The Unraveled World

“Now I know how a pin cushion feels,” grumbled Ekon as he scratched at the fresh bandage on his shoulder.

The nurse smiled as she tossed out the fifth hypodermic used on the zebra. “I’m just glad you didn’t sleep around a lot like some ponies those two bring in. Some wasteland ponies are only alive because their STDs are too busy fighting each other to kill their hosts.”

Spring Step poked her head into the nurse’s medical station. “Is he fixed up now, nurse?”

“Well, he won’t feel like sitting in a chair for a while, but he’s good to go, Spring Step.”

He forced a polite smile as Ekon walked past the nurse and into the hallway. Pinksworth was floating behind Spring Step as she commented, “Jabbed you good, didn’t she? You’ll thank Nurse Heart Beat later, believe me.”

Ekon rolled his eyes. “I guess. How are you guys doing?”

Pinksworth said, “I got my body refurbished and outfitted with a new engine, so I’m doing great!”

“I always feel better with a fresh set of legs. Well, let’s go meet Spike.”

They left the Canterlot Institute as the evening sky turned bright orange. There were many more ponies on the streets this time. In the rainbow-colored swarm of ponies, Ekon spotted black and white stripes. A zebra slipped past him without even giving him a sidelong glance.

Some of the golden mushroom-capped spires of the old Canterlot castle were now serving as housing for restaurants and stores. No sense letting a castle’s rubble go to waste, Ekon figured.

They walked towards a building that was ringed with stone pillars. Above the front door was a brass plate that read “Canterlot Intelligence Agency”. The two royal guards saluted them.

“Good to have you back, Captain Spring Step,” said one guard.

“It’s great to see you, Brass Tacks. Spike wants to see the zebra.”

He nodded and opened the door. “Is it getting any better out there?”

She shrugged. “Well, there aren’t quite as many bandits around, I can promise you that.”

The guard winked and replied, “Ah. Gotcha.”

The lobby was almost as big as a stadium. Four large hallways branched out from the lobby and were filled with ponies doing, Ekon assumed, government work.

“Spike’s probably in the library, Ekon,” said Sping Step.

When Ekon stepped into the library, he almost burst into tears at the sight of so many unburned, untorn and unvandalized books. One constant source of anguish for Ekon was the lack of something to read. During the last five winters, most of the libraries in the wasteland were emptied of books, which were used for kindling rather than reading.

He was so preoccupied with the vast walls of books that he jumped a little when something green and purple stepped in front of him.

“Ekon Madaki, I presume?” asked a five foot tall dragon. He had light purple scales and eyes as green as the frill on his head. He held out a hand.

“Yes,” replied Ekon as he shook his hand. “You must be Spike.”

Smiling, he said, “You got it. Man, I never thought I’d ever meet you. When your family stopped sending reports here, we had assumed the worst.”

“Did Spring Step tell you that I’m the last survivor of that particular dig?”

Spike’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, she did. I’m so sorry about what happened to you and your family.”

“Thank you.”

Spike walked over to a table that had a small hill of books and scrolls on one side. Sitting in a chair, he gestured to the others to sit. “While you guys were out on patrol, I and a few wizards finally found out what spell screwed up Equestia’s magic.”

Ekon pricked up his ears. “I thought the magic had simply disappeared.”

The dragon shook his head. “Magic is just energy, Ekon. It can’t be destroyed, just relocated. What I’m about to tell you needs to stay in this room.”

“You got it. But why all the secrecy?”

“Because a loony unicorn named Starlight Glimmer is to blame for Equestria falling apart. If that information got out, then all unicorns would be under suspicion. “

“I see your point,” said Ekon. “I don’t suppose this particular unicorn is still at large, is she?”

“No, she’s dead. Let’s go back to when we all first arrived at this timeline. This is what happened. “

Twilight Sparkle fell to the ground next to Spike. Starlight Glimmer fumed as Twilight scrambled to get on her hooves again.

“Starlight! You have to stop this!” Implored Twilight. “Every time we come back to Equestria, every version gets progressively worse! When are you going to understand that you can’t win this fight?”

“I once ruled an entire village with my magic. That place’s future was in my hooves and my hooves alone.” She sighed. “I was happy until you and your idiotic friends ruined my perfect world!”

“You can’t go back, Starlight. Why would you want to? Nopony should control the minds of others the way you did and nopony can control the future. Not even the Princesses.”

Starlight Glimmer’s ears drooped as she stared at the ground. “You took away my future, Twilight.” A scroll popped into existence, gripped by Starlight’s magic. “It’s only fair that I take away yours. Thanks to this spell. Written by none other than Starswirl The Bearded. I found it in a mountain temple while I was hiding from you.”

Starlight opened the scroll, which began to glow like a banked coal. Mystic symbols appeared and began to swirl around the paper. “If I can’t own the future, then no one will.” She closed her eyes and whispered an incantation.

A bright flash of light erupted around them. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head and groaned. Blinking the lights out of her eyes, she pointed her horn and grunted.

Starlight flinched but then smiled. “What’s the matter, Princess?” she asked mockingly. “Having trouble with your horn? Oh, my. It looks like your cutie mark disappeared again!” Looking at her own blank flanks, she laughed as she added, “So did mine!”

“What did you do to me?” Twilight demanded.

“I took away your magic. And my magic. And everypony’s magic. I did what Celestia did to Luna when she went rogue, but on a much larger scale. Now they are both gone.”

Twilight’s jaw slacked as she tried to comprehend what she was told. “You’ve crippled the world! Why would you do this?”

“Because you got in my way, Twilight. Now everypony has to suffer because of your interference. You only have yourself to blame for all of this.”

The world began to tremble. A horrendous cracking from deep underground, loud as a thunder clap, lifted them up into the air. As they landed in their backs, a huge fissure appeared and began to open like a mouth near Starlight.

“Welcome to the past, Twilight!” cried Starlight, her pupils shrinking to pinpoints, a manic grin showing most of her teeth. “We may have been equals in magic, but I can still kick your ass!”

Twilight reared back as Starlight charged at her. With a loud smack of flesh, they both tumbled into a growing cloud of dust as they frantically bashed at each other. Spike leapt at Starlight, dug his claws into her back and bit into her neck.

Screaming, she untangled herself from the fight and tried to buck him off, which only prompted him to dig his claws deeper into her flesh.

The chasm continued to grow closer to Starlight as she thrashed around. Twilight ran up and slammed her right foreleg into Starlight Glimmer’s head. With a grunt, Starlight slumped to the ground, stunned .

“Get off of her, Spike!”

Spitting the taste of blood out, he hopped off of Starlight. “What now, Twilight? Without magic, we can’t go home again!”

Rubbing her chin, she replied, “We can’t give up, Spike. Let’s get to Canterlot. We know where Starswirl kept his spells and notebooks. You saw the scroll’s symbols, so maybe that will help us find a counter spell.”

“What about her?” He asked, tilting his head at Starlight.

She snorted. “Forget her. I’m not about to drag that dangerous lunatic around. Let’s go.”

When Twilight turned away from Starlight, she grabbed onto Twilight’s rear legs. “No! You don’t get to play the heroine anymore!” she cried.

The ground shook even more violently, making Twilight fall to her knees. The chasm near Starlight grew wider until it slipped under Starlight’s flanks. Both ponies screamed as the collapsing earth dragged them away from Spike.

Twilight struggled to break free from Starlight’s grip. “I . . . I can’t . . . listen, Spike. Get to the castle. Tell the royal guard and the mages there everything you know. You’ve got to fix this, Spike. No matter what it takes, Equestria needs to be made right again!”

One moment they were there. In the next moment, she and Starlight fell screaming into the black void.

Spike wiped away a tear, took a deep, calming breath and continued. “I must have run for hours, scared that the world would swallow me up like it did to Twilight.”

Ekon said, “I know what it’s like to live in fear, believe me. Did you ever find that counter spell?”

“No, but your father might have.”

Scratching his head, Ekon queried, “How do you figure that?”

Pulling a thick sheath of envelopes from the book mountain, Spike said, “These are his monthly reports sent to the Canterlot Historical Society that we were able to recover. In his last report, he sent us pictures of wall carvings he discovered that month. Many of those symbols look just like the ones that floated around the spell scroll that Starlight used. That doesn’t surprise me, as an earlier report states that it looked like someone rummaged around the temple and took a few things. A few scrolls, for example.”

Spike held up a crumbling leather-bound notebook. “This is one of his journals that we recently found in a hidden chamber deep within Canterlot’s mountain. Two thousand years ago, Starswirl lived in that cave, creating spells and honing his magic skills. According to this book, he figured out a way to not only get rid of both the Princesses, but also to bring them back. I and my colleagues believe the means to bring Celestia and Luna back are in a chamber that your father didn’t have time to dig into before the unraveling hit.”

Ekon’s eyes widened. “Are you sure about that?”

“Absolutely. That’s why we need you, Ekon.”

“To do what?”

“To guide us through the caves and to the chamber, of course!” Spike said with a friendly smile. “According to your father, you know those caves like the back of your hoof. Any maps he may have sent us were lost in Canterlot’s wreckage.”

Ekon started to sweat as he struggled to keep his voice calm. “L-look, you don’t really need me for this trip, do you? Besides, the cave entrance collapsed. You can’t get in anyway.”

Pinksworth raised her boxing glove. “That’s not a problem, Ekon. I’m sure the eggheads will give me all the C-4 charges I need to get in that cave.”

Spring Step walked over to Ekon and patted him on the back. “You don’t have to worry about those bandits, kiddo. They were both so messed up from that fight that they wouldn’t dare screw with us again. “

“And if any new bandits show up, they’ll have to deal with me,” said Spike proudly. “My dragon fire is organic, so I don’t need magic to roast any bad guys.”

“If we’re trying to bring back Equestria’s magic, don’t we need a unicorn for that?” asked Pinksworth. “I don’t think welding a horn on my suit will help.”

Spike held up a hand. “Don’t worry, Pinkie. A talented unicorn named Moondancer has already volunteered to join us. Believe me, she’s equal to the task.”

“One thing puzzles me, Spike,” said Ekon. “Did the Princesses ever know that Starswirl created spells to evict and bring back both of them?”

Spike shrugged. “Well, they suspected he did. That’s why your family was sent to that mountain temple. To find out for sure.”

Ekon swallowed. “Uh . . . when do we leave? Hopefully not right now.”

“Nah, it’s a bit late in the day for that. We’ll all meet at the front gate tomorrow morning at eight. Spring Step will wake you.” Spike put a hand on Ekon’s left shoulder. “I know we are asking a lot from you, especially since you’ve had such a hard time out there. Going back to the place where you lost everything can’t be easy for you. This is faint consolation, but I think your parents would be proud of you for helping us.”

“Yeah. Proud. Sure.” replied Ekon as he looked away and got up from his chair. “I guess I’ll see you guys at eight.”

At midnight, Ekon checked the hallway outside his room. No ponies were in sight. He put his back pack on, shut the door quietly and slipped out of the Institute.

Using all his sneaking skills learned from dodging his enemies in the wasteland, he snuck past every security camera (he hoped) and avoided every street that could have any kind of traffic.

After ten minutes of slinking in the shadows, he stopped at the front gate. He looked up at the guard tower and hollered “Uh, Snails? Are you on duty?”

A teenage unicorn poked his head out a window and looked at Ekon. “Hey, you’re that zebra dude! What’s up?”

“I have to go. Don’t ask me why, just open the gate.”

Snails tilted his head at him. “I don’t think Spring Step would like that.”

Ekon grit his teeth. “I don’t care! Just open the . . .” He heard the sound of metal legs landing behind him.

His ears flat against his head, he turned to see Spring Step retracting her bat wings.

“Now how did I know you were going to pull a runner on us?” she asked as she stamped towards him. “Gee, maybe it was because you were sweating bullets in front of Spike?”

He held up a conciliatory hoof. “Now Springy, you have to understand . . .”

“Oh, I understand, all right.” Pressing her muzzle against his, she yelled, “Your brother’s still alive, isn’t he? He was the one that sent those bounty killers after you!”

A dozen different excuses, lies and half-truths scrambled to escape his mouth, but having an angry mare being close enough to bash his head in made any attempt to lie impossible. Ekon sat down, hanging his head in defeat.

“Yes, Azi’s still alive. He’s angry that I didn’t help our family escape the cave-in. I could hear him swear revenge on me through the rocks that blocked the cave.” Tears pillowed and slid down his cheeks as he looked at Spring Step. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I tried to find someone that could help me rescue him. But no one could help. So I went into hiding instead.”

She snorted. “I don’t suppose sneaking into the temple and explaining yourself to Azi ever occurred to you?”

“Why, so he could have a clear shot at me? I thought he’d give up trying to hunt me down eventually, but I guess that’s my fault in a way. When we were younger, I taught him the value of patience.”

“So you didn’t even try to solve this problem,” she grumbled.

He stamped a hoof. “Look, I’m not a bad-ass military killer like you, okay? I’m just an archeologist zebra who only wanted to find lost things with my family. Nowadays, the lost things in my life are what I can never find again. I lost my family, my old life and my brother.”

“So you think abandoning us and hiding in the wasteland again is the way to make anything better for yourself? You call me a killer, but at least I’m living my life the way I want to.”

She sat down next to Ekon, pulled the cord and wrapped a wing around him. “I lost my family and old life in the same day, just like you. But thanks to friends like Pinkie, I didn’t let those losses change me into something I didn’t want to be. Sure, I miss being able to fly and not just glide around like a kite, but it’s better than living like a target.”

Ekon’s ears pricked up as he recalled his mother saying, “If you want to end his search for you, you must become more than just his target.” She might have said this in a dream, but his mother was often the voice of his conscience throughout his life. He didn’t understand what she meant a day ago.

But he did now.

“I’m sorry I tried to run off. You’re right, Spring Step. I’ve been running from my past for so long, I never worked up the guts to get a future. Now that I finally have friends I can trust, I can face my brother now.”

She smiled. “That’s more like it. Come on, kiddo,” said Spring Step as she lifted him onto his hooves. “Let’s get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”