Non-Linear Ball

by DaeCat

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Discord, Doctor Whooves, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Science Fiction
Length: 11239

Why did she attend? Something made Twilight go to the mysterious ball, just as something is about to erase everyone in attendance. Let's hope our heroine can unravel what happened before time unravels her.

Why did Twilight attend? She received an invitation to a ball, exclusively for time travellers, and seemingly innocent. Twilight accepts, for reasons she keeps to herself, but time has other plans. Namely, erasing everyone in attendance. While trying to balance her responsibility as a Princess and a friend with the looming destruction of hundreds, Twilight will have to overcome one of the greatest villains in the universe: Time. It continues to march on, even if that means a few casualties. With the help of some old friends, and a few new ones, Twilight seeks to unravel the mystery before time unravels her.

Written for Hazardous Writing Materials, specifically the Anachronistic Stories contest.
Cover Art by ThePristineEye, so check their page out!
Previous Art by Thaumic, and you should check this out also!

Please give me some feedback! I would love to hear it, as I need some help with my writing.

Published 2015-08-22 01:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-30 04:18:49 UTC

Part One

“So, Twilight,” began the crystal mare standing in front of her, “Why did you decide to come to the ball?”

Twilight swirled the small umbrella in her drink and said, “Well, it’s a funny story actually. You know Doctor Whooves?”

“My darling, who doesn’t know of that dashing stallion?”

“Well, he’s a friend of mine, so once I knew he was going, I was sure it was trustworthy.”

The orange mare, whose body was comprised of conjoined fractals, laughed richly before taking a swig of her own champagne, aged over 800 years. Twilight merely grinned sheepishly. Around them both, electronic music played, reminding Twilight of Vinyl and her other friends back home. Some danced, while others talked with old friends and made new ones. The crystal pony, Lavish, had brought her stallionfriend, who was milling about with a number of the younger time travellers. Twilight herself had been drifting since the address, milling around for conversation.

There were many and varied ponies at the event. Doctor Whooves was chatting with a frizzy-haired mare with an archaeologist’s trowel as a cutie mark, while giant mechanical suits encased at least one guest. At various points during the night, Twilight was sure she had even seen the tantalising glimpse of Starswirl’s beard whisk behind another pony. Discord was there also, it seemed the Dragoneques had dabbled in a few time spells in his day.

Twilight eyed Discord in her peripherals, making sure she could see him at all times. There was no knowing what shenanigans a chaos-maker could achieve at a ball filled with time-travellers. At the moment he seemed fairly placid, enjoying scaring other ponies by transmuting himself into various guises before jumping out next to them.

Lavish moved on slowly, but Twilight didn’t mind. She was content to bask in the friendships being formed and ponies having a good time all over.

Behind her, a large mechanical suit, with a pony inside, tapped her on the shoulder with a large, metal hoof. Twilight turned and looked up, to find that the mare was lifted up in her suit so that she was almost as high in the air as Twilight’s mane. The robotic suit that surrounded the white mare was more like the barest skeleton necessary to support the weight of her, and she was clearly visible through the pistons and wires. Twilight saw the electric blue tone to the cyborg-ponies hair, and wondered if the newcomer was any relation to Shining Armour.

"I'm White Iron, and we need to go."

"What's happening?" answered the princess, then added an afterthought, "And my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"I know," White Iron answered, "You told me five minutes ago."

Twilight was almost finished resorting the books, many floating above her head as she worked to reshuffle the entire library. She was so focussed on the task at hand, that it took Fluttershy a few attempts to garner her attention away from the prized books.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy," Twilight said, stopping her work, and carefully stacking the unsorted books with her magic, "How are you?"

"I'm well, thank you Twilight," Fluttershy said in a small voice, "You look busy, I'll come back later."

"No, no, no! This can be done anytime. Why did you want to see me?"

Twilight descended the ladder she had been perched on, and walked up close to Fluttershy. The yellow mare backed up a small step, then looked down at the crystalline floor of the castle and meekly said, "Well, Discord is... He's going to this ball, and, um, I was wondering if maybe you could, perhaps, go too and keep an eye on him? If it's not too much trouble, that is. In fact, don't worry, I'm sure it's fine."

Twilight rested a supportive hoof across Fluttershy's shoulders, and said, "Is this the time-travellers' ball? How did you know I got an invitation?"

"Um, well, Discord got one, and he said that, um, you had told him that you could also go."

That was strange, Twilight had no recollection of ever doing that. In any case, it was uncharacteristic that the Draqqonequus had done as he was asked, or socially expected. Twilight was glad that the Master of Chaos had acted normally for once, as it put her mind to rest that the Ball was not malicious, or else inviting Discord would be the ultimate undoing. At ease now, Twilight responded, "Sure, I'll look after him for you."

"Oh would you? That would be excellent Twilight, thank you so much!"

"Not a problem, I know what it's like to be concerned about someone close to you."

Fluttershy blushed and said nothing more for a short time. Then she spoke up quickly and reached behind herself.

"Take my saddlebags for the day, they're larger than yours."

"Are you sure, Fluttershy? I can bring my own."

Twilight knew that Fluttershy would feel terrible if she asked for a favour and gave nothing back as a kindness. She gratefully accepted the saddlebags, ensuring she too thanked Fluttershy profusely. The thanks were for the saddlebags, but also for soothing Twilight's anxieties. She could go and meet the famous magicians she desired to, and could rest in the knowledge that she was safe.

"I can't leave now," Twilight said, remembering her promise to Fluttershy. Even if the strange cyborg insisted that Twilight had performed an action she had no recollection of doing, and even if she had in actuality performed that very action, there was still no way she was abandoning her friends. White Iron remained unimpressed and steadfast.

"You have to go back - it has already happened. The Intertimepiece will make sure you return within moments of when you left."

Twilight was dubious, but certainly, if tonight had proven anything, it was that anything was possible if you just put your mind to it. All she had to do was tell this White Iron what she already had, and then she could return to her evening, perhaps even making a new friend with White Iron. The cyborg pony was pleased when Twilight reluctantly agreed, but didn't show it on her face; a thin line etched onto her jaw with hard graphite.

"What do I say to you?"

"You said: 'Take off your Intertimepiece, and find me. We need to do this again.'"

Twilight nodded, "This will be a bit of fun, won't it?"

White Iron gimaced, trying to grin, but it seemed unresolved issues flitted across her vision, distorting the smile into a sneer. For the first time that night, Twilight pitied a time traveller. She wished she could reach out and pat the pony on the shoulder in support, but the thick metal cage that surrounded the mare prevented her from doing so. It was the right thing to do, so Twilight extended her magic instead, exerting it as a physical force on White Iron's shoulder, reassuring her. Immediately, her face changed, and a tear threatened to fall from her eye.

"No-one's been able to touch me for so long, Twilight. Thanks for reminding me I am still here."

Twilight's heart broke. Of course they hadn't. A mechanical prison surrounded her at all times, nopony could reach within the pistons and actuators to find the pony inside.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Let's get this done first." The cyborg pony shook her head, not sadly, but with strength.

The Intertimepiece whipped her out of the timestream again. While floating in the endless, Twilight visualized herself standing back where she had left, only five minutes into the past. She saw herself standing there, except White Iron was across the room. She saw herself taking a step towards the cyborg pony...

She took a step towards the cyborg pony... and kept walking, careful to avoid anyone who may recognise or remember her. She constantly had to check and see if anyone was looking her way, and try to evade scoping eyes. White Iron was using her massive mechanical hoof to raise a decanter of red wine to her lips, eyes closed, letting the ancient liquid seep down her throat. She opened her eyes after slowly draining the entire glass, licking the dregs off her lips.

Twilight stepped out of the darkness, preparing to speak up and lose the loop, but before she could, Twilight stepped out of the darkness in front of White Iron.

Twilight realised that another version of herself was present, and had beaten her to the punch. Why would she do that? There seemed to be no logical explanation for why she would deliberately stop herself from speaking. Just then, the second Twilight spoke quietly, and Twilight strained to hear her whispered words.

"Take off your Intertimepiece, and find me. We need to try this again. Pass it on to Twilight."

Amazed, Twilight watched as her double from the future dissipated in a pop of purple magic. She immediately grew anxious, she had to leave quickly before White Iron noticed. Still in shock and extraordinarily puzzled, Twilight activated her Intertimepiece and left the scene as swiftly as possible.

"Did it work?" asked White Iron the moment Twilight reappeared from the timestream. Twilight shook her head, then nodded.

"I have no idea," she admitted, "Before I could tell you, another me from the future arrived and said those words."

White Iron reflected Twilight's confusion on her own face. Even the bizarre instructions seemed illogical.

"What did I mean by 'take off the Intertimepiece'? It's not like they are removable."

White Iron controlled her suit to lift her hind hoof and remove the Intertimepiece from her saddlebag.

"Sure they are, it said so in the invitation."

"Mine had nothing like that."

White Iron took out her own invitation and showed it to Twilight, for which Twilight was grateful. In events that seems confounding, White Iron's invitation read somewhat differently to Twilight's.

Dear Officer Iron

We, the Intertime Board of Magical Distortion, do formally invite you to the annual (mostly) Non-Linear Ball. Attached you will find your invitation, and Intertimepiece. Please arrive no sooner that the 8th hour, and 2 years in your past, at the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Housekeeping shall be conducted as follows, to save time:

- The second ticket is not for a guest of your choice, rather, you must send the letter to yourself, and the second invitation is merely the version we made, and then sent to you, so that you could send it to yourself. So that you could send it to yourself.

- Should you misuse the Intertimepiece in any way, do be warned that the Board can, and will, erase you from existence entirely

- By concentration on the times provided, the Intertimepiece shall be activated. It can also be used to mask your presence from non-time travellers that you may encounter while at the Ball, and this is achieved by rotating the device left once for a quarter-turn.

- Amenities are provided

Cordially,

The Intertime Board of Magical Distortion

The words that were jumbled on Twilight's letter were in perfect order here, casting new light onto her invitation and the possible hidden meanings. Clearly the message was false, evidenced by the fact that Twilight had not activated her Intertimepiece all night, and yet her presence had not been masked from the rest of the guests, in fact she had been enjoying conversations with them mere minutes ago. The Board of Magical Distortion had a lot of explaining to do, that was for sure.

Another particularly interesting emergence brought about by the new invitation was the discovery that White Iron was an Officer, presumably of some futuristic army. Where could Equestria be so far forward that they had resorted to war to solve their differences? White Iron was closed off when Twilight asked, so she was left to draw her own conclusions. The sturdy mechanical suit that encased White Iron did not conceal her body, it was more like a framework skeleton that gave added strength to her stride and electric boost to her movements. The pistons hugged her side, and raised her in the air as if she were wearing stilts, which seemed to indicate to Twilight that the battles fought were on uneven or sludgy terrain. But ponies were such friendly folk; who would seek enemies with them, and why would Equestria take up the mantle of battle?

A quiet silence descended. They had no idea of what to do, now that they had at least tried to close the loop. White Iron attempted conversation.

"I hear you are the Princess of Friendship from your time."

"Yes, I am. It is a great honour given to me by Celestia. Do you have any Princesses?"

"In my time, we have nine, but none are living. They are more like idols, or rolemodels."

"Who were they?"

"The names were scratched off the walls during an uprising fifty years ago, but everypony still remembers."

Twilight was drawn into the story, for the sake of it she forwent all distractions.

"There used to be Industry, Creativity, Ecology, Autonomy, Energy, and then the two Queen pairs, Amity and Intimacy, as well as Regality and Legality."

Was it possible that White Iron had come from another dimension? Those Princesses and Queens sounded nothing like Celestia, Luna or Cadance. It sounded more like the governing body of the future had selected the traits that were successful and decided to emulate them.

White Iron hadn't finished.

"Regality is who you earlier called Celestia."

Before even Twilight could comprehend that statement, she realised she didn't want to. She had read the papers, she knew the dangers of knowing your own future. She could even boast first-hand experience of those dangers.

"My time isn't at all like that," she merely stated, compromising by occupying her brain with a new line of conversation.

"Do tell," asked the inquisitive White Iron. The thought struck Twilight that White Iron would be just as curious about the past as Twilight was of the future.

"Well, I live in a town called Ponyville, with my five closest friends."

"Five? I only have one close friend."

"Well, my friends are the best you could ever ask for, I'm sure you would make instant friends with them all."

"Claus is the best anypony could ever ask for also."

"Really? Tell me a little about him."

"You first."

Twilight giggled at all the memories, and began recounting them to her new friend. Before long, they had exchanged quite the repertoire of secrets and tales. It turned out that Claus was a fellow Officer in White Iron's squad, and they shared many moments and memories. Twilight laughed at the latest tale.

"Out his nose?"

"Yes! All over the Commanding Officer! It was alright though, she was drinking a cider-spider at the time."

"Sounds like you two are quite the team. When do you see him again?"

White Iron grew still and quiet. All of Twilight's hard work drawing the recluse out of her shell were retracted within the span of a wingbeat.

"Soon. He's off rotation at the moment, because he was poisoned."

There was nothing more, so perhaps it was fortunate that at that exact moment the music ceased and swirling laser points zoomed through the abandoned castle. A sepia stallion with rose-white hair and a wicked scar down his side, reaching almost to his cutie mark of a falling red bouncy-ball began to ascend the stair that fronted the old castle chair. He held a small black cone with a mesh hemisphere on the end in his right hoof, as he lacked a right wing and any horn to speak of. He coughed, phlegm-like sounds reverberating throughout the makeshift amphitheater. It seemed as though he was intensely irritated.

"Please activate your Intertimepieces by turning them left, now, if you haven't already done so."

Both Twilight and her companion reached for their own, before both recalling the events of earlier that night. They looked across at each other, and then surreptitiously secreted them to whence the devices had come. Then nothing seemed to change. There was merely silence.

Then the sepia stallion recommenced his speech, but this time there was no sound at all.

Dead silence. Twilight could hear even the faintest growl of White Iron's engine as the air stood still. Twilight took a cautious step towards the speaker, hearing the clack of her hoof echo a thousand times in the huge room. She took a few more, painfully aware of her noise, and the lack of any other. It was as though there was only her and White Iron in the room, and the other ponies were merely illusions created by a fractured mind. Tentatively reaching out a lone leg, Twilight tapped the air on it's shoulder. Lavish, whom she had been attempting to draw the attention of, continued listening with deaf ears to the mute speaker.

A shiver flew along Twilight's spine. There was no longer any feeling up to her knee, completely submerged in a bubble of magic so strong that it acted like a magnetic force. Pushing with all her weight against the magical repulsion, Twilight tried to take another step into the strange bubble that seemed to begin at Lavish and end at the end of all time.

She cast a spell, illuminating the magic in the room, displaying the swirling rainbow that swam across the surface of the huge magical bubble that Twilight stood halfway in. Never before had such a sight fell upon Twilight's hungry eyes. She ate it up, the hypnotic curling and swaying of the myriad colours mesmerising her. Lapping in the soothing sensation of the sweet sphere, her mind became blank and slow, as if there was no time for anything anymore. No time for anything except timelessness.

She retracted her hoof; there would be time for timelessness later. For the moment, she had to find out what exactly was going on. Twilight relayed what she had learned from her spell to the earth pony White Iron.

"Should we try and enter the field?"

"To do that, all we really need is to activate the Intertimepieces," Twilight answered, "But I think me from the future didn't want us to."

"I'm not sitting on my butt for the rest of the night."

"Fair enough. Let's go speak to this stallion fellow on the stage."

Twilight indicated to the sepia pony, who was still speaking on stage. Standing to the side of him, was Doctor Whooves, who even as the pair watched, took a flying leap towards the speaker, knocking him off the podium entirely. As Doctor Whooves wrestled with the much larger, but crippled stallion, the crowd roared their indignation, but the sound never reached outside their own private bubble. White Iron stepped forward and reached out an arm.

Twilight pondered this for a moment, before the sepia pony, in a single swift movement, raised his front hooves and pushed Doctor Whooves off the stage. As he did so, a second mare on the floor of the amphitheater wrenched off the Doctor's Intertimepiece. He fell out of the bubble of magic, and White Iron, fully prepped for the catch, deftly grabbed him. She set the pony to the floor.

"What was that all about?"

Doctor Whooves shook his head, then said, "That was merely to save time." He then gave cheesy grin as though he were posing for a child's photo.

"Really?" he asked, "No-one?"

Twilight answered him, "What happened to time that we need to save it?"

"Look, Uncharted Map," White Iron said to the sepia stallion, reminding Twilight of her friend's decisiveness, "We aren't challenging your authority on this subject, but your time-bubble won't work."

The stallion who was missing his right wing spluttered indignation, "How dare you! Of course it will, but I suppose you and your alicorn friend have solved seven years worth of the most challenging time equations to prove me wrong?"

Twilight stepped in, "We haven't, but in our time, ponies are still being erased from the timestream. The singularity is expanding exponentially - your equations didn't solve for that."

"I think you will find that you are mistaken, alicorn. You insinuate you have read my notes, but there is no way you possibly could have."

"You were the one who handed out time-travel devices to all the guests."

"Those were supposed to be one use! You are ruining their efficiency, now none of you can be saved by the time bubble."

"Do you honestly think," began White Iron, "That your mediocre and under-planned solution could work under these conditions?"

"And exactly what would those conditions be, pray tell dear machine?"

"Time will tell," White Iron said, bristling from Uncharted Map's low jab. Uncharted Map frowned in disgust, giving Twilight the distinct impression that he had never been challenged in his life. She felt somewhat sorry that the brilliant stallion had been raised in such a way that even dire advice caused him to fly up in arms and become enraged.

"You have to trust us," she appealed to what would have been her nature two years ago, "We have read your notes, and they are brilliant, but it still won't work."

Uncharted Map's defense quavered, but only momentarily.

"Ha! You cannot have possibly read my notes."

White Iron sighed in frustration, and looked at Twilight with a hard look. Twilight nodded in response. Without warning, she plunged her head towards Uncharted Map, activating a spell as she did so. When their foreheads touched, a spark of magic filled the hall with a sharp clack, and then there was a swoosh as the scenery shifted.

They were in a huge, open to the air, lecture hall, empty save for a few visitors. Twilight took a seat on a bleacher, crusted with algae that had formed in the stagnant water pooling in the seats. She didn't seem to mind that she had just placed her flank into a sickly puddle. Uncharted Map stared at her with anger.

"Why have you taken me to my own lecture hall?"

With half of the roof missing, seemingly in an explosion of some degree, it was hard to define the building as a 'hall', but Twilight answered him regardless.

"I haven't moved you anywhere."

Uncharted Map smugly nodded, before looking down towards the lectern at the front. Behind it were three large blackboards, protected from the deluge the seats had faced by the straggling planks of a roof that edged the walls.

"This is a memory you have trapped me in."

Down the front were three ponies, and Twilight could barely make out what they were saying. Of course, she already knew, but she moved closer regardless, as Uncharted Map needed to hear what was being said. Unsurprisingly, it was Twilight herself down there, along with Doctor Whooves and White Iron. They were discussing the character of Uncharted Map. Before they could arrive at the junction in conversation where the Doctor explained the character of Uncharted Map, as the pair had indeed met before, Twilight accelerated the memory. She didn't exactly want to let her guest hear the rather unsavoury review Doctor Whooves gave.

Now they were a few paces lower on the steps that led to the front of the broken building. Twilight was explaining the complex algorithms that littered the rear three blackboards to the rest of the crew. Doctor Whooves was also contributing occasionally, giving his two bits on the equations.

"This describes some kind of time singularity," Twilight opened grimly with.

"Yes, like a black hole that is tearing apart time."

"And this one here predicts it's expansion. Woah, that's fast. Is that what he was saying at the address?"

"No, he didn't tell us anything about this, only that we would be activating our Intertimepieces so that we could experience a 'unique magical experience'."

"Pretty vague. Why'd you tackle him then?"

"I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I told me to."

"It figures. That's been happening to me this whole time. Some future version of me keeps setting up scenarios for me to deal with."

Doctor Whooves chuckled, mumbling that he'd had nearly the exact same experience many a time. They continued reading the script that was written all over the walls, while White Iron opened and closed the drawers of the desk sitting between the lectern and the blackboards.

"Hold on," said Twilight, "This algorithm here, come and look."

Both of her new friends clustered in to stare at the equation. Memory-Twilight turned as she saw Uncharted Map shake his head in the corner of her vision.

"My protection plan, the one you tell me won't work!"

"It won't, I'm telling you. Please listen to them - me - them, whatever!"

Down below, White Iron gasped as she too began to understand the algorithm. Twilight looked up in suprise as she said, "It's a time-force field calculation!"

In response to the shocked look of Doctor Whooves, and the intrigued one from Twilight, she added momentarily afterwards, "Even Cadets take top-level maths. When you're teaching fillies and colts to operate laser weapons, you need to make sure they know exactly how they work."

Memory-Twilight remembered her horror at this statement. She had thought about the implications of the statement, and what depths the future must have sunk to that it had gotten to the point where the government sent children to fight wars. But she supposed now, in hindsight, that she was not so very old herself, still technically in her studies under tutorship of Celestia, although that mostly just a formalised way of saying they often exchanged ideas over a coffee and donut at Donut Joe's.

"This would never work," declared Doctor Whooves, arriving at the conclusion that Twilight had been wanting to share with Uncharted Map, "The time singularity, as described here, would simply tear though this like a dragon's teeth through paper!"

"No it wouldn't, you stupid stallion," yelled Uncharted Map from up on the stairs, ignoring the fact that he could not directly interact with the remembered ponies. Twilight realised he had never so openly insulted them previously, instead opting to be passively aggressive over direct abuse. Much like Trixie, it seemed the stallion had not quite learned humility yet. And Twilight was about ready to set an Ursa Minor on him as well. She ended the memory abruptly instead.

"I still do not see your point. All you have done was thrown insults in my face, then ridiculed my life's work."

"I've had enough of this," interjected White Iron, stepping up like a batter to the plate, "Look here, we have done nothing of the sort. We have tried to be polite about it, but let me put it to you plainly. Your calculations predict that a massive tidal wave of destructive time energy is about to tear through every time period, systematically erasing anything that has caused a disruption in time - "

Uncharted Map blindly interrupted, "Yes, yes, that's why I organised this event. To save you all!"

"Let me finish! Everything that has ever disrupted time will be erased from it, and your method to save everypony from this destruction is to trap them all in a huge time-disrupting bubble. You fail to understand that your proposed solution only escalated and exacerbates the problem. And not only are you pig-headed enough to think that this will work, throughout us trying to save everypony here, you have insulted us the whole time."

There was no hiding White Iron's opinions, and Twilight was actually inclined to agree with her, though perhaps not in so bold tones. Uncharted Map just shook his head again, snarling in hatred. As Princess of Friendship, Twilight's heart went out to the poor soul trapped within Uncharted Map's cruel exterior.

Uncharted Map stomped up the stairs, took a few deep breaths to console himself, then with a voice full of phlegm that must have risen in tangent with his anger, "Please activate your Intertimepieces by turning them left, now, if you haven't already done so."

"Dang it."

Doctor Whooves whipped out his Intertimepiece, turned to the small group, and said, "I'd better go tell myself to tackle him. Allons-y!"

He activated the device, and walked confidently off to confront his past self.

Twilight and White Iron stood for a moment, in the quiet.

"We had probably get back to just after we left."

"Wanna wait?"

"Not really."

They both took out their Intertimepieces, and focused on when they wanted to be.

It was eerily quiet in the hall. Despite there being no less than a hundred ponies, and a Draquoneques, no noise left the sphere of magic. Twilight could see Discord still, he was standing near the centre of the group, and seemed to be fascinated by a small button on his tuxedo. The button kept turning into a flower whenever he looked away, and it would seem snapdragons get a bit snappy if you try and secure a tux with them.

What should we do now? Twilight questioned this. They had tried to solve the problem, but that hadn't worked, so they had to think of an alternate solution. Judging from the calculations on the blackboards, they did not have much time before the singularity tore through here.

The quiet was quite discomforting, never before had their been such stillness. Twilight wondered if White Iron had ever experienced true silence, or whether the sounds of non-stop warfare had followed her for the duration of her life. She asked the mare, who replied that she had, but only once in her youth, when a treaty was signed to halt warfare for just a day.

"It was supposed to be annual, for Hearth's Warming Eve," she said sadly, "But in the second year, both sides launched missiles at one another. And it was never tried again."

"That's horrible."

There was no response, but Twilight saw the effect bringing it up had had on the cyborg. She certainly didn't press the matter.

Turning her mind back to the problem at hand, Twilight could not see an immediately obvious way of stopping the singularity. The unstoppable nature of time made it impossible. Time continued moving forward no matter what, you could pause it for sure, but never halt it's inevitable progress forever. An individual could wade backwards against the tide, but eventually they would be swept down as well.

Then a noise broke through the silence, cutting through Twilight's thoughts and the stillness that had descended upon the old castle ruins. It was a loud scream, piercing and afraid. Terrified.

And now, all around, starting at the front of the room and slowly rolling to the back, the ponies inside the magical field of energy started moving.

Started dancing.

"We've gone too far back."

Part Two

"So why, Twilight," began the cyborg mare standing in front of her, "did you decide to come to the Ball?"

Twilight was puffing, breath swirling up clouds of dust in front of her.

"I'd rather not say."

"Just making conversation. Personally, I came because I needed a rest. And this was the only sanctioned way to do it."

They would all be dead without knowing why if they hadn't come tonight. Now, they were going to die, but they would at least know why. The only small mercy they had been granted was that they had managed to avoid themselves. They could still see themselves across the hall, younger versions, reacting to the scream that had just split the silence. Doctor Whooves had just appeared, told them they needed to save time, then that awful scream. Shutting her eyes and shaking her eyes, Twilight pushed it from her mind.

Even while she could pull her thoughts away, she could not do so with her eyes. They were still locked on her younger self. They tracked her as she galloped to the sound of the scream. It was noise, it was fear, she knew she had to help. The horror of it though, well, she both wished she didn't see it and that she had seen it earlier. Across the room, in amongst the swirling dancers, who seemed oblivious, an aged stallion wheezed another breath, exasperated. He tried hoarsely to scream again, but his old lungs failed him. The past version of Twilight circled the dancers warily, as she remembered the magnetism of the magical orb surrounding them.

That fool Uncharted Map had put it up anyway, he seemed as aloof as the dancers to the present danger. The danger that had first manifested in the ancient stallion. His hair was white, and balding, and his coat was patchy and unwashed. From the looks of him, he had lived a thousand years. In reality, he was probably somewhere closer to Twilight's own age.

Future-Twilight watched on as Twilight pushed through the magical sphere, trying to not be thrown out again, and using all of her magic to protect herself from the forces at work. Once she had reached the stallion, she took his hoof in hers, as his last breath escaped his lips. Then, just as if in a book, his body began to disappear.

It didn't surprise her now, but it sure did when she first witnessed it. Past-Twilight yelped herself, then cast a spell to halt whatever magical process had caused this poor pony's body to begin to disintegrate with electric crackles and grey puffs of eldritch smoke. There was no use, though. The pony finally disappeared into smoke, and not a single one of the dancers paid any heed to his demise.

"What in all of Tartarus was that?" asked White Iron from the past.

Past-Twilight looked forlorn.

"He's gone."

Doctor Whooves, a silent bystander up until that point, said something quietly, as if he was unwilling to break the dim quiet.

"I've seen this before, only on a larger scale."

"What is it? How much larger?"

He looked up, unwilling to admit to what he had witnessed prior.

"It's the end of time," he said softly, "And I saw it happen to the whole universe."

After a short while, the ponies from Twilight's past departed to speak with Uncharted Map, and she was so thankful they had. Every moment they had been there, Twilight was just waiting for a chance glance, and then some horrible force tearing her asunder. It was an absurd belief, to be sure, but one still given merit by the bizarre occurrences of the night. Or at least, the duration of night that had passed since they had arrived. That begged the question; how long had they been there?

"Two hours," answered White Iron after Twilight asked, "Pretty random, huh? Feels like a day or more to me."

She was heavily inclined to agree. In fact, it reminded Twilight of some of the longer adventures she had been on in her two year stint living in Ponyville. Taking Cerberus back to Tartarus certainly took a few days, and was about as tricky as the predicament that faced Twilight and White Iron now. They fully understood the gravity of the situation that lay before them, and they knew how hard it would be to come out on top, but they had no idea what it would take.

To the left of them now, another scream, this time accompanied by the now-familiar crackle as a pony began to be erased. Twilight rushed to them, now not afraid of the consequences, as she had previously been encumbered with the heavy task of not disturbing the natural flow of events. Had she saved the pony from before, time would be further scarred, but now, the shackles were off.

She reached the side of the pony in distress, and cast a spell to attempt protection. It was futile, though, the pony gasped as they aged prematurely, then disintegrated into nothingness. Twilight, even though she was helpless to save them, felt the utmost guilt from inside, as if she had slain the pony with her own dagger. Why could she do nothing to help these ponies? How could such paramount destruction every be real? Tormented questions swirled, each vying for top position.

"No!"

Again she had failed to save someone, again had she let somepony take the brunt of her inaction.

"Not today."

No, not today. Today was different, today she played by different rules.

"Twilight, where are you going?" cried out White Iron as Twilight pulled out her Intertimepiece once more.

Floating in the endless, Twilight focused on when she wanted to go. She could see herself standing there...

Staying at a distance, she cast yet another spell as the aging stallion screamed, adding power. It was no use, a few sharp crackles later and he was gone.

"I'll get this right. More power!"

Another spell added to the other one, but again he fell to the ground, gasped and disappeared.

This had to work, eventually. It had to work...

The three spells worked into one another, adding to the swirling mass of energy. Would it work? Third time was the charm, as the saying went. A gasp, a crackle, and nothing.

Clearly this charm needed more. Much more.

How many spells now? Twilight lost count. She squeezed her eyes shut so as to not look at the small circle of Twilights who each added to the spell. It was growing in magic potential, just waiting to be released. As soon as they heard that scream, felt the crackle of time distortion...

The plan had to work. It had to, there was no way around that fact. Twilight would not fail. Never fail, because if it worked now it had always worked. Always work. Never fail. Just waiting for that horrific scream to echo again.

They waited, the spell growing as each Twilight, though none of them could see it, flared their horn to add to the ball of roiling magic. It needed to be released soon, kept pent up anymore and the power would explode. Pressure mounted, magical pressure that forced sweat to fall from the concentrated faces of the Twilights. When was that scream? When was it? The spell had to be released, there was no way anything could hold it in. Perhaps Twilight had bitten off more than she could chew with this one...

The spell burst, cascaded into a thousand sharpened fragments of iridescent purple, spearing out into the gloom. Most of the Twilights disappeared to their own time again, and only one was left as the spell disintegrated. The shards that flew towards the dancers bounced off the magic-immune bubble, briefly illuminating spots of the rainbow surface. They rebounded towards the left wall of the castle forecourt, shattering into motes of magic. The wall cracked, deep rents carving the surface into nothing but a loose pile of stone.

White Iron rushed up to Twilight, seeing her distress. It was now her turn to comfort the lavender princess. She picked her up using a mechanically-assisted hoof, and brought her to safety.

Or at least, tried to. As she turned to take a step away from the rubble wall, it shuddered and began to fall. Slowly, then with increasing speed until it was right on top of them.

A horrific crunch rang out, but the dancers didn't care, they continued to swirl and skip. White Iron's cyborg shell warped under the pressure of the stone on top of her, while Twilight was still unconscious. She had managed to escape most of the ruins, White Iron's suit protecting her from the worst. Even so, it was not enough to stop the clobbering she had received.

When she awoke, Twilight found herself warm and snug, somehow. She tried to move away from the pain of her various injuries and into the comfort, but found that she was sheathed in a thick, soft coating. This coating was nice though, nice and smooth and warm, like a blanket. It was a blanket. She slowly opened her eyes,, taking in the bright white light. Unusual seeing as the Castle of the Two Sisters was fed only from external light. She fully awoke, realised she wasn't at the Castle any more, and tried to fall back asleep. It was no use, she felt a firm hoof shaking her awake.

"Twilight, Twilight."
A loud voice, but soothing, and it took her mind a few brief moments to recognise it. She opened her eyes again, and stared into those of Celestia. Her beautiful mentor knelt against the edge of her bed, iridescent mane gently caressing the side. It was a hospital bed, for that was where Twilight found herself. A hospital, but quiet. A strange occurrence that meant only one thing. It must have been the dead of night. Just how long had Twilight been there for? And for that matter, had Celestia been by her side for the same length? It would surely seems so.

However, the Princess of the Sun gave no indication that she was ready to cease her nurturing presence now. As she sat, she gently stroked Twilight's head with a light hoof, and softly whispered.

"Do not worry, Twilight. All is well."

Twilight sat up, wriggling into position. Welts all over her body ached, and nurses sat at the corners of the large room, waiting on the dozens of patients there, as it was not just the two Princesses.

"How long have I been here?" she asked gently, as a large bruise on her neck brushed against her esophagus, preventing her from speaking loudly.

"A few hours, no more."

"And White Iron?"

Celestia gave Twilight a puzzled look. She must have stayed in her own time. Neither of them pushed the question, and Twilight slowly fell back into sleep. Celestia, by her bedside, sat in silence as her pupil drifted off into the land of sleep.

This time when she awoke, Celestia was no longer there by her bedside. In her place was a small basket filled with small fruits and a handwritten note from the princess. Twilight lifted and opened the note using her magic, trying to keep the noise of the performance down. Many patients were still resting, even in the early morning light that streamed in through a glass window high above.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I wish you all the best with your swift recovery, and would very much like to hear about your adventure in time, and how you came to bring yourself back home. I must admit, it was quite a surprise to find two Twilights at my doorstep.

Your steadfast mentor,

Celestia

Twilight sat up, feeling fully rested and her heart warmed by Celestia's note. She walked through the wing of the hospital, Canterlot's finest at that, and eventually passed through the doors, with fruitbasket in tow. As she exited, she first looked behind her. The hospital was a good five stories tall, and Twilight's body felt as though she had been dragged down the stairs of every floor. Then, she turned to the front and saw an altogether different sight. The castle filled her vision, a sight inescapable in the nation's fair capital, and fresh eyes looked upon it. Twilight was sure she had never seen it in this light, from this angle, and everything seemed new. It was a sincere thought, a hope even, that the castle meant a new beginning. A chance to forget the events of the past few hours, that she could pretend everything was resolved and all loose ends tied.

Morality and empathy were strong motivators, and in this instance they firmly prevented Twilight from just abandoning her friends. It wasn't just Discord and Doctor Whooves at risk, it was her new friends also, and even those of whom she had not met yet. Lives, countless, would be lost to time, endless, unless Twilight could prevent the imminent catastrophe. And what better way to do so than seek the counsel of one a thousandfold wiser?

So she seeked out Celestia among the castle's many denizens. The guard at the front gate did not know of her whereabouts, so Twilight pushed herself into the inner boundaries of the castle, and towards Celestia's private quarters. In the dawn of the sun, there were few ponies wandering the courtyards or passageways, not even staff it would seem. Twilight inquisitively stalked the halls, and still found no-pony to speak of, or to speak to. Then, as the sun rose gloriously across the horizon, painting the halls with beams of golden bliss, the reason for the emptiness became clear.

On her hunch, she ran outside as the light from the sun flowed through the sleeping city like waves of honey. Sure enough, crowned by the halo of the rising sun, hovered Celestia, the magic from her horn lifting both the sun and herself high into the sky. Thousands of eager faces drank up the liquid sky pouring down on them, enraptured by the light. The sun began to climb even higher, defying the shackles imposed by mortal limitations.

The spectacle ceased, Celestia gently floated back to the ground, and a cheer rippled through the audience. Stamping hooves brought raucous applause for the magnificent sight, and Celestia gave a small bow before walking to the left of the sun, and entering the castle. Twilight followed.

"Ah, Twilight," Celestia began warmly, "Glad you could come. How are your wounds healing?"

"Well, thank you, Celestia. I was wondering, could we have a talk?"

"I would love to."

Celestia led the way to a dark corner of the castle, a small reading room with a few shelves holding fragile and thinly-bound books.

"Princess Celestia, I know you want to hear about my adventure, but the truth is I don't know much about it."

"What in Equestria do you mean?"

"I mean, I have no idea how I got to the hospital. The last thing I know is that a wall fell on me-"

"A wall?"

"Yes, a wall. It's not important right now. The point is, I need to go back in time and save my friends, but I don't know how."

"Well, I think you already did," Celestia said as she rested a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, "I did say there were two of you when you came back."

Twilight thought about it for a while. If she went back and saved herself, brought herself back here, then that explains and solves that, but what of the singularity? She should have been erased from time by now, even though 'now' is a flexible term when dealing with all of time. Therefore, she must have stopped the singularity, but how. Celestia broke in.

"Why are your friends in danger?"

"A singularity in time, that is to say, a massive time black hole, is going to destroy anything that has disturbed time, so any time traveller. I don't know what to do about it!"

"The proverbial unstoppable force. That is a tricky conundrum."

An unstoppable force was a good way to describe it. There really was no conceivable way of stopping time, unless you put it on pause indefinitely, which would have the same fate as death. There wasn't even an immovable object to complete the proverb. There wasn't a way to guarantee something would happen. Was there?

Yes, the was. There was a way to put a roadblock on time. There was an immovable object. Staring her in the face the entire time, just literally tucked away.

"Thank you, Celestia. I think I know what I need to do now."

Celestia looked suprised. "Really?" she said.

"Yes. You see, I got an invitation and..."

White Iron squeezed open an eye, even though her movement was thwarted by the heavy masonry. She gazed into Twilight's eyes, then looked upwards, to the right, and looked into another pair of purple eyes.

"Twilight? What are you here for?"

Conclusion

"Why did you come back to the ball, Twilight?"

Twilight stood there grimly, shifting stone with her levitation. She moved the larger pieces first, and in the space of a minute's silence had moved away most of the rubble. The two largest portions of the wall would be hardest to move, as they had collapsed while conjoined at the top, effectively doubling the weight Twilight would have to lift with her magic. Breaking the two slabs apart wasn't even worth considering; they would simply become smaller fragments and fall all over again. She still hadn't answered White Iron's question.

"Why?"

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Twilight responded.

"I have a solution."

There wasn't any reply, so Twilight continued with her exposition, calming herself and hopefully also White Iron.

"We need to send our letters to ourselves, with the second invitation. If we send them to ourselves, that means we will always have gone to the ball, and the act of us going to the ball makes us go to the ball. It's a paradox, and hopefully one large enough to halt the singularity. It was even written in the letters: The second ticket is not for a guest of your choice, rather, you must send the letter to yourself, and the second invitation is merely the version we made, and then sent to you, so that you could send it to yourself. So that you could send it to yourself. Do you see?"

White Iron seemed hesitant.

"What of those who do not send their invitations to themselves? What of those who have already died?"

"You and I have seen every pony present here. If we save ourselves, the paradox should extend to everything we have experienced tonight. Everything that happened caused itself to happen, so nothing can un-cause anything that happened here tonight. An immovable object."

Twilight grimaced.

"Unfortunately, that means those who died, will always die. And if I'm wrong, then we all die anyway, perhaps even faster."

Still White Iron continued speaking, warming to the conversation as her suit began to shut down.

"If you're right, it's still no use. You are already fixed in time, but Twilight, I can't be.

"What?"

"I never got a second invitation with my letter."

“Twilight, just leave me here,” whispered White Iron, her metal frame wedged firmly between the two huge concrete slabs. Her actuators whined in exasperation, and the diesel engine roared like a tiger, but to no avail. Encrusted deep within her metal shell, White Iron gave Twilight a look of total despair.

All around her, dancers swirled and twisted, some passing mere whiskers away from the traumatic scene playing out right before them. Dressed elegantly, and stepping in perfect key with unheard music, the partners leapt and graced across the floor of the castle forecourt. Fixations froze on their cold faces, happiness, delight, ecstasy and adoration for the silent tune and their partners. They gave the impression of hopeful ghosts.

“I will not leave you here to die,” Twilight firmly spoke, drawing out a small, thin smile from the pony within the battlesuit.

“You don’t get a choice, Twi. I’m not fixed in time like you are.”

“No, you don’t get a choice. I will save you.”

Twilight extended a hoof into her dusty saddlebag, debris shaking loose from the folds in the fabric. She pulled out her pristine envelope, and withdrew her own second ticket. Then, careful not to disturb the wreckage around her, she took White Iron’s envelope from the floor beside her, and placed the second ticket next to the lonely one inside the crumpled paper wrapping. The mare wearing the armoured battlesuit cried in helpless desperation as her body began to slowly disappear in sharp segments, hallmarked by crackles of grey.

“Twilight, don’t! Just save yourself.”

“How can I when you have so much to look forward to in your life? Your rotation is almost over, Claus is waiting for you.”

Tears welled up in White Iron’s eyes as Twilight’s words sunk in. They were true, all of them, but Twilight would be sending her life into infinite oblivion by making that sacrifice.

“No, no.” The memory of Claus, the forethought of Claus was too much. She refused to think at all. This was the end for her, White Iron could feel it, even as her heart became lost to time forever, disappearing in a carapace of grey, scaly abyss. Before she could say another word, Twilight released a wave of magic, causing White Iron’s invitation to vanish in a ball of eldritch flame and ethereal fire. A wave of red, yellow and orange leapt for the from the scroll, towering high above Twilight’s kneeling body, and illuminating the trapped frame of White Iron in brilliant colour.

Suddenly, their roles were reversed, not physically but magically. Twilight clutched at her chest as the deep feeling of endless emptiness welled in her, pooling in ponds of nothingness. As the magic began to engulf her body, as she lost sensation to her ankles, then to her knees, the dancers turned slowly, all at once. They faced her now, but still they said nothing, even as swirls of orange flame continued to lick at the sky above Twilight.

The orange flame was in the form of a heart, and as the dancing ponies finally broke from their trances, it grew to surround all of them. Now the entire castle was engulfed in a giant fireball that kept growing until all anypony could see was the flame leaping and swirling. Inside the inferno, Twilight sought out the stage. The magical bubble was gone, and it was relatively easy to move, the harmless flame seemed to guide her. It touched all of her, but didn't hurt, merely warmed her in the same way she expected Hearth's Warming Eve did to the founders of Equestria. By the time she had found the stage, ascended the stairs, and got into position, she had also found the right words to say.

Above the crackle of the flame and the din of the confusion, Twilight spoke with a magically louder voice.

"At the conclusion of the fireworks, please feel free to return home! Thank you for attending the inaugural Non-Linear Ball. Have a good night."

"Twilight, you genius," said White Iron, who had managed to stand in her mangled suit and limp over, as the crowd cheered. Twilight had done it, it was over now. There was just the cleanup, but that would be the work of a moment. Or, if she chose, less than a moment.

"Let's get you out of that wreck of a suit," Twilight offered, and White Iron didn't resist. After she had been freed from the destroyed mechanical suit, Twilight realised the time had come for goodbyes. Maybe not forever. Maybe Twilight was still alive in White Iron's timeline. Maybe they would meet again.

"Keep in touch," she joked. White Iron stepped forward, a little uncouth due to prolonged encasement in the suit. She leant over Twilight's shoulder and whispered something quietly into her ear.

"Your theory is right."

Twilight gasped.

"Really?"

Author's Note

Now, I don't often do this, but now might as well be the time to start. I'm afraid to say that things don't always turn out the way you expect, so if you want to leave the story here, feel free to. Somethings are best left untouched.

That said, if you want to read the final segment of the story, then please do read the epilogue. It answers a few questions, and was great fun to write.

Epilouge: 20/20 Hindsight

So, Twilight, why did you decide to come to the Ball?

"You know why. You are my imagination. I'm just in transit between times."

Did you really think that time-travel was real?

"What do you mean? It was real, this is what is false."

False? This isn't false. What's false is how you keep fooling yourself. Why did you come to the ball?

"Once I knew Doctor Whooves was coming, I knew it was trustworthy."

Lies. Try again.

"Fluttershy asked me to. I am loyal to my friends."

I'm sure. Tell me the real reason why you came. If I am you, then what's the harm?

"I came because... I don't know."

Did you really think it was real?

"It was real. You are the false one."

It's true. I am part of you. A stray thought. But so was the ball.

"You have absolutely no proof."

You didn't think it was strange that your friends kept answering you even before you asked a question?

"That never happened..."

You didn't think it was strange that you lied to Lavish even though you had no reason to? You told her you came because of Doctor Whooves

"I did that to hide my true intentions...Why would I do that?"

Because your mind hadn't invented a good reason yet. You didn't think it was strange that Uncharted Map has a cutie mark of a red ball, not, I don't know, a map?

"I assumed it was something to do with time. Why would I think that?"

Answer my question and find out. What did White Iron whisper to you?

"My theory was correct. I will see her again."

No you won't. It wasn't your theory that you will meet again that was correct, it was your theory on the manipulation of time.

"What?"

This is a mindscape. You made the whole world to test a theory. A theory that if you could cause something to happen by the act of it happening, it would never be changed by anything.

"I don't recall that..."

You got lost in the dream. You though it was real. It wasn't. It took you long enough as it was to solve the problem and prove the theory.

"So White Iron was..."

An imaginary helper given life by your imagination.

"And Uncharted Map?"

A fragment of your consciousness that had a different theory. When you accepted that the dream was real, your mind splintered. That's why you have gaps in your memory. That's why you could jump around to different points.That's why you experienced the night out of order.

"I don't believe you. If this was a dream, then I would be able to manipulate the outcome. I have proven nothing except the strength of my will."

You calculated the exact physics required to make an accurate representation. The algorithms on the blackboards in Uncharted Map's lecture hall were the world's physics. You built the calculation for the time singularity to test your theory.

"I read those notes, and they had nothing about gravity or any other physical principle, only time."

You can't read in a dream. Your brain told you what it needed to see in order to prove your theory, and you saw it.

"So what do I do now?"

Accept that this is not real. Wake up, Twilight.

Twilight finished attaching all of the various wires to her body, making sure they were hooked up to the instruments surrounding her room. Then, she lay down slowly in her bed, closed her eyes and began to visualise the world she wanted to create. Would she need helpers? Probably. Would she need friends? Probably not.

A single tear fell down Twilight's pristine face as she slowly woke up from the dream.

Prologue: Postcards of the Future

Dear Princess Twilight

We, the Intertime Board of Magical Distortion, do formally invite you to the annual (mostly) Non-Linear Ball. Attached you will find your invitation, and Intertimepiece. Please arrive no sooner that the 8th hour, and 2 years in your past, at the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Housekeeping shall be conducted as follows, to save time:

- The second ticket is not for a guest of your choice, rather, you must send the letter to yourself, and the second invitation is merely the version we made, and then sent to you, so that you could send it to yourself. So that you could send it to yourself.

- Should you misuse the Intertimepiece in any way, do be warned that the Board can, and will, erase you from existence entirely

- By concentration on the times provided, the Intertimepiece shall be activated. It can also be used to encounter rotating non-time by a mask, achieved for this device from travellers while your Ball may at the quarter-turn that you left and the presence is once.

- Amenities are provided

Cordially,

The Intertime Board of Magical Distortion

Spike sneezed again; he hadn’t stopped since the letter had arrived. Twilight reread the note for the umpteenth time, and still puzzled at the overall meaning, and the strange writing at the bottom. It had arrived in a thick, rough paper envelope that was stretched taut by the presence of the letter, two identical gold-foiled slips of decorated marble slats that served as tickets, and a distinct circular object that rested on top of the peculiar pile.

After replacing the letter in the envelope, Twilight, filled with the same curious nature a foal lives and breathes, removed the disc from the paper sheath surrounding it. Quite small yet proportionally thick, it looked as though it was designed to fit within the boundaries of a horseshoe. Twilight pressed it against her rear hoof, balancing rather precariously on two diagonally separated legs.

It fit almost perfectly, and as she pressed it, she learned that it depressed slightly, on a spring system that made a click after she pushed it a certain amount. The two halves separated by the mechanism spun independently, and Twilight guessed that turning them would operate some feature of the device, based on the quarter-turn mentioned in the obscure letter.

That particular point was particularly obfuscating, as if accidentally or deliberately scrambled. Twilight supposed that if the letter really did time-travel, then perhaps the timing of when the words appear on the page became jumbled up in transit. Or perhaps the sender had intentionally mixed up the words to make Twilight curious.

Spike groaned, prompting Twilight’s concern.

“Are you all right?”

“I will be. Just don’t go sending any letters for a few days.”

Twilight laughed.

“I’ll ask Derpy to deliver them instead.”

The castle air was thick with magic, Twilight had to wade through it as she used her horn to teleport Spike into his bed upstairs. She could sense it with the alicorn magic that surged through her, reflected off the faceted walls. A powerful magic had recently occurred, and this knowledge helped set Twilight’s mind at rest to the idea that the letter had indeed been sent from another time.

The Ball, purportedly established by the enigmatic Intertime Board of Magical Distortion, was inviting, and even though a little confusing, very exciting also. And for whatever purpose, it did seem as though it had been planned with the most precise accuracy. For those reasons, Twilight was convinced that the Board, at least in some capacity, was real, even though its motives remained murky.

Now the real question became whether or not she would attend. While the attraction of meeting powerful sorcerers from all across time was immensely appealing, the opposite end of the spectrum was also desirable to Twilight. Staying out of anything she didn’t fully understand would spare her blundering into an impossible or dangerous situation. A tug-of-war began to take control of Twilight’s actions.

There was a very real chance that this Ball had nefarious purpose. The sender of the letter obviously was not particularly well-versed in the dragon message spell, evidenced by the greenish hue of Spike’s face and his constant sneezing, and this could be an indicator of a sinister plot. Even the disordered words could be just a lure to trap her into a much grander and more malicious scheme.

This, however, wasn’t the paramount reason against Twilight attending. The summer sun celebrations had passed this year, meaning they also would have two years ago. In turn, this meant that Twilight would be living in Ponyville at the time when she travelled back. The possibility of them meeting was very high, and the risks were far higher.

Against her inner desire to meet other time travellers, Twilight placed the disk back into the envelope. She folded it up and went back to her chore for that day. That happened to be re-sorting all the castle’s many, many books.

“Twilight, just leave me here,” whispered White Iron, her metal frame wedged firmly between the two huge concrete slabs. Her actuators whined in exasperation, and the diesel engine roared like a tiger, but to no avail. Encrusted deep within her metal shell, White Iron gave Twilight a look of total despair.

All around her, dancers swirled and twisted, some passing mere whiskers away from the traumatic scene playing out right before them. Dressed elegantly, and stepping in perfect key with unheard music, the partners leapt and graced across the floor of the castle forecourt. Fixations froze on their cold faces, happiness, delight, ecstasy and adoration for the silent tune and their partners. They gave the impression of hopeful ghosts.

“I will not leave you here to die,” Twilight firmly spoke, drawing out a small, thin smile from the pony within the battlesuit.

“You don’t get a choice, Twi. I’m not fixed in time like you are.”

“No, you don’t get a choice. I will save you.”

Twilight extended a hoof into her dusty saddlebag, debris shaking loose from the folds in the fabric. She pulled out her pristine envelope, and withdrew her own second ticket. Then, careful not to disturb the wreckage around her, she took White Iron’s envelope from the floor beside her, and placed the second ticket next to the lonely one inside the crumpled paper wrapping. The mare wearing the armoured battlesuit cried in helpless desperation as her body began to slowly disappear in sharp segments, hallmarked by crackles of grey.

“Twilight, don’t! Just save yourself.”

“How can I when you have so much to look forward to in your life? Your rotation is almost over, Claus is waiting for you.”

Tears welled up in White Iron’s eyes as Twilight’s words sunk in. They were true, all of them, but Twilight would be sending her life into infinite oblivion by making that sacrifice.

“No, no.” The memory of Claus, the forethought of Claus was too much. She refused to think at all. This was the end for her, White Iron could feel it, even as her heart became lost to time forever, disappearing in a carapace of grey, scaly abyss. Before she could say another word, Twilight released a wave of magic, causing White Iron’s invitation to vanish in a ball of eldritch flame and ethereal fire. A multicoloured wave of red, yellow and orange leapt from the scroll, towering high above Twilight’s kneeling body, and illuminating the trapped frame of White Iron in brilliant colour.

Suddenly, their roles were reversed, not physically but magically. Twilight clutched at her chest as the deep feeling of endless emptiness welled in her, pooling in ponds of nothingness. As the magic began to engulf her body, as she lost sensation to her ankles, then to her knees, the dancers turned slowly, all at once. They faced her now, but still they said nothing, even as swirls of orange flame continued to lick at the sky above Twilight.