Chapter 2

Where One Door Closes, Another Opens

In the early hours of the morning Princess Twilight Sparkle was fretting about her choice. All the doubts her mind could concoct were stirring in her mind. After a long night of sleep doubts started creeping in and she was thinking that Lightning had a point. What if it was too early? What if she had been too harsh? Back when she was a student as little as a harsh tone from Celestia had been enough to make her feel like an utter failure. In that light her words to Dawning sounded as cold as the North ice caps. She needed to get to him and make sure he knew that she still wanted him as her student. That she still cared for him. Important meetings however had awful timing and so she sat, listening vaguely to the royal guard ponies, and trying to look like she wasn’t distracted. Her mind went over the things she had said, hoping for assurance that she hadn’t been too hard.

But the more she thought about it, the more she felt like she had. The guard ponies talked about ‘moles’, however and that got her attention.

“Moles…as in dissenter spies?” she asked.

“Yes” one of the guards said. “We’ve rooted out one, but he was two steps ahead of us. He’s been MIA since last month. I think he realized his cover had been blown.”

“They’re like changelings” another said. Everyone paused for a moment. “You don’t think they have changelings on their side, do you?” Many ponies looked down at the mention of this and some whispered to their neighbors in worry. Memories of the Hive Pact went through everyone’s minds. After the Dissenters’ original rebellion the Changelings started taking the place of important ponies and causing havoc, due to information they had been given by Blueblood.

It had been a difficult time and afterwards ponies didn’t know who to trust. There had been a few incidents where ponies actually killed ponies they knew thinking they were changeling imposters. A dull roar of whispers rose up and a few ponies began to panic.

“That’s enough” Celestia declared, “We do not actually know if they are changelings or just dedicated imposters. We can’t’ afford to lose our heads over a possibility. If they are changelings, we are more prepared than last time. “ Twilight strained her memory to recall her first experience with the Changelings. After that she and her friends devised a test- a way to figure out if someone was being impersonated by a changeling. It relied on confusing the changeling with increasingly difficult and personal questions, asking them to recount incidents that happened to their “self” in detail.

She also reminded herself to talk to Shining. Sometimes his memories before his ascension were a tad fuzzy but it was hard to forget your wife being revealed as a changeling on your wedding day. He had also interrogated a fair few changelings during the Changeling Panic, sending them running back to their queen.

“I-I think we can handle Changelings” Twilight said. “If we survived last time we’ll get by this time.”

“Indeed.” Luna agreed. They moved on to another topic and Twilight sat back and listened, putting ‘write a letter to Shining Armor and Cadence’ on her mental list of ‘to-dos’. But only if this changeling thing came of anything. She didn’t want to get Shining all worked up over changelings for nothing.

Nothing else stuck out after that, it was the same old worries and talk of raids and Dissenter scare tactics. Twilight had her mind so full it took a few moments to remember what she was originally fretting about. Dawning. Last night, in her mood, she had told the airship captain to take Dawning and Carly to Ponyville thinking it better to just get it over with. But now she wanted to kick herself, she needed to get word to him before he left, to mend the bridge she nearly burned. Once the meeting was over she set off for the Airship docks.

“Please, please oh please sleep in, or something. Please be there” she pleaded as she made for the docks in a gallop that was probably not suited to a princess. Her wings flapped as she ran , picking up air and she was soon gliding up toward the dock. Once she landed she made straight for the office of the dock manager.

“Princess! A-are you allright?” The dock manager, a light blue pegasus mare, looked up with a start.

“I’m fine…” she said, “I just needed to get a message to Dawning Sun before he left.” The pegasus officer sighed and looked down.

“Oh. Well, I’m sorry, they’ve already left. “She shrugged. “I wish I could help.” Twilight’s heart sank.

“Oh….well thanks anyway Blue” she said. Blue Skies looked at her sympathetically.

“I’m sure I could find a pilot who can send you.” She offered.

“Thank you, but I can’t. I have a lot of work to do “The duties of a princess always came before anything else she had always been taught, and procrastination was not something that Twilight Sparkle believed in. She could send her apologies in the letter with the next appointment with assurances that he was still her student.

****

The skies were still dark as Dawning and Carly left that morning. They were lent one of the smaller Royal Zeppelins with someone driving for them, so they could relax. Carly would have welcomed a little chatting, to be distracted from the depressed lump that was Don right now. But the driver was deadly silent.

She stifled a yawn as she watched the buildings go past and looked up at the stars.

"Luna's really outdone herself tonight". She said.

"Mhmmm" Don still kept his nose pressed against the window. He looked at it annoyed as if it had said something to offend him. “Yeah. Guess its okay.”

“You know , you ought to be careful. You remember the legend of Nightmare Night don’t you? Luna doesn’t like people ignoring her sky.” Dawning snorted.

“That story’s like a hundred-thousand years old. Luna’s cooled off by now.” he said. ‘Great’ Carly thought. She was stuck with someone who was determined to be angry about everything.

“Are you just going to feel sorry for yourself the entire time?” She snapped. “Look I know you’re upset. But maybe this isn’t the end. Princess Sparkle wouldn't have chosen you just to give up when things got difficult, you know."

“Maybe she realized the ponies who didn’t want me to become her student were right.” He muttered bitterly.

“Oh, so a bunch of saddle-sore parents and narrow-minded nobles know better than the Princess of Harmony? Is that what you’re trying to say?” Carly demanded. Dawning’s eyes widened, “N-no…just…uh….”

He faltered for another reason or a justification for his doubt. “I’m not trying to tell you not to be sad. But it’s not the end. Try to look at the bright side; you’ve never been to Ponyville before. It’s a new experience.”

“I guess.” He said. He looked down at the sights as they passed them and wondered what he was going to do in this new place. He couldn’t just try spells all the time, could he? Or maybe the job Princess Sparkle was going to give him would be an important job. But knowing how he just bucked up that was a bit of a foolish thought. He would probably need a place to stay and some form of a job to get by. It wasn’t long until the craft landed, nestled in a landing pad by the forest right next to a small town-which Dawning could safely assume to be Ponyville.

It was still early morning and the sky had lightened up quite a bit. As the pony and dragon departed the craft they noted the biplanes surrounding them. A few ponies were out and about cleaning the planes. A couple heads were turned at the sight of a Royal Zeppelin in the small town. However their aircraft was gone as soon as the two got their stuff. Dawning felt as if it had taken a part of him when it left. It reminded him of the book he was assigned about the journal of a pony who was exiled for breaking the law. He felt like he was in exile too. He didn’t say this to Carly though; she would say he was being dramatic. Maybe he was.

But his home in Canterlot was important to him. In Canterlot he had something, a purpose. People knew who he was, and he had a place. Here, he was virtually nobody. Okay so sure, he was a Princesss’s student so he had that going for him, but that was no guarantee that no one would dare give him a hard time. He still remembered how some people hadn’t been happy that Princess Sparkle broke from the old Princess Tradition and chose a colt to be her student. He never understood why it was so important for the Princess line to keep going other than “it was always that way” and , as his teacher had told him, some people just don’t like change. He didn’t know who in this town would like him, and that scared him the most.

He checked to make sure that his cape was properly covering his flank and started with heavy hooves into the town. The buildings seemed to be made of a mixture of the old fashioned straw and metal. Some had switched completely to using a metal roof. The town looked like it had been a tad bit late in catching up with the times, but it had in due time. He recognized a few of the shelters –for civilians during a raid- located throughout the town. There was at least one factory, Canterlot had many.

“Oh, Don look!” Carly spoke up, pointing to an inn. “That looks like a nice place.” It certainly looked like a decent place. Dawning was hoping he wouldn’t find himself in a motel when he got there. “Maybe we could stay there let you get a little more rest you know?”

“I got sleep last night” Dawning said. Carly snorted.

“Not much. Look, trust me you need some sleep.” He had awoken twice, with nightmares she had guessed. He tried to be quiet about it, but she had good hearing. He sighed.

“All right.” The two of them headed into the inn and Dawning walked up to the mare at the counter to make reservation. She seemed to remind him of someone, but he couldn’t put his hoof on it. A pink Earth Pony mare with a light blonde mane. Where had he seen a pony like that before? “Hey, could the two of us get a roo-?”

“Dawning?” she asked , staring at him with wide eyes. Dawning chuckled nervously, “Oh my…wow, what are you doing here; last I heard you were Princess Sparkle’s student!” Dawning blinked, confused and very nervous. This mare knew him, but how, had they met before? More importantly what did he say?

Author's Note

So I tried to establish a sort of cycle for updates, to update in order of publication, but I don’t like writing within a set time period. Writing under pressure tends to stifle my work.

So I loosened it up a bit, I’ll have some kind of order , with this story or The Burden of Knowledge followed by Island Game, then the other one of the two depending on which one I feel like writing first. Also for those wondering about the identity of Dawning and Lightning’s dads, they shall be revealed in time. Though, I will tell you this, Lightning’s great grandparent was a Wonderbolt from the show. So I give you, the next chapter of In Hundred Years Passed.