberately?!” Izzy exclaimed, “B-but who would want to do such a thing?” Luna stamped her hoof. “They were not ponies, at least not all of them. Again, thou art straying from the topic. Stories of the past later.” With a pout, Izzy relented, wings flopping down at her sides. “Harmony, as my sister and I named it, is some form of…transcendental being, with motives, machinations, and desires beyond even the understanding of an alicorn. A more fitting name for it might be Order, though we admit it does not sound nearly as welcoming. It acts as a direct counterpoint to the spirit of Chaos incarnate, Discord. Though that one was much more prone to overt meddling than Harmony...” “T-T-Transcendental beings?! Oh, mare…” Pipp swooned, a bout of nausea overtaking her. “I was not prepared for this when I got up this morning…” “Few are prepared for having their entire worldview adjusted.” Luna jibed, the barest hint of mirth bleeding through her serious tone. “I would advise the four of you to discern the whereabouts of Harmony’s earthly manifestation. It last took the form of a crystalline tree that housed the Elements of Harmony, though it is very likely that its form has shifted and evolved in the years since that time.” “So…you’re sending us on a goose chase for a big ol’ tree, in the middle of a forest, that houses the most powerful being on the planet. Am I getting that right?” Hitch asked, “Because, uh, this sounds more like a summer blockbuster movie with each new crazy thing I’m hearing.” “That is the essence of things, yes. We understand that this task may seem difficult, but it is imperative that the five of you succeed.” As the dream world around them suddenly began to shudder, Luna sighed. “Alas, it seems our time together draws to a close.” “B-but, wait! We still have so many questions!” Sunny exclaimed, reaching towards Luna as the alicorn’s form began to shimmer and fade. “There will be time for more questions later. Remember well what we have told all of you. We do not know when we can create this shared dream again, as our powers are still recovering strength and we do not want to tax Miss Moonbow’s body with them. Fare thee well, brave ponies, and may your audience with Harmony pass graciously.” Luna curtsied, vanishing into an encroaching wave of fog. Around them, the dream realm began to shudder and quaver, until, with a rumbling roar, it collapsed into complete blackness, fragmenting away into the fog of slumber. Author's Note Woo, longest chapter yet! Nearing the end of Act 1 now. To everyone still reading along with this journey, thanks for sticking with me. I've really enjoyed writing my own take on G5 lore so far, even though incoming canon is sure to retcon the things I'm doing less than a week from now. More stuff will be incoming...soonish? Not really sure. Grad school is picking up and I wanted to get this out before all my free time gets sucked away.
1 // Makes Ya Feel StressedThe following morning after their wonderful night together, Izzy was the first of the pair to awaken. The sharp notes of birdsong roused her at first, and as she began to stir, the shine of sunlight through the window did its job of waking her the rest of the way up, despite her soft groans of protest as she shielded her eyes with a forehoof. A hazy lethargy filled her, far beyond that of ordinary morning grogginess; a full-body ache that made every movement she made a trembling struggle that sent numb tingles through her limbs, no doubt a reminder of last night's blissful activities with her friend-turned-lover. For being a first-timer, she sure had gone all out to rock her world... Said friend-turned-lover was draped peacefully across her chest, Izzy's hoof holding her close beneath the covers. A wide smile graced Sunny's sleeping muzzle as her soft breaths added to the gentle symphony of a crisp summer morning. Izzy felt like she never wanted to leave such a perfect moment behind...but much like Sunny yesterday morning, there were things she had planned for today. Important things - not for the future of Equestria or anything (well, probably not...she hoped) but personal ones...which made them even more important! If she and Sunny were going to be an item from now on - her father had a right to know. E-err. Well. Not technically her father, but...the closest thing she had to one, at any rate. "Sunny-bun...it's another beautiful day in Equestria...wake up, sweetie~" Izzy singsonged softly, nuzzling down into Sunny's mane as the smaller mare began to stir atop her. The unicorn's eyes widened as her earth-pony sweetheart caught her off guard, tipping her head back as she captured the unicorn's lips in a surprise half-upside-down kiss. It was left chaste, rather than anything provocative or intense - an adorably impulsive reminder of the love they'd shared with one another...not that either of them would be forgetting for a while, after all of the firsts they'd now shared. But any excuse to kiss was nice, all the same. "Mmh...beautiful because you're in it, Izz..." Sunny complimented groggily, effortlessly alighting Izzy's face in a blush as the other mare's horn alit, bashfully twirling a strand of her own gorgeous sapphire mane in her magic. "Heehee~! You really know how to make a mare feel special, Sunny-bun! You sure you're new to this?" Izzy shot back, giggling playfully. "Well, about as new as magic is to today's Equestria..." she trailed off, a worried aside glance souring her mood as thoughts of less-understanding ponies barged in and muddled her good vibes. Sensing her marefriend's dourly drifting mind, Izzy brightened up as she sense her opportunity. "Speakin' of once-separated Equestrians, whatcha say we pop down to Bridlewood for the day? I've got some unicycled stuff I wanna bring over and some ponies back there to talk to. Considering I'm gonna be living here with you, I might as well make the lighthouse even more of a home for myself!" "Heh, more of a home?" Sunny inquired, cocking an eyebrow up at Izzy's smirking face. "Well, yeah! Because wherever you are is home to me, Sunny. Duuuh~" Izzy opined as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Her carefree grin shifted into a soft smile as a single tear rolled down Sunny's cheek. "N-now who's making who feel special, huh?" The earth mare croaked out, voice trembling with emotion as she felt what must've been her "sparkle," shining brilliantly from within like a hot-burning star. "I love you, Izzy." "I love you too, sun to my moon~! C'mon, let's get ready to go." It was one thing to visit the droll, lifeless village that Bridlewood had been without magic. It was another thing entirely to see it restored to its vibrant, shimmering, sparkling self, thanks to the efforts of herself and her friends. It seemed she wasn't the only tourist - already she could see other earth ponies and pegasi slowly ambling around the place, gazing open-mouthed at each sparkling crystal and glittering leaf as the sheer beauty utterly captivated them, much like Sunny herself had been. "Soooo. Bridlewood's looking...a lot more cheerful than last time..." Sunny noted breathlessly, smiling bashfully and waving whenever a passing unicorn cheerfully recognized her as the one who'd returned their home to its former glory. "No kidding! I've never seen this much sparkle in one place...it's overwhelming..." It seemed that not even Izzy was immune to the effects of a reinvigorated Bridlewood...at least if the way she'd been tottering around in a starry-eyed daze, investigating every glowing crystal and sparkling leaf that caught her fancy, was any indication. It might've had something to do with that unique sparkle-seeing talent of hers - without magic, it must've been not too much to deal with, but now that the magic of everything had returned, all at once... Hurriedly guiding Izzy towards the cafe before the poor dear collapsed to the street in a daze, the two of them stepped through the doorway - and were greeted by a place so different from what they knew, it was almost comical. Peals of laughter, the thrum of conversation, and an overpowering aura of energy rattled the establishment from wall to wall, ponies of all three kinds engaging in drinking, socializing, and other merriments as a crowd cheered, encircling the Just Prance machine that had been set up as a permanent fixture against one wall - this time magically-motivated, rather than using those overworked little armadillos. It was a stark transformation from the muted, saloon-like atmosphere of their previous visit, but with magic returned it made sense - who could stay mad after getting their magic back, for ponies' sake? As the entry doors creaked shut behind them, some curious ponies glanced over to investigate the new arrivals - chief among them, the bartender himself. Fresh bouts of excited chatter filled the establishment as the gossip spread like a wave, all eyes turning to them...like something out of a horror movie...! "WELCOME, HEROES!" The crowd roared, laughing uproariously among themselves at the slack-jawed expressions on the two mares' faces as each pony returned to what they were doing before. From amongst the throng, a vast, familiar shape began jostling its way through them, leaping from the crowd and sweeping up both of them in a bone-creaking hug before either of them could even react. "Izzy! Sunny! Glad to see you two come by," Alphabittle greeted warmly, releasing them from his enthusiastic glomping before either mare could accidentally pass out, "I can't thank the two of you, and those other three friends of yours, enough. It's done more for this town than I ever have." Alphabittle said with a bitter, self-chastising edge to his voice as he glanced at the surrounding patrons. "Aww, c'mon, you know that's not true, daddy..." Izzy whined as she softly guided Alpha's gaze to her with her forehoof, "You gave everyunicorn a way to keep going, even when times just kept gettin' more depressing. That definitely counts for something, I'd say!" she reassured cheerfully, giving him a playful salute. "Y'know, ordinarily I'd get mad at you calling me "daddy" during business hours, but..." Alpha trailed off, glancing meaningfully around at the cheery, carefree ponies around him before continuing, "I don't really have to uphold that "tough guy" image anymore, haha! No thanks to you!" He belly-laughed as he tussled Izzy's mane. "Something told me taking you in was the right choice, kiddo. I'm glad I was right! Ahahahaha!" Izzy wriggled her way out of the noogie her paternal figure had begun giving her, scoffing playfully as she adjusted her mane with her magic, making a show of putting everything back how it'd been before. "Dad, c'mon...not in front of Sunny..." she whined plaintively, rolling her eyes like a bratty filly. Giving the earth-pony mare a furtive glance, his eyebrow rose as she began to get shifty-eyed and blush beneath his scrutiny. "Mmh...I don't think she minds," Alpha said smoothly, grinning smugly at his daughter. "But that's enough out of me. I'm guessing the two of you aren't just here on a friendly post-reunification visit?" Izzy winced, "Darn, was I really that obvious?" she bemoaned, scuffing her hoof against the floor as her bracelet rattled. "You forget you're a terrible liar, Izzy. Your tail hasn't stopped twitching since you came in here..." he observed, gesturing to Izzy's rear end - sure enough, her flowing sapphire tail flicked as he pointed at it. "So what is it, hun?" His eyebrows knit as Izzy gestured for him to bend down, and she put her hoof next to her mouth as she whispered in his ear. Sunny watched the way his eyes widened in surprise, finding herself wondering what she was telling him - before she got her answer as his eyes narrowed dangerously when they focused on her. As Izzy pulled away from her father's ear, he cleared his throat imperiously. "Sunny, from everything I know about you, I'm sure you're a wonderful mare. But so is Izzy - as I'm sure you know from traveling with her. It's because of how wonderful my darling daughter is that I'm not just going to let her get swept off her hooves by the first non-unicorn she's ever met. You're going to have to prove yourself to me, got it?" Alpha said sternly, his attention squarely focused on the tense, nervously-sweating Sunny as she trembled under his gaze. "Alphaaa, I am NOT a little filly anymore~! I'm a grown mare, I know what I'm doing! Sunny, c'mon, tell him I know what I'm doing!" Izzy exclaimed, pouting in annoyance as she made puppy-dog eyes at her foster father. "Izzy, it's alright! Really. If doing this “test" is what it takes to get the only family you've got to accept us, I'll do whatever I have to." she said with an ironclad conviction, not wanting to jeopardize Alpha and Izzy's relationship as she accepted his terms without argument. "Hah! I wouldn't expect anything less from the mare who saved Equestria. You two, come with me. It's best if we discuss the terms of this deal someplace more...private." Inclining his head to indicate his surroundings, the three of them glanced around surreptitiously at the other ponies in the room...every single one of whom was staring wide-eyed with ears tilted forward. Even the Just Prance players had stopped to stare... "The hay are you all looking at? Mind your own business!" Alphabittle groused. The shuffle of bodies answered him as the surrounding noise steadily returned, everypony hurriedly going back to what they'd been doing before. Alphabittle's residence in the rear of the tavern was far smaller and more homely than Sunny had anticipated. The walls were carefully crafted to look like the home was carved from the inside of a tree, much like the other homes she'd seen around Bridlewood, including Izzy's. Hanging plants hung near the windows, lit by sunlight as it shone through. A shelf of various items was mounted on the wall above the couch, among them a series of picture frames. Sunny's eyes widened as a brief gasp escaped her. 'Those are...!' A much younger Alpha and filly-age Izzy were smiling brightly at the camera, looking like they'd been playing around in the forest on a bright spring or summer day in that moment. The pictures next to it were similar in tone, but chronicled the march of time for both of them - Izzy progressively grew taller and longer-maned as Alpha's mane whitened and shortened, with a grizzled beard growing out in the most recent few photos. "Dad...before you tell Sunny to run to the ends of Equestria and back, there's something I really need to ask you. I didn't just come here with Sunny to tell you about our relationship - we both want to know this one. Together." Sighing heavily as she held a hoof to her chest, she gave herself a moment to build up the courage to ask, "Alpha...dad...can you tell me about my birth parents?" Alpha froze mid-stride, sighing heavily as he turned to face her, ears flagging downward, "Sigh...well. I suppose my test for Sunny can wait a bit longer. It's about time you knew. If there's one thing that's earned you my honesty by now, it's helping save Equestria." Leading the two mares over to his sitting area, the three of them quietly took a seat, both mares waiting patiently for Alpha to begin. "Izzy...your mother was named Sweet Moonbeam. One of the sweetest, loveliest unicorn mares I've ever seen trot into my bar, she was. Y'know there was once a time I was jealous of your father? Asking myself what he had, that I didn't?" As he saw Izzy's sharply raised eyebrow and Sunny's suspicious squint, he hastily added, "I-I got over it, though. Those two were so perfect for each other that I could never live with myself if I came between love so pure. But, well, your father...wasn't a unicorn, Izzy," A pair of shocked gasps resounded through the room, but Alpha beckoned them to stay quiet. "Didn't take me long to figure out, either, what with the way he was so darned optimistic and charming despite not having magic. Only Izzy can pull that off and actually make it convincing...and the fake horn was also pretty obvious once you really looked at it. Even so, I'd seen how good and smart a pony he was by the time I realized he was an earth pony, so the prejudices I had didn't rightly matter to me, nor did any lingering attraction to the pony who'd eventually become your mother. Plus, both of them were the most loyal customers I'd ever had, so I kept my mouth shut about it and just let the two of them have their fun. But then...that fateful night arrived. Stars know where the two of 'em scurried off to afterward, but all I know is, they left you behind in my care, my little moonshine. And I couldn't be more proud of what you've become." Izzy blushed bashfully as she nodded her head, but a realization quickly came to her as she mulled over what her foster father had told them. "Thank you, dad. I'm really glad to know where I've come from. But...you, uh, haven't said who my birth father was, yet." "Yeah, yeah, I'm gettin' to that. Hold your horses, sweetie. His name was Argyle Starshine." "...WHAT?!" Izzy and Sunny screamed in tandem, staring in bewildered shock at one another. It just couldn't be, could it...? A riotous, wide-eyed blush filled both of their faces as hazy, moan-filled, steaming memories of last night bubbled to the forefront of their thoughts, unbidden. Was that why they'd "gotten along" so well...?! "Uhh...something I said?" Alphabittle interjected in a state of absolute confusion, clueless of the gigaton-sized atom bomb he'd just dropped into their laps. "N-nope, just...super surprised to finally hear it, is all! T-thank you, dad. I-I'll have to write that down! Sunny, get the notebook, look busy!" Izzy said hurriedly, doing her best to regain her composure as she quietly grumbled the last part in Sunny's ear through her clenching smile. She couldn't let Alpha know that her marefriend had turned out to be a long-lost sister - there was no way he'd support the two of them being romantic if he knew that! Still in a daze, Sunny pulled the notebook out of her saddlebag and plopped it onto the coffee table in front of her, gripping a pencil in her mouth as she sloppily wrote Argyle Starshine's name in the back pages. Not that she really needed to, considering it used to be his notebook... "Dwnh." she mouthed past the pencil in her teeth, before dropping the writing tool onto the table with a wooden clatter. "Greeeat. Alpha, daddy, can you excuse us for a moment~? Thaaanks~" Izzy singsonged, leading Sunny towards her old fillyhood bedroom. As they passed through the threshold, she quickly closed and locked the door behind them. Sunny was in too much residual shock to even notice the importance of the room she was in - the abundance of plushies and bright decorations only added to the background noise in her mind as she stared at the front cover of the notebook she held in her hoof. She used to feel a sense of wonder at seeing her father's mark - a sense of pride and admiration, a sense of pain and longing. But now...all she could feel was disillusionment. Hurt. Betrayal. "Dad...you had another mare...another daughter...and you didn't even tell me? What kind of pony does something like that, huh? What the buck?!" Angry tears rode in hot trails down her cheeks as righteous rage filled her chest, glaring at the star on the cover in the vain hope that it could provide the slightest reply. "The kind of pony who loves his little filly too much to tell her the whole truth," Izzy answered on Argyle's behalf as she embraced the other mare in a hug, Sunny's frustrations serving as a stark mirror of why it'd taken her this long to get an answer from Alpha about her origins - his stubborn insistence on protecting her innocence. A whole lot of good that had ended up doing both of them, though. Waiting this long for answers had only made hearing them hurt even more, and for somepony as outspoken, blindly optimistic, and young as Sunny...she could imagine the ache the filly firebrand must've been feeling; the deep-seated pain of loss and helplessness that had already assailed Izzy many times before. The kind of scars that never fully healed. A chill tide of apathy washed through her, the calm acceptance of a pony who had already "lived" far too much for her age, the only thing keeping her calm in the shock of the discovery as she rationalized Argyle's actions in an attempt to calm her marefriend - her sister - down. "Because it was easier for you to live in blissful ignorance than to know what it was like to pine for the family you didn't know you were missing." "O-of...of all the selfish--rrragh!" Sunny roared as she buried her face in a pillow from filly-Izzy's tiny bed, chest wracking with angry, confused sobs as Izzy caressed her shuddering back with her forehoof. "It mighta been a little selfish, Sunny-bun...but he loved you, there's no doubt about that. If Maretime Bay or Bridlewood knew that he'd been sleeping around with a unicorn, and even had a foal by her...how do you think that woulda gone over? From what you've told me, he was already the town outcast...would the two of us be sittin' here talking about it if he hadn't kept his double-life a secret?" Izzy asked warmly, holding up Sunny's chin to lock eyes with her even as the younger mare attempted to retreat back into her easy-to-feel storm of sorrow and rage. "...Sigh. Yeah, I guess...I guess you're right, Izz. It doesn't make it hurt any less, but at least he had a reason. Although..." she felt a fresh ember of animosity kindle within her at Izzy's apparent lack of reaction, "Why the hay aren't you screaming your rage into a pillow along with me, huh?" Izzy chuckled maturely in response, shaking her head as she tutted. "Sunny, baby, light of my night...do I seem like the kind of pony that cares what other ponies think? It doesn't matter to me, Sunny-bun. I live for the moment, not the consequences! For all anypony else knows, including Alpha out there, we're just two heroes of Equestria who love each other. Whether or not we're sisters doesn't change the fact that you're the kindest, most impassioned, and most wonderful mare I've ever met." "It...doesn't bother you at all, what we've done together? Even though we're sisters?" Sunny asked incredulously, her prior feelings of frustration giving way to astonishment. "Why would it? I mean, seriously, we wouldn’t be the first! I know unicorn sisters who've "helped" each other through their heats every year...what we've got is just a li'l more serious, y'know?" Izzy purred, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, "Besides, with populations this low, what're the odds that everypony isn't bangin' a close relative to keep their tribe going? We're probably the least related couple in Equestria!" "I-I'm kinda new to the whole relationship thing, alright? I guess I just never really thought about it...hahah~" Sunny trailed off, giggling into her hoof at the realization of how overzealous her fear had been. "If you're worried about the sister thing getting in the way...we could always test that, right here, right now~" Izzy said slyly, moving towards the other mare's muzzle until each of them could feel their breaths on the other's snout. "W-with Alpha in the other roo-mph?!" The beginnings of hesitant protest weren't given a chance to form as Izzy's lips softly met hers, the pair's eyes sliding shut on reflex as they lost themselves to the calming, blissful expression of their romantic love. It was just as magical as the first kiss they'd shared together; a spark of electricity that tickled her brain and made butterflies flutter in her stomach, a blush brightening her complexion as she was swept up in the intimacy of the moment. If there had been any doubts in Sunny's reeling thoughts before, they disappeared in a hot rush of dopamine as she was reminded why she loved the unicorn as much as she did. If she ever had any reason to doubt herself, or lose herself to panic - Izzy would be right there to give her a hundred reasons not to, even with the simplest of gestures. Where other ponies might prejudge her or brush her aside for her naïveté, Izzy would attentively listen to her every step of the way, offering a voice of reason and guidance that she'd pined for, ever since the loss of her father. Her father...had he known, somehow, that the lantern-letter they sent would make its way into the hooves of his lost unicorn daughter, all those years ago? Known that they would meet, and that their instinctual, indescribable familiarity with one another would lead them to become fast friends...and even faster lovers? How far did this chess-playing go, if Argyle had somehow planned out all of this? If one-hundred and fifty questions had seemed a lot to ask Izzy, that paled in comparison to the number she wanted to ask her father, especially after this revelation. And yet...she never would be able to ask them. Fate had seen to that. For the questions she could still ask, though, she knew Izzy would be right there alongside to help her answer them. And that...was enough for her, she realized peacefully. With Izzy by her side, the two of them could accomplish anything. With the storm of emotions within her successfully quelled by her lover's kiss, a giddy realization came to her mind - she had a sister! She wasn't the last living member of her family! A carefree giggle escaped her as she broke away from her smooch with Izzy to hop excitedly around the room, the unicorn watching from the sidelines with a knowing smirk. After indulging her for a moment, Izzy saw a good moment to interrupt. "Hey, sooo...as much as I love seeing you jump around the room for me like a lovestruck filly, we probably shouldn't keep Alpha waiting. Wouldn't want him to get any ideas about what we're doing in here, hmm~?" she teased, giggling as Sunny stumbled to a halt with a fierce blush on her face. Straightening out her mane and the saddlebag looped around her neck, she gave the other mare an embarrassed smile. "Heh, yeah, I guess you're right about that. Let's do this." The door unlocked with a click and swung open, doorknob enwrapped in the unicorn's twinkling magenta aura as Izzy sidled past her marefriend to rejoin Alpha in the sitting room - but not before flicking her gorgeous sapphire tail across Sunny's muzzle as she strutted past. The heady mix of candyfloss, lavender, and mare assaulted her senses, making her stumble as she attempted to follow her larger unicorn lover. It brought to mind the wonderful things they'd experienced last night - things she had to stop thinking about if she didn't want to end up spreading her own scent through Alpha's home wherever she walked! "Besides, there'll be plenty of time to try out any ideas you're getting after we're done with my dad's test, hmmhmm~" Izzy chuckled demurely, enjoying the way her marefriend's eyes dilated in aroused interest from her well-practiced teasing. "G-guh...wha...buh…I wasn't...” Attempted rebuttals fell clumsily out of her mouth as she fumbled for a counterattack, before giving up with a defeated sigh as she shook her head. Attempting to put her devious marefriend’s flirtatiousness out of her mind, she followed Izzy’s swaying rear into the sitting room. As she entered, she cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes as she glared at Alphabittle with determination. His gaze locked onto her expectantly, his expression unreadable. "Alright, Alphabittle...I'm ready for your test." Author's Note I thought of this headcanon the other day, and heavily second-guessed including it in Questions once I realized what implications it'd have on an IzzyScout story, the kind of implications that many of you didn't sign up for...but then I said "screw it" because it's my story and I make the rules. The M-rated chapter was a good endpoint for Questions, and the opportunity for a dramatic opener to the sequel was also too good to pass up. I just couldn't resist mashing the two ideas together like some Frankenstein of G5 headcanons...I guess it's fitting that it's October in that case! ~RD 🦈 Pre- and proof-reading by spikls, n3k1sk1llz, and Dustchu!
2 // The Ruins of Friendship"Alright, Alphabittle...I'm ready for your test." Alphabittle grinned widely at the spunky attitude in Sunny's voice and didn't waste any time firing back. "My test for you is this: journey into the heart of the forest, bring me back a piece of a very special crystal. I've heard rumors for a while now that there's a towering, jagged formation hidden in the deepest reaches, and I want you two to find out if that rumor is true. If it is - I want you to bring me back a piece of it. Shouldn't be any problem for two heroines of Equestria, hmm?" "But...how will you know we didn't just chip a bit off of the first crystal we saw?" Sunny asked, muzzle scrunching in confusion at the strangeness of the request. Alpha's eyes narrowed, making Sunny gulp. "Oh, trust me. I'll know." Eyeing both mares for a moment, he gave her a lopsided grin, "Besides, we both know you're not stupid enough to try tricking me again. Not when she," he inclined his head towards Izzy, "Is on the line, anyway." Scuffing her hoof against the hardwood floor, Sunny had to concede that point. Maybe lying for the good of Equestria was alright before, but she had little to gain and an awful lot to lose by doing so here. "Ooh, ooh, we can use these fancy phones that Pipp gave us to take photos and videos as proof!" Izzy realized, pulling her phone out of her mane as she held it up for Alpha and Sunny to observe, "They can't reach the Zephyr Heights network while we're here, what with all these crystals and trees around, but the basic functions still work as long as it's charged." "Good thinking, Izz. Alphabittle, is there anywhere we can stock up on supplies? Cargo saddlebags, food, water...?" Sunny prompted expectantly. "I'll grab you two some things from the storeroom. Should be plenty I can spare. Follow me," Alpha replied, gesturing for the two mares to follow. Freshly outfitted with twin saddlebags and enough supplies to last a day's excursion, the two mares set out into the deepest parts of the woods. Pointedly ignoring the signs with such welcoming messages as "TURN BACK!" and "[skull and crossbones]" and "SERIOUSLY, DON'T GO IN HERE!", Sunny followed behind Izzy with no small amount of trepidation as the unicorn levitated her phone in front of her with her magic, the compass app obediently pointing them towards the rough direction Alpha had said to investigate. For a period of time that seemed to drag on forever, the trek passed without much incident; although, as the underbrush began to thicken and the ambient light grew dimmer with the dense tree cover, both ponies felt as if they could feel the fur on the back of their necks standing on end. "Wow, Sunny, can you feel that? My horn gets tinglier the deeper in we go...there's a lot of ambient magic here." Izzy observed, shivering in trepidation for reasons she couldn't quite fathom, but could certainly feel. "I...yeah, I can feel it, actually. Mostly in my hooves, but there's this...phantom sensation, at my forehead and on my sides...it feels like static," Sunny muttered, reaching a hoof up to grasp at the space that, some time ago, had been home to an ethereal yellow horn. "Everything about this feels really wrong, but...we have to keep going, if we want to have your dad's approval." she conceded to herself, eyebrows knitting in frustration. Izzy nodded solemnly, giving her marefriend a comforting smile as she hip-bumped her, "I don't really like this either, but we're close to something now. I can feel it. Hang in there, Sunny-bun, we're almost there!" As if on cue, the treeline ahead of them began to break away into a clearing...and what greeted them left them speechless. The shattered remnants of two purple stained-glass windows adorned either side of a yawning, dark entryway, its tall golden doors discarded to either side, as if they had been blown off of their hinges by some immense force from inside. It seemed like there should have been more of the structure above, but all that was left was the jaggedly broken edge of where the second floor likely began, blackened and heat-warped - the aftermath of an explosion of tremendous, incalculable force. "Are the crystals scattered around Bridlewood...actually chunks of whatever the hay this place used to be?" Sunny mused incredulously, snapping multiple pictures of the wrecked building with her phone camera. What they had was clearly already enough to satisfy Alphabittle's request...but what was wrong with a little curiosity? This was a massive find, after all! "The crystals that this place is made of do look familiar," Izzy noted as she led the two of them into the haphazard, ghastly ruin. "But it must've been a pretty big place to scatter so much debris when it exploded. Imagine what it must've looked like in its prime..." she pondered with a wistful tone, eyes tracing the weathered and nondescript hallway as they neared an intersection. A door directly ahead of them beckoned them forward, though a hallway also stretched to either side of them in a circular pattern - clearly, the room at the center was the focus of the first floor, so it was there that they'd explore first. At Izzy's first push, the door stubbornly refused to budge, presumably frozen in place from untold years of disuse and foundational settling. As Sunny touched it, though, it swung open like it'd been freshly oiled, with nary even a squeak of its hinges. The tingling feeling on her head and sides briefly flared up again. In a moment of wide-eyed befuddlement, Sunny stared blankly at her own hoof, then at the opened doorway, before shrugging as she stepped into the next room. What greeted her was beyond anything she could've anticipated. An immense circular slab of crystal, one that might've been a table in past ages, rested in broken chunks in the center of the room. Of the six tall-backed thrones that encircled the huge table, only two of them remained upright - the others had fallen back and shattered against the hard crystalline floor during whatever cataclysmic event had sundered this once-glorious castle, becoming nothing more than meaningless sparkling rubble. A noticeable layer of dust and pulverized crystal blanketed the floor, sparkling like gem dust under the light of their phone flashlights. The clatter of crystal-on-crystal greeted Sunny's hoof as she stepped forward; with a curious hum, she bent down to pick up what she'd kicked - and was befuddled to discover a nearly-intact rhombus-shaped blue gem with an incredible, unbelievable inclusion captured within it. As she stared into the crystal, a video resolved itself. Six ponies, a group that had to be the Guardians of Harmony based on where this crystal was found, were seated together at a table along with a small purple reptile and a huge, white...alicorn with a flowing tricolor mane. The cutie mark, recognizable from notes in her father's study, gave away the alicorn's identity as Princess Celestia - a mythically powerful, ancient figure she never thought she'd see a picture of, let alone a video. The Guardians were clothed in beautiful dresses that seemed to match their individual styles perfectly; doubtlessly these were their usual outfits when walking among the populace of Equestria, as mares of such heroics deserved. They appeared to have been filmed amidst a shared bout of laughter; a scene of wonderful camaraderie that reminded her of her own group of friends, even as it made an uncomfortable ache start to build in her chest. Sunny wiped a tear from her eye as she scooped the intact memory crystals off of the floor and into her saddlebag. "Izz, help me pick up some of these jewels. Don't drop them or chip them, they're...important. Really important." "Sure thing, Sunny-bun! What's so special about 'em, though? They just look like normal ol' - woooah." Izzy replied cheerily, though she trailed off as she caught sight of the scene in the yellow gemstone she was levitating - the yellow-and-pink Guardian pegasus appeared to be talking to a tall...creature, composed of an indescribable mishmash of parts; it looked like the kind of thing a particularly imaginative filly or colt would dream up as a Nightmare Night costume. The creature looked surprisingly apologetic as the mare tossed away a set of ice skates and turned around in a huff. It didn't seem like a particularly pleasant scene... Izzy quickly became so enraptured by the mysterious, context-less scene that she completely failed to respond when Sunny asked what she was doing. The earth-pony sighed as she snatched the crystal out of Izzy's magical grip and stowed it in her bag, glancing at her surroundings uneasily as she spoke, "They're...memories, from the Guardians, I think. It's strange that they're in a third-pony perspective, but...we can look at them more when we get back to my - our - father's lab. This place feels...wrong, somehow. I don't really want us to be in here any longer than we have to. I keep getting these weird tingly feelings..." Izzy nodded hastily in agreement as she glanced warily at the shadows in the dark corners of the room, her hornlight brightening up as she fed more power into her illumination spell. An involuntary shudder ran through her. It wasn't like her to be scared of the dark, but the vibe she was getting here was profoundly uncomfortable, no matter how positive she tried to be. With the matter of the crystals sorted, Sunny's attention turned to the tall-backed chairs that surrounded the shattered table. Of the two that remained upright, the shorter one had the vaguely familiar cutie mark of two blue balloons and one yellow balloon, beneath the untold layers of dust that muddled its appearance. It stirred something in her, the vaguest epiphany...until it came to her in a flash of recollection. The various post-its she'd seen dotted around Argyle's study held the answer to which pony this mark belonged to - Pinkie Pie, one of the Guardians! But...that would mean that the taller throne belonged to... Sunny glanced across the table, to the throne roughly facing Pinkie Pie's, and felt her heart skip a beat before plummeting into her stomach. Six purple points, surrounded by five white stars. The cutie mark of the last ruler of Equestria...Princess Twilight. The very same unicorn her father had told her bedtime stories about...she was real. Really real. There was no denying it anymore. All of Argyle's efforts, the research that the ponies of today thought futile and decried as foolish ramblings, really had been onto something. Everything until now had felt like her father's most idyllic stories come true...but this confirmed it. There was so much more to it than she'd ever thought, and nopony left alive from that era to even ask about any of it. Only the lost ruins of a once-great harmonious society. Sunny felt like she should've been jubilantly excited by the revelation; vindicated, even. And yet...her father would never know just how right he was about the past. Her orange legs began to tremble harshly beneath the weight of her realization, and with a strangled sob, she collapsed to the dusty crystalline floor, Izzy yelping in surprise next to her at the suddenness of her lover's loss of composure. The unicorn glanced over to what had made Sunny so distraught, and muffled a stunned, disbelieving gasp behind her forehoof as her eyes locked onto the ancient symbol, recognizing it from Sunny's journal and the disused Zephyr Heights transit hub. Her ears flopped down sadly as she realized the source of her marefriend's sorrow, and she plopped down onto her haunches next to Sunny - suppressing a pained wince as bits of crystals dug into her flanks and delicate bits, quietly sweeping them away with her magic - and pulled the smaller mare into a tight hug. Trails of moisture began to stream down her own cheeks as she embraced her younger sister in her vulnerable moment of intense catharsis, their closeness leading to a contagious sadness that muddled her own thoughts with depressing memories. "J-just when I think I'm over it, sniff, I f-find something else to make me wish Dad were still here to see it..." Sunny gasped out between choked sobs, chuckling sardonically as she felt the tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'm sorry I'm such a wreck, Izz. It's times like this that I wonder why I'm the one whose destiny it was to reunite all of Equestria...I'm just one pony, an earth pony. I don't have wings like the pegasi, or magic like you. I'm-" The breath was driven from her lungs as Izzy's hug tightened around her, forcing her to stop her self-destructive breakdown. After a few moments of that bone-crushing embrace, the unicorn's grip on her relaxed as she was held at hoof's length. "Sunny Starscout, you stop that right now!" Izzy exclaimed firmly, the beginnings of tears welling in her own eyes, "You aren't just an earth pony. You don't need wings or magic to be special, Sunny-bun. Sure, something out there chose you to become this big hero pony, but so what?! You didn't have to campaign for pony unity when nopony ever listened to you. You didn't have to trust me the day we met. We didn't have to go all across Equestria on some crazy quest without even knowing if it would fix anything!" As Sunny's expression began to brighten with a hesitant smile, Izzy continued, emboldened, "And it wasn't just you that saved the world, y'know? Me, Hitch, Princesses Zipp and Pipp...Queen Haven...Alphabittle...Phyllis...we all believed in you, in the end. It takes a pretty extraordinary pony to bring the three races back together, Sunny, and I couldn't be happier to call you my friend. And my sister. And, well, a lot more than a friend or a sister..." As Sunny giggled into her hoof from her marefriend's little joke, sniffing away her tears, Izzy pumped her own hoof in triumph. "That was a laugh! Haha, yes! Score one for Izzy Moonbow!" Shrugging Izzy's hooves off of her as she stood upright, Sunny gave a long, slow inhale and exhale as she recollected herself. "Thanks, Izz. The ever-supportive unicorn saves the day again~" Sunny teased, smiling brightly at her marefriend's adorable bout of celebration before she looked around the room, "Well, it seems we've seen all there is to see in the central room. What d'you say we see what else we can find, and then head back to Bridlewood?" "Sounds like a plan to me, Sunny!" Izzy cheered, practically tap-dancing through the building as she rode on the emotional high of her uplifting pep-talk to Sunny. It didn't take the two of them long to find the next room of interest, and it was one that Sunny had silently been praying she might find - a library. "Okay, woah." Sunny said breathlessly, craning her neck up to stare into the dark abyss of bookshelves that lined the walls of the room, so tall that Izzy's hornlight couldn't even reach their peaks. A thick, musty scent hung in the air as they trudged through the thick layer of dust that lined the floor - the remnants of the thousands of books that had once inhabited the library intact, but had long since disintegrated to dust with the passage of time. Izzy held her hoof out to signal Sunny to stop, as a strong magical signature tingled her horn the moment she walked in. The thick crystal walls had blocked her from sensing it before, but... "There's something enchanted in this room, and I mean big-time enchanted. I...don't know how I know that, but I know." Much like how the pegasi who got their flight back had mysteriously also learned how to use it, Izzy had knowledge that she definitely didn't have before magic had been restored...not that she was complaining. It was already proving itself useful. Sunny's expression brightened noticeably at the news, having dipped sharply when she'd noticed the shelves seemed bare of ancient tomes. "Really?! Do you think you can pinpoint what it is, maybe float it over?" Closing her eyes as her brow furrowed in concentration, she felt her magic latch onto a rectangular shape on one of the shelves far above them; she had to assume it was a book, though the aura she felt from the enchantments that protected it was...powerful unlike anything she had ever experienced before, yet with a welcoming air of friendliness to it. If she had to describe its sparkle as a color, it would probably be...lavender. "I've got something! It's coming down to us now." Izzy exclaimed; even with her eyes closed, she could sense the excitement in Sunny from how she began to anxiously shuffle her hooves against the floor next to her. A thick, hardcover book with a deep purple coloration, shimmering gold-leaf horseshoe emblem, and most strikingly, a crystalline form of Twilight's cutie mark on the cover slowly floated down to them in Izzy's twinkling magenta aura, depositing itself securely into Sunny's outstretched forehooves. "Oh my gosh..." Sunny mouthed breathlessly. The book was impossibly pristine, despite having sat for an untold number of years in the depths of this destroyed building in the woods, though the earth mare glossed over this incongruous detail in favor of the fact that she was holding an actual, tangible relic of ancient Equestria! Finally opening her eyes, Izzy took stock of what she'd plucked from the higher shelves, focusing her horn-light on the cover as Sunny held it in shaky, reverent hooves. "Sheesh, no wonder I was able to find that book no-problem. It's lit up with so many enchantments that it's making my horn go crazy!" "Which means...maybe the pony who left it here wanted it to be found? Wait a second," Sunny theorized, a thoughtful look of confusion growing on her face, "If unicorns lost their magic, wouldn't that mean enchantments like the ones on this book would've disappeared and left it to crumble away like the rest? Something doesn't add up..." While Sunny was busy monologuing to herself, Izzy's attention trailed off to a second horn-tingling enchantment on another shelf of the library. Lighting her horn as she focused on the source, a second book resolved itself in front of her - and she had to struggle not to burst out in a fit of giggles as she read the title to herself: 101 Ways to Please Your Lover. 'Well hellllooooo, ancient Equestrian sex-book...definitely gonna be reading you later~' Izzy thought mischievously, quietly slipping the lewd tome into her saddlebag. The unicorn finished her clandestine acquisition of erotic paraphernalia the very same moment that Sunny finished talking to herself. "...But I guess we can't really investigate that right now, so it's probably best to make a note of it and move on. Sigh. Alright, Izz. We've got enough ancient artifacts to give a museum a run for their bits, and the sun's starting to get pretty low, so what d'you say we leave?" Sunny asked, carefully slipping the decorated book into one of her saddlebags as she glanced in the unicorn's direction. "Totally! I think if we stick around here much longer, the fur on my neck is gonna stay standing on end forever!" Izzy replied cheerily, leading the way with her horn-light as the two of them left the once-grand palace, her phone floating in front of them as its compass led the way. Sunny gave a lingering glance back to the yawning blackness of the entryway as they left, let a creeped-out shudder roll through her, and then focused on following Izzy. By the time the two mares walked through the entry of the Crystal Tea Room for the third time that day, they were thoroughly exhausted. Hours of walking and the emotional weight of their discoveries in that dead place rested heavily in their minds, leading both of them to drag their hooves. Alphabittle noticed both of them as soon as they entered, wordlessly waving them over to the bar with one hoof. Some ponies gave them a passing glance as they trudged by, though they made awkward attempts to look anywhere else once they were hit with the palpable aura of exhaustion that the two mares exuded. "Head on into the back. I'll debrief the two of you once I make sure my customers are taken care of." Alpha said lowly, a towel and kettle floating in his magic as he dried out the interior of the freshly-washed container. Sunny and Izzy nodded with utterances of "thanks," weaving their way past tables before passing through the doorway into Alpha's living area. Both mares shared in a relieved sigh as they plopped down onto the loveseat beside one another, shrugging off their saddlebags onto the floor nearby as Izzy floated over a pitcher of water and some drinking glasses. Izzy levitated over the last two snack bars from her saddlebag, depositing one of them into Sunny's hooves as she began to scarf down her own. After a few minutes, Alpha trotted into the room, taking a seat in a chair facing them as he eyed the saddlebags sitting on the floor. "So, what've you two got for me?" Quickly swallowing the bite she'd been chewing, Izzy was the first to answer him. "Oh, you are gonna flip once you see what we found!" she said excitedly, clopping her hooves together as the memory crystals and purple book floated onto the table in her aura. Both mares shared a knowing, ecstatic grin at the way Alphabittle's eyes lit up upon seeing the book. "You two really found this out there in the woods?" he asked incredulously, taking the book into his own magical grip as he opened the front cover to check the title page, "Well, I'll be..." he added, causing both mares to get up from their seats and take a look. The Journal of Friendship Princess Twilight Sparkle & Friends "Stars above..." Sunny gasped, her eyes boggling out of her head at the discovery. "You can say that again..." Izzy agreed, delighting in the way Sunny's eyes sparkled as they hungrily poured over every square inch of the title page. It was a look of genuine, heart-melting joy; the sort of thing that Izzy found herself wanting to see as often as possible... The two mares were drawn out of their reverie as Alpha continued speaking. "...So! Heh, this is going to sound bad, but I didn't actually expect the two of you to find much out there. Like I said, it was just a rumor I wanted you two to investigate for me...but..." Looking down at the book once again in his magical grip, he gave a faux sigh of defeat before laughing heartily, "Hah! I should've known that two of the saviors of Equestria were too special to avoid stumbling neck-deep into another adventure!" Thumping Sunny on the back with almost enough force to stagger her, he gave her a respectful smirk. "No doubt about it. You're definitely the right mare for my daughter--" With a shared gasp of excitement, the two mares embraced each other with wide-eyed smiles, the larger unicorn glomping her onto the couch as the two of them fervently snuggled one another. At a loud hoofclop from Alpha, though, both of them broke apart with fierce blushes as they refocused on the stallion in the room. "A-hem! I wasn't finished. Anything serious happens to her on your crazy adventures, you're gonna have to answer to me. Do we have an understanding?" Alpha said firmly, his gaze narrowing as he addressed Sunny, "This history you two are starting to uncover is shaping up to be quite the big discovery, and we all know how your "big discovery" ended up last time. Izzy was nearly killed more times than I can count, and all I could do was watch...I can't bear the thought of her being hurt. Or worse." "Okay, to be fair, one of those near-death experiences was kiiinda Hitch and Zipp's fault..." Izzy muttered under her breath, though neither of them acknowledged the commentary. "You have my word as a savior of Equestria, as your daughter's mare, and as your friend, Alphabittle. I would do anything to prevent Izzy from getting hurt." Sunny replied firmly. "Mmmmh...although I hope it never comes to that. Alright, then. You have my blessing, Sunny," he said with finality. ...And with that, the two mares squee'd with delight as they excitedly glomped one another, sharing a quick kiss - that didn't advance any further, not with Alpha right there in front of them - as they delighted in an exploration well done, and the well-deserved reward for their efforts. As the two of them trotted out of Alpha's cafe, leaving the warm atmosphere and excited chatter of the townsfolk behind them for the shimmering crystals and sparkling sky of a Bridlewood night, Izzy glanced over at Sunny as they cantered down the street. Hesitantly, she began to speak, "Hey, Sunny..." Tearing her eyes away from the beautiful crystals to answer her marefriend, Sunny was struck speechless by the way the moonlight and the bright glow of the crystals seemed to make her shimmer in the night, like a gorgeous fae specter who'd come to spirit away her heart and soul, never to release them back to her. Though...she supposed that wasn't exactly untrue... Shaking her head to clear her thoughts as a healthy blush lit her cheeks, she answered, "Y-yeah, Izz?" "D'you wanna come back to my place?" As Sunny's eyes widened, Izzy quickly continued with a hint of embarassment, "Not for anything like that! Gosh, Sun, get your mind out of the gutter~...It's just, it's probably too late to head back to Maretime Bay tonight." Izzy noted as she nuzzled into the other mare's mane, taking in the citrusy, earthy notes of her scent as she did so. "Mmh, you're just saying that 'cause you want me in your bed~" Sunny fired back with a rare burst of flirtatious confidence...which didn't last long as her blush intensified. 'D-did I really just say that? This mare is such a bad influence!' "Ohoho, I think you're projecting~ And I didn't hear a no~" Izzy singsonged, booping Sunny on the snoot as she smiled impishly, much to the other mare's further embarrassment. Sunny's attempt at a rebuttal was cut off as the unicorn held up a placating hoof. "Lead the way, Sunny-bun!" And so, grumbling and blushing to herself adorably all the while, Sunny did as asked. Author's Note The next chapter in the saga is complete! A plot is developing, a relationship is advancing...where could it all lead~? And, this chapter's been completed not a moment too soon... You guys are awesome. With all my heart, I thank each and every one of you. ~RD 🦈 Pre-read by spikls and n3k1dsk1llz!
3 // Heart to HeartIt had been about a week since Sunny and Izzy's excursion to Bridlewood, and the two of them had taken an...extended vacation away from their other friends. It had offered them plenty of time to indulge in the multitude of ideas that Izzy's book had provided to them... Sunny had experienced more in the past week than most ponies did in months or even years, and it had made her closer to Izzy than ever before. The two of them were utterly inseparable, and they expressed this fact shamelessly, hanging off of each other like lovestruck fillies wherever they walked around Bridlewood. For the sake of the younger unicorns, they'd had to keep things reasonable in public, which made them all the more eager to get right back to it each night together in Izzy's home. If those walls could talk... As days passed, though...her friends had, rather understandably, started to wonder what'd happened to them. As the two of them trotted through the doorway to Alpha's tea room and took adjacent seats at the bar, the immense grey unicorn slipped a letter in front of the two of them as his two armadillo assistants served them their favorite morning teas. "Morning, Sunny. Izzy. Got a couple of letters for you two." He indicated the two letters, depositing the letter with a sheriff's badge emblem on it in front of Sunny, and the letter with the royal seal of Zephyr Heights on it in front of Izzy. After he did so, he started talking to another customer seated at the bar to give the two of them some privacy. Sharing a meaningful glance with each other, the two mares hastily broke the seals on their respective letters and started to read them. "Sunny, where the hay are you? The repairs on the lighthouse have been complete for almost a week now, and I haven't seen you in over two weeks besides that! What is going on? Ohh, boy. Hitch is mad." Sunny said, cocking her head worriedly as a thoughtful frown graced her muzzle. "I guess I should've let him know where I was going...oh stars, he doesn't even know the two of us are together yet, and that happened weeks ago! Some friend I am..." She realized, her ears flopping down in shame. "Yeah...Pipp and Zipp's letter is pretty much the same. And you deeefinitely should've told him what was going on, yeah." Izzy noted, squinting as she read the bottom of the letter. “Real supportive, Izz…” Sunny groaned, thumping her forehead on the bar as Izzy continued to read, blissfully unaware. The unicorn’s eyes brightened happily as she read the postscript scribbled on the end of the letter. "Ooh, they say their schedule’s finally free enough to visit the lighthouse today to see how the reconstruction turned out! Sounds it'd be a good time to head back to Maretime Bay and meet up with all three of them!" She offered, smiling as bright as the midday sun at the thought of seeing her pegasus friends again. Sunny lifted her head up from the bar, doing her best to brush off her moment of self-loathing as she nodded affirmatively. "Yup, sounds like a plan. It'd also be nice to get back home...not that your place isn't lovely in its own way, Izz, but it's just not quite the same as my lighthouse." "No worries, Sunny-bun. I understand." As the pair of them emerged from the tree line outside Maretime Bay, they were greeted by the blinding radiance of Sunny’s home—standing tall and proud, in all of its fully-reconstructed glory. The red-and-white stripes that adorned the spire seemed to glow in the afternoon sky from how fresh and shiny the paint was, which nicely complemented the polished and sparkling silver metal that supported the observation dome at its peak. Her home now looked better than it ever had, even before it’d been damaged—she supposed she had her newfound status as “savior of Equestria” to thank for such a swift and well-done job by the construction team. “Woooah…it’s beautiful!” Izzy exclaimed breathlessly, eyes and smile wide in equal measure as she watched her marefriend tremble next to her. The very next moment, Sunny was off like a bottle rocket. “H-hey! Wait for me!” Izzy hollered, panting with exertion as she struggled to catch up to her friend’s sudden gallop. She was an artist, for ponies’ sake, not a sprinter! Charging through her front door in the excitement of seeing her restored home, Sunny gasped in awe as her gaze pivoted to take in the changes. Though much of it remained faithful to how it had looked previously, which she certainly appreciated, her attention quickly focused on a new addition to the ground floor. The elevator that ascended to the second floor and spire section now looked completely different, and far more elaborate. Gone were the flimsy ropes that had failed under the stress of the spire’s prior destruction and nearly injured Pipp; they had been replaced by a sturdy pair of rack-and-pinion gears on either side, with a pair of control buttons built into the elevator’s surface. Its fit-and-finish clearly marked it as a contribution from Canterlogic’s engineering department, which she’d have to thank Phyllis for later. Mending fences with the influential old mare was already showing its benefits. As Sunny nodded to herself in approval of the sleek installation, her front door swung open behind her as Izzy finally caught up, panting heavily. “C’mon, you know I’m not as athletic as you, bun…” The unicorn wheezed, allowing herself a moment to recover while she looked around at the restored interior. As her eyes settled on the shiny new elevator, she whistled sharply. “Whoa. Talk about an upgrade!” “I know, right? It seems like Canterlogic really outdid themselves on this restoration,” Sunny agreed. A series of knocks on Sunny’s front door cut off any reply that Izzy might’ve been about to give. “Looks like we got back just in time. That must be Zipp and Pipp already!” Sunny said eagerly, bounding over to the door and pulling it open. Sure enough, the pegasus sisters’ friendly faces greeted them, their expressions brightening in recognition as Pipp eagerly wrapped Sunny up in a tight hug. “Sunny! It’s so good to see you again. It feels like it’s been ages! Things have been going well with Izzy, I hope?” Thoughts of all that she’d done with (and to) her unicorn paramour during their stay in Bridlewood flashed in her mind, her face heating up as she tried to keep her cool. The knowing wink that Pipp shot Izzy’s way certainly didn’t help her efforts, to the point where she felt like she might just die of embarrassment! “Y-you could, umm, you could say that, yeah…” Sunny stuttered. “I bet~! Don’t worry, Sunny, your secret’s probably safe with me.” Pipp teased, breaking away from the conversation as she took wing and enthusiastically fluttered around the interior of the lighthouse, taking in every new detail that she could. “Absolutely wonderful! I really have to hoof it to those construction ponies, they’ve done exceptionally well.” As Zipp walked over to the contraption and eyed it up and down, she nodded approvingly once she noticed its precise engineering. “Impressive. All those old pegasus stereotypes about earth ponies were way off—they’d have you believe that earth ponies spent their time banging rocks together and growing crops, not building stuff like this…” She said, rapping her hoof against the elevator’s metal supports for emphasis. Chuckling to herself, she added, “Earth ponies were probably making pegasi engineers feel insecure. Heh!” While Zipp continued to wax poetic about Sunny’s shiny new elevator, Izzy continued to wander around Sunny’s home. She hadn’t had much time—any time, really—to check things out the last time she’d been here, what with them having to run out of town to avoid getting caught by Canterlogic’s latest ‘civil defense’ products, so she appreciated the opportunity. When her gaze came to rest on the small table by the elevator, however, her feelings of wonder chilled into stunned shock. A photo of Argyle stood upright on the little table, capturing him in the midst of crafting a figurine of Twilight Sparkle. Next to the portrait rested a stack of books about ancient pony history, a clamshell glasses case, and an old wooden pendant with a blue neckband—the same one that Argyle was wearing in the photo. The meaning behind the juxtaposition was clear. “S-Sunny…?” Izzy whimpered, shaking where she stood. Hearing her marefriend’s plaintive, vulnerable whimper cut through the conversation she’d been having with Zipp like a shock to the system—and one look at the end table told Sunny all she needed to know. Her hoof darted up to her mouth as the stark realization hit her. She’d wanted to give Izzy a closer look at the pictures she had of Argyle on her own terms, but she’d forgotten about the memorial she kept on the table. “Is that…” Pipp started to ask, then hesitated, unsure how to phrase it. “My dad?” Sunny sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. Argyle Starshine…the reason we’re all standing here in this room together.” “Argyle. Daddy…I…I never…” Izzy whimpered breathlessly, flopping onto her rear as her eyes pored over every detail in the photo. He seemed so close, so real, that it was easy for her to forget that she was separated from the Argyle in the photo by at least two decades. Sunny quickly came to Izzy’s side, offering her a shoulder to lean on. It was somewhat awkward with Izzy being a good bit taller, but they managed. Zipp and Pipp took the gesture it at its face value of Izzy empathizing with Sunny’s plight, but if only they knew the real reason she was so distraught… Looking over at the two pegasi as they, too, sat down in front of the photo, Sunny offered, “Do…do you want to know what kept me going for so many years? Even when everypony around me treated me like I was insane? When I’d say “good morning” to a pony and all they’d give me in return was a funny look?” She gestured sharply to the photo, tears beginning to well in her eyes. “My dad. The pony who gave so much of himself that he set off for parts unknown one day, on a quest to fix Equestria, and never came back. And Maretime Bay never did a damn thing to try and save him.” Sunny was unable to hold back the bitter edge in her voice as she spoke, a worrying tonal shift that gave Pipp cause to intervene before things got out of hoof. “Hey,” Pipp softly interjected, resting one of her downy wings across Sunny’s back in a comforting gesture as one of her hooves wiped at a tear that Sunny hadn’t even felt running down her cheek. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I may not have lived your life, but…I get it.” She offered, giving her a weak, forced smile. Looking into Pipp’s emerald eyes, Sunny was started by the unabashed pain and loss she saw within them. At that moment, she no longer saw “Pipp the media icon” or “Pipp the princess”—only “Pipp, the pony whose father was just as absent as hers.” Pieces clicked into place in her head, more clues as to why Pipp was so reliant on social media—the public affirmation served as a replacement, albeit a paltry one, for the adoration and praise of a father who could never know the beautiful and kind pony his daughter had become. If Sunny were more creative, it’d be tragic enough to write a theater production about. At least, she assumed it was tragic. That simple statement—“I get it”—was loaded with so much sadness that there was no way it couldn’t be, really. Especially not with the way Zipp’s body language tightened up, leaving the proud pegasus trembling in her periphery—but Sunny didn’t have the heart to open up scarred emotional wounds just to sate her own curiosity. She felt Izzy wrap her hooves around her barrel from the other side, the unicorn burying her face in Sunny’s long, unrestrained purple mane as she tightly embraced her marefriend for support—although that wasn’t the only reason, considering the telltale shudders she felt from the unicorn against her. Seeing Argyle’s portrait, as plain and unadorned as it might’ve been, had thrown Izzy for a loop. Even though she never knew what he’d been like, she had gleaned quite a bit from how much her marefriend still sang his praises (figuratively and literally) and told stories about him to this day. On top of that, the very sight of him had triggered some sort of instinct within her, a twinge of recognition for the stallion who’d sired her—an all-encompassing ache that tore at her heart. Despite her usual cheerful demeanor, there were times when things became too much to bear, even for her. The true scale of what she had lost—of what she had never really had to begin with—had never really registered with her until this moment, and the profound sorrow of that revelation broke her composure. Her strength of character, that indomitable mask of cheerful humor, trembled for a moment—then shattered. For the first time in many years, Izzy Moonbow became lost in catharsis, the weight of her sorrows streaming down her cheeks. Bereft with memories of their own parents, Sunny and Pipp swiftly joined her. Loss. It was a funny thing. Not in the humorous sense, of course—merely that it was terribly and curiously difficult to pin down the true nature of the emotion unless it was being felt in the moment. Evasive, mysterious, disheartening…many adjectives could be used to describe that terrible four-letter word. Much like Zipp’s investigations and research into why the pegasi had lost the power of flight. Her wings shuffled uncomfortably at her sides as she loitered outside of the lighthouse, doing everything in her power to maintain her composure as her three friends inside recovered from their sudden bout of crippling, communal sorrow. She wouldn’t cave to emotion like them…she couldn’t. She’d long since overcome the loss of her father—or at least, she thought she had. With her mother’s repeated insistence to “move on,” it was tough to say where her mother’s thoughts on the matter ended and hers began. She’d become queen of the pegasi before she knew it, and then… And then…what? Become just as much of an aimless figurehead as her mother? Smiling and waving at other ponies day in and day out, faking her laughter, sleeping with her freakin’ crown on? Would she end up getting branded as a “phony pony full of baloney” the moment she went out of line, just like her mom had been? A glorified scapegoat for everypony to pin their worldly troubles on the moment things went south? A pony who can do few rights and many wrongs? Ugh. The more she thought about her royal fate, the more she despised every facet of it. Her calling was research for pony’s sake, not politics! Why couldn’t Pipp have been the one born 5 minutes earlier?! Zipp shook her head, banishing those thoughts. She’d already traveled the path of resentment and it hadn’t ended well. They had enough of their own problems to deal with, let alone each other’s. “Hey Zipp, it’s been a while. You good? What brings you out to Maretime Bay?” Hitch suddenly said from beside her, startling her out of her thoughts as her wings flared wide at her sides. When had he even gotten there?! “Stars, Hitch, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Zipp grumbled, trying to fold her unruly wings back up. “I’m just fine, Sheriff, at least until you came along and spooked me out of my feathers. Hmph.” she added, huffing as she attempted to regain her composure. Unfortunately for her, Hitch noticed. “Nice attempt at deflecting, but I didn’t become a sheriff by being easy to fool. It’s not my place to pry, but…you seemed like you were pretty frustrated about something when I arrived. Keeping things bottled up for too long doesn’t end well,” At Zipp’s noncommittal shrug, he rolled his eyes and continued, “Not trying to boss you around like your mom, Princess. Just…don’t let things get out of hoof, alright?” A thin smile spread across Zipp’s countenance, and she nodded, if only faintly. “Sure thing, Hitch. Thanks. It’s just, me and Pipp noticed the photo of Sunny’s dad on her table, and Sunny got to talking, and well…” “Oh, she’s back, is she? Could’ve at least told me. I swear she gets blinders on whenever she sets her mind to something." Hitch grumbled to himself, shaking his head with a sigh, "The photo, huh? I knew this day would come, once Sunny made friends with you three…” he added, muttering to himself as he gathered his thoughts. “I took it almost as hard as Sunny did. When he…when Argyle never came back, I mean. I love my dad, I really do, but Argyle was…different. There was just...something special about him, I never could put my hoof on it. He had an eye for truth and justice like nopony else I knew…it’s just a shame that his idea of “truth and justice” was a whole lot different than everypony else’s. His search for the truth made him a hero to a few—just me and Sunny, really—and a pariah to the rest. There was a time I’d’ve been angry about that, but…” Glancing first at the threads of magic still swirling in the sky above, and then to the gorgeous prismatic wings folded on Zipp’s back, he chuckled. “It’s safe to say a whole lot of things have changed since then. His whole philosophy of “truth and justice” was why I trained for law enforcement, actually. Figured I could try and make a difference from the inside, or something. And maybe I got it into my head as a colt that a filly might like a guy in uniform…” Trailing off, Hitch rubbed the back of his neck and glanced back to the house as a faint blush colored his cheeks. Zipp’s rapidly raising eyebrow chronicled her reaction as she realized what he was getting at. “You…and Sunny? B-but—!” “—Yeah, yeah, I know, alright? I know she’s not…into stallions. Things were different back then, or maybe they just felt different for me. Call it coltish optimism, I guess. With how close we grew up together, and with how much I looked up to her firebrand attitude when I was a colt, can you blame me?” “Izzy's a lucky mare,” Zipp said, nodding to herself, "She's got a good heart and a heap of optimistic idealism, just like Sunny. I can see why those two go along so well.” “…Umm. Y-yeah. Right,” Hitch said quietly, eye twitching. “Twist the thorn in my hoof a little deeper, huh?” he grumbled to himself, scuffing his hoof against the ground. Zipp’s expression softened as she locked eyes with Hitch, forcing her way through the awkwardness that had surged to the forefront. “Listen, Hitch…if you need somepony to talk to, I’m here for you. Remember that. Whether it’s about something small that’s troubling you, about the past, or about Sunny…I’ve got you.” “Thanks, Zipp. That means a lot to me.” Glancing back to the entryway, he stiffened his shoulders in a heroic stance. “We’d better go in there and calm those three down. C’mon.” “Trust me, live with Pipp long enough, and you get used to this kinda thing. Seems like every other day she’s upset about something new…” With a chuckle and a shake of her head, Zipp left it at that as the two of them entered Sunny’s home. Author's Note Bit of a delay on getting this out, but I've got a justification (or maybe it's more like an excuse): I moved to a new PC (a server-based beast!) and the Scrivener project file I was using for this must've saved its most recent version to a different location or something since I lost several hundred words and a lot of time was spent trying to recover them, to no avail. It's not quite back to where it was before, so I'm not quite happy with it, but I've got to move on or it'll never get released...I've been sitting on this mostly completed for a few months now as it is. It's a shame because I remember handling the emotional aspects of this discovery a lot better in the old version, but that same spark just hasn't come to me again. Hope you enjoyed it regardless! I promise I'll stop trying to make the main cast into a pity circlejerk and actually get onto more adventure-y stuff with meaningful plot advancements in the next chapter.
4 // Power OverwhelmingAs Hitch and Zipp reentered, they were glad to see that the other three members of their friend group had calmed down, speaking quietly to each other as they hugged tightly. “Ahem…if you’ve gotten all that out of your system, fillies, I’d say it’s about time we got to work,” Hitch interjected authoritatively, prompting Pipp to part from the group embrace and return to Zipp’s side. Sunny and Izzy held their embrace for longer but eventually shared a brief kiss as they separated. “So, Sunny, where’re all these artifacts you’ve told us about?” Zipp asked. “From what you’ve told me, we’re going to have our hooves full going through all of them.” Sunny nodded. “Mmhmm, that’s right,” she began, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow as she walked towards Argyle’s study room. “My dad spent years searching through ruins for answers about Equestria’s past, and he picked up a lot of little things along the way,” Arriving at Argyle’s book- and trinket-laden desk, she picked up the first thing that caught her eye — an impression of what appeared to be some sort of reptilian foot. “Huh. Didn’t know my dad was into fossil collection, too. Wonder what makes this so significant that he kept it around," she mused to herself. “Does everything your dad did have to have some kind of significance? What if it’s just a cool rock he found while he was out adventuring?” Pipp asked, rolling her eyes a bit. She appreciated a good mystery as much as the next pony, but there were definitely times where Sunny could read too much into things… Squinting at it, as if trying to discern a deeper meaning of some sort, she sighed to herself as she placed it back down atop a stack of books. “You’re probably right. Let’s keep looking…I’m sure we’ll find something.” “What the heck is this thing?” Zipp muttered to herself as she took notice of the ominous-looking crystalline staff propped up in the corner. The pointy blue crystal that adorned it seemed to call to her, a feeling of electricity tingling at her hooves before spreading up through the rest of her body as she stared at it, entranced. “Whatever the hay it is, just looking at it makes me feel all tingly. That’s definitely something dangerously powerful.” Glancing at each of her friends in turn as they gave her a worried glance, she frowned to herself. “We should be careful. With Equestrian magic restored, it looks like these artifacts have regained whatever power they had before, too. And with how long it’s been, with nopony able to maintain the integrity of these enchantments, some of them are bound to be…unstable.” Held high on a shelf, a triangular black-and-red amulet with the visage of an alicorn caught Izzy’s attention. Encased within a protective glass container, Izzy carefully floated it down from the shelf and rested it on a nearby table, eying it with childlike wonder and intrigue as the gem at its core crackled erratically with red lightning. Something about it beckoned to her, imploring her to put it on…how it’d look just lovely as a part of one of her crafting projects… Just as Izzy grabbed the glass dome of the container, intending to lift it up and release the artifact contained within, Hitch gripped her forehoof. “Up bup bup! Really, Izzy? Just look at that thing! It practically screams ‘Hey, look at me, I’m a super-evil piece of costume jewelry, put me on if you wanna turn evil and zap everypony with your horn lasers’!” Rapidly shaking her head to clear her mind of the foreign thoughts guiding her actions, Izzy’s eyes widened. “Woah. You’re right, Hitch, it was totally telling me to put it on and use its power to subjugate everypony!” Izzy said with far too much nonchalance and enthusiasm, leading everypony else to freeze in their tracks and stare at her worriedly. “…Kidding! C’mon, ponies, it was a joke!” Chuckling to himself, Hitch set the artifact aside, pointedly avoiding looking at it as he covered the container with a piece of cloth. “Riiight. Ooo-kay, that’s definitely one for the ‘ancient evil artifacts’ section.” Glancing over at his childhood friend, he called her name, “Sunny? We should really be keeping a list, here. CanterLogic needs to know how big they’re going to have to make their new artifact vault, and what precautions they’re going to have to take. Mark this thing up for ‘mental manipulation’ and ‘extremely dangerous levels of power amplification’ while you’re making that list. I can already feel something in my head just from glancing at it for a moment...I really don’t want to find out what it’d do if somepony actually put it on.” As the others gathered around the encased amulet, discussing plans for how to properly contain it, another mysterious trinket on the shelf caught Izzy’s attention. A cracked and chipped bronze bell, with a strange eye-like design on its surface, sat innocuously on top of a stack of books. The design on its face flickered erratically with an eerie white light as she stared at it, and arcs of magical lightning shimmered and danced across its surface, colored the eerie twinkling navy of a clear night sky. The barely-restrained power she felt emanating from it was so oppressive that it nearly left her breathless, leaving her to wonder how nopony else had noticed it yet. Worries about what her friends might be doing fell by the wayside — a serene, articulate voice echoed inarticulately in her mind, crying out in heart-wrenching agony for her to pick up the bell. Despite having never heard the voice before in her life, it felt unerringly familiar to her, tickling some distant corner of her mind. Before she even realized what she was doing, Izzy held the bell aloft in her magic, bringing it down from the shelf to hover in front of her. ‘We beg thee, my little pony! Whomever thee are! Ring the bell that thou holdest, and grant us release from our eternal torment!’ The voice in her head demanded with regal authority, figuratively pounding on the walls of the prison that contained it. “Uhh, Izzy, what do you think you’re doing with that?!” Zipp interjected, alarmed, before Izzy had a chance to respond to the voice. “Didn’t I just get through warning everypony not to touch the crazy artifacts? Seriously, does anypony ever listen to me?” Hitch grumbled, cautiously approaching Izzy as he eyed the mysterious old bell held aloft in her magic, “set it down, Izzy. We don’t know what that thing’s capable of.” ‘Do not listen to them! Prithee, ring the bell! We’ve waited so long to be put to rest, and we fear that we do not know how many more centuries we can wait!’ “Centuries?!” Izzy parroted, much to the confusion of everypony else in the room. “Izz? Is it…is the bell talking to you?” Sunny asked, her brow knitting with worry. “Oookay, yep, another artifact that talks to you in your head to try and convince you to use it? No siree.” Hitch stated firmly, reaching for the bell…as Izzy pulled it up out of his reach. “Hold on a minute, here, ponies. This isn’t like that creepy amulet. It doesn’t…feel like a simple enchantment behind the voice. It feels like…like a pony. There’s an enchantment on the bell, and it’s a really strong one, but I don’t think it has the same mind-bendy stuff as that amulet.” As Hitch started to speak up again, Sunny interrupted him. “Hitch, wait a sec. Izzy…can you ask the voice who they are?” "Sunny, are you seriously indulging this insanity?" Hitch scoffed. Sunny waved him off, causing him to roll his eyes in exasperation. ‘We are Princess Luna, Lunar Diarch of the Princessdom of Equestria, Steward of the Night, Blade of the Shadows, and Protector of the Dream Realm, you uneducated whelps! The most diabolical of nightmare creatures cower beneath our might!’ The diarch's regal voice thundered in her head, nearly loud enough to give Izzy a headache. Izzy’s eyes got wider and wider as the trapped voice from within the bell listed off their formal titles, a hoof flying up to her mouth as she sat back onto her haunches. “S-sunny?” She whimpered, head spinning from the revelation. “I think somepony really important is trapped inside this bell…” “I’m no expert on creepy magical artifacts, but it looks a little too small to fit a whole pony inside,” Pipp pondered skeptically. Zipp facehooved, shaking her head admonishingly as she launched into an explanation. “It’s not the whole pony, Pipp. If there's one thing I've learned from reading about old artifacts like these, it’s more like…their magic? Their essence?” She mused to herself, searching for the right words, “The connection between a pony’s magic and mind isn’t very well understood, mostly because all the books that would’ve known more about it aren’t in any modern libraries. It’s obvious now that there’s something to it, given how a lack of magic has put unicorns into a depressive state that’s lasted as long as any of them can remember, but without magic itself to study for so long, the best that anypony’s probably been able to use has been guesswork. Pegasi and earth ponies have been able to cope without their magic since it isn’t as important to them, but for unicorns…it’s a huge part of their identity.” ‘Your well-spoken friend is correct, Isadora Moonbow. A pony’s magic is indeed a tremendous portion of their identity, whether or not they possess a horn. We are saddened to hear that magic has been lost to Equestria for longer than current generations can remember, but it is not an unanticipated outcome given the events preceding our imprisonment within this blasted Bell.’ The voice answered within Izzy’s head. “Why are you talking like that? And…wait, how the hay do you know my full name? I’ve never told anypony else that!” Izzy replied aloud, visibly alarmed. ‘When you are as old as we are, you learn many things about magic. As to our manner of speaking…in the early years of Equestria, before my sister banished me to the moon, it was commonplace for royalty such as us to address our citizens in this manner.’ “Your sister banished you? To the moon? How does that even work?!” Izzy exclaimed, growing increasingly confused. The group’s eyes collectively widened, eying the bell with a new sense of apprehension. Was the pony trapped within deserving of their prison, and would it be unwise to release her? Luna’s exasperated sigh filled Izzy’s thoughts. ‘We tire of retelling such times in our history, as they are the years we wish most to forget…perhaps we may tell this tale another time, Miss Moonbow, but it is not important now. What is important is releasing us from this bell and ending the suffering that we have endured for more years than we can even express.’ Izzy hummed to herself, unconvinced for a moment, but her trusting nature won out in the end, and she nodded approvingly to herself. “Izzy, let’s not do anything rash, now…” Hitch said, tone full of authoritative warning as he reached for his hoofcuffs. “Oh c’mooooonnn, Hitch, don’t you wanna meet one of the lost Princesses of Equestria?” Izzy teased, hefting the bell side-to-side in her magic as her eyebrows wiggled imploringly. Pipp and Zipp glanced at each other for a moment. “Princesses? Like us?” Pipp whispered to her sister, who shrugged and shook her head in response. Sunny’s eyes brightened noticeably at the mention of ‘Princesses’, an unreadable expression on her face as she looked at the spot on her back where her phantom wings had previously appeared. “You mean…like the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle? That isn’t just an inspirational old bedtime story for young ponies?” The bell shuddered in Izzy’s grip, a palpable aura of sadness emanating from within it. ‘Oh, Twilight…’ Luna bemoaned, sounding at once nostalgic and heartbroken. “You…you really are from old Equestria, aren’t you? You aren’t trying to fool us,” Izzy asked softly, her ears lowering in along with her mood at the revelation. ‘It has been so long since we thought of our beloved…we thought we had gotten over her, but hearing her name spoken upon somepony’s lips again is nearly too much for us to bear.’ ‘Beloved…’ Izzy mouthed to herself, eyes widening. Her gaze shifted towards Sunny for a long moment, imagining what it might be like to be forced apart from the love of her life for countless eons. It was impossible to imagine the depth of Luna’s loss…even the thought of being away from Sunny for a single day sent unpleasant shivers down her spine. Taking matters into her own hooves, Izzy gripped the bell strongly in her magic as she stared into that cold, swirling white eye on its face. Its inner workings came to her as if she had always known them, and she merely had to imagine pushing against the vast wellspring of power she could feel within it before it responded to her mental command. She aimed its aperture towards her face, and it hummed ominously with building power, eldritch light spilling through the growing cracks that spiderwebbed across it. “IZZY, NO!” Her four friends shouted as they realized her plot, diving toward her in an attempt to halt the process that Izzy had started. Just feet from reaching her, their reaching hooves met a swirling yellow-and-black barrier that flashed to life as they neared it, blocking them from interfering. The bell jerked within Izzy’s sorcerous grip, and its clapper rang out one oppressively loud, dull note that only seemed to grow in magnitude as time passed, like some horrifying magical feedback loop. ‘You FOOL! I did not yet instruct you on the proper means of freeing me from my prison! You’ll kill us both, and all of your friends, just to free me?!’ Luna’s third-person narrative slipped for the first time since she’d begun talking to Izzy; a poignant metric of her distress. “I’ve got this, Luna! Just trust me! I’ll get you outta there soon, I just know it! I just...“ Izzy’s teeth clenched hard as waves of searing pain racked through her body, the grooves of her horn glowing brightly as the process ran its course. She felt her mane and tail become weightless as her entire body began to levitate off of the floor, her friends watching in anguished, impotent horror as they could do naught but watch. "I...can't control it, now! What's it going to do to me?!" ‘You haven’t triggered the command to RELEASE me, you’ve triggered the command to ABSORB me! An alicorn’s power within a mortal body will DESTROY you!‘ Luna had nearly gone into the full Royal Canterlot Voice now, both out of anguish and out of a desperation to be heard over the building roar of the Bell. Wisps of deep-blue, star-filled magic began to reach out from the inside of the eldritch artifact, grasping at the air as they grew towards Izzy’s horn. Izzy’s eyes snapped wide, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she realized her fatally impulsive error. Overwhelming, existential horror filled her as she witnessed Luna’s power searching for its next soon-to-be host. ‘Can’t…maintain our connection…while being pulled out…’ Luna advised, her voice growing choppier and quieter as more tendrils of magic exited the bell. ‘You must…tell your friends…to RUN!’ She screamed with her last figurative breath, the connection fading away entirely as the first tendril made its hesitant touch upon Izzy’s horn. Her every nerve flared with searing agony as her senses failed her. An unstoppable torrent of power filled her reserves to overflowing as that forbidden connection grew in strength, despite her every wish to stop what she’d begun. Her last sight was of her beloved Sunny, her ethereal wings flared wide, slamming her hooves on the barrier to no avail as tears streamed down her cheeks. She felt a tear roll down her own cheek in return as her vision became pure white, and within moments, she knew no more. Author's Note I just can't resist ending with cliffhangers, can I? I really should kick this habit but it's just so fun to do, heh~ ANYWAY! I'm sorry it's been so long since the last update. The second semester of grad school happened, combined with a lack of inspiration and motivation, and then after the end of the semester, I went to Whinny City Pony Con in Schaumburg, Illinois... ...aaand got COVID. As fun as the con was -- getting to see old friends after a few years apart, and meet face-to-face with new friends that I'd made on Discord during the pandemic, was super awesome -- it does absolutely suck that my friend group and I comprised the majority of the reported attendees to get COVID as a direct result of the con. All of us have recovered fairly well by now, aside from some lingering exhaustion, but I'm still in Milwaukee (graciously hosted by some old friends, who as previously mentioned also got COVID) for another week until I can catch a (relatively) cheap flight to Burbank. Time away from home and a fresh environment has given me more inspiration to work on writing, as evidenced by this update, so...I'm taking Ws wherever I can get them. This week has been a HELL of a rollercoaster, to say the least. I'm going to be avoiding LAX like the plague (and travel in general) from now on if this experience has taught me anything about the "new normal" in a post-COVID society. Don't know when my other stories will be updated. Obviously, I haven't been in "the mood" for much with everything going on...I really want to do something for Shark Week but I don't have an idea nailed down like I've had for the last 2 years. ~ RD 🦈 P.S. here's a fun and interesting bit of trivia that I learned while writing: The name "Isadora" means "gift of the goddess Isis." Isis happens to be the Egyptian goddess of not just magic, but also the moon!
5 // Evolution & AcceptanceSunny’s powerful hooves connected with the bell’s protective barrier just as the flash of brilliance consumed her, latent alicorn instincts rising to the fore as she quickly cast a protective barrier around her other friends in response to the flash. Her instincts were right to be concerned. The blinding burst of light was followed swiftly by a powerful shockwave, sending books and papers flying off of the shelves as small objects were sent hurtling through nearby windows in showers of broken glass. The entire lighthouse seemed to shudder from the force of the blast, sending everypony hurtling into walls and furniture as they lost their footing. The bell flickered and shuddered as it hovered above a charred spot on the floor right where Izzy had been standing, the very last dregs of its enchantment exhausted as it fell out of the air. The cracked, chipped, millenniums-old bronze, no longer held together by magic, exploded into fractured, crumbling pieces as it was dashed against the hardwood floor of Sunny’s lighthouse, only a faint wisp of residual magic rising from its smoldering remains. “No, no, no, nonono…” Sunny wailed desperately, scrambling to pick up the pieces of the bell as a flood of tears obscured her vision. “NO! I can’t lose you, too, Izzy! I can’t!” Her hooves scuffed against the charred spot on her living room floor in futile, inarticulate, sorrowful desperation, pleading for some sign that her best friend, sister, marefriend, and lover was still alive. “Sunny! Sunny, stop! She’s…she’s gone.” Hitch said in a shocked, hushed tone, pulling Sunny back from the spot as the color drained from his face. “IZZZZYYYY!” She cried out, one final time, before collapsing into Hitch’s hooves. Sobs wracked her frame as her chest heaved with unsteady, hiccuping breaths. Zipp and Pipp silently embraced her from either side. As the bright light in her eyes faded away, Izzy felt weightless. The pain that had incapacitated her was gone, replaced with an eerie numbness. Wherever she was now, it was empty, utterly devoid of any defining features or floor for her to stand on. And yet, as she pushed against it with her hooves…she stood. On, as far as she could tell, nothing. “Hello?!” she cried out, utterly confused, tapping her hoof experimentally at the ‘floor,’ testing its strength. “Is anypony there?!” When nothing answered her call, aside from the suffocating, oppressive silence that permeated wherever the hay this was, her desperation grew, alongside her intuition screaming at her that something was very, very wrong. “SUNNY?!” She called again, nearly reduced to sobbing as tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes. “We are afraid that thou hast arrived within a plane that no mortal pony can reach, Isadora. Though perhaps, given enough time, thy beloved might as well.” A prim, regal voice answered her from behind. With a startled yelp, Izzy whirled around on the spot to face the speaker…and froze like a deer in the path of a speeding carriage. The mare’s dark blue coat stuck out like a sore hoof against the shimmering, bright void that surrounded them. The mare’s mane and tail flowed around her in an invisible wind, dancing in the air like an amorphous blob as stars, nebulae, galaxies, auroras…an entire night sky was held impossibly within the depths of her mane, making Isadora’s head hurt harder the longer she gazed into it. “T’would be best if you were not to gaze into our mane for too long, mine little pony. During our years upon Equus, such a thing was known to cause existential crises among the weak-willed. Or perhaps that was simply a tale told to young ponies on Nightmare Night…who is to say? Ah, it does not matter. Excuse our tangential muttering, the years have not been kind to us.” “Y-you’re…y-y-you’re…” Izzy stuttered, trying and failing to comprehend the enormity of her situation. “We are Princess Luna of Equestria, yes,” the lunar diarch replied matter-of-factly, waiting patiently for Izzy to take stock of her predicament, “The very same as the one within that accursed Bell that thou hast been conversing with.” “But if you’re dead…and I’m with you…then that means…” Izzy trembled, flopping onto her rear as the dam broke. “I’ll never see Sunny or any of my friends ever a-gaaa-haaa-haaaain! And it’s all my faaa-haaa-haaault!” She sobbed openly, her short life flashing before her eyes. All she’d accomplished, to be brought to her end by one careless decision…it was profoundly unfair. “Isadora!” Luna shouted, startling the mare out of her crying fit for a moment, “Prithee, do not resign thyself to despair just yet. There may yet be a way to return thee back to the mortal plane, and to thine friends in turn.” Her regal demeanor faltered for a moment, grimacing as if she’d just licked a particularly strong lemon, “However…thy might find it unpleasant.” “Where the hay even am I? What happened?!” Izzy exclaimed, growing increasingly desperate. “Well, thy latter question has a simple answer, if that is any comfort. Thou performed an extraordinary feat of magic that triggered thine ascension. We must add that thou cheated a bit by absorbing the last remnants of our power, and it is normally nowhere near as simple…” Luna explained, a dour edge to her voice as a hint of annoyance bled through her regal demeanor. Izzy whimpered, retreating into herself a bit. ‘What the hay is an ascension?’ She chose not to voice her mental question, as Luna continued her explanation unabated. “The answer to thy former question…is not so simple. We are…Elsewhere, Isadora. There is truly no other way to describe it. Elsewhere is far from any place you know, but in a manner that transcends spatial relations. It is a place that few know of, even among immortals, and fewer still have entered. Our sister and her prized pupil visited it once, countless ages ago, as did our sister’s niece. It has no name, existing beyond the boundaries of mortal comprehension and senses, so it is simply referred to as ‘Elsewhere.’” Her expression hardened. “We are sure that thou knowest, by now, what this means for thee and thine reckless, impulsive actions.” Her lip trembled, thoughts of her friends flashing by her as the obvious conclusion crystallized. “I’m…I really am dead, aren’t I?” Luna sighed to herself, massaging her temple with a shoed hoof. “Yes and no. Much like our current plane of existence, it is…complicated. Consider yourself fortunate. It is through sheer force of will that I was able to stop your essence from being completely obliterated by my own during the transfer, as the full brunt of my power is difficult even for me to control.” The unicorn’s lip tremble had evolved to a full-body shudder, not sure how to process the explanation. “So…I survived, right? I can go back to Sunny and the rest of my friends?” “…Yes.” As Izzy grew a wide grin and shot up to all four hooves, Luna raised a hoof to forestall the inevitable celebration. “However…there will be complications going forward. We will share one mind and one body once we leave this place together. This is, regrettably, an unassailable fact. It has taken all of our effort to nudge the leylines towards a solution that will preserve your existence, especially as those veins have shifted and weakened since we last touched them.” “S-share…a body? And mind?” Izzy felt lightheaded with dizziness, much too far out of her depth to truly understand what was going on. Talking to old ponies and messing with ancient magic was supposed to be Sunny’s or Zipp’s thing, not hers! “We know it is a difficult concept for thee to grasp. We implore thee to trust us…even though, as we are no longer truly thy regent in these modern times, thou hast no reason to do so,” Luna pleaded. “We feel a great measure of responsibility for not adequately warning thee of the risks of tampering with the Bell in its unstable state, and it was our own foolish, selfish desire for freedom that brought both of us to this point.” “If…if it’ll let me see Sunny again…” Izzy whimpered, “then I’ll do anything,” she said with finality, eyes squeezing shut as she awaited Luna’s actions. Luna nodded softly, horn shimmering like the night sky as her immense power began to coalesce. It swiftly grew in brightness and intensity as the spell siphoned off more and more of her magic, powerful enough to make the hairs of Izzy’s coat and mane stand on end just from being near her. “We shall speak to thee again soon, Isadora. Thou shalt need guidance to control thy strength and abilities.” Luna said with finality, before releasing the buildup of magic directly at Izzy. It slammed into her with the force of a speeding carriage, sending her tumbling backward as a tingling sensation spread through her entire body. Her limbs sagged like lead as her thoughts grew fuzzy before she once again lost consciousness. Crackles of purple energy began to dance around the blackened spot on the floor where Izzy once stood. A low hum built in volume as a white sphere of light coalesced there, growing in diameter until it looked like it could contain a rather large pony. Stunned out of their despair by the blinding spectacle before them, a surge of hope welled in Sunny’s chest as the features of a pony became recognizable from within the sphere’s fading light. The long, wavy blue mane and pale, elegant, grooved horn were unmistakably Izzy! And yet…something wasn’t quite right… That something quickly revealed itself as a pair of immense wings, which flared out from within the sphere with a great gust of wind. While mostly clad in the familiar pale purple hue of Izzy’s coat, they faded to a regal blue-and-purple gradient towards the wingtips, and their pinions glittered like stars in a lonely midnight sky. As the pony within the sphere was fully revealed, the group found themselves stunned into silence. She was, unmistakably, still the Izzy they knew and loved…but many things had changed. Her long, wavy mane had grown even fuller and more radiant than before, cascading down her chest and side in a curtain of shimmering cobalt hues. Her stunning orchid eyes had grown even more enthralling, stars twinkling within them in dazzling, hypnotizing patterns, leading down to a slimmer, curvier, more elegant muzzle. She had been the tallest in their friend group before, but now she was practically Alphabittle’s height, if not even larger, with a slim build and lean, slender legs that, despite their dainty-looking length, were visibly far more muscular than they once were. Despite her shock, Sunny felt a heat growing in her cheeks the longer her eyes wandered. Especially once an errant glance at her marefriend’s undercarriage revealed an even more shocking addition…surely she must have been hallucinating? The group’s jaws hung lower and lower the longer they stared, especially once they realized who they were looking at. Sunny stared in slack-jawed amazement at their newly-transformed once-unicorn friend, even as some deep-seated instinct urged each of them to bow in her presence, brought about by an oppressive aura of imperialism far grander than that of the so-called “Queen” of Zephyr Heights. At a glance, it certainly seemed that little was left of their friend’s old form or personality. And yet, as the unicorn—nay, the alicorn—opened her eyes for the first time, she was greeted by Sunny’s wide-eyed, smiling face…and any semblance of propriety was swiftly defenestrated through the nearest already-broken window. With wings flared wide and eyes alight with passion, the huge alicorn mare tackled Sunny to the hardwood floor with a house-rattling thump before pressing her slender, regal muzzle into Sunny’s own. Sunny’s wide-eyed astonishment morphed into doe-eyed, passionate smooching as their lip-lock progressed, the two of them quickly forgetting anypony else around them as Izzy’s elongated tongue pushed past her lover’s to quest straight down her throat. Her overenthusiastic ‘reunion’ was cut short by this, as Sunny coughed and sputtered violently from the sudden triggering of her gag reflex, pushing the other mare away with both forehooves. Despite her discomfort, her heart fluttered in her chest as her cheeks pinked. Goodness gracious, if Izzy’s tongue were that long, then it could perhaps even…oh gosh… Her thoughts turned lurid as a wave of torrid daydreams crashed through her mind, eyes practically bugging out of her head as a wave of heated lust made her face go aflame. She quickly chased away such thoughts with an embarrassed shake of the head, doing her best to try and regain her composure. There was a time and a place for that kind of thing, and in front of the rest of her friends was certainly not it! After a moment’s reprieve, Sunny threw her forehooves around Izzy’s neck, and the rest of her friends joined her in subduing their alicorn friend into a relentless cuddle-pile. “We’re so glad you’re alright, Izzy! You’re really the life of the party, you know? Our group just wouldn’t be the same without you…” said Pipp, barely withholding a bout of sniffles as her soft-spoken voice wavered. “I’m glad you’re alright, Izz, but…” Hitch said with a pause, breaking apart from the hug to point an accosting hoof at the wavy-maned demigoddess, “you have got to work on that impulse control of yours! You nearly got yourself killed just now! Don’t make me write a law preventing you from endangering yourself, little lady!” Sunny chuckled to herself as Izzy grimaced, rubbing the back of her neck with a forehoof self-consciously. “Relax, Hitch. It won’t need to come to that. I’d tie her to a bed if I had to!” The moment Sunny finished that sentence, she already realized she’d made a mistake. Hitch and both of the Princesses flinched, eyes wide, while an adorably vibrant blush grew on Izzy’s cheeks as everypony in the room stared straight at Sunny. “Wow. I…ahem…uhh, okay. I’d say you’ve got her…well under control, then! Ahahah…” Hitch responded with painfully forced enthusiasm. Police training had prepared him for many things, but it was safe to say an earth pony threatening an alicorn with bondage was not one of the scenarios he’d practiced in the academy. “NotwhatImeant, notwhatImeant, notwhatImeant…darn, friggin’, stupid brain…” Sunny muttered to herself repeatedly, shaking her head in her hooves. Helpfully, Zipp interjected just then, providing a much-needed escape from the awkward corner that Sunny had backed herself into. “Are we gonna address the fact that Izzy’s a buckin’ alicorn, by the way? As in, long-dead-ruler-of-Equestria style, capital-a Alicorn?!” “Sunny’s crazy glowing wings and horn are one thing, but you’re the real deal!” Pipp exclaimed. “Do you have any idea what this means, Izzy?!” “It means my life just got a whole lot more complicated…?” Izzy whimpered, raising her hoof questioningly. “It means you’re gonna BLOW UP the ponynet like never before!” Pipp exclaimed, grinning widely as she held up her phone and pointed it at Izzy…just as Zipp snatched it out of her hoof. “H-hey! I was using that!” “We’ve been over this, Pipp, c’mon. Did you learn anything from the incident with Sunny and Izzy’s relationship before? We can’t just drop a bombshell like this onto the Ponynet like it’s nothing, sis! This is really serious. The fate of the whole nation is at stake, ponies can’t just find out that an alicorn has come back by watching a viral video!” Zipp barked, stowing Pipp’s phone into her own saddlebags. “Just…please trust me, alright? I’ve read the stories in the old, dusty sections of the Royal Library that nopony visits anymore. They don’t talk kindly of the alicorns who ruled before. It’s a series of their failures that have brought Equestria to where it’s at now, and it’s only thanks to us that things are getting better…how do you think most ponies would react if they saw a real live alicorn in front of them, in the flesh, just when things are getting better for everypony?” She ‘tch’ed, shaking her head. “B-but, I’m an alicorn, aren’t I?” Sunny interjected, desperation evident in her pleading tone. “You saw how ponies accepted me after my transformation. What makes Izzy’s transformation any different?” “Having those glowy alicorn bits isn’t really the same thing, Sunny. Having the flesh-and-blood traits of all three pony races just means you’re set up to be distrusted by all three of ‘em equally. Those grudges run deep, real deep. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve already made amazing progress with the ponies in our hometowns, but we’ve got a long way to go before an alicorn can just waltz through anyplace in Equestria unquestioned…if we ever get to that point again.” Pacing the room now, Zipp’s thoughts continued. “It really doesn’t help her case that, if whatever possessed and transformed her isn’t lying, she’s got one of the ponies directly responsible for the collapse of Equestria living in herhead.” Zipp said, shuddering at the thought. “I…I’m scared…” Izzy whimpered, holding her head in her hooves. Sunny quickly embraced her, running a hoof through her mane as the alicorn’s wings ruffled up in anxiety. “Everything’s going to be okay, Iz. I’m sure this Luna pony isn’t that bad,” Giving Zipp the stink-eye, she continued, “Somepony just isn’t that good at reading the room.” The pale princess sighed, holding her hooves up. “Yeah, you got me there. Sorry about that, everypony. Sometimes I don’t know when to shut up about something.” Sunny’s glare softened, and she gave Zipp a small smile. “Apology accepted, Zipp.” Glancing down at the mare trembling in her hooves, her smile grew lopsided. “I think it’d be best if we carefully boxed up all these artifacts and examined them someplace where they won’t randomly go off and permanently alter somepony. Or tear down my house…again.” Hitch nodded sharply in agreement. “Which is what I would’ve suggested in the first place, but alright. I’ll get in touch with Phyllis and see if those crazy testing rooms of hers can be retrofitted to handle experiments with magical artifacts.” Zipp scoffed, shaking her head. “Rrright. I’m sure she’ll only go slightly insane at the thought.” “Phyllis seems like a good pony, if a bit misguided. She did support what we were doing by the end of things, after all.” Pipp pointed out. “She didn’t use to be so prejudiced. Sure, she and Dad rarely got along, but…” Glancing at the photo of her father, her eyes misted a bit. “She did care about him, more than she let on. She was one of the first ponies to hug me at his funeral, and I wasn’t the only one of us who was crying. I think she knew a good pony when she saw one, even if her closed-mindedness wouldn’t let her admit it.” The rest of the group went silent at that, bowing their heads out of respect. Sunny, desperately trying to get things back on track, was the first to speak up. “But enough about old grudges, ponies. We’ve got some artifacts to wrangle, and I’ve got my cute unicorn—err, alicorn!—marefriend here to comfort afterward. Let’s get to work!” The remaining cleanup continued in an orderly fashion, all five ponies managing to resist their deep-seated urges to touch and manipulate the artifacts as they carefully loaded them into boxes, taking great care to load them without damaging them. “Phew, that was a lot of work. I don’t know about you all, but I could really use a good spa treatment and a nap right about now.” Pipp groaned, working out a kink in her forehoof as she mussed her sweat-slick mane with a grimace of disgust. Izzy looked to have scarcely broken a sweat from the heavy lifting she’d been tasked with — and while the mare had already been capable of some spectacular feats without magic, Sunny highly doubted the unicorn version of the mare would’ve truly had enough stamina to do what she’d accomplished today. Lost in thought, she eyed Izzy’s wings as they ruffled at her sides, the once-unicorn still unable to control them outside of those unconscious social gestures that her freshly-transformed body somehow just knew how to do. Those long, slender limbs, made even more elegant by her transformation, roiled with incredible physical strength, a testament to the way she alone had tugged the cartful of artifacts all the way into town and into CanterLogic’s loading dock. Sunny had made herself busy giving the stink-eye to the many earth-pony stallions (and mares) who eyed the surprisingly strong, cloaked “unicorn” with unabashed arousal. The specifics of Izzy’s transformation were a topic that the rest of the group had pointedly avoided discussing for hours prior, pouring all of their focus into the day’s project to avoid stressing the overburdened unicorn out. Now, however, with little else to focus on since coming back to the lighthouse, the topic of discussion inevitably strayed. “Soo…Izzy…aside from the whole ‘pulling a cartful of artifacts over a mile into town without sweating or stopping,’ how has the change been treating you?” Hitch asked. Bright blue flashed in Izzy’s eyes for a moment as she regarded him sourly. “You mean aside from feeling like a freak with a voice in our head who’s been through more emotional and physical trauma in the past day than most ponies deal with in their lives, being run like a draft horse, and being ogled like a two-bit strumpet? Terrific.” Izzy sniped. “Izzy!” Sunny admonished, taken aback. Where had that come from? Hitch backpedaled, eyes wide. “Woah! Sheesh. No need to bite my head off.” “L-let’s…” Pipp interrupted, placing a hoof on both ponies’ shoulders. “Let’s just settle down a bit, get something to eat, take a bath, and go to bed, alright? We’ve got another long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I’m sure all of us could use the rest.” The rest of the night passed with little fanfare, the five ponies bedding down for the night in various rooms of Sunny’s lighthouse; Sunny and Izzy shared the bed, while Pipp and Zipp slept on a pair of large beanbags in Sunny’s living room. Hitch, as could be expected, had to make do with the couch. Izzy’s fluffy new appendages certainly had their charm, but that was much less apparent when one tried to sleep in a bed with them. Sleep was fitful, and more than once Sunny found herself rudely awakened by a faceful of feathers, but eventually, the pair found a happy medium and drifted off to the land of dreams. As they slumbered, though, a shimmering blue light coalesced around Izzy’s horn… There it was again. That shimmering, beautiful, yet chillingly empty void. Izzy groaned as she got to her hooves, cricking her back as her wings ruffled out in discomfort. “Mmh, Luna, I’m really tired. Can this wait at all?” As her eyes opened, the visage that greeted her confirmed her suspicions — deep blue coat and speckled black flanks, with a mane that anypony could get lost in. It was the lost Princess of the Moon, all right. “Not particularly, we’re afraid. Harmony has doubtlessly already taken notice of the resurgence of our magical signature, and it will come calling soon enough. You and your friends must be made aware of things before that happens.” Luna replied, and her horn shimmered with power as Izzy’s own horn tingled in sympathy. A chorus of confused, familiar groans filled the echoing vastness in an instant — one moment, it was empty, and as she blinked, her other four friends simply appeared around her! It was enough to make her stumble back in surprise. She hadn’t even felt the air shift with their sudden appearance. “Groan…wha…where am I?” Zipp mumbled, smacking her lips as she got to her hooves. As her eyes fixed on Princess Luna, her jaw nearly hit the floor. “Woah. Okay, what?” “Y-you’re…” Sunny breathed out in a reverent gasp, feeling herself get lightheaded as all she’d read about the mare in her father’s research came rushing back to her. She was the Mare in the Moon, a former ruler of Equestria, one of the most powerful ponies in history… “P-Princess Luna!” She exclaimed, stumbling forward in a hasty bow of respect. The moon-mare merely giggled behind one hoof, thoroughly amused. “While I am both surprised and flattered by your recognition, the formalities are unnecessary. I lost the right to rule over anypony when I was sealed within the Bewitching Bell as a magical fragment of my former self.” Izzy had to force herself not to glomp Sunny as the mare blushed and stammered, rubbing her foreleg self-consciously as she averted her gaze. “S-sorry, Pri—Luna.” The beatific smile the moon-mare wore was at once both understanding and calming, and Sunny found herself unable to stay nervous for long under her gaze. It made her heart skip a beat, though she chalked it up to nerves and nothing else. “That’s better, dear Sunny. We find thy nervousness unbecoming — thou deservest the highest of praise for taking such grand steps to reunite the Equestrian territory, though thee must forgive us if we find the intent to be dearly misplaced. Those who follow in the hoofsteps of the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes.” “What exactly do you mean by that, Luna?” Zipp asked, a harsh edge to her tone. “Oh, nothing particularly dire, at least not yet. But we would caution thee against making hasty steps toward reunification. Twilight made the same miscalculation, believing that her and her friends had saved the day like any other time a great evil threatened Equestria…they were not prepared for its collapse from within rather than without. The seeds of doubt that those damnable three planted took root like a plunderseed, though proved far more difficult to remove.” Noticing the confused glance towards group historian Sunny, who shrugged, Luna added, “Pardon our wandering mind, we forget how long it has been since those times. Plunderseeds were a…horticultural inconvenience dreamed up by Discord long ago, as a ‘failsafe’ to threaten the Tree of Harmony should his chaotic reign unravel,” Ignoring the increasingly confused stares of the five ponies, her expression brightened. “Which, we believe, serves as a convenient segue for the task at hand. There will be plenty of time to discuss ancient history when the future of Equestria does not hang in the balance.” A map of ancient Equestria materialized out of thin air behind Luna, floating in her magical grasp along with a pointing stick. Surreptitiously, the pointer aimed at a spot left-of-center of the map, within the Everfree Forest that blanketed the southern foothills of the towering Canterhorn, near the town of Ponyville. “Regrettably, we do not know of any of your modern landmarks as they relate to our era of Equestria. We are quite sure of one thing, however — once Harmony realizes that an alicorn walks upon the ground of Equus once again, it will contact you, by means that only it can predict.” Sunny’s brows knit in confusion, eyes scanning over the map and poring over every detail as she considered Luna’s statement. “But what’s…Harmony? How is it still here, after Equestria went so long without magic? Why would it care about the existence of alicorns?” Luna raised her forehoof, forestalling further questions. “The means by which Equestria lost its magic were not entirely organic, suffice it to say. It was less of a dissolution and more of a sealing — anything magical became inert after the event and has reactivated in the wake of its passing. We are talking to each other in a shared dream now, after all. Our last remnant would have faded away into the aether with the rest of ancient Equestria if the loss of magic had been gradual and natural.” “So somepony did all of this deliberately?!” Izzy exclaimed, “B-but who would want to do such a thing?” Luna stamped her hoof. “They were not ponies, at least not all of them. Again, thou art straying from the topic. Stories of the past later.” With a pout, Izzy relented, wings flopping down at her sides. “Harmony, as my sister and I named it, is some form of…transcendental being, with motives, machinations, and desires beyond even the understanding of an alicorn. A more fitting name for it might be Order, though we admit it does not sound nearly as welcoming. It acts as a direct counterpoint to the spirit of Chaos incarnate, Discord. Though that one was much more prone to overt meddling than Harmony...” “T-T-Transcendental beings?! Oh, mare…” Pipp swooned, a bout of nausea overtaking her. “I was not prepared for this when I got up this morning…” “Few are prepared for having their entire worldview adjusted.” Luna jibed, the barest hint of mirth bleeding through her serious tone. “I would advise the four of you to discern the whereabouts of Harmony’s earthly manifestation. It last took the form of a crystalline tree that housed the Elements of Harmony, though it is very likely that its form has shifted and evolved in the years since that time.” “So…you’re sending us on a goose chase for a big ol’ tree, in the middle of a forest, that houses the most powerful being on the planet. Am I getting that right?” Hitch asked, “Because, uh, this sounds more like a summer blockbuster movie with each new crazy thing I’m hearing.” “That is the essence of things, yes. We understand that this task may seem difficult, but it is imperative that the five of you succeed.” As the dream world around them suddenly began to shudder, Luna sighed. “Alas, it seems our time together draws to a close.” “B-but, wait! We still have so many questions!” Sunny exclaimed, reaching towards Luna as the alicorn’s form began to shimmer and fade. “There will be time for more questions later. Remember well what we have told all of you. We do not know when we can create this shared dream again, as our powers are still recovering strength and we do not want to tax Miss Moonbow’s body with them. Fare thee well, brave ponies, and may your audience with Harmony pass graciously.” Luna curtsied, vanishing into an encroaching wave of fog. Around them, the dream realm began to shudder and quaver, until, with a rumbling roar, it collapsed into complete blackness, fragmenting away into the fog of slumber. Author's Note Woo, longest chapter yet! Nearing the end of Act 1 now. To everyone still reading along with this journey, thanks for sticking with me. I've really enjoyed writing my own take on G5 lore so far, even though incoming canon is sure to retcon the things I'm doing less than a week from now. More stuff will be incoming...soonish? Not really sure. Grad school is picking up and I wanted to get this out before all my free time gets sucked away.
