Questions and Answers

Twilight Sparkle had been out for over four hundred years. This time ago, she was killed in a terrorist attack coordinated by an unknown creature.

That creature was me.

She was recovered by a Spike Sparkle, who asked immediately for permission to enter the restricted section. He constructed a room and made six tanks with the intention of making the Mane Six come back to life. He kept her there, intending of never telling anyone of his project. The inspectors who came to inspect it every week didn't know they were alive. His cover story was to state that he wanted to research the Elements of Harmony for use against the creature.

By the time anyone realized the true purpose, Canterlot was being evacuated. After a short confrontation, Spike returned here to use his emergency spell. His wild card worked, and made the Princesses forget about it. Pinkie Pie had already been revived, and the rest of the Mane Six were not found. Or so everyone thought. The truth, in its entirety, was that he decided to leave the rest of them dead. No point in it. The only reason he chose Pinkie Pie, was her useful abilities.

Once the deed would be done, memories would be erased and Pinkie Pie would finally be put to rest. At least, that was, until I arrived. He was forced to use his backup, one designed to create a crack in reality to allow power to flow through and give him enough magical power to destroy me for good. Every instance of me and everything that led to me existing would not happen.

I wouldn't have ever been alive or had the chance to live, the chance to do anything. Spike had intended to destroy me, to never allow me to kill or hurt anything. If I was in control enough, more than I was then, I would have allowed him. I was worthless, a pile of trash. I deserved to be dead, and never have the chance to change or impact anything in any way. But I was here now, and I would revive them. I would not allow such an injustice to go unnoticed. I would return everything to normal, and then I would publicly execute myself. I would intentionally fail at making a height significant enough, and then I would use a spell to ensure my death is long and painful. No, I wasn't going to jump off a cliff, I was going to choke myself out on a noose.

A well-deserved death for a horrible person. I should have never lived, and I should have never existed. If I didn't, hundreds of ponies' lives wouldn't be ruined.

I realized where my thoughts had derailed, and found myself pointing a knife at my own throat. Sweat dribbled off my face, as I finally realized the gravity of the situation. I'm batshit insane, and I'm also a suicidal mental and emotional train wreck. I was anything if ready to perform what I wanted to accomplish, no, not wanted. What I needed to accomplish. I was going to set things right, and then leave. The knife hadn't left its previously mentioned position. Something was fighting my determination to accomplish what had to be done. As I thought of this, a panicked scream came from my left. Twilight had awakened by this point, only to see someone about to commit suicide.

I barely registered that she pulled the knife from my grasp, I was too busy pondering the thoughts in my mind. Normally, I wasn't bothered being called worthless by myself. But something was telling me, telling me on a personal level that I am nothing. That I am two conjoined specks of sand. I lowered my hands to my sides, and my expression became grim.

"Give me my weapon back. We're leaving." I calmly said, my expression changing to that of an uncaring person.

She hesitated, and then spoke, "I can't give you it back. You may have hurt me more than I could understand or even comprehend, but I forgive you. I don't care if you're here for some higher purpose, and your fate is to die here."

At least, that was what my mind fabricated. I sighed darkly, and whacked her with my hand on the side of the horn. The knife dropped to the ground, which I promptly picked up.

I looked over my shoulder as I moved to leave.

"You're alive because I'm not here for a higher purpose. You're alive because your life was stolen from you too early. And your friends have been stolen from you. Being immortal will lead you to something horrible and inescapable, your life will spiral downward as your friends die left and right. You'll eventually lose track of time, and everyday will become the same dream. Get up, get breakfast, do work, sleep. Rinse and repeat until you are an empty shell of a pony. Because, you are immortal. You will not die by old age. Your only way to die would be to take your own life, or have someone take it from you. I'm not a good person. You are. You can handle things that I can't. You haven't fallen. Because, you're special in a way. You have a friend who I can bring back, who did everything for you. He was like a brother to you, but you ignored him. You physically abused him even. I've seen it. Don't ever take him for granted again. Don't ever say that you have nothing. That you have no one left. Because you won't, soon. I'm a monster, I accept it fully and embrace it. You're an innocent pony, fallen into this conundrum. I'm sorry you had to get mixed up in this."

I left the room. I left Twilight to her own devices. That could have gone worse. I had not read up on dark magic, but I knew it could afflict anyone who uses it. It would be stupid for me not to know that dark magic is bad, and corrupts your brain. Hell, look at Nightmare Moon. She used dark magic, and then wanted Equestria to be eternally in darkness. That resulted in a horrible war between siblings.

Spike wasn't afflicted. I could tell that he wasn't in that fight. He was too competent and coordinated, reading back over that entry. Every piece of evidence pointed to him not being afflicted. But, nonetheless, I pushed everything else to the back of my mind and focused on exiting the palace.

Meanwhile...

A piece shaped like that of me, Peyton, slid onto a tile. The chessboard had sixteen ponies scattered across it. Six of them, the Elements of Harmony, were not moved from their original places. Finally, Twilight's piece moved to the left. As this happened, the rest of the pieces, the Princesses and eight other currently unknown pieces stayed perfectly still.

The black hoof that moved those pieces cast a shadow over the 64x64 tile chessboard, blocking out the light from a torch on the wall behind the source of the hoof. As Twilight moved left, she was flicked off the board by a precise and careful magic spell. She joined a pile of other pieces on the floor, as a piece of a model of Spike moved onto the board the pile. The figure did not laugh evilly. It did not gloat to itself how it had concocted a master plan. This was a psychotic genius, and this psychotic genius had enough common sense to know how cliche that was. This wasn't a cheesy, easily defeated villain, or a brute force oriented axe murderer.

This was a tactician of the highest caliber, hardened by murders of the most gruesome types. She had tortured, stolen, and done everything imaginable to everypony she wished to. Her name was that of legend, someone long forgotten. Now, no one knew her name except me.

And she intended for everything to happen like that. She was not only cunning, but she had long since set up her death to belong to me. She had long since played her cards right, in her favor. She may have not lived to fully take responsibility for it, but she was an evil mastermind. And she had set up everything she wanted. From my arrival, to my death at an old age. She had taken hundreds of years to finish this plan, but she was sure as hell determined to finish it. Now, all she had to do was wait.

And wait she would.

The cold outside was nothing compared to a dark chill I had as I was leaving the archives. Now, was time to get to that shopping area before something else happened. I had a lot to sell, and intended to do it as soon as possible.

I set out on foot, and began my trek through Canterlot's ruined city.