Mark of the Hourglass

Chapters

At the Beginning, Again
Something Amazing, Something Amiss
Vanishing Point
Worlds Apart
Out of Time
Epilogue : Dear Princess Celestia...

At the Beginning, Again

Where was I? Oh, yes, the moments approaching my demise. I suppose I should try to make sense of it all.

You see, I was having one of those moments of clarity, the queer kind like when a unicorn first discovers that there is magic in their blood or when a pegasus flies for the very first time. I suppose the thrill for all ponies may be in discovering that they were truly alive, and there was deep irony in that because I was about to die.

Celestia spare me a moment to back up and consider myself. A young yellow colt, earth pony bred, a fair stretch to stallionhood without finding his mark. And I loved the rain. Not enough to earn my mark, but oh, I loved the rain and the wind and the webs of light that whirled across the sky in the waves of a thunderstorm. So much that I would have done better to born a pegasus, and perhaps that could have been my saving grace.

It was a stroke after midnight in Ponyville and when all the saner ponies had retreated to the safety of their homes, I was dancing in the downpour and laughing with the gales. They must have carried my voice all across the plains and through the trees. The heavens were flashing with growing intensity, each bolt bouncing blindingly off of the lightning rods planted throughout the town. My hooves slid through the grass and the puddles and I climbed a hill to watch the symphony that the pegasi arranged.

Trees, ever my downfall. In chasing the light show I happened to glance into the window of the library. Some purple filly was watching me with a peculiar look, one I couldn't quite put a hoof on. I smiled and realized that it was Twilight Sparkle. Pained, marked disapproval, something funny about it that I could have paid more attention to if I were closer. There would be no impressing her with displays of insensibility, so I turned about and continued my play. Then, three things happened at once.

The sky exploded in the most luminous shade of pearl you can ever imagine.

A purple unicorn bolted from the trees nearby and screamed, “look out!”

Then a sensation burned over my body as she collided with me, knocking the wind from my lungs and my whole self off of my hooves. And it took just a second too long to hit the ground more than a few yards away, just as lightning struck where I had been standing, like a pillar from the heavens themselves.

A queasiness overtook me. Teleportation sickness? Had I still been struck? Did the unicorn draped haphazardly over my belly just weigh that much? How much did she weigh, and how much did the stars spinning above my head weigh? These were the thoughts that filled my fading mind as Twilight shoved her hooves at my face and her voice melted in triplicate.

“Are you alright? Hey... don't fall asleep on me now! Hey!”

Something Amazing, Something Amiss

Hospital beds. I was never particularly fond of the rickety things, but I reckon that anything would have felt miserable with the searing pain that ran from my nose to my tail. With no particular desire to remain on it any longer, I rolled off the side of the mattress and onto my hooves.

This was a mistake for several reasons. The first was that the nurse nearly fainted in alarm when her patient tumbled to the floor. The second was that standing felt like driving molten nails up through all four hooves. The third was that my gallant savior was there to witness further proof of my foolish nature. She was kind enough to catch me with her magic as my knees buckled.

“Easy,” she said. “You were out for a few days.”

“And you've been here the whole time?” I put on my handsomest smile and batted my eyelashes and grinned like a foal.

“No, not really,” she replied without scorn, washing the feeling right off of me. “I just happened to check on you when you woke up. Good thing, too, because we're having a hard time finding out where you came from.”

The nurse cleared her throat. “No mark, no one could identify you...” She frowned and gave me a shove full of medical kindness. Only Twilight's absentminded spell kept me from tumbling back into bed. “You need to rest.”

“Never mind that, miss,” I said, waving a foreleg in the air with feigned bravado. “I feel like I'm on fire either way. I'd rather suffer standing.”

This did not please her and she hit me with every instrument she could find, trying to find one thing wrong with me.

“So, what's your name?” Twilight asked. She was always dedicated to her curiosities, to her credit.

“You knowAAH!” I laughed and screamed at the same time, smiling apologetically at the mare who had her stethoscope in one hoof and the other somewhere rather uncomfortable. “Pardon me. As I was saying, I don't know for the life of me. I think that knock in the head did something to me.”

The nurse cleared her throat. “Then you should lay down until you feel good enough remember.”

I looked into her eyes with an audacity that I never thought I had. “I beg of you, save your attentions for somepony who needs it far more than me.” That seemed to do it. She stormed off with a snort and left the two of us there, Twilight doing the better part to keep me aloft.

“Why would you have amnesia?” she wondered.

“I don't know,” I said, then clopped a hoof against the floor in a moment of recollection and pain. “Ah! But here's a fact. I know you, Twilight Sparkle. Who doesn't? Popular name in this town.” I smiled as she refuted her fame with a blush. “I am of Ponyville, I know that much, and I know deeply that I owe you my life.” I leaned a little closer and spoke softly, my head down with the realization, again, that I had almost died. “My savior. Twice now, really. Thank you.”

She had three days over me to come to terms with this fact, and it was just like her to respond as she did. “Anypony would have done the same. I'm just glad you're alright.”

No, there are few who are quite as remarkable as you, miss magician. She wouldn't like those words much, so I kept them to myself. I found that the pain was beginning to ebb the longer I spent on my feet, although I already had a different feeling working its way up my hooves. Soon she'd be back to her life and I'd be back to mine. Whatever my life consisted of before the accident.

“Well then. Thank you.”

She laughed nervously. “Of course. If you ever need anything...”

“Like a book?” I inquired, raising an eyebrow. She gave me a strange look for the longest time! And then laughed.

“Right. The library. Yes. Well. I'd best be back there. Can you stand?”

I nodded, and she slowly unwound the spell that was keeping me up. When the pressure was on my hooves again it stung, but not nearly as bad as before. I didn't so much as wince for her sake. No, I trotted ahead and smiled, ready to end it there. It was for the best.

She seemed ready to do the same, but then she turned and twitched in a peculiar manner. Her horn was still glowing and she waved it over me. “That's weird...” she said. “There seems to be still a little... something stuck to you.”

“Magic?” I wondered.

“I'm not sure,” she said. “It wouldn't surprise me.”

We stared at each other for a good few minutes before she sighed and resigned herself to it. “I'm sorry, but I'd prefer if you came back to the library with me. If I messed something up it's best I'm able to fix it.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Only if there's hot cocoa involved.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Um, sure. If you'd like.”

I should have just walked away, but I never walk away.

Her dragonling made us hot chocolate and was kind enough to be rationed some himself. And in addition to that, the complexity of our mystery saw him doing scarce more than fetching her a book now and then. I attempted the duty myself, for a moment, but my wandering attention landed me firm in the place of study on a pair of cushions.

“I can't find anything here quite like it,” she said, flipping a page with one spell and bathing me in scanning charms with the other. “It's not an incomplete spell. Not elemental residue, and you're not possessed by anything.” She puzzled. “Have you annoyed any zebras lately?”

I cocked my head to the side. “I don't think so,” I said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just checking.” Twilight laughed nervously and flipped another page. And then another. Then she pulled out another book on theoretical metaphysics and really set to work. It was quiet, and warm, and far too cozy for my liking even as my hot chocolate dwindled in my mug.

“The gravitational alignment doesn't fit with anything I can put my hoof on. I want to say that it's just a reaction between the lightning and your earth pony make-up, but that doesn't account for the cloud array of negative plasmoid particles.”

I smiled and nodded.

“You don't have a clue what I just said, do you?” she asked.

“Not a lick,” I mused. “I'm afraid the...” I leaned in and squinted at the spine of her book. “'Quintessential Theorems of Metaphysical Alignment in the Glee Sphere is somewhat beyond my grasp.”

Twilight's ears drooped and she smiled sheepishly. I quickly rectified my sharpness by sweeping a little bow.

“I am but a humble earth pony.”

For some reason she laughed. She didn't always laugh at my strange little antics. Maybe the queen of textbooks had finally had her fill. We wouldn't find out because Rainbow Dash poked her head on one of the ground windows and waved a hoof.

“Hey, have you seen Fluttershy?” she asked. “She was supposed to meet Rarity at the spa today and we can't find her anywhere.”

Twilight squeaked and held up a hoof. “Oh no! I was supposed to talk to her a few days ago and I completely forgot after the accident.” She glanced at me and back to Dash, sighing. “Sorry. I haven't seen her since then, to be honest. Have you checked her house?”

The pegasus blinked. “Her house? Why didn't I think of that. Hm.” She then zipped away, and only a moment later came back and stared hard at me. “Who's this guy?”

“Just a friend,” I said, waving my hooves. “I would tell you if I could, honestly.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What? Oh, never mind. You sure have some weird friends, Twilight,” she said, and the two of us tried not to giggle at her other implications. “I'll see you later!”

And then she was gone. Twilight set a stack of books aside and sighed. “I should go try to find her, at least apologize for missing our meeting the other day. Besides, we're getting nowhere. I think we could use a break.”

I stretched from head to toe. Already I was starting to feel like a new pony. “Words I could live by.”

Twilight made quick work of donning her bag and leaving any remaining cleanup for Spike. “I'm sure,” she said, and then we braved the wild of Ponyville.

Few things fill me with such joy as drifting through a town with such bustling activity, with so many young fillies and colts doing their best to keep their parents from going about their business. So forgive me if I am somewhat fuzzy on the details here. Twilight and I took our sweet time cantering towards Fluttershy's, and she even went so far as to re-acclimate me to the landmarks I might have forgotten.

Though the names had become strangers to me, my stomach certainly remembered Sugarcube Corner.

“Even after you ate all of my cakes?” Twilight sighed, but couldn't resist my immeasurable charm. Or maybe she was just taking pity on a recovering pony. “Alright. I promise we'll stop by after we check on Fluttershy.”

“We could bring her a pastry to cheer her up...” I pressed.

She would have none of it, of course, taking advantage of my weakened hindquarters to nudge me away from the sweets shop. “Come on.”

On a better day I would have stood to the last shred of her patience, but I decided against it. Making each step forward, despite the smolder of my nerves, filled me with a certain joy—a pleasure in defying my condition.

So much that I'd become occasionally focused on only my steps, passing a cart, passing a colt, eyes always on Twilight so that I did not lose my way--so locked into locomotion that I bumbled straight into the path of a similarly distracted stallion.

“Sorry!” Proclaimed the brown-haired gentleman with the hourglass mark. Then he cocked his head to the side, seeming to empty it of all prior urgent matters, and he sucked in a breath. “Really...”

The foreboding tone of his voice brought me to a full stop. “What is it?”

Then the strange pony laid a hoof upon my shoulder as if trying to console me. “You shouldn't be here...” he said, then pulled back with an enthusiastic laugh. “Not with the cider festival coming up! No, you should remind your unicorn girlfriend... you really shouldn't miss it...”

I blinked. Twice, even, before failing to notice that I was blushing. “She's... not my girlfriend.” I mouthed.

“My con... apologies, then.” He cleared his throat. “Right! Preparations... the aforementioned... cider...” He mumbled before charging off.

Twilight trotted back two seconds too early to be annoyed and two more too late to enjoy more of my humiliation. “What was that about?”

I held myself as high as I could and shrugged. “Something about a cider festival...”

Something clicked in the unicorn's brain. “Right! Applejack would be rather disappointed if we didn't all show up to help out.”

I smiled. “Another one of your friends?”

“Ah--” She leaned back, ears drooped. “Yes.”

I returned the playful nudge she'd given me earlier and trotted ahead. “Lucky me. If I spend more time with you I'll be friends with the whole town before the day is through.”

Though perhaps I'd spoken out of turn, she did little more than smile. It seemed like being reminded of them was enough to put her in a good place, and I couldn't help but hitch the proverbial ride. Things only got better from there.

As the houses thinned out we slowed to a more relaxed gait. Fluttershy's wasn't that far away, but it still made the silence a little strange. Bits of potential conversation floated around in my head. What's your favorite flower? No, maybe a bit too strong. Do you believe in seaponies? Too much of a tangent. Who's your favorite...

“That's... not right,” Twilight said, coming to a dead stop.

It took me a fair moment to realize that we'd made some headway from Ponyville and stood near the bottom of a hill. A strange translucent energy, almost like liquid, flowed over the lowest point before disappearing in the grass nearby.

“Feels like magic,” she continued, hovering her horn over it. “But that doesn't make any sense at all.”

I took what I would later describe as the more scientific approach and shoved myself into it, not sure what to expect. For all intents and purposes it felt like water, moved like water, and even acted like it when I reached with a hoof to splash the poor mare in the side.

“Hey!” she jumped back, tail frizzed. “That could be dangerous, you know!”

“Doesn't seem to be,” I countered, shaking my hooves off. “If you're that worried about it, just hop over.”

She looked rather cross and bounded across the stream. “You could have gotten hurt, or worse.”

“But I didn't.”

“That's not the point.” Twilight stamped a hoof. “You could have died. Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“Utterly careless and expecting everypony else to take care of you,” she rattled off all too fast.

My cleverness fell into a stunned melancholy, unable to dredge up any sort of playful retort. It was more than being put in my place. I hung my head a little and walked on past, tail between my legs, dripping aether water.

At the top of the hill, the sight of the countryside was far grander than either of us could have expected. We sat in unison, and though guilt still hung over me, I stared in disbelief. The bits of water we'd passed was only a sliver of a phenomenon, what looked like a portrait in gel laid over the landscape. Water rolled from an imaginary lake, giant strands like trees swayed in the wind and then dissipated into glitter and light.

Something that might have been a moth landed on Twilight's nose and dissolved before she could react.

“It must be some kind of magical phenomenon,” she murmured. “I haven't heard of anything like it before...” And without a second word she produced a blank scroll and a quill, and began scribbling furiously. I watched her sketch and write a flurry of notes, fully engrossed in it.

Once I was convinced she'd recorded all she could, I reached over and nudged her scroll down with both hooves.

“What?” she said, shooting me a look.

I just nodded towards the field. The afternoon sun was cutting through the ghost-like shapes, making a prism of colors before they seemed to evaporate. Twilight seemed to get it, and relaxed, just soaking the whole experience in.

“Sorry,” she said, eventually, without looking my way. “I guess I'm being too hard on you.”

“Mm.” I shrugged. “Someone needs to put me in my place, sometimes.”

The effects were beginning to fade. I tapped my hoof against my forehead and twisted my tongue. Something had to be said, something to make use of that silent moment that was slipping by. I couldn't think of anything eloquent enough, so I just went with my gut.

“Can I be your friend?”

She twisted about and stared, taken aback. “Um...”

A creature of logic, I could see her fumbling the idea through the gears in her head. The idea was sudden, strange, but innocuous. I think she figured as much. Still, what right did I have to shove myself into her life like that? But I was already there.

“I guess after all you've done for me I can't help but feel that way,” I explained. “I have no idea what my life was like before this whole amnesia mess. Maybe it's great, maybe it's not, but I'm sure it'd be better with another friend. Something to take away for our trouble.” I smiled. “Even if it takes me far away.”

She sighed and laughed in the same breath. “I know. It's just that no one asks these things. They just happen... naturally.”

“So...”

“I'm already there, am I?” I beamed.

Twilight stretched and rolled up her scroll. The magical landscape was beginning to disappear entirely, leaving behind a mundane if pleasant plane-scape. “We'll see. Fluttershy's isn't much further, anyway...”

Vanishing Point

We immediately knew that something was wrong. I'd no memory of Fluttershy's home but still thought that something was amiss when we crested the final hill and found the glade next to the Everfree as empty as could be. Twilight stopped and stared.

“No,” she said. “Where is it? Where is she? What is going on!?”

She broke into a full run and I came behind as fast as my wounds would allow me. Where once the cottage had been remained only a flattened dirt foundation and scatterings of animal tracks. The occasional twist of wire fence. It was as if her home had simply been erased from existence. We feared the worst.

“Twilight!”

We both looked up. A rainbow blur arched out of the forest and skidded to a halt beside Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash was breathless, shaking out her mane. “I can't find Fluttershy anywhere, Twilight. You have to do something. Please.”

The mare's ragged breath wasn't from exhaustion so much as holding back sobs. Even I felt a twinge of panic for this friend I'd never met, suddenly disappearing into the aether. Twilight, ever the center of rationale, forced herself to take a breath and started towards the empty space where the cottage used to stand.

“It doesn't make any sense for her to up and vanish. But there's no reason to assume that she disappeared, too.” Twilight scanned her horn about, a purple beacon washing over the air. As she swept, an outline of Fluttershy's house appeared in translucent lines and then vanished again. “It's possible that she got spooked and went to hide somewhere. But where would she be?”

“I don't know.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings in irritation. “I checked all of her usual spots. Can't you use some sort of spell to find her?”

Twilight thought about this a moment. “It's a huge taboo to scry on other ponies, but given the situation...”

Rainbow Dash snorted a breath. “Who cares if it's forbidden or whatever? This is Fluttershy we're talking about. If something happens to her, I'll...”

“I know.” Twilight cut in, twisting about. “I need to go back to the library and get the right spell.” She glanced aside at me. “Sorry, but can you take care of yourself for a while? This is...”

I wave a hoof. “Way more important, yeah. I'll catch up to you later.”

I tried to make her smile but the most she could muster was a courtesy before galloping back to Ponyville. And who could blame her? The possibility that her friend had been erased... the thought was unbearable.

“You.”

A mess of rainbow tail swatted my shoulders and Rainbow Dash loomed over me. “I don't know who you are, but if I find out that you have anything to do with this, I'm taking you down.”

“I want to help in any way I can,” I said, then frowned. “I'm not sure how something like this would even happen.”

“Uh-huh.” Dash backed off and took a few strokes backwards into the air. It was getting harder for her to hide her tears. The only choice was to leave.

“You'll find Fluttershy,” I said.

She turned away and flared her wings. “Whatever. Just don't mess this up.” Then she flew back to Ponyville in a flash.

I did want to help. But walking back to Ponyville was going to take me some time, and even then, as an earth pony with no memory, the best thing I could serve as would be a paper weight. Instead I decided to turn my attention to the non-existent cottage and see if I could turn up anything on my own.

Some of the outlines left by Twilight's spell still glinted in the sun, from the right angle. “I'm coming in,” I whispered to myself, and stepped through where the door seemed to be. The ghostly lines of the cottage met me with a familiar splash. It felt so much like the strange magic on the road. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

A wind brushed my ears, making them twitch. It sounded a little too close to a whisper, somewhere deep beneath water.

I stepped further into the house. The ground beneath my feet webbed with a strange light. Then as if from nowhere, wooden planks began phasing

“... you... that.... like it?”

The voice became stronger. Strange, yet somehow familiar. I kept going. The whole cottage seemed to flood into reality around me. A yellow pegasus sat upon a sofa draped by the opposite window. Tea simmered on top of a stove nearby. A white bunny tugged insistently at my hindhoof, but when I looked back, all I saw was green empty fields.

“If you don't want any tea, you can just say so,” said Fluttershy. “I don't mind. It's just that so many of my guests expect it, I'm used to making it... I'm sorry if you thought you had to have any.”

I smiled. What else could I do? I wasn't even sure if she was there or real but that was no reason not to return a little bit of kindness. “Oh, I would love some. Sorry. I just got a little distracted...” I shook a leg, carefully dislodging Angel. “Have you seen Twilight?”

The yellow pegasus blinked twice and then giggled. Something about the way she laughed seemed to suggest she knew something I didn't. But then, any foal over five probably did, at this point.

“Twilight is running a little late,” she admitted. “It's a little strange. She never misses anything. Not until you showed up, anyway.”

I stepped forward. Reality seemed to sink in even harder, with its own gravity, as if anchored to the yellow filly herself. “Er, I'm sure it's a coincidence,” I said. “Tell me... is everything alright?”

“What?” Fluttershy squeaked and looked up. “Of course it is. Why would you ask that?”

“It's just...” I glanced over my shouler at the fragments of the cottage entrance splitering into oblivion. “Don't you see that?”

“It's just a little bit of rain,” she said, in spite of the fact that it was bright as could be out. “Rainbow Dash helped me get over my fear of thunder, so it's all better now. Thank you for asking though.”

Again I inched towards Fluttershy. Now the weight of the place threatened to pull me to the floor. My feet itched incessantly with an unknown heat and I felt a migraine coming on. Whenever I looked at her, or got closer, it was getting worse.

“Oh, Twilight! I'm glad you could make it.”

I looked back again. Bits of purple and lavender coalesced from the void as Twilight stepped into the cottage and set her bags down.

“Sorry I'm late,” she said, nosing under the flap. “I wanted to pick something up, but the lines were way longer than I expected.”

I stared at Twilight. There was no way that this was the same pony who had just run home in a flurry to find her friend. Was I in another time? Another space? Maybe Twilight would know. If only I could show her this. If only...

I took another step towards Fluttershy, but something stopped me. The other Twilight pulled something from her bag. She touched my head with a hoof. Then with the sound of earth cracking, the whole scene exploded into ethereal mist and fell down the hill and into the earth.

Alone in the remains of Fluttershy's cottage, I tried to bring myself to my senses. Twilight had to know about this.

She couldn't have gone anywhere other than the library. I pushed my body as hard as I could and managed a good gallop towards Ponyville. The whole town seemed strangely apathetic to the disappearances in the countryside, as if nothing at all had happened. Yet I couldn't escape the inkling feeling that everything was about to burst at the seams.

The streets were quieter than they should have been for a late afternoon. A few denizens in the background. Playing. Buying. Living their pony lives. Was I like that, before the accident? Did I have a house here in Ponyville? Was there, somewhere, an empty room waiting for me to return.

Or worse. A family. Parents. Siblings. Some friend as terrified about my disappearance as the others were worried about Fluttershy.

Yet no one seemed to recognize me. No one was looking for me. Or if they were, they weren't doing a terribly good job at it. Ponyville was more than a modest village, but it wasn't that big.

One mystery at a time. I was alive and well, and I had Twilight Sparkle to thank for that. Now, I wanted to return the favor by helping find her friend.

I found the library and pushed my way inside. While our studies earlier had been something of a pile, the library was a total mess now. Spike pointed out shelves while Rainbow Dash zipped back and forth between them, gusting up quite a clutter. Then she dropped another one in front of Twilight, who was frantically scanning through page and volume trying to find some sort of answer.

“Any luck?” I asked.

Both ponies looked up at me with trepidation. Only Twilight responded.

“No. The spell should have worked if Fluttershy was anywhere. Even if... even if she was...” she shuddered and swallowed. “Even if something happened to her, I should have been able to find her. But it's like she's utterly gone.”

“I tried asking some ponies.” Dash dropped to the floor. “They acted like they'd never heard of her. This is... it's just too cruel.”

I winced. There was no way that it could have been my fault. How could an earth pony bend the universe in ways that seemed unimaginable even to a unicorn? And yet, when I had walked into her cottage, I saw fragments of another reality. Another place where she was safe in sound.

“I have to tell you something. I don't know if it'll help, but it might.”

“What are you waiting for, then?” Dash scowled. “If there's ANYTHING you can do, you'd better do it.”

I sat down. I explained the whole story, brief though it was, of finding Fluttershy safe and sound in some strange vision. Something that felt out of reality. Out of sync. I tried to figure out what was going on, but something threw me out of it. And the magic... whatever it is, it's been around Ponyville for a while now.

“Are you sure you didn't just hit your head extra hard?” Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Sometimes a pony can see funny things.”

I looked up at her. At any other time, I would have laughed. She was quietly trying to hide her own tendency towards, if nothing else, a few solid head traumas.

Our conversation came a halt at the sound of one young dragon belching up a scroll. Twilight immediately grabbed it with her magic and unrolled it.

“Thanks, Spike,” she said.

“Who's it from?” I wondered.

“The princess.” Twilight frowned and tilted her head. “I sent her a letter before you came back. It's urgent enough I couldn't wait.” Then she tilted her head the other way. “I thought she'd know, but... this is all wrong!”

I leaned over, not sure what to expect. The scroll contained two words written in hasty script:

“It's Time.”

“It's not like her to be so mysterious,” said Twilight. “It almost looks like it was written in a hurry.”

Rainbow Dash raced to a window. She did a double take, then looked back again. “Twilight, you need to see this.”

Worlds Apart

I was not in the Ponyville that I remembered. I should have recognized sooner when the laughter had gone from the air. How the very nature of magic seemed to twist and fall into a perverted state of being. No. There was nothing evil about this. It was just that we happened to be in the wrong place, the wrong time.

Rainbow Dash had urgently pointed us towards Canterlot. Or I should say, where Canterlot used to be. The entire mountain and surrounding countryside looked as if someone had taken a once beautiful painting and ripped the canvas clean open. There was void and white and tendrils of what remained of reality. While before we could only see the strange effects of this phenomenon, now, it was crumbling before our very eyes.

“They can't be gone.” Rainbow Dash scowled. “They have to be there somewhere in that mess of.... of...”

“Rainbow,” said Twilight. “Don't. Stay here. I can fix this. I can come up with something...”

Rainbow Dash whipped about. “Can you? I believe in you Twilight, but if you can fix this, then I need to go and find the princess. And Fluttershy. If they're out there somewhere, suffering... if something happens to me... then that just means I expect you to bring us all back.”

“There's got to be a better way,” said Twilight. “You can help me...”

“Help you what? Sort books? Twilight, I don't understand much of magic to begin with. This is way beyond me. All I know is that someone needs my help. I'm going to do what I know I can do...”

And she turned to face the cerulean sky. What could she do with her wings alone? What was she thinking? But then, I imagine that in the same situation, I'd want to do the same thing. Go where her friends had gone. Where they might be trapped and alone. And maybe, just maybe be able to help them. That's the kind of pony I'd like to be.

“I'm putting my faith in you, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash. When she looked back there were fresh tears in her eyes. “When all of this is over, I bet Pinkie will throw a big party for us all.”

Twilight forced a smile. “Alright, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash vaulted into the air. I could feel the force of her wings as she shot towards Canterlot, or what had used to be there. I could see her body split and refract into every shade of color, and then form again. We didn't see her cease to be, or perish, so much as shrink on the horizon until there was nothing left. She could have been fine, for all I knew.

Ponyville became more quiet. The occasional foal would peer out from a window and their mother would pull them back. But there were even less concerned parents and curious children around than there should have been. Flakes of reality were coming off all around us.

Twilight sat down on a center of grass and hung her head in thought. “The princess had time to tell me something. Something she thought would be useful... ah! Come on. We have to go back to the library.”

“Where else?” I managed to laugh. Someone had to. The space beyond Ponyville was starting to look an empty tablet. Blank fields of white and dust.

The inside of the library was in a surprising amount of disarray, in spite of Spike's efforts to stack and file the results of Twilight's previous excursion. As soon as we came in the door, the young dragon leapt on her leg and hugged on tight.

“Twilight! What's going on?”

“It's nothing, Spike,” said Twilight, but she didn't dislodge him. She lowered her head and pressed her neck against his. “Don't worry.”

“You've got that look that says something bad is about to happen,” insisted Spike. “I'm not going to go upstairs and sleep it off or anything. You're going to need an assistant, right?”

He shot me a look and I gave an amiable shrug. I was in no shape to play secretary. Twilight opened her mouth and closed it again, her motherly instincts deflected at first glance. Then she tapped her hoof. “Alright, then. You know the big hourglass upstairs? Bring that down.”

Spike raised an eyebrow and flicked off a little salute. “Aye aye, Twilight!”

He hurried off and the sound of shuffling and scattering objects began to reach us from above. Twilight mirrored them by sweeping the central table clean. I contributed, of course. All boys have the natural talent to make a mess, and so I descended with gusto, sweeping my hooves across books and pens and empty cups and everything in sight. Twilight tilted her head at me as the whole pile crashed to the floor.

“I have to help somehow, right?”

“You've provided at least one clue,” she assured me. “But I still don't get it. Why didn't I see anything at Fluttershy's place? Was it because you'd come into contact with the magic before? No magic is that powerful! What was Celestia trying to say... there are too many questions. I have to start at the beginning.”

She put her head on the table. Spike clomped downstairs, awkwardly carrying an hourglass at least twice his size-- a feat only made manageable by his draconic strength and his grasping claws. He waddled over and set it down in front of us with a thud.

“Anything else, Twilight?” he asked dutifully, wiping his brow,

“Just stay here,” she said. “I'll let you know.”

She tilted her head and grasped the hourglass, a beautiful spire of wood and glass, with the glow her magic and began to twist it. To reset it.

“When did this all begin?”

The hourglass turned. She released it with utmost care and the sand began to fall through the neck of the glass. We watched in silence as the grains fell. Before they could strike the bottom, they dissolved into silver light one at a time. I looked at Twilight, still casting her spell. Twilight stared back at me.

“What?” I wondered, but my voice was distorted. I couldn't hear anything even though she and Spike still spoke. The library seemed worlds away, mute, and the silver light leaking through the hourglass was wrapping around me now. It felt like a warm blanket, easing me to sleep after a long winter's day. I fought with all my might to maintain consciousness.

The library responded by shattering like a mirror, leaving me alone in an endless expanse of white.

“Twilight...?” I said, scared for the first time I could remember. My only company then was the distant echoes of my voice.

There was nothing that I feared more than that loneliness. Even being struck down by the lightning a few days ago would have suited me a bit better. Yet there I stood in the center of some comfortable void. No pain. No torment. Just the nagging feeling of comfort and sleepiness.

It had to have been trying to erase me.

And Twilight, what was she doing when I disappeared? Was she alright? Was that the spell that she had cast responsibie for banishing me? Maybe that was the problem... but no, she would have said something. She would have known somehow that I would have gone along with it. Even if it meant being faced with this.

She had to be out there, somewhere, trying her best.

“Twilight!”

I called again. The sound of my voice kept echoing in spite of the blank state of the world. Then kept calling back to me.

Twilight... Twilight... Twilight!

“What is it?” said Twilight.

I looked up. It was the middle of Canterlot, bustling with well-dressed ponies and a few bedraggled students. Twilight Sparkle somehow always managed to toe the line between both.

“Mfm...” I tried to speak, then realized that there was a freshly bundled book in my mouth. I offered it out and she took it, obligingly. “You dropped this,” I managed, with my mouth free.

She hadn't, of course, and wouldn't realize until later that it was my clever way of giving her something with little fuss.

“Thanks,” she said. “I'm in a bit of a hurry, though.”

“Mind if I walk with you?” I practically beamed. “I have to go there anyway.”

Twilight lifted an eyebrow. “Where? I haven't even said where I'm going yet.”

“The castle, right?” I ventured. Given her path, gait, and the time of day, it was fairly likely that she was going there anyway. And if I was wrong, well, no harm.

She smiled. “Yeah, okay. But just so you know, I'm not going to get you an audience with the Princess or anything.”

I cast my mane back and came to a slow trot. “Oh, no, I think I could do that if I wanted to anyway...”

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. We walked together, parting our way through the mild-mannered crowd as we went. Smooth paved roads. Marble steps. All leading up to the heart of Equestria.

She looked over at me and said something, her voice far away, eyes full of concern.

“I'm sorry?” I responded, tipping my ear up.

“You should be! It's your fault.”

I stared blankly at Twilight's friends, who'd managed to corner me alone in Sugarcube Corner. Somewhere in my stomach I felt the vertigo I should have associated with being whipped from one location to another. My decisions didn't feel quite my own, like I was watching my own life unfold. Was that because I was dead? Were these my lost memories?

“I didn't do anything,” I said, ears drooping. Clearly a mistake.

Rainbow Dash bucked me hard in the face, and would have done more to me, sprawled across the floor, if Rarity and Applejack hadn't held her back. “What didn't you do?” she spat. “If she wasn't trying so hard to impress you, she wouldn't have gotten broken her leg! She never tries to impress anyone.”

“'cept maybe the Princess,” muttered Applejack, but this did not help my case at all.

“What's the deal with you and her, anyway?” Rainbow Dash continued.

I blinked. A bit of blood seeped out of my lips from the kick, but the pain couldn't seem quite to push through to me.

“I know ya'll are a fine pony and all,” said Applejack, nudging herself between me and Dash, “but it might be better for everyone if you leave Twi alone for a while. You know what I'm sayin'?”

“I...” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I can't do that...”

“Sure you can,” said Twilight, giving me an encouraging shove. “Stop being so negative. You're smarter than you think you are.”

Things got odder. I was a lot younger at that point. Barely more than a colt and I felt like I had shrunk a fair bit to boot. And then there were the books in front of me. Lots of books. The one open in front of me seemed to be sitting on a chapter about organic carbon. Chemistry. I looked at the other books. Math, history, literature... every topic imaginable sprawled across the library table.

“You want to go to the Canterlot college, right?”

“That's just for unicorns,” I sighed, shoving the book away. “It hurts my head to look at this much information.”

“You'll get used to it,” she assured me. “It is mostly unicorns that go to school there, yes, but you wouldn't be the first earth pony to pull it off. I said I'd help you, so I'm not going to give up! Now, what's the next question...?”

The scene shifted again. Then again. They started to come too fast for me to parse. Sometimes there was Twilight, and her friends, and sometimes there wasn't. A flood of emotion hit me like a wagon caravan to the face. Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Luna forbid. Sights, sounds, feelings, voices... days when our families had grown old and we watched them through our own fading gaze. Nights when we struggled for our lives. Times when we all went our separate ways and life went on. But they seemed to lead one place.

“Twilight...” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. I couldn't block out the images. I fell to my belly and held my hooves over my head.

“What?” she answered back in a myriad of voices, in every emotion. Joy, sadness, love, hate, amusement, anger...

“Make it stop,” I pleaded. “What do I do?”

“Just hang on. You can do anything you want to, right...?”

Could I? If she said so, maybe it was true. Maybe all I had to do was concentrate my thoughts on one time and place. But what...?

“Don't come back,” they said. All the Twilights.

But I was beyond reason at that point. I turned my thoughts and my imagination back to the moment where it had all began. I ran as hard as I could, and blocked out everything else.

Out of Time

All of creation washed clean of its slate, spiraling inwards to that point. That featureless hill where I'd stood and Twilight had changed fate forever by saving my life. Reality crept through me as it fell apart and for a brief moment I could see. I could understand. Maybe it was the threads of the universe coming unwound from my perception. Or maybe I had just chosen to block it out, time and again, staving off the inevitable.

It could have been the 'real' Ponvyille, or a facsimile, a memory. It didn't matter. She met me there, just like I knew she would.

“You see it now, don't you?” I laughed, mostly at myself.

“See what?” Twilight moaned. “The end of the world? There's nothing left.”

“Of course there is!” I put on my bravest face and clopped her shoulder with a hoof. “Dear Twilight Sparkle. You brilliant filly. You figured it out before I did. What happened to us.”

She maintained defiance. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Of course you do,” I said, and planted my haunches on the ground. It was nearly silent ,now that all was left was a small field of reality and all the universe to just the two of us. “Oh, no one blames you. No one else could pull it off. Of course then you were stuck with me, and things just got nastier from there.”

“Pardon?” she said. “We don't have time for this.”

“Oh, but we do. We always have, and that's the problem. You know that's what Princess Celestia meant, don't you? Time. It was always a matter of time. Repeating and retrying, hoping there would be a happy ending.” I tapped my forehead with a hoof. “You probably only remember a little, but I remember it all. Oh yes. Every time, every detail, from the first time you saved me. It took decades to reach this point before, when we parted ways. Then the next time I stuck with you. Married, I think, with three untameable fillies. That was more effort than a lifetime, I daresay.”

Twilight looked incredulous. “What are you.. and how did you pull that off?”

“Being a little clever,” I mused. “Recitations. Some things I cobbled together myself. Chronicles. I've learned to be a ripe conman over the ages, too. Then swept you off on some ridiculous escapade over the western sea.” I laughed so hard I was crying. “Oh, your friends were furious! I thought Dash was going to kill me, but... oh, that was so long ago. So many lifetimes ago. It always turns out so differently. One time you hated me, fierce and true. I'm not sure how we kicked that one off.”

Her head moved up and down in slow motion as the blank slate of all things crept closer. Maybe she was remembering. Maybe she always knew, the way I did, and just enjoyed remembering it with me. And we both knew what happened next. It happened every time.

“I don't think I can do it,” she said.

“Sure you can.” I smiled. “That's how this whole mess started. One little hop back to one little moment in time. One insignificant little...”

“Shut up!” she sobbed. “I do not need to hear you give this speech again.”

I sighed. Then I hugged her tight. Her heart was beating so incredibly fast when she pulled me close. We would need the space soon, anyway, because oblivion was near to tickling our heels. “You're right,” I whispered. “I hate being so cruel to you like this.”

“It's not you, it's...”

One hoof to her lips. I smiled. “You always go back. You always save me. That's what makes you incredible. But you're too good.”

“I can find a way...”

“We're out of time. We're out of everything. It just wasn't meant to be.”

“I'll keep trying! So don't...”

I looked into her eyes. “Twilight. This time it only took a few days for the world to end. How much will it be again, next time? A few minutes? Too little time to prevent it from happening again? I can't take that risk. You have to be better than good. You have to be good enough to carry the world on your shoulders. Even if I'm not a part of it.”

“I know,” she said, trembling. I tried to still her but I was shaking worse because I knew what happened next.

“Besides, I've had lifetimes to mess around with when most ponies only get one.”

“And they'll all be erased.” Her grip grew tighter.

“Details.” I smiled. She hated when I didn't take things seriously.

We were all there was in all the world. We scarcely noticed.

“Will I remember?” she asked.

“In your heart at least,” I said. I hoped as much. “You'll go back, and you'll do it. It'll kill you inside but you'll get it done. And you'll love me the way you should have, the way a mother feels when she loses...”

Twilight Sparkle choked back a breath. We were fading. We were out of time. I brushed back her tears with my nose and kissed her on the cheek. In the face of that she could still blush like a princess. I whispered the last two words I would ever speak to her, such selfish little things. “For me.” I pleaded.

She didn't reply, instead pouring all of her effort into one spell. She screamed. We were ripped apart and echoed across all of time and space until we'd been brought back to the moment where it all began, and where it would end.

Where was I, again?

That's right. Dancing in the rain. Height of the thunderstorm, and all the world coming alive around me. The ferocity built and this time something caught my eye. Twilight Sparkle stood a few paces from me. A smile. A tear. Then three things happened.

The sky exploded with light and violence.

I saw her speak a few words, but my exploding eardrums couldn't last long enough to collect them.

Then everything faded in a rush.

Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, for everything.

Epilogue : Dear Princess Celestia...

Dear Princess Celestia,

Forgive me for writing out of turn, though I believe there may be something to report by the end. It is another rainy day and I can't stop thinking of the last storm. I need not remind you and I don't think I could bear to think it. We all mourned the loss of our neighbor. Yet I am filled with a great sadness I can't understand, a blank spot in my mind that I cannot seem to fill no matter how hard I try. But I cannot ask any more of you in terms of this.

My friends are helping me every day. Applejack brings me fresh greens and tells me about the things Applebloom is getting into. Her last adventure involved the girls trying to get their 'bee keeper cutie marks.' Suffice it to say, I had to look up an ointment for stings. Hopefully they'll stick to more tame ideas for a while! Pinkie keeps planning for Spike's birthday, which we're all looking forward to. Rarity asks me for my opinion on her new work all the time, even though she knows I'm not that good at it. Fluttershy showed me a Roc the other day! It was an incredible beast, and we even got to fly on it. Let me tell you, I don't like being up there without the balloon. Brings back bad memories, I suppose. Rainbow Dash is.... still Rainbow Dash. I suppose that should be enough to brighten anyone's day. She probably has the right idea. Cried at the funeral and the very next day she was back to her usual antics, but twice as hard. Something tells me that she just cranks it 'to eleven' (whatever that means) whenever something shakes her. She says she knows it's not her fault some pony stayed out in the weather, but I'm not sure if she believes it. We're all trying our best.

If I take anything away from all of this, I suppose it's that your friends will always be there in your time of need, and help you heal and move on. I thought I was there, myself, but something strange occurred yesterday.

It may have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but for a moment I thought I saw him in the streets. A strange yellow colt with eyes like sapphires. But he had his mark. A very strange one. I've seen ponies with the hourglass mark before, all a little different. The sands in his were like diamonds, and I could swear that they were actually flowing!

I must still be tired. But he was laughing with other strangers and he smiled at me like some kind of scamp before he disappeared into the crowd. Maybe I'll see him again. Maybe I won't. But I'd like to think that he'd been given that joy, somehow. I think somehow we all will, in time, and I hope you do as well.

Your student,

Twilight Sparkle