Apathy

by Pathos14489

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia
Length: 23715

Celestia stole her heart—literally—and kept it when she promised to give Twilight freedom. Now furious but unable to do anything about it, Twilight copes with her new unlife.

Celestia betrayed Twilight's trust. Even after begging and demanding Celestia to kill her, Celestia stole Twilight's mortality from her again. Forced to stay alive, and a student under her unwilling tutelage, how will Twilight cope with watching her world die again?

Thanks to SpiritOfDancingFlames for making the cover art, and for helping me in editing the remaster of this fic.

Published 2016-02-20 02:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-12-21 02:41:17 UTC

Emplecti Mortem [Remastered]

Author's Note

Apathy is by far my most popular fic for... ... ...I honestly have no idea. Reading it gave me a migraine a few months after the fact, so it wasn't the quality of writing. The plot is... mediocre at best, so it wasn't the plot. And my original intentions with even basic things, like how a character should act was lost because...I honestly don't know. I titled the story Apathy, and yet the very character who was supposed to be apathetic was the most whine ass-y, emotional ball of turmoil this side of fanfiction.net.

But I couldn't stop thinking. I couldn't get my head out of this universe and all the things I never explored, all the things I left out or messed up. That's when I thought up Requiem. But every time I tried to return back to this, my reference for some material? It's just... Messy and repulsive to read it. So I thought I'd fix it and be done with it. So! Over the next few days I'll be releasing one chapter a day of the re-edited and re-thought Apathy. It's more what I originally intended but for some reason I couldn't figure out how to put it on the page because I was a dumb ass or something.

And for anyone who's still interested in the original, I'll condense it into a single chapter, all the outtakes and bonuses included, and leave it, clearly marked, at the bottom of the chapter list.

Emplecti Mortem... The one title that I don't remember what in the actual fuck it was supposed to mean. I didn't double check that the translation was the same both ways and trying to decipher it doesn't make any sense. Which, I can't really blame myself. With the relatively explosive success Pulse had, especially compared to literally everything else I'd ever written, I was in a panic to try and get as big a profit off it as I could. I literally sat down and wrote Emplecti Mortem in like... a three hour sitting and shoved it onto the site as fast as I could.

I didn't even proof read the damn thing.

Honestly proof reading was only a trait I picked up halfway through this story. And a bit later, I found SpiritOfDancingFlames, one of my best friends who literally reads everything I write nowadays and helps me edit them. My grammar is nothing to scoff at, if I can be so egotistical, but he certainly understands a few of the subtler practices better, and he's not inside my head. Not to mention he doesn't know my intent and can provide insight that only a reader can.

This chapter was interesting, because I started off the story with an entirely different intent than what I finished it with. Mainly because I was still developing the entire concept all the way through. So I apparently changed things a few times and now details are a bit screw-y. Nothing really follows the same train of thought per chapter. Not that I want every chapter to feel the same, I want each one to feel unique and to be their own experience. But if it feels like it was written by a different author every paragraph, then there's an issue.

But the original chapter was a mess. A mere fraction of the ideas I solidified later on existed at this point.

Anyway, if you read the original mess, and this rant above, and apparently you're here again, reading this once more?

Thank you, all of you who read it and still continue to read it. ...For some reason.

Emplecti Mortem [Remastered]

This was sick. "Are you sure about this, Princess?" He asked her. Such a disgusting, though strangely attractive stallion. Kinda like a snake. "I'm not certain how stable she'll be psychologically, nor physically."

"I'm certain." Celestia said with her usual stern princess voice. She was so certain of herself, so sure that when she did this, her little protegee would run up and give her a big hug and thanks. Or perhaps she knew how I would react but simply didn't care. "Start the ritual." In a way, should I feel gratitude? That I mean this much to her?

Bum bum... Bum bum... Bum bum...

I could always feel my heartbeat as I grew older, but to be a heart? It was more than merely feeling the heartbeat. It was you. Your everything was in that heartbeat—how you thought, how you felt, how you counted the seconds down—that was the pulse of life everypony shared. But only I have ever known and will ever know the horror. The ungodly willpower it took to resist the madness racking my thoughts at each beat.

His magic felt sick and twisted. I would've had an urge to vomit had I had my body, but feeling that slick, oil-like dark magic envelope my every deepest emotion, my kindest, fondest memories and my darkest hates, felt wrong in all the bad ways. It was perverse to the very essence of equinity. If he turned on her and attempted to control my magic with his, it might tear half of Canterlot off the mountain, or it might give them all cotton candy bums. I'm not sure, but I know I really like the second option. Everypony has a good laugh, and nopony gets hurt except the pre-school teachers. ‘Help, help! A toddler just ate my cotton candy anus!’ I could hear it already.

He lowered me into this soulless husk of a mare. At least she had the goodness left in her heart not to sacrifice another life for mine. She had a team of necromancers hired, and given immunity to the laws of ethical magic use—thankfully only within reason—to construct a soulless body to implant me into. I wouldn't have thought she'd be so willing to delve into the dark arts this early in my life, but the corruption to the time line might have had something to do with that.

Thankfully, time itself didn't unravel. Both she and I can count our lucky stars for that.

As he touched me into the cadavers gaping chest cavity, I felt myself click into place like a gear in clockwork. I felt my magic expanding, building and growing; flowing into the never living mare's horn.

«♦»

Flash—Clunch!

I magicked her—my chest closed instantly, shutting out the stallions magic and expelling it from near my soul as fast as I could; a cloud of black hate forming above me, before it quickly dissipated. My body seized, trying to breathe through missing lungs. My hooves smacked against the marble ground of Canterlot castle, cracking and chipping it as my innate Earth pony magic began to flow through my new body. "Hold still!" He yelled in frustration more than anything, his magic helplessly trying to still my flailing body as I acclimated and my lungs grew. "I have to open you up and put your lungs in!"

My eyes widened at him in white hot rage. I reached within my soul, pulling for my magic to my already blazing horn and shot a bolt of kinetic energy at him, but my body trying to breath with fetal lungs messed my aim up entirely. The shot went far too far left, turning the far wall to rubble as it burst out into the adjacent corridor. One of my lung expanded rapidly, a gurgling breath tore its way down my throat as my body force air into the lung.

"Twilight, stop! He is trying to help you!" Celestia tried to hold me herself this time, her magic bearing down like elephants standing on my skull. I heard my heart beat again as I willed my magic to overpower hers. Like crumbling an eggshell, the weight disappeared instantly.

Then my second lung expanded. With a wrenching breath that tasted like blood and vomit, I found my new voice. "You selfish brat!" I turned on her; screamed at her, stumbling to my hooves as my container’s once green, but now browning, mane bellowed in the air behind me, expanding rapidly; filling the room. My ancient magic had begun to taint the body like cancer, tingeing the green coat brownish; it was turning it into me. "I asked you not to! I wanted peace! You lied to me and broke my trust!"

My voice tuned itself closer to my own with each syllable. She started to retreat in steps away from me, my magic expanded throughout the castle uncontrollably like wildfire and she was straining to keep a fraction of it in this room. "You endangered all of time and space for a petty desire! You have no idea what you've risked, you suicidal fool!" I slammed my fore hooves on the floor, shattering the marble around me in frustration.

"Twilight, I'm sorry!" She pleaded as my bones shifted, my height grew to match her within seconds. "I know what did was risky and selfish, but I couldn't let you die! I couldn't kill you!" And then higher, my inches towered over her in moments.

My face contorted in emotions I can't even describe. "You should have left me in torment." I hissed at her, before calming my raging magic in an instant. "I will not play this game with you, Celestia." I stalked towards her just another step, and another, now looming over her like a mother scolding a child. "You betrayed me in the most sick and twisted way I can possibly imagine. You bet the lives of my... your… Our subjects and every other life in this universe on the small chance that they wouldn't die when you brought me back here." I stared at her a moment, and sighed as I backed to the center of the room again. I felt the movement inside my upper back as bones grew and shifted old ones around.

"Celestia, my dear old friend." I grimaced. “I ask only one thing of you. Let go.” I said with sorrow in my heart, concentrating all of the ethereal waves of power that flooded from my body into the surrounding area into the never-mare. "I just want peace, please grant me this one small request."

She yelled, charging at me with tears streaming. But my ears were the first to go. My skin peeled and caught fire, a lavender and violet fire that danced off of me. It fluttered away, taking my meticulously crafted body with it. But through the agony of scorching myself alive, and through Celestia trying to extinguish the magical fire, I could hear it calling me again.

Bum bum... Bum bum... Bum bum...

«♦»

She was beyond selfish and petty; she was not the Celestia I knew. The body this time was devoid of color, but rune signs traced along each limb from a central gem implanted on the base of the neck between it’s shoulder blades; the runes were branded on. The lungs were already in this time too, they had discovered better spells in the forbidden archive that could simply phase me through them. "I won't lose you, Twilight. I can't lose you." She said.

Around the mares horn were several golden and iron rings of various enchantments. Magic binders. She hoped to at least limit my magic until she could calm me down. She nodded to the necromage stallion, who nodded back as he lifted me from the glass vase from Celestia's study. It only had a very simple stasis enchantment I had disengaged a long time ago, nearly right after being put it in. His magic was just as horrid as the last stallions, it still rubbed me in all the wrong ways as he lowered me through the new body and sat me in place.

«♦»

Flash—Clunch!

My heart sat in place as I regained feeling in my hooves in almost an instant. Air flooded into my new lungs again; the small hole letting access to my heart and lungs closed. "You’re a disappointment." My first words, they managed to tune this one's voice a lot more like mine. Were these another circumstance, I would've been slightly impressed.

"Twilight, try to understand." She trotted over to me, staring into my eyes. "Please try to understand how much I can't do what you asked of me."

"I understand, Celestia." I can feel my magic building at the base of my horn. It feels like my skull might explode from the pressure, the enchantments are actually somewhat decent for the period. "There is little I don't understand." Brute forcing them would be too dangerous, it might hurt her. "One of those rare things however, is why you can’t understand my wish and give it to me." I opened my eyes, glaring at her from the floor. "What I don't understand is why you would give me your word–"

"Twilight–"

"Why you would give me your word that you would help me find peace, then immediately steal my very soul away and endanger countless lives in the process." I found the weak point in the first ring, I snaked my magic into it and started on the next.

"If I didn't, you never would have let me try to help you!" She waved her hooves around, whether she were trying to justify her actions to me or to herself I don't know. "You would have stopped me before I had the chance."

The second and third ring fell quickly; I had learned the pattern. "Let you help me?" I laughed at her. I openly, without any restraint, laughed at her. "Let you help... Do you have any idea what this feels like? To be the the reason everypony you ever loved has died?" Then the fourth.

"Twilight… I unde-"

"You don't understand anything!" I laughed again. "You've had Luna all your life, even when she was gone, she was never once gone forever. You always knew she'd be back." I closed my eyes. "You think you realize what it's like, but you've only experienced half of it. One day, when you lose somepony like Luna? Somepony who you thought would never, ever go away?" I opened my eyes again, my magic disengaging the enchantments on the magic binders at once. "That is when you will get a hint at what I feel like, that is when you will want to die, and that is when Twilight will steal your death from you as well." My mane floods the room again, Celestia and the dark mage backing off in shock.

I sighed. “I’ll never give this up, Celestia. Never.” The runes covering this body turned to soot, the gem falling out and tinkling on the floor. I concentrated it again, poof.

Bum bum... Bum bum... Bum bum...

«♦»

She used to talk to me, plead with me to reconsider every night; tell me about her day. Now she keeps me in the dark like her shameful little secret. I felt a new, equally horrible, magic engulf me, I couldn't decide whether her ignoring me is a blessing or a curse as I was lowered into yet another body.

I'd long since lost track of time. How many years had she been trying to force life unto me? How many decades had passed now? How long until she grows up enough to end this menagerie of denied torture and risk?

If I'd learnt one thing from immortality, it was patience.

«♦»

Flash!

In an instant my senses spanned out, they had refined the process to a simple teleport and a quick spell cast. No messy holes in my body, nothing of that sort. "Are you ready to accept life this time?" Her question was dull and impassive. She had grown past the begging and pleading, instead now seeming to treat this as a monthly chore.

This time, I didn't even bother to talk to her. I didn't even look at her. What should I do this time? I have a mental list of everything I've done to reset the destroy my bodies, I do ever so hate repeats. Maybe I should teleport all my skin off and replace her bed sheets with them? I wonder at what point she'll finally kill me out of anger and spite? What can I possibly do to anger her that much? "Are you already thinking of how to kill yourself this time?” Duh. "Don't you even want to know what's at stake this time?"

I curled an eyebrow up, keeping my eyes closed. Trying to plead with her kindness and her mercy had failed. She didn't care about her subjects as much as she cared about me. In some twisted way, I should feel a sense of importance, but it only gives me sorrow.

My only option is patience.

I heard her hoof steps close in near my head, barely an inch away. Then I felt her warm, peppermint scented breath on my face. "I love you so much, Twilight. Please, let me save your life." Everything has it's end, Celestia. Even me. In fact, my end was supposed to happen a long time ago. ...Or in a very long time, depending on how you look at it. I almost hummed to myself in thought. After all my experience with time magic, I still have issues with that. Is something that happened before for me but in the future considered before or after?

She chuckled. "Humor me. At least give me a little satisfaction that you know what you are going to do before you kill yourself this time." She moved away and I opened my eyes. I'm in a hospital. "She's just in the next room, please come with me and see her." I stood up, my mane extending and trailing all throughout the room behind me, and yawned impassively. I couldn't care less, but it gave me an excuse to come up with a really creative death this time. I already liked the bed sheets one. Maybe replace Luna's bed sheets? "We've made quite a few advances in magi-technology and arcane spell weaving over the last sixty years, Twilight." Cadenza? Actually, no. That might damage the time stream more than I'd like if she's traumatized this early in life.

"It feels like it passed in a heartbeat to me." I trotted over to her, my voice was perfect; save for my monotone. They had almost perfected the body after so many tries, it was a lavender unicorn mare just a slight bit taller than Celestia, but my magic was already transforming the body even more. They couldn't create her as an alicorn yet, but it was only a matter of time.

She smiled that smile she always does. I at one point found it charming, but then I learned that wasn’t her real smile. I met the real Celestia and she was beautiful. "It's all thanks to the Princess of Friendship. But, you already knew that, didn't you?"

"It’s the truth.” I shrugged.

She allowed a frown for only a moment before grinning again. "I think you will be proud of me in a moment. If I'm correct, which I usually am nowadays, I think I found the perfect reason for you to stay around." She tipped her head and trotted out of the room into what I can tell is a much larger observatory. "I’ have had Twilight researching time magic and its risks a lot lately."

"Then she should already have informed you that changing this much is already a risk."

"I've also had her researching a spell to circumvent these risks."

"Sounds even more risky than simply dealing with the problems in place already."

I trotted into the room with her and glanced down at the sight of an ongoing surgery. "She was successful in her research of course, hence why I've ordered the deconstruction of Trottingham."

I turned up and gaped at her in shocked horror. "You can't! Trottingham was a very important part of history in the next two hundred years, you can't simply–"

"I can, and I already did six months ago." She smiled at me again. I stared at her. "I went back into your future again and studied the notes and photos you left in the dungeon. I found a few things interesting and I've devised the perfect solution." She gestured to the ongoing surgery with a hoof, "I believe you knew young Glowheart?"

I immediately stood on the railing and focused down into the room, staring down at the nurses and doctors busying about around a table in the center of the room.

"'Glowheart', it's quite ironic really." She too stood on the railing, instead hooking a hoof around to rest her head on lazily. "When I saw her name and information in the birth records, I thought it was too good to be true. But there she was, Glowheart of the Spark family, a direct offshoot of the Sparkle family, the first unicorn foal born to them in nearly three hundred years."

I stared as they placed her heart back inside her carefully, strings of magic reattaching the veins and already closing her up. "What are you playing at Celestia? If you viewed my journals, you know how important she will be. She has to be Twilight's pupil, or she won't ascend. The Equestrian Republic will never come to pass."

"I know." She almost giggled from amusement. "That's why I had her glowing, golden heart removed and bound to your new body." She tapped her chin almost thoughtfully, "I had Twilight herself design the protective enchantments, and I personally engraved them. If it detects her magic at all, or if your body dies, it will engage and make her pure little heart vapourize."

As the color left my face, she lost her cheery attitude immediately and glared at me, edging her muzzle close to mine threateningly. "You've pushed my hoof, Twilight. Now you will understand how I feel." She jabbed her gold plated hoof on my chest, "I’m giving you the choice to kill her if you want to die. Do this, and I will grant you the peace you want." She backed up, leaving me mouth agape. "Show me you're capable of what you're asking me." She frowned at me.

I stared at her in the purest form of betrayal and horror. What other choice could I make?

«♦»

“Unbeing dead isn't being alive.”
― E.E. Cummings

Magister [Remastered]

"No." I stared at her without a flinch as she glared right back at me.

Celestia cleared her throat, trying to hide her annoyed glare. "You don't seem to understand–"

“I understand perfectly well.” I stared at her. “Which is why I’m saying no. Absolutely not, never in a thousand eternities, and not under any circumstances."

"Twiligh–"

"Buck you."

She huffed and stepped loudly, but hardly as hard as what I'd consider a stomp. "If something bad happens to her, then it could have serious repercussions with the binding spell." Oh Mothers… She was almost pouting. “I don’t know if it’s strong enough to resist a change that big.”

"Nothing bad will happen to her if she's with Twilight." I said as I narrowed my eyes at her.

"You can't be certain with all the changes I'm planning to make." She narrowed her eyes in return. "I won't allow that to happen to my subjects again, no matter what stakes you think we are against."

"I don't think." I shook my head, the freshly crafted iron bands hanging from my ponytail clanked against each other and my chest plate. I felt my back bones shift again rather uncomfortably and shuffled my hooves into a less painful position; my wings would be growing soon. "I know what is at stake. You're just being too foalish to admit that I'm right and you’re wrong."

She looked out over Canterlot from her personal balcony. "Don't you want to save these ponies? Are you so cruel to damn them all?" She waved a hoof towards the city below.

"I wanted to save them, yes. But I failed." I joined her in glancing over the city below. “While if I could turn back the sands of time, I would. But this isn’t fixing what happened, it’s screwing with it more.” The city had grown ever quickly since she had popped into the future to ruin the rest of my hopefully-not-eternal existence.

"I've had a lot of time to think about this, I know the best option is to leave things on their current course. What happened has to happen to pave the way for new life to emerge" I closed my eye, "Ponies are not the most important species. We’re not the be all, end all race of the universe. In the grand scheme of things? We’re nothing, we’re not even insignificant. We merely don’t exist on such a level."

"When you become a Princess of Equestria, you pledge your allegiance to Equestria." She stormed off the balcony, stomping off into her room like a brat. "We may value life, we will fight for the betterment of other species if we can, but I would rather commit mass genocide than allow what happened to Equestria to happen again."

"I appreciate your foalish beliefs, Celestia. They’re noble in a way similar to the noble cause of a school foal destroying a bully’s life to save his classmates. Oh no, but the bully was going to be an alicorn later in life.” I turned toward her calmly, subconsciously waving a wing and feeling empty at the lack of gesture. I then awkwardly wave my hoof instead, several seconds too late. “It sounds so good to say that, doesn’t it? To look around you at all these ponies and tell them that? What if you were to come face to face with the new life that’ll one day blossom here? Would you tell them to buck off the damn planet because you were here first?”

"These are my subjects! This is my country!" She actually stomped her point into the ground. "Beyond any other form of life on or off Equuis, whether in the distant future or the ancient past or some alternate universe, my subjects come first! Even if what you think will happen happens, I will let it happen if it means by any small chance they are safe!"

"Then why did you risk them all by dragging me back here?" I whispered to her, softly trying to snuggle into the grey matter of her mind. "Why did you think that putting your subjects lives on the line—without even giving them a choice in the matter—was the best course of action?" I jabbed her chest, my hoof guard clinking against her chest plate. "Because if–No, when it happens, do you honestly think that cute little spell she put in place will prevent the cataclysm that follows?"

She gives a little shrug. "If I didn't, they'd all die one day anyway." She retorted, closing her eyes and lowering her head. She looked back up and stared at me. "And for my plan to work, I need you to cooperate."

"You need to use me like a tool." I snorted. She didn't actually care at all. In a way this upset me, but more than anything it was a relief. At least her intentions were... Okay no, her intentions were still horrible. Scratch that. This was worse than if she were a blinded, doting mother figure. "I will not help you jeopardize every life in the universe."

"Then everypony will die for nothing." She sighed. Her horn started to glow and the light waned from outside. Night was falling. “This is wrong.”

“Of course it is, why are you doing it?”

“You are responsible for all of the violence; all of the suffering.” She hissed at me, glaring at me from the corner of her eye.

“No. I’m not.” I nearly scoffed.

“Yes.”

“No.” I stared.

“You engineered the device that caused this situation, Twilight. This is your fault.” She jabbed my chest.

I glanced to her hoof then back to her face. “No it’s not, it’s your fault. You did this by bringing me back here.”

“I had to do what I did to you, Twilight.” She stared at me.

“And I have to wait until you change your mind.” I shrugged. “I have the rest of time awaiting me, Celestia. You don’t. Do you plan to sit idly by while your student stresses out and loses all the best years of her life, wasting away to keep that spell from falling apart?” I asked. “What will you do when the universe is falling apart?”

She stared at me, her emotions hidden under her princess face. “It’s not fair.”

I laughed, “Oooh. It’s not fair! I didn’t realize that.” I gaped for a moment at her, her eyes closing as she brought a hoof up to rub her temple. “I see now, it all makes sense.” I step back, trotting around the room. “Well now everything is clear, Celestia! It’s not fair!” I sit down and wave my hooves to the ceiling. “Hello universe! You need to stop falling apart; wanna know why? It’s not fair! By Celestia’s will, you shall be stable again!” I throw my gaze back to her, grinning widely. “‘Not fair’? Are you kidding me?” I drop my hooves to the floor to brace myself.

I stood there for a moment, laughing under my breath. I heard her sigh and fixed her with an indifferent stare. "Twilight, please leave me alone. We can discuss this later. "

I chuckled, trotting back over to her. "Cute. You wanted me back, now you’re annoyed that I’m not the asskissing student I used to be."

“Twilight!” She paused, sighed, and looked up at me. "Please, Twilight. I understand the situation at hoof, but I have other responsibilities. Go see Glowheart, I know you've probably missed her for quite a long time." I stared at her before smiling at her, turning and walking away. "Thank you." She breathed. "And Twilight?" She called but I didn't stop. "I don't see you as a tool, Twilight. I do love you with all my heart, please don't doubt that."

"Keep telling yourself that." I muttered under my breath. I stopped at the doorway, holding it open with my magic as I stared back at her. "I will not be her protector, nor her teacher. That is no longer my job." She didn't respond, instead watching me dumbly. “If I failed to protect her once, I’ll fail again.” I closed the door and continued on my way.

«♦»

"Who're you?" She stared up in awe at me. Glowheart; she was so tiny back… now?. "Are you my new teacher Princess Celestia told me about?" More time travel-y gobbledygook… No matter… While she wasn’t the beautiful mare I’d come to know so well yet, but still a charming young filly with a poofy, fuzzy mane.

I bent down to my knees, yet still towered a head over her on the already–taller–than–her hospital bed. I tried to smile as warmly as I could, but I could feel my heart breaking at the sight of her. "How do you feel, Glowheart?" My eyes lingered on the slight discoloration on her chest; I couldn't even scan the protective charm on her heart or I might risk setting it off. "Do you know why you are here?"

She tilted her head, "Kinda.. The royal guard came to my house and talked to my mom, then she said that I had to go to the royal hospital to see sir Gravy." She glanced around. "Have you seen him? I still haven't met him and I'm feeling really guilty about it." She pouted at me.

I chuckled, "No, no, Glowheart. Sir Gravy is not a pony. Surgery is a type of healing practice which involves cutting a pony open and fixing what's wrong inside them manually, sometimes even incorporating healing magic in cases where the spell requires a line of sight to function."

"So are you my teacher? The doctor said I had a sick day and I didn't have to go to school today, does that mean you're bringing school to me?"

I opened my mouth for a moment, "I–I'm not–" I coughed, covering my stuttered words. Still? After all these hundreds of thousands of years I can get flustered? Interesting... Perhaps a study on alicorn psychology over the course of a few thousand years might yield interesting results. "No." I smiled slightly, a little awkwardly somepony might say even. But the results would be biased as I’m the only one I could research without risking anything.

She blinked. "Oh. Well I hope my teacher is half as nice as you are. Or at least as tall." She giggled. I smiled at her then frowned as my bones shifted again. "Miss?"

"I’m sorry, I have to go." She pouted. Ow. I think a bone popped out of place.

"What's your name?"

"Twi–" I paused, for perhaps too long. She blinked at my hesitation. I shift my eyes ever so slightly in thought. "My name is Magister." I finished, forcing a smile.

I stand up and try not to look like bones are not stabbing out from under my shoulder blades, "Oh okay. Bye Ms. Magister!" She waved excitedly as though to hammer her words in with joy.

I returned her smile before I closed my eyes.

Blink

The world crackled and fizzed before it snapped into place like an inversely breaking mirror. I was back in the room Celestia had so graciously given me to stay in temporarily. More like until she had a use of me. I sighed as I trotted up to the mirror in the far corner and regarded myself in time to see my wings bulging against the splitting inside of my upper back.

It’s almost tragic; she just doesn’t understand. Poor Celestia. I know what is best for life to continue, even if that means letting ponies die out. That's just what it means, it's not my choice to make unfortunately. I don’t control time, I certainly don’t control life and death. That’s a job for a goddess.

«♦»

I flexed my new wings tenderly. The joints were sore; yet they popped with a satisfying relief as I arched them. Such a long and boring process. I liked the first time way more. A flash, a bang. A pat on the head like a good little pet and boom. Princess wings. This time it was like childbirth. Just waiting for them to push out of my body and nudging them along to grow right. A little passive magic focused around the wings pushed the process along faster, but I couldn't rush it too much.

Not that I actually cared or anything, but even if the body was a throw away, not having properly developed wings was setting off my OCD just thinking about it.

The castle halls were almost devoid of even the royal guard. I suppose Celestia doesn't want the public, or worse, Twilight catching wind of the second purple alicorn roaming Canterlot castle. I hummed an old song, my tail swished in the air to the tune. I haven't banded it with iron yet, but I don't think it's risking any real magical outbursts just yet. Though with the rate my heart has been generating magic lately, it wouldn’t be long. "Oh come off thy high saddle! Thee must be cheating! Come hither and we shall give you a violent frisking worthy of the Mothers themselves!" I heard echo down the halls. I recognized that voice and tone.

I passed the guards, casting a minor silencing charm over them as they started to protest, and entered the royal quarters quietly, casting an incredibly weak shield spell over the doorway. "Watch the halls of the apartment building!" The tiny voice I barely heard yelled in the lunar Princess' ear. Luna. Even now she spent her days and nights playing mere games. "Not those halls, the other building you idiot!" And failing just as miserably as in the future.

"We would like to see you attempt such a task with the pathetic amount of information you've tried to feed us!"

"Still playing that silly old game? I thought by now that other one was out." I said, idly taking a seat off to the side, and slightly behind her.

She flinched, but her focus was admirable in a way I suppose. "Twilight Sparkle? I was not informed of your visit, nor your uninvited entrance to my personal bedchamber." Trying to put on a show with her modern dialect. Though bedchamber was still archaic, perhaps she's finally trying to butcher the two together. "But the gesture of familiarity is appreciated I suppose."

I glanced over the map and listened to the raging orders from her headset. "They're probably going to ambush you there." I focused on the point of the map, a purple dot of light appearing in front of it. "Hm…” I cast a tiny spell, listening to her headset with a bit more clarity. I listened, “Trying heading around to the far side of that building first and attack them. That'll give your teammates the upper hoof." I drew an arrow over the map.

"Are you sure, Twilight Sparkle? I do have more experience in war time efforts after all." She started to glance back for me. And yet you were still a shit strategist.

Don’t let her see me yet. "Eyes forward–Look enemy, quick!" I yelled as I saw an opportunity. She jumped and gunned the advancing player in the skull. "Around the building!" I took regard of her shock and turned it to my advantage. She followed my orders blindly, the panic of combat muddling her thoughts. She galloped around the building and peaked around the corner. Sure enough, my assumption was right. She could see the approaching ambush. That was lucky.

She muttered into her headset absently, relaying the plan to her fellows. "See that one in the middle with the red cap? Everypony seems to be following him." She aimed and popped him in the head. ...And was then immediately taken out by a rouge player.

"Buck!" She nearly tossed the controller. "See?!" She pointed a accusing hoof towards the screen.

"Watch." I whispered as I edged closer, lowering my head to hers at eye level.

We watched, waiting for her to respawn. The dots on her map moved in an impressive formation for a casual game, half splitting off and going around. That split was her addition to the strategy. Five seconds. The dots halted, having encountered the confused enemy. We both watched as the once formidable enemy is mowed down without their leader. Two, one.

Luna respawned and was met with great praise from her teammates through the headset. "Huzzah!" She hopped to her hooves, jumping once in place victoriously for good measure. I sat to my normal height happily. I was right of course. "Our enemy has been defeated!" She turned towards me, her eyes blinking rapidly as they adjusted to the near pitch black darkness(relative to the screen) around her. "How did you know th–"

She stared straight ahead at my chest plate in what my best guess is confusion, as her vision adjusted, before turning her gaze up at my face. Her mouth moved open and closed before she teleported back, her horn alighting the numerous light sources in the room. "Who are you?!" I blinked away the slightly annoying pain caused by the relatively bright lights. "What have you done with Princess Twilight Sparkle?! How did you gain her voice?!" She aimed her glowing horn at me, "Speak now or perish!"

I stared at her, quite honestly a little annoyed. "Celestia never told you? You didn't even question it when your castle was repeatedly flooded with my magic?"

She moved her mouth, echoing my words with her brow creased. "You're ignoring my question." She narrowed her eyes.

I leaned down so she could see my face on her level. "You're ignoring your eyes."

She stared at me strangely. I honestly don't know what's going through her head right now. What lies has Celestia fed her to keep her docile? She peeked past me to where her guards are waving their forelegs and panicking silently in the doorway, glued to the ground. She shook her head and mouthed, 'What are you idiots doing?' to them before looking back at me. "You silenced my guards."

"How else did you think I came in without the royal guard announcing it?"

She continued to aim her horn at me in silence, peaking around me again. "You're an alicorn."

"You're very observant." I soaked very in sarcasm on purpose, leaning back to my level.

She grunted angrily. "You two!" She regarded the two guards sitting on their butts looking very disappointed in themselves. They hesitated, then stood at attention, saluting with their forelegs. "Go and retrieve my sister." They nodded and galloped off with silent hoofsteps.

"This might be fun." I glanced over. “It’s the next round.”

She didn't respond as we stared each other down. And by that, I mean that she tried to stare me down but I instead glanced around her room curiously. It's not like she actually posed much of a threat anyway. She had a few dozen of the present day games, a couple actual arcade machines. Oh and her bed was big enough for around two dozen ponies if they were comfy with each other. "You're repeatedly dying in your match." I remarked. I tilted my head at the bed, maybe three dozen could fit if they were very comfy with each other.

She spared the screen a glance before staring back at me, though her eyes shot at the screen over and over again. "Tis of little concern."

I flip my ears as the tiny sound finally reaches them. "Your teammates are getting angry."

She eyed the controller half a hoof in front of her. "Tis a less important matter than one of personal security, I'm sure they would understand."

"Or they'll buck you out of the guild or clan or whatever you kids are in these days." I snorted as she cringed.

After a moment more staring, her horn lit and sounds shut off abruptly. I smiled as she inched a tad closer, glancing over, I noticed the game on the start menu. Her horn almost poking me, I shifted my focus at her hooves, "Your stance is off."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

She dared a glance down. "No, it really i–" I brought a hoof up and pushed her horn in the other direction. Her focus broke with a yelp of confusion and her spell misfired across the room, impacting the wall with a disappointing thud.

"You're right, but you were too close." I teleported her back another five hoofs. "Try there. And what in Tartarus was that? Are you really that out of practise?"

She glared, her horn glowing brighter. Probably a more aggressive spell. "Don't try to undermine us!"

"I'm not trying." I stared calmly. “Has the last thousand years of being trapped on a floating hunk of space debris and then some odd decades playing games really put you off your edge that much?” I snorted. “What happened to the Lunar terror? You, the boogeymare of the enemies children.” I raised an eyebrow. “You were an amazing and terrifying mare of combat. And now look at you. Clumsy, petty and out of practise.”

Her eye twitched rapidly, I suppose I struck a fair number of nerves with that bit. "Luna!" Celestia barged into the room, "Twilight!"

"Celestia!" Luna shouted, her voice full of relief.

"Princess Fat Flanks!" I cheered in mock joy, clapping my hooves while aimed in Celestia's direction.

"Who is she?! How did she gain access to the castle, much less my bedchambers?!" She cast a hoof in my direction. I allowed the yawn this time now that Celestia was here to corral her sister in if things went south.

Celestia frowned. She ignored Luna and glared at me. "Really? You had to waltz right into Luna's ro–Of all the things you could do." She took a sharp breath. Luna shifted from hoof to hoof confusedly. "Stand down, Luna. Let me explain the situation around our" She waved her hoof while searching for a word, "Guest here."

«♦»

Celestia was such a liar. "So you saved Twilight Sparkle's life in the far future six decades ago and brought her back her to help you save the future?" Luna recapped what her sister had taken nearly an hour to explain. Celestia nodded. Luna regarded her sister, then me. Then her sister again. Then she gave me a silly look, then her sister an even sillier one.

"Are we finished here?" I asked, utterly bored out of my skull.

Luna looked back at me, "Yes." Before Celestia could protest, she quickly added. "And thank you for your assistance. Though one thing still troubles me… Twilight wasn’t a natural alicorn like me and our sister, while the prospect of her living some few thousand years isn’t out of the question, hundreds of thousand however... How did you accomplish that?"

I smile, blinking at her.

Blink

When my eyes opened, my vision was already finished settling. I had teleported to the hospital wing again. I passed the nurse trying to greet me without even a glance. Don't interfere. While… Technically doing this is interfering, but talking to anypony else might make it worse.

I entered into Glowheart's room again, "Magister!" She yelled happily, trying—and failing—to lift up an incredibly large book. "After you helped me with that word, I asked the nurses to bring me a–" She paused, looking down at the cover studiously. "Dic–tion–ary. It's a big book of really super cool words!"

Somewhere in my mind I was reeling, I've contaminated the time stream without even realizing it. Will she even ascend to being an alicorn now? If she does, will she be Princess of Super–Cool–Words now? Who the buck knows! But I let a smile grace my features, regardless of the absolute bucking terror the implications that might have. "That's wonderful, Glowheart. I'm glad to see you've taken an interest in Equestrian language. So few ponies do nowadays"

I sat beside her bed again, calling a gasp from it's tiny inhabitant. "Whoa! I didn't notice you had wings earlier! Are you a Princess?!" She clapped her hooves together, the book nearly falling before I caught it with my magic. "Why haven't I heard of you?" She gasped again, inhaling more air than I thought a normal pony capable of holding, "Are you like... Some kinda secret Princess Magister of the Secret Teachers Club?" For the amount of air she inhaled, I’m astonished she could manage to whisper that.

I chuckled. "In a way, yes. So if you could keep this just between us..." I trailed off, giving her a wink.

She grinned widely, winking back with a giggle. "Can you teach me a ton of really cool words now?"

In the back of my mind, I heard Celestia laughing her fluffy cake flanks off. But for then, in that peaceful little moment? I couldn't say no. I could be as bitter and horrible as I liked to everypony else, but even I couldn't honestly say I haven't wanted to see Glowheart smile again. Even if she is a filly.

«♦»

Glowheart yawned loudly, we'd been studying words almost all night—in fact I could feel Celestia pulling on the sun now. "Princess Magister, I'm tired." I faked a yawn with her, so she wouldn’t feel awkward. I… Rarely needed sleep, alicorn physiology and all that.

I closed the book with my magic, levitating it to a nearby table. "Then let's take a break. Do you want to sleep?"

She nodded. "Yeah." I smiled and nodded. But just as I was going to teleport, "Can you sing me a lullaby? I know I'm a big filly, but Princesses must know really good ones, right?" I worked my mouth a little, absorbing the words. "Super secret Princesses who are really nice especially." She whispered with a giggle.

I smiled, "I think I know just the song." She squealed with glee, tucking herself under the covers as I magicked the lights off. She grinned excitedly with her head on her pillow. My horn glowed; I was casting a diluted silencing charm to keep my singing quiet. I clear my throat before humming the beginning of the song. I hummed, lifting a hoof and petting her head gently. "Birds," I called the words from memory, the words and the memory itself both incredibly old in my mind. "In the sky. Carry these words for me."

Her expression shifted from excitement to one of awe. "Life: tasted sweet. It let me live!" The silencing charm kept my yelled line quiet. "Let me breathe."

"Love: hurt so bad. But still," I pulled a quick breath, almost choking. "Saved my soul." I felt those deep and long buried emotions stir in my throat and swallowed them with an audible gulp. "Flowers of a brighter past. They bloomed so free-beneath the sun."

"Memories; I want to give them to you." A tear burned like brimstone in my eye, but I blinked it away. Glowheart was staring at me with this unreadable expression, sitting up slowly as my hoof fell away. "So you can see-" I trailed off, drawing another breath to hide a sob. "-What we left there."

I forgot. I forgot Glowheart was there, I forgot my hidden tears and swallowed sobs, I forgot the dangers to the time stream. But I remembered the song—who sang it and why. "When all hope bleeds out, what remains is doubt. Should've left it all for you–For tomorrow."

"As your time draws near, will you live in fear?" I felt something release in my heart, like a great flood. "Could've left it all for you, but we let–Go." I trailed off, tears flowing freely.

"Princess Magister..." Glowheart sat on the hospital bed quietly, a couple tears streaking her cheeks. "Are-" She swallowed, "Are you okay?"

I nodded and hugged her with my foreleg, a hug which she returned. "Yes, my little pony. Don't worry, I'm okay." I wiped her tears with a flicker of my horn, mine too. "I'm sorry for upsetting you. Alicorns can get sad sometimes too though." I tuck her back under. "We're not perfect."

"But Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight and Princess Luna and Princess Cadence and Princess Flurry Heart all seem perfect?" The sheer number of times she used the word ‘and’ and how horrible it sounded in a sentence made me nauseous. We'd talk a lot about proper sentence structure and grammar when she woke up if I had anything to do with it.

"They're no where near perfect." I stood up. "Like, Princess Luna? She plays video games all night but she still sucks at them. Or Princess Celestia is addicted to sweets, she’s definitely the fattest Princess." I said with a small laugh. Glowheart giggled with me. "Now sleep, there's always another day."

She closed her eyes, a small snore soon following. I sighed, then too closing my eyes.

Blink

When I opened my eyes in my room, Celestia was standing by my window. "I just received a letter from Twilight." She said without looking at me. I stared at the back of her head. "Another of her friends passed away today. She's grown depressed lately, which is why I think her spell had the fault."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

She sighed. "I want you to stop being so apathetic. These are your subjects too, it's your responsibility if they all die. And if the spell creating the pocket for our time line destabilizes, everypony will die." I glared. "Glowheart will die." I growled, she's trying to toy with my emotions.

I hated her. I really hated her. "She's died before, and this time won't be my fault."

"Your fault. It wouldn’t matter if she died so long as it wasn’t your fault.” She snorted. “You're being selfish."

"Says the stuck up mare who bucked everything up in the first place." I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I reached up with a hoof, touching my chest to figuratively grab a wave my emotions away. "This is not my mess, nor is it not my problem anymore. You made sure of that." I opened my eyes, staring her down. "Fix it yourself."

She stared at me. "You're no better than a murderer if you do that."

I laughed softly. "I am a murderer." She didn't share in my strained joy however. She merely stared at me with an unreadable expression before teleporting out of my room. I walked to where she was before she left and leaned against the wall, staring out over Canterlot. "I'm a murderer." I sighed, frowning at myself.

I remember now, tomorrow is the funeral. I think I'll go, relive some old memories.

«♦»

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

― William Arthur Ward

Author's Note

I had a huge rant and commentary of all my failings as an author and a few things I feel like I did right in this, not to mention where my trademark quotes came from, but I accidentally forgot to save it so... Oh well. Point is the original chapter sucked and this one does too, just marginally less.

Amici Perierunt [Remastered]

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of..." The reverend droned on and on. I honestly couldn't bear to listen to that nasally, snarky voice of over–confidence in the false any more than I could listen to Celestia's snarky voice of over–confidence in the false. In fact, if circumstances were different, I would prefer to hear Celestia nagging me. But that's not why I was here. "Now... I understand Ms. Fluttershy has something to say regarding the dearly departed." I was here for a much more sentimental and terribly selfish reason.

I sat up straighter, my charmed invisible wings cramping against the wooden bench. I saw an elderly yellow mare with a white mane and a green evening gown dress. It was one of Rarity's later works before she passed away. Though, the only white mare I saw now was Sweetie Belle, now an aged mare with the wrinkles and grandfoals to prove it. She sat with Apple Bloom while alongside Scootaloo, patting her shoulder or giving her little hugs. Poor Scootaloo, she was with Rainbow until the very end. Never was the same either.

Then I saw myself. She was sat with Pinkie Pie, dressed up in the most ridiculous set of funeral regalia I could imagine. I had such a ridiculous sense of fashion back then. I scoffed as I brought a hoof up and played with one of the freshly enchanted iron bands in my mane. "Uhm..." Fluttershy's voice croaked like a frog; no one dared utter a word. They all sat, staring a her. "I'm... Not much for public speaking. I never have been."

Her voice was silent, but carried over the deafening silence of the Cloudsdale funeral home. I spotted several unicorns casting and double-checking the cloud solidification spell I—Twilight created for the event. It was simpler than casting the cloud–walking spell on all of the several hundred non-pegasi guests, and it took way less magic. "And if Rainbow Dash were still here, she would've hoofed me over the head and made sure I had the b–best speech ready with fireworks a–a–and..." She coughed, wiping her face dry. Though it didn’t really make it much less of a pain getting this many non-pegasi up in the air.

She sighed. "But she's not anymore." She sniffed, laying a hoof on the casket that sat behind her, emblazoned with Rainbow’s Cutie Mark. A beautiful design of powdered sapphire, emerald and rubies. It shone like a sonic rain–boom itself. Her brittle bones creaked, I could hear them from here. She didn't have much longer herself, neither did Pinkie. Twilight, the me of the past, she knew that too. "I have a s–song for Rainbow though." She pulled a piece of folded paper from her chest pocket, fumbling to unfold it.

Twilight reached with her magic, unfolding it for her. Fluttershy gave her a thankful gaze, mouthing 'thank you' and fixed her eyes back on the paper. She cleared her throat and started to hum. I closed my eyes in appreciation of the only time this song was ever heard by a crowd. The only time she ever sung it for that matter. "Birds," I never thought I'd hear it again. "In the sky." Her voice broke and she coughed as I burned the song and the moment into my memory again, refreshing the details I'd lost and quite simply just appreciating the song. For the second time since I first saw Celestia at the Tree of Harmony, I was thankful. "Carry these words for me."

«♦»

I took a deep breath as the funeral ended. Rainbow Dash was gone. I regarded Twilight, she was weeping alone, shooing her two remaining friends away. I let the breath out. They only made her more upset, they reminded her that she was never going to have an ordinary life with ordinary friends ever again, that once they were gone she had lost the last of her five amazing friends she made all those decades ago. I remembered the thoughts, but I knew the future. I knew what she might've had in store, the great adventures she would have had, the friends she might’ve made; the love she'd find. But that was gone now too. Celestia had taken everything I cherished from her before she ever knew it would happen.

I sighed, closing my eyes.

Blink

I dispelled my illusion mid–teleport, then opened my eyes in Canterlot castle. I stretched my wings, then sighed while resigning to my room. I fell to my bed, almost passing out instantly. I groaned to the incessant knocking. "Go away."

"Okay!" Glowheart yelled through the door. I snorted, reaching and opening the door with my magic. "Oh!" She exclaimed from partway down the corridor, galloping back to the door. She ran inside and slid a couple hoofs as she gasped and awed at my room. "Whoa, this is a Princess's room?! It's..." She looked from the drab drapes to the boring bed, "Pretty." She finally said, completely straight faced. I can agree that the room is the architectural equivalent of flaccid penis. In fact, I felt like Celestia was trying to insult me with this room, perhaps as a subtle way of coaxing me into doing her dirt work.

"I know, it’s boring and horrible." I said, rolling over and facing her properly. My hoof fell off the side of the bed. "Did you need something?"

She finally looked at me and flinched, "Oh I didn't know you were sleeping! Are you still sleeping? Should I sing you a lullaby now to make sure you keep sleeping? Maybe I shouldn’t be asking you if you’re sleeping...?" She paused, “Maybe I shouldn’t ask myself either…?” She hummed, tapping her chin with a hoof. "Wait, how are you talking if you're asleep?"

"Sleeping? Nonsense!" I huffed, sitting up and stretching my wings again. "I'm perfectly awake.”

She nodded, grinning brightly at me. "Okay!"

“Again, allow me to ask once more.” I stared. "What do you need?" I think I want a hayburger.

She turned to her side, showing off a dictionary strapped to her back. "More words." She said simply, grinning even wider; her face could only grin a tad more without splitting in half I'd venture to guess. Princess of Super–Cool–Words is sounding ever more likely and the thought was terrifying.

I hummed in thought. "Maybe later." I really want a hayburger. She pouted, almost literally deflating. She vaguely reminded me of Pinkie Pie. "Wanna go grab some food? I know a great place." I trotted past her, slowing for a moment as I tried to work out which decade I was in. "I think."

She gasped and quickly followed, "But you're supposed to be a secret Princess! How will you be a super secret Princess if you go eat with other ponies?" With a little reverse engineered changeling magic of course.

“Secretly of course.” I closed the near forgotten door. “I'm the Princess of Secret-y Secrets you know. I, and I alone among the princesses, know how to go out in public without drawing attention to myself." I leaned down and winked at her. "Don't you think I'd get bored sitting up here with Sun Butt and the Grumpy Gamer all day?" Her mouth formed an 'o' before she kept pace.

"Oh okay!" I led her onto a balcony, Canterlot Castle had a lot of pointless balconies, it made it look fancy. I peeked off it, humming at the city below. "Yep. It's there." I leaned down and booped her nose with my glowing horn.

Pop!

"Whoa!" She jumped back, looking around the restaurant. I popped my neck. Color shifts were fine but shape shifts always left me with a cramped neck. "Princess Magister?" Glowheart spun in place, her expression slowly growing more and more panicked.

"I'm a secret remember?" I winked at her, revealing my true eye color for a moment before I blinked it away. She gasped, her eyes widening. Did I ever mention how beautiful Glowheart's golden eyes were? Once upon a time she was considered the most beautiful mare in the country because of those eyes.

Nodding quickly and zipping her mouth with her hoof, she winked back. Gah. That looked weird. Winks are weird, I’m not gonna do that anymore. "So... What kinda food do you want?" I gazed over the menu, teleporting Celestia's coin purse to me—not like I had any money after all.

«♦»

"Wow really?!" Glowheart and I had long finished our food, but we kept buying refills and milkshakes, occasionally paying for everypony in the restaurant to eat as much as they wanted—Oh! And the best part? Telling stories. "What happened next?" She chirped while slurping her fifth-teenth milkshake.

I took a sip from an iced tea. "So when May Bell found out what I did, she made a this insane sweater for–" I paused my story, glancing around. Something felt wrong.

Bum Bum...

Everything felt wrong. "Magister?" I turned my head and stared. I could feel it coming, closer and closer, nearly here. "What's wrong?" My horn glowed as I cast a far sight spell, my vision left my body, flying high and through the walls of the restaurant.

My sight swam across Equestria until I saw it. Hellfire and death painted the land, the sky itself bled and screamed; faces of the never screeched in agony as their souls were torn to bits. I broke the spell, jolting as my vision returned painfully; you're not supposed cut the spell off mid-use but ehh… Too much time and not nearly as interesting. My disguise faded and collapsed, my height and color returning. Glowheart looked up at me, concern clear on her face as she stood up. "We have to go.”

"What's going on? You look worried—Is something bad happening?"

I smile. “Nothing you should be worrying about, sweetie.” I rested a hoof on her shoulder.

Pop!

"Find her! And find Starlight Glimmer if you can’t!" Celestia yelled, waving a hoof to send off a pair of Pegasus guards. Her magic was vigorously writing letters, green flames scorched around the ceiling, grabbing letters no later than the instant they were sealed, sending them far away.

"You felt it too." It sounded like a question, but it wasn't meant to be. I trotted up beside her, but she refused to meet my gaze. "I was right."

"I don't need you to be smug about it." More letters scattered out in puffs of green fire and smoke. "Twilight has gone missing." She marched out to the balcony, pausing the letters and gazing out as if to find her herself.

"What's... Going on?" Glowheart vocalized her visually obvious confusion.

“I'll tell you all about it later, but the gist of it is Princess Celestia is less mature than you are.” She nodded slowly, twitching an eyebrow up. I touched my horn to her head, "Don’t fear, my little pony. All is safe." I told her, channeling my magic into her. Her eyes twitched, then shut.

She was gone in the tiniest flash and with a sound like distant clapping hooves as her afterimage folded up and swirled into itself, almost without an instant passing. "Are you going to help?" Celestia asked, walking up beside me.

“I just lied to a foal." I tilted my head. “Not just a foal, my student. I just lied… To my student.” I glanced back at her. “Is this how it felt?” I snorted. “It was so easy, and here I was hoping it was a big heart ache in it’s own right, but you just took the easy way out.”

“Now isn’t the best time for this, Twilight.” She sighed, turning away; magic grabbing more and more parchment as she trotted over to her desk. I went to the balcony anyway.

"Her spell likely would've held—at least for a little bit longer—if you hadn't gone for something as stupid as removing the center of the history for pretty much the entire planet before properly testing the spell wouldn't crack under pressure."

"That's where it all started though, Trottingham..." From her tone alone I could hear her hatred of my beloved city. "It’s where Starfield will be born. She's the one who would've tempted Twilight into building that… Thing.." I heard her round on me, but I remained turned away.

Her hoofsteps grew closer. "She was my friend." I muttered, “Make no mistake, I acknowledge that I am almost entirely to blame. But what you did is a thousand times worse.”

Celestia slammed her hooves onto the balcony next to me, trying to catch my attention. "She was the reason everypony died!"

I looked away from her, my voice turned to a low hiss. "And now you’re the reason everything else in the universe will.” I snickered, “How does it feel, Celestia? Trotting in my shoes?” I glared at her, my lips souring into a crooked frown. “How does it feel to be a murderer of worlds? Of nations never heard of by ponykind, of species never thought possible? The harbinger of death across a trillion worlds and a trillion histories?” I snorted, “I killed my people, I won’t deny that. But at least I didn’t destroy everything like a spoiled brat. ‘If I can’t have them, no one can’! Is that what you were thinking?”

She stared at me, her mouth moving in strange ways, her tongue curling to words, but the sounds never coming. I scoffed, closing my eyes.

Blink

I didn't need to listen to her talk about things she'd never, ever understand. She doesn't even know what kind of monster she's prodding with a pointy stick, she didn't know what I had to go through in the past. "Princess!" Glowheart sat up straight on her hospital bed, "You're back!" She then noted my expression. "What's wrong?" Why is she still staying in a hospital? It’s obvious she doesn’t need additional care, why is she still here? Another plot by Celestia to make me grow closer to her?

"Clear your face of worry, little one. It's bad for your complexion." Observant little filly, always was. "It's nothing you would understand, child." I said as I summoned a dictionary. "Would you like to learn something else now?" Reading away my troubles, like usual. Some things never change.

Her expression told me though, and I dismissed the dictionary back to the library. "You could 'teach me' about what's wrong." She said with a frown.

I shook my head, she always was a stubborn mare, definitely made quite a few mules blush. "Just two old mares getting under each other's' skin. Celestia is doing something really irresponsible and wants me to help."

She tilted her little head, likely wondering how a Princess, much less Princess Celestia could mess up on such a grand and utterly stupid scale. "Why won't you help? At least if you helped you could make sure she didn't mess up too badly."

"That's not how things like this work out a lot of the time." I sighed. "It's not my job to be her keeper, she took that job from me a long before you were crawling." I rested a hoof on her shoulder. "Perhaps you should rest instead, there's a long day ahead tomorrow, I'm sure."

She frowned but nodded. "Okay, Princess..." She almost whined, but laid down as I magicked the covers over her.

I leaned down and nuzzled her cheek, "Have lovely dreams, my little pony." I sighed, raising up to my usual standing height.

She smiled, "Goodnight, Princess." Wait. My ears twitched.

Bum Bum...

My heart seized, fluttering violently. I threw my gaze towards Trottingham, though my eyes only saw a wall, my soul and magic felt the world falling apart; feared the devastation. My breath hitched as a shock wave ravaged the castle, the stone and mortar crumbling from the violent vibrations of the earth shattering underneath it.

Cra—crunch!

My ears swiveled up faster than my head could, the ceiling was collapsing. Glowheart. I quickly looked back to the panicking filly, reaching my hoof towards her.

Then I felt oddly warm, kinda like right when you get out of a hot chocolate shower. The heat spreading from the skin of my face just a little before dissipating into a sickly, sticky cold. I couldn't move my hoof—I couldn't feel it for that matter. Trying to force it spiked pain up my foreleg. I flinched slowly, my lungs heaving puffs of powdered castle. I could feel the clouds of dust and debris scattering in front of my face, but I couldn't see them. I vaguely heard the sounds of screaming guards and panicking royals, among the shifting of several tons of stone and rubble, but above all those other noises in the distance, I heard dripping.

Then I felt dripping as something warm dropped onto my muzzle, splattering and burning my wide, unseeing eyes. I yelped, quickly moving my head out of the way and rubbing my face against the first dry and unhurt part of my body I could find. The pain from before felt like lightning as it ran up my leg again, but I stifled the reaction as best I could. My iron bands thumped against my neck, sticking for but a moment. I remembered myself and sent an assload of raw magic into my horn, unable to think through the pain for the equations needed for a proper light spell at the moment.

My horn lit, illuminating everything in a purple haze. Almost everything was purple, the crags of stone from the ceiling and the boulders crushing my legs. Except red. I saw red everywhere that wasn’t purple. Red on my crushed legs, red on my chest, I felt red coating my face and I saw red dripping down in the dull golden eye in front of me.

«♦»

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
― Markus Zusak

Author's Note

-

So I realized something while writing this chapter. Glowheart is like... Twilight cares about her a lot, but shows her a lot more care than other ponies because she's like one of Twilight's links to her past life. Moreso than Celestia was. She was like her first student and she was still around even after Celestia had died, so to Twilight, going back to her as a filly was like a memory.

It's kinda like she knew deep down that what she was doing was hurting the time stream, that Glowheart would die if she didn't help, but when she went to Glowheart, it was her escaping from Celestia, from her memories of what Celestia had done.

At least that's how I saw it, which is my explanation for why she was so kind and caring towards her, but not really to anyone else.

...That turned out really well for her I guess. :trollestia:

-

This chapter felt a tad short to me, but I couldn't think of much else to add in that wouldn't feel forced in, and I didn't want to write it longer than that, it felt like the perfect place to end it to me. Though I'm also disappointed in this chapter for some reason, there's just something that feels off about it... Maybe wlam can point that out. So... Sorry if this one disappoints anyone.

Also thanks again to Scorch215 for prereading, and to seye eniugnas for the same reason.

Ah... This chapter was really horrible. Granted, Magister was an entirely different nightmare to rewrite, Amici Perierunt was... strange. A lot of it had similar stylings to how I write now, but I was still getting better into the groove of writing in first-person past tense at this point(My personal favourite type of writing.) It was like a ghost to read and edit, it felt familiar in terms of how it was written, but at the same time it was clunky and full of pointless things. Like most of this story honestly.

Dea Equorus [Remastered]

I almost screamed—the first of three bands in my mane buzzed, bolts of energy bouncing off of it as the enchantment activated, allowing me access to more magic. The caved-in walls and fallen ceilings were enveloped in my magic, but my eyes never left hers as I magically made them stop existing. Well. Not really, just stop existing here. They still existed, just as far away from right here, right now as they possibly could. They might simply reappear in a billion years. Or two seconds. Or on the moon, dressed like clowns. But I'd cross that gap when it became more important.

My body gave out with the lack of support, two of my legs were damaged(see the definition of: missing) beyond use and my other two were dancing two different rodeos(see the definition of: seizing). My magic screeched like warping metal as it wrapped around my limbs and started to regrow them. I dragged my near corpse body over to Glowheart my horn glowering with various spells. First, a simple electric shock. I saw her heart thump through the gore-i-fyed hole opening up into her chest cavity, so I repeated a steady lightning spell, my magic reaching out and molding her back to the right shapes as best as I could manage.

Her eyes twitched, as did her head as she appeared to writhe in agony as I forced life into her corpse, telekinetic magic reached out like tendrils and wrapped around her limbs, holding her while I healed her. I peered into her chest again, her heart was damaged. Without hesitation, I directed the healing magic into it. For one, beautiful moment, as the damage started to close up, I allowed a brief smile. "You'll be okay, don't worry."

Splat

I reeled and actually screamed this time, as her heart atomized into my face, the protective enchantment having engaged. My widened eyes burned and cried, tears and blood draining down my face. "Buck!" I yelled, the sudden and unexpected bloody facial breaking my concentration enough for my body to fall and thunk on the floor, almost limp. I heaved, standing up on bleeding stumps and two not-so-bleeding hooves.

Healing magic poured and poured into her again, the second band on my mane fizzing and sparking as more magic flowed from the contained reservoir. "This isn't fair! Not again, I can't lose you again!" My voice bleated out in sobs as I wrapped bleeding and bloodied limbs around her, pulling myself to her. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

But then, as though the first nail in her coffin, the magic refused to heal her anymore. Yet she still laid dead in my arms. She wouldn't breath no matter how much magic I forced into her, no matter how much I tried to stimulate the nerves in her brain to at least be able to pull a memory extraction. I couldn't even feel her soul anymore, it had left her and fled to the void.

She was dead.

I shuddered, tears beading around the corners of my eyes, trying to bring myself to breathe slowly. I took deep breaths, hugging her as the bands in my mane hissed, clicked and dropped to hang from my skull. I fell down with her, mercifully landing on the castle-crushed mattress.

«♦»

I don't remember how long I left myself lying there, hugging her chilling corpse as I slowly bled out. I felt the chilling, familiar weakness of blood loss slowly crawling over me, like a quilt of snow that hung in the air. I didn't cry; I didn't sob. I just laid and held Glowheart to my chest, staring. My Glowheart, my dear pupil and closest friend. This was the second time I had held her corpse in regret and remorse, and yet I don't feel it's dampened, though I didn’t cry. The emotions felt just as raw as they tore into my heart again, still without allowing any preparation; without any sense of hesitation, but I couldn’t let myself that guilty pleasure of tears.

She came a short while ago, but wouldn't muster the words. Celestia stood some distance away from me, still in quiet mourning, or fear. I hated her, her actions caused Glowheart's death. If she at least hadn't of bound her heart, I could've saved her, and she knew that. "Leave me alone before I do something I regret." My voice didn't sound like mine, it sounded vile and hate–filled. The castle is wracked with earthquakes again, more chunks of stone falling and crashing down around me. But Celestia is holding a shield of golden sunshine over me and her. "Stop it!" I curled into my pupil more, hiding my bloodshot eyes from the blinding light. "Leave!"

"You know I can't do that; I won't." Her voice was as calm and collected as though she were taking a tea break. I hated it.

"If you don't leave, I will kill you." I tore my face from my student, glaring madly at Celestia. "I'll crush you and rip you apart, molecule by molecule."

"Why?"

I flung my good hoof around, slamming into the ground angrily. The stone under it shattered, cracks spider webbing out from the center. "This is your fault! You and your stupid plan killed her! This isn’t fair!"

"It isn’t fair?" She walked over the cracks and rubble, bending down until her face was inches from mine. "I didn't realize that it isn’t fair." I snarled under my breath, growls gurgling in my throat. "Why… My kingdom is in shambles, and I have my faithful student missing, and her counterpart lying on the floor, hugging a corpse.” She snorted. “Twilight, I’m so sorry for you. But this is your fault. If you had helped me, at least have done something other than run away and hide, she would be alive." Her eyes softened. "I truly am sorry for you. I can only imagine how you feel."

"Because you couldn't kill me and prevent all of this!"

"Remember what you're doing and why you're doing it." Her eyes narrowed and I flinched, curling my clotted hoof just a little tighter around Glowheart. "You have a fresh idea of that pain now, so tell me." She stood up. "Could you really expect anyone to force themselves to feel this way?"

I reeled my head, my horn casting pitch, my eyes smoking purples and greens.

Flash!

I shielded my eyes, my magic fading away softly. She was likely gone to try and fix things again, along with fleeing from me. She left me, abandoned to my thoughts and rampant emotions. Something above me crumbled, one of my bands buzzed, my magic returning like rapture. Oh sweet bliss! I turn my gaze up to see a large boulder before it disappeared in black and green fire. This euphoria of casting darkness around like your plaything; what pleasures that no mortal could know. I tilted my head back, shuddering as the tingles went down my spine. The worlds I could burn, the planets I could crum―

The bands responded automatically, sucking their magic away, leaving me wanting. Dark, hateful magic. It was like a drug. I frowned, closing my eyes, feeling the magic of the world bending and twisting. I’m better than him. I sighed, resting my head. I’m better than her.

I felt for the vibrations, the little tells of the universe, Celestia went through the streets of Canterlot, "Gather the survivors! Take everypony out of the city, relocate them to the base of the mountain." Her orders echoed the streets as the guards and any able bodied ponies helped move the debris. Unicorns—older foals, adults and guards alike all ran through the city, their horns ablaze as they tried to help everypony they can.

With her magic, bending and twisting the city scape, Celestia helped lift the debris of a couple of small houses, one of the royal guards helping her as a small group of two families ran from the rubble to her side. They all hugged her, begging their thanks as they wept and assured her they were alright. When they left, Celestia spotted a piece of parchment fluttering through the breeze, she grabbed it and quickly scrawled a message on it, a quill and ink appearing in a flash of sunshine, before sending it away in green fire and continuing, the ink and quill too disappearing with another flash of magic-y twists.

I sighed, opening my eyes and petting Glowheart’s sticky mane. She still hadn't found Twilight, the one pony who might be able to help. Where would I have been had this happened and I were hiding from the Princess?

Blink

My eyes opened, the spell dying away. My senses were dull, the world was white and blue. I moved to sit up, Glowheart was gone, the castle was gone. "The astral plane." I said aloud, glancing around. Been quite a few thousand years since I was last here. It’s changed, though only slightly. Is that from the paradox or from the time difference?

"I've missed you, Twilight." A familiar voice called out to me, reverbing like a changeling’s almost.

I paused, recognizing it immediately, but not turning to her. An illusion? Some fabrication of the mind? Time itself collapsing? I glanced back; no longer a filly but the alicorn I grew to love for all those tens of thousands for years. I stared, “What are you?”

“I’m your student; your friend.” I stared, “You don’t believe me”

“Should I?” I slowly stumbled to my hooves, vaguely noting my legs weren't hurt. My wings flapping instinctually, I trotted to her, but not quite. “What reason is there I should believe you’re really you?” She slowly trotted up to me, still a tad shorter, but her mane nearly as long as mine again.

“Love.” She paused. “And trust.”

I stared. "How are you here? What..."

"Shh..." She leaned into me, whispering sweet nothings as she wrapped a wing around me. "I don't have long until my soul welcomes the void again, my beloved teacher. Please, listen to me."

I pressed myself into her, not wanting to lose her a third time, my hooves found their way around her.. "Okay." I sniffed. "Okay." They tightened around her as I almost choked on the words.

Then she pushed me away. Though it was the gentlest nudge away, it felt like she had seared my skin off. "Don't mourn me thrice, Twilight. I don't deserve all that. Dry your eyes." I nodded, wiping my face with a wing. When I looked back at her, she seemed to only grow more beautiful. "Don't be sad, though we all miss you, this is not what we want from you. We don't want you wallowing in anguish and despair over us. All your friends are here with me, and everypony forgives you, Twilight." She smiled warmly at me.

"Please, don't hate Celestia. She is no more at fault than you were when you and Starfield built the array." She rested a hoof on my shoulder, "Ponies make mistakes, and you are as much a pony as she is. But even you couldn't have predicted they would detonate, especially so catastrophically."

I shook my head, "How do you know all of this?"

"When ponies die, we go beyond the astral plane." She flicked a hoof, screens upon screens showing my time since I had accepted life again. "Even here we could know everything we needed, but there? We feel the emotions of our loved ones beyond any boundaries. Beyond any form of restraint or spell guard, we become one with those we love."

I walked up, placing a hoof against the panel of me and filly Glowheart laughing over lunch, tears streaming down my cheeks. "And I loved you more than anypony, Twilight. You were always there for me, you were everything to me from the very first day." All the panels faded to show filly Glowheart writing in her diary about me, then my Glowheart sitting behind me in her golden throne, then when she said goodbye when she died the first time. "You were everything to her already." They flashed every memory I had of her, both my Glowheart and this time's Glowheart.

"Why are you showing me this? Why are you telling me this?" I pressed my face against the panel of her walking along side me in the castle of Friendship, I remembered that we were going to dinner with the Alicorn Council, after dinner though was the first time she told me how much she cared about me, and me to her. After all those decades, we still hadn't made it plainly obvious. But then we did. "Do you have any idea how this is making me feel?"

"I could only imagine, Twili–." Her body crack and wrapped before fusing whole again. She sighed sadly, but smiled at me all the same. "My time grows short." She was fading away already, growing transparent. "Promise me you'll do better than this, I know why you're doing it but–" Her voice cut out, but her lips moved further. Luckily I can read lips, I read a lovely book on the subject a long time ago. '–you and I both know that you could do this right, that you could prevent time from unraveling and save everypony.' Her voice came back, but it was distorted. "Why won't you even try?"

"It's my fault you all died in the first place." I shook my head. "I have no right to try again. I failed once, I couldn't bare to fail again with the stakes this high. This time I wouldn't just be dooming the ponies I love, but I would be erasing life and existence itself." I frowned, looking away.

She went to speak, but her form faded ever quicker. "Goodbye Twilight. I will always love you and forevermore watch after you my beloved teacher. Though we look forward to seeing you and dear Celestia, we’ve missed you both, don’t hurry your demise for us."

I begged and pleaded with her to stay, trying to force her back with magic. But she only smiled, her eyes softening as the last of her face faded away, the panels of memories winking out one by one until I was alone. I gulped, biting back a sob once as my voice was forced out. "G–Goodbye Glowheart, I’ll always love you too." Somewhere deep inside, I knew she heard me.

Blink

I opened my eyes, the vision ending. I felt fresh sorrow boiling up, my eyes already tearing up and dripping, but with I couldn't mourn her now. All this death and decay, looking at my little pony again, I knew she was right. My magic reached and my spilled blood rose to crimson tendrils, dancing about the air before it spiraled down and began fusing with my injured hooves.

They regrew, layer by layer, like sediment, until freshly crafted hooves held me up. I sat a healed hoof on Glowheart, her body was already cold and stiff. My horn's aura turned a sickly black and violet, sparks of green sparking and dying within it. I rested my horn to hers, and her body evaporated to a cloud of pitch black smoke.

I collected the smoke, condensing it as I summoned a beaker from the Castle of Friendship. I never changed my organization techniques, I kept everything almost exactly the same. While the beaker was three and a half millimeters too far west, it was close enough for my summoning spell to correct it. I filled the beaker with the smoke and plugged it, before stowing it someplace safe, she would find it one day, I’m sure.

I rapped my hoof on the floor twice, my magic reaching out and finding the twisted remains of my hoofguards. The metal flowed across the floor like lava, wrapping around my legs and forming back into a shining hoofguards. "Sum dea." I verbally recalled the words of the Roam goddesses in the tomes of old, the words allegedly spoken by Helios herself in the first Era when protecting against the Caribou invasion.

I chuckled to myself, the irony in the two Roaman words with regard to my circumstance is hilarious. I am no goddess. But I am a teacher. As a teacher, I live to make my students proud, to see them thrive and live another day. I won't forgive Celestia. I never, not in a million years, will I ever forgive Celestia. But I will follow Glowheart's dying wishes, for I owed her so much more for failing her twice.

Blink

Upon opening my eyes, they were promptly assaulted shut by blinding red light from far above Canterlot castle. When I opened them again, I had true appreciation for how horrible messing with the time stream could end up. The sky was blood red, the ground itself was splintering apart and—

I shuddered, chills dancing down my spine. The screams. The unending, quiet, whisper-like screaming. I couldn't decide if it was in my head or not, but it wasn't the scream of a living being. It was horrifying, and crude. Like some makeshift replica of an actual scream by someone who had only heard a brief description of a scream.

In the far distance, I saw the split. It wrenched itself up from the center of Trottingham to several thousand hooves into the sky. It shone like a great red sun had been stretched across the sky. Below I saw Celestia and the royal guard helping everypony they could.

For her. My gaze followed the panicking and dying pleas from my subjects below; one chance. I closed my eyes, casting a massive search spell. It would tell me the location of every powerful magical creature. I felt Celestia, Luna. In the far distance, I felt Cadence. Discord was in pieces everywhere, likely he was trying to slow the time splits progress, but his magic wasn't suited to induce stability, so it was likely making it worse if anything.

Twilight was in Mount Everfree, the cave me and my—and she and her—friends found when dealing with that one dragon. He turned out to rebel against the dragon overlords in the following century, Fluttershy had quite an impact on him apparently. But his rebellion against the third dragon war ended with his death unfortunately.

I latched my magic onto Twilight, shaking my head to disperse the wandering thoughts as I cast the reverse teleport spell. Beside me, the air shifted like a gentle breeze. "Huh?" Twilight mumbled. I looked down at her, she was just waking up. Her mane was a wreck, her face, dusty and tear stricken. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain later." She quickly looked up at my strangely familiar voice, "Right now I need to peer into your memories for just a moment." I said this as I did it, touching my horn to hers. Her reflexes were slow from drowsiness, also likely at least partially due to her feeling like shit, so she barely even reacted before I entered her thoughts.

Flash!

Her mind was blinding even now, so much knowledge in such a small place. I imagine mine would make a mortal mind go insane, so many years of memories, never forgotten but sometimes stored away. I scanned through her thoughts, I knew how she thought so finding the spell was easy. I extracted the memory of how to cast it and I exited her mind.

Flash!

What the–?!" She scooted back, my horn pulling a pale blue wisp from her forehead. Gathering her legs under herself as she struggled to stand, she found her voice again. "Who gave you permission to–" Her sentence trails off as she glances around over the balcony wall. Her mouth moved wordlessly, not even mouthing words. Just moving. She looked back at me, then at the world. "W–What happened?"

"Princess Celestia dun goofed." I pointed her gaze to Celestia, fighting and pushing against all odds to save everypony she could. Tearing the walls off prisons and saving criminals even. Not a single pony was left damned in her eyes, they were all her precious subjects. My precious subjects. "But someone who I lost long ago told me I should help." While I can understand; can even empathize, I will never forgive.

She stared at Celestia with me for a moment, before turning her gaze back to me. "That doesn't answer my question."

"I know." I cast my gaze to the tear. "But your question was stupid and I have a job to do." I nodded towards Celestia again, "As you have yours."

She hesitated, sneering at me, before nodding and teleporting to Celestia's side with a bright purple flash. I saw them exchange hugs and words, how strange to feel as I do now, and see this. They were simply content. The screaming tear tore my gaze away from them as it warped again, letting the screams of time and space loose in a deafening wail.

The fluttering wisp coated my horn in a white sheen before it disappeared, the memory becoming mine. One row of five of my iron bands boomed and buzzed, drawing the attention from a few civilians and alicorns down below.

My mane expanded and fluttered slowly in the raging winds, the ends weighed down by the rest of the bands, as I felt power consume me, so much power, and only a third being drawn. As I cast her spell, I noted that she had created it wonderfully. I can only imagine how long it took her to get it this close to perfection with the very minimal knowledge they had of temporal incidents at this time, not to mention without testing it. ...I think.

My horn shone like the north star at twilight, blazing with power and casting light to the faces of the dead and the dying. I would save them, I was the guardian of life now. Oh that power; that sickeningly sweet satisfaction. The spell weaved itself through time, the split shuddering as everything quaked one last time in defiance. Then it fell into itself, like water into a drain. Until it was gone, until the screaming ended.

But the spell was flawed in nothing more than the job it was required for, which permanent sealing of the paradox’s destructive energies would always be impossible. It would eventually lose strength and the time anomaly would re-emerge, but until then I could save these lives and plan for a more permanent solution. I already had a very nice one in mind. The bloodied sky seemed to be wrapped in blue gauze, the red tinge fading to blue again as order prevailed.

«♦»

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

― J.K. Rowling

Author's Note

I feel like this chapter was unimaginably beautiful for a couple of personal reasons. So if others don't agree I'd understand that, but that's not to say I don't want complaints. I want you people to complain and complain and complain until I get this writing thing down to something I actually know how to do! Complain away, I relish it!

she appeared to writhe in agony as I forced life into her corpse

I found this to be particularly ironic. Twilight spent so much time jabbing Celestia about forcing her to stay alive, and here she is—Doing the exact same thing.

Thanks again to Scorch215. :twilightsmile:

Ignore the above because it's the opinion of an over-enthusiastic author, fresh off the euphoria of getting something right for once. And sorry for not being able to release one a day, been busy.

Tempus Magus [Remastered]

Flash!

I sighed, leaning back and sitting down. It hurt so much to feel like that, to feel so powerful and in control. My lip curled slightly at her flash of golden light in my peripheral vision; I couldn't look at her. "Twilight... You stopped it." She sounded relieved. "I didn't think–I mean of course–" She didn't even know what to say.

"Don't thank me." My voice was laced with anger; with sputtering, pitch black hate. "Just leave me alone. I need to figure out how to actually fix your mess." I really should’ve looked into getting a better heart, I’ve become so cruel with it.

I heard her hoofs stepping across the invisible line I never told her about, "Twilight—You're right, I should've listened to you about this. But now that you're helping, we can make everything right!"

When her hoof rested on my shoulder, I couldn't stop myself as rage and hate burned at her hoof, I lashed out. I took a small guilty satisfaction in watching her tumble to the ground with a very confused and now bloodied expression, but… Inside I felt a sickening revelation.

"Princess!" Twilight ran the half hoof distance to her mentor, bending down and frantically looking her over. "What do you think you are doing?!" She yelled at me.

I tried to ignore her as I peered down at Celestia, who looked away from me. "Don't touch me." My eyes darted to Twilight's, her eyes were wide and concerned, but mostly she seemed mad at me. I didn't linger.

Celestia didn't move, she didn't take Twilight's hoof when she offered to help her up either. She still didn't even look at me. "I'm sorry, Twilight." Sorry doesn't cut it, nor is what you did the entire reason.

Blink

I appeared in Twilight's laboratory, she had it installed into one of the many large rooms in the Castle of Friendship. It was also connected to the advanced magics and alchemical devices section of the library in such a case as she needed a refresher before continuing with a risky experiment.

It was brilliant, I will never take this system for granted. The things I created in this laboratory, the lives I saved. The lives I ended. I shook my head softly, my magic reaching out and accessing the books I needed. Unfortunately, this is before I had perfected the tagging spell—which added a unique magic signature to whatever it was cast on, making finding books with magic as quick as thought almost—so finding them took a little bit longer than I'd have liked.

"Just who do you think you are?" Twilight called, startling me slightly. I hadn't noticed her arrive. "First you illegally, and immorally I might add, rummage through my memories, then you straight up back hoof Princess Celestia, and now! Here you are, stealing my books!” She flopped her hooves around like a headless chicken. “I can see that you're an alicorn," I turned back to her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to finish. "And I can see your resemblance to me, not to mention the fact that Celestia referred to you as Twilight."

I blinked. "Your point? Look, I have more important things to deal with than whining children, please kindly see yourself out."

"This is my castle!" She stomped. "If anyone should get out, it's you!" She realized where this was going quickly. She brought a hoof to her chest, closing her eyes, in—out. She extended her hoof with her breath. "Look. You're obviously related to me somehow, I don't actually know how, it could be time travel, cloning—I honestly don't care which right now." She paused. “...Pinkie, I swear to Celestia’s toiletry if you mirror pooled me in my sleep again I’ll …” She shook her head and opened her eyes, "Nevermind...But I want answers."

"Answers?" I levitated the books around and dropped them on a pristine white counter. "Answers." I echoed, watching her nod slightly, already unsure. I nodded along. "I'm you. In the future, I bucked things up big time." I trotted over to her slowly. "Then sixty–three years, two months and eight days ago—to be precise—Celestia went to the future where she found me, unfortunately alive and wanting to find peace. It was my time to die, I'd earned it fair and square and it would’ve been for the greater good that I did."

As I approached, she kept backing up. "But no. No matter how much I begged. No matter how much I pleaded and threatened, how many of her playthings I killed, she wouldn't let me die.” I hissed softly, biting away a ‘bout of frustration. “She wouldn't even let me get someone else to do it. Then she blackmailed me, using the life of my precious student—a young filly you would've been teaching the values of friendship, peace, magic and really big words to in a year—as a betting chip." Her flanks bumped into the wall behind her, and I stood only a hoof or two away. "And now she’s gone. Now the timeline is screwed, and I have to fix it because if I don’t, the entirety of creation will suffer for her mistake."

"She bet the life of another pony, Twilight—not even somepony who said she could do it—somepony very important to me, somepony who would've been very important to you, and she lost. She bet the lives of every one of your friends, of every pony in Ponyville. She bet your life, your sister-in-law’s life, her life and her sister’s life, all without asking if she could, and she’s losing that bet! And here I am! Cleaning up her mess. And here you are, bothering me and making it take longer."

I sighed, and started towards her again, watching her squirm against the wall, unable to concentrate enough to cast a teleport spell. "I want you to go, Twilight. Leave—Ask her about the student she murdered, I want you to use those. Exact. Words. Now get out of my site." I jabbed a hoof on her chest roughly. "I dare you to try and find a reason to make me feel bad after what she's done."

Flash!

I was temporarily blinded by her bright teleport. She overloaded it in her panic to get far away from me, she likely overshot Canterlot by a mile. No matter, she’ll get there soon enough. I huffed, turning back to my work.

«♦»

She came back, but she didn't talk to me anymore thankfully. She just sat far away from me, in a corner. She barely even looked at me, and when she did, her expression looked like she didn't know what to think of me anymore. "What was the future like?" She finally asked me. I paused, sitting the books and beakers down slowly.

"Excuse me?"

"The future. Celestia said everything was dead, but then you… You seem to have really enjoyed yourself. I guess I’m looking for a first hoof reference." She shrugged a little. “Princess Celestia only saw the end. What was the way there like?"

I sighed deeply. "It was... Complicated."

"Complicated?" She picked up one of the parchments, glancing it over. "How?"

I took the parchment from her, rolling it up as I placed it right back where she found it. "No touching." Then I snorted. "Oh the same way it’s complicated now. Boring politics, the royal families, the upper class and their opinions. Money. War." I heaved onto my hooves, my back popping as my magic sat everything in it's place.I sighed, smiling soflty.

“Oh but at times? It was… It was beautiful. Peaceful. No complicated politics, no wars or danger. Just… Cake. Oh sweet Mothers, so much cake…” I glanced at her, gesturing her over with my hoof. “Come here."

"Why?"

"I wanna show you something." I sat her with a level stare.

Her mouth moved, but then she closed it and trotted over to me. "I want you to open your mind." I said, placing my horn to her head. "Just think about life. Love and loss. Peace and war. Life and death, love and birth." My magic nudged further and further in, being far more gentle at the mind prodding this time. "

Think about the beauty of life, Twilight." Especially due to it being a dual access telepathy, meaning she'd have access to my memories too—if I allowed it. Her eyes closed, and I closed mine. “And now… nothing.”

Blink

"Where are we?" She asked immediately, before my eyes had even opened. "I don't recognize this place." She looked around the amber halls. Sunshine sparkled on the white marble walls, making everything a yellow and warm hue.

"This is a memory I saved." I trotted to her, running a hoof across the walls, smiling a little. "After… well...this—among a few other memories—was all I had to keep myself sane. I had trinkets in the real world of course," I sighed, looking back to her. She still looked very confused. "But let me show you."

I trotted ahead of her, Twilight falling into pace behind me. "Won't this harm the time stream even more? Me knowing all this?"

"It's already pretty bucked. There's not much that could wreck it entirely. Destroying Canterlot or the Castle of Friendship being on the list of 'Don't ever do this' because their destruction is set points." I heard the distant thump of a sonic rainboom. "Besides, Celestia already prevented this from ever possibly happening, this is more akin to reading a really interesting book now."

Twilight obviously did too, as she ran ahead of me to find it. I galloped after her, knowing exactly what the noise was. She soon reached the end of the hall, rounding onto a balcony.

"Sweet Celestia..." She whispered, standing bipedal over the railing and looking around. "Where is this?" She marveled at the marble buildings that streaked into the clouds like rays of sunshine.

"Trottingham, the City of Sunlight.” I leaned over the railing, taking in the sights. “The new capital city of the Equestrian Republic." I said, resting against the railing next to her as I too took in the view.

"Republic?" She then noted the Wonderbolts flying through the sky, the telltale rainbow trail following them. "Rainbow Dash?!" She yelled, waving her hooves.

"They can't hear you, nopony can. It's a memory of the events in the city for a period of time, they can't be changed." I explained, she nodded sadly. "And that's not Rainbow Dash. She just died yesterday, Twilight, incase you forgot." As her face drooped, I regretted my words. "Those are the Wonderbolts however."

"But that was–"

"That was the Rainbow Squadrons signature move, the sonic rainboom." I said, watching the rainbow trail seem to cut across the sky. "A few decades after Rainbow's passing, the Wonderbolts dedicated an entire new branch to the study and replication of the sonic rainboom, in honor of her."

“They didn’t ever get it juuuust right though. It’s a damn shame too, they were so close…” I shook my head, she just watched them with me as they streaked across the sky, when I saw them fly three and a half inches from the cloud shaped like a cookie with a space monkey riding it—from my perspective anyway—I pulled back. "We should hurry. We don't want to miss it."

"Miss what?"

I didn't answer as I hurried down the mural hall. Several times I had to grab Twilight and drag her along with my magic as she stopped to study something or another. "Hurry up! Was I always this slow?" I grumbled with a soft smile.

"Where are we going?" She asked again, galloped to catch up with me. “And what’s the rush?”

"The council is ending, we get to see everypony and watch the evening ceremony." I smiled as I broke into a gallop. Twilight galloped after me, struggling to keep pace. We eventually round another corner that let out into a massive courtyard, overlooked by rows and rows of occupied benches. In the center was an erected platform.

I skidded to a halt, my hooves skipping across the yellow marble with trained ease. Twilight slid a few hoofs past me, spinning and panicking. She eventually stopped, laying with all her limbs splayed out and her face and belly flat on the ground. "Ow..." She muttered, struggling to her hooves and rubbing her head. But my eyes remained centered on the platform. "You could've gone a little slower." When I didn't answer, she followed my gaze. "Is that...?" I nodded.

"The Council." I trotted up and sat next to her as we watched them debate softly, words of peace and veiled political threats passing illegibly over our heads..

"The Council?” She narrowed her eyes, seeming to scrutinize every detail about them. “They… They’re all alicorns… Where did they all come from? Who are they? I don’t see Princess Celesti–" I nearly smacked her when I moved my hoof to her mouth.

"Shhh. Just enjoy it for now, ask questions later."

She looked annoyed, but thankfully obliged. We sat, her plonking down on the floor soon after me, and watched as the council meeting soon ended, the watching audience all flowing out of the observatorium, off to their daily lives, or to get good seats. The hundreds of hoofsteps thundered softly, the sudden crowd chatter in the otherwise silent instant being quite jarring. "Where are they going?" She asked, noticing them all leaving the courtyard through another hall.

I glanced down at her. "Do you want to find out?"

We followed the council, my eyes lingering on a certain yellow and amber mare as she laughed with her friends, fellow council members. Before we arrived at the Trottingham castle. It dwarfed every other castle, every other city that Equestria had ever had in Twilight's time. "It was built by me and the council over the course of half a century. Thousands of hours and an unimaginable amount of magic, but… It was beautiful." I said when I took note of Twilight's expression.

“We were family, and this was our home. After a while, we all knew normal ponies couldn’t ever be our friends, not our real friends. After thousands of years…” I sighed, “You forgot them. They’d come to say hi and you couldn’t recall their faces, couldn’t begin to remember their names. It hurt, seeing them look at you like that.”

I ignored the look Twilight gave me. "We built the city with the image of warmth and comfort. Like a mother’s hug. But it was also built as the ultimate fortress against our demons, out of fear." It had been my home for a very long time and I had so many memories of this place. The place that never would. “We were so afraid to love. And even more afraid of the remnants of the war. It was all we could do.”

"It's... Huge." She peered up at it, leaning further and further back to no avail. "I can't even see the top of… What war?"

I nodded. “Yep.”

She stared in mute, following me as we approached the castle. It was like approaching a mountain, even though you got closer it didn't seem to get bigger until it was right in front of you and you couldn’t see anything else. We turned and rounded the bend in the outer wall, leading to the ceremonial platform.

I picked Twilight up with my magic and flew us both up to the castle balcony, overlooking town square. I sat us down in the center of the round arrangement of alicorns around me. I saw Starfield, Glowheart, and dozens of my other friends and family members.

Twilight gasped and I followed her gaze. "It's us." She said, taking note of my mane, it was massive. It fluttered up and around like a snake. She sat upon the obsidian throne, Celestia and Luna's cutie marks embossed on either side of the headrest in bright, vibrant colors that contrasted with the dark purple.

No one spoke, not a soul even coughed. My horn exploded in bright purple, casting light across the crowd as everyone watched in silence. The light from the sky waned, the hazy golden beams of sunset cutting out and soon replaced with dark blue streaks as stars lit the sky and the moon appeared.

"The old celestial bodies were gone,” Twilight glanced at me. “I created an illusion across the whole atmosphere, even to nations who dared war with us." I said as Twilight starred at the sky. “Everypony deserved the sky. It wasn’t something I could take from even the most horrible monsters of the world.”

I took a deep breath, relishing the smells of Trottingham, the way the air had moved, all unique to this beautiful city. "But it was worth every day I spent hospitalized from magic exertion to know I was giving the sky back to my subjects. The sky gave our nation hope; gave the world hope."

The light from the other Twilight's horn died, her mane shrinking dramatically, now barely the size of Celestia's in her time. "Her magic will regenerate over the course of the night, don't worry."

The sky shimmered and I sighed. "The memory is ending soon." I trotted over to Glowheart, who obliviously stared through me at her teacher: Me. I wanted to reach out and touch her, just one last time, but I couldn't. I could only watch until her face fizzled from view, replaced by the astral plane. Twilight sat quietly, staring at her hooves. "She took that from you, Twilight. That city. Those ponies. You’ll never see them.”

She stared at me, eyes twitching left and right.

Blink

Our eyes opened in her laboratory at once, our faces inches from each other. "I cannot guarantee a future for you, Twilight. For anypony" I touch my chest, “Though if there is, it won’t be my past,” I moved my hoof to hers. “It will be your future.”

She regarded my words before nodding. I sighed, “Please leave me alone, I need to focus.” She nodded again, turning and trotting from the room slowly. I waited and watched; the door closed.

«♦»

I sat with Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadenza around a large table, my designs and plans scattered around it in what some would call a complete mess, but in the words of a great mare? It was organized chaos. It made perfect sense to me, and even Twilight was beginning to see the pattern I had. "I have spent the last day or two designing a spell to circumvent the paradox. What we need to do is go to it’s location and find out where the split started, then we can permanently seal it and hopefully prevent others from occurring."

“And this spell? You’re sure it’ll work?” Celestia asked. “Just a flick of the horn and it’s done?”

Cadenza nodded, sitting aside the white alicorn. "I agree, it… sounds a little too simple. What powers it?"

"Well… Um." We all glanced to Twilight, having seated herself as far from me and Celestia as she could on the other side of the table next to Luna. "If my calculations are correct—which they usually are." Twilight said, a little, almost nonexistent snort as she giggled at herself. "Then it's going to need a power source comparable to the Elements of Harmony in their heyday, or the Tree of Harmony itself. But less spontaneous and nonsensical and more… more consistent." She tapped her chin, giving way for Luna to speak up.

"And what is this... Thing?" She tapped one of the pieces of parchment. "It's hard to tell with such a... muddled drawing."

I snorted. "Well I didn't have time to take it and laminate it, or have an artist redraw my rough sketch." I nodded to where she had poked, "That is the power source. Don't worry about what it is, I'll be dealing with that."

I noted suspicious glances from Cadenza and Luna, but Twilight nodded. She knew me better, enough to trust my judgement anyway. I glared at them but shook my head.

"Then it's decided, Twilight and uh..." Celestia trailed off, staring awkwardly between me and my double. "Twilight will work as a team in finding the split and stabilizing it with the plan Twilight–" She nodded at me. "Concieved." She looked at Cadence and Luna, "Meanwhile, Luna and Cadence and I will remain in Canterlot, trying to calm the inhabitants of Equestria, stop some of the chaos and pretty much manage everything else."

Everypony nodded.

I stood, trotting to Twilight. "Close your eyes." She nodded and rested her hoof on my shoulder. I snorted and closed my eyes.

Blink

We all opened our eyes and glanced around. Twilight said nothing, keeping her eyes glued to her hooves. I looked around, "We need to locate the split. The easiest way to do that is weaken the binding spell you created and close it up again before it destroys anything else." I sighed. "Which means I have to buck up the time stream more.”

“Okay.” She nodded slowly. “So… You have to tell me something about the future that will change something big. Right.”

I nod back. “Alicorn’s aren’t immortal.”

She nodded. “Wait—what??”

It didn't take much. Being this close, even the slightest change caused my heart to flutter strangely. I think the link between my heart and the time split is because I'm in the wrong time. “This way." I pointed and trotted.

“Wait, how do you know that?” She shook her head and trotted along with me.

As we followed the breadcrumbs, but I didn't need to now. Then we heard it, the screeching, horrible noise that accompanied the split. A few more moments of trotting and we had found it. "Alright." I said, marking the ground below it.

Twilight stared at my mark, glancing above it. “...It doesn’t really look like anything, does it?”

I nodded. "Come on, let’s just finish this."

«♦»

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
― Mother Teresa

«♦»

"How do you know alicorns aren’t immortal?" Twilight asked, her magic working around and carving runes into the ground.

I hummed, thinking as I did the same thing as her. "Well. If I pause and think, I presume that means they were proven to be mortal."

"So somepony died?"

I sighed. "You could say that." I trailed off.

“Who?”

I sighed again. "Well, isn’t that the question." She paused at my choice words, before helping me. "I ponder that a lot."

"I’m…” She stopped, staring at me and carefully articulating the words. “Not sure I understand."

"I'm not sure I do either." I sighed.

I finished the last little bit. "Very rudimentary solution, but it'll do. Twilight?" I turned towards her, two wisps flowing off my horn as I sat the tubed balloons and gems on a crate. "Here: I have two spells you're going to need to perform."

She a little nodded and trotted over. She tilted her head. "But... Why can't you cast these spells?"

I shrugged. ”Just trust my judgement on this." I placed my horn to hers, a little arc between them sparking.

The wisps danced off my horn shimmering and coating Twilight's like a thin sheen of water before fading away. Her eyes grew distant for a moment before she backed up, shaking her head. "Whoa. That was weird, memory spells are weird. Have I ever mentioned memory spells feel really weird when cast on you?" She babbled as the spells asserted themselves in her mind. "Oh. Wow. These spells are ridiculously complex… It’ll take a lot of magic too…” She hummed softly as her mind ran through the little intricacies of the spells.

I glanced away, summoning a few extra folders from her laboratory. "These are the rest of the notes for the construction if you need them, I have something else I need to do in the meantime." I said, levitating the notes over to her. "Don't read them until you know you need to."

She tilted her head, holding them in her magic. "Alright." She said rather uneasily. She cleared her throat and looked left to right, shuffling her hooves. "So what happens now?"

"Now?" I trot over to the machine, all fifteen of rings bands buzzing softly. I took a deep breath as the power started to flood over me, my mane expanding like ink in water.

Cli-Clank

The bands fall through my mane like it was made of smoke, clinking and thunking on the ground one by one. "Sweet Celestia." I heard Twilight say under her breathe. My mane started to glow, the cutie marks of my friends ghosting through it. Applejack, Fluttershy, Glowheart—Celestia. I flinched, looking away from the rising sun. No. She was no longer my friend. "What're you doing?"

"The machine will require these to limit and control the power source, otherwise it'd do more harm than good." I explain, carefully levitating the rings of iron over to her. “Consider them very powerful dampeners.”

She nodded. "Now what?" Twilight asked. I sighed, looking up at the sky.

"Now you cast the spell."

She nodded, charging up her magic in her horn as her eyes squinted closed. "Ouch… Headache..."

“It’ll pass, don’t worry.”

I leaned down to her, "Twilight?" She opens her eyes, looking up at me even while I'm sitting in front of her. "Please understand that this is the only way."

Her head tilted. "What do you mean?" Then the spell arced out and pierced my chest. Everything turned numb, the lights of the world and the sounds of the spell dimmed and dampened. "Twilight!" She yelled, trying to end the spell. "What’s happening?! Stop it!"

"That won't work.” I blinked, the world fading hazy. “The spell was designed to hijack your magic after it charged, I should know. I used it once myself." The tip of my mane sparked, turning to a purple flame. "Don't feel bad, Twilight." The fire licked down my mane quickly, a smokeless fire eating away at me. “So long as the Sun and Moon remain, everything will be okay.”

She sniffled, pulling at her stationary horn.

"You don't understand—I'm not abandoning you." I raised my hoof to reassure her, but it crumbled away. "My soul will be destroyed, but the magic will remain." My voice started to reverberate, echoing and distorting. "I will become the power source." She didn't know what to say. She just stared at me. "Don't look at me like that, Twilight. We'll meet again, sometime, somewhere." I said, closing my eyes as the world turned white. “You’re only me, after all.”

«♦»

My name is Twilight Sparkle and today is my fifth birthday! I'm finally older than as many hooves as I got, so now I have to learn to write the numbers. But on my birthday, my mom got me a cool music box! It plays a really really old song from a fairy tale or something.

What was this? The world swam and distorted around me and everything was a brigh, blue and white haze. I felt tiny, but I wasn't afraid.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, today I am nineteen years old. I just met my new friends earlier this year, we defeated Nightmare Moon and saved Equestria! I have a feeling my life is going to be a lot more interesting than I originally thought.

Twilight Sparkle… What a sad mare. She always tried so hard, so very hard.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, today I am twenty-two years old. I became a princess of Equestria yesterday, I can't believe it! I wish there were a book on the subject, maybe I can ask Princess Celestia to write one.

Oh Twilight… You always did love your books.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, I think I'm five thousand years old, give or take a year. After helping two more alicorns ascend in the last few decades, me and the other princesses have decided a new form of government is in order. It's not official, but I've personally suggested a council system, governed by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Ah… The council.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am now over twenty thousand years old. I don't remember my birthday anymore, I'm mostly just guessing and paraphrasing with historical texts. Today, Luna died. Celestia too in a way… They have left the chairmare's seats to me, making me the primary alicorn of the Equestrian Republic. I won't disappoint them. I can’t disappoint them.

Who was Twilight Sparkle? Why is she so important? Because of what I did?

I am Twilight Sparkle, I am fifty-seven thousand years old. Today, one of my friends betrayed me. I have no one left anymore, I'm all alone. But I will live on, if only to preserve pony kind. Not because I have no other choice.

I see a face, a face I feel like I recognize. I see a lot of faces.

I am Twilight Sparkle, my estimated age is three hundred and fifty-six thousand, two hundred years old. I have been alone for a very, very long time. I can't remember what my loved ones sound like anymore, their faces are blurs and their memory is tainted by bitterness. I don't need to be kind anymore, there's no one to be kind to.

More and more faces phased into view. That’s right, Twilight. Give in to it.

I, Twilight Sparkle, have died today. I gave up my life out of selfishness and necessity. I have no place in the living world, I belong in the limbo I was stolen from. Retribution is served.

"Glowheart?" I reached out with an ethereal hoof. “Luna? Rainbow Dash…?”

"Welcome home Twilight."

Goodbye, Twilight.

«♦»

“End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

Author's Note

This is the final chapter. But I had so much to finish up, and so much I wanted to happen, it started becoming too long. So this is part one of the final chapter. I ended up writing it all in a day and editing it over the course of another day and a half, but I think it's good enough.

I personally really liked Twilight and Twilight's interactions, but authors bias.

This is the beginning of the end—literally. Normally that's said to be dramatic or something, but I actually mean it here.

Thanks again to Scorch215 for pre–reading.

Also, I found this:

Go listen to this okay? It's pretty good.

And,

"This song is ending. But the story never ends."
—Ood Sigma

I know, I know. I usually only do one quote, but this one fit so nicely. Like... My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a song, right? But it's the most important song. It gives all the other song writers ideas, to add to the story. We are all authors and listeners of the songs of this show, each adding our own. We build a story greater than ours alone by showing this obsession with this show, because the show and our stories are the songs of the grand brony musical story.

I guess.

But it also sorta hints that I might do more with this AU I've built up though, I have a few other ideas. This is like... Metal Gear 1, it's the end of the original story but it was the first game. This story is my Metal Gear 1. Who knows, maybe I'll start a new story that's just shorts in this universe, or in the past/future. Or maybe I won't. It's hard to say.

Or am I simply reading too far into my own notes?

But I actually finished a multi-chapter fic. It's not very good, but it's decent considering the practice I have with more than one chapter. I've only ever seen one other fic through to the end—my very first one at that—and every other one I started I could never finish. I got bored. But I've actually grown to really enjoy this story. Even if the final chapter is really disappointing to me. I feel like I could've done better with it, but I don't know what else I could've done. It was one of those ideas that seemed good in my head, but when I wrote it out, I didn't like it. But I spent the rest of the story leading up to this point and hinting at it, so I can't exactly not do it this way easily.

It's just something that comes with learning to write better I suppose. From now on, I'm going to put a lot more thought into how I write things, as with Pulse I didn't even consider much of a sequel until it was so well received. But then I started racing with thoughts and rushing things. I'd never had a popular story before, so I didn't want to lose that? I dunno what I was thinking. But regardless: I finished this thing. Now I can work on a few other things.

Thank you all for reading and commenting though, especially the comments that tried to help me improve things. Stares at wlam. :twilightsmile: Again, thanks to Scorch215 for pre–reading the chapter. And how many of you saw the link in the chapter?

Twinkle, Twilight; Little star. Twinkle away to your friends.

Alright. Sorry that took so long, school was closing up and like... It doesn't really matter, point is? Here it is. Now if you actually read through the whole thing and compared it to the original(DOC LINK), you're going to notice a very stark difference in this chapter. That's intentional. I took out a lot of elements that were pointless, and I also took out a couple of the revelations. Like Celestia being dead and stuff. Well, at least towards Twilight.

Well no spoilers, have fun trying to figure out why I did what I did. It's better quality, enjoy it. Also I decided to keep the old chapters for the reviews. They're just hidden.

Epilogus [April Fools]

Bands of purple light spiraled up along the beam emitting from her still beating heart. After following Twilight's notes, I managed to attach her heart into the device with only a couple difficulties. "Twilight?" I turned away, looking away from Cadence. I... Needed time to think about what has happened today. How does one cope with watching themselves die? How do you even begin to build your thoughts around that? Maybe there's a book at the library that deals with this in a more psychological way. Less actually watching a pony die for the greater good and more killing off a bad part of your mental illnesses for the greater good.

Flash!

For some reason, despite my plans to go home, I found myself teleporting to the Starswirl the Bearded section in the Canterlot Royal library. The Temporal Literature and Theory shelf to be specific. "Twilight? What happened?"

I turned, looking back to Princess Celestia. "What?"

"At the split? Have you and the other Twilight fixed it?" She doesn't know of course.

I quickly turned to her, looking into her wide, hopeful eyes. My mouth moved before words could find it, leaving me looking like a gaping fool. But I can't stop it, in some small way, feeling my jaw moving like I'm explaining it perfectly is helping me towards being able to actually tell her. Like a rehearsal. "The other Twilight is..." I shook my head; that was the most horrible sentence I could have started. "She..." Even worse. I sighed, both frustrated and depressed. Depresstrated? Fruspressed? I should've asked Pinkie what the word for this was when I had the chance. I shook my head. "She's gone, Princess."

She tilted her head, her brow furrowing into a knot. "Gone?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was interrupted by the sound of music. "What the...?"

"Heeey!" The doors to the library flew open in a blast of purple magic. "Heeeeey!"

Comprehension is far beyond my capabilities as Twilight trotted in, skipping slightly with a small black device in her grip. "What's the matter wid'ja heead? Yeah!"

"What is going on here?!" Celestia yelled, shaking her head. "Would somepony explain this to me?!"

The music skidded to a stop, like a record player as she stands there, staring at Celestia for a good long while. She then galloped over in a panic. "I'm you from the future!" The other Twilight poked Celestia on the chestplate. Wait what?

"I'm not white in the future?" Celestia tilted her head, staring at the other Twilight with a strange, strange look. "And for that matter, what about the time split?"

The other Twilight opened her mouth, nodding a little. Then her eyes narrowed as she looked Celestia over again."Wait... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." She then looked over at me. "That's right, I always mix that part up. I'm you from the future." She waves her legs out, presenting the world "Ta-daaaaa~!"

I looked her over: short wavy mane, not much taller—if any taller at all—than me, still wearing my tiara. "I'm... Gonna go out on a limb here and say you're not from too far in the future, are you?"

"Only a few billion years." She waved me away, picking a random book from the shelf and skimming the pages. "Maybe a few trillion. Which sounds more believable?" She then tossed the book behind her as I caught it and put it back on the shelf.

"More likely it's a decade or two, if even that long." I deadpanned. "What are you doing here? Isn't this endangering the time stream?"

"Nah. Other Twilight fixed that. Or is it Other other other Twilight yet?" She tapped her chin, raising a brow. "I can't remember when that happened."

I opened my mouth to question that, but I closed in out of better judgement. "Can't you see I was trying to have a serious conversation with Princess Celestia?"

"Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm sorry. Go ahead." She magics up a lawn chair and an extra large drink from that hay burger shop I like. "I'll just sit here. Quietly. Like a church mouse even."

I sighed, looking back at Princess Celestia. "The other Twilight—not this one. "I gesture to the giddy purple alicorn tipping her chair from side to side impatiently. "Taught me two spells without telling me what they–"

Sluuuurp

I glared over at Other Other Twilight, my horn lighting as I sent her drink to the moon. Well, I actually just sent it into my personal washroom here in the castle, but she doesn't have to know that. "Would. You. Mind?"

"Ooooh. Sorry, sorry." She nodded, waving her hoof in a circle. "Go on."

I closed my eyes, using my magic to massage that little pain between my eyes as I let out a grand sigh. "She taught me two spells without telling me what they–"

"Look over there!" Other Other Twilight yelled, pointing with her hoof behind us. We all looked and saw... Other Other Twilight pointing behind us. "It's Other Other Other Twilight!" Other Other Twilight yelled, waving to her duplicate. Well, my duplicate but.. I... My head hurts. A lot.

"Hi Other Other Twilight!" Other Other Other Twilight yelled, waving back. This was chaos. I needed something to order things, I was getting way too confused.

"Twilight, I'm starting to get tired of you showing up everywhere." Celestia said. When I spared her a glance, she didn't exactly look happy,

"Okay! Every Twilight who's not me, line up. I'm assigning new names." I commanded. Two more Twilights came out from behind plants and lined up in front of me with the other two. I pointed at the first, "Hokey Smokes." The second. "Queen Blast–Yer–Face–Off." Third. "Whine–Flanks." And finally: The fourth. I pointed at her longer than the others, creasing my brow in thought. "Purple."

"That's it?" Purple asked. "Queen Blasty," She pointed at said purple horse. "Smokey." Point. "And Whiny." Again, another point. Then she pointed to herself. "Purple? What am I, your least favorite child? Did I kill mom when she tried to shove my fat head out of her womb?"

I ignored her. "Hokey! You came here first, mind explaining?" I jabbed a hoof out at Hokey.

Hokey Smokes saluted. "Ma'am! My name is Queen Blast–Yer–Face–Off, Ma'am!"

I pointed at the actual Hokey Smokes without missing a beat. "You came here first, mind explaining?"

"Twilight, I don't think the names are working." Celestia said quietly. "Maybe collars?"

"I do mind very much actually." Hokey said, smugly tilting her head away from me into the air.

My eye twitched. "Why?"

"I mind answering that question a lot more!" I'm starting to really dislike myself.

I filed down the list, "Queen Blast–Yer–I don't even care—Status report?"

"I have none, Ma'am!" She saluted again. "No idea how we got here, Ma'am!"

"Err. Twilight?" I decided to try one more before answering Celestia.

"Whine–Flanks?" I pleaded with her, pouting slightly. "C'mon, you gotta tell me something." I inched up uncomfortably close to her, wiggling my eyebrows. "Please? Anything?"

She nodded, leaning in closer. I tilted my ear towards her, cupping my hoof around it. "I don't wanna get in the damn robot!"I pulled back, trying to blink away the ringing in my ear stupidly; my magic starting to dig at the crumbling earwax.

I frowned, my hearing returning. "Excuse me?"

"I." She pointed to herself. I nodded, following her along in her explaination. "Do not." I nod again. "Want." Nod. "To get in the damn robot!"

I turned to the other three mes and Celestia, "What's a robot?" I asked, arching a brow.

"I think it's her mom." Hokey snickered.

"Hey!" All of us others Twilight yelled, "Don't talk about my mom like that!" We all yelled in unison.

"Err..." Celestia coughed into her hoof. "Yes, quite. Now if somepony could explain what happened at the time split."

"Twilight died!" Hokey yelled with a smile.

"No she didn't!" Blasty yelled over her, hoofing her over the head. "Didn't you read the unpublished sequel?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I wish to be an umpaloompa!" Purple suddenly announced, drawing all our attention.

"Twilight, do you have issues you need to talk about?"

I groaned. "No! I do not have issues except the ones I'm having with myself right... now.." I thought about what I was saying. "Not to say I actually have issues. I just don't like myself!" Oops. "But! No! I love myself! I'm really awesome but I hate these mes!"

I turned around, walking straight into one of the other Twilights. "Tell her."

I gave her an exasperated glance, sighing with exhaustion. "Tell her what?"

Instead of answering me, the other Twilight looped her hoof around mine and walked me back over to Celestia. She glanced between me and Celestia, smiling small with a blush. "We want you to marry us." What.

"I'm not certain that's healthy." Celestia remarked, her face devoid of emotion.

"I don't want to marry her!" I screamed, pulling my hoof from her. "Sh–She's me!"

"You said you loved me!" She gestured to me and then herself. "I thought we had something special!"

"N–No, we do! We're both the same pony!" I stomped a little. "Which is why I can't marry you!" I at this point saw Celestia walking away in my peripheral vision. "Wait!" I neighed, holding a hoof out as if to grab her from afar.

«♦»

I restore myself when I'm alone.
—Marilyn Monroe

Author's Note

Yep. This is how the story actually ends. Eeyup. ...Okay, no not at all. Happy April Fools, fools. Hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it.

...Well writing it was pretty hard actually, so have a lot more fun than I had writing it. Please.

Also, I know those weren't the actual lyrics, BUT I WRITE WHAT I WANNA. :rainbowlaugh: Mostly written for a good laugh. Not to be taken seriously at all.

"Whine–Flanks."

AKA Shinji Ikari

Epilogus [Remastered]

Bum-Bump... Bum-Bump... Bum-Bump...

"Twilight?"

To be continued...

Author's Note