What Could Have Been

A Heart Of SUN and MOON

(Title only tentative!)

*Twilight yawned; it had been a long day for her. Princess Celestia had been trying to teach her some more difficult to understand psychological concepts. Twilight didn't quite understand why she needed to know psychology anyway; it was quite far from her area of expertise. She wasn't a particularly large fan of psychology; much of what she learned conflicted with itself. Twilight didn't really understand some of the hypotheses, but as long as she could commit them to memory, she wouldn't fail. Twilight decided that she should get some rest, after all, the next day she'd be returning to Ponyville.It had been nice to visit the princesses for a week, even if most of the time, I was studying,* she thought. I wonder what everyone's been doing back in Ponyville...Pinkie had sent her exactly one letter on each day, but her letters weren't nearly as descriptive as normal. In fact, the last one just said see you soon, and nothing else. Either something big happened and Pinkie's just waiting to tell me in person, or nothing's happened. Twilight wasn't sure which one was more likely. If something big happened, wouldn't someone else have informed me by now? However, nothing happening is quitethe rare occurrence in Ponyville, and even if this actually was the case, wouldn't Pinkie have told me? Neither of these possibilities explained a strange detail; in none of the letters, did Pinkie mention the rest of your friends. In fact, she had barely mentioned anyone at all. Twilight, noticing this, falls into a deep sleep.

<--Day One ENDS-->

<--Day Two-->

Twilight slowly wakes up, sees the time and panics.

"Spike!!! How could you have let me sleep in for so long?! We're late for the train!" she yelled.

"There is no train; it was canceled. In fact no trains are going to Ponyville until "further notice"!", he responds, irritated by how loud she was.

"Do you know why?", she asks in a calmer voice."Nope. The train company didn't give a reason, Princess Luna didn't know, and I couldn't find Princess Celestia to ask her. I would have tried sending a letter to Ponyville, but you wouldn't have likely gotten the response until tomorrow anyway."There is a knock on Twilight's door."Delivery for a "Princess Twilight Sparkle"," the mailmare says, more emotionlessly than Twilight would have thought possible. Twilight heads over to the door and opens it."Sign here," again with no emotion. Twilight signs and the exchange is complete. Twilight uses her magic to open her package. Inside is a letter, a small book, and a necklace with a simple sun design. Twilight opens the letter.Dear Twilight Sparkle, I regret to inform you that one Pinkamena                                   Diane Pie (Ah, so "Pinkie" is just a nickname, Twilight realized.) is missing. The event may be connected with the occurrences yesterday in Ponyville. I had went there to investigate. Until my investigations are complete, I will remain in Ponyville. Please remain in Canterlot until I return. Stay safe, my little pony.Sincerely, Princess CelestiaThat could have been longer. That didn't even say what the events were. Twilight feels that she should also go investigate, but she doesn't want to disobey Celestia. She decides that she'll go see Luna and ask her for advice. Twilight asks Spike where he last saw her. He states that she was in her bedroom. Twilight begins heading towards Luna's bedroom.As Twilight approaches the door to Luna's bedroom, she hears Luna talking to herself."A situation like that, would it be considered love?""Would you ever call it that, because if you would not, then it will not matter at all, would it?"Clearly, Luna has her own problems to deal with and wouldn't want to deal with mine. Maybe I'll come back later. Or not, she barely knows Pinkie and has no idea what's going on either. Twilight returns back to her own room, where she turns her attention to the book. The book is a replica, which Twilight can tell by the large red lettering on the front which says so, which makes sense as the original is probably important evidence.Dream Journal, Property of Pinkamena "Pinkie" Diane Pie. Please return to Sugarcube Corner if found. Please do not read contents without permission.There's a note attached to the inside of the front cover.I want you to read this, you know Pinkie better than I do, so you may notice things I don't.Twilight skips ahead to the last entry. I've had a dream that Twilight will read this, so I'm not going to record my dream today. That's probably for the best, as it's quite horrific. And it's about her! If Twilight learned about this, she'd probably think I was insane! I will say one thing though, because I know you, Twilight, are supposed to learn this: "You're the only one who can meet my eyes. You might even be capable of resetting it all, or even more, who knows? Certainly not you. Who would have expected that from a weak, pathetic little pony like you? Anyway, my little pony, it's not like you'd ever find the courage to do something like that, even though at this point, you'd be doing your friend Twilighthere a kindness."Well, that was strange. *Pinkie must think here dreams have prophetic properties. Should I trust them? She predicted I would read this and here I am.  With Pinkie, it doesn't have to make sense. Who was that saying such things? Was it me, Pinkie did say that the dream was about me. Judging by the insults, I'd say that this was said to Fluttershy, those would hurt her the most. Still, a power to "reset it all" and a power "to meet my eyes" are a bit interesting. The latter is likely referencing to her stare, but the former...Why would you want to reset everything in the first place? What horrible thing happened in this future to turn me into some sort of monster and force* FLUTTERSHY of all ponies into such a role? What happened to the others, can't they help her? Are they all dead? Did I kill them? Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourself there. They could still be fine, for all you know. Also, I seem to be encouraging of Fluttershy to reset everything even as I insult her. Will it not work? It should, if it works, produce a different end result although there's no guarantee it would be better. If Fluttershy has such a power, why hasn't she told any of us? Maybe she has, but the results were far from favorable, so she reset it? Her friends are vital to her and anything that would cause her to loose or alienate them is unfavorable to her. If that's the case, would she keep her memory? Oh, there are just so many unanswered questions. Maybe she'll answer them earlier in the journal.Twilight flips a page back to look at the previous entry.I had a dream where Fluttershy, except she wasn't quite totally Fluttershy, something was different, was crying that she couldn't save any of them. That she had arrived too late once again.Okay, that answers the "who is it directed at" question, as well as "would she remember" question quite nicely, except unless she was somehow just rewinding time to save them or it's actually something unrelated. Who was she trying to save? The others, her animals, the Cutie Mark Crusaders? The possibilities really are endless. Twilight thought back to what she knew of the mysterious event that happened in Ponyville that lead to the disappearance of Pinkie.Maybe, this future's me figured out how to properly go back in time? What if she killed Pinkie to prevent her from telling anyone?! Calm down, Twilight told herself, That's just you being paranoid. Surely everyone else is fine? The princess would have told you if they weren't, right?Twilight wasn't so sure of that. Twilight closed her book. As much as she'd like to read more, she was hungry. She had slept in a while and then spent much of her day creating hypotheses, so she hadn't had time to eat anything. Twilight headed downstairs to go get something.

After eating her dinner, Twilight went to sleep, clutching Pinkie's journal.                                          <---Day Two END--->

<---Pinkie's Dream Interlude: Promises--->

Twilight clutches your journal as she sleeps. You know that you gave her too much information, that this will only speed up her transformation, yet you can't keep yourself from feeling proud. The scene in your dream changes abruptly.It was a scene of the past, yet you do not remember it happening."Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I promise that I won't tell her any more than is absolutely necessary, even indirectly."You feel empty for breaking your promise, even if you don't remember making it.The scene in your dream changes once more.Now it's Princess Celestia, looking for you. She must think something happened to you. You merely forgot to tell anyone that for a few days, you'd be out of town, investigating the conditions in the Crystal Empire, as Twilight will likely, with no trains to Ponyville, go there to consult with Cadance and Shining Armor. You realize that with no trains to Ponyville, you'll have to see if there's another way.<---Day Three--->