What Shall be True

by Blackjack488

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 32997

An accident launched Twilight over five years into the future, landing her with no magic in an Equestria that has long since fallen to Changelings. A smart pony would wait until she can leave again. But can Twi really abandon her friends like that?

Accidents happen. They're bound to happen when dealing with unfinished, untested spells. Some would say to learn from them. But unlike Twilight Sparkle, those people's accidents don't leave them stranded in the future, with no magic and in great pain. But all this is before she realizes the future she's been trapped in.

She skipped over five years. In that time, Canterlot has fallen to Changelings, the Crystal Empire has vanished off the face of Equestria, Luna has been killed, and three of her friends scattered to nopony knows where. And to top it all off, she's stuck here until her horn heals and she can use magic again.

A smart pony would sit and find a nice corner to wait in. But can Twilight really turn her back on her friends like that?

Story inspired by HazuraSinner's series of portraits. While I'm not following her idea exactly, and using ponies instead of humanizations, credit to her for the original concept.
Title quote is from John Ruskin: "Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future."

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-07 18:16:11 UTC

As the smoke clears,

Pain was the first thing Twilight felt when she came to.

It was mostly in her head. Specifically, her forehead, though the whole thing felt like it was a balloon filled with hot sauce. A hot-sauce balloon filled with nerves and suffering and pain.

Along with a few cramps from eating too quickly.

With a long, low groan, she slowly decided to crack open her eyes. Not that it did much. Apparently, it was extremely dark in the future. Either that or it was just nighttime. Or there were stars in her eyes from having run into a solid object. It was hard to tell.

She did her best to stand up, only to wince in agony as her head moved.

Tenderly, she reached up and touched one cramped foreleg to her head. Her face itself was more or less fine, aside from the bruises dotting her forehead.

But the instant her hoof touched her horn, she hissed and winced in the pain that nearly made her black out again. Something was wrong with it. Something bad.

‘Oh, Celestia…what if…?’

Her body ran ahead of her brain, as she located a nearby book and focused on it. Tried to warp the space around it, make gravity go in reverse so it could levitate.

Immediately, her spell backlashed, and she felt a sudden massive pressure in her brain as her spell flipped backwards and pushed on her skull from the inside. The pain knocked her right back to the ground, and she saw stars orbit her head briefly as she recovered.

She struggled to get back to her hooves, her mind reeling with more than just physical pain.

If that was the backlash from something as simple as levitation, then anything bigger might kill her.

So no magic. Not until her horn healed.

So…not only was she somewhere in the future, but she also couldn’t get back. Not for a while.

“Ugh…un…be…lievable…”

That summed things up quite nicely.

“T…Twi…?”

The voice was soft, but immediately set her on guard. It sounded so familiar, and yet…kind of off--

“TWILIGHT!”

A wave of newfound agony screamed up and down her body as Pinkie Pie crashed into Twilight and threw the both of them to the floor.

“AUGH! Oh! Oh, CELESTIA, my head!”

“Twilight, I can’t believe it’s you! Y-you came b-back…”

Pinkie finally released Twilight enough for her to turn upright. Though not for any longer, since just as Twilight turned to her, she received a full-on bone-crushing from…was Pinkie crying?

Twilight could do little more than sit there in shock as Pinkie pulled their bodies harder and harder together, tears spilling from her face as she did. That is, until Pinkie’s face brushed against one of the many bruises Twilight’s forehead now apparently possessed.

She winced. “Ow! Pain! Head! Lots of pain!”

Pinkie looked pained and dejected, until she caught sight of Twilight’s injuries. “Oh! You’re hurt! Oh, I’m so sorry, Twi.”

“Heh. It’s alright.” It really wasn’t, but Twilight didn’t have the heart to say it. “I just…I think I hit something when I got here.”

She giggled softly, almost like she was afraid of the noise but too happy to care. “You sure did. Sc-scared me right out of bed.”

Twilight smiled back at her, taking her in for the first time. It was definitely Pinkie Pie, all right, but it was hard to get a good look at her in the barely-present light. Something about her seemed off, though. Her mane was nearly flattened. Her voice seemed raspier, hoarser. Twilight could only assume that it was a side-effect of her crying for what she believed to be her long-lost friend. It made sense, but it also meant that she’d probably been gone a little longer than five minutes. Maybe a few hours? If she’d left at about noon, and it was nighttime now…

Almost twelve hours? Wow…talk about off course.

But something nagged at the back of her mind. Shouldn’t the moon be out?

Pinkie clasped against her again, sobbing heavily, careful not to touch Twi’s forehead. “I w-waited rig-ght here. Just…just like I s-said!”

Twilight just sighed softly and set a hoof on her friend, only for the differences to become sharp and clear. Her fur was matted and unkempt, and there were one or two places where there just wasn’t any fur.

Twilight just stared, despite the fact that she couldn’t see anything. “Pinkie…do you have a light?”

“W-wouldn’t your magic be better?”

“My magic isn’t working. I think I hit my horn on something when I got here.”

“You b-broke your horn?”

“Not completely. But it won’t work until it heals.”

“And how long will that be?”

“Well, I won’t know until I see it.”

“Oh! I-I’ll go get a light!”

Twilight just chuckled to herself as Pinkie scrambled upstairs. She couldn’t help herself. That pony was truly something else. And as the impossible-to-understand pink partier went off to find a candle, Twilight took in the room as much as she could.

Now that her eyes were adjusted to it, she could see a little bit better. And confirm that she was, indeed, in the Golden Oaks Library. It looked in fairly good condition, too, minus how many books seemed to be missing from the shelves. The table in the middle of the room was gone completely. Her desk looked cleaner than it ever had. But the floor felt familiar under her wobbly legs as she stood up on them, and the shape of the building was entirely unchanged. She could even see (barely) where she’d cast the divination spell, by the dark patch on the floor. But despite being so familiar, it felt so…empty. Like a shell of a home. It wasn’t an easy feeling to put her hoof on.

There was a faint amount of light coming through the windows, and Twilight took a few wobbly steps to better get a look at them. She remembered that window in particular. It was the one Rainbow had crashed through barely moments ago. It looked fine, bizarrely. The glass was intact. But...curtains sat on it that she had never seen before. And the sky outside looked solid black. That nagged at Twilight more than anything. If it was nighttime, shouldn’t Luna’s moon be out and shining? And if it was night, and the moon wasn’t there…what did that say about this place?

She snapped back to attention as she heard Pinkie’s hooves clop-clopping on the stairs. She could make out the other mare set something on the desk. Then…

Boing! Shhhht! Thunk. Boing! Shhhht! Thunk.

“Uhhh…Pinkie? What are you doing?”

She ignored Twi, the first sign that something was really off. As she continued her unexplained actions, the room began to get darker, and darker, and…

Pinkie thudded to the floor next to Twilight as the last light disappeared from the room. Then the sound of her hooves echoed slightly as she casually trotted over towards where she’d left the candle and matches.

“How can you see? It’s pitch black in here!”

“Oh! I’ve done this hundreds of times. It gets pretty easy after the fifty-fifth or so.”

“Hundreds of—“ Twilight’s words left her as the sudden brightness of the match being lit hit her. She ground her eyes shut, turning away, before opening them just enough to let her eyes adjust.

Blessedly, it took less time for her eyes to adjust than before. Perhaps there’s some connection between head injury and pupil dilation?

Twilight turned back to face Pinkie Pie as her vision cleared. And what she saw…

“Oh my…Pinkie!? What…what happened to you?”

She let out a soft, timid laugh as Twilight took in her first good look at the pink Earth pony. Her mane was flat to the point of being lifeless, and her tail was cut short to the point where it was nearly gone. Her eyes kept twitching and turning every which way, like she was scared something would leap out of the shadows from any direction. Her fur was matted and singed in places, and in some areas it was entirely gone, revealing skin and white scars underneath. Two in particular jumped out at Twilight; a pair of thick white scars that covered her entire right shoulder, making a large X shape.

She looked like she’d gone through Tartarus and back.

“Heh… I always wondered what you’d say when you saw me like this.”

That something nagging at the back of Twi’s mind was now screaming at her as she fit the puzzle pieces together. “Pinkie…how long have I been gone?”

Pinkie Pie shifted nervously. “Listen, Twi. Don’t blame yourself. It was an accident, I know it—“

“How. Long. Was I gone?”

She looked down at the floor, pawing at the stairs nervously. “One thousand, nine hundred and eighty-eight days.”

Twi did some quick math in her head. That many days ended up being a little over…

Her feet stumbled.

…five years.

Twilight Sparkle had jumped over five years into the future.

Her head reeled, and she sat down before she fell down.

“T-Twi…”

“Five years…?”

“Listen, I-I saw the whole thing. It was an accident! You can’t blame yourself-!”

“I’ve been gone for…five…whole…years?”

Pinkie took a resumed interest in the floor. “Plus six months, one week, and three days. Four, now.”

Twilight looked over Pinkie again, everything suddenly becoming clear.

“Wh…What’d I miss?”

Pinkie sat down, staring almost absently at the floor in front of Twilight’s feet. “When you left, we…we waited for you to come back. We took turns sleeping here, in case you showed up again. We didn’t tell the princess right away, though. We thought…we thought that maybe you’d messed up and went ahead a week or so. After all, if you’d gone to the past, you’d try to let us know with, like, a time capsule or something. So we knew you’d gone to the future. We just didn’t know how far.” Pinkie started to cry again. “B-But you never…showed up. A little while later, we sent a letter to the princess, telling her what happened. She tried to keep it qu-quiet, but…word got out. And once people found out the Element of Magic went missing...word somehow got to the Ch-Changelings, and th-they attacked.”

Suddenly, her scars made sense. She could even place a few of them. That one looks like a bite mark where the fangs were torn out. That one, a burn from a magic blast. That one, a wingblade from one who had probably imitated a Pegasus.

Sudden pain washed over her. Not the physical kind anymore. But a sudden, sweeping realization that Chrysalis had attacked, “…and I wasn’t there to stop her.”

Pinkie nodded, trying so hard to hold her composure. “They’d been p-planning it for a while. Hiding as g-guards, as nobles. And when they did hit…” she almost breaks down sobbing, but then catches herself, “they hit Equestria all at once. Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, a few big cities and military bases, and…here. We d-drove them out of Ponyville, and there are r-rumors that the Crystal Empire made it. But…” she trails off, and she doesn’t need to finish that sentence.

Canterlot fell.

“What about the Elements?”

“We couldn’t get to the Tree of Harmony. B-Besides, without you, w-we didn’t know if it would work…”

“But…the Princesses? They could have done something!”

“They t-tried, Twi! B-but Celestia got capt-tured the f-first day. Luna and almost a th-third of Ponyville tried to save her, b-but…” she breaks down crying.

Twilight almost asked her what happened. But then it clicked in her brain.

The night was too dark, like the moon wasn’t there.

Luna is directly tied to the moon.

And if the moon isn’t there…

She fell all the way onto the floor, just staring at Pinkie as it all sank in like needles into her brain. She didn’t even know if it was possible for Luna to die. But evidently, it was. And if the Changelings overpowered even Luna and Celestia,

then…Shining…Cadence…

Twilight had to work to keep herself from crying too.

“What about our friends? As long as we’re together, we—“

Pinkie interrupted her with newfound raucous sobs. She could barely even speak, but she managed to choke out a couple words.

“…gone…they’re all…just…gone…”

Just when Twi thought nothing in this future could rend her heart more…

She scooted over to Pinkie, holding her in a comforting embrace even when she wasn’t sure who needed it more.

The ghosts of friends long gone

It wasn’t until the faintest hints of sunlight peeked through the edges of the blackout curtains that Twilight let go of her friend. Her stomach was screaming angrily at her that it was done digesting, and Pinkie’s was groaning with a need to eat something. So the two of them, by some unspoken agreement, scooped themselves up off the floor of the dark room.

Pinkie shook her head as she stood, as if she could clear away the sadness with physical force. Her legs stopped shaking, but none of her usual life returned.

“Are you gonna be okay, Pinkie?”

She forced a smile. “Of course. But…I mean, are you okay, Twilight? I know this must be a lot to take in…”

“It…it is. But I think I can manage.”

“Good. Now go hide somewhere while I find the disguise for you that I stashed.”

“You have a disguise for me?”

“Well, I have had five years to get ready.”

“Heh. Alright. Well, I’ll be in the bathroom if you need me.”

“Okay.”

As normally as she could, Twilight ascended the staircase to the bedrooms, and the bathroom at the end of the hall. And as she went about her routine, she started planning ahead.

Problem one: No magic for a while, due to an injured horn.

Problem two: Changelings everywhere, who would probably kill her (or worse) on sight.

Problem three: All her friends, with the exception of one, are Celestia knows where.

Problem four: Equestria is probably in ruins, at the very least under hostile occupation.

Problem five: The elements of harmony, her only chance to fix this, are locked away in the Tree of Harmony and unusable without her friends around.

Twilight let out a long, annoyed sigh as she flushed away the remains of her sandwich feast. Did she even want to fix this? After all, wouldn’t just going back to her time be enough? This all happened because she wasn’t around to stop it.

But if she went back, then this timeline would continue on, which would condemn her friends to this awful place until they died a probably-horrible death. Could she really, honestly do that?

‘Focus, Twilight. One problem at a time.’

Twi finished washing her hooves and waited calmly for Pinkie as she thought. Problem two was already in the process of being fixed, just as soon as Pinkie got together her disguise. Problem one would fix itself after a while, provided she didn’t go hitting her head into anything else. As for three, four, and five—

Knock knock knock. “It’s me, Twi.”

She smiled and clicked the door open to let Pinkie inside.

The pink mare slid her saddlebags next to the sink before closing the door behind her. “Okay…we’ve got…black mane dye, a pair of colored contact lenses, and a color-matching skin suit to hide your wings and cutie mark.” She laid out the corresponding items on the floor as she listed them, along with various chemicals and mixing cups.

Twilight just stared. “Where did you get all this stuff?”

“I made it.”

“And you learned how…when?”

“Time’s a-wastin’! Let’s start with the mane dye.” She nudged Twilight into the bathtub before mixing the portions of the dye together. “And you left me with lotsa books and plenty of time. Didja really think I’d just sit there on the floor and stare at the clock for five and a half years?”

“I…I don’t know…” Twilight reached over the edge of the tub and gingerly poked the grey skin suit. It didn’t feel like fur. It felt a lot more like felt. “You said this changes color to match my coat?”

“Mmhm! Not right away, though. It doesn’t work that quick. Oh, speaking of which…” Pinkie reached over and plucked with her teeth a distinctly not-small clump of fur out of Twilight’s skin.

“Ow! What in Tartarus…?!” As she watched, Pinkie spat the little clump of fur into a nearby cup and began grabbing chemicals out of the bag and mixing them in.

“Sorry, Twi. But I have to isolate your fur color and concentrate it into a proper dye. I couldn’t do that without a sample.”

Twilight just rubbed the spot in annoyance. “You could have said something…”

Pinkie continued her work in silence, mixing chemicals in this cup, and cleaning contacts in this other one, poking and prodding and nagging at Twilight until after thirty long minutes Twilight was all set and disguised.

She looked at herself in the mirror, shifting slightly in the less-than-comfortable suit. It was weird to see somepony that was her, and yet was completely different. Her mane and tail were jet-black, with streaks of royal purple left behind. Her eyes were no longer purple, instead colored a rich dark blue that sat harshly against the rest of her colors. And where her wings and cutie mark once sat, she was left featherless and with a cutie mark made of a little constellation of Orion. Well, Orion with two stars out of place, but Orion enough.

“Whaddya think?”

She moved and turned, getting used to the way her legs moved against the borders of the body suit. “It looks great. It’s just weird that I look so…different.”

“Heh, that’s the idea. Now, to finish it all off with a new name! I was thinking Lavender Bloom.”

“I…sorry, Pinkie, but I don’t know if I can get behind that name.”

“O-Oh. Well, that’s okay. What were you thinking?”

Twilight stared at herself in the mirror again, taking in her new identity and trying to work backwards. Dark mane, unicorn…she wracked her brain, trying to fit the pieces together. Then she looked back at the cutie mark, the interjoined stars staring back at her like they had so long ago. Like they didn’t do these days.

And then it clicked.

“Darkest Night.”

That name felt more than appropriate.

“Oooh, I like it. Not bad for your first try at naming a pony.”

“Hah…thanks, Pinkie. And really, I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“It’s the least I could do.” She smiled softly, a smile that quickly faded once her stomach reminded her that it was empty.

“Somepony’s hungry,” Twi chuckled at her. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”

“Okay. You too. You must be starving!”

“Not at all. I had those sandwiches, remember?”

“But that was so long ago!” They made it down to the ground floor, where the blackout curtains were drawn back and the midday sun was shining through the windows.

“To you, not to me. For me, it was just a split second.” Twilight glanced around, something not sitting quite right in her brain.

“Oh, right. Time travel and basic subjective reality.”

“Pinkie…What time is it?”

“About seven o’clock.”

“But based on the sun, it’s almost noon!”

“Yeah…the sun rises and sets pretty quick these days. You’ll get used to it.”

Twi just shook her head. “Anyway, what’re you having to eat?”

“Oh, usually I just have an apple.”

“Oh—wait. One apple!?”

“Yup. One apple, for breakfast and dinner.” She leaned over and whispered into Twilight’s ear like she was sharing a dark secret, “Sometimes I’ll splurge and have two.”

Twi just stared at the pink mare as she trotted over to the kitchen. “What happened to the Pinkie who used to eat a dozen cakes in one go?”

“There aren’t enough cakes around for that anymore,” she countered, without even looking back, before disappearing into the kitchen.

Twilight just sat, staring with confused and bewildered eyes at the now-clearly-visible Golden Oaks Library. The shelves were barren, with only the occasional fiction to break up the wooden walls. Most of the surfaces in the room, except her desk, were gone completely. Anything that proved somepony had actually lived here, let alone that this used to be a house of stories and knowledge, was completely absent. And if this was the main room…Twilight shuddered as she imagined what the bedrooms must look like.

How could things have gotten so…different? Sure, this was the future. Some differences were to be expected. But this…? The whole place felt just so…wrong.

‘And it’s all your fault,' Twilight reminded herself, ‘for disappearing when you did.’

Twilight barely heard Pinkie finish her breakfast and reappear as that thought settled into her brain.

“What’s wrong?”

Twilight took a deep breath before responding.

“I need to fix this”

“Fix what?”

“This!” She gestured all around them. “This world, this timeline, this…future! I messed it up, and before I leave I should at least try to help it.”

“Twi, you don’t have to…”

“We just need to find the others, and go get the Elements of Harmony…”

“Twilight, please…”

“…and then it won’t matter where we use them, because they’ll fix Equestria and kick those Changelings right in their little chitinous little—“

“TWILIGHT!”

Twilight immediately stopped, shrinking to the floor. She’d heard Pinkie scream more than a few times. But it was usually because she was excited about something, or just trying to get somepony’s attention. But never, in all the time they knew each other, had Twilight heard Pinkie scream with anger.

She never wanted to hear it again.

Pinkie collected herself with a few deep breaths that Twi immediately recognized as Cadence’s breathing technique. “Look…I can set you up with a place to sleep, and call in a favor with AJ so you’ll have food. And I have Star Swirl’s book for when you can use magic again. But…please. Just promise me you won’t try to change things here. I…” she reaches up with a hoof and gently rubs that X of thick scars, as if reminding herself of whatever injury caused them, “…I don’t wanna see you get hurt too.”

It takes a few tries for Twilight to form a response. “Pinkie, I—“

“Pinkie Promise me. Please, Twilight.”

After a few moments, Twilight sighed and started making the appropriate motions. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Pinkie nodded. Then smiled slightly. “You look ridiculous when you do that.”

“You thought it up!”

The two of them shared a quiet little laugh. And for a moment…one brief moment…Twilight started to feel like the old Pinkie was still in there somewhere.

And then Pinkie’s leg twitched, and she immediately stopped laughing.

Only moments later, someone knocked on the door.

Pinkie sped over to open it, while a totally-not-frightened Twilight simply stood in the middle of the library with no idea what to do. If everything Pinkie said was true, then she should probably run and hide. Then again, this disguise had a purpose, didn’t it?

Creeeeaaaak! “Oh, hey Lyra!”

‘Too late to run now,’

“Good morning, Pinkie. Who were you talking to?”

“Oh!” She turned aside and Lyra walked in to immediately take notice of Twilight. “Lyra, this is Darkest Night, but I just call her Nightie.”

Lyra offered her hoof, and she bumped it politely. “Hi, Lyra.”

“Hello, Ms. Night.”

“Anyway, what was it you needed?”

“I’m just picking up the medicine for Bon-bon. From yesterday, remember?”

“Of course! How could I forget? Lemme just go get it.” She leaves, leaving Twi alone with a very inquisitive-looking Lyra.

Lyra simply stared Twilight over, as if trying to put two and two together.

“Is something wrong, Ms. Lyra?”

“I’m…I’m sorry, this must sound so strange, but you look very familiar. Do I know you?”

Twilight shook her head, trying to keep a good poker face. “I wouldn’t think so.”

“Oh? Are you new here?”

“Indeed I am. Just got here last night, all the way from Fillydelphia.”

“Last night…? You…” she glances behind her, “You didn’t break curfew, did you?”

The clever thing to do would be to lie and say that it’s just a mix-up of phrasing. But instead, the notion of a curfew took Twilight too far off-guard. “Curfew? What curfew?”

“What…oh, Ms. Night, do you not know about the curfew?”

“No…should I have?”

“Well, I don’t know how they do things in Fillydelphia, but around here, the curfew starts at sundown. You’ll want to remember that. I’d hate to see the Sleepers get you.”

Twilight was all set to ask a million more questions, before she was interrupted by a well-timed Pinkie Pie. “There you are, Lyra. One drop of that with every meal, and she should recover.”

“Thank you, Pinkie. Oh, I hope the poor thing doesn’t have another miscarriage. We need that money badly.”

“Well, that medicine should help things. I won’t be in for a little while, but if she gets any worse or starts getting green freckles, let me know right away.”

“Alright. Where are you going, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Just up to Sweet Apple Acres. I need some more food, and you,” she points an accusing hoof at Twilight, “need to meet Applejack.”

“I-I do?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, well…stay safe, Pinkie.”

“You too.”

Will stalk these hallowed grounds

“I thought you said Applejack was dead,” snapped Twilight as soon as Lyra was out of earshot.

She shouldered on her saddlebags, having filled them with a little bag of bits. “I never said that. But AJ and I are the only two who stayed in Ponyville.”

“So what happened to the other three?”

“Left for the Everfree. Nopony’s heard from them since.”

“But they’re alive?”

“Last I saw them, yes. But that was a long time ago.” She opened the door, gesturing for Twilight to go through ahead of her.

As Twilight walked out the front door and into Ponyville, she couldn’t help but mark the sharp differences. Yes, it was still Ponyville, and most of it looked like it always did. But that just made the differences clearer and sharper. Not the least of which was that her home wasn’t called Golden Oaks library anymore, but instead entitled “Pinkie Pie’s Phenomenal Pharmacy”.

Most of the buildings around them seemed intact enough, given the war and hostile occupation thing. But the ones that did need repair had been repaired crudely at best, and thick shutters sat on every window in sight. Almost no one was on the streets, and the few that were looked like they didn’t want to be. In the distance, Twilight could just see a handful of dark shapes hovering ominously around what must have been the edge of the town.

She turned to Pinkie Pie as the other mare closed her door behind them. “What was all that about Sleepers?”

Pinkie shivered slightly at the word, and spoke in hushed tones as they began their walk. “Changelings disguised as ponies during the day. If they hear any hint of misbehavior, they’ll come after you in the night. So watch what you say.”

Twilight nodded. She couldn’t have possibly seen it coming, but in hindsight it made perfect sense. After all, Changelings could turn into any pony they wanted, so why not abuse the privilege?

Something still nagged at Twilight, though.

“What did Lyra mean, by the way? I mean…do they pay ponies to have kids or something?”

Pinkie shook her head. “I don’t know why you haven’t heard of that, Nightie, being a mare and all.”

It took Twilight a moment to realize Pinkie was talking to her.

“Oh, well, I didn’t really pay attention to the bulletins that much.”

Pinkie just sighed. “Any mare who gets pregnant can hand their kid over to the Changelings in exchange for bits. The Changelings then feed off the love that kid has for their mother.”

Twilight stalled completely. “That’s…that’s awful!”

“Maybe, but at least it’s optional. Better than the Sleepers just sneaking in and taking them.”

She accentuated certain words, and Twilight was nothing if not confused and angry and horrified until she got the message.

Oh, right. Sleepers. Watch what you say.

Twilight feigned her best resigning shrug. “I…I guess you’re right.”

Pinkie just nodded, and the two resumed their walk.

“Have you…um…taken that offer?”

She just deflated. It was an answer enough.

The two of them walked in silence, and Twilight took the opportunity to really look over Pinkie Pie. There were a lot of subtle differences that Twilight hadn’t really noticed before. Faint bags sat under the other mare’s eyes, betraying a lack of sleep. Small speckles of assorted versions of dirt made it clear she hadn’t washed in a while. There was another disconcerting change about her, too: she was taller than Twilight. Not by much, barely by a few millimeters, but still noticeably.

The way she carried herself felt so different, though. Her head drooped somewhat, like it was holding up a heavy weight. There was no more bounce in the way she walked. And there was that network of scars and burns that dotted her flank and legs, ever-present and marring. The two X-patterned ones on her shoulder jumped out at Twilight for some reason. It might have had something to do with their incredible size relative to all the other scars. It might have had to do with the fact that they didn’t look caused by anything Twilight could name off the top of her head.

In any case, they were already amongst the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres when Twilight stopped staring at them.

As they approached the building that marked Applejack’s home, Twilight caught a fleeting glimpse of somepony speeding into the building.

“APPLEBLOOM!”

The voice made Twilight’s ears flatten against her head. It certainly sounded like Applejack, and it was a clear reminder that that that mare could holler when she needed to. Princess’ forbid she ever get a Royal Canterlot Voice somehow, because she could level continents with it.

Applejack burst out of the orchard, stalking towards the house. “You pull another prank like that again, and Ah swear to the Queen and all the dead Princesses that Ah’ll…” She cut herself off once she noticed Pinkie approaching.

Twilight took the opportunity to look over Applejack, and immediately noticed the biggest difference.

Applejack was huge.

Not huge in the tall sense (even though she was taller), but huge in the sense that she’d added about eight times her muscle mass since Twi had seen her last. Her usual Stetson sat on top of a mane that was tied in its usual way, but looked a lot shorter than it used to. Her tail was almost identical to its former self, which was a comforting sight. And unlike Pinkie, she had surprisingly few scars. There were a few…a burn here, a cut there…but they were less abundant and less visible.

She turned to face the two of them as they approached, tipping her Stetson in welcome. “Howdy, Pinkie! Who’s your friend?”

Pinkie approached the farm-mare and gave her a brief hug before introducing Twilight. “This is Darkest Night. She just got here yesterday, all the way from Fillydelphia!”

“Well, shucks, welcome to Ponyville Ms. Darkest! Name’s Applejack! Pleased to meetcha!” Applejack turned to her, in a way that was just awkward and stilted enough for Twilight to notice. But there was no explanation for—

She pushed that train of thought aside and shook the hoof she was offered. “Please, just call me Night.”

Applejack tilted her head slightly. “Ah could swear Ah recognize yeh…Do we know each other?”

Twilight just shook her head, already getting good at this whole disguise thing. “Can’t say that we do. You might’ve met my cousin though. He was big into the farming business.”

Applejack just locked eyes with Pinkie, who blinked in a weird sequence…twice with her left eye, twice with her right eye, and then once with her left eye again. Applejack turned to look at Twilight, confused and amazed and acting like she’d seen a ghost, before collecting herself and just nodding. The whole scene came and went in less than a second.

“That mighta done it.” She turned back to Pinkie. “Y’all’re here for food, Ah take it?”

“Yep! Think we can make a deal inside?”

Applejack nodded, and Pinkie turned back to Twilight. “Wanna join us?”

‘Heck ye-wait…don’t sound excited…’ “Um…sure. Sounds great.”

“Great! Ah’ll put the kettle on, make us somethin’ to drink.”

She turned to walk towards the house, again with just a hint of awkwardness in her motions. And as her other side came into Twilight’s view, she saw why.

Where one of her hindlegs should be, just below the knee joint, was a prosthetic parody of the limb.

Twilight couldn’t help but stare at it as she trailed the other two into the house. Her mind drifted across the dozen or so ways that the limb could have been lost. And if this sampling of her friends was any hint of their condition, then…wow…

Applejack held the door for the two of them, and Twilight couldn’t help but notice the golden-yellow mare’s eyes follow her as she walked by.

“Applebloom!” AJ called out as soon as she was inside. “Y’know where Green Hoof is?”

“He’s out in the orchard, sis!” The voice that floated down from upstairs was almost definitely not Applebloom’s. At least, not the way Twilight remembered it.

“Well, couldja get out there and tell ‘im that Ah’m dealin’ with customers!”

“But siiiiiiis!”

“No buts, Bloom! You do as you’re told!” Applejack started for the kitchen, before rounding back on the stairs with her eyes lit up in fury. “And if Ah see you shoot one more apple at somepony callin’ it a mortar, then you’ll be sleepin’ in the well for a week, you little rascal!”

Satisfied her message was heard, she made her way to the kitchen to start heating up some tea. Pinkie took a seat at the dinner table, and Twilight sat herself down in her usual spot. Thankfully, the interior of the Apple house was relatively unchanged, and it made her feel right at home for the first time that day.

After a couple seconds, Applebloom clomped her way down the stairs. She looked completely alien, being almost double her previous height and nearly Twilight’s age. Gone was the manebow, and instead her mane and tail were cut short and choppy in a way that vaguely resembled Scootaloo. Her face wasn’t wearing her usual cute look, but instead bore a teenage-trademark look of utter disdain. Most importantly, though, was the cutie mark on her flank, depicting a rainbow-colored apple blossom.

Twilight just waved at her, and in return, she rolled her eyes and huffed out the door.

Applejack waited a few moments, presumably to make sure her sister was out of earshot, before thundering into the main room and wrapping Twilight up in a bear hug.

“Oh, Twi, it’s really you, ain’t it! Oh, thank the princesses. Ah thought Ah’d never see you again!”

Twilight could barely breathe through the hulk of the mare crushing her, let alone say something back.

It was minutes before AJ let her go. Once she did, Twilight took a few deep breaths as subtly as she could.

“Ah hafta admit, Pinkie, yer dang good at disguises. If she hadn’t opened her mouth, Ah might not’ah known it was her.”

“Heheh. Thanks, AJ.”

“Now,” AJ turned to stare down Twilight, absolutely towering over her. “Ah wanna hear absolutely everythin’.”

So as the water boiled for tea, Twilight shared everything she knew. It wasn’t much, just a few hours’ worth of events, but Applejack hung onto every word. Twi’s arrival, what she knew about what had happened, and her alter-ego of Darkest Night. She had just finished when Applejack poured the three of them some tea into three old and chipped mugs.

“Damn,” she muttered as she set the kettle back down. “That’s quite the story, there, Twi.”

She just nodded silently.

“So, I’m keeping her at my place until she can use magic again to leave, and I was wondering if I could call in a favor to get a little extra food for her.”

“Aw, shoot. You don’t need to call in a favor for that. This year’s harvest was huge. I’m happy to be rid of some of it. But…” her glare turned lethal in the blink of an eye, “…you tell a single pony what Ah just toldja, and Ah’ll have your head.”

Twilight was frozen in something like fear, but Pinkie just laughed it off. “You know I’d never spill a secret, AJ.”

Applejack smiled, and then laughed, a hearty bellowing laugh that didn’t match up at all to what she was used to hearing from the mare. “Ah’m glad to hear it! And Twi…you need to learn to take a joke, you sillyfilly!”

Twi chuckled nervously. “Sorry, I’m just…still getting used to this version of you. You can look pretty scary when you want to.”

“Well, don’t worry. It’s still the same old Applejack you knew before. Well,” she tapped her prosthetic hoof on the floor, “most of ‘er.”

Pinkie and Applejack shared another laugh, while Twilight just stared at the two of them. How could they joke about something like that? At a time like this? Especially befuddling was the notion that Applejack didn’t want other ponies to know that she needed to get rid of some apples. After all, the only reason she would was so she could…

…charge the same price as always…

Twilight’s head whirled. Given the circumstances, she probably either had a monopoly or a major stake in the food market of Ponyville. Was she abusing that privilege? Could Applejack even do that? She was missing lots of context, to be fair, but it sounded like Applejack was becoming an economic tyrant.

So she decided to ask.

“The AJ I knew would give the extra apples away, to try and help everypony.”

The laughter at the table stopped, as AJ just looked at Twilight. Then, after a few moments, AJ just sighed softly and took another sip of tea.

“Ah’d love to do that, Twi. Ah really would. But part’ah the deal Ah made to keep the farm runnin’ meant payin’ the Changelin’s lotsa bits. An’ those bits don’t grow on trees.”

Twilight just nodded solemnly. ‘I guess that makes—wait…’ “What deal?”

Applejack shifted nervously. “Ah…Ah guess you’d find out sooner or later.” She took another long sip of tea, gathering her words. “After the Canterlot re-invasion attempt, the one where Luna died…well, Rainbow got the idea to run into the Everfree with as many ponies as she could get.” She spat out Rainbow’s name like it was a bug she’d accidentally swallowed. “She talked a lotta ponies into it, but Ah had family and the farm. Ah couldn’t just leave ‘em, and Granny Smith wouldn’t last ten seconds in the Everfree. So Pinkie and Ah stayed in Ponyville, and managed to cut a deal with the Changelin’s to get amnesty and our homes in exchange for bits from me, as well as a probationary period and a…close friend or…family member.”

The two other mares at the table looked all but dead when Applejack brought that up, and Twilight decided not to press the matter.

“That’s…I’m so sorry, you two. I didn’t realize.”

Applejack just forced a smile. “The irony is, Granny Smith died’ah old age not a year later. After that, Applebloom and Ah hired Green Hoof, Celestia bless ‘im, and the three’ve us ‘ave been workin’ the farm ever since.”

The three of them sat there for a moment after that, before Twilight broke the silence.

“What about the ponies who left? Rarity, and ‘Shy, and Rainbow Dash…what happened to them?”

Applejack instantly glared at her over her mug at the mention of Rainbow Dash, before steering her glare into her tea. “Haven’t heard from ‘em.”

That look was too much. Twilight had to ask.

“What’s your deal with Rainbow, Applejack? Every time I bring her up, you get angry. You two were best friends! What happened…will happen…what is it with you two!?”

AJ said nothing for a long time, just staring at Twilight with a fire in her eyes that Twi had never seen before. Then she slowly set her mug on the table, and growled, “You really wanna know?”

“Yes!”

“Did Pinkie e’er tell you why our attack on Canterlot failed? Why Luna and dozens of other ponies died? Why all five of us and countless others’re left so scarred for the rest’f our lives?”

Twilight shook her head.

Applejack was almost-imperceptibly shaking with rage as she said it. “Two words: Rainbow. Dash.”

It is a fools errand

“Rainbow, please, it’s me! It’s Twilight!”

“Yeah right. Twilight’s long gone, and this is a pretty awful imitation of her!”

“It’s a disguise, dammit!”

“You think I buy that?”

“Dashie, it’s her! It’s really her! Stop trying to kill her!” Pinkie pressed against Dash’s shoulder, with no effect except the superficial protest.

Dash glanced down at Pinkie as best she could, then back into Twilight’s eyes. Her right eye was gone completely, covered by a patch out from which spread a few ugly-looking scars. Her left eye, though, was filled with enough raw malice to start a wildfire, but with just a hint of something else Twilight couldn’t decipher.

There were a few long, scary moments before Dash spoke again. “One question. Get it wrong and you die.”

Twilight nodded as best as she could with the hoofblade digging into her neck.

“The race through Ghastly Gorge, with all the animals trying to be my pets. Tank didn’t cross the line first. Which animal did?”

“The falcon. It was the falcon.”

Dash stared even more intensely into Twilight’s eyes, as if trying to pull a lie out of that answer. Then she flapped her wings a couple times, flying back and releasing Twilight from the chokehold. Her gaze didn’t relent, though.

Twilight just fell onto her hooves, taking a few seconds to get her bearings. She brought a hoof up to her throat, just to check, and felt it come back just a little damn with warm blood.

It was only as bad as getting scratched by Spike, but it still came with more than a few feelings of painful betrayal.

“Geez…could you be any less gentle?”

Rainbow fluttered her wings nervously, before folding them in. The wingblades, without a hinge at the wing joint, stuck out awkwardly to either side of her neck. “I couldn’t be sure if you were a Changeling or not. After all, you did die.”

“She didn’t die! She got sucked into the future!”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

As Pinkie let out a brief lecture on the permanence of death versus the impermanence of time travel, Twilight got her first good look at the prismatic battlemare. Her hair was short and choppy, like it’d been cut with nothing but a hoofblade (it probably had), as was her tail. Her entire right side looked awful, and everything down to just behind her hindlimb was coated with a webwork of nasty-looking scars. Her right foreleg was nothing but a stump just below the shoulder, and even her right wing showed signs of wear and tear. Scattered all over her body were a few cuts and bruises, which oozed red blood that glared obviously against her cyan coat. Much like her, the large, elegant wingblades she was wearing were sharp enough to be more than lethal, and well-worn enough to be undoubtedly battle-tested. The hoofblade on her foreleg was simple and crude, in sharp contrast with her wingblades, and scraped the ground as it ran along the front of her hoof without being attached to it below the ankle.

Rainbow let out a harsh noise that sounded somewhere between a groan and a sigh, and if she had enough legs, she’d probably be face-hoofing right then. “Pinkie, when was the last time I told you to give simple answers?”

“Five years and six months ago, almost to the day,” Twi interjected. Rainbow just shot her a look. “According to my memory.”

The prismatic pegasus mulled that over in her mind, then nodded slightly. “The day you disappeared. You’ve got your timelines straight, I’ll give you that.”

“Beeecause I’m Twilight.”

“We’ll see for sure soon enough.”

Twilight was about to ask what that meant, before a wave of fluorescent red magic swept through the three of them and spread throughout the rest of the town, phasing through buildings and reaching a height well above that of the highest rooftops.

“What…what was that?”

Rainbow just shot an idiot grin at a confused Pinkie Pie.

Twilight just stood there, gears in her brain whirring as she analyzed it. From the looks of things, it almost looked like some kind of…scanning spell. In fact, it looked exactly like a scanning spell she’d seen in her textbook on basic searching spells. It would identify ponies with magical potential and then list them, and their location, to the searcher. Most scholars disregarded it, since it was hard to cast and only worked on unicorns, alicorns, or other ponies who could do magic. But it seemed like these ponies had found a clever use for it.

“You developed a spell to search for Changelings?”

Dash’s smile grew. “We sure did. Then we use signal flares to tell the rest of us how many are left, and where they are. Pretty neat, eh?”

“Super-neat!”

“You bet it is, Pinkie! Good to see you, by the way!” They hoofbumped, Rainbow flapping with her wings to keep herself steady. Then Rainbow pulled her into a hug.

Twilight just shook her head in disbelief. “Whatever unicorn you’re using to cast that spell must be…wow…they must be really, really good.”

Rainbow jumped off of Pinkie Pie and did her best failed attempt at looking modest. “Oh, you know me. I just have a knack for attracting the best of the best to my team.”

Twilight was about to pull some snarky comment out of her bucket of assembled quips for Rainbow Dash moments, but she was interrupted by a single green flare arcing into the sky behind her.

Dash looked up at it, then smiled. “All clear for two miles. That’s my boys…” With a sudden motion, she took off and hovered above the two of them. “You should get goin’ to the Town Hall. We’ll be making a few announcements. You hear that, everypony!” She shouted at the various buildings around them. “Meeting at the Town Hall in five minutes! Ponyville is officially liberated! Meet at the Town Hall in five minutes for a few announcements from your saviors!”

She sped off to spread the message, leaving Pinkie and Twilight in a street that was about to become filled with ponies. Twilight shared a glance with Pinkie, who simply shrugged and walked over to collect her party cannon (could it still be called that if it shot bombs now?). Twilight tried to pay attention to where it went, and it looked like it disappeared into her mane, but…how could it even fit there? Did her mane have spatial-dilative properties?

Twilight shook her head and slid her wing over Star Swirl’s book, confirming its continued existence and proximity, before finally deciding to remove her bodysuit entirely. It was ruined anyway. Besides, there wasn't much point in hiding behind it when Ponyville was liberated. Pinkie waited patiently for her to finish, and once she did, she tucked the book firmly underneath her wing and the two of them started their walk to the Town Hall.

There were surprisingly few ponies who joined them on that walk. Twilight wasn’t an expert, but this most certainly wasn’t the entire population of Ponyville. Then again, Applejack said that a lot of the ponies fled to the Everfree. Maybe this really was everyone in Ponyville? As she walked by, staring at some of the ponies, Twilight got more than a few stares back, most of them nothing but pure awe and confusion. A lot of ponies were whispering, and she knew they were whispering about her. On one hoof, her presence might give them hope. On the other, all the whispering was seriously creeping her out.

When they made it to the main plaza, Twilight caught sight of Applejack right away, up near the front of the sparse crowd. Up there, on the porch of the framework structure once called Town Hall, stood about two dozen ponies decked out in all kinds of combat gear. They were clearly visible from anywhere in the crowd, but instead of crowding around them the Ponyville ponies seemed to be giving them plenty of space.

Twilight didn’t need to push much to get up next to AJ. After all, the crowd was pretty thin, and most ponies moved aside once they saw a living, breathing alicorn princess walking through the crowd.

“Hey, Applejack. Applebloom.” Twilight slid up next to the two earth ponies.

Applebloom glanced over, turned back, and then stared straight at Twilight like she’d seen a ghost. “T-Twilight!?”

Twilight just smiled, not sure if that reaction would ever get old. “The one and only.”

“B-But…you died!”

“Nope. Just sucked into the future is all.” Twilight glanced around them, finally noticing somepony was missing. “Where’s Green Hoof?”

“He was a Sleeper, apparently.” Applejack glanced over Twilight, looked her up and down, and then went back to looking at the stage with a furious fire burning in her green eyes.

Applebloom reached out and poked Twilight with one hoof, as if testing her corporeality.

“It’s really you…”

“Yes, it’s really me.”

“The last alicorn princess…” she breathed to herself.

It was Twilight’s turn to act surprised. “Wait…what?”

“Hear ye, hear ye, Fillies and Gentlecolts of Ponyville!” Rainbow interrupted their conversation by landing with a loud THUD! onto the platform/stage, right in-between a red unicorn stallion with a black mane, a missing ear, and two swords strapped to his flank, and an orange-and-black Pegasus with a short purple mane who was armed with hoofblades and belts of what Twilight could only assume were explosives. Upon landing, she stretched out her wings in a grand gesture that made Twilight wonder how often she hit somepony with her wingblades. “You have been liberated from your cruel Changeling overlords! From this day forth, you are free citizens!”

A murmur went through the crowd, which sounded mostly like surprise. Free? Was this actually happening?

Then Rainbow pointed at Twilight with one wing. “The Last Alicorn Princess has returned! It is time, fellow ponies, for us to rise up against the Changelings and throw down the reign of Queen Chrysalis! The Rebellion begins now!”

Everypony turned to stare at Twilight, who suddenly developed a keen interest in her hooves. She could feel Pinkie tense up next to her, just as Applejack chose to step forward.

“Hold it right there, Dash! Don’t’cha remember the last time you tried to take her down!?”

Dash looked surprised for a moment, then that intense fire from earlier roared up in her. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Deserter!”

“What did you just call me!?”

“I called you what you are! You know, a pony who abandons her friends and comrades in their time of need!”

“Ah am no such thin’! B’sides, it was your bucked-up plan that got us all nearly killed! If you’d listened to mah advice in the first place, Luna’d still be here to tell you to SHUT YER TRAP!”

Rainbow crouched low to the ground, wings flared and ready for a fight. “You know what I think! I think you like Chrysalis. After all, you did take a Changeling into your home!”

Applejack just stood firmly planted on the ground, her lack of armor or weapons betraying her power. “Ah didn’t know he was one ah them! And Ah want the Changelin’s gone just as much as you! Ah’m just bein’ SMART ABOUT IT so the WHOLE BUCKIN’ HORDE doesn’t COME DOWN ON OUR HEADS!”

“We have Twilight now! We can take ‘em! Unless you wanna SIT DOWN and CRY when she NEEDS YOU TO FIGHT!”

Applejack looked about ready to run up and break Dash in half. “HOW DARE Y—“

“ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!”

The Royal Canterlot Voice had a knack for shutting ponies up.

Twilight stepped out and between them, looking as imposing as she could. She must have been that way, too, because she was staring Applejack right in at eye level as she talked.

“Applejack, Dash is right. I can’t stand by and let you ponies go through Tartarus every day just to eke out an existence! This is still Equestria, dammit, and we’re a country that cares for and protects its citizens! Those were the principles we were founded on, and by all the Princesses, those are the principles we’re sticking to!”

“Twilight…”

She shot a glance at Pinkie, silently pleading with her, ‘Not right now.’

“Ha! You hear that, AJ! Gu—“

“On the other hoof,” she projected, rounding on Dash, who cowered slightly, but whose eyes blazed with fury. Apparently, she didn’t like having her command subverted. Tough. “Applejack is right too! These are Equestrian citizens, and they need to be protected and taken somewhere safe when the Changelings decide to do something about the attack YOU just committed against them! And I don’t care how good your force is, it’s not going to protect all of Ponyville from however many thousands of Changelings Chrysalis will send at us! So unless you have a plan for that, your revolution will be pretty short-lived!”

“But-“

“No buts, Applejack! Now, unless you have something useful or productive to say, you will both keep your mouths SHUT and your hooves to YOURSELVES, or I will personally cut you into GIBLETS and feed you to the MANTICORES! UNDERSTAND!?”

Applejack gave a small, humbled nod as she stood low to the ground. Rainbow Dash just glared daggers at Twilight for a couple seconds, before growling something that sounded like a yes.

Twilight nodded, then softened. “I’m just doing this because I need both your help to keep everypony safe. And if anyone has any suggestions or requests, I’d like them to come tell them to me as soon as possible.” As she addressed the crowd, she noticed something a little odd. She was taller than most of them. Sure, she felt larger than life, and far more in command, but this was different. She had clearly, physically grown at least a few inches, and was now the same height as Applejack.

With her peace made, she started walking back towards Pinkie Pie and Applebloom to take a seat in her former spot, taking note of the more-than-disconcerting fact that she was taller than Pinkie by a solid inch.

“Twilight,” Pinkie muttered at her, “Twi, you Pinkie Promised.”

Twilight just shook her head. “I know, Pinkie. But this is something I have to do.”

That no one can resist

“I still can’t believe those cowards! To the Moon with all of them! How can they stand staying under the hooves of Changelings!?”

“Most of ‘em just couldn’t travel, Dash! You know Bon-bon? She’s eight months pregnant! You really wanna drag her through the Everfree just to run your little war machine!?”

“Oh, so is that why you decided to sell out your fr-“ Dash stopped herself once she saw Twilight glaring at her. She turned her head away from Applejack’s and acted like a schoolfilly who just got caught stealing cookies.

Twilight let out a long sigh, turning back to face the way they were going, shifting her saddlebags to adjust them to a more comfortable position. Dealing with those two powderkegs was giving her a migrane, made worse by the aching bruises on her forehead and the crack in her horn.

Scootaloo resumed her story of how she earned her cutie mark (a black-and-purple shield decorated with Pegasus wings) once she thought Twilight was listening. Twilight wasn’t listening. Her mind was miles away and dealing with everything that had happened. Would they meet Fluttershy and Rarity at the refugee camp Rose Fields (Rainbow’s hilariously-named second-in-command) was leading them to? What was all that about the Last Alicorn Princess, and starting a rebellion? Were they all counting on her to take down Chrysalis, like Luna had tried and failed to do? If that was the case, it didn’t bode very well for Twilight. But that only happened because there was a spy in the mix. So was that spy still around, trying to take down Twilight from inside her ranks? Or was he long dead, with Twilight freaking out over nothing?

Even more disconcerting was Twilight’s growth spurt. Based on her rudimentary measurements, she had grown almost three inches in the space of a second, and it looked to be permanent. Was this the time she had skipped, reasserting itself? Was it just a natural part of being an alicorn, and an explanation for why Celestia was so tall while Cadence looked like a regular pony? Would it stay with her when she went back to the past?

Twilight pushed those questions aside, using Scootaloo’s story about single-hoofedly defending an injured pony from thirty Changelings to distract herself. It was strange that she didn’t recognize the former filly right away. Then again, Scootaloo had changed a lot. Her wingspan had grown to almost her body length, and her purple mane was as close-cropped as it could get. Particularly off-putting were the hoofblades and bomb-belts, both of which looked homemade, but Twilight supposed the former Crusader did have a knack for destroying property. At least now it was put to good use.

“…I kicked the last Changeling right in the eye, and then Rainbow arrived to deal with the rest of ‘em! She just flew in, like whoosh! and kablam!. And then I fell unconscious because of blood loss or something, and when I woke up, I was all healed, in the Everfree with Dash, the other pony was in recovery, and I had this on my flank!” Scoots gestured with a wing at her cutie mark, looking as proud as anypony could.

“That’s amazing!”

“Isn’t it, though!?”

“Ah wish Ah had a cutie mark story like that one. All Ah got is some farmin’ nonsense about Zap Apples…”

“Aww, come on, Bloomy. I’m sure it’s an awesome story! It’s gotta be, since it came from you!”

Twilight just slowed herself, letting Scoots and Bloom have some privacy to catch up. She ended up in-between Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

AJ’s cart full of apples and heirlooms clattered slightly as she steered to make room for Twilight. “Ah gotta admit, it’s nice to see those two hangin’ out again.”

“Yeah, well…you know the CMC. Not even a Changeling invasion could keep them apart forever.”

“And if it were up to you, they-“ Dash stopped herself again when she saw Twilight’s best impression of Fluttershy’s Stare.

The three of them walked in silence for a moment, as Twilight turned her head to look at the twenty-or-so ponies who had decided to follow them into the Everfree. A handful looked determined and fiery, like they were excited to finally be taking life into their own hooves. The rest just looked miserable and desperate, ponies who had only come along because they were more scared of staying.

She spotted Pinkie Pie in the crowd, and as Pinkie noticed Twilight’s gaze on her, she got a look that Twi couldn’t decipher, before turning away to talk to Cranky Doodle. Apparently, breaking a Pinkie Promise meant Pinkie never speaking to you again, something that tore at Twilight’s heart probably more than it should have.

Twilight turned her gaze back to the front, spotting the next flag not far ahead of them.

“I sure hope Rose Fields knows where he’s going,” Twilight muttered. “I don’t think our passengers can handle a wrong turn.”

“Pffft. He’s my right-hoof stallion! Would I really appoint someone who was that inept?”

“Naw, you just don’t-“ Applejack developed a sudden interest in her hooves under Twilight’s gaze, and decided on a diplomatic silence.

Dash glared over at the former apple farmer, before turning back to watch Scootaloo as she pointed herself carefully in the direction the flag was pointing, then started walking that way.

Dash grabbed the flag in her teeth and pulled it from the ground, slipping it into a saddlebag before turning to follow Scootaloo. Twilight watched her as she did, impressed with how well RD was coping with having only three legs. Her walk was a little funny, as she tipped back and forth like a Gömböc. But she had a good rhythm down, and wings to steady her if she needed it. Not to mention that foreleg must have gotten impressively strong.

“We’re almost there,” Dash muttered.

“An’ how in the hay would you know that?”

“Are you questioning my team?”

“Naw, just your leadership.”

“Girls!” Twilight shot a commanding stare at both of them.

Dash grit her teeth, but pulled off her best civility. “The stand for that flag was silver instead of black. That means it’s the last waypoint. It’s a system we figured out years ago.”

Applejack seemed to take this in, before scoffing slightly and walking ahead of the other two.

Dash let out a low growl as the other mare went out of earshot.

“I can’t believe you two. You used to be friends, best friends. Now you’re at each other’s throats?”

“Yeah, we are. You know why? Because I hate her. First she tries to take my position with her ‘super cool plan’ and being paranoid about spies. Then she sits down and cries the minute she gets hit, getting Luna killed and losing us the war! Then she ditches her friends and allies to go hide on her farm for four years! You expect me to hug her and be best buds with a pony who did all that!?”

“First of all, she wasn’t trying to 'take your position' by offering an alternative plan. She was just trying to help. Being a leader means listening just as much as talking. After all, somepony else might have a solution you would never think of.”

Dash didn’t say anything, but just focused on walking.

“And as for staying in Ponyville…it’s easy for you to talk about leaving, because you have so few ties to the physical location. But Applejack grew up there, has family there. Hay, her grandmother practically founded Ponyville. If that were you, do you really think you could just pick up and leave?”

Dash continued to walk in silence, her face subtly contorting to all kinds of different emotions that Twi couldn’t hope to read.

After a few moments, Dash just sighed. “It still sounds like she just gave up, though. I don’t think I can ever forgive her for that.”

Twilight stared sideways at the war-battered pegasus. Her face had a strange dichotomy to it. On the right side, there was almost no emotion at all, just a scarred and cratered skin that spoke of an incalculable need for hatred and vengeance. But on the other side…the side Twilight was seeing…she just looked like a hurt and confused mare.

Twilight offered a gentle smile, draping a wing over Rainbow’s back. “Do you know what her deal with the Changelings was to keep the farm?”

“Every good thing in her soul?”

Twi couldn’t help but chuckle. “No. She had to give up a close friend or family member.”

That caught Dash off guard. She glanced up at Twilight, then toward AJ, then back at Twilight. “Who was it?”

“She didn’t say. But my point is that she didn’t just roll over for them. She had to fight tooth and hoof to ke-“

fweeEEEEEEeee!

Everypony stopped suddenly, nervously looking every which way as the arrow flew over their heads.

“Nopony move or they die!” The voice was soft but firm, and coming from the undergrowth in front of the group.

Twilight wanted to step forward, to tell the voice that they meant no harm. But she got the feeling she should follow that voice’s orders. Still…gingerly, noiselessly, as slowly as she could, Twilight removed her wing from Dash’s back. Dash shot her a brief look of thanks, before coiling up and looking ready to take off in a heartbeat.

“State your business!” the voice came again.

Twilight almost spoke up, only to be interrupted by AJ. “We’re refugees from Ponyville! We’re lookin’ for a safe place! We don’t mean no harm!”

“How can we be sure you’re not Changelings?”

“Well…ah…um…”

“Wait!” Another voice appeared, a little more in front of them than the first voice. This one sounded familiar, and it took a few seconds for Twi to place it as belonging to Rose Fields. “They’re okay! They’re safe!”

“How can you be so sure?” the first voice accused.

“Because I scanned them already, Fluttershy. No Changelings in the mix.”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight muttered. Then she spoke up again. “Fluttershy!? Is that you!?”

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash tensed up, but said nothing.

There was a long silence. Then Fluttershy’s voice reappeared. “Well, you’re obviously mistaken, since one of them is imitating a dead pony!”

“I did not die! I was sucked into the future! Honestly, when will you ponies learn the difference…”

Another long pause.

“Scan them again.”

“’Shy…”

“Just do it, Rosey!”

“…Fine. And don’t call me Rosey.” There was the faint sound of magic being cast, followed by a sweeping wave of red light that passed through everything and faded into the distance.

“There. Clear for a mile in every direction. Happy?”

Another long pause.

“Alright. Fine.”

Rose Fields crawled out of the bushes up ahead of them, waving them in the appropriate direction. “This way, everypony. Right through these bushes.”

They surged forward, eager to finally be done with their trek. Both Dash and AJ got swept up in the crowd, mostly against their will. Twilight nearly did too, but rose into the air and hovered just below the canopy (the only flying maneuver she had really mastered). When the ground was clear, she dropped back down to the ground.

“Fluttershy? You still there?”

“Right here.” The voice was still buried in the bushes. “Is that…is that really you, Twilight?”

“It’s me. A regular blast from the past.” Twilight giggled at her little pun. She couldn’t help herself.

There was rustling in the bushes ahead of her, and then the yellow pegasus stepped out and approached her.

She had a bow strapped to one hoof and a quiver on the opposite shoulder, a camouflage cloak on her back and over her head. Her mane was nowhere to be seen, but was probably curled up in her hood. The only real difference from the old Fluttershy, besides the weapons, was the bandage wrapped over her eyes.

She walked noiselessly up to Twilight’s location and touched her with a single delicate hoof. A hoof that moved down to her wings, then up to her face and head. Twi hissed when ‘Shy touched her horn, but did her best not to retreat.

She expected a sobbing, tearful reunion. Maybe filled with a few lines like, “I always knew you’d come back.”

Instead, all she got was, “You’re taller than I remember.”

“Heh. Yeah. I’m still not entirely sure how that happened.”

Fluttershy smiled slightly, then simply hopped right over Twilight with a push of her hooves and a flap of her wings. The entire process made so little noise that Twilight wasn’t sure it wasn’t just a well-timed gust of wind.

“Wait…where are you going?”

“To pick up my arrow. I’ll be back in a bit. You should go see Rarity about that horn.”

“Wait…Rarity’s here too!?”

“Mmhm. Just follow where the others went.” She started to walk away, already disappearing into the shadows.

Twilight just looked at the bushes ahead of her, and took a couple bewildered steps.

“Oh, and Twilight!”

“Yeah?” Twilight turned around, barely able to see an outline of Fluttershy looking at her without eyes.

She smiled, a wide and genuinely happy grin. “It’s great to have you back.”

Then she disappeared into the shadows, leaving Twilight with nothing to do but mutter that she had an odd way of showing it, then crawl through the bushes into the refugee camp.

The refugee camp that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

It was as if Twilight had been transported to a pocket dimension. She would have believed she was, had she known that no one unicorn could pull that off for any length of time. But the way she simply crawled and pushed and shoved through thick undergrowth, only to have a hustling, bustling cluster of tents and ponies suddenly appear without any kind of warning…she started to doubt her faith in science.

It was only upon closer inspection that she realized how cleverly set up it all was. The thick undergrowth formed a wall around the edge, with none of the tents going above the top of their plant wall. The whole place was lit by some kind of glowing plant (Moon Moss, Twilight identified it as. It glowed when the moon was new and stopped when the moon was full. Apparently, no moon was the same thing as a new moon), and one could see quite well without betraying the camp. And the whole thing was wrapped in a soundproofing spell (much more possible for one unicorn to keep going) that let the refugees be as loud as they wanted to.

Twilight was thoroughly impressed.

She spotted Rainbow Dash, talking to Rose Fields, probably about battle strategy. Scootaloo and Applebloom were having a reunion hug with a grown-up Sweetie Belle (who sported a cutie mark shaped like a caduceus in a green circle). And up ahead, there was Applejack talking to…

“Rarity!”

The cloaked mare looked up from her conversation, startling the moment she saw Twilight. It was hard to see what she looked like under her cloak, but her mane looked patchy at best. Out from under the edges of her cloak poked furless patches of blackened skin. But it was Rarity all the same.

“T-Twilight!”

Rarity galloped over and embraced Twi in a firm hug. “Oh, Twilight! Applejack told me you’d come back, but I…well, I just couldn’t believe it! And yet, here you are!”

“Here I am,” Twilight just smiled, letting Rarity free from the hug that must have been hurting her. “Here all of us are, too. Me, Dash, ‘Shy, AJ, and…well, wherever Pinkie ran off to. All six of us, together again.”

“It is kinda touchin’, Ah gotta admit,” Applejack offered, appearing from behind Rarity.

“I agree, and we simply must all catch up later. I wa-O-Oh, Twilight darling! You’re injured!”

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with a horn. “Yeah. I kinda ran into a bookshelf when I got here. Fluttershy said you could help?”

“But of course! Have a seat, and I’ll have you fixed up in a jiffy.” She gestured over to a nearby cot, where Twilight sat down as instructed. It took Rarity a little longer to follow her, and that was when Twilight noticed that she moved a lot slower and stiffer than past Rarity. Probably all the burns that her cloak covered, poor thing.

“So…you’re a healer now?”

“I most certainly am.” Rarity’s horn glowed, and Twi could feel her magic tickling her forehead. “I’ll admit, I’m not the best they have here, but I’ve done as much as I can. I’ve always had a passion for making ponies look their best, after all, and you can’t be your best with cuts and bruises. Now, tell me everything, and don’t leave out a single second.”

So Twilight did, sitting as still as she could as she relayed her story for the third time that day. Somewhere around halfway through, Rarity stopped and simply sat on the forest floor, having finished her work. Twi could certainly feel the difference. Her bruises were entirely gone, as was the little cut on her neck from Rainbow’s threats. It felt like her horn was better, but she didn’t want to interrupt her story to confirm that feeling.

Around them, Pinkie Pie had returned and was sitting a ways away while still in earshot. Fluttershy had also reappeared, her bow sheathed on her back rather than strapped to her hoof, and she simply sat and politely listened. Dash joined the cluster of old friends just as Twilight finished off her tale.

“Wow…” was all Fluttershy said once she had finished.

“I’d say you had quite the couple of days, darling.”

“Didja really try and kill Twilight, Dash?”

“I…it…she could have been a Changeling!”

Twilight was all set to glare at Applejack, right up until she noticed the faintest trace of a playful smile on the farm-mare’s lips. Then she turned back to Rarity. “So…is my horn fixed?”

“Yes and no. On one hoof, it’s physically fine. On the other hoof, the magical connections still need some time to realign, so you’re still magic-less for a day or two.”

“At least it’s less than a week.”

“And once you’re all healed, you’ll be leaving for the past, right?” Pinkie probably meant it as a confirmation, but it sounded more like a demand.

“I…I don’t know. I should, but I don’t know if I can bring myself to leave you all like this. Especially now.”

“But…um…wouldn’t you going to the past fix everything?”

“Yes and no. It’s…complicated to explain.”

“Jus’ do whatcha can, Twi.”

Twilight nodded, then drew a line in the dirt at her hooves. “Okay, imagine this as the timeline where we were when I left. Now, my leaving created an alternate timeline,” she drew another line angling away from the first, “Which is the one we’re in now. The one where I skipped five and a half years. Everypony follow me so far?”

They all nodded.

“Okay, now…if I go back to five minutes after I left, then it’ll create another alternate timeline,” she drew another line out of the base of the second one, making the whole thing look like a wonky Y, “where I was only gone for five minutes. The thing is, though, I don’t know what would happen to this timeline.” Her hoof returned to the second line, and she tapped it slightly to make sure 'Shy knew what she was doing. “After all, the circumstances that made this timeline wouldn’t exist anymore.”

“What…would happen?” Dash did a pretty bad job at keeping the fear out of her voice.

“One of two possibilities. Either this timeline gets annihilated, which means none of you five ever existed,-”

“Oh no! We won’t have ever existed?”

“No, Fluttershy, you won’t have…wouldn’t have…ugh!”

“But…what about us in this timeline?” Applejack pointed at the third line. “We’ll still be there, won’t we?”

Twilight just sighed. “Yes, you will. But it won’t be the same Applejack as you are. She’ll have different memories and experiences, and just won’t be the same pony. You…this you…this version of you…will never have existed. The same goes for all of this Equestria…Hay, all of this world.”

A sudden, scary realization settled on the everypony. Everypony except Rarity, who’s face stayed firm and resolute. “What about the second possibility? You said there were two.”

“There are. The second possibility is that this timeline continues to play out without me. I’ll disappear, you all will keep living out your lives, and…” A sudden realization dawned on Twilight, hitting her harder than any other thought could have. “…and Chrysalis will continue to rule Equestria, probably crush the rebellion without me to help, and…”

‘And kill all of you.’

Suddenly, everything became clear. In either case, if she left this timeline, she would be condemning this version of her friends to death. And she would never know how they died, because she could never come back to this timeline. If the laws of the multiverse even let her remember it.

Judging from the looks on her friends faces, which ranged from hopelessness to fear to silent resignment, they understood.

In that moment, Twilight made a firm decision.

“I can’t leave.”

“Twilight,-“

“Pinkie, please! I know I promised, but you’re my friends too! I can’t just abandon you!” A painful sadness rose up in her chest. “I can’t condemn you all to death.”

She couldn’t hold in her tears this time. They filled up her whole being and started pouring out her eyes. They pulled at her vocal folds until all her breaths became choked and ragged sobs. She simply sat there, crying, the whole world around her seeming to shrink until it no longer existed.

Fluttershy was the first one to wrap a foreleg around her. Then it was Applejack. Then Dash. Then Rarity. None of them said anything, but they were instead just there for her. She couldn’t have asked any more out of them.

But as she opened her eyes just a crack, straining to see through her tear-blurred vision and the other mares wrapped around her, she spotted Pinkie Pie.

Walking away.

Crying silently to herself as she rounded a tent.

And disappeared.

Somehow, that hurt more than anything else this timeline could throw at her.

Until they see their loves

The five of them stayed like that for some time after Twilight ran out of tears. Simply curled up in a pile until the sudden dimming of the world signaled them that nighttime had arrived. At which point, they continued to stay piled onto Twilight until Dash got a cramp and nearly sliced Rarity open with a wingblade.

So the five of them instead sat in a small circle around a campfire Rarity and Fluttershy had built, nibbling the apples that Applejack had brought along with her. Rainbow Dash had removed her wingblades (much to everypony’s relief), but elected to keep her hoofblade on, “just in case”. Fluttershy had removed all her gear, and it rested in a small pile that leaned gently against her barrel. Rarity kept looking at the fire nervously, and had lowered the hood of her cloak, which showed Twilight both how little of her mane was actually left, and more horrid burn scars than she ever wanted to see in her life. Applejack had left to check on Pinkie Pie, only to return with a report that she was crying alone in a tent, and threatening ponies with her party cannon if they disturbed her.

“Well, why don’t we all go try and cheer her up?”

“If you wanna taste the business end ah that cannon of ‘ers, you can be mah guest.”

The group was silent for a moment. as if trying to silently send comfort their friend's direction.

“All because Twi broke a promise?” Fluttershy’s soft voice barely broke the silence.

Dash took another bite of apple. “Taffk avoush an ufferreasshun.”

“Ugh…Dash, could you please at least try to have table manners?”

Dash swallowed, then smiled an idiot grin. “I’ve got plenty of table manners. But do you see a table anywhere nearby?”

The five of them couldn’t help but share a laugh. Then Dash turned to Fluttershy, giving her an indecipherable look, while Applejack consoled Rarity that they were only joking.

“Is…something the matter with Fluttershy, Dash?”

“What? What’s Dash doing?”

“She’s…staring at you. She has been, off and on, since we got here.”

“Sh--She has?” The yellow pegasus cringed slightly. “Wh-Why?”

“Well…look, sorry if this breaks the mood, but I have to ask why you ran away. And how you ended up here. Did you…” Dash looked into the fire. “…did you hate me for…Luna?”

“What? Oh, oh no, I could never hate you.”

“Then why? Was it something I did? Something I said? So-“

“Let ‘er answer, Dash.”

Dash gritted her teeth slightly, but obeyed.

“I…I just…You were still learning how to walk again, Dash. You had a war to try and salvage. You had Scootaloo to look after. You had so many important thing to do, and me being blind and all, I…I…” Her voice dropped several decibels as she cowered somehow even farther into the ground. “I just didn’t wanna be a burden on you…”

“So you left!? Just ran away with no warning except a note?”

“Um…yes…”

Rainbow face-hoofed with a phantom limb. “Ugh…Fluttershy…”

“I’m sorry!”

“No…it’s fine. It’s just…what in the world could make you think you were a burden to me?”

Fluttershy didn’t answer, just tipped her head so that it almost looked like she was looking at the ground solemnly. Rainbow glanced over, forced to turn her head to see the blind mare, and set a reassuring wing on her back, fluttering it before she did so ‘Shy would know where it was. That perked her up a little, if not entirely.

Rarity cleared her throat, interrupting as politely as possible. “It’s not as if it didn’t turn out for the best. After all, she’s more adept than any blind pony I know of.”

“Oh, yes! The bats in here taught me everything they knew about seeing with my ears. They were so very kind.”

Applejack chuckled. “Careful now, ‘Shy. Ah don’t have any pony-sized apples layin’ around.”

Fluttershy just threw her apple core at AJ (with impressively perfect aim), who simply let it bounce off her shoulder as she broke down laughing. It wasn’t long before the rest of them joined in. Applejack laughs were contagious like that.

"But how'd you end up here?"

"Oh...it's a funny story, actually." She pawed the ground nervously, drawing shapes she could only imagine. "But...um...Rarity tells it better."

"Oh, darling, you know that's not true." Fluttershy didn't answer. "How about I tell it, and you just fill in the blanks?"

Fluttershy nodded, looking a little less upset.

"Well, it was a few years after the Invasion, and I was just learning about some of the herbs that can aid in the healing process. So, naturally, I had gone out to gather some, since this wasn't something I keenly trusted the border guard to do properly"

"I was...um...practicing my archery. I wasn't all that good back then, so I had some of my animal friends throwing fruit into the air to practice on. I missed a shot, and...um..."

"And it hit me! Right in the flank!"

"Oh, dang! I bet you were screaming like a little filly, huh?"

"Actually, all those burns have deadened nerves, so I barely felt a thing! I just kept on going, picking flowers, not realizing I had an arrow in me"

Everypony couldn't help but chuckle as the story just got more and more absurd. Or, at the thought of Rarity with an arrow in her flank. Both were pretty funny.

"So, um, when I went looking for my arrow, it wasn't there. So I went searching and searching, and eventually came across Rarity. I didn't know it was her at the time, though, so-"

"So she hid in the bushes and started threatening to shoot me! And then I asked her what she was doing out here, and she said something about collecting arrows, and it was only then that I noticed the one sticking out of me. So I went to give it back to her--"

"Once she stopped panicking..."

"--and who should walk out of the bushes but Fluttershy! So, naturally, we started talking, and I offered to bring her back here. She refused at first-"

"What!? Why?"

"I...um...I had my reasons..."

"--but she eventually warmed up to the prospect and became one of our border guards!"

Four of them shared a moment of impressed surprise and laughter at the whole story. Twilight, on the other hoof, had more pressing questions on the mind.

“So…I have to ask.” Twilight leaned slightly towards Fluttershy. “Since you can understand animals, but Timberwolves are made of tree chunks…can you still understand them?”

“Oh, of course! They’re still animals enough. They don’t have a whole lot to say, though…”

“How could you even get close enough to a Timberwolf to talk to it?”

“You just fly! Duh!”

“I meant about their breath! It smells absolutely horrid!”

“Y’just stick a couple corks in your nostrils an’ call it good!”

“Ah-I-wh-What would possess anypony to do…?” She stopped when she saw Applejack wearing the biggest cocky, playful grin she could possibly wear. Realizing they were messing with her, she just sulked and stared into the fire. “Very funny, Applejack.”

“Would that even work?” Dash contorted her eye to try and get a look at her nostril.

“Only one way tah find out!”

“Oh, please don’t…”

The two of them got idiot grins on their faces, and Applejack reached out a hoof that Dash bumped with a wing.

The five of them stayed like that for the rest of the night, chatting and laughing and joking for hours about nothing at all. It took them a long time to realize that Fluttershy had fallen asleep (after all, her eyes were always covered. The only way they could tell at all was the fact that her ears stopped moving). Once that happened, their efforts to be quiet left their excuses to stay awake flimsy at best. Dash was the next to fall asleep, followed by Rarity and then Applejack.

Twilight was left awake, staring up at the canopy above her. The whole sky was black beyond the trace outlines of the leaves, but if she closed her eyes, the glow of the Moon Moss was enough to let her pretend that the moon and stars were far above her, lighting up the sky in a way she hadn’t really appreciated until it was gone.

Once again, her mind whirled with questions that kept sleep just out of her reach. But these questions weren’t like last night. These questions were kinder, less pressing. Questions like what the title “the Last Alicorn Princess” actually meant. After all, only one princess had actually died. Celestia was just imprisoned, and according to Scootaloo, Cadence had decided to make the Empire disappear for another thousand years rather than see it fall. They were still alive.

Except they weren’t, to these ponies. They would all be dead before Cadence returned, and the odds of them ever seeing Celestia again were nigh-unthinkable. Which meant they might as well be dead to the average pony. Just like Twilight had been dead to two out of five of her friends, maybe even three. Which meant she really was the last of the four princesses in this timeline.

This timeline which she couldn’t bring herself to leave. Which made her the last alicorn princess, period.

Twilight let out a sigh. Was she making the right choice? By leaving, she’d be condemning this version of Equestria to a fate worse than Tartarus. But by staying, she’d essentially force her friends to go through every horrible thing they went through in the time she had skipped.

Then she cleared her mind of all those thoughts with a single idea.

Maybe she could learn to like it here?

‘After all,’ she thought to herself as she finally drifted off to sleep, ‘this place isn’t half bad.’

Twilight snapped awake to the sound of screaming.

Then bolted to her hooves at the sound of an explosion.

As she glanced upward at the flaming canopy above them, she saw a bullet of green fire tear through and slam into the ground not far from her. She knew what it was long before it crawled out of the crater it made.

She tried to throw a magic bolt at it, only for the spell to get caught up in her horn.

The Changeling spotted her and started to charge, until Dash swooped in and caught it with a wingblade to the eye. It fell to the floor, screaming an unequine cry of pain, as Dash rounded on Twilight and shouted, “COME ON, TWILIGHT! GET YOUR TAIL MOVING!!”

Twilight did as she was told, turning and fleeing the scene as Rainbow took off.

The hot air from the fires started to register in her sleepy mind, as it burned into her lungs and flank.

A stray bolt of magic whizzed by Twilight, and she caught a glimpse of Rose Fields fighting off a pack of Changelings with his two levitated swords.

She drove the image from her mind and kept running, as fast as she possibly could, and then a little faster.

She managed to catch a glimpse of Fluttershy shooting down Changeling after Changeling, drawing shot after shot in her teeth, before a Changeling caught her in-between shots. She saw Dash’s multicolored contrails dart this way and that, before her wingblade caught wrong on a Changeling and sent her spinning into the ground to be piled on by a pack of them.

She ignored it.

Twilight had become a single-function running machine.

Another Changeling hit the ground in front of her, and she barely even stopped to spin around and plant a solid kick with her hind-hooves into its head with a resounding Crack!.

And as she saw behind her, she faltered.

The patches of sky that she could see through the burning trees were nothing but black. But it was daytime. This wasn’t the black of this future’s night, that was the absence of moon or stars. This was the black of everything in creation being blotted out by black chitinous monsters who made the whole world hum and throb with the beating of their wings.

Thwack!

With a sudden, searing pain, one of the Changelings planted a kick on the back of her head. Twilight let out a scream of pain she couldn’t hear over the din, and fell to the ground.

The world around her began to fade and disappear.

As she looked up, she spotted the Changeling hovering above her, grinning with a vile pair of fangs.

Then he vanished.

Twilight felt like she was floating in an endless void.

Then she lost touch with her hooves, like they were disappearing.

The rest of her quickly followed suit.

And it wasn’t long before she slipped into the folds of unconsciousness.

She held on to one thought as the world faded away.

'I'm sorry, girls. I failed.

I'm so sorry...'

Drown in the sands of time

When Twilight awoke again, everything felt like it was spinning.

Like the whole world was whirling and twirling around her as she…

Hang on…

Was she standing or laying down? She couldn’t tell.

She tried moving her limbs experimentally from their curled-up posture, only to have them snap back into place the minute she tried, like she was wrapped up in something.

Hesitantly, she tried casting a telekinesis spell to unwrap herself. And though she could feel the magic flowing all the way through her horn (with hefty resistance), it was like it got…stuck. On what, she didn’t know.

Finally, Twilight decided to just open her eyes. It was a chore to do so, given how painfully bright the room was, and how some of her mind wanted nothing more than to crawl back to sleep. But she managed.

She instantly regretted what she saw.

It was Canterlot. Specifically, the Throne Room. And yet, the whole thing was wrong on so many levels. It was lit only by torches lining the walls. Several of the priceless stained-glass windows depicting Twilight’s previous escapades were shattered, letting the wind moan softly through the room. Above the throne itself hung a massive skull, belonging to what must have been a dragon. And coating the ceiling were slimy green cocoons.

Twilight frantically struggled to move her legs, fearing the worst. And when she looked down…

…green cocoon.

“Well, well, well. Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Twilight looked up (up relative to her), and immediately saw her.

Chrysalis.

She buzzed her wings, floating gently up to greet Twilight at eye level.

“Long time, no see. How’ve you been?”

Twilight said nothing. She did her best to look threatening, but Chrysalis was radiating raw power. It reminded Twilight of the residual magic she felt when facing Nightmare Moon, only much, much stronger.

Chrysalis had gotten powerful.

“I’ve been doing fantastic, thank you for asking,” she started, looking mildly peeved that Twilight was giving her the silent treatment. She pretended to look disinterestedly at a porphyritic hoof. “Ruling Equestria, killing Princesses, and generally just living the dream life.”

Twilight just wished she could burn Chrysalis with her gaze. “You killed Luna.”

“Oh, yes, about that. You see, she was trying to kill me, and…well, it’s legal if it’s in self-defense.”

“She was my friend. And you murdered her. In cold blood.”

She just looked at Twilight, a wicked gleam in her eye. Then she floated in closer and closer until her face filled Twilight's vision, venom dripping from her monstrous grin.

“Yes. I did.” Her gaze turned predatory. “Wanna know the other friends of yours I killed?”

Twilight tried to reach out and strangle her, only to elecit a swinging of her cocoon and an echoing laugh from Chrysalis. “Oh, Twilight, I forgot just how spirited you could be! You’re so much like your pet dragon in that respect.”

Twilight turned to look at the dragon skull mounted on the far wall, suddenly placing it.

“Y-You…”

“Oh, yes. His body was a bit bothersome to deal with, being almost 8,000 pounds. I had to leave him sticking out of his cave until he rotted enough to move. Talk about an eyesore. But I think I like him here. Really puts the room together.”

Twilight let out a ferocious scream of rage as red filed her vision. She kept trying, so hard, to do anything to harm Chrysalis. To make her pay for the atrocities she’d done to her beloved assistant.

But all she did was make Chrysalis laugh.

“Ohh Twily, your fury is so very delectable. Not as filling as love, but it certainly has a nice kick to it!”

Twilight was too furious to dignify that with a response.

There was a soft tingle as Chrysalis’ magic wrapped around her, pulling her cocoon off the ceiling to drift with her towards the ground.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Oh, off to see your friends of course! When I heard you were back, I prepared a special room in the castle just for you six. All kinds of seals and wards in place to keep you locked inside.”

“Changelings don’t know how to make seals, or wards. Those are advanced magic!”

“And what do you think I’ve had access to my whole time in Canterlot? I’ve been brushing up the past four years, teaching myself all kinds of magic that you unicorns take for granted. I’m even teaching a few of those spells to my drones.” She smiled another evil grin. “They’re such good students. You’d like them.”

Twilight said nothing, her face locked in a harsh glare as her mind reeled through the implications. Changelings, learning advanced magic? Changelings on their own were bad enough, but with spells like shields and summoning and healing magic? That could be a really big problem. And Princess’ forbid she ever find something like a time sp-

Twilight’s heart dropped like an anvil.

Star Swirl’s book.

Chrysalis laughed manically. “Finally figured it out, have you? I’ve been glancing over your notes in that book. Really impressive stuff. One in particular jumped out at me, and I think you know which spell. Oh, just imagine it! Two queens, one who’s already conquered Equestria! Why, I could even go back to my very early youth, and take this country for myself before it ever has a chance to punish me for something I can’t help. Doesn’t that just sound grand?”

Twilight’s mind raced faster than ever before. There had to be a way to stop her. There had to be a way out of this. Some flaw in the system she could exploit. She just had to find it.

“Well, here we are. This is your room, right nextdoor to your old mentor! Pleasant, no? Oh, I knew you’d like it!”

One of the Changeling guards threw the door open, and inside Twilight could see all six of her friends being held against the far wall by telekinetic fields from the guards. The room was threadbare at best, decorated with only two windows that showed a black, starless sky.

Twilight glared at Chrysalis. “Why don’t you just kill us?”

“Because I promised Pinkamena I wouldn’t. That was part of our deal, after all. But I don’t think I’ll be breaking that deal when I do this.”

She rocketed forward with lightning speed, sinking her fangs deep into Twilight’s shoulder. Then a muscle in her mouth flexed, and Twilight felt a sudden, harsh scream of pain spread throughout her leg.

Chrysalis stepped back, red blood and green venom still dripping from her fangs. She stared at Twilight firmly.

“Kill your friends, when it pleases you.”

The reaction was immediate. Twilight felt a sudden itch appear at the very edges of her mind, an urge, a bloodlust.

Chrysalis threw her into the room, where her cocoon evaporated into a pile of sticky green gunk that Twilight sat at the middle of. As she turned back to the door, Chrysalis stared down at the tiny purple alicorn that was Twilight Sparkle, radiating power and hideous regality. “And when the venom wears off, and you see what you’ve done with a clear mind…only then do you have my permission to die.”

She stepped back, and the doors closed with an ominous Slam!.

Immediately, Twilight felt her friend’s hooves pull and tear at the remains of the cocoon, freeing her from its grasp.

Rarity appeared in her vision. “Twilight! Twilight, are you okay?”

‘Sweet Celestia, her voice is annoying.’

That itch swelled up in her mind, as if on cue. Thoughts flooded her brain of Twilight tearing the vocal chords out of the other mare’s ‘no stop it I’M IN CONTROL OF MY BRAIN!’

Twilight pulled herself together enough to stand. And then speak. “Pinkie.”

Pinkie hadn’t moved from where she sat on the back wall. “Yes, Twilight?”

“What did she mean?”

‘Kill her! Go beat the answer out of no I am not hurting my friends!’

Pinkie gulped as all of her friends fixed their eyes on her. “Please, Twilight, you have to unders-“

“What. Deal. Was she talking about?”

Pinkie started crying. “It was right before the re-invasion. She caught me on one of my scouting missions, and promised to let me keep the library. She promised that she wouldn’t kill any of us! She promised to bring you back and let us all stay happy as long as we didn't fight! It would be just like old times!”

Twilight already knew the answer, but she asked anyway. If nothing else, it gave her mind something to do as that little itch became not so little anymore. “And what did you give her in exchange?”

Pinkie broke down in sobs, and Dash answered for her. “Pinkie…you sold us out!?”

‘Dammit, I hate it when she interrupts no I don’t she’s my FRIEND!’ The thought didn’t come back, but Twilight started to feel like her hooves were moving themselves. Towards Pinkie.

Pinkie choked on the word yes.

Twilight started to charge her against her own will, only to get caught up in the remains of her cocoon and fall flat on her face.

“Pinkie…how could you? Ah trusted you! You were my friend! My best friend!”

“I couldn’t abandon the Library! I couldn’t leave Twilight! Then she got into my head and I’m sorry I’m so sorry!” Her tears were flowing freely

Twilight tried desperately to get up and kill her, beat her face in with her own four hooves until she stopped moving. But she was stuck to the floor for now.

“That’s no reason to turn yer back on yer friends!”

“I-“

“Applejack’s right!” Twilight shouted as she struggled to pull herself to her hooves. They were shaking, trying to charge forwards, but she had control for now. “What’s so special about me compared to these four!?”

“I jus-“

“Why would you get LUNA KILLED over ME!?”

“I was-“

“WHAT possessed you to let Equestria CRUMBLE just so you could WAIT in a LIBRARY FOR ME!?”

“Because-“

“WHAT IN TARTARUS WERE YOU THINKING!?!?”

“BECAUSE YOU WERE GOING TO DIE, TWILIGHT!”

Compared to the earlier yelling, it was relatively quiet. And yet, it cut through the whole room like a hot knife through butter.

“Wh…what?”

Pinkie looked somberly at the ground between them. “Chrysalis said…she…she said you were trapped in…in the t-timeline. That she c-could help bring you back. All I had to do was…” She lost her next words in sobs.

Twilight just shook her head in disbelief. “So you let everypony DIE!?”

She broke down completely. “I just…I c-couldn't...let you die..."

Twilight’s mind reeled, as she tried to contain her body and reel it back into her control. Everything started to make sense now. Her random disappearances. Her demands that Twilight not try and fight Chrysalis. All those things that Twilight blamed on simple trauma, now made so very clear.

Every part of Twilight wanted to tear Pinkie into little tiny pieces. She knew the spell for it, too. And that mare deserved it. She deserved to suffer the pain of every death she caused.

‘Yes! Kill the bucking psycho! She wants it! She needs it, so just hurry up and KILL HER ALREADY!’

Her body acted all on its own, stalking towards Pinkie Pie as her horn tried to prep the dark magic necessary for this…oh, wait, her horn didn’t quite work.

Oh well. She could do it by hoof.

Pinkie didn’t run or resist, as Twilight came closer and clo-

“WAIT!” Fluttershy shot around Twilight and skidded to a halt between her and her target.

Twilight snarled. “Fluttershy…get. Out. Of. My. WAY!”

“NO! I’m not moving this time, Twilight!”

“WHY are you DEFENDING HER!?”

“Fluttershy, don’t you-“

“DON’T interrupt me, Dash! You know I hate it when you do that!”

Dash just looked at Twilight, as if unsure what she was anymore as the alicorn rounded back on Fluttershy.

“Yes, Dash, I remember! I was there too! And I can’t say I forgive Pinkie, but I will NOT let you KILL our FRIEND over ONE STUPID MISTAKE!”

“I agree.” Rarity planted herself next to Fluttershy. “Pinkie may have caused a lot of pain, but that does not condemn her to death from a mare hopped up on Changeling venom!”

Twilight just seethed, and would have blasted all three of them into piles of nothingness if her horn worked. As it was, she had to work to turn back towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t tell me you’re joining their side too.”

“This ain’t about sides, Twi. This is about what’s right an’ what’s wrong. An’ Ah know for sure that this ain’t right. Pinkie deserves court an’ jail for what she did, not…this.” She stayed put for a moment, before huffing and walking past Twilight to stand next to Fluttershy.

Twilight stared in disbelief, then shook her head, steeling herself for what would have to come next. Then she turned and looked at Dash, whose face was set in indecision.

“Rainbow Dash,” she commanded. She knew Dash would take her side on this. She knew Dash well enough to say that for certain.

Dash stayed silent for a few seconds, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Twi, but You taught me a few things about forgiveness. I think it’s time you heard it yourself.” She took off smoothly, and circled to come to a low hover above Pinkie. “This is for your own good."

Twilight just shook her head, not believing what she was seeing. What she was hearing.

“I guess I really don’t know you girls anymore.” She closed her eyes, steeling herself in her mind for what had to be done. “Fine then. I’ll just have to go THROUGH YOU INSTEAD!”

She started to charge, but Rainbow caught her with a hoof to the face before she could.

There was a sudden tingle around her, and Rarity lifted her up in a telekinesis spell. Twilight had enough focus in her to repel it, but not before Applejack spun around and-

CRACK! Twilight was thrown against the wall by the impact, and she probably lost a couple ribs to the hit.

She didn’t care. She knew she had access to basic magic now, minimum.

Rainbow Dash curled around deftly in the tight quarters, charging at her again. This time, though, Twilight blasted her wing with a wave of telekinetic force, knocking her into a flat spin until she lost control and slammed into the wall.

Twilight curled and charged past Applejack, using her wings as deftly as she could to turn her motions into a high-speed glide. Rarity tried to stop her, but Twi was there to repel her magic just long enough to get close…

Her hoof hit Rarity’s shoulder with a firm SMACK!, knocking the white unicorn far enough out of the way to give Twilight a clear shot at P-

THWACK! Fluttershy seemed to appear out of nowhere, striking Twi dead in her broken ribs and eliciting a howling scream of pain as the Last Alicorn Princess was thrown against a wall, and then fell onto the floor.

Rainbow swooped in front of her, pinning her forelegs between her foreleg and barrel, while Applejack dashed up and pinned down Twilight’s hindlegs.

Twilight screamed with a howl of rage as she tried to throw them both away with her magic, before Fluttershy slapped a wad of green cocoon material onto her horn. Instantly, the magic stuck into place, refusing to work.

Fluttershy added her efforts to pinning Twilights forelegs as Rarity skidded to a halt above Twilight. They were talking about extracting venom, but Twilight didn’t hear them. She was too busy screaming bloody murder.

Rarity’s magic tingled and pulled at the bite marks on Twilight’s shoulder, pulling something out of her body. She didn’t know what it was doing, but knowing Rarity, the process would likely kill her.

Then her head started to clear.

The rage died down. That insatiable need, that hunger, to tear the throats out of her friends…

It went from all-consuming, to painful, to urgent, to simply annoying.

It didn’t disappear entirely, though. The minute Rarity’s magic disappeared, that itch came back. That need, that desire, to tear and claw and burn at something…anything…

Twilight dug deep, deep into the blackest, most rotten pit in her soul, and dredged up the strongest batch of dark magics she could pull together. And with a loud shriek, she let it fly.

And die without rhyme or reason.

Every time it passed a pony, the wave picked up power.

The wave of raw energy circled around her as it approached Twilight.

Curling around, wrapping her in a bubble of blinding white light that shook all of creation.

It tightened down.

And Twilight felt herself start to glow with it.

Growing in size as the power permeated through her.

The straps and buckles holding her weapons onto her snapped and broke and fell away as she grew larger and larger.

The bubble changed color, turning into a mixture of rich purples and reds and golds, speckled with flecks of silver that looked like early evening stars.

And then it broke, the pressure wave sweeping throughout the entire brood.

Twilight dropped back down onto her hooves from where she had been floating.

The pressure in her mind was gone. As were all her injuries.

As she opened her eyes, they flashed white, radiating raw magical power she knew everypony could feel.

She was taller. Almost as tall as Celestia had been in Twilight’s time. In fact, she looked a lot like Celestia had, if Celestia had a dark purple coat and Twilight’s cutie mark. Her mane and tail weren’t made of hair anymore, but instead looked and felt like the fabric of the universe had bonded itself to her body. They were colored like the sky was at sunset.

At twilight.

She felt stronger. She felt vast and powerful and mighty. She felt like she had an ocean of boundless energy in her reach, and all she needed to do to use it was ask.

She felt infinite.

As that feeling set in, she stared back down at Chrysalis. She knew everypony…everything who could see her was stunned into immobility.

Not for long.

Chrysalis scampered to her hooves, her horn lighting with green fire. “I’ll kill you myself, you insolent little WRETCH!”

Twilight’s horn lit up in response, and she felt the whole world around her bend to her whim.

She packed it up into a ball at the tip of her horn, readying a beam to unleash at the Changeling Queen.

The Queen had her own magic blast ready, and they fired at the same instant. For just a brief moment, they were evenly matched. Then Twilight tapped just a little more into that ocean, and quickly overpowered her.

She ducked to the side, wings buzzing as she started hovering where she had teleported, and let loose another magical blast.

Twilight deftly leaped aside, spreading her wings and curling around as hard as she could to aim for Chrysalis.

The battle around them resumed, but Twilight paid it only the briefest of mind. She was safe for now, as long as her friends held out.

She fired a stream of flame from her horn as she got close, but Chrysalis ducked aside and fired a flame of her own into Twilight as she passed.

Twilight screamed, but kept enough presence of mind to cast a quick teleport to the far side of her target.

She kicked out with her hooves the instant she re-formed.

CRACK!

The Queen faltered, tumbling through the air for a moment, before teleporting again.

Twilight followed her spell, and ended up on the far side of the drone horde.

She chased the Queen, and just as she started to turn around, Twilight grappled onto her back.

She prepped the spell in her mind, only to be interrupted by a searing pain on her hindleg.

She kicked the drone away and blasted him with a magic bolt, but the distraction gave Chrysalis a chance to escape and-

Twilight’s breath was knocked from her lungs as Chrysalis shot a bolt right into Twilight, throwing her to the ground with enough force to make a crater.

She fired a second blast, but Twilight had since moved, teleporting up behind her and firing a bolt of her own. Which then became a beam that overpowered Chrysalis’ hastily-erected barrier and pressed her into the ground.

It didn’t kill her, though.

Twilight dropped to avoid another drone and landed on the ground, just in time for a self-healing Chrysalis to stand up and let out a ground-shaking cry.

She gripped an entire tower of Canterlot in her magic and threw it at Twilight.

Twi shot out of the way, gliding just over the ground as it crashed down not inches behind her.

The dust and rubble blew Twilight off balance and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Her everything ached, and her wings felt shot. But she pulled herself to her hooves…

…and immediately formed a barrier not milliseconds before Chrysalis’ beam would have hit her.

It pushed her back, forcing her to slide across the ground as she futilely pushed back. Her body was slick with sweat, and her breaths came harsh and ragged. The ocean of energy was nearly depleted, and almost felt like it was angry at her for using so much of it.

‘Just a little more! Please!’

She felt the surge of strength hit her as it agreed, and she pressed onto Chrysalis’ beam.

They were matching each other, their spells mashing together in a wave of light and heat at the middle.

Twilight was overpowering her. She could feel it.

A little more…

Chrysalis let out one last blast before dodging out of the way of Twilight’s torrent of magic, firing another bolt right into Twi’s foreleg.

She buckled and fell, and could see Chrysalis charging—

With a single howl of fury, Twilight blasted out a wave of Telekinetic force, tearing up everything in front of her.

Chrysalis was thrown to the ground, and Twilight galloped right for her, seizing her ch-

Something clamped on her back and bit down, and Twilight screamed in agony and was thrown to the ground by pain.

She spotted it, clinging to her. One of the drones had gotten through her friends and hit her.

A quick levitation, and Twilight tore it from her back, climbed on top of it, and crushed it with the very last of her magic.

Now for—

Chrysalis leaped from nowhere, slamming into Twilight in a way that broke a few ribs minimum.

She pinned Twi to the ground, and Twilight tried desperately to escape.

But the ocean had dried up…

“Say goodbye!” Chrysalis hollered as her horn lit up with whatever spell she planned to finish Twilight with.

She tried to fight, until she realized she had nothing left to fight with.

All she could do was close her eyes, and hope her end would be painless.

…wait…

…there was something...

Where the ocean of power once sat, there was nothing except a single drop.

One, tiny, miniscule drop

Enough for a little telekinesis…

Twilight opened her eyes again, still locked in the infinite moment just milliseconds before her death.

She reached out with her magic…

…and grabbed and twisted Chrysalis’ horn just as she started casting her spell.

Her horn broke in two, and whatever spell Chrysalis had been casting backlashed into her.

Power and pain were reverting from funneling out Chrysalis’ horn to drilling into her head.

Her hooves let off of Twilight to clasp at her face, along which hairline fractures grew and spread.

Twilight rolled over, on top of Chrysalis, just as raw magic tore Chrysalis open and poured out of her in a powerful explosive blast of green fire.

Twi felt herself get thrown into the air, consciousness moving farther and farther from her reach.

She didn’t know what height she was thrown to, but she knew she’d likely die from the fall.

If the burns on her gut didn’t kill her first.

‘Funny,’ Twilight thought to herself as she fell. ‘I never thought it’d end this way.’

‘But at least Equestria is safe…’

That thought hovered in Twilight’s mind as she faded into the deepest slumber she’d ever known.

Better to live and love

“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.

With those you already posess.

Twilight slammed headfirst into her bookshelf, nearly blacking out from the pain. As it was, she collapsed to the floor.

“TWILIGHT!”

Pinkie Pie burst in out of nowhere and clasped Twilight in a bone-crushing hug. Which, as fate would have it, aggrevated her forehead bruises.

“OW! Head! Pain! Lots of pain! Oh, Celestia…”

“Pinkie, lay off the poor girl. Can’t’cha see she’s hurtin’?”

“Pffft! Whatever! I’ve gotten up five seconds after way worse crashes!”

Twilight ignored Rainbow and Applejack as she sat up. “Wh-where am I?”

“Exactly where you were when you cast the divination spell, just four hours into the future!”

Four hours…? Wow. Talk about off-course.

“What happened to you, darling!? You had us worried sick!”

“I…I think I messed up the spell. Last thing I remember, I was getting pulled into the timestream, and then…” She gestured to the bookcase, bring her other hoof to her aching head.

“Well, I’m glad you’re safe.” Fluttershy’s voice floated across the room, just before Twilight caught sight of her. “After all, it could have been a lot worse.”

“Yeah! You coulda gotten sucked years and years into the future, into a world where pony society didn’t exist anymore! Ooooooh…”

Twilight just chuckled, looking around at her five best friends as they filled her field of vision. She felt amazingly happy to see them again, and ‘Shy was right that she was lucky to get out with just four hours gone. But still…she couldn’t shake this weird sense of sadness that clung to her mind. Like something was missing.

“Oh, what a dreadful thought! Or worse yet, far enough in the future to be past the end of the world!”

Twilight just laughed as she got up to her shaky hooves, reveling in the feeling of Pinkie helping her keep steady perhaps a little more than she should have. Maybe her emotions were out of balance as a side effect of the time spell? Clearly, more research was needed.

Later.

“I get the point, girls. Needless to say, I’m not touching that spell for a while.” Then she glanced around noticing one face missing. “Where’s Spike?”

“Oh, he had to run out for something. He should be back any moment.”

Twilight couldn’t help but feel inexplicably upset.

She just pushed the feeling aside and smiled. “Well, we’ll wait for him to get back then. Anypony else hungry?”

“Famished, darling.”

“Oh! Me too!”

“Ah could go fer some grub.”

“Oh! I could make us all a big super-batch of super-cupcakes!”

“Oh, the hay you are! I’m not having all that sugar on my flank!”

The five of them attacked the kitchen, arguing over the appropriate amount of food for what was apparently now a “Congratulations on only skipping four hours” party. Twilight just chuckled softly to herself, taking her time with following them.

Sitting on one of the tables was a dustpan, filled with broken pieces of the mug Twilight had shattered by accident not a half-hour ago. Well, technically, four-and-a-half hours ago, but one subjective half-hour.

She smiled, then focused her magic, and the pieces of mug reassembled themselves back into their original shape like it had never been broken. Then she smiled even wider, focused again, and formed a copy of the mug out of thin air. After all, it was Spike’s favorite. He should have a spare in case she broke one again. Call it a really early birthday present.

Then, as Twilight resumed her way to the kitchen, she noticed something in the mirror. It was…it had to be her reflection, because it moved with her. But there was no way that could be true. Her reflection was taller than her, for one thing, and nearly as tall as Celestia herself. Her mane looked like Celestia’s, if it were colored in rich purples and reds and golds, and speckled with the silver stars one might see in the early evening. She was regal, and powerful, and noble, and magnificent to behold. Her face, her eyes…they spoke of so much experience. Experience of loss and reclamation, of pain and joy, of betrayal and victory, of love and hate and war and beauty, somehow all at once.

Twilight tried to focus on the image, but it shimmered and vanished, leaving Twilight staring at a reflection of herself.

She stared at the mirror for several more seconds, until Rainbow’s voice echoed into her ears.

“Twilight! Get in here! Oh, Sweet Celestia, please hurry!”

Twilight stifled a laugh, glanced back at the mirror, then shook her head and started for the kitchen. She didn’t rush.

After all,

she had all the time in the world.

Author's notes

Just some comments about the creation of the story as a whole, as well as a full explanation of Twi's transformation. Feel free to skip it if you're not interested.

Story aspect creation:

Twilight: It’s funny, actually, how much Twilight didn’t end up like I’d originally planned to write her. The first chapter was more or less according to plan, as I tried to replicate the style of her dialogue to that displayed in the show. But after that…I guess this proves just how much characters write a story as opposed to authors, because she just kinda took off on her own style.

Future Pinkie: Future Pinkie was a tricky balance to achieve. On one hand, I wanted to keep her usual Pinkieness and keep some character continuity going. On the other hand, I had to play with the traumas and the sheer quantity of guilt that she had to shoulder on account of her betrayal. I wanted to keep the latter a little more subtle, there only for foreshadowing perceptible to the clever. In the end, though, it ended up being the other way around. So…weird surprises.

The future 5: The future versions of the Mane 6 were so, so tricky to get right. Like with Pinkie, I wanted to balance their base character with the changes that have occurred in the intermediate time. But the levels with which these two aspects were balanced also had to be different for every one of them, based on their base characters. Rarity was basically her old self, but a lot more accepting of the notion of death (hence her basically unreactive behavior when Twilight tells her the world will end if she leaves). Fluttershy I imagined as changing the least, just a little less trusting of ponies in general. Dash and AJ of course have their little blood feud going, which was a nice way to throw in the lessons of forgiveness that Twilight would later have to take to heart. In the end, I’m pretty satisfied with how they all turned out, and I just wish Rares and ‘Shy had more to do throughout the story.

Spike: Spike…dear gods, what can I even say about this guy? He may be my favorite character in this whole thing, despite only being there for one chapter. It was so much fun to write his deadpan straight-guy to Twilights’ first-chapter madmare, and some of the most fun I had was imagining him in his last few moments. There’s a good reason he’s counted as a main character despite being dead. It’s partly to hide the spoiler of his death, but mostly because he has such an impact on the story that I couldn't take him out period. It’s the same reason Sauron is an iconic character despite saying nothing.

Chrysalis: Writer’s cocaine. Hands down, the most fun character to write. Combining evil intentions and witty snark with subtext of a traumatic past, and then packing all that into a nearly-omnipotent being? I almost broke the story to put more of her into it.

CMC: The CMC were something not featured in the original story, but I changed that once I realized that the story seemed to happen only to the Mane 6. And looking back, adding little nods to the other characters of the show certainly did a lot to help the story. As for their cutie marks…I did what I could to play with some things being hinted at in the show. I gave Applebloom a cutie mark concerning zap apples, mostly due to a comment in Family Appreciation Day where somepony said the Zap-apple jam was the best it’d ever been because she’d helped. Sweetie Belle, I imagine as being a medic, for reasons unknown (though the CMC’s antics probably gave her lots of practice). Scoots was the hardest to place, until I realized her special talent was a bit more abstract. But looking back at episodes like Cute from the Hip, I noticed she has a certain drive to jump in and defend ponies who can’t defend themselves. So I ran with it.

Some possibly confusing aspects:

Let’s address the elephant in the room…

Twilight’s transformation: I have this headcanon concerning Alicorns, which I designed to fill in the gap between pony-like alicorns (Twilight and Cadence) and god-like alicorns (Celestia and Luna). My headcanon goes that the act of a pony becoming an unaging (but not immortal) alicorn is based around them proving they have the right stuff to be a leader of Equestria. But the act of going from a pony-like alicorn to a god-like alicorn is the affirmation and acceptance of their role in society. By this logic, look at the story: Twilight grew from her regular size to three inches taller when she basically took Equestria’s fate into her own hooves, and became a fully realized alicorn when she declared to Chrysalis, Equestria, and herself that she was Equestria’s rightful ruler.

Now look at the show: we see Luna transform into Nightmare Moon when she tries her very hardest to throw down her sister and take control of Equestria. Celestia is the single most important pony in the nation, with Luna as second-most, and Twilight and Cadence being basically irrelevant to the politics of the country. This correlates perfectly to their sizes (and even their magical strength), with ‘Tia being number 1, Luna as number 2, Cadence as number 3, and Twilight bringing up the rear. So, I drew a line between correlation and causality.

I know it’s a little confusing in the story, but I tried to keep it as clear as possible. I originally wasn’t going to include it, because it’s a headcanon and it can be pretty out-there. The original rendition of the story had the Mane 6 basically just re-stealing the Elements of Harmony and blasting Chrysalis with the Rainbow of Death. But I changed it when I realized that there was no character development to be had. So instead, I turned the story from Twilight seeing a dark future to Twilight finding the strength within herself to carry on against impossible odds (something the show never really shows her doing).

When one sees the future,

“No…that’s not it…no…no…oh, where IS IT!?”

Twilight sat in the midst of a storm of levitated books, barely glancing at each one before turning to look at another. And another. And another.

Spike simply sat by the front door of the library, doing his best not to get in the way. It had been a while since Twilight had tried to move him thinking he was a book, so he trusted his luck enough to take a long, slow sip from his cup of coffee as he watched the manic mare.

“No, no, no! Ugh! This is hopeless!”

“What are you even looking for?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Spike!?”

He glanced around the room, the air thick with rejected books. “Uh…not really.”

“URRRGH!” The flurry of magic-enveloped tomes resumed.

The front door opened, nearly squishing Spike before the pony in question slipped inside.

“Oh! Hey, Spike!”

“Hey, Pinkie. What’s up?”

“Oh, my Pinkie sense was telling me there was a soooooper-duper doozie coming from around here, so I thought I’d check it out! Where’s Twilight?”

Spike simply pointed a claw into the main room of the library, before taking another sip of coffee.

“Oh, wow! She looks preeeetty focused! Did her future self show up again to deliver a message and warn her of a future disaster only to get sucked back into the future before she could say anything useful?”

“No, nothing like that. It sounds like she just lost a book or something.”

“Oh! Well, that’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad!? NOT! SO! BAD!?!?!?!” Twilight let out a howl of rage and frustration as all the books in the air suddenly flew outwards and crashed into the various walls. She rounded on the two of them. “It’s AWFUL! It’s a catastrophe! It’s the worst possible thing that could ever happen EVER!!!”

She flumped backwards onto the floor.

“Well…maybe you could find another copy?”

Spike glanced at Pinkie. Then set his mug back down on the ground and snatched up his Twimergency Gear from the corner.

“Another…copy…?”

“Yeah! I’m sure there’s one somewhere!”

Twilight stoop up and just stared at Pinkie, eyes twitching with rage. “That book…was a compendium…of Star Swirl’s unfinished works…from almost two thousand years ago…uncovered just last month…and personally delivered to me…by Princess Celestia herself…and you seriously think…that there’s another copy just LYING AROUND SOMEWHERE!?!?!?!”

Pinkie shrank under Twilight’s gaze, and Spike retreated into the tied-up pillow-and-helmet body armor.

“Maybe not…”

“OF COURSE THERE ISN’T!!!” Twilight employed the Royal Canterlot voice, which left Spike all but flattened against the door with his ears ringing and a bad case of double-vision. He made a mental note as he peeled himself off of the door to add some earplugs to his Twimergency Gear.

The books picked themselves back up as Twilight resumed her search. “Which is why I have to find that book as soon as I possibly can!”

Pinkie picked herself up, looking somehow deflated, until she got an idea and perked right back up.

“Maybe we could help you find it!” she offered. “Where did you put it last?”

The swirl of books stopped, and Twilight’s wings fluttered themselves in frustration. “I don’t have time for your useless questions, Pinkie.”

Pinkie looked pretty hurt, so Spike instead picked up the torch. “They’re not useless, Twilight. After all, we might see something you overlooked.”

“Yeah! We’re just super-sleuthy like that!”

Twilight turned to face them, the books setting themselves on the ground. “Well, I’d set it on my nightstand last night because I fell asleep reading it.”

“And when did you notice it was gone?”

“This morning, when I was having breakfast. I had an idea for how to finish one of the spells, and looked for the book to double-check myself, only to find it wasn’t here!”

“Didja check your nightstand?”

Twilight was about to yell at Pinkie again, presumably to remind her that she wasn’t that stupid, before realizing…

“Um…no…”

With a brief flash of purple magic, Twilight teleported away. Then, from her room, there was a shrill cheering and the distinct sound of a very happy Twilight.

Spike just shrugged off his Twimergency Gear and started picking up the books that now littered the floor. Knowing Twilight, she’d be too busy to bother cleaning the place up, so the duty fell to him.

…and of course his mug had broken, coffee spilled all over the entryway.

There was another flash of magic as Twilight teleported back into the main room, her beloved tome clutched snugly under one wing. “Pinkie, you’re a genius!” she cried, throwing her forelegs around her.

“Heeheehee! Glad I could help, Twilight! Now, go finish that spell!”

Twilight smiled like a maniac, leaping off of Pinkie Pie and speeding over to her desk and flipping through the pages of the priceless book as she went. Once she found the right page, she immediately snatched up a quill in her magic and began her work.

Spike finished sweeping up the broken bits of coffee mug into the dustpan. It wasn’t a total loss. He could probably guilt Twilight into fixing it back up, once Star Swirl’s spell was off her mind.

The next step was the books, and it was nice of Pinkie to help. Even if she did occasionally jump up in the air, jittering like a snowflake in a hurricane, before looking around nervously. Spike couldn’t help but be nervous himself. Pinkie was right, her Pinkie Sense was going off the charts. And if something that bad was coming here…Spike shuddered as he shelved the book he was holding.

They had nearly gotten all the books reshelved when Twilight spoke again. “I think…I think I’ve got it!”

“That’s great! But…got what, Twilight?”

Her stomach groaned as she put the finishing touches on her spell, and she stepped away from the desk with a soft sigh. “It’s a divination spell that Star Swirl had been trying to finish. If I’m right, it’ll display an image of the future, and you can set it to however far in the future you want to see. But he’d never quite gotten it to work.” Her stomach roared angrily at her to stop her little history lesson and get some food. “Um…gimme a second…”

She trotted into the kitchen, quickly assembling a sandwich and gulping it down almost in the same motion, before resuming her speech.

“Anyway, I’d looked the spell over and over the past few days, because there was something that struck me as kinda familiar about it. Like…I had the missing piece somewhere in my head, but I couldn’t remember where it was.” She assembled another sandwich as she talked, and took that brief pause to gulp it down.

“Gosh, you sure are eating quite a bit. You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Pinkie. I just didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast earlier because I was looking for that book. Anyway, where was I?”

“Couldn’t remember where it was.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly, rubbing a hoof on her chin as she tried to remember for a brief moment. “Oh! Yeah. Then…out of nowhere…this flower pot falls and lands right next to me!”

“Just like that time with the bandage and the time spell and the birthday present and the ice cream!”

“Ugh…can we please not talk about that ice cream…”

“Exactly like that! And that’s when it clicked! The time spell we used then, and the divination spell in the book, are fundamentally similar! The only difference is that we’d be going forwards in time instead of backwards, and creating a window instead of actually going there! So with that in mind, I was able to change the time spell we used in the Future Twilight debacle and then use it to fill in the gaps with the divination spell!”

“Makes sense to me!”

Twilight finally caught sight of Spike, who was struggling to get a book onto a high-up shelf. Casually, she just smiled and levitated it the rest of the way for him.

“Didja ever find out why the flower pot fell?”

“No.”

“It might’ve had something to do with all the noise you were making…”

“Well, you should credit that flower pot with your discovery!”

“Pinkie, I don’t think that’s how copyright laws work.”

“Well…they should!”

The two of them shared a brief laugh, before Pinkie’s Pinkie sense interrupted it by nearly throwing Pinkie to the floor.

Twilight just stared at her. “Wow…”

“Well, that spell thing wasn’t the doozie! But whatever it is, it’s on its way here!”

Spike immediately glanced around, as if expecting some horrific monster to crash through the windows right that second.

It wasn’t a horrible monster that roared in a moment later. It was Rainbow Dash.

Crash! “Hey, Twilight! You okay!?” She skidded to a halt on the main floor.

“I’m fine, Rainbow Dash. But I couldn’t say the same for my window…”

She glanced back at the new hole in the building, then shrugged and turned back to the group. “What was all that shouting earlier?”

“Oh! She was looking for a book and got a little frustrated and there were books flying everywhere and she started twitching but not in the Pinkie Sense way and then she started yelling in the Royal Canterlot voice before—“

“Pinkie! Simple…answers…”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!”

Rainbow just sighed. “Awful lot of yelling over just one book. You probably shook up half of Ponyville.”

“I know, I know. But considering that it was to finish a divination spell thought up by Star Swirl the Bearded himself, I think I can live with that.”

Rainbow just looked at her, screwing up her face. “A divini…divi…”

Twilight sighed. “A spell that lets you see the future.”

“Oh. Oh! Oh, this is gonna be good. I’m gonna go get the others. I bet they’ll wanna see this!”

“Wait! I have to make sure it…” Rainbow flew back out the window, leaving only a quickly-fading rainbow contrail behind her. “…works…first…”

Twilight deflated. Great. If she screwed up, now she’d have an audience to her humiliation.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” offered Pinkie Pie, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “You can just test the spell before Rainbow Dash gets back! It’s not like you can only cast it once, right?”

That perked her up. She looked over at the book of Star Swirl’s notes, with a few notes of her own slotted between the pages. It simply sat there, open to the right page with the finished spell sitting right on top.

“You’re right!” She immediately darted over to the book, using her wings to speed her along.

She looked back over the spell, subbing in the right numbers wherever necessary. Then she turned back around to face an excited Pinkie and a bored-but-intrigued-looking Spike.

“Okay…I’m going to use the spell to try and see five minutes into the future.”

Twi glanced at the nearest clock, recording the time in her head.

11:37.

She turned to face it. She wanted to see if her spell worked right after she cast it.

“Stand back, everypony.”

She closed her eyes, and focused.

Focused harder…

She tried to imagine the formula in her mind, and concentrate on it. She could feel her horn buzzing with power, power that was wrapping itself around her and enveloping her entire being.

Harder…

She could just feel it…the realm that contained all of time and space, which she had only tapped into once before. She could feel space warping around her, as she pressed harder and harder against it to reach into that realm.

Just a little more…

Her magic was just pressing through the wall, and bonding to the time beyond it. She tried to focus the pressure in front of her, so that would be where the window would form.

This was the go/no-go point. Once her own magic mixed with the timeline, she wouldn’t be able to pull it back.

But she was confident. She knew this would work.

So…close…

With a crackling pop, she felt the fabric of reality give way, her magic piercing through into the infinite timeline beyond. Reaching through that little window she’d created, she steered her magic to aim her target.

Five minutes from her current temporal position.

She felt her magic touch it. Press on it. Bond to it.

That was when she felt the tug.

The pull, like the magic she had extended was pulling her into the ether.

It came again, harder.

No.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

She tried her best to pull back from the spell, but there was no way that was happening.

She felt her magic flailing, splaying off course as she lost concentration.

Just…pull harder…

She strained as hard as she could to cancel her spell.

She failed.

Was pulled into the portal she’d made…

…and collided headfirst into a bookshelf.

And cry your name to the heavens.

“What!? Rainbow would never do that! She’d never let her friends die and you know it! For Celestia’s sake, she’s the element of Loyalty for a reason!”

“Ah don’t mean she sold us out or killed ‘em all or somethin’. But if she hadn’t been so buckin’ dense and actually listened for once, we might’ve won and all those ponies’d still be alive!”

“Then it’s not her fault! She just made a mistake!”

“If you make a mistake like that, then it’s your own damn fault!” Applejack and Twilight just glared needles at each other, before AJ conceded slightly. “Ah guess you want the long version, huh?”

Twilight just nodded slightly, not letting go of the incredible frustration she felt that Applejack didn’t see how ridiculous she was being.

Sssssip.

“Fine. Ah’ll tell you, for old times’ sake. It was almost four years ago now, and a couple weeks after the Invasion. Luna and the rest of us had liberated a couple nearby cities, and we were planning the big shot. We’d slip into Canterlot through a secret passage that Luna knew about, and rescue Celestia to beat down Chrysalis with a two-princess war machine. She put the five of us in charge of various things. ‘Shy, Pinkie, and Rares would be in charge of intel-gatherin’, Ah’d be gettin’ the troops together, and Rainbow’d iron out the finer details of the plan.”

Ssssip.

“Everythin’ was goin’ great until a few days from when we’d planned it to happen. Ah couldn’t put my hoof on it at the time, but…somethin’ just felt wrong. Like it was all goin’ too well. Ah tried tellin’ that to Rainbow, but she just wouldn’t listen! Kept goin’ on an’ on ‘bout how I should be focusin’ on my job instead ah doin’ hers! Maybe she’d’ah been better about it if Luna hadn’t handed her that job in the first place. In any case, we went with her plan instead ah mine. You can probably guess what happened next.”

Twilight just nodded, putting the pieces together. “They knew you were coming.”

AJ nodded with her. “Ah dunno how they did, but they did. Ah was right to think somethin’ was off, 'cause when we got there, Chrysalis was waitin’ with her whole dang brood. We’d been set up, one hundred percent.”

She shoved a hoof at Twilight. “But’cha know what? We fought anyway. Made ‘em pay threefold for every one of ours they got. Luna took on Chrysalis personally, while we kept the horde off ‘er, and Spike and the rest of our troops cleared an exit. An’ the worst part is that Luna darn near won that fight!”

Twilight knew she should feel bad for her friends, but couldn’t help but swell with pride at the notion of her assistant and best friend being so brave.

Then Applejack just sat back into her chair, no longer looking strong or powerful or fiery, but just looking dead inside. “That was when Ah bucked up. Caught a sword in the leg, and lost a dang hoof to it. The hit gave the Changelin’s a chance to peg Luna, and turn the tide of that fight. Ah…Ah don’t remember much of it, Ah was…kinda gettin’ stomped on by a dozen drones or so. But Luna’s last act was to make Spike a full-grown dragon, to give us a shot at gettin’ home free. It worked, but we sure as shootin’ payed a price for it. Rares got hit with Dragonfire tryin’ to pull me outta the fray. ‘Shy lost her eyes when Spike hit ‘em with his tail, and that tail caught Pinkie in the shoulder twice. Still not sure why that cut ‘em up so bad, though.”

“Oh. Some dragons can get large bony protrusions on their tail-tips when they grow up. The bones are sharp enough to act like blades.”

Applejack nodded, then waved her hoof as if to dismiss the distraction. “Dash prolly got the worst of it. Spike’s tail crushed her up ‘gainst the cave wall, an’ cost her a leg, an eye, a few ribs, and darn near the rest of ‘er. It cost at least a few dozen other ponies either their lives or a limb or two, but Spike’s little growth spurt did the trick. He got wedged in the cave, blockin’ the Changelin’s from gettin’ in, which gave us all more’n enough time to run for the hills. After that…well, it’s prolly not hard for you to figure out the rest.”

Twilight didn’t nod that time, instead connecting the dots from that story to the others she’d heard. “But…that doesn’t sound like it was her plan that screwed you over. It sounds like either plan would’ve failed, since they probably had a spy in the mix.”

AJ shook her head. “Mah plan was to split our forces in secret, send half of ‘em through the front door while the rest kept the Changelin’s busy, so the spy wouldn’t know. But Rainbow didn’t like that, kept sayin’ there was no spy, an’ that Ah was just bein’ paranoid, so we went with her plan instead.” Applejack growled, as if the pegasus she was accusing could hear her, then just sighed into another sip of tea. “Not like it matters. S’all in the past now.”

Twilight grabbed for the tea, only to have her grip fill with air. A quick glance around showed Pinkie was no longer present, having taken her and Twilight’s mugs into the kitchen to clean. Probably so she didn’t have to hear that story again, poor thing.

Then Applejack just shook her head and put on a smile. “What am Ah doin’? Here you are, back from the dead, an’ Ah’m sittin’ here tellin’ mopey old war stories!?” She laughed again and playfully punched Twilight’s shoulder way harder than she should have. “Ah’ll go get Pinkie, and we can getcha a load of apples. Hay, Ah’ll deliver ‘em myself.”

Twilight forced a smile as Applejack got up out of her chair. “Just like old times?”

“Just like old times,” Applejack repeated as she vanished into the kitchen.

Twilight didn’t follow, partly to give them privacy, and partly because she was so lost in her own thoughts. She knew her friends had gone through a lot. She had filled in a lot of blanks herself after Pinkie’s story. But that…that was easily worse than most of the things she’d filled in those blanks with. The thought that they’d gotten so close…so close to victory…only to fall so, so far. No wonder everything went so wrong.

And Spike…

Twilight nearly collapsed, thinking about her baby-dragon-assistant. He had been so very brave, charging right into battle with the rest of them. She could almost see him on the battlefield, decked out in armor with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, spewing dragonfire at any Changeling that dared to touch him. He’d given his life to defend the others, and even though it was more Luna’s choice than his, she had no doubt that he would have done the exact same thing regardless.

And that…

She was so proud of him. She just wished she’d gotten a chance to show it more.

She felt a few tears fill up her gut, making their way up to her eyes, but the distinctive sound of Applejack’s hooves interrupted her.

clop, clop, clop, thunk! clop, clop, clop, thunk!

“Come on, Twi,” she said plainly, gesturing to the door. “Let’s getcher apples and getcha back to the Library.”

Twilight rolled out of her chair, forcing a little smile. “Isn’t it the Pharmacy now?”

“Aw, shucks Twi. It’ll always be your Library no matter what it’s called or who’s in it.”

Twi just laughed. It may not have been totally appropriate, given where her head was at the time. But that thought definitely lifted her spirits a little.

“You know, Applejack,” Pinkie started, reappearing next to AJ, “you really should call her Nightie in public.”

“Ah know, Ah know, but…Ah’m warnin’ yeh, Ah’m not the best’ah liars.”

“I know, but…just try, Applejack. Okay?”

Applejack nodded as she opened the door, motioning for the two of them to go out ahead of her.

“So how long you stayin’ in Ponyville, T--Nightie?” Twilight almost laughed, before she realized that AJ was giving their long conversation some validity to anyone in earshot.

‘AJ, you fantastically clever mare, you.’ “Oh, just until my horn heals. Won’t be more than a week or so. I just didn’t want to travel the roads again without my magic.”

“Certainly a good idea. And really, I don’t mind setting you up with a place to stay for that long.”

“Thanks. And I’ll try and help you out as much as I can in the meantime, Pinkie.”

The three of them rounded one corner of the house to be confronted with a large cart, surrounded by giant buckets of apples, all being arranged and rearranged by a grey pegasus with an olive-green mane and tail, and a cutie mark that showed a potted pine tree. He turned up to look at the three approaching mares, then just smiled at Applejack slightly.

“Howdy, Green Hoof! Y’done for the day?”

“Sure am.” His voice certainly didn’t match the image of a farm pony. It matched much more closely to some of the ponies Twilight had heard in Manehattan during Rarity’s fashion show last week.

Or, more accurately, five years, six months, two weeks, and two days ago. But one subjective week.

“Well, why didn’t you come in and say somethin’? Ah woulda handed you your pay for the day.”

He shuffled his hooves slightly. “Applebloom said you were with customers.”

“Oh, good, she did find you.” AJ glanced around suddenly. “Where is that little filly, anyway?”

“Oh! She said she was watering the Zapapple Trees.”

“What!? Oh, that little…” she stopped herself, presumably before spouting of a string of explatives. “At least she’s doin’ somethin’ productive, Ah suppose. Go ahead an’ put’cherself in the logbook for me, wouldja? You know which drawer the bits’re in.”

Green Hoof nodded, then smiled at Pinkie. “Always nice to see you again, Pink. And a pleasure meeting you too, miss.” He politely hoof-bumped Twilight as he walked by.

Applejack started hefting buckets of apples into the cart, and Twilight was amazed at how much she was able to carry these days, compared to her usual hauls.

Pinkie reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the little baggie of bits. “Whrrf shed ah poot his?”

Twilight and Applejack both had to stop themselves from bursting out laughing. “Just drop it on the dinin’ room table. Ah’ll handle it when Ah get back.”

Pinkie dashed off, leaving Twilight alone with Applejack as she lifted another bucket into the cart.

“Do you…want me to help?”

She just chuckled. “Twi, Ah don’t rightly see how you could be any help at this.”

The two of them stayed silent as AJ loaded in one more bucket, before crawling under the tongue of the cart and standing up straight to lever it onto just her back and two wheels. It didn’t look easy with that pegleg, but it looked like she had already solved that problem long ago.

The two of them started for the front of the house, but AJ stopped them.

“Listen, T--Night. Ah know whatcha must think’ve me, after everythin’ Ah said in there.”

“Applejack, Luna’s death was an accident. You can’t blame yourself. Believe me, if you blame yourself for every little mistake, you’ll never get through the day.”

“Ah meant with the whole pricin’ thin’, although…um…thanks. But Ah guess Ah wanted you t’know that…Ah am tryin’, Twi. Ah’m keepin’ my prices as low’s Ah can get ‘em. Ah drop as many favors as Ah can get away with. Ah just…Ah guess Ah just wanted you to understand that.”

Twilight leaned into the other mare’s shoulder (which felt like iron covered in skin and fur) softly. “I know, Applejack. I figured that was the case.” Okay, it was a white lie, but she was earnest when she added, “And I forgive you wholeheartedly.”

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief, then leaned into Twilight as much as she could. “It’s good to have yah back, Twi.” Then she paused for a second. “Sorry…Ah meant Nightie.”

They stayed like that for a brief moment, before Pinkie rounded the corner ahead of them. “Come on, you slowpokes!”

Applejack stood up straight, letting some of that inner fire of hers in Pinkie’s direction. “Ah’ll have you know Ah’m haulin’ three hundred apples with a peg-hoof. Keep that in mind when you go an’ call me a slowpoke!”

“Oh, I had it in mind. I just felt like calling you a slowpoke anyway!”

Applejack threw a hoof at her, one that Pinkie dodged very easily with the agility Twilight had come to expect from her. Then the two of them laughed, and Twilight joined in this time. Horrible future or no, it was a great feeling to have the three of them together again.

Twilight couldn’t sleep at all that night.

It wasn’t her stomach growling in protest to her hopelessly small dinner, or the way her skin felt kind of tight on her for some reason, or the way another of Pinkie’s customers came in and nearly recognized Twilight, or the creepily disturbing way that the sun went from its noontime position (where it had sat all day) to set in less than a minute. Nor did it have anything to do with the fact that the night was way, way too dark.

It was the notion of Sleepers that kept her from resting properly.

All night, she laid there, staring at the objects around her in the slightly-brighter-than-last-night-but-still-too-dark starlight. She could see the objects in the guest room around her, just enough to know their shapes and locations. None of them looked like Changelings, but Twilight just couldn’t convince herself that it was safe. Had she somehow messed up? Given her true identity away, or said something illegal? Were the Changelings coming to break in, and steal her away in her sleep? Wrap her up in a cocoon and feed off her love until her mind eventually broke down and she turned into a hollow shell of a pony?

She was never getting to sleep tonight, was she?

Twilight groaned angrily and reached a hoof out to her nightstand, where Star Swirl’s book sat like it had always been there. She’d spent the rest of the day reviewing her formula, trying to re-route it so it could bring her back into the past. But there were still so many questions she needed to answer before she could finish it. After all, if the other time spell had only lasted a few minutes, why did this one seem to be permanent? Why had it sucked her into the future in the first place, instead of making a window like it should have?

And what would happen if she did go back to her time? Obviously, if she made it back to when she left, none of the events leading to this future would ever happen. So did that mean that this timeline would go on without her? Or would it be obliterated by the paradox, and she would live out her life on one where she came back five minutes later instead of five years? If that happened, would she even remember this timeline, or would those memories be wiped from her mind as never having occurred? After all, if this timeline never happened, that meant she couldn’t remember it happening.

Twilight just growled at her brain to stop running around and rolled over. She couldn’t do any work, or even light a candle to read a good book to get her mind off things, without breaking curfew (a rule she had no keen desire to break). Maybe this was why Star Swirl abandoned those spells, because they were giving him such a bucking headache.

Thunk.

The sound was faint, barely even perceptible, but definitely came from outside. Twilight jumped up in her bed, immediately panicking, but other than the one or two stars visible through the Guest Bedroom window, there was nothing to see other than the faint outline of Ponyville around her.

Wait…

A dark shape suddenly swooped down from the top of her vision, then started getting larger and large—

Twilight ducked just before her window exploded with a cacophonous crash!. Something tore through the air just above her, and landed against the far wall with a sickening mixture of a thunk!, a crunch!, and a splat!. Then, as quick as it came in, it sped right back out, with the distinctive fwoosh of feathers slicing through the air like knife blades, accompanied by the tinny whistle of the actual knife blades at the leading edge of those wings. It wasn’t hard for Twilight to put the pieces together as she sat back up in her bed.

A pegasus, armed with wingblades and probably hoofblades, just crushed a Changeling against her bedroom wall.

There was another soft fwoosh in the distance, and another dark shape descended from the sky to attack some unseen target.

Then there was a shrill cry of pain and agony, one that was utterly unequine, and all Tartarus broke loose.

Pinkie Pie burst into the guest bedroom, flicking the light on, apparently not caring about curfew anymore. “Twilight! Twi, are you okay!?”

Twilight just nodded, covering her eyes from the sudden brightness.

“Oh my Celestia! What happened in here!?”

“Pegasi are attacking the Changelings. They’re armed, and they’re good.”

Pinkie made a noise that couldn’t decide if it was happy or scared, while Twilight uncovered her eyes to finally see…

…oh…

…so that’s what Changeling guts look like.

Pinkie dashed over to Twilight, grabbing her hoof and dragging her off the bed.

“Wait! Pinkie! The book! The disguise!” Twilight stammered, just as a distant explosion assailed their ears.

Pinkie looked like she was all set to tear into Twilight at that instant, before understanding crossed over her face.

“Well hurry up, then!”

Twilight pulled the book under her wing, zipping the bodysuit over it. She would have a weird bulge on one side, but that was excusable under the circumstances. Next came the contacts…oh, buck it. There were ponies screaming and buildings burning, she doubted her life would depend on some colored contacts.

Twilight sped downstairs, meeting Pinkie by the front door. When the two of them ran out, the world was lit by the harsh orange-yellow from people’s houses. Someponies were simply staring out their bedroom windows, but nopony was on the streets. Above the world, now-more-visible dark blurs sped every which way, and it took Twilight a split-second each time one did to tell which ones were Changelings and which ones were pegasi.

“PONYVILLE FOREVER!” somepony in the distance shouted, followed by a loud explosion.

Pinkie ignored all of it as she ran through the streets dragging Twilight behind her.

They jammed to a halt when a Changeling rounded a corner in front of them. And the minute it saw them, it hissed, bared its fangs, and charged full gallop.

Twilight stumbled backwards, her wings flaring in pure terror, tearing right through the bodysuit and stretching into full view.

She didn’t mean to do it. It was pure instinct, made even more ironic by the fact that she had no idea how to pull off sustained flight. All she had done was reveal her secret in her final few moments.

But it was enough to stop the Changeling dead in its tracks not six feet in front of them. After all, in its mind, it just saw a unicorn become an alicorn in the space of two seconds. Add in the fact that there weren’t any more alicorns…well, the look of shock and surprise and confusion on the Changeling’s face seemed appropriate.

And then fear landed on that face when Pinkie Pie pulled out her Party Cannon.

Twilight had no idea where she’d pulled it from, or where she’d put it in the meantime, or how she’d manage to keep it around with the Invasion. Nor did Twilight give a damn, because right now, she’d never been happier to see that infernal contraption in her entire life.

Bo-BOOM!

It didn’t fire confetti and streamers anymore, instead firing a single glass shell that exploded on contact with the Changeling’s hastily-erected shield. It was thrown back quite a ways, face steaming and body writhing but still very much alive.

‘Wait…when did Changelings make shields? That’s advanced magic!’

The Changeling ignored her silent question and flipped onto its porphyrous hooves, screeching in an unholy high-pitched scream of pain and anger. Then it charged again as Pinkie reloaded her cannon, this time flying over the ground at almost-unthinkable speeds.

Pinkie’s leg twitched, and she shoved the party cannon aside and tackled Twilight to the ground.

Not a half-instant later, a multicolored streak cut through the air above them, and the extended wingblade of that pegasus instantly liberated the Changeling’s head from its neck before Twilight could even blink. The force launched the pegasus into a flat spin, which became an awkward tumbling landing, which became a roll, which became a takeoff. And as Twilight and Pinkie got to their hooves to greet their prismatic flying savior, who was arcing back around to meet them, Twilight instantly recognized…

“Rainbow Dash!” she screamed. “Rainbow, it’s m-OOF!”

Dash hit her at full speed, knocking her right off her hooves as the two of them turned hard. Twilight was slammed against the wall of a building, and screamed in pain as it roared all over her body.

Then Rainbow pinned her against the wall with two well-placed wingblades, and jammed the sharp metal edge strapped to her one forehoof under Twilight’s skull and against her neck, drawing just enough blood to be threatening. And she stared directly across into one very angry magenta eye as Rainbow hissed a bloodcurdling greeting to her.

“Hey there, Changeling.”

As they fight their fates to no avail

The spell pressed right through what resistance there was to it in Twilight’s horn, like a wave overflowing a dam with sheer physical force of impact.

It burned away the cocoon around her horn completely, in no time at all.

Twilight had just enough presence of mind to aim it for the door. She poured all her hatred, and her fury…hay, every negative emotion she’d felt since getting here…she dumped it all into the spell that tore away ward and seal and doorway and Changeling guard alike.

Then she felt the spell peter out, and the world returned to focus. Except it was spinning again. And little stars and black spots were dancing around Twilight’s vision.

Great. Over-exertion.

The room was silent for a long, long moment, while Twilight did her best to get to her hooves.

“What…just…” Dash broke the silence, only to replace it with more.

Twilight finally managed to stand upright, before nearly falling over again. She bumped into Rarity before successfully catching herself.

“Oh! Twilight, are you…”

Twilight just swatted Rarity’s hoof away. “Nopony touch me right now. I…” she tried to take the hatred out of her voice. “I’m not sure I can control myself just yet.”

There was another brief and infinite silence as Twilight took stock. Legs, hooves, muscles, all functional, if in pain. Doorway…missing, along with the doorway that used to be across the hall and was now somewhere in the infinite primordial void. Mind…

Twilight growled to herself as she felt that itch again. That bloodlust, sitting in the corner of her mind, which had settled down now that it had been briefly satisfied, but probably wouldn’t stay that way forever.

“Twi? What’s wrong?”

“It’s still there.” She glared daggers at Rares, probably more aggressively than she meant to. “I thought you extracted the venom.”

She shook her head. “Not all of it, not nearly. It’ll take the edge off, but it will come back until the venom wears off naturally. Until then, you have to stay put before you hurt somepony!”

Twilight just shook her head. “We don’t have that kind of time. Chrysalis is studying Star Swirl’s book. Celestia only knows how close she is to figuring it out.”

The other five mares in the room just exchanged looks of fear and concern. Except Fluttershy, who looked focused on…something…

‘That pathetic good-for-nothing scaredy-pony. She’s just holding me back.’

Twilight ground a hoof into her forehead, focusing on the pain.

“Um…there’s somepony in the other room.” Fluttershy pointed at where the door used to be. “I think they’re waking up.”

“Wait…Celestia?”

“Hey what now?”

“Chrysalis said I was nextdoor to my old mentor! Celestia!” Twilight sped ahead of the rest of the gang, moving as quickly as her hooves could carry her over the slightly-molten floor. It hurt like hell to move like that, as her legs shook and her side squealed. But she ran like there was no tomorrow.

The other room bore nothing except a bed, covered in sheets and…

…somepony that definitely didn’t look like Princess Celestia. She was an alicorn for sure, but no bigger than a regular pony. She looked skinny and starved. Her once magnificent mane and tail were now made of regular old hair, colored sky blue and dirty beyond comprehension.

“C-Celestia?”

‘She failed Equestria. You should make her pay.’

Twilight shook the thought from her head and rested a hoof as gently as she could on Celestia’s shoulder.

“Come on, Princess, wake up. Talk to me.”

Applejack just nudged her shoulder, and Twilight felt that itch get a lot stronger until she pushed it away. “Come on, Twi. We need to get goin’.”

“No.”

“Twilight,-“

“No, Applejack!” Twilight wracked her brain for a reason the other pony would buy (without murder being involved), before landing on one that made her smile inside. “One alicorn won’t be enough, but what about two? A two-princess war machine, just like you said.”

That perked her interest. She just turned her gaze between Twilight, Celestia, and the other four behind her.

“S……sister…?”

It took Twilight a moment to realize the voice didn’t belong to any of them. She turned back to look at Celestia, and saw her with one violet eye cracked open. She was looking right at Twilight, and yet not quite seeing her correctly.

“Celestia! Oh, thank the princess’ you’re awake!”

Celestia licked her lips slightly, trying to speak. “Is it my turn already, sister?”

Twilight’s heart sank. “No, I’m not Luna. It’s-“

Celestia wasn’t listening. She was busy screwing up her face and struggling to light her horn.

No…oh no…

Twilight cast a glance out the window. Lo and behold, the sun was rising over the distant horizon, too fast and way too early.

“Celestia, please, you have to put the sun back down! Please, we have to go!”

Celestia wasn’t listening. She was too busy struggling to raise the sun with her magic, her face turning red from the effort.

Then, she finished. She breathed out sudden, gasping breaths, collapsing back onto the bed.

Twilight shook Celestia again, but she just curled up and slipped back into unconsciousness, muttering something that sounded like, “I love you…”

And the sun was high in the sky, a signal flare to Chrysalis pointing right to their location.

As if on cue, an incredible shriek shook the Castle right down to its foundation.

Applejack grabbed Twilight, pulling her away. “Ah think that’s our cue t’leave, sugargube.”

Twilight nodded, limping after Applejack and her other friends as they fled down hall after hall. Twilight took the lead, steering them towards the best candidate for where Chrysalis might have put their weapons.

Might have. It was such a long shot. But it was worth it enough to lead her friends at full gallop down to the Barracks.

An awful throbbing humming filled the world, from both inside her head and out.

Outside, through the windows, Twilight could see hordes of Changelings appearing from every corner of Canterlot, fully illuminated as they circled towards Canterlot Castle like an ominous black storm.

But…it should be…there!

Just out that window, the Barracks of the Royal Guard was just in sight!

Ahead of them, from around a corner, burst a dozen Changelings.

Rainbow got ready to speed ahead of them, but Twilight caught her tail in her magic. There was no resistance anymore, thank Celestia…

“Everypony, hang on to somepony with wings!”

The Changelings hissed and charged, and Twilight desperately worked to weave together a shield between them.

It worked, but it was harder than it should have been. And there was that throbbing in her ears…

Twilight jumped around and clasped onto Applejack’s back, ignoring the little voice in the back of her mind that told her to strangle the other mare. At Twilight’s direction, she turned to the window next to them.

Rarity was being held by Rainbow Dash, clinging on for dear life. Pinkie was huddled onto Fluttershy’s back, looking fearful of both her companions and their enemies.

The image of crushing Pinkie’s head beneath her hoof returned to Twilight’s mind. But rather than stop it, she focused on it, and channeled it out through her horn.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! A blast of concentrated dark magic shot out of Twilight’s horn, tearing the window to pieces and burning away a few Changelings as they flew toward Canterlot Castle.

They were getting close now. There wasn’t much time left.

“GO! FLY! TO THE BARRACKS!” She screamed, suddenly able to hear herself speak as the throbbing inside her head lessened to nothing.

Rainbow Dash was the first, naturally, clinging to Rarity as best as she could with only her foreleg. Fluttershy went next, following the sound of Dash’s wingflaps with Pinkie latched firmly onto her back.

Then Twilight was speeding across the ground as Applejack’s powerful legs shot them out the window.

Her wings snapped out by instinct, and she angled their glide towards the distant Barracks.

Searing pain went up her side, and she let out a soft scream. But she kept her wings out and angled.

She didn’t try to flap. She’d just mess it up, anyways.

No…

All she had to do now was fall in the right direction.

That was easy.

The Changeling swarm around them pressed closer, and the throbbing on both sides of Twilight’s ears pressed harder and harder against her brain. Which just made it nigh impossible for Twilight to keep herself from dropping Applejack.

She tried to summon a bubble shield around the three oversized flying blobs that marked her friends, but couldn’t focus enough to get it going.

They were barely two hundred meters from their destination.

The buzzing pressed around them…closer…

One hundred meters…

Closer…too close…

Rainbow bashed open the double-doors as she swooped through them, dropping Rarity on the floor as they both slipped into the room.

Twilight could almost feel the Changelings’ breath on her flank as she folded in her wings.

Fluttershy sped in next, screeching to a halt and screaming something Twilight couldn’t hear.

Twilight did some quick geometry in her head, then sucked in a deep breath…

…and threw Applejack forward…

…towards the open door,…

…flared her wings just enough to slow herself down…

…turned around…

…snapped her wings shut…

…and summoned a basic kinetic barrier just as the Changelings hit it.

The magic offered little resistance as it passed through her horn, but summoning it still took more than a little effort.

Twilight was thrown back by the force of the swarm impacting her spell…

…through the open door…

Twilight screamed in pain as her hindlegs slammed up against something (shelving, probably), but had just enough presence of mind to keep her shield going.

As she refocused on it, she reshaped the barrier and locked it against the doorway.

The Changelings backed off for a moment, and Twilight took the opportunity to spare a glance around the room.

Rainbow was beating somepony…no, a Changeling imitating a Pegasus...into the wall, cut up and bleeding from the wingblades the Changeling had on. Rarity was levitating random objects and hitting the other unconscious Changelings with them. Fluttershy was covering her ears, her senses probably overloaded by the incessant otherworldly humming that shook the room. Pinkie Pie was collecting weapons from the walls…hoofblades, wingblades, bows and arrows, swords, studded hoofshoes, bomb bel--

She refocused her efforts onto her shield as she felt something hit it.

The Changelings had gotten smart. They weren’t piling against her barrier like she’d hoped. Instead, they were hanging back just enough to blast it with dozens upon dozens of magical bolts, which could be packed against the shield in much greater magnitude than the Changelings themselves.

Twilight threw everything she could offer to that shield, but the throbbing in her head and the itch in her mind kept her from focusing properly.

‘Come on…just keep it together…’

A few Changelings tried blasting the walls around the outside of the barracks, to no avail. Twilight knew for a fact that the wards on this building could hold back almost anything.

Her shield, on the other hand…

Cracks started to form at the edges from the relentless onslaught.

‘Just let them in. Just give up. You know you want to.’

Twi forced the thought from her head as she focused everything she had onto that barrier.

Rarity’s voice distracted a little piece of her brain. “There’s too many of them! We can’t fight them off! There’s just too many!”

‘Wow, she’s depressing sometimes. Don’t you just wanna kill her?’

“Pinkie, remember when yeh told me about them shotgun-bombs? You got any?”

‘She’s gonna be armed! Kill her before she kills you!’

“Yeah, I’ve got some right here, and my party can-“

“HOLD IT! Applejack, I can forgive, but I am NOT letti—“

“GIRLS!” Twilight ground her eyes shut as she refocused on holding the shield together. If only there weren’t that damn headache, she could do this!

She didn’t stop to see if Pinkie could hear her. “Please, Pinkie! I know you messed up, and I know you did some horrible things, but we’re your friends! And we need you right now, more than ever! Please...!”

She would have gone on, but she couldn’t hold focus and talk at the same time. Not with the way her hooves were shaking. In fact, her whole body seemed to shake with the rhythm of her heartbeat as it pounded throughout her entire body.

Every piece of her told her to let go.

Everything about her told her she was finished.

But she held on.

Gnashing her teeth together until she tasted blood in her mouth.

Grinding her eyes closed until tears were leaking out from sheer pressure.

And it was still barely enough.

Between the throbbing in her brain and the screaming voice in her head telling her to just let go, she knew she wouldn’t last much longer.

“Twilight…” she barely heard Applejack over the blood rushing through her ears. “Twi, when Ah say three, lower the shield.”

She almost dropped it out of pure shock. “WHAT!? That’s suicide!”

“Just trust me, Twilight.”

It took everything out of her in more ways than one. But she just nodded.

“One…”

“Two…”

“THREE!!”

Twilight immediately let go, expecting flaming death to descent down onto her.

Bo-Bo-Bo-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

The rapid-fire explosions knocked Twilight out of her stupor, and she opened her eyes to see the world outside the Barracks was on fire.

She noticed something else, too.

All her friends were lined up by the door, decked out in armor and weapons that made them shine majestically and powerfully.

Somepony had decked her out, too.

Hoofblades, Straight-edged wingblades like Rainbow’s, Studded hoofshoes like Applejack’s, and a sword to levitate like Rarity was doing. No armor, though.

The explosions outside died down slightly.

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs, and the five of them shot outside to slash, break, slice, shoot, and burn every Changeling in sight.

Twilight got up, feeling only slightly reinvigorated, then limped out into the thick of the fight.

There were millions of Changelings, only barely held back by the five of them. Rainbow and Pinkie handled the flying ones with the Bladed Painbow and the Artillery Cannon, respectively. AJ and Rarity fought on the ground, the latter handling six swords in her magic with expert precision. Fluttershy was shooting arrows like crazy, aiming everywhere she could. Magic bolts and shields and explosions rang out everywhere, to the point where Twilight was briefly stunned motionless.

Then the swarm parted, and Twilight saw her target.

Chrysalis flew almost casually down to the ground. She was safe in this bubble, and she knew it,  since the other five were otherwise occupied.

Twilight charged, screaming a roar of rage and agony at her tormentor.

“Stop!” Chrysalis shouted, and while none of the Changelings reacted, Twilight was overcome with the urge to jam to a halt and freeze in place.

She fought it as best she could, but the urge was overwhelming.

Chrysalis walked up to Twilight, deflecting the occasional arrow from Fluttershy absent-mindedly. Then she leaned in close to Twilight’s ear and ordered, “Lay down and surrender.”

Twilight nearly dropped to the floor then and there, but she fought it as hard as she could.

“I looove you, Twilight. I’d hate to have to hurt you. Please lay down?”

That part of her brain telling her to surrender seemed to soar sky-high at the word ‘love’, and the pressure from it forced Twilight’s hindquarters onto the cobblestone floor.

‘NO! I AM NOT GIVING UP NOW!’

‘But you’re tired, Twilight. Why don’t you lay down? Chrysalis will make everything better. She does love you, after all.’

Twilight ground her eyes, pressing as hard as she could against the confines in her mind that Chrysalis’ venom had trapped her in.

Her forehooves started to tremble.

‘NO! I have to save them! I have to help my friends!’

‘Why? All they’re going to do is hurt you. Just go to sleep, and when you wake up, everything will be better.’

She bit her own tongue to force back a yawn, the pain knocking her system back into place just the tiniest bit.

'You'll all be alive,and all healed. It'll be just like old times.'

‘Just stop fighting. Just-‘

“NO!” She screamed the word as she forced herself back to her hooves, and it seemed to clear the entire space around her, reverberating through the air as it pushed away Chrysalis and the rest of her children.

She stood up as full as she could, feeling power pouring forth from her body as she stared down Chrysalis.

“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle!” She declared, her words cutting through the din of battle like nothing else could. “I am the Last Alicorn Princess, and the rightful ruler of Equestria! And by the power vested in me by the ponies of this nation, I DECLARE YOUR REIGN IS OVER!”

The words seemed to shake Canterlot down to the roots of the mountain it clung to, and blast their way to every corner of Equestria.

Then they echoed back.