MLP:FiM; Turn back time

I was hanging in the library with Fluttershy while getting to know her better, when I got an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala through the candle on the table. I knew what it was like there so I stopped Fluttershy from even trying to take the ticket by sighing, “the gala isn't as great as others say it is.” I told her up front which confused her at first, “I should know, this is not the first time I've gotten one of these. I don't even feel like going to them knowing what awaits me there…” I muttered to myself but Fluttershy heard and asked me,

“Why? Wouldn't it be great to go there?” I looked at her to see that she was confused.

“That’s the thing Fluttershy my birth parents are going to be there and I don’t ever want to see them at all. Not everyone has had a happy life. I know that better than anyone.” I respond as I walk up to my room, Fluttershy flew off so I walked over to the table to light the purple candle on the table, while getting out a pen, some ink, and some paper before starting the letter with,

-Dear princess, I would like to excuse myself from this year's gala because my birth parents will be there this year as they always will be. I know that they want to see me again but I feel like I will be put back under their hooves if I see them again.-

Through the purple candle holding a green flame on its wick, I let the letter burn till it was smoke and fly away. I stayed looking at the flame for a good minute letting my mind wander. I saw something that I didn't know was a vision at the time, the room faded till there was a barren wasteland of ash all around me as eight figures stood in front of me and before I was dragged to see more, there was a knock on my door, which caught my attention as everything faded back to normal. I snuffed out the flame on the candle before heading over, and opening the door to find my friends on the other side so I asked “do you need anything, girls?” as I let them in to join me at the table in the middle of the room, after sitting down one of them opened their mouths,

“Uhh yeah we were kind of wondering why you want to skip this year’s gala darling?” Rarity asked curious to know why,

“We may not know you all that well but it seems that you don’t enjoy it.” Applejack said as I sighed,

“All you girls need to know is that my birth parents, Star Clock and Grand Clock are horrible ponies. They never let me do the things I wanted to do. They never let me be who I am! They had me under their hooves till I became Celestia's student and gained who I wanted to be with the help of my mark! I was constantly belittled everyday and night so I want to have no contact with them at all! The galla will give them the opportunity to have me back under their hooves so that's why I wish I had never been born! Yet here I am and I had to deal with it for several years!” I yelled at them spilling my guts out but I was confused on why I was telling them. It was almost as if I couldn't hide anything from these girls and it started to freak me out when I realized that fact. My breath grew shallow, as I saw the lines between the color fade in and out of my vision. I looked around and asked myself “why did I say that?” The rest were confused at me questioning myself which showed on their faces.

“Why are you questioning yourself?” Fluttershy asked, a bit worried noticing something was wrong.

“It's because whatever is going on with me right now is making me spill my secrets, I-I don't like this…” I said, as I was hyperventilating, and the lines fully faded leaving everything as blurred colored dots. I needed to get away, as I felt trapped by being there so I ran to my room and locked the door with a terrified look on my face from what I could see in the mirror in front of me, my vision somewhat returned to normal as everything was still somewhat blurry. My hyperventilating calmed down a bit only to return at full force when I gave myself time to think, as both thoughts and memories replayed and clashed in my head, I started to talk to myself to get a grip on reality. “Could all of this happen because I answered one of their questions bluntly and honestly? Could it be that this came from not having control of what I was saying that scared me?” Not long after that I tried to calm myself so that I could peek out of my room to check on the girls while hoping I didn't worry them too much.

“Ya think she’s alright?” Applejack asked curiously.

“I don’t know but she looked scared of herself, darling” Rarity said worried.

“What could have caused this reaction from her?” Rainbow Dash asked before there was a knock on the door.

After a slow creak that I forgot was there, let me know that there was a pony outside. “Hello princess to what we owe the pleasure of your visit?” Pinkie’s excited voice rang.

“Maroon had sent me a letter on the reason she doesn't want to go to the gala. She didn't want to be reminded of anything before then so I came down to make sure she is all right.” Celestia said from what I could hear but it was muffled so I opened my door halfway to hear the conversation happen.

“Well she has been doing a lot to help us but when asking about the gala she started to freak out while answering…” Fluttershy recounted only to stop, hearing the princesses sighing.

“She has Agoraphobia” Celestia said and there was nothing to stop them from knowing now.

“Ag-ora-what now?” Applejack asked confused

“That's the fear of control or anything that has to do with it.” Fluttershy said which Applejack nods before asking

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Please understand that Maroon is a slow trust pony and this caused her to most likely relive some traumatic events.” They looked at Celestia, curious about what she meant. “She had to be separated from her birth parents as they were parading her like a trophy and there was nothing she had control over in her life. So it's best to be patient with her in case this happens again” she clarified

“So that’s why there were times when she acted… off? Like she was a puppet on strings?” Rainbow Dash said but I winced at the metaphor used and felt my panic rise again, I barely managed to push it back down “do you know anything that could do that?”

“I only know of one thing that can do that as it was what gave me an outsider’s view of the world cause I was trapped in my own body.” The girls and I were confused as I quietly came down the steps.

barely fighting back the attack I was just having to ask “What do you mean by that princess?”

“Maroon, are you ok?” Celestia asked as the rest looked at me worried.

“Yeah I'm fine as long as nothing like that ever happens again though I'm just barely fighting the attack back” causing Celestia to worry till she used a calming spell on both of us which certainly helped.

“It's what caused me to lose my sister all those years ago. I have no clue what it is for it is far older than I. All that I know is that it can enter your body without permission to hide in or have control of.” Celestia said concerned for her student and her friends. “But how are we certain that this won't happen again?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” the five girls said while marking a cross across their chest, before the motions for flight, and then acted out actually putting a cupcake in their left eye which confused us.

“What was that for?” I asked which Pinkie Pie explained,

“It's a pinkie promise and if we break it we will lose your trust forever” I decided not to question it as I was tired thanks to the panic attack exhausting me mentally and emotionally.

The next few days were relatively normal or well as normal as it can be in Ponyville. The girls avoided asking me stuff that would be very personal which allowed me to tell them when I was ready, which meant that they were doing well on their promise. I don't completely trust them yet, but they are getting there though that didn’t stop me from learning about them as they learned about me.

I found out that Applejack was and still is very stubborn about doing something for the farm, after Big Mac injured himself during work and needed to rest. Though Applejack learned an important lesson in humility about asking for help. Though it came after a few accidents, such as; causing Rainbow to crash into the library so hard she might have broken something by going through a wall and had a bunch of heavy books fall on her, giving a bunch of ponies food poisoning with baked bads along with Pinkie Pie, and caused trauma to baby bunnies who stampeded into the town and wrecked a lot of things though it was mostly gardens. All because it was applebuck season. In the end she learned her lesson and asked us for help. Things went faster and soon the orchard was clear of apples.

An old friend of Rainbow and Fluttershy’s came into town a few days later. A griffon named Gilda came to hang with them and was actually really nice to the two she knows, though Fluttershy had somehow managed to sneak up on Gilda and scared her but she was a bit rude to the other ponies however that was due to the way she grew up and had needed a change of pace. I had gotten comfortable around Fluttershy and our friends could see that there was something more brewing between us. She moved in not long afterward and ended up getting a party from Pinkie that very night. She got to learn more about the rest of us and found out how red Fluttershy could get.

After a few days a showmare named Trixie and a show stallion named Crimson came along to perform a show which ended up in a stage fight in an attempt to show how great they are, it wasn't serious at first but Crimson was stressing out. Then something changed in Crimson over the course of the battle, “well have you ever defeated an Ursa Major?” he asked.

Trixie then said “not yet but I don't see myself facing one so soon” and after a while it ended with Trixie as the winner.

While everypony was asleep. Two colts went and woke up an Ursa Minor but as ‘Crimson’ was about to kill the thing and enact its mothers wrath when I walked over and said

“Are you trying to get the rest of us killed?” as Trixie put the thing to sleep making it seem as if her stories were real but she didn't truly boast about herself as Maroon berated ‘Crimson’ who was snapping back at her like an annoyed child.

“My name is not Crimson for I am Wind-” he was going to say, before he had to run out of the town as the town's pony’s chased them and we didn't see him for a while.

I asked “do you know Celestia personally due to your magic skill?” to which Trixie said,

“Oh you must be her latest student. Nice to meet you. I'm Trixie lulamoon of the house of star, what's your name?”

“My name is Maroon Ripple. How did you know how to use all of those spells and how to take care of a baby one?”

“Oh I didn't take care of it, I just merely sent it back to its mother thanks to those Colts disrupting its sleep. Its mother must have been worried about it and that wasn't a major that was a minor, the majors are much bigger and a lot more dangerous.” Trixie said with a laugh,

“I got that from its appearance alone but that reminds me of why they should read more sometimes” I said, shocking my friends before she picks up her cart and leaves for the Everfree Forest. Everypony else was confused but me and my friends felt like we couldn’t trust anyone with no reason as to why but we were all tired so we went home to hit the hay.

A few days later a dragon had landed in a mountain nearby and had fallen asleep apparently. Fluttershy managed to tell me about it thanks to the smoke it was spewing. After that we got a message from Celestia that there was a dragon in the mountain who had fallen asleep. Its smoke might cover the sky of Equestria entirely and that it needed to be dealt with fast in order for the sky to remain clear. So we headed over to the mountain and started to climb. It didn't take long for Fluttershy to get scared and meek but in the end she pulled through just in time and used her stare on the dragon as my shield spell was about to fall and it was a good thing she did or we would have been roasted ponies. We made it back only to find Trixie there with her cart which was odd since she had left the night before. “Hey Trixie, how are you doing? And why did you go into the Everfree?” I asked.

“Oh I have some family in there and they needed some help with something that I was nearby for, your second question and I'm doing good.” she said with a smile and we showed her around since her last visit was brief and I wanted to learn more about my predecessors but there was a nagging feeling in my head that something was wrong. I decided to ignore it for now as it turned out that she wanted to be nearby just in case that family member asked for more help and Ponyville helped with that.