Eternal, Nightfall

“She’s worrying me, Lyra,” Bonbon sighed as she stared out the second floor window.

“Bons, there’s nothing we can do. She wouldn’t budge and she ignored us. All we can do is let her come to grips with her existential crisis and hope she comes back soon,” Lyra answered her back.

In light of the dark truth that they had all learned a couple hours ago, Bonbon still had not accepted anything she’d been exposed to. Just where were they living now? Night ruled over all. She could deal with that since it had always been that way. But to know that Twilight Sparkle was supposedly dead? It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible. So why was there a monument in Ponyville, clearly worn by time?

Bonbon looked back at the filly who was sound asleep in her bed and frowned. It had been a stressful day for Nightfall as well and Bonbon finally got to see why she yelled at Twilight earlier that morning.

“Now it makes sense,” Bonbon whispered to Lyra, who had now walked over to her side.

“What does, Bons?”

“Why Nightfall said those hurtful things today. Now I see it. She was afraid, Lyra… afraid of Twilight because she’s supposed to be dead.”

“Bons...” Lyra didn’t know what else to say now as she saw the guilt on her friend’s face take hold.

A soft knock on the door snapped both Bonbon and Lyra out of their thoughts as they saw Apple Bloom peeking inside.

“Ah, there’s somepony downstairs looking for you both,” she told Bonbon and Lyra. “They say it’s important.”

“Alright, we’ll be right down,” Bonbon told the filly and smiled.

“Is Twilight coming back?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Soon,” Lyra answered, then led Bonbon to the door so they could go see who was looking for them.

When the two mares reached the bottom of the steps and peered into the living room, they both saw a pony waiting for them on the couch. Bonbon saw the two-toned mane and felt her head throb suddenly. Lyra placed a hoof on her wither and looked at her with concern, but then she heard their company’s soft voice and she, too, felt her head explode with pain.

“We have to talk,” the mare said to them both, listening for their hoofsteps as they made their way closer to her.

“Who are you?” Lyra asked as she held the side of her head and heard a conversation taking place in it that she didn’t understand at first until she heard herself talking to somepony.

“That won’t matter much once we’ve come to an agreement,” the pony answered Lyra back.

“Starlight, right?” Bonbon remembered Nightfall calling her by.

Starlight grimaced, then looked away with a frown. She knew Bonbon would remember her name and her face, but now Lyra was going to as well, and she didn’t want that; but because of how she chose to go about getting them all to help her, she now would have to face the consequences.

“Starlight Glimmer?” Lyra whimpered as her head pounded harder and the conversation she heard came faster and faster until it was too much for her and she shut down and curled up on the floor.

“Bonbon, I’m going to ask you one simple question, and you’ll have to decide,” Starlight spoke to the mare who was faring better with the throbbing headache than Lyra was. “Do you remember what you agreed to?”

What I agreed to? Bonbon thought upon hearing Starlight’s question, and then she recalled the conversation that was inside her head now and how she heard herself answering those questions. “Yes,” she answered Starlight, “I remember.”

Starlight smiled a bit, but then looked down at her hooves. “Will you help me, Bonbon?”

“Why me? What can I do? I’m just a candy maker.”

“Trust me, Bonbon. You’ll help in ways you never thought you could,” Starlight replied back, then looked over to Lyra. “Lyra, a filly needs your help. Will you help her?”

Lyra, who was gripping her mane, stopped and looked up at Starlight instantly. “I’ll help her. Just tell me what I can do,” she responded.

“Be there for Bonbon. Be there for this broken filly who knows nothing of love nor friendship,” Starlight said next before she closed her eyes and chanted something. Her horn then lit up and a bright light flashed before their eyes.

When they were able to see again, Bonbon and Lyra stared at Starlight Glimmer. The three mares all held their sights on each other for what felt like hours, neither moving in the slightest, and had it not been for their breathing or beating hearts, a passerby might have believed them to be taxidermied plushies, not living ponies.

Starlight had chosen to stay silent because she had just cast a spell on Bonbon and Lyra and it was taking its toll on them. They both had so much to recall that they couldn’t fathom recognizing they were in a room staring at Starlight at that point in time. But finally, Bonbon blinked first, then shook her head.

“Starlight, what’s going on?” she asked.

“Bonbon, we’re here to help that filly you agreed to look after,” Starlight answered her.

“Nightfall, right?” Lyra chimed in.

“Yes.”

“What are we supposed to do, Starlight?” Lyra asked next.

“You look after her and teach her about friendship and what it is to be loved, Lyra,” Starlight said back, then frowned at Bonbon. “I have to be honest with you both now, and you both need to promise me you won’t say a word to Twilight afterwards.”

“Why can’t we tell Twilight?” Lyra questioned, but Bonbon shook her head.

“She’s still at her castle, Starlight. You don’t want us to tell her because you haven’t spoken to her yet, right?”

“That is correct, Bonbon. And right now it is best that she doesn’t remember what I did to her as I did to all of you,” Starlight replied. “I know you can’t forgive me for placing you under a spell and I won’t try to justify my actions. All I ask is that you help Nightfall in her time of need and nothing more.”

“You put a spell on us so that we wouldn’t remember how we got here, isn’t that right?” Bonbon spoke to Starlight. Starlight nodded her head in mute response, then turned away.

“Where are we?” Bonbon asked her next after looking outside to see it was night.

“This is why Twilight can’t know just yet,” Starlight told them both as she looked at them again, “You’re all in a timeline that, while hypothetically does exist, shouldn’t,” she explained. “This world is a reality that could have existed in the Equestria we’re all from, but doesn’t because of how history took place.”

“So we’re living in a world where night is forever?” Bonbon spoke up.

Starlight nodded again, then slid off the couch and turned around. “Bonbon, Lyra. To fully understand why I asked you both and Twilight to help me, you need to get Nightfall to open up to you. She trusts you both so much that it hurts me to know that what I am about to do is not going to be pleasant.”

Bonbon raised a brow, as did Lyra now to Starlight’s foreboding remarks.

“What are you going to do to her, Starlight?” Bonbon growled and walked in front of her.

“I’m going to make her forget all of you,” Starlight answered, and was swiftly met by the back of Bonbon’s hoof followed by the side of the couch meeting her face.

Lyra jumped at the sudden strike and pushed Bonbon away from Starlight. The sheer anger she saw in Bonbon’s eyes was menacing to say the least, but for Starlight it was surprise.

Rubbing her cheek now, Starlight lowered her gaze and did nothing but let Bonbon’s rage hit her. She knew something like that was bound to happen, but still it did not change her mind as to what she had to do.

“You won’t do such a thing to her, Starlight,” Bonbon growled at the mare. “She’s just a filly, for Celestia’s sake! How could you do that to a filly and be okay with it?”

“I’m not okay with it, Bonbon. It has to be done though, there’s no other way.”

“There’s always another way. Magic isn’t the answer to everything.”

Starlight flinched at those words as she recollected Twilight scolding her and saying the exact same thing. Her eyes began to water up and she sniffled as she looked directly down at the floor. Magic didn’t solve everything, but yet she still had not learned that important lesson. If it couldn’t, then why was she born a unicorn in the first place? Why had Starlight been gifted with a much larger magic reserve than the average unicorn if it wasn’t to help ponies?

“What would you do then, Lyra?” Starlight asked the only other unicorn in the room.

“What would I do? I’d leave Nightfall alone.”

Right. Starlight thought, then lifted her head up and gulped. “I have to make a choice, Bonbon, Lyra. It has to be done even if I don’t want to,” she informed them both. She remembered her fight with Twilight when she had wanted to stop Rainbow’s rainboom so that she would never have lost her good friend, Sunburst, before going on further. “I can’t just leave Nightfall untouched. I need to do something that will not be kind, so I’ll leave the decision up to both of you.

In place of making her forget all of you, I can instead make her forget any recent event in the last twenty-four hours completely. Or, I can make her answer any question you wish no matter whether she wants to or not. One must be chosen though.”

Bonbon, who had calmed down now, leered at Starlight as the two choices were put before them both. She wanted to slap Starlight again and yell at her, but hearing the options made her stay in place.

“Why must we choose?” Lyra asked Starlight for Bonbon.

Starlight chewed on the corner of her lip then responded. “To try and circumvent the consequences of our actions in this timeline.”

“Consequences?” Lyra queried next.

“When messing with time magic and alternate timelines, our actions have drastic effects on the world around us, Lyra. And with how close Bonbon has gotten to Nightfall, it is only a matter of time before we will begin to rewrite its history,” Starlight told them. “And the longer we stay here and continue to defy what has already been set in stone, the more dire they will become.”

I could ask her who her parents are and she would tell me? Bonbon thought to herself.

The idea of being able to ask Nightfall any question at all and getting an answer regardless of what Nightfall wanted sounded great, but it was also unreasonable; inhumane even, to force a pony to answer things that they did not want to of their own volition. But even so, Bonbon wanted to know who Nightfall’s parents were and why she was so insistent on going back to her father.

“Well?”

Lyra looked at Bonbon and smiled, whispering to her. “What would you do, Mother Bons?”

Bonbon closed her eyes until they stopped watering, then opened them. The internal struggle she was wrestling with was slowly tearing her apart inside. She already knew that she would not make Nightfall forget any of them, that was the morally correct thing to do.

But now she had to decide whether or not Nightfall should forget any event that happened in the past twenty-four hours. She already decided that if she went that route she would want Nightfall to forget her big fight with Twilight that morning and in town.

“I don’t feel right for having to make such a choice…” Bonbon whispered back as she looked directly into Starlight’s eyes, “...but knowing that magic always has a price, I want Nightfall to forget why she is scared of Twilight. A filly should not be scared of somepony as nice as her, even if in this world she is no longer alive.”

Starlight’s frown became a sad smile at Bonbon’s choice, and she began to walk toward the stairs to go up to Nightfall’s room when she was stopped by Bonbon calling her.

“Are you going to Twilight next?”

“Yes, and I will make sure she forgets why Nightfall is so afraid of her as well,” Starlight answered her.

“No!”

“What?” Starlight looked back at Bonbon in shock and confusion.

“No. Twilight wouldn’t want that, Starlight. As her one and only student, you should know her better by now. Would she actually want you to forget something as tragic as I want Nightfall to now?”

Starlight didn’t answer Bonbon’s comment, and instead ran up the steps to do what she had to do with Nightfall before she’d take her leave and figure out what to do with her mentor and friend.

Starlight entered the room and saw Nightfall fast asleep in bed, the blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon and wearing a smile on her face. It broke Starlight’s heart to see how happy she seemed to be asleep, even though she knew how hurt the filly was after the events of earlier.

“Forgive me, Nightfall. I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have ever done what I did because now all of us have to pay a price. At least Bonbon is here for you. You’ve been so happy since she found you. She’s a good friend indeed.”

Starlight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Quietly, she began to chant a spell and slowly a yellow aura embraced Nightfall. The light lasted only a couple of minutes before it disappeared, but by then Starlight was on the verge of crying as she looked down at the unaware filly.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered, wiping her eyes with her hooves, “I’m sorry.”

Starlight then left the room and headed down the hall to where she knew the CMC had to be. She snuck inside and saw Apple Bloom staring back at her while the other two were fast asleep. The filly said not a word to her as Starlight closed her eyes and let her horn ignite. After the flash of light, Starlight was gone and Apple Bloom laid back down and fell asleep.

Starlight appeared downstairs and headed for the door, stopping only to look at Lyra and Bonbon both with pain in her eyes. “It’s done, Bonbon. She won’t remember the fight with Twilight. You remember how to find me, right?”

“Thank you, Starlight. Yes, I remember our conversation,” she answered back.

“What’s going to happen now?” Lyra asked Starlight.

“When you play around with time magic, Lyra, or rewrite events in history, the repercussions are random. All we can do now is wait and see.”

She then walked out of the house and teleported away in a flash of blue light, leaving Bonbon and Lyra to look at each other worriedly and wonder what was going to happen now that Starlight had intervened.

~==~==~==~==~

Starlight approached Twilight and Spike, both of whom were staring straight at the statue still. She stopped and went to speak and get Twilight’s attention, but was surprised when Twilight turned around and faced her, her eyes still full of despair.

“Is this why you made them forget their talks with you?” Twilight asked her. “Why haven’t you learned yet that magic doesn’t solve all of your problems, Starlight?”

Starlight gulped hesitantly, her legs shaking as if she had to force them not to run away. She was more afraid of how Twilight knew who she was and knew when she was behind her, but moreover that she knew Starlight had cast a spell on Bonbon and Lyra to make them forget they had agreed to help her.

Starlight buckled under Twilight’s melancholy stare and hit the ground, hiding her face in her hooves. She screwed up, again, and she knew it. She had known it from the moment she decided to cast a spell on the chosen ponies before sending them to this parallel world.

Spike walked over to Starlight and sat down next to her while Twilight sluggishly walked closer before she sat down and laid one wing over the crying mare. She let Starlight cry and mumble to herself for a bit before Starlight had calmed down and now looked at Twilight remorsefully with puffy red eyes.

“Just tell me why you felt you had to make us forget, Starlight. I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re not?”

Twilight shook her head and smiled the best that she could at her former student. “No.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” she whined, and hid herself in Twilight’s hooves. “I didn’t know if you’d all forgive me if I just sent you to this place without making you forget.”

“Starlight, you should know by now that you can just talk to me. You were my student, remember? I would have listened and talked you through it,” Twilight told her sweetly. “You have a good heart, Starlight. You heard a cry for help through the fabric of reality and chose to help them. I commend you for that, even if I don’t quite understand how it was possible. I also commend you for asking for help from myself and Spike, Bonbon, Lyra, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But I still do not understand why you felt the need to make us forget how we got here.”

Starlight sniffled more and wiped her eyes clear before looking at Twilight in shame. “I thought that if I told you I needed your help in a timeline that Nightmare Moon ruled that you would decline,” she answered back, “so I chose to make you all forget that I asked you for help and sent you here with the inclination that you have always lived in a world that was eternally night.”

“I see. So what will you do now, Starlight?”

“I-I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out how you weren’t affected, Twilight.”

Twilight let out a giggle. “After you came to me with your problem and I agreed to it, I took precautions, Starlight. I put a spell on Spike and myself that would counteract a few likely spells that you might have tried using on us,” Twilight answered honestly. “Then when you gathered us all in the castle and cast it on us I pretended it worked so that you would send us off. I’m ashamed to say that I did it because I knew you would use magic, but I did it also so that I could stay ahead of whatever might happen in this universe.”

“Then what about that?” Starlight pointed a hoof at the dilapidated statue.

Twilight looked over where Starlight had pointed and frowned, then turned back to her friend.

“That’s just how this world is, Starlight. Yes, it has hurt me a lot to see this is the reality I am in now, but it was also a nice reminder of my own mortality and what it means now to be a princess.”

“What should I do now, Twilight?”

“You tell me. What did you do to Nightfall?”

“I made her forget the fight with you. It was what Bonbon wanted, and I see why now.”

Twilight’s frown faded and a smile replaced it at Starlight’s honesty and her decision to abide by Bonbon’s wishes in regards to Nightfall. That much alone showed Twilight how far Starlight has come since the first day they met and she was proud to have called the mare her student.

“What is it you see now, Starlight?”

“Friendship, Twilight,” Starlight answered her quietly. “I saw friendship in both Lyra and Bonbon when I spoke of Nightfall. But…” Starlight then brought a hoof up to her cheek and rubbed it. It still stung from where Bonbon had slapped her and she still had a headache from when she met the side of the couch afterward. “...I see how much Bonbon really cares about that filly too.”

“Is that why your cheek is swollen? Did Bonbon hit you?”

Starlight nodded. “She has a right hook, let me tell you, Twilight,”

Twilight tried not to giggle but she failed, horribly, and hugged Starlight. The act of kindness took Starlight by surprise and she nearly jumped into the air, but instead she closed her eyes and relaxed a little. It felt nice to her because now she felt like she hadn’t completely screwed up with her recent choices and the consequences that had followed thus far, but she still couldn’t stop wondering about what was to become of this timeline now that they had all made an impact on it.

She kindly pushed herself back from Starlight and looked into the mare’s eyes. In them, she saw worry and fear and it made her sad, but she knew why all the same. Little did Twilight know, Starlight was doing the same and in her mentor’s eyes, she saw concern, wonder, and thought.

“Twilight,”

“Starlight,”

They both shared a tiny giggle at them both trying to talk to the other at the same time.

“Starlight, we should get back to the others now. I’m pretty sure they’re all worried about me,” Twilight said to her.

Starlight nodded her head then took the lead back to Fluttershy’s cottage with Spike in tow behind the two of them.

“So Starlight, is this timeline exactly like the one I saw when we fought each other?”

Starlight flinched at the bad memory and even bit her lip. “Kinda. The base history, yes. But with the life of Nightfall, so much has changed. I haven’t gotten to look into it much yet.”

“I see. So Nightmare Moon won and enslaved all of Equestria and had a daughter, Nightfall, the filly whose prayer you heard and answered. It makes sense why this alternate universe wouldn’t be exactly the same as the one I experienced.”

Twilight sounded kind of down, even though knowing what she did now eased some of her worries, at least until she heard Starlight coughing hoarsely. She looked behind her to see her former student was standing still and coughing like she was choking.

“Starlight?” Twilight was by her friend’s side and tried to think of something she could do.

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Starlight answered in-between coughing fits. She covered her mouth and turned away, coughing harshly one final time and nearly gagging in the end.

“Um, excuse me,” a new pony spoke to the group.

Twilight and Starlight turned in the direction of the pony and were surprised to see Roseluck and a friend of hers standing before them. The flower mare’s friend, a unicorn, was levitating three glasses of water.

“Roseluck?” Twilight tilted her head to the side in confusion.

Even though both mares were doing their best to stand in place and not show how afraid they really were, Spike and Starlight saw the minute shaking in their hooves, as did Twilight.

“H-hello, P-princess. May we offer you three a glass of water?” Roseluck’s stuttering really gave away how scared she was to be engaging with Twilight herself.

“We’d really appreciate that,” Twilight answered with a smile, then took the glasses and handed one to her companions.

After she topped off her glass and handed it back, Twilight noticed that Roseluck had been staring at her the entire time silently. She kept her smile on her face and raised a hoof.

“Something on your mind, Roseluck?” she asked the mare.

“I, uh, umm…” Roseluck flinched and looked to her left then to her right, then back at Twilight and gulped. “...H-how?”

Starlight and Spike exchanged looks, then turned their attention back to Roseluck, who was now all alone since her friend took their glasses as well and trotted away. Twilight knew something was on her mind and waited for the question to be asked.

“How is it possible?”

Twilight frowned. “How am I alive?”

Roseluck nodded to Twilight’s remark.

“It’s simple, Roseluck…” Twilight took a moment to ruminate on how exactly to answer even if she knew no matter how she did so, she could not do it without changing history more. It would be a necessary consequence if she wanted Roseluck to see her as hope and not dread. “...I had to fake it.”

“Fake it? But why?” Roseluck whispered.

“Twilight?” Starlight stepped forward and was halted by Spike and Twilight.

“Roseluck, when I challenged Nightmare Moon I knew I may be no match for her. I had to fake my death so that I could save my people and come up with a way to free Equestria,” Twilight explained. “I did what was necessary to plan ahead and make a comeback. I am just terribly sorry that I had to stay away for so long.”

Roseluck turned away and rubbed at her eyes with a hoof, hiding her tears from the princess and her friends. She wholeheartedly accepted Twilight’s explanation and without even a doubt knew that Twilight was telling her the truth.

“Then there is still hope, Princess Twilight?” Roseluck asked next, staring into the alicorn’s eyes.

Without skipping a beat or showing falter, Twilight nodded her head. “Yes. Yes, there is always hope even in the most dire of situations, Roseluck. You just need to believe and keep that hope alive.”

Starlight tapped Twilight on the wither then nudged her head towards their destination. Twilight nodded once then walked up to Roseluck and put her hoof on the mare’s wither.

“Keep hope in your heart and see to it that everypony else does too, Roseluck. I promise to you that I will make things right and your flowers will bloom again.”

Twilight and her entourage started their walk back to the cottage while Roseluck watched from a distance, a smile on her face with tears in her eyes.

“I never lost hope, Princess Twilight.”

~==~==~==~==~

After their interesting encounter with Roseluck followed by their walk back to the cottage, Twilight lost herself in her own thoughts while Spike and Starlight followed without a word. The only noise next to the sounds of their hooves clopping against the ground was that of Starlight coughing every so often.

Coughing. That was at the forefront of Twilight’s mind. It was her student’s health that concerned her. Was she okay? Was she coming down with a cold? These questions made Twilight keep a close eye on the mare even after they reached their destination and sat down with Lyra and Bonbon, each happy to see the other and gave apologies for past trespasses. After the mares finished their discussion and made amends, Starlight spoke up after another one of her coughing fits.

“I think it's time I return, or we do, to Equestria. I need to check in with Sunburst and Twilight, you have to see Princess Celestia and the others, right?”

“I nearly forgot!” Twilight shrieked. “Yeah, I do have to see the others. They have to be worried sick about us, not to mention the Princesses too!”

Unaware that their commotion had woken the four fillies upstairs, one watched secretly from the stairway as Starlight, Bonbon and Lyra, and Spike headed outside while Twilight looked towards the staircase curiously. She headed upstairs and rounded up the CMC, escorting them down the steps and out the front door.

“That's everypony.”

“What about Nightfall, Twilight?” Bonbon asked the purple princess.

“Oh, right,” Twilight sighed. “I will go speak to her.”

“We can't just leave her here alone,” Bonbon told Twilight.

“But we can't take her with us either,” Starlight interjected, worried for Nightfall just as Bonbon was.

“I can stay with her,” Lyra offered up. “If we leave this way she will think we abandoned her.”

“Lyra, you have a performance to attend in a week and we don't know how long we will be gone,” Bonbon reminded her best friend.

“You're all leaving me?” Nightfall whined.

Everypony turned and saw Nightfall sitting on her launches with tears in her eyes and her lower lip trembling. Nightfall’s saddened posture brought Bonbon’s heart to a stop.

“Nightfall, we have to go back to our home for a bit,” Twilight said to Nightfall.

Nightfall shook her head and huffed then looked at Twilight with conviction. “You're leaving me!”

Bonbon stepped forth and smiled at Nightfall, lowering herself to the filly’s level. “I'm not going anywhere, hon. I would never leave you. Ever.”

Nightfall rubbed her eyes and sniffled as she tried not to cry and look at Bonbon at the same time. The candy maker had to keep her own smile the best that she could so she did not start crying as well.

“Twilight, go on without me. I'll stay here. I won't leave Nightfall alone,” Bonbon said in a motherly voice.

“Bons-” Bonbon held up a hoof to Lyra, stopping her from saying another word.

“Bonbon, you have to come with us,” Twilight said shortly after seeing Bonbon’s attachment to the filly in clarity.

Bonbon shook her head in disagreement and pulled Nightfall close to her barrel. “I won't leave without her, Twilight. So either I stay, or she comes with us.”

“Bonbon, we can't take her with us. We've already messed with the timeline here too much,” Starlight intervened. “We don't know what will happen if she enters our world.”

“I don't care. I will not leave Nightfall behind. That is final.” Bonbon put her hoof down and stared all of her friends down.

Having steeled her resolve to make it very clear to Twilight and Starlight both that she would not be leaving without Nightfall really pulled her heartstrings so much that she quickly reanalyzed herself and stepped forth.

“Take responsibility for your actions and her own then, Bonbon,” Starlight spoke firmly, “and she can come with us.”

A loud gasp filled the space around Starlight as all eyes fixated on her, both Twilight’s and Lyra’s mouth agape, whereas Bonbon could only smile with glee.

“I promise, Starlight. I am, after all, her mother,” Bonbon answered the time user, snuggling Nightfall.

“Bonbon, we can’t—” Twilight argued, only to be cut off by Starlight.

“—She’s made her choice, Twilight. We need to get going. Now.”

Twilight Looked at Starlight, bewildered of how she was okay with bringing Nightfall with them, when she had merely minutes ago spoke of consequences with messing around in alternate timelines. She felt something push against her so she looked down and saw Spike waving his hand in front of her face.

“C’mon, Twilight, it’s time to go,” Spike said to her and pointed to the wormhole Starlight had summoned.

Bonbon looked down at Nightfall with a smile. “Nightfall, are you ready to go?”

“With you…” Nightfall looked up at Bonbon and silently moved her mouth with a smile.