Chapter 5: Fate, monsters, and more stories

Author's Note: The names of the fates are from Greek myth sources, naturally. Can you guess who the fates are? Probably.

If there's anything that offends you, my readers, please politely let me know!

Atropos rolled her amber eyes and scoffed at the basin. The rippling waters it contained showed her the image of the chosen pegasus pony and her companions. "I can't believe she of all mares is chosen to be his queen! I mean, I've known this for a couple of centuries but seriously? Her?! She's scared of her own shadow!"

Atropos and her two younger sisters, Lachesis and Clothos, were on a barren rock farm with only one, far home in sight. It was overcast and dreary. Naturally, no other ponies were around. The three sisters hovered around the basin, studying the mare and her friends intently. Together they knew what destiny had in store for every pony and creature, but it never hurt to stay updated.

These three seemingly normal ponies were reincarnations of the immortal fates, three mares as ancient as the earth and stars, wiser than the oldest soothsayers. They were so revered and powerful that even the gods never denied them of their wishes. Only a fool would want to test or gamble with fate.

"Are you jealous?" Lachesis, the second eldest pony, asked with her usual dull, unvarying tone.

Atropos huffed and flipped her straight, silver gray mane. "Jealous? Of that frightened little bimbo? Of course not!" She paused to splash away the image of the chosen mare. "I just don't see why you decided to -"

"I know what I'm doing, sister." Lachesis blinked, her expression remaining emotionless. "I introduced her to Discord because she is the ray of sunshine that will melt his cold heart."

Clothos grinned a little at Lachesis. "You're so poetic, sister."

"I knew he would love her once he got to know her and watch her grow over a couple of years." Lachesis blinked again. "It's romantic, and all that's left to do is convince her that's he's right for her."

"What do you know about romance? Besides, what does romance have to do with this? Do you even know what will happen when Discord takes her as his bride?"

Lachesis scanned the large amount of pebbles they had taken with them and spotted a single brown geode. "I'm not a fool, Atropos." She grabbed her pick hammer and hit the geode, splitting it in two halves. Its insides were sparkling opal. "Clothos picked her from the same stone as them. It's a matter of time before she finds out."

"And they won't let Discord get close to her," Atropos snapped. "Then they'll whisk her away and makes us miserable!"

"Nonsense." Lachesis picked up a purplish gray quartzite rock. "Princess Twilight Sparkle will prevent that from happening. There's a reason why you didn't want to kill her, Atropos, and why the god of the underworld released her. She's needed, not just to return home to her family, but to bring Discord happiness."

"A mortal unicorn?" Clothos wondered curiously.

"She will eventually be much more than that." Lachesis shut her cyan eyes and sighed tiredly. "I'll explain everything later."

"As long as that scatterbrain doesn't open any more boxes!" Atropos huffed.

"GIRLS!" An elder mare yelled from the small house. "Dinner is ready!"

The three mares gathered their pebbles and stones. Then, just as they were about to head for their current home, Atropos picked up her pick hammer.

"I almost forgot," she spoke casually, destroying a diorite rock. "The zebra soothsayer had to pass today. And I'm guessing she plays a role in this matchmaking plan of yours, sister?"

Lachesis almost grinned at her older sister. "Yes, Atropos. You guess correctly."

Twilight smacked the flowers out of Applejack and Rarity's hooves. "RARITY! APPLEJACK!"

Applejack stared incredulously at Twilight. "What the hay, Twilight?"

"Don't eat these flowers!" Twilight cried desperately, standing from her seat and backing away from Cinch's group. "Whatever they say or do, don't eat them!"

Rarity cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why ever not, darling? You said yourself - "

"Forget what I said!" Twilight insisted. "Once you eat one, you'll never want to leave. Ever." She glared coldly at Cinch. "She's imprisoned our friends, including Big McIntosh!"

"'Hat's not 'ue!" The aforementioned stallion grumbled with a mouthful of lotus flowers.

Applejack looked at Twilight and then her brother. To her, he did act rather oddly around those flowers. So, she decided to test him.

"Then let's go back to the boat, Big Mac."

Big McIntosh gasped and held the half-eaten flower in his hooves. "No way, sis! I'm stayin' here, and I suggest y'all do the same!"

"We just got here," Cherilee added with a cute pout.

"Yeah!" Spitfire agreed. "Like two minutes ago!"

"That's not true..." Rarity mumbled suspiciously. She glanced at Applejack questionably, who simply nodded in response. They had heard enough. But just as they were about to join Twilight, Cinch stomped again, and vines ensnared them and yanked them back to their seats.

"Twilight!" Rarity cried with fright. "Help us!" Applejack tried to kick them, but that only made them hold her tighter around her legs and midsection.

"Release them!" Twilight commanded, her unicorn horn shining brightly to warn the arrogant leader. Cinch only smirked evilly at the princess. Her followers were ready to fight Twilight, but one raised hoof from Cinch made them halt.

"You really don't want to threaten me, princess, unless you want me to end your miserable life right now."

Applejack bit the stray vine that had covered her lips. "What are you goin' on about?"

Cinch began to circle Twilight with the same, sickly sweet smile on her face. "Stay here and relax, or we'll have to do the unthinkable. I mean, we'll have to kill you either way, but it's much simpler for both of us when you're in bliss. But while resisting..." She turned to her followers and nodded curtly. Some of them scurried off to a certain hut. They returned with a tied up pegasus, whose cries and squeals were muffled against a gag.

"Lightening Dust!" Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight cried out in unison. They watched helplessly as Cinch's followers dropped her and held her in place.

"She's looks weak!" Rarity shouted with terror. Cinch nodded approvingly.

"Very observant of you, princess." She sneered arrogantly in Twilight's direction. "That's what happens when you don't accept what's being generously offered to you." She approached Twilight until they were inches away from each other. "That's just what you're doing, Twilight."

Twilight's glare did not waver. "Who are you? Really?"

Cinch smirked with delight. "You're an inquisitive filly, aren't you? Very well." She closed her eyes, and blue flames engulfed her body and the bodies of some of her followers. Then, a blinding light accompanied the flames, forcing the others to shield their eyes.

When Twilight reopened her eyes, her jaw dropped. Before her stood a hideous, fearsome creature: a half pony, half snake. The creature's lower body had the large, scaly, lizard green tail of a gigantic serpent. The creature's upper body, however, shocked Twilight the most.

It's her, Twilight screamed mentally. That's Cinch! She was twenty times bigger than she had been a mere second ago. Twilight glanced at Rarity, Applejack, and Lightening Dust. They all froze at the sight of Cinch, but everypony else was suddenly transfixed by the flowers surrounding them, blissfully unaware of the monster right in front of them.

The monster laughed cruelly and haughtily at Twilight's obvious fear. "Little princess," she crooned mockingly. "Don't be afraid. It is only I, the mother of all monsters, Abacus Cinch!" She motioned to the other, slightly smaller monsters behind her. "And these are my babies, my children, who would just love a little pony snack! But you see, princess, I'm a fair monster. That's why I offer happiness and a wiped mind before death."

Twilight gawked at Abacus and felt her blood boil. "You mean that Big McInstosh, Cherilee, everypony... forgot everything?"

"Slowly but surely, they will forget everything. And you will, too, if you prefer a happier demise." Twilight responded with a glare fiercer than the last one. "Come now, princess, what are you waiting for back home? Family? Friends? You can have all that and more with us!"

"Twilight!" Applejack snapped to get her attention. "Don't listen to her!"

Abacus shrunk to Twilight's size, but she was still in her true, monstrous form. "Your greatest dreams before an inevitable demise," she tantalized. "What do you say?" Twilight pursed her lips and then spat in the monster's direction.

"How rude." Abacus turned to the two other princesses. "What about you two? What's your decision?"

"Never, you monster!"

"Drop dead!"

Abacus sighed with feigned sadness and turned to her children and ponies. "Why don't we convince them that they're making a huge mistake?"

Ponies and monsters began to close in on Twilight, but she was determined to send a distress signal. Before her lips were muffled, she chanted a spell and sparks flew from her horn.

Spike frowned with disgust as he mopped the ship's deck. "I can't believe Twilight made me stay here on the ship while she's out there exploring with Rarity!" He stopped to contemplate his predicament. "I mean, I am a baby dragon, but I'm no baby! Just because I'm not the world's greatest speller, doesn't mean - "

Pinkie Pie, who was munching on an apple nearby, suddenly dropped the fruit and gasped loudly, startling everyone around her.

"What?" The captain flew down from her post. "Pinkie Pie, what is it?" The pink earth pony pointed to the island, where a display of fireworks lit up the evening sky.

"They're putting on a show for us! Isn't that nice, Dashie?"

"Don't call me that," Rainbow Dash snapped, staring at the display.

Pinkie's hooves began to tremble excitably, and Fluttershy observed her worriedly.

"Is your Pinkie Sense going off now?"

"Yeah but... OH NO!"

"What?!"

Pinkie grabbed her frightened sister and started shaking her. "Twilight and Applejack and the others! They're in trouble!"

"What?!" Spike could not believe what he was hearing. "What's going on? Are they hurt?"

"Pinkie's right!" Rainbow Dash motioned to the fireworks. Clear shapes began to take form. "S.O.S.! They're in trouble!" She flapped her wings, hovering over the ship. "Fluttershy! Stay with Spike and the rest of the crew! Pinkie, come with me! We can take 'em for now." Pinkie saluted and dashed off the boat. "Fluttershy, you'll be the captain if something unfortunate happens to me." This made the timid pegasus squeak fearfully, but Rainbow Dash took off before she could notice.

Spike turned to Fluttershy. "What's Pinkie Sense?"

Abacus shoved the flower once more in Twilight's face. But this time, Twilight adamantly kept her mouth shut. Rarity and Applejack were undergoing the same torment.

"Open wide, princess. Or else." Twilight shook her head. "Very well. Hydra?" The monster with four heads shrunk to Twilight's size, and one of the heads bit into Twilight's neck, making her cry out in pain.

Abacus grinned at her son. "That's better."

Rainbow Dash appeared right on time and kicked the hydra in the face. She met Twilight on the ground. Pinkie Pie bounced in and kicked the enslaved ponies away from Rarity and Applejack.

"We came as soon as we could," Rainbow told Twilight as they kicked and zapped the hydra away from them. They then freed the other princesses and sailors. While the sailors remained in their seats, Applejack and Rarity scurried away from the monsters and fought Cinch's pony clan.

In the middle of their scuffles, Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie's face. "Where's your canon? We need it!"

"Right here!" Pinkie fired like a mad pony.

"How did...? I won't ask."

"Come on, Big Mac!" Applejack bit and pulled her brother's tail, trying to reason with him. Unfortunately, he was still under the flower's strong spell.

"No! You come on and stay! Eat!" His eyes bulged madly. "RELAX!"

Zapping one last monster, Twilight gathered the others. "Let's get out of here! Now!"

"No!" Abacus exhaled, and a huge, neon green dome encased everyone. "No one leaves!"

Twilight zapped the dome at the same time that Pinkie fired her canon at it. A flash blinded everypony's eyes, and a resonating boom filled everypony's ears. Then, to Twilight, everything went black.

"Give me a moment." Starlight shook her head and wobbled a little after Starswirl teleported them both to the Everfree Forest. "Ugh… That double... sp-spell… a real killer." After recovering, she spotted the two ponies she had been looking for and caught up with them. "There you are!"

The two strangers kept running away from Starlight, but Starswirl immobilized them with his magic before they could run any further.

"My apologies, ladies." He joined Starlight's side. "But this is urgent."

"Let go of us!" The cyan pegasus cried indignantly. She was clearly the drunkest of the two.

Her friend stared at Starlight questionably. "What do you even want?"

"Answers." Starlight stepped closer to them. "My name is Starlight Glimmer. If what this wizard says is true, then my mother, Princess Twilight Sparkle, is alive." Both of the ponies glanced at each other furtively. "You knew her, didn't she?" Starlight dropped her poker face and stared at them hopefully. "Where is she? Is she hurt?"

Staring at Starlight's face, the orange earth pony sobered up a little and nodded to her friend. "Alright. It's kind of a long story, sugarcube. If you let us go, we'll tell you everything."

Starlight nodded, and Starswirl released them from their spell.

"Okay. I'm listening."

Pinkie: Gotta love the good ol' reliable cannon!

Spike: Why am I not doing anything yet?

Pinkie: Patience, Spike, patience. You'll play your part. Sound familiar, fellow readers?

Twilight: Pinkie, who are you talking to?

Pinkie: The other readers, silly filly!

Twilight: Okay then. Anyway...

In the past...

Tank's Glory ended up on another, nearby island. Nighttime, with its black canvas of the innumerable stars and Luna's crescent moon, greeted the diminished and disheartened crew.

As Twilight tucked Spike into bed and joined the rest of the remaining crew members outside, she could see the message written all over their faces.

We left them.

They all sat in a circle around a single oil lamp. The shadows crawled and passed all their faces. No pony bothered to say a word for several minutes.

Then, Applejack could not hold her tongue any longer. Her brother's hypnotized, bright green eyes continued to haunt her.

"How could we have let this happen? We lost almost half of our crew, including my brother!"

"And Cherilee," Rarity added gloomily.

"And Lightening Dust," Fluttershy whispered sadly. The monsters had forcefully fed her a flower before her friends could come to her rescue. They were forced to escape without her.

"And Spitfire." Rainbow Dash shut her eyes tightly so that no tears could escape from them. Never before had the princesses seen the captain look so solemn, lost, and defeated. "She was Soarin's younger sister. She was my best friend growing up. Well, Lightening was my friend, too. But she's been around since… ever."

Twilight felt terrible and outstretched her hooves to Rainbow, inviting her into a hug. Rainbow readily embraced Twilight and answered the unspoken questions.

"Soarin was a good friend of mine. I haven't seen him in years. After being raised by timberwolves, I earned a famous reputation for hunting. Dad found out and took me back in. He wanted me to get married right away." She awkwardly crawled away from Twilight and tried to chuckle proudly. "I… I'm too awesome for that, heh, so we compromised. I would marry the stallion or mare who would beat me in a race."

"And Soarin won?" Twilight asked.

"By cheating!" Rainbow cried furiously. For a moment, everypony forgot about the others. "He somehow got a hold of some *golden apples. During the race, I felt instantly drawn to them for some strange reason. So I picked them up as he threw them. That awful, two-faced, so-called friend of mine tricked me, I tell you! His sister wasn't like that though." She ended her rant and stared off into the distance.

"So did you marry him?" Rarity pressed.

"What do you think?" Rainbow sassed with a deep scowl. "Look guys, I know I can be… reckless at times, but I know, I just know when something's right and when something's wrong. Well for me, this is right and that was wrong. Soarin didn't really care about me. He just wanted to rule a kingdom someday. And Dad didn't give two bits about me."

"And your mother?" Applejack found herself asking before she could stop herself.

"Six feet under." Everypony else noticed how Rainbow was trying her hardest to hold back tears, so Rarity felt compelled to say something helpful.

"Before you told us that," Rarity began, "I never thought you had a story similar to mine, since we're so different from one another." She gently laid her front hooves on Rainbow's. "Now I see that I was wrong."

Rainbow turned to Rarity bemusedly. "What do you mean?"

Rarity shared her story with Rainbow and the rest of the group. It was basically the same version of the true story Twilight had heard from her; the unicorn was caught in a triangle of lust and power, not love, and decided to break free so she could support herself and eventually her little sister.

"Anyway, now I know I shouldn't judge somepony like I have you." Rarity looked about ready to cry herself. "I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow just lightly punched the fashionista's shoulder with an amiable grin. "Aw, don't sweat it! I have a little sis myself. Her name's Scootaloo."

"Well I guess I shouldn't take my entire story to the grave," Applejack spoke up bitterly. "Since I might end up in the underworld during this darn boat ride. Now I know what y'all' have been saying about me. Rumors and all. Well, some of you've been right, and some of you've been wrong. Here's how it went." She inhaled then exhaled deeply before continuing. "Daddy never cared whether his children got married or not because he wasn't the heir. *My uncle Half Baked Apple was. So, as long as the throne didn't need any spare, we weren't in danger of inheriting it. Well, one day, these two strangers came to town: a wealthy fellow named Trenderhoof and his friend Trixie. Big Mac started courting Trixie. Trenderhoof then tried to court me, taking no hints from me, and then eventually asked me to marry him."

"Well, I bet that was awkward!" Pinkie exclaimed, trying to make light of the situation. Applejack simply nodded.

"Yeah. Well, before that proposal, which was in front of everypony in Appleoosa, mind you, he pushed me to ask for anything I wanted from him." A small smile barely reached her lips. "It could've been anything I wanted. Can you imagine? I thought he was joking, so I amused myself and started naming things. And he always managed to conjure up anything my heart desired: golden apples, a new dress for my baby sister…" The smile disappeared instantly. "And then he just had to propose to me in front of everypony, even my entire family! I just had to say no. He was a nice stallion, and I thought we could've been friends. But I just didn't love him."

"What happened to Trixie and your brother?" Rarity asked softly.

Applejack snarled with disgust. "She coldly dumped Big Mac. If that all wasn't bad enough, Trenderhoof promised to give me another 'gift'." Everypony grew still as Applejack shuddered anxiously. She dreaded the last part of her story the most.

"What did you ask for?" Rainbow asked her, even though they all could have guessed what it had been.

The cow pony suddenly grew very timid, and she dipped her hat over her misty eyes. "Pre - Premonition, the ability to predict the future. I wanted to see if the changelings were gonna declare war on us, which they obviously did, and other things… How long Granny was gonna live, for instance. You know, important things! I accepted this last gift because I thought Trenderhoof finally understood that my feelings mattered and that love can never be forced." She laughed dryly to herself. "To bad he didn't know what love was.

"Then… Trixie, that arrogant little witch, cursed me! I can predict things alright, but nopony…" She finally looked back up at everypony else. "Nopony else believes me. Nopony believed me then, and now… I knew that island just wasn't right..." She could not hold back any longer and hid her face behind her hat as she sobbed to herself. Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy instantly enveloped the cow pony with warm hugs, and everypony else spoke comforting words to her.

"I'm so sorry darling." Rarity could no longer hold back tears either and loudly blew her nose into her lavender scented handkerchief, making everypony else giggle and unintentionally bringing life back on the ship.

One by one, everypony else, including Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, shared their backstories and reasons for going off to battle for the sake of all ponies.

"So you see, I don't know my actual parents." Fluttershy confessed. "But Mama and Papa, um, Pinkie's parents, kindly took me in as a vulnerable filly. I was found on the doorstep of the Pie's cottage." She gave Pinkie a sweet smile. "And the rest is history."

"What about you, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie chirped.

Everypony else turned to Twilight, making the unicorn princess blush and laugh nervously. "My story's not as exciting as all of yours, not even remotely close." But they still kept their eyes on her, and Twilight relented. "Okay, fine. When I was a little filly, I met a princess named Sunset. We were rivals at first, but then we grew to like and eventually... love one another." Twilight smiled as she recalled everything. "I was so honored to have her father's blessing. She's a princess herself. And then, with Sunset and my combined powers, we created our daughter, Starlight Glimmer."

And with that, they all sat and chatted about lighter topics, while secretly wishing they were home with their families.

Author's Notes:

* Golden apples - Greek myth reference

* Half Baked Apple - I'm going to make a huge assumption here and say he can be Braeburn's dad in this story. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong!

Also, I know Maud Pie is also a servant to Twilight... in that lifetime. All will be explained later on.