FiC: Twilight's Devotion

Twilight's Devotion

Chapter 3.

Twilight dazedly looked around where she was, but her vision was too blurry. She felt like she had hit her head hard on some kind of long rusty metal bar. Maybe if she checked there might be some disgusting splinters. She blinked twice and rubbed the back of her head, no disgusting splinters. She stood up slowly and stabilized herself, she then shook the rain off her.

Rain? It hasn't rained for weeks in...

She then came to realise this wasn't her home, or anywhere in Ponyville. Nor was it Zecora's hut, or the Crystal Empire or anywhere that she knew.

Lost, I'm lost. But I think I have done the right thing, I'm where I should be.

She scanned the area. Urban, roads, street lamps, formally dressed ponies, towering work buildings and even vehicles! Nopony paid attention to her when she was on the floor dazed, in Ponyville everypony would've crowded around her. Where was this place? She would ask somepony if she felt as though she was going to get an answer, but here nopony knew her like in Ponyville.

She saw massive reconstruction work going with many of the buildings around the area, then she became aware that a few of the ponies were staring at her and pointing at her from inside a restaurant. From their lips she could make out something close to:

“It's Twilight Sparkle!”

Of which then she was compelled to do nothing but run away, into a dark alley of which she saw behind her.

“Hey purple Alicorn!”

Twilight immediately shot her head around to see an orange earth pony walking up to her.

“My name's Pineapple Sprout, nice ta see ya.” Pineapple Sprout lent out a hoof. Twilight hesitated before excepting it.

“I'm Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight replied, still hesitating.

“Now yer probably wondering how and why you are here, right?”

Twilight jumped. “Oh yes!”

“Well I'm gonna take ya somewhere to sit comfortably while you get used ta your surroundings, then we'll talk.”

They trotted past continuous roads, waiting like civilised ponies for vehicles to stop. Pineapple had to stop Twilight from accidentally going into the roads, she wasn't used to it.

“Why can't I just fly over it?” Twilight protested.

“Because everypony will see you, and if they see a Princess or an Alicorn then they'll freak out.”

Pineapple Sprout led Twilight outside a large opened gated passage that seemed to exit the city they were in. Outside the city was a long grassy field like the usual ones in Ponyville. They didn't stop walking there though, and Twilight was starting to get tired from it.

“Where are we going?” Twilight complained.

“Not far from here.” Pineapple answered.

Pineapple Sprout led her to a large but low cornfield, set in rows and in one outstretching square.

Pineapple Sprout walked into the very centre where there was just grass surrounding him and Twilight quickly followed.

“Where is th- AAAHHHHH!” The ground opened up beneath her and she felt herself drop in to the floor, she was so surprised that she was unable to use her wings.

Twilight came to senses after a few seconds of feeling the cold metallic ground, shiny white and so clean. She stood up and saw the walls and roof, all shiny white. Lights reflected illuminating every corner of the room. A large cylinder, also white, stood in the centre of the octagonal room, it reached halfway up. An inside balcony platform reached all the way around the wall halfway up also.

“Where am I?” She wondered. Twilight looked around and was run into by another pony smaller than her, her wings flapped out in surprise. Immediately she was being faced in every direction by groups of other ponies, muttering about Princesses and Alicorns.

She felt a hoof grab her.

“Come on Twilight Sparkle, ignore them.” Pineapple said as she led Twilight into a door behind them.

They were inside a long and slightly narrow hallway with doors either side marked with numbers.

“A hotel?” Twilight asked.

“PQ's personal hotel, one room for everypony and many more onwards.” Pineapple trotted a little quickly to a door marked 47. “My room.”

She opened the door and entered the room, the walls were painted orangey-brown. There was a bed and two chairs laid in each corner except were the door was.

“This seems... rather plain.” Twilight admitted.

“Yeah,” Pineapple sighed as she sat on her bed, “but we hardly stay indoors here. Take a seat, make yourself comfortable.”

Twilight sat on a chair that she moved closer to the door.

“So where am I and why am I here?”

Pineapple Sprout leaned forward.

“Didn't you get the message?” She asked.

“The mes- oh right yes. Something about a catastrophic obliteration of the Ponyverse right?”

“Eeyup.” Pineapple said, sitting upright. “But it isn't just one Ponyverse, it is the Multi-verse.”

Twilight stayed quiet, waiting for Pineapple to continue. There was a knock at the door. Pineapple got up and opened it.

“Tesla! I knew you'd come around eventually!” Pineapple happily said to the grey unicorn standing outside, they both entered and Tesla took a seat on the other chair, smiling happily.

“So, I see you find the Twilicorn then, am I wrong?” Tesla sarcastically asked Pineapple, who then pointed at Twilight. Tesla stared at the purple Alicorn.

“So you're the eternal mistake in the fabric of time?” Tesla said.

“Hey! I'm no mistake!” Twilight protested, her wings spread out. They had a horrible habit of acting on themselves with nothing she could do and it was starting to annoy her.

“Well then, down to business.” Tesla leaderly said.

“Let's just make this clear Princess Twilight, in this world nopony has ever even seen a Princess before, that is why they'd freak out at you. We have seen Alicorns though, and the only Alicorns we ever see are the raging I-will-destroy-you-and-crush-your-home types. You are not in your world, but you knew you were coming here, am I wrong?”

“No.” Twilight replied.

“Alright,” Tesla continued, “Now to why you're here.”

Twilight lifted her head up.

Tesla took a breath and continued.

“Let's see... in this world there is a Ponyville.”

Twilight nodded.

“But, not following the correct course of time, this unlike the other worlds had a small error early on in the making process, and a small error early on changes it much more later on. In this world, unlike all the others, you, Twilight Sparkle, died before you became an Alicorn.”

Twilight gasped.

“And now that your friends are probably trying to come here, that only means that this world is going to mess up more. And your friends need to stay in their world to keep it as much the same as it's meant to be.” Pineapple informed Twilight.

“We have to try and bring Twilight back, but nopony knows why anypony would take her.” Tesla said.

“Wait, did you say take me?” Twilight asked confusedly.

“Yes, somepony took you away after the fight in Ponyville while I wasn't watching. We don't know who may hate you, or why anypony would need a dead Unicorn. So we brought you here.” Tesla sighed.

“On that note, how did I get here?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

“Simple,” Tesla said, “we just sent a telepathic message to you by mixing the signals in out handy devices.” She took out a small walkie-talkie flip open phone device. “It's called COM-DEV. Took some time to make a signal go so far, so I had to push it further with my magic.”

Pineapple Sprout snorted.

“Always on about your 'levitation'” She said annoyed.

“What about my friends? You said they'd come too.”

“Yeah, we didn't manage to perfect the signals. They were a little fuzzy and we couldn't find you, so we spread it out to find anypony who wielded an Element of Harmony.” Pineapple answered her.

“Why is it that I had to like... reach out and go into the light?” Twilight asked.

“That is just a problem with the device, signals can only go back and forth if the other side accepts it, otherwise it doesn't get anything.”

Twilight sat and thought about everything. She was in a world under extreme disaster, even though it seemed fine. Her friends were coming and that would destroy her world, they had to stay there. But that was because she was brought here in the first place. It wasn't her fault she came here. But then again, it was her who decided to walk to the end of the tunnel.

“How can I help?” She asked confidently.

“Well, first tell us what's so special about ya.” Pineapple said.

“Well,” Twilight thought, it had been a year since she was a Unicorn, “I new a lot about Friendship if that helps.”

“No, that's not the kind of thing they'd need.” Tesla whispered under her breath.

“Who?” Twilight overheard.

“Oh, anypony really. We have a lot of bad ponies around here, like Aquajack and her two unnamed assistants... and also the Alicorn who absorbs ponies' magical powers with the help of Fluttershy's clone. We think it is them who took you.”

“Fluttershy's... clone?”

“Eeyup.” Pineapple said. “We heard she found some kinda magic mirror river that makes more of ya. The real Fluttershy was accepted but the other was ignored, so she became evil. She rarely is seen but folk say she calls herself Fluttershame.”

“That's a bad pun.” Twilight replied.

They laughed a small laugh.

“What Fluttershame would really be after is your magirator.” Tesla said. Pineapple shivered at the word.

“What's that?”

“Oh, right. The magirator is what sends signals to a ponies' special part, for example the horn or wings in a Unicorn or Pegasus. In an Earth Pony it just gives them the ability to move faster and think quicker than others. In an Alicorn we think they have the strongest magirators, but of course we have never seen an Alicorn before except for ones that don't like us.”

“So this Fluttershame takes ponies, takes their magirators and does what to them?” Twilight asked.

“She melts them into an acid.” Pineapple said. “Then she feeds the acid to an Alicorn that can live through it. The Alicorn absorbs the power of the pony and then makes it stronger, it can do all that the last one could.”

“Sounds like you have one big problem.” Twilight admitted. “So I still don't understand how I can help.”

“Well you really are a time saver for now.” Tesla said. “As long as you are here there is an equal balance in the system relating to who's alive here and not. But we can't find out where you are, and we need you to locate yourself. Our locations finder Bale Brand was taken by Fluttershame, and then she moved her lair somewhere else.”

Twilight felt a little stiff, she had been sitting for ages and needed to move around a little.

“Is there anywhere I can go to for now, like to stay?” She asked.

“Well we can't put you in any free rooms in case somepony gets it. So I guess you can stay here, I'll get an extra bed from the storage.” Pineapple gracefully said.

“Well that's enough for the day, it is late night and I think I need the sleep.” Tesla said.

“Around Luna's hours.” Twilight replied.

Tesla and Pineapple looked at her confusedly.

“You know, midnightish.” Twilight informed.

“Wait, who's Luna?” Tesla asked.

Right, no Princesses.

“Oh, just somepony back home who likes night time.” She said.

Tesla smiled and left the room.

“I'm gonna go get an extra bed, you stay here ok?”

“Alright.” Twilight replied.

When Pineapple left the room Twilight got up and stretched, she then circled the room several times before sitting down again.

All I have done is ignore. Ever since I became an Alicorn I have wondered what it would be like, living when my friends have gone. I haven't spoken to them, soon they'll forget me.

She wanted to cry while nopony was around, but she had to be strong. Nothing would stop their friendship, Alicorn or not.

Pineapple opened the door and heaved in a bed, it was slightly smaller than hers but Twilight could probably fit on it. What was nice to see was that Pineapple was really strong, dragging a bed inside almost easily by herself.

“You need any help with that?” Twilight offered.

“Would be appreciated!” She replied. Twilight used her levitating magic to move the bed over. Pineapple came in and fell on his bed, a little exhausted.

“Dang, the storage room is all the way on the other side of the whole PQ.” He just about said.

“What's PQ?” Twilight asked.

“Oh,” Pineapple said getting up, “PQ is this place, Ponyquarters. Like our version of Headquarters, or Hornquarters or Hoofquarters or Wingquarters.”

“Ok then, thanks for bringing the bed over.”

“No problem.” Pineapple said, then flopped back down on the bed. “Sweet dreams.”

Twilight got up off the chair, got in the bed and tucked herself in.

Sweet dreams, Twilight. For once.

She closed her eyes and let the invisible winds take her away.

She landed in a land of her creation. Her dreams where she can control what she liked and do as she pleased. How would this one turn out?

A field of grass, classical. Short trimmed grass as far as the eye could see, the sun hovering high above, and a sky with clouds raining over a patch of longer grass siding a path to the hills in the east. Trees, trees in the west. A tree house in the centre of those trees.

But who was that coming down from the mountains? Twilight flew over to see the bitter cold of her friends. She shouted for them, but they couldn't hear her. She was invisible to their eyes. How could this possibly happen? She was losing them even in her mind.

Everypony backed away from her, trotting away as though she didn't matter, or never existed. Their pets followed them playing with each other. Where was Spike though? Would Spike give up on Twilight?

She flew back down and cried. A cage formed around her, sealing off the sun and the nature. She was alone, was was going to be alone, and nopony could stop it.