Changing the Present

by gcsmith

Rating: teen
Tags: Queen Chrysalis, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Changelings
Length: 5442

For over a century two ponies have coped with being alone, all attempts at finding others have failed. However, one of them has a plan to change all of that, and bring back the world loved and lost.

After a Great War ravages Equestria leaving only two ponies alive, Equestria lies empty, deserted and the two ponies find themselves alone.

Between them, they spend their years searching for survivors, to no success.

However, one of them has a plan to change and fix everything.

Published 2014-03-13 19:40:10 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-13 19:40:10 UTC

The Meeting

The Gate of a Thousand Fortunes, that was what it once was called. A towering archway of marble of the purest white, it was the entrance to Canterlot proper from the mountain paths below.

Once upon a time, hundreds of ponies and members of other species passed under this impressive structure, it's shadow a comforting reminder of the opportunities that awaited them in the city beyond. That time had long since passed.

A lone figure, a pony wrapped head to hoof in a thick, worn, brown traveling cloak stood between the two blackened stumps that remained of this once great symbol of Canterlot's wealth. The figure stood silently gazing at the ruined city beyond framed by the light of late afternoon, a single tear falling from their muzzle to mix with the blackened earth. The once great cobble causeway that marked this path had gone long ago, all that remained was a sweeping path of desolate dirt.

The air was chilly, and the figure pulled their cloak close to them as memories of the once great city filled their head. Slowly, they followed the path through the ruins, imagining the hustle and bustle that once filled the place.

The bakers, pulling carts piled high with fresh bread and cakes.

News vendors, their stalls filled with papers and magazines from all over the kingdom, their pages filled with all sorts of stories from the latest celebrity gossip to the latest fashion crazes.

Fillies and colts, running through the streets, playing games and singing rhymes.

The sights, sounds and smells colliding and mixing to create a cacophony of culture and wonder for which the city was famed.

Now, the city was silent, save for the sound of the lone figures hooves on the hard dirt and whispering of the wind as it winds it's way through the maze of streets and slowly erodes away the centre of a once great civilisation. And the only smell that fills the air is the smell of mould and decay.

Slowly, the figured continued their way through the city, more tears falling to the earth as they looked at the city and remembered.

It was so long ago now since the days that ran through the ponies head, so very long. And yet, the memories will still so very fresh in their mind. Never would they forget the terrible events that destroyed what had once been so dear to their heart.

A War.

A Great War.

The Greatest War ever to hit Equestria.

A conflict so great and terrible that not even the combined might of the Princesses, the Elements of Harmony and all the combined Equestrian military might could stand against it.

The pony shivered, quite visible even through their heavy cloak, as the memories of those dark days flooded through their head. The sound of screaming that punctuated every waking moment, the smell of death that filled every breath, and the sight of blood, so much blood.

As they passed the great market square, more memories of the past took form. They could see, in their minds eye, the square filled with tents. Ponies sat around shoulder to shoulder, each barely managing to hold it together as the sounds of painful cries mixed with the distant, deep sounds of cannon fire.

The pony looked back at this memory with deep dread, this was back from the early stages of the war, when Canterlot still stood. Everypony had thought the situation had been bad then, unaware at how bad it was going to get.

Forcefully shaking their head, the pony moved on.

Climbing through the ruins of Canterlot was always hell, memories always surfaced no matter how hard the pony tried to hold them back. However, recent developments had left the figure feeling completely defeated. Combine that with the exhaustion the pony felt and the thoughts flowed easier than ever.

"Such destruction, such waste." The pony whispered, the melodic cadence of their voice filling the dead silence.

The pony continued, the soft sounds of their hooves crunching against the dirt doing little to drown out the sounds playing through their head.

Deeper and deeper into the city they headed, with each step the ponies head bowed lower and lower, the emotions evoked in the shadows of carcass of the city overwhelming then.

After what must have been an hour of slow trotting, the pony reached their destination, the corpse of the palace.

The ruins towered above the pony, even the skeletal remains an impressive testament to the ponies who had built it. Shivering in the shadows of the entrance way, the pony entered.

Inside there was nothing but rubble and rubbish everywhere, no furniture or decorations in sight. Everything that once made the interior of the palace beautiful and elegant now only served to make it look like a bomb site. Which the pony considered, it technically was.

As the pony made their way through the maze like palace ruins, skirting piles of rubble and having find ways around blocked off corridors, they became aware that the air was no longer silent. Far off, if they strained their ears, they could make out the sound of music. It was difficult to tell what kind of music, the sound was little more than a whisper, but it was there.

The pony smiled.

'They're here,' the pony thought to themselves.

Nervously, the pony continued into the palace, up flights of stairs, down flights of stairs, down some corridors and up others. All the while the sound of music getting steadily louder. The pony's ear twitched as they listened, classical, not their taste, but hard to be picky when nopony is left to create new songs.

Eventually, the pony approached a pair of old worn doors that were surprisingly in tact. The music was coming from beyond.

The doors were familiar to the pony. 'Celestia's old bed chamber' they thought. 'Interesting.'

As the pony approached the doors, a pink glow surrounded the handles, pulling them down and slowly, creaking, the doors opened.

The pony gasped their gaze fell upon the room beyond.

It was spotless.

Well, what counts for spotless in a wasteland.

There were no piles of rubbish and rubble littering the room, instead the room was well, if somewhat shabbily so, furnished. There was a bed at the far side of the room, it was a double, but definitely not 'Princess' sized. The sheets were worn and the colours faded. The bed itself looked a bit battered around itself, scratches and dents on various places of the frame.

In the center of the room was a large, worn wooden table. Like the bed, the wood was marked with scratches and dents, it even had a leg that was too short and was being propped up by an old book. On it, rested an ancient and worn looked chess set sitting on a warped metal board.

On the opposite wall, next to a fire merrily burning away in a 'refurbished' looking fireplace, was the grammaphone. Once again, this looked old and worn, the needle arm skipping across the old vinyl disk and the dented horn both lending to a warbled strangling of the sound which was easily noticed now much closer up.

On the other side of the fireplace was a grand mirror, this was about the only thing in the room that even looked like it had come from the palace. The glass of the mirror was cracked, but still functional, and the gold frame tarnished, but beared the marks of recent polishing.

Sitting facing the fireplace, sat two battered and worn sofas, and two chairs in the same state. Though they still all looked somewhat comfortable, none of them matched.

The walls themselves were interesting. In someplaces there was wallpaper that was definitely new, a fact supported by how clean, unfaded, and poorly put up it looked. Where the walls were bear from paper, it was painted, again somewhat poorly, as if the decorator was unskilled or simply didn't care.

The floor itself, was the most spectacular part of the room. The original white marble, shone in the light of the fire and early evening. Unlike the rest of the floors in the palace, it wasn't streaked with soot or signs of decay. Whoever had cleaned it had spent a great deal of time and care in doing so.

All in all, the room, while shabby, felt homely.

'Maybe because I haven't had the luxury of a place to call home in a long time,' the pony thought to themselves.

As the shock of the room died down, the pony remembered they were here to meet somepony, and looked around, wondering if their host was here, or if they should wait.

After a couple of seconds of searching, they spotted their target. A second pony, also heavily wrapped in a cloak, this one a dark blue or black, stood on a balcony separated from the room with a set of screen doors.

The first pony made their way slowly across the room, careful not to get too much dirt on the pristine clean floor. As they approached the doors, once again a soft pink glow surrounded the doors causing them to slide open before the pony.

The first pony stepped out onto the balcony to join the other, doors closing behind them. The first pony went up beside the second, who was gazing out across the city, and waited.

"I see you walked, Cadance," said the second pony.

The first pony pulled back the hood of their cloak revealing her head. The mare had pink fur and horn, purple eyes and her features were framed by a frazzled and worn purple, pink and yellow three hued mane.

"Yes, sister. I did." Said Cadance

"Interesting," said the other pony.

Cadance stood there, waiting for the other pony to say anything.

Silence.

As they stood there, Cadance wondered what had captured her sister's attention. Following her gaze, Cadance looked out beyond the city towards the horizon where the edge of a large crater could be just made out.

Cadance shivered.

She knew what it was.

The crater was what little remained of the site of the last battle of the war. It was also the location of a small town that had become famous in the years leading up to the war.

Ponyville.

That final battle still plagued her nightmares, it was a horrible and gruesome affair, the sights and smells sticking her with her to this day. There was the usual things associated with battle, the screams of pony, the sight of blood and the shouts of orders. But the worst, absolute worst thing was the enemy. The black hearted, blacked furred and green eyed beasts that had haunted her long before then. Changelings.

By the final battle, everything was hell. Pony turned against pony and brother against brother. Nopony knew who they could trust. After all, given the nature of the enemy, anypony could be a changeling.

This problem was shown to its full height when, despite all attempts of detection and protocols in place, half of the army shifted forms and attacked from behind during the final assault. Chrysalis herself at the assaults head.

The assault was brutal, Changeling and Pony fighting with whatever was at hand; swords; knives; hooves; fangs; it was a nightmarish display of violence. In the center of it all, Celestia, Cadance and the Elements of Harmony stood as a bastion against the black tide, keeping moral up and spurring the ponies on.

Despite this, the battle was quickly being lost. Despite the power of Celestia and the Elements, Chrysalis was flying through the battlefield, a heavy blade of ebony swinging in her magical grip; cleaving through Ponies with ease and blasting others with her powerful magic.

As she broke through the final line of royal guard, bringing herself to stand before Celestia and the Elements; Twilight and her friends rose into the air and blasted the Queen full on shrouding the area in dust from it's force. Sadly, as the dust settled, it became clear that Chrysalis' magic had become far more powerful than even the Elements as she stood there unscathed.

"Whats the matter ponies?" Cadance remembered Chrysalis taunting. "Not strong enough to stop your friends dying?" A point she emphasized by swiftly decapitating a royal guard who charged out of the lines at her with her sword. The body fell lifelessly to the ground and the head, a expression of defiance still etched onto it, rolled across the dirt to stop at Celestia's hooves.

"You bug eyed bitch!" It was Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty who was first to snap. With the Elements useless against Chrysalis, she picked up a discarded sword lying on the ground and charged at the Changeling Queen.

Her friends cried out yells to stop, but it was no use. Rainbow Dash flew at Chrysalis in a blind rage. A rage which was quickly snuffed out as Chrysalis deftly dodged Rainbow's clumsy charge, stabbing at the ponies underside with her blade.

As Rainbow Dash landed and turned ready to strike again, all seemed well, for a second. However, a moment she keeled over, blood and guts spilling from the wound in her chest.

"Rainbow!" The group cried out, however Chrysalis twitched her sword in a taunt, implying any who tried to help Rainbow would meet the same fate.

Unable to help as Rainbow Dash slowly died, the others looked on as Chrysalis barely glanced at Rainbow to acknowledge the ponies demise with a huge grin.

"Who's next?" Chrysalis taunted with a cackle.

None of the other ponies moved, their eyes fixed to the horrific view of Rainbow Dash trying to keep her innards in place with one hoof while reaching out for help with another.

"Oh..." Chrysalis said with a sense of amusement. "Is she distracting you? I better solve that then." Chrysalis took a step towards the pegasus, sword raised high for a killing blow.

Rainbow Dash, to her credit, stared the Queen right in the eyes, bloodily uttering the word "Bitch" with her final breath as Chrysalis' sword struck nearly splitting the pony in two.

"Now that's out of the way," Chrysalis smirked, "Back to business, Who's next for the slaughter?"

"You've gone to far, Chrysalis!" stated Celestia. Her voice steady but threatening none the less.

"Oh please," said Chrysalis, rolling her eyes. "What on earth are you going to do? Send more of your troops to die at my hooves? Or better yet, let more of the precious Elements fall before me?"

"No!" Celestia replied, stepped forwards, her hooves cracking the earth with her rage. "Too long have I failed to face you myself. No more! This. Ends. Here."

"Bring it on, Princess, I'll end your reign and finally take my revenge on you and all of pony kind." Chrysalis said calmly as she took a battle stance.

"Girls," said Princess Celestia said as she turned to the remainder of the Elements. "Whatever happens, do not interfere. No matter how bad it looks. You are not trained for this and will most likely end up as Rainbow Dash did. I cannot allow that to happen. Understand?"

Each of the Elements nodded in response, several taking deep gulps as they understood the possibilities of what Celestia had just said.

"That includes you too, Cadance." Said Celestia.

Cadance nodded.

"Alright, Celestia! You've had enough time to say your goodbyes, come and meet your end. Or are you a chicken like your sister?" Chrysalis taunted.

"My sister was no coward!" Screamed Celestia, charging straight at Chrysalis, a sword appearing magically at the last second to parry an attempted swipe from Chrysalis. "She was braver than you, or any of your kind!"

Chrysalis cackled, pleased at the response she had elicited from Celestia.

Quiet fell on the rest of the battlefield as Pony and Changeling alike all stopped their own struggles to focus on the titanic battle that had begun between the two leaders.

Sword met sword and spell met spell as the two leaders thought both with strength and wits. It was clear the fight was taking the full focus of each participant, Chrysalis had even stopped her taunting and her smile turned into a determined scowl. The fighting between them was fierce and fast enough that most watching found it difficult to keep up.

As the two continued to parry and dodge each others blows, they eventually forced each other further and further up. Soon, the battlefield was far below, leaving those without wings and unable to follow stuck watching an aerial display that was impossible to follow due to the bright flashes of magic passing between the two.

For several minutes the battle raged on. However, a tension soon filled the air as Celestia appeared to start losing height and began to focus more on blocking and parrying than trying to strike out herself.

"No..." Twilight whispered, the other Elements just barely able to hear. "She's not strong enough, she's tiring out."

Twilight was right and before long Celestia was fending Chrysalis from above. The Changeling Queen using her foes fatigue to her advantage.

As everypony watched on, and Celestia got closer and closer to the ground again, an excited buzz from the Changelings filled the air. They sensed the end was near.

The end came when Chrysalis faked a swipe which Celestia clumsily tried to parry only to have Chrysalis change her movement at the last second, bringing the pommel down on the Princess' head with a sickening crunch and knocking her down onto the dirt right before the Elements.

A roar of cheering erupted from the assembled ranks of Changelings while at the same time, all Ponies watching cried out in anguish.

"Come on!" shouted Applejack. "We've got to help her!"

"No," said Twilight. "She told us not to interfere."

Only Cadance seemed to hear her however, and before she could stop them, Applejack; Rarity; Pinkie Pie; and Fluttershy had each picked up a weapon and together charged straight Chrysalis as she landed in front of them.

As the fight began, Chrysalis cackling at the foolishness of the ponies, Celestia groaned. Struggling, she attempted to stand, she couldn't let them fight alone. However, no sooner had she got to her knees she fell into the dust again, far too weak to stand or assist in the fight.

Unable to do anything but look on, Twilight, Celestia and Cadance watched as each of the other Elements was slain one by one.

The first to go was Fluttershy, she was cleaved in two from head to tail. The second to die was Rarity, incinerated in a burning inferno. Next up was Applejack, the stubborn pony decapitaded as she attempted to buck Chrysalis all the way to the Gryphon Kingdom. The final one to die was Pinki Pie, the nimble and physics breaking pony able to deftly dodge all sword swings and magical blasts. That was until Chrysalis cut of her legs one by one.

With each pony dead or dying, Chrysalis stood chuckling and Twilight went into combat stance, ready to fight for her life.

"I'll deal with you in a minute, pup. The adults have some talking to do first," said Chrysalis.

Chrysalis approached Celestia, who stared back at her defiantly.

"So, Celestia, your Elements lie dead or dying. Your kingdom is lost. And, once I've dealt with you once and for all, your student and Cadance are next. Maybe I'll take them back to my kingdom as slaves. I've read that, historically, conquerers often returned from battle with a captured harem."

"You have not one yet," stated Celestia.

"I beg to differ," said Chrysalis indicating to the shivering masses of ponies surrounded by Changelings, the ruins of Ponyville and the ruins of Canterlot on the horizon. "I have won every battle. In every battlefield. Now I win the war."

"Then," said Celestia smiling, "kill me. Claim your victory. Then maybe I could have some peace from your asinine chattering."

"Always the coward," Chrysalis spat. "Don't worry, I'll let you escape this hell and the memory you failed 'your little ponies' soon enough. Already I grow bored of how pathetic you are."

Slowly, with everypony holding baited breath, Chrysalis raised her sword into the air for an executioners strike. As the blade reached its height, Chrysalis held it there, drinking in and revelling on the taste of fear that filled the air. Then, ever the show pony she turned and addressed the crowds.

"Changelings, today the war is won! Our oppressors are beaten and their ruler is defeated! And I ask you, shall we let this ruler live?!"

"No!" The crowd of Changelings cheered as one.

"Then, what shall we do to this fool?!" She asked the crowd.

"Kill her!" They replied.

"I can't hear you!" Shouted Chrysalis.

"Kill her!" The crowd shouted back louder, before settling into a chant. "Kill her. Kill her. Kill her..."

Chrysalis turned back to Celestia, who the Queen was glad to see had closed her eyes, accepting her fate. For a moment more she worked the crowd, the chanting reaching fevered pitch as each and every single pony gathered lowered their heads, not bearing to watch.

Then, Chrysalis struck.

As the sliced through the air towards her neck, Celestia's eyes opened, emitting a light which blinding everypony around.

When the light finally faded and Twilight and Cadance managed to blink the dots on their eyes, they found themselves and all the remaining ponies standing on a hill overlooking the town. Most of the ponies looked confused, but Twilight knew what had happened. Celestia had used the last of her magic to teleport them all out of town, giving them hopefully a chance to escape the extinction that Chrysalis would surly bring down on them once the Princess was dead.

Twilight didn't want to waste this opportunity given as the Princess' last act, and so turned to address the ponies as a large explosion sent them all flying to the ground.

Recovering as quickly as she could, Twilight turned to find Ponyville a huge fireball, the whole town engulfed in an explosion which had absolutely decimated the entire area.

Terrified, the ponies ran.

Cadance's mind skipped through the events of the couple of days and years following the battle at a rapid pace. The ponies returning to hillside when they realised they weren't being hunted by Changelings only to find the town a great crater. The exodus to Canterlot as the survivors tried to make a new life for themselves. The fear as she and Twilight did their best to lead these ponies. The terror as ponies began getting ill and dying. Then the pain and loneliness on that day when it was just her and Twilight left.

Since then, she had spent the years trying to find other ponies. Somepony who had managed to avoid the final battle. Maybe ponies who had kept running and found a better life for themselves. She had yet to find anypony.

Cadance was brought out of her memories as she felt a hoof on her shoulder and saw her sister staring right at her.

"You still remember, Cadance?" Asked her sister, a hint of concern in the mare's voice.

"Always," Cadance replied. "What about you?"

The other pony sighed.

"Every morning I wake up to see the crater and I remember. It'll never go away, Cadance, no matter how hard I try to forget. It never goes away."

After that exchange, there was a moment of awkward silence between the two. The moment was broken when Cadance spoke up.

"So..." Cadance began only to find herself interrupted by her sister's hoof.

"You know the routine, Cadance, tea then talk."

Cadance rolled her eyes, her sister had been like this for a century. She guessed her sister was just trying to maintain some sense of normality in all of this.

"Alright sister, let's have tea first."

The other pony leading the way, both of them went indoors.

As the doors shut behind them, the other pony lowered her hood revealing a mare with violet fur, a horn and a purple mane striped with pink. Unlike Cadance who looked tired and worn but otherwise okay, Twilight Sparkle was definitely worse for wear. Her face was marked with scars, and her mane had clumps missing, and in some cases areas where it looked like the hair was burnt away at the roots.

Leading the way over to the old wooden table in the center of the room, Twilight procured a chipped and faded tea set from a bed side table that Cadance had not noticed previously. Gently levitating the set onto the wooden surface and setting the teapot over a strange device which instantly sprung to life to provide a flame.

Indicating with a hoof to a seat on the other side of the table, both Twilight and Cadance took their places and sat, in silence, as they waited for the pot to boil.

After a few minutes, a steady stream of steam began to rise from the cracked pot's spout and cracks in the lid. Taking this as her queue, Twilight levitated the pot, pouring both Cadance and herself a cup to drink, setting the cups in front of each of them.

The moment a cup was in front of Cadance, it was picked up in a pink aura where it was brought to her lips where she hastily devoured the drought within seconds. Slamming the cup back down onto the table, she looked up to see Twilight gracefully sipping from her own cup. Satisfied with what she had had Twilight settled her own cup on the table carefully.

"You ought to be careful with those, you know. It wasn't easy finding them." Twilight said calmly, fixing Cadance with a stare.

"So..." Cadance said, ignoring the scolding.

"So..." repeated Twilight. "Your yearly report."

"Yes." said Cadance. "Well, as you know I spent this year scouring the southern mountains on the border with the Dragon lands."

"Indeed I do. What did your searches turn up?" Inquired Twilight. Cadance's eyes went downcast at the question, telling Twilight all she needed to know.

"Nothing good." Cadance stated solemnly.

"Interesting," said Twilight, causing Cadance to look at her quizzically. "You normally say nothing," Twilight said noticing Cadance's gaze. "I assume you found something then."

"I did." said Cadance coldly.

"What was it?" asked Twilight.

"When I was searching the upper reaches of the mountains," Cadance began, "I came across a valley, lush and fertile. In this valley I found something rather peculiar. Wheat. A whole horde of the stuff growing all over the place. Now, it wasn't growing in neat little fields mind you, just in rough clumps here and there."

"A quick comparison with the rest of the local flora proved that it didn't originate there naturally. It was planted. Obviously though, something about the randomness of the placement still confused me, but at the time I didn't think anything of it. Instead I just focused on the fact somepony had planted the wheat and I hoped they were nearby."

"After scouting the area, I found several paths leading out of the valley. In the hope of finding whoever planted the wheat, I followed each one. The first three proved unfruitful, leading to cold, dark, empty caves, but the fourth..." Cadance trailed off.

"Had somepony at the end?" asked Twilight.

"In a way," replied Cadance.

"What do you mean, sister?"

"I found ponies," answered Cadance, "but they were six feet under."

"Six feet under?" asked Twilight, confused.

"Dead, Twilight, they were all dead. At the end of the path I found a series of caves which had signs of habitation. Ashes from fires, markings on the cave walls and various storage containers. Outside, I found a series gravestones, the last one marked for about the year after the war."

"I tried to find any evidence that the survivors had moved on, but everything pointed towards the fact that all the ponies that were living there had died. It explained why the wheat was growing wild." Said Cadance as she finished her report.

"I see, well at least we know other ponies survived the war. That's something I suppose." Said Twilight. "So..."

"No, Twilight," Cadance interjected. "I know this is where we normally discuss where to search in the next year, but I give up. Enough is enough. One hundred years is more than enough to have found survivors and I just can't cope with the hopelessness anymore." As Cadance spoke her head began drooping and by the end Twilight noticed a tear rolling down her sister's muzzle.

Twilight sighed, "I've been wondering when you'd say that."

Cadance looked up at her, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean sister," Twilight said taking Cadence's hooves in her own and giving her a comforting look. "Is that I felt it was obvious for some time that there were no survivors left in Equestria. If anypony had survived for any length of time they'd probably moved to the Gryphon, Dragon or even Saddle Arabian kingdoms."

"For how long have you felt this way?" Cadance asked, blinking tears from her eyes.

"About ninety years or so." Twilight answered.

"Then why," Cadance paused to let out a sob. "Then why let me carry on searching all these years?"

"It was for your benefit," Twilight replied.

"What?" Cadence asked. "How was it for my benefit."

"I was worried about you," Twilight replied frankly. "Look, I don't mean to cause any offence, but to put it bluntly, this entire situation clearly affected you more than me back then. I understand that comes with being with Princess of love. But, when the last of the survivors we were leading died, the look in your eyes back them, I was afraid you'd 'give up'."

"Give up?" Asked Cadance quizzically.

Twilight sighed, "I was afraid you'd commit suicide."

"H-how could you think I'd ever do that?" Cadance asked.

"I know it probably wasn't a fair assessment," Twilight frowned. "But, you must understand, that night after the funeral, when you begged me to do anything to change the events. The look in your eyes. You had no hope, none whatsoever. I couldn't let you live like that. And to be honest, I was afraid of losing you. I couldn't have continued on myself without you, Cadance."

A tear began to fall down Twilight's own muzzle.

"So, you got me searching just for my benefit?" Inquired Cadance.

"Not exactly," replied Twilight. "To begin with, I genuinely believed we would find other ponies out there. I didn't think it was possible for the Changeling to have gotten everypony else. It's just... After the first couple of years, I felt that you'd do good enough at it on your own. In those years I spent a couple of weeks searching and the rest of the time trying to find a way to remove the magical taint on the land so stuff could grow. After five years, I gave up. But I'd remembered how you acted before, so yes, at this point I let you continue for your benefit."

"I see. So, what was it you were going to say to me if you were waiting for me to realize there was no hope?" Cadance asked, her sobbing subsiding slightly.

"I was going to say, dear sister, that I have a plan." Twilight said, a smile appearing on her face. "But first, I have something to show you."

Twilight let go of Cadance's hooves and reached into her cloak pulling out a crystal vial filled with a silvery liquid.

"What's that?" wondered Cadance out loud.

"This," said Twilight with a smirk. "Is my inspiration."

"What do you mean?" asked Cadance.

Twilight placed the vial on the table, and then placed her hooves on her muzzle. A picture of thought.

"Hmm... I think it would be best to show you, would be easier for you to understand." Said Twilight as she opened a drawer on her side of the table, her hooves coming back up carrying a large bronze dish that was both shallow and very wide.

As Twilight placed the dish on the table, quickly picking up and uncorking the vial with her horn, Cadance looked on with worry.

"I-is it dangerous?" she asked.

"Depends on your idea of dangerous," replied Twilight. "Physically, you'll be alright. But mentally..." Twilight opened her mouth to say something else but suddenly went silent for a second before continuing. "Nah, it's perfectly safe."

For some reason, Cadance wasn't completely reassured.