A hundred Twilight's screams will awaken the Twilight's blind eyes.
-Everfree Forest, Equestria, 1004 AN-
Twilight Sparkle, the former student of Princess Celestia, now stood in front of the Tree of Harmony, looking at the Box of Harmony.
Three years of trials and tribulations, of laughs and loss, of so many things that she had experienced, they had all led up to this moment.
At one point, she had thought that friends weren't needed, oh how wrong she was.
During the walk to the cave, she had realized that she could have very well died at several points between now and then, but that didn't matter now.
No, what could have been didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was what did happen.
Well, sometimes looking at what could have happened helped one appreciate what actually did happen, and Twilight very much appreciated everypony in her life.
Then why couldn't she do this for them? She stood in front of the Box of Harmony, keys still levitated far out to the sides.
Why couldn't she just put the keys in and open the damn box?
"Okay, come on Twilight, you can do this, just... Celestia dammit, I just need to open the box, WHY IS THIS SO HARD." she groaned, bringing the Keys of Friendship slightly closer.
Something inside of her was holding her back. Was it fear? Anxiety? What? All she was doing was opening a box, what reason did she have to be afraid?
She breathed in and out, in and out, in and out, trying to calm herself, but it failed miserably.
Twilight wished her friends were here, but they had rejected the invitation, they didn't want to deal with the Box of Harmony at the moment.
The aforementioned artifact gleamed with power, the keys were brought in close.
"Ugh, I just need to do this, I just need to *stomp* fucking do this." she didn't like cursing, but it felt necessary at this moment.
Twilight felt like she had to turn back, but she couldn't turn back now, not after her friends went through all of those incidents and hardships to get the keys in the first place!
Each one of them had gone through some sort of classic scenario.
Rarity had gone through the stress of the classic 'realizing you stepped on your friends to get to the top' scenario. Of course convenient absence with an innocent explanation always strikes hard.
Pinkie Pie lost her mind in the classic 'feeling threatened by some random trend' scenario. Granted going Pinkamena-mode again didn't help out.
Rainbow Dash had to go through the classic 'choose between your wild dreams or your mild reality' scenario. Of course choosing not to choose isn't a valid decision.
Applejack nearly lost her mind in the 'tried your best and ended up doing your worst' scenario. Funny enough that scenario almost always happens whenever somepony vows to do their best.
Fluttershy had to go through the classic 'being right, but being forced to do the wrong thing' scenario. She had taken the brunt of the backlash as well, the poor thing.
Twilight herself, she didn't really do much, the last key had actually appeared in her saddlebag between when she packed up the other five keys and when she got them out at the mouth of the cave.
As much as her sudden anxiety tried, it couldn't keep her from stepping closer.
The alicorn could feel the power radiating from this even-more-ancient-than-the-ancient-artifacts-artifact, and could tell that she was sweating.
It was a cold sweat, the sweat of fear, once again the fear returned, but was it fear of the possibilities of the future?
No, it was the fear of not knowing which possibility was the correct one.
"I wish my friends were here. Ooooooh, why didn't I just push them a little harder, I could at least use the moral support," she lamented as she put the keys into the holes.
Every fiber of her being was screaming at her to stop now, to turn around, to run away, and to not look back, to never look back...
...
...
...
... She finally listened, she could hear the peal of a hundred sighs inside of her head, then silence.
The Box of Harmony still gleamed and glowed with power, the Keys of Friendship levitated close to the keyholes.
"No, I'm not going to do this," she finally resolved.
The cave rumbled, magic burst forth out of her body, it was intense, it was blinding, it was powerful, it was... familiar and yet different.
An ethereal image formed in front of her, it was herself, but its eyes looked dead.
"Twilight, me, don't, just walk away, this box contains nothing but evil," the ethereal Twilight said, her voice sounded like a hundred Twilights at once, but all of them were exhausted, combined with either sadness or anger, the real Twilight couldn't tell which.
"I don't get it, what's going on?" Twilight was worried, she could feel that this was the result of some sort of magical backlash.
"Twilight, for a long time, the Spirits of Harmony have been testing you, and you've slowly been getting better, but do not, I repeat, do NOT open that box. If you do, it will send you back to Day One of your journey as the Element of Magic, there are no checkpoints, there are no respawns, it wipes away everything you've achieved thus far, and sends you back to do it over again." regret was plastered all over the other alicorn's tone, regret and the desire for vengeance.
"But, the implications of this, it means..." the alicorn trailed off, she couldn't believe what was happening.
"For three hundred years, this has been going on, and each time you've gotten closer to breaking the cycle. The Spirits of Harmony's methods, though..." the ethereal alicorn trailed off as well, gathering her rage to put forth her point.
"What about their methods?"
"Years, literally years, of progress, lost. Lost to the constant flow of repeating, and repeating, failure, repeating, is there anything to gain from this? Yes. Is there anyting to feel-"
"Anyting?" the real Twilight tried to find a smidgeon of humor to lighten the mood, but any attempts of comic relief would have instantly died in the face of this knowledge.
"Anyting to feel from this? Yes. But what is it that makes you, makes us have to go through this a hundred times, literally a hundred times?"
"You said the Spirits of Harmony were sending me back, but why?"
"They don't think you're worthy, but tell me, how many times have you stolen in your life? Lied? Cheated? How many times?"
"Well, I've only stolen a couple of times, maybe once or twice. Stolen, maybe three or four times. Cheated, five- WAIT, do tests count?" Twilight asked, this was important.
"Yes, yes they do."
"Okay then, six, six cheats." Twilight frowned, she still felt kinda guilty about that quantum physics test.
"Listen, Twilight, go to Discord, get a pledge of protection, he's a deity, so he can give those. Then you should come back here and open the box again, this time, if you got the pledge, it should protect you from the mind-wipe."
"What if I don't get it right?"
"Then next time you will, we've finally broken through to awaken you, now go, GO!" the ethereal Twilight faded away, leaving the corporeal Twilight and the Box of Harmony.
The lavender alicorn looked at the box, then turned around and galloped away as fast as she could, taking care to secure the Keys of Friendship back inside her saddlebags.
She was going to get this right.
-Canterlot, Equestria, 1004 AN-
The guards standing outside of Discord's chamber were startled when Princess Twilight appeared in a bright flash of magical light, she had teleported there.
"Let me in!" she commanded, startling the guards further.
The two stallions nodded curtly, stepped to the side, and opened the door slightly, Twilight gave a smile of gratitude and trotted inside.
An archway of chartreuse lightning lined the doorframe, giving Twilight a playful shock on the flank, causing her to yelp in surprise and phantom pain.
"AHAHAAHAAAA, oh wow, that was funny, I've been waiting all day for somepony to walk in," Discord laughed, pouring himself a chocolate milk of glass and drinking it.
He made a flourishing motion with the milk, causing it to turn into a flock of doves, "So, what brings Pwincess Twiwight to the chamber of the big, bad, SCAWY Discord. Has my boyish charm rendered you incapable of running away?" he asked in his usual half-sarcastic-half-joking tone
"Well, I have the Keys of Friendship, and-" Discord cut her off with a roaring applause coming from his snapping fingers.
"Oh you go girl, get those keys," he stretched his arms out of the window and grabbed a pair of pom-poms from a nearby cloud, "Yeah, Twilight, Twilight, she's our mare, if she can't do it, I don't care." he set the pom-poms on fire, turning one into a Giggles candy bar and the other into a joint.
"What in Celestia's mane are you doing?"
"Well, Twilight, sometimes I run out of ideas, and like most normal ponies of society, I have a hobby," he half-explained, taking a puff.
"Which is?" she gestured for him to continue.
"Well, I like to: just blaze. You know, smoking: dat herb," the draconequus said in a mock-scholar's voice, adjusting his donut monocle.
"You mean, like cannabis?" Twilight attempted to clarify.
"No, benzomethylecgonine," Discord correct, pointing to his reddened nostrils, then grabbing the redness and sliding it back up to his eyes.
"I... I didn't come here to talk about your drug addictions, I came here because I need help," the alicorn got the metaphorical train back onto the metaphorical track.
"Oh? What help would you need from me?" the draconequus asked melodramatically.
Then he transformed into Celestia, "Wouldn't you get help from ol' Tia?" he transformed into Luna, "Or little Lulu?"
Then he transformed into himself, but still female.
"I... I need a pledge of protection," she admitted, wishing that Discord would turn back to normal, these transformations brought back bad memories of her brother's wedding.
"Oh, okay, here." Discord changed back to normal, at least normal for him, and tossed over small object, a necklace that landed around Twilight's neck perfectly.
He pumped his fist at the great success of this task. Looping something around somepony's neck was deceivingly difficult.
The alicorn looked down at it, it was a gold mobius strip, attached to a necklace that looked like it was made out of chocolate.
"Really? You'd give it to me that easily?" she knew she should leave well-enough alone, but this was just too weird.
Discord turned into a pony, he had a gray coat with unshorn fetlocks and brown hooves, his mane and tail were black and he had a black goatee, his cutie mark was his draconequus form, he had black bat wings with bright blue feathers covering the frames, and his horn was slightly jagged and made of stripes of off-white and powder blue.
What Twilight noticed most, though, was that he didn't look any older than nineteen.
"Twilight, I know from experience, that you wouldn't ask ME of all ponies for a pledge of protection if you didn't need one so badly that you would ask ME of all ponies for a pledge of protection. Therefore, the cake is a truth and I snuck some truth from the royal kitchen. You should 'get along now' as AJ say, and go do whatever it is that is so important that you need to do it." he punctuated this with a very loud crunching sound.
His teeth had shattered from harshly biting into the cake, because it was made of solid rock.
Twilight backed away slowly, then turned and teleported out of the room.
Discord shrugged, licking the cake, his saliva causing it to melt, because it wasn't just rock, it was rock candy.
-Everfree Forest, Equestria, 1004 AN-
Princess Twilight Sparkle appeared in a flash of violet light, finding herself in front of the cave that held the Tree of Harmony.
Trotting into the massive cavern again, she looked at the Box of Harmony, then to the ethereal image of herself, it nodded.
The Amulet of Chaotic Protection was held close to her heart, the Keys of Friendship levitated into the air.
The Keys of Selflessness, Unity, Authenticity, Joy, Caring, and... she still wasn't sure about the sixth one.
The Box of Harmony gleamed with power, the keys were brought in close.
"Come on, Twilight, just fucking do it, you'll be fine... hopefully," she muttered, her ethereal self nodded in approval, and the stripe-maned mare continued.
The keys entered the keyholes, and one by one they turned, each one eliciting rays of bright light from the holes.
When the final, unidentified key turned, the very top face of the box opened like a camera's shutters.
A yellow piece of paper elevating out of the hole, the piston face sealing the inside of the top once again.
The ethereal Twilight faded away, leaving the corporeal Twilight alone to read the words on the paper.
Congratulations to: Twilight Sparkle
You have once again risen to the challenge and have now opened the Box of Harmony, again, congratulations, you did it! Yay!
Unfortunately, the bad changes you have undergone during the last three years (reducing yourself to theft, magical charms, lying, among other chaotic things) have somehow outweighed the good changes you have undergone (saving Equestria from great evil many times, defeating and reforming Discord, god of chaos, even earning the privilege of being a princess).
This imbalance can, sadly, not be accepted by the powers that be. If we were to allow you to continue as you are, it would throw off the balance of Equus and destroy Harmony completely, and Harmony would stay destroyed until the day that you were to die. This is because your very life is what would keep Harmony down.
Do not fret, for the Spirits of Harmony are kind, generous, and honest, so they have decided to give you another chance.
You will be sent forward, to the past, to make amends for your transgressions.
Sorry, but if you had done things a little better, you'd be fine, but since you just couldn't do it right, you have to do it over.
Say goodbye to your friends, your crown, and your achievements, because you're about to lose everything you have.
See you at the exact same time, exact same place, exact same year, again.
This is for your inability to leave well-enough alone.
Sincerely, The Spirits of Harmony.
Twilight wasn't afraid, no, not this time.
The top half of the box slid off of the bottom half, releasing awe-inspiring amounts of magical energy that swirled and coalesced and made a storm of power that threatened to tear the cave to pieces, to escape from its confinement and tear the sky asunder.
It threatened to destroy everything, and yet it claimed that Twilight was evil?
She was being slowly, yet forcibly pulled in, but she was calm.
The lavender alicorn didn't try to run, fly, or teleport away, it would be useless even if she could..
The Amulet of Chaotic Protection shined with the holy magic of chaos, she felt fire licking at her hooves, lightning lashing at her whole body.
Her wings went numb, then disappeared, she looked into the eye of the storm, and she saw something that would have horrified her if she hadn't braced for impact.
She saw herself... but different
On a grassy hill... alone.
Laying under a tree... near a river.
Reading a book... Ye Olde Myths ande Legendes.
In Canterlot... three years ago.
As a unicorn... with no friends.
"I'll see you all soon enough, I guess..." she began crying.
Twilight was about to lose it all, again.
Her mind may have been protected, but her body wasn't, and it hurt, it hurt enough that she would have sworn she would die from suffering.
She screamed in pain, it was all she could do at this point.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." and she fell away.
Fell away, away, away.
Back to do it all over again.
But this time, she would do it right.
-Canterlot, Equestria, 1000 AN-
Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, laid on her favorite reading spot, reading Ye Olde Myths ande Legendes.
"And Celestia took over Luna's job, I know this story," she said, standing up and closing the book, levitating it into her saddlebags.
She brought the Amulet of Chaotic Protection up to eye-level, since Discord, at this point in time, was still sealed away, the golden Mobius strip was now stone.
She held it tightly, it would be useful.
"Spirits of Harmony," she started, looking up at the sky.
The memories of what had happened over the past three years stayed fresh in her mind, she could still here the ruffling of feathers, the laughter of her own voice with her friends, the glittering of the gems that were the Elements of Harmony, the gold of the regalia that Celestia wore and those that held the Elements.
"You've tried this many times, and I've failed each and every time, but not this time." she started off on a slow trot, gradually speeding up.
The wind started whipping past her as she galloped as fast as she could. She was going to fail again.
"No, not this time," she shouted in defiance, speeding past ponies on the streets like a fruit bat out of tartarus.
All of her friends, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, they were waiting for her.
She wouldn't keep them waiting much longer, she was running towards a new fate, she could run faster, stronger, and more confidently now.
Because now, she was awake.
Author's Note
So, already made a sequel, this is also a one-shot, but the sequel to THIS will be a fully processional story.
Contains heavily edited material from the original, hopeful edited heavily enough to pass moderation *nervous laughter*
I hope you all liked it, if so, leave a comment and/or like, and I hope to see you all again in my next story.
If you haven't read From Wires to Wonders, go read it, and check out my blog posts and other stories.
Fun Fact: there are exactly 90 lines between the end of the 'present' section and the transition to the past, there are 90 episodes between the Season 4 finale and the Season 1 premiere, which is what the transition signifies, the erasing of those 90 episodes
Fun Fact: there is a Game Grumps reference in here, can you spot it?
This is P1 signing out.
*bzhoo~*
