C2- The Grand Tour Begins

CANTERLOT

Tuesday, 7 AM

The streets of Canterlot are bustling with its usual early morning traffic. Businesses are opening their doors, restaurants are serving breakfast to the Canterlot elite, and ponies are trotting through the streets whilst going through their daily routines. Today is a normal weekday for the residents of Equestria's capital. But, for four ponies and a baby dragon from Ponyville, today is a very special day.

"Ah cain't hardly believe it! We're really gonna get to see her again!", excitedly states Applejack.

"This is going to be great!", shouts Spike.

"This is going to be sensational!", ecstatically agrees Rarity.

Even the normally quiet Fluttershy is visibly excited. "I can't wait to see Twilight again. I hope she's been okay."

Pinkie Pie is bouncing rather than walking. "Are you kidding!? I bet you AAAAAAAALL the sweets in Equestria that she's super duper okay!"

"I'll take that bet.", chimes in Pinkamena from Pinkie's mind.

"DON'T BE NEGATIVE!", Pinkie aggravatingly shouts out loud. Her four friends slow down while they all turn to look at their pink friend; all of them bear a perplexed look. She looks back at each of them and simply says, "What?"

"Uh... Nothing.", replies Spike.

The group continues walking, and reminisces about their time they had spent with Twilight Sparkle prior to the incident a year ago. They laughed and giggled like young fillies until they reached their destination: Canterlot Castle. As they stand before the main entrance, Rarity takes a few steps back, and drops her head as she thinks about the day Twilight disappeared. "Do you... Do you think she'll be angry with me?"

"C'mon, Rarity. Ya know she ain't gonna mad atcha.", states Applejack.

Spike steps in next. "Exactly, Rarity. You know Twilight. She's going to be so happy to be home that it won't matter how she felt a year ago."

"Th-Thank you. All of you. I guess I'm just really worried about all of this...", Rarity says with a sigh.

"Regardless of whatever grudge she may, or may not, have held against you a year ago, my sister is the one pony out there who could find it in her heart to forgive you.", they hear a stallions' voice say.

They all turn to see a white unicorn stallion, wearing black and purple armor, standing in the entryway to the castle.  "Do you really think so, Shining Armor?", Rarity asks.

"Of course.", he replies with a nod. He then motions for the group to follow him, and walks inside. "She was always nice, but never good around other ponies. The moment I saw her after her stay in Ponyville, I knew something had changed. And it was a good change. I want to say thanks to all of you for being there for her. She's lucky to have great friends like you.", he says as they walk through the castle.

"We're the lucky ones.", speaks up Fluttershy. "She's been such a great friend to all of us, and not to mention that day we all met her. If she hadn't arrived when she did, there's no telling what might have happened."

They continue to walk, and talk about Twilight as they venture through the castle. They eventually climb up a long, spiraling stair case, and find themselves in front of a large set of double doors. Shining Armor stops, turns around, and begins speaking again. "Everypony, except the generals, that were involved with the incidents a year ago are already inside." He looks away from the group, and now has a look of irritation.  "You were warned." Shining's horn glows, the doors open, and the group walks inside.

The moment they walk into the room, a pegasus in a Wonderbolts uniform appears in front of them. "Bout time you all got here!", Rainbow Dash tells the group.

"Dashie!", Pinkie shouts as she pounces on her cyan colored friend. "It's been sooooooooooo long since we've seen you! What's it like being a Wonderbolt!? How was your first show!? How was-", her words are cut off as Dash vanishes from beneath her, and she falls to the floor.

Dash is now standing a few feet from where she was pounced. She dusts off her costume as she says, "It's been amazing! Better than I could have ever dreamed! Wait.... It's only been just over a week since I last saw you, Pinkie."

"Geez. What a prick. She couldn't even ask you to get off of her before dumping you on your face? Then again, I probably would have just knocked you into the door.", Pinkamena says with an annoyed tone.

"Please be nice, Pinka....", Pinkie says in her mind to her other persona.

"Screw nice. That's what I have you for.", she retorts. "And don't shorten my name like that. I hate it. Do it again, and I'll make you start having more nightmares."

Pinkie slowly gets up and looks at the floor. "Please don't...", she says under her breath.

Dash ignores Pinkie last words; believing she's talking to herself again. Everyone is completely unaware of the existence of her darker personality. Rainbow Dash looks over to her other friends. "So, you guys excited as I am?"

"Course we are!", states Applejack.

"It'll be great to finally have her back!", Spike shouts.

"I can't wait! She's gonna be shocked to see all of us. Bet she falls out when she finds out I made it into the Wonderbolts! But, was there ever any doubt I'd make-", Dash cuts her sentence short as she feels a hoof smack her flank.

"Hey, Dash. Ya gonna introduce me to your lovely lady friends here?", Thundering Sky asks with a sly grin.

Before anypony can say anything, Dash swings around, and drives a hoof into Sky's face. The sudden attack sends him flying through a window with a loud crashing sound. All of her friends stare in shock. "Rainbow Dash! Don't you think that was a little excessive!?", Rarity asks in shock.

Dash's face is red, and she's shaking a hoof in anger. "Not excessive enough....", she replies.

"I'm surprised you don't have permanent hoof marks on you from how often he does that, Rainbow Dash.", Titan Hoof says as he approaches the group. "Between you and Bladewing retaliating like that, maybe one day he'll learn to stop."

Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike all look up at the giant-sized earth pony. "Wow... I barely stand taller than his hooves...", says Spike in awe.

The initial shock of seeing Titan Hoof for only the second time soon turns to fear as Star Binder approaches the group. "Eep.... him...", Fluttershy gasps out as she hides behind Rainbow Dash. The rest of the group, with the exception of Pinkie, slowly backs away towards the door. Pinkie stands still, but is nervously looking away.

"Oh look. It's that unicorn you killed. You should crack a joke about stealing his heart. It'll alleviate tension in the room.", Pinkamena says; taunting her other half.

"Please, not now, Pinkamena...", Pinkie mentally replies.

Rainbow Dash sees what's going on, and moves in between them. "Hey. He's cool now. No need to be afraid.", she says, trying to calm her friends down.

"After what I did, they have every reason to fear me.", Star Binder says. "Such incidents are not so easily forgotten. It is a day that shall forever be engraved in my mind.... a day that I shall regret as long as I exist."

"As you should. Cadance still has nightmares because of you. She may never get over what you did to her!", Shining Armor says with anger.

Thundering Sky has returned from being knocked outside; now bearing an obvious hoof mark on his forehead. He quickly jumps in front of Shining Armor. "Hey, buddy. We're not the bad guys anymore. Alright? We fight for Equestria now, not against it. So just lay off."

"Lay off? LAY OFF!? All three of you can lay off the front you've put up! When are you three going to turn on us again!? All of you can just-", his words are cut short by Princess Celestia.

"SHINING ARMOR!", she shouts. "This is not the time or place for this.", she speaks with obvious irritation.

"M...My apologies, your highness.", he says as he bows. Everypony follows suit, and bows before Celestia.

"All of you, please keep it down. We don't want to disturb her.", Celestia explains as she motions towards the back of the room. Sitting down in a corner of the room, and enveloped by a black magical aura, was Lunalia. Luna, who was standing next to her, approaches the rest of the group.

"She must have focus. Her eyes are delving into worlds far beyond our own.", explains the princess of the night. For the next few minutes, all stood in silence. After nearly fifteen minutes of waiting, the magical aura around Lunalia fades. Everypony in the room silently watches her; eager to see what she will do.

After several more moments, she opens her eyes. Her eyes dart around the room as she takes in her surroundings. She finally looks over to Luna and asks, "How long... How long was I in my spell?"

"Mother, you were searching for almost seven hours.", she replies.

"Seven hours!? She was like that for seven hours!?", Rainbow Dash ran through her mind. "No way I could sit down doing nothing for that long!"

Lunalia slowly stands up, and stretches herself out. Celestia speaks up. "Well? What are the results of your search?"

Lunalia pops the joints in her wings before responding. "I found her." Twilight's  closest friends all jump and shout with excitement. Shining Armor, Celestia, and Luna all let out a sigh of relief. "Do not celebrate yet. Finding her and bringing her back are two entirely separate matters. Finding her was only a matter of time.... a very long time. Today I spent seven hours searching, but I've been searching for her the better part of the year."

Applejack gives Lunalia a confused look. "Now wait just a minute. You hadn' found 'er yet, but you went ahead and wanted us all to show up today?"

"Well, yes and no.", the former queen of darkness replies. "I had narrowed down my search to a specific world. I managed to perfect the Inter-Spacial Distortion Jump spell, as perfect as possible anyway, and the time to make the jump drew near. I had already found her. I was simply finalizing exactly where I needed to jump."

"Where is she, mother?", Celestia asks with concern.

"She's in an alternate variation of earth; similar to the one Vegeta came from. The equine races do not inhabit this world."

Rarity steps up and nervously asks, "Is- Is she okay!?"

Lunalia sighs. "I am unsure. Due to where I'm searching, I can't view things as I normally would. I can only catch vague glimpses here and there. I've caught on to about the point in time she enters this world, but.... she soon disappears again. I'm not sure of what happens to her..."

"I'm not following....", Spike says. "Did you find her or not?"

"I see... Maybe things will become more clear if I explain all of this in more detail. I can't just magically pop into another world, and there she is. I have to focus on a specific time and location in that world before I can make a jump at all. When I search, I can't simply take a quick peek and be done. I have to comb the entire timeline of that world over very thoroughly. To top this off, there are an infinite number of alternate worlds. The fact that I've found her within the last year is nothing short of a miracle."

"An infinite number of worlds!? How is that possible?", asks Shining Armor.

"For each decision we make, there is a choice we did not take. As such, an alternate world exists where the opposing choice was made. That is why these are not truly alternate worlds, but instead, are alternate timelines. Events far, far in the past may be different, which could cause other races to exist other than our own, or our own not exist at all in some cases."

Star Binder now speaks up. "If you're speaking of jumping into different points in another worlds' time, why not simply go back in time here, and stop her from ever leaving this world?"

"Because...", Lunalia sighs once more between words, "... it would change nothing in this timeline. It would simply create another alternate world where things turned out differently. I know this, for I have already tried. I've gone to such lengths as going back, and defeating Shadow Wing on my own. Therefore preventing me from needing me to go into Tartaros, and hence preventing me from ever becoming corrupt. Yes, even with doing this, things here remain the same. Which is why I must venture out, and reclaim the Twilight Sparkle that went missing from this timeline. Do all of you understand now?", Lunalia asks after finishing her lengthy explanation.

"Lu... Lunalia. Will you be safe? Can.. Can you make the jump safely?", asks the meek Fluttershy.

Lunalia nods and smiles. "Yes. Over the last month, between searches, I've made several test jumps to perfect the accuracy of the jump itself. It's impossible to hit an exact point of my choosing. I could be as little as a few minutes off.... or as much as several months. Once I jump, I could return within a few minutes from now, or it may be several months. The spell itself is also very taxing on me. Even with the vast amount of magical power that I possess, the spell consumes almost eighty percent of my magic. To keep myself from nearly dying from magic overuse, I need to wait at least three days before attempting to cast the spell again. Now.... I'm ready to begin. If you would, I ask that all of you back yourselves against the walls, and keep yourselves silent. I require a bit of room, and complete focus for this."

Everypony in the room backs to the walls, and stand side by side. Lunalia stands in the center of the room; her head held high, and her wings in full spread. Her eyes close, her horn begins to glow, and a black aura begins to surround her. All eyes are watching her with anticipation and nervousness as the aura surrounding her darkens, and black lightning begins to arc all around her. Runic symbols begin to appear above and below her.

A JOURNEY'S BEGINNING

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocks the entire castle! Bookshelves in the room tumble over, all of the occupants in the room fall down... and Lunalia begins losing control of her spell! The lightning surrounding her begins striking all over the room!

"NO! NOT LIKE THIS!", Lunalia screams in her mind as she struggles to regain control of her spell.

Fluttershy and Rarity grab hold of each other in fear. "What's happening!? Somepony stop thi-", Rarity begins to scream but is cut off as one of the black bolts of lightning arcs in her direction, and blasts her and Fluttershy! When the flash of lightning disappears, so too did Rarity and Fluttershy!

"NO!", shouts Rainbow Dash in fear. She attempts to fly to where her two friends were, but is blasted as well! And just like her two friends, she also vanishes!

"Mother! What's happening!? Stop the spell!", Celestia shouts.

"I... I CAN'T! I HAVE NO CONTROL ANYMORE!", Lunalia screams back.

"I ain't waitin' 'round here to get blasted! We gotta get outta here before we all end up like that!", Applejack yells to the others as she runs to the door. She rears back her hind legs to kick it down, but gets blasted and vanishes before her kick can follow through! Before she can even make out a whimper, Pinkie Pie is also blasted by lightning, and vanishes just like the others.

"No... No... Dawn Breaker... please protect them...", Lunalia prays in her heart to her long since deceased husband, then her spell finally finishes, and she disappears as well.

The magical energy in the air dissipates, and the air in the room settles. The rooms' occupants, however, begin to panic.

"What.... What was that!? What was that explosion!? Where did they all go!?", stammers Celestia.

Before anypony can offer a response, the doors to the room fly open, and Iron Horn rushes inside. His normally calm face is panic stricken. "Your... Your highness's!", he says as he quickly bows and stands back up.

"What is it General!? What was that explosion!?", asks Luna with much concern.

"A.. A meteor! The castle was struck by a meteor! Several fatalities are already confirmed! The structural integrity of this part of this castle is waning! We need to relocate immediately!", he hurriedly explains.

"A meteor!?", Celestia shouts. "Of all the... what... how.... WHY!? WHAT'S GOING ON!?", she screams in panic.

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FLUTTERSHY & RARITY

The bright light that surrounds the hugging pegasus and unicorn fades. They cling tightly to each other, and refuse to open their eyes. After several minutes, they realize they can no longer hear the screaming and shouting that was happening in the room they were in, and the air feels completely different. They slowly open their eyes to view their surroundings, and now see that they're in the middle of a dense forest. They gradually pull away from each other.

"Where... Where are we, Fluttershy? Is this the Everfree Forest?", Rarity asks as she looks at their surroundings.

Fluttershy also takes a good look around. "No... this couldn't be. You can see the sun shining through the trees." She gulps down some saliva as she tries to grasp the situation. "I'm... I'm going to take a look above the trees.", she says as she releases Rarity from her grip, and slowly flies into the air. The weak flyer struggles to push through the tree tops, but manages to make it. Once she pushes through, her eyes widen in absolute fear at what she sees before her.

"What can you see? How far are we from the castle?", the marshmallow white unicorn calls out.

Fluttershy pushes back through the trees, and lands in front of Rarity; her face still struck with fear.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong? You're scaring me."

Fluttershy looks Rarity in the eyes. "We're... we're surrounded by tall mountains, and deep valleys. The castle is nowhere in sight... Rarity... I don't know where we are."

Rarity's jaw drops. "What!? If... if... if... we're not... Where are we!?"

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PINKIE PIE

Pinkie Pie now finds herself in an entirely different location. The land is flat, more or less, and appears to be dry and very rocky. A vast ocean expands out around her location, and the large patch of land she's on is void of any greenery.

"Wow... looks like you're on a big island with nothing on it.", states Pinkamena.

Pinkie walks around in circles trying hard to think about what happened. "What do you think happened?", Pinkie asks her other side.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say... something bad! We're obviously not in Canterlot anymore.", replies her darker side.

"Yeah... This... this isn't good...", Pinkie says as she slumps to the ground.

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APPLEJACK

"Where in the hay am I!?", Applejack asks herself as she surveys her surroundings. She stands in, what was once, a large metropolitan city. Buildings that once stood tall, lay crumbled on the ground. Roads that were well paved have been torn to shreds. All kinds of machinery, that the orange mare can't even begin to comprehend the function of, lie broken and busted all over the place.

"This looks like it used to be some kinda big city, like Manehatten or Fillydelphia. But, what the hay coulda happened here!? Looks like there was some kinda big war or sumthin'.", she says aloud to herself.

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RAINBOW DASH

Rainbow Dash emerges from a flash of dark energy, and now finds herself in a grassy plains area. Directly in front of her, she can see a few trees here and there, and can see tall mountains in the distance. "What the... what happened!? What was that explosion!? And what.... what the hay is that!?", she says as she notices a large crater to her immediate left. She walks over to it, and at the center is a large metal sphere. She almost slides down to investigate, but stops when she sees a bright flash of light on the opposite side of the crater.

She looks up to see one creature hovering high in the air, firing two big beams of energy at two other creatures. She's not close enough to make out any physical features. "Okay... I have no idea what's going on anymore."

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LUNALIA

Lunalia appears next to a very small town that's close to a set of large fields. The moment her hooves touch ground, she collapses to her stomach. She's struggling to breathe, and sweating profusely.

"What happened!? What was that explosion!?", she asks in her mind, "Where did the girls go!? For that matter, where did I end up!? This looks nothing like where I was aiming! That accident... I've used up.... far more magic.... than... I should have..." Her thoughts begin to disconnect. She attempts to try and stand up, but to no avail. "Must.... go.... Have to.... find them.... Up.... to.... me...."

Her final thought trails off as her eyes close involuntarily, and she loses consciousness.