Madness, and How to Live With it

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Prologue
Reviving hope

Chapter 1

A group of ponies walked in Canterlot castle, roped together. Two pegasi leading, an earth pony loaded with packs behind them, and then a unicorn with notebooks, a map, and writing utensils.

The front pegasi was yellow, his name, Brave Heart. He was older than most, and one of the best team leaders. He was good at telling when something was safe or not, and had a natural calmness and sense of direction that was even able to deal with the madness that covered Canterlot.

The one behind him was Rainbow Dash, and she was there because absolutely nopony was going to stop her from being there. She was the striker, the one there to move heavy objects, and to kill things before they had a chance to hurt anypony. And though she was always focused on her job, a small part of her mind always kept an eye out for somepony special.

Behind her was Carrot Root. A strong earth pony who was fairly good at keeping her head in any situation. Very little distressed her, not even the bones scattered around the castle. A calm mind, and a strong body, able to act with care, and not react without thinking.

The one bringing up the rear was Bright Glitter. While the teams were normally composed of experienced, older ponies, she was only just a mare, very young yet. But her talent made her invaluable; she could sense and sometimes, rarely, see the anomalies. It was by her that enabled the team to walk in safety and some confidence. Otherwise she functioned as the map maker, as much as a map might be made of Canterlot nowadays.

Brave led them deeper than normal. Previous territory had been mapped enough for recovery teams to begin scavenging, and it was time to find something else. Canterlot was hazardous to enter, unless one did so through a specific area; a hole blown into the back of Canterlot castle.

Thus far, nopony had ever made it into the city below, and the first step onto the ground floor left you in one of the towers. Though it seemed whole, there were numerous anomalies which made it as if the castle was cut into pieces which were only tenuously connected. Teams worked to discover every possible variation of room, and to try and find and hopefully nullify any danger that they might hold.

Currently held territory, if you could call it that, was three rooms and two corridors. A very small plot of land. Most of the paths led into the garden, and the garden was a deathtrap for any who entered.

There was only one door not yet explored, and Brave led his group through that one, arriving somewhere else in an instant. They were used to it, and it was what the rope was for. Walk through an anomaly one by one and everypony would arrive somewhere else, alone. Roped together, though it was jarring, they stayed together.

Rainbow spotted and stamped on a thing the moment they arrived, it winking out of existence as if it had never been. Brave looked around, noting that they had found another room, a fairly large one. It might have once been a library, but everything was destroyed and taken apart enough to make it hard to tell.

“Glitter?” he asked, making sure that he looked in corners and dark spots.

“Um… a few bad spots sir.” Glitter said, focusing. “The entire right wall is bad, and spots of air are bad.”

“No flying then. Safe to walk?”

“Yes… but slowly. All the wood and paper makes it hard to tell.”

“You heard her. Slow, and make sure to keep your eyes open.”

They moved forward, Brave using his wings to toss smaller particles away. If they didn’t move, or worse, suddenly stopped, he didn’t go near it. The others followed after him, moving in a line, with Carrot making sure she memorized their step pattern. It might be vital.

They stepped through broken shards of wood, and what might have once been paper and books. Sometimes there was a page which still had legible hoofwriting on it, but those were few and far between. Things were destructive, and left little behind.

“Sir?” Glitter said, pulling the group to a gentle stop. “Ahead are multiple placement anomalies. Not regulated to a door or hall.”

“Can you see them?”

“Not well at all. There is a time anomaly over the whole room. I don’t know what type it is, but it isn’t age effective.”

Brave tensed and then relaxed as she spoke, groaning faintly.

“Sorry sir.” Glitter said, flinching slightly. “Didn’t see it until I saw the others.”

“Try harder Glitter. I don’t want to see anypony turn to dust.”

Glitter nodded. Brave sighed. “Anything else?”

“The room is mostly clear sir, at least, the ground is. Front half empty of any deadly anomalies, and no particles. The air has a good scatter though, and the path ahead is a minefield.”

“Right. Start moving back team.”

They cautiously tracked their steps backward, until Glitter’s rear hoof touched the previous anomaly and they found themselves in the kitchens. It was normal for that to happen, and eventually they would be back in safe-ish territory if they kept taking the same placement anomaly.

“Food?” Rainbow remarked, seeing several examples of unfinished dishes scattered around the place. It was mostly untouched, and Glitter paled.

“Stasis spots!” she yelled. “At least a dozen!”

Brave didn’t even bother, and touched the placement anomaly again.

They went through five more areas, each one deadly, until they found the original entry hall, the giant wooden doors behind them and the hall open in front of them.

Glitter focused, and then sighed. “No anomalies on the ground, a few on the ceiling. The area around the lights have particles, and the stones slightly sunken show signs of acid damage. Safe otherwise.”

Brave nodded, and then, “Don’t move!” came from above them.

They looked up, and all of them flinched. Standing on the wall above them was a purple alicorn. At least, it looked like a purple alicorn.

Her horn had an endless spiral that gave them a headache just from looking at it. Her eyes held a swirl of colors, seemingly empty, but they saw a pupil hovering in the chaos. And her wings…

Her wings looked like some mad pony had taken wings from all kinds of wings, and then melded them together in any way he saw fit. Scales, and feathers, and skin, all sorts of kinds and colors forced together into misshapen wings. They even bled in spots, the blood dark and seemingly absorbed again before it could truly fall from her.

Her cutie mark seemed to race along her form, shifting like water and forming distressing shapes when it stopped moving. Both her mane and tail had an undefined aspect to them, making one assume them to be infinitely long, or possibly made of flesh, like a tentacle.

“If you move, the floor will give.” she said, in a perfectly normal voice. “It isn’t supported by anything but itself, and physics is applicable just in front of you.”

They didn’t respond. They nearly couldn’t. Though she was different, and was greatly changed, they all recognized the lost princess Twilight. Presumed dead when the city had fallen three years ago. And for three years, she had never been found, nor seen.

But with the exception of Rainbow, they settled on the thought that she had been taken by a thing, turned into a monster. They decided that what stood on the wall was not the princess, but a thing wearing her skin.

“It’s…” Rainbow whispered, but Brave frowned.

“Back up, and slowly.” he ordered.

“But…” Rainbow said.

“It is not her Rainbow. It only looks like her.”

The alicorn cocked her head in slight confusion, and then stepped down the wall, vanishing the moment her hoof touched the stone. They kept staring at where it had been.

“Glitter…” Brave said, looking around somewhat worried.

“The… the anomaly has moved sir. It’s different now.”

“Touch it anyway. I want us out of here.”

Then the alicorn seemingly reappeared right in front of them, and Glitter screamed before touching the door again.

Then they were gone, and arrived in the throne room.

“Glitter!” Brave yelled. “Update! Rainbow, get those spears ready!”

“But…”

“Rainbow!”

Rainbow retrieved her spears from her own pack, feeling very uncertain.

“The entire room has a lot, but they are clustered together sir. I can see a clear path to the thrones. And any indication of things is not present. No hiding spots either.”

Brave relaxed and sighed. He suspected that their encounter had been far too close.

“Good. Two good things then.”

“What’s two good things?” Carrot asked.

“We got away, it’s not following, and we found the thrones again. Princess Celestia says that she had left several items of emotional value behind here. Glitter, lead and everypony keep an eye out for a crown, a golden shoe, and a box marked ‘Luna’.”

The others nodded, and headed into the room. Glitter lead the way, and she weaved around the area as Carrot dropped markers with every turn.

They arrived at the thrones themselves, and each looked around, but spotted nothing.

“Glitter?”

“Too many sir. I can’t tell if anything’s caught in something. The ceiling is completely covered, many layers, time and placement.”

Brave sighed. “Back the way we came then. We’re returning.”

They began moving that way, but as they arrived at the final stretch the alicorn reappeared, between them and the door. She used her wings to somehow keep her aloft, the motion making a strange sound with every flap. It was slightly different every time.

“Hang on!” she cried. She held out a hoof, clutching the lost crown and they stared.

“Look! You were looking for this, right? I want to help you. Here, have it.”

She tossed it, and it rolled toward them. Brave didn’t even have time to respond when it touched his foreleg.

And Brave, Glitter, and Carrot vanished, the rope connecting them to Rainbow falling limp. Rainbow stared, and then whipped her head toward the alicorn, seemingly uncaring of what had happened.

“That’s not supposed to happen.” The alicorn said, her voice almost analytical. It hurt Rainbow to hear that tone.

“Move!” Rainbow yelled, readying a spear.

The alicorn looked at her, and she flinched.

“Rainbow!” it said, and she flinched again. “Rainbow, it’s me!”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

“You remember me, right? It hasn’t been that long ago… has it? You are the same I remember. You haven’t changed at all…”

“STOP IT!” Rainbow screamed, her eyes screwed shut. Doing her all to prevent her tears.

“What…”

“STOP IT! You’re. Not. Twilight! Twilight… Twilight’s GONE! And she’s not coming back, not even if you look like her, and talk like her, and know what she knew!”

“Rainbow…”

“I’m not afraid of you, you hear me!? I’M NOT! I’M NOT!”

And then Rainbow charged forward, her vision blurred with tears. The spear impacted the alicorn, and she stumbled away, letting Rainbow hit the far door and vanish.

The alicorn, Twilight, stumbled, the spear sticking in her shoulder. The pain of it was nothing compared to the pain of having Rainbow react to her like that though.

She pulled it free, and her flesh stitched together the moment it was gone. Then she tossed it away, and turned to follow Rainbow, already able to see where she had gone.

Rainbow flew as fast as she could, uncaring of anything. She ran from the alicorn, and she did not care what she might hit in her flight.

Three years ago, Twilight had been swallowed by the anomalies. She had been there, and saw her vanish as the city fell. Saw her disappear right before her own eyes.

They had all looked for her. For a year, all of them had put themselves into mortal danger, trying desperately to find her. To find some clue as to her fate. But they never had.

After a year, they had given up, and marked her amongst the dead. They had held a funeral, and Celestia and Luna had presided over it. Rainbow was tough, but even she couldn’t really bear the thought of Twilight’s death.

After three years, she might just be able to accept that she was gone. After three years, having a sign that said Twilight wasn’t coming back would have been… accepted. After a time. She had cried a lake over the loss already. There wasn’t much more that it could do to her anymore.

But seeing Twilight twisted, and taken, and speaking as if she had never left…

Rainbow had never had a greater hope, than the hope of finding Twilight, alive and well. And seeing her, no matter how changed, had made that hope rise to the forefront, but Brave had been right. They had seen it before.

Sometimes, when a thing killed a pony, they took its body for themselves. A pony shape to a more or less degree that was no different for the things themselves. And when they did so, they could speak like that pony had spoken, and sometimes knew what that pony had known.

But the pony was gone, and it was all a trap for anypony that thought that their loved one was still alive, or that somepony might have somehow survived in Canterlot. The eyes always gave it away, as did any extra physical deformity.

The eyes turned into a swirling mass of colors, some of them impossible to describe. On every thing that moved in Canterlot, they all shared those eyes.

And the thing that had taken Twilight had had those eyes. Had had so much of her, her voice, and if Rainbow had stayed, maybe even her memories. And it drove Rainbow to her brink, seeing that, and hearing that.

Death would be accepted. A mockery of her friend, a moving, talking, actually looks like Twilight Sparkle but changed thing couldn’t be. She knew that one day, she might have to kill it, and she did not have the strength of soul to be able to. The thing that had taken Twilight would take her if she saw it again, if she heard it again. She knew that.

So she flew, uncaring of any anomaly, passing through one after another without stopping or looking. And she never noticed the fight that raged next to her.

Twilight flew after her, and it was… next to her. And with every moment it tried to kill Rainbow, and with every attempt Twilight either took the blow, or managed to deflect Rainbow on her path.

Twilight could see that Rainbow was in no shape to see her again. While the rejection pained her like nothing else, she would not let her perish here.

So with every instant she tried to fight it off, and it merely had never been there every time she tried to hit it. Every time it moved particles into Rainbow’s path Twilight got her to miss it, oftentimes suffering the agony herself. But that was fine. She would survive. Rainbow wouldn’t.

Anomaly after anomaly she chased after Rainbow, it always waiting just ahead. Point after point, through the castle and into the city, steadily getting more and more dangerous until Twilight felt that she had no choice.

She struggled, and grabbed the next anomaly before Rainbow hit it. And using the stuff it worked on, made it bend the way she wanted it to.

It was painful. It was damaging. It made her feel more than a little bit insane, breaking reality like that, but she did it for Rainbow. And when Rainbow went through that one, she arrived at the exit, and flew through it without a single feather out of place.

And then she let go of the stretched anomaly, and landed panting. Her hoof was strange now. It felt tougher. More durable. It was next to her. It always had been.

“uylks fajkd.” it intoned. Then, “I am proud, my daughter.”

Her head whipped toward it, but it had never been next to her. It spoke. It had spoken more words. After endless tries, it finally responded to something she had done.

And she was terrified that that meant something terrible. That its sudden words meant… meant that it was happy. And if it was happy… then what had she messed up? What did she do wrong, to make it happy?

But it was of no matter. Rainbow was safe. That’s what she cared about. And since Rainbow was now safe, she was free to relax.

So she wailed into the air, and collapsed, sobbing. Rainbow had rejected her, speared her, was terrified of her. And she didn’t know why, but she thought she did.

She thought that Rainbow knew that she had caused this. Caused the anomaly, caused all the deaths, and pain. And that now, Rainbow viewed her as the monster. The thing that needed to be killed to make everything normal again.

And though Rainbow did not have the heart to kill what had been her old friend, she never, ever wanted to even think about Twilight Sparkle ever again. And Twilight could see her way to the rest of her friends doing the same.

Looking at her, and fearing her, and turning away from her. All of them. Her mind tormented her with the thoughts and sounds of it. Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, all hating her. Celestia, staring at her as if she was a monster. Spike, running terrified from her.

And through it all, she agreed with them. She was a monster. She was something to be feared, something that deserved their hate. Something that needed to be gone, and in some ways was gone. Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship was gone.

And in her place was simply Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle the monster, the killer of hundreds, the cause of every last anomaly, the reason that it had come.

Her frail hopes of being found and rescued flew up and shattered. Anything that she had held onto to keep herself flew from her. There was nothing left for her anymore. Nopony to turn to, nopony that would ever look at her with affection ever again.

She cried and sobbed, prone on the ground as her form heaved with her breathing. She cried from the blame she so easily heaped on herself, from the hate that she was so certain was there. From the breaking of her hopes. From the way Rainbow had looked at her, from the way the ponies with her had looked at her.

For every pony dead, dead by her hooves. For every last mote of pain and suffering ever suffered because of the anomalies. For everything she knew she had lost, only made worse by the idea that she might have saved it. Only made worse, by the knowledge that she might have prevented it.

She didn’t know how long she had cried. After a while she slowed and stopped. After a while the pain grew numb, and her tears dried up.

And then it was there again. And it… had only recently been there, only recently arriving to watch her sniffle and remain limp on the ground.

And then it walked to her, the very first time it had ever moved logically. And then it stopped before her, and regarded her. She looked up at it. She looked into eyes that defied reason that seemed a portal to a place where nothing would ever live. Where nothing was constant, where anything could happen, where reality would never be found. Not even one tiny part of it.

And she thought that just perhaps that that place would be preferable to her.

“Stop crying, my daughter.” it said. She saw its mouth move, and it gave her a concerned look.

“They have thrown you away my daughter, but I, I will always be there. Run to me, my daughter. Join with me, and forget your pains and past. Throw it away, as you have been thrown away. For I shall never forget you, never see you with hate. I always loved you, even when you were not my daughter my daughter.”

It reached a hoof out, a hoof that was… normal. A purple leg, with a normal hoof, and fur she could see.

She looked back up, and saw eyes that sparkled purple, and a face and horn that were real. A mane that was actually hair, a form that didn’t change at all. Not one hair.

A cutie mark on… his flank. A symbol of freedom, of the release from pain and suffering.

She looked at him, seeing him for the first time.

“Who are you?” she asked, still staring into those eyes so like her own.

He smiled. A perfectly normal smile.

“My name… I have many names my daughter. A great many, so many that even I cannot count them anymore. Perhaps you will see your way to giving me a new one.”

“…Do you like… Hope?” she asked him.

His smile grew, and she grasped his hoof and he pulled her up. All around her, Canterlot was normal. Nothing was like it had been just a second ago.

Ponies walked the streets. The sun shone down on the city, and not one thing was out of place. She looked at Hope in surprise and he winked at her.

“It’s normal…” she breathed, looking about in wonder. “They’re alive…”

“They always have been my daughter. You just had eye trouble all this time.”

She looked at him again. And then she smiled in simple happiness. “I like this.” she told him.

“It is good. You are good, my daughter.”

“Thanks… Father.”

Chapter 2

Brave blinked. The second he had touched the crown, he, Carrot, and Glitter had been sent from Canterlot Castle to the plains near Canterlot Mountain, all in a single instant.

And it had been the smoothest teleport he had been subjected to. No jerking, no magical anything, not even the sensation of travel until the senses caught up to the sudden change.

The crown gently landed on the grass, and Brave looked, to see Glitter and Carrot just as befuddled as he was. But who he did not see, was Rainbow Dash.

He came to a swift conclusion. The thing that had been Twilight Sparkle had tossed them away, so that it could deal with Rainbow alone. Things were… randomly intelligent, and rarely had powers like this.

Not to this degree, and never in a harmless manner, and never something to escape Canterlot, but it was the only thing that could possibly have happened. Unless…

He looked down at the crown and wondered. But he had something more important to do.

He had lost teammates to Canterlot’s dangers before. It was a distressingly common occurrence. Somepony took a wrong step and anything might happen to them. It was a bit of a blessing when they just vanished. That meant that you didn’t have to see something horrible happen to them.

But Rainbow was one of the bearers of the elements. She and all the others had entered Canterlot for years, and they never fell to it, not even when they worked alone. She might still be alive.

And Brave would rip his own wings off if he didn’t try.

“Carrot! Glitter! Get it together! We’re going back!”

Three years earlier

Twilight had always had a… chaotic life. Chosen as the leader of the elements, she oftentimes had to face and deal with just about anything that decided to bother ponies. Things that ranged from Tirek, who threated everypony’s lives, to things like the CMC, which threatened their peace of mind.

But she always loved it. Yes, things got dangerous, and yes, ponies got hurt, but it always worked out for the best. It was a good life, a fulfilling life, and if she had had the choice, it never would have ended the way it had.

Four years ago Kitty broke free form his stony prison and for four days caused no end of havoc and panic until it was found that he was friendly. A little after him was the centaur, and the shifting monster that almost killed everypony. Then the whole element fiasco, which took a solid year of pain and fear and worry before resolving itself. And then, the darkness itself invaded, and they had… purified it.

And every other little problem that came with them. Sometimes small, sometimes worse, but they never really fought alone since then. Kitty had helped against the changelings, as did… she, thought she hadn’t been seen since. When Tirek came, Kitty had come again, and after the centaur were befriended, they had stood at the forefront of pony defense against nature.

And though the darkness had wanted nothing more than to douse the light of everything forever, they had somehow made friends with that too. Even Twilight hadn’t expected that, but they had. An age of peace had followed, where the shadows themselves would end threats before they could fester.

And then Twilight had had her Great Idea. And that marked the downfall of everything, the start of its coming, the eventually destruction of all she held dear.

And it all began with a harmless comment…

Twilight was hard at work in her library. She had had very little to do, and was returning to her studies of anything that happened to catch her interest that day.

She was searching for her next topic when Spike had an idea, or rather, a ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’ thought.

“You know Twilight,” he said, carrying books from one pile to the next. Twilight nodded, only half listening.

“I’ve been thinking. What if we had somehow known that everything was going to go bad, and stop it?”

Twilight hesitated. “Kitty says that’s not feasible Spike.”

“Not like, change it, but… What if we had known that things were coming, and could properly prepare for them?”

“Again…”

“I know that, but not future sight! Like… a big bell or something, to tell us something came. To tell us when it arrived if it does?”

Twilight thought about it. Spike was right, that wasn’t future sight. Just an early warning system, and the thought was… tempting.

If they had been able to react immediately to the problems of the past few years, how much suffering might have been prevented? If they had known about Chysalis, or Tirek, or the centaur, or her, or the darkness when it arrived? So much happens because a problem festers unknown before it’s discovered.

A great idea, but how? It was impossible to cover Equestria in a gigantic bubble. Or even cover it in simple warning spells, the land was too big. So a feasible, simple way, to spot problems before they ever happened…

And then Twilight knew it. Time travel was difficult and dangerous, but that was over years.

But if she did it with seconds, or minutes…

Then she could make a tiny hop, and effect nearly nothing, and prevent something terrible from happening. In case it ever did.

And she could think of hundreds of uses for a few seconds. Saving something from falling, taking back something stupid that slipped out, preventing a disaster with magic or alchemy. And every single CMC disaster could be prevented with a few seconds of warning!

“Spike I think you’ve just given me the best idea ever!” she squealed.

Spike watched her take a piece of paper and write furiously on it, confused. “I did?”

“You did! This is your list, I need these books!” she yelled, passing him the paper. Spike eyed the tomes written on it, each one having something to do with time magic, as well as an extra note saying that any book which could conceivably deal in either time or magic.

Twilight then called, “Magica!”

A blue and purple unicorn appeared near her. She seemed… darker than normal, and her eyes were black with gently glowing purple pupils.

“Do you need something Twilight?” she asked, her voice soft and her words carefully chosen.

“I need anything you can find about time magic!”

Magica cocked her head, and rubbed her chin with a hoof. She hummed for a moment, and then nodded.

“If I can trust any… pony then I can trust you not to harm my tomes. I shall gather a few for your endeavor, but first. Far travel, or time effect?”

“I was thinking a few seconds to a minute back.”

Magic seemed surprised, and then smiled, a rare event for her. “You want to break new ground Twilight. Every time I see you, you seem to make me more impressed and proud of you. I will wait with breathless anticipation for your final results.”

Magica vanished again, and Twilight smiled at her compliment before focusing again. There was a lot for her to do and recall before she started actual research. Time travel was possible, under crippling requirements, and it was best to start with knowns before finding unknowns.

Present day Ponyville

Brave and his team were returning to Ponyville, the group conflicted about what they should be feeling.

Carrot Root was unhappy. It had been when they arrived at Canterlot again when Rainbow had come out of it. At full speed. It was only the skill and resolve of Brave and Rainbow combined that they escaped falling off the cliff without broken bones, and only a brush with death and bruises.

Brave was very happy. Sure, they feel hundreds of feet before recovering at the last six, but Rainbow was safe. He had worried about that, and actually seeing her unhurt and able to escape alone raised his spirits and made the old stallion smile.

Rainbow was trying to be brave. A traumatizing meeting, a wild rush through danger, falling and having to save everypony, and then Brave’s joy at her safety had left her a little confused in feelings. Sad? Frightened? Happy? She wasn’t really sure, but she was trying her hardest to resolve her feelings about Twilight.

Bight Glitter was still trying to get her heart to stop beating so hard. Carrot had the resolve to not really care about nearly pancaking on the ground, but she didn’t. She was young, and easily effected by such things. And she was also effected by the emotions around her, more easily able to see Rainbow’s consternation and Brave’s deep happiness.

But they were returning safe and whole, with the crown. It had been a draining mission, but it had accomplished an old objective, and obtained information long sought after. Twilight was gone, and a thing now held her form, voice, and memory, answering something that they had sought an answer to for a long time.

It wasn’t a happy answer, but it was an answer. Brave thought it was better than not knowing, but Rainbow was in disagreement. Anything else would have been better as far as she was concerned.

Brave and his team entered into the Memory Castle in Ponyville, still somewhat known as ‘Princess Twilight’s Castle’. It was where the twin princesses lived currently, and where the four teams stayed and planned their expeditions.

The other three teams were not there when they entered. Brave had taken his group alone, and the others were resting after their expeditions. He went through the Castle with a firm purpose of direction, and entered into the map room.

Within was Celestia and Luna, as were the other element bearers. On the round table was the current ‘map’ of Canterlot, with crisscrossing lines and several rooms marked. Mapping placement anomalies took time and effort and yielded a confusing mess if care was not taken.

Brave stopped ten paces away from the group, and saluted and waited.

Celestia looked over, and nodded. “You return captain.”

“Yes Princess.”

“Have you met the enemy?” asked Luna, regarding the disheveled look on the group.

“Permission to give the report Princesses and heroes?”

“You may captain.” Celestia said.

Brave nodded. “Entry was gained at eight a.m., and progression was made to the second hall. We proceeded to begin mapping new rooms, discovering at least five variations from the last door. Of five rooms, three are deadly, one is dangerous, and the last is semi clear, but we have extra information that might shine doubt on that last analysis.”

“Upon arriving in what I am assuming to be the entry hall, entry the right main door, we encountered… Permission to speak freely Princess?”

“Is somethin th matter?” Applejack asked.

“You don’t normally hesitate darling.” Rarity added.

Celestia nodded, and Brave sighed.

“We… we have discovered the fate of princess Twilight Sparkle.”

All those not part of his team expressed sudden interest.

“Is she safe!?”

“What has happened to her!?”

“Why is she not with you?”

Luna banged the table with her hoof, getting the bearers to silence. “Captain, continue.” she ordered.

“Upon encounter, she informed us that the floor was not safe, and prone to collapse. Once a closer look was obtained, we noted several key features.”

“Her eyes held the swirling colors, her horn seemed mesmerizing, her wings are an amalgamation of things, both mane and tail seem infinitely long, and her cutie mark was displaying anomalous properties.” A dawning horror settled on the group as Brave continued. “There can be no other assumption. Twilight Sparkle has died and is currently held by a thing of some intelligence and power.”

The bearers ceased hearing him, each one caught with their own thought and emotions. Luna seemed distressed, and even Celestia had a note of tension to her that she never normally had.

“… My deepest regrets for your loss.” Brave said.

“Thank you captain.” Celestia said, drooping.

“… I used the unknown encounter procedure, and we retreated. Glitter expressed the opinion that the thing had somehow shifted the anomaly behind us, and following it, we arrived at the throne room. Current analysis indicates dangerous, at least for the ground. We searched for the lost items, but found nothing.”

“When exiting, the thing appeared between us and the door, flying over the floor. It claimed that it wished to help, and tossed the crown at us. Upon touch, I, Carrot, and Bright were sent about a mile from Canterlot, deposited on the ground without any negative effects.”

Applejack looked up, slight confusion warring with sadness. “Nothin does that. No way ta get out cept through th entry.”

“I note that Rainbow is not listed.” Rarity said, her voice dull and slow. “What happened?”

“Rainbow.” Brave said, and waited. And then he looked over his shoulder where Rainbow looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. “Rainbow.” He repeated, and she walked next to him like a pony walking closer to their greatest fear.

Celestia regarded her rigid form. “Rainbow. I expect that you met… it. I want to hear your opinion on the matter.”

Rainbow took a deep breath, and looked around at the ponies at the table. Depression, sadness, and maybe a touch of denial. She had felt that not too long ago.

“…What do you mean princess?”

Celestia hesitated. “Is Twilight truly… are we sure that chance did not cause this? That perhaps a thing was only mimicking…”

Rainbow shook her head, and Celestia sighed and looked old.

“It spoke like her, acted like her, and knew my name. That… it was Twilight. I know it was Twilight. I… I ran, and she, it chased me.”

“Thou ran through Canterlot?” Luna asked, dismayed. Rainbow winced, the suicidal nature of her action becoming more apparent to her now.

“… Yeah. I made it into the city, and sh- it just kept coming. I knew it was. One of the anomalies in the city dropped me right outside the exit, and I went right through it.”

“Right inta us.” Carrot remarked, earning her a glare from Brave.

“Your crown, Princess.” Brave said, holding it out. Celestia looked at it for a time, and then nodded.

“Keep it.”

“Princess?”

“It is possible that the crown is a guaranteed escape from Canterlot.” she said. “Keep it with you, and use it well.”

“Princess.” Brave said, saluting again. “Permission to leave?”

“Granted.”

The team left but for Rainbow. The moment other ponies were gone from the room, Fluttershy stopped hiding it, and cried.

“We’re gonna hafta kill her, aren’t we?” Applejack asked, close to despair.

None of them was up to the task of answering her. Not even the indomitable Celestia, or the hardened Luna.

Their hopes of finding her, even after so long had died, and then inverted. They had found her, found her a monster that needed to be slain. Fluttershy only cried worse at the thought of it, and the others couldn’t imagine themselves up to the task.

Spearing Twilight, even if it was just a thing, was not something that any of them could face. Rainbow had done it on instinct, and she had missed. She started the rush at the heart, but tried to miss at the last moment, and she was horrified that she had hit Twilight at all.

Logic said that Twilight was dead, and it was only a thing. Nothing to be concerned over, nothing to mourn. But the heart bled for the loss, and it was all the worse that they might have to kill something that looked like Twilight. Something that spoke like Twilight. Something that might call their names as they killed it.

For a few, the tougher amongst them, despair shifted to anger. Anger at what had caused this, anger at what killed Twilight, anger at whoever had caused all of this.

Rescue was never going to happen. Not anymore.

But revenge was still possible. Finding the pony who was responsible for Twilight’s death, and ending him. Rainbow and Applejack arrived their quickly, deciding that living pony or no, they were going to kill whoever had done this.

And the others followed. Slowly, eventually. Even the gentle Fluttershy.

Canterlot

Twilight walked with Hope as he led her to the castle gardens. It was nice there. Just like everything had turned nice, suddenly.

Though Twilight was still sad. She remembered her losses, and what Canterlot had been. Hope said that he could fix that.

Standing next to the plants, away from everypony else, he turned to her, and said, “Close your eyes, and I can take the pain from you.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, and he smiled and nodded. So she sat, and closed her eyes, and waited.

For a moment, those pains rose, and she winced at them. Every memory, once happy, but now a dagger to her, rising to the forefront. But then they were gone.

“Open your eyes, my daughter.”

She did so, and saw Hope holding a writhing orb in his hoof. It seemed to be made of purple light.

“I shall put it where it won’t hurt you, my daughter. But first, a new name.”

“A new name?” she asked, and then it struck her that she didn’t have one. She smiled anyway. Her father would give her one, and she waited eagerly to see what he would choose.

“Rise my daughter. Rise…”

“Great Change. My daughter.”

Great stood again, smiling. It was a good name.

“Come with me my daughter.”

She followed him, until he came to the edge of the cliff, and looked out at the sunset. Great could see all the way to Ponyville, and see the changing colors as the sun fell.

And it was ugly, and frightening, and strange. The way things were so… rigid. Unchanging, like rocks, rocks pretending at life. She flinched, and leaned against her father in concern.

“What is it?” she asked him.

“It is madness, my daughter. A place where everything is wrong, where everypony suffers. It is broken apart, and needs to be mended.”

“Can we fix it?”

“Not yet. You are not old enough yet, and you still have trouble seeing. Walk in the city, and see what there is before the sun falls. Make me proud, and be done before the night falls.”

Great nodded.

And she visited every place, and saw everypony, and was back by her father’s side before the sun fell, and the pair watched the moon rise, and then retired, heading into the castle, where Hope lived.

It was such a fitting thing thought Great. Hope lives in the castle, and she, Great Change, was going to be the salvation of the world. Putting what was wrong, right. A Great Change.

Chapter 3

Three years ago

Twilight was making good headway in her quest for her spell. She already had reminded herself of the time travel spell, and her library had yielded several tomes which at least theorized on the concept. Magica had given her two books, both of which had more about time magic and manipulation than everything Twilight had combined.

She was quite happy with them. There mere act of reading them increased her knowledge, and the idea that somepony had once known these things was fascinating, and she really wanted to know where Magica had gotten them. But for now, she needed practical knowledge, and not theory.

So that was why she had collected a few supplies, and one of her rarest stories, and was heading to Kitty. He was the only being she knew of that could use time like ponies used their legs, and she hoped that he might be able to give her some clue as to where to go next.

Kitty lived in a cave that he dug himself at the base of Canterlot Mountain, his claws able to carve stone with ease. He was a giant winged cat, standing about eight times the height of a pony, and though he ate meat, he would never harm a pony.

He even lived with one, Mirage, a brown pegasi that he cared for greatly. Her name, Mirage, was in Kitty’s own language, far removed from pony, and it was oftentimes difficult to pronounce for some ponies.

Twilight had first met him a little more than a year ago, when he had broken free of his stone prison. A brief altercation had taken place, he had escaped to the past only to later return, and though it might have gone poorly, they had managed to resolve their differences.

He was even good friends with them now, willing to at least try and help with any problem that he might be able to help with. Rarity might be the exception, but they had all found something that he could help with and or do with them. Twilight always enjoyed the tales he loved to tell, stories from the far past, and loved how he would never grow bored with her own stories, no matter how dry they were to others.

She saw the cave in the distance, and hurried forward, landing in front of it soon. She stepped inside, and noted that it was empty. That was somewhat common, as Kitty enjoyed traveling to the past, for reasons known only to him and Mirage. She would wait, he would be back soon.

For the time, she looked at the walls. They were very smooth, and covered in carvings and writing. It was Kitty’s tongue, though Twilight was able to read it. It had taken some time for her to learn it, but it was well worth it.

Kitty told tales, but the stories on the wall were from his own experiences, and oftentimes spoke of things that he was unwilling to speak about. From his first days in Equestria, the time in stone, his travels in the past, and now the various experiences he had had in the present. It made Twilight smile to see that, see that he was happy with his life.

And then she saw the blur that heralded his coming, and backed up slightly as he and Mirage materialized, Mirage atop his head. His great wings extended fully, his mouth closing from the roar he always emitted during travel.

He was also covered in flowers, blossoms to be specific, all sorts of colors. Mirage flew from his head, leaving behind a trail of petals as she flew, smiling hugely.

Then she noticed Twilight, and landed near her. “Hey Twilight! We didn’t keep you waiting, did we?”

“No, I just got here Mirage. But why the flowers?”

Kitty smiled, and Mirage inhaled. “The unicorns of Flowerfall have a big festival every year, and we went to it!" she squealed, jumping a little in happiness. "It was tons of fun! We got lost for a bit though, the valley is hard to spot.”

“The tradition is long lost I suspect.” Kitty said, his voice deep and almost intimidating. “Flowerfall was the first to fall to the wave of ice, and the land was abandoned. The festival itself was truly wonderful, though I had a hard time finding it; we missed the first parts of it.”

Twilight beamed, already eager to learn more, and nearly forgot why she had come. Nearly. First things first after all.

“Thanks Kitty, but I wanted to ask you some things first.”

“Speak Twilight.”

“I was working on a time travel spell,” Kitty winced, and Twilight swiftly added, “that is only meant to work for seconds! Not years!” He stopped wincing, and now seemed curious.

“And I was thinking that knowing how you time travel might give me a hint as to how to proceed.”

Kitty thought about it, and then sighed. “I am afraid Twilight, that Clover once asked me the same question, though for another reason. My only answer is that I use my will to determine the time, and express power through the use of my roar. Your spellcasting is very different from my own ability, and I suspect mine is based on force rather than finesse.”

“I… suspected something like that.” She sighed. Kitty seemed to think for a moment, and then smiled.

“I might cheer you yet Twilight. Spare a day or less with me, and we might go back to see the Flowerfall festival. I now know where it is, and we will not miss the first half of it.”

“Really!?” Twilight said, instantly perking up. A chance to learn about ancient traditions was always a good thing in her book. Even better to experience them, and best of all; it would take very little time with Kitty’s ability. Days in the past, and only a few hours in the present, a gift only given to a rare few that Kitty could trust completely.

Kitty nodded. “You, I can trust not to harm the past. Come close, and this time, we shall enjoy it together.”

Twilight hurried next to him, and Mirage landed on his head. He flapped his wing again, and reared back to roar, the sound very loud in the cave.

They faded away, and Twilight could be seen smiling and giddy about the opportunity. She always enjoyed spending time with her friends, particularly those who preferred to live apart, like Kitty. She worked hard to truly be the princess of friendship.

It was only too regrettable that she also worked so hard on her research. A lessor will might have given up, but Twilight never let go of a problem until it was solved. Normally an admirable trait, but even the best of intentions and the greatest of virtues can become a downfall.

Present, Canterlot

Great was happy. She had spent some time wandering through the city, to ask the ponies there to come into the castle.

That was because though the castle was perfect, it was very big, and only she and Hope lived in it. She felt that was wrong, and wanted others to share in it. Make it not so empty. Share her happiness a little.

The ponies in the city were… oddly silent, and preferred not to talk, relying on body language instead for some reason, but she didn’t care. None of them had names, but she was more than happy to give them some. And now she had a full group of twenty wandering the halls, exploring. A good start she thought.

She left them to it, and headed to where she knew Hope was. She could always tell where he was, even if she didn't know where he was.

Hope called it their connection, and that made her happy. She found him soon, standing in a particular room, staring at the writhing ball of light.

He seemed concerned, and a bit of her happiness left her. Why was father upset?

“Father?” she asked, heading to him. “What’s the matter?”

Hope hesitated, and then sighed. “I… I don’t know my daughter.”

Great nuzzled against him, and he seemed more confused for a moment. She thought how she might cheer him, and then remarked, “It’s a pretty light, isn’t it?”

“Your pain? I do not think so my daughter. It seems only a problem.”

Great hesitated, reminded as to what the ball was, and the writhing orb looked a little less pretty now.

“Great.” Hope said, “Why… why have you gone, and asked others to enter here?”

Great smiled. That was an easy question. “I wanted that the castle not be so empty father. And I made a few friends, like Bendy, and Longhorn, and Bright Eyes…”

Hope looked at his daughter’s smile as she recounted others, and for a moment looked completely lost. Then his face hardened, and he looked away slightly, as if he was trying to make a decision.

“They don’t like talking much, but Bendy can do this ridiculous contortion if she’s happy, and I can tell if they like something.” Great finished. Then she saw Hope’s expression, and grew slightly concerned.

“Father? Is… should I tell them to leave?” Great asked, worried and fearful that she had upset him.

“No.” Hope told her quickly. “They make you happy, do they not?” Great nodded. “If it makes you happy, my daughter, then you make bring all of the city into the castle.”

She smiled hugely, and said, “Thank you father!” and hugged him. Hope hesitated again, and then nuzzled her back, albeit stiff and slowly.

“Great, do something for me.” Hope said.

“Anything.”

“Go and watch your friends closely. And keep an open mind. Some things are strange, hard to understand, but it something confuses you, or frightens you, know that I will never let it hurt you.”

Great nodded, and hurried off. Hope watched her go, and then looked back at the ball of light. And if one watched, his eyes shifted, and looked up, as if it was far, far larger than it was.

Outside Canterlot

Brave sighed at the entry. This was going to be… different for him, and the others. A new task had been gained: find and destroy the thing of Twilight Sparkle, and not one of the bearers elected to come with them anymore.

And since four teams had lost one member, six groups of four had been reassembled into four groups of five.

Rainbow was gone, replaced by Carrot Top, Carrot Root’s sister. And behind Glitter was Open Pages, another unicorn that loved making maps and taking notes.

They were capable ponies, having gone on several of their own expeditions, but as far as Brave was concerned, he had lost his best pony and gained two weights instead. Carrot Top would never be as good a striker as Rainbow had been.

“Alright girls,” he began, looking at the entry, and starting his usual pep speech. Open coughed, and Brave ground his teeth.

“Alright ponies,” he stressed, upset. “We are entering into Canterlot, and this time we have a new quest for us. Find and destroy the thing of Twilight Sparkle. Starting checks; Carrot, do you have the supplies?”

“Yes.” Said both sisters at the same time. Brave slapped his face with a hoof.

“Root, do you have the supplies?”

“Yep.” Carrot Root said.

“Top?”

“I got ten spears.”

“Only ten? Didn’t I say thirty?” Brave asked, frowning.

“Thirty makes it hard for me to carry them. They’re heavy, and I saw those other things you wanted me to take. They’re twice as big as normal! How am I supposed to use those!? So I got ten normal ones.”

Brave just stared at her, and looked over at Glitter who flinched at the expression.

“Glitter?” he asked, in a voice which suggested that he had very poor hopes for the mission.

“I have everything I need, as well as a few extra supplies, food and medical, and I brought one of the good spears, just in case. I also have the notes from other teams, and asked the other strikers for the best way to deal with things and the optimal throwing angle, sir!” she finished, saluting.

Brave only stared. It had been only three days ago, when they returned from the previous expedition, that Glitter was the bubblehead, forgetting things, and being worried. And now she seemed to have suddenly gotten herself together, just when he really needed somepony to do so. Brave smiled, and she beamed from the unspoken praise.

“Open?”

“Maps, papers, pens, and the materials for anomaly detection.”

Brave nodded. Open had missed the ‘Glitter can find anomalies without aid’, but he did have everything he needed to be a navigator and map maker.

“Alright troop, form up! We have the crown, and that will enable our escape, but bear in mind. The princesses suspect it has a short radius. If I say ‘we’re leaving’, then I want everypony really personal with one another, got it? I don’t want another close call, like with Rainbow.”

They nodded, though they seemed uncertain about his choice of words. “Alright! Let’s go!” he said, and stepped into the entry.

The group was sent to the first hall, the one that had never been a problem before. No particles, no free anomalies, and no things. Most of the castle had never had things in it, except for a select few spots, like the gardens.

There were three things in the first hall, and none of them were the tiny things that they had seen before. Each one was about the size of a pony, and could walk, slide, or fly as they pleased.

Worse, they spoke. In a sense. Things could sometimes speak, but they did so by stringing together random words, creating a disconcerting feeling for those who heard them.

Brave tensed, and Carrot Top threw a spear at the nearest. He spear was half the size of the ones Rainbow had used, and the tip was not particularly large or intimidating. She missed while Brave was waiting for Rainbow to yell ‘contact!’ like she always had.

By the time he recalled that she wasn’t here, all three had spotted them. Top managed to hit one with another spear, and Glitter, in another show of sudden maturity, levitated her spear, and kept another away from them.

“Carrot!” Brave yelled, gaining the attention of two ponies again, and making Top miss because she was startled. He wrested three of her spears from her, to her objections, and threw all three, hitting three times. It was already going very poorly for them, and the spears that Top had taken were not hurting them enough. The one he had hit was still moving.

“What are you doing!?”

“AIM BETTER!”

“Sir!” Glitter called fearfully, her thing growing braver by the second. She was doing well, but she didn’t have it in her to actually hurt it. Brave whipped his head that way.

And then Open pages spotted another, previously unseen thing, not much bigger than a mouse near him, and screamed like a mare.

Great was watching a few of the ponies she had invited, like Hope had told her to. She didn’t mind. It could have been boring, but Bendy was just so… bendy.

It must have been her talent to be able to get her hind leg behind her head and use it as a foreleg. Or walk upside down. Great enjoyed her. It was funny to see, and Bendy was friendlier than most.

“Hi!” Great said.

“Hi!”

“Having fun?” she asked the mare, currently tied into a ball.

“Fun.” Bendy responded, and Twilight nodded.

And then she heard a shout of pain, and stared where it had come from before hurrying that way.

She found four ponies in a hall, each one somepony she had recently met.

Longhorn had three spears in his side and he was gasping in pain, and Bright Eyes was limping with one in her leg. Yells was near the far end, and Puffy was having a spear leveled at him.

And also in the hall were five stone things. Shaped something like ponies, and badly colored like somepony had tried to throw paint at them and had given up. And they… were very strange.

One was holding the spear that threatened Puffy, and the spear kept reorienting itself without any obvious method of doing so. The stone kept moving without any obvious method of locomotion, and one of them kept materializing spears, thrown at her new friends!

“Yells, Puffy, run!” she yelled, rushing forward to Bright Eyes. “Hang on!” she said, and then closed her eyes before pulling the spear free. Bright shrieked, but Great steeled herself, and pushed Bright behind her.

Then she got to Longhorn, just as another spear hit him, and he fell over.

“Longhorn!” she yelled, “Don’t die!” The stone things nearby seemed stunned, and she took her chance. She was far from a medical pony, but maybe she could do this.

“Please hold on Longhorn.” she whispered, and then closed her eyes. The first spear, and he screamed. The second, and he screamed again, a little weaker.

Great opened her eyes, and nearly threw up at the sight, but stopped herself. She had to help him!

Using just a tiny bit of magic, she forced the punctures closed, and then turned to the next spear. Rip free, hear Longhorn scream, see the blood flowing, use a bit of magic to close the wound. The last was the worst. It got stuck on one of his bones, and she had to wiggle it to get it out. She was nearly crying at the screaming he was making, but it was free, and the wound closed.

“Longhorn.” She said, her eyes glittering with moisture.

He blinked, and then stood up, and she felt massive relief. Longhorn was safe! She had saved him!

“Get out of here, before!” She yelled, right before one of the stone things moved again, and ran him through with the big spear.

She stared in horror as his blood splashed her, and he coughed once before the light faded from his eyes. The spear was pulled free, and he collapsed, perfectly still, like a doll. It all seemed to happen so slowly. The sound of the spear so loud, the fall so graceful. But Longhorn was dead, dead right in front of her.

With tears in her eyes and blood on her hooves, she looked up, and saw the spear that killed him, leveled at her. She would never move in time.

She closed her eyes, and sobbed once, expecting to be stuck through, just like Longhorn had been. She heard the spear move, and then the impact, but she didn’t feel anything.

She carefully looked, and then gasped, seeing Hope on front of her. The spear had hit him instead, and he was grabbing it to prevent it being pulled back. He grimaced greatly, and seemed to be in agony as he wrestled with the stone’s grip.

“FATHER!” Great screamed.

“I… will never… let you… be harmed… my daughter.” he managed, the pain in his voice obvious. “…Close… close your eyes… for me…”

Great turned around, and tried to cover her eyes and ears from what she was sure to come. Her father’s death at the hooves of the stone things.

She cried on the bloody floor. Why had those things come in here? To kill her friends, and hurt everypony? She had seen blood and death when just a moment ago, she had been laughing with Bendy, thankfully safe far from here.

What was she going to do now? The castle wasn’t safe anymore, and father was dead. Her Hope died protecting her, and she sobbed from the thought of it. She knew it would be worse when she saw him lying there, his blood on the floor all around him, dead to save her.

And then she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes, and she saw Hope, smiling. Whole, and unharmed.

She gave a wild yell, and grabbed onto him, feeling more relived then she had ever been. He shifted to move her atop his back, and then began leaving the hall. For a moment she saw rock debris on the floor, and her only thought was good.

“Father I was… was so…”

Hope hushed her. “I told you my daughter. I will never let anything hurt my Great Change. And never means forever my daughter. I will not leave your side until the time when you wish me to.”

“I never want you to leave!” she yelled, gripping him a little tighter.

Hope just smiled. “I won’t my daughter. I will always be next to you.”

Great took a while to recover from the experience. Her father told her that the stone things came from that area often, and she should avoid it. He had also said that most of the time, they were not dangerous, and actually fairly fragile, able to break with very little force.

For the time being, she was back in the city proper, trying not to cry every time she saw a unicorn that looked something like Longhorn had.

And then she saw something odd. A few ponies had cornered a stone thing. It was just in an alley with no exit, and the ponies there were glaring at it.

“Break it.”

“Bad thing.”

“Grind it.”

Great hurried over, curious. That stone thing wasn’t tossing spears and wasn’t doing anything dangerous, and the ponies near it were being quite verbose. Twice as many words as normal.

“Move over a little.” she told the ponies there, and they let her pass.

She regarded the stone thing carefully. If she imagined, she could just make out the lumpy form of a unicorn, a nub of stone poking free from the blob that was possibly its head. This one was as odd as the others, changing shape and position without actually shifting. Like pictures fluttering in a breeze.

“Hello?” she said, curious.

It seemed to… calm suddenly. And then moved in front of her, and she jumped slightly and stepped back. If she listened, she could just barely make out sounds of wind from it. Soft little puff noises, as if it tried to speak.

And then it was next to her, and she winced a little at the roughness of the stone. But she regarded it. With the shape it was hard to tell, but it seemed like it liked her. Like it was hugging her.

“Break it?” a pony asked her.

“No. It’s mine.” she said. Maybe she could learn about them from this one. Figure out how they work or something, and that way, learn how the others might be defeated. They had been mean, but… this one was nice. Maybe there were others? She needed a way to tell at a distance, and this one would help with that.

She smiled a little. Maybe it would even help her to fix everything. Maybe the stone thing was a broken pony, and she could learn how to fix them all! Make everypony safe and happy again! It was a good thought, and Great was happy.

Chapter 4

Three years ago

Twilight was very frustrated. Despite everything, she had reached a limit to her studies, and was facing a nigh insurmountable wall. Nopony had ever thought of minor travel before, leaving her in the dark as to what to do. Travel over years was always spoken of, but over minutes or seconds was not.

And merely reducing the power in the normal spell only caused failure. There was something she was missing, she knew it!

But she had also been saying that for three days without sleep. Even Magica, a pony not unlike Twilight, was growing concerned for her health.

It was the middle of the night when she stared at the latest attempt of hers and sighed. She crumpled it up, and tossed it at the overflowing trashcan, buried in failed attempts. The spells she was making were constantly contradictory, magic having to be used in two different, opposing ways to work.

“Twilight.” A voice said. A purely black pony, with shining purple eyes walked to her. He seemed to increase the darkness around him, obscuring his actual form, and dimming the light she was using.

“Twilight, you are suffering greatly, and for a reason that does not require it.”

“I’m so close Noctem!” she objected, her eyes bloodshot and her posture slumping. “I’m nearly there! Every iteration has a smaller reason it isn’t working, every time!”

Noctem looked concerned. “Twilight… The spell you seek, it might just be impossible. The magic won’t work like that, reality itself denies the existence of that spell. I can think of nothing that can take time and make it take a few steps back.”

“It’s possible, I know it! I’m so, so close!”

Noctem regarded her as she began scribbling again, grave concern written on his face. “Twilight… I can make this easier for you.”

“I can move your dreams, and you can work within them, and find rest.”

Twilight looked up at him. “And in your dreams, you can have a greater understanding of your work. Your mind is well suited for it, and I know that you will either find your answer, or find the impossible truly impossible.”

Twilight only nodded, and Noctem sighed in relief. A small amount of darkness collected around him, and then it gathered around Twilight, gently smothering her in a comforting blanket.

She was already sleeping as he levitated the cocoon of shadows, her face at peace for the first time in days.

“Is she out?”

“Yes, thank the dark. I made a promise though Magica. Go and find Mordred for me.”

“Of course Lord.”

A brief while later, and Noctem had placed Twilight in her own bed, and darkened the room, to allow nothing to disturb her sleep. In two days she needed to go to Canterlot for some function, and though dreams extended time, they were not infinite.

Mordred came, and together they guided the sleeping mind to her work, and then Mordred left as Noctem watched her.

Twilight, in her dream, was overjoyed. All her work was there, but in a way that made it very simple for her to work more. Instead of paper’s restrictions, the very air allowed a three dimensional spell matrix, without the great effort needed to create one in life. Her notes were all right next to her, and everything was so very easy to move and recall.

Noctem waited by her side. For two days she would sleep undisturbed, and after that, he would wake her. She would have found her answer, or given up by then, and Noctem knew that what she sought was impossible.

She was trying to shift a mountain an inch, to make a tree shift just a tiny margin. To make the water wetter, to make the light just a tiny bit darker. It was impossible. There was nothing with the force to do those things, and to cause the tiny effect she was searching for. Like using explosives to carve rocks, but worse. It was not possible, Noctem knew that.

But Twilight didn’t. She really believed that an answer was there, and she was never going to give up until she found it.

Even if she had to make it.

Present day, Ponyville

The other teams were in Memory Castle, preparing for their own expeditions. Brave’s team had been sent first, the best of them all, in order to begin the new objectives. The idea was to grow used to the team changes first, and then try and renew the searching.

They had been shocked when Glitter returned. Carrying a mostly dead Brave on her back, her own injuries obvious. She had a broken leg, a chipped horn, and had run, carrying a stallion larger than she was, all the way back to Ponyville from Canterlot in an hour, a journey that normally took several.

Seeing her enter and not scream or cry or even register the way her front leg had a second knee, got the rest of the ponies very upset very fast.

Glitter fell unconscious moments after entering, and it was a short time later that the bearers visited her in the hospital. They were concerned, and wanted to know what had happened, why only two had come back. Rainbow winced at Brave as they entered, the older stallion barely clinging to life near Glitter. He was badly hurt, and not doing well.

“Glitter darling?” Rarity gently called, the group wondering how she was doing.

“…Heroes?” she whispered, and they gathered a little closer to her, her face and form angled away from them.

“It’s us Glitter.” Rainbow said, and she seemed to be more at ease once she heard Rainbow.

“How are ya feelin?”

“Is sir alright?” she asked, almost fearfully.

“Brave’s going to be fine.” Rainbow told her, hoping that she wasn’t lying. “What happened out there Glitter? What..?” Rainbow trailed off as Glitter began shaking.

“It was… It was…”

“Glitter darling, you don’t…”

“I DO!” she suddenly screamed, and stunned the group. “I do, and you need to listen to me. Before it’s too late.” The bearers looked at one another in concern, but remained silent.

She was still facing away from them as she began, “We went to Canterlot, all five of us, just like normal. It took longer than it normally did though. Without you Rainbow, it was harder to gather everything, and the others weren’t enough. Two of them to replace one pegasus, and they couldn’t match up…”

Rainbow felt uncertain if she should feel proud at that. “Sir was upset about losing you. Felt like we were going to be in trouble without you. When he told… her… about the spears, I saw her take the little ones, fewer than you did.”

The others looked at Rainbow, and she gently whispered that Brave had asked the centaur for some of their spears, and she had been using those, despite their size and weight.

“I grabbed a bit of everything, made myself as prepared as possible. It was useless, but it made sir feel better. Then we got inside, to the first hall… and we encountered multiple talking things. They might be trying to get out, you need to keep an eye out for that.”

“We tried to fight back. I had one of the good spears, and held one off, and… she… kept missing. Sir got angry, and everypony was afraid, even when he got one with three spears, all at once… It wasn’t going away.”

“But we were holding. One was almost dead. And then princess Twilight came back.”

“And she… she…” Glitter shuddered greatly, but found the strength to continue. “She spoke sounds that made us all freeze up. They hurt to hear, and it felt like we were paralyzed, forced to hold still. I watched her pull the spears out of the things, and she seemed to scare a few off, but she was different. Stranger. Her eyes were glowing, and everything about her was like she was teleporting from place to place. She used magic, but the magic was the same color as the eyes, and she was healing the things…”

“Sir snapped out of it first, just as she healed the last thing. He grabbed my spear, and killed it, and would have… could have…” Glitter slowed, and the bearers felt uncertain, a morbid curiosity filling them.

“But when he tried… a pony was there, had always been there, and sir hit him. A pony with eyes… eyes that… They…” Glitter shuddered again, and the group watched her quiver in terror for a moment. “Twilight turned around, and then…”

“And then he… it. It… did something. Like it could create and use anomalies at will. Open was turned into a ball, and then he… disappeared. Carrot Top tried to hurt it, but I saw her eaten by the thing that looked like a pony and it went for sir. I grabbed him, ripped him free from the thing’s grasp and ran. Carrot Root was right behind me, until she wasn’t. I heard her screaming, but I didn’t stop. I kept running, and it was… right behind me the entire time.”

“Even now… It’s right behind me.” Glitter said, her voice haunting.

“Waiting. Waiting for me to feel safe, so that I can turn around, and see the eyes that aren’t eyes, and look at it, and not know what it is, and know that I’m dead. But I won’t be dead.”

“Just like Root and Top. Open died in an instant. It had been merciful to him. It ate Top, but she’s still alive. Root is still screaming with her sister. I can hear them. I can always hear them.”

She turned to look at them, and they all backed away just a little. Glitter’s eyes had cracks in them. The impossible colors of the things visible in them, one great one running over her right pupil, bisecting that eye. They could see her eye moving under the cracks, as though they were overlaid on her eyes.

“I… I saved sir from it. But I think… I think it had me the moment I touched it, and it decided to let me go. I can see it sometimes, on the edge of my vision. Watching me. Waiting for me. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can hurt it. It is the perfection of life, and the anathema of reason. I saw it, and there is nothing that I can tell you that will tell you what it was. What it could do. The power of it, and the cruelty.”

“Because the thing that took Canterlot is still here. And it knows that we are alive, and enjoys making us suffer. It’s just sitting there. There’s no reason why everything hasn’t fallen to it. It’s bigger than anything, its form is incomprehensible, and its power overwhelming. I felt it when I touched it.”

“Nothing is safe anymore.” she whispered. “It’s here, it isn’t going away, and we’re all going to live forever in madness. Just as soon as it moves, as soon as it decides that our hope and fight isn’t funny anymore, and we’re all going to wish for death.”

“I… want… to laugh. To… heroes. Heroes, please.” She begged, shifting to be closer to them.

“Kill me before it gets me. Before I end up like Root and Top. I don’t want to die like that, living forever. I don’t. Please. Kill me.”

Her simple pleading expression, and the hope that they would comply made them all freeze in horror. Glitter was near begging them to end her, and wove a tale that said that there was no hope for them. As she had spoken, most of them had been stricken with paranoia, imagining that the thing she described was actually in the room. As if it was lurking under the bed, or hiding behind a curtain.

“Please! You have to! Before it gets me!” she said, growing distressed. “Before it gets everypony! Everything!”

“Staring, always, always staring at us! Hating us! It wants to make us all immortal, so that we suffer without end because it hates us! Hates everything!”

“It eats stars, and even to gaze at it is enough to kill! Trapped for so long, but now it’s here! And nothing will ever make it leave! NOTHING IS COMING TO SAVE US! NOThing…” Glitter trailed off, and the bearers looked at Rarity, her horn alight as the young unicorn fell asleep.

They could only look at her. She had her eyes closed, breathing deeply. Then she nodded.

“We are going to princess Celestia.” Rarity said, perfectly calm. “And talk to her about this.”

“But what if…” Rainbow said, looking back at Glitter.

“That was nothing.” Rarity interrupted. “She had been through a lot, and she is simply distraught. She will be better.”

“But…”

“She will be better. Let’s go.”

Canterlot gardens

Great was following after Hope in the gardens. Her father had called her out here, to show her something, but she wasn’t sure what he wanted her to see yet.

The gardens were always nice. Nopony was caring for them anymore, but the slight overgrowth didn’t mar them by much. It still looked pretty and peaceful, the blooms colorful and the vines elegant as they crept up trellises. Several ponies were here, the gardens peaceful and pleasant to look at.

Hope led her to the statuary, and then over to one in particular. She looked up at it, confused. Why would anypony carve such a… mixed up thing? It had parts of everything, and seemed to be caught in an expression of fear for some reason.

“Do you see him, my daughter?”

“I do… why would anypony make that?”

“They did not. He is… perhaps a cousin of mine.”

“In stone?” she asked, and then brightened. “So he’s my second cousin! Can we make him not stone father?”

Hope shook his head. “We are family, but he is too… strict. He would only hurt things, both what needs to be saved, and what is already saved. A little part of stone, and a little part of life, damaging to both.”

Great nodded. The thing hurt things. Got it. He’s kept in stone because he hurt things, and he needs to be kept in stone, because he’ll hurt things. It made sense to her.

“I have taken a few steps to keep him sealed. He might be able to break free on his own, were it not for something else to keep him in stone. What was there is missing now, and I have replaced it with my own seal.”

“Can you see the seal, my daughter?”

Great looked, and then squinted at the statue. Then she saw it. A broken spell over the stone, and a mess of tangles covering the statue. She had only seen her father’s magic once, and she recognized it. She sometimes wondered why it would work, considering its nature.

The tangles he threw with spells shouldn’t work, but they did. And they were always somehow infinite, as though the tangle was impossibly huge. The one on the statue seemed a lot smaller though, and as she watched, it seemed to be decaying.

“I can see it father.”

“I want you to seal him, my daughter.”

“Me!?”

Hope looked at her. “You are stronger than you think. Much stronger. I think that he is growing too used to me. But should we work together, his prison will be kept whole. I believe in you Great. You can do this.”

Great nodded, and looked at the statue again. She spent a moment of thought as to how to seal him, and then it struck her.

If he was getting used to tangles, she should use straight lines.

She focused, and began weaving, being very careful to keep everything ordered and straight. It was hard to be so orderly, but she kept going, even as Hope wove his tangles over her straight lines, until she was done.

She sat back, panting, and saw the spell grip firmly, and the tangles stopped decaying. She had done it.

“I am so proud my daughter. That is perfect.”

“Thank you father.” she said, smiling.

“You have a stone thing in your room?” he asked, perfectly innocently and Great started.

“How did you…” Great began, and then stopped. He was her father, he knew everything. Of course he would know about the stone thing.

“Yes.” she said, waiting for his response.

“Why?”

“I think that… I think they’re ponies father. Broken ponies in stone, like your cousin. I wanted to try and fix one, and then I could fix the rest.”

Hope regarded her, and then smiled. “Be careful Great. They are delicate, even to sound. If you break it, you can’t put it back again. But if you whisper, it shall hear and understand you.”

Great beamed. Her father didn’t mind and he was telling her how to help it! “Thanks father! The moment I have it normal, I want it to meet you first!”

She ran off, and Hope watched her go. Once she was gone, he looked down at his own hoof, and regarded it. Then he struck the statue, and watched the impact, and then looked at his hoof again. He seemed worried.

Great made it back to her own room, and looked around. She soon spotted the stone thing, heading over in its odd way, and she smiled. She had been trying to care for it, even if she couldn’t understand why it did what it did. Like lie on the bed for hours and not move, or eat a few scattered rocks in the castle.

She leaned close to it, and heard its gentle sounds and smiled. Whisper her father had said.

“Hello.” She tried, soft and careful.

It cracked slightly and she jumped. She nearly yelled, but recalled her father’s warning and kept her mouth shut. They were very delicate it seemed.

From a little farther away, she whispered “Sorry” in the softest sounds she could manage. It didn’t crack more, and if she watched, seemed to nod.

Making progress! “If you understand, go to the bed.” she whispered. Then she waited.

It didn’t move for a moment, and then went to the bed and Great nearly squealed in happiness, rearing back and clapping her hooves instead. They could understand! She just had to be really careful with them!

Next step, understanding. She put her ear right on it, and then began shifting around it, listening as it moved every now and then. She could hear the little puffs, and she was searching for where they were coming from.

She found it, but only for a second. A tiny line on the head produced the sounds, and if she had her ear right on it, she could just make out words.

“What.” was all she heard, before it jerked away from her. She smiled, (it talked!) and then thought about it. Why run away when she had heard it?

She shrugged, and then decided. Try to listen until she had some idea what it was saying.

It was a little difficult to chase it around the room, and in the end she had to trap it to listen to it. Pinning it in a corner, and then managing to wrestle its shifts into something she could pin against the wall without breaking it. It felt very delicate, like she could shatter it without really trying. While its motion was strange, she could feel it trying to move, unable to escape, and she smiled. It looked a little more like a pony when she had it standing.

It had stopped making sounds, but as she stayed there, pinning it, her ear against the line, it seemed to relent.

“What are you doing?” in the softest voice she had ever heard. She closed her eyes to hear it better.

“Listening.” She replied, making the softest of sounds, barely a breath.

“Your ear is in my mouth Twilight.”

So the line is a mouth then. Makes sense, sort of. Who’s Twilight? Her?

“It’s there so I can hear you.” She breathed.

It seemed to hesitate at that. “You… can’t hear me normally?”

“No.”

“Celestia, what happened Twilight? Are your ears hurt?”

“No… why are you calling me Twilight?”

A sudden tension that she could feel. Being able to talk to it made it a lot more like a real pony. Its hooves felt a little more like hooves instead of stone now.

“That’s your name. Twilight Sparkle. Have you forgotten?”

“I have not forgotten my own name. I am Great Change, who are you?”

Another jolt. A long moment before a response.

“Shining Armor. Your brother.”

She opened her eyes in confusion, wondering why it would say that, and eyed it. Then she forgot it had said anything; it was rather different now.

It was still stone, but instead of the lumpy mess, it was rather well carved. She could make out hooves, and the impression of fur, and eyes and a mouth. She kept it pinned for a moment, looking at it, and decided that it made a rather nice statue. Not at all the lumpy, slight scary, mass of stone from before.

She let it go, and it got to its hooves rather quickly, the only real thing missing from it the color. The only color it had was a splash of white on its back. The sharp tip of the horn made her a touch concerned though.

She heard its whispers again, and for a moment considered listening. She decided against it. It was creeping her out a little, calling her something else and claiming familial relation. She was going to ask Hope if she had a brother, and if not, demand to know what it was thinking.

Demand very quietly, so she didn’t hurt it, but she would demand.

Chapter 5

Three years ago

Twilight and the bearers were in Canterlot, there for the annual raising of the sun. It had been nice, and now they were back in their room, where Twilight was keeping a secret. They were eager to find out what she was hiding from them, and eagerly chatted with one another, guessing as to what it could be.

“Some kind of gift?” Rarity asked

“No.”

“Something awesome?” Rainbow suggested.

“It is, but not the way you’re thinking Rainbow.”

“Cake!”

“No.”

“Well what is it Twi? Yer driving us nuts.”

“I have figured out a way to save us all endless trouble. A way to prevent catastrophes, and a way to save things despite seeing them destroyed.”

Twilight was exultant as they stared. “A spell that I have been working on, a way in which I can go back just a few seconds in time, and with the knowledge, prevent something from happening!”

“Stop something valuable from falling, preventing a mistake from happening, having a few moments more to react when something comes to Equestria. I fully expect that this spell will be the solution to a great many problems.”

As the others stared, Rarity asked, “Is it simple darling? It does sound very useful.”

“It should be! I’m going to test it right now, and if it works, I’ll tell you.”

Then she closed her eyes and focused, her horn lighting. All of her work in the dream had not yielded an answer, but Twilight had come up with a solution. If she were to just ignore the last problem, the last point where one thing had to be something and nothing at the same time, then it was perfect.

It should be accurate, quick, and easy. She had included a tiny hop in space as well, to ease the transition from time to time, the spells meshing well and eliminating most of the larger problems.

It was just one point left. One tiny point, and Twilight was fairly sure she could ignore it. What could one tiny imperfection cause?

She cast, and felt it go wrong. Felt reality try to catch it, to deny it, but it was too small, and too fast. Time and space together, and a massive power on a tiny point. She tore through the veil, and was suddenly outside of the comfort of reality.

She might have died instantly, but it saw her. And she saw it. The vastness of it, the insanity of it, the un-knowableness of it, the overwhelming power that it held. It caught her at the exact instant of her arrival, as though it knew that she was coming, and embraced her, keeping her safe. She felt it offer her a piece of itself, pushed into her, and a part of herself taken in return.

It was agony. Like it had torn a leg from her, and a blade shoved into her chest. She was terrified, and she flailed, unable to even scream, desperate to make it stop with any means possible.

And then she found the thread, and grabbed it, and was back in front of her friends, the tiniest amount of time having passed despite far too long having been spent there.

And she felt it follow. Squeeze itself through her hole, and knew that it was going to arrive in just a few seconds, only delayed because of how big it was.

Before it could though, she pushed herself to her absolute limit. Her friends, teleported outside the city, teleportation to Celestia and Luna, and moving them the same, knowing that with every instant that it was coming that it was nearly there, and with every spell seemed even closer.

Her family, thrown outside in a heap, but she couldn’t find her brother. She had just gotten Cadance out when the cage had fallen. She saw the changes fall on the city like the executioner’s stoke, saw her friends locked outside, trying to enter an unbreakable barrier.

Then she screamed as the numb part of her grew. She tried to cast it from her, but with every touch of magic, it grew bigger, already seemingly bursting from inside her. She felt like her blood was burning, and heard the city all around her groaning. She sensed every change, and felt every anomaly form. Knew every time a pony died to them.

And she knew that she had done it. Ponies were already dying, and it was her fault. Her magic had brought it, and her magic was feeding it. Three seconds to save the most important parts, and now all the time in the world to hear her world dying around her.

She turned, and saw it. A pony like it was a hole in space, and saw the eyes. The eyes that looked elsewhere, where she had been, the place outside reality, and she had simply fainted. Unable to stand against those eyes, unable to fight the agony coursing through her. Her mind gently shut down, protecting her from the worst of the changes.

If she had not shut down, if it had not arrived right then, if it hadn’t hurt so badly, she might have been broken. But because she was subjected to so much in so short a time, her mind huddled in on itself, and protected itself and denied the change even as it came on her. Kept her sane even as her body snapped and changed and shifted from the shard it had pushed into her.

That was three years ago. The start of its reign over the changed Canterlot. When they had first met, and the last things she heard were two words. Two simple words, so full of affection.

“My daughter.”

Present, Canterlot Castle

Shining Armor was confused and slightly upset. He had found Twilight again after… about four days ago by his measure. It had started with absolute joy, having found his sister again, no matter how different she looked, but the swift realization that she seemed to have gone deaf had upset him.

After realizing that she simply could only barely hear anything, and her own words, unless barely sounded, were outright painful, he had calmed.

Having somepony’s ear pressed against his mouth was an odd way to have to talk, but it worked. He was even learning about things, and now knew that Twilight was not seeing reality anymore. She kept calling some thing Bendy, and seemed overjoyed whenever it shifted into a new form.

He followed after Twilight through the castle, and so long as he was near Twilight, no anomaly or thing could harm him. She kept him fed at least, and much safer than he had been the past few years. It was much better a life than he had been living.

Though she had lost her memory, and was insistent that she was Great Change, and that a pony called Hope was her father. She got upset when he called her Twilight now. And strict whenever he tried to remind her that they were family, believing Hope over all else.

It was disconcerting, how fully she had forgotten. Not one iota of her old life was left, and Shining Armor was trying to puzzle out why it was so.

And when he followed after her, he happened to spot the pedestal where Hope had left behind Twilight’s memories. To Shining Armor, it was a perfect statue of Twilight, in her original form, so perfect he thought it was alive.

He stopped, and after a moment Twilight turned to look back, and then looked at the statue and made a face. She shook her head, but he walked toward it, wondering.

He reached out and touched it, and for just an instant he relived a memory. He saw himself smiling, and reading a book to himself, to… Twilight. The vision was gone in an instant, and he stared at the statue so lifelike. He didn’t know why, but the statue seemed to hold her memories.

He needed to tell somepony, but there was nopony to tell.

“Don’t touch that.” Twilight whispered. “It’s pain.”

Shining armor went to her, and she cocked her head to allow him to speak into her ear. He thought before asking, “Who’s pain?”

“Mine. Father removed it, and now it can’t hurt me anymore. Don’t touch it.”

Shining stared at her, and she seemed firm. Then he somehow saw her chaotic eyes refocus, and look behind him and she beamed. But as he turned, she grabbed him, and prevented him from doing so. She had been strong as an alicorn, but now her strength was unassailable. Impossible to resist.

She looked at him in concern, and then whispered, “Hi father.”

A moment. Then, “Gerot, jk ksitadje” came from behind him, and he winced from the pain of hearing those sounds. They were like daggers, slicing at his head.

Twilight seemed very concerned for him and then whispered back, “Whisper father. His ears are cracked already.”

He didn’t hear the responses anymore, and was thankful for that, just staring into Twilight’s eyes and trying to see if he could spot a pupil. Distracting himself from the feeling of his ears bleeding.

“He did.”

“No, nothing.”

“He likes eating rocks. Should I stop him from doing so?”

“I will father. I love you too.”

Twilight kept him still for a few moments longer, and then let go of him. Shining was upset. Who was this Hope, why did he speak in agonizing nonsense, and why was his baby sister calling him father!? But he knew that he was not going to convince Twilight of anything he could say.

He could only hope that somepony would happen past, and he could tell them of what he had learned.

The bearers were outside of Canterlot, and though they might have once looked at the city with dread, now they were determined and brave. They were not entering to kill Twilight Sparkle. They were entering to save her. To bring her back, after three years, and rescue her from whatever monster had caused this.

“Ready?” Rainbow asked.

“I’ve never been so ready ta enter this place.” Applejack said.

Fluttershy nodded, and Pinkie did the same.

“Three years of fear and worry…” Rarity murmured. “And now, never again! Let’s go, and save her!”

They passed into the castle. All of them at least somewhat used to Canterlot, and all of them well seasoned with its dangers. No thing was going to stop them, and past fights had hardened them, made them more able to react and adapt to unexpected situations.

They moved as swiftly as they could, and by chance, by the purest random chance, they entered the room where Twilight and Shining Armor were, just a few moments after Hope had left.

“Twilight!” Rainbow yelled, the happiest of them to see her again. She was the only one who had seen her, and was feeling guilty over having speared her.

Twilight turned, and though she was so different, they stood firm, and looked into the eyes. Then she seemed to back up slightly, and they could almost see the fear despite the changes.

She was slightly worse than when Rainbow had seen her. The pupils were gone from her eyes, and her mane and tail was now very disconcerting, lashing the floor and waving in the air as though they were alive. Her hooves seemed to glint, and clicked on the floor when she shifted, as if they were made of diamond.

Her wings had changed even more, and were now bigger, and bled more. Her horn seemed to loop back on itself, forming a paradox of pattern and shape. Even her fur seemed stiff, and hard, like armor.

Shining Armor looked over in shock, but swiftly recovered. “She can’t hear you!” he called to them, and then looked at her. She moved behind him, and peered from there, and he smiled a little bit.

“She’s afraid!” he called. “Don’t move too much, and try not to scare her anymore! But come here, I have something important to tell you!”

They did so, trying to walk normally. Twilight seemed terrified of them for some reason. Then they spotted the statue so lifelike, but it was always different for each of them. Each one saw it in a different pose, a different position, relating to how they perceived Twilight Sparkle.

“It’s her memories.” Shining armor explained. “I don’t know how that happened, but she has forgotten everything, and that statue has everything she is.”

“It is so… lifelike.” Rarity remarked.

Fluttershy looked at Shining again. “Can she come with us?”

Shining hesitated, and then turned back to Twilight, and had their simple, albeit odd, conversation.

Then he looked concerned, and turned back. “She says she can’t.”

“Why not?” Applejack asked, as Rainbow and Rarity stared at the statue, one wondering how heavy it was, and the other thinking it the perfect dress dummy.

“She says that something prevents her from leaving… and… that her father told her that she had to stay.” He finished, sighing.

“Well that’s, what!?” Applejack yelled.

Shining Armor sighed. “She thinks that somepony named Hope is her father, and she isn’t listening to me. Look, get her memories out of here, and find out how to get them back to her. I don’t know who Hope is, but Twilight has been trying to protect me from him. Get the memories, and get out, before something finds you.”

They stared at him and then nodded. Applejack went to the pedestal, and eyed the statue before positioning herself.

“Ready!” she said.

Rainbow nodded, and then grabbed the statue, and gently shifted it atop Applejack’s back. The others stared, noticing how Rainbow seemed to be holding nothing, and Applejack shifting as if the statue was a different shape than it was.

Shining Armor opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when Twilight started.

Then she moved, and just before her misshapen wings flared out, they saw Hope. At least, they saw his body, and the strangeness of it.

Shining Armor barked, “Go now!” and then turned to his little sister. The others began retreating, and Shining moved in front of Twilight, determined to protect her from whatever seemed to have scared her.

It was only Twilight knocking him out that prevented his death. He had just seen the eyes when Twilight had beaten him senseless with a misshapen wing.

A hideous sound came from behind the bearers, and they hurried forward. The statue was heavy, but it was also ungainly, difficult to balance. Applejack did her best, and Rainbow and Rarity both tried to help, but all three ponies each saw the statue differently. It was often that their efforts interfered with each other.

“Stop helpin me and jus move!” Applejack yelled.

They entered the hall again, and all of them felt something. Something was behind them, following them, and all of them recalled Glitter’s words. It was right behind them. Waiting for them to turn around.

Not one of them had ever moved that fast, and despite that speed, it was always right behind them. Always waiting, and all of them knew that it was playing with them. That it could have them in an instant if it wanted to.

It reached the point that when a thing got in their way, it was dealt with uniquely. Stampeded flat.

Great was still staring at Shining, the statue, wondering why he was so interested in the shifting light of her pain. He had been odd as of late, always so insistent on things that weren’t true.

But then she looked up, and spotted Hope. Shining tried to look behind him, but she grabbed his head, to prevent him. She did it on instinct, knowing that if he looked, he would shatter, but not knowing why.

“Hi father.” she whispered, trying to figure out if she could just toss Shining without breaking him.

“Hello my daughter.” he said, and Great winced as Shining’s ears cracked badly.

“Whisper father. His ears are cracked already.”

Hope hesitated, and then complied, frowning. “Did he touch your pain?”

“He did.”

“Did anything happen because of it?”

“No, nothing.”

He seemed relived for a moment, but then seemed concerned again. “Why are some of the rocks in the castle missing?”

“He likes eating rocks. Should I stop him from doing so?”

“No. It does not matter, but if it or another thing touches your pain, tell me. I will hear you always, my daughter. I… love you.”

“I will father. I love you too.” She said, smiling as he left the room.

Then she let go of Shining’s head, and regarded him quizzically. She opened her mouth to say something when five more stone things entered. They were as different as Shining, but she could also see the weapons they had on them.

She stared in fear, and then decided to try her hardest to make friends, but safety first. She moved behind Shining, and waited.

She watched them move about, the new ones also interest in her pain for some reason. It was rather strange.

Then Shining turned toward her, and gently whispered into her ear, “Can you leave here?”

“No.” she said sadly. “There is a barrier that stops me, and father says I shouldn’t.”

He turned back, and for a moment she watched them all again. Then one somehow flew into the air, and hovered over her pain, and another readied itself to catch it. Then the light somehow moved without being touched, and stuck to the other statue’s back.

Great only took a second to wonder, and then called, “Father!” as softly as she could. Hope appeared in an instant, and she spread her wings out in happiness.

“Father, they are touching it.”

“They want it. But why?” he asked. “I will stop them my daughter, do not fear.”

He moved to follow them, and Shining moved to see Hope. Just like before she knew that would be a bad idea, and gently knocked him over with her wing. It had only taken a touch, and the thin crack on his head was only barely visible.

Then she turned, and ran after Hope, who was running after the statues, who were running away.

It was almost comical. The statues kept wobbling from place to place and sometimes rammed into things. Hope kept following, and Great did as well, only stopping when the statues simply ran over poor Bendy.

Great stopped to make sure she was alright. She was still moving and smiling. Perfectly fine.

Then she thought of something, and she called out, “Father!”

Hope stopped instantly, and looked back at her.

“Father, let them have it. I don’t like it anyway, and wherever they will put it, it won’t hurt me.”

Hope seemed unconvinced. “I do not know my daughter. But if you wish. They are already gone now.”

“Come on father.” she said, walking to him, smiling. “They were nice, and didn’t hurt anypony but Bendy, and I think that was an accident. You just need some hope.” She giggled.

Hope only seemed lost and confused. Then he shook his head and smiled. “Very well my daughter. Your wish is my own.”

She beamed. “Thanks father.”

Ponyville

The bearers had thankfully lost the feeling of being followed, though that didn’t stop them from running as if something was following them.

They had eventually arrived back at Memory Castle, and now the twin princesses were regarding the statue. Celestia saw Twilight the filly, and Luna, Twilight the pony who had stopped Nightmare Moon. But despite the differences, they both saw the memories kept in it. Every single thought that made up Twilight Sparkle.

“You say Shining Armor told you about this?” Celestia asked.

Fluttershy nodded. “He said that it was her memories.”

Luna nodded. “Sister, might we be able to…”

“Perhaps Luna. I am not sure though…”

They both regarded the other, whispering now, and the bearers watched in slight confusion.

“Princesses?” asked Applejack.

Celestia nodded. Then she focused, and a dark bolt leapt from her horn to form a dark blob on the ground, about the size of a pony. And then it quivered, and from it stepped a perfectly black pony, with dark purple eyes.

The bearers stared, not having seen Noctem ever since Canterlot had fallen.

He smiled at them. “It is good to be back. I have spent far too long apart from you all.”

“Noctem!?” Rainbow managed.

“Where have ya’ll been?” Applejack asked him.

“Looking for an answer. And I think I might have one.” He looked at the statue, and regarded it. “And now I know I have one. Memories in a pure form, fascinating…”

“It is time.” Luna told him, and he nodded.

“Very well. Listen my friends.” He said, turning to look at the bearers again. “Three years ago, Canterlot fell, and Twilight with it, but we must be careful. If we are not, the madness will lose its collar, and break free.”

They stared in confusion, and Noctem sighed.

“Three years ago, Twilight wanted to show you a special spell.” It took a moment, but they nodded in recollection.

“That spell cast her from reality. Threw her into something called the Madness, and its ruler caught her. Sent her back, and used her as the thread with which it came here. It might have been much worse, but Twilight is too strong. She is changing it as fast as it changes her.”

“Should we sever the bond they share, it will be free, and those changes will be lost in an instant. This needs to happen fast, and slowly.”

They listened to him closely, knowing that Noctem would have the best plan for this. He had lived for longer than anypony here after all.

“I will gather everypony together, and together we will move. You will need to confront Twilight while I untangle her memories, but I am afraid it will be difficult and dangerous.”

“Even caught as it is, it is still deadly. You will need to go in blind and deaf, and work on trust alone, in the face of it.” He looked at Celestia and Luna, “You will need to be there as well. It will push you back, and you all need to work together. If Twilight receives her memories too fast, the bond breaks. Too slow, and she will deny them and never return.”

“As I send them, call to her, make her know that they happened, reinforce the memories with sound. Your voices and words should be enough for her, but you must shout as loud as you can. Her mind muffles your voices now, and if she doesn’t hear you, all will be lost. If you hear it, and follow it, you will be lost, and there is nothing even I can do to save you.”

They all nodded. Noctem smiled. “It will be hard, and dangerous, and we only have one chance. It will be gone, but your actions will decide if Twilight stays or goes with it.”

“We’re not goin ta lose her again Noctem.”

“Blind or not, I’m still the best there is!”

“We will save her.”

“Friends forever!”

“Into the very face of fear, like the heroes we are! I just hope that it goes well darlings.”

Chapter 6

They all gathered at the entry. The twin princess, the bearers, Noctem and his own, and the teams behind them. Kitty waited anxiously down below, the centaur with him. They were far too large for this, it was too easy for them to fall into some anomaly, but nothing would keep them from this.

Noctem nodded, Spike sitting atop his back. Despite everypony else, he had demanded to come, and nothing could persuade him otherwise. “I can feel them. It is near her now. Are you all ready?”

They nodded. Noctem nodded, and then a darkness settled on them, their vision blocked and their ears stopped.

“Listen, and follow.” Echoed in the minds, and they moved forward. Blind, but guided, deaf, and yet able to hear, Magica gently projecting into their minds.

“I will make sure that you might hear what is important. We shall keep you as safe as we can.”

It seemed to take forever, walking in darkness. Nothing to hear, nothing to see, knowing that it had to be that way.

And then, “left.”

“That’s it. Do not listen! Twilight is right ahead.”

In the darkness, they soon saw Twilight. Just an image projected into their mind, but they calmed, and stopped.

“Listen to nothing you hear, and be ready.”

They saw Twilight react fearfully to them, and she looked to her side before calming. Jumpy, and ready to run, but not actually running.

And then the memory weaved across the air. They all saw it as it swooped and collected on Twilight like a ribbon of light.

Pinkie reacted first, gasping hugely, suddenly.

Applejack stared for a moment, and then realized. “Well, howdy-doo, Miss Twilight, a pleasure makin your acquaintance. I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like makin new friends!”

They all got the idea, and soon after the ribbon gathered on her and seemed to be absorbed. Another came soon after.

And then it got really hard. Trying to recall things from ages past, oftentimes vague things that only Twilight had considered important. Having to sometimes act things out when some of them did not remember what Twilight had.

And it, always trying to make them fail. Whispering to them, leading them astray in their retelling or words. It was often that they almost stepped wrong, almost fell to it. But they didn’t. Blind and deaf, but they could still feel it near them. Hold still, and they were fine, one step wrong, and it would have them.

Ribbon after ribbon they did their best, some of them nearly being lost if not for Celestia. She alone recalled every single letter Twilight had ever sent, down to the words used, and sometimes that was the only thing that saved the memory. She was determined that her student would return. Every word Celestia had ever spoken to her, everything Twilight had ever told her, ever written to her, spoken anew with every inflection the same as before.

They all fought hard to make it real for her, fought against its whispers, and recalled things long forgotten. And then it somehow got worse.

Another ribbon settled on her, and she reacted badly, the ribbon absorbed automatically. As they have been absorbed, she had warmed to them, lost her fear, but now, she was terrified. Nearly crying in fear. Barely able to listen to them, and they weren’t sure why.

“No! Please!” she yelled. “I didn’t mean to!”

They were lost, and it was Luna that understood.

“Twilight!” she yelled. “You are not to blame for this!”

Twilight violently shook her head, and the rest of them understood. She was blaming herself for everything.

“I am! My spell! My magic! Everypony DEAD because of me! But I can’t stand it! I don’t want to lose you! But… I can’t even look for forgiveness…”

The ribbon spun off her, and hovered near her as they stared in shock.

“She is rejecting! The ribbon is too painful to her, you must sooth her before she rejects it again! I do not know how many times you have before she will reject them all for that one!”

The pattern resumed, ribbons heading to Twilight, but now, they were distracted. Old pieces of life, but the ribbon of pain was near her still, and none of them really knew how to combat it.

And then it came back to her, and they started as she jerked.

They all saw her eyes change to that terror, and she trembled in place.

“Twilight!” Celestia called, determined.

One glance at Celestia's face, her face set and ready to fight to bring her back, and she wailed. The ribbon snapped off her in an instant, and she calmed again, though they grew more concerned.

“It is growing dire! The memory must be calmed!”

They kept trying. Kept fighting, and then it returned.

They never had a chance. Twilight spoke first, and said, “It’s useless. I can’t come back.” and it was gone again before they could react.

“This is the last. If she does not grab hold of it, she is lost.”

They all steeled themselves, and learned from the past mistakes. Twilight would be looking for angry faces, frowning faces. Ready to toss herself away before they had a chance to respond.

They all prepared for it, and when it came back, they all relaxed as best they were able and smiled at her. Twilight hesitated, seeing them like that, and Luna spoke first in her slight confusion.

Luna bellowed at the top of her prodigious voice, “TWILIGHT! WE ARE NOT GOING TO ABANDON YOU!” The others took her cue, and did their best.

“Darling we are friends!”

Twilight shook her head, crying. “How… how can you… I’m no friend…”

“Twi, as far as I’m concerned we’re family an that’s final!”

“You hold us together!” Fluttershy yelled, pushing herself hard.

“It’s here! I brought it here! I’m responsible!” Twilight said, her face wet with tears.

“You are no more responsible for its actions than the actions of the storms or the wilds my student.”

Twilight looked up, and saw Celestia, with her small smile. Perfectly relaxed, smiling at her like she had always smiled at her.

“You are only responsible for yourself. Are you about to tell us that you are it?”

“…No… Celestia…”

“It has brought this. You have done nothing my student. And even if you had, I would never turn my back on you.”

“You are always my beloved student, Twilight Sparkle.”

She stared at Celestia, and then turned to see Applejack.

“Shoot Twi. Even if ya went an destroyed th farm we’d still be friends.”

Rainbow nodded as Twilight looked at her. “You did too much for us! And you didn’t do this. You never would.”

“Perfectly sweet, like the best of cakes.” Pinkie added.

“We believe in you.” Fluttershy said, “Can’t you believe in us?”

“Would the pony who saved us from ourselves, be the same pony who brought Canterlot low? We thinkest not.”

“Darling, nopony hates you. We are all here to save you.”

"Come back Twilight." Spike said. "I... I really want you back."

Twilight looked back to Celestia. “We are all waiting for you my student. You have a place waiting for you, ponies that want to see you again. Come back to us Twilight Sparkle.”

“Please?” Fluttershy whispered, and Twilight didn’t even move for a moment. And then the ribbon left her and tore itself apart, and she smiled. Those little pieces of it were absorbed into her, and though she was crying still, it was in happiness instead of pain and fear.

“Everypony… I… Thank you. I might never be able to thank you all enough. I was so afraid, but… I never should have been. I should have known that you wouldn’t abandon me. Sorry for not knowing that sooner.”

Another ribbon came, and this time, Twilight saw it.

And she began helping them, trying her best to accept them. Doing her best to encourage them, trying to remind them as they reminded her. Endless ribbons, until at last, they stopped.

And Twilight sighed. Every memory back, and the pain of them gone. Dispelled, but she had something that she wanted to finish. Something that she was responsible for, and she was going to fix it.

“You will need to wait a moment.” she told them. “I need to fix something I should have fixed a long time ago. I’ll come back. I promise.”

Then she turned, and the image of Hope appeared behind her.

“It’s time to go back. You can’t stay here anymore, you did too much. Come on then…”

She went to him, and together they vanished as Twilight cast the spell she had made three years ago.

The darkness rent in two, and they found themselves in the throne room. Blinking in the sudden light, and after a moment, they all felt it.

Not one anomaly was in Canterlot. Not one thing remained, and everything had been set in its proper place. The city was whole, and safe once again. Noctem ran to them, gasping and bleeding shadows.

“Did it work!?” he yelled, skidding to a halt just before them. His followers trailed after him, each one ragged and weak, but smiling.

“She’s gone.” Rainbow said, stunned.

“She’ll be back Rainbow.” Applejack said. “I know she will.”

Noctem nodded, other ponies beginning to filter into the room. A few centaur hurried inside after them, and after a moment, Kitty simply tore his way through the wall, and stepped inside.

The bearers looked at them, but Celestia and Luna didn’t even respond. They were watching the spot where Twilight had vanished with certainty and intensity. Spike himself was in front of them, waiting as if he expected Twilight back any moment.

“Apologies for the wall.” Kitty said, Mirage on his back. “Is it over? Where is Twilight?”

“Coming back soon.” Rarity told him.

“We wait?” asked a young centaur, one by the name of Chosen.

“We wait.” Pinkie told him.

After a little while, practically everypony was in the throne room, all arranged around where Twilight had been. Shining Armor next to Candance, the bearers close to the twin princesses, Spike in the very center, and every being gathered waiting for Twilight to return. Worrying about her, wishing her back to them with all of their hearts.

Chapter 7

Twilight had her eyes closed. She knew that she was there, but she was fine. Hope was keeping her safe.

She had received her memories back. And with them, and her memories as Great Change, she had realized something. Something very important.

“I… think I know you now, just a little.” she told it. It was next to her, Hope was close.

“Not that I actually know you. But I know what you’re not.”

“You’re not really real. Something so separate that you can’t live. You can only be where nothing is held firm, where nothing really matters.”

“You live in Madness. You always have.”

“And as damaging as you are to reality, as much as seeing you hurts us, and hearing you kills us…”

“I think that hearing us, and seeing us does the same to you, doesn’t it? But we die. You don’t. You can’t. Not here.”

“How long have you been here? Are you always looking in from outside? Trying to understand us, as much as I try to understand you?”

A long moment. And then;

“I was… since… it began.” She heard Hope, and heard the pain in his voice. The pain of forcing himself to speak so she could hear, and make himself understandable to her, at least in one tiny way.

“Always… I see… everything… and I… never understood… until you…”

“Until me?”

“A part of me… and a piece of you…”

“Something I can… feel… Can use… a tiny part… of the… of your… madness…”

“I never… felt that… The things… you feel… your bad… your good….”

“You… let me see… how you see… for the first time… and even so… I don’t… understand…”

“It breaks… so easily… there is… so much strange…”

“I live… and know why… You live… and even becoming like you… I do not understand.”

Twilight nodded. “It’s strange, and frightening, isn’t it? Seeing us live by our rules, and rigidity. Here, anything can be. There, only some things can be, and only in certain ways. Like the rock.”

“… Yes…”

“... You’re all alone here, aren’t you? I can… still know it, just a little. All the little things like Bendy… they’re... you. Aren’t they? Just parts of you that live apart, but they’re not apart. You are always whole, and always separate. It’s always been just you, always alone with nopony else…”

“…Until you… Until you… came to me…”

“I always reached… and never… touched… I can’t… It… stops me…”

“And then… you came… you reached… and touched… me… A touch… of your madness… for the… first time…”

“Held you together… gave you life… took your stone… made it mine… so hard…”

“Saw you… always knew you… your everything… so different… so much bad… but…”

“You came… to me… and I… tried to… be stone…for the… first time…”

“I felt… what you felt… I… you kept… me stone… kept me… close… made me… forced me… to be… like you… and it… was good…”

“… Something… good… for the… first time… in a way… I don’t… understand… even now…”

Twilight only floated near it, listening. Listening as it spoke in so much pain. Knowing that just by looking at her, it suffered greatly, that by speaking so that she would understand, it was in agony. Enough pain to die, but it never would. It couldn’t. Trapped alone where it could be, and seeing the life outside so harmful to it. A single tear of pity fell from one closed eye.

“You came… with me…when you… didn’t… have to… why?”

“… Nopony deserves to be alone. Not even you. Not even if you killed everypony.”

“… I… don’t understand…”

“I know. But I don’t care. Can you tell me something?”

“Ask…”

“Why… why ‘my daughter’?”

A long moment. And then, ”You… are… my daughter… A piece of me… made… into you… The father… like… the daughter… but not… the same… I… knew that… I knew… that… it was… good… but now…”

“…You …must go...”

“And leave you alone again? Why?”

“It… decays… even now… stone turns… to flesh…”

“With you… there… I was Hope…”

“But here… I… become... Zern…”

“Hope… keeps you… wants to… be with… you… in stone…”

“Zern… wants… to unmake you… keep you… in Madness… a part… of him… Forever… flesh…”

“Hope… is fading… you… must leave… before… Hope is gone…”

Twilight felt something firm under her hooves, and a gentle push in one direction. She felt uncertain, but the simple desperation that Hope was speaking with made her hesitate. She would listen to him, and leave, but not without one last answer.

“What are you going to do now?”

“… Watch… A little… piece of me… in you… my power… safe…I have broken… it… it is… yours now… not mine… not Zern’s… flesh to… stone…”

“Go… Live… be… something… I can’t… understand…”

“I… will… always… watch… you… my daughter… Twilight… Sparkle…”

“… Goodbye Hope… goodbye… Father.”

“… Good… bye…”

Twilight hurried away. Running down the firmness, feeling it grow more and more different as she ran. She was crying for Hope as she did so. Trapped alone. Nothing like him. Only able to see what he couldn’t know, what would only hurt him by seeing it. Either more alone than anything else, or in agony if he tried to find something other than himself.

She felt herself changing as she ran. She felt what she had become, but with every step the changes reversed. Her wings slowly grew normal, her eyes lost their colors, everything different fell from her. She made sure of it. The little piece of Zern in her was dead, but not powerless. A little thought, and she was herself once again, plunging through the veil, and seeing the hole close behind her.

Hope watched her go. Racing along the thread. The little part of Twilight that Zern had taken sighed in relief. He had no words for the feelings. No words for his pain, or his happiness, nothing to describe himself.

Zern was a mad god, trapped alone. Wanting to tear reality apart, and make everything Madness. He was Madness, he was its maker, and its only inhabitant, and one of many. All at the same time. It was not a sad thing that he would never find his way to reality. He would only break it, and make Madness. He never could though. He never would, not even if Twilight returned. But for a moment, he had nearly made it.

Such agony to make a bit of her himself. Such pain to arrive in a place so unknowable. Such confusion, when Twilight tried to make him more like reality, and such… regret when he tried to make Twilight more like madness. Caught in between one thing and the other. A little real, and a little unreal. Twilight pulling him to reality, and him pulling her toward Madness. He regretted that he ever had tried. With her, he had preferred reality.

But though he hadn’t known anything, and only mimicked what Twilight had wanted he smiled. A life so short, but he had felt what they had felt. Felt the time passing, felt the feeling of being mortal. Felt affection, given and gained. Felt pain for the first time, felt the feeling of being held firm. It was… like he had gone insane for a little bit, and now those memories were incomprehensible, but he knew them. Hope knew them, and felt those things.

Hope faded into madness, and only left Zern. And Zern, the mad god, looked out. The little piece in Twilight was dead. He had done it himself. He couldn’t control it any more than he could control reality. But with it, he could see through her. Feel what she felt. Know her thoughts so unknowable.

Zern looked at himself. At the changes that Twilight had left behind, like a numb part of him. Stone breaking into flesh. It would be easy for him to remove it, to forget that it had ever happened. It always had been so with Zern. He never remembered the things of reality, but this time…

This time, he scarred himself with it. Kept it on him, a perpetual pain so he would always remember. Forever stone on flesh. So that he would never forget, before he forgot that he didn’t want to forget.

He remembered Hope, and wondered. Then he looked, and saw Twilight. Through time and space, watching her incomprehensible existence, the mere act of watching anguish. Saw her arrival back, saw the crowd around her. Saw her move and act, and recover from her trial. He hated it all, and wanted it gone for the pain it caused him, but there was just a tiny bit of something. A single mote of understanding.

It was good. It was good to her, even if it was bad to him. A tiny portion of knowledge, and he watched her live, and just a little, knew it was good.

He watched for a time, and then he remembered. He turned, and saw the lives in his madness. Every being slain by a thing, or an anomaly, or Hope, all trapped in Madness with Zern.

He had seen it before. Eventually, they would be a part of him. After they forgot reality altogether. He liked having them for as long as they remained, something other than himself to see. Something that moved without his will to move it.

But he had a thought. He looked at the dead form of Hope, and saw it. Twilight had been good. She had formed him well. A fully functioning pony, if not for the being it was made of. Zern watched it forever, and for no time at all, and then knew.

Knew what he might do, to make Twilight’s life a little bit better.

A single thought, and a monumental effort, and he stitched the lives in his Madness together, back to the shapes they once had. He could never understand them, but now, he could recall them, and had been something like them. A blueprint made by Twilight, and Twilight’s memories of them. Together, they let him remake them without understanding what he was making. But it wasn’t ready, not yet.

Nothing in Madness could touch reality. The veil was only delicate one way. To Twilight, it had been paper. To Zern, it was the hardest diamond, and the hottest of fires. Like the barrier that had once kept Twilight in Canterlot. Something he made in Madness would find it the same way.

But for just a moment, just a tiny bit of time, the mad god was truly insane. His unbreakable mind broke and he made reality from Madness, and then cast it out, back to Twilight. And then it had never happened, but the reality he had made remained. He stared out, and watched them go, and didn’t understand.

Twilight was happy to be back, and even Celestia openly showed her joy at having her return, whole and unchanged. It was a good time, even if the return was bittersweet. Twilight explained all that had happened, but kept what had been said in madness to herself. Kept most of what had happened between her and Hope to herself.

And though everything was safe once again, the madness of the past left a few changes.

Twilight’s friends spent more time closer to her. Making sure that she would never even begin to fear that they might turn their backs on her ever again. Everypony spent a little time in reflection. Pondering how fast life might turn, or end, leaving words unsaid and actions not taken.

For some, it was only a brief thought, maybe one that spawned an action or two not normally thought of. For others, they saw their mortality closely, and they were always changed because of it.

Even beings like Noctem were effected. He owed much to the heroes, and he had been reminded of their lifespans. So very short compared to his own. He was far closer now, even bearing the burn of the sun to be with them at times. He knew the folly of preemptive sadness, and though he sometimes thought about when they would be gone, made sure that the thought did not consume him.

Though perhaps Glitter had been the greatest change. Or the second greatest change at least. Twilight tried her best, wielded the bit of madness to try and fix her eyes, but to no avail. Glitter would, and always would, see and hear Zern for the rest of her life. But it wasn’t always so bad. It might have been, had she been afflicted before Zern met Twilight, but now, it was just a touch different.

Glitter saw Hope, and heard Zern. A touch of reality, enough to keep her sane when the mad god laughed. She would start at times, and scream and flail, but it never lasted long. Brave was near her, and Twilight was as well, keeping her calm. Sometimes it was enough that she would see her visions and not scream. One day she would see them without aid, and not even bat an eye.

The madness left wounds, but they were healing. It might take some time, but everyone would recover. And then the event happened, and some of it got much better, suddenly…

Twilight was in her castle once more, already sleeping well. Her prolonged time without the needs of life had left her a little forgetful of things like eating and drinking, but the body was good at reminding her. As was Spike when she got too into something. He was determined to never let her do something like she had ever again.

Brave was doing much better, his injuries purely physical. He lived with Twilight for now, along with Glitter. Glitter would not be separated from him, and he was in no condition to properly care for her, especially due to her visions.

Twilight had worked a few ways out for her to try and endure them, but it was slow work. It had been going much better, until one morning when she seemed as bad as ever. Screams and tears and flailing, when just yesterday she had stopped trying to harm herself.

It was after one of her visions that Twilight was talking to the young mare. Glitter collapsed on a couch, and Twilight and Brave near her. When she had stopped thrashing, Twilight ceased holding her down.

“You’re doing better.” She told Glitter.

“…Really?”

“Yep! Faster calming, and more control. What about these sights bothers you Glitter?” Twilight asked her. “I know that they’re… unpleasant, but why are you still terrified?”

Glitter seemed unwilling to tell her until Brave went to her side.

“Glitter, tell the princess.” He said.

“Its… it’s not always it that scares me. It’s just that… I can hear them again…”

Twilight cocked her head. “Hear who?” she asked.

“Root and Top. They’re… still screaming. I can hear them when the visions come. And… that terrifies me. Knowing that they’re stuck there, along with everypony else…”

“Everypony else?”

“Everypony that died in Canterlot. I can hear them all now. At first, it was just the two, but now I can hear them all. Not always, and not well, but I know they’re there. Suffering. And I think about how that was nearly me, and might still be me, and…”

Brave bopped her and she stopped, and looked at him in surprise.

“You are going nowhere Bright Glitter. It isn’t about to get you anymore. It can’t hurt you anymore.”

“But what about the others sir?”

Twilight looked away, wondering. She hadn’t heard anypony when she had been in Madness, and yet, Glitter did. Why? And why now in particular. Glitter had been doing much better right up until this morning.

And then they all heard something not unlike a teleportation, and were abruptly buried in ponies.

It took a few minutes for everypony to stop shouting in confusion, and get off one another and make room for each other, but by the time they had, Twilight and Brave and Glitter were staring in complete shock. Carrot Root and Carrot Top smiling at them, as if they had never gone. Every single pony who died in Canterlot, all of them seen by Twilight either dead or soon to be, alive again. The only real injury resulting from being stacked twenty deep.

They had no explanation for it, but the Carrot sisters tried.

“Everything was… bad.” Root said.

“Real bad. But then…” Top murmured in thought.

“Then it was…not bad.”

“Yeah! Like something let us go!”

“Made it stop being bad. So, Brave?”

“What’s the matter Root?”

“You and Glitter can get offa me now.”

They did so, and then Glitter jolted, her strange eyes seeing something else. Twilight and Brave tensed, but instead of her normal fear, she looked confused. She was still confused when she snapped out of it.

“Glitter?” Twilight asked.

“Um… Princess?”

Twilight waited for her, even as she tried to understand. “It… it said… it said ‘This is good. It is something for my daughter. Tell her that… she’s good’. In real words. That didn’t hurt at all. What… what happened?”

Twilight didn’t respond. Her grin could not be larger, and as they all watched, she jumped into the air and did loops, laughing and crying in simple joy.

They all thought she had snapped a bit. Being buried in ponies could do that to a mare, but Twilight was not thinking about that.

Zern had done this! For her! To make her happy! She hadn’t even realized that there were ponies still suffering, and that big, monstrous, incomprehensible, thing, had put them all back together and sent them back! The sheer agony it must have been to him to remake them, and for her!

Great Change might have felt affection to him, but for the first time Twilight Sparkle thought that the mad god might not be such a bad thing after all. Not if he would do that. Even if he had only done it for her. Even if he almost certainly did not understand what he had done.

She closed her eyes as she laughed, and imagined Hope again. She would never see him again, unwilling to go back, and unable to see through the veil to Madness.

Zern simply watched, the veil nothing to block his sight, and felt Twilight’s joy, and didn’t know what it was. But he knew it was good to her, and he smiled.

Two minds, for a short time so close, and now so far apart, remembering the other. They were so different, so incomprehensible to one another, so damaging to one another that those differences would never be resolved. They would never truly know the other more than the tiniest bit.

But Twilight looked back, and she forgave him. He had caused everything, but now, he had put it all back. He never would understand the damage he had caused, but he had fixed it all anyway. She looked at the mad god that she had hated so much, and felt just a touch of kindness toward him.

And Zern looked at her, and for the first time in his existence, for the first time since creation…

He looked on a piece of reality. And knew it just a tiny bit. And he didn’t hate it. He didn’t want it gone, or turned into Madness. She was just another thing that he would never understand, and he not only didn’t wish for her destruction, but he wished for her good. Wanted her to live as best as she would, in her way, and not his way.

His daughter was making the indications of her happiness, as aberrant as they were to him. And if she was happy, then he would be happy he decided. She truly was a Great Change. The greatest change.

But where he had thought that she would change reality, she had changed him. Took the Madness, and tried to make it understand. Took the mad god, and found the heart that was never there, and touched it. And Zern didn’t hate a piece of reality for the first time.

He truly loved her. His daughter that had done so much. Twilight Sparkle.

Prologue

An alicorn walked through Canterlot, the city shining with the sun high above and the weather perfect for taking a stroll. Clear blue sky, warm but not hot sunbeams, and a breeze that gently fluttered the flags placed seemingly at random on the nearby buildings.

But though she walked the street, nopony else did. Nopony else lived there anymore. It wasn’t safe for normal ponies.

If one was to imagine Canterlot cut into squares of area and air without care about what those lines cut, and then those squares rearranged randomly in placement and orientation, it might look something like the city she walked in.

It was… a mess. Buildings scattered throughout the area without reason, sometimes whole, sometimes not, bits and pieces of them in the air. The castle could still be seen, placed on its side high above. Large pieces were missing, but those could be found near it, or on the ground, such that it was the ground anymore.

For just an instant, a running pony appeared, terrified. But in the very next, he was gone. A rare albeit perfectly predictable event in Canterlot. It had been that way for…

The alicorn hesitated, and then decided that it must have been years. Or maybe days. It was hard to tell anymore. Time was just as harmed in the city as was space.

Walk in the garden in the morning, and leave to find yourself in the middle of the night, just by crossing the gate.

But she preferred years. Years meant somepony might have figured it out, that somepony was trying to rescue her from this place. She kept walking.

She walked without fear of the streets and doorways. Without fear of the things that peered from dark areas and watched as she passed. Without fearing for herself, because she was immune to all of the dangers of Canterlot.

She called it the anomaly, and it was both dangerous and maddening. Pieces of it were everywhere, scattered around like confetti. She could see them, but long learned that nopony else could.

Most of them related to the current state of the city, what she had dubbed ‘the jumble’. Those pieces sent ponies everywhere, teleportation without magic or reason. They were semi predictable, each one having at most ten locations that they led to, but the path taken was entirely random. She couldn’t use them to get around, though she wasn’t sure why.

Worse were those that effected time. She was shifted forward and back without harm, but she had seen ponies aged to dust, or others that vanished, presumably because age cannot become negative.

The air was not always safe either. Tiny particles hung in the air in spots, and they never moved. You moved, and they moved through you, with devastating results. That or the air was vacuum, or some unknown chemical makeup thankfully confined to one spot in space, unable to disseminate. She could see those as well, and avoided them with simple ease.

And the things that crawled and ran and scuttled and slithered around the area. They looked like everything, and nothing, their forms shifting like water as they moved. The only constant was that they were deadly, claw and fang and poison appearing reliably when they attacked something. To her, nothing they did held a threat to her; claws clicked harmlessly on her fur, poisons had no effect, and teeth shattered on her legs and wings.

She walked, until she came to the edge of the city, looking out over the cliff. She reached a hoof out, and then snapped it back when something crackled in the air in front of her. She sighed, having expected that, and settled down, to watch the sunset.

She was confined here by a strong force, one that was all too eager to hurt her should she try. And she had tried, but the attempt seemed impossible. No way to combat it, no way to go through it, at least, not for her. It was the only anomaly that harmed her, and the only one that didn’t harm normal ponies.

So she sat, and watched the sun gently fall past the horizon. She never knew if what she was seeing was the passage of time, or if it wasn’t. She lost track of it, as she could no longer feel the requirements of life. She never got hungry, never thirsted, and sometimes she forgot that normal ponies breathed. But the sun’s rise and set was comfortingly constant, when nothing else seemed to be.

The city might be full of space and time anomalies, but beyond was normal. The layout changed with every day, but past the borders never did. The things were never the same, not for one moment, but everything outside changed predictably and slowly.

Outside, she could see the distant Ponyville, and she might just imagine that she could see the ponies that lived there. Ponies that weren’t dead, or soon to be dead, or trapped somewhere, unable to escape, kept in one place for what might just become eternity.

She had seen death too often, and in so many forms. She had become numb to the sight of blood, to the screams that preceded the end of life. She had never been able to help those ponies in time. Never able to find them before they perished, always just a few moments too late. And she knew why.

The reason sat next to her. A pony with no color, and not that he was black or white, but that he had no color. Like he, it, was a hole in reality. It was the reason for all of this, and the cause of everything that had happened.

She had only ever seen its eyes once, and she never wanted to experience that again. Those eyes cut at the soul, drove lessor things to madness and suicide. And though it was a constant shape, it changed just as much as any thing did.

“dfkinkzd nlzwql.” it said, and the alicorn winced. Its voice was painful to her, but she had seen somepony else who had heard it, without her protection. He died. He died slowly, screaming.

“Go away.” she told it, not looking at it. It was always here with her, and sometimes she wondered why. It didn’t get pleasure from seeing a sunset, or watching the reality outside. It hated what was out there, she knew.

“Thjklzw gothvdtli my daughter.” it said, and the alicorn glared at it.

“I am not your daughter.” she said viciously. It didn’t respond, continuing to watch the sun fall and the light fade from orange to black.

She sighed. It never responded, and she wondered if that was a good thing. It was the cause of all this, but it was also the reason why she was safe from it. Why she could see and walk in what other ponies couldn’t.

She had its blessing, and that kept her safe from any thing and any anomaly. If she didn’t have it, she would have been dead a thousand times over.

And sometimes, she wished that she was dead, instead of being forced to watch and be unable to help anypony anymore. It always slowed her down, somehow changing space and time to make a simple run something that took as long as it took for an injured pony to perish in her hooves. She knew that it did that, because every time, it was there. Smiling.

The sun set, and the moon began rising, and she took note of its form. A logical progression, indicating time passing normally. Another things she had taken to tracking, just in case.

“xists fozled my daughter.” it said. It stood as though it had always stood, and then appeared to flicker away, never once actually moving, or even giving the impression of movement.

“I told you I’m not your daughter!” she screamed after it. She huffed. Pointless, but it made her feel better. The only thing it ever said that wasn’t either nonsense or painful was ‘my daughter’ and it was always directed at her.

It was not her parent. She knew that, knew her actual parents, always told it otherwise, and it never, not even once, gave the indication that she ever said anything at all. She could scream whatever she wanted and it would never respond. Not one change, not one impression, not one difference in behavior. It had been that way from the day it arrived. From the day it saved her, and cursed her with its blessing at the same time.

It was always the same, even if it was always different. Constant, because it was never constant. Unless it wanted to be. And sometimes not even then.

It had once driven the alicorn to near madness, trying to figure it out, but she had realized what she was doing and stopped before she truly plunged from sanity. It was truly inscrutable. No more fit to exist than a number greater than itself. It was what it was, and what it was, was nothing, and everything, and everything in between, without regard to reality, or time, or logic.

It was maddeningly different every time, and yet it was constant where it irked her. ‘my daughter’, always being by her side, watching the sunset, and if she did so, the sunrise. And every time it did so: two words, two words, one word, two words, ‘my daughter’, two words, ‘my daughter’. Every single time, and never repeating words, unless she was trying to spot a pattern, in which case it would lead her on and then never do it again.

It didn’t speak. She tried for a long time to figure out if it was before coming to that conclusion. It only made sounds, its only words being ‘my daughter’ and always in tandem, never apart.

She looked back out to the reality denied to her, and sighed. It hadn’t been so long since she had lived in that. A world where things made sense, a place where she could study and arrive at an actual answer. A place free of madness, full of something other than death and danger. A place where she had friends, still out there somewhere. She had made sure of that.

Too late to save everypony, but just enough time to save the most important ones. Just enough time to toss them from the prison before it shut, and save them from the horror that came soon after.

And what made it worse: she had caused it. Everything that happened was her fault. The anomaly would never have come, it wouldn’t be here, hundreds of ponies would be alive, if she had been able to set something down and declare it impossible instead of possible.

One mistake. Just one instant, and everything was done. A few seconds to save ponies, and then an eternity to regret. One spell, and she met it, and it came back with her. And through her, it had done everything. The anomaly would not be here if she had tossed it aside, thrown it away, and not given into her curiosity.

But now it was here. And here to stay it seemed. Nothing she did could make it go away. No magic or action capable of even touching it, much less sending it back to where it came from. She could only keep it here, and through that, deny herself any chance of escaping.

Because what it fed on was her magic. With every spell a new anomaly was born, with every magical exertion it was a little stronger. The greater the spell, the greater the anomaly, something she had realized too late. Something she should have seen earlier, should have sensed in time, but she hadn’t. It had been too fast, and too traumatizing.

Canterlot was a city taken by madness. A place where nothing was as it should be, where merely trying to walk or breathe could be your death. Where an alicorn watched the sun’s set every night, and where a thing that shouldn’t be sat with her.

Outside continued, her only real anchor to sanity. A temporary escape from her prison, even if only in thought. A place that said ‘this can be fixed’. Something that gave her a glimmer of hope.

There were ponies out there, ponies that could figure it out. Ponies that would fight back, and maybe one day break it, and force it back, and dispel the anomalies. They hadn’t come yet, but the alicorn held hope. They would. Time was messed up here, but out there days passed, and things happened, and stayed happened, and happened for logical, predicable reasons.

Instead of governed by a being determined to drive her mad, and to slay every last living thing in its madness.

Reviving hope

Celestia and Luna had heard of Glitter from the bearers, and the bearers were waiting for their response. The story was… distressing, but it gave them something to aim for. An enemy to find and defeat, and after three years of not knowing, they were a little eager to confront it. Even with Glitter’s dire warnings.

And then Celestia nodded, and Luna looked at her before nodding.

“We know that it is hard for you to enter Canterlot now.” Luna said. “But thou must. We have been hunting for dreams in the city, and we have found them after three years of search.”

“Somepony’s alive in there?” Applejack asked, astonished.

Luna nodded. “Shining Armor has reached the outer edge, and he yet lives after so long in Canterlot. His dreams have indicated that Twilight has found him, and I have even better news for you all.” She waited, and they grew curious, most of their fear form Glitter’s tale fading.

“It is very possible that Twilight has not fallen. She is caring for him, and does not attack him, and protects him from what might hurt him.”

Celestia and Luna were already beaming, and the bearers slowly shifted from shock to hope and joy.

“Then she’s alive!” Rarity exclaimed.

“So it appears my little ponies.” Celestia said. “She has undergone some malady, but it is still her deep within. Luna will be trying to contact Shining Armor soon, and soon after, I want you to return to Canterlot.”

“And if it is at all possible, to bring Twilight Sparkle home.”