I slowly turned my head back to the mare that stood at the head of the kingdom, “Princess Celestia…?”I asked nervously.
“Yes?” she didn’t look back at me, instead her eyes stayed on those below us that continued the celebration for the harmony that had once returned to the beautiful land.
“D-Do you…”I stuttered, afraid of the answer I would receive, “Do you think they would’ve accepted me again…” I spurted, my eyes drifting away from the elder pony, “even after what I’ve done?”
“No…” she stated without hesitation - my heart sank, like an anchor dropped into the sea, by the truth she spoke, “I would not think that they would…”she continued without any remorse, her gaze never once looking at me.
“Oh…”I said, trying to hide any form of disappointment from the goddess-like all seeing eye, “it’s just that I thought-”
“They never would have given up on you in the first place.”
I looked upward at the mare standing beside me: she had taken her eyes off her ponies and looked at me - looking at me with a warm smile one would of thought to give to their own foal, “C-Celestia…” a sudden shiver went done my spine as I felt the feathers of her large wing wrap around me – I looked away from her once more, not wanting to show my tears.
===
"Alright Spike," the young mare turned her attention back to her young assistant, "I'm going to head over to the Sugar Cube corner, so once I finish up there I will meet up with you and the others at the park.”
“Okay Twilight,” the young dragon poked his head around the doorway that lead to the kitchen, “These emerald covered muffins will only need a little while longer before they’re done, and while that is going on, I’m going to finish up these Haysandwitches for everypony, then I’ll be heading over there myself.”
“Mmmm,” Twilight smiled, smelling the air coming from their kitchen, “I can’t wait Spike, those hay fries smell delicious!” she said smiling at the wyrm.
“OH NO!” the young dragon jumped - his apron becoming visible in the doorway, “The Hay Fries are going to burn! I’ll see ya at the park later, alright Twi’” he quickly spurted out as he ran back into the opposite direction of the door.
“Alright Spike,” the young mare sighed, returning to the open doors. “I’ll see you guy’s later.” she called out before making her leave.
= = =
The sounds of the street was filled with the soft clopping noise of everyday ponies went merrily on their way on their usual routine, but what truly amplifies such a beauty would be thanks to the wonderful work that the Pegasi put into with just the right number of clouds in the sky
“Later today, I need to have to ask Rainbow Dash to tell all the workers ‘Thanks’ for me,” Twilight smiled to herself as she made her way through the town, enjoying the scenic route this time, her mind started to drift on about what was to come later that day.
“Why… Why are you doing this…?”
The young mare stopped in her tracks, the sound of the faded voice taking her by surprise.
“Please, let’s go back home… Everyone is waiting…”
Slowly the young unicorn started to turn into the direction of the voice.
All she saw behind were the ponies of every regular day going about their usual routine, not even one of them seemingly could be the source of the voice she heard. Twilight stood there for a moment, her head whipping back and forth trying to find where exactly that voice came from, but there was no pony of suspicion nowhere.
“Such a sweet sentiment…but “No,” my dear friend…”
“Where are those voices coming from?” Twilight spoke to herself as a second voice echoed through the air, none of the other ponies seemed to take any notice to them. The young mare stood there for moment, starting to believe that perhaps it was all in her mind.
The young librarian stood in the middle of the road for a couple of seconds, standing there listening to nothing but the sounds of clops that rang out through the streets of busy ponies. Soon the young mare started to feel ease as she let out a soft sigh of relief.
“Perhaps…just maybe…” the young mare spoke to herself, “It’s just a bit too peaceful,” she said as she started to turn back around, chuckling to herself at the thought that herself actually thinking that she found it weirder when a day was as beautiful as it was then when something was out to destroy such a peaceful day
“OH NO!” Twilight shouted out loud at the sudden realization, “I’m going to be to the park!” that small distraction had already caused her some time, and with a full burst of speed, the young mare trotted off to the Sugar Cube Corner.
===
“Alright dear,” the elder mare said bringing out the box from the back, “Here is your order,” she said gently placing the package onto the counter in front of her costumer.
“Thank you Mrs. Cake,” the young librarian told the co-owner of the Sugar Cube Corner, opening the box she took a look into the contents; a dozen cupcakes, every two into the colors of her friends. “Everything looks good, thanks!” she said giving the earth pony a smile.
“It is no problem, dear,” Mrs. Cake said, pushing her hoof down on the cash register button, “That will be fifteen bits,”
“Fifteen bits, is that correct?” the young customer asked in understand, the elder earth pony nodded in confirmation. “Alright,” Twilight gave the mother a smile, twisting her head behind she turned back around she placed a few coins onto the counter with her mouth, “Here we are, and please keep the change,”
“Thank you dearie,” the elder mare reached out to take the money, placing it into the register, “Please do be careful, Twilight.” she said with a smile.
“Thank you, Ms. Cake” smiling, Twilight grabbed the box with her magic and walked towards the door, “Have a nice day” she called out to the worker before grabbing ahold of the front door of the bakery.
“You too,” the blue earth called out with a smile before turning back around.
Stopping for a moment before proceeding out of the door way, the young mare checked over the contents of her box one last time – and just like before, everything was just perfect. With a smile, Twilight closed the box before grabbing the door in front of her with her magic. With a smile, the young mare entered the outside beautiful wor-
The young mare’s thought was broken as two translucent figures ran in front of her, one after another - she stood there for a moment a smile plastered on her face as her mind contemplated what she had just seen; in an instant her smile was gone, now it was replaced with a worried expression.
“Did you see that?” Twilight spun around looking into the bakery, “Did you just see that, Mrs. Cake?” she called out once again; but the young unicorn was alone in her sudden discovery as the baker had already returned to her job. Twilight turned back around gazing to the outside world. She was reluctant at first, but she quietly took a step out the front door.
Just like before, just in the corner of her eye, in a flash the two figures ran by right into a wall of a nearby building. Without a train of thought the young librarian galloped over to the spot that they had disappeared. Coming up to it, she noticed nothing out of place with the building – it was just the same building that was always on this corner. For a moment the young mare had studied there, studying it with curious eyes. “Just what was th-” suddenly her vision went black.
Feeling herself hit the ground, and the contents of her box sprawled about; Twilight’s body was suddenly tossed to the side, as if some form of invisible force had just shoved her off to the side. Quickly picking herself back, the young mare looked to see what exactly it that washed over her. The young mare just stared in awe and confusion.
It was some form of translucent black figure, seemingly flying off into the opposite direction from her – it gave the young unicorn some form a familiarity. Twilight continued to stare at the figure, her mind racing to come up with any form of scientific explanation for such event that was taking place, but there was none.
All within a single moment, it felt like time itself slowed down.
Twilight gasped for air as it felt the very wind was sucked out of her lungs- she could feel something digging into the back; like a knife slicing right through the bread from one side to the other. The pain continued to move to the other side; as it did that, the edges of the young mare’s eyes were being swallowed in a bright white light. Soon her vision was gone once more.
As soon as it came, it all ended. Twilight’s head snapped forward, gasping for the air that escaped her. Twilight quickly opened her eyes; her vision now returned to normal, hoping to catch whatever it was that had hit her.
There it was, chasing the first figure, was something else translucent; but was different from the black figure in front of it. This figure was pure white, white like the clouds that swam in the sky; it was following the same path as the first figure, almost as if it was in pursuit of it. Just like the first, it too was familiar to Twilight, but not in the same way as the black figure did. The young unicorn just stared at it, studying it, watching it follow the black figure around another corner.
The sudden disappearance snapped the young mare out of trance; with as fast as her legs could pick herself up, she quickly boarded for the building they images ran around. Turning the corner, Twilight hoped to find where exactly it was that the two figures were going.
There was nothing there.
“Where did it go?” Twilight frantically snapped her head back and forth hoping to find some sort of clue to where the translucent beings may have flown off to. “Where are they?” Twilight was now running about trying to find the things she saw, but as she continued to search for any hints; she just felt like she was getting nowhere fast.
After a few moments, the young unicorn stopped in the middle of the road, contemplating everything that had just happened to her that day.
“None of this makes any sense,” the young mare groaned under her breath. “Just exactly was that back there?” she asked herself aloud, “Were they related to those voices that I heard earlier.” Twilight’s eyes fell to the ground; she started to get worried about the unknown.
“I-I need to go tell the others!” Twilight snapped her upward; and as fast as her legs could carry her, she ran to their meeting spot.
…
“Ah, perfect,” the white unicorn smiled down at the picnic blanket she placed down on the ground; it may have taken some time, but it was now wrinkle free and perfect for everyone to have enough room yet. “Rainbow Dash,” Rarity called out to her friend above, “How is it coming up there with the clouds.”
“Just…about…” in a blur of rainbow lightning, another cloud was wiped out of the blue sky, “THERE…Got IT!” another cloud diminished and in its place, flapping her wings, was a blue Pegasus proud of her work that she had done. “All finished, Rarity!”
“Magnificent, Darling” Rarity smiled as she turned her attention back to the blanket; one little flicker of magic on the corner, and their perfect picnic shall get started. It was a beautiful day for friendly gather at the park.
“I-I’m sorry I’m so late everyone,” the group of friends turned their heads to the direction the sound that the timid voice came from, “I just got so caught up in one of my patients, it was Angel that told me that I was late.” The young Pegasus said, placing her own basket next to the blanket on the ground as her fellow kind flew down from the sky and onto the ground.
“Not a problem, Sugar Cube,” the orange earth pony said, “We’re still waiting on Twilight to get here.” Applejack said.
“Really?” the yellow Pegasus asked in confusion.
“It’s strange,” a young boy’s voice popped up from beside Rarity, “Twilight left before me, she should have been here by now.” The dragon said.
“Really?” Fluttershy worriedly asked. “I hope everything is alright.”
“I would worry about it too much,” the town’s party mare piped up from the Pegasus’ basket that she had been snooping in, “I’d betcha any second now, Twilight will be galloping here and-“
“EVERY PONY!”
“See!” Pinkie Pie said with a smile.
“Twilight,” Rarity called out to the unicorn that was galloping like a bat out of hell towards them. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s… It’s…” Twilight stopped before her friends, second time that day she could have thought that she might actually have died due to lack of oxygen getting to her lungs. On her way to her friends, every possibility of what might happen ran through her mind – each scenario much worse than her last; and as they went through her mind, she legs just moved faster and faster.
“Y’all okay Twilight?” Applejack asked worriedly.
“Back there… voices… Sugar Cube… images” Twilight continued to sputtered out, her heart beat starting to calm down.
“Twilight?” Spike asked, rubbing the foreleg of his longest friend.
After a moment of heaving, Twilight took in a deep breath.
“Back there,” Twilight started, “Something… something really, really strange happened. I don’t know what it was.”
“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Twilight continued, “I had come out of the Sugar Cube corner and I-”
“Dropped the cupcakes?” Pinkie Pie added in.
“No-Well… Yes… I mean…” the young unicorn stuttered as she tried to find the right word to describe what had happened.
“That’s okay, Twilight.” The party mare said placing a hoof on her friend’s. “I expected something like that would happen,” she smiled, reaching behind her back, “So I brought back-up cupcakes!” as she turned back around she pulled out a dozen cupcakes, all a perfect match to the cupcakes that the young unicorn had lost, catching her completely off guard.
“Pinkie Pie, I’ll have to get back to you on that one,” the young unicorn stammered as she shook the shock off. “But right now, something more important right now!”
“Well tell us, darling,” Rarity asked worried for her friend that was under a great amount of stress.
“W-well, I was coming out of the Sugar Cube Corner,” Twilight said, “and I saw… something…”
“What kind of something?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Something… I don’t know,” Twilight said, her breathing becoming erratic as she herself tried to make heads or tails of something, “I saw something… two figures moving… but it was like they weren’t there… I don’t know what they were!”
“Oh…My…” Fluttershy backed away, frightened by the sheer fact of how her friend was reacting.
“And then earlier I heard voices…” Twilight continued
“Voices?” Rarity asked
“Yeah, voices that I don’t even know of,” suddenly the young mare fell to the ground, her legs finally giving out from beneath her. “I know what you guys are thinking; even I think that I’ve gone crazy.”
The group fell silent, each of the young librarian’s friends looking back at one another and down back down at her; she herself mumbling under breath, rethinking everything she had ever thought about the world. For the moment, they all stood like this.
“We don’t think you’re crazy, Twilight” the pink party pony said, nudging her friend on the horn.
“Really?” Twilight asked with doubt in her tone, “T-then you guys believe me?”
The group fell silent.
“Y-you don’t believe me,” the unicorn’s ears drooped, returning her face back into its original position.
“It’s not that, Twilight.” Rarity smiled as her horn came to life with magic; the basket beside her opened up and one plate and an already prepared sandwich on it came floating out of it. “We believe that you saw something.”
“It’s not?” Twilight sat back up, looking at her friend questionably; her gaze turning back to the ground as she watched sandwich and plate land in front of her.
“We’re all extremely stressed right now, Twi~” the orange earth pony said digging into her own basket before revealing a nice big homemade apple pie.
“But, I’m not stressed!” Twilight snapped defensively.
“The library has been really busy lately,” Spike said as he started giving ponies napkins and plastic forks, “and with you having all that extra homework assignments given to you by your other teachers, I’m sure it’s not easy.”
“Well… That’s… kind of true…” Twilight admitted, “But I did see somet-”
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash stopped her, “After we have extreme weather schedules, you would not believe how many crazy stuff I see with clouds… one time I thought a rhinoceros was chasing me in the sky and was gonna gobble me up whole.”
“Well…” Twilight said, everyone’s logic was starting to put stillness into her fears. “What about-“
“Sometimes when the Sugar Cube Corner gets a series of large orders,” Pinkie Pie started, “I sometimes hear voices that tell me,” she started mimicking that of a ghost, “ooooooooo, Pinkie… I think you’ve had enough cupcakes for today...’” The young mare smiled putting her hoof into her box. “But they’re just voices, Twilight, they don’t mean anything” and as she said that, she tossed two cupcakes she brought her into the air, catching them effortlessly; with a lick of her tongue, she just smiled and added, “Tasty!”
“But… I…”
“Twilight,” the librarian turned to the soft voice behind her, “it’s why we are having this picnic,” Fluttershy said, pulling out a picture of lemonade and pouring it for her friend.
“These past few days,” Rarity continued, “We have all become so busy with all our responsibilities,” she mentioned as she placed the finishing touches on the little touches of the plate’s setting, “Today, we decided that we should spend this beautiful day together, nothing but us girls, and Spike, and we won’t have to worry about that other stuff.” She said with a smile.
Wide-eyed, the young mare just stared at the plate that had been set out before her by her friends; in front of her was: a sandwich, a glass of lemonade, a slice of apple pie and color coded cupcake meant just for here. Twilight just stared at the setting, her eyes gradually looking at her friends, all of whom was giving her a smile of reassurance – at the end, her gaze fell to the center of the picnic blanket; in a vase, seven flowers sat in its water, each one representing each color of everyone that circled around it.
After a moment of silence, Twilight let out a deep sigh of relief – despite not wanting to admit it, her friends were right, it felt like she had bitten more off then could handle these past few weeks, she was definitely stressed out . Looking back up at her friends, the young mare gave them a smile.
“Thanks, everyone,” the Twilight said, “Thanks for everything.”
“Nothing ta worry about there, Sugar Cube,” Applejack commented.
“I don’t know about you guys,” the blue Pegasus piped up, “but I’m hungry.”
The young unicorn couldn’t help but giggle, “Alright,” she said, “let’s eat,” she smiled.
Despite the wind beginning to pick up, the seven friends enjoyed their day together; just talking to one another, and forgetting about everything else in the world and just enjoying one another’s company. As Twilight laughed at another one of Pinkie’s little jokes; her mind started to wonder off.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I learned an interesting fact about friendship today.
Despite how much we are all differ from one another; we all go through the same thing, no matter what difference we may have. We can all understand one another’s feelings, and together, if only for a little bit, we can come together overcome even the worst of one’s most inner storms.
I am proud to call these ponies, “My Friends”.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Spar-
All vision in the young mare had gone black.
Reaching up, the unicorn felt that something had covered her face. Removing it, Twilight stared at it questionably.
“A napkin?” Twilight asked to herself; her eyes quickly catching sight of another piece of napkin flying past her face. As the young mare looked back up, she stared at the trees, whose branches and leaves were moving crazy in the wind as the wind had picked up considerably – in an odd way, it felt familiar.
“Um, Rainbow Dash, dear,” Rarity asked as she tried keeping her hair from getting messy in the wind, “Are you sure the weather team didn’t have any storms schedule for today?” she asked, noticing many ponies that had been in the park were already packing up their own picnics.
“No,” the young flyer answered, dodging an incoming branch that fell onto the blanket knocking over the vase and the flowers it contained. “there isn’t any storms scheduled for a few days.
“Oh dear, I hope the animals are okay,” Fluttershy said worriedly, watching as two squirrels ran up a tree to take comfort from the storm that had.
“AW MAN!” the pink pony exclaimed from behind her, “I wish I brought a kite with me – not to self, prepare kite emergency stash”
“Ah think we shall call it a day gals,” Applejack piped up, attempting to keep her hat from blowing off her head as the wind was getting stronger by the second, “Ah need to get back to the farm, just in case this thing gets worse.”
“Agreed!” Rarity practically screamed over the rushing wind. As quickly as they could, everyone started to gather up all their belongings as quickly as they could, in case things got worse than they seemed.
“Twilight!” Spike ran to the young mare’s side with his basket in arm, “You ready to go-” but the young dragon stopped in mid-sentence as he looked to the librarian, “Twilight?”
It was as if the young mare was in some sort of trance; her eyes watching as the branches in the trees and in the air had all be rushing around in the wind. Something about this entire situation had some sort of déjà vu for her.
“TWILIGHT!”
The young mare snapped out of her trance, and her eyes traveled down to the worried dragon that stood by her leg.
“TWILIGHT!” the young dragon screamed over the howling wind, “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! NO-”
The sound of lightning crackled through the air, but the source was not from the sky that once would have expected it to be.
Twilight snapped her head to the side, another bust of electricity erupting through the air around all of them. The sound of the yellow Pegasus screams could also be heard as she jumped from a bolt that flew past her own eyes. Twilight was now sure what exactly was happening.
Not too far away, something was taking form in the storm; Twilight’s eyes grew wide as her friends took notice of her silence and looked into the direction as well. The electricity that flowed around them had seemed to be erupting from that one spot; the young mare recognized it as a spell, which she herself had seen once and used herself before – but in this case something was off, as if something hadn’t been done right.
The form of arcane energy erupted, creating a shock that threw everyone with in the area off their feet.
Twilight, her friends lying about around her, groaned as tried to force herself up to her hooves, her eyes trying to see what had used such a spell; but the back lash of energy had kicked up a dust cloud around the user and she couldn’t them out.
Taking her eyes off the perpetrator, the young mare finally brought herself to her hooves, and she started to look around at her friends – she gave a sigh of relief. Nobody had seemed to be hurt, and they all seemed to trying to get back to their own feet. Twilight turned her head back to their intruder – her eyes went wide with what she saw, her face went nearly as white as rarity’s was.
There in the accumulated dust, though the details weren’t noticeable, were two figures; one white and one black, the same ones that the young mare had seen earlier that day. She continued to stare in shock as the wind started to pick up and blow away the dirt.
“hmmph, look what you did,” a feminine voice came from what was assumed to be the black figure, her details coming into view – the voice itself, the young mare didn’t recognize it, but there was something… in it, that she couldn’t help but have to recall. “Why is it ponies like you have to ruin all my plans.” Twilight stared in horror at what she was looking at.
There she was, a changeling; but something wasn’t right, she didn’t match up to what the librarian had read. With a strange light green hair, she looked like she had been stripped right out of her cocoon state, or something had force her to go through a metamorphosis of her larvae form to an adult; her eyes, gazing down at the other figure, had seemed both empty and filled with rage – it was as if Twilight had seen those eyes somewhere before.
= = =
I took a step forward, my eyes on my target before me - I couldn’t believe it had to be her.
She stood there, and though her appearance had changed drastically, I could tell it was definitely her. She stood there seemingly trying to perform some form of spell I had never seen; a ghastly-like energy was emitting from her deformed horn, it had her touch in it, but in no way it was her own.
I stood there staring at her from behind, not wanting to believe that she had become a monster.
“So…” she spoke to me while never looking at my direction, her concentration was on the spell she was preparing, “I suppose it wouldn’t be this easy.” She sighed – her voice, though it was so different now, it was still her; a kind voice being force to speak in anger toward me.
“I want you to return her to us!” I demanded whatever kind of demon that had taken over her.
“Her?” the creature laughed, “I’m right here in front of you,” she turned around, a twisted smile was plastered on her face, “Don’t you recognize me?” she laughed dementedly.
There she was, and despite the change of appearance, it was definitely her, hatred, but yet empty eyes locked on me.
Why did it have to come to this?
Why must I fight one of my friends?
