I shut my eyes, as liquid flowed out of them, and I crushed my head against my red pillow, that soon began to moisten with my tears…

I’ll always be alone… I’ll always be by myself… I think, before I wonder just what my sisters did that day?

It doesn’t matter… I’ll show them one day! I’ll show them all!

I’m not sure how long I laid there moistening the pillow, but I do know that I eventually passed out…

I know I woke up to some strange energy fluxing noises, and I opened my eyes, as I saw the view of Equestria at nighttime out my window… Although this wasn’t nearly as concerning as the strange clear energy vortex right above my bed…

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” I scream as it sucks me into it!

“AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” I keep screaming as my hooves clop against the ground, in the morning sun!

I open my eyes and look around the strange ramshackle village with all of the bored looking unicorns, here deep in the woods underneath the overhead branches and leaves… The unicorns who suddenly stare at me as I flex my wings and ruffle them a bit, before dropping them back to my sides…

I gaze around to take in my surroundings.

A green unicorn wearing a black beret points his hoof at me, “ALICORN!” and starts running, as a blue pony leaves his drum set to follow…

These ponies act as if they’ve never seen an alicorn before?

<*****>

I embrace the human in a tight warm hug, “Thank you so much for everything! And I’ll take good care of Starbeam!”

He brings his dark appendages around me and says, “I’m glad this exploration job is over now, and we can finally return to our own time period!”

Sunny frowns, “It’s weird, but locating information on time travel in here was fairly easy!”

Izzy looks at Sunny and smiles in the massive library with it’s crumbling ancient stone walls, “Well, the Pony Decimal system has existed for a very long time!”

Sunny takes a deep breath, “Alright, here goes! You need me to be an alicorn right now, and so that’s what I’ll be!” before reading the spell, and chanting it silently, before her wings flare out as her shining gold horn pops out of her head, and she then lowers her head to shoot a beam at the ceiling to produce a clear time portal!

Gary smiles, “See you later girls!” before turning to walk into the portal along with Tim…

Soon, both humans disappeared in the portal…

And that’s when we heard a scream outside!”

<*****>

Just what has gotten into everypony? I wonder, as I gaze out at the panicked unicorns.

A tall gray unicorn with a bushy white beard stares at me and says, “You’re an alicorn! I only know of one other pony like you!”

I sigh, “If I had wanted your life story, I’d ask for it! Now tell me, where is this place and how do I return to The Castle of the Two Sisters?”

His eyes widen, “That old ruin disappeared long before I was even born!”

I eye this pony curiously, “Just what are you saying?”

“I’m saying it’s not there anymore! There is no Castle of the Two Sisters!”

I frown… “Are you saying that I have nowhere to go?”

“You’re an alicorn!” I hear a feminine voice from behind me say.

I turn around, and further down the forest trail, underneath canopy, I also see an orange earth pony, a blue unicorn, and two bluish-green unicorns who look exactly the same.

“And you’re not! Who are you?”

One of the bluish-green unicorns eyes widen as she continues to trot closer, and says in a youthful raspy voice, “Opaline?”

The unicorn that looks just like her turns it’s head, “You know this foal?”

She stops, and blinks her eyes, and stutters, before taking two more paces towards me, “Well uh, sorta! I mean, I did! Opaline, what are you doing in Bridlewood, and why are you just a filly?”

“I don’t even know who you are! How do you know my name? Is the name of Princess Opaline really known outside the castle? And this is me! I am a filly! I’ve always been a filly, because I’m not that old!”

She shakes her head, “No, the Opaline I know is an adult alicorn!”

The orange pony at the far left finally asks, “Just who is Opaline? And why is she a filly now?”

“I already told you, I’m not that old!”

The other pony stammers, “Well, I know an Opaline like her, but the one I knew was fully grown! Except,” her eyes go skyward, “I left her behind awhile ago! So if she’s a filly here, what’s going on at the castle?”

I sigh, “That gray unicorn over there just informed me that The Castle of the Two Sisters no longer exists!”

She stares at me, “No, I meant the one by the ocean?”

I frown, “What castle by the ocean?”

Her eyes grow enormous, “Oh, no! We gotta go!”

<*****>

“I view the decapitated alicorn corpse on the stone floor, and note the cuts and openings made by the carrion creatures as Misty says to me, “What did you do?”

“She threatened me, and so I employed countermeasures. This rendered her incapacitated… “

“She’s dead!” As her nose upturns, probably at the scent?

“That is correct! She will not threaten anypony ever again… “

Misty stares back down at the mutilated headless corpse, “She’s really dead… “ and breathes deeply, in and out her mouth, “You know, she seemed so big and bad earlier, but just looking at her like this, mangled and fallen just puts things into perspective… She’s finally gone… “

“Technically no! The filly Opaline, wherever she came from, is currently at the Brighthouse.”

Misty stares at me with enormous eyes, “You actually killed the evil Queen Opaline… “

BLINK!

“Implying the filly Opaline currently at our home is not evil?”

Misty furrows her brow, “Not if I have anything to say about it!” before staring at me, “Thanks for escorting me back to the castle, Starbeam!”

SMILE ENGAGED!

“No problem! You’re my friend and I will eliminate all threats and ensure your safety!”

<*****>

“Misty was telling us that while you’re not evil, you certainly have that potential? Opaline, where did you come from?” The earth pony identifying herself as Sunny asks me from across the room…

I sigh at the orange idiot, amidst the two pegasi and blue unicorn, “I was Princess Opaline, and the rest of Equestria didn’t know about me. That’s why I was shocked when your unicorn companion knew my name!”

Sunny sighs heavily and nods, “Yeah, Misty told me a LOT about you, and said you were abused or something?”

Well, they kept me locked away in the castle, and while they did have teachers and tutors come in to instruct me and teach me about the world, I was kept isolated!”

The white pegasus asks, “Why?”

I turn to stare at her, “They never told me? I don’t know, Sunny, but I do know that a strange portal appeared over my bed early in the morning, and I wound up in that forest town, among those unicorns!”

“That’s called Bridlewood and it’s a forest town of unicorns!”

I stare back at Sunny, “Obviously!”

Finally, the white pegasus with the red fauxhawk mane, asks me, “So what? You’re a long lost sister to Celestia and Luna?”

I stare at the pegasus, “I was never lost! They knew about me! They just didn’t care!”

The blue unicorn next to the earth pony finally chimes in, “It seems weird they would keep you a secret and not tell anypony?”

Suddenly, a smarmy masculine voice I don’t recognize says, “I have no idea either, and the idea just sounds preposterous!” before I notice a brown serpent sitting on a floating stool and wearing a beige beret, and blowing bubbles with his pipe, while flitting his eagle talon in the air, “I mean, I know I was called here by a temporal fluctuation, and that does explain why you’re here, but that doesn’t explain why you were called?”

I narrow my eyes at the intruder, “And just what are you saying draconequus?”

He removes the pipe with his lion paw as his snake-like body sits up a bit, “I’m saying that while your story does indeed check out, it still doesn’t make me trust you!” and nods, “But it makes me wonder, why here? Why now?”

Sunny asks the obvious question, “Why is it important that you trust her? Just who are you?”

He turns to the orange pony and points his eagle talon at her, “Ah, yes! You’re Sunny Starscout! Magic of Friendship, and everything! How are you dear? So sorry to hear how things ended up for you later, but oh, we’re no longer bound by the same rules anymore, are we?” *

Starbeam asks the serpent, “Wait a minute! If you’re called by temporal distortions, why weren’t you called when the humans and me came here in the beginning?”

He stares at the android, “Ah, yes! The android! I must admit, I just love the strange nuances this story is unraveling, particularly within the psyche of the writer, but I do have an important question for you! And to answer your question, technological distortions are different than magic! Magic is how you say, ” he gently throws his lion paw in the air, “more natural, so to speak?” and then smiles, “This is of course, assuming any of this can make sense anymore!” and lowers it, “But as for my question, didn’t you always wish you were a real unicorn? How would you like to be flesh and bone and not a metal alloy body over a positronic matrix?”

I clear my throat at the draconequus, “Ahem, if this unicorn is indeed a robot as you claim, turning her into a real pony could have devastating consequences!”

He finally peers at me, “How would you know, you bratty foal?”

I frown unsure of why I’m saying these things, “Because Discord… I know what it’s like to be forced to be something you’re not… “

He smiles at me, “Ah, but is she not real, now, as Sunny has so boldly proclaimed?” and points his talon at the orange pony, “What was it you said again? ‘Starbeam isn’t a robot, she’s a metal pony?’ Oh, so adorable!” before lowering it to stare at the android, “Just think it over, for the next twenty-four hours, my dear android… My offer shall still be on the table, and I shall return!” and then throws his eagle talon around to disappear in a swirl of blue magic!

One of the bluish-green unicorns turns her head to me, “You accepted that I’m an android and not real, fairly quickly, strange alicorn filly!”

I look at her, “I just got sucked out of my own reality! Right now, I believe a lot of things are possible!”

And then, the unicorn that looks like her says to me, “So, Opaline! How would you like to start over, starting here and now?”

I frown at this pony, “Just what are you asking me, unicorn? And just who are you, anyway? Why do you know my name? And why is there a robot that looks like you here?”

Then, the other unicorn solemnly and robotically says, “I would advise getting comfortable for this… “

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

*Yes, Discord is utterly destroying the 4th wall here. Good for you if you caught that, and stay tuned!