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                The 'Original' Pony Dilemma                
                   -by BlueMysteryWolf-                    
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                      Lightning Dash                       
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Lightning Dash
“He’s coming any minute now,” Rainbow Dash said as she stood on the outskirts of Ponyville. Her light blue wings spread wide with a smile on her face. The sky was as blue as she was with the clouds cleared well in advance, thanks to her.
Twilight, the purple unicorn, stood near her as she watched the sky. “You haven’t told me anything about this pony,” she said with an annoyed tone. “Now, suddenly, your cousin, who I haven’t heard any thing about, anywhere, is coming to visit?”
“Twilight, as I recall, SOMEONE had a brother that was never mentioned until he was getting married. You would think that someone in Ponyville would have heard of him, but no; suddenly out of the blue this big huge wedding is placed in Canterlot. Does this make any less sense?”
“I suppose not.” Twilight admitted. “Shining Armor and Cadence, but it’s not like they were suddenly made up on the spot as if to give a reason to a company to make more toys to sell to kids.”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. Her confusion quickly vanished though as she saw a trail of rainbow. “He’s here!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. The streak of rainbow left a trail as it performed a loop before it landed. The pony had spiky white hair and a gray hide. His eyes were gray like his hide and he had a cloud with a lightning bolt for a cutie mark on his flank. His mane, for some odd reason, was shaped perfectly like Rainbow Dash's own but colored white instead of a variety of colors. “Hey there Rainbow,” He said with a casual voice, his tone only a bit manlier version of her.
“What’s your name?” Twilight had to ask. It was rude to introduce her in such a way, but this pony struck her as a strange type. He had a lightning bolt cutie mark, yet he performed rainbows in his trail of flying? What sense did THAT make?
“Lightning Dash!” The pony said with a hoof to his chest and his head held proudly. He suddenly lowered his front half and placed his hooves on the ground. One of his hooves dug up dirt as smoke came out of his nose. “All time speed champion of the world!”
“You’re…Lightning Dash. Your name is LIGHTNING Dash?” Twilight asked, again and again. “And you decided that the first thing you should do in the sky is RAINBOWS?”
“Oh I can do lightning too. I can even make the boom sound. ‘Lightning boom’ I call it.” Just as quickly as he changed postures, he changed again and held his chest happily.
“Excuse me a moment.” Twilight gave a huge smile, barring her flat teeth. She suddenly grabbed Rainbow Dash and pulled her away. “How do you know this pony again?” she said, her whisper was clearly aggravated and it was difficult to keep her tone down.
“Like I said, Twilight, he’s my cousin.” Rainbow replied, perplexed at the way she was behaving.
“That doesn’t shed any more light! What kind of cousin? First? Second? Third? Removed? What?”
“That’s easy. He’s…” Rainbow Dash paused. She raised her eyes up to the sky and her wings fluttered. “Um…honestly, I don’t really know. All I know is that he’s related.” She had never really given it more serious thought than that. "Have you seen his mane?"
"There are tons of ponies with similar manes. Lovestruck is one of them. Do you think that the two of US are related?"
Rainbow Dash gave a shoulder shrug. "It's possible. It's not like someone just copy and pasted a blank version of you, recolored you, and released you to kids to think that Lovestruck was a completely different pony." Rainbow Dash paused and looked away from her for a brief moment, as if she were looking towards someone else that wasn't in Ponyville. "Seriously. Look Lovestruck up on the 'My Little Pony App.' Tell me she doesn't look EXACTLY like Twilight, except recolored," she said, as if she were talking to someone else.
“Anyways." Twilight coughed. "Have you checked your family tree? Do you even know if this pony is in it? I know Lovestruck isn't in mine.” Twilight raised a brow at her.
Suddenly, Lightning Dash gave a loud cough from behind. “It’s rude to talk behind one’s back you know.” One of his hooves raised and twirled around in the air. “Come on, if it’s about me, you can tell me. I have nothing to hide from Rainbow.”
“Alright.” Twilight suddenly moved away from Rainbow Dash and made her way to the other pegasus. “Lightning Dash, my first question is why do you make rainbows and not something like clouds?”
“I blame Rainbow for that one.” Lightning Dash smiled innocently. “You hear of my brother, Purple Rain? He makes rainbows too.”
“Purple Rain?” Twilight groaned. “Being named after an 80’s album does original NOT make.” She shook her head for a moment to try to change the subject. “What cousin are you? I mean, how EXACTLY are you related to Rainbow?”
Lightning Dash flashed a smile. “Oh that’s easy! You see it’s…uh…” his smile vanished just as quickly as it came on his face. He put his hoof to his chin and looked at the ground. “Um…how exactly are we related…” he mulled over the question. After a minute, he raised his head with a softer smile than before. “You don’t need to hear about any boring stuff like that.”
“But I do.” Twilight suddenly stepped closer to Lightning Dash, causing the pegasus to step back in response. “I want to know how you are related to Rainbow Dash, and what kind of proof you have.”
“I can perform a sonic rainboom.” Lightning Dash suddenly replied, thinking of something to get this pony off of his back.
“A sonic rainboom?” Twilight raised a brow again.
“Yep!”
“The kind that Rainbow Dash is kind of famous for?” Twilight asked, question after question.
“Yep!”
“The kind that, to this day, no pony has ever been able to perform but her, and suddenly a pony from nowhere can do the EXACT same thing, the thing that makes her unique and stand out from others to give her the cutie mark she now has?”
“Uh…I’m not following.” Lightning Dash tilted his head. What was she talking about?
“Cutie marks are what separate ponies from others. They’re obtained when a pony discovers a unique characteristic about themselves that separate them from other ponies. Rainbow Dash got hers upon performing a sonic rainboom. It generally means SHE is the only one that can perform a sonic rainboom, and nopony else!” Twilight suddenly shouted at the end. Lightning Dash had a hole in his story that she was widening by the second.
“Wait.” Rainbow Dash suddenly cut in. “How do you know about that? I don’t remember…”
“Just go with it.” Twilight snapped at Rainbow suddenly before looking back at Lightning Dash. “So, what can you REALLY do?”
Lightning Dash was speechless. What could he do? “Um…but I can do a sonic rainboom…”
“No, you can’t,” Twilight said. “You can’t do a sonic rainboom. Let me tell you, if you could move so fast that you could create a sonic boom, one that sounded like lightning, then THAT would be more believable.”
“I-I can do that.” Lightning Dash’s smile was long gone from his face. He was nodding eagerly at her though. He had to think of something he could do.
“Are you saying that because you CAN, or are you saying that because you WANT?” Twilight glared at the pony. “I’m starting to think you aren’t related to Rainbow Dash at all. You don’t know her family tree, you’re trying to take the one thing about her that makes her unique from other ponies, and you’re making up stuff on the spot.” Twilight suddenly turned her head at Rainbow Dash. “And I want to know Rainbow, how many ponies visit you that claim to be your cousin?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I don’t keep count, honestly…” she admitted. “Many of them look a lot like me though.”
“I keep track of nearly every pony. Pinkie Pie helps tremendously with that.” Twilight boasted, though it was likely something that wasn’t worthy of ‘bragging’ rights to say the least. “I know that you get a LOT of cousins, Rainbow Dash. A lot of them look like you, claim to do the same stuff as you, and so on. Pinkie Pie gets a lot too. They claim to be like her…they act like her…it’s so irritating. You know who I haven’t seen a lot of? MY cousins. Or Applejack’s cousins. Honestly, Applejack has an unquestionably huge family tree. If we had a pony come to us saying that they were her cousin, it would shut us up and make us nod our head because her family tree is more confusing than a maze made by Discord.” Twilight knew something was wrong with this pony, and she wasn’t going to take it. “You’re not related to Rainbow Dash are you? ADMIT IT!”
Lightning Dash bit his lower lip and glanced to the ground. “Um…I mean…I can do…twenty percent…”
“You know who also knows about her twenty percent reference?” Twilight suddenly asked, giving a huge, fake, smile on her face.
“Who?”
“EVERYPONY IN EQUESTRIA!” Suddenly Twilight turned around and faced her rear to the pony. She raised her hind legs and kicked the pony as hard as she could right in his rear, sending him flying and leaving nothing but a rainbow streak behind him, forming a rainbow arch perfectly over Ponyville as he raised in the air and crashed, miles away from Twilight on the other side of the village.
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped at Twilight’s kick. “Um…thanks…Twilight, I think.” She stammered. “Where did you get that kind of strength from? That kick was awesome.”
Twilight closed her eyes and trotted away from Rainbow Dash. “Not important.” She said in a happy voice. “And I’m always happy to get rid of any sort of fake cousin for anyone.”

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                        Moon Shine                         
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Moon Shine
It was a pleasant afternoon for Twilight. She was in her library, reading a book that showed the title ‘Alicorns and You’ on the cover. Twilight chuckled as she turned a page. “I’m glad I’m not an alicorn. There’s no possible way to turn into one too,” she said to herself, proudly. She paused and looked up from her book, looking away as if she were glaring at a pony. “I better not become one either, Hasbro.” She stated, angrily.
Suddenly, Twilight’s library went dark. She glanced at the window to see nothing but stars and a moon hanging up above in the sky. “Night already? It’s noon though!” she shouted. She looked up at the clock on the wall to confirm that it was the time she thought it was. She rushed to the door, only for the door to open and strike her directly in the face. Just as soon as the door opened, it closed on her and another pony was in the room. Twilight fell back on the floor with a groan and looked up at this strange pony.
This pony had black and red all over her with a red mane that flowed smoothly down her back with a tail that was just as smooth, curling only a bit at the end. She was different though; she had a small pair of wings that just barely covered a cutie mark resembling a moon, making it look like a crescent shape while she covered it. This pony even had a horn on top of her head, one that stretched as long as her face. She was an alicorn, the very thing that Twilight had mentioned only shortly before she came in.
“What are the odds?” was the first thing that escaped Twilight’s mouth. “It turns night just as I’m talking about alicorns, and then one breaks into my library. My first question, how did you get in?” Twilight loathed alicorns that were colored red and black. There were just far too many of them. She had to give them some sort of chance at least, but this one wasn’t already fairing very well.
“Not important,” The ‘alicorn’ declared. Her hooves were as red as blood as she looked down at Twilight. “You should be asking why it turned night so quickly.”
Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m more curious how you break down a locked door.” Ponyville didn’t have guards in the city. It had to make Twilight wonder whose bright idea was it to have a town without any kind of security in it in the first place. “And also, why I guess.” She added.
“I’m so glad you asked my name!” the pony declared. “My name is Moon Shine. I’m an alicorn capable of controlling the moon itself!”
“I didn’t ask,” Twilight grumbled. She paused as she heard the name. “Moon Shine?” she was just as angry at this pony as she was confused. “What kind of parents name their kid Moon Shine?”
“What’s wrong with being Moon Shine?” ‘Moon Shine’ said as she held her head high. It’s a wonderful name that’s based after what I do in Equestria.”
“You don’t…” Twilight stammered. “You can’t be…” she barely even knew how to form a sentence to begin to explain what was wrong with such a name. “Look, you can’t be some sort of powerful alicorn capable of controlling the moon.” She decided it was best to just drop the subject of her name entirely.
“Oh? But look outside, Twilight.” Moon Shine said with a huge grin plastered on her face. “It’s dark outside while it is still noon, is it not?”
Twilight couldn’t argue with that. She glanced to an upper window briefly to see the stars and moon shining in the sky. She turned her head to another window on the other side of the library to see more of the same. “Wait a minute,” Twilight walked over to the closest window and glanced at it. There was another moon! In fact, there were moons in every window! “How is this possible? Stay still, Moon Shine, I’m going to go outside.” With that, Twilight headed towards the door.
Moon Shine suddenly blocked the door. She stood on her hind hooves with her back against the door. “No, no. You don’t need to go out there. Really, just take my word for it. I can control the moon and I put it in the sky.”
“If you REALLY put it in the sky, then why does it look like there are so many of them in different places? Something doesn’t add up here.” Twilight knew that using violence wasn’t the best way to get out, so she went to a window instead.
Just as soon as she got to the window, Moon Shine rushed across the ground to block her from opening it. “I’m just that powerful, I guess.” she tried to keep a smile on her face, but she was trying to catch her breath from the dash she just had to do to get to the window.
“Uh huh.” Twilight’s eyelids lowered and her face turned to a frown. “All mighty and powerful, that’s an alicorn for you. Let’s change the subject, why did you come visit me? To brag about your powers?”
“Celestia told me about you,” Moon Shine replied. “She said I just had to visit you and-“
Twilight groaned “I’ve heard enough. You’re hiding at least one thing from me.”
“What makes you say that?”
“If you weren’t hiding anything, you’d let me go outside in the first place. I’m beginning to doubt your name is really Moon Shine too.” Twilight commented.
“Twilight, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” Moon Shine responded with a nervous laugh. “I have nothing to hide though, rest assured. Just…don’t go outside, okay?”
Twilight’s eyelids lowered as she stared at Moon Shine. “I can judge a pony on its looks. Red and black alicorns are so…so…common!” Twilight had to get it out. “Ones that claim to be so powerful and able to do so much. I want to go outside, and you’re not going to stop me.”
Twilight moved back and fourth between windows and the door, Moon Shine caught up with her just before she got to opening anything, keeping her trapped inside. Twilight was actually impressed with how quick this pony was moving, but she only had to mumble under her breath. “Your name should be Mary Sue.”
“What?” Moon Shine asked. “Mary what?”
“Mary Sue. It means you’re some sort of overpowered, perfect pony, that you want everyone to love. Guess what? I have three reasons to NOT love you. One, you’re an alicorn. Two, you’re a red and black alicorn. I can’t think of anyone that likes red and black alicorns to begin with. Three, you’re abusing your powers, powers that Luna already has in the first place. You’re the most unoriginal thing I’ve met. A guy could write about a female purple pony with a horn named Twilight and be more original than you.”
Twilight’s horn glowed and suddenly a silver bracelet appeared around moonshine’s front left hoof. The bracelet had a small, red, orb on it that was glowing. “Let me just ask some questions about you. Are you a deity? A supreme being?”
“What? Of course I-“ before Moon Shine could finish her sentence, the bracelet turned red and sent a shock through Moon Shine. Electricity cackled through her body and sent her mane pointing fully upwards in a complete mess. “I mean…sort of.” Another shock ran through her system caused by the bracelet. “I mean NO! I’m NOT a deity, happy now?”
“Royalty?” Twilight immediately asked, raising a brow and moving her head closer to Moon Shine.
Moon Shine paused briefly. “I certainly am-“ another zap with the bracelet caused her to jump from the ground with her eyes open wide. “Ah! I’m not okay? I’m not of royalty either!” with that, the shock vanished and she fell to the floor in a huff. “What’s with all of this interrogation anyways?!”
Twilight glared. “I’m just saying why an alicorn is usually an alicorn in the first place. There are a few reasons, but the fact is, you’re neither a deity nor royalty. Even if you were, not all royalty have wings and a horn. Most ponies get by with one or the other, or neither. Be an earth pony for Celestia’s sake, maybe one that has dreams of having horns and wings.” She paused and looked away from Moon Shine. “There you go writers, I just pitched an idea for you to use.” Then, she glanced back at her. “Be more original than creating some sort of Mary Sue, I mean really.”
Twilight let out a whistle and suddenly a small pitch black tornado appeared in the middle of the room. The tornado vanished in a puff of black smoke to reveal Princess Luna of all creatures.
“What is the meaning of this, Twilight?” Luna said. “I sleep during the day you know.” Her mane that was normally smooth and flowing was sticking up on bits and ends. Her eyes had brown bags underneath them just as well. She normally spoke with a much more majestic accent, but she was too tired to use it.
Moon Shine tilted her head as Luna appeared. “How did you get her to come with only a whistle?” she had to ask. “Isn’t THAT overpowered?”
“I call it convenience,” Twilight said with her eyes closed. “And it’s no more overpowered than controlling the moon.”
“What was that?” Luna asked with a raised tone in her voice. Was Twilight talking about her?
Twilight nodded. “This pony claims to be able to control the moon itself though. Just look around you.” She paused momentarily and opened her eyes again/ “No offense with the whole…overpowered thing. At least you do it in the cartoon series.”
Luna glanced at the windows to see the darkness surrounding them. She rolled her eyes and her horn glowed. A sudden ripping sound came from each of the windows as the light of the sun pierced through the images. “Black paper, drawn to have stars and the moon on it,” Luna commented. She then shot a glance at Moon Shine. “Trying to claim thou can control the moon so thou can take thy job, are thou?” her smile and eyes gave a false sense of joy as she finally spoke the way she wanted to speak.
Moon Shine’s own face was expressing anything but a smile. Her lips were quivering as she backed against the door. She couldn’t help but open it to reveal that it was just as sunny outside as it was earlier, that she had tricked Twilight by putting up pictures on the outside of her house. “I can explain…” she started.
“Before thou do,” Luna started. “Please turn around and tell thy if thou can see the moon from here.”
Moon Shine was confused. She couldn’t deny an order directly from Luna though. She turned around and raised her head to the sky to see the shining sun. “No I don’t.”
“Well, thy can have thou seeing stars at least.” Luna turned around so that Moon Shine and Luna had their rears facing toward each other. Luna raised her back legs and suddenly kicked Moon Shine in the rear as hard as she could. Unlike Twilight’s previous kick, this kick sent Moon Shine flying up into the sky, leaving nothing but a twinkle as she flew off.
“If there is one thing thy hate more than alicorns, besides myself and Celestia, it is red and black alicorns,” she said with a huff and turned to Twilight. “Before thou ask, nay she is not harmed. She may be scarred mentally though, based upon where thy sent her off to.” With that, Luna’s horn glowed and she soon teleported away.
Twilight gave a faint smile. Luna had single handedly gotten rid of what would have otherwise been a Mary Sue. This one had been exposed for all the flaws she had done. “I hope that alicorn gets what’s coming to her.” She said and turned away. She couldn’t help but add. “Whoever wrote Luna’s lines does not know how to portray her at all.”
Epilogue:
Moon Shine floated in space helplessly. She put her hoof to her cheek and gave a frustrated sigh. Her magic was proving to be absolutely useless. “It can’t get any worse.” Not even she knew how she was surviving in space in the first place, but she didn't question it.
Suddenly, a twirl of light magic appeared next to her. The magic spun rapidly into a small sphere until an object formed in the center. As the magic cleared, what was revealed was…a sphere. The sphere looked like it had two handles on it and was covered in silver, except for one part which resembled an eye of sorts. The eye was covered in yellow lines that perfectly formed a circle in it. Suddenly, two metal lids closed down on each other to hide the eye before it opened back up.
The sphere’s first words were, simply put, “Spaaaaacccceee!”