This Quiet Earth

Chapters

A False Dawn
The Big Empty
The Refuge That Wasn't
All Flesh Is Grass
All the World is a Stage
Lessons and Tests
What's in the box?
Only Hope

A False Dawn

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter one: A False Dawn

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic
Artwork by Nevina based on a prior version by TotallyNotaBrony

Starswirl the Bearded slowly opened his eyes to the night and the glory of a star-spangled firmament. Celestia’s in fine form tonight! He chuckled. This wasn’t the first time he had fallen asleep stargazing. It was pleasantly warm, still there’d be Tartarus to pay in the morning when his aged limbs stiffened up from a night on the ground, but for the moment he was content to lie back and enjoy the view.

Yes, Celestia had truly outdone herself. Her first attempts when she took over the stewardship of the night had been sketchy at best. But not this evening. Tonight her sky almost rivaled those of her banished sister Luna, even if the layout of the stars was a bit unconventional. Those stars to the right in his field of vision reminded him of the constellation of the Goat he’d known in his youth. And on the opposite horizon, that looked almost like The Hunter upside-down! With a grunt Starswirl rose to a crouch, forelegs to either side. His heart beat faster.

It can’t be.

He swallowed. His eyes roamed the heavens. The Fish. The Great Dog. The Scorpion. They were all there, and oddly tilted in relation to the horizon. In the center of the sky however, the stars were strangers to him. How odd! He then turned his gaze towards the most prominent feature of the night sky: the moon. He had so far avoided looking at it directly in order to better view the fainter stars. As his pupils dilated the orb’s features became discernable and a familiar countenance stared down at him, its face half in shadow. The image was not of Nightmare Moon, but that of an entirely different creature. It had been so long, he hardly recognized it. After staring at it for a full minute, he knew he could no longer deny it.

Stunned, he sat back on his haunches, face to the heavens.

It is!

There was a tug in his heart as memories older than a century reminded him of the first years of his life so very long ago, and stoked feelings he’d thought faded as time tumbled ever forward, leaving only receding echoes of youth’s passions, pleasures and tears. A shiver ran from deep in his belly and up through his barrel, causing his head to tremble and the bells on his hat to tinkle softly.

He had not thought at his age he would be given to such emotion. The very idea of it brought a smirk to his lips. Are you so old now that each of passion’s visits are cherished in their rarity? It’s time to ascertain your circumstances, old fool!

He rose to all fours. Bells tinkled as he wiped the dust from his cloak. Tiny clouds billowed around him, causing him to sneeze. This blasted dust is everywhere. He scanned the darkness. There were no light sources to be seen other than those in the sky. The pale moonlight revealed ruins all around him: swaths of broken walls, tumbled stones, gravel, dust and more than a few mysterious dark empty spaces. He turned as he peered. The ruins extended to the very horizon.

So much for sight! Starswirl closed his eyes to sharpen his focus and inhaled. His keen pony nose detected nothing but the smell of dust, tinged with the acrid bite of rust, and almost as an afterthought, hints of mildew and decay.

He also could hear nothing other than the sounds of his own movements: not the wind, not a bird’s call, not even an insect’s chirp. The night was as silent and cheerless as death.

How did I get here? he asked himself. He thought for a moment, and then his eyes grew wide.

The spell! He had cast a cantrip to travel into the past. It was a refinement of a spell he had used dozens of times while trying to investigate the nature of time, and thought little of it. The past was mostly impenetrable except in a few special circumstances, and the future a roil of conflicting visions. But then something had happened when he cast the spell, something very different from all those other times.

“Uhn!”

A voice! Starswirl’s ears swiveled to locate the source. It had sounded nearby, perhaps off to his left a bit. He swallowed, and set the tip of his horn glowing bright. Its light cast sharp shadows in a circle around him. A few ponylengths away, a pony head rose from the rubble, sporting a dark blue mane with a pink stripe. Lavender ears projected from each side, and he could just see the white tip of a unicorn horn projecting from above the pony’s pole.

For some reason he felt immense relief at not being alone in this dismal place. He took a step forward and stumbled on some loose debris. At the sound the pony’s head turned towards him in a blur of speed as a beam of energy shot from the unicorn’s horn.

Starswirl felt his limbs go numb and he collapsed onto the uneven surface. There was a flutter of wings and the pony landed above his supine form, forelegs spread wide, wings outstretched. It was a mare, noted Starwswirl, an alicorn at that. He cringed as he saw the fury in her regard. She tilted her head to one side, and the tip of her horn lit up so brightly it blinded him instantly.

“How did you bring me here?” she accused with a growl. Starswirl froze. The very first instant she had stood above him he had recognized this mare. It was the one he had seen in so many of his visions of the future. The one who could save Equestria, or bring it to its utter destruction. Given the state of the landscape around him, Starswirl had few doubts which one this mare was. He cringed, and waited in dread.

Twilight stared at the prostrate stallion. That hat. The beard. Those bells! Her eyes grew wide and her chin dropped.

“Starswirl the Bearded?” she said.

The stallion in question raised his muzzle to get a better look at her. His pupils shrunk as his vision adjusted to the brightness, his gaze coming to rest on her face. The legendary scholar nodded and waved a hoof. “Indeed I am. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Twilight squealed. Loudly. “OMIGOSH! It’s you! It’s you! It’s really you!” She clamped both forelegs around his neck. "REALLY!" She pulled back to better see her idol, grinning from ear to ear.

“You’re my number one hero OF ALL TIME, I mean I’ve read absolutely everything you’ve ever written, although I guess you must have written some stuff that wasn’t preserved in the Royal Canterlot Archives because even I don’t save all my checklists and stuff like that. Oh, and I’ve read everything written about you as well, although some of the more outlandish claims can’t be corroborated even though I’ve quizzed Princess Celestia about you like a million times until she started ignoring my questions – say, did you and she had a falling out? ‘Cause she would never tell me why –” Twilight ground to halt.

At some point as she was shooting her mouth off she had encircled Starswirl with both of her wings and raised him aloft in her levitation field. His legs dangled limply like her favourite doll Smarty Pants’. It struck her all of a sudden that most ponies would not consider this very friendly behaviour.

She swallowed and smiled sheepishly at the levitating stallion. Opening her mouth to apologize, Twilight discovered that somehow in the last few seconds a large iceberg (or possibly a small mountain) had taken up residence in her vocal apparatus. Her lips flapped, but no sound came out.

Floating serenely, Starswirl smiled more broadly still. “And to whom do I owe the pleasure of company, on this enchanting evening?” He chuckled while motioning downwards suggestively with a hoof.

Twilight felt heat rise from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. Struggling to get her tongue to work again, she gently lowered her idol to the ground. "St-St-Starswirl!" she finally managed to say.

The bearded unicorn’s head drew his back an inch. "This may prove confusing," he said mildly. "That's my name as well."

“No!" Twilight cringed, her ears falling flat against the back of her neck. "I mean, you're Starswirl!"

He raised a single eyebrow. "Well, it would appear we have reached a consensus on the matter of my identity, at the very least."

Twilight turned her head away and closed her eyes. This was not how she had imagined meeting Starswirl in the flesh. Idiot, idiot, idiot! she thought, and took a deep breath. Ok, you're a princess now, start acting like one. She scratched the back of her head. What would Princess Celestia do when meeting famous ponies? She straightened up. Of course! Follow protocol!

She turned back towards Starswirl and did her best to recreate Princess Celestia's usual sunny disposition: polite, yet flowing with warmth and genuine concern. She wished she had had a mirror available to practice the look first.

"Let's try that again," she said and held out a trembling hoof. "I'm Princess Spylight Twarkle."

Starswirl looked at the proffered purple coated limb, the slack jaw and the eyes as large as dinner plates on the alicorn mare. Just as nervous meeting me as a first year student at the School of Magic, and about as stable emotionally. No wonder my visions about her were so wildly divergent. He reached over and with a hoof pushed up on her chin gently until her mouth closed. He then took her hoof in his and shook it gently.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Princess Spylight. If I might say so, that's a most interesting name." He had the pleasure of seeing her blush again. Definitely a descendant of Clover!

The thought of his former student brought with it a gentle melancholy. He was struck with a sudden feeling of affection for this mare. He looked at her distraught eyes and downcast ears. Years of living with and teaching ponies had taught him how to defuse such situations. "Please excuse my familiarity, but you look like you need a hug." He pulled close and wrapped his forelegs around her. He felt her tremble, and then ease in his embrace. That's better! He pulled back.

He had always had an artist's powers of observation. They had stood him in good stead all these years and had given him confidence in his estimation of others. Looking into her face he saw a kindhearted mare whose concern for the feelings of others was both her greatest virtue and the source of most of her anxieties. By this light, the visions he'd had of her made more and more sense. He grinned warmly and was rewarded with a shy smile. Her next words cemented his opinion of her.

"Thanks! I really needed that!" Twilight felt a wave of relief as she saw her idol's gentle expression. It took all of her willpower not to squeal again in delight. "I've fantasized about meeting you since I was a little filly. There are so many questions I want to ask you about the amniomorphic spell, about how you and Clover the Clever turned magic from a dark art into a science, and about time travel, of course!" Her gaze dropped to her forehooves as she recalled her own embarrassing experience with that particular spell. When she looked back up she could see that his expression had turned more serious as well.

"Princess Spylight," said Starswirl gravely, "I wish to caution you about what you say to me. I know for a fact that you are from my future, and normally the cosmos has a way of preventing time paradoxes. But as you are decidedly an alicorn I must assume that you exist beyond the usual strictures imposed on mortal ponies. I'm not sure it would be wise to tempt fate, or destiny, or –" he waved a hoof in a broad circle over his head "–whatever entity is the guardian of this causality." His smile was tinged with sadness. "You may ask me anything pertaining to my own time, but please, do be careful not to let any hint slip to me about yours, despite my burning curiosity at meeting an alicorn other than our two Princesses."

Twilight was stunned. Of course he was right. Any clue she gave him about the future could irrevocably change some action of his in the past. That might modify the course of the history that led to the shape of her world, and all the ponies and dragons there that she loved. She swallowed as the weight of responsibility fell onto her withers like a ton of bricks.

“I think I understand. I actually tried your time-travel spell before I became an alicorn, and all I did was cause everypony confusion and a few embarrassing injuries to myself.” She looked up and felt heat on her cheeks again. “And my name is Twilight Sparkle. Sorry for the starstruck filly routine a minute ago.”

Starswirl laughed. It was a deep laugh that made Twilight feel even better. “Honored, Your Majesty Princess Sparkle.” He bowed.

“Oh, you can just call me Twilight. I’m really pretty new to all this princess stuff and –” She paused when Starswirl raised a hoof to his mouth and coughed. “–right. No details about the future.” She sighed. “This might take some getting used to.” She looked around. “By the way, did you summon me here?”

Starswirl raised a bushy eyebrow. “I certainly do not recall doing any such thing. However, the last thing I remember before waking up here is casting a modified time-travel spell. It should just have transported me a day into the past.”

“A single day? Of what use would that be?” asked Twilight.

One of Starswirl’s ears drooped. “Er, I left a notebook out overnight in an area where I do force field manipulations and it rained, so I wanted to go grab it before it got wet.”

Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “But wouldn’t that create a potential time paradox if you’ve seen the notebook after it got wet?”

“But I didn’t see it. So it should be perfectly safe to go back and get it,” he said. His grin faded a bit.

Twilight’s brows furrowed. “Well, maybe you left it somewhere else,” she replied. “Did you look for it?”

His other ear dropped. “Of course I did, and no I did not leave it elsewhere!” – he paused and pursed his lips – “Young mare, I am quite certain I left it out in the field. The only other place I ever put my notebooks is in the pocket of my cloak, and as you can very well see –” he raised the hem of his cloak and pulled the edges to reveal a deep enclosure hidden in its folds. At its bottom lay a somewhat ragged looking folio. Its edged glowed as Twilight gently pulled it into view. "– it’s where I left my missing notebook."

He puffed his cheeks and slowly exhaled. “I hate it when that happens.”

Twilight focused all of her considerable attention on the notebook. An actual hoof-written notebook, heretofore unseen, belonging to Starswirl the Bearded! Hungrily, she raised it before her muzzle and stared at it, perplexed. “This doesn’t seem to be one of your known manuscripts. And it’s not written in Equestrian!” she remarked.

The book was pulled forcefully from her telekinetic grip and thrust back into Starswirl’s pocket. “This notebook is for these eyes only!” He said angrily and turned away, withers hunched. “You’re not very well mannered Miss Sparkle. One would expect more of a princess.”

Twilight facehoofed. Way to go, Twi! By now he must think you a first grade lunatic.

“Starswirl, I am so sorry! I got carried away!” She took a hesitant step forward. “It doesn’t excuse the behaviour, but it’s just that, to me at least, there isn’t anything more important than the stuff you’ve written. Please forgive me. It... it won’t happen again.”

They both stood immobile for a moment. Finally his back relaxed. He turned towards her and sighed.

“I too must apologize,” he said. “It’s uncharitable of me to place such demands on a mare suddenly thrust into the unknown. Goodness knows many ponies would be in a total panic at such an occurrence, yet here you are helping me find my lost notebook!” He looked back towards her and winked. “And my close associates call me Maestro.”

Twilight felt her cheeks tug up as she made a realization. “You know, several of my friends were pretty disappointed when they met the ponies they most admired. But now that I’ve met my own idol, I can report that he’s actually a very nice pony.”

His cheeks turned rosy and he looked away. “You flatter an old scholar, Miss Sparkle.”

She stared at his back, seeing patterns of dust on his cloak. It seemed to be everywhere around here, she thought. Wherever here is.

“Er, Maestro,” said Twilight hesitantly, “on the topic of our situation, do you have any idea where we are?”

The grin on his muzzle faded. “I think I have an idea of where we are. However, I am far less certain of when.”

Twilight looked up. For the first time since she arrived she became aware of the unfamiliar stars above her, and shivered.

Starswirl noticed Princess Sparkle’s expression growing concerned. Perhaps it was time to get the young mare’s mind onto more constructive pursuits, such as investigating their circumstances.

“Princess Twilight,” he asked, “could you please project your light approximately an order of magnitude brighter, and position it above us at an altitude of some ten ponylengths?”

“Certainly, Maestro,” she said. The light rose from her horn to levitate above them, providing a much better view of the immediate area.

It revealed more ruins, scattered debris, and a few low walls that rose from the earth no more than a ponylength. The walls appeared to be made of some foamy material.

Starswirl went to the nearest one and picked up a piece that had broken off. “This is not stone,” he observed. He hefted the fragment in his hoof. “Fascinating! It’s light, yet very hard.” He passed it to the princess.

While Twilight examined the material, Starswirl noticed an odd pile of debris in an angle where two of the walls met. For some reason he felt that it looked a bit off, as if its pieces had been deliberately placed together instead of being the result of debris falling haphazardly. He carefuly brushed off the top of the pile and found a flat piece obviously placed in front of others fitted together to form a crude box.

The princess discarded the piece of wall material she had been examining and moved closer. "Did you find something, Maestro?"

He gingerly levitated the flat frontal piece away from the pile. It was two hoofs high and almost three and half wide. Behind it lay a cavity. "It would appear so, young mare." His horn lit up as Twilight brought her own head next to his. Together they peered inside.

"There's nothing in there!" said Twilight. She looked up at the sky. "Dawn is coming, I think." She sounded uneasy.

Starswirl gently blew into the hole causing a cloud of dust to come spilling out and Twilight to jump back. With the dust were small motes of something more solid: thin bits of what looked like confetti. None of the pieces were big enough to actually identify any symbol or image upon them. "There was paper in there. But it seems time has already taken its toll. How unfortunate."

He lifted his eyes and noticed the sky brightening on the horizon. As it was no longer needed, Twilight extinguished the light she had kept floating high above them. Something felt wrong about this situation. Perhaps the lass’ unease is rubbing off on me, he thought.

As they continued to search through the ruins and the day grew progressively hot, both ponies drew nearer to each other. In the angle between some walls they found another similarly constructed cache holding more confetti, and a few unidentifiable pieces of debris and a tarnished pin in the shape of a butterfly, of the type one might find worn by a young filly. By this time the first rays of the sun were projecting from over the horizon.

A shiver ran through Starswirl's spine. From Princess Twilight's expression he could see that she was also feeling increasingly distraught.

"I don't like this," she declared. She looked into Starswirl's eyes. "Sunrise shouldn't be quiet like this," she added. "Where are the birds and animals, Starswirl? We’ve been traveling out of doors for an hour and we’ve yet to see or hear a single living thing!"

Starswirl felt his ears droop. She's right! he thought. Out loud he said: "I don't know. Perhaps we are on a world where there are no birds and animals."

“Then why the pin in the shape of a butterfly, Maestro?” When he shrugged she continued. “I also can’t detect any of the magical auras produced by living beings, nor the ley-lines that should be there under the ground. It’s as if the only sources of magic for miles around are us two.” She encircled herself in her wings and shivered. “I’ve never felt such a total absence of magic before. It’s as if all of sudden, everypony at a party froze and the room became completely quiet.”

“Well lass, we won’t find answers just standing here,” remarked Starswirl. He gestured towards a point on the horizon. “Come. There are taller ruins in that direction. Perhaps we’ll find a few intact buildings.”

Without waiting for her to answer he pressed on. Twilight followed quickly in his hoofsteps. Thus they progressed as the steadily increasing light of day made navigating and searching the debris ever easier. Periodically they would find more of the empty caches.

On one of the walls Starswirl noticed traces of colour under the ever present dust. Bells tinkled as he picked up the hem of his cloak and dusted off the area nearest the pigment. He revealed two symbols. The first one, painted in green, was made up of only a few letters: WASG. The second was a longer string, EATERS, scrawled inside a red circle with a diagonal bar across its diameter.

Twilight came to join him in examining the symbols. “The script looks similar to the one on the cover of your notebook!” She squinted and looked closer. “Do you have any idea what they mean?”

Starswirl took a deep breath. “I have no idea.” He traced one of the letters with a hoof-tip. “But the script is the Roman alphabet –” he looked around and the expression in his face mirrored the devastation around them “–and this world, young princess, is Earth, the place of my birth.”

The Big Empty

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter two: The Big Empty

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

Starswirl the Bearded leaned on Twilight and closed his eyes. She could feel the old pony trembling with exhaustion as he slowly sank to his haunches. She pasted a smile on her face. “I’m sure we’ll find some signs of life tomorrow, Maestro.”

The unicorn looked sadly into the distance, but kept his silence. Dark streaks from the ever present dust marred his white coat and beard, and made a mess of his famous cloak and hat. Even the little bells he favoured as trim had become clogged with grit, progressively sounding less joyful as they traveled through the day. She wondered how he could bear the garment in the oppressive heat.

“We had best rest here for the night,” he said, barely above a whisper.

Twilight nodded, relieved. The day had been hard on the legendary mage, both physically and emotionally. For hours they had trecked through areas of urban debris, the monotonous journey broken only by equally large swaths of completely barren nothingness. They had splashed across two small streams. Despite running freely, the water smelled flat and tasted metallic. However, they judged it not likely to be poisonous, and filled a canteen Starswirl had produced from underneath his wondrous cloak. Throughout it all, they found nothing new. And lots of dust, thought Twilight. She looked down at herself.

“Well, I’m a frightful mess!” she remarked.

The corners of Starswirl’s muzzle barely twitched upwards. “Princess Celestia once used a spell to clean bits of cantaloupe out of our coats...”

Twilight groaned and tried to brush her coat clean. She succeeded only in spreading the dust over broader swaths of her fur. “Right now I would do anything for that spell, and for a piece of cantaloupe.”

Without saying another word Starswirl opened the left side his cloak with a foreleg, revealing a pocket she had not noticed previously. His horn glowed and from the pocket emerged what looked like a bunch of chopsticks. The sticks unfolded into a hexagonal frame that glowed gently as he levitated it a few hoof-spans in front of his beard. Twilight’s ears twitched in surprise when he plunged a hoof into it almost to his withers and it didn’t come out of the other side. His gaze turned upwards, and after a moment his expression brightened as he pulled his foreleg back out. Balanced on his hoof was a Honeydew melon. He frowned momentarily, but then grinned tiredly as he held up his prize. “It’s not the season for cantaloupes, I guess.”

Twilight sighed and conjured up a carving knife. “I also have some camping gear magically squirreled away.”

“Good,” replied Starswirl. “The mate of my little portal frame hangs on the inside of the pantry door of my cottage near the Everfree forest.” He grinned. “We won’t starve, but I do admit, I hadn’t thought about placing any utensils within reach as well.”

Twilight's horn glowed as the knife flew to the melon and cut it into segments. Half of the resulting wedges of fruit floated in her direction. The ponies ate in silence.

“I think I know where we are, on the planet I mean,” declared Twilight while she pulled out a kerchief her camping cache, which she kept discretely beneath her left wing, and began wiping the sticky juice from her lips.

“Indeed?” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. He held out a hoof and she passed him the kerchief.

“The sun rode very low on the horizon all day. Therefore we must be close to one of the planetary poles.”

“That would make sense,” said Starswirl. He scratched the back of his head. “But on Earth the poles are places of terrible cold and ice.” He passed the napkin back. With a flash Twilight put it back into her magical cache. “Is it possible an entirely different race might have developed the same form of writing as mine?”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she grinned broadly. “In your thirty-eighth codex you talk about the multiplicity of worlds you have visited as being in completely separate universes! Otherwise the energy required to travel between them based on the laws of Neighton would be over ten orders of magnitude greater than the actual thaumic output measured by experiments you did in world-walking! Given that that is what actually happens, then there could be an infinity of such universes with some worlds so different from ours that life cannot even exist there, and others that differ by only the slightest of details, even down to the ponies living there!” Her head shot up all of a sudden. “Hay! I bet that’s how Pinkie was able to get all these duplicates of herself from the Mirror Pool!” Her grin faded and she felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth gape open. “But if that’s true, then the girls and I committed mass murder of alternate universe Pinkie Pies!”

As the realization struck Twilight's ears crashed to the sides of her neck and she fell to her knees, her vision distorting as she felt her eyes start to swim and her breath catch in her throat. From somewhere far away she heard Starswirl begin to chuckle. She glanced up in disbelief.

“How... how can you laugh at a time like this? You should be calling the inter-dimensional police, or somepony to come lock me up!”

“Lass, how can anypony talk that long without breathing?” His expression was gentle, and not at all mocking as she had feared. “I did indeed write that, and I have to agree. It does open the door to this being a world akin to mine own, but not necessarily the same one.” He chuckled again. “So, one of your friends took a dip in the Mirror Pool then? Clover and I worked for months to create that pool. It’s one of the finest and most useful pranks we ever pulled on Celestia.”

His expression softened. “She needed a laugh then. It was not so long after she had banished her sister to the moon. She cried for months.” He sighed. “You should have seen her face when she met herself standing outside the pool. She stood stock still for a good minute. Clover and I nearly died laughing! And then she surprised us both by cordially introducing herself to her duplicate, and putting the poor thing to work doing public appearances in her stead. As far as I know she still makes copies of herself for when she needs to get away for a while, or is doubly engaged and cannot gracefully refuse one activity or the other.”

Twilight stared at the old mage in awe. She arose, the fur on her foreknees now mottled with dust. "So that’s how she does it! I've always wondered how she could manage to be seen in so many places. I assumed she just teleported her royal carriage everywhere.” She looked down at her forehooves and her ears drooped. “But then, we still... I killed... so many of the Pinkie copies.”

His gaze met hers. “Now lass, don’t worry about the duplicates created by the Mirror Pool. They would have dissipated on their own over time. And they are not thinking beings but actually magical constructs all linked back to the original.” He scratched an ear. “I believe I left a spell to be rid of them in case they became troublesome.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chest as her heart started beating again.

“Perhaps I should have added some notes about the Mirror Pool with the spell.” His grin showed he was anything but repentant.

Somehow Twilight wasn’t able to gather the energy to glare at the old miscreant. He looked too worn and miserable under the grime of the day. Instead she pulled her kerchief back out. She wet it with a bit of water from Starswirl’s canteen and gently wiped the dust from his face.

“Oh dear girl, that does an old pony a world of good,” he said, eyes closed. She could tell he was quickly fading. She grinned in anticipation, reached into her magical cache, and with a loud pop pulled out their accommodations for the night.

Starswirl’s eyes cracked open at the noise, and then suddenly widened as he gaped in disbelief. “A bunk bed? Why would you have a bunk bed in your camping gear?”

Twilight looked up at the bed with affection. “In the last little while my assistant and ward Spike is on a I’m not a baby anymore rant and he categorically refuses to share a bed with me. So I got us a bunk bed for when we go camping.” She grinned and with a flap of her wings jumped to the upper berth. “I call topsies!”

Starswirl looked once more at the improbable bed. He chuckled and conjured a hook on one of the bedposts on which he hung up his hat. He then fell into the lower bunk. In seconds he was snoring softly. Twilight took advantage of the privacy to wipe the dust from her coat using her damp kerchief. The evening was still rather hot, so she lay down over the covers. A grin split her muzzle ear-to-ear. Starswirl the Bearded is sleeping in the bunk below mine! She squealed so softly she doubted even Fluttershy would have been quieter. With a final glance at the strange moon, she faded slowly into an exhausted slumber.

The next morning Starswirl felt rested, but something had awoken him over an hour before the dawn and try as he might he couldn’t quite place a hoof on it. It bothered him so much that he tossed and turned. At some point the outline of a unicorn’s head peeked over the edge of the upper bunk.

“Maestro, are you awake?” whispered the princess. He sighed.

“Yes, lass. And you can speak normally. There’s nopony else within leagues for you to disturb.”

He could just make out the outline of her grin in the semi-light. “Oh, yeah!” she said in a more conversational tone of voice. “Did you sleep well?”

“Quite well, considering yesterday’s events.” He rolled out of the lower bunk to stand on all fours. “And how did you sleep, Princess?”

“Better than on some nights, I suppose. But I kept waking up.” Twilight spread her wings and glided down to the ground. “It took me a while to figure it out, but it wasn’t noises that woke me, it was the silence.”

“And why would the silence wake a pony up, lass?” He took out his portal frame and again plunged his left foreleg into it.

“Ah. That’s basic adaptation to regular stimuli. Ponies just get used to things they hear all the time and then tune them out from their perception. We all do it, otherwise we couldn’t ever get to sleep.” From beneath a wing she produced a small camp table complete with cutlery and steaming tea service. “It works the same way with silence. What woke me up is that I’m not used to the silence, so my brain keeps telling me to get up and investigate what’s wrong.”

“Seems plausible.” Starswirl pulled his leg back out clutching a loaf of bread and a small pot, which he placed on the table. “If we’re lucky this is jam and not mustard.” His horn glowed and the lid opened. A small dollop of something golden flew out the pot and into his mouth. “Marmalade! We’re set for a proper breakfast!”

Twilight poured them both tea, and the ponies ate in quiet companionship.

As Starswirl put away the pot of marmalade. Twilight remarked with smile: "Some things never change, I guess."

"What do you mean?" he asked, feeling companionable.

"Oh, just that this marmalade tastes exactly the same as some I had at a friend's house the other day."

"Indeed?" said Starswirl, looking thoughtful. He began inspecting the contents of his cloak. From under it he took out and shook the canteen. "Hmm... could you please remind me to fill my water bottle at the next stream if I forget?"

"Sure, Maestro! Checking that all canteens of a team are properly filled in all water streams along the way is at the top in my List of Procedures for Research Expeditions in Hostile Environments. Well, not exactly at the top, it's actually the seventh item, but it's near the top and hence difficult to miss, although evidently I wouldn't miss any item as I double check every...”

“Princess Twilight!” interrupted Starswirl. He gave the young mare a reassuring smile. “The mornings are cooler. Perhaps we should get going before the sun rises too high."

“Oh. Yeah!” Her cheeks glowed briefly in embarrassment. "Er... if you'll excuse me then I'll follow the list of Breaking Camp Procedures for Research Expeditions in Hostile Environments. I'll be ready in a couple of minutes.”

The blush and her sheepish smile reminded him that this alicorn princess was still a very young mare. He let her her take what comfort she could in her lists and procedures. He turned his attention back to the distant horizon as he continued to fuss with his pockets.

When he looked back Twilight had already finished breaking camp. He just saw her shove a paper scroll under her wing. She then lowered the wing to her flank as if the object was no longer there. Starswirl was disappointed he had been looking away when Twilight put away the bunk bed. Her camping equipment cache made his portal frame seem... small in comparison.

Dawn was breaking as together they resumed walking towards the tall ruins in the distance.

Twilight was the first to notice the holes in the walls. They were usually found in bunches of three or four, and sometimes more, peppering the walls of the ruins. “Maestro, I’ve found more of them,” she called out. By this point finding anything else in the ruins was becoming a novelty. This time however, the wall in which they were found faced the sun almost straight on so Twilight took advantage of the fact to try to peer into one of the tiny cavities. “Maestro! Hold on a moment. I think I can see something.”

He looked up as her horn field began to glow. The spell was pretty elementary and didn’t require much of her attention, so she watched Starswirl out of the corner of her eye as debris began to stream out of the mouth of one of the holes. He had seemed more cheerful after the night’s sleep, but a mere hour later his somber expression from the previous day was back. Her announcement barely caused a raised eyebrow. Nevertheless, he stood waiting patiently.

She focused back on her tiny excavation. Something gleamed dully at the bottom end of the little tunnel she had exposed. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she concentrated and pulled. The wall material, despite being light, was quite hard. Twilight grunted as she poured more and more magical power into her horn.

There was a loud crunch, and she suddenly found herself a full two ponylengths from the wall, sitting on her haunches in the dust and debris. Despite her somewhat ridiculous posture in front of History’s most famous magician, she smiled as a small metallic lump twirled in the air a hoofspan from the tip of her muzzle.

“If I’m not mistaken it looks like a lump of lead,” she remarked.

Starswirl’s ears rose and he came in for a closer look. “Lead, did you say?”

She passed the object to Starswirl and got up, pausing to inspect her dust-caked hindquarters. “Well, I guess if my friend Pinkie Pie were here she would call me Miss Dusty McDustypants,” she said with a rueful laugh. “So what do you think of the object, Maestro? I bet if we dig in the other holes we’ll find more of them. They’re obviously missiles that were projected at high speed.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “But whatever for?”

Starswirl’s expression had grown grim. The object spun before him, its tapered cylindrical form now obvious. His voice was grave. “This is a bullet, used to kill, lass. Used to wage war.”

She raised both eyebrows in surprise. “Really? But, they’d be so easily dealt with by any unicorn! I mean, a force redirection field could send them harmlessly off into the sky, or a simple transformational barrier could turn them all into harmless party decorations.”

Starswirl stared at the missile intently. “But the beings who lived here were not ponies, Princess, they were humans.” He sighed. “And humans have no magic.”

The little missile’s glow increased a moment and it transformed into a metallic grey flower. A chrysanthemum, she noted. It floated slowly down to rest at the base of the wall.

As Twilight belatedly parsed the old unicorn's words her eyes grew wide. “No magic? But you said you were born here, and you’re the greatest magician in recorded Equestrian history!”

Starswirl frowned angrily. “Discretion, lass! I have warned you, don’t tell me anything about my future.”

Twilight blushed as she realized she had broken her promise. “Oops! I’m sorry Maestro. Really, I won’t do it again.” Her sheepish grin faded as Starswirl turned brusquely and marched off. She breathed deeply and trudged in her idol’s tracks.

Starswirl stared up at the building’s entrance. It was the only intact construction they had seen so far. Bullet damage and other indications of combat had become far more frequent the closer they got to the edifice. Then the signs of strife dropped off abruptly at about one hundred yards from the building itself, as if the belligerents had feared bringing their conflict any nearer to it. Three steps led up to the entrance. Above it were displayed more words in the latin alphabet. These words were easy to understand, despite being neither Italian nor French. He noticed Twilight looking up and frowning.

“It says Reclamation Center,” he supplied.

She glanced at him, no less puzzled. “A center to reclaim what?”

He shrugged. “Let us go in and find out.” He moved up the three steps and entered.

Inside was a large atrium. Windowless walls made for an oppressive, closed-in ambiance. The only decoration was a rather simplistic painting depicting Lady Justice, her eyes bound, and holding up a balance scale in one arm. Above each dish of the scale was a symbol: the one on the left bore the Greek letter Alpha and the one on the right the letter Omega. Twilight stared first at the depiction then at Starswirl.

"Is this the appearance of your species, Maestro?"

He nodded and waited patiently as she continued to study the image. Suddenly she smiled.

"Apparently justice is blind on this world as well," she commented. Her glance fell to the floor.

A path worn into the floor snaked from one side of the room to the other, the rest of the floor’s surface seeming untouched except for the dust. One arm of the path traced the periphery of the wall and snaked back out to the same entrance where they had come in.

Twilight smiled. “It’s like at the older banks in Canterlot. Generations of hooves have scored the marble floors.” She looked around. “This place must have been in operation for a long time.”

The only other feature in the room was an opening with a counter space just above the height of his head, perhaps a yard and a half from the floor. She spread her wings and leaped up to the counter. She peered into the gloom beyond, then lit her horn. “It looks like just another smaller room beyond. But it has a doorway leading out.” She raised a hoof pointing inwards. “Shall we?”

He nooded and was surprised when he felt himself levitated over the counter. “I’m not an invalid, you know!” he groused, but didn’t make any further complaint. When his hooves touched down on the other side he nodded. “Thank you, lass.”

She seemed relieved, and smiled back at him. “You’re welcome, Maestro.” As she passed close he placed a hoof on her withers. She stopped and looked at him in surprise.

“Princess, please accept my apology.” He sighed. “I haven’t been the best company today. I hope you understand –” he waved a hoof around him “– the beings who lived here are my people, and... I have a very uneasy feeling about this place.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow after his last statement. He attempted a chuckle but wasn’t sure he had succeeded. He was suddenly wrapped in her wings, a style of embrace he had most often received from Princess Celestia. Briefly he melted into her embrace. It was only when he felt his pulse slowing down that he realized how wound-up he had become.

“I know you’re afraid, Maestro. I would be too. But in times like these I’m reminded of the words of a dusty old scholar: ‘The path to the truth is rarely an easy one’. You’re not alone, remember that.” She retracted her wings.

He looked the young mare in the eye. “Thank you, Twilight.” He chuckled and began dusting himself off. “Dusty, I admit freely. Old –” he winked “– is a relative matter. I’m not old in comparison to Princess Celestia.” He lit his own horn. The shadows beyond doubled and shifted jerkily as he moved into the corridor.

They explored the building and found mostly empty rooms. The only furnishings left were metallic or glass objects. It was in the lowest level that they finally found something else: the dried remains of a human corpse. Twilight screeched and her hooves scraped the dusty floor in panic as she tried to backpedal from the sight. This time it was Starswirl who enfolded her head in his forelegs and cooed in her ears as she wept. Finally she gathered her courage and turned her gaze back to the horrible scene. Her lingering doubt vanished, this was a being similar to the one depicted in the atrium.

It sat against a metal door, hind legs splayed out in front of it, and it was missing a foreleg. There was a loose tourniquet tied above one knee, and the hind leg below it was deeply cut. A large reddish brown stain covered the floor around the entire area, and a rusted blade lay on the floor next to the being's semi-severed leg. The scene left little doubt as to the cause of death.

On the door above the corpse's bowed head was more text and a symbol. At first she took the symbol for the drawing of a flower, but then on closer examination it proved to be a symbol she knew. Twilight again drew back in shock. It took her a moment to find her voice.

"Maestro! I... I know that symbol!" She pointed to it with a hoof.

It took him a moment to tear his eyes away from the grisly display. "What is it?" he whispered.

"It indicates a deadly hazard, Maestro. One of biological origins. We must not open that door." She looked at the text. "Can you read the words?"

"Yes, Princess, it says Danger: Nanomachines." Twilight's face must have shown her confusion at the foreign sounds. "The first word clearly means danger. As for the second, I think it means 'dwarf machines', but I have no idea what a dwarf machine is." His expression became unbearably sad. "Princess, let us depart this... dismal place."

"I think that's a good idea, Maestro."

On the way out he seemed deflated, a smaller stallion than the one who had entered the Reclamation Center. Twilight paused in the atrium to look again at the painting of the human on the wall.

"She's beautiful, Maestro," she said.

"Yes. She is," he replied. She led him out gently as he tried to hide his tears.

The Refuge That Wasn't

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter three: The Refuge that Wasn’t

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

Starswirl slowly lowered his hindquarters and sat on the dusty grounds. He glanced upwards into the darkening sky as he felt Twilight sit next to him. Neither spoke as the evening gently revealed a river of sparkling gems in the heavens one at a time, until a glowing river of light flowed through the night just above the horizon.

The princess was the first to break their silence.

"You know, I've dreamt of this so many times: stargazing with Starswirl the Bearded! I would imagine you and I at the top of a lonely tower with several telescopes, jumping from one eyepiece to the other, discovering new stars and comets and asteroids together." She laughed as only the young can laugh, without care, with joy unbound by worries and regrets, like sleigh bells ringing out defiance and vitality and life into the coldest of winter nights.

"Have you now, lass?" He added a chuckle of his own. "When I first came to Equestria, Princess Luna and I did exactly that upon many occasions. My, how she loved the sky! We were also fierce rivals at playing chess and spent much time together, those first years after my arrival." He felt Twilight's body shift as her head turned towards his.

"Maestro, would you mind if I were to ask you something... personal?" She waited for his nod, then continued. "Some historians postulate that the reason you never married was because... er, you had strong feelings for her but she didn't reciprocate them."

Even under the evening's dim light he could see her earnest expression, and as he studied her he realized he didn't want to deny this mare the truth.

"I'm afraid that was indeed a misconception." He lifted his gaze. "No, it was she who loved me as a mare loves a stallion, and I who was unable to return that love." He sighed. "I have always regretted the pain I unwittingly caused her. But in the end, when she confessed her love, I had to tell her the truth: that I did not fancy mares."

"Oh," said Twilight.

He barked out a laugh that was more pain than humour. "That is exactly what she said when I told her. Afterwards we were never so close again. Over the years we drifted further and further apart, until finally she was banished and all hope of rapprochement was lost." He glanced at Twilight again. "What about you, young Princess? Have you yet found your special somepony?"

She chuckled and her cheeks glowed red. "Somehow, I've never had the time or much of an inclination for romantic pursuits. They just seem so... messy to me." She considered a moment. "Science and study are a lot more tidy and predictable,"– she smiled –"and there are so many things I want to learn and understand!"

This time Starswirl's laugh was deep. "Lass, you remind me so much of your ancestor Clover the Clever. You two truly are birds of a feather!" He glanced down at Twilight's folded wings. "Except that you actually have feathers. I wonder how he would have felt if told one of his descendants would be born an alicorn."

Twilight’s smile brightened by an order of magnitude. “Oh, I wasn’t born an alicorn, I –”

“– Please, lass,” interrupted Starswirl. “This is one of those things of which I should not know the details.”

The young mare seemed to shrink in on herself. She looked down, ears falling to the side of her neck as her bright smile faded and turned into a sad frown.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I can see this is something you sorely need to discuss with somepony.” He sighed and lifted her chin with his hoof. “I don’t see any harm in your sharing your feelings, as long as you don’t get into the events and decisions that led to your becoming an alicorn. Would you like that?”

Her expression was like a ray of sunshine peeking through rain clouds. “Yes, Maestro I would. And Maestro, I... thank you.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

“This is something I haven’t been able to discuss with anypony at all, not even the Princesses or my friends.” She looked up into his eyes. “Maestro, how can I possibly measure up!? I’m a unicorn filly just two years out of school! How can I look at ponies with a straight face when they bow to me, of all creatures, and ask me for advice?” Twilight nervously chewed on the tip of her hoof.

"I'm not at all poised like Princess Celestia, or even Pr... my sister-in-law, Cadence." She looked back up at Starswirl. "And I frazzle way too easily, just ask Spike or anypony who knows me. And even the ponies in town are treating me differently now, despite the fact that they know I want them to treat me no differently than they did before."

"Twilight, I have spent much of my life around royalty of one sort or another. Royals are just ponies like any others to themselves and to their families, but to other beings they are symbols, and as symbols they wear the dignity of their office wherever they go. It creates a distance between them and other ponies, a gulf that is as hard for them to cross as it is for common ponies. But that distance is also like a cloak that protects the royals’ dignity, and now also yours, from small slips and sometimes even big ones. So please don’t be so nervous, lass, the eyes watching them and you fall mostly on that cloak of office, and rarely see the pony beneath it."

Twilight lowered her gaze. "It sounds very lonely," she remarked in a quiet voice.

"It can be," he replied. "But it's very important that you find those who can see beneath the cloak and cultivate their friendship. They will provide you an anchor for your soul, and will remind you that you are something more than just a cloak." He chuckled. "I remember giving your ancestor Clover some similar advice on how to behave around royalty. He was very frightened and nervous in the presence of princesses, as I recall."

"Did it help?"

The memory made him smile. "I suspect it did. He later married Princess Platinum, and they had the most wonderful daughter, Princess Hydrangea, who also became my student. She calls me Uncle Mo."

Twilight's answering smile faded after a moment. "But what if I screw up again? I always do!” She slumped down to sit on her haunches. “Oh, Maestro, how can I live up to Princess Celestia's and Equestria's expectations? This time if I fail, I bring shame not just on myself, but on her as well!" Looking like a frightened filly, Twilight hid her face in her hooves.

Starswirl sat down next to her. "That is a heavy burden to carry, lass. But it's one you don't have to carry alone. Remember that you have friends. Just because your circumstances are now different doesn’t mean that they won’t understand how you feel about that change. Give them a chance to prove their friendship.”

The young mare put her forehooves down and nodded once.

“But might I suggest something you might not have considered?” added Starswirl. “Look at me, lass.” She raised her head.

“In creating a gulf between you and common ponies, your new situation has bridged the gulf between you and another.” He raised an eyebrow and waited as she worked out the implication of what he had said. Her mouth dropped open.

“Princess Celestia!”

“Yes, lass.” He was rewarded with a shy grin. “I knew her when she was at her loneliest, just after Luna’s banishment. Clover and Platinum, and Harvest Wind and I all kept her company. We were there for her, as she was there for us at different times in our lives. And might I remind you that Clover was my student, and he became a very dear friend. Maybe it’s time you gave Celestia the same gift, and let her know the gulf between you is no more.”

He gave the mare some time to ponder his words, and again gazed at the stars as he heard the dull impacts of tears in the dust. Having been reminded, he spent some pleasant moments in recollection of Clover.

Lost in his reminiscences Starswirl noticed the princess looking at him intently, eyes still moist but with a raised eyebrow replacing her previous sadness. "Yes, lass?"

"Maestro, I have an additional question. Now that I think about it, how did you know that my family are descended from Clover? I'm sure I never mentioned it."

Starswirl swallowed, suddenly unsure of what he could say. "Er... in my research into the nature of time I have had many visions of the future, some of which involved you, lass, maybe even future versions of yourself. However, I truly mustn't say anything more on the topic lest I endanger us both and this timeline."

The young mare unsuccessfully tried to keep the disappointment off of her muzzle. "Oh. I understand, Maestro." Her smile returned almost instantly though, and she chuckled. "Hehe! I didn’t question it at the time, but I wonder if that family connection is why Princess Celestia asked me to play the part of Clover in our Hearth's Warming Eve pageant."

Starswirl smiled. "I wouldn't doubt it for a moment, lass."

They fell silent. Despite the beauty of the celestial panorama, the lack of any sound other than their breathing felt oppressive. Starswirl was about to ask the princess more about her family when his ear twitched.

Twilight leaped to her hooves, both ears pointed towards the horizon. "Did you hear that?" she whispered.

"Yes, lass." He held up a hoof before his lips to beg her silence.

He heard it again. At first he thought it was a shout. But then it continued, and he was able to discern a regular pattern to the sound.

"Somepony is reciting a poem," said Twilight, "in oplic pentafeather, no less!"

Starswirl grabbed Twilight's foreleg and teleported them both in the direction of the voice.

"Hay! Please warn a mare next time, Maestro!" muttered Twilight sotto-voce.

Instead of replying he just scanned the horizon with his ears until they again located the source of the sound. "Ready yourself!" he said, and teleported both of them in its direction.

Again they emerged to the sound of a male voice reciting words just beyond the edge of comprehension.

"I can't understand what he's saying. Can you, Maestro?"

"No, I cannot." They listened intently a moment longer. "Once again," said Starswirl.

They repeated the cycle of ‘teleport and listen’ another three times before he had to stop. He sank to his haunches, sides heaving with the effort. After a moment he rose again, only to have the princess pull away briskly.

"Stop it, Maestro!" she exclaimed. Her face wore an expression of concern. "All you're doing is exhausting yourself."

"But... the voice! There's someone alive out there! They may be able to tell us what happened here, and –” he waved at the wasteland around them “– where all the people went."

"Maestro, listen!" She raised an ear towards the sound of the voice. After a moment he did the same.

"Have you noticed? The voice isn't becoming louder, and we aren't getting any closer." Her gaze turned inwards. "If it wasn't that we both heard it, I would have assumed this to be some kind of auditory hallucination brought on by a prolonged lack of aural stimulation."

"But... my people..." Starswirl didn't know what else to say. Of course she was right, and her young ears were no doubt sharper than his old ones.

His head bowed down as he panted. It surprised him how bitter it was to have his hopes dashed. He struggled to get up and was firmly, but gently prevented from moving by a purple glowing telekinetic field.

"Please, Maestro, don't take this so hard." Twilight approached and put a hoof on his withers. “You gave me advice when I really needed it, and for that I thank you. But now it's you who needs to listen, so please, allow me to return the favor.”

His breathing finally under control, he nodded. “Speak, lass.” The purple forcefield dissipated.

"The voice has been leading us in a straight line,” said Twilight. “I'm sure if we continue in the same direction tomorrow we'll eventually reach whomever or whatever is making these sounds."

Starswirl raised a hoof to object when the voice suddenly cut off. They kept a silent vigil for several minutes, their ears straining for even the tiniest sound.

Starswirl’s withers slumped. He looked at Twilight. “We might as well camp here.”

He didn’t even try to see how she pulled the huge bunk bed from under her wing. When he heard the pop he trudged over to the furnishing, hung his hat, and lay down in exhaustion. He was asleep before his head touched the pillow.

Twilight woke to the sound of Starswirl shouting angrily in a foreign language. She looked down over the edge of her bunk as he strutted about clutching his left forehoof, his horn glowing blue and the hoof along with it. His portal frame also glowed as it floated nearby.

“What was that, Maestro? You weren’t speaking Equestrian.”

He started at the sound of her voice and looked up. “Oh, Princess. I’m sorry for waking you so unpleasantly, but it appears I was bitten by a rat–” he proffered his glowing hoof “–when I tried to get our breakfast from my pantry.” He pointed the hoof at several jars and packets lying on the ground. “Worse still, I never put any of these things in there. Either somepony moved my portal frame, or...” he suddenly trailed off, eyes wide.

“Or what?”

“Or perhaps this is not my time. Perhaps it’s yours, or some other time entirely." His ears drooped. "And perhaps I am nothing more than a thief stealing somepony else's food."

Twilight flew down from her perch to land besides the gathered foodstuffs. "What? Let me see. This is bird-seed. And this tin, what is it? Talon script? 'C-o-o-k-'... wait! If I'm reading this label right this tin is cooked fish from Gryphonia." She turned to Starswirl. "Maestro, maybe the other portal frame isn’t even in Equestria anymore. Did you get anything edible to ponies before you were bitten?”

“One loaf of bread, and some uncooked oatmeal.” He extricated the two items from a pocket in his cloak while Twilight pulled out the camp table from her cache, complete with place settings for two and a tea set. He raised an eyebrow as he placed the food on the table.

“I have to say, lass, that I find your cache a most intriguing bit of magic. Did you create the spell yourself?”

“I wish!” She grinned. “Princess Celestia taught it to me, but I modernized it a bit on my own. It’s essentially a linked set of summoning and banishment spells, combined with shrinking and enlargement enchantments. Its carrying capacity is actually pretty huge. I currently use it to hold our camping gear, my basic magical references, my collection of Daring Do novels, some emergency medical supplies, a defibrillator, a kite, Pinkie’s hot-air balloon, my ‘Settlers of Coltan’ game set... oh, and paper, ink and quills for note-taking.”

Starswirl laughed. “Impressive! I won't pretend to know what half of the items you mentioned are, but considering what I have discovered of your obsession with preparedness, I’m surprised you don’t have the entire Canterlot archives in there.”

Heat rose to Twilight’s cheeks. “Er, I used to keep selected items from the archives in there too, but then some ponies complained because they always had to find me to get access to them. Then the librarians were upset at all the paperwork needed to renew my borrowings, and then finally Princess Celestia herself told me to put everything back.” She sighed and her ears drooped. “It was fun while it lasted, I guess.”

Starswirl patted her on the back. “There, there, Princess. How about you describe the spell while we have our breakfast?”

Her ears shot back up to full attention. Starswirl the Bearded is asking me about magic! She could hardly believe it! A huge grin split her face.

“Well, the basis is to provide a set of equipotential cantilevered hexes. They take a lot of magic to set up, but once they’re in place the amount of magic needed to maintain them is practically infinitesimal. Admittedly, it's not ideal for consumables, which is why I don't use it to store food...”

Breakfast, and the next four hours, went by faster than she would have thought possible.

"... and then I thought why not buy an API matrix to simplify–"

"API matrix?" Starswirl interjected for what he assumed was the hundredth time since the chatty mare began her discourse. Luckily the interruptions never seemed to offend her, nor did they cause her to slow their steady progress towards the horizon.

"Alchemical Platform Incantation matrix,” supplied the princess. “I used it with a Constrictalk interpreter to build a series of self-modifying cantrips that essentially re-cast themselves whenever any of the basic parameters of the spell require modifications such as adjusting for the mobility of the access point.”

“I see,” said Starswirl, lying with a grin. He was sure the information would have constituted a major breach of causality if he had understood more than a small fraction of it. Seeking to recover some modicum of self-respect, he did have what he hoped was an intelligent question.

“Did you say you bought this API matrix?”

“Yes. It’s a lot faster to buy one than go through all the effort of enchanting a spell matrix from scratch, and the good ones even come pre-invested with an OS – operating sorcery – that really simplifies developing new spells. In fact the one I use claims to make casting spells as easy as eating an apple.” She frowned slightly. “My friend Applejack tried to sue that company for trademark infringement, but honestly, who could ever confuse a personal spellcasting platform with food products. We even had a few arguments about it, before Princess Celestia forced her and the company to a compromise licensing deal.”

Twilight froze in her tracks. Her eyes grew as big as dinner plates. "Wait! Should I be telling you all this? Won’t it interfere with your future, and maybe even cause a time paradox that will result in us being trapped in an infinite time-loop for ever and ever and ever?”

Starswirl grumbled. “I tried to warn you over two hours ago, lass, that your discourse was drifting into dangerous territory, but, quite frankly, you were losing me quite often and you seemed so happy talking that I couldn’t bring myself to rain on your parade.” He pursed his lips. “And I also did a bit of thinking.”

Twilight’s ears rose to focus on him.

“There is another agency at work here, Twilight. Somepony who brought us here, and who now obviously wants to lead us somewhere.”

Her expression grave, Twilight nodded. “It seems like a logical conclusion. But questions remain: who did this, where are they leading us, and why?”

Starswirl paused a moment to gaze into the distance. A dark spot stood on the horizon. By shading his eyes and squinting he could just make out its shape: a soot coloured hemisphere. He pointed to it. “I believe that might be where.”

He offered a foreleg. “Ready?”

Twilight looked at the extended limb. Placing her own on top of it, she nodded. The world flashed and they emerged from the teleport a few dozen paces away from the black dome.

Starswirl took a moment to catch his breath, and then together they slowly traced the dome’s perimeter. Twilight counted out her paces until they were back to their starting point, as evidenced by their tracks in the ever present dust. “The dome is sixty eighty paces in circumference, or just over twenty-one paces in diameter.” She scratched the back of her head. “And it has no visible entrance or exit.”

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Since when does a unicorn need a door?” He offered her his foreleg again.

“Okay,” she said looking down at his trembling limb, “but this time I do the lifting.” Before he could reply the lights went out.

Twilight lit her horn, revealing a small empty room that reminded her of those in the Reclamation Center. It also revealed a very irate looking Starswirl.

"That was not exceedingly responsible, Princess! I have a scrying cantrip on my teleport to avoid emergence inside solid objects."

Her smile faded. "So do I, Maestro. Do you really think me so irresponsible? You are exhausted, you’re distraught and you’re acting on impulse. Give me some credit here. I may not have thousands of years of experience, but I have earned these wings."

His glare died and he suddenly looked very vulnerable. "I'm sorry, Twilight." He turned away. "Please forgive me, but for the last few hours you've been very effectively demonstrating how incredibly far beyond mine is your knowledge of magic and science. It has been... a humbling experience."

Twilight stared at the old unicorn’s back, and cringed. A feeling of shame washed over her as she realized to what she had just unintentionally subjected her idol.

"No Maestro, I'm the one who needs to apologize." She strode forward until she could see his face again. "Since I woke up in this place I've done nothing but act like an inconsiderate fanfilly. I thought... I wanted so much to impress you, the legendary Starswirl the Bearded, the pony I admire most of all."

He turned his gaze towards her. "What about Princess Celestia? Doesn't she deserve that accolade?"

"She is my mentor, and without her I would be just another unicorn egghead, with only my books for friends. Everything that I love about my life, my dear little Spike, my friends, the library in Ponyville, the unrestricted access to the Royal Canterlot archives, I owe them all to her. But how could I aspire to be like her? She is the unattainable ideal!

“But you, Starswirl, you are the pioneer who changed the direction of Equestria forever. You took magic from the darkness and superstition of pre-classical times and made it into the science it has become. You brought the light of reason to an entire civilization. You showed us all how extraordinary, ordinary ponies could be."

The old mage’s eyes were closed. “Ponyville?” he asked. “So she saw fit to grant my request, bless that mare.” When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. “Tell me about Ponyville, Princess. Is it beautiful? Do all the pony tribes live there together in harmony?”

Twilight felt relief wash over her like a cool wave. “It’s without a doubt the prettiest little town I’ve ever seen, and it’s the home of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, two ponies from each of the three tribes. Princess Celestia once called it the beating heart of Equestria.”

“Perhaps you could describe it to me, as we explore this place,” he asked.

“Certainly Maestro. It would be a pleasure.” Together they walked out of the only doorway leading out of the room. They had barely placed a hoof in the room beyond when they were suddenly blinded by an intense white light.

Starswirl blinked as the light was cut off. He looked up to see lavender hued feathers and a slight pony body standing between him and the light source. It seemed the princess had somehow become his protector! He peeked below a wing to scan the rest of the room in which they found themselves. The light seemed to diffuse from the entire ceiling, and the room’s walls were featureless, except for another doorway, whose doors were closed.

“Is it safe for me to come out now, Princess? Or should I continue to cower behind your formidable self?” Twilight folded back her wings and turned away blushing, but not before he glimpsed the edge of her mouth curving slightly upwards at his jest.

Together they approached the doorway. The doors and their frame were also featureless, except for a small plate with a button at head-height to the right of the doors. He shrugged and pressed the button, then leaped back as the doors silently slid apart, revealing a rather small chamber beyond. He glanced inside and saw only another plate identical to the one he had pressed.

“Well this is disappointing,” he said. “Yet another empty room.”

Twilight surprised him by entering the chamber and turning around to face him. “Please come in, Maestro,” she invited with a hoof. He did, and in imitation of the young mare turned back towards the door.

“So, what’s the point of standing in this room?”

Twilight smiled and punched the button with her hoof. “It’s not a room Maestro, –” the doors closed “– it’s an elevator, a platform suspended by cables and controlled by sheaves and pulleys, used to lift cargo and ponies."

Starswirl started as he felt suddenly lighter. A glance to his side showed that Twilight had noticed his momentary alarm. "Ahem. How convenient," he said. A light had appeared in a horizontal white strip above the doorway. It slowly progressed from the right hoof side of the strip to its left hoof side.

"We are going down," said Twilight. "I think it’s safe to assume the dome at the top is merely the entrance to a larger habitation."

Starswirl observed the princess as the elevator descended on its imperceptible course. She stood there, doing absolutely nothing.

“This elevator could stand some improvement,” he declared.

Twilight pointed an ear in his direction and raised an eyebrow.

“The wait is quite tedious. It would be better with some music, don’t you think?”

At that moment the light reached the left edge of the strip, his knees bent and he suddenly felt heavier. He was about to remark about his perceptions of acceleration and deceleration when Twilight spoke up. “We have arrived.”

The doors slid open. “This might be a trap, Maestro, so please stay behind me.” As she moved forward he saw the glow of a force shield in front of her.

He sighed. “Perhaps I would be safest cowering in the elevator,” he said in a dry tone of voice. Twilight looked back at him and rolled her eyes. “You take point in the next room then. Happy?”

He nodded.

The room outside had the same bright white ceiling light as the elevator and the room in the dome that contained it. It was long and narrow, a corridor he surmised. He followed the princess carefully to the other end. As they approached he saw a long barreled device lying prone on the floor, its open end propped on two metallic legs, the other end sporting a trigger and stock like an arquebus, but made entirely of metal instead of wood.

“This is the type of weapon used to project the lead bullets we saw earlier,” he remarked. “It was obviously set there to prevent undesirables from entering via the elevator.”

They passed the deadly looking device and went through a doorway into another long corridor lined with doors. They examined each room in turn, finding them empty as they had been at the Reclamation Center. To save time they began investigating rooms individually. This time it was Starswirl who discovered the corpse.

It was smaller than the one from the Reclamation Center, but its long hair and dried out features made it difficult to tell whether it was male or female. It sat in a chair that seemed too large for its size. To the right of the chair was a low metal table, on which lay sheets of metallic film.

Starswirl called out. “Twilight, come! I’ve found something!” he entered the room, his eyes focused on the film sheets.

The princess appeared in the doorway, a look of concern on her face which deepened when she saw the corpse. He held up one of the film sheets. “It has writing on it,” he said in hushed tones. “But written in a language I do not master.” He again looked at the words on the sheet. “To think that all the answers to our questions might be here, plain as day, and yet as unreachable as if they were on the farthest star!”

Twilight approached the corpse warily. “How many sheets are there?” she asked.

He gingerly lifted and counted them. “One dozen sheets,” he said. “Why is the number important?”

“Because there is actually a translation spell that might work, but...”

“Yes?”

She swallowed and pulled back from the corpse. “I would rather... well, this spell needs a bit of space.”

He nodded and she moved almost all the way back to the room’s entrance. Her horn lit up and a sudden whirlwind set the film sheets spinning into the air. Starswirl grew alarmed when even the one he still held in his hoof was pulled irresistibly into the vortex. He glanced again at Twilight and saw that her eyes had become blank pools of white light. She shuddered gently, as if she herself were subject to the whirlwind’s turbulence.

“Stop, Twilight! You might damage the pages!” shouted Starswirl. He was about to make an effort to reclaim the sheets when a stream of paper flowed from under Twilight’s left wing, each sheet adhering to one of the metallic ones spinning in the air. One by one the papers fell out of the vortex until the floor around them was littered. When the last paper fell out, the whirlwind slowed and the metallic sheets assembled into a sheaf, which floated gently back onto the table.

The glow died from the princess’ eyes. She blinked once, and then her horn glowed again as she collected the fallen papers. She levitated all but one in a sheaf before Starswirl. “Here. That was barely enough text for the translation spell to work, but it did.”

He grabbed the document in his horn field and stared down at it in disbelief. It was all there in Equestrian.

Dear Diary,

Before he died my dad said I should keep a physical diary, just in case I was the last man on Earth and all the electronics stopped working. So here goes.

Today I brought dad’s body to the reclamation unit. He was pretty heavy. He told me I had to do it as soon as he died, or else I would starve soon afterwards. I remember when we put mom’s body in it. Dad cried and cried. He couldn’t push the button and asked me to do it. I cried too, but it was more for dad cause he was so sad. He wouldn’t eat for days afterwards. I fed him the biscuits when he was still half asleep. When he woke up he cried, but after that he ate the biscuits when I gave them to him.

I think I won’t eat the biscuits, but just for today. Dad made me promise to never skip eating the biscuits, so I won’t, after today. Now I’m tired, so I’m going to go to bed. Oh, and I cried too.

Maximilian Sachs

October 21st, 2280

Starswirl felt a cold hand clutch his heart. His vision dimmed as the paper slipped from his grasp and slowly fluttered to the floor.

All Flesh Is Grass

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter four: All flesh is grass

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

Starswirl the Bearded leaned on Twilight and closed his eyes. “Please, Princess,” he whispered, “read the second page.”

The page levitated to where she could see the text. She glanced at Starswirl before starting to read.

“Are you sure you want to hear this, Maestro?” Her ears drooped as she stared into his face. The pain there seemed as deep as an ocean. The corners of his lips turned down.

“Read, lass. I have never refused to drink from the cup of truth, especially when its draught tastes of naught but bitterness and pain.”

She licked her lips. “Yes, Maestro.”

Dear Diary,

I went out hunting today. When I went out I left the door open. Dad would have been so mad at me, but then there are no eaters anywhere near here, there’s only the dust. And me.

Dad took me hunting before. Once we found a book made of paper. It was inside a shrine. Dad always looked in those. He let me look at the book before we brought it to the reclamation unit. There were pictures of people in it. He was so happy because the reclamation unit said we needed carbon, and the book had a lot of it. The biscuits tasted funny after we put the book in, but dad seemed to feel better for weeks afterwards.

Yesterday we had another magic storm. All the cameras in the dome stopped working. Now I have to go see myself what’s happening up top. Dad said to always keep the elevator below because the magic doesn’t like it deep underground. I’m glad I did because it was still working, and the stairs are way too high to climb.

The reclamation unit said it was now running at seventy-two percent. I'm glad dad wasn't here to hear it. He was so sad when it announced seventy-five percent after the last magic storm. Dad said that when the number gets lower the unit takes longer to make biscuits, and it needs more input organics. That's why I went hunting. But I didn't find any organics. I didn't find anything else, either.

Maybe I should go looking for eaters. Sometimes I think I’d rather see an eater than stay alone, even if he eats me afterwards. Or maybe I can catch him and put him into the reclamation unit, but not before I talk to him. Maybe he could tell me a story. I miss stories since the books stopped working. Darn magic. It ruins everything.

I’m gonna go out tomorrow again and maybe I’ll find an eater then. I hope so.

Maximilian Sachs

February 15th, 2281

Twilight lowered the sheet. "Maestro, I'm starting to think these eaters are some sort of creature that preys on humans. Have you ever heard of them before?"

There was the dull tinkle of dirt clogged bells as Starswirl shook his head. He held it low, as if he didn't want to meet her gaze.

"And the reclamation units turn organic materials like books into biscuits. But then why would he want to put the eater in the reclamation unit?” Her eyes grew wide in shock. In a panic she grabbed the first sheet and reread the text.

– Today I brought dad’s body to the reclamation unit. –

– I remember when we put mom’s body in. –

“Maestro! The reclamation unit...” She couldn’t bear to say the words. She looked at Starswirl, who had fallen to his haunches and was hiding his face in his forehooves. “The biscuits...”

She looked at the skeletal form in the chair and felt her gorge rise. “He... they... Sweet Celestia, how could they?” She raised a hoof to her mouth, and then ran into the corner and vomited. It took several minutes for the heaving to stop and her breathing to settle.

Twilight finally managed to look in Starswirl’s direction. During all this time he had barely moved. His hooves trembled as he slowly placed them on the floor. His head was bowed and hidden in the shadow of his wide brimmed hat. These are his kind, she thought. This must be breaking his heart!

“Maestro, I’m so sorry!” said Twilight miserably.

He nodded, reached into his cloak and passed her the canteen of water. Twilight rinsed her mouth. She looked at the mess on the floor and with a flash of purple made it disappear. She returned the water bottle to Starswirl, who put it back into its pocket.

"Read the next one, lass. Please, I need to know.”

Twilight realized she understood. If these were ponies, she would also need to know. Looking at the remaining sheaf of papers she took a deep breath, and her horn glowed as she held another sheet before her face. Her voice was unsteady when she started reading, but it gained strength as she proceeded.

Dear Diary,

I went out hunting today again. No eaters, but I found some bones. Just a few ribs and some backbones. They must have been left by an eater. I found them hidden in a shrine. I was so happy I danced, but I shouldn’t have. The dancing made me too hot and my ears started buzzing and everything got dark and I fell down. When I got up everything smelled funny and I had a headache.

It was real hard to find my way back, but dad showed me how to make tracking signs and I was able to do it. My head was pounding real hard when I got into the elevator. It was only then that I notice I had peed in my shorts. I cried. Dad told me how important it always was to give back to the reclamation unit, and never waste even a drop. I put my shorts in the unit, but I was still so ashamed.

Later I went down to the gallery to look at the pictures. I pretended they were real people and I talked to them a lot. I kinda felt better after that, even if they aren’t real. I like talking to the lady. I told her about the bones and she smiled at me, she really did. Sometimes she isn’t smiling, and even if her picture looks the same, it feels different. Dad said it was a special picture because of that.

I think I’ll sleep under the lady tonight. I like to be near her.

Maximilian Sachs

February 16th, 2281

Starswirl finally stirred. “It would appear this is a world where the normal practices of agricultural and animal husbandry have failed and food is made by machines.”

Twilight floated the sheet down. “How did you infer that?”

“We have been travelling for days, lass. There was no grass. Grass is the beginning of all life, for the things that do not eat grass, eat those things that eat grass. The tree of life must start at the roots. Here, the roots of life are gone. This land is not a desert where life is rare and precious, it is a wasteland where no seed grows and the water itself is as sterile as the dust upon its shores.

“The reclamation unit turns biological matter into food. Any biological matter. The boy and his father lived by scavenging the remains of the dead.” His face was a study in misery. “How did it come to this?”

Twilight had no clue what she could say to console the former human. “I’m so sorry, Maestro, this is such a horrible fate.” Her glance fell again on the sheet she had just read aloud. Twilight’s left ear rose, and its mate joined the first one a moment later.

“... Later I went down...”

“Maestro!” she said with sudden energy. “There’s another room we haven’t found!” She put the sheaf of papers onto the table and began to inspect the perimeter of the room. "The foal – the narrator – he said he went down to the gallery!" She kept searching as her horn began to glow. She stopped in front a wall panel that looked like every other, and closed her eyes. There was a vibration in the floor and the panel rose upwards silently, revealing a well-lit stairway leading down.

She turned to Starswirl, who stood nearby with his mouth gaping open. “Ta da!” she chanted with a smirk.

“Well done, lass.” said Starswirl. Despite the words he did not smile. He gestured downwards. “After you, Princess.”

Twilight smiled and spreading her wings minimally glided down to the level below. What came into view as she descended made her jaw drop.

An almost uncountable number of the most beautiful sculptures and paintings she had ever seen filled a hall that could easily have contained the Throne Room in Canterlot Castle several times over.

Twilight stared in awe as Starswirl joined her. He froze at the base of the stairs for almost a minute, and then waved a forehoof at the incredible sight. His voice trembled as he spoke.

“Look carefully, Princess. Collected here are the greatest artworks of an entire civilization.”

Just to the right of the stairs a small pad and pillow lay below a wall of paintings, showing where someone must have slept. Just above the pad was a portrait of what she presumed was another human female smiling. Twilight did a double-take, and approached the painting to examine it more closely.

“This must be the portrait of the lady mentioned in the diary!” She looked at it from first one angle and then another. “I can understand why he wanted to sleep next to her. She’s... I... it’s like I was standing in front of a living being!” Twilight tilted her head first to one side, and then the other, and then it hit her. “Doesn’t her smile remind you of Princess Celestia’s?”

Starswirl approached the painting. His hoof trembled as he raised it and tenderly stroked the painting's frame.

“That’s because it is,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. He sank slowly down to his haunches below the painting, his expression paradoxically both happy and indescribably sad.

“If I doubted it before, then I no longer do: Princess, this is the world of my birth. I painted this portrait many years before I became a pony.” His gaze focused inwards. “I had accepted a commission to capture the likeness of a young noblewoman, Ma Donna Lisa Gherardini,”– he said the name with a strange lilt, as if speaking in a foreign language –“for posterity by her husband. For one of the sittings Princess Celestia showed up disguised as M’onna Lisa,”– that accent again – “and yes, the smile is Celestia’s.”

Twilight indicated the well populated room with her hoof. "What about the rest of these?" Many of them were sculptures of humans and animals done in the classic style, although there were also some more modern looking pieces. Starswirl turned around as his eyes roved left and right over the exquisite pieces, drawn inexorably to the next while still having to tear his gaze from the last.

She sat down next to him while Starswirl scanned the room. "Many of the sculptures I recognize are from antiquity. Some are the work of my close contemporaries in Italy, and some I do not recognize at all. But all unmistakably show the hand and genius of man.”

“How incredibly beautiful, Maestro!” commented Twilight.

“We are indeed fortunate, Princess, to have witnessed this,” said Starswirl, sounding hoarse. Twilight had difficulty reconciling his words with the expression on his face. He looked utterly devastated. Concerned, she placed a hoof on his withers, and felt them shake. Then the mage buried his face in his hooves, and wept like a child, no doubt for his species and for this sad world.

“How can it be so?” he spoke through sobs. “How could uncaring providence let there be an end to all the dreams and hopes of an entire world?”

Twilight had no answers to give. She just held on to her idol as grief wracked the old unicorn’s frame, and cried with him and for him. She wasn’t sure how long it took. All that mattered to her was to let him know that he was not alone as he faced this unimaginable loss. At some point the shuddering stopped and he fell into a troubled sleep against her side.

She gingerly levitated his slumbering form aside and took out the bunk-bed from her cache. She gently lay him down on the lower birth, and finally fell asleep holding his foreleg in hers as she leaned against the bed.

Starswirl awoke in the bunk bed to the sound of a gently snoring Twilight Sparkle. The poor filly had spent the night at his bedside. He recalled the reason why, and it took all of his willpower to avoid bursting into tears again.

He did not want to disturb the sleeping mare, and so he quietly rummaged through his pockets, pulling out the sheaf of papers that comprised Maximilian’s diary. He lay the first few pages aside and began to read.

"Dear Diary,

I lost another tooth today. I was glad because it gave me something to put into the reclamation unit. Dad said everything that comes from our bodies has to go into the unit. Then I got an idea. After the last magic storm the little room cleaning machine stopped working, so of course I put it into the unit, but then I thought, maybe it hasn't been working so good lately, so I took my other shirt and used it to wipe the entire floor from inside the elevator all the way down to the gallery. I actually found over two dozen hairs! One was blond like mom’s, I was so happy to have been reminded of her. I kissed the hair before I put everything into the reclamation unit and pressed the button.

I don't listen to the warnings from the unit anymore, there are just too many of them. I have a hard time going outside now. Even though it's getting a bit cooler, I still can't walk very far without getting really dizzy, nowhere far enough to find new organics anyway. So I just have to hope an eater will come here and I can get him before he gets me. It would be a nice birthday present. Only three months before I'm ten years old! I can't wait!

Maximilian Sachs

May 14th, 2281"

He was just a boy! The thought burned like a fever in his skull, and he suddenly couldn't bear the comfort of the bed. He arose as quietly as he could and went to stand before his Lady. He shoved his face close and began to examine the painting’s every minute detail. He wasn't sure how long he had been there when he heard Twilight's voice.

"Good morning, Maestro."

Starswirl looked in her direction. Twilight yawned and stretched. Her smile could not conceal the concerned expression on her face. "Good morning, lass." He turned his attention back to the portrait.

"What are you doing?" He heard a flap of wings and the soft staccato of the mare's hooves hitting the floor as she landed at his side.

“I spent years working on this portrait, doing infinitesimal adjustments as my knowledge of pigments and techniques evolved. I’ve examined every detail and every brush stroke, looking for differences in the hope that this was not my portrait but that of another Leonardo, my brother from a world almost like my own but still different. But I found no differences, not even in the slightest.”

“What would finding a difference have gained you, Maestro?” she asked, perplexed.

“Hope,” he replied with another glance in her direction. “A slim hope that this was not the fate of my world, but rather that of one closely related to it.” When her expression became quite sad he found he could no longer look her square in the face.

“I know. It is craven of me to wish that this disaster has befallen not mine own world, but my neighbour’s.”

Her reaction wasn’t one he expected. “Maestro!“ she called out, concerned. “It’s not cowardly. It’s a perfectly normal reaction for victims of disaster to look for any ray of hope, no matter how dim, and this... this is the biggest disaster I could ever imagine.”

He nodded and took the portal frame from its usual pocket in his cloak. "Here." He levitated it to Twilight, who took it into her own magic grasp. "I would like for you to write a note of apology and place it inside. Tell the recipient that I'll repay all that I took, with interest, as soon I can. Please repeat it in Gryphonian as well, if you can."

She nodded.

“And, Princess, be wary of what you say. They may not be from either of our timelines.”

Twilight nodded again, and so he started moving towards the statuary at an unhurried pace.

“Where are you going, Maestro?”

He stopped. He didn’t dare look back at the earnest young mare, for he knew if he saw the sadness in her eyes he would not be able to maintain his own composure. “I go seeking hope,” he said gruffly, and resumed his measured pace.

Twilight took a long deep breath. It was as good a time as any to write the letter, and so she got out a writing desk, quill, ink and paper from her cache. She wished Spike was with her. It was easier to compose a letter when she could just dictate it and didn’t have to write it out at the same time. Not to mention his clawwriting was also way better than her own rather messy hornscript. She considered for a moment. She couldn’t make any assumptions about the age or level of education of the pony that would read the letter, or even that it would be a pony and not a gryphon or some other creature.

To whom it may concern

Dear occupant,

It would appear that I have been taking various foodstuffs from you. This theft was unintentional, as I thought I was taking it from my own pantry. However it would appear evidence suggests that there currently exists a significant temporal misalignment time difference between my pantry in Equestria and where (and when) I am now relative to that selfsame pantry, and you yourself – a future or past resident of my cottage (depending on whose point of view we take as a reference, of course!)

In any case, I will endeavor to replace all the items I have taken and will of course give you even more in return as recompense for any alarm or inconvenience I might have caused you.

Starswirl hadn’t mentioned it, but Twilight thought it best to prepare for any eventuality. That included an extended stay on this world.

There is a distinct possibility my companion (yes, I am not alone in having been marooned here, and my companion is a mare from a different time altogether!) and I will need to gather more food from your pantry, otherwise we might starve to death before we figure out how to get back. Could we impose on you to leave some pony-friendly food items in the pantry, and replenish them when they run out?

A sudden thought struck Twilight, and she almost dropped the pen and paper as she facehoofed. Reaching into her cache she pulled out a purse full of gold bits. Feeling embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of it earlier, she resumed writing.

Ahem. Rather than repay you later (ignoring all the mess time travel makes of grammar and proper use of tenses) I will deposit with you now (ibid) some money that should more than adequately reimburse you for your expenses. Please make sure you stock pony foods in your pantry in the places where the items I first took had been situated, as my range of motion within it is quite limited and it wouldn't do to have the food available but out of reach. After all, as Princess Celestia says all the time, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail!”

I am very grateful for your cooperation as this may be a matter of life or death for my companion and I me. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be here!

Yours truly,

(I cannot disclose our names as it could cause a temporal anomaly that might swallow whole universes.)

P.S. Could you please put a Cantaloupe and some chocolate in the pantry with the other foodstuffs? Thanks in advance!

Twilight looked down at the letter in satisfaction. She rewrote the letter omitting her various retries and mistakes, trying her best to keep her hornscripting neat and legible, and then rewrote the entire letter in the Gryphonian language using what she hoped was the proper variant of talonscript, as suggested by the cooked fish can. Once finished she pulled out a letter tube from the writing desk, put the small purse of coins inside with the pages, closed the tube, and shook out the portal frame into its hexagonal shape. She then shoved the letter tube through it, and finally refolded the frame.

Next on her ‘order of business checklist’ was ‘breaking camp’, to which she had added ‘general tidying-up’ as they were technically indoors. The bunk-bed and desk were put away, but she had to spend a considerable amount of time and magical energy rebalancing her cache’s coin storage spell matrix, which she affectionately had labeled ‘the bit bucket’.

Having completed all her checklists, she decided to begin her own examination of the remarkable sculptures nearby. At first she was simply amazed at how beautiful and emotionally powerful the statues were. It was intriguing how easily these very subjective perceptions managed to cross the bounds of culture and species. Despite all the alienness, she could not shake the feeling that some of the pieces seemed somehow familiar. She decided to ask Starswirl about it once he returned from his own investigations.

After an hour or so she wandered to one of the far walls. There was an area with several very comfortable looking reclining chairs within what looked like carpet-covered egg shaped enclosures open to one side. On a whim she decided to sit in one of them. The instant she did a list of words in the human language appeared in the air before her face, glowing a golden yellow. She was amazed. Despite her enhanced sensitivity as an alicorn she was unable to detect any magic being used.

Doubting their tangibility, she reached out with a hoof to touch the words themselves. She felt nothing on her hoof, but the line she touched turned red, and the list was replaced by another one. She repeated the exercise again and was rewarded with yet a third list. This time she moved her hoof a bit faster and noticed that each line of text was momentarily coloured red when the tip of her hoof was over that line. It was only when she kept her hoof on a specific line for more than a second that it produced a new list. Each time the list seemed to end in the same word.

She tried the process once more. This time however, the list was replaced by a series of symbols. The first one showed two small vertical bars, the second was a simple yellow triangle pointing to the right, then a square, and then a graduated scale like the light above the elevator door. Touching the first symbol did nothing, however when she put her hoof on the second one Twilight nearly jumped out of the chair as a booming bass line with accompanying drums beat loud enough to make her barrel vibrate.

She quickly pressed the third symbol and the sound stopped. Sounds like Vinyl in one of her experimental moods! she thought.

The square had turned red. She gingerly decided to touch it again, and was rewarded with another yellow list, one that held the same number of lines as the last list displayed. She selected the last item in the list, and was presented with another list that also seemed familiar. By experimenting further she discovered that she could navigate back and forth through the lists as if they were a hierarchy of choices. At some point the lists invariably presented the same four abstract symbols. When she selected the same items as before she was rewarded with the same noisy musical segment that had previously startled her. She also noticed that the slider symbol allowed her to vary the loudness of the sounds.

Twilight’s jaw dropped. “It’s a music library!” she said out loud. With a feral grin she immediately set to sample as much of the music as she could.

Hours later (Twilight wasn’t sure how many) she came up for air, both enthralled and somewhat disturbed. Some of the music was nothing short of rapture given aural form. The songs, the choral pieces (she assumed they were choirs), and the instrumental pieces were simply incredible. But the orchestral ones! Twilight had wept at some of those, and hastily memorized the sequence of touches that produced her favorite melodies.

The aspect that disturbed her though was that not all of the musical pieces were unknown to her. Many in fact sounded quite familiar, if sometimes a bit distorted, as if they had been improperly transcribed. She also decided to ask Starswirl how it was possible that the humans had recordings of the major works of Hoofgang Amoodeus Moozart, the great Bovine composer.

Twilight was hardly back to the location with the stairs and the picture of the lady, when she saw Starswirl returning. He no longer looked so sad. Instead he looked positively furious. He practically stomped his way to the foot of the stairs.

“How could they?” he demanded.

Twilight was quite unsure what he was talking about. She recalled his parting words, but thought that now was not the time to quiz him on his quest for hope. Something had apparently put a bee in his bonnet.

“Whom are we talking about, Maestro?” she asked carefully.

“The boy’s parents, humanity, Providence... and Princess Celestia!” His eyes were wild, and Twilight could clearly see the desperation that lay under the anger.

“I’m sorry, Maestro. You’ll have to explain from the beginning.”

Starswirl hid his face in his hooves. “I examined many of the sculptures and paintings that were familiar to me. Michelangelo’s Pietà and David, my fresco of the Last Supper, even some of the works by lesser masters. The only anomalies I could find were marks from mishandling or clumsy restorations. Not a stroke of the masterworks themselves was out of place.” His eyes smouldered. “No! This is my world, Twilight! And my people have not been saved by Equestria, as Princess Celestia said they would.” He looked up, betrayal, shame and despair each claiming a portion of his face. “Why!?”

“Equestria is supposed to save this world? But Maestro, I didn’t even know it existed before arriving here. Are you saying Princess Celestia did?”

“Yes she did, lass.” He hesitated a moment. “I agreed to come to Equestria in part because Princess Celestia said she needed my help to save humanity from a dreadful fate. She predicted that the world of Equestria and this one would merge with each other in a number of centuries. However, this would extinguish all intelligent life on Earth because Equestria’s magic was deadly to humanity. Much of my time in Equestria was spent planning how to avoid this unhappy fate, and we had a plan.” He waved a hoof. “But it appears never to have been implemented. And now humanity is... gone.”

Twilight was flabbergasted, and not a little miffed that Princess Celestia had never broached this subject with her. However, loyalty to her mentor compelled her to respond. “Please don’t be mad at Princess Celestia, Maestro! She never breaks a promise. I’m sure she tried everything she could to save Earth.”

“We failed,” said Starswirl. He seemed to shrink visibly as his rage evaporated. “A thousand years to plan and prepare, and we failed them all. We failed him.” He gestured up the stairs. “He was only a child, Twilight. Not even ten years old.” He sat down miserably on the bottom step of the staircase.

“How do you know that, Maestro?” asked Twilight.

“I read another page of his diary before I went to find signs of changes in the artwork.” He offered Twilight the sheets.

Her magic levitated the papers to within reading distance from her face. She read the last sentence of the page:

“Only three months before I'm ten years old! I can't wait!”

Twilight looked up.

“How could they?” he asked again. “How could his parents bring a child into a world they knew was dying?”

She thought of the Cakes and other parents she knew. It didn’t take her long to figure it out. “That’s not so hard to understand,” said Twilight in a quiet voice. “They had hope, Maestro. Despite everything that had befallen them and this world, they held on and persevered. I can’t find fault in them. I admire them, no matter how sad their fate and that of their son.”

Starswirl’s reaction surprised her. “There is another reason why I am so angry, Twilight.” He passed her the rest of the sheaf of papers. “Read the last one,” he asked.

Pages flipped until the last one floated in front of her face.

"Dear Diary,

It’s been six months since I’ve been able to find anything to put into the reclamation unit. Dad said the stuff in the gallery isn’t to be touched because it’s the last testament of mankind. It’s been a week since the last biscuits came out. The unit says sixty percent efficiency, but I don’t believe it. I’m so hungry!

I once asked dad why we had to use the reclamation unit. He gave me a book to read. It said all the plants had died from man-made biological plagues, and all food production came from microscopic machines. The world was surviving, until the magic plagues started. Then the microscopic machines became less efficient and produced more waste heat. The temperature around the world increased, and despite the world’s best efforts, the microscopic machines stopped working almost everywhere and most people starved. That’s when the eaters started. Not long afterward, the only place where people could live was here in Antarctica, and the magic storms started happening here too. People caught in them would get dark spots on their bodies and then they would die.

I put the book back in the library because it was too depressing to read. It was all dead stuff anyway. I would rather read books about cowboys! I can’t walk up the stairs anymore, so I better stay up here near the reclamation unit, just in case it produces some biscuits. I’m so hungry.

Maximilian Sachs

August 14th, 2281"

“Do you understand, Princess? They had painted themselves into a corner. Yes, even with Princess Celestia’s plan, the magic plagues would have killed any humans remaining on Earth eventually, but this world need not have died with them! As it was, the Earth had been dying for the last several hundred years. The magic plagues just hastened the end.”

Twilight was again at a loss for words when, suddenly, words came to them, courtesy of the same male voice that had drawn them to this refuge in the first place. It sounded as if it came from the level above. Again, it gave the impression of a text being recited, or a play being read. She flew up the stairs with Starswirl clambering up after her.

As she reached the top she noticed the body of the human child was missing. Instead a familiar form reclined on the single large chair, his back towards her.

“Alas, how terrible is wisdom

when it brings no profit to the man that's wise!

This I knew well, but had forgotten it,

else I would not have come here.”

“There is truth in such words,” said the voice in sepulchral tones. “Don’t you agree, Twilight dear?”

Twilight stood, legs apart and wings partly unfurled. “You!” she said in an angry hiss.

Starswirl galloped around her and clambered to a stop in front of the creature. His eyebrows shot up, and his head moved back in surprise. “It’s the ugly statue from Celestia’s garden!” he said.

“And I think I know how we got here,” said Twilight. “Starswirl the Bearded, meet Discord, the trouble maker.”

The Draconequus rose in his chair, still facing away from Twilight. “That’s not the usual ovation I get when I read the classics, but an artiste gracefully accepts what he is given.”

Twilight steeled herself to receive yet another mocking put-down from the irreverent trickster. Instead he did something she would never have expected in a million years. He turned around with his head down, in a pose that was almost humble. When he looked up there were tracks of tears running down his misshapen face.

“Welcome,” he said almost sweetly, “to this quiet Earth.”

All the World is a Stage

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter five: All the world is a stage

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

Starswirl the Bearded looked into the eyes of the odd creature before him. He had always had a sharp eye and generally could read other beings with the sensitivity of the artist he was. This being in particular shared something with him. This being was in mourning.

They stared at each other across a gulf of species, time and space. And then rushed into each other’s arms like life-long friends.

“Maestro,” said Discord, “è vero un piacere incontrare finalmente!”

“l piacere è mio, Discordia,” replied Starswirl. He looked back at Twilight a moment. Her facial expression seemed to be the result of a three-way collision between disbelief, confusion and thoroughly creepy smile.

Discord also shifted his attention to Twilight. He grinned, but it didn’t quite erase the sadness in his eyes, though Starswirl thought he detected more than a small degree of affection in it. This surprised him, given Twilight’s reaction when she first saw the draconequus. Then he belatedly realized another reason for her confusion. He and Discord had exchanged greetings in Italian.

He spoke up in Equestrian. “I’m sorry, Twilight. It’s been so long that anypony... anyone has addressed me in my native language.”

The mare seemed to recover some of her aplomb.

"So, do you two know each other?" she asked with one eyebrow raised.

"We've never met before, Princess Twilight," replied Discord. "And might I add that you look positively fetching with those wings?"

Twilight glared back at the draconequus. "Cut the horse-apples, Discord. Why did you bring us here?"

He put a paw to the side of his mouth. "Non mi gradisce," he whispered to Starswirl, sotto voce. The glint of humour in Discord’s eyes was short-lived though. He went back to the chair and sat down.

“I did indeed bring you here. There are several tasks for which I beg your most gracious company and cooperation. First, we will be holding a funeral for young Maximilian.”

Discord snapped the digits of his clawed limb. With a start Starswirl noticed that they were all outside the dome, standing next to a grave in the wan sunlight. The sky was partially overcast, with flashes of lightning every few seconds. Despite the ominous light show there was only a slight breeze blowing.

At the front of the grave stood a rounded gravestone with an image carved in relief near its top. At first he took it for a cherub, but then he saw that it was actually the face of a young boy.

Discord stroked the headstone. "It’s certainly nowhere near your level of artistry, Maestro, but I’m happy with it nevertheless.” Below it there were a few lines of text. Starswirl read the inscription out loud.

“One small candle in the night,

Though gone, in memory still burns bright.

Maximilian Sachs

2271-2281"

Starswirl looked again more closely at the carving. Perhaps not at a master-sculptor level, it still fairly glowed with the joyful exuberance of a happy child. He was genuinely impressed. “You knew the boy. How?”

Discord gave no indication he had noticed the praise. “He was a lovely child,” he said in a gentle voice, “always friendly, ever cheerful, and he had such a boundless imagination!” He turned to Starswirl and grinned. “I visited him in his dreams, where we played together in a world of green grass, and flowers, and trees so tall we couldn’t see their tops.”

Rather than mollifying her, the words seemed to only upset Twilight further. “Discord, if you could come here, why didn’t you feed him?” She approached the draconequus and stood practically nose-to-nose with him. “How could you... let him die?” She looked as if she was about to cry.

Discord hardly looked any better. He seemed about to say something harsh, but then swallowed. “Princess, you will learn that with those wings you have been given great power, but there is a price to pay for it.”

Twilight’s head pulled back, eyes wide. “Princess Celestia didn’t say anything about a price. What price?”

“Don’t blame her, child,” said Discord. “There is much you need to learn, and some truths are best taken in small doses.” He sighed. “We ascended beings have limits placed upon us. Every act we take has profound consequence upon reality itself, and there are things the cosmos will simply not allow us to do.” He pointed a claw to the sky, where the lightning seemed to be intensifying. “Behold the price of our presence here – magic storms.”

“The ones Maximilian mentions in his diary?” Twilight looked at the sky and shuddered.

“The very same,” replied Discord. His gaze turned back towards the grave. “If I would have ventured physically close to the boy, so would the storms that would have killed him outright.” He smiled bleakly. “Imagine that, the mischievous Spirit of Disharmony afraid of spreading a little chaos!”

The princess sank to her haunches. “But he was just a foal.” Although Starswirl couldn’t see her face he did see the glint of tears dropping from her face. “And he died – alone.”

Discord sat on the ground next to the mare, his face hidden in shadow. “But he didn’t, gentle Twilight,” he said. “When the inevitable was coming, and my physical presence would at worst only hasten the end, I came to him and held him in my arms. Sometimes he thought I was his father, and sometimes his mother. Sometimes, he saw me in my true form, his friend from the land of dreams. I sang to him and told him stories like we did when I visited him in his slumber. Oh, how he loved to hear stories.” He became very quiet.

The expression on Twilight's tear stained face transformed from sadness to a sudden realization, followed by contrition. Her ears sagged and she put a hoof on Discord’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply...” She then did something that pleased Starswirl tremendously: she hugged the draconequus.

The pair didn't move for a long time. Then Discord spoke. "Once upon a time, a little yellow pegasus hugged me, and after millennia I was no longer alone." They broke apart, but stayed sitting close to each other. The draconequus dabbed at his eyes with his furry paw and gazed up at Starswirl. "Maestro, even though you are no longer human in form, in your barrel beats a human heart. You know the words that should be said over the grave of one of your own kind. Could you do me a favor, and speak them?"

Starswirl nodded and walked to the base of the grave, facing the headstone. He thought for a moment while the other two rose to stand, heads bowed.

"Here lies the child Maximilian, in his mother's bosom. In stillness they are joined, life denied but not forgotten. He was the last of his kind, but he was never alone, for friendship touched him, even here at the end of all things. And though his passage in it was brief, the universe was a better place that he shone his light upon it. May he be remembered.”

“May he be remembered,” the mare and the draconequus intoned together in the ritual closing of an Equestrian funeral. Discord raised his head. “That was a very pony way to end a human funeral, Maestro.”

“Funerals are for the living, Discord. Who do you see gathered here in mourning?"

The draconequus had no response to this. Starswirl pondered his own words, and suddenly realized his lack of generosity. "Still, you may take this as a consolation: young Maximilian’s good fortune is that he will be remembered by immortals.” A moment later he saw the corners of Twilight's mouth turn ever so briefly upwards. He also noticed the intensifying lightning, as flashes brightened the sky almost continually despite the eerie silence. “Let us now go from this place.”

“Thank you, Maestro,” said Discord. Before leaving he bent over the grave and placed a paw on it. When he raised it there appeared a single flower, a large, perfect daisy. It waved cheerfully in the slight breeze as the trio began walking back to the dome, a carpet of green and flowers in their wake as they strode forward.

When near the dome Discord snapped his fingers and they were suddenly back at the art gallery.

Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit miffed at the uninvited and unannounced teleportation. “I can understand that you wanted to bury Maximilian first,” she said, “but now, we deserve some answers.”

He sighed. “I suppose so.” Discord reached behind himself and pulled a pair of large sofas out from nowhere. “Let’s sit comfortably while we talk, shall we?”

I guess the old Discord is still somewhere in there! thought Twilight. She and Starswirl sat on one couch and Discord reclined on the other. As they sat down the light coming from the ceiling flickered.

“I’m afraid all this teleportation has attracted quite a bit of magic to the area,” said Discord. “We will have to depart soon if we don’t want all the magic sensitive devices in this facility to degrade any further.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Discord, why did you bring us here?” she asked angrily, and immediately reddened as the question came out a bit harsher than she had intended.

Discord smiled, however his expression lacked the mocking quality she had come to expect from him. Then again, he had changed since his reform and close friendship with Fluttershy.

He sat upright and steepled his claw and paw. “The first reason was that I wanted to hold a proper funeral for young Maximilian. He deserved no less, and I fear I have little experience in holding a proper one.” Discord tilted his head. “For that, I thank you both." When he raised his head again its features seemed to reflect a bit more of the lively trickster she had come to know since his rehabilitation.

"Next, something of which I think our dear Twilight will definitely approve, is a series of lessons. Last, but not least, is a philosophical discussion upon which hangs the fate of two entire worlds. But first, let’s provide some context, shall we?” He snapped his fingers again.

After the tingling sensation of teleportation, the first thing Starswirl noticed was the stage in front of him. The second was Twilight seated to his right and looking irate. They sat in a theatre a scant three rows back from center stage. Discord stood onstage behind a lectern, wearing a tweed jacket and spectacles. There was a large white screen behind him. He coughed and tapped on the lectern for attention.

“Welcome class to really ancient history one-oh-one. Our lesson today involves events that occurred at the dawn of Equestrian history, and involved most specifically the then two major factions of the Alicorn Ascendancy, the incredibly boring and tedious Sept of Harmony, and the fun loving, wild and crazy guys known as the Sept of Chaos.” On the screen a series of images appeared, the first a sepia coloured photo of some eight Alicorns gathered around a mare wearing a crown, which was followed by another of three draconequi wearing lamp shades on their heads in what looked like a very messy dormitory common room.

“Queen Cordelia, the leader of the Sept of Harmony, lost a war against Discord, the leader of the Sept of Chaos. Thinking that he and his assistant were the last remaining members of the Alicorn race on Equestria, he then reigned as king for an indeterminate amount of time, nopony is sure how long as both clocks and calendars became quite delightfully arbitrary during that wondrous golden age, according to one unimpeachable source.” On the screen was the image of a bespectacled Discord dressed in the same tweed jacket.

“Alas, nothing good lasts forever. Two sisters of Harmony, hidden away by their mother and a traitor to Chaos, armed themselves with the Elements of Harmony and ensorcelled the good king, turning him into a stone statue, which they put with much uglier statues in their garden. Talk about the lack of a sense of humour!” The screen showed the statue of Discord in the Royal Gardens, however with one claw over his brow in a tragic pose instead of mid scream as Starswirl remembered from his frequent visits to the garden. He was also flanked by a statue of a pony holding a ball, and another of a sea lion blowing a horn.

Twilight rose from her seat. “Discord!” she called out. “Do you expect me to believe even a word of what you say about prehistoric times?”

The draconequus leaned a patched jacket elbow unto the lectern. “No, and I’m not surprised in the least that Celestia has never seen fit to tell you about those days. But,” –he pointed to Starswirl– ”I expect you to believe him.”

Twilight turned her angry gaze to Starswirl. “There’s no chance in Tartarus –”

“He’s telling the truth, lass,” said Starswirl.

“– that he’s telling the... What? He is?” Twilight looked dumbstruck.

Starswirl nodded. “I don’t have the full picture, but Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have spoken to me of those days and the schism at the heart of the alicorns. So far he’s been accurate, at least in the important details. Equestria was originally the home of an alicorn colony, I know not from where. According to Celestia they somehow ‘made’ the universe in which Equestria resides. She also said that there were two main groups, those who favoured structure and harmony, and those who favored chaos and disharmony. The alicorns and draconequi are actually beings of the same race. They change form based on their sept association, which two were constantly at war with each other until all that remained were the sisters, Discord and one other. Yes, this means Discord is their cousin and closest living relative.”

Twilight slowly slumped back down into her seat and crossed her forelegs over her barrel. “Just for your information, Princess Celestia has told me some of this. She promised to tell me everything when the time was right.” She glared at the lectern. “We’re a captive audience. You might as well continue this charade.”

Onstage Discord had taken out a deck of note cards and shuffled nervously through them. “Well then, where was I?” One card lept from the deck and stuck to his forehead until he peeled it off. Glancing at it, he nodded. “Oh, yes indeed, no sense of humour!”

“It was also about that time that the former king, having a lot of spare time on his paws, began to pay far greater attention to those aspects of himself in other universes where he was not so mobility challenged. You see, alicorns and draconequi are connected to all versions of themselves across the multiverse. It works differently in each of us, but in my specific case it’s as if I am present in all these universes at the same time.”

“That sounds as if it could be rather confusing,” commented Twilight.

“Tell me about it!” Discord laughed. “But then, as the Avatar of Chaos I have an affinity to confusion! My life is full of the most delightful surprises that way.” He crossed his forelimbs. “And besides, sometimes I can’t be bothered to keep track of which universes produce which perceptions and experiences. After all, there are so many versions of myself that have not spent the last thousand years as a statue, you know.”

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “So then, you can perceive multiple universes at the same time?”

“Yes. It was in this process I, I mean he, discovered humanity. One of his instances had discovered the link to the human world. How he grew to love the humans and their manifold chaotic ways is a story in itself! Their thirst for knowledge of the unknown, their quest for truth no matter the personal or social costs, and the incredible daring of their undertakings. For the first time in his life the king was in love.” The screen showed Discord, paw and claw clasped before his bosom, eyes in the shape of lovers’ hearts.

“But love wasn't the only thing he found on Earth. The more he looked into the works of humanity, the more he saw how somehow its fate and that of Equestria’s ponies were linked.” On the screen scenes from Earth began to flash in rapid succession. Starswirl recognized some, but not all. Some involved fantastical machines the likes of which he had only dreamt of. All showed human beings engaged in a bewildering array of enterprises. He observed each image hungrily, if only too briefly.

“And then to his surprise he discovered that Princess Celestia had begun secretly introducing human technology and culture into Equestria.” Images started appearing of household items, brushes, scissors, tools, and then musical scores, plays, books, and that was when Twilight shot upright from her seat a second time.

“Wait a minute, Discord! Are you saying that a good portion of Equestria’s cultural and scientific heritage is actually imported from Earth?”

The image on the screen had frozen on a sheet of paper with music notation in the usual bars.

“Why ask me, when you can hear it right from the horses’ mouths?” said Discord tilting his head to one side. Above his head the screen flickered.

A younger Starswirl stood bedsides Princess Luna in a large, richly appointed room. Everywhere were motifs of white and gold, and mirrors reflecting the rainbow of colors of Celestia's mane and the star speckled black of Luna's.

Starswirl recognized it as Princess Celestia’s apartments in the old Everfree Castle. Everything was just as he remembered it.

In the center of the room was a table laden with food, surrounded by the low cushions. Princess Celestia invited them to the table with a gilded hoof. They each took a place and began to serve themselves using magic to handle fork, knife and spoon.

"My dear Princesses,” said the Starswirl on the screen, “I cannot help but remark upon how much your meal etiquette, like so many other things in Equestria–" he gestured to the apartment around them "–is very much akin to that of the human world. Surely this is no coincidence."

Luna glanced at Celestia, who simply nodded and continued daintily eating her meal. "What you see here in Equestria has been much influenced by Mundus in the last several hundred years. Ever since Celestia discovered the bridge to your world she has been visiting and bringing back with her ideas, mores, tools, processes, scientific discoveries, and even in a rare few cases entire individuals." She looked at Starswirl pointedly, then resumed with a mischievous grin.

"Oft these have proven beneficial and been adopted and adapted to suit our own realm. My sister has under several noms-de-plume chronicled many of her trips, styling them the travels of fictitious ponies to foreign lands neighboring Equestria. These books are very popular and circulate widely." The younger Princess laughed heartily, warming to the subject, even as her sister began to blush.

"I will have you know that many of our subjects think highly of France, Italy, Spain and England, imagining them peopled with their fellow ponies, even adopting many of the frivolous fashions my sister so enjoys describing in her fictions. Why, some of our more idle aristocrats even attend classes to learn to speak these languages!" Princess Luna almost fell over in her mirth.

Celestia coughed politely into her hoof. "All these were devices for us to quickly disseminate ideas, and to enable me to perfect my own disguise, ensuring my access to the leading lights of Mundus nearest the bridge!" she replied a bit hotly, her embarrassment having lent a quite delightful rosé color to her muzzle.

"Especially the fictions with all those randy princes and princesses!" laughed Luna. "She spent entire nights writing those."

The moving image froze.

“Is it true, Maestro?” Twilight asked him in a gentler voice. She pointed to the image on the screen. “Did Princess Celestia have an actual program for importing ideas and culture from Earth to Equestria?”

It took Starswirl a moment to recover from his astonishment. “How did you do this, Discord? It’s as if my memories have become a play for all to see.”

The draconequus removed his spectacles with his claw, and then taking a hanky out of his pocket proceeded to wipe his eyeballs clean. He bounced each one once on the floor before catching it in its respective eye socket. Re-donning his glasses, he grinned out over the pair. “I did nothing more than to show exactly what you remembered, Maestro.”

Starswirl turned his head towards the Princess. “He tells the truth, lass. This is exactly as I remember it.” He paused a moment. “And to answer your question, yes, she did.”

Twilight seemed lost in thought for a moment, then her ears rose high. “Knowing that she did it is not the same as knowing why she did it, and Princess Celestia does nothing without purpose. So please, Maestro, tell me what she hoped to accomplish.”

The screen flickered to life again.

Starswirl held Princess Celestia's hoof in his own while they shared a bench in the garden of Everfree Castle. She looked rather fragile.

“I have put much thought to the assignment you gave me, Princess,” he said.

Celestia sighed. “I presume you are referring to the rescue of the humans from the coming merging of our worlds?”

“Yes indeed. Majesty, I have a very important question to ask. But first, I wish to let you know that your sister said many things to me about the nature of the alicorns. She called you predators. Was she telling the truth?”

Her expression grew troubled, but after a moment’s consideration, she nodded hesitantly and began to speak.

“The term predator is perhaps extreme... but not entirely incorrect.” She scanned the area with her eyes, and then with eyes closed and horn aglow. Seemingly satisfied that nopony was in eavesdropping range, she resumed a more relaxed demeanor.

“Starswirl, amongst the Alicorn race there are some who can literally feast on the emotions of others. Any strong emotion will do. With such ponies the joy, love, pain and hate of others is the sustenance they crave, and so they become masters of deception and of sowing the seeds of discord. Some however were also truly superlative artists. As usual, such a gift is a double-edged sword.

“For this reason our race is one that fosters many conflicts, and this was particularly true of those of us who established this world.” Celestia was silent for a minute, her gaze distant. She turned to look Starswirl in the eyes. “I told you of my parents’ devotion to Harmony. Before her passing I made a vow to my mother, Starswirl, that I would change things. And I did. When we had defeated all the other alicorns...” Celestia looked down.

“Luna and I...” She sniffed and tears glinted on her elegant muzzle.

“... we produced the first generation of new ponies. We split the Alicorn race into four tribes and the results are the ponies of Equestria.”

“Four, Princess?” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “I know of only three.”

“The fourth lives hidden amongst the others, changing shape as need be to feed on emotions and then return to their hives.”

Starswirl stared at Celestia in disbelief. “But, why keep them at all, princess?”

The white alicorn sniffed again. “In all societies, Maestro, there have to be those with the passion to foster change and sufficient ferocity to defend it when needed. Our plan was to count on the natures of these changelings to help defend Equestria. We never imagined the difficulties we would have in keeping the tribes united as one nation, and that is only the first of our... of my mistakes.”[

Starswirl was deep in thought, absorbing this information. A thought struck him. “And is this why you invited those other races in, the dogs and the dragons and such?”

“Yes, I sought resilience through diversity,” she replied simply. “Yet in all of these cases, instead of standing united, the other races and ponies mistrusted each other, and chose to live apart. In each case Luna was livid. She called me a foal to even hope for any other outcome, to believe that Harmony was possible.”

Starswirl let go of her hoof. “And what role has humanity to play in this grand plan?” he asked, visibly angry. “Are we merely another scheme to provide a buffer between your precious ponies and a dangerous universe?”

Celestia covered her face in her hooves. “No Starswirl! I swear it, that has never been my intention!”

“Then what is your intention?” Starswirl stood up from the bench and faced her directly. “You have asked me to help save my race, Princess, and save it I would. But I will not betray it!” He trembled as he stood waiting for an answer.

Celestia lowered her forehooves from her face. She looked... vulnerable. There were tear tracks down the side of her muzzle. Her eyes spoke of misery, loneliness and a broken heart. But there was also something else. A solid core of determination.

“My intention is to save them, Maestro. Because that is what I promised to do, and because it is the right thing to do. It was the same with the gryphons, dragons, diamond dogs and the others. All these races faced their extinction and I do not regret my actions in saving them.”

She paused and something else appeared in her expression. Doubt. “But with the humans, it is so much more difficult to keep my resolve.” Despite the words she had a smile on her lips.

"I have loved humankind for so long, Maestro. Of all the thousands of worlds I have visited, yours has ever been my favourite! The ideas, the beauty, the ambition, the philosophy, the love, the music and the stories of your world have all enthralled me since I discovered it and foresaw the coming convergence of our worlds. And then by bitter experience, I learned that the magic of Equestria is a deadly poison to humankind.” She covered her eyes with a pastern. Her smile became a grimace.

“The only way for them to live in our world is a bodily transformation, such as I have done to you, Maestro. But I am faced with a quandary: am I truly saving humanity if in doing so humans are changed at such a fundamental level? Or does my solution end humanity as surely as if I did nothing and let them all die when our worlds merge?”

Starswirl stared severely down at Celestia. He raised a single eyebrow and waited. She was confused a moment, but then suddenly realized to whom she had asked her question. Her sweet laughter rang like silver bells, even though her eyes remained tinged with sadness.

“Perhaps I was being insensitive in putting my question thus,” she quipped.

“Perhaps,” he replied and sat back down on the bench. “But it is a good question, though a ponified human such as I might be less than unbiased upon the matter.” He decided to take a gamble. “I could however relate the comments made by another on just this topic.”[

Both of Celestia’s ears turned eagerly in his direction. He took a deep breath.

“Its source is none other than your sister, Princess Luna, from the night of my kidnapping several months ago.” Celestia’s ears fell at the mention of her sister’s name. However they did not fall all the way to the back of her head, so he decided to carry on.

“She said that she feared humanity, because we were not only predators but just as dangerous as the alicorns themselves. She also said that she thought our nature would not change with ponification. That a predatory species such as ours would remain so even after the transformation.”

Celestia chewed her lip in thought. “Did she reveal her reasoning in reaching this conclusion?” she asked.

Starswirl grinned. “I asked the same question, and was quite surprised when Princess Luna held me up as an example!” He leaned in closer to the princess as if sharing particularly juicy gossip. “She said that since my arrival in Equestria I had sought to colonize aggressively, had undermined the established class structure, and that I had made war upon my enemies with fiendish weapons conceived of my depraved but brilliant mind.” He tilted his head to one side. “She said that my actions revealed my true nature: that I was still a predator and human being, despite my equine countenance.” He lifted a single hoof in a classic pose of a destrier ready for battle.

Celestia’s grin had become practically jolly. “Thou art a formidable stallion to behold, Starswirl! The bells on your cloak are particularly frightening, I must say.”

The image froze, catching the two mid-laugh.

Twilight slowly sat back into her seat. Despite a tentative smile she had tears in her eyes.

“She seemed... so hurt,” she said, almost inaudibly. She swallowed, then continued more forcefully. “I’ve seen the place in this memory. It’s just outside the Castle of the Two Sisters. This was just after she had banned Luna to the moon, wasn’t it?”

Starswirl placed a hoof upon the young mare’s. “Yes. We all took turns being with her. She needed company so badly then.”

Twilight’s tears continued unabated. She sniffed. “She’s always been my pillar of strength. It’s very hard for me to have seen her like that.” After a moment she shook herself and looked up, her expression unreadable. “So you have my full attention, Discord. What now?”

Onstage, Discord had removed his glasses. “I’m sorry that I had to subject you to such a thing, Twilight.” He did indeed look contrite. ”But it needed to be done, as you wouldn’t have believed my word alone. Thus Princess Celestia, consummate planner that she is, devised a plan to prepare Equestria to receive the human population, and engaged Starswirl's help in making it so. Even if the humans were physically converted into ponies, she feared they could easily overwhelm her little ponies unless Equestria’s own cultural and technological progress was accelerated. She wanted humans and ponies, when they finally met, to stand as equals.”

At this point the draconequus’s smile bent, as did his posture. “Now I’m going to admit to something, but first, you must both promise me that you won’t stop speaking with me after I tell you.”

“Oh, come-on, Discord!” Twilight’s anger resumed full force. “I’ve seen you at your worst. What could you possibly admit to that would make me even angrier?”

The draconequus pointedly looked at Starswirl.

Starswirl’s mouth went dry, and he felt the heat of anger building. “There is one aspect to what Discord showed us that has not been explained.”

The draconequus cringed even more. Starswirl sighed. “You have my word, Discord.”

From her expression the exchange had only managed to further perplex Twilight. Nevertheless, she nodded grudgingly. “And mine.”

Discord loosened his shirt collar. “Er, thanks. Well, here goes.” He put his spectacles on again, although Starswirl noticed he had put them on upside-down.

“As I have already recounted, the king, in his statuesque state, had grown to love humanity as a true expression of the beauty of chaos when he discovered that his captor and nemesis was also visiting Earth and sinking her metaphorical claws into these very same humans.” He placed the back of his paw against his forehead. “Concerned that the alicorn princess’s plan might be to make humanity more like ponies and infect them with her vile concepts of Harmony, the king grew despondent, and then desperate, looking for a way to help them avoid such a tawdry fate.”

He took a deep breath. “So I... er, he... – found a way to irrevocably sever the physical bridge between the Earth and Equestrian universes.”

Twilight tilted her head toward the stage, pointing one ear directly at the lectern. “What was that again?”

Starswirl surged to stand on his hind legs. “What this irresponsible lout said, was that in a fit of jealousy, he irrevocably severed the link between the Earth and Equestrian–” he pointed an accusing hoof at Discord “–universes, and in so doing condemned to death the population of an entire world! Wastrel! Blackguard! Genocide!”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as comprehension dawned.

Onstage, Discord looked frightened. He raised his forelimbs. “Please, don’t rush to judge me. I know what I did was incredibly vain and inconsiderate and... just plain stupid. But...”

“But what, Discord!” Twilight fairly snarled.

“I did not let matters stand! I did something to fix the problem!”

Starswirl trembled. He purposely forced himself to sit down before his ire grew such that he would not be able to master the urge to lash out at the draconequus in a magical conflagration. “And what did you do?” he bit off through clenched teeth.

The draconequus pointed down from the lectern at the alicorn mare with obvious affection.

“I created her!”

Lessons and Tests

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter six: Lessons and tests

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

“What!?” Twilight glared at Discord. “You created me? How is that even possible? I have parents. I was born in a hospital. A doctor signed my birth certificate!”

“Discord, please explain yourself.” Starswirl was looking far angrier than Twilight had ever seen him. But then, discovering over the last two days the dismal fate of his birth world, and that despite his and Celestia’s efforts that fate could not be avoided, had been very hard on the old mage. And now he had just been told that it was all due to a willful error in judgement on Discord’s part. If she were in his horseshoes she would probably be fit to be tied!

“Yes, Maestro, I will,” replied the draconequus. “But I have to ask both of you a question first.”

Starswirl nodded. In his tight withers and clenched teeth Twilight saw how much the effort at restraint was costing the old unicorn.

“This had better be good,” she said in lieu of a straight affirmation.

Discord had the good grace to say “I thank you, both.” He turned and began pacing the width of the stage, claw and paw in their respective jacket pockets. “When I realized what my stupidity had done I was despondent. I truly loved humanity, Maestro, you must believe me!” When, after a long pause, Starswirl still hadn't responded to his comment, Discord seemed to shrink in on himself. He resumed crossing the stage at a slower pace.

“I scoured the memories of myselves throughout the multiverse, looking to find a way to fix this, and found none. I was in a quandary. However, I had noticed one thing of interest. Those futures where ponies and humans had somehow combined seemed to be more open ended. In fact, ALL those instances where the two cultures stayed separate seemed to... very much resemble this world.” He nodded once emphatically. “And yes, I mean on Equestria as well as Earth.” His expression became very serious. “This is my question to you both: why?”

Starswirl grew still and his gaze focused inwards, then his eyes grew as big as saucers and his forehooves clenched the seatback of the chair in front of him. Still he said nothing. Several different motions played over his face. Finally, his hooves relaxed and he leaned back, the anger gone from his eyes. “Because neither Harmony nor Chaos is enough,” he said quietly.

Twilight turned her head to look at him with wide eyes. “What do you mean? Harmony is the answer, Maestro! Don't let this joker mislead you!"

He thought for a moment. “Lass, when you’ve lived as long as I have, and you’ve looked at life as closely as I have, you learn some unexpected truths. Some of these truths I learned before I came to Equestria, and I have wondered about them ever since. Nevertheless, I have also explored many other worlds, and common themes abound in the fabric of the Cosmos. One of these is that life itself is reaction to change.” A glance in Twilight's direction revealed her confusion.

“The winds, the rains, the seasons, the tides, all push life along, and force all of creation to greet every day as a new one. Death is what happens when living things can no longer change.” He smiled wistfully. "This is how things are on most worlds that I have explored, even the ones with magic. Celestia's Equestria may be a font of Harmony now, but it wasn’t always so. For most of the time since its creation it has in fact harbored its own share of Chaos as well."

“This is true not only for entire worlds, but also for the inner life of every being. The worth of men or ponies is defined not by where they stand, but by the obstacles they have overcome to get to where they are, the things they have created, and the love they have given to others.”

His gaze turned inward. “Finally and most importantly, to me and I think to you also, lass, the purest and greatest joy of all is discovery, to learn something new. How can there be something new every day where nothing ever changes?”

Twilight was quiet for several moment as she absorbed and reflected on Starswirl's words. “I think I understand what you’re saying, Maestro, but what does that have to do with the extinction of both humans and ponies?”

He leaned back in his seat. “Lass, imagine a world where everything is completely predictable, where all events happen exactly as foreseen. Every day, you get up and do exactly what you had planned. Every day, for the rest of your life.” He tilted his head back and stared at Discord. “How would you feel?”

Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Honestly, it sounds pretty boring. Half the fun of making a daily checklist is in seeing how it differs from the previous day's.” At a noise onstage she turned her head back to see Discord holding up twin pink pom-poms as if in mid-cheer. A t-shirt sporting a printed image of Pinkie Pie in the same pose peeked from between the lapels of his tweed jacket. A caption above her head read: ‘By George, I think she’s got it!’

Starswirl’s voice reclaimed her attention. “Now, imagine ponies have been living in such an environment for generations, and then suddenly there is an unexpected change. What would likely happen?”

“I guess they would be very confused. They probably wouldn’t have a clue what to do, assuming they hadn’t died of boredom by then.” Starswirl didn’t even smile at the joke.

“Indeed. How vulnerable a place like this would be! The first victim of such a static lifestyle would be the very idea of vigilance. Any unforeseen change, no matter how small, could become a major disaster. Consider how easily it would be for ponies who no longer look where they trod to blindly step into a raging river or a newly formed precipice.”

“But Chaos has its dark side as well, as the ruin of the Earth attests.” He took out Maximilian’s diary from a pocket in his cloak. “We know from this boy’s diary that Chaos unrestrained has led to the death of this world. And I have reason to believe Discord when he says that Harmony unrestrained could lead to the same fate for Equestria.”

Twilight nodded. “I see what you mean. But surely Princess Celestia sees this as well. Didn’t she say so when you two spoke in the garden of the Castle of the Two Sisters?”

“Yes she did,” said Starswirl, “but after Luna’s banishment to the moon Celestia became rather obsessive about avoiding surprises. During the time between that event and my retirement from public life, she spent ever more time setting up rigorous schedules for every facet of Equestrian life, from the climate to every seasonal activity. Most of these as Minister of Science I favoured, so I was a willing and active participant in their implementation.” His ears sagged. “Now I wonder if this was indeed the right thing to do.”

Twilight looked askance at Starswirl. “How can you say that, Maestro? Princess Celestia has been the wisest pony in Equestria for thousands of years. Everything she does is solely for the benefit of all Equestrians. She is selfless, and generous, and she would never do anything that was not in our benefit.”

He paused a moment to consider his next words carefully. “Lass, the Celestia you know seems so perfect because she has had all these centuries to learn from her mistakes and grow her wisdom by seeing its play amongst the ponies she rules.” He smiled apologetically. “She was not always so sure of herself. In fact she has made many mistakes, a fact to which she will easily admit should you but ask her about it.”

Twilight did not reply, but her ears drooped and she looked away. Nopony spoke for a few moments.

“She may be dedicated to Harmony," said Twilight, "but at her core she is a pragmatist. How could she rule, otherwise?”

“You are talking about the Celestia of your present," said Discord from onstage. "The one who chose to free me from my imprisonment. But don’t make the mistake of thinking she was always thus. When still a filly, Celestia made a vow to her mother about ending the strife between the alicornian septs. She was still very young when our battles resulted in the banishment of her mother and the other remaining members of the Sept of Harmony, or so I thought. But then, after she and Luna came out of hiding and defeated me with the Elements of Harmony, her dedication to order was amplified manyfold. Even from my disadvantage point in Celestia’s garden, I bore witness to some unsuspected consequences.”

The draconequus stood very still behind his lectern, looking grim but determined. “What I am about to show you happened shortly after my original defeat, and it has not been seen by any other being until now.”

The image on the screen flickered and switched to a moonlit garden. Behind it stood the Castle of the Two Sisters. A light flashed as a door opened and out strode a regal white alicorn mare. As she approached it became clear that it was a young Celestia. Twilight noticed a certain stiffness to her mentor’s gait and stance that made her uneasy. On the screen the Princess approached.

“Art thou having a pleasant evening, Discord?” she said, her voice colder and sadder than Twilight had ever imagined coming from that beloved mare.

Celestia stopped short in front of the statue. Twin tracks traced lines down the alabaster fur of her face from the corners of her eyes to the bottom of her muzzle. “I cannot sleep again. Luna weeps in her slumber and cries out for her father. Half of the crops have failed this summer as well, as drought takes one field and flood takes its neighbour. There will be starvation, so everypony blames me for bringing more mouths to feed to Equestria and for every clumsy false step by our diamond dog refugees. And our little ponies cannot cease arguing incessantly about it all and about each other.” Her eyes became slits. “What has happened to Harmony? This is not the life that I imagined awaited us after Luna and I defeated thee.”

She began to pace back and forth before Discord’s frozen shape. “We tamed the wild zones thou left like festering sores on the body of Equestria. We healed the land and drove into Tartarus the creatures of nightmare thou madest to provide for thine amusement. We ended the terror and brought order to the tribes, and gave them each a purpose to fulfill. We brought peace to those whose minds and hearts had been broken by living under thy inconstant rule.” Celestia stopped pacing and again faced the statue.

“But all of this does not suffice! Despite how hard Luna and I try, the things we fix break down the moment we turn our eyes away to heed the call of all the other myriad imbalances and traps thou hast laid in thy reign. Despite all this, Harmony remains a fleeting thing, and I blame thee, Discord,” she growled. “I blame thee for our mother’s banishment, I blame thee for the chaos, I blame thee for Luna’s nightmares, I blame thee for ruining my life and my dreams, I blame thee for IT ALL!” This last was a scream of pain and anguish.

Looking up at the screen Twilight was aghast. This wasn’t the Celestia she knew, the patient, rational alicorn with a preternatural sense of calm competence. This was a hurt filly, this was a being who had been grievously hurt and was truly afraid. She could literally feel her mentor’s frustration and angst rolling off of her. And then Twilight’s eyes grew huge as she saw a black mist swirling at the edge of Celestia’s familiar magenta irises. Something that resembled very much what had happened to her on her first visit to the Crystal Empire.

“Mayhaps thou art powerless in thy new home on that pedestal.” With a sneer on her face, Celestia took another step closer to the statue. “But then mayhaps thou art not. Indeed, what better place to hinder all our efforts, and shower ruin upon our ponies, than sitting here, unmolested in our garden.” The black in her eyes grew thicker, shadowing a good portion of them. “Mayhaps we erred in thinking thee impotent.” She took another step forward and the darkness nearly eclipsed the whites of her eyes. “Mayhaps the author of our troubles sits here and all we need do to meet our ends, is to end thee in thy estate.”

Twilight cowered against Starswirl, finding it unbearable to see such anguish and hate consuming her mentor, yet powerless to look away.

On the screen Celestia drew even closer. Her horn began to glow and then charge up for a spell. The expression on her face clearly demonstrated her intent.

The glow of Celestia’s horn increased tenfold in amplitude, and just as she leaned forward to discharge her spell, her eyes opened wide and the black drained out of them as the glow from her horn faded. Behind her, a black mist coalesced, almost invisible in the moonlight, and slunk away to hide in a nearby bush.

Celestia’s mouth fell open in horrified dismay. She shook her head. “No!” she said. “I cannot do this! I will not do this!” Her expression regained some of the anger it had previously held. “Thou cannot make me break my vow! I will not be tricked into plummeting down into thy precipice. I still follow the Principles of Harmony, and ever will I be true to my ideals and those of my mother, until I take my dying breath. Do you hear me, Discord? I will not bend!”

She turned around and galloped back to the castle. The door in the castle wall shut and the light went out.

The dark glittering cloud crawled tentatively out of its hiding place. The voices of some stallions could be heard in the distance. The cloud slunk off in that direction. A low sinister laugh could be heard as it disappeared around a corner.

Starswirl put a forelimb over Twilight’s back. She shuddered and gasped as she wept. “Oh sweet Harmony, it came from her! It came from Princess Celestia!” she cried.

“What? Do you mean that black mist?” asked Starswirl.

Twilight hid her face in her hooves. “Yes. I’ve seen it before. In a vision of the past, when it overcame Princess Luna and turned her into Nightmare Moon. What is it, Discord? And why did it come out from Princess Celestia?” The mare shook as she continued weeping.

Onstage Discord held his head low. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I truly am. What you saw is the Spirit of Tyranny, the dark side of Harmony. And yes, this is part of the alicorn heritage as well. Many are those who have fallen to its siren call, including our Luna.

“In my younger days, when I founded the Sept of Chaos, I was a brash warrior fighting the good fight against Tyranny. To be perfectly honest, I saw little difference between Harmony and Tyranny. Both sought to place hobbles on the imagination and to limit the expression of so many of the possible wonders that could exist in our new world. So I cursed the Sept of Harmony for I thought it could not exist without Tyranny. But then, even after my defeat at her hooves, Princess Celestia proved me wrong.”

He smiled sadly. “It is to Celestia’s eternal credit that even in her darkest hour she did not succumb to Tyranny. You know, it was at that moment I understood that such a thing as non-tyrannical Harmony was possible, and that in resisting all Harmony I was in fact throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

“From that moment onwards I decided to never again truly contest Celestia’s rule of Equestria. She is our steadfast light against that darkest of places. She was right, I had run riot in my reign and left her and Luna a ruined world of consummate disorder and mayhem. I was blindly bound to Chaos, and I deserved the punishment I received.

“But you must realize that Celestia is just as bound to Harmony now as when she was a filly. For over a millennium she has walked a tightrope, trying to both keep the rule of Harmony intact and strengthen her little ponies by feeding them innovations from Earth’s more chaotic culture and science, one spoonful at a time. Maybe she could have continued doing so for hundreds of years, if I had not intervened so disastrously. But with the Earth out of reach and humanity expired, it won’t be long before all true change in Equestria ends. Our world will stagnate, its ability to self-regulate will fail in progressively more spectacular fashion, each generation starting smaller than the last, until finally, Equestria expires in its turn. I have seen it too many times to count.”

“But what about the Elements of Harmony?” asked Twilight.

“You know the answer to that already,” replied Starswirl. “The Elements enforce order, they do not actually fix problems, rather they restore things to their previous state, and the issue at hoof is a surfeit of order. In the end, their use will only compound the problem.” He looked up at Discord. “Surely by your time, Celestia knows this.”

The draconequus nodded. “I’m sure that Celestia knows that she must reintroduce some Chaos into Equestria, but she is bound by her oath to Harmony from dispensing it herself.”

“Princess Celestia would never directly expose her subjects to Chaos! That would go against everything she is!” groused Twilight.

Discord drew back and his eyes narrowed. “Every alicorn has both Harmony and Chaos within them, even our dear perfect Princess!” One corner of his mouth rose in a wry smile. “I believe you’ve been a witness to some of her practical jokes in the past, Twilight. Maybe you’ve even been on the receiving end of one of her gilded Gotchas!”

Twilight snorted.

“I see you have.” A smile briefly split the draconequus’s face, but his serious mien resumed after a moment. “Celestia knows that her hooves are tied, as are those of Princess Luna. That is the real reason why she restored me to flesh and blood. Even that brief interval of my earlier escape helped reinvigorate Equestria for a short period, which I am sure she felt.”

His ears drooped a bit. “But then, her generous action came too late for even moi to save Equestria. You see, by the time of my release I had passed on a large part of my chaos magic to somepony else.”

The screen flickered to life again. It showed a bedroom with a foal’s crib, and a tiny lavender unicorn with a dark blue mane streaked with pink and purple. The foal was on her first legs, and strode tentatively forward. Just as her face seemed to fill the screen there was a flash. Her eyes became awash with red, and then faded back to their normal white with lavender irises. She shook her tiny head, smiled and bounced off to grab a small rag doll in her tiny hooves. It held a quill in one forehoof and a clipboard in the other.

“So what’s next on our checklist, Smarty Pants?” said the filly with a giggle of anticipation. The screen faded to black.

“Now that was cute, although slightly horrifying at the end, if you ask me,” said Discord.

Starswirl turned to look at Twilight.

“What did you do to me!?” she growled at the draconequus.

“I planted a seed,” he said. “Well, to be honest it was a tad more than a seed. As a matter of fact I transferred most of my remaining chaos magic into you.”

“What!? Why?”

“Two reasons. First, because I’m dying and lack the power fix things myself.” He went down on one knee. “Help us, oh Twilight Sparkle, you’re Equestria and Earth’s only hope.”

“Wait a minute!” Her anger flared. “You escaped after I moved to Ponyville. You ensnared all of the Elements of Harmony in your trap.”

“Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.” Discord sighed dramatically. “Didn’t you ever wonder why I stayed in Ponyville and kept my ravages to mostly chocolate milk rain and running a bunch of sight gags on you and your friends?”

She shook her head.

“Well, by that point I couldn’t have managed much more than a few such parlour tricks, comparatively speaking. And didn’t you ever wonder where Princess Celestia went during that whole episode?”

“Well...”

“Well, la-di-da!” said Discord. “As any...pony who witnessed the event can attest, she hung back, Twilight my dear, because that was a test.”

“A test!?” Both of Twilights ears shot forward and she straightened up in her chair. “What kind of test, and who exactly witnessed it?”

“Never mind whom.” On the screen above his head a close-up picture of his face appeared and winked theatrically. “A test to see if you could actually overcome chaos magic through the Power of Friendship. Do you remember what you said to me before resealing me in stone?”

Twilight glanced upwards for two seconds. "I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for," she said.

“Have I ever told you that you have an impressive memory? But yes, you had to learn that Friendship was by far more powerful than Harmony and its Elements, and more powerful even than Chaos itself. Friendship is the moderator between Harmony and Chaos. Both are needed, but neither must predominate. Friendship maintains the balance between the two and brings them together. Friendship has empowered the magicless and deliciously chaotic humans to achieve great things, before their civilization burnt out. Friendship makes it possible for harmonious but boringly conformist ponies to accept new ideas so they can better deal with change, but it cannot produce those ideas.”

Starswirl felt his jaw drop. “I KNEW IT!” he rose up on his hind legs. “I’ve always said that the foundation of magic is the principle of mind-over-matter, and so a pony’s magical ability is directly tied to his or her ability to visualize and strength of will. When I studied the Elements of Harmony, I discovered that Friendship binds and amplifies the will of the ponies bearing the Elements in a multiplicative fashion, so the resulting merger of wills is much more powerful than the sum of their individual wills. In fact this is why I recommended to the Princesses that they actually place each Element with a different pony. I even concocted a spell that would let the elements choose their bearers from a group of ponies whose fates were linked in friendship.” He sat back down. “After Luna’s banishment Celestia and I never spoke of the Elements again. It was too painful a subject to discuss with her. I wonder if she’ll ever cast the spell.”

Twilight looked fondly at him. “That is one of the subjects I think we agreed that we mustn’t discuss, Maestro. But, thanks for making it possible for me to become the Bearer of the Element of Magic!” Still smiling, she leaned over and gave him a light peck on the cheek.

“Ahem.” Discord was studiously examining the theatre’s rafters. “There was one more individual who learned about the Power of Friendship on that occasion.”

“Really?” asked Twilight. “Who?”

“Me!” said the draconequus. “One of your friends could not be shaken from her friendship, no matter how I tried, and to my shame I ended up having to hypnotize her. Hers was friendship founded on the most profound kindness I have ever experienced. It shook me to the core of my being, and I dare say that pony changed who I am. That’s why, when Celestia released me, I asked her to stay with my dearest friend Fluttershy. I knew for a fact when I met her that I could no longer be satisfied with just being a statue.” He sighed. “And, Princess Twilight Sparkle, that brings us back to you.”

“Discord, you still haven’t said how transferring your magic to me can save Equestria.” She rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Although come-to-think-of-it, the influence of chaos magic might explain some of the wilder occurrences of my life, like turning my parents into potted plants.” She grinned. “Princess Celestia was as surprised by that incident as I was. I guess I now know why.”

“This brings me to my second reason: I could already feel your magical potential at that age. So could Celestia, I imagine, but then you were but one amongst a great many talented unicorn foals. My idea was to empower a pony to encompass both Harmony and Chaos and rejoin the broken halves of the alicorn race. Of course having a shot of both harmonic and chaotic magic gave you a leg up on the competition, so of course you did eventually come to Celestia’s attention, and in a rather spectacular fashion I might add!”

Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “Do you mean to tell me that Princess Celestia only noticed me because of what you did? That without you I would have never become her personal student? Or Cadence my foal-sitter? And that I might never have received my unlimited access and borrowing card for the Royal Archives Library?”

Onstage Discord was buffing the claws of his bird-like limb. “Yep! But, Twilight dear, despite the fact that you bear the Element of Magic, your true power has been the Magic of Friendship, which can bind Harmony and Chaos together to produce the conditions needed for life to thrive. The long term survival of Equestria depends on this balance being maintained, as does the fate of Earth in this universe.”

Starswirl’s ears pricked up. “What hope is there, Discord, for a world already dead?”

He looked down at his mismatched forelimbs. “There is a chance that somepony could go into its past and change what is to come.”

Twilight was taken aback. “But everything we know about time travel says that it’s impossible for a pony to make any significant changes to the past.” Her cheeks reddened and her ears fell to half-mast. “I should know! I’ve tried to do it before and failed.”

“Using my time travel spell,” added Starswirl. “All my investigations show that the past cannot be changed.”

“Well, my dear friends, that’s true for ordinary ponies,” said Discord, “but not for ascended beings.”

Twilight’s ears rocketed to full attention. “What do you mean?”

“As I said earlier, alicorns and draconequi are connected to all versions of themselves across the multiverse. In my case, with a little effort I can access the memories of all these Discords from other universes.”

Starswirl felt his pulse increase. “So then, can you keep track of the histories of these multiple universes you can see?”

Discord looked at him with concern in his eyes. “Yes, and I know which question you want to ask me next, Maestro. And the answer is – I don’t know.”

“But –”

“I’m sorry, Maestro. I pulled you from a past that is common to many universes. We and countless variations of us three, and sometimes even other beings, are having this conversation in other universes. I cannot tell you that this is the future of your world, it is only one such potential outcome. Similarly I cannot tell you that it is not.”

Starswirl let out a breath he had not realized he was holding. Discord turned his gaze to Twilight.

“But the same is not true for you, Princess. This is indeed the same multiverse that harbours your Equestria. Even though this time and place is in your own future, the decisions that led to it have already been made in your reality, and the course that leads to the death of Earth and all its wonders is irrevocably set.”

Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “Oh, it’s as if Starswirl and I were sitting in a tree. I’m further up than he is, and we can’t tell if the limb I’m sitting on is a branch of the limb he’s sitting on. But when it comes to Earth my limb doesn’t branch out any further, it just continues on as one limb until it tapers out.” Her expression darkened as she realized the implications of her words.

“Bravo, Princess,” – Discord applauded with his mismatched limbs – “you got in in one!” He reached behind his back with his claw and pulled out a piece of paper that had Twilight’s name and ‘100%’ written in red pencil at the top. “You get a gold star for that!” With his paw he pulled a star from the air above his head, licked its back and pasted it on the paper next to her name. He handed Twilight the paper which she accepted with a sigh.

Twilight stared down at the sheet and touched the star with her hoof. “If this was an attempt to cheer me up –” she glanced at the draconequus and smiled feebly “– then it totally worked.”

There was a twinkle in Discord’s eye when he peered back at them over his lectern.

“But since you are an ascended being, Twilight, you get to cheat. You can shinny down the tree and change something on the trunk lower down. You can change the fate of universes, but if you cause a paradox or a time loop in the process, you might condemn countless beings to an untimely death, or rob them of their future.” All of a sudden Discord expression seemed a bit sad.

Twilight’s smile died. “But wait, how can I avoid creating a paradox if I’m changing the very things that led me to take such an action?”

The humour drained from Discord’s face. “In essence, this timeline will be erased, except for you that is. You will never be able to return home, because the home you know will never have happened.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and the corners of her mouth drooped down. “Wait a minute! You mean that my universe, the universe I grew up in and that contains everypony I know and love, all my friends and my family, will never have existed?”

“Yes, child,” said Discord. “The price to save two worlds is for you to become an orphan in time, a branch without a tree.”

Starswirl felt his anger rise again. “And why do you not do this yourself? Won’t this version of you be erased along with this universe?”

“Alas, if only I could! To my everlasting shame, in preventing the physical convergence of Earth and Equestria I nearly drained myself of magical energy. My incarceration in Celestia’s garden has prevented me from fully regenerating for over a thousand years prior, and even now, the placid state of Equestria means that its ponies no longer produce sufficient chaos energy to revitalise me. This version of myself will expire when my reserves are totally depleted.

“So with nothing to lose except perhaps the larger portion of my few remaining millennia of life, I have attempted the Hail Mary pass, and invested my hope and my life energy in Twilight Sparkle.” He left the lectern and sat down on the edge of the stage.

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve figured out the minimum that needs to be done in order to restore this universe, so in fact much of the life of that other you who will remain here in this altered universe will be the same as yours was, as it will for everypony, up until the events of my ill-fated intervention, and afterwards things will go back onto their original trajectory.”

Starswirl trembled as he stood. “How could you do this, Discord? She is a filly barely in her majority! How could you place such a burden on a child! Why not me? My own life nears its end for the second time.” He fell back into his chair. “Why not me?”

He felt a hoof on his withers. “Please, Maestro. Discord said it. This requires an ascended being.” She smiled and feebly flapped her wings. “Looks like I’m the only game in town.”

“Then why bring me here, Discord? What role have I to play in your twisted game?”

The draconequus smiled. “You sir, have that!” He pointed with a claw, and the portal frame emerged from under Starswirl’s cloak.

“To undo the damage I caused you must replace the bridge between Earth and Equestria that I closed – and Starswirl's portal frame fills the bill to a T! However, somepony has to go place one half of the portal frame on Earth at the right time, and the right place. Only an ascended being can do so, but at a price.”

“I know, Discord.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “I get it. This universe disappears and only I remember it.”

Discord’s smile turned sheepish. “And... there’s one more thing.”

The mare’s face clouded. “There’s more? You’re asking me to give up everything, my friends, my life in Ponyville, and to erase the last ten years of life of everypony in the world. What more could you possibly want?”

Discord winced under her glare. “Uh, there’s a good chance you won’t be a pony-shaped alicorn anymore.” The screen flickered to life above his head, showing again the pictures of the two alicornian septs. “You’re shaped like a pony now because of your alignment with Harmony. A pony-shaped alicorn who acts against Harmony and assists Chaos usually turns into a draconequus.”

“WHAT!?” Twilight stood up. Starswirl could see the revulsion and fear in her eyes. “But, I won’t be me anymore!” She crumpled into her seat.

“How can I do this?” Twilight whispered. She hid her tear-stained face in her forehooves. A moment later she lowered her limbs and stared at them in dismay.

She rose again from her seat, shaking like a leaf in the wind. “No! I can’t do it! I won’t do it!” she shouted at Discord. She seemed about to say something else when she froze for a moment and turned to Starswirl, eyes swimming. “I’m sorry, Maestro. I can’t save them,” she said and let out an anguished sob. With a flash she teleported away.

Starswirl looked at Discord, who still sat onstage, his mouth agape.

“Foal!” shouted Starswirl at the draconequus before teleporting in turn.

What's in the box?

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah

Chapter seven: What’s in the box?

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic

Searching for Twilight Sparkle, Starswirl wandered through the gallery until he spied a lavender leg protruding from an egg-shaped furnishing. He paced around the object until it revealed Twilight Sparkle reclining inside as tears ran down her face. He could faintly hear some music playing. The tune was lively and quite pretty.

“Do you know this composition, Maestro?” asked Twilight.

He shook his head. She gestured for him to sit beside her and helped him up. The egg shaped furnishing was quite spacious and easily accommodated two ponies. The music was much louder inside the egg. Twilight waved a hoof and several lines of glowing white text appeared in the air just above their heads.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Variations on "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman" (K. 265 / K. 300e) (1781 or 1782)

“Can you r...read this text?” she asked, voice cracking.

“Yes,” he said. “The title is in French, a language I learned many years ago on Earth – Ah vous dirais-je, Maman, or in Equestrian Oh, mother, I would tell you, and the composer is listed as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.”

“I know him as Hoofgang Amoodeus Moozart,” she sobbed, “the great Bovine composer. Mozart. Moozart. There was never really a Moozart, was there? He’s a fictional character, invented by Princess Celestia to introduce human culture into Equestria. Like so many other lies she told us.”

She took a halting breath. “Ça alors!” she said.

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Vous parlez français, princesse?” he asked.

“Un peux.” She snorted. “Of course, we call it Fancy. When I was a filly I studied it for a while under Princess Celestia.” Her face clouded over. “‘Part of the rich tapestry of Equestrian culture’, she said. What a joke!” She waved her hoof again and the text disappeared.

“You sound very disappointed, lass.”

She nodded. The lights flickered and the sound of the music froze momentarily. When it started playing again Twilight let out a breath she had apparently been holding since the flickering started.

“Then let me ask you this: would you have done anything differently, if you were in Princess Celestia’s horseshoes and had the same information?”

“I wouldn’t have lied to everypony about it!” Her fore-canons covered her eyes.

“Then you would have just informed everypony that all this knowledge and culture was from another world?” He looked at her until she returned his gaze. “How do you think that would have impacted Equestrians, to know that all of these advancements, all this music, and stories, and languages, and things of beauty and utility, that these were all borrowed from another, more advanced society?”

“Well at least I – I mean they, would have know the truth.” Her ears hung forlornly on the side of her head and her chin was low.

“In my own timeline I recently came across some information from Earth obtained by Princess Luna before her banishment.” He had the pleasure of seeing one of her ears twitch marginally upwards. “It was information on colonies established by some of the powerful nations of Earth in its more remote and less technologically advanced lands. In essence, every such encounter has been disastrous for the less advanced nation.” Twilight’s other ear rose up. “Yes, lass, every such case. And there is no lack of examples from Equestria’s own history, a fact of which I am sure Princess Celestia is aware.” He steepled his forehooves. “So I repeat my question: knowing that Equestria was irrevocably destined to one day encounter humanity, and that you wanted to ensure that it occurred when both were on an equal hoofing, what would you have done?”

Twilight had stopped sniffling, which he took for a sign of both concentration and distraction from her woes. “Maybe I would have... probably done something much the same.” Her smile flashed in the semi-darkness of the egg chair. “Maybe I would even have gone looking for help from amongst the humans. Despite her age and wisdom, Princess Celestia has always had the humility to seek the help of others. I’d like to think I would have done so as well.”

They sat in companionable silence until Twilight asked another question.

“It really boggles my mind that the greatest magician of the pre-classical era of Equestria wasn’t even a pony. You, Starswirl the Bearded, are held up as the very example of what it means to be a unicorn. I wonder what it would do to Equestrians’ pride to find out the truth.”

“What about you, lass? Does your stomach turn in revulsion at the very thought?”

To her credit the mare chuckled. “Nope. After having had you under close scrutiny for several days I am forced to admit that – for a human – you make a pretty convincing pony.”

His own chuckle answered Twilight’s.

“Maybe,” said Twilight in a slightly breathless voice, “we aren’t so different inside.” She placed a hoof on his foreleg, and her expression grew serious. “Tell me what it was like, Maestro... to leave everything you knew behind and start a new life with a very different body shape. Were you scared?”

“Ah,” replied Starswirl. He chose his words carefully. “You must understand that I was an old man on his deathbed when that happened. Princess Celestia had been asking me to become one of her subjects for several years. I think she was afraid I would die before I accepted. But still, I was stubborn, and reasonably happy living in the retinue of the King of France. He even used to call me Papa. It scandalized the nobles!” The memory brought another chuckle.

“I nearly did expire, but Celestia had arranged with my companion, Count Melzi, to send a signal should my last days be imminent. She is a consummate planner, a habit she nurtures in her students, it would appear.” He winked at Twilight and in the muted light could just see the answering blush that graced her cheeks.

“In the end, I only accepted because she told me she needed my help to save the Earth. Well, we all know now how that worked out.” He could not hold the resentment from his voice as he said the words.

Twilight stirred against his side. “Do you regret it, then? I mean, having become a pony?”

It surprised him how easily the answer came to him. “No, dear child. My second life amongst the ponies has been a blessing and a joy. Celestia has my eternal gratitude for choosing me for this honour. Yes, it hurt to leave dear friends behind, and for a painter and sculptor to lose one’s hands is more of a sacrifice than you might understand. But despite all that, I have learned so much, seen so many wonders, befriended and loved so many ponies, and been loved so much in return, that no, I don’t regret a single moment of it. Not even now, when I know my mission has failed.”

Twilight lay her head on his withers and they listened to the ebb and flow of Mozart’s variations. Again the lights flickered and the sound shut off abruptly. She waved a hoof in the fashion that had previously called forth the text floating in the air. Nothing happened. She tried again frantically several times. Finally she gave up. Lowering her hoof and her head, she again lay against him. He felt her shudder, and they wept together.

After a while, Twilight let out a long breath. “I... I guess all the magic we’ve been doing around here has finally affected the music player.”

“Yes,” he replied in a shaky voice, and Twilight slowly sat up on the edge of the egg. Being built for humans it was suspended a bit higher than ponies would have prefered. She jumped out of the egg and landed lightly with a flap of her wings.

The mare bravely tried to smile and held a foreleg out to him. “I’m really starting to get the hang of these wings!”

Starswirl let himself be assisted out of the egg. They paced slowly back through the forest of statues. Every few steps Twilight would stop and ask questions about the people or beings depicted in the graceful sculptures. The next hour was a blur for Starswirl as he lost himself in the pleasure of sharing and discussing art with the perceptive young mare. Finally they reached the stairs leading out of the gallery, where they stopped in front of the portrait of his Lady.

He glanced at Twilight who seemed completely focused on the painting. "I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there with me this day past. I felt lost, but never alone. You are a true friend, Princess.” He tried to smile. “You know, you really do deserve that title.” Another glance informed him that her expression mirrored his own.

“Thank you, Maestro. But then how could I possibly find a higher honour than being a friend to my hero and role model?”

Starswirl swallowed and turned his head to look at the sculptures nearby. "You can still say that after learning that I am not the pony you thought I was?"

Twilight's expression grew warmer. "My admiration only grows the more I know about you, Maestro. Although not born to magic, you became the greatest mage in Equestrian history." She pointed to the portrait of his Lady. "And your artwork is considered a treasure of your world." She tilted her head sideways. "Why didn't you pursue the arts as vigorously once you became a pony?"

He considered a moment. "Even on Earth, the pursuit of knowledge has ever had the greater claim to my heart. When I got to Equestria there was all the domain of magic to explore, and then magic to use as a tool to explore everything else! I started several paintings and did a few small sculptures for the princesses, but I never again was so eager to put brush to canvas as I was when I painted my Lady. After her, it seems that I had nothing left to prove, so science became my brush, and magic my canvas."

Twilight seemed satisfied with the answer. The painting began to glow purple and then levitated from the wall to hover in front of Starswirl. “You shouldn’t leave her here, alone.”

He hesitated as he stared at the familiar visage. He rose on his hind legs and held that painting in his forehooves. “My Lady. Every line and contour of her face, and every stroke and dab of pigment bring with them memories of my life on Earth, so very long ago. I only abandoned her to leave the Earth as a pony. How often she has come to me in my dreams since!” He sat back down on his haunches and turned to Twilight. “I’m afraid, lass. She might not be loved in Equestria, and it would break my heart to see her become nothing more than a curiosity, a depiction of some unknown monster. I... cannot subject her to that.” He moved to place the work back on the wall, but the purple glow gently plucked the painting from his hooves.

Twilight lifted a wing and the painting disappeared into her magical storage cache. “Then I’ll hold her for you, until you feel it’s safe for her to come back to you.”

“Child, if I understood Discord’s little discourse correctly, I will be going back to my time when our sojourn here is completed. As you’ve already made your decision, I suspect we will not tarry here much longer.”

Twilight looked down, her expression unreadable. “No, I suspect not.”

They rose up the stairs together.

Discord was again seated in Maximilian's chair. He stood up as they rose into the room, observing the pair with a certain sense of resignation. “Hello, Your Majesty, Maestro,” he said, and sketched a brief bow. They nodded back, faces very serious. Somehow he felt his usual jocularity might not be apropos the occasion. But he did feel the need to comment.

“I suppose there were no guarantees things would work as planned when I invested my magic in Twilight. Furthermore I did not seek your permission, Princess, and for that I do apologize.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Is that Discord being considerate of another’s feelings?” She strode up to him and poked him in the chest twice. Raising one eyebrow she looked up disdainfully into his face. “Admit it!” she accused. “You’re a mirror pool Discord, and Fluttershy buried the real one in the pet cemetery behind her cottage.”

The draconequus’ jaw literally dropped to the ground and he stood gaping at the mare for a full three seconds before his mouth snapped shut, then parted again with a throaty laugh.

“That was a good one, Princess!” He sobered. “What pet cemetery?”

Twilight beamed at him. “Nope, I guess it’s the real Discord. The sympathy just threw me off for a second.” She strode back to stand beside Starswirl, who was struggling to keep a serious demeanor, and failing.

Discord smiled sheepishly. “Okay, I guess I deserved that. Touché!” He bowed again, deeply this time. When he rose again he also assumed a more serious mien.

“I suppose there’s no reason for me to keep you both here any longer then. Thank you for helping with Max's funeral, it really did mean a lot to me.”

“It was an honour, Discord," said Starswirl. "I know I should be angered that you brought me here without so much as a by-your-leave, but if you hadn’t I would have never found out the truth about the fate of my world. Nor would I have met a certain young alicorn mare who reminds me so much of some very dear friends. I am equally honoured to have met you, Discord. Were that it had been under better circumstances.” He approached and wrapped his forelegs around the draconequus. “Sia bene ed arrivederci, Discordia!”

Discord leaned into the hug. “E lo stessi a voi, il mio amico!” After a moment Starswirl stepped back, leaving him staring into the serious face of Twilight Sparkle.

“Well, Princess, I guess I’ll see you around Ponyville.”

“No you won’t,” she replied calmly.

He looked at her then at Starswirl. “Hmm... as the very ponification of Friendship, I thought you might be a tad more forgiving. Perhaps I underestimate how much I angered you, after all, I’m still not that good at the whole empathy thing–”

“–That’s not what I mean,” interrupted Twilight, eyes huge and very serious.

“Then, Princess, what do you mean?” asked Discord. He could not keep the dread from his voice.

She shook her head. “I won’t be coming back to Ponyville with you.” She took a step forward.

“I accept,” she said, very simply.

Somewhat unexpectedly for indoors, a wind began to blow around them. Discord looked around, first in confusion and then delight. Starswirl's attention focused on Twilight, a look of gratitude in his eyes.

The wind increased and it soon became evident it was centered around the alicorn mare. Discord produced a bag from nowhere and began pulling items from it: a rubber chicken, two apples, a banana peel, a very large pair of spectacles with a fake mustache attached, a metal pail, a tightly wound scroll of paper, a wooden bat, a lampshade with ‘Spilight Twarkle’ written in sequins on it, and with a flourish, a toothbrush. He held on to the lampshade, pail and toothbrush as the wind increased, a look of anticipation on his face.

At the center of the whirlwind, Twilight’s eyes began to glow bright white. Then swirls of red erupted as if she had fireworks inside of her head. The edges of her form started to blur as the whirlwind increased in speed, and her body lifted into the air, legs dangling. There were flashes as if from lightning, and both he and Starswirl were forced to step back.

Soon, nothing could be seen of Twilight Sparkle save an indistinct purple blur, and sometimes the tips of her limbs. The sound became deafening, and just as Discord brought his limbs up to cover his ears there was a blinding flash... and then silence.

Discord opened his eyes. Before him stood neither an alicorn princess, nor a draconequus. The lavender coat and dark blue mane and tail streaked with pink and purple remained, as well as the four hooves and majestic wings. But instead of a winged unicorn, or a horse and dragon chimera, there stood before him a creature with an upright human torso bearing arms and hands, topped by a purple horn protruding from a very human head. In one hand she held a staff topped with a purple diadem in the shape of her multi-pointed cutie-mark star.

"I was given everything, and I have given up everything: my form, my family, my mentor, my home, and even my very best friends." Her gentle soul looked out at them from sad and mismatched eyes, one of the irises lavender and the other red. “Isn’t that a small price to pay to save two worlds?”

She looked down at her hands. "I guess I’m not Twilight Sparkle anymore. But then a new me should have a new name.” She turned her gaze to an awestruck Starswirl. "Yesterday, Maestro, you went looking for hope, but couldn't find it. Now you have, for all I have left is hope, and all I can give is hope. Hope... and life."

Her eyes lit up in inspiration and then she smiled beatifically. “You can call me Pandora."

Author's Note

Image used with the gracious permission of the talented Kiniki-chan: http://kiniki-chan.deviantart.com/

http://kiniki-chan.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-Sparkle-375818643

Only Hope

This Quiet Earth

by
Dafaddah and Sharp Logic

Chapter eight: Only hope

Edited by and based on an idea proposed by Sharp Logic. He is also listed as a co-author for this chapter, as he has contributed so much in terms of both ideas and actual text that in all honesty I can only call this chapter a collaboration. Working with him has been a real pleasure and has helped me grow as an author. This is what FIMfiction is all about!

Starswirl stared rapt at the centaur who used to be Twilight Sparkle. She blushed when she caught him looking at her very new and very human face. He smiled gently and said: “So now you know how I felt, then.”

She lifted her wing and stored her new diadem scepter in her magic cache, then raised her hands and examined them closely. “I was just getting used to the wings. Now I have to learn how to use a whole new set of limbs. That’s eight in total! Does that make me some kind of spider, or maybe an octopus?” Her own smile showed that she was talking in jest.

He chuckled. “No, you are most definitely a mammal.” Her blush deepened. She crossed her arms over her bosom. “And you certainly remain related to Clover.”

Still chuckling, Starswirl rummaged through the pockets in his cloak, producing a white tunic. He offered it to her. “Here, this smock should fit you. I just hope Joly got all the stains out when he laundered it last week.”

Pandora turned her back to them and pulled the tunic over her head and shoulders. Looking down at herself she remarked: “Rarity might dispute this, but I think it fits me quite well.”

She straightened the garment by brushing her hands down over it, and then froze mid motion. Her eyebrows lifted, she blinked a few times and then raised both fists to the side of her face and hip-hopped on all four legs. “Eeeee!” she squealed, “I can't believe I'm wearing Starswirl the Bearded’s shirt! Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!”

Discord finally came out of his daze. He looked down at the lampshade, pail and toothbrush he still clutched, and hid them behind his back. “Er... looks like there won’t be a Sept of Chaos initiation rite after all.” He scratched an ear. “A centaur then, is it? Well, I guess it should do in a pinch. Uh, Princess Pandora. I, uh, I want to sincerely thank–”

“–Please don’t, Discord,” said Pandora, abruptly shifting from fangasm to disdain. “Don’t think I can’t see how you’ve manipulated me since this whole thing started. Stranding me here with my personal hero, who just happens to have been born human, plus the diary, the gallery, the funeral, the lectures... all of it ties together too well not to have been planned.”

Discord met her gaze. “Of course I planned it all out. The stakes could not be higher, Princess. So I’ll take my lumps if you’re angry with me, but I won’t lie to you. I did what I had to do, and if there’s any shame in it, then I’ll wear it gladly.”

Pandora eyed the draconequus as she floated the portal frame out from Starswirl's cloak. “Are you certain you were never one of Princess Celestia’s students?” she asked as she unfolded it.

Discord’s eyes widened briefly before a wide grin split his muzzle. “Oh come now, don’t be silly. Now about the portal frame–” A scroll popped out of the portal frame. Everypony stared as it fluttered to the floor and was followed by a small cloth purse that clinked of metal within it.

“Looks like we’ve gotten a reply to our letter," said Pandora. “And it seems they refused the gold.”

Discord piped up: “Why of course she refused the bits! She’d never accept money for being charitable.”

"She?" asked Pandora. "You know who we've been stealing food from?"

A sultry female voice called out: "Discord, is that you? I know I heard your voice in here. Where are you? Hurry back or you’ll be late for dinner."

Pandora gaped at Discord. "Fluttershy? Fluttershy's cottage used to be Starswirl's? And the other end of the portal frame sits in a house I visit several times a week?"

It was Starswirl's turn to look surprised. "Princess," he asked Pandora, "you know who we've been stealing food from?"

Discord pointed at the centaur and tried to look innocent. “That’s what she said.”

Starswirl smiled. "So somepony is still living in my cottage hundreds of years after I left." He seemed very pleased.

Discord smiled apologetically. "My dearest friend is calling to me. I should go reassure her that all is well. She actually worries about me, you know. Isn't it wonderful?"

He approach the portal frame and cupped claw and paw around his muzzle. “Coming right out, Sweetheart!” he called. “Uh, honey, we’ll be having two guests for dinner.”

“Discord!” exclaimed Pandora. “Aren’t we supposed to be saving the universe or something?”

The trickster looked smug. “Us time travellers have all the time in the world we could ever need. Plus, now that you’ve accepted my request, I do think I owe you a full disclosure. And where's the fun in rushing around on an empty stomach when we don’t have to?”

“The draconequus makes a valid point,” said Starswirl.

Pandora rolled her eyes. “Stallions!” she said, and bent over to pick up the paper, which she stored in the magic cache under her wing.

Discord waved a paw and the portal grew bigger.

Starswirl looked around and saw everything else in the room getting bigger as well as receding into the distance. Soon the frame was taller than even Princess Pandora.

Discord invited them forward with a flourish. “Please, be our guests.”

“Our guests?” asked Pandora.

“Oh, of course this is all yet in the future from your perspective, Princess. How gauche of me not to have clued you in.” He waved her forward. “Just to avoid any surprises, Fluttershy and I just feted our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.” He showed off a large gold ring on the middle digit of his bird-clawed limb and batted his eyelashes. “They said it wouldn’t last!” He winked.

“Married? Fluttershy? Thirty-five years?” Pandora muttered as she stepped up to the portal frame.

Discord waved her onwards. “Oh, and watch out for that first step –” with a screech Pandora teetered and fell forward “–it’s a doozy!”

Starswirl balked at the edge of the opening. “I don't think it wise for me to visit an Equestria that is in my future. Ponies could tell me about my own fate and that could cause a paradox that–” The rest of his objection was cut off when he was pushed from behind and plummeted into the dark.

Fluttershy heard a commotion within the pantry. Opening the door she saw nopony. This wasn’t a surprise because there just wasn’t room for a grown pony in there. Still, she thought she had heard Discord. Then she heard another angry voice, one she thought sounded familiar, and looked down. There stood three bunny-sized beings in a pile of limbs and bodies – her husband’s on top.

Pandora heard a rather low-key “Squee!” and looked up. She saw a gigantic pink maned yellow head moving down to inspect them. “Oh, Discord!” said a familiar voice. “You're so cute when you're small!”

“Hmm,” said her husband while disentangling himself from the others. “Maybe I'll stay small for a while. It's high time Angel Bunny the Third had some competition in the kawaii sweepstakes around here!”

A huge but totally cute white rabbit peeked out from Fluttershy’s hooves. He turned up his nose and rolled his eyes back as soon as he saw Discord.

“Ahem.” Discord cleared his throat for attention. “If we move out of the pantry then perhaps I can restore everypony to their normal sizes.”

Pandora shook her head and purposefully strode out of the pantry, passing right between Fluttershy’s hooves and the huge white rabbit. From the corner of her eye she saw Starswirl follow her out, with Discord in the rear. Once she was past Fluttershy she heard the sounds of a scuffle.

"Fluttershy! Get him off of me!” shouted Discord.

There was a very unbunnylike growl. Then a loud "Ouch!"

"Well I can bite too, you know!" exclaimed Discord.

“Boys!” said Fluttershy, “Are you two going to behave or am I going to have to take out the Stare?”

The sounds of scuffling stopped abruptly.

Pandora turned around and almost lost her balance as the room quickly shrunk down to normal size, as did Fluttershy and the bunny. A moment later Starswirl stood next to her, and finally Discord joined their rank. He and Fluttershy hugged warmly.

“We’ve got four foals and seven grand-foals, and she still calls me a boy!” Discord mugged. Over his shoulder Fluttershy caught sight of Pandora. She issued another almost loud “Squee!” and ran up to hug Pandora.

For a moment Pandora thought that her long-time friend had recognised her despite her morphological transformation.

“Oh my goodness! A centaur! It's been decades since I last saw a centaur! I’m so excited!” She hugged her once more and stood back. “Oh, I’m sorry! I should introduce myself. I’m Fluttershy, Discord’s wife.” She cocked her head at Discord.

“Oh, of course. Fluttersweets, may I present Princess Pandora, a visitor from another time, and her companion – none other than Starswirl the Bearded.”

Starswirl gestured broadly. “You’ve done well with my old cottage, madame. It’s been nearly a thousand years since I built it.”

Pandora though Fluttershy would quietly “Squee!” again, but instead she froze for a moment.

“Don’t! Move!” the yellow pegasus declared, pointing a leg at the old mage. Then her ears flopped down, she lowered her hoof and blushed. “I mean, you can certainly move if you wish, I would never dream of preventing you from sitting or anything, so please make yourselves comfortable, just... don’t go away.” She leaped onto the window sill, stopped and turned. “I’ll be right back.” And in a passable imitation of Rainbow Dash she shot out of the open window, flying at top speed.

Pandora looked at Discord, eyebrows raised. “I wonder what that was all about?”

Discord cupped his chin in his paw. “I think I have a suspicion. Well, more than a suspicion. But don’t worry, I planned even for this contingency. It’s quite useful having access to other versions of myself who’ve gone through these circumstances a few minutes earlier than me. By the way, have a look in the mirror.”

Discord suddenly had a hand mirror, positioned so Pandora could see her reflection: tan skin and coat, and light blue mane.

“Discord! Why did you change my coloration?”

“Because–” the door flew open, and there stood a tall, regal alicorn mare. Her coat was lavender and her mane sparkled with all the shades of dusk from bright pink to the deepest indigo blue. Fluttershy landed just behind her. The two entered the cottage and the alicorn mare’s eyes alighted on Starswirl.

This time the “Squee!” was loud enough to have been heard all the way to Canterlot.

Dinner turned out to be a multi-family, multi-generational extravaganza. Both guests got a large amount of generally polite and respectful attention. Pandora and Twilight’s eyes met several times over the table, and though Pandora was sure that Twilight knew something was amiss, this older and wiser version of herself seemed content to let dining centaurs dine.

Two of Fluttershy and Discord’s grand-foals showed up. One, a pegasus stallion the spitting image of Fluttershy, was accompanied by his wife, a shy young unicorn with a cornflower blue coat, both laden with large bowls of food. The other was a light brown unicorn mare accompanied by a pale blue earth pony stallion, and their own tiny cyan pegasus foal with a rainbow coloured mane, who immediately flew straight into Discord’s forelimbs.

“Granpop!” cried the little mare.

“It’s my little Dashie,” replied the draconequus. Multi-coloured fireworks went off in his eyes, to the foal’s absolute delight. Discord made brightly painted blocks appear. Little Dash used them to build pony shapes, which Discord animated under her direction. The two were never far apart all evening.

As to the dinner itself, it progressed faster than Pandora would have believed possible. A trestle table appeared where the arriving guests placed the dishes and bowls they had brought. A variety of foodstuffs were added by both Fluttershy and Discord during several trips back and forth to the kitchen.

Pandora also witnessed the very real and obviously deep affection between Discord and her friend Fluttershy. He was extraordinarily attentive to her, and she seemed to bloom and glow in his presence. It warmed her heart to no end to see them feeding each other tidbits and engaging in gentle teasing.

Of course, this being the house of Kindness and Chaos, there was much gentle, good natured randomness and fun, liberally spiced with dozens of animals large and small, and somehow each one had his or her space.

After the dessert course, some massive confection from Sugarcube Corner, Pandora decided to take a walk outside to get some time to think. There was a bench located just on the other side of the chicken coop. Since Discord had conveniently not restored her to full stature, she was basically pony sized, with extras, so she could comfortably sit on the wide wooden boards, watch the sky and listen to the the night-time sounds of the Everfree Forest.

Finally having some privacy, Pandora took out the letter they had received through the portal frame. It was written in Fluttershy’s simple, almost fillyish script. She smiled when she saw that her friend, now a grandmother, still dotted her 'i's with a little heart.

Dear Friend,

It’s very considerate of you to let me know you’re the one who is taking things from my pantry. I’m not worried, honest! It’s just that I often have guests in my house who can’t always tell me what they need, and I’m more than happy to share, because we have more than enough for everypony and every critter too! And I gave you back your bits, because I’m happy to give you whatever you need.

It’s really intriguing to have a past (or future) resident of this house contact me. It was abandoned long ago, so you must be from very far in the past or in the future. You know, it’s funny how much you sound like a good friend of mine who’s always very concerned about being really precise in what she says. I can’t help but think you two could become really good friends too, so I hope you get a chance to meet sometime!

Don’t worry about replacing the food that you took, but if you can, please send me a letter to let me know when you and your friend are safe and sound. Enjoy the food in my pantry, and I’ll make sure to keep more pony food near the door. I’ll put my animal food deeper in the pantry, although I don’t think they would mind sharing either.

I'm sure you will find your way home soon. Don’t lose hope, and always remember that you have friends.

Yours in kindness,

Fluttershy

Pandora smiled. Even if I have a new face, all my former friends are still the wonderful ponies I have come to love. Maybe this is just an opportunity to get to know them all over again! The thought had barely formed in her mind when Twilight showed up and sat down beside her.

The mare chewed her lip for a short while, and finally spoke up. “Who’s the letter from?” she asked.

“Fluttershy," said Pandora. "She’s usually so quiet. It's easy to forget how truly perceptive she is."

Twilight nodded. "All those years ago she was the first to really see into Discord's heart. I guess that's why he fell so totally head-over-hooves for her. Whoever would have believed they could raise such a wonderful family!"

Both mares kept in companionable silence for a while, looking at the beautiful night over the Everfree.

“I know who you are,” Twilight finally said. “You’ve made the choice that I couldn’t.” Her tone of voice was lighthearted, not what Pandora was expecting.

Pandora glanced to the side. “Do you resent me for it?”

Twilight grinned, her teeth flashing in the moonlight. “No. I’m here to thank you. If it’s any consolation, you've made the right choice.”

“You know that when I undo Discord’s mistake, the last forty years of this universe will be reset.” She gesture to the house. “These events and many of these ponies may never come into existence.”

“Yes, I know,” said Twilight. “Soon, all of this will just be a dream for me, and I’ll be a different pony." She sighed. “You’re the twenty third after me, or before me depending on the perspective, I think.”

“The twenty third what?”

“You’re the result of Discord’s twenty third attempt to convince me – I mean, us – to join the Sept of Chaos.” Her grin flashed again in the semi-darkness. “He’s been going backwards through time, changing and perfecting his pitch to us with every iteration.” One of her eyebrows rose. “I don’t know how many there were before me in the future, but I can recall each attempt in my past as vivid dreams, and of course I’ve documented them.”

Pandora considered for a moment. “Why does he need to go backwards in time with each attempt?”

“Oh, that’s because he needs a fresh and unprejudiced Twilight on which to ply his argument. If he worked chronologically each time he made his argument he’d be facing a mare who had previously decided to reject his logic. I’ve got to hoof it to him, he really has thought this out very carefully, and he’s been very methodical. But having known him for a long time, I can also tell he was beginning to feel desperate.”

“Why’s that?” asked Pandora.

“Because he’s almost run out of time.”

“What?”

“His last failed attempt was just a few weeks after we got our wings. You must be the Twilight just prior to that day. Remember, for this to work he has to convince an ascended being to convert to Chaos. Only a few weeks earlier and we’re Twilight the unicorn, and no longer in the running.”

Pandora shook her head. “I never knew he was such a capable planner. I’m really impressed!”

“As am I. But, you know, my heart really breaks for him. You’ve seen the way he worships his foals and grand-foals.”

Pandora nodded.

“There’s no way to know if they will still be born in the repaired universe. He risks losing everything he loves for this.”

Pandora mulled this over, unsure of what to say.

“What about... you, Princess Twilight? Do you risk somepony special?”

Twilight was silent for a long while. Glints of moonlight reflected from falling tears. “Too many to count. Too many to let go. Just... Too many. My courage failed me every time Discord asked. I suspect Starswirl had something to do with your taking the other choice.” She rubbed her eyes and attempted a lopsided smile. “So. How long have you known Starswirl the Bearded?” she asked.

“Coming up on four glorious... and sometimes not so glorious, days and nights,” Pandora replied.

The flash of a smile returned. “I’m tremendously envious of you, you know.”

“Don’t be. By doing this I’ve betrayed everything Princess Celestia ever taught me – us. I’ve betrayed her plans for me. I've betrayed Harmony, and I’ve betrayed her. She would hate me if she knew.” Pandora sniffled as her own emotions overflowed.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Twilight.

Pandora wiped her eyes with the back of a hand. “It’s too late now for me to ask.”

“Maybe not,” replied Twilight.

“What... what do you mean?”

“Look over there,” said Twilight, pointing with a purple hoof.

Pandora turned her attention to an area of lilac bushes. There stood a ghostly white form. One that Pandora would recognize anywhere, and at any time. The form approached.

“Welcome home, my faithful student,” said Princess Celestia. Pandora ran into her embrace.

Fluttershy sat with Starswirl and Discord on a large sofa in the cottage’s living room. Little Dashie slept tightly curled up in Discord’s forelimbs.

“And so,” said Fluttershy, “my parents bought me this house so I could live near my little animal friends. Being so far from town it had been vacant for generations. I guess nopony even remembered that it was yours from long ago, I mean, it’s such an honour!”

Starswirl looked at the extended family of pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies and even one draconequus. “On the contrary, I feel honored that such a beautiful family has made this humble place into a home. And I’m equally pleased to see that Ponyville has again become a vibrant community. You might want to ask Princess Celestia about its history when next you see her.”

“He he!” Discord said. “That might not take very long. If I’m not mistaken she’s sitting out back with Twilight and Pandora.”

Starswirl rose from the sofa, ears erect.

“Don’t worry, Maestro,” said Discord. “They’re just having a little princess-talk. It would be impolite in the extreme to interrupt.”

“If you say so.” He sighed. “As long as I’m up perhaps I can take advantage of the occasion to stretch my legs.”

As he exited the front door he witnessed Fluttershy cuddle up to her husband and grand-foal. It was a truly sweet moment. As soon as he was outside, the irony of it struck him. What foolhardy courage does Discord have to put all this in jeopardy, he thought. And then he thought of what Discord had done for little Maximilian Sachs. A truly big heart beats in that patchwork creature. He and Fluttershy are indeed a good match.

In the distance he saw the lights of Ponyville. In the bright moonlight it looked like a toy village. In the sky a shadow winged towards the town. When it landed near a castle in the shape of a huge tree the street lights revealed the winged shadow to be Princess Twilight Sparkle. A doorway opened into the tree and she went inside.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Pandora’s voice.

He turned and bowed. “I could not dream of a more blessed sight, Princess.”

They stood together in silence. This is what she is giving up, he thought.

“You know,” said the princess, “he actually understated how much he had to do to get us to this point. Imagine that, Discord being modest!” He raised an eyebrow, and she told him most of what she had learned. When she was finished they took a final look at Ponyville and made their way back to the cottage.

Discord sat alone in the living room wearing a somber expression. “It’s time to go back, and for me to explain everything,” he said.

They nodded. In silence Discord led them to the pantry.

The trio returned via the portal frame to the room where Maximilian Sachs had lived and died. After the exuberantly emphatic life of the family dinner, its quiet could only be described as sepulchral.

Discord was uncharacteristically very somber. “So, about that explanation I promised...”

Pandora blushed. “It won’t be necessary, Discord. Twilight and Princess Celestia already confirmed everything you told us, and filled me in on the rest. Then I told Starswirl.”

“I knew they knew more than they let on. I guess I should have expected as much.” He frowned theatrically. “I may be a good guy now, however that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on my right to long soliloquies that interrupt the action at the most inappropriate moments.” He waggled a single digit of his bird claw. “I’ll forgive you this time, but don’t do it again!”

As Pandora and Starswirl chuckled he approached the portal frame and waved a paw over it. “The portal is now attuned to the time just after my unfortunate intervention. Princess, there's no further reason for delay.”

Pandora took the frame from where it hung suspended in air and neatly folded it using her magic. She then took it into her left hand and nodded.

“Wait!” called Starswirl. “Forgive me this indulgence, Princess, Discord, but before we part there’s something more I would like to show Princess Pandora. Princess, please follow me.”

Starswirl paced quickly down the stairs and led the young centaur to another painting some thirty or forty meters further down the wall from where his Lady had been displayed.

“This is also one of my works. It is called ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’. Please look carefully at the face of the woman in the painting.” Her eyes grew wide in surprise when she beheld the same gentle face in the painting as she had seen reflected in Discord's mirror.

“But – how is that possible? I’m literally just hours old in this shape.”

“It would appear that we will meet again in my own past, lass.”

“Then that means you’ve seen this face before? When?”

He chuckled. “If I told you that, time loops could form, paradoxes might be caused and whole universes could be destroyed.” He tilted his head. “As a young friend of mine said very recently, that is one of the subjects I think we agreed that we mustn’t discuss!”

Pandora laughed in delight. “Touché!, Maestro. And thanks for showing me this. Somehow it reassures me tremendously. I will see you again. I can’t wait!” Her expression grew sober. “Are you ready, now?”

“Yes,” he said. “Farewell, lass. And remember, you’ve done us all—Clover, Platinum, Celestia, Discord and humanity—extremely proud. You’re now a part of us, and we’re a part of you.”

Starswirl was briefly enveloped in purple arms and wings. He looked up to say something more and suddenly found himself alone. He walked slowly back up the stairs to a waiting Discord.

“What will happen when she makes the change?”

“I’m not quite sure. I should retain my memory of this universe, but I simply don’t know about you. You’re from a much earlier time, so I think there is little chance of a paradox being generated. If you’re here with me your own memory may also be preserved. I truly don’t know, and I have... other things I stand to lose.” He seemed very vulnerable, all of a sudden. His paw twitched upwards towards Starswirl, then went slowly back down. Starswirl took one look at the draconequus’s ashen face, and held out a forehoof to him. Discord put a paw on his hoof, and bit his lower lip. The paw trembled, and the draconequus closed his eyes.

They stood that way for some ten seconds when, without transition, the world was different. It wasn’t like it had been changed in a flash. There was no shock. One moment it was just different, and had always been so.

They were on a green field of grass that extended as far as the eye could see. He saw Discord open his eyes.

“The Exponential Lands!” he said. “It worked!” He grabbed Starswirl’s other hoof and began to jump around, engaging Starswirl in a very undignified dance. “We did it! We saved the Earth and Equestria both!”

In the distance there were a bunch of houses. For some reason they seemed different to Starswirl. The style of architecture was more utilitarian and angular than the very fluid and lavishly decorated styles he had witnessed in his many years in Equestria. Near them were white lines on the grass, as if somepony had laid out lines of chalk dust to define a field for sports. This one in particular was shaped somewhat like a diamond. Foals in uniform were playing a sport that seemed to involve hitting a ball with a wooden bat held in the mouth. He and Discord approached. They listened in on the chatter between the foals in the outer part of the formation. Discord raised his eyebrows. “English!” he remarked. He waved a paw and Starswirl suddenly understood the words.

“Hey kid?” the draconequus called to the nearest foal, an orange coated unicorn. “Who’s playing?”

The colt in question did a double-take, but replied anyway. “New McMurdo – that’s us, versus Scott Station.” He stared at Discord, eyes wide as dinner plates. From the nearby stands there was a commotion, and all eyes seemed to turn to focus on the new arrivals. An orange unicorn mare began galloping towards them.

“What’s the matter, kid?” Discord’s smile wavered. “Haven’t you seen a draconequus before?”

The colt continued staring. “Yeah, but only in my dreams! Are... are you Bob?”

This time it was Discord who did a double-take. The mare was approaching and her voice grew in volume and clarity. “Max!” she shouted. “Come here and get away from that thing!”

The colt turned towards the mare. “Mo–o–om!” he complained, but nevertheless began trotting towards his mother. On the back of his uniform was a large numeral 5 and the Roman letters S, A, C, H, and S stitched in royal blue.

Discord waved a claw, “Bye now, Max, and Mrs. Sachs. We’ve got to get back to the land of dreams!”

Starswirl saw a flash of white.

Starswirl felt off-balance for a moment. His vision cleared and he found that he and Discord were in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. The windows were shuttered and the door sported a huge lock.

Discord flicked a paw. The lock turned into a flock of butterflies and flew off. He rushed into the cottage. Starswirl followed a moment later and found the draconequus sitting on his haunches, a frightened look on his face. There was dust everywhere, and most of the furniture was covered with drop-clothes. “Fluttersweets, where are you?” he said in a strangled voice.

There was a flash of light and suddenly Princess Celestia and Fluttershy were there. The latter’s eyes widened at the sight of Discord. She rushed over to wrap her husband in hooves and wings. “I’m here sweetheart. What’s gotten you in this state?”

Discord hugged the pegasus back desperately. “A-Absolutely nothing, my love! I... Everything’s right as rain.”

She pulled back slightly. “Well, then, why aren’t you home? It’s a good thing Princess Celestia was a guest tonight. She offered to teleport me to you when I asked if she’d seen you.” She gazed around the room in confusion. “What are you doing back at my old cottage? Half the family’s travelled all the way to Canterlot tonight for the dinner.”

“Canterlot?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, the party is at our house. Did you forget? The little ones have already been fed and are getting ready for bed. Chance, Twilight and Dashie all want their bedtime stories read by grampa.”

It was as if a light suddenly went on in Discord’s head. “Of course, the dinner. How silly of me to forget.” He turned his head back towards Starswirl, a grin splitting his face ear-to-ear. He hugged Starswirl briefly and waved a paw. "Arrivederci, Maestro!" and he and Fluttershy were gone, leaving Starswirl alone with Princess Celestia.

They gazed at each other, a few pony lengths and several centuries between them.

“How nice it is to see you again, Maestro.” She chuckled. “Although it’s been a bit longer from my perspective than yours.” She stood somewhat formally, ever the proper princess.

He strode up to her, bowed, and raised an eyebrow. “Not so long that I don’t get a hug, I hope.”

Celestia’s smile widened appreciably, and she leaned in to wrap a leg and wings around him. They shared the familiar warmth of each other’s presence for a moment. He felt her sigh as they disengaged their limbs.

“I’ve missed your company so, dear friend!” she said. “Isn’t it ironic that you should come back to us just when we needed your help the most?”

“Not at all. It was all Discord’s doing.” He gestured to the door and led them outside the cottage. Crickets were chirping their evening serenade, and one of the most beautiful night skies Starswirl had ever seen took his breath away.

“She has returned, hasn’t she?” Celestia didn’t respond, but the spring in her step as they walked in the moonlight told him all he needed to know. “I’m glad,” he concluded. He faced Ponyville, a gleaming galaxy of silver and gold in the distance. “Your sister is back, and so is my little hamlet. You remembered!”

“It was a beautiful vision that deserved to be brought back to life, Maestro. I don’t think it a coincidence that this little town is home to the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Perhaps you should not have told me that! But still, thank you, my Princess. And do convey my warmest feelings to Princess Luna.”

Celestia laughed, but her mirth was short-lived. “But now, I have another princess gone, and into an exile so much more final than Luna’s. When I met Pandora here sidewhen she told us of your time together. Will she be alright, Maestro?”

“Everything she’s done since we’ve met has been a joy to observe and a credit to her tutor. She has neither abandoned Harmony nor adopted Chaos, Celestia, she’s simply grown enough to see what lies beyond them.”

“What do you think she will do now?”

Starswirl thought a moment, and chuckled. “Now that she’s saved two universes, I suppose she’ll make a list of others that also need saving.”

Celestia chuckled as well. “You’ve always had sharp eyes and been a good judge of character, Maestro. I suspect you’re right.” She focused inwards for a moment, and then her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. A second later she grinned and snorted in a very unprincesslike fashion. “The multiverse had best beware! Princess Pandora, First of the Sept of Life and Avatar of Hope, is on its case!”

She turned around and hugged him again. “I hope this is not our last parting,” she said simply.

“Anything is possible in time, my Princess of Harmony!” he responded, and bowed.

“Farewell, my friend.” He saw her horn glow.

Starswirl found himself back in his cottage, standing next to his kitchen table. He leaned on it, subject to a momentary feeling of vertigo. Home! he thought. Finally, I'm home.

His thoughts went out to the verdant green of the Exponential Lands, as Discord had called them. Luna will one day return from exile! Ponyville will be rebuilt. And the Earth can be saved!He felt as if a huge weight had left his withers.

A broad grin split his muzzle. “Joly!” he shouted. “I’ve just had the most amazing experience!” Not getting a response, he decided to go look for his companion. He could see blue sky peeking through the window shutters. It would be a shame to waste such a beautiful day indoors. There was much to tell and, he thought, even more still to be done!

His spirit brightened in anticipation.

Epilogue

Pandora’s Journal For Universe Rescue and Restoration of Hope
Universe: 328-56-02D
Location: Berlin, Germany, Planet Earth
Local Date: June 7th, 2011

Minutes of Meeting held at Hofvarpnir Studios
Attending for HS: Hanna S. (CEO) and Lars L. (VP BizDev)
Attending for Hasbro: Richard P. (yours truly!)

Actions:
- Presented basic case for having Hofvarpnir build Equestria Online
- Lars initially very skeptical
- Hanna convinced him in a private meeting
- They accepted to attempt negotiating a contract. All signs point to a rapid close of the deal

Notes:
- Current index show probability for Quiet Earth extinction within 200 years as close to 100% (residual probabilities for avoidance of QE scenario include asteroid impact, solar instability, supernova in the local group of stars, and alien invasion.)
- All attempts at locating a corresponding Equestria to this Earth have failed, preventing the standard Convergence solution.
- Leakage of advanced cybernetic AI technology (from universe 328-56-02D LD:2054/03/21) to Hanna by dream transfer (started LD:1994/01/02) is showing every sign of continued success.
- Direct government interference remains highest probable cause for failure.
- Other AI going rogue and assuming control of planet Earth is second highest probable cause for failure (cf. Loki incident). Direct Intervention and Restitution Protocol DIRP in place to mitigate that possibility.
- Hasbro Board of Directors fully convinced by Richard P. to invest up to $10 million in Equestria Online.

Follow-up:
- Finalize contract with stipulation of alpha build acceptance testing completed within one calendar year.
- Disengage Lauren F. from daily involvement in the show production as it will be increasingly difficult to maintain both Lauren and Richard personas at the same time, and stay close to Hanna while basic AI in development stage.
- Sleep-feed Hanna basic Celest-A.I. engrams to ensure Magic of Friendship.