Izzy Moonbow: Beyond The Multiverse of Randomness

The nighttime rallies were always the most intense.

At 9:00 PM exactly (you couldn’t be late or else you’d be smacked upside the head with a baseball bat), the ponies all gathered to hear their leader, that being Hitch, speak about the victories of the day, the progress of the war, and why they wanted to punish the Regime. The rallies were a time to let out all of the hatred, all of the anger that the ponies built up over the course of the day. They happened every single night with absolutely no exception. Regardless of whether you were serving in the army or were just an ordinary citizen living in the camp, you had to attend the rally. It was not an optional meeting, nor some extracurricular activity you could choose to participate in order to gain extra brownie points with a potential college. Nope. It was an absolute requirement. And if you refused to attend, you would be in deep trouble.

In the short time that Izzy had been at the base, she had quickly learned the obligatory customs and rituals of the day. Misty had spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening teaching her the tricks of the trade. And the one thing she had taken from these lessons: military camp sucked. She had always fantasized about joining Queen Haven’s personal army back home as a way to set an example for her fellow unicorns. She had a false idea of what the army was, this glamorous and respected lifestyle that all ponies would aspire to join. She thought it was this great and prestigious honor that allowed you to fight like the heroes of your fillyhood bedtime stories.

The reality was anything but. While Comet had been right about signing up for the army being completely voluntary, once you joined it, that was a different story altogether. Suddenly your pampered and ordinary life completely fell apart and was replaced by strict curfews and harsh commands. And because Izzy was technically a soldier due to the fact that the variant she had swapped places with was, she was a part of the army whether she liked it or not. Even so, the one thing citizens and soldiers living in the camp had in common was that they had to attend the rally.

On this night, the chill and relaxed atmosphere after a triumphant victory evaporated entirely. Ponies who would normally never hurt a fly rejoiced in the idea of killing the enemy. They became savages, hellbent on revenge and “proper” justice. They chanted like a religious cult, pounded on drums, and stomped their hooves on the floor as a display of cheering. They yelled and shouted, jeered at pictures of the Queen, and thirsted for blood. Young foals cursed and their parents didn’t scold them. It was unlike anything Izzy had ever seen in her life, the complete opposite of what she had experienced earlier in the day. It was terrifying.

Izzy and Misty walked through the assembling crowd, keeping their heads low so as to not stand out. She wanted to blend in and not draw any attention to herself. It was bad enough that she had to attend this as it was. She could tell Misty felt the same way. The poor unicorn was shaking, and her eyes darted quickly from left to right. She was terrified, even though she had most likely attended this event a thousand times. Izzy couldn’t blame her. All around them, ponies pounded on ceremonial drums and cheered for the destruction of the Regime. They were chanting one thing and one thing only: “FOR REVENGE!! FOR REVENGE!! FOR REVENGE!! FOR REVENGE!!”

Members of the Fourth Division carried banners bearing the symbol of the Insurgency on their backs. It was an orange flag with the emblem of a shooting star in the middle. The symbol looked exactly like Sunny’s cutie mark. At that moment, it dawned on Izzy that much of this whole rebellion was done in a way for the missing apricot earth pony. After all, unity and friendship had initially been virtues she believed in. It had been because of her that Equestria had even been reunified at all. And yet she was gone, with her presumed disappearance having something to do with the Regime. No wonder Hitch had been so tight-lipped. He had to see the emblem of his best friend every night, and it probably hurt him beyond all belief. He was doing this for her, and yet could never bring himself to state this fact out loud. Everypony already knew this though. It was quite obvious who this revolution was dedicated towards.

Cannons went off in the distance and the crowd went wild. The rally was being held downstairs, in the large and expansive basement of Headquarters that Hitch nicknamed “The Rat’s Palace.” Any and all boxes that had been used for storage were ordered to be removed specifically for the occasion. One by one, the ponies gathered and filled every available space on the cold hard ground. In the middle of everything was an enormous stage. Five burly stallions with seemingly incredible strength were dragging it to its proper position in order to prepare for Hitch’s arrival. They set it down as gently as they could, grunting. The stage landed on the floor with a thud.

Once they were done, they took several steps back, admired their handiwork, and then proceeded to slink off into the shadows. Izzy watched them go from where she was sitting. She deduced that they were most likely going to find some place to sit in the back since all ponies in the camp were required to attend regardless of affiliations. She looked around with apprehension, waiting for Hitch to show up. She had her hoof around Misty. The two had a relatively good view of the whole thing. They were in the second row of the assembled crowd which while not the best place to watch a rally, was still better than being in the last row at the very back, all things considered.

Izzy glanced at Misty, who stared back at her with a worried expression. “I’ve always hated the nighttime rallies…” she murmured under her breath.

“I can tell,” Izzy whispered back. “It’s going to be okay, Misty. I mean, it can’t be that scary, right? It’s just an assembly.”

“You wait.” Misty replied. “Just an assembly doesn’t even begin to describe it…”

“Oh.”

Suddenly, a horn sounded and the chatter between the ponies stopped instantly. All heads turned to the right where a figure decked out in a black cloak was strolling menacingly towards the stage. Izzy squinted her eyes and barely made out the color of the stallion’s head. It was Hitch, and he sported a grim expression on his face. He walked in a way that commanded respect and demanded reverence. Each step radiated confidence and determination. He was a leader through and through, and he knew how to make an entrance.

He walked onto the stage and up to the podium in front of him. He removed his hood, revealing his tan head and blue mane. The rest of his body was still covered, but that was all the ponies needed to see in order to know that it was him. He stared at his audience with an expression that was unreadable. It was almost like he didn’t want to do this every night, but dragged himself outside anyway because it was for the greater good. His eyes held no empathy within them. His posture was firm and resolute. His hooves were planted firmly on the ground. He lifted his head and faced the assembled crowd.

“My fellow ponies,” Hitch addressed them. “I thank you all for coming out to what marks our 61st nighttime rally, approximately 70 days since the war started and we became enemies of the state. Tonight, we celebrate our temporary victory against the Regime! We celebrate the return of one of our own!!”

The crowd cheered at this statement and all eyes were upon Izzy in an instant. She felt uncomfortable with this level of attention, trying her best to shrink down and become smaller to no success. Fortunately, it only lasted a moment as they soon returned their attention to the stage.

“Alas!” continued Hitch sternly. “Our work is far from completed. What the enemy has done this time is worse than anything they have ever done before! They attempted to ship Izzy and several other ponies to concentration camps! To work for them or be murdered via their horrible gas chambers!! The Regime has resorted to killing its own subjects!!”

The crowd of ponies all turned towards each other worriedly, chattering amongst themselves and fearing for their lives. One mare shouted in protest, and this call to action was soon picked up by others next to her. Izzy shifted uneasily. She didn’t like being the subject of all this vitriol. Yes, what happened to her was horrible. But she didn’t want her name to be used as a rallying point. She could tell Misty wasn’t feeling good about it either. The poor mare seemed like she just wanted to leave, but she knew that she couldn’t.

Satisfied that he had gotten the reaction he wanted, Hitch lowered the tone of his voice and leaned into the microphone. His words echoed and reverberated across the vicinity, striking chills into all who listened.

“But you think they will stop there?” he warned. “The enemy knows no bounds. They are desperate to crush any opposition to their power. What if they come after you next? Your husbands, wives, your foals…in this war, nopony is safe.” Again, worried murmurs ran across the crowd in response. Hitch smiled cruelly and continued. “Your lives have been stolen from you all thanks to this demon. Her name drives fear into the hearts of the weak, yet courage into the hearts of the strong…”

And just like that, Hitch dropped the name of the Queen like a bombshell. The crowd went ballistic with fury, getting to their hooves and raising their hooves in protest. Izzy tried to hear what he had said, but she couldn’t hear. The instant he had said the name, the other ponies immediately started shouting. She didn’t know what or who he was referring to. Judging by Misty’s expression though, she knew it was probably for the best. She had definitely heard it, and her eyes were wide with fear. She knew this pony, whoever she was.

With the fervor of the crowd intensifying by the second, Hitch leveled up his tactics. He began shouting like a madman, playing into the fears of his base, and feeding on their anger like a parasite sucking the essence out of its host. He reveled in their hatred. His eyes were wild and crazy. His face radiated anger. His whole body shook with emotions barely contained. He strolled around the stage, walking back and forth and pointing at various members of the audience. One by one, he succeeded in getting each of them riled up and ready to fight.

“SHE’LL COME FOR YOUR FRIENDS!!” he yelled. “SHE’LL SLAUGHTER YOUR FAMILY!! SHE’LL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU LOVE AND DANCE ON THE ASHES OF THE LIFE YOU ONCE KNEW!! SHE’LL MAKE YOU WATCH AS YOU’RE SENT AWAY TO BE TORTURED!!”

“KILL HER!!” the crowd roared furiously in unison.

Izzy watched with horror as this went down. Once again, she was left terrified by this version of Hitch. He was nothing like the kind-hearted and nurturing friend she used to know. He had moments where that side of him came out, such as when she had comforted him earlier today. But otherwise, the Hitch that was standing before her on this night was an absolute mad stallion. He was a general stirring up his future soldiers, enticing them to risk their lives for him and him alone.

“General Hitch,” a mare in the back of the crowd, one of the survivors, called out. “What could your movement possibly offer us?!”

“I offer you freedom,” Hitch answered without hesitation. “Liberty. And most importantly, protection, in exchange for your service.”

“Then I pledge myself to your army.” she responded. “To protect my baby girl.”

The other survivors present echoed similar sentiments.

Hitch smiled with satisfaction. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a shard from the Pegasus Crystal. In Izzy’s timeline, the Unity Crystals, the artifacts that once held the key to all magic in Equestria, had been shattered a long time ago when Sunny had betrayed everypony. Now a piece of them was being held by Hitch. He showed it off to the crowd, silently letting them all know what they had lost, and what they could get back if they joined him.

“This Crystal once contained your magic…” he stated in a tone that came off as sorrowful. He watched their lips salivate over this priceless relic, the last remnants of their magic. Then, he placed it back in his saddlebag and faced the crowd once more. He looked at them squarely in the eyes as he delivered his final pitch for them to join him.

“I AM HITCH TRAILBLAZER, LEADER OF THE INSURGENCY!!” Hitch bellowed. “LET MY BELOVED SUNNY BE MY WITNESS, I AM THE BRINGER OF UNITY!! I WILL LEAD YOU ALL TO PARADISE!!!!!”

“Death to the Regime!!” A stallion shouted. He stood up and raised his right hoof in the air in solidarity with Hitch. The other ponies soon took up the chant, repeating the same phrase over and over. They screamed with as much pain and anger as their voices could muster. It was all there. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness. Hitch had successfully weaponized those emotions, and they wanted nothing more than to join the cause.

“DEATH TO THE REGIME!!”

“DEATH TO THE REGIME!!”

“DEATH TO THE REGIME!!”

“DEATH TO THE REGIME!!”

“DEATH TO THE REGIME!!”

Their voices echoed throughout the room and could be heard for miles. They continued to shout and scream, howling to the void for their voices to be heard. They felt seen. Hitch smiled at his new batch of recruits, seemingly satisfied that he had done his job well. They were all onboard, and there was nothing more pleasing than that. He soon joined in the chant, adding fuel to the fire.

The applause lasted for about thirteen minutes. Nopony wanted to be the first to stop cheering. And all the while, Izzy stared at this whole event with a mix of anger and fear. She was too scared to say anything, but she also didn’t like how Hitch had essentially weaponized the raw feelings of his audience, let alone invoked Sunny’s name as a form of divine appeal. This was more than just an army. This was a cult, hellbent on revenge.

And she was a part of it.

“You heard Hitch drop the name of the Queen, didn’t you?!”

After the rally, all of the ponies were sent off to bed as per the official curfew. While most of the soldiers slept in the army barracks, a select group were actually allowed to sleep in the main Headquarters building itself. There were five beds, and they were mostly preserved to look the way they used to despite the intense renovation. As such, only five ponies were allowed to sleep inside the main bedroom. That included Izzy, as well as Misty, Pipp, and even Hitch, though he wasn’t set to go to sleep until after he finished doing some research downstairs. He had already promised Izzy earlier that day that he would look into her supposed “amnesia problem,” and why she remembered a different timeline entirely. While she certainly appreciated that gesture, she had difficulty approaching him after how he had acted during the rally.

This was the first time she had seen him act this insane, and it terrified her beyond all belief. She was used to his harsh side at this point, but what she had seen a couple hours ago took it to a whole other level. Now she was obsessed with that rally and prying Misty for answers. The expressions she had seen on the unicorn’s face implied that she knew more than what she was letting on, and she wanted to find out the truth. Misty wasn’t budging though, and that frustrated her. She thought that their relationship had grown to the point where they weren’t hiding things from each other anymore.

As Izzy made her bed and threw the pillows onto it, she looked back at Misty, who still refused to move from the window. “Why won’t you tell me anything?!” she demanded. “You clearly know what’s going on here.”

“I can’t-“ Misty began to say before clearing her throat. “I-sorry. Izzy, I wish I could tell you everything, but you wouldn’t understand. This is all so overwhelming for you already, and…I-I don’t want to freak you out.”

Izzy rolled her eyes. “Please. As if I’m not already freaked out by Hitch acting like a deranged cult leader. Why was he like that?! Why did he invoke Sunny’s name when he told me earlier that he doesn’t like ponies mentioning her?! Why does he have banners of her, but refuses to elaborate on what happened?!”

“I can’t tell you!!” Misty yelled suddenly, catching Izzy off guard. Upon seeing her taken aback, she instantly tried to backtrack. “Sorry for snapping at you. It’s just that…Hitch doesn’t want me to talk to you about this kind of stuff. Not only is it too personal for him, but…h-he doesn’t want to overwhelm you with the truth. He thinks it’s better if you don’t know…for your own sake.”

“Why?” Izzy asked. She sat on the edge of the bed, letting her hooves dangle. “Why is he so secretive around me? Doesn’t he trust me…at all?”

“Maybe if you didn’t have amnesia, he would,” replied Misty. “But right now, he has to treat you like a completely new member, and that’s hard for him. Not only that, but he said…” She sighed deeply. “He said that he made a mistake not protecting you before you got captured. He knew how much the fall of magic affected you and how guilty you felt about letting everything go to shit, but…he never bothered to help you process your trauma, just as he never cared to help me with mine…” She said that last part with a hint of bitterness. “He doesn’t wanna make that mistake again.”

“So he’d rather not tell me anything?”

“He has a chance to start over with you. He’d rather you not beat yourself up over everything going wrong again. If that means hiding the truth of how horrible Equestria has become from you, then so be it. It was hard enough for me as your sister…watching your mental health deteriorating each day. How do you think he feels? He’s known you for longer than I have.”

Izzy looked down at the ground, trying to hide how hurt she felt by that. “It’s just not right. We’re friends. We saved Equestria together twice! Well, only once in this timeline, but one out of two is telling! He should know that I can handle it. I deserve to know what’s going on if I’m to help him effectively…”

“But what if the opposite is true?” Misty said.

“What are you talking about?!” inquired Izzy angrily. “I’m pretty sure I can handle-“

“What if…what if it’s better you don’t know?” Misty suggested, cutting her off. Her eyes glistened with tears. “What if you’re better off not knowing what really happened…especially since you remember a reality completely separate from ours? I don’t know what made you hallucinate that, but if you can hold on to your innocence that way, you should. Please, Izzy. Just trust me. You don’t want to know. You already heard enough from Hitch tonight during the rally.”

Izzy squeezed her eyes shut to avoid tears of her own. “And here I thought we were done keeping secrets from each other, sis.” She hadn’t meant to say that last sentence with so much contempt, but she couldn’t help it. She could see Misty’s face fall even further. She was clearly only barely keeping it together, and Izzy definitely wasn’t helping by guilting her. But she just wanted to be in the know so badly. They had only just been reunited after months, and yet it felt like their relationship was back at square one, when Misty was hiding her allegiance to Opaline from her. It hurt.

Just when Izzy was about to say something more however, she suddenly got accosted by a memory that had entered her mind. She hadn’t thought about it all day, but her memories were starting to return in brief spurts. This was one of them. All at once, she was sucked into a vision…the night she decided to make her move. Her final conversation with Sunny.

It was nighttime. She and her friends had just arrived back home from Zephyr Heights after attending an extravagant dinner party celebrating their victory over the bugbear. There was still a lot to do and so much to prepare, especially if an invasion from a new threat was imminent. For the moment though, Izzy and the others had been allowed to go back to Maretime Bay until they were needed again.

Once they had gotten home, she had wasted no time in talking to one of her friends about her insecurities. She knew Hitch would never budge from his position being the responsible sheriff and all. Neither Zipp or Pipp were aware she was being excluded. But Sunny would care. She knew what it was like to feel alone, to feel left out and like the whole world was against you. She understood that feeling, and her bond with Izzy went deeper than all the rest. She knew that out of all her friends, Sunny would understand what she was going through the most.

The conversation had started out normal enough with Izzy explaining how frustrated she was with how she was being treated by the others, and Sunny relating to that experience. But once she brought up the idea of time travel out of the blue, that was when everything completely derailed.

“So you’re saying you want me to go back in time,” Sunny said, her tone still reflecting the shock she was feeling at being asked this. “To save Misty’s life.”

“Yeah,” Izzy replied hopefully. “To save Misty’s life. I would, but I don’t know how. You can do that, right? I mean, you’re the one with the cool alicorn powers and stuff. I know Spike’s been teaching you a lot of magic. If not, you can teach me.”

Sunny seemed very uncomfortable at the prospect, and her face reflected this. She shook her head. “So let’s imagine for a second that I somehow…found a spell that would allow me to tap into the cosmos and so doing travel back in time.” She fixed Izzy with a hard stare. “It still would be…wildly irresponsible.”

Izzy’s face fell. “I knew you were gonna say that.”

“Yes,” Sunny insisted. “Because Izzy, if either of us did go into the past, any interactions we would have with Misty or ourselves…you step on the wrong blade of grass, you have no idea what the consequences to that could be!”

“I know. The Butterfly Effect, right?”

“Yes.”

“I get it,” Izzy argued. “But Sunny…I could fix things.”

“You could also destroy everything.”

“I could save her…” Izzy pleaded desperately. “I could save Misty’s life. S-she w-wouldn’t have to die, I…I could even save your father.”

Sunny smiled wistfully for a moment upon hearing that, as if she was imagining a timeline where Argyle was alive and well. Izzy knew how much Sunny wished that her father was alive to see her now, a full blown national hero who had conquered the greatest foe Equestria had ever seen. It was all she ever wanted. But Sunny was more responsible than her. She knew now not to place her emotions above the greater good when it mattered most. And as much as she wanted it, she could never allow her to make that happen. It would destroy the very fabric of reality.

Her smile faded and she looked Izzy straight in the eyes. Her face reflected a deep-seated sadness and her beautiful blue eyes appeared like they had aged several millennium. “Izzy, these scars we have…make us who we are. We’re not meant to go back and fix them. And there’s nothing…broken with you that needs to be fixed. Take it from somepony who’s spent her whole life as an outcast. Don’t live your past. Live your life. Don’t let your tragedy define you.”

“What if it’s supposed to define me…?” Izzy asked softly. “Your tragedy made you a hero.”

“It also made me alone…” Sunny countered, her voice close to breaking. There were tears at the corners of her eyes.

Izzy felt horrible for her. She never imagined that the earth pony would consider her upbringing more as a curse than a blessing. For her, all isolation in Bridlewood was all worth it in the end because she got to meet so many friends. She never cared all that much about her superstitious fellow unicorn folk anyway. At least not to the extent that she cared about her friends. But for Sunny, it must’ve been completely different. She spent her whole life as a laughing stock and a social pariah, never being able to connect with anypony else. It must’ve hurt big time and it made Izzy’s struggles seem insignificant in comparison.

“W-we could hang out,” she suggested. “Do you wanna take a walk across town? I’m not ready to sleep yet.”

“Not this time.” Sunny answered quickly. She managed to muster a slight reassuring smile towards her before turning her head back in the direction of the Brighthouse. “Maybe some other time.”

With that, she was gone. She walked inside and closed the double doors behind her. They slammed shut. That would be the last time she ever saw her Sunny again.