What Shall be True

“Now remember what I told you. Keep a calm focus, and don’t try to force it. Just tell it where to go.”

“Twilight, I’ll have you know that I've lowered the sun before.”

“True. But you don’t remember how anymore. And that’s why I’m teaching you.”

Celestia just sighed, then focused, then focused as hard as she could once her horn started to glow. Twilight didn’t say anything. She knew from experience how much concentration it took to move the sun.

Instead, Twilight lit up her own horn, feeling her magic extend outward into the sky, sweeping wave after wave of stars and nebulae like she was painting on a canvas. As usual, she saved two little patches, filling one with a set of stars in the shape of a dragon, and leaving the other blank and pitch-black. A little tribute, in memoriam, to those who didn’t get this far.

She could still remember the thrill she felt when she first learned she could paint the stars onto the sky. That night, she had covered the sky in rivers upon rivers of stars, to let all the world know who now ruled Equestria. According to everypony who came to Canterlot afterwards, the celebrations lasted almost a week.

Tonight, though, Twilight just followed her usual routine.

“Wow…” Twilight opened her eyes, pausing her painting of the night sky to look down at Celestia. She was staring up at the night sky, her eyes filled with the sparkles and glows of the late-evening sky. It was still so strange to see her old mentor this way. Twilight was (according to her measurements) one-and-a-half times her height, and looked a lot more like Celestia than Celestia looked now. The white alicorn was strong and healthy, but had faint bags under her eyes betraying her infrequent nightmare spells. Her mane and tail were still made of hair, colored sky blue and tied up in long, thick braids, much like Applebloom did these days. Twilight didn’t want to say anything about it at this point, but she was worried the farmpony was becoming a bad influence on the princess.

“This may be your most beautiful job yet, Twilight.”

Twilight just smiled, putting the finishing touches on her work. “I’m glad you think so, ‘Tia. I put a little more work into it this time. A…a little going-away present.”

Celestia turned, surprised. “Going away!? Are you…are you leaving somewhere?”

“Somewhen would be a little more accurate. Remember what I told you about how I skipped five years?”

“But…Equestria needs you! I need you!” She deflated, kicking at the stones of the balcony like she could dislodge the construct. “I can’t do this by myself, Twilight.”

Twilight let out a soft sigh, then wrapped a wing over Celestia to pull her close into a hug. “I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t believe you could. I know you’ll be fine, ‘Tia. You just have to believe in yourself, and your own ability. Besides, you won’t be alone. You’ll have all these ponies.” Twilight gestured out over Canterlot, and all of Equestria beyond. “They’re not just your subjects. They’re here for you, and if you need them, they’ll be there to support you, and give you strength. All you have to do is ask.”

“Like you and your friends?”

Twilight smiled. “They’re your friends too, you know.”

It was meant to cheer up the other alicorn, but she just sighed. “They don’t understand. Not like you do.”

Twilight just tilted her head up with a hoof, making sure she saw her knowing smile. “I think they understand a little better than you think. After all, they had to deal with me for six years, and Luna only knows how hard that must’ve been.”

Celestia giggled. Then Twilight joined in, and before they knew it, they were both laughing like maniacs for no reason at all.

But it wasn’t long before the laughter faded, and Celestia snuggled up against Twilight. “Do you really have to leave, though?”

Twilight nodded somberly. “Stopping pain is good. Making sure it never happened is better.”

Celestia didn’t say anything, simply nodded. Twilight simply reveled in the sensation of Celestia curled against her under her wing. Twilight had spent a long time getting her back into the groove of being Princess. Filling her in on the memories Chrysalis stole from her. Training her in whatever she didn’t know anymore. Comforting her when her nightmares or panic attacks got too bad to cope with. Slowly increasing her workload, so she got used to running a country again. And all her efforts had paid off. While Celestia was far from back to her old self, and would probably never get there, Twilight was fully confident that it was time for her to step back and leave Equestria in Celestia’s capable hooves.

After a while, Twilight said her last goodbye to the Last Alicorn Princess, and leapt off the balcony to take off into the night. She was glad for the lessons on basic flight that Rainbow had given her, though she still couldn’t pull off her friends’ incredible agility. Her wings were still too damaged to do tricks like that. Dash was working with her, but given how large she was compared to Rainbow Dash, …she had her doubts Dash could work with a student who was twice her size.

Twilight glided gently, flapping a couple times to bleed off speed before landing as delicately as she could on the flowers of Canterlot’s garden.

Fluttershy still heard her coming. “Oh! H-Hello, Princess Sparkle.”

“Fluttershy, please, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Twilight?” She smiled at the young yellow Pegasus, who was wearing a thin silky dress for no reason at all. She looked almost exactly identical to the Fluttershy Twilight knew before she skipped forward in time, except for the bandage covering her eyes. Twilight had offered to give her blacked-out glasses, or even glass eyes, but she had politely refused for reasons nopony could quite get.

What she was doing out here was something she didn’t tell anypony. She sat out here every evening, staring without eyes at everything around her. She wouldn’t say, but Twilight always thought she was trying to see the stars again.

“Oh, well…um…”

Twilight smiled, fluttering her wing before sliding it over her friend. “I’m just kidding, ‘Shy. Call me whatever you want.”

Fluttershy smiled, then laughed to herself a little. “A-Are you…looking for somepony?”

“No. I was just heading down to the library, and thought I’d say hi when I saw you.”

“Oh. Well, you…y-you should get going. I don’t want to keep you.”

Twilight just smiled as she began to leave again. “Okay. I’ll see you later, ‘Shy.”

Fluttershy sounded like she was about to say something, but didn’t.

Twilight made her way into the Throne Room, deciding to make her first pit-stop on her way to the library. It wasn’t really anything outwardly special, but she wanted to take one last look at the stained-glass window Rarity had designed to celebrate their victory.

Three circles decorated its center, the biggest of the three in the middle and containing a representation of Chrysalis getting exploded. On the bottom was Twilight in her pony-like-alicorn state, shooting Chrysalis whilst surrounded by the past versions of all her friends (yes, Spike was included. How could he not be?). The top showed Twilight in her current form, also blasting Chrysalis, surrounded by this version of her friends.

It was a beautiful piece, and one that Twilight was still convinced wasn’t necessary. She had tried to advocate that the broken window this had been placed over should be repaired instead of replaced. Of course, Rarity had absolutely none of it, insisting that she would not let her friends’ magnificent victory go uncelebrated. Forget the fact that hundreds upon hundreds of ponies were still in recovery from being in cocoons (if they weren’t broken entirely) and Canterlot was in ruins. Twilight cared dearly for her friend, but she really needed to straighten out her priorities.

“Admiring my masterpiece again, darling?” Twilight turned to spot Rarity at the doors of the throne room. Leave it to Rarity to make that much body-cover look that good. “Or are you just planning on how to knock it down?”

Twilight giggled . “You know I’d never do that, Rarity. Besides, it is beautiful.”

“Eh. It could use more of me in it.” Dash swooped in and skidded to a halt next to Rarity, clopping onto the floor with all three hooves. She wasn’t wearing her prosthetic, again, even after Twilight had told her countless times how much of a health hazard her three-legged habits could be. Even so, she had to admit…being captain of the Royal Guard looked pretty good on her.

“Rainbow, how could you say something like that? It’s an insult to our dear friend and-“ Dash just grinned at her, that grin that screamed, “Gotcha!” Rarity saw it, and scoffed with annoyance. “Very funny, Dash.”

“It’s only funny ‘cause you keep falling for it. Honestly, when are you gonna learn that I’d never do anything to hurt my friends.”

“When you start using Jointed Wingblades instead of those straight-edged monstrosities. Honestly, you’re going to get somepony killed someday.”

“Nah, I’d rather keep my primaries intact. Besides, I’m too awesome for a dumb mistake like that. Right, Twi?”

Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Dash.”

“By the way, what are you doing just standing around? Shouldn’t you be with Celestia?”

“Oh, I was just about to head down to the library, and decided to drop by here.”

“O-Oh. I see…” Rarity shifted nervously. “While you’re here, Dash, I was wondering if you could come help me with a little something? I…need a model for some of my attempts at designing prosthetics.”

“Oh. Y-Yeah, sure. Sounds…awesome.” The two of them left, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts as she stared at the window.

A minute or two of rumination later, she made her way to her final pit-stop. To say a very important goodbye.

Which would have to wait until the other mare was done cooking.

“Twinkie! Get that soufflé out of the oven NOW!”

The Changeling drone immediately complied, though it looked to be a few moments too late, as the soufflé had blackened spots on its crust.

“Aww, shoot! It’s ruined! RUINED, I SAY!”

Twinkie looked almost ready to cry, but Applejack kept her air of disinterest going. “Looks alright t’me.”

“Ugh! That’s not helping, AJ! We’ll just have to start over from square one. Twinkie! Get all the gear ready!”

Twilight couldn’t help but be amazed as Twinkie nodded and started darting around the kitchen, levitating various bowls and boxes. The drones had come pretty far in the past couple years. Ever since they stopped receiving commands when Chrysalis had died, they had barely enough minds to think for themselves. But they did well enough aiding in the reconstruction, and attempts to help them grow as individuals and attain self-identities were showing impressive results. Many couldn’t read or write still, and barely any could speak more than a few words of Equestrian. They seemed to understand ponies for the most part, though, and seemed relatively contented working alongside them.

Except when it came to making soufflés, apparently.

“Oh, howdy, Twi! Come to sample the delicious fruits of our chef’s labor? Or have yeh come to check on the apples Ah delivered?”

Pinkie stiffened as soon as she heard Twilight’s name, but quickly regained composure and pretended she didn’t know the princess was there.

Twilight just smiled. “Neither. I was just heading down to the Library, and came by to see Pinkie.”

This time, it was AJ’s turn to pretend she wasn’t upset. “O-Oh. Well, I’ll leave you two to it, then.” She got up and started trying to walk past Twilight.

Twi stepped back to let the other mare through. She might be bigger than AJ, but she still had no desire to stand in her way.

Once the kitchen was clear of everypony except Pinkie and Twinkie, Twilight stepped through the doorway. “Pinkie?”

Pinkie pretended not to hear her again.

“Pinkie, what’s wrong?”

Pinkie broke the egg she was holding, losing the eggshell into what she was mixing. “Shoot! UGH!”

“Pinkie, just calm down.”

“HOW!? How COULD you!?” Pinkie turned to face Twi, staring up at her with pleading, teary eyes. “Putting me under house arrest, I can understand. Telling Celestia what I did, I can understand. Turning down my offer to be friends, I can understand. Hay, I deserve all of that! But leaving!? Leaving all of us forever again!?” She broke down, collapsing into a sitting position on the floor. “How could you?”

Twilight simply stood there, putting together her words. She’d practiced this monologue several times, and yet it still didn’t feel adequate. So she scrapped it, and made something up on the fly.

She laid down, so that she and Pinkie could see each other at eye level.

“Because you’re my friend, Pinkie.”

“Wh-How…How does that make any sense?”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I care about you, Pinkie Pie. And I want to be your friend. But…I just…I don’t think I’ll ever get past what you did.” Pinkie winced as she said that, reaching up with a hoof to rub the fading X that was forever branded into her shoulder.

“But…maybe...If I go back, that will never have happened. And…maybe then…we can be friends again.”

She looked like she was about to cry. “But it won’t be me.”

Twilight smiled, reaching forward with a hoof to tap her friends’. “It’s the best I can do.”

Pinkie almost started crying on the spot. But she didn’t. She just gulped down her tears, and nodded.

Twilight stood back up. Then she gave Pinkie a gentle kiss on the forehead, and whispered a soft little “Goodbye,” before leaving for the library.

She caught a glimpse of Twinkie shooting her a dirty look for making his boss nearly cry on the job. But Twilight didn’t react.

She just walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle.

She knew the route by heart. She had walked it countless times. It was only minutes before she reached the library, and barely thirty more seconds before she made it to the StarSwirl the Bearded Wing.

And there it was, sitting on a pedestal in the middle like it had always belonged there.

A Compendium of StarSwirls’ Unfinished Works.

Twilight reached out with her magic and opened the book to the appropriate page. Well, pages. After all, tucked into that section was scroll after scroll of Twilight’s notes. A years’ worth of work trying to reroute the spell in the appropriate direction.

But it was finished.

A spell that would let her open a portal to anywhere in all of time.

She had originally worried about the dangers. But it turned out there were none. She hadn’t told Pinkie that, though. The mare had enough on her conscience without another application of guilt.

She closed her eyes and focused on the formula, subbing in the appropriate numbers in the appropriate places.

clop clop clop thunk!

Twilight smiled softly, opening her eyes as she turned around to stare down at the five ponies gathered near the doorway.

“If you’re going to try to stop me, I should warn you in advance that it won’t work.”

“We ain’t here to stop yah, Twi. We’re here to see you off.”

Twilight looked over the five of them. They looked truly magnificent together. Pained, scarred, but contented nonetheless. Twilight felt her own scars itch, particularly the faded burns on her belly, and remembered all the things they had gone through together. The good and the bad.

Rarity had her cloak covering her, but her hood drawn. Her mane only existed at the very top of her neck, and furless skin that was a deep, stormy grey twisted and wrapped around her neck and all over her back and legs. And yet, her eyes shone with a light and beauty that nopony, not even past Rarity, had ever known.

Dash was decked out in Royal Guard armor, sans the helmet, and the silver-and-cyan metal was delicately and intricately carved and seemed to shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow. Her right eye was covered in its usual patch, and her right foreleg didn’t exist at all. But her mane shimmered and shone with every color in the spectrum as she flipped it out of her good eye. And Twilight could remember all those times she’d pull a prank and slap on that grin of hers that just made you laugh and laugh instead of hating her.

Applejack stood head and neck above the rest, nearly matching Twilight herself in the height contest. Her prosthetic hoof was now professionally made, but still clomped and thumped as she walked. And she had a scar running from her left cheek all the way down her neck, a token of their victory over Chrysalis. And yet, Twilight was reminded of all the times she would smile and tip her Stetson and bellow out a laugh over a mug of cider.

Fluttershy stood calmly, her ears no longer twitching and whirling to build a map of the room. The bandage over her eyes wasn’t rough cloth anymore, but fine silk that Rarity offered her. Her gown and mane flowed beautifully in the nonexistent wind, revealing bits and pieces of the many fading scars the Changeling Swarm had given her. She looked heartbroken that her best friend was leaving, but Twilight knew she would carry on. She was strong like that.

Pinkie Pie sat near the edge of the group, not wanting to face Twilight. The webwork of scars and burns that once coated her were now fading, her coat returning to cover them up. But the two on her shoulder still remained, a signature to remind the six of them forever of the crimes she had committed in the name of her friend. And while she said she’d never get better, Twilight couldn’t help but remember the look on her face when she threw Celestia’s coronation party. The life and joy it held…it was still there. She just needed to be reminded of that sometimes.

“Is…Is there anything we can say to make you stay here?” Fluttershy’s voice distracted Twilight from her musings.

Twilight shook her head. “I’ve had two years to think about it. I’m not turning back now.”

“But what if the world ends, like you said!?”

“From what I can tell, I don’t think that will happen. I just won’t remember this timeline.” A white lie, but one she had to say. She didn’t have the heart to tell them that she had no idea what would happen.

Rarity gasped. “What do you mean? You won’t remember us!?”

“I’m sure I’ll remember you in some shape or form. Just not in the usual sense.”

They seemed to soak in that unpleasant thought.

Applejack was the first to speak. “We’ll miss you, Twi. We’ll miss you every day. You can bet’cher royal little behind on that.”

Twi couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I’ll miss you, too.”

They looked like they wanted to smother her in a group hug, but couldn’t let go if they did. So they simply stood silently.

She glanced back to the spell, re-memorizing the formula and focusing on it in her mind.

Then, as she started to put it into action, she smiled at the five of them.

“You’re the best friends I ever had,” she stated as she pressed down on the fabric of the universe.

Then she broke into the timestream, and reached her magic out to the appropriate point.

She felt herself get tugged in…

…and vanish.